Add Samsung SSD firmware post

collections/_posts/2019-10-09-samsung-evo-840-850-firmware-update-on-linux.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title:  "Update firmware of Samsung EVO 840 and 850 SSD drives on Linux"
+date:   2019-10-09 23:06:25 +0200
+categories: ssd, firmware
+---
+
+## Firmware upgrade procedure
+### Samsung EVO 840
+
+For the EVO 840 I downloaded the firmware for Mac, which was an ISO file.
+I mounted the ISO to a local directory, copied out the *.img* file I found,
+then wrote the *.img* file directly to a USB flash drive.
+My USB flash drive specified as */dev/sdx*.
+
+```
+# mount Samsung_SSD_840_EVO_Series_EXT0BB6Q_Mac.iso /mnt
+# dd if=/mnt/isolinux/btdsk.iso of=/dev/sdx
+# sync
+# umount /mnt
+```
+
+Download from <https://www.samsung.com/no/support/model/MZ-7TE500LW/#downloads>.
+
+I rebooted the system and enabled *Legacy USB boot* in my UEFI (BIOS),
+and followed the procedure. At one point, I was asked to power cycle the
+disk before confirming I had done so. I pulled the power plug of the disk
+and put it back in, before I confirmed with `Y`.
+
+### Samsung EVO 850
+
+For the EVO 850, the firmware update ISO can be directly written to a
+USB flash drive.
+
+```
+# dd if=Samsung_SSD_850_EVO_EMT02B6Q_Mac.iso of=/dev/sdx
+# sync
+```
+
+<https://www.samsung.com/no/support/model/MZ-75E250B/EU/#downloads>
+
+## Tools
+
+To check the firmware version of my disks, I use `smartctl` from the
+*smartmontools* package in Arch.
+
+```
+# smartctl /dev/sdb --info
+smartctl 7.0 2018-12-30 r4883 [x86_64-linux-5.3.4-arch1-1-ARCH] (local build)
+Copyright (C) 2002-18, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
+
+=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
+Model Family:     Samsung based SSDs
+Device Model:     Samsung SSD 840 EVO 500GB
+Serial Number:    [redacted]
+LU WWN Device Id: [redacted]
+Firmware Version: EXT0BB6Q
+User Capacity:    500,107,862,016 bytes [500 GB]
+Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
+Rotation Rate:    Solid State Device
+Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
+ATA Version is:   ACS-2, ATA8-ACS T13/1699-D revision 4c
+SATA Version is:  SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
+Local Time is:    Wed Oct  9 23:28:48 2019 CEST
+SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
+SMART support is: Enabled
+```
+
+The above output was taken *after* the upgrade of the EVO 840.
+
+## References
+- <https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/333853/update-firmware-of-samsung-840-pro>
+- <https://www.archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/smartmontools/>