SAS2008 (LSI9240/9211) Firmware files

[jperz09]

Awesome, got the card flashed without a problem. But I am having a strange issue inside the OS. What we're doing is a little different, we're using this card in a server to wipe hard drives. In Windows and Linux based OS i'm getting an I/O error when trying to do anything with the drives. The OS sees them but cannot really interact with them. Have you ever seen this after cross flashing?

[mobilenvidia]

What are you crossflashing from and to ?

[jperz09]

50 minutes ago, mobilenvidia said:

What are you crossflashing from and to ?

LSI MegaRaid 9240 - 8i to 9211 (2118 IT)

[mobilenvidia]

12 hours ago, jperz09 said:

LSI MegaRaid 9240 - 8i to 9211 (2118 IT)

That should be a fairly straight forward cross flash

I did some instructions way back over here:
https://www.servethehome.com/ibm-serveraid-m1015-part-4/

Did you follow a similar course ?

[jperz09]

Yeah I followed that to a "T". The cross flash went fine, it's just the drive issue. It happens in any system i put it in, so I'm wondering if there's an issue with the card. Thanks for you help.

[jperz09]

nevermind, found what i was looking for.

Edited November 13, 2019 by jperz09
found what i was looking for.

[mobilenvidia]

3 hours ago, jperz09 said:

nevermind, found what i was looking for.

Any clue for others what you found ?
Was the card at fault ?

[jperz09]

37 minutes ago, mobilenvidia said:

Any clue for others what you found ?
Was the card at fault ?

Never found a resolution for it, i'm guessing it's the card. I just flashed it back to the 9240 and i'm still having weird issues with it. I'm giving up with it, might just try a true HBA instead of forcing this one into something else.

[ReaGeN]

Dear Pieter
I read your article, very useful and interesting.
I ask for your help.
I want to use the IBM ServeRaid M1015 LSI SAS9220-8i.  MB ASUS P8H77, OS Win.10/x64
I will use it in IT mode. What archive should I take the firmware files from? The firmware will be in FreeDOS (Rufus).  Will there be problems with my chipset H77 ?

[mobilenvidia]

On 1/7/2020 at 9:10 AM, ReaGeN said:

Dear Pieter
I read your article, very useful and interesting.
I ask for your help.
I want to use the IBM ServeRaid M1015 LSI SAS9220-8i.  MB ASUS P8H77, OS Win.10/x64
I will use it in IT mode. What archive should I take the firmware files from? The firmware will be in FreeDOS (Rufus).  Will there be problems with my chipset H77 ?

With your Mobo, unless you can force UEFI boot to be off you won't be able to use DOS flashing
Your best bet is the efi route to flash card, boot to efi shell (on a USB) then flash with EFI flashing commands.

[nor500]

I bought a M1015 ( LSI SAS9220-8i) card from ebay from a trusty seller. My problem is the card not posting during boot, and also the bios not recognizid drives, attached to the card. What shall I do?

[mobilenvidia]

Has the card been Flashed to IT Firmware with no BIOS ?
This would then do as you are seeing 

Can you see the drives in the OS ?

When you say BIOS are you meaning System/Mobo BIOS or the M1015 BIOS ?

[friolator]

First, thanks for the clear instructions. It's so hard to find information on these cards that's about changing the firmware from IT mode, instead of to it.

I have a bit of a mystery, and hopefully not a brick.

Years ago, I bought some 9240-8i cards for a FreeNAS system. I ended up hating FreeNAS and the cards were shelved, as we did something else using different controller cards. Fast forward to 5 years later (last night). I honestly don't remember what I did with these cards back in 2015. I think I probably flashed them to IT mode. One card doesn't show up in POST or in MSM. The other card showed up in MSM but not POST. In MSM, the firmware version was 16.0.0.0, there was no BIOS version. So I'm assuming that's IT mode. Attached drives appear in MSM, but I couldn't create an array. So I decided to take it back to the original state: a 9240-8i. I just want to make a RAID5 array and don't care if the BIOS is there (i'd kind of prefer it actually, for setup). 

