EU ebay: Supermicro X10SLE-F (Micro-Cloud node) usually under 10 Euro

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RageBone

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Jul 11, 2017
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nice one for the fw mod.
Is there a manual somewhere ? would love a guide about it.

Damn that the board is dead.

would you sell it in case you get to keep it? i can rework things and would like to try.
 

hmartin

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Sep 20, 2017
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nice one for the fw mod.
Is there a manual somewhere ? would love a guide about it.
Sure, I can write up exact steps I took to reset the BMC to factory.

Edit2: Here are the instructions to reset the BMC to factory.

Note that you will need an SPI programmer (like the ch341a_spi or a Raspberry Pi) and an SOIC-16 chip clip, or solder to the relevant pins on the SOIC-16 (I don't recommend, just buy the chip clip from AliExp, it will cost you <$5)

Edit: Heh, and someone found the Supermicro private key used to generate the IPMI license. If anyone else is looking to install an IPMI license on their board, just read this: Reverse Engineering Supermicro IPMI – peterkleissner.com
 
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RageBone

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Jul 11, 2017
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Thx, i have a ch341a and the needed soic 8 / 16 clips already. haven't jet wired it up though : )
 

DanAnd

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Jul 25, 2016
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You will need a relatively new version of flashrom:
sudo flashrom -VV --programmer ch341a_spi -c MX25L25635F -r backup_test.bin
flashrom v1.1-rc1-53-gb221cd7 on Linux 5.0.0-29-generic (x86_64)

Just get it from Github instead of relying on the one from the linux distributor

The flash is covered with protection, so you have to clean the pins a bit. It works with either powering externally (3V from the Flash). Alternatively you can power up the board and don't connect the 3V line from the CH341 Flasher. Both works flawlessly.

https://www.macronix.com/Lists/Datasheet/Attachments/7414/MX25L25635F, 3V, 256Mb, v1.5.pdf
 

hmartin

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Sep 20, 2017
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Has anyone updated their BMC firmware to the latest available (3.81)?

I know my board is already a bit FUBAR because it doesn't POST, but after upgrading the BMC firmware and power cycling, the board doesn't get 12V power anymore. Power button is not lit. BMC is alive, but fails to power up the board.

Rolling back to 2.19 with an SPI flasher at least powers the board again.

Wondering if anyone else has experienced this? Maybe Supermicro improved the backplane/power supply detect in the newer BMC releases...
 

DanAnd

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Jul 25, 2016
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Hi,
Just did the same update, after I removed the /PSBlock file from the BMC jffs2 filesystem to get a fresh BMC setup (with ADMIN/ADMIN).
I tried to power up my board with the old and the new BMC firmware, but it never starts up.

However, you brought me to an interesting question: What if the BMC Firmware of the "working" and the non-working models differ in the BMC firmware?

@RageBone what BMC firmware do you have on your board?
 

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hmartin

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I would be interested to know if you are still able to boot the boards after upgrading the BMC firmware, but if you don't have an SPI chip clip and a backup, I would not take the risk...

It would be disappointing though, if we cannot upgrade the BMC because the power supply detection has been changed.

DanAnd, just for reference, I didn't select to keep the configuration when I upgraded the BMC firmware.
 
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RageBone

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Jul 11, 2017
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@hmartin i have a clip, just need to solder on some wires.

And I think I already tried updating the FW from the ipmi, which I think failed the usual 500 internal server error, or simply blank page, way.

I have taken off the bios chip off my second one for another board, so I can't really test with that. And its BMC is configured completely not accassable.

In addition I still haven't ordered udimm ecc and I can't currently find my darn CPU for it.

On to the topic of that BMC FW keeping the system Off, the Texas Instruments chip that blocks the 12V input is SM-/PM- Bus capable and might be disableble through that.
Have its datasheet somewhere. Its public.

There aren't any other transistors on the bottom on mine that I'd emidiatly say would be involved with the currently known detection pins and the BMC.

Would you mind probing the 3 transistors on the boards that don't work?
 
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DanAnd

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Jul 25, 2016
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@hmartin & @RageBone

I flashed the BMC rom of my blown-up board to the new one. As I can see, the board at least tries to start. Have a look at the IPMI Versions:
ipmi-bmc-oldversion.png ipmi-update.png

At least inside the jffs it looks somehow different to the other one. It is at least older (2015 files instead of 2017) inside. I will try to upgrade it to the up to date version and retry booting.
I will keep up updated.
 

DanAnd

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Upgrading to 3.81 from my old blown-up BMC-Firmware with the enabled option to keep the config, shows at least the same effect on my board. So regardless of 2.19 or 3.81 the board reacts the same.

What I currently have is:
a) Connecting the cables as ragebone shows in Ragebone/nr64_supermicro_x10sle-f, the BMC is not reachable anymore and the power LED goes on. I can hear coil whining.
b) Connecting just the 3.3V and trying to power up the board via IPMI , The board powers on and off every 10 seconds or so and falls back of off continuously. Same coil whining when the LED goes green. Also IPMI is not reachable when it is powering on. I had to find the short "Off" Times to power it down again or physically turn off the power supply.

No events inside the IPMI interface.


Update: I reinstalled the other Firmware of my replacement board, then updated again to 3.81 with preserving the config, as I have down with the old blown-up board BMC-firmware. It doesn't trys to start, similar to @hmartin 's experience.
I backed up both updated BMC firmwares and will do a comparison in the next days.
 
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RageBone

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@DanAnd that is absolutely not how my two boards behave and how i think it should behave.
I just tested it again and if any of the jumper cables is missing, i won't get a green light on the powerbutton, and no 12V on the system.

Please take a multimeter and measure what the heck is going on, on your board.
 

hmartin

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The seller sent me a replacement board, since my first board would not pass POST.

I cleared the IPMI password on the second board and saw that it does POST, but there is a setup/start-up password enabled, which obviously I don't know. I generated the IPMI license and upgraded the BIOS from IPMI. I didn't select to preserve the ME firmware or NVRAM section. SMBIOS I saved because that shouldn't matter.

The upgrade completed without error, but now every time it boots I am dropped to setup with the following error:


Incredibly annoying. The internet doesn't have good solutions for this particular error.
 
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hmartin

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b) Connecting just the 3.3V and trying to power up the board via IPMI , The board powers on and off every 10 seconds or so and falls back of off continuously.
You mean 5V, right? The board takes 5VSB, not 3.3V. If you're feeding it 3.3V, that might be part of the issue with your BMC.
 

RageBone

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@hmartin damn.
I don't have any experience with that issue jet, but I assume it didn't flash, but rather go into bios recovery mode.
There is a unpopulated jumper for the recovery mode on the board.

And also the ususal Munfracturer mode jumper, also unpopulated.
So you could try shorting those and see if it makes a difference.

Maybe another flash with everything on override.
And how about a CMOS clear?
 

hmartin

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@hmartin damn.
I don't have any experience with that issue jet, but I assume it didn't flash, but rather go into bios recovery mode.
There is a unpopulated jumper for the recovery mode on the board.

And also the ususal Munfracturer mode jumper, also unpopulated.
So you could try shorting those and see if it makes a difference.

Maybe another flash with everything on override.
And how about a CMOS clear?
The BMC displays BIOS version 3.2a from May 2019, so I am assuming it did flash, just screwed up writing some part of BIOS during the upgrade.

Unfortunately I don't have time this weekend to work on it anymore, I'll try your suggestions to clear CMOS or flash without saving SMBIOS next week.
 
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RageBone

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got my sop16 clamp ready : D

Edit: it seems to be working now. Gona upload a dump of both of my boards in a moment
 
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