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Update Firmware of Samsung SSDs in Linux

blog.quindorian.org

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Re: Update Firmware of Samsung SSDs in Linux

#11

Post by hef19898 »

snvzz wrote: post #9
hef19898 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would it work to update the firmware under Windows and then switch back to Linux?

Likely. It would be very inconvenient, but I could pull it off on my home's desktop computer. Now consider doing this at scale, in a datacenter, or just some office that has a lot of these drives. Ouch.

That's true. A good example of the difference between "scale" and consumer solutions. I can switch to Windows for that stuff and back to Linux afterwards. Doing so for a fleet of office machines is already out of the question.

Now I really have to check if I get firmware updates from Lenovo for all the hardware in my Thinkpad... I always assumed I do!

Re: Update Firmware of Samsung SSDs in Linux

#12

Post by fsflover »

snvzz wrote: post #9
hef19898 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would it work to update the firmware under Windows and then switch back to Linux?

Likely. It would be very inconvenient, but I could pull it off on my home's desktop computer. Now consider doing this at scale, in a datacenter, or just some office that has a lot of these drives. Ouch.

It also raises concerns about trust. What if I don't trust proprietary Windows and don't want to run it? It can potentially compromise my SSD during the update.

Re: Update Firmware of Samsung SSDs in Linux

#13

Post by merpkz »

does that firmware update come with any changelog? I have the same drive for my database dev work and I somehow feel uneasy to update it without really knowing what will change, will my specific workload improve or tank due to some other edge case they might have solved or broken? I mean, the drive works fine, will it work even better? for what workloads exactly? All I could find was someone mentioning it works better in PS5. It's the same reason I don't update BIOS for my motherboad - it works and has been remarkably stable for over 5 years. Chances of me being pwned by APT using some BIOS vulnerability is less than be bricking mobo while updating it.

Re: Update Firmware of Samsung SSDs in Linux

#14

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

mkj wrote: post #5
snvzz wrote: post #3

This is some insanity that shouldn't be needed, when fwupd[0] exists. Samsung is to blame for this. [0]: https://fwupd.org/

The SAMSUNG MZVL2512HCJQ-00BL7 aka PM9A1 in this Thinkpad is supported by fwupd, I've had a couple of updates.

I also have a Lenovo (non-Thinkpad) with a PM981a drive and yeah, there's a pretty big difference between Samsung's Enterprise/OEM drives, and their consumer drives(EVO/PRO). Not big as in HW, they usually have the same NAND and controllers, but the FW on the controller is completely different, and on the Enterprise/OEM drives it cannot be updated via their Windows app (it doesn't even detect them).

The only way to get FW updates is through Lenovo's proprietary tool which only works on Thinkpads, even though my non-Thinkpad machine has the exact same SSD. What a shit show.

I guess I'll just have to stay on the FW it came out of the factory.

Re: Update Firmware of Samsung SSDs in Linux

#16

Post by sirwitti »

merpkz wrote: post #13

does that firmware update come with any changelog? I have the same drive for my database dev work and I somehow feel uneasy to update it without really knowing what will change, will my specific workload improve or tank due to some other edge case they might have solved or broken? I mean, the drive works fine, will it work even better? for what workloads exactly? All I could find was someone mentioning it works bette…

Same thing for me.

A quick search did not result in any official changelog, but some forum entries (e.g. [1] and [2]) suggest that random read + write performance under windows seems to have been improved.

[1] https://www.elevenforum.com/t/samsung-980-pro-firmware-updat...

[2] (in german) https://www.deskmodder.de/blog/2022/01/26/samsung-firmwareup...

Re: Update Firmware of Samsung SSDs in Linux

#18

Post by topynate »

fareesh wrote: post #15

Is there any significant benefit of updating firmware? Intuitively it seems like the risk/reward is very skewed towards not doing it. I've never really updated the firmware on any component other than routers or motherboard/bios.

It looks like the author was mining a particular sort of cryptocurrency which needs a lot of drive space. I guess he was trying to squeeze as much performance out of his SSDs as possible.

For most applications I can't see why you'd really need to update your SSD firmware, unless the manufacturer messed up their wear-levelling or something like that in the release firmware.

Re: Update Firmware of Samsung SSDs in Linux

#19

Post by alias_neo »

fareesh wrote: post #15

Is there any significant benefit of updating firmware? Intuitively it seems like the risk/reward is very skewed towards not doing it. I've never really updated the firmware on any component other than routers or motherboard/bios.

As a software engineer myself, I would say yes, but I'm biased. I know no code is released perfect.

Then for something high performance like an NVM.e SSD, you could potentially gain a lot of performance, or lose it, depending on the manufacturer's goals for stability vs speed.

After a couple of decades of updating firmware on things whenever possible (including my car which had me leave the engine running sitting in the car with the window down for 2 hours in the winter), I'm yet to have a real issue.

That said, I also have the tools and skills to dump flash chips and would suggest doing that to anyone before an update of certain devices, or, you know, just don't do it, as you suggest.

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