LSI 9270-8i IT mode

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necr

Active Member
Dec 27, 2017
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Thanks to @w0mbl3, finished flashing 9286CV-8e to 9207-8e IT firmware.

Took:
Downloads for Broadcom (LSI/Avago) SAS II HBA 9207-8e firmware+bios+sas2flash
lsi2208fixer.zip from the other thread, created a new dir in that .iso with contents above,
used the guide Flashing LSI 2208 with IT firmware to use as an HBA - My Wired House
had to carefully pull out a speaker from the PCB, looked at BIOS options and deleted BIOS after.
The only issue I see is with VPD read error by kernel, need to back it up next time with sasflash -o showvpd and write with sasflash -o -vpd <file.vpd>

Attaching BIOS options for you to decide if you need them.
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ServeTheHarry

New Member
Apr 25, 2020
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@BLinux I think I can help with that. I still have my SBR backup of the 9270-8i I converted to a 9207-8i IT mode.

I've sent you a PM.
Hope you don't mind me asking for PM too.
Little story/warning about the Intel Server Board M10JNP2SB:
Besides the rediculous cut-down to only 3 expansion possibilities (no proprietary PCEe and no 4th slot anymore like my previous RainbowPass), my favourite RMS25PB080 doens't work in that board. It's the 2208 chipstet, distributed with both chip revisions (C1 and D1, G27501-601 is C1 with PCIe2.0 and 256Byte SBR, G27504-610 is D1 with PCIe3.0 and 512 Byte SBR).
All other SAS controllers I tried do work. But the RMS25PB080 doesn't boot (only in this board, works in all other boards).
My intention is to transfor it into a 9271-8i to see if that changes the game.
But as others reported, there's no 2208 SBR (what ever this stands for) auto-healing when m0-flashing.
Since I have both (C+D) versions, I'm looking for 9266 and 9271 SBR binaries. Anybody able to share 768 bytes? ;-)
Thanks,
-harry
 

vanfawx

Active Member
Jan 4, 2015
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Vancouver, Canada
Hey @ServeTheHarry :) The SBR I have is from a retail 9270-8i, not a 9271-8i. I think the main difference is the 9271-8i includes a SKU to come with CacheCade Pro.

Send me a PM, and I can work out giving you the SBR I have.
 

ServeTheHarry

New Member
Apr 25, 2020
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Hello @vanfawx, thanks, I did so.
I'd like to share that in the meantime I successfully converted a RMS25PB080 into a M5016. The WebBIOS reports so and subvendorXXXids are changed permanetly with holding valid NVDATA and booting.
Unfortunately this didn't chnage the problem with the Intel Server Board M10JNP2SB. No D3-D0 transition at powerup. I filed a Intel support case but they are going to refuse fixing anything. 1st level support insists that only "validated" controllers need to work, despite there PCI-SIG standard and both products are sold with explicit stated compliance to these standards. Trying to escalate, but after mentioning on the phone that I had the feeling that this card is intentionally black-listed , the shocking answer was »maybe«. Will have a look what other vendors provide – after more than 10 years of Intel Technology Provider in Gold :-(

-harry
 

ServeTheHarry

New Member
Apr 25, 2020
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Worth a shot to try with electric tape on SMBus pins on this card for this motherboard.
Thanks for the hint, already tried that without success unfortunately.
If I had more time I'd change the PCI device id just to see if it's black listed – my strong guess. Never had any compatibility issues with that controller…
I'd have to find out what device IDs megarec feels responsible for, otherwise a new controller was bricked :-(
And probably there are other similar severe consequences to think about. No idea if MR firmware refuses to boot with arbitrary vendor/chip IDs, subvendor will be evaluated at flash time at least. Maybe there's already more than one device ID for the 2208, otherwise lending one from 2308 could work. But no time to play unfortunately. And even if one manages to get the controller working in the intel board that way, one would have to patch the drivers to attach to foreign IDs – piece of cake for FreeBSD, but on machines utilizing 2208 one might run ESXi more likely and that implies at least switching to an acceptance level wich nobody agrees on in enterprise environment; and I don't have infrastructure to package patched ESXi drivers...

