Samsung ssd firmware update linux

How to update Samsung SSD firmware from Ubuntu?

I followed https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/global.semi.static/Firmware_Update_Utility_UserManual.pdf and downloaded unetbootin and the .iso for my Samsung 960 EVO 250gb. I burnt it with unetbootin and rebooted but there was nothing to boot from. I did it again and inspected the files on the drive and they were only these:

extlinux.conf ldlinux.sys menu.c32 syslinux.cfg ubnfilel.txt ubnpathl.txt 

which sum up to only 94kb, also the unetbootin record is instantaneous as it if were not recording anything. The .iso has 16mb so the sd card should have this size of similar. How do I update a Samsung SSD firmware on Ubuntu?

Some systems do not boot sd cards. Instructions do say to use USB flash drive. I was able to just directly boot ISO using grub2’s loopmount. But I regularly boot ISO that way and have the issues of drive number & path pretty well resolved. Many have those issues, if trying to use grub2. Suggest using flash drive as instructions say.

Nothing in these instructions suggest that you can use this tool to update firmware using Ubuntu. The instructions provide their own bootable live Linux distribution as an ISO for the purpose of updating their product’s firmware. You might want to ask about questions you have about these instructions on SuperUser or unix.stackexchange.com. Since this procedure doesn’t use Ubuntu, it is not on topic here.

2 Answers 2

Disclaimer: There is a risk of losing your SSD and the data stored on it when updating to a new firmware!

1. Identify your SSD model by running sudo smartctl -a /dev/nvmxxx on your SSD (replace «xxx» by your actual device name); here is an example output.
2. Prepare a bootable Ubuntu/Kubuntu USB stick, either from Ubuntu or from Windows.
3. Start your computer from the said USB stick.
4. Open a browser and search «Samsung SSD firmware» from any search engine; the first result should be the SSD tools and software download page from Samsung.
5. Scroll down until «Firmware», expand the section, find the ISO image matching your SSD model and download it.
6. Open the ISO image with an archive tool like File Roller or Ark (whatever comes preinstalled with your USB stick) and look for the file name initrd and extract it (drag and drop it outside of the archive and into your file manager window).
7. Open again the file initrd with an archive tool (you need to double click twice) and look for the folder root/fumagician ; again extract it (drag and drop it outside of the archive).
8. Open a console ( F4 in some file managers), go inside the folder fumagician you just extracted and run sudo ./fumagician .
9. Proceed through the steps of the SSD Magician tool; in my case the reprogrammimg was instant and there was no success or failure confirmation at the end. If the SSD Magician finds no devices then maybe you forgot to use sudo .
10. Restart without mounting or otherwise touching the content of the SSD you just updated.
11. After restart sudo smartctl -a /dev/nvmxxx should display the updated firmware version. In my case the updated firmware version would not show until the restart.

Remark 1: It seems possible to update from an OS running on the target SSD and I saw YouTube videos showing the SSD Magician tool on Windows doing such hot updates, i.e. on a SSD being used. But I am not entirely sure whether this is safe. The issue is that the OS will write to the SSD after the update procedure but before the restart. There is a risk that the SSD does not handle correctly those writes, hence losing data.

Remark 2: If UNetbootin is used to create a bootable USB stick from the ISO then the USB stick needs to be formatted with MBR and FAT32; GPT and/or ext4 did not work for me. There is a bug in the ISO image provided by Samsung with AMD based systems. USB and more specifically USB keyboards and mice will not work; since most modern mainboards do not have PS/2 ports anymore navigating through the SSD Magician prompts is virtually impossible on AMD based systems (source).

Источник

Linux Mint Forums

Forum rules
Before you post please read how to get help. Topics in this forum are automatically closed 6 months after creation.

Samsung SSD Firmware Updating

Post by W_A_Watson_II » Tue Feb 07, 2023 6:45 pm

With the Samsung SSD 980 PRO Firmware Issues and since Samsung doesn’t have a release/version of their Magician Software to update the SSD Firmware from Linux, how is everyone doing it?

Re: Samsung SSD Firmware Updating

Post by gittiest personITW » Wed Feb 08, 2023 6:03 am

Re: Samsung SSD Firmware Updating

Post by ThaCrip » Fri Feb 10, 2023 5:53 pm

I found the link to the ISO I listed above in the ‘Firmware’ section from the following link. https://semiconductor.samsung.com/us/co . ort/tools/

but I have heard about the recent Samsung 980 issues which apparently Samsung acknowledged and fixed (the firmware I linked above is the fixed version). https://www.pcgamer.com/an-error-in-sam . t-now-tbh/ & https://www.tomshardware.com/news/samsu . are-update

a quote from that PC Gamer article.

