IBM ServeRAID M5015 firmware help

[JWMutant]

Afternoon peoples.

 

I have an M5015 which I need to flash the firmware to lsi so unraid will work with the card.

 

I am however way out of my element here.

 

I have read alot of threads and to be honest it all may as well be a different language to me.

 

I am no stranger to updating bios on motherboards but that the extent of my knowledge.

 

Is there anyone out there who can help me out in what steps I need to take?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Fireball3]

Welcome to the unRAID forums.

Your card is not recommended for unRAID.

See this.

[JWMutant]

Thanks. And thanks for the direct link.

 

So my best bet is to get a M1015 or a SAS2008 based controller correct?

 

[Fireball3]

See the controller table in the wiki.

Check what is available in your region.

Also check the remarks in that table to have an idea what additional effort is necessary.

The best bet are M1015, M1115 and the DELL cards as well as the LSI.

LT is promoting the Supermicro cards.

The AOC-SAS2LP-MV8 is causing issues under v6 though.

[JWMutant]

Once again thanks for the help.

 

Ordered a M1015, should be here in a few days.

 

I work out how much of a pain in the backside it is to flash when I get it.

 

Hoping I can do it from within a windows environment before I stick it in my server as I havent played with DOS since Windows 98 when there was only one way to partition a drive.

[Fireball3]

I fear there is no other way than the "black screen" of DOS (or EFI shell).

Instructions for the M1015 are here.

The last firmware in that post is P11.

Read thoroughly through the instructions and ask your questions before you start.

 

Meanwhile there is a P20 from LSI but most are running P11 just because it works.

(not working with Windows/Flexraid doesn't mean it won't work with unRAID, but tests have to confirm)

[JWMutant]

Finally got my card today and am starting to read the read me file.

 

One quick question for someone.

 

Which is better or should I say, which do I choose. IT or IR?

[uldise]

Finally got my card today and am starting to read the read me file.

 

One quick question for someone.

 

Which is better or should I say, which do I choose. IT or IR?

For unRAID you choose IT mode, IR is for RAID!

[JWMutant]

Thanks.

 

I am having a small or should I say rather large problem.

 

I am now at the stage of flashing the card with the new firmware and comes back saying " ERROR: Failed to initialize PAL "

[uldise]

Thanks.

 

I am having a small or should I say rather large problem.

 

I am now at the stage of flashing the card with the new firmware and comes back saying " ERROR: Failed to initialize PAL "

you need to switch to UEFI mode to continue.

please search forums for " ERROR: Failed to initialize PAL " - there are lot of threads about this problem.

when i flashed mine cards years ago, i had this message too. switched to UEFI, and then no probs.

[BetaQuasi]

Check the thread in my signature for more consolidated detail on M1015 flashing.

[uldise]

Check the thread in my signature for more consolidated detail on M1015 flashing.

thanks for the detailed link, i think it should be sticky somewhere cos more and more users are using these cards and the questions are almost the same with every new user.. and with old ones too if you wanna prepare new card after years

[JWMutant]

First of all that to all for helping out someone who is out of his element here.

 

I read your post and followed the steps to the letter.

 

When I go to use the uefi shell from bios (Its a Asus board) it simply comes up with not found.

 

I am at the stage where I am almost ready to give up.

[uldise]

First of all that to all for helping out someone who is out of his element here.

 

I read your post and followed the steps to the letter.

 

When I go to use the uefi shell from bios (Its a Asus board) it simply comes up with not found.

 

I am at the stage where I am almost ready to give up.

 

what's a model of the board?

a attach a screenshot please.

[JWMutant]

Motherboard is Asus B75M-A.

 

I am in the process of updating the bios.

 

This is what was coming up when I try to use uefi shell.

 

[JWMutant]

I have been at this for 5 odd hours and am getting no where fast.

 

I feel like a idiot... I can and do build PC's for customers and cant make headways with this.

[uldise]

I have been at this for 5 odd hours and am getting no where fast.

 

I feel like a idiot... I can and do build PC's for customers and cant make headways with this.

 

according to manual:

"This option allows you to attempt to launch the EFI Shell application (shellx64.efi) from one of the available devices that have a filesystem."

 

so i believe, you must have this "shellx64.efi" file on one of you attached drives..

[uldise]

I have been at this for 5 odd hours and am getting no where fast.

 

I feel like a idiot... I can and do build PC's for customers and cant make headways with this.

found this:

https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?30591-Help-bios-option-launch-efi-shell-from-filesystem-device-not-wroking

[JWMutant]

Well after some 8-9 hours I think I may be getting somewhere.

 

I ended up creating a bootable uefi windows usb then got the full shell and trial and error ended up finding out what folder it goes in.

 

End result is I got into uefi shell.  Had a play around in there and got unknown commands so will play around with it some more tomorrow.

 

At least I know what uefi shell looks like on my server pc now.

[JWMutant]

Well I want to thank everyone who helped.

 

The card is now flashed and the drives are showing up in unraid.

 

Ill post up a easy step by step for when someone else comes across the problem of not being able to get into shell soon.

[MuddSkipp3r]

Well after some 8-9 hours I think I may be getting somewhere.

 

I ended up creating a bootable uefi windows usb then got the full shell and trial and error ended up finding out what folder it goes in.

 

End result is I got into uefi shell.  Had a play around in there and got unknown commands so will play around with it some more tomorrow.

 

At least I know what uefi shell looks like on my server pc now.

 

Could you please share how you do this?  Most Google searches I come across are how to install Windows via UEFI on USB.  My MB doesn't have a built in UEFI shell and this is getting super annoying.

 

Thanks

[JWMutant]

First question is, is your motherboard uefi or not as that is rather important.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MuddSkipp3r]

First question is, is your motherboard uefi or not as that is rather important.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I have tried on two MBs.  Gigabyte z68x-ud3h-b3 (UEFI) and Asus Sabertooth 990FX (UEFI) with no luck on either.  I tried the DOS method on both, ending in the same PAL error.  The Gigabyte MB seems to not support EFI shell at all, or at least I cannot get it to see any .efi files on the root of the USB.  The 990FX has an option to boot to EFI Shell.  So I put the Shell.efi file on the root of the USB again and it hangs everytime.  I've tried several different names (Shell.efi, Shellx64.efi, ShellX64.efi, etc.)

 

Appreciate the help.

[JWMutant]

For people who have never done this before it is rather frustrating as the instructions they give you and the files given do not take into consideration that you may need to get into uefi shell.

 

However if you head to https://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=12767.msg479693#msg479693 there is a mediafire download that will solve your problems.

 

By all means read the instructions on how to prepare your thumb drive as the flashing process describes, just add the extra folder I have supplied to give it uefi support.

 

A side note however is that the 5015 will not give you the JBOD support needed to use it on unraid.

 

Also both boards you mention do support uefi, you just need to apply the correct settings.... somewhere in bios there is a secure boot setting that needs to be switched to other O/S, from there when you press F8 at boot (I think) it gives you a list of boot options when you boot up, simply select uefi:insertthumbdrivename.

[MuddSkipp3r]

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!  I don't know what that was so hard...  I was able to get into EFI shell.  I keep getting an error when attempting to wipe, but I think it may be because I've already wiped it using the DOS commands.  Going to flash and see what happens.