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

[UltraRip]

BU40N (INIC-1618L enclosure) – Stable UHD ripping on Linux (Arch)

First, thanks to the MakeMKV community for the tooling and documentation around UHD-friendly drives.

This post documents a reproducible setup for stabilizing a BU40N drive in a USB enclosure based on the INIC-1618L bridge, specifically under Linux where UASP-related issues can cause disconnects during UHD reads.

Hardware / Software Stack

• Drive: BU40N (UHD-friendly, reflashed to firmware 1.00)
• Enclosure: INIC-1618L (USB 3.0, single micro-B port)
• OS: Arch Linux
• Kernel: 6.19
• MakeMKV: 1.18.3

The enclosure supports SAT passthrough and firmware flashing without disassembly.

Observed Failure Modes (Linux only)

All issues below were reproducible under Linux but not present in Windows 10:

• USB device reset/disconnect during reads of dual-layer UHD (66GB) media
• Intermittent mount failures / excessive spin-up retries
• Inconsistent readability across UHD discs (especially layer transitions)
• Excessive seek noise during TOC read / initial access
• Device disconnect when inserting media with MakeMKV already polling the drive

Root Cause (Likely)

The INIC-1618L bridge advertises UASP support, but in practice:

• UASP command queueing conflicts with optical drive behavior
• Layer transitions (L0 → L1) introduce latency interpreted as timeouts
• This triggers USB resets at the bridge level (visible in dmesg)

This aligns with known instability of UASP for optical media, especially UHD Blu-ray.

Mitigation: usb-storage quirks (disable UASP + stabilize probing)

Force fallback to BOT (Bulk-Only Transport) and reduce aggressive probing:

Code: Select all

options usb-storage quirks=13fd:0840:mku

Where:

• 13fd:0840 → INIC-1618L VID:PID
• u → disables UASP (critical)
• m → reduces aggressive probing
• k → avoids HID report ID conflicts (bridge quirk)

Implementation (Arch Linux)

1. Identify device:

   Code: Select all

   lsusb
   

   Example:

   Code: Select all

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

2. Create quirk config:

   Code: Select all

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

3. Include in initramfs:

   Code: Select all

   sudo nano /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
   

   Modify:

   Code: Select all

   FILES=(/etc/modprobe.d/usb-storage-quirks.conf)
   

4. Rebuild initramfs:

   Code: Select all

   sudo mkinitcpio -P
   

5. Reboot

Verification

Code: Select all

cat /sys/module/usb_storage/parameters/quirks

Expected:

Code: Select all

13fd:0840:mku

Also confirm in dmesg that:

• Device binds to usb-storage (not uas)
• No UAS driver attachment occurs

Multi-device quirks

Combine entries as comma-separated:

Code: Select all

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

Example:

• 174cu → disables UASP on ASM1153 bridge (UGREEN adapter)

Operational Notes (Important for stability)

• Do not insert media while MakeMKV is open (avoid concurrent polling + spin-up)
• Allow kernel to fully enumerate and stabilize (~5 seconds) before launching MakeMKV
• Allow cooldown between long UHD reads (~30 minutes recommended)
• Keep discs clean to reduce read retries

Alternative (Power-related instability)

If disconnects persist:

• Remove drive from enclosure
• Use a powered SATA → USB adapter
• Use a Slimline SATA adapter

This helps mitigate power delivery limitations of some enclosures.

What NOT to do

• Avoid USB hubs (even powered)
• They add latency and increase transport-level instability
• They can worsen UASP-related issues

Summary

The key fix is:

Disable UASP ("u" quirk) for INIC-1618L-based enclosures

Everything else is secondary tuning.

UPDATE May 8 2026, after About 150 UHD Rips
The drive started to make weird noises, it seems that the motor started to fail, causing the drive to stop mid rip. There are no scratches in the disks, but the mechanical noises are noticeable.
I cannot limit the speed by any means yet (tried using MakeMKV config file, sdparm, hdparm, nothing works maybe because of the USB adapter), if someone knows how to do it in Linux it would be really appreciated!
I'm discarding this unit for now and using another I had before.

[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 !