Broadcom - Flashing firmware and BIOS on LSI SAS HBAs - Reference Table

[RedX1]

Hello


Broadcom - Flashing firmware and BIOS on LSI SAS HBAs - Reference Table

I am not sure where to put this, Perhaps the moderators will place this appropriately



While seeking for the LSI HBA Flashing Tools, I found this interesting KB page on the Broadcom site.

Flashing firmware and BIOS on LSI SAS HBAs





Here is the output of KB, in case the page disappears in the future.



Knowledge Base

• CREATE A REQUEST

ID: 1211161501344

Question

Flashing firmware and BIOS on LSI SAS HBAs

Answer

There are several flash methods available.

1. sas2flash/sas3flash

1. sas2flash for LSI SAS 6 Gb/sec HBAs (Windows/Linux/EFI)
1. Cannot be used to flash to older firmware
2. Cannot be used to flash from IT to IR firmware or from IR to IT firmware
3. Can be used to flash the controller BIOS and/or EFI

2. sas2flsh for LSI SAS 6 Gb/sec HBAs (DOS)
1. Can be used to flash to older firmware
2. Can be used to flash from IT to IR firmware or from IR to IT firmware

3. sas3flash for LSI SAS 12 Gb/sec HBAs (Windows/Linux/EFI)
1. Cannot be used to flash to older firmware
2. Cannot be used to flash from IT to IR firmware or from IR to IT firmware
3. Can be used to flash the controller BIOS and/or EFI

4. sas3flsh for LSI SAS 12 Gb/sec HBAs (DOS)
1. Can be used to flash to older firmware
2. Can be used to flash from IT to IR firmware or from IR to IT firmware

_______________________________________________
Note: The DOS version of sas2flsh (sas3flsh for 12 Gb/sec HBAs) requires that the motherboard support the BIOS32 service directory feature. If the BIOS32 service directory feature isn't supported, when DOS is booted and sas2flsh.exe is run, an error message "ERROR: Failed to initialize PAL. Exiting program." will be displayed. You can either use the UEFI version of sas2flsh (called sas2flash.efi for 6 Gb/sec, or sas3flash.efi for 12 Gb/sec), or contact the motherboard vendor and ask if it is possible to add BIOS32 service directory support to the motherboard (most likely via a motherboard BIOS update).

Notes:
1. When using sas2flash.efi or sas3flash.efi, but sure to put all of the files (the firmware file, BIOS file, and sas2flash.efi/sas3flash.efi) in the root directory. Otherwise you might see a 'Could not open file:' error.
2. Some of the scenarios below ( ) involved erasing the controller firmware first with the '-o -e 6' command line option, then flashing it back. Doing this erases the EFI BSD. If the EFI BSD is erased, then when the controller has IR firmware and the motherboard is in UEFI mode, then the SAS HBA will not be able to be configured in BIOS. Also the UEFI BSD version will be displayed as 'N/A' with the sas2flash (or sas3flash) -c 0 -list command.
You can flash the UEFI BSD firmware to resolve this.


=mpt2sas.rom for 6 Gb/sec SAS HBA
=mpt3sas.rom for 12 Gb/sec SAS HBA







Table for using sas2flsh/sas2flash/sas3flsh/sas3flash

Case

Flash From

Flash To

Motherboard used

SAS2Flash/SAS3Flash OS version

Command (example shows sas2flsh/sas2flash; use sas3flsh/sas3flash if using 12 Gb/sec SAS)

1

Older IT firmware

Newer IT Firmware

Any except SMX9

DOS/EFI/ Windows/ Linux/ Solaris

(DOS): sas2flsh -o -f (All other OS): sas2flash -o -f -b

2

Older IT firmware and BIOS

Newer IT Firmware and BIOS

Any except SMX9

DOS/EFI/ Windows/ Linux/ Solaris

(DOS): sas2flsh -o -f -b (All other OS): sas2flash -o -f -b example: sas2flsh -o -f 2118it.bin -b mpt2sas.rom

