After reading many of the posts on this filament unload problem, of which I also have, My conclusion is that they indeed crippled our 1.0 machines with that 1.2.4 firmware.  I have been going back and forth with XYZ support for a couple of weeks now and it appears that no one there really knows what's going on.  It's as though they really haven't even operated a 3D printer before.  In any case, I downloaded the 1.2.34.8 XYZware hotfix which updated the firmware to 1.2.5 and the only thing that did on my machine is to turn on the extruder stepper motor when the hot head gets to 135C.  At 1.2.4 the head would heat to 135C and do nothing; the motor would not even come on.  When I repeatedly told them that the head had to at least come up to 205C in order to load or unload filament it was like I was speaking a foreign language... The last post I got from them is that they wanted me to send the printer back to them for repair.  Anyone know how I can put my machine back to the 1.2.3 firmware, which was working just fine...???

If it is a 1.0 machine you can update it using bossac and a command line. You just need the bin file of the older version firmware. There was a post here or on voltivo that had a link to a repository somebody made with all the version of firmware.

http://voltivo.com/forum/davinci-softwa … repository

In the "old days" you could download firmware independently of XYZware. That is no longer the case, and it would appear that as of now, and in future, XYZ will take care of updating the firmware. Currently they list 1.1.34.7 (win) and 1.1.1 (mac) which will set your firmware to 1.2.4 ... which has a serious bug that prevents unloading fliament), 1.1.34.8 (win) and 1.2 (mac) which will reset your firmware to 1.2.3
There has been no improvements of consequence for printing since 1.1.J (and some would argue no improvements since the initial release). The only changes to the firmware appear to be the addition of additional measures to prevent you from using 3rd party filament and direct control of the printer with 3rd party apps like Simply3d.
You can use 1.2.3 and (with the aid of a resetter) continue to use 3rd party filaments provided you use either windows firewall or Little Snitch (on the mac) to prevent XYZware from communicating with the XYZ servers.
I predict future versions of the firmware will not print without XYZware being allowed to communicate with the XYZ servers, making internet access a requirement for printing anything. I may be wrong, but that would appear to be the way XYZ is going.

I would not be surprised if the make the working portion of their software and maybe even firmware cloud based. With the printer you get a client that you install. That client will then down load the working portion of the software and the firmware. Once you are done printing the software is deleted and the firmware is erased. I mean MS does it wit Office Starter. You can't use it without internet access and many other companies are taking that route as well. Gives them better control of how and when the software is used.