SeaChest_Firmware error: Cannot open file EvansBPExosX18SATA-STD-512E-SN06.LOD

[serpro69]

Problem

I'm trying to update firmware on ST18000NM000J-2TV103 drives from SN05 to SN06 with the following steps:

1. Downloaded firmware zip from https://apps1.seagate.com/downloads/request.html using the serial number of the drive
2. scp'd it to the linux box where the drives are installed
3. Unzip, make the ./SeaChest_Firmware_linux_x86_64 executable
4. Run ./SeaChest_Firmware_linux_x86_64 --scan

root@yggdrasil:/tmp/tmp.PLvDRyb8EY/firmware# ./SeaChest_Firmware_linux_x86_64 --scan
==========================================================================================
 SeaChest_Firmware - Seagate drive utilities - NVMe Enabled
 Copyright (c) 2014-2024 Seagate Technology LLC and/or its Affiliates, All Rights Reserved
 SeaChest_Firmware Version: 4.2.0-8_0_1 X86_64
 Build Date: Sep 26 2024
 Today: 20250921T143857 User: root
==========================================================================================
Vendor   Handle       Model Number            Serial Number          FwRev
ATA      /dev/sg0     ST18000NM000J-2TV103    xxx               SN05
ATA      /dev/sg1     ST18000NM000J-2TV103    xxx               SN05
ATA      /dev/sg2     ST18000NM000J-2TV103    xxx               SN05
ATA      /dev/sg3     ST18000NM000J-2TV103    xxx               SN05

5. Try dryRun:

root@yggdrasil:/tmp/tmp.PLvDRyb8EY/firmware# ./SeaChest_Firmware_linux_x86_64 -d /dev/sg0 --downloadFW EvansBPExosX18SATA-STD-512E-SN06.LOD --fwdlDryRun
==========================================================================================
 SeaChest_Firmware - Seagate drive utilities - NVMe Enabled
 Copyright (c) 2014-2024 Seagate Technology LLC and/or its Affiliates, All Rights Reserved
 SeaChest_Firmware Version: 4.2.0-8_0_1 X86_64
 Build Date: Sep 26 2024
 Today: 20250921T143952 User: root
==========================================================================================

/dev/sg0 - ST18000NM000J-2TV103 - xxx - SN05 - ATA
A firmware update is available for this device. FW File: EvansBPExosX18SATA-STD-512E-SN06.LOD

6. Try to download the firmware to the drive:

root@yggdrasil:/tmp/tmp.PLvDRyb8EY/firmware# ./SeaChest_Firmware_linux_x86_64 -d /dev/sg0 --downloadFW EvansBPExosX18SATA-STD-512E-SN06.LOD
==========================================================================================
 SeaChest_Firmware - Seagate drive utilities - NVMe Enabled
 Copyright (c) 2014-2024 Seagate Technology LLC and/or its Affiliates, All Rights Reserved
 SeaChest_Firmware Version: 4.2.0-8_0_1 X86_64
 Build Date: Sep 26 2024
 Today: 20250921T144102 User: root
==========================================================================================

/dev/sg0 - ST18000NM000J-2TV103 - xxx - SN05 - ATA
Couldn't open file EvansBPExosX18SATA-STD-512E-SN06.LOD

7. Try via --fwdlConfig option:

root@yggdrasil:/tmp/tmp.PLvDRyb8EY/firmware# ./SeaChest_Firmware_linux_x86_64 -d /dev/sg0 --fwdlConfig ENBP-SN06.json
==========================================================================================
 SeaChest_Firmware - Seagate drive utilities - NVMe Enabled
 Copyright (c) 2014-2024 Seagate Technology LLC and/or its Affiliates, All Rights Reserved
 SeaChest_Firmware Version: 4.2.0-8_0_1 X86_64
 Build Date: Sep 26 2024
 Today: 20250921T144140 User: root
==========================================================================================

/dev/sg0 - ST18000NM000J-2TV103 - ZR53Z7Z4 - SN05 - ATA
Cannot open file
File in "File" key in config file cannot be opened.

