Fatal scan crash (Code 0) on Buffalo external drive (MT1959 / BN14)

[robin57]

Hi Mike and team,

I am experiencing a fatal crash during the initial SCSI bus scan on Linux. MakeMKV instantly aborts the scan, the progress bars jump to the end, and the drive never populates in the GUI.

After enabling debug mode, it appears MakeMKV is crashing (Code 0) exactly when attempting to parse the SDF profile for this specific drive's firmware.

Drive & System Information:

MakeMKV Version: v2.0.0 linux(x64-release) (Tested on both Flatpak and Native PPA installs)

OS: Ubuntu Linux (Tested on native x64-release)

Drive Enclosure: Buffalo External Optical Drive (USB ID 0411:0386)

Internal Drive Platform: MediaTek MT1959

Firmware String: BUFFALO_Optical_Drive_BN14_212106211333_MOFQ55G3404

Debug Log Output:

001003:0020 DEBUG: Code 0 at ZT1Pm.L!,.E|I0:ZpGU.+S:29393631
No SDF v0a6: BUFFALO_Optical_Drive_BN14_212106211333_MOFQ55G3404
SDF auto v0a6: BUFFALO_Optical_Drive_BN14_212106211333_MOFQ55G3404

Troubleshooting Already Completed:

Hardware verified: The physical drive, USB connection, and Linux usb-storage drivers are perfectly healthy. I can successfully read discs and play commercial DVDs via /dev/sr0 using mpv with libdvdcss.

Permissions verified: The user is in the cdrom group, and /dev/sg0 has the correct ACL permissions (crw-rw----+ 1 root cdrom).

Region set: The drive's region has been successfully initialized to Region 1 to prevent RCE locks.

Offline test: I deleted sdf.bin, _private_data.tar, and set app_UpdateEnable = "0" while disconnected from the internet. The crash still happens when it falls back to the internal v0a6 database.

Since this seems to be a hardcoded parser crash with this specific MT1959 / BN14 firmware profile, is there any chance a patched sdf.bin could be issued for this drive?

Thank you for your time and for the great software!

[Sayaka]

See my post here :

As of now :

1) Multiple people have reported crashes with version 2.0.0 when opening files,
2) Several people have also reported crashes with version 2.0.0 when opening discs,
3) This new version is supposed to have a new purchase link, but it doesn't,
4) sdftool64.exe was removed from this version (breaking compatibility with SDFtool Flasher), and given how broken this new version seems to be, I certainly wouldn't want to try using version 2.0.0 of "makemkvcon64 f" as a workaround for flashing. If you need to flash something, please use version 1.17.6 or 1.17.7 on Linux or version 1.18.4 on Windows. As a reminder, for regular ripping, I would personally prefer to use 1.18.4 on Linux.

And Marty's post here :

The thing is, nobody has heard from Mike in a while so we don't even know if that v2.0.0 is legit! I certainly won't be installing it. I'll stick with 1.18.4.

Basically, this "version 2.0.0" seems to be extremely broken for many people, and we don't recommend using it. Now, If you have a Buffalo BN14, you will still need to either 1) Downgrade to version 1.17.6 (https://makemkv.com/download/old/) to flash it with BU40N 1.03-MK (rawflash enc) and then BU40N 1.00-DE (rawflash main) to make it LibreDrive/UHD compatible, -or- 2) Downgrade to version 1.17.6, open a disc with MakeMKV, and wait until the firmware dump for your drive is created.

After doing either of those (and I would recommend 1), personally - you will get UHD compatibility and no longer have to deal with Host Certificate revocation for regular Blu-rays), you can upgrade back to version 1.18.4.

[robin57]

Thanks for the helpful suggestions. I compiled version 1.17.6 and that has solved my issue for now. I was not planning to flash the drive but just rip standard DVD and Blu-Ray discs, and I had thought the earlier posts did not apply to me. The 1.18.4 version gave the same crash as the newest version (any disc format). Eventually I will likely do the flash. But if there is eventually a non-buggy sdf.bin file for my drive, that would also be an acceptable long term solution. I do not have any UHD discs. Thanks again!

