freemkv

freemkv-flash

Beta
Latest releasev0.13.3
October 20, 2026
Changelog

A generic optical-drive flasher and backup tool. Not freemkv-specific.
It flashes and backs up any drive firmware image, for any purpose.
Works with MediaTek and Pioneer.

  1. 1InfoIdentify the drive.
  2. 2BackupSave the stock firmware.
  3. 3FlashWrite and verify.
  4. 4RecoveryAttempt firmware recovery.

Open the downloaded TAR directly. Flash applies an included intermediate update before the final firmware. A BIN flashes only that image. Recovery writes only the member you select.

# 1. Identify the drive first — MediaTek or Pioneer, read-only
$ freemkv-flash info <dev>

# 2. Back up before touching anything — saves the drive's firmware to a .tar
$ freemkv-flash backup <dev> -o backup.tar

# 3. Eject any disc, then flash (irreversible). Drop --execute to only print the plan;
#    it takes its own pre-flash backup first and reads back to verify
$ freemkv-flash flash <dev> -i BU40N_1.00.freemkv.tar --execute --i-understand-risk

Info and Backup are safe on any drive

Info and Backup only read from the drive, so they are safe to run on any drive.
Flash has been tested on a range of MediaTek and Pioneer drives, but use it at your own risk: we are not responsible for any drive bricked by this software.

macOS

HomebrewApple Silicon or Intel

brew install freemkv/tap/freemkv-flash-gui

Installs the app and the command line (or brew install freemkv/tap/freemkv-flash for the command line only). Not notarized, so macOS installs go through Homebrew only.

Linux

APTUbuntu 24.04+, Mint 22, Debian 13 · recommended

curl -fsSL https://freemkv.org/apt/freemkv.gpg | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/freemkv.gpg >/dev/null echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/freemkv.gpg] https://freemkv.org/apt stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/freemkv.list sudo apt update && sudo apt install freemkv-flash-gui

freemkv-flash-gui is the app plus the command line; freemkv-flash is the command line only.

DNFFedora 40+

sudo curl -fsSL -o /etc/yum.repos.d/freemkv.repo https://freemkv.org/rpm/freemkv.repo sudo dnf install freemkv-flash-gui

pacmanArch Linux

curl -fsSL https://freemkv.org/arch/freemkv.asc | sudo pacman-key --add - sudo pacman-key --lsign-key 3C77286840178C3512276AC49030E403F8320C5D printf '\n[freemkv]\nServer = https://freemkv.org/arch/$arch\n' | sudo tee -a /etc/pacman.conf sudo pacman -Syu freemkv-flash-gui

Download

Download .debApp + CLI · x86_64Download ARM64 .debApp + CLI · aarch64Download AppImagePortable app + CLI · x86_64Download ARM64 AppImagePortable app + CLI · aarch64Download CLIStatic binary · x86_64, any distroDownload CLI ARM64Static binary · aarch64Download CLI ARMv7Static binary · Raspberry Pi OS 32-bit

Setup, drive access and older distros: Linux guide.

All releases on GitHub →View on GitHub →