Flashing firmware with linux hdparm command

[Yellowbeard]

I may be completely wrong on this but I think decompiling or decompressing or whatever the correct term is would best be done on a MAC........wouldn't it?

[gingerbeardman]

Originally Posted by Synbios

I was going to try this method on a test drive but after looking at the .pkg file (snip)

Which .pkg file? The Corsair firmware comes as a .vic file.

eg.

[Yellowbeard]

Synbios was referring to the Force updates. SandForce sends out the Force and Force 3/GT firmwares differently.

[gingerbeardman]

Ah, OK, thanks for the info

[Synbios]

Yeah I was looking at original Force drives, which use the .pkg. I don't have a Force 3 drive to test.

[Synbios]

Originally Posted by Yellowbeard

I may be completely wrong on this but I think decompiling or decompressing or whatever the correct term is would best be done on a MAC........wouldn't it?

Not necessarily. Decompressing is probably the more correct term. It's possible the .pkg file is compressed using a file packer like UPX or something, which can be unpacked with the right tools.

But most likely there is more than just the binary file with the actual firmware, there is probably a header or something like that has to be removed to make it compatible with hdparm. I think there's too much that could go wrong and it's silly to try and figure out what SandForce did if they could easily tell us or provide us with the raw binary files for firmware updating.

[oggy]

Originally Posted by Yellowbeard

I don't know what our plans are with regard to non Windows users. If we change our offerings, I'll be posting them in the SSD update section but I am not aware of any plans at this time.

Before I bought a new SSD to my new personal non work laptop, I decided to update my firmware on my 2 SSD main drives, one from OCZ and one from Corsair.

Please Fix Linux Firmware flashing Support in a way we can script upgrades in a simple way, as my future buys will be OCZ unless this is done. Until I noticed this issue I preferred Corsair as it came with a nice mounting bracket.

Regards

Oggy

[sas]

To Corsair,

In reviewing Corsair product specs it clearly state that the Apple Macintosh OSX is a supported operating system. The operating system supporting your product as a standard Hard Drive is only part of the supportability picture. If the product does not provide the appropriate software for that operating system or procedures to support firmware upgrades then Corsair can not say they support that operating system.

Corsair is expecting customers to invest into the Microsoft Operating System at an additional cost; in this example lets go with Windows 7 Home Edition price of $199.00.

So in reality your product will cost customers more to ensure we update our firmware in a supported/warranted method:

$349 (Corsair 240GB Drive)+$199 (Windows)=$548.00

Will Corsair go to their partners and develop a procedure or application to support firmware upgrades within all the OS they claim to support.

[gingerbeardman]

Great post.

Sadly, the lack of any decent response so far on the topic most likely means the answer is "no".

In fact I'd wager that the people who can even make that call don't even read this forum or know about the issue due to the communication problems inherent in a company of Corsair's size.

[Synbios]

Friendly update:
If you look back at my Feb 6th post I mentioned that I didn't have any Force 3 drives to test.

I have not forgotten. I received my Force 3 drives today. I will begin testing.

[gingerbeardman]

Thank you for the update

[Synbios]

Well this ended up being more complicated than I had originally hoped. Originally, I hoped the hdparm command would have another parameter you can set to download the firmware off the drive. Unfortunately, it doesn't and after extensive searching, it has come to my attention that pulling firmware off a drive is very difficult and there are very little specialized tools to do it.

As a result, I have been trying to sniff the I/O of the SATA channel to see if I can figure out how big the .vic file has to be. Sure, it might be easy to just flash the .vic file without any hex editing, but there are a couple of things that you would have to assume are perfect:

1) that the firmware update tool does or does not strip the file's header

2) that the firmware update tool does or does not zero pad the firmware file to a certain length

Lastly, I have not figured out how to read the drive's signature from hdparm or from linux in general, currently I have to use a Windows computer with the SSD Firmware Update Tool by Corsair to first check the signature, and thus know which firmware file to use (there are three different versions). You can however, get the serial number. If we can figure out some sort of pattern to derive the signature from the serial number, that would be extremely beneficial.

Here is mine:
Serial Number Signature
12076502000008900000 142-142-22797

We would need quite a few samples to figure out the pattern, if even possible at all. My drive is fairly new and it has the highest increment signature, so perhaps its relative to manufactured date. Also, my drive started with FW rev. 1.3.3 which is the latest, so that might be another indicator as well.

[MoFoQ]

Microsoft's trial license (aka...unactivated) has gotten vary laxed lately and they will allow trial use of Windows up to 120 days (you have to re-arm every 30 days).

alternatively, you can check to see if the updater would run under Windows PE (you can legally get the Windows Deployment Kit from Microsoft for free which is used to make a Windows PE rescue discs).

a second alternative is WINE, though I'm not sure if it'll work.

with that said...yes, it would be nice to have a linux method.
A particular, shall remain unnamed manufacturer seems to have one

[gingerbeardman]

Originally Posted by Synbios

If we can figure out some sort of pattern to derive the signature from the serial number, that would be extremely beneficial.

Here is mine:
Serial Number Signature
12076502000008900000 142-142-22797

Maybe it is worth starting a new thread for these when we figure out an easy way of getting these details?

Anyway, here is mine:
Serial 11296501000006800000
Revision 1.200000

Sorry I have no way of getting the Signature.

Are the guys at Corsair really not going to help you with this? It really boggles the mind how on earth they are still in business with this level of customer support.

I will help in any way I can.

matt

[Synbios]

I think I figured out how large the .vic file has to be, I was able to pad the file with 00's to make it the correct size. I tried using the command to write the firmware with a couple different options but it is giving me an error saying that it needs a full drive to be specified, not a partition. Though when I check the partition table, it is empty and it is a raw drive. I am designating the drive as /dev/sdb which works when i do hdparm -i /dev/sdb so I am not sure what it wants. Any thoughts?