Guide: Flashing H310/H710/H810 Mini & full size to IT Mode

[Cojarbi]

Hi guys. Great job getting this working. I have a R420 with one h310 mini, went trough all the process just fine, flashed both bios on the card. Card and discs are shown on the the bios. InPOSt I get the card listed but then just below “avago MPT boot rom, no supported device found”

I then go boot with my Ubuntu desktop 20.04 to install it but the drives are not recognized. Any ideas?

 

[Giraffe-ua]

Hi everyone, I hope you are doing very well! I'm trying to flash my h710 mini mono on my R520 to IT mode, but I'm facing with some strange behavior: for some reason DOS image stuck on "loading...." process and won't boot; Debian is booting fine but when I'm executing "info" I'm getting "No LSI SAS adapter found" (attaching image)

I've double checked that SR-IOV Global Enable and I/OAT DMA Engine options are set to disable in bios. removed battery even tried to physically reinstall H710 card but still getting the same result. Card it self working just fine, I can crate raid and work with it in OS.
please help
@fohdeesha

I was using Ventoy bootable USB and for some reason freeDOS image was not able to boot properly. I've tried to use iDRAC virtual CD and it works like a charm

 

[fohdeesha]

Hi guys. Great job getting this working. I have a R420 with one h310 mini, went trough all the process just fine, flashed both bios on the card. Card and discs are shown on the the bios. InPOSt I get the card listed but then just below “avago MPT boot rom, no supported device found”

I then go boot with my Ubuntu desktop 20.04 to install it but the drives are not recognized. Any ideas?

enter the boot rom menu when it prompts, and see if the adapter sees any of your drives in there, you may need to mark one for boot. cant remember the key combo, it will show it in the bottom left or right of the avago boot menu

 

[qatarmo]

hi,wanted to start by saying thanks for the great work that you have done here

im trying to flash 2x Dell H810's to IT mode both are D1 Rev

i tested this on 2 dell servers a r730xd and a r630 the same problem is on both the fist thing is when i run

810B0CRS i get this
warning io base address high. currently not supported

but the flashing goes on and when i boot Linux i get the

mpt2sas error at the start and the 0mpt when i run the D1-H710

both servers are up to date and have no other lsi chips other then the H810,,did the power off with no cable for 3min on both still the same cant really figure what im doing wrong

i still can Revert to stock FW on both cards


thanks...

 

[fohdeesha]

hi,wanted to start by saying thanks for the great work that you have done here

im trying to flash 2x Dell H810's to IT mode both are D1 Rev

i tested this on 2 dell servers a r730xd and a r630 the same problem is on both the fist thing is when i run

810B0CRS i get this
warning io base address high. currently not supported

but the flashing goes on and when i boot Linux i get the

mpt2sas error at the start and the 0mpt when i run the D1-H710

both servers are up to date and have no other lsi chips other then the H810,,did the power off with no cable for 3min on both still the same cant really figure what im doing wrong

i still can Revert to stock FW on both cards


thanks...

it's probably the same issue as others trying to flash these outside of a 12th gen dell, everyone else with that error had them in something other than a 12g dell. Not sure of a fix right now other than finding a 12th gen temporarily. I'd debug further/build a newer live ISO but crazy busy IRL

 

[qatarmo]

it's probably the same issue as others trying to flash these outside of a 12th gen dell, everyone else with that error had them in something other than a 12g dell. Not sure of a fix right now other than finding a 12th gen temporarily. I'd debug further/build a newer live ISO but crazy busy IRL

well i can try in an R820 will see and report back on this


thanks..

 

[qatarmo]

just flashed both H810s D1 cards to it mode on the R820 so definitely they only work on 12th gen dell servers for some reason

thanks fohdeesha

 

[deejay]

Thank you.
I got my H710P mini flashed in my r720.
The only problem I have is the fan speeds.
I did make that change after I flashed it, though they are still louder than they were before.
Is the issue cause I did it after I flashed it?

I tried both in the live iso, and in idrac. When I do the command, it appears that the change was not made, it just returns the value 5 0 0 0 in the live iso, and 1 in idrac.

Will I have to revert back, then do this, and then flash it in IT mode again?
If I do that, will I lose my current config?

edit: Also, I have yet to remove the battery. Would that be part of the problem?

 

[yaczesuaff]

Hi all!

