Dell H310 flashing to IT mode Issues

Stakex

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Aug 22, 2019
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I purchased a Dell PERC H310 off eBay with the idea of expanding the drives in my HP Microserver Gen8 after doing a fair amount of digging on here and finding that the general consensus was these are pretty cost effective and work great in IT mode.

I then headed over to mattr's tutorial here and started to flash it.

USB all prepped and into FreeDOS, I ran the first command to get my SAS address and noted it down.

Code:
megacli.exe -AdpAllInfo -aAll -page 20 


On to flashing the card.

Code:
megarec.exe -writesbr 0 sbrempty.bin


Unlike the guide this command was successful and outputs the following;

Code:
Chip is in FUSION mode - Success


Didn't think this was a huge issue so moved on to the next step.

Code:
megarec.exe -cleanflash 0


This completed successfully and outputs the following;

Code:
Erasing Flash Chip (16MB) Completed: 100%


Rebooted my server and back into FreeDOS as stated in the guide. Now this is where I get into trouble....

Code:
sas2flsh.exe -o -f 6GBPSAS.fw


This command fails with the following output;

Code:
Beginning Firmware Download...
Firmware Download Failed!
Due to error remaining commands will not be executed.
Unable to Process Commands
Exiting SAS2Flash


OK so I stepped back a second and rebooted my server and went back to the

Code:
megarec.exe -writesbr 0 sbrempty.bin


step. Same issue applies when I get to flashing the 6GBPSAS.fw. So this is where I am stuck...

I have tried a couple of different things but to no avail.

Interestingly or perhaps worryingly now when I run

Code:
megacli.exe -AdpAllInfo -aAll -page 20


I get an error stating
exit code 0x01
. Thankfully I have my SAS address from earlier.


I have also tried;

Code:
sas2flsh.exe -listall


but I get an error stating the following;

Code:
SAS Address:        : Undertermined
ERROR: Failed to Upload Image!
Firmware information could not be retrived
BIOS Version        : N/A
UEFI BSD Version    : N/A
FCODE Version       : N/A


Really not sure where to go next. Do you have any suggestions on what to try next or spot what I am doing wrong ? Can post screenshots of the full outputs if that will help. I think I need to try this in a UEFI machine next so will need to see if I can dig one out or borrow one from work.
 

Dunuin

Contributor
Joined
Mar 7, 2013
Messages
110
I did the same tutorial right now with a H310 from 2016 and Dell IR Firmware and it seems to work. FreeNAS found all SSDs attached to it and I was able to create a new pool. I also got that "Chip is in FUSION mode - Success" instead of a error and ignored it. I tried it first with an Asus UEFI Board which doesn't worked. So i tried it again with my Supermicro X10SLL-F and the "UEFI H310 tutorial steps" and every step finished with "success".
But I'm a little bit confused because I can't see any menus while booting to edit the HBA. And an "sas2flash -listall" return there is no x86 BIOS. Someone knows if that is normal or if not how to fix it?

Thats what "sas2flash -list" returns:
Unbenannt.png


Btw: How to copy text from the freenas web console?
 

HoneyBadger

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But I'm a little bit confused because I can't see any menus while booting to edit the HBA. And an "sas2flash -listall" return there is no x86 BIOS. Someone knows if that is normal or if not how to fix it?
Glad to hear things are working again. The vast majority of the crossflashing tutorials involve erasing the flash, but never reloading a boot ROM. A regular and UEFI boot ROM can coexist on the same card, and I believe the techmattr tutorial .zip includes them. While they aren't necessary if you're using the card as a dumb HBA, it can be useful for troubleshooting drive detection/expander/topology.

I believe the command line is sas2flsh.exe -b mpt2sas.rom and then repeat with x64sas2.rom for the UEFI version.
 

Stakex

Cadet
Joined
Aug 22, 2019
Messages
2
Were you able to resolve this?
I managed to get it to work by using an UEFI motherboard to flash it. Essentially after
Code:
megarec -cleanflash 0
you boot into the UEFI shell and it worked without a hitch.

After posting on a few forums the general consensus seems to be that it is a bit temperamental doing it via FreeDOS fully. Hopefully this works for you also.
 

Dunuin

Contributor
Joined
Mar 7, 2013
Messages
110
Glad to hear things are working again. The vast majority of the crossflashing tutorials involve erasing the flash, but never reloading a boot ROM. A regular and UEFI boot ROM can coexist on the same card, and I believe the techmattr tutorial .zip includes them. While they aren't necessary if you're using the card as a dumb HBA, it can be useful for troubleshooting drive detection/expander/topology.

I believe the command line is sas2flsh.exe -b mpt2sas.rom and then repeat with x64sas2.rom for the UEFI version.
Ok Thanks. There is a "x64sas2.rom" in the root folder of the "tutorial zip" but not a "mpt2sas.rom". Can someone point me to the right mpt2sas.rom and x64sas2.rom files compatible with my flashed firmware? There are some "mptsas2.rom" files in A00 to A10 folders but I dont know if they are meant to use with the 20.00.07.00 IT SAS9211-8i firmware.

Is the "BIOS: \sasbios_rel\mptsas2.rom Version no: 7.39.02.00 Release date: 03-AUG-14" from the official "9211_8i_Package_P20_IR_IT_FW_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows" package the right BIOS? But there is no "x64sas2.rom" in that package. Is the "x64sas2.rom" from the "UEFI_BSD_P20.zip" the right one?
 
Last edited:

HoneyBadger

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I would suggest that you download the BIOS from the LSI/Broadcom site directly rather than a third-party file host (unless you have checksums to verify) but that should be the correct filename, and the LSI BIOS should be fine.
 
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