The Firmware Page

you're true, this page's no longer online. Unfortunately, I have not mirrored this updater.

voila:
http://rapidshare.com/files/49498342/Su ... g.zip.html

Ben11,

Thank you thousand times. The Firmware patch 'UJ-857D-KBVB' worked like a charm on my black MP. How will we be able to thank you?!

Here is the info provided by DVDInfoX after the patch:

*********************************************

DVD Info X v1.0.1, by xvi (xvi@rpc1.org)

WARNING --- DVD Info X will only list DVD drives that have some WRITE
capabilities, like combos, DVD-R, DVD-RW, etc...
DVD-ROM-only drives will NOT be listed.
WARNING --- You also must eject any inserted medium to list the drive.

Vendor: MATSHITA
Model: DVD-R UJ-857D
Firmware: KBVB
RPC-1 (region free)
*********************************************

With my very best regards!!

This is just a quick message to confirm the correct functioning of the KCVB region free firmware and a brief of the processes used.

Machine: Macbook Pro 2.33ghz
Mac OS: 10.4.10

Step 1 -> Downloaded official Apple Firmware Update 2.1 (Found on this thread) http://rapidshare.com/files/49498342/Su ... g.zip.html

Step 2 -> Ran Official Apple firmware to update drive from KCV9 -> KCVB (if your drive is listed in system profiler under the ATA panel as KCVB you can skip this step!)

Step 3 -> Updated Firmware using firmware located in this thread http://rapidshare.com/files/49185713/UJ ... B.zip.html

Step 4 -> Downloaded Region X 1.12 from this forum (http://rapidshare.com/files/44054443/Re ... build_.zip )

Set and changed drive region no problem using Region X (Tested burning - successful @ 5x with best settings using toast 8)- will try a dvd boot if I don't post back you can assume it worked

By the way (for any novices) there is an excellent utility by the legendary firmware rpc1 guru "xvi" called DVD Info X which is helpful in establishing whether your firmware update did indeed work and will list your current drive settings - xvi has retired now but the utility is mirrored here. It still seems to work under Intel! i have stuck it here as it seems to be tricky to find these days

http://rapidshare.com/files/49643080/DVD_Info_X.app.zip

Many MANY thanks to those who spent the hours days and weeks figuring out the firmware. Total Respect and Admiration!!

Oh dear ... Ben, I haven't been expected that you will be THAT fast! And I did not get any notifications for this thread, so I guess I can only post a confirmation.

Used your patch on my MBP with KCVB firmware, and everything worked! Thank you a million times for all your efforts! I'll appreciate this whenever I will get a new Netflix DVD...

Pit

KCVB patched and working. Mine is a mbp 2.16.

Thanks dude =)

Hi,

Any news on the newer UJ-857E models?

Vendor: MATSHITA
Model: DVD-R UJ-857E
Firmware: ZA0E
RPC-2 (region locked)
State is SET
4 vendor resets left
4 region changes left
Region 1

I'm in the same boat as Ismith, I have the new MacBook Pro 3.1 Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.2 GhZ 15'

with the MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857E
Firmware: ZA0E

Is it plausible to ever expect any kind of fix for this firmware to change it to region free?

The first and only way is to have that firmware to be able to patch it!
If it is not available - forget it!
No one can extract it too.

Works on MBP CD 2.16GHz with OS X 10.4.10 and HAEA firmware. I'm sure this one's already been covered.

I mean, thank you SO much ben11, you deserve a medal and a half. And a bit more.


THIS IS TOTALLY AWESOME!!!!!! (repeatedly shouts)

Vendor: MATSHITA
Model: DVD-R UJ-857
Firmware: HBEA
RPC-1 (region free)

thats on a Black MacBook 2.0 first generation

thx alot ben1, u r the man!

Any chances on getting a similar fix for:

Vendor: MATSHITA
Model: DVD-R UJ-85J
Firmware: FAV1
RPC-2 (region locked)
State is SET
4 vendor resets left
3 region changes left
Region 4

This is the MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo 17" 2.33Mhz.
Thanks!

Will Apple know if the firmware has been flashed with one that is not authorised?

Any chance of an 846 patch since the newer ones have been hacked?

Yes, they can find that out.

Hello,

Thanks to everyone who sent feedback about the UJ-857/857D updates.

I saw that several people had asked about other Matshita drives like the
857E or 846. The problem is that, as far as I know, there have been
no Apple firmware updates published for those drives. This leaves somebody
wanting to patch with two problems; to get suitable firmware to start with
and lack of an updating (i.e. flashing) utility.

I've been checking to see if there could be any way forward or not - and
in fact at least the first problem can be overcome: The standard
Matshita drive firmwares do have a sequence of vendor commands to report
the contents at arbitrary memory locations in the drive. i.e. one can write a
program to dump the firmware. I found those commands in the 857 firmwares
but can confirm the same sequence can be used with the "DAM5" firmware for
the UJ-825. I expect the same commands are present in the 846/857E
firmwares too.

