[Help] flashing LSI SAS 9311-8i to IT


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hello everyone,

 

i am new to unraid (i like it a lot) and in the process of setting up a server to replace my old system. Got myself a PCI SAS card after looking into the Hardware Compatability list. Happy i found the list i got myself an

LSI SAS 9311-8i

how hard can it be to flash this thing right?

 

Well i ran into a wall. After studying this guide:

and the manufacturers guide:

i booted my stick prepared according to guide [1] and booted DOS because

sas3flash for LSI SAS 12 Gb/sec HBAs (Windows/Linux/EFI)

    Cannot be used to flash to older firmware
    Cannot be used to flash from IT to IR firmware or from IR to IT firmware
    Can be used to flash the controller BIOS and/or EFI

sas3flsh for LSI SAS 12 Gb/sec HBAs (DOS)

    Can be used to flash to older firmware
    Can be used to flash from IT to IR firmware or from IR to IT firmware

DOS is the only way of flashing between IR and IT [2].

I tried to run "sas3flsh -o -e 6"

grafik.png.67ea69a799668702e8c82dc2ae87e477.png

but apparently my MoBo (ASRock Rack X470D4U2-2T) doesnt have the Bios32 service directory which it needs to have if i use DOS according to [2] Note. Now the note also says i can just use efi instead, but this is contradicted by the IR to IT restriction.

 

I dont want to brick my controller.

Has anyone had experience with this?

Or is my only way to try and rip random PCs apart in hope of finding a bios with bios32 service directory.

 

Best Regards,

prash3r

 

EDIT:

i am aware of the pinned post and the corresponding wiki entry but i did not find this particular problem and most of the posts reference to the sas2flsh.exe and i dont want to guess if this applies to sas3flsh.exe as well. I will report my results here in any way so you can update the compatibility list or the crossflashing wiki.

Edited by prash3r
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9 hours ago, prash3r said:

Cannot be used to flash from IT to IR firmware or from IR to IT firmware

Message come from offical ( only apply for SAS3 ) ?? I can't remember does I try this under UEFI.

 

9 hours ago, prash3r said:

try and rip random PCs

Agree.

Edited by Benson
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Thanks for the support.

 

It was possible with the UEFI tool sas3flash.efi.

The information [2] from the manufacturer just states, that i can not directly crossflash IR to IT. But it was possible the default way with

sas3flash.efi -o -e 6
sas3flash.efi -o -f firmware_IT.bin
sas3flash.efi -o -b bios.bin

BUT i actually recommend trying to do it in one command first because

it validates the firmware you have to use later, before its to late.

It tells you something like this:

FS0:\sas3flash.efi -l LOGFILEFLASH.txt -o -f SAS9300_8i_IT.bin -b mpt3x64.rom 
    Advanced Mode Set

    Adapter Selected is a Avago SAS: SAS3008(C0)

    Executing Operation: Flash Firmware Image

        Firmware Image has a Valid Checksum. 
        Firmware Version 16.00.10.00
        Firmware Image compatible with Controller. 

        Valid NVDATA Image found. 
        NVDATA Major Version 0E.01 
        Checking for a compatible NVData image... 

        NVDATA Device ID and Chip Revision match verified.
        NVDATA Versions Compatible.
        Valid Initialization Image verified.
        Valid BootLoader Image verified.

        ERROR: Cannot Flash IT Firmware over IR Firmware!

        Firmware Image Validation Failed! 

    Due to error remaining commands will not be executed.
    Unable to Process Commands.
    Exiting SAS3Flash.

Which is great because you know your firmware is correct before actually erasing the old one from the device. if you erase the firmware and dont have a correct new firmware it will brick the device on reboot. so i can only advise you to do it this way. Then it tells you, that it is not able to overwrite IR with IT. which basically only means you need to rease the old one before wrikting the new one. Do it and confirm a working bios with sas3flash.efi -listall. I had to reflash bios because i mistakenly used bios64 rom instead of bios32.

