LSI Controller FW updates IR/IT modes


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Just flashed the M1015 I got in using the LSI MegaRAID to SAS2008(P11).zip - 5.87 MB (DOS, via bootable usb key).

 

Have to say - great instructions/walkthrough, especially with it borderline automated.  Only suggestion I could possibly make would be to put a note in the readme around step 5 that the PAL error is not able to be circumvented except for swapping systems - would've saved me a couple minutes of checking, but not the end of the world by any means.

 

On a side note, it makes you feel great having 3 current systems not able to finish this flash and having to drop back to an old finicky nvidia based motherboard running a C2D to get the job done =)

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Just flashed the M1015 I got in using the LSI MegaRAID to SAS2008(P11).zip - 5.87 MB (DOS, via bootable usb key).

 

Have to say - great instructions/walkthrough, especially with it borderline automated.  Only suggestion I could possibly make would be to put a note in the readme around step 5 that the PAL error is not able to be circumvented except for swapping systems - would've saved me a couple minutes of checking, but not the end of the world by any means.

 

On a side note, it makes you feel great having 3 current systems not able to finish this flash and having to drop back to an old finicky nvidia based motherboard running a C2D to get the job done =)

I just flashed my M1015 using the same ZIP-file. And I must say that thanks to the work of madburg it is as easy as counting from 1 to 6. I used an DFI LT X38-T2R motherboard for it without any problem. I also didn't notice the PAL-error you mentioned.

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So I followed the steps but alas i get the same error as everyone else having problems, I now want to flash the controller back to the original firmware, I followed kkm's steps to download and extract the file but beyond that there is a command line with no indication as to what to do with it. I have tried using megaCLI64 that i found suggested however this simply gives Fatal error - Command Tool invoked with wrong parameters Exit Code: 0x01 and so I'm kinda clueless as to what to do.

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I'm really stuck here i tried flashing the card and i got the unable to initialize PAL error on ALL my mobos, i then tried to flash it back and got error in opening file: m1015.bin

 

Any suggestions?

 

See above, bios settings...

 

And go visit a friend, previously in this thread we have people flashing firmware at the gas station...

 

might post your location and see if someone is nearby with working flash setup.

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A8N is NVIDIA based. I read a post from someone who had to use a board with a nvidia chipset to do the flashing. Might give it a try!

 

thanks to Roancea:

On a side note, it makes you feel great having 3 current systems not able to finish this flash and having to drop back to an old finicky nvidia based motherboard running a C2D to get the job done =)

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

hey guys,

 

Firstly thanks to OP and all the others that have contributed to this thread, it's been really helpful, especially for SAS controller n00bs like myself.

 

I thought I'd share my experiences with the IBM M1015.

 

I recently purchased one to use as a HBA controller for my NAS build

 

I currently have an old pc setup as a JBOD tower and it refuses to load up bios of the controller, it's a old Gigabyte K8N51GMF-RH. I managed to load a driver for windows, however the following was received:

 

m101504.png

 

And

 

m101501.png

 

I downloaded the pack LSI MegaRAID to SAS2008(P11).zip - 5.87 MB and tried flashing the controller, I got errors saying something like initialization failed but it wasn't the same message as the above poster. I should've taken a photo or something.

 

I tried putting the controller in another computer and low and behold, the controller bios appeared, but the crappy thing was I couldn't get it to boot from a USB drive (apparently lenovo thinkcentre's don't like to boot from anything other then a hdd or a dvd).

 

I've got two more computers that I can try it on, hopefully I am successful with one of em..

 

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So after a couple of hours worth of tinkering.... I HAVE SUCCESSFULLY UPDATED THE FW OF MY M1015!!! YAY!! :)

 

Here's the story (for those that want to read :D)

 

So I gave up on trying to flash it on my "garage" jbod setup, it just wouldn't get to the BIOS but it allowed me to see it in windows (at first) like in my previous screen shots.

 

I tried my IBM Thinkcentre M58 small form factor workstation again without the hdd and dvd rom - could load the BIOS and I could get into it after POST, but I had absolutely no luck getting the USB to boot

 

I then tried an older PC that I had, since it had a video card in the first pci-e x16 slot, I tried it on the second one. Like the "garage" pc, it wouldn't load up the BIOS, it wouldn't even flash the LEDs on the card, took it out tried again, nothing.

 

I then went back to the garage pc and tried it without the hdds and dvd rom, still nothing, no more LEDs, can no longer get "ServerRAID M1015" icon in device manager - I START PANICKING! I took out the card and noticed there were what looked like chips of copper from the  connection, at this point I'm thinking "crap I just bricked this card by being too rough". Just to confirm, the ever faithful google images showed that those "chipped" copper sections were actually normal :) so I went back to the thinkcentre and low and behold the card is still working... phew.

 

Was about to give up and call it a day until I remembered that my HTPC has got a pci-e x16 slot that i should be able to test..

 

Booted up, could see the firmware - great sign!

 

From here on end, it's just a simple 1, 2, 3 boot, 5IT, 6 courtesy of everything in the "LSI MegaRAID to SAS2008(P11).zip" files.

 

After completing the flashing, I then tried it back in the garage - still nothing. I've now come to terms that that PC is seriously screwed up for this card.

 

Tried it on the Thinkcentre, as soon as windows loaded, it installed the software and BANG! I've now got an "LSI Adapter, SAS2 2008 Falcon" showing in my device manager as well as a whole new BIOS.

 

ibmm1015postflash.png

 

I'm guessing that I have successfully changed the f/w of my M1015 right and made it a proper HBA card?

