The Firmware Page

hradec welcome to the forum, please don't post your email address, as it may lead to spam, on the firmware issue, the chance of an RPC1 release is zero

Looking inside the updater app, it seem to containt the following new firmwares.

HL-DT-ST DVDRW GWA4080MA
AE38 -> AE39

HL-DT-ST DVDRW GWA-4080MB
BE38 -> BE39

MATSHITA DVD-R UJ857
HAC1 -> HAE4

MATSHITA DVD-R UJ857
HBE4 -> HBEA

MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857D
KBV9 -> KBVB

MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857D
KCV9 -> KCVB

I'm guessing the Dangerous Brothers may be able to patch the new AE39 and BE39 firmwares to RPC1 based on previous experience.

I understand all recent Matshita firmwares are encrypted/digitally signed. This means they can't be patched, even when you have a copy of the firmware file, as you do now in this firmware update. It is not just a matter of disassembling the firmware, patching a few ops and reassembling it.

dammit!! thanks by the quick reply and explanation anyway dude!

Since ripping on my macbook pro isn't possible, isn't the only option to get an external DVD drive which is region free? Any ideas on what drive might be best for that?

regards
Fr

You already opened an extra thread about the same question.
http://forum.rpc1.org/viewtopic.php?t=42597

Please don't doublepost!

[quote="grumio"]Looking inside the updater app, it seem to containt the following new firmwares.
...
I understand all recent Matshita firmwares are encrypted/digitally signed. This means they can't be patched, even when you have a copy of the firmware file, as you do now in this firmware update. It is not just a matter of disassembling the firmware, patching a few ops and reassembling it.[/quote]

Hi,

I've been able to produce an RPC-1 version of the HAEA firmware from the superdrive 2.1 update. (That is for the UJ-857; the HBEA, KBVB, KCVB in that update are also for the UJ-857/857D but my own MBP drive was updated to HAEA, so that is what I worked on and was able to verify). The firmwares are all coded in a similar way and in fact the obfuscation is virtually identical to what XVI must have worked on to make the UJ-815 RPC1 firmwares. There's a new common header with salt and the firmware is zipped but otherwise its quite similar in layout to the 815.

To help others I was intending to produce and make available a modified updater with the orginal/RPC1 version, at least for HAEA to start with. However if you've been following you'll see that Apple have withdrawn the Superdrive 2.1 updater and going by the comments on the apple boards there are plenty of folks reporting dead drives after the update. This makes we wary of reposting that updater (as well a this being the first time I've released my work for others).

It looks to me as if the problem with the Apple updater may have been the way it got deployed via the semi-automatic software update; for some people the machine was rebooted during the firmware update - however a few people have suggested the new firmware itself has brought them problems. I've had no problem myself.

Anyway I'll make the firmware itself available now, but unless you're able to slot it into (or write) something to send it to the drive its not an immediate help.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DZ9IWCEB

MD5 sum: dbdb5fc6e75d7f0e410fc8d4cd5d0c52

Usual caution about firmware changes: It is not a light operation and can result in an effectively useless drive.

Hi Ben11,

thanks for sharing that firmware!

Aparantly there is no way flashing the firmware in OSX. But since you can run Windows and/or Linux on a MBP I was wondering if this firmware could be flashed with an existing program in Linux or Windows.

Does anyone have a clue how to do this?

Thanks
FeXiXiX

Hi FeXiXiX,

Sorry, at least I don't know of any other flashers for the UJ-857. There are some for similar drives, on windows, but there would probably be a bit of work involved in checking that they are suitable for the 857 in a Mac and putting in a new firmware.

I'll share the modified superdrive 2.1 updater I prepared, it should be more reliable than trying to fix up a windows updater for another drive.

http://rapidshare.com/files/47082926/UJ ... A.zip.html

This checks that you currently have the "HAEA" revision - and there is one updater included to flash the modified firmware and another that can restore the standard one. Please do read the README! file if you do decide to try it.

Hi Ben11,

Thank you so much for this firmware! I have tried it on my MacBookPro
and it works!!!
Finally after more than a year of waiting, it is finally region free!

Thank you thank you thank you hahaha...

Joshua.

Matsushita drives always seemed not to be patchable... It's a little revolution, isn't it ?
My question to ben11: HAEA is not listed in the updater app. You've got HAE4 and HBEA, but no HAEA. Where have you found HAEA source files ?

