I pulled down and tried out the latest beta (Linux) firmware updater here today, on the drive inside my netbook. Worked fine.

I also discovered an interesting workaround, that might be useful to others. Normally, the BIOS in this Samsung netbook issues a "security freeze" command before booting. This prevents any further attempts to use the security "feature set", as well as any attempts to modify the firmware.

Why? Well.. as yet another security layer against MS-Win viruses and the like (thank you Mr.Gates.. not!). Note that this machine has never run anything other than Linux here.

This also prevents the firmware updater (Linux, Windows, whatever) from working until the drive is power-cycled, which is a problem in a machine like this one which requires complete disassembly to remove the drive.

But.. they didn't get the BIOS quite correct. After a suspend (to-RAM) and subsequent resume, the drive is "unfrozen" again, permitting the update without having to crack the case open.

Hurray for buggy BIOSs !