Hardware firmware upgrade

16 réponses [Dernière contribution]
Mr. P
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 03/25/2020

Hi folks!
Honestly I never pose me this question before, and all's my stuff (int./ext./port. disk's, mouse, etc.) work again well, but last one buy seem need it.
This the link: https://www.crucial.com/support/ssd-support/mx500-support
In my case need M3CR033 firmware, than fix tree bug's pointed. First two seem me acceptable like bug's, the third I don't know... What you think about??
Second question. Gnu-Linux (or Linux) is never mentioned in the site, in download options or else; and also stuff like TRIM is "useful" only if you run Microshit, for what I have understood. So, this type of upgrade are really necessary and really useful, if you run a Libre Gnu-Linux distro??

koszkonutek
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 03/19/2020

> This the link: https://www.crucial.com/support/ssd-support/mx500-support
> In my case need M3CR033 firmware, than fix tree bug's pointed. First two seem me acceptable like bug's, the third I don't know... What you think about??

Sorry, your english writing is impossible for me to understand. I am guessing you are considering updating the firmware of your SSD. First and foremost, the firmware is nonfree. There is no SSD with libre firmware in general (there is some project aiming to create SSDs with free firmware but even that relies on nonfree FPGA toolchain). It's a fishy topic because if someone advices you to install the firmware, it will constitute encouraging to install nonfree software, which is against the community guidelines.

Some would consider it irrelevant whether you install that nonfree firmware, because you're already running nonfree firmware on that SSD. However, all firmware update methods seem to require nonfree software to run on the actual computer, which is clearly something we don't want.

The third bug concerns some "secure erase" feature which is about wiping all data from the SSD. It's a bug that won't occur during everyday use and could occur under some circumstances, during maintenance, when you're just wiping the data anyway. Nothing critical.

> Second question. Gnu-Linux (or Linux) is never mentioned in the site, in download options or else;

Apparently they don't support it (at least not officially). That tells us something about the manufacturer...

> and also stuff like TRIM is "useful" only if you run Microshit, for what I have understood.

Why? You can also enable TRIM under free operating systems. And it seems to be a good idea because it helps increase SSD's lifetime.

> So, this type of upgrade are really necessary and really useful, if you run a Libre Gnu-Linux distro??

I would say their usefulness is not generally related to operating system choice (although could be if some partcular bug was only problematic on certain OSes). Still, as a free software user you probably want to avoid such updates, at least because of nonfree update utilities involved

nadebula.1984
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 05/01/2018

I have read the information via the link. The previous version of firmware doesn't cause secure erasing (TRIM) error unless you interrupt it manually. The secure erasing (via "blkdiscard" command) is very fast so you're very unlikely to have a chance to interrupt it. Other fixes are basically irrelevant to most users, so you can safely forget the firmware upgrade.

Mr. P
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 03/25/2020

Yes I know, my English is great! :-):-):-) Few word's and wrong grammatic, sorry. Double thanks for your answers guys!!

I agree with Koszkonutek about firmware an all the rest of the reasoning, but like you say I already running nonfree firmware in my hardware (unfortunately like every person in this world), so nothing change from now.
About update methods maybe you wrong. I have open iso whit Engrampa, inside there is Tiny Core Linux (GPLv2) probably (I'm not sure) used for the installation from a bottable device. I don't know if is possible modify iso file, but however I'm not able to do it, so it's not an option for me.
I spoke of TRIM only like an example of not useful software: "...It’s important to note that solid state drives do not need defragmenting, the TRIM command is similar in effect to defragmenting." (https://www.crucial.com/articles/about-ssd/how-to-format-a-solid-state-drive). Need only if you run Microshit because OS fail in system defragmenting, and not only there....have many tricks to kill fast hardware and software.

About bug's, first's two sound me well like possibles bug's of a bran new product. I have read on web some SysAdmin post's about the first bug, that cause many big problems in server systems whit this hardware. So I suppose this two are useful for all the user's, Gnu-Linux or not, and (I hope) not particularly dangerous. But maybe, like Nadebula say are not really useful for all, or however not in my case. (When you speech of previous version intend M3CR032 firmware, correct?)
The third don't sound me well like others, because DMA is a little word for a BIG world... For what I know "touching" DMA's can solve but also produce a lot of problems, and SSD don't seem have any problem now. The upgrade info are not so much clear for me to stay quiet, because like you know we always speech of proprietary software.
Maybe I wrong, but seem me a trap in Microshit style. Security upgrade that maybe fix some bugs, but can also insert a time bomb or others similar shit. I don't know probably I'm just paranoid :-) , but is so "easy" to do, and they have already used strategy like these.
I have downloaded iso file, but for now don't install it.

nadebula.1984
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 05/01/2018

TRIM is even more important under GNU/Linux. With TRIM (via blkdiscard command) one could erase data stored on SSDs or SD/TF cards unrecoverably and very quickly. It's considered an important security feature. By contrast, zero filling is laughably inefficient and causes massive damage (wearing) to SSD or flash memory card.

lanun
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 04/01/2021

I have a feeling that sticking to my old but still alive and kicking HDD might not be a bad idea, after all.

