LSI Controller FW updates IR/IT modes

[GurKeSaLaT]

8 minutes ago, johnnie.black said:

Not AFAIK, unless it has some model or part number.

Maybe you can help me with that. The tape on the left side was wraped arround the cable.

The Text says:

MOLEX

79576-3002

MADE IN CHINA

07/13

[JorgeB]

1 minute ago, GurKeSaLaT said:

Maybe you can help me with that. The tape on the left side was wraped arround the cable.

According to google it's reverse breakout, the wrong cable:

 

Quote

Note: This is a crossover cable, not the usual straight-through cable. The 4 x 7-pin connectors are to be connected to controller (host). The miniSAS connector is to be connected to backplane (target).

 

[GurKeSaLaT]

1 minute ago, johnnie.black said:

According to google it's reverse breakout, the wrong cable:

 

 

Thank you, I ordered a new cable and will report back in a few days. 

[fatalfurry]

I'm not sure if I've bricked my Dell H310

 

Going through the process I've gotten to step 3 and received an error code 64.

 

I continued to the next step and tried to flash the dell firmware but that also threw an error.

 

 

I've tried going through all of the steps again and nothing seems to be working. I've tried two computers and using BIOS and UEFI scripts. All of which are return the same results above. 

 

What can i do going forward? Do you think I've bricked my HBA? 

[fatalfurry]

On 4/14/2018 at 11:13 PM, Fulcrum77 said:

First, a little background.  I have an old Gigabyte motherboard that only supports Sata II and PCIE 2.0.  I just picked up a new Samsung EVO 1TB SSD.  I was trying to buy a SATA III PCIE card to upgrade the machine but most of the ones I found were only PCIE x1 or x2 and didn't seem to support the full bandwidth of 6Gbps SATA III at PCIE 2.0 speeds.  I saw several people making suggestions of picking up a Dell H310 and flashing it to an LSI 9211 IT mode for this purpose.  So, I picked up a used board on eBay and attempted to flash it this evening and I am concerned that I may have bricked the card!  I'm not sure if this was the best course of action but I invested less then $30 in the card with the included cable. 

 

I am planning on solely using this in Windows 10 as an interface for the Samsung SSD.  I realize that this forum is generally for unRAID stuff but my difficulty seems to be in the flashing part of the adventure and you kind people seem to be the most knowledgeable on this topic!

 

I originally started following this guide:

 

https://tylermade.net/2017/06/27/how-to-crossflash-perc-h310-to-it-mode-lsi-9211-8i-firmware-hba-for-freenas-unraid/

 

I got my SAS address with no problem.

 

I then executed "megarec.exe -writesbr 0 sbrempty.bin" and it returned a Success!  The way the guide was worded I assumed since the command succeeded I could skip the step of "megarec.exe -cleanflash 0", so I rebooted the system.  No RAID BIOS loaded and I just booted straight to the USB drive.

 

When I execute the "sas2flsh.exe -o -f 6GBPSAS.fw" I get an error of:

 

Chip is in RESET state.  Attempting Host Boot...

ERROR: Firmware Host Boot Failed !

Due to error remaining commands will not be executed.

Unable to Process Commands.

Exiting SAS2Flash.

 

I went back and executed "megarec.exe -cleanflash 0" but that has not helped the problem.

 

The little green light on the card is still flashing.

 

I then did some searching on this error and found these forums and your awesome batch files for accomplishing the flash.  I wish I had found these first!  When I run your batch files I get the error:

 

Controller is not operational.  A firmware download is required.  Enter firmware file name or quit to exit:

 

So I enter the path back to the 6GBPSAS.fw that I had previously and it gives the error:

 

Beginning Firmware Download:

Firmware Download Failed!

 

At this point I am not sure which direction I need to go.  Is this correctable?

 

Also, are my expectations for this project even attainable?  Will this card (assuming I get it to work) give me full 6Gbps SATA III for the Samsung SSD in the Windows environment.  Are there any other possibly better options out there?  Thanks in advance for any input or insights into my situation.

 

 

 

On 4/15/2018 at 7:35 AM, nthu9280 said:

The card is not bricked. While the instructions you linked are detailed, it fails to explicitly say to use the older version of SAS2FLSH tool for the first time.

