The Firmware Page

Hi- I just tried to update my firmware with UJ-85J FBZ8 region free firmware and I received the following message:

"The version of OS X you are running (10.6.1) is not compatible with this firmware update. Update OS X and try again."

I am running 10.6.1. Any ideas around this, or do I have to go back to 10.5.x?

I've done a search and can't find any answers.

Many thanks!

can try editing the system file, or use an older version

Thanks, do you mean an older version of MacOS? How or what would I edit in the system file? Many thanks.

some members have had success with editing the SystemVersion.plist file, if not then an older MACOS will be needed

Thanks very much--this worked like a charm (editing the plist). After reboot my MacPro would not restart so I re-installed Snow Leopard from disc and everything is fine.

Perhaps should have restored the plist after the firmware flash and before reboot, but this is not the order in the instructions (posted here: viewtopic.php?f=30&t=44273) in case anyone has come to this thread looking for them.

Thanks again for your quick and accurate assistance--I've never edited a plist or flashed firmware before.

Yeah, you can't reboot Snow Leopard without the right version number in the plist. Before I saw this thread I made the following topic below, which includes a fix if you get it wrong (start the locked computer in Firewire target mode, and then edit the file from another computer)

viewtopic.php?f=30&t=45916

It's possible that the instructions could include that, or perhaps someone could make Snow Leopard instructions. Or maybe we just did?

Oh, and one more thing: Snow Leopard users will need to copy the plist to another location before they edit it, because I'm pretty sure it can't be edited while it sits in the Core Services folder.

There is a third method for those trying to use ben11's firmware apps on (Snow)Leopard, but are stuck with the following error message:
"The version of OS X you are running 10.x.x is not compatible with this firmware update. Update OS X and try again."

Method 1:
The safest thing to do is to install Tiger on a separate partition or on an external disk (which must be formatted in GUID partition scheme).
But this can be cumbersome and time-consuming, unless you already have a bootable Tiger installation at hand.

Method 2:
Editing the plist file as mentioned above is the next option if Tiger is not available. But there are cases where none of these 2 methods apply.

Method 3:
Here's what I did (tested with "Matshita UJ-85J FAV1"):
- you need a hex editor that is capable of editing binary files, for example the free 0xED editor: http://www.suavetech.com/0xed/0xed.html
Do NOT use TextEdit or other text editors!
- right-click the firmware app "Update FAV1 to region free/standard" and select "Show Package Contents" from the context menu
- open the folder "Contents" and navigate to "PlugIns/FAV1.staple/Contents/MacOS"
- open the file "FAV1" with your favorite hex editor
- search for "10.4.6" in the ASCII column (this value represents the highest OS X version the firmware app accepts)
(- for those who understand hex, it's at position $2E3ED4)

- carefully REPLACE with exactly the OS X version you're using (not a higher one), for example:
:: original value: 10.4.6
:: new value: 10.6.2

- save file and quit editor
- restart your Mac as requested

Some editors like 0xED insert new values instead of replacing, so make sure you remove the old values!
If you accidentally entered wrong values, quit the editor without saving and start over just to be on the safe side.

Keep in mind that you're editing a binary file which happens to be the firmware! If only one bit is changed in the wrong place, you might brick your drive forever!
Use this method at your own risk! Tricking the app to run does not mean, the flashing process is guaranteed to succeed.
The app might not be 100% compatible with systems higher than 10.4.6!

This method was successfully tested on a "Matshita UJ-85J FAV1".
It might also work for ben11's other firmware apps for Matshita drives (not tested).

My improved version of ben11's flasher can directly flash the Matshita firmwares of the original apple packages or the old rpc1 releases made my ben11, see viewtopic.php?f=30&t=46116 for instructions.