Had been thinking replacing it with an SSD, because of noise, speed and power consumption, but it might not be worth the price if it is so much prone to wearing through formatting.

nadebula.1984
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 05/01/2018

If your computer can hold two hard disks, one SSD (either NVMe, M.2 SATA, mSATA or SATA) plus one HDD is strongly recommended.

Here's a weird thing: SSDs are becoming cheaper than HDDs in our local dark market. For certain unknown reason, HDDs are in short supply, so their prices soared. For example, I just purchased a 500-GB CMR HDD for more than $30, which is slightly more than a low-end 480-GB SSD. Rumor has that there is another "mining fever", not bitcoin, but some other cryptocurrency(ies), whose mining processes consume huge amount of disk space.

lanun
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 04/01/2021

Thank you for the advice. I guess the system is supposed to be on the SSD while the HDD is used for personal files in /home.

> there is another "mining fever"

We should kill those cryptos before they kill us. They are giving a bad name to the blockchain, while this is in fact a problem of the mining process. Going to Mars will not solve it, although sending some selected people to Mars might solve a few problems.

There are blockchain based currencies that do not create mining fever, however, like the one studied here: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1911.10792.pdf.

lanun
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 04/01/2021

> the system is supposed to be on the SSD while the HDD is used for personal files in /home.

It appears I have more reading to do, opinions on that topic seem to be as diverse as salvia species.

andyprough
En ligne
A rejoint: 02/12/2015

> Rumor has that there is another "mining fever", not bitcoin, but some other cryptocurrency(ies), whose mining processes consume huge amount of disk space.

Yeah, it's called "Chia" - it's apparently going to be big.

lanun
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 04/01/2021

> it's apparently going to be big.

Agreed. Big bubble, big flop, big destruction of resources. Big time.

Time might have come to announce the launching of our new cryptocurrency, based on proof-of-thought. Very rare, very valuable.

nadebula.1984
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 05/01/2018

I wish those miners bankrupt at earliest possible time, so I could overtake their HDDs at much lower prices.

When they bankrupt, they'd necessarily try to monetize any assets in order to avoid starving. I already harvested many pieces of hardware used in bitcoin mining fad just a few years before.

nadebula.1984
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 05/01/2018

That Chinese miners have been hoarding HDDs has been reported by Wikipedia. (I asked someone outside China to search keywords "cryptocurrency", "hard disk", and "China" on Wikipedia, and got this.)

andyprough
En ligne
A rejoint: 02/12/2015

Yes, I've heard that hard drives are going to become like graphics cards and the crypto miners are going to create scarcity and drive up prices, due to the Chia coin.

Mr. P
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 03/25/2020

Thanks for command. It's always good learning something new, and I use it for a more deep search. I have also discovered that a TRIM weekly auto run, is enable by default in Trisquel system conf.
But however, when speech about SSD and defragmenting every source say the same: "SSD don't need defragmenting". Do you know why?? Defrag. and TRIM are really similar methods??

>About crypto:
Do you have read Euro-Bearer-Online?? (I have not read all Ianun link, but probably this value have the same problems.) I don't know why we lost time whit cryptoshit. At last, there are not a really secure way to have the complete control of your money and your privacy. IMHO the part about «reputation or credit score» is only a small part of a very dangerous issue, because for they is a leverage too big to lose. It's like a pass-partout for all what they wanna do. In this way, don't need again laws/diplomacy to "force" peoples/Nations to do or not this or these thing. This system is more easy, fast, and produce a much certain results. On plus can also by-passing every State/Govern democratic process without any problems, because is a structure that work all over the parts.
I hate cryptoshit, is like give value at Monopoly's(the game) fake money.

nadebula.1984
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 05/01/2018

Because the track seeking time of SSDs is negligible, fragmentation doesn't result in lower performance. And defragmentation causes massive damage to SSDs while achieves nothing.

TRIMing is to reset all sectors quickly and securely, and also restores writing performance of certain SSDs after a period of use. It causes far less damage to zero filling.

Mr. P
Hors ligne
A rejoint: 03/25/2020

Ok, (maybe...) I understood. :-):-) Explained in this way have much more sense. Thank's a lot!!
So for instance, don't need use programs like BleachBit with defrag. option active on a SSD, because this option is dangerous for it life time. If I want clean the SSD need only execute blkdiscard command, directly on terminal. But in our case this action isn't usually necessary, because T is setup by default for a periodically auto run to clean the system.
Always correct???