 

In the end everything worked great and i could boot right into the controller.

grafik.png.f1df583624e1438c48811c0854603504.png

 

Thank you for your support.

 

I can now happily report:

LSI SAS9311-8i SAS3 works when flashed to IT

 

Best Regards,

prash3r

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46 minutes ago, prash3r said:

Thanks for the support.

 

It was possible with the UEFI tool sas3flash.efi.

The information [2] from the manufacturer just states, that i can not directly crossflash IR to IT. But it was possible the default way with


sas3flash.efi -o -e 6
sas3flash.efi -o -f firmware_IT.bin
sas3flash.efi -o -b bios.bin

BUT i actually recommend trying to do it in one command first because

it validates the firmware you have to use later, before its to late.

It tells you something like this:


FS0:\sas3flash.efi -l LOGFILEFLASH.txt -o -f SAS9300_8i_IT.bin -b mpt3x64.rom 
    Advanced Mode Set

    Adapter Selected is a Avago SAS: SAS3008(C0)

    Executing Operation: Flash Firmware Image

        Firmware Image has a Valid Checksum. 
        Firmware Version 16.00.10.00
        Firmware Image compatible with Controller. 

        Valid NVDATA Image found. 
        NVDATA Major Version 0E.01 
        Checking for a compatible NVData image... 

        NVDATA Device ID and Chip Revision match verified.
        NVDATA Versions Compatible.
        Valid Initialization Image verified.
        Valid BootLoader Image verified.

        ERROR: Cannot Flash IT Firmware over IR Firmware!

        Firmware Image Validation Failed! 

    Due to error remaining commands will not be executed.
    Unable to Process Commands.
    Exiting SAS3Flash.

Which is great because you know your firmware is correct before actually erasing the old one from the device. if you erase the firmware and dont have a correct new firmware it will brick the device on reboot. so i can only advise you to do it this way. Then it tells you, that it is not able to overwrite IR with IT. which basically only means you need to rease the old one before wrikting the new one. Do it and confirm a working bios with sas3flash.efi -listall. I had to reflash bios because i mistakenly used bios64 rom instead of bios32.

 

In the end everything worked great and i could boot right into the controller.

grafik.png.f1df583624e1438c48811c0854603504.png

 

Thank you for your support.

 

I can now happily report:

LSI SAS9311-8i SAS3 works when flashed to IT

 

Best Regards,

prash3r

Well done! Nice to see people doing this succesfully.

 

I am in this thread becuse i was looking for information nice in handy when my LSI card arrived, got a 9200 8i on ebay, and went with a NON pre flashed cuz i thought that i wanted to do my self, and when it arrived i plugged it in and booted up into LSI Utility to check. Turned out it was allready with IT firmware. Probably a old one but Unraid finds the drives and it workes great. Some day i will look into the versions of fw and se if i update it. But afraid to mess up in some way now instead :)

 

Great job !

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Thanks,

 

i dont see a need to update your card. if it works everything is fine. You are not connecting 100 cards as you could with this kind of hardware so as long as the HDDs are the bottleneck i would just leave it as it is.

 

on the other hand: since you do not need to crossflash you should be able to update the firmware from within the OS. No need to boot into EFI/DOS. (still i would just leave it be).

 

Best Regards,

prash3r

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  • 1 year later...

Hello,
I am very happy to see that you have successfully Flashed your LSI card. I myself am the proud owner of an LSI SAS 9311-8i SAS 3008 card. If I plug the drives from my UnRaid into the motherboard, I see them. By cons with my LSI card, I see nothing, no disc!
So I found it to be because my card is not in IT Mode.
But I must admit that I do not know where you will get these famous files and how to launch them
Knowing that I don't have a video card on my NAS. Is there enough to do this on the UnRAID NAS,? A command line like in Windows 10?
My English is not perfect ... I am French!
Thank you in advance for your help

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