Help w/ potential DVD difficulty with regards to region differences
 

I know there was a thread on this but I didn't understand what happened with the conclusion, because I am quite new to Linux. (I understood there was some package but I didn't get what to do from there)
I am looking for a program I can run or a command I can type into the console, ideally once or a file I can download that will turn my optical drive region-free. I have not yet bought the new computer or prepared a Live CD just yet, but I can tell you, I am planning on running 64-bit Debian Squeeze with KDE.

Can someone walk me through step-by-step what I can do so that I can have my drive region-free? :D Much appreciated, folks!

You should find this forum thread useful: Region Unlocking.

That's a start for sure, so thanks. But how do you flash the drive? and where would I find some RPC-1 firmware for a given laptop?

It's not the laptop that gets flashed. First you need to find out the manufacturer of your drive. You don't say what distro you are using. If it's one of the *buntus do:This will create a html page in your home folder with details of your hardware. Once you have the manufacturer name, go to: http://files.rpc1.org/ find the manufacturer, then look for you model in the list. If your model is there along with a firmware update, download it. There's usually instructions on how to flash your hardware provided with the firmware update in the form of a .txt file.

There is always the risk of your hardware not working again should the flashing fail...

Read then, re-read the instructions. Make sure you are clear on what you need to do to successfully flash your hardware. If you are uncertain about any aspect of the procedure, DON'T DO IT!

As I said in my first post that I was planning on using Debian 6, aka Squeeze. Would the prompt be any different? And what are the chances of the flashing failing and causing the DVD-RW drive to stop working? Is it quite likely?

Well, you just have to flash the hacked firmware, but this can be dangerous. I've done it through wine, but the whole time I was really scared, I don't trust wine at all, especially since you have to run it as root to be able to flash it ... it's doubly dangerous. Still, it worked fine and now the drive is region-free. If you have Window$ installed, maybe flash with that, if not try wine:
http://www.winehq.org/

Disclaimer: Flashing firmware can brick the device, i.e. if the flash goes bad the device will become a brick and you can throw it out the window.

So I should flash the firmware in Windoze before I even install Debian? Anyway, wouldn't I be able to take the laptop to a computer repair technician and get a new optical drive if need be?

If you don't want to use wine, then yes. Yes you could.

If you have Window$, yes do it with Window$, if it doesn't have Window$ installed, then use wine. I don't think the repair guy is gonna give you a free new drive if you brick one, but you never know.

So how do I get the specs on the optical drive/install the RPC-1 firmware in Windows and then have the flashing carried over to when I install Debian Squeeze?

:( I'm really sorry for asking what must seem like extremely obvious questions to you guys.

The flashing is a one-time thing. You're uploading code to the DVD-RW drive's internal memory ROM, that code stays there unless you decide to flash it again using the same procedure. That code is NOT dependent on the OS that you use. It's kinda like a BIOS for your DVD-RW drive. Another thing to note is that there is a restriction on how many times you can flash this ROM to change your region code, so it's always best to flash region-free, that way you don't have to worry.

The specs should be available, just search the drive, or on Window$ there must be some software that will correctly identify it. It's probably also written on the drive itself if you look, there's a serial number, model number, etc.

Device manager should have that info.

The last thing I will ask before I consider this solved is the following. At the most, all that will be bricked will be a (replaceable) DVD-RW drive. Right? Because if I risk bricking any more than just the optical drive, it's a no-go.

The flashing should only affect the particular hardware you are updating (your dvd drive in this case).

Yes, if you are flashing firmware to the DVD-RW, it will only affect the DVD-RW drive. (The chances of briking are low, but possible, the disclaimer is mostly to be politically correct, most of the time it works without issues).