Attemping to flash LG BP55EB40 on macOS

[EndoPlasma]

Helleo

Did anyone find a solution how to flash the LG BP55EB40 on macOS?
I'm thinking about buying the same drive, so I just want to make sure it's possible first.

If anyone succeed, I would be super great if you would post your findings.

Thanks

[MacNick]

Did anyone find a solution how to flash the LG BP55EB40 on macOS?
I'm thinking about buying the same drive, so I just want to make sure it's possible first.

It definitely is! Mike did some wonderful work with troubleshooting this problem and has updated the custom firmware since.

Therefore, flashing should now work fine by using the latest custom firmware pack (which contains version 1.03 for this drive). If I understood it correctly, flashing the drive failed for me originally because I had a higher firmware installed (1.02) than the previously available custom one (1.01) and an encrypted downgrade check in the drive firmware kicked in and stopped the process.

After Mike has flashed my drive remotely (which you can now do yourself because the new custom firmware is published) it works perfectly with LibreDrive.

[SamuriHL]

You'll need to flash it using the sdftool built into MakeMKV from the command line for MacOS. Should be fairly trivial to flash using that.

[EndoPlasma]

That's great news.
Thanks to the both of you, for your swift replies!
I'll let you know how it goes

[MacNick]

That's great news.
Thanks to the both of you, for your swift replies!
I'll let you know how it goes

You're welcome! Basically, the steps should be:

1) Download the current custom firmware pack, you'll to need the one in the MK/HL-DT-ST/BP55EB40-NB50-subfolder of the extracted zip archive. It's version 1.03MK.

2) Download the current http://www.makemkv.com/sdf.bin

3) Attach drive

4) Find out the drive's identifier (last line, in my case beginning with "HL-DS-..."):

Code: Select all

$ /Applications/MakeMKV.app/Contents/MacOS/makemkvcon f -l
Found 1 drives(s)
00: IOBDServices:6615f96ab4409f5a:HL-DT-ST BD-RE BP55EB40 1.02
  HL-DT-ST_BD-RE_BP55EB40_1.02_211905031515_SIK01K3ND5125

5) Flash the drive using the current SDF and firmware (downloaded in steps 1 and 2):

Code: Select all

$ /Applications/MakeMKV.app/Contents/MacOS/makemkvcon f -d DRIVE_IDENTIFIER -f PATH_TO_SDF.BIN rawflash -i PATH_TO_CUSTOM_FIRMWARE.BIN

Please let us know how it goes .

[D3F3ND3R16]

That's great news.
Thanks to the both of you, for your swift replies!
I'll let you know how it goes

You're welcome! Basically, the steps should be:

1) Download the current custom firmware pack, you'll to need the one in the MK/HL-DT-ST/BP55EB40-NB50-subfolder of the extracted zip archive. It's version 1.03MK.

2) Download the current http://www.makemkv.com/sdf.bin

3) Attach drive

4) Find out the drive's identifier (last line, in my case beginning with "HL-DS-..."):

Code: Select all

$ /Applications/MakeMKV.app/Contents/MacOS/makemkvcon f -l
Found 1 drives(s)
00: IOBDServices:6615f96ab4409f5a:HL-DT-ST BD-RE BP55EB40 1.02
  HL-DT-ST_BD-RE_BP55EB40_1.02_211905031515_SIK01K3ND5125

5) Flash the drive using the current SDF and firmware (downloaded in steps 1 and 2):

Code: Select all

$ /Applications/MakeMKV.app/Contents/MacOS/makemkvcon f -d DRIVE_IDENTIFIER -f PATH_TO_SDF.BIN rawflash -i PATH_TO_CUSTOM_FIRMWARE.BIN

Please let us know how it goes .

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!! This post was all i was looking for the last days! You made my day man!!
is working!

[MacNick]

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!! This post was all i was looking for the last days! You made my day man!!
is working!

Great to hear! Enjoy!

[D3F3ND3R16]

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!! This post was all i was looking for the last days! You made my day man!!
is working!

Great to hear! Enjoy!

i'm a totally noob regarding terminal AND flashing drives, never did this before... but it seems to be very easy with that steps you provided this came just in time and should be stickt on top of something here.
Think this could be very helpful for a lot of people on mac.
did not work the first time to get the drive ID, but suddenly it was there, the rest worked at first try, was done in 5min researched about 6 hours before... without success
So kind regards from Germany and a man you made quit happy today! thought i would never get this running...

[garygomm]

This may be helpful for others as it took me a while to figure out how to do this., I am on macOS Catalina 10.15.6 on a MacBook Pro 2020 and was able to sucessfully flash my MD-8107-U3 using titbits of info from here and elsewhere.

download sdf.bin
download mk-firmware-pack-YYYYMMDD
- where YYYYMMD is the date of the latest firmware pack

Extract the file you need for your drive from mk-firmware-pack-YYYYMMDD -> In my case this was -> HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BU40N-1.04-NM00500-212005061142.bin

then in terminal on the MacBook
- I then copied sdf.bin and the firmware file I extracted from the mk-firmware-pack-YYYYMMDD into my /tmp folder .
(this only to make sure both files in same place and nice easy path to type).