 

Should it be showing "LSI Adapter, SAS2 2008 Falcon" under device manager (for those that use it in windows?) - I am merely preparing this card to be a HBA for my NAS build.

 

Also note, all my PC's bar the thinkcentre were all Gigabyte motherboards.

 

madburg, did you still want me to upload the SBR? It'll just be another IBM M1015, but if you still want it, I'd be happy to upload it.

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Yes I personal have seen it come up as "LSI Adapter, SAS2 2008 Falcon" under Windows in my earlier testings. If u were to look at the HW id and match it within the driver inf file you would see the same, actually thats were it gets the friendly name from.

 

Some have asked; the PAL errors were not know to me at the time I created what I hoped would work for all including beginners. From the amount of downloads compared to failures posted due to PAL errors that seems to be the case. As some posted it was discovered some motherboards are not good candidates to perform the flash with. So I never went back to add remarks about PAL issue in the read me files. Most people end up coming back to the forum when things don't work.

 

I have not posted here much (just check in here and there), as not much (actually nothing) has changed with unRAID. So no point in wasting time with this or plugins, etc. When Tom decides to fill us in at the very least. And produce something, then there will be interest in posting/helping, etc.

I dont make any sort of money from this product, just interest, but there isn't anything to be interested in as nothing has moved forward with the product. It's a shame.

 

 

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Hello,

 

I got a ibm1015 on ebay but my motherboard does not boot if I add HDDs to the raidcontroller. I found this thread via google and I hope to get it working with the lsi firmware. I have followed the instructions but the know pal error occurs. I tried to flash it via efi but the controller is not recognized by the software(supermicro 9xscm-f). I want to flash it back to the default and ship it back to the reseller. But I have deleted my backup.sbr :/ can someone provide me his backup file ?

 

regrads, noiseless

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Woha addition to this post. I just successfully flashed a Intel SASMF8I controller with LSI stock firmware from this post. Allthough i had to use a somewhat unconventional method. Flashed it via EFI shell with the sasflash tools for EFI from the LSI website:

 

http://www.lsi.com/downloads/Public/Host%20Bus%20Adapters/Host%20Bus%20Adapters%20Common%20Files/SAS_SATA_3G_P21/Installer_P21_for_EFI.zip

 

i havent tested this yet, just that the flash was sucsessfull and controller seems healthy and working so far. I will write a howto if this seems to hold water in my nexentastor server that i'm building.

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So it's simply going back to an older mobo? I was worried because the other system in my house is a H67 board and if my Z68 board didn't work, I would then have to go to my main rig and pull out a video card and stick the M1015 in. I have an X58 board myself.

 

anyway, glad the X58 worked out for me because my older systems are busy bitcoin mining, and I hate to pull them out of commission to flash a card LOL.

 

I'm glad I got spindown and stuff working. FINALLY. 1 year after putting this NAS together....

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LSI SAS1068E chipset

 

1) LSI SAS 3081-R

 

2) IBM BR10i

 

3) Intel SASUC8I

 

 

Please let me know (PM or post here) what Card you have successfully flashed with the LSI SAS1068E chipset with the provided zip

 

FW:1.32.00.00, BIOS 6.34.00.00 / 20-DEC-10 (LSI P20)

Both IT/IR mode available

LSI SAS1068E Controllers(P20).zip - 3.8 MB (Windows)

LSI SAS1068E Controllers(P20)Linux.zip - 4.5 MB (unRAID)

 

FW:1.33.00.00, BIOS 6.36.00.00 / 22-AUG-11 (LSI P21)

Both IT/IR mode available

LSI SAS1068E Controllers(P21).rar - 1.46 MB (Windows)

LSI SAS1068E Controllers(P21)Linux.rar - 2.02 MB (unRAID)

 

Linux Driver: MPTSAS - supports the LSI SAS1064, SAS1064A, SAS1064E, SAS1066, SAS1068, SAS1068E, and SAS1078 chipsets. (Thanks to "BRiT"s prior post)

unRAID Support: Added as of 5.0Beta6a

 

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

Drive Temp Readings: YES

 

3TB Drive Support with this card: Will only offer 2.2TB out of 3TB (UPDATE: 5.0Beta7 added 3TB Drive support)

 

*** Note: Multiple controllers all post under one MPTSAS Bios, there are global setting that affect all controllers and individual settings per controller available ***

 

According to this post (http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=18787.msg168156#msg168156), the BR10i does not work on 5b14? I am a bit baffled that support for a seemingly working device in b12 would be removed in a later version? The BR10i seems an absolute steal compared to a lot of the other options, so it seems a shame if it isn't supported.

 

Can anyone comment on this - if it truly isn't working in 5b14, if support is expected once version 5 reaches final?

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According to this post (http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=18787.msg168156#msg168156), the BR10i does not work on 5b14? I am a bit baffled that support for a seemingly working device in b12 would be removed in a later version? The BR10i seems an absolute steal compared to a lot of the other options, so it seems a shame if it isn't supported.

 

Can anyone comment on this - if it truly isn't working in 5b14, if support is expected once version 5 reaches final?

It is not so much that support has been removed.  There are issues with the drivers in the kernel in the later betas, and LimeTech does not have control over that.  Support for them still exists in emhttp but the linux kernel.

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Has anyone got the m1015 working on a version of unRAID?

 

I doubt anyone has the m1015 with IBM firmware working on unRAID. This thread is about putting LSI firmware on the cards. I and many others are using IBM m1015 cards which we have flashed with LSI firmware.

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