The Firmware Page

All Future Requests that relate to the MAC specificially, and Matshita drives or RPC1 patched region free firmwares, should be posted in this thread, and nowhere else, members will be warned initially, and requests made outside of this thread, deleted without notice.

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING AND POST THIS WITH YOUR REQUEST

1) Check and ensure your request has not already been asked for
2) Post information about your drive, model, firmware revision, mac model/OS
3) What you require, original firmware, RPC1 patched etc.
4) Please provide a dump from your drive, Email or upload it somewhere.

Most important, be patient, and do not crosspost or bump your request, as this will not help, now if you all follow this, then hopefully, some clever patchers can start patching these notorious drives.

All updates will be added to this thread, and this thread only, this includes new releases, links etc

Utility releases:
2010-01-24 MatshitaFlasher - MacOS based firmware flash tool
The problem with blanks in application path is fixed in the current release.
2010-01-31 MatshitaFlasher V2.0 - MacOS based firmware flash tool
This release supports flashing of the firmware binaries embedded in the apple firmware updates released by ben11.
2010-01-31 MatshitaMemoryDump - MacOS based firmware dump tool
This release is based on ben11 dump tool, just the generated file name is changed and includes the drive name and firmware revision now.
2010-02-03 MatshitaFlasher V2.01 - MacOS based firmware flash tool

Firmware releases, original and RPC1 patched (tested):
2010-01-12 UJ-868_KB19_Stock_RPC1
2010-01-14 UJ-857E_ZF1E_Stock_RPC1
2010-01-15 UJ-867A_KK08_Stock_RPC1
2010-01-16 UJ-875S_1.00_Stock_RPC1
2010-01-20 UJ-867_HA13_Stock_RPC1
2010-01-30 UJ-898_HA07_Stock_RPC1
2010-01-30 UJ-85JS_F100_Acer_Stock_RPC1
2010-01-30 UJ862A_1.06_Stock_RPC1
2010-01-31 UJ-875_DA09_Stock_RPC1
2010-01-31 UJ-857G_Z111_Stock_RPC1
2010-02-03 UJ-875_DB09_Stock_RPC1
2010-03-20 UJ-867_HB01_Stock_RPC1
2010-04-19 UJ-898_HC10_Stock_RPC1
2010-08-24 UJ-898_HD10_Stock_RPC1

Check the "Matshita and Apple RPC1 firmware: a summary" thread for older Matshita Mac firmwares.

Firmware releases converted from already released packages by ben11, original and RPC1 patched (tested):
2010-01-28 UJ-857_HAEA_Stock_RPC1
2010-01-28 UJ-846_FQ3T_Stock_RPC1

Risks:
In the worst case your drive will be dead after upgrading to the patched firmware. The risk is low as the flasher is known to be working on several different drives, the RPC1 patch is tested and works on several firmwares.

Firmwares build from a firmware dump have a higher risk than official firmware releases as the process involved might not be correct. This process was verified with several firmwares by extracting the firmware from the dump and comparing the result with the known working firmwares generated by ben11 before.

Untested RPC1 firmwares:
Other firmwares can be prepared when a original firmware or a dump made from a drive with matshita_memory is available.

Unsupported firmwares:
If your drive is not supported yet, post a firmware dump of your drive using the MatshitaMemoryDump tool listed in Utility releases above.
To dump the firmware, make sure there is no disc in the drive, unzip the package and start it. It will create a 4MB file, e.g. MATSHITADVD-R___UJ-898__HA07_dump_0.dat. Please zip the file before uploading.

MacOS firmware flash tool:
To flash the firmware a safety improved version of ben11's simple_flash command line tool is used, combined with a wrapper that allows drag&drop of the firmware file, so you do not have to start Terminal and manually enter commands.

MacOS flashing instructions:
- Unzip MatshitaFlasher.zip and the firmware zip file
- Make sure there is no disc in the drive.
- The firmware .zip file typically includes two firmware .dat files of ~700-800KB size, one original and one RPC1 patched firmware
- In Finder drop the firmware .dat file (not the directory) you want to flash on the MatshitaFlasher application.
- A terminal window will pop up, listing drive and firmware ids and ask you if you want to continue flashing
- In case of drive/firmware mismatch or a corrupted firmware file the drive will not be flashed

If you want to flash the firmwares embedded in one of the old packages released by ben11, drop the old flasher app, e.g. "Update HAEA to region free" on the MatshitaFlasher application. The script will find the firmware automatically, which usually is in the Contents/PlugIns/?????.staple/Contents/MacOS subdirectory.

Typical Terminal window after dropping the firmware .dat file on the flasher application:

Check RPC state:
Make sure the RPC region on your drive is already set. You can check that with DVD Info X:

After flashing the RPC1 firmware:

Important RPC1 basics:
When your drive is running in RPC1 mode, you need a software tool to handle the region changes. Under MacOS use Region X. Without this tool you still can not change the regions as you like.

Credits:
Credits go to ben11 for the simple_flash and matshita_memory (dump) tools, the obfuscate source code, the RPC1 patch and all the firmwares released previously.

many thanks for this release!

i kind of expected a rpc-1 firmware after apple released an update for the uj-868, but wow, that was quick!

and except for some trouble with vlc, it looks like it's working perfectly.

keep up the good work!

Dear Puma,

It was my Birthday on the 12th when this RPC _ 1 Patch was released for the UJ _ 868 on my MBPro, it worked an absolute treat and I could of not wished for a better Birthday Present, a sincere thanks of gratitude to all those concerned with what they been achieved in relation to this particular drive.

Kindest Regards from Oz ( The Land Down Under )

pathfinderti

Very cool! Great work as usual ala42!

