openSeaChest v26.03.0 Release Notes

Major New Features

Calendar Versioning (CalVer)

Utilities now use calendar versioning synchronized with library releases and unified package versioning. This aligns the utility version with the released package containing all tools, simplifying version tracking and release coordination for both developers and users.

JSON Output Support

Added JSON output support for device information (-i), diagnostics reporting (--scan, --showDSTLog, --smartAttributes, --deviceStatistics, --showSCSIDefects, --showFARM), and CDL settings. More options coming in future releases.

Bug Fixes & Improvements

• Fixed possible bug opening drive handle in Linux when scanning /sys for low-level file information like PCI/USB vendor ID, driver information, etc
• Fixed issue with NVMe set features command in Windows that could affect some feature configuration operations
• Improved USB device compatibility, particularly with older USB adapter chipsets
• Fixed CISS RAID scanning and device handling
• Fixed potential crash when displaying ATA SMART error logs with unclassifiable error codes
• Fixed possible memory reading issue in certain diagnostic output where string parsing could read beyond the intended string boundary
• Improved automatic UDS pull method selection to minimize the need for manual --udsMode option when retrieving UDS data
• Improved SCSI defect list reporting accuracy
• Improved text output speed (convert from printf() for everything to a print_str() which is similar to puts() in std C)
• More changes to --setSectorSize to add more possible recovery methods when interrupted by hard-coding Seagate's descriptor codes on SATA drives.
• Moved MBR erase in --setSectorSize to after the change to try and further reduce the chance of the OS, HBA, driver, or anything below the software layer introducing a reset on the bus during this operation to minimize the chance the drive may become unusable.
• MBR erase in --setSectorSize is now attempted with the ATA Write Zeros command or the SCT Write same feature before a "normal" write command to see if this can bypass whatever seems to monitor the disk for changes to the boot table (MBR/GPT).

Expanded Platform Support

New OS Support (Via CI builds)

DragonFlyBSD, FreeBSD (15.0, 14.3, 13.5), NetBSD, OpenBSD, OmniOS, and Solaris/Illumos now fully supported with automated testing.

Quality & Reliability

✅ Reproducible Builds Certified: Full compliance with reproducible-builds.org standards and setting the build timestamp

Documentation & Resources

Enhanced project wiki with expanded guides, detailed usage examples, and comprehensive feature documentation. We encourage users to check out the wiki for in-depth information on all utilities and their capabilities.