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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

#91

Post by wyldfire »

qwertox wrote: post #84
wyldfire wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> updating the firmware didn't fix the issue that my 980 Pro NVMes (all 4 of them) only have a write speed of ... In order to see spec sheet read/write speeds you can/should bypass the filesystem and the buffer cache. On Linux you can write directly to the device node (make sure to enable O_DIRECT and make your write sizes big enough). EDIT: added a quote to clarify context

nvme set-feature -f 6 -v 1 /dev/nvme0n1 (feature:0x6 (Volatile Write Cache)) dd if=/dev/zero of=~/testfile bs=10000M count=1 oflag=direct -> 1.4 GB/s dd if=/dev/zero of=~/testfile bs=1000M count=10 oflag=direct -> 3.7 GB/s dd if=/dev/zero of=~/testfile bs=100M count=100 oflag=direct -> 3.7 GB/s dd if=/dev/zero of=~/testfile bs=10M count=1000 oflag=direct -> 4.0 GB/s dd if=/dev/zero of=~/testfile bs=1M count=10000 ofl…

"~/testfile" looks suspiciously like a file mounted on a filesystem. What happens if you bypass the filesystem?

Re: Update Firmware of Samsung SSDs in Linux

#93

Post by alias_neo »

vladvasiliu wrote: post #75
alias_neo wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have found that on my machines, they provide a means to disable the security check and allow the downgrade anyway. This is a real issue though, there is the risk of failure during the procedure, less so than it once was, but then the risk that the update actually performs worse than the previous version. The latter I don't know how we resolve.

> I have found that on my machines, they provide a means to disable the security check and allow the downgrade anyway. I was usually able to this, and my other HP machines propose to do a BIOS downgrade. But in this particular case I haven't managed to do a rollback, even with a "BIOS recovery", whatever that is.

That's unfortunate. Does your company buy a lot of these?

Perhaps they can get in touch with your supplier to pass a complaint about the poor update so they might be able to pass it on to their devs and hopefully fix the issue?

Re: Update Firmware of Samsung SSDs in Linux

#94

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

londons_explore wrote: post #27
ajb wrote: post #2

" If it’s your boot drive, no luck there and you can try flashing while it’s mounted." Err no, that's when you boot from USB stick. Or do it from initramfs. Or anything, other than modifying the firmware of a drive you are running from.

You ought to be able to flash the firmware on a mounted drive. Anyone sane implementing the firmware flashing algorithm will either : 1. Just reject all IO requests from the point of the firmware update onwards. The system will see the drive disappear, but since you are using a journaling filesystem, it will be like you just pulled the power, and no data corruption will happen. 2. Complete all IO requests before the…

You're basically right, but hardware manufacturers are not known for writing sane firmware and a lot of people have been burned enough times to absolutely never ever trust that reasoning.

Re: Update Firmware of Samsung SSDs in Linux

#96

Post by Arrath »

jabbany wrote: post #72
boomboomsubban wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I'm not sure what would have happened if I had been a purely MacOS and Linux household. Passthrough to a VM, though I suppose the Windows license could be an issue.

Actually, since Win 10 you can run the OS indefinitely without a license. It just doesn't allow you to customize stuff like the wallpaper etc. Ref: https://www.howtogeek.com/244678/you-dont-need-a-product-key...

I had myself a hearty laugh recently when I was in Vegas and the casino elevator wall screen panels had the ACTIVATE WINDOWS banner overlaid on the videos.

Re: Update Firmware of Samsung SSDs in Linux

#98

Post by stjohnswarts »

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.

I generally don't update firmware ever unless there is a problem. One exception is bios. Then if I have the occassional mysterious freeze/reboot I'll try it. Also if there is something like known ram size or particular hardware fix. But I can count those on 1 hand over 20 years. Also I suppose there are cases when you bought stuff just as it came out, there can be useful firmware updates after the first several months it is on the market.

Re: Update Firmware of Samsung SSDs in Linux

#99

Post by splix »

tzs wrote: post #53
dvratil wrote: post #24

Reminds me when about ten years ago, working in an all-Linux company there was an issue with some Lenovo docking stations. I don't recall anymore what the issue was exactly, just that something wouldn't work properly when you plugged in a laptop with Linux. The problem was solved by a firmware upgrade, but upgrading the docking station firmware was possible only from Windows. So there was this one poor person in IT w…

That reminds me of an internal hard disk I had several years ago. I think it was a Seagate, but it might have been Western Digital. This was a retail drive bought at BestBuy, and the box specifically said that it worked with Windows, MacOS, and Linux, although it noted that their fancy add-on software only worked under Windows. No problem for me, because I didn't need the fancy add-on software. A year later the drive…

I had same problem with failed Seagate HDD. They were asking me to use their Windows-only app to diagnose the problem.

I tried to explain that I use it with a NAS and I cannot install Windows on it just to do such diagnostics test. No luck to convince the support and I had to hack some pieces of old hardware together just to run that tool. Funny enough the tool was able to tell only something like "the drive is broken". I had a much more detailed report from NAS though, with details from SMART but that was not accepted. Basically they didn't believe me and asked for a confirmation from their tool, like it's more trustworthy.

Of course I'm not going to buy any Seagate after such experience.

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