then in terminal change directory - > cd /Applications/MakeMKV.app/MacOS/Contents

type -> ls - al

you should see a directory lsiting and one of the objects in the listing is 'makemkvcon'


the type -> ./makemkvcon f -l

This will allow you to find your drive identifier, in my case -> ''/IOBDServices/D5D25996'
Found 1 drives(s)
00: /IOBDServices/D5D25996, /dev/rdisk3, /dev/rdisk3
HL-DT-ST_BD-RE_BU40N_1.01_211910161032_MOFK6283224


to actually perform the update, type -> ./makemkvcon f -d '/IOBDServices/D5D25996' -f /tmp/sdf.bin rawflash main -i /tmp/HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BU40N-1.04-NM00500-212005061142.bin

you will then be prompted to type in 'yes' to flash the firmware and you will get the following output:

Reading input file /tmp/HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BU40N-1.04-NM00500-212005061142.bin
Flashing flags = 0x0 : 0 0 0 0 : ---- ---- ---- ----
Current Drive ID: HL-DT-ST_BD-RE_BU40N_1.01_211910161032_MOFK6283224
Ready to write drive flash memory.
Type "yes" to continue, "no" to abort
yes
Operation started: Sending flash image to drive
100% Operation finished
Operation started: Programming flash
100% Operation finished
Done successfully

The flashing took about 20 seconds.

[EndoPlasma]

Hi everyone
Just want to let you all know, that it was easy, and only took 5 min from reading the info here, downloading files, till the drive was flashed.
Every info you need it is right here in this thread.

Just want to add, that the drives identifier can also be found, just by opening MakeMKV, and copy the Serial number from the Drive Info, to the end of this string: HL-DT-ST_BD-RE_BP55EB40_1.02_211905031515_

Thanks again for your help.
Great forum!

[priitv8]

Thank you guys for the great instructions on how to flash the BP55EB40 external USB drive to a MK version 1.03 firmware.
I have the exact same drive, as original poster with SVC : EB40 that was manufactured in 2017 and came with 1.00 firmware.
All the upgrade went smooth, i now see 1.03 displayed and microcode access re-enabled in MakeMKV screen.
However, I do not get the 2 main features I went to upgrade in the first place:
- UHD discs are not read, MakeMKV will just re-eject the tray after several read attempts
- Max rip speed is still 2.0x just as with the stock firmware

So what is the trick I am still missing here? Currently it feels like I have upgraded just for fun. No added value.
What am I doing wrong?

PS, my first flashing attempt was with ASUS_ODD_FW_Changer_(Modified).exe under windows, second with ./makemkvcon method also employing the sdf.bin as instructed in post above.
The net end result is exactly the same.

[priitv8]

Answering my own question - the solution was right here, around the corner: flashed the BP60NB10 1.00 Hybrid firmware to my BP55EB40 SVC: EB40

[MacNick]

Answering my own question - the solution was right here, around the corner: flashed the BP60NB10 1.00 Hybrid firmware to my BP55EB40 SVC: EB40

Very interesting. While I don’t use UHD disks, I‘m always interested in optimizing rip speed. Any noticeable improvement there? I usually get much more than 2x (around 5.5x max) but not reliably so on all BDs.

[tops4u]

Hi,

I just wanted to do the very same thing on a Buffalo Drive on BN11. However if I launch makemkvcon it works until the point where I want to update the Drive Firmware. Error is "Missing Command" without any further information. I'm running MacOS 10.15.7

**********@iMac-2 MacOS % ./makemkvcon f -d /IOBDServices/7F8EEA63 -i /Users/andreas/Desktop/HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BU40N-BN11-0M00300-211711201351.bin -f /tmp/makemkv/sdf_0000007b.bin -v -v -v -v -v
Found sdf.bin version 0x7b at /tmp/makemkv/sdf_0000007b.bin
Loaded SDF.bin version 0x7b
Found drive-specific logic in SDF.bin
Missing command

[d00zah]

Hi,

I just wanted to do the very same thing on a Buffalo Drive on BN11. However if I launch makemkvcon it works until the point where I want to update the Drive Firmware. Error is "Missing Command" without any further information. I'm running MacOS 10.15.7

**********@iMac-2 MacOS % ./makemkvcon f -d /IOBDServices/7F8EEA63 -i /Users/andreas/Desktop/HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BU40N-BN11-0M00300-211711201351.bin -f /tmp/makemkv/sdf_0000007b.bin -v -v -v -v -v
Found sdf.bin version 0x7b at /tmp/makemkv/sdf_0000007b.bin
Loaded SDF.bin version 0x7b
Found drive-specific logic in SDF.bin
Missing command

From a post above, I think you are missing the highlighted part from the cmd line:

to actually perform the update, type -> ./makemkvcon f -d '/IOBDServices/D5D25996' -f /tmp/sdf.bin rawflash main -i /tmp/HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BU40N-1.04-NM00500-212005061142.bin

you will then be prompted to type in 'yes' to flash the firmware and you will get the following output:

Reading input file /tmp/HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BU40N-1.04-NM00500-212005061142.bin
Flashing flags = 0x0 : 0 0 0 0 : ---- ---- ---- ----
Current Drive ID: HL-DT-ST_BD-RE_BU40N_1.01_211910161032_MOFK6283224
Ready to write drive flash memory.
Type "yes" to continue, "no" to abort
yes
Operation started: Sending flash image to drive
100% Operation finished
Operation started: Programming flash
100% Operation finished
Done successfully

The flashing took about 20 seconds.

Try:

/makemkvcon f -d /IOBDServices/7F8EEA63 -i /Users/andreas/Desktop/HL-DT-ST-BD-RE_BU40N-BN11-0M00300-211711201351.bin rawflash main -f /tmp/makemkv/sdf_0000007b.bin