Another weird thing is that the 300w PSU turn on the MB, so I can access the megarac web interface, but there is no video output.
Gigabyte MJ11-EC1 EPYC 3151 Mystery
- Thread starter BMacD
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Thanks, but I see a slighty different screen, without "SL_SAS Control" and with "U2_2" instead of "PCIE_1".
Is this the manual for the regular MJ11-EC0? I have a MJ11-EC1 (BIOS F09, if that matters)—the crippled version taken out of a weird GPU server system and sold for pocket change by PiosPartsLab.
Yes, that’s from the manual for the EC0 version, but myself had three of those EC1 (even one of those crazy GPU servers). And for all of my 3 EC1 I had to set the SL_SAS option to SATA as they came with PCIE set.
[Edit] Forgot to mention that I crossflashed the boards to the EC0 F2 Bios.
[Edit] Forgot to mention that I crossflashed the boards to the EC0 F2 Bios.
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That's quite a crucial point… I saw some references to "BIOS F02" earlier in the thread, but may I take this opportunity to ask as few questions about it.
- Are there drawbacks, or unexpected consequences, to running a MJ11-EC1 with a EC0 BIOS?
- How does one cross-flash? Straight through the BMC, or does it involve additional wizardry and/or a dedicated flash programmer?
- BIOS F02 for MJ11-EC0 ("First" realease… but also apparently the last one) is easily found on Gigabyte's site. I could not find any BIOS to download for MJ11-EC1 or for the G431-MM0 system it comes from. In the absence of an official EC1 BIOS to revert to, crossflashing EC0 F02 is actually be an irreversible operation, isn't it?
1. I did not have any drawbacks running those boards with the F2 Bios from the official EC0 version. All 4 boards have been stable whilst in my lab and friends who bought them from me afterwards are still happy. The guys which have been brave enough to check this out as volunteers hoped to get bifurcation to work for the 8i slimsas which unfortunately did not work.
2. Crossflash was absolutely easy done via BMC. Of course it wipes all user settings and i did a CMOS clear afterwards, just to be safe.
3. Unfortunately I am getting old, thus short-term memory becomes weaker, but I think I remember those guys which tried crossfalsh first did either dump the F9 or had a link to download from. Not sure if it is in this threat or the one over at German HardwareLuxx forum...
More probably they repurposed the already existing docs from the EC0.
This is an unfortunate possibility…
In the meantime, I found this post back, and downloaded the AMI UEFI utility to experiment. I could flash EC0-F02, and got the SL_SAS option in BIOS, but could not get a U.2 drive to work when attached to the Slimline 4i slot. Then I got into trouble and could not flash back the F09 image I had made, no matter what combination of flags I used.
And then I noticed the BMC has a "Dump BIOS" button… :facepalm:
Can someone with a board on the native F09, dump his BIOS and post the resulting file?
While the board does work on F02, it gains no function and I'd prefer to revert back to the native F09.
There is no need to flash the F02 BIOS to change the sata/pcie selection. of SL_SAS. The menu item is present also in the F09 BIOS but it is hidden. It can be unhidden and a modified BIOS flashed, I have done so. I have not tried out if it really works as I have my sata disk connected to a breakout cable on the slimsas 4i port.
To just test it you can change the value directly from the EFI shell using the setup_var. efi program. This can be downloaded from
GitHub - datasone/setup_var.efi at 0.2.x
The default value for the SL_SAS variable in cmos is 0x3. Setting it to 0x1 selects the PCIe x4 behavior. =x0 will disable it.
The variable is stored at offset 0x1FF. the commands to change are
Check current value
setup_var.efi 0x1FF -n setup -i 0x1
This should return 0x3, if it does not stop here! ( you might be on another BIOS)
change to SL_SAS is PCIe x4
setup_var.efi 0x1FF 0x1 -n setup -i 0x1
This should write the value 0x1 to the variable.
Reboot and test.
The change will stick until the CMOS is cleared
Best Regards
Peter Fälth
A dumped BIOS can not be flashed back as it is.It needs to be in .rbu format. That adds 16 bytes with a static text and a 2 byte checksum.
I have in an earlier post posted a link to a flashable F09 Bios that I made flashable. If you search for my name you will find it
BR
Peter Fälth
Did you use a 85Ohm or an 100Ohm cable? I tried a lot of cables and only 85Ohm short ones worked.
But given the number of users which tried to get the SlimSas 8i port connected to various adapters and how much of them did not have success even if they used parts which had been reported working by others it seems those ports are a hit or miss thing…
i was able to get a old Hauppage TV Card found by unraid on these parts : Adapters
this tv card is a short slot card, i think its a x1.
A nvidia quadro 2000 was not found, but maybe this card is broken. it is a full length slot card.
if i find other cards, i will test them, but for now i can confirm these adapter combination is working.
Power Adapter:
i pinned the pins into the ATX Adapter from Ram Koenig which i got from friendly forum member here. ;-) thanks for this.
So i can also confirm the pinout from the smaller connecter on the adapter board. Pinout
this tv card is a short slot card, i think its a x1.
