Howto: crossflash HP221 to LSI Firmware

[jasch]

Today my HP221 arrived and after some Research and trying i get it now.
Problem is, the sticker on the controller tells us it is an 9207-8e controller, but when u try to flash 9207 Firmware u get an Chipset Revision Error.
This is just false, the boards with the older REV Chipsets are 9205-8e Controllers(its the same Board with old REV Chipset).
When u now try to flash the 9205-8e it firmware u get an NVdata Subsystem mismatch Error.
Just use an older sas2flash Version(lower 15, i used 14), and it will not test for this.

My H221 flashed to 9205-8e is fully working connected to Intel SAS Expander.

So to sum it up, just get 9205-8e(its under Legacy Host Bus Adapters) firmware and flash it with sas2flash version > 15.

sas2flash -o -f 9205-8e.bin

MFG jasch

 

[PigLover]

Today my HP221 arrived and after some Research and trying i get it now.
Problem is, the sticker on the controller tells us it is an 9207-8e controller, but when u try to flash 9207 Firmware u get an Chipset Revision Error.
This is just false, the boards with the older REV Chipsets are 9205-8e Controllers(its the same Board with old REV Chipset).
When u now try to flash the 9205-8e it firmware u get an NVdata Subsystem mismatch Error.
Just use an older sas2flash Version(lower 15, i used 14), and it will not test for this.

My H221 flashed to 9205-8e is fully working connected to Intel SAS Expander.

So to sum it up, just get 9205-8e(its under Legacy Host Bus Adapters) firmware and flash it with sas2flash version > 15.

sas2flash -o -f 9205-8e.bin

MFG jasch

Two questions:

- What's the downside of just running the HP software? Its pure HBA either way

- If you have one how do you tell if it is 9205 or 9207 based? Good to be sure 'cuz nobody wants a brick...

 

[jasch]

- What's the downside of just running the HP software? Its pure HBA either way

Its old its based on P15 code set, Lsi is P17 codeset at the moment.


- If you have one how do you tell if it is 9205 or 9207 based? Good to be sure 'cuz nobody wants a brick...

If it ts the wrong Chipset version it will give u an Nvdata error and will not flash.
Something like this.

ERROR: NVDATA Image does not match Controller Chip Revision!
NVDATA Chip Revision Range: 0x5 to 0x5
Controller Chip Revision: 0x2

 

[mobilenvidia]

Is the 221 still PCIe Gen3 with LSI 9205 FW, chances are it is but the 9205 = PCIe Gen2

 

[jasch]

No sure, since my Board is only PCIe 2 Gen.
Output is(mps1=H221)

mps0@pci0:3:0:0:	class=0x010700 card=0x350f8086 chip=0x00721000 rev=0x03 hdr=0x00
    cap 01[50] = powerspec 3  supports D0 D1 D2 D3  current D0
    cap 10[68] = PCI-Express 2 endpoint max data 128(4096) link x4(x8)
    cap 03[d0] = VPD
    cap 05[a8] = MSI supports 1 message, 64 bit 
    cap 11[c0] = MSI-X supports 15 messages in map 0x14 enabled
ecap 0001[100] = AER 1 0 fatal 0 non-fatal 1 corrected
ecap 0004[138] = unknown 1
ecap 0010[150] = unknown 1
ecap 000e[190] = unknown 1
mps1@pci0:5:0:0:	class=0x010700 card=0x00421590 chip=0x00871000 rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
    cap 01[50] = powerspec 3  supports D0 D1 D2 D3  current D0
    cap 10[68] = PCI-Express 2 endpoint max data 128(4096) link x4(x8)
    cap 03[d0] = VPD
    cap 05[a8] = MSI supports 1 message, 64 bit 
    cap 11[c0] = MSI-X supports 16 messages in map 0x14 enabled
ecap 0001[100] = AER 2
ecap 0019[1e0] = unknown 1
ecap 0004[1c0] = unknown 1
ecap 0016[190] = unknown 1
ecap 000e[148] = unknown 1
mps2@pci0:6:0:0:	class=0x010700 card=0x30401000 chip=0x00721000 rev=0x03 hdr=0x00
    cap 01[50] = powerspec 3  supports D0 D1 D2 D3  current D0
    cap 10[68] = PCI-Express 2 endpoint max data 128(4096) link x8(x8)
    cap 03[d0] = VPD
    cap 05[a8] = MSI supports 1 message, 64 bit 
    cap 11[c0] = MSI-X supports 15 messages in map 0x14 enabled
ecap 0001[100] = AER 1 0 fatal 0 non-fatal 1 corrected
ecap 0004[138] = unknown 1
ecap 0010[150] = unknown 1
ecap 000e[190] = unknown 1
ib_mthca0@pci0:8:0:0:	class=0x0c0600 card=0x627815b3 chip=0x627815b3 rev=0xa0 hdr=0x00
    cap 01[40] = powerspec 2  supports D0 D3  current D0
    cap 03[48] = VPD
    cap 05[90] = MSI supports 32 messages, 64 bit 
    cap 11[84] = MSI-X supports 32 messages in map 0x10 enabled
    cap 10[60] = PCI-Express 1 endpoint max data 128(128) link x4(x8)

 

[Cemal]

Long time passed but, I have paid attention to one important thing. I have a HP222 checked it, compared with LSI 9207-4i4e. See that, there is a ram chip missing on the back side of HP H222 near bios chip. This may led to unsuccessful cross flashing between those cards!

But, there is a new development for cross flashing at: Changing the PCI IDs on LSI 2008/2108-based MegaRAID controllers

Try to follow the steps. I have successfully flash my IBM ServeRAID M5015 card to LSI 9260-8i to latest bios, with fast boot (from more than a minute to 12~13 seconds ) after many years. The link explains the way for Raid cards, not for Host Bus adapters, but it may help, with additional search!