[Sayaka]

You are welcome. To clarify, if you do not want to do the LibreDrive/UHD flash, you should still upgrade back to MakeMKV 1.18.4 after the automatic firmware dump from version 1.17.6 (it should fix the bug, which has nothing to do with sdf.bin, any Linux MakeMKV version above 1.17.7 is broken for firmware dumping/firmware flashing), otherwise you will not be able to decrypt AACS v82 discs unless you have a valid VUK inside KEYDB.cfg.

If you wish to proceed with the flash, please let me know and I will try to write a thorough guide for you.

[robin57]

Thank you for the explanation, Sayaka! I took your advice and upgraded to 1.18.4, in the hopes that I'll be ready for new movies encrypted with AACS v82. But I want to report back that for this specific Buffalo drive, upgrading back to 1.18.4 after generating the offline dump does not fix the issue on Linux.

The crash goes away, but MakeMKV 1.18.4 still permanently hangs during the initial drive scan. My debug log shows it freezing completely right after SDF auto v0a6: BUFFALO_Optical_Drive_BN14_....

It appears the Linux build of makemkv-bin 1.18.4+ has a state machine bug that completely locks up when probing this specific USB bridge for LibreDrive capabilities, even if the .tgz dump file is already present. For any other Linux users who buy this Buffalo drive: you probably cannot use 1.18.4. You must stay downgraded to 1.17.6 for now.

The drive is Buffalo BRXL-PUS6U3B-TU, purchased from Buffalo America (as the seller; shipper was Amazon). It is a small portable drive with USB 3.2.

Thanks again for the useful info. Also, thanks for the offer to help me flash. This is my first-ever Blu-Ray drive, which I got just yesterday, so I am too nervous to flash it, especially when it is not behaving like other drives that people have been flashing. But I am open to the idea for the future, especially if I ever get interested in UHD capability. Good to know I'll probably have that option.

[Sayaka]

The drive is Buffalo BRXL-PUS6U3B-TU, purchased from Buffalo America (as the seller; shipper was Amazon). It is a small portable drive with USB 3.2.

It appears the Linux build of makemkv-bin 1.18.4+ has a state machine bug that completely locks up when probing this specific USB bridge for LibreDrive capabilities, even if the .tgz dump file is already present. For any other Linux users who buy this Buffalo drive: you probably cannot use 1.18.4. You must stay downgraded to 1.17.6 for now.

It's actually the BRXL-PUS6U3B-TAA (BRXL-PUS6U3B-TU is just another name for it), it is the TAA variant of the BRXL-PUS6U3B-US drive. I own the latter myself. The BN14 firmware for those drives should be the same, I believe. I thought that on my Linux distro I had tried making an automatic firmware dump by opening a disc with 1.17.6 and then switched back to 1.18.4 to test whether it could work before I flashed LibreDrive, but apparently I only tested this with my BP55EB40 (and the 1.18.4 freeze did go away with the firmware dump for that one). My mistake, and thank you for correcting me.

Note: While TAA-compliant US models are marketed with product code BRXL-PUS6U3B-TAA, units will ship as BRXL-PUS6U3B-TU.

Thanks again for the useful info. Also, thanks for the offer to help me flash. This is my first-ever Blu-Ray drive, which I got just yesterday, so I am too nervous to flash it, especially when it is not behaving like other drives that people have been flashing. But I am open to the idea for the future, especially if I ever get interested in UHD capability. Good to know I'll probably have that option.

Admittedly, I did flash my Buffalo drive to BU40N-1.03-MK and then BU40N-1.00-DE with Windows, if I remember correctly. Still, I would assume that the firmware tool would also work fine with the Linux version of MakeMKV 1.17.6, even with this drive (I did many flashes with this version on Linux and they all succeeded). Anyway, I completely respect your decision to wait a bit before flashing your expensive and possibly soon-to-be-discontinued drive.