I have a problem flashing a R720 with H710 mini B0 (the damn MCR5X) version. I've removed the battery, left the system unpowered for a good few mins. The freedos part doesn't return any errors. I've ran B0CROSS like a gazillion times. Linux part also doesn't show errors while flashing (The final validation also shows all is fine). But I can't set SAS address, and the device state from `info` shows "upload failed".
Worth noting, I'm also observing the error messages during linux early boot. All BIOS settings are as outlined in the intro page.

Now, does it make sense to try and debug this issue, or would I be better off flashing back the OEM firmware and asking my reseller to swap the controller for a D1 version?

And, a huge thanks fohdeesha! Amazing work.

EDIT: I run the isos via virtual device from idrac

EDIT2: since I'm planning on using SSDs with that card, indeed it might be better to swap it for a D1

EDIT3: as expected, H710P D1 flashed without a hitch.

 

[graysondalton612]

Hello STH readers.
So my issue is that I cannot seem to get the iso to run. it will boot, both from a USB burned with rufus and via iDRAC, but as soon as i hit enter to boot the linux iso, all i get on screen or idrac is flashing white cursor, and at this point i am scratching my head. i am sure its something dumb that i missed, but i for the life of me cannot figure it out. any help is appreciated.

i run the freedos part with no errors, and hav no issue loading the iso via idrac, but it just wony do anything other than blinky white cursor.

i am running latest bios / lifecycle & idrac versions

Server is a Dell r720XD and card is a H710 mini B0 ( MCR5X ) and i have followed all the steps in the guide and tips i found in this thread
i contemplated swapping for a D1 but this will mostly run HDDs and maybe 2 SSDs so the PCIE2 issue doesnt really apply

i did sucessfully use this guide to flash the h310 in my r320, so thanks for the handy guide!

thanks in advance

 

[fohdeesha]

Hello STH readers.
So my issue is that I cannot seem to get the iso to run. it will boot, both from a USB burned with rufus and via iDRAC, but as soon as i hit enter to boot the linux iso, all i get on screen or idrac is flashing white cursor, and at this point i am scratching my head. i am sure its something dumb that i missed, but i for the life of me cannot figure it out. any help is appreciated.

i run the freedos part with no errors, and hav no issue loading the iso via idrac, but it just wony do anything other than blinky white cursor.

i am running latest bios / lifecycle & idrac versions

Server is a Dell r720XD and card is a H710 mini B0 ( MCR5X ) and i have followed all the steps in the guide and tips i found in this thread
i contemplated swapping for a D1 but this will mostly run HDDs and maybe 2 SSDs so the PCIE2 issue doesnt really apply

i did sucessfully use this guide to flash the h310 in my r320, so thanks for the handy guide!

thanks in advance

that's pretty strange, and probably totally unrelated to what revision h710 you have in the server. Do you happen to have a video card installed in the box? I'm publishing an updated ISO set in a few days, the new linux ISO is built on the much newer debian 11 instead of 9, so it should theoretically have less hardware issues - I've also tweaked the bootloader so it boots automatically (no hitting enter) which should help people with screens that couldn't display the 640x480 bootloader selection menu

 

[Groto]

that's pretty strange, and probably totally unrelated to what revision h710 you have in the server. Do you happen to have a video card installed in the box? I'm publishing an updated ISO set in a few days, the new linux ISO is built on the much newer debian 11 instead of 9, so it should theoretically have less hardware issues - I've also tweaked the bootloader so it boots automatically (no hitting enter) which should help people with screens that couldn't display the 640x480 bootloader selection menu

any chance this new version will work with those with non-standard hardware (non-Dell servers) servers trying to flash?

 

[BlueScope819]

The first time around, the "PB0CROSS" command failed on the first erase cycle at 30%. Because there was a second cycle, I simply continued with the guide. However, when I booted into the Linux image, it threw a large number of errors on boot and when I pressed enter to continue, it did not let me run the "satsas" command.
linuxerror (for some reason, I could not upload the images directly as it said the files were too large to process)
Running the "info" command, it threw the same error as the "setsas" command.
Booting back into the FreeDOS image, and trying the "info" command there, it did not give any output besides the header.
Free-DOSinfo
This is my original configuration, running the "info" command on FreeDOS.
startinginfo

After these errors, I went back and did the entire process again (without the "PB0REVRT" command in FreeDOS) and this time around it did not fail at 30%, however I had the same issue where it refused to set the SAS address and pick up the LSI card.

Before I started, I removed the battery from the controller as instructed, removed my drives (backed up, I don't care about the data on them), and reset the controller to factory defaults. I did not reset the BIOS to defaults, however I did not make any relevant changes.