You will need SAS2FLSH version (phase) 14 or below for flashing 6gbp SAS FW. Then you can flash the IT mode FW.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
 

 

On 4/15/2018 at 11:40 AM, Fulcrum77 said:

 

I tried the P07 version of SAS2FLSH and while it did recognize the version number of the chip (B2) it still gave me an error.  Here is a screen of the issue with the command that I used at the bottom:

 

What am I missing?  Thanks.

 

On 4/15/2018 at 12:47 PM, nthu9280 said:

Try the P14 version.
Also, copy the FW file in the same directory as the sas2flsh. Not sure if that makes a difference. But just to rule out the quirks.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
 

 

On 4/15/2018 at 2:05 PM, Fulcrum77 said:

OK.  I got the P14 version of SAS2FLSH and it just hangs when attempting host boot.  It has been like this for about 30 minutes.  I'm assuming it will wait forever!  Any other ideas?  Thanks again.  I really appreciate the effort.

 

 

On 4/15/2018 at 4:48 PM, nthu9280 said:

It can be frustrating at time and I've gone thru' this pain. Try the following sequence. Someone had reported success with writing empty sbr after cleanflash. The standard sequence is before. Also check the syntax for my steps. I'm typing this on mobile from my memory.


Try starting over:
1. megarec -cleanflash 0
2. Megarec writesbr sbrempty.bin
3. Reboot
4. Sas2flsh-p14 (without -o) -f 6gbpsas.fw
5. Reboot
6. Sas2flsh-p20 -f 2118IT.bin
7. Sas2flsh-p20 (sas-add)


Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
 

 

On 4/15/2018 at 11:25 PM, Fulcrum77 said:

 

SUCCESS!!  I'm not sure what exactly did it this time because I had tried the -cleanflash previously several times and it always gave an error.  But, this time I did it first and, it actually completed.  Then -writesbr also completed and it allowed me to continue to flash the firmware!  Go figure.  Maybe it was the several reboots in between this time around?

 

Thanks nthu9280 for all of the help.  It is greatly appreciated!  It is now working extremely well in Windows 10 with the Samsung 860 Evo 1TB SSD.  I was getting 528 MB/s Write and 571 MB/s Read transfer rates.  I am definitely happy with that.  It was actually faster then my test machine's (Dell Optiplex 7010) internal SATA III ports with a Samsung 850 Evo 250GB SSD.

 

I did install the BIOS as I need to use it as my boot card on my older machine that I am moving it too.  I originally didn't install the BIOS on the card and it wasn't selectable as a boot device.  It works great now.  Here are some screens.  Thanks again!

 

 

Doing more research looks like fulcrum77 had the same issue back in April. I follow the same directions finding Sas2flsh P14 and trying to flash any of the three firmware (Dell, P7, P20) and nothing has been working. I still see a light blinking on the HBA so I'm thinking there's still a chance. 

[Fireball3]

There are several different issues in your collection of posts.

Your particular issue is that the flash erase is erroring for whatever reason - I have never seen such.

May be an issue with the card? Don't know!

You can repeat that a couple of times and see if it succeeds anyhow.

 

Another way is to uses sas2flsh, given it's working.

sas2flsh.exe -o -e 6

But the script should use sas2flsh first and fall back to megarec if it's not working...

 

I'm not sure if you use the batch files, as your screenshot shows you typed the megarec command manually!?

The batch executes the

megaRec -writesbr 0 empty.bin

prior to the -cleanflash command.

 

If the firmware host boot is failing, you can reboot your machine. This will also boot the card.

 

Once the erase is done, you must use the Dell IT firmware!

Then the P7 and finally P20.

Edited November 30, 2018 by Fireball3

[fatalfurry]

At first I used the batch files and after they didn't work. I ran the commands manually. 

 

To give an update on my issue. I ended up getting everything working. I recreated the USB boot disk and used another PC. This combination worked right away and has worked all weekend. 

[Garik]

Hi all. I have some problem with my LSI 9211-8i (Flash IT/IR 20 firmware).

My hardware: Dell R620, H310 full pci-e (flash IT P20 firmware), 10 disks 1 TB sata Patriot.