Hi Ben11,

thank you very much for posting the flashing app.!
I just flashed my drive without any problems!

IT IS NOW REGION FREE!


FeXiXiX

Is there any proof of that we could also see?

that is exactly what I was wondering. any DVDInfoX cap ? any other member report ?

if it's true, this would be a real revolution !

yes did you have to use both patcher items or just the regionfree one? show us your terminal output for the drive:

copy/paste this into terminal: drutil info

hit return. then post the read out please

Ben11, any chance to have a patcher for the KBVB firmware version ? Thank you in advance!!

It is REAL!

You just need the second file (UJ-857-HAEA.zip), the firmware is included in it

Here you go:



Terminal:



Region 1 DVD (can be seen in the lower right):


Region 2 DVD (can be seen in the lower right):


Apples screenshot-program did not allow me to caputre the screen while dvd-player was launched, so I had to take pictures with my mobile.

Thanks for the info!

You are german?

No problem! Taking pictures was fun, I'm so happy to be able to watch ALL my movies


obviously yes, I am

Please, help -> can i do region free DVD firmware for MacBookPro with MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857D and Firmware Revision: KCV9?
update from UJ-857-HAEA.zip gives -> "No devices were found that require this firmware update." Thank you very much for any ideas!

Hi all,

my UJ857D has the firmware version KCVB... Do I understand currectly that the updater posted on this site will not (yet?) work in patching this firmware version? Is there a way to install first HAEA to the drive, and then use the patch provided by ben11?

Sorry for asking these question which I guess seems stupid to most of you. (I recently moved together with parts of my DVD collection from Germany to San Francisco. Today, I got the first DVD from a rental store and am reluctant to offer one of my remaining switches...)

I would be very thankful for tips - and appreciate your patience...
I'd also appreciate any workaround to watch DVDs... VLC does not work, unfortunately.

Pit

Hi,

I'm glad the HAEA firmware was helpful for FeXiXiX and impulsive (and I
hope anyone else who changed their firmware) and thanks to FeXiXiX for
the extra feedback for the forum.

The Apple Superdrive update 2.1 had firmware for:

AE39 "LG HL-DT-ST GWA4080MA" (candidate revisions
for upgrade: AE38)
BE39 "LG HL-DT-ST GWA4080MB" (for BE38)
HAEA "Matshita UJ-857" (for HAE4 or HAC1)
HBEA "Matshita UJ-857" (for HBE4)
KBVB "Matshita UJ-857D" (for KBV9)
KCVB "Matshita UJ-857D" (for KCV9)

this is a little different from grumio's post on Jun 28 - which I think
had a couple of details wrong.

I believe that the Matshita revisions are normally associated with the
following models of Macs (when they have the Matshita drive installed):

HAEA MacBook Pro Core Duo (15")
HBEA MacBook Core Duo (13")
KBVB MacBook Core 2 Duo (13")
KCVB MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo (15")

but that is just what I've gathered from looking at the details posted
in various places. Check your own optical drive "firmware revision" if
you want to make sure.

So in answer to ch-vox's question, I got the original HAEA version
from the update - no mystery there. The superdrive update had updated my own MacBook Pro Core Duo 15" (mid 2006 model) from HAE4 to HAEA.

I'll try to make a single update for HAEA, HBEA, KBVB, KCVB that provides appropriate RPC-1 (region free) versions. I'd intend to check for
exactly those versions and only proceed if you already have one of those. (i.e. in the same way the HAEA RPC1 version I posted checks for HAEA, not HAE4 or HAC1). In other words if you have one of the older
revisions that superdrive update 2.1 was targeting you'd need to get
the original Apple updater. I'll add news here if I have progress for
the other firmware revisions.

Ben, thank you for your quick response. It's amazing that you are willing to put in some effort to help people like me who are kind of stuck... Whether or not this will work finally, thank you already (of course, I hope it will work!).

I'll be the first to test KCVB and I promise to post feedback.

Pit

thank you for this answer ben11.


great news !

somebody said the firmwares are digitally signed. the signature is only checked in the flasher-program, e.g. that is running on the MBP-CPU?

Wow, it's great to finally see some progress here! From my side, I can confirm that the Macbook Core Duo (13") has a UJ-857 with Firmware Revision HBEA after all updates. Waiting patiently for the updater for it!

BTW, is there any speculation what effect applying the firmware will have if and when another update comes from Apple?