3

Newer IT Firmware and BIOS

Older IT firmware and BIOS

Any except SMX9

DOS or EFI

(DOS): sas2flsh -o -e 6 sas2flsh -o -f -b sas2flsh -o -f

4a

Older IR firmware

Newer IR Firmware

Any except SMX9

DOS/EFI/ Windows/ Linux/ Solaris

(DOS): sas2flsh -o -f (All other OS): sas2flash -o -f -b

4b

Older IR firmware and BIOS

Newer IR Firmware and BIOS

Any except SMX9

DOS/EFI/ Windows/ Linux/ Solaris

(DOS): sas2flsh -o -f -b (All other OS): sas2flash -o -f -b

5

Newer IR Firmware and BIOS

Older IR firmware and BIOS

Any except SMX9

DOS or EFI

(DOS): sas2flsh -o -f -b (All other OS): sas2flash -o -f -b

6*

Any version IT firmware

Any version IR firmware

Any except SMX9

DOS or EFI

(DOS): sas2flsh -o -e 6 sas2flsh -o -f -b sas2flsh -o -f

7*

Any version IR firmware

Any version IT firmware

Any except SMX9

DOS or EFI

(DOS): sas2flsh -o -e 6 sas2flsh -o -f -b sas2flsh -o -f

8

Older IT firmware

Newer IT firmware

SMX9

EFI/ Windows/ Linux/ Solaris

sas2flash -o -f -b

9

Older IT firmware and BIOS

Newer IT firmware and BIOS

SMX9

EFI/ Windows/ Linux/ Solaris

sas2flash -o -f -b

10

Newer IT firmware

Older IT firmware

SMX9

EFI

sas2flash.efi -o -f -b

11

Any BIOS

Any BIOS

SMX9

Windows/ Linux/ Solaris

sas2flash -o -b

12

Older IR firmware

Newer IR firmware

SMX9

Windows/ Linux/ Solaris

sas2flash -o -f -b

13

Newer IR firmware

Older IR firmware

SMX9

EFI

sas2flash.efi -o -f -b

*When flashing an 12G HBA (SAS 9300 family) with IR mode firmware provided in the same package, named 9311, SAS3Flash returns the following error:

ERROR: NVDATA Image does not match Controller Subsystem ID!
ERROR: No compatible NVDATA Image(s) found!
Firmware Image Validation Failed!

Resolution:
Using DOS or EFI SAS3Flash version 10.00.00.01 or higher with following command string

sas3flsh –o –e -6
sas3flsh –o –f -b -nossid

EFI:
sas3flash –o –f -nossid


Keywords:

flash firmware
upgrade firmware
downgrade firmware
SMX9 = Supermicro X9 motherboards

sas2flash.efi

<p><span class='icon icon-zip'></span>Installer_P20_for_UEFI.zip</p>

sas3flash.efi

<p><span class='icon icon-zip'></span>Installer_P14_for_UEFI.zip</p>

Supporting Documents

Broadcom Inc. | Connecting Everything


I hope this helps.



RedX1

 

[Sundar]

Thanks for this useful table.

I want to flash an onboard LSI 2208 on a Supermicro X9DRH-7F to IT firmware.
What is the difference between flashing controller firmware and flashing the controller BIOS and/or EFI?

 

[RedX1]

Hello

You might find this useful and informative.

Have fun.


RedX1

 

[samarium]

I recently use these two utilities to unbrick a Fujitsu branded LSI SAS 2008 card, that I had bricked many years ago trying to cross flash with the DOS/UEFI tools. After disabling IOMMU/VT-x, all from linux, no DOS/UEFI, no changing motherboards, no reboots required except to re-enable IOMMU/VT-x.

GitHub - marcan/lsirec: LSI SAS2008/SAS2108 low-level recovery tool for Linux

LSI SAS2008/SAS2108 low-level recovery tool for Linux - marcan/lsirec

github.com

meta-xa-stm/recipes-support/lsiutil at master · exactassembly/meta-xa-stm

Yocto layer for LSI SAS2 and SAS3 SCSI Target Mode - exactassembly/meta-xa-stm

github.com

 