It's quite late for me at the moment, so I just left it at that for now. The guide said that resetting the SAS address to what it was before wasn't strictly required, but I'm concerned that it did not detect a LSI card.

I did not try the "PB0REVRT" command in FreeDOS yet, although that's certainly an option if there is a better way to go about flashing it to IT mode.

What steps can I take to flash the card correctly, and what errors might have occurred to cause this? In addition, once I have flashed the card, is there a way to confirm that everything is functional and working?

 

[fohdeesha]

The first time around, the "PB0CROSS" command failed on the first erase cycle at 30%. Because there was a second cycle, I simply continued with the guide. However, when I booted into the Linux image, it threw a large number of errors on boot and when I pressed enter to continue, it did not let me run the "satsas" command.
linuxerror (for some reason, I could not upload the images directly as it said the files were too large to process)
Running the "info" command, it threw the same error as the "setsas" command.
Booting back into the FreeDOS image, and trying the "info" command there, it did not give any output besides the header.
Free-DOSinfo
This is my original configuration, running the "info" command on FreeDOS.
startinginfo

After these errors, I went back and did the entire process again (without the "PB0REVRT" command in FreeDOS) and this time around it did not fail at 30%, however I had the same issue where it refused to set the SAS address and pick up the LSI card.

Before I started, I removed the battery from the controller as instructed, removed my drives (backed up, I don't care about the data on them), and reset the controller to factory defaults. I did not reset the BIOS to defaults, however I did not make any relevant changes.

It's quite late for me at the moment, so I just left it at that for now. The guide said that resetting the SAS address to what it was before wasn't strictly required, but I'm concerned that it did not detect a LSI card.

I did not try the "PB0REVRT" command in FreeDOS yet, although that's certainly an option if there is a better way to go about flashing it to IT mode.

What steps can I take to flash the card correctly, and what errors might have occurred to cause this? In addition, once I have flashed the card, is there a way to confirm that everything is functional and working?

Not setting the sas address isn't a huge deal, if that's the only issue you can move on. However I'd be curious as to why it's failing - the linux errors are related to a broadcom ethernet card - do you have an add-on NIC in the server you can remove? If it's the integrated NIC in the server, you can temporarily disable it in the BIOS under uhhh Integrated Devices > Integrated NIC, set it to "Disabled (OS)". It will still work for idrac, it will just be hidden from the OS. Also if you haven't since wiping the card, remove all power from the server for about 20 seconds, as in, completely unplug it from any source of power - that way you can be sure idrac isn't still holding on to the old card. Then follow the guide from the start again

Also, it's normal for the "info" command in freedos to no longer work - it relies on the dell stock firmware to pull info, and you had already wiped that. I would also use the new ISO package I'm about to post below:

 

[fohdeesha]

Finally built a new ISO package, this time the Linux ISO is built on debian 11 instead of debian 9 - I'm hoping this will bring a little better hardware compat for people flashing on non-dell servers. I also increased the timeouts in the flashing scripts, so slower responding hardware should fare better now. The 1.9 ISO package is live on the docs site. Full changelog:

V1.9
Linux:
New Live ISO Base (Debian 11 vs old Debian 9)
Hopefully better hardware compat for non-dell servers
Added P16 version IT firmware files and scripts (for BTRFS users who require P16). See https://github.com/Fohdeesha/lab-docu/issues/6
Edited boot config to auto boot after 5 seconds - fixes users whose monitors couldn't show the 640x480 bootloader menu to choose. See https://github.com/Fohdeesha/lab-docu/issues/9
Edited all Linux flashing scripts to have longer sleep periods between flash steps - will hopefully fix some users where lsiutil could not see their RAM-booted cards
Added custom boot splash image for the bootloader menu

 

[fohdeesha]

any chance this new version will work with those with non-standard hardware (non-Dell servers) servers trying to flash?