All disk connected to sas expander. Controller found all 10 disk, in Centos 7.5 see all disks, all works

But vmware esxi 6.5 and 5.5 see only one disk, in /dev/disks/ only one disk and boot usb. Vmware use mpt2sas driver version 19.

Can you help me?

[uldise]

12 hours ago, Garik said:

Hi all. I have some problem with my LSI 9211-8i (Flash IT/IR 20 firmware).

My hardware: Dell R620, H310 full pci-e (flash IT P20 firmware), 10 disks 1 TB sata Patriot.

All disk connected to sas expander. Controller found all 10 disk, in Centos 7.5 see all disks, all works

But vmware esxi 6.5 and 5.5 see only one disk, in /dev/disks/ only one disk and boot usb. Vmware use mpt2sas driver version 19.

Can you help me?

have you pass-through your H310 to unRAID VM?

[pepar]

“VMWare” ...

[thespooler]

On 8/21/2013 at 8:59 AM, Fireball3 said:

Update on 17.04.2017, v4 <--- this is the latest, use this one!

Firmware is still P20.00.07.00

Corrections for EFI environment. Untested due to missing hardware.

Post your experience in the forum.

https://www.mediafire.com/?py9c1w5u56xytw2

 

 

If you're still interested in maintaining this, there are some corrections you need to do.

 

For the thread:

I also got the "DOS/16M Error: [40]  not enough available extended memory (XMIN)" error.  Pulling a stick did nothing, that still left me with 4GB in the PC.  I couldn't get around this no matter what I tried.  I ultimately had to replaced DOS4GW.EXE with DOS/32A a more recent DOS Extender which didn't have a problem with what I guess is TOO MUCH ram.   I just dumped everything from the extract binw directory into the root of my USB drive and renamed DOS32A.EXE to DOS4GW.EXE and the DOS parts worked.

 

The EFI shell scripts have a few problems, mostly cosmetic:

 

"@echo is off" should be "@echo -off"

"cd..\xxxxxxxxx" should be "cd ..\xxxxxxxxx" <- you need the space after "cd" or it fails.

"echo . sas2flash.efi -l blah blah" <- this confused "echo", it thinks the "-l" is meant for it, which is invalid.  Perhaps wrapping the echo with quotes would make that work.

 

Since you were unsure of EFI, I was following along with another blog to verify the commands, and the other blog had a reboot between 5.2 (P7) and 5.3 (P20).  Ultimately I didn't reboot.

 

Step 6 looked sketchy since it wants you to edit it, but doesn't say that until you run it.  Maybe REM the sas2flash.efi line so they have to add the SAS Address and remove the REM.

 

In any case, your part was easy, thanks for doing this, maybe 10 minutes to flash between DOS and EFI Shell.  But getting around the DOS4GW errors took hours.

 

Out of curiosity, I've only hooked up my cache drive to the controller since mine was eBayed and I'll stay like that until the controller earns my confidence.  But has anyone every encountered issues with moving drives between controllers? Should I turn parity correction off?

[Fireball3]

Thanks for your feedback @thespooler!

I will prepare a new revision based on your remarks.

I also had that DOS4GW issue once and never managed to figure what it was about.

At the moment I don't recall how I solved the issue, but I did without DOS32A, which of course is a very

elegant workaround.

 

On ‎12‎/‎13‎/‎2018 at 9:43 PM, thespooler said:

But has anyone every encountered issues with moving drives between controllers? Should I turn parity correction off?

As long as your current controller is adressing the drive by its serial, you should be safe when moving drives. There are Areca controllers that add a layer and obfuscate the drive serial which causes trouble when moving.

Of course you can turn parity correction off and see what happens.

In case of errors (low count) you probably need to run the correcting check though.

[pepar]

IIRC, there were at least two Extended Memory Managers to enable DOS to use more than "Bill's" 640K, and there were some incompatibilities where some programs did not see the extended memory.

[Hoopster]

On 8/21/2013 at 6:59 AM, Fireball3 said:

Update on 17.04.2017, v4 <--- this is the latest, use this one!

Firmware is still P20.00.07.00

Corrections for EFI environment. Untested due to missing hardware.

Post your experience in the forum.

https://www.mediafire.com/?py9c1w5u56xytw2

MD5: t.b.d.

