Aliexpress BU40N inside USB3.0 enclosure. How to in Archlinux...

[UltraRip]

Hi! First of all thanks for all the information, guides and tricks, and these awesome tools to make us able to rip our valuable movie collections.
I just want to share with you the setup I have, the problems I faced and how I solved it using:

• An Aliexpress Bluray 4K drive unit (BU40N), inside an Aluminum enclosure with an INIC-1618L chip https://es.aliexpress.com/item/1005006034492377.html
• Archlinux with Kernel 6.19
• MakeMKV 1.18.3

The optical drive comes pre-flashed with a firmware which according to MakeMKV already supports UHD Ripping, I flashed it to firmware 1.03 however, to make sure no issues are present because the factory firmware.
The included enclosure allows to flash the internal drive, so no need to open it.
The enclosure have a single USB-microB port for USB 3.0 connection, there are other similar enclosures which have 2 cables, but those use USB 2.0, I'm not sure if those could work also.

THE PROBLEMS

• Drive disconnects after trying to read a 2 layer 4K UHD disk.
• Drive takes a lot of time to mount a disk and fails trying to do so.
• The drive works with some 2 layer disks, but does not with others.
• The drive produces a lot of noises while seeking or reading on disk load.

THE SOLUTION
The mentioned errors do not occur in Windows 10, there, the disks are successfully read and ripped without issues, no matter if they are 2 or 3 layer.

In my case, the solution was to add some quirks to modprobe like this:

• Take out of the drive any disk and close the drive tray.
• Identify your unit with

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  lsusb

  In my case it shows:

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  Bus 003 Device 005: ID 13fd:0840 Initio Corporation INIC-1618L SATA

• Pay attention at the vendor and product ids, and run:

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  sudo echo 'options usb-storage quirks=13fd:0840:mku' | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/usb-storage-quirks.conf

• Update your /etc/mkinitcpio.conf by adding the file to the FILES section, you can use:

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  sudo nano /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

  Look for the FILES section and update it like this:

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  # FILES
  # This setting is similar to BINARIES above, however, files are added
  # as-is and are not parsed in any way.  This is useful for config files.
  FILES=(/etc/modprobe.d/usb-storage-quirks.conf)
  

• Update the initramfs by running:

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  sudo mkinitcpio -P

• Reboot

HOW TO VERIFY
After reboot run:

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cat /sys/module/usb_storage/parameters/quirks

It should show something like:

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13fd:0840:mku

WHAT IF I WANT TO ADD MORE QUIRKS TO ANOTHER DEVICE?
Then you need to add them separated by comma in the same line, in the same file like this:

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options usb-storage quirks=174c:1153:u,13fd:0840:mku

In this case 174cu is for disabling UASP in a UGREEN Sata to USB3.0 adapter I got before.

WHAT DOES THIS DO? (According to google Gemini)
For anyone else reading along, here is what those specific flags did for your BU40N:

m (IGNORE_DEVICE): This helps prevent the kernel from trying to "probe" the device too aggressively when it first mounts, which can sometimes cause the initial spin-up loop.

k (NO_SAME_REPORT_ID): This fixes issues where the HID (Human Interface Device) part of the bridge chip gets confused, which is common in these "generic" AliExpress enclosures.

u (IGNORE_UAS): This is the heavy hitter. It forces the drive to use the older USB Mass Storage protocol instead of UASP (USB Attached SCSI Protocol).

Why "u" (Ignore UAS) saved your 2-layer discs

While UASP is faster for SSDs, it is notoriously unstable for optical drives—especially during the complex seek patterns of 2-layer UHD discs.

The Conflict: UASP tries to queue commands to make things faster. When the BU40N hits a difficult layer jump on a 66GB disc, it needs to pause and re-focus.

The Crash: UASP often interprets this "pause" as a timeout or a hung command, causing the bridge chip to reset the entire USB connection.
(I can confirm this, since just before the drive disconnects, I can see a TIMEOUT error in dmesg)

I'm not sure if all quirk flags are strictly needed but this worked for me.

[georgesgiralt]

Thank you, this explains some strange things I get.
Could you post a link for your metal enclosure ? I'm looking for one...

[UltraRip]

Thank you, this explains some strange things I get.
Could you post a link for your metal enclosure ? I'm looking for one...

Hi!, I added the link to the Aliexpress item in the main post. Take into account that there are several similar enclosures in Aliexpress, some of them include 2 cables which you would need to connect simultaneously to 2 USB ports in your PC, and there are other enclosures which have only one USB 3.0 cable, this is the one I'm using. The drive that I purchased came already inside this kind of enclosure.

I think this is the same enclosure I'm using:
https://es.aliexpress.com/item/1005008737120645.html
If you still have USB bridge reset problems, you can open the enclosure and use use a SATA to USB3.0 adapter with external power supply like this, which I use to backup my movies in HDDs:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MYU0EAU
And an additional Sata to Mini-sata adapter like this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00S6I9D7E
This also worked for me before using the quirks configuration, allowing me to read a 2 layer UHD disk that was having issues, but it still can throw some errors in dmesg.

Another alternative is to use a powered USB3.0 hub.

[georgesgiralt]

Thank you !