SOLVED Supermicro X10SL7-F-0 - Question re: flashing onboard LSI controller

[Tivy]

A couple of heads up first
#1 this is my first post here -- Sorry it's a long post
#2 I have 35+ years computer experience but it's all DOS and Windows - pretty much ZERO Unix experience except for last few weeks trying to get up to speed on FreeNAS - which means I don't know much about CLI commands yet - and I'm still trying to learn so I'll probably ask some stupid questions (sorry in advance)
#3
I just got through my first install of FreeNAS this weekend and ran into a couple of issues that I can't find the answers for.
First Issue/Questions
After installing FreeNAS I get the following warning message:
"Firmware version 15 does not match driver version 21 for /dev/mps0. Please flash controller to P21 IT firmware"
In the LSI configuration utility the current firmware is 15.00.00.00-IR
I also confirm also that my controller listed is SMC2308-IR
In short, I'm looking for the correct firmware files for my controller...
From what I've read there is still (as of the date of this post) no P21 Firmware update for the 2308 (?????) and I need the P20 firmware.\

I don't want to brick my motherboard like this thread: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/flashing-sas-controller-failed.44414/
That was a different motherboard/controller but the message is clear that flashing with the wrong update is not a good idea.

And this thread: "https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...t-match-driver-version-20-for-dev-mps0.36536/"
Same motherboard but the thread is older, long and cluttered (sorry no offense intended) with questions about other motherboards, and controllers. HOWEVER ... At post #14 Pclauson provides a link to P20 firmware files here (http://www.cstone.net/~dk/p20.zip), which *I don't think* are the correct ones for my X10SL7-F. At post #19 on that thread Spearfoot states that the same files "... should work for the 2308 on the X10SL7-F AFAIK" but provides a link to a different download from a Supermicro ftp site.
The "cstone.net" site seems like an ODD (and risky) place to get firmware update files!
The Supermicro FTP download seems to be the better option. -- Can someone confirm that this is the correct firmware?

I've downloaded both files on my Windows system but with my lack of UNIX experience I'm not sure how to get the files (once I determine which I need to use) on the FreeBSD system? (help needed). I'm pretty sure I know how to update the firmware through the UEFI shell accessible from the BIOS config from these and other threads.

Please note that I have no active data on my pool yet so no worries about loss of data in doing the firmware upgrade - I just don't want to brick the motherboard.

Second Issue/Questions
My second issue/question is (and perhaps I should start a separate post for this) is that I have encountered an error when I switch the Reporting database to the System dataset. After searching, I found my system was throwing the same error discussed in this thread (https://bugs.freenas.org/issues/18824) but instead of "9657" it was "9003". i.e.
freenas collectd[9003]: check_create_dir: `/var/db/collectd/rrd/MYNAS.local' exists but is not a directory!
Just as in that bug report my system was throwing a raft of these errors every few seconds, and I could see the data usage increasing in the Storage>Volumes screen due to the writes to the log files. I unchecked the Reporting Database in the GUI System>System Dataset and the error stopped. After a reboot I've gone back in and re-checked the Reporting Database option, (I was going to try to recreate the error) and no more errors. .... Now this is where my lack of UNIX knowledge gets me -- the comments on the bug report indicate that manually creating the folder stopped the error. I did not go in and create the folder manually (cuz I don't know how to do that yet). BUT I have a theory as to why it may have happened -- I had just changed the hostname from Freenas.local to a custom name, saved it, then checked the Reporting database to move it to the newly created dataset. (I don't recall if I created the dataset first but I think I did.) I thought that perhaps the error resulted from the sequence of the changes that I made, but that the directory eventually got created (but I'm not sure when). Is it worth the time for me to try to recreate this and post a bug report? (If I can). Or is this already known? Maybe its not a bug. I dunno. Just throwing it out there.

Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post.

 

[CraigD]

Get the firmware from the Supermicro site, and flash it to IT mode ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/driver/SAS/LSI/2308/Firmware/IT/

I watched a video on Youtube and it got the job done but forgot the name of it

Have Fun

 

[Tivy]

Thanks CraigD!
I've been searching for two days to figure out how to copy or access the new firmware files from the shell. I've put the firmware files on a fat32 USB. The USB stick appears as da9 in CAMCONTROL DEVLIST, but I can't figure out how to list the files, or access the disk. I thought maybe i needed to mount the USB first and tried different "mount" commands but I just get device not recognized. I've also looked in the FreeNAS manual, but it doesn't appear that it covers what is probably a very basic shell command that is beyond me. I've also looked at FreeBSD commands knowing that FreeNAS is based on FreeBSD. Still no joy. Maybe, I'm going about this the wrong way or I'm missing something obvious ....

Just to clarify - I'm booting FreeNAS, then going to a shell (9 on the menu). then inserting the USB with the firmware. This is where I get stuck. I'm just trying to SEE what's on the USB. Nothing I've tried will get me to the USB so that I can run a ls -a command to list the files.
Note: I'm not trying to run the firmware update from the FreeNAS shell - I know that needs to be done from the UEFI shell. I'm just trying to figure out how to get access to the files so I'll know how to access them once I'm in the UEFI shell.
Or should I be trying to do this all from the UEFI shell?
Any pointers would really help!
Thanks

 

[Jailer]

Good lord this process has been posted many times over on this forum including various different ways to do it. Follow the directions in the attached document and it will get the job done.

 

[Tivy]

Thanks Jailer. I did see something similar to that but it didn't click for me. Seriously, that was clearer than anything else I found.