 

If you experience the "failed to initialize PAL" error somewhere in step 5, you have to boot from

UEFI shell and try again or use another mainboard. See here how to use UEFI shell (Kudos 2 Maglin).

Dell H310 purchased on eBay (server pull) arrived today.  I tried to use the flashing method as outlined with the v4 version of the files.

 

1.bat executed without issue and wrote the adapters.txt file (would it be useful to see this file?)

2.bat (skipped per readme since it is an H310)

3.bat (erasing the flash) will not execute with the "failed to initialize PAL" error.

 

It seem most get this when executing something in step 5.

 

Do I try the UEFI shell for this failure as well? I suppose it is the only option since I cannot move beyond it with the DOS batch files.

Edited January 4, 2019 by Hoopster

[JorgeB]

6 minutes ago, Hoopster said:

"failed to initialize PAL" error.

 

7 minutes ago, Hoopster said:

Do I try the UEFI shell for this failure as well?

Yes

[Hoopster]

52 minutes ago, johnnie.black said:

 

Yes

From the fs0: prompt in shell I ran 3.nsh

 

Lots of text scrolled by as if it had done something (it all happened in 1 second so I know no flashing happened).

 

It then said done and prompted to run 5ITDELL.NSH; same thing happened (nothing).

 

I then tried to execute "sas2flash.efi -o -e 6" manually and it said no LSi SAS adapter was found.

 

It is detected upon boot and 1.bat spits out the adapter info.  I tried to run 1.nsh in the shell and got the same rapidly scrolling text as if something had happened when it did not.

 

If I run*.bat files, I get PAL errors.

 

If I run *.nsh files in the EFI shell, no adapter is detected and the .nsh files do nothing.

Edited January 4, 2019 by Hoopster

[JorgeB]

Do you have an older non UEFI computer you could use? That's what I do for all my flashing, if not wait for someone with UEFI flash experience to help.

[Hoopster]

2 minutes ago, johnnie.black said:

Do you have an older non UEFI computer you could use? That's what I do for all my flashing, if not wait for someone with UEFI flash experience to help.

 

I do have another, older computer.  It has an EVGA P55 SLI motherboard.  I can't remember if it has UEFI, but, I am thinking it might not.  My wife uses it.  I'll give it a try tomorrow (later today).  It's too late now and my brain has switched off.

 

[Hoopster]

20 hours ago, johnnie.black said:

Do you have an older non UEFI computer you could use? That's what I do for all my flashing, if not wait for someone with UEFI flash experience to help.

@Fireball3 The other computer is BIOS only (no UEFI).  I can run 3.bat without the PAL error, but, it also says "No LSI SAS adapters found"

 

So, both the *.bat and the *.nsh files claim no LSI SAS adapter found when moving beyond 1.bat.

 

Both computers detected the card on boot.

 

 

Edited January 5, 2019 by Hoopster

[Hoopster]

14 minutes ago, Hoopster said:

So, both the *.bat and the *.nsh files claim no LSI SAS adapter found when moving beyond 1.bat.

@Fireball3  Is this because it is still flashed with the Dell firmware so it is not recognized by LSI sas2flash?  Do I need to run a megarec command manually to wipe the flash first?  if so, what is the proper syntax?

 

I found mention of this in another forum:  megarec -writesbr 0 sbrempty.bin; megarec -cleanflash 0.  This solved the problem for someone trying to flash an IBM M1015 who got the same "No LSI SAS adapters found" error.

 

I see an empty.bin on the flash drive but no sbrempty.bin

[BobPhoenix]

Using megarec and sbrempty are part of the steps I used to flash my H310s to LSI IT mode.

 

Basicly I did the following steps (from _READMEFIRST.txt file in Toolset_PercH310 to LSIMegaraid zip file - The bat's were in H310_to_LSI.zip which was contained in the Toolset_PercH310 to LSIMegaraid zip file):

7) Launch each step, Step 1, 1.bat (This will dump all the information about your card to a file Named ADAPTERS.TXT
    In this file is your SAS Address which will be required for step 6 (6.bat)

Example: 
                HW Configuration
                ================
SAS Address      : 500605b001f31fa0

8) Step 2, 2.bat will save your current controllers SBR to a file Mega.sbr, please rename it to the cards model
    your using this on, example IBM M1015, rename mega.sbr to SBRM1015.bin and post on the forum (would like
    to collect all SBRs)

9) Step 3, 3.bat will wipe your current SBR and clear your controllers BIOs.

