rtt

I will definitely update, I think it's worthy to note that for any unproven controller that sas2flash MUST be tested/run first to make sure it detects the card. I also recommend either way not using MegaRec, many have flashed different cards without wiping the BIOS by just using sas2flash. I believe it may be possible to use megacli alone but no one has documented the -fwtype option to clarify if/how to also flash BIOS. MegaCli -AdpFwFlash -f filename [-NoSigChk] [-NoVerChk] [-FWTYPE n] -aN|-a0,1,2|-aALL

My apologies but I was referring to this thread: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=12767.0 Perhaps my comments should all be moved there if a mod is watching. I want to use HBA in IT mode for unRAID. I will try the SAS 6ir because it apparently supports JBOD out of the box and is confirmed to flash successfully with LSi BIOS+firmware. I prefer similar cards with the SFF-8484 cables because I have a backplane that uses it on the server I have (Dell FS-12 with 12-bays).

I'll keep checking back here hoping for a solution but my plan is to just buy some Dell SAS 6ir(s) because I've read they support JBOD standard and have read in many places that they work with sas2flash. I think it would be great to warn others by adding to the OP that this will brick your Perc 6/i (until further notice) and consider that maybe sas2flash/sas2flsh should be run first to verify the procedure is possible for any card (eg. otherwise if megarec wipes your BIOS and sas2flash does not support your card you are permanently bricked).

Here's what megarec gives me (the same one that was happy to wipe the card lol): http://realtechtalk.com/Dell_Perc_6i_Restore_BIOSBricked_Solution_Guide_Howto-1420-articles

Hey Fireball Yes at first I did not, but the mistakes I made are not related to this issue, and I am very familiar now lol. I did actually follow the instructions correctly even though I was using the wrong firmware. The reason the instructions are not an issue is because I was never able to flash a new BIOS or firmware, after megarec wiped the BIOS it was game over because only then did I realize that sas2flash does not support Perc 6/i . It's too bad the tools and instructions don't first verify that sas2flash works, otherwise you're right the card and any card which does not support sas2flash will be bricked AFAIK. The sas2flash tool simply is not compatible with the Perc 6/i as mentioned earlier with error messages showing it is not detected (I tried every version included with the download and others linked from this thread). Yes I understand you don't need a BIOS to flash the card with sas2flash (I tried many different versions of it in DOS and Linux) but I was referring to MegaCli which would technically allow me to flash my firmware back, but it depends on the card being detected (MegaCli cannot detect this card after the BIOS is wipe, it does detect my second remaining alive Perc 6/i of course). The issue is that sas2flash cannot detect the card even with the -o flags and everything else in the manual so there's no way that I can figure out to get the card working again. Even megarec will not recognize the card anymore despite being able to wipe the BIOS. Do you have any ideas on a possible solution? Thanks so much everyone.

No tools detect the card unless there's a special Dell BIOS restore/update tool that most don't know about? Because there is no BIOS you can't flash any firmware, unless you use sas2flash or megarec AFAIK but none of those will detect the card anymore. This is the issue, if I can just flash the BIOS back I can at least restore the firmware and get the card working.

I did actually but unfortunately it's not related to my issue. My main issue now is that I want the card working but the BIOS was wiped and it is not detected by the system at all (not even with lspci). megarec wiped out my BIOS and then in the later steps I realized sas2flash does not support my card so this is my dilemma (I can't find a way to flash any BIOS). Does anyone have a solution when sas2flash does not work on a Dell Perc 6/i? Thanks everyone

Just to update I was able to fix 1 of my Perc 6/i cards (the one that didn't have the BIOS erased by megarec). I was able to just flash back an official Dell firmware and get it working as before (of course no JBOD even with the MegaCli enabled for it it won't change the state of any disk to JBOD). I need a way to use MegaCli or sas2flash to forcefully flash the SAS address of the dead card (with no BIOS). But it seems all versions of sas2flash are not compatible with my Perc 6/i. Does anyone have a solution to force flash a ROM back to this dead card based on the SAS Address? sas2flash in Linux and in DOS (I've tried every version I could find) always says this: LSI Corporation SAS2 Flash Utility Version 9.00.00.00 (2011.02.17) Copyright © 2008-2011 LSI Corporation. All rights reserved No LSI SAS adapters found! Limited Command Set Available! Finished Processing Commands Successfully. Exiting SAS2Flash.

I'm having some real issues with a Dell Perc 6/i (based on 1078 chipset) and would really appreciate any help. 1.) I first made the mistake of flashing firmware from LSi and it broke the Dell Perc 6i BIOS (no more Ctrl+R and no more booting or posting most of the time): 2.) I used the wrong SAS2008 P11 drivers from here and it wiped the BIOS and the card is no longer detected in any OS. I'm more so interested in this because of all the time I've wasted so far. I would be very grateful or any tips or solutions on how to proceed to get these cards working even if just as a Dell Perc 6i with JBOD preferably (MegaCli cannot enable JBOD on any of the drives). I have tried to use MegaRAID to flash back Dell firmware but neither that or Dell's works: /SAS-RAID_Firmware_W83M2_LN32_6.3.1-0003_A14.BIN Collecting inventory... ....... Running validation... This Update Package is not compatible with your system configuration. MegaCli64 -adpfwflash -f FW1371iI.rom -NoSigChk -NoVerChk -a0 Adapter 0: PERC 6/i Adapter Vendor ID: 0x1000, Device ID: 0x0060 Download Completed. Flashing image to adapter... Firmware Failed to FLASH flash. Stop!!! FW error description: The requested command cannot be completed as the image is corrupted. Exit Code: 0x13 ================ MegaCli64 -adpfwflash -f mr1078fw.rom -a1 Adapter 1: PERC 6/i Adapter Vendor ID: 0x1000, Device ID: 0x0060 Package version on the controller: 6.2.0-0013 Package version of the image file: 11.0.1-0048 Download Completed. Flashing image to adapter... Adapter 1: Flash Completed. Please reboot the system for the changes to take effect ============ Release date: 06/18/12 ====================== Supported Controllers: ====================== MegaRAID SAS 8704ELP MegaRAID SAS 8704EM2 MegaRAID SAS 8708ELP MegaRAID SAS 8708EM2 MegaRAID SAS 8880EM2 MegaRAID SAS 8888ELP