So i followed the instructions in the first post last night and successfully flashed the card. However, on boot, it hangs after displaying the firmware version in POST. By hang, I mean I let it go for 30 minutes before powering down and heading home for the night. 

Presumably this is because the BIOS was removed 5 years ago? Is it possible to put it back, and if so, how? or is it something else?

Thanks!

Edited May 9, 2020 by friolator

[mobilenvidia]

FreeNAS = IT mode and like you don't like freeNAS
I've been using Rockstor, not really supported any more, but much better to use (well I think so anyways)

Keep in mind I've not Flashed any cards for some years (excepting turning Sun F80 into LSI version)

Sort out the cards into what state they are in
IT mode = any drive attached will show to the OS, none shown then something wrong
IT mode with BIOS at boot it will show a splash screen and a key combo to enter LSI BIOS
MR mode = MegaRAID mode as you originally had, no good for FreeNAS unless you make single RAID 0 drive, Rockstor can handle a RAID array but not ideal, and the 9240 does RAID very slowly
Nothing shows = 50/50 in ability to revive it.

If you have a Mobo that's pre UEFI BIOS you're all good also if you can turn UEFI off completely, otherwise below probably won't work and you'll need to look at EFI versions of files
Make you self a DOS USB disk
Grab the DOS utilities and put in disk
Study how some of the commands work
Megarec, needed to get to LSI9240 
sas2flash needed to work in IT/IR mode
lsiutil very handy tool that can do a lot, and also very easy to break your cards

First see if any of them apps see the cards
Sas2flash has a witch to remove all the FW from card
I would then Megarec on the LSI 9240 MR FW to get it back to where it was at the start, you can then go to IT or IR mode from there more easily

Grab the SAS addresss, make sure you make a back up of SBR of one the cards you may need this, I think there is one in the DOS folder

If you can see the card when booting to DOS or EFI then there is hope

[Leander]

Good Morning,

I'm using an LSI SAS 9211-8I. Currently on IT, need to get it to IR.

Firmware up to date. Just not luck in getting it to flash to IR.

[mobilenvidia]

38 minutes ago, Leander said:

Good Morning,

I'm using an LSI SAS 9211-8I. Currently on IT, need to get it to IR.

Firmware up to date. Just not luck in getting it to flash to IR.

Good Evening, you've followed the instructions from 1st post ?

[Nvthedemon]

so sbrempty.bin return an error opening file  i do wrong running off free dos bootable usb in bios with a lsi 9240 8i

 

[Nvthedemon]

ignore me im stupid carry on 

[mobilenvidia]

18 minutes ago, Nvthedemon said:

ignore me im stupid carry on 

All my files are guaranteed or your money back

[Georgelza]

On 4/6/2021 at 11:03 AM, mobilenvidia said:

All my files are guaranteed or your money back

I"ll admit, I'm this stupid... tried same command, also saying can't find the file... I'm assuming this is a empty file that it is writing to a ROM?

Please assist.

G

[mobilenvidia]

7 hours ago, Georgelza said:

I"ll admit, I'm this stupid... tried same command, also saying can't find the file... I'm assuming this is a empty file that it is writing to a ROM?

Please assist.

G

Yes empty file get written to the ROM to clear it, as long as we're talking about the 'empty SBR' file

[Georgelza]

On 4/15/2021 at 9:23 PM, mobilenvidia said:

Yes empty file get written to the ROM to clear it, as long as we're talking about the 'empty SBR' file

awesome, ok, so my thinking was right, so where can I get this empty bin.

 

G

[Georgelza]

I"m thinking as I haven't done this, the next step is failing with the PAL error due to this/empty write not having been done.

G

[mobilenvidia]

16 minutes ago, Georgelza said:

awesome, ok, so my thinking was right, so where can I get this empty bin.

 

G

See first post, link to DOS files has it

[Georgelza]

On 4/17/2021 at 7:44 AM, mobilenvidia said:

See first post, link to DOS files has it

yes, thats the spot where I downloaded the files from, the dos bundle did not have this bin in it.

will go look again.

G