A nvidia quadro 2000 was not found, but maybe this card is broken. it is a full length slot card.
if i find other cards, i will test them, but for now i can confirm these adapter combination is working.
Power Adapter:
i pinned the pins into the ATX Adapter from Ram Koenig which i got from friendly forum member here. ;-) thanks for this.
So i can also confirm the pinout from the smaller connecter on the adapter board. Pinout
I used a Supermicro CBL-SAST-1240A-85 cable which came with a X12SDV-4C-SP6F board, and is known to work with said motherboard and the same U.2 drive which was used for testing the MJ11-EC1.
As for the Slimline 8i, I had it working on my first try on native F09 BIOS with a 10GTek cable SFF-8654 8i to 2*SFF-8639, and the same U.2 drive.
Or you can go the flashrom route and flash your dump: https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...-mj11-ec1-epyc-3151-mystery.41395/post-408012
With the board restaured to F09, I experimented with setup_var as suggested above by @PeterF.
I could not get the BIOS to recognise a U.2 drive connected to SL_SAS. Dissecting the BIOS with UEFITool shows there's a variable at 0x1CE for "SL_SAS NVME I/O ROM", and its value is "Enabled" (0x1).
A SATA drive plugged into SL_SAS is not seen by BIOS if 0x1FF is set to 0x1, but becomes visible after setting to 0x3—as should be. So playing with 0x1FF does something, but nothing useful.
I could not find anything in the BIOS related to bifurcation of the U2_2 slot. And even if there were, it's not likely it would work.
It all looks like the EC1 board is strictly limited in hardware to 8 SATA ports, including 4 from the Slimline 4i slot, and 8, non-bifurcatable, PCIe lanes from the Slimline 8i slot.
And I suppose that, for the price, we cannot complain.
Code:
# read value
setup_var 0x1FF -i 0x1
# set SL_SAS for NVMe
setup_var 0x1FF 0x1 -i 0x1
# set SL_SAS for 4*SATA (default)
setup_var 0x1FF 0x3 -i 0x1A SATA drive plugged into SL_SAS is not seen by BIOS if 0x1FF is set to 0x1, but becomes visible after setting to 0x3—as should be. So playing with 0x1FF does something, but nothing useful.
I could not find anything in the BIOS related to bifurcation of the U2_2 slot. And even if there were, it's not likely it would work.
It all looks like the EC1 board is strictly limited in hardware to 8 SATA ports, including 4 from the Slimline 4i slot, and 8, non-bifurcatable, PCIe lanes from the Slimline 8i slot.
And I suppose that, for the price, we cannot complain.
I flashed F02 bios to use an U2 drive in sl_sas port but the drive is not recognized, so I came back to F09 using your rbu and (of course) it's not working.
I don't know how to use the tool you specified to set the variable to pcie using your guide.
I want to use to use m.2 port and slimsas 8i for a 10G card and a LSI card, so I need (unless someone have another solution) to use my U2 drive from sl_sas 4i.
@PeterF
Can you explain me the process after downloading the tool should I put it on a drive ?
Then,
How to use it in efishell ?
Thanks
This won't work. You can't bifurcate the 8i slot to x4x4 either. You'd need a PLX switch. Or a different motherboard…
Put setup_var.efi on FAT32 formatted USB thumbdrive.
Plug in this drive. Power on the MJ11, press F10 for Boot Menu and select UEFI Shell.
Press Esc when prompted to halt boot and enter the shell.
Type
map for a list of filesystems. There should be at least a fs0:, and possibly fs1:, fs2:,…Try them in turn until you've found your thumbdrive: Type
fs0:, and then dir to list files. If you don't see setup_var, try with the next drive.When you have found setup_var, type the command(s) in my above post.
setup_var 0x1FF -i 0x1 to check the value. If you're still set to NVMe because you have not reverted to SATA before reflashing F09, it should return 0x1.Type
setup_var 0x1FF 0x3 -i 0x1 to get your SATA ports back. Then exit, or plainly reboot.This is the correct way to do it. You can alternatively put the setup_var.efi on your EFI partition. This is easy in Linux.
Do fdisk -l to list the disks and partitions. Identify the EFI partition and mount it, then copy the efi program to it. Reboot and follow the above procedure (except the usb part)
Peter
Thanks @etorix @PeterF for your answers, I don't want to bifurcate sl_sas 8i this forum prove that it can't be bifurcate at the moment.
I'll use it solely for LSI card and use another pcie card on m.2 port for the 10g card.
Currently my U2 is connected on m.2 port using an adapter, my concern here is whether I can use my U2 drive from the Sl_sas 4i port by setting it to PCIE, which seem to not work on bios F02.
Using it that way, my m.2 port become available for the PCIE adapter (on which the LSI card will be connected )
Is it possible to use a U2 drive on this port ?
How did you powered the ceacent board,
I've received my ceacent riser and connected my LSI card before noticing that it is not powered.
So I'm looking for the exact 6 pin power cable to power it.
If anyone can give me the reference of the cable you used ?
Thanks
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