That was part of the goal, I also made a couple tweaks to the flash scripts under linux to hopefully help - the new ISO package is now live on the site, I encourage non-dell hardware people with issues in the past to retry

 

[BlueScope819]

Not setting the sas address isn't a huge deal, if that's the only issue you can move on. However I'd be curious as to why it's failing - the linux errors are related to a broadcom ethernet card - do you have an add-on NIC in the server you can remove? If it's the integrated NIC in the server, you can temporarily disable it in the BIOS under uhhh Integrated Devices > Integrated NIC, set it to "Disabled (OS)". It will still work for idrac, it will just be hidden from the OS. Also if you haven't since wiping the card, remove all power from the server for about 20 seconds, as in, completely unplug it from any source of power - that way you can be sure idrac isn't still holding on to the old card. Then follow the guide from the start again

Also, it's normal for the "info" command in freedos to no longer work - it relies on the dell stock firmware to pull info, and you had already wiped that. I would also use the new ISO package I'm about to post below:

Hello, thanks for the reply.

I reflashed my USB sticks with the new ISOs, and disabled the integrated NIC in the BIOS. There were no longer the network errors when booting the Debian image, although I had the exact same behavior happen where everything in FreeDOS would work just fine, the "B0-H170" command would work, but then after a reboot the "setsas" and "info" commands refused to work. I unplugged power for a good minute, rebooted everything, same behavior.

What do you think I could try next?

EDIT: I flashed the card back into the regular Dell firmware, so thankfully that worked. However, when retrying the entire process, I encounter the same error. The same error occurred after a reboot.

aaaaa

 

[fohdeesha]

That's odd, it's almost acting like it's finding two cards, are you sure this is the only LSI-based card in the system? To be safe, remove *any* PCIe cards - there should just be the perc mini in the mini custom storage slot.

If you don't mind, could you follow the guide again, and when you get to the linux step and have changed to root, can you run the following command, and send me the output? -

lspci -nnv |grep -i -A 4 -B 1 -E 'perc|lsi'

Also have you double checked in your BIOS that both SR-IOV Global Enable and I/OAT DMA Engine are disabled ?

 

[BlueScope819]

That's odd, it's almost acting like it's finding two cards, are you sure this is the only LSI-based card in the system? To be safe, remove *any* PCIe cards - there should just be the perc mini in the mini custom storage slot.

If you don't mind, could you follow the guide again, and when you get to the linux step and have changed to root, can you run the following command, and send me the output? -

lspci -nnv |grep -i -A 4 -B 1 -E 'perc|lsi'

Also have you double checked in your BIOS that both SR-IOV Global Enable and I/OAT DMA Engine are disabled ?

I have double checked, SR-IOV Global Enable and I/OAT DMA Engine are disabled.

Here is the output of the command, I simply booted into Debian and ran the command. I also than ran the script, then the command again, if that helps.

img

When booting up into the Linux image, there were several errors that came across the screen, but then quickly vanished after it booted. It probably isn't related, but here is a picture just in case.

errors

Also, at the bottom of that first picture, there are a couple errors that dump themselves into the console, although if I press enter I get a shell back. I'm not really sure what those are, although because one of them mentioned mpt3sas I included it the image.

Hope this helps.

 

[fohdeesha]

I have double checked, SR-IOV Global Enable and I/OAT DMA Engine are disabled.

Here is the output of the command, I simply booted into Debian and ran the command. I also than ran the script, then the command again, if that helps.

img

When booting up into the Linux image, there were several errors that came across the screen, but then quickly vanished after it booted. It probably isn't related, but here is a picture just in case.

errors

Also, at the bottom of that first picture, there are a couple errors that dump themselves into the console, although if I press enter I get a shell back. I'm not really sure what those are, although because one of them mentioned mpt3sas I included it the image.

Hope this helps.

That's really, really strange - the card is getting crossflashed to the correct PCI vendor and sub-vendor IDs, so no problem there. At this point I'm not sure what else to try other than:

ensure your BIOS is at v2.9.0, and your idrac is at v2.65.65.65 - very important. You can easily update both through the idrac web UI under idrac settings > update/rollback. There's an upload form, just upload these two exe files and it will recognize them as firmware updates, and idrac will install them without needing to boot any OS (they are for R720XD as you mentioned in your other post):

idrac: https://dl.dell.com/FOLDER06110107M...roller_Firmware_0GHF4_WN64_2.65.65.65_A00.EXE
bios: https://dl.dell.com/FOLDER05981274M/1/BIOS_8P8WX_WN64_2.9.0.EXE

After that, try again after both are fully updated. If still no luck, you need to open it and find the NVRAM_CLR jumper - move the jumper to pins 2-3 instead of 1-2 where it is by default, and leave it for ten seconds, then move it back. then power the server back on. This will reset the BIOS/UEFI settings more thoroughly than a simple "reset to defaults" will in the bios menu. One other member at least in this thread had this solve the same problem: