IBM M1015 - Error: Failed to initialize PAL. Exiting program

[JohnnyBeGood]

Hi all,

I bought this card IBM ServeRaid M1015 46M0861 SAS/SATA PCI-e RAID Controller LSI SAS9220-8i . and followed this guide IBM ServeRAID M1015 Part 4: Cross flashing to a LSI9211-8i in IT or IR mode
Specifically this section:

"Convert LSI9240(IBM M1015) to a LSI9211-IT mode
Type in the following exactly:
megarec -writesbr 0 sbrempty.bin
megarec -cleanflash 0
<reboot, back to USB stick >
sas2flsh -o -f 2118it.bin -b mptsas2.rom (sas2flsh -o -f 2118it.bin if OptionROM is not needed)
sas2flsh -o -sasadd 500605bxxxxxxxxx (x= numbers for SAS address)
<reboot>
Done!"

But when I get to this command sas2flsh -o -f 2118it.bin -b mptsas2.rom sas2flsh utility reported an error: "Error: Failed to initialize PAL. Exiting program"
From my research on this issue is only solution to have UEFI Shell?

 

[nephri]

which motherboard have you ?

Personnaly i used Win32DiskImager with a FreeDos iso.

For SuperMicro you can hit F11 and select "UEFI built-in shell"

fs0:
sas2flash.efi -o -e 6
sas2flash.efi -o -f <firmware>.bin
sas2flash.efi -o -b <biosrom>.rom
sas2flash.efi -o -b <uefibsd>.rom
sas2flash.efi -o -sasadd 5XXXXXXXXXXXX

<firmware> : You can download from 9211-8i_Package_P20_IR_IT_Firmware_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows ==> 2118it.bin
<biosrom> : You can download from 9211-8i_Package_P20_IR_IT_Firmware_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows ==> mptsas2.rom
<uefibsd> : You can download from UEFI_BSD_P20 ==> x64sas2.rom
sas2flash.efi : You can download from Installer_P20_for_UEFI ==> sas2flash.efi
5XXXXXXXXXXXX : Your SAS Serial ID

 

[JohnnyBeGood]

Thanks for the reply!

I have Lenovo ThinkServer TS140 | Tower Server | Lenovo US

Just came across this info http://www.lenovo.com/images/products/server/pdfs/tech_resources/thinkserver_ts140_ts440_uefi_tr.pdf that talks about UEFI. Looks like I have to download EFI files and put them on that USB and hopefully load EFI shell.

 

[canta]

I have 4 ts140..
you need to use UEFI sas2flash.uefi to flash as I remember correctly.

or
if you have old systmen such as core 2 duo or workstation that does not have UEFI. you can flash your card with this system without issue

Notes:
keep one old workstation with pcie 16x for flashing purposes