The second problem is then to be able to flash a modified firmware back
to the drive. Without any example program for a drive this means that
one should check the exact protocol that needs to be used for the flash.
This would have to be done by examining the firmware and boot code from the
drive. (Even if it is likely that it is very similar between these drives).
Finally an updater utility needs to be patched or written.

Considering all this I wouldn't expect that there will be RPC1 firmwares
for the drives without existing (OEM) updates very soon - unless somebody
has already been working on it.

At some point I could make a small utility to dump firmwares and ask for
a few volunteers with each of various firmwares to provide an image. Having
that would be a starting point for those drives. (But I'm not sure if
making this sort of request is appropriate in this forum or not - perhaps
a moderator could add a comment about that?)

Anyway I don't think I could put in the time to follow this through for
the moment - as I wrote, there are several steps which should be done
carefully. Perhaps in a few months I could come back to it.

The GAND, GEND, GFND, GGND firmwares for the UJ-835E/835F are available
in the Apple Superdrive update 2.0 (released last year) so an RPC-1
version of those would probably be less involved.

ben11,

you are on a very good and nice path it seems,
thanks at least for the work you have done so far and...

Good Luck!

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: Mac
Model Identifier: MacBook2,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MB21.00A5.B00
SMC Version: 1.13f3
Serial Number: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled

MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-857D:

Firmware Revision: KBVB
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -RW, +R, +RW, +R DL
Burn Underrun Protection CD: Yes
Burn Underrun Protection DVD: Yes
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media: No

DVDInfo X Data:
http://www.macupdate.com/download.php/16366/DVD_Info_X.app.zip

Vendor: MATSHITA
Model: DVD-R UJ-857D
Firmware: KBVB
RPC-2 (region locked)
State is PERMANENT
4 vendor resets left
0 region change left
Region 1

SuperDrive 2.1 Apple Update was previously installed:
http://www.espmissions.com/Downloads/SuperDrive21.sitx

Downloaded Update KBVB to region free BETA App.
http://rapidshare.com/files/49183983/UJ-857D-KBVB.zip.html

Launched the Region Free app (Drives are only allowed a maximum number of being flashed, so be careful)
NOTE: My heart stopped beating when it delayed for several seconds when it reached 60% and then again at 90%... so DON'T get impatient, you can end of with a non-functional drive if you interrupt this process.

You will hear a disk loading sound coming from the drive for a moment, then A required restart is necessary after completion.

RESTARTED

Used RegionX for Software Region changes. Make sure you have the latest update of RegionX (ie Intel Rebuild)
http://www.macupdate.com/download.php/13801/RegionX_1.12__intel_rebuild_.zip

SUCCESS!!! Drive is now region free.

My MacBook (Core Duo 2.0 Ghz), UJ-857 HBEA is now region free and working perfectly.

Thanks ben!

sectionine that is an incorrect link to a region x version that works on intel machines. here is the correct url

http://rapidshare.com/files/54224585/Re ... ebuild.zip


unless ben11's firmware modifications allow the older region X that was not working before for any RPC1 altered drives

I have gathered some tools for firmware updates:

Virtual Drive (tells commands sent to the SCSI drive)
http://rapidshare.com/files/51074871/SC ... k.zip.html

IDA5 MN102 disass
http://rapidshare.com/files/14233187/id ... 2.zip.html

display info about firmware files (version 0001)
http://rapidshare.com/files/51075187/fw_unpack.zip.html
first argument must be a binary from a *.staple. you need to place a Framework into the right folder.
second argument can be an extra firmware file

I simply cannot get that stupid payload decrypted. Anyone??

best,
Hendrix

EDIT:
Retrieve information from the real drive (send raw SCSI commands)
http://rapidshare.com/files/51078589/SC ... w.zip.html
Menu -> Test -> Authoring Dev 0x05
(have a look at STUCMethod.c -> TestADeviceUsingSTUC() )

Yes - HAEA works fine for me in OSX - can switch regions and reset the count via Region X just fine. Thank you Ben11 for all your hard work and proving the impossible possible.

Booted into Windows via bootcamp, and Media Player 11 won't play the DVD, but Windows VLC works ok. Not sure at this stage whether it's a windows configuration thing, but I don't care so much about windows. Thanks again.

MP is crap, really.
VLC works and that proves it.

I just though I'd give some feedback. I tried the KBVB RPC1 updater and it works:-

1. BEFORE:

DVD Info X v1.0.2, by xvi (xvi@rpc1.org)

{Warnings deleted}

Vendor: MATSHITA
Model: DVD-R UJ-857D
Firmware: KBVB
RPC-2 (region locked)
State is SET
4 vendor resets left
3 region changes left
Region 2

2. AFTER:

DVD Info X v1.0.2, by xvi (xvi@rpc1.org)

{Wanings deleted}

Vendor: MATSHITA
Model: DVD-R UJ-857D
Firmware: KBVB
RPC-1 (region free)

I'm as pleased as punch and indebted to ben11!

Regards

Vendor: MATSHITA
Model: DVD-R UJ-857
Firmware: HAEA
RPC-1 (region free)


Works perfectly, many thanks Ben11, you are the 'one'.