8. Check sha256 of the LOD file:

root@yggdrasil:/tmp/tmp.PLvDRyb8EY/firmware# cat ENBP-SN06.json | grep "$(sha256sum EvansBPExosX18SATA-STD-512E-SN06.LOD | cut -d ' ' -f1 | xargs | tr '[:lower:]' '[:upper:]')"
                "File SHA256": "AEF9C703F5A0FD0C200296431030215699080604E536874BACF3147F1A39106E"
                "File SHA256": "AEF9C703F5A0FD0C200296431030215699080604E536874BACF3147F1A39106E"

9. Try the same with --calculateFileHash:

root@yggdrasil:/tmp/tmp.PLvDRyb8EY/firmware# ./SeaChest_Firmware_linux_x86_64 --calculateFileHash EvansBPExosX18SATA-STD-512E-SN06.LOD
==========================================================================================
 SeaChest_Firmware - Seagate drive utilities - NVMe Enabled
 Copyright (c) 2014-2024 Seagate Technology LLC and/or its Affiliates, All Rights Reserved
 SeaChest_Firmware Version: 4.2.0-8_0_1 X86_64
 Build Date: Sep 26 2024
 Today: 20250921T144438 User: root
==========================================================================================
Cannot open file EvansBPExosX18SATA-STD-512E-SN06.LOD

root@yggdrasil:/tmp/tmp.PLvDRyb8EY/firmware# ./SeaChest_Firmware_linux_x86_64 --calculateFileHash SeaChest_Firmware_linux_x86_64
==========================================================================================
 SeaChest_Firmware - Seagate drive utilities - NVMe Enabled
 Copyright (c) 2014-2024 Seagate Technology LLC and/or its Affiliates, All Rights Reserved
 SeaChest_Firmware Version: 4.2.0-8_0_1 X86_64
 Build Date: Sep 26 2024
 Today: 20250921T144438 User: root
==========================================================================================
Cannot open file SeaChest_Firmware_linux_x86_64

So basically the SeaChest_Firmware fails to open any file.

I don't know if this is the correct place to report this, or whether the problem is with the SeaChest_Firmware or with the LOD file, but since the former is at least in this repo, I thought I'd report it here.

Expected behavior

Should update firmware w/o errors

How to reproduce

See above description

Deployment information

Linux yggdrasil 6.12.43+deb13-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.12.43-1 (2025-08-27) x86_64 GNU/Linux

Additional information

The same thing worked when I was updating to SN05, so it's clearly something wrong with the tools or the LOD

[serpro69]

UPD: just tried the SeaChest_Firmware from SeaChestUtilities , and this one seems to work. So it seems like the SeaChest_Firmware that's distributed with the firmware is an issue. Not sure if you want to close this or do something about it.

root@yggdrasil:~/SeaChestUtilities/Linux/Non-RAID/x86_64# ./SeaChest_Firmware_linux_x86_64 -d /dev/sg3 --downloadFW firmware/EvansBPExosX18SATA-STD-512E-SN06.LOD
==========================================================================================
 SeaChest_Firmware - Seagate drive utilities - NVMe Enabled
 Copyright (c) 2014-2025 Seagate Technology LLC and/or its Affiliates, All Rights Reserved
 SeaChest_Firmware Version: 4.3.2 X86_64
 Build Date: Jul 30 2025
 Today: 20250921T150343 User: root
==========================================================================================

/dev/sg3 - ST18000NM000J-2TV103 - xxx - SN05 - ATA
......
Firmware Download successful
Firmware Download time (s): 6.28
Average time/segment  (ms): 54.46
Activate Time          (s): 4.47
New firmware version is SN06

[vonericsen]

Hi @serpro69,

Thank you for reporting this!
I'll see if I can submit a request to rebuild this package with the updated version of SeaChest_Firmware.