10) Step 4, Shutdown your system now, plug your USB stick in another system were you can get at the ADAPTERS.TXT
    (that was dumped in step 1) file to write donw your SAS Controllers Address
    Hint: prepare step 6 by going to directory "5_LSI_P16" and editing 6.bat where u insert your Controller Address.

11) Put back usb stick in the system with the Mega card and boot to usb again.

_____________from here on modified to flash DELL Perc H310_____23.08.2013_________Fireball
IMPORTANT NOTE:   The batch files are prepared in a way that the IT-fw will be flashed with NO BIOS!.
                  If you need the BIOS then edit the batch files and make sure the command includes the "-b mptsas2.rom"
                  (simply remove the REM)
12) Step 5.1 - flash the original DELL IT-firmware
    move into directory "5_DELL_IT" and call 5IT.bat
    
13) Step 5.2 - flash the LSI 9211-8i (P7) IT-firmware
    move into directory "5_LSI_P7" and call 5IT.bat
    
14) Step 5.3 - flash the LSI 9211-8i (P16) IT-firmware
    move into directory "5_LSI_P16" and call 5IT.bat

15) Step 6 - reprogram the Adapter Address
    call 6.bat in the directory "5_LSI_P16" that you have prepared in step 4.
    If you didn't prepare the batch file you have to issue the command manually.
    Obtain your SAS Address from the ADAPTERS.TXT file.

I wanted the bios so I added the " -b mptsas2.rom" to the end of the commands.

 

Hope that helps because all I've ever done is use the .bat files on a MB that I found worked to flash my IBM M1015's.  I've never used the UEFI method.

 

If you want the TOOLSET file I used I can upload it if it isn't already in one of Fireball3's posts.

Edited January 4, 2019 by BobPhoenix

[Hoopster]

OK, I finally got the Dell H310 properly flashed to the 20.00.07.00 9211-8i IT firmware.

 

I had to manually run the "megarec -cleanflash 0" as well as the P7 sas2flash with the 6GBPSAS.FW.

 

After that, I just picked up with 3.bat (some redundancy with prior steps) and all batch files ran in sequence without error.

 

The cards is now flashed and functional.

 

Thanks for the tips.  Reading back to the beginning of this page pointed me in the right direction as I saw exactly what @Fulcrum77 saw and the replies to him help me get it worked out.

[mbc0]

Hi,

 

I have a Dell PERC H330 on the latest bios from DELL (May 2018) which I put into HBA Mode via CTRL-R in the card's bios

The Card detects 8 drives (1 SAS & 7 SATA) perfectly.

 

unRAID detects the card as expected but not any of the drives attached to it

 

here are some screens from investigations so far, can anyone help? Does this need to be flashed into IT mode?

 

Many Thanks in advance!

 

 

[sibi78]

On 8/21/2013 at 7:59 AM, Fireball3 said:

After successfully bricking the Fujitsu D2607 by downflashing it 

I'm proud to be able to contribute to this thread and hereby report:

 

LSI MegaRAID with SAS2008 chipsets

 

3) DELL Perc H310 as well as H200 Flashed successfully to LSI9211-8i IT (P20)

 

 

3TB Drive Support with this card: YES (UPDATE: 5.0Beta7 added 3TB Drive support)

Drive Spin Down support: YES (UPDATE: Added as of 5.0Beta7)

Drive Temp Readings: YES

 

Toolset_PercH310 to LSIMegaraid.zip (DOS, via bootable usb key)

http://www45.zippyshare.com/v/51016808/file.html (for some reason I can't embed the link...)

MD5:80174075959fb7d1ff8c6362f7241bfe

 

Update on 06.08.2014

Included the P19 firmware

http://www21.zippyshare.com/v/9541812/file.html

 

Update on 01.12.2014

Possible issues with P20 firmware! See this post and this.

Update on 23.10.2015

There is an new version of Avago (former LSI) P20 (20.00.04.00) which seems to be OK with unRAID. See this post.

