LSI 9212-4i flash to IT Mode

SkullDice666

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Joined
Apr 3, 2022
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4
I am new to TrueNAS and server stuff in general so please don't be too harsh. I managed to get my NAS up and running but I ran out of SATA ports and I was told on the Discord to get an HBA card. I did a bunch of research and I found this LSI 9212-4i locally for $20. I have already spent most/all of my budget on the storage drives so I couldn't get another one but this looked compatible so I went for it.

I have been trying to flash this card to IT mode. I tried a few different guides but I kept running into dead ends.

I used the following hardware to try to flash it as I don't want to mess with the data that's already on my actual TrueNAS server. There's a lot more at risk in doing so.

Code:
Installation PC
- AsRock Z75 Pro3
- Intel i5-3570K
- 16GB DDR3-1600 (4x4)
- ADATA SU800
- Verbatim 4GB flash drive


Code:
TrueNAS PC
- Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H
- Intel Pentium G2120
- 16GB DDR3-1866 (2x8)
- Seagate 600 240GB SSD
- WD Red 4TB (WD40EFAX) x 6
- HP LSI 9212-4i SAS


I started off on this guide because it listed my specific HBA card model.
https://flemmingss.com/how-to-flash-it-mode-firmware-to-hp-lsi-sas-9212-4i-controller-card/

Then I found this one on here:
https://www.truenas.com/community/r...9300-9305-9311-9400-94xx-hba-and-variants.54/

I did confirm that my card was on IR mode.

As I was using the first guide I was able to get to MS-DOS (TrueNAS guide said it is if its black&white) but when I tried to type any command at all it would say "no such file or directory" or "bad command or filename."

Then I added DOS4GW.EXE to usb and it let me do
Code:
megarec -cleanflash 0
but it didn't let me do any "sasflash" commands so based on the TrueNAS guide that means that I need to switch to EFI mode. From there I added EFI shells (v1 and v2) and EFI shell did show up (TrueNAS guide said it would have color) but it says it doesn't

Code:
recognize sas2flsh as an internal or external command 
OR
recognize sas2flash as an internal OR external command


I read somewhere about a sas2flsh.efi file so I tried to look for that and put it in the root directory of the flash drive but that didn't make a difference. I also tried to add a bootx64.efi to the directory EFI/boot and that didn't work either.

Then I tried combining things from other guides and none of that worked and I don't even remember which guide I got what from anymore.

I'm not sure if the PC hardware factors in at all since the AsRock Z75 Pro3 didn't have its own internal EFI filesystem. I also read in one of the guides/posts that you might have to use a motherboard from the pre-UEFI days to get it to work. I don't know anymore. I have lost track.

I would really appreciate it if someone could offer some insight on how I could fix these errors.

I will probably try again tomorrow night (its 1:23AM PST here) and post the exact errors if needed.
 

neofusion

Contributor
Joined
Apr 2, 2022
Messages
159
As I was using the first guide I was able to get to MS-DOS (TrueNAS guide said it is if its black&white) but when I tried to type any command at all it would say "no such file or directory" or "bad command or filename."
It sounds like you're missing a step where you change to the correct directory before you run the command.

Then I added DOS4GW.EXE to usb and it let me do
Code:
megarec -cleanflash 0
but it didn't let me do any "sasflash" commands so based on the TrueNAS guide that means that I need to switch to EFI mode. From there I added EFI shells (v1 and v2) and EFI shell did show up (TrueNAS guide said it would have color) but it says it doesn't

Code:
recognize sas2flsh as an internal or external command
OR
recognize sas2flash as an internal OR external command


I read somewhere about a sas2flsh.efi file so I tried to look for that and put it in the root directory of the flash drive but that didn't make a difference. I also tried to add a bootx64.efi to the directory EFI/boot and that didn't work either.
Again, it sounds like you are missing the the step where you change to the correct directory (and device maybe) before you run the command.
 

SkullDice666

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Joined
Apr 3, 2022
Messages
4
I'm not sure what I should do to change the directory as I don't think I saw it as part of the guide. I tried doing fs0: and fs1: first and I still pretty much get the same messages.

Would you be able to point me in the right direction? Maybe let me know where in the guide to look or something?
 

SkullDice666

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Joined
Apr 3, 2022
Messages
4
I tried following the guide posted by user @Yorick https://www.truenas.com/community/threads/sata-cards-for-a-home-truenas.94459/post-655393

I got to this part
1660985513693.png


My result was this screen which says "No MR controllers found" along with a bunch of other stuff so I'm just thinking did I break something? Maybe this is why none of the stuff I'm putting in is working? I will probably need to try this again tomorrow night and see if I can figure out what to do.
 

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neofusion

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Apr 2, 2022
Messages
159
Perhaps you could take a screenshot of what the output looks like if you list the contents of the current directory you are in before you run the sas2flsh/sas2flash commands?

In DOS you list it with: dir
In the EFI Shell you list it with: ls
 

neofusion

Contributor
Joined
Apr 2, 2022
Messages
159
My result was this screen which says "No MR controllers found" along with a bunch of other stuff so I'm just thinking did I break something? Maybe this is why none of the stuff I'm putting in is working? I will probably need to try this again tomorrow night and see if I can figure out what to do.
I can't say when it comes to "breaking" the card; it's possible it's in a fault state now.
You've partially followed three different guides so except for that last step, which you screenshotted, I don't know what commands you've actually run.

But I do know that the error messages you posted in your first post indicated the OS couldn't find the tool you were trying to run (sas2flsh) which suggests an incorrect initial setup of the boot-usb or something along those lines. You will need to fix that before you can proceed; hence my previous question relating to directory contents.
 

SkullDice666

Cadet
Joined
Apr 3, 2022
Messages
4
Perhaps you could take a screenshot of what the output looks like if you list the contents of the current directory you are in before you run the sas2flsh/sas2flash commands?

In DOS you list it with: dir
In the EFI Shell you list it with: ls
I did follow 3 guides but I only ever got past the first command

megarec -cleanflash 0

I attached the screenshot of the contents of the directory. I also tried to do this whole thing on a different mobo that does not have UEFI and I got the "Failed to initiate PAL" error still.

Any suggestions?
 

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neofusion

Contributor
Joined
Apr 2, 2022
Messages
159
Thank you.
I am not sure about the PAL error but it seems like it might be worth trying it in the EFI-shell instead of MSDOS.
However, while you appear to be able to boot into the shell, based on your previous post, you're missing the EFI-compatible sas2-executable; sas2flsh.exe will only run in MSDOS so you need to get an EFI-compatible version.

You can get P20 sas2flash.efi from Broadcom themselves here:
You should see two hits in the searchresult, either one takes you to the same download, grab it.

Extract the resulting .zip-file and put the sas2flash.efi you find inside it in the root of your USB-stick and try booting the EFI-shell again.
Nondestructively test the basic functionality by running sas2flash.efi -listall and check the result. If you get an error, screenshot and post it here if you can.
 
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