The issue was discovered by system builder, Puget Systems (via NordicHardware), which has stated that, «despite historically being some of our most reliable parts, we have received a surprising number of reports of failing Samsung drives, specifically with the 2TB version of the 980 Pro.»

It goes on to say that, working with Samsung itself, it has been confirmed that the firmware the 980 Pro SSDs were shipping with were responsible for these failures and that they need to be updated as soon as possible.

Puget Systems says that the issue has happened specifically with the 2TB version of the drive, but does say that Samsung «recommends users update the firmware on all 980 Pro drives to the latest version (5B2QGXA7) to prevent the issue from occurring.»

It says that the firmware update should just be an in-place upgrade and should preserve all current data, but just in case it would be wise to back up if possible.

The affected version of the firmware is 3B2QGXA7, though Puget Systems claims that drives running the 4B2QGXA7 firmware should be fine, even if Samsung is recommended the more recent update.

so basically if you have a 980 Pro (2TB version) with firmware version «3B2QGXA7» you need to upgrade firmware now since you are directly effected by this serious issue.

on my Samsung 850 EVO SSD to find current firmware version I issue (you will likely need to issue ‘sudo apt install smartmontools’ before the following will work).

sudo smartctl --xall /dev/sdx | grep -i firmware

NOTE: the ‘x’, in ‘/dev/sdx’ shown above, has to be the precise location of your SSD which you can find using «sudo fdisk -l» (or just ‘lsblk’ which is not as precise but unless you got two drives with same capacity it will be easy enough to reason out it’s location from the info shown here).

on mine it shows «Firmware Version: EMT02B6Q» which matches the one on Samsung’s site (listed in the 2nd link above). so in my case I don’t need to upgrade since I am already running newest version for a Samsung 850 EVO.

MainPC: i5-3550 (undervolted by -0.120v (CPU runs 12c cooler) /w stock i3-2120 hs/fan) | 1050 Ti 4GB | 16GB (2x 8GB) DDR3 1600Mhz RAM | Backups: AMD E-300 CPU (8GB RAM) / Athlon X2 3600+ CPU (@2.3GHz@1.35v) (4GB RAM) | All /w Mint 21.x-Xfce

Re: Samsung SSD Firmware Updating

Post by W_A_Watson_II » Tue Feb 14, 2023 11:55 pm

My Samsung SSD 980 PRO is at Firmware version: 3B2QGXA7, so I need to update it, but Samsung doesn’t provide a tool to update from within Linux (at least for consumers).

Re: Samsung SSD Firmware Updating

Post by t42 » Wed Feb 15, 2023 4:21 am

There is a bootable ISO for 980pro: 5B2QGXA7 and you can updated your ssd
There link to ISO here under Firmware / Samsung SSD Firmware:
https://semiconductor.samsung.com/us/co . ort/tools/

Re: Samsung SSD Firmware Updating

Post by W_A_Watson_II » Thu Feb 16, 2023 7:29 pm

t42 wrote: ⤴ Wed Feb 15, 2023 4:21 am There is a bootable ISO for 980pro: 5B2QGXA7 and you can updated your ssd
There link to ISO here under Firmware / Samsung SSD Firmware:
https://semiconductor.samsung.com/us/co . ort/tools/

Re: Samsung SSD Firmware Updating

Post by t42 » Thu Feb 16, 2023 7:54 pm

W_A_Watson_II wrote: ⤴ Thu Feb 16, 2023 7:29 pm but apparently their ISO Utility for the 980 Pro inst compatible with Ryzen.

Indeed, Samsung say that they sure only in Intel, but there are no negative reports on AMD on the forums. I updated my 980 (not PRO) (connected to X570 slot) with neighboring bootable image last week without a problem, it took several seconds (though data backup took its time, luckily there was no need in it). My 980 PRO is connected to the CPU slot, it has latest firmware, so no update was needed)

Re: Samsung SSD Firmware Updating

Post by W_A_Watson_II » Thu Feb 16, 2023 8:19 pm

W_A_Watson_II wrote: ⤴ Thu Feb 16, 2023 7:29 pm but apparently their ISO Utility for the 980 Pro inst compatible with Ryzen.

Indeed, Samsung say that they sure only in Intel, but there are no negative reports on AMD on the forums. I updated my 980 (not PRO) (connected to X570 slot) with neighboring bootable image last week without a problem, it took several seconds (though data backup took its time, luckily there was no need in it). My 980 PRO is connected to the CPU slot, it has latest firmware, so no update was needed)

I first accidentally ran the 990 ISO, and it was fast and smooth, but of course it didn’t find any compatible SSD’s. The 980 Pro ISO in normal boot just presents a black screen and never activates the keyboard. In the GRUB mode I get bast the boot screen, and then it ends in a clear screen and the same results.

I’m running a Minis Forum B550 with a AMD Ryzen 7 5700G CPU.

Источник