(Solved)LSI 9211-8i IT Mode Firmware Flash Problems

[J0my]

Hello, I have spent all day following guides on how to flash a LSI 9211-8i into IT mode via USB as I had just bought the card. I am unable to do the flashing via BIOS due to the PAL errors which from everything I have read means the Mobo is UEFI (Gigabyte Z170N-WIFI). I had also tried every way online on how to try get my usb key set up to UEFI but for what ever reason the computer just would not enter the shell, I would get the option to load the USB in UEFI but it would just flash and go back the menu on boot devices (Rufus>FreeDOS>Fat32 etc etc and the usb drive is only 8GB) or if I selected the non UEFI it would just load into FreeDOS. (I had tried every different form of sas2flash.efi in the root directory of freedos usb or non bootable usb, had tried the /efi/root/ efi goes here and none would ever load up the UEFI options which were set as boot priority it just would not load just do that flicker thing).

For what ever brain aneurysm I had at the time in rufus I noticed a UEFI:NTFS option which for the hell of it I tried and put in the sas2flash.efi as well as the shellx64.efi in the efi/root folder and it actually booted up so I started following the UEFI guides commands

 

fs0:/> sas2flash.efi -listall
fs0:/> sas2flash.efi -o -e 6
fs0:/> sas2flash.efi -o -f 2118it.bin -b mptsas2.rom
fs0:/> sas2flash.efi -listall

2118it.bin & mptsas2.rom (latest versions) are in the root directory with the sas2flash.efi

 

basically I got to the -o -e 6 and it worked and I was ecstatic as it was finally working. I did the second line and I would get a 

ERROR: Could not open file: 2118it.bin, Syntax Error see Command Usage Below: 

-f x: Flash firmware image
x = the firmware file to flash

that for both files, it would not let me flash them.

 

So atm I still have the machine running as everything says to not turn it off. I have likely bricked it with how the usb drive is in ntfs and not fat32. The main question is, is there any way to try salvage it to somehow get the files to install or failing that if i have to reboot is there any way to unbrick the card. Any help would be appreciated.

Edited June 26, 2023 by J0my
Updated that issue has been fixed

[J0my]

uhg this is likely in the wrong section of the forums for this also >_<

[Vr2Io]

3 hours ago, J0my said:

 I have likely bricked it 

Reboot won't bricked it.

 

I don't think NTFS is the problem, otherwise you can't execute sas2flash.

 

For my understanding, flash firmware won't help PAL error issue.

[Abnorm]

A summary of what i did in terms of flashing the card, just check the last post, hopefully it helps :

 

 

Edited May 17, 2019 by Abnorm

[J0my]

4 hours ago, Benson said:

Reboot won't bricked it.

 

I don't think NTFS is the problem, otherwise you can't execute sas2flash.

 

For my understanding, flash firmware won't help PAL error issue.

So even though I have erased the flash memory, everything says to not reboot, but for what ever reason I am unable to get it to execute the commands, but maddeningly it let me do the erasing one.

 

3 hours ago, Abnorm said:

A summary of what i did in terms of flashing the card, just check the last post, hopefully it helps :

 

Hi thanks for the link, just not sure it can help all that much as stated above when ever I do the "sas2flsh.efi -o -f 2118it.bin" it just gives me the syntax error and will not let me do anything. Still have the machine on in case there's anything that can be done.

[gtech1]

I have the same exact problem but with a 9217-4i4e. I made the UEFI boot disc using Rufus, got to the EFI prompt, it let me erase the firmware but now I can't upload either the firmware or the bios, when I type in: sas2flash -o -e firmware -b bios  . I tried entering the file names using '' , "", nothing.

If I do a sas2flash -list , it says: firmware not installed, type file name to upload, I start typing my file name but after 1 letter it says file not found... ugh, what do I do ? 

[Vr2Io]

5 hours ago, gtech1 said:

 I start typing my file name but after 1 letter it says file not found... ugh, what do I do ? 

No idea of this and really don't understand is that means prompt error without press "Enter".

 

I suggest try without bootable Rufus and see any different, just enter UEFI shell from BIOS

 

[BetaQuasi]

To the OP, I've got a couple of different methods documented in the 'M1015/X9SCM Firmware' link in my signature - maybe one of them will work for you?

Edited May 28, 2019 by BetaQuasi

[Mitch.Petersen]

On 5/17/2019 at 5:54 AM, J0my said:

 

ERROR: Could not open file: 2118it.bin, Syntax Error see Command Usage Below: 

-f x: Flash firmware image
x = the firmware file to flash

 

To anyone stumbling across this thread, or to OP if they are still having difficulties. I just solved the issue here myself. 

 

When you first boot into the EFI Shell, run this command:

map -b

This will map the drives connected to the computer, from there you'll want to select your USB device. Which will most likely be fs# (where # is a number).

 

You can access that drive by typing 

fs#:

From there continue with the rest of the steps, and you'll be golden.

[timau]

I tried this but found I needed to use a full FreeDOS install. (otherwise it said couldn't open the file as above)

 

burn this to a USB.

 

http://www.freedos.org/download/download/FD12FULL.zip

 

exit the installer back to DOS then run sasflash