 

Update on 15.09.2015

User opentoe found out that the DELL IT firmware is also working with unRAID.

It's your decision what to flash. Flashing DELL firmware is easier and supported by DELL!

opentoe's verdict on DELL IT or Avago (former LSI).

 

Update on 07.06.2016

There is a new firmware from Avago. P20.00.07.00

The toolset has been updated accordingly. First impressions.

http://www3.zippyshare.com/v/xZKIOHaz/file.html

https://www.mediafire.com/?8f82hx4c032a929

MD5: 24f7d428292e00f9dee6f715d8564202

 

Update on 30.12.2016

Firmware is still P20.00.07.00

Switch to RUFUS for bootdisk creation.

Added alternative ways to extract controller info if MegaCli is not working.

https://www.mediafire.com/?9cbklh4i1002n23

MD5: 7d90f84c831e8b939c5536d9eb03ba81

 

Update on 23.02.2017

Firmware is still P20.00.07.00

Uses sas2flsh through the whole process.

Tested on a "backflashed" H200, to be confirmed on a stock H200 card and on H310's.

Card backup is now dumping the full flash. This can be used to restore the initial condition of the card.

Added script for automatic SAS address extraction. No reboot necessary any more.

 https://www.mediafire.com/?0op114fpim9xwwf

MD5: 2fbe3d562846e493714a9e8ac3f15923

Due to missing UEFI environment, no changes nor testing with UEFI shell.

 

Update on 30.03.2017, v2

Firmware is still P20.00.07.00

Spiced up the routines with some checks to automatically select the right tool if one is not working.

Tested on a stock H310 as well as a H200 - works for me. Post your experience in the forum.

https://www.mediafire.com/?6b77v4s7czluvs2

MD5: 6cb92336ff537aeb838085a028aa6601

 

Update on 11.04.2017, v3

Firmware is still P20.00.07.00

Added files for use in an EFI environment. Untested due to missing hardware.

Post your experience in the forum.

https://www.mediafire.com/?9ovj2rxuaf43wv4

MD5: t.b.d.

 

Update on 17.04.2017, v4 <--- this is the latest, use this one!

Firmware is still P20.00.07.00

Corrections for EFI environment. Untested due to missing hardware.

Post your experience in the forum.

https://www.mediafire.com/?py9c1w5u56xytw2

MD5: t.b.d.

 

If you experience the "failed to initialize PAL" error somewhere in step 5, you have to boot from

UEFI shell and try again or use another mainboard. See here how to use UEFI shell (Kudos 2 Maglin).

 

Make sure you read and understand the __READMEFIRST.txt before starting!

If you experience troubles or something is not clear, don't hesitate to ask for help.

You can help improving the howto by doing so. Chances are small but you can brick the controller!

 

@Fireball3, I'm trying your instructions to cross-flash the H200 right now on Dell R710. I'm at step 2.BAT where we are saving the existing controller software to the logs folder. My system printed the "MegaRAID HWR Controller.." message and seems stuck there for about ~10 minutes. Is this normal? I tried CTRL-C ing but didn't help. Should I assume the system is hung and reboot and try again? Was wondering what's the "normal" time it takes to complete 2.BAT? Thanks!

[sibi78]

1 hour ago, sibi78 said:

@Fireball3, I'm trying your instructions to cross-flash the H200 right now on Dell R710. I'm at step 2.BAT where we are saving the existing controller software to the logs folder. My system printed the "MegaRAID HWR Controller.." message and seems stuck there for about ~10 minutes. Is this normal? I tried CTRL-C ing but didn't help. Should I assume the system is hung and reboot and try again? Was wondering what's the "normal" time it takes to complete 2.BAT? Thanks!

Just a quick update. I looked at the 2.bat and tried to see which step is failing. Only Megarec.exe (saving the serial boot rom) step is hanging.  Googling for R710 and Megarec turns up several folks running into similar issues. However, I'm able to successfully run the SAS2FLSH utility to save the firmware (-ufirmware command) and flash (-uflash command) contents. Is it true that I don't have to really worry about backing up the serial boot rom? Even if I mess up the H200, can I restore the original card by using the saved firmware and flash contents? Any pointers would be helpful.