Tag Archives: LSI

FreeBSD: use mrsas driver to replace mfi driver

My server got a Dell PERC H330 raid card, and I made it’s working in HBA mode to make sure that it can get best performance under FreeBSD with zfs.
But every time when I boot the server, I’ll get below error message and it take a long time to pass the disk check stage.

1

After research, it seems this timeout error was caused by the old mfi driver.
And LSI has released a new mrsas driver for FreeBSD. So It’s better to switch the driver from mfi to mrsas.

First, add below line into /boot/loader.conf

mrsas_load="YES"

And then add below device hint into /boot/device.hints . This line is very important. Without this device hint, FreeBSD will use the old mfi driver for raid card even though you enabled maras drvier.

hw.mfi.mrsas_enable="1"

And then, add below line into /boot/loader.conf to disable disk id identity.

kern.geom.label.gptid.enable="0"
kern.geom.label.disk_ident.enable="0"

Without above two line, after you switch from mfi to mrsas, all the disks will be shown as diskid-*****************。

And don’t forget to update /etc/fstab to change the swap partition from mfi*p* to da*p*. Otherwise you’ll lose your swap partition.

Then, reboot your server, and enjoy.

Crossflashing an IBM M1115 RAID controller to LSI firmware

1. Download the flash package, and unzip it to folder SAS
http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/29059-lsi-92xx-firmware-files/

2. Download latest firmware from LSI website.

http://www.lsi.com/products/host-bus-adapters/pages/lsi-sas-9211-8i.aspx#tab/tab4

At this time, I’m using 9211-8i_Package_P18_IR_IT_Firmware_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows.

3. Unzip the firmware package, and copy below files to folder SAS created in step 1
2118ir.bin from FirmwareHBA_9211_8i_IR
2118it.bin from FirmwareHBA_9211_8i_IT
mptsas2.rom from sasbios_rel
sas2flsh.exe from sas2flash_dos_rel

4. Create a DOS bootable USB drives, you can download a tool from below link:
http://rufus.akeo.ie/

5. Turn machine off, and grab the SAS address of the card, it’s on the back on a green sticker (ie 500605B0xxxxxxxx)

6. Use the USB drive to boot the computer, and flash the firmware

Convert LSI9240(IBM M1015) to a LSI9211-IT mode
Type in the following exactly:
megarec -writesbr 0 sbrempty.bin
megarec -cleanflash 0
<reboot, back to USB stick >
sas2flsh -o -f 2118it.bin -b mptsas2.rom (sas2flsh -o -f 2118it.bin if OptionROM is not needed)
sas2flsh -o -sasadd 500605bxxxxxxxxx (x= numbers for SAS address)
<reboot>
Done!

Convert IBM M1115 to a LSI9211-IR mode
Type in the following exactly:
megarec -writesbr 0 sbrempty.bin
megarec -cleanflash 0
<reboot, back to USB stick>
sas2flsh -o -f 2118ir.bin -b mptsas2.rom
sas2flsh -o -sasadd 500605b0xxxxxxxx (x= numbers for SAS address)
<reboot>
Done!

Convert LSI9211-IT or IR to LSI9211 IR or IT
Type in the following exactly:
Megarec -cleanflash 0
<reboot, back to USB stick>
sas2flsh -o -f 2118ir.bin -b mptsas2.rom (2118it.bin = IT mode Firmware, change according to which way to flash)
sas2flsh -o -sasadd 500605bxxxxxxxxx (x= numbers for SAS address)
<reboot>
Done!

Convert LSI9211-IT/IR back to IBM M1115
Type in the following exactly:
Megarec -cleanflash 0
Megarec -writesbr 0 sbrm1015.bin
<reboot, back to USB stick>
Megarec -m0flash 0 0061_lsi.rom (for latest LSI firmware, also included 2x IBM roms too, just change name)
<reboot>
Done!

7. You may get an error message “ERROR: Failed to initialize PAL. Exiting program.” when you try to flash the card, it means that you’re unable to do this from DOS. You have to get a UEFI shell (https://edk2.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/edk2/trunk/edk2/EdkShellBinPkg/FullShell/X64/Shell_Full.efi worked for me on my 64 bit CPU) and put it on your usb stick. Then you have to boot into UEFI shell, and use below command

sas2flash.efi -o -f 2118it.bin -b mptsas2.rom
sas2flash.efi -o -sasadd 500605bxxxxxxxxx 

Installing Windows XP on ESX/ESXi using LSI Logic driver

By default, ESX will use the LSI Logic driver when deploying a new Windows XP virtual machine. The LSI Logic driver is not found on the CD-ROM media, so Windows XP will not continue with the installation if this driver is not found.

WinXP

  1. The steps:
    Create a new Windows XP Virtual Machine
    Upload a Windows XP .iso file to your datastore/ISOstore (preferably a VLK version) and link it via the CD-ROM options in your Virtual Machine. Make sure it is connected / at power on
    Go to http://www.lsilogic.com/cm/DownloadSearch.do and search for a driver for the LSI20320-R controller.
    Extract all files in the symmpi_wXP_1201800.ZIP
    Use a program such as WinImage to create an LSILogic.flp file and include the extracted files in the .flp image.
    Upload the newly created LSILogic.flp to your datastore/ISO store
    Link the .flp file via the Floppy options => use existing floppy image in datastore in your Virtual Machine. Do NOT connect it yet.
    Power On your Windows XP machine. The installation of Windows XP should begin.
    During setup, press F6 to select additional SCSI drivers
    Now is the time to connect your floppy and use S during Windows Setup when prompted to connect to the floppy drive.

S-Command

The LSILogic drive should appear. Press ENTER to continue
Setup will continue as normal
Install VMware tools
Done!

NOTE: when using the BusLogic driver instead, you can download & use a preconfigured .flp file from the VMware site: http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmscsi-1.2.0.4.flp. Follow the same procedure as described above. The driver should be name VMware SCSI Controller in Windows XP.

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