I just wanted to post a solution to a problem that I've been having since Jeorg Schilling got drop-kicked for kernel native ATAPI support. Here is a list of steps to upgrade your Plextor Firmware on modern udev based systems.

1. Get the firmware:

Plextor is a real pain in the ass about releasing non-windows firmware. One division of Plextor though releases the .bin format of it's new firmware. You should get it here:

http://www.plextor.be/technicalservi...oice=Downloads

Grab your .bin and continue.

2. Get pxupdate

Pxupdate is part of cdrecord- but not bundled with it. The newest version for linux can be gotten here:

ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/cdrecord/fi...6-pc-linux-gnu

The versions may or may not change in the future, so just download it from the root directory if this link dies.

As a convenience, you can do a 'mv pxupdate-1.39-i686-pc-linux-gnu pxupdate'. Then do a:

chown root pxupdate
chgrp root pxupdate
cp pxupdate /usr/sbin

This will allow your system to have easy access to upgrade your firmware as it become available.

3. Make sure cdrecord is installed. It's still commonly available. Run this command as root:

cdrecord dev=ATAPI -scanbus

Make note of the SCSI/ATAPI ID of the drive in which you want to upgrade. The format for the next step is based on the SCSI ID, which follows this example: dev=ATAPI:0,0,0

4. As root, type init 1. This is very important. you do not want system processes running during the firmware upgrade. It's a bad thing(tm).

Go to the directory where your .bin is located, and type:

pxupdate myfirmware.bin dev=ATAPI:X,X,X(where the X=the ID shown for your device)

5. Wait until it completes. Do a 'shutdown -h now'. Power down. Power your machine back up.

Check the firmware revision by re-entering the command: cdrecord dev=ATAPI -scanbus

You should now be good to go with the latest goodness without having to pop your drive into a Winblowz box.

If you have any problems or caveats, please post them and their resolution or lack thereof as a follow-up. I posted this here because it's google'able and I have not found jack squat about Plextor firmware upgrading on modern distro's. Take care.


Thor

Click this link > http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ion=addarticle to add this article to the LinuxQuestions.org Linux Tutorial section so that it becomes a "sticky post" for all to learn from.

Thanks, didn't know that was there. Will do.