Looking forward for a Windoze version

I can test the UJ-857E ZF1E firmware asap.

Worked like a charm! Thanks!

I have ported the dumper to use fPLScsi a while ago, tested on Windows. The flasher is ported, too, but not tested yet. Which firmware RPC1 firmware do you want to test ?

I've just tested the UJ-857E ZF1E firmware, and it works fine. Thanks a lot!

I'm willing to test on a UJ-875S.

I have a broken one that will no longer write, so I can afford to take a risk (I have another to replace it)

Im can test UJ867A
KK08

thanks for that, but its ala42 who is the patcher, not me, i'm just the administrator, none of us here at RPC1 expected any new patched releases, so thanks go to ala42

Well I've got quite a few MATSHITA drives available: UJ-830, UJ-840D, UJ-842S, UJ-85JS, UJ-845S, UJ-850S, UJ-860H, UJ-861H, UJ-880AS. For most of them if not all there are windows firmwares available (but not necessarily from the correct OEM). Some of them are HP OEMs (and HP has hardly released any firmware updates for them) but for most of these models there are firmwares out from other OEMs (notably SONY or Toshiba). Is your flasher able to flash say a SONY OEM firmware to a HP OEM drive? Also converting from a B or D drive to an S would be nice if possible due to availability of firmwares and gaining other features such as DVD-RAM ... I've also got some partially faulty units (UJ-842, 850, 860 & 861 I think) which I could use as 'no risk' flashing guinea pigs in the first instance ...

If you want I can make dumps of all of these drives.

Finally I've collected quite a few Matshita firmwares (all windows ones) over the time, ranging from UJ-811 up to the latest Blu-ray units. These could be useful to someone, so I've zipped them all up (~84MB in size) and uploaded them on Rapidshare. I have posted them in the "New Matshita/Toshiba Firmware Releases" thread here: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=43768

The flasher is a safety improved version of ben11's simple_flash as posted above, version check can be disabled.
The Question is if the firmware permits the crossflashes or refuses the firmwares. If you tell me available firmwares for the same hardware, I can could compare the internal firmware headers to check for differences.

Start with a dump of one of the defect drives, so we can test the simple_flash windows port. We could also test crossflashing on one of the defective drives.
Dumps are always welcome. I will need some dumps of released windows firmwares packages to test the extraction from the package. Apple packages can already be extracted.

I volunteer to test a patch for MATSHITADVD-R UJ867A KK08

Best,

Rob

Sorry ala42 , I did actually say to all those concerned nevertheless the excitement of finally patching my MBPro was obviously too much for me.

So a huge sincere thankyou to the man ala42 for his continuing unrelentless quest to make all of these drives Region Free.

Cheers

pathfinderti ( I come from The Land Down Under )

Hi all,

I can confirm that the patch UJ-867_KK08_RPC1.zip works for:


After flashing the DVD drive, one can change the counter back to 5 using Region X.

Recipe:
- unpack MatshitaFlasher.zip
- unpack UJ-867_KK08_RPC1.zip
- drag-n-drop UJ-867_KK08_RPC1.dat onto MatshitaFlasher app
- a terminal window will open, showing details what it will flash
- confirm by typing 'y' and wait until terminal self closes.
- no reboot required.
- download/install Region X from link above
- start Region X, so you can change the Region and counter

note: make sure no other .dat files are present in the folder you run the flash application.

Tested on Snow Leopard 10.6.2

Thanks to ala42 for his help.

Best,

Rob

I have a MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-868 KA14

I was wondering if there is a firmware revision for me?

and if there is, are there any tips/suggestions for a slow person like myself?

Hi there monkdaddy,

I had exactly the same Firmware, this is what I did first in step form:

1._ IMHO to play safe was to: upgrade the KA14 to KB19 by dragging the new Firmware onto the Flasher, when completely finished do step 2.

2. _ Drag the RPC_1 Patch onto the flashing tool to enable RPC _ 1 performance.

The instructions are clear on the Terminal Pop Up window, just let it do it's thing without interruption for each step individually, it's as simple as that.

ala42 will pick me up on anything that's not correct but that's how I did it.

Cheers

pathfinderti

Step 1.) is not needed, you can directly flash the RPC1 version.

Can I make my UJ-867 with HA13 firmware rpc1? Should I flash with the KK08 firmware?

Nope, too risky I think.

IIRC I already have a HA13 dump, so an RPC1 patch could be build. Have to check that.

That would be great!

Thanks for this! I'm using a UJ-857E in my old macbook pro running snow leopard, and it seems to work perfectly...
I was having troubles with VLC (like the poster above), and found that reflashing the "standard" firmware caused everything to work.

Solution: clear ~/.dvdcss directory, and remove ~/Library/Preferences/VLC

Works fine now, which means fairmount works once again

I hope this helps someone else.

Great! Thank you very much! I've located one of the defective drives. Its a UJ-820B drive according to the label (although the actual firmware on it is the UJ-820D). There are several firmwares available in the RPC1 database (and in the Matshita collection I uploaded in the firmware announcement thread) for this drive both in its B and S flavour:

UJ-820B_1.01 (Sony)_&_1.02 (NEC).zip
UJ-820S_1.00_AL (Asus).zip
UJ-820S_1.00_PN2.zip
UJ-820S_1003_PN2.zip

The drive I've got identifies itself as a UJ-820D FW1.01. I would have added a DVDinfo screenshot but I can't find any way to attach a picture...

If you can let me have a copy of the windows dumper I'll dump the firmware currently on the drive and let you have it.

I'll also dump the firmwares of all the other Matshita drives I've got.