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

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Utking

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Nov 12, 2016
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I just flashed one sucessfully (thank you!) And bricked another, the info command didn't give me any output, and i forgot that i had swapped the raid controllers when i tried to debug some bootup problems >_< So my card i completely dead now? Isn't there any way to recover it?

Thanks.
 

KCserve

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Apr 18, 2020
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@Utking do you recall the revision of the card? If not just remove it and identify it based on the section in fohdeesha's excellent guide named:
Extra: Revision Info & Part Numbers

determine what it is and re-do the directions for that specific card and revision. should be fine. *be sure to remove the battery as well.
 
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Utking

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Nov 12, 2016
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I flashed it with B0CROSS, and it is a rev D card :( now my r720 says system halted, wrong pcie card. Is there any way to bypass this message so I can try again?
 

NathanM3

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Dec 4, 2016
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Does the H310 Mini guide work for a normal full size H310, or would a different SBR need to be created for that to work?
 

fohdeesha

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I flashed it with B0CROSS, and it is a rev D card :( now my r720 says system halted, wrong pcie card. Is there any way to bypass this message so I can try again?
it's bricked. hence the numerous warnings in my guide NOT to continue unless you're absolutely sure what rev it is :)
 

fohdeesha

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Does the H310 Mini guide work for a normal full size H310, or would a different SBR need to be created for that to work?

since the full size card goes in a regular pci-e slot, the server doesn't look for any special vendor IDs and you can't really brick it by flashing the wrong SBR vendor IDs (the server will still boot). You could go ahead and just try following the h310 mini guide. @fourlynx might know more
 

tinppaviiva

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Aug 30, 2020
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Hi, and first of all, thank you fohdeesha and all for this method :)

I managed to eventually flash two H710 D1 mini's to IT mode, but not without problems during the process.

First of all I must remind everyone to read and fully understand the instructions before attempting this. I read the instructions multiple times and still missed some important steps, for example to note down the SAS address for the second card I flashed. But luckily in my case I just used the same address from the previous card, which I also almost forgot to note down. The cards wont ever be in the same server so I don't think having two cards with same SAS address in different servers to be any problem.

With both of the cards I really struggled to get them working. I had removed the battery, but still both the cards would fail the D1CROSS script part where the flash gets erased. Some times the erase would end in error in 10% of process, some times 30%,40% and so on. Some times the first pass would end in error but the second would go to 100%. The most important part however, the SBR write process always ended in Success.

To make sure the flash was erased I just plugged the power off from the server (to get rid of the PCIE fault halt problem) and ran the D1CROSS as many times as needed to get at least once 100% erased flash and success with SBR write.

After this it was time to boot to Linux, and with this I had to define iomem=relaxed or I would get the mmap bar1 problem, mmap bar1: Invalid argument · Issue #6 · marcan/lsirec

I first followed the instructions and ran the D1-H710 script, but this would always end in errors, usually when trying to erase the flash (menu option 3), or erasing the ?persistent manufacturer info? (menu option 8). Some times the new firmware would get flashed, but somehow partially or there still were some parts not erased correctly as the info command would struggle the get info from the card.

To solve all this, I just followed the steps in "Technical explanation" reading SBR from 2208 shows the data to be offset by a few bytes · Issue #1 · marcan/lsirec and ran the commands one by one. After this and reboot the card info was displayed without problems and I could finally write the SAS address. I'm not sure this is the best way, but at least for me both the cards flashed with this method are working OK.

So, in overall, make sure you know which card you have, after this there shouldn't be any major issues to get the card either working with the new IT mode firmware, or to get the card back to original stock RAID firmware. At least for me even if I had major problems with flashing to IT mode, I still got the first card successfully back to the original firmware, just to confirm that the card was working and that my problems were not due the card being somehow bricked.
 
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Fuel

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Sep 10, 2020
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Thanks the guide! I did however forget to note down my SAS address, can I just use the example one? Or what should I do?

EDIT: per Fohdeesha it’s a 16 character hexadecimal number and you just don’t want two cards with the same SAS address in the machine.
 
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astrakid

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Sep 29, 2020
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hi, i have an issue when booting any linux from usb or virtual device: during boot my r320 just reboots. i tried ubuntu server 20.04.01, univention, proxmox, and the debian-iso for reflashing my p710 mini d1 behaves the same. i am stuck on this for two days now...
freedos was the first os that booted fine.
 

fohdeesha

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hi, i have an issue when booting any linux from usb or virtual device: during boot my r320 just reboots. i tried ubuntu server 20.04.01, univention, proxmox, and the debian-iso for reflashing my p710 mini d1 behaves the same. i am stuck on this for two days now...
freedos was the first os that booted fine.
In your bios settings, is boot type set to BIOS or UEFI?
 

astrakid

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Sep 29, 2020
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Both. Boot starts, bootmenu of the linux appears. I tried the default entry as well as failsafe, but after some seconds the server shuts down immediately.
For ubuntu I can see see an error "decrypting fails", but that should not lead into powering down the server.
 

astrakid

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Sep 29, 2020
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Both. Boot starts, bootmenu of the linux appears. I tried the default entry as well as failsafe, but after some seconds the server shuts down immediately.
For ubuntu I can see see an error "decrypting fails", but that should not lead into powering down the server.
unbelievable... it was a defect RAM that caused this issue... solved now. flashing of my h710 is now ongoing. ;-)
 

astrakid

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Sep 29, 2020
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unbelievable... it was a defect RAM that caused this issue... solved now. flashing of my h710 is now ongoing. ;-)
damn... i forgot to note the SAS address... how can i generate a new one?
edit: just took a random 16bit hex number. seems to works.

very cool tutorial, thanks for it!!! and for the software as well!!!
 
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astrakid

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Sep 29, 2020
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damn... i forgot to note the SAS address... how can i generate a new one?
edit: just took a random 16bit hex number. seems to works.

very cool tutorial, thanks for it!!! and for the software as well!!!
i think it is a bit off topic here, so please excuse: i tested my ram and it seems to be ok. but as soon as i have inserted more than 16GB, linux boot from usb keeps crashing. any idea?
 

ronclark

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Dec 6, 2019
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I want to thank @fohdeesha and everyone else that made this possible.
I just picked up a R720XD to replace my R710. the R720xd came with a H710 mini, i have to say this was the easiest flash to IT mode i have ever done. It was a super smooth move from the R710 to the R720xd on Truenas 12. My only hickup is I learned the SATA ports are disabled and no work around, so I cant use my M.2 sata drive, so a USB to M.2 adapter to the rescue.
 
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