[chromecut]

so does anybody read these help requests anymore? No progress on broadcom 9500 series cards? what about those specialty cables? the gurus bailed because the old tools didnt work no more? It looks like sasflsh, storeclio (oem version) ,megascu and some bios hex editing should do the trick but I cannot locate any of those tools-no one page with all the tools? can someone please post a copy of an older sasflsh(NOT sasflAsh), storecliO (I dont care that it doesnt work on hba)and megascu would be nice since Im certain its very relevant to the sbr and manufacturing pages-Im really disapointed in what looks like just a few people with the tools-and a bunch o people got what they wanted then poof-without mentioning how they did it lol-Nobody thought to use bios tools and examine the lsi roms? Crossflashing is dead so best to stick with original oem as its easier
and litterlly 1 byte changed to 01 or 00 for IT/IR and 4 for the vender-then the sbr config file aside from the actual sbr rom itself(two things that are scarce yet paramount and nobody can provide 9500/9600 sbrs/w config file? Im sure I can unlock storcliO and with 2 or 3 brilliant gurus chnage just the vender and product subiD/regex form and the whole thing is automated-Now Ill throw you guys a bone with supermicro has a pci4 x8 hba for cheap and with non expensive broadcom cables 8i/8i plus with the 9500-8i (a little more pricy) plugs right into a dual m.2 nvme adapter slimsas 8i and sata powered(they say it only works with vroc) $20 later and $15 for the cable $7 for huge copper heat syncs and in my dual aurora R12s I hit 13,500mb/s with storage spaces-13,890 with linux and 33,200 with ramdrive (I found a sweet lowlevel driver)that boots 4gb Win10 enterprise and persists at shutdown to a differencing disk-I yanked my other unit and put both hbas and adapters giving up the graphic slot to a rx6500xt running pcie 4.0 in the x4 slot-wifi yanked/no usb and got a blistering 22,000mb/s on a win software raid-If I hear why do you want that much speed for or the raid is not backup or the classic boot raid0 is bad mkay if you lose one drive you lose them both-yes fake raid sucks and hardware is pricy but what do you think happens when you lose your single non raided boot drive? the same exact thing for raid0 lol! you dont increase your odds of failure starting with 2 identical pcie 4.0 ssds-if you actually configure the newer cards they have passthru and cache you can trick towards ram cache-I would like to complete the card project but lack aforementioned tools-when I crack it with some help I will happily share the the tools and if i succeed (Im damn close) in booting windows off a linux raid0 array those that contributed anything anything posiitve they can have a copy and when the mkay lads(you know the ones they always have the best rig but never have a picture-when you hear how their system runs "flawlessly"
they reveal themselves lol-I could use some help fellas

 

[mr44er]

If you need to crossflash over very old firmware, especially SAS2004/SAS2008 (same chip, same firmware, only one vs two connectors) I had recent success with megarec. This lsirec seems to be also right for the job.

megarec -readsbr 0 original.sbr        #save your .sbr, just in case
megarec -writesbr 0 sbrempty.bin    #write blank sbr
megarec -cleanflash 0                #wipe everything from the card
*reboot*
sas2flsh.exe -o -f 2118p7.bin         #extra step not neccessary, but helped with Dell card (P7 IT firmware)
sas2flsh -o -sasadd 5xxxxxx            #write back sas address
*reboot*
sas2flsh.exe -o -f 2118.bin         #write P20 (20.00.07.00)
sas2flsh -o -sasadd 5xxxxxx            #write sas address again, just to be sure
*reboot* -> ready

What is the difference between flashing controller firmware and flashing the controller BIOS and/or EFI?

Those are two parts. You always need the firmware, but see the BIOS as addon. BIOS is needed when you use hardware RAID, that needs to be configured before you install OS.
If you use ZFS/Ceph aka software RAID, you want just the firmware, BIOS not needed (also speeds up boot process). On the other hand it doesn't hurt flashing both. Sometimes mobos don't boot in UEFI, because they don't like the BIOS of the card. Then it's better to flash only firmware and try again.

cannot locate any of those tools-no one page with all the tools? can someone please post a copy of an older sasflsh(NOT sasflAsh), storecliO (I dont care that it doesnt work on hba)and megascu would be nice since Im certain its very relevant to the sbr and manufacturing pages-Im really disapointed in what looks like just a few people with the tools

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