Thanks,
-harry
 

BeTeP

Well-Known Member
Mar 23, 2019
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RMS25PB080 is an "integrated RAID module" which is Intel speak for "this controller will only work in specific Intel motherboards it was designed for". The M10JNP2SB is not on the list. There is nothing to fix. It is by design.
 

ServeTheHarry

New Member
Apr 25, 2020
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RMS25PB080 is an "integrated RAID module" which is Intel speak for "this controller will only work in specific Intel motherboards it was designed for". The M10JNP2SB is not on the list. There is nothing to fix. It is by design.
It claims to be compatible with PCI Express Spezifikation Revision 3.0 (G42520-002). So even if UEFI wouldn't support management, the card has to boot itself.
I'm using this controller for quiet some time in various servers and never had any compatibility issues – most of these servers the controller was not designed for.
And even after turning the card into a M5016 it doesn't boot in that specific board. Smells like black listing – especially because of the comment from the 1st level ITP support, who answered my suspicion with "maybe".
OTOH, some kind of blacklisting could also be implemented controller side and for some reason I was lucky that all server systems I used so far are able to trigger the blacklist-killswitch on the controller.
I decided to omit other vendors because of their practice of interoperability blacklisting/branding and raising artificial problems. Now the reference designer does the same :-( probably I'm not thinking enterprized enough…
 

gdclub

New Member
May 4, 2020
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@Devinirv The SBR is from a retail boxed MegaRaid 9270-8i and is 512 bytes, as is the SBP.

If you want to create an empty 512 byte SBR, from Linux: dd if=/dev/zero of=512byte.sbr bs=512 count=1

Past that, I'm not really sure what you're asking for. If you'd like a copy of the SBR I sent @BLinux, I'm more than happy to do that.
vanfawx my friend, I'm sorry for my disturbing that I'd like for a copy for the SBR files,
and the DeviceID/VendorID for stock 9270-8i.
I'm working for modding an IBM M5110 to an stock 9270-8i and made some progress.
 

Freebsd1976

Active Member
Feb 23, 2018
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vanfawx my friend, I'm sorry for my disturbing that I'd like for a copy for the SBR files,
and the DeviceID/VendorID for stock 9270-8i.
I'm working for modding an IBM M5110 to an stock 9270-8i and made some progress.
could you share your method or more information?

I tried but it fail, firmware indeed upgrade ,but card still show M5110 and flash 9270 SPR , but after reboot and dump SPR show it change back to orginal M5110 SPR.
 

gdclub

New Member
May 4, 2020
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could you share your method or more information?

I tried but it fail, firmware indeed upgrade ,but card still show M5110 and flash 9270 SPR , but after reboot and dump SPR show it change back to orginal M5110 SPR.
It seems like lsiulti's needed
I should findout what's the difference between stock 9270 and M5110 by getting the SPRs and DeviceID(the VENxxxx_DEVxxxx for the hardware)
 

Freebsd1976

Active Member
Feb 23, 2018
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It seems like lsiulti's needed
I should findout what's the difference between stock 9270 and M5110 by getting the SPRs and DeviceID(the VENxxxx_DEVxxxx for the hardware)
what your card show when enter webbios after crossflash? m5110 or 9270-8i
 

Freebsd1976

Active Member
Feb 23, 2018
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Recieved your files,
Thanks
waiting for your good news.
BTW the SPD of M5110 and 9270-8i are identical (I verified using md5sum) , IMHO only SPR need to crossflash and auto-recovery issue need deal with
 
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gdclub

New Member
May 4, 2020
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waiting for your good news.
BTW the SPD of M5110 and 9270-8i are identical (I verified using md5sum) , IMHO only SPR need to crossflash and auto-recovery issue need deal with
It seemd like the SPD is the key for crossflashing
I tried to crossflash the SPD file and the card going beeping and crushed,it recoverd after I flashed the original SPD file back.
 

gdclub

New Member
May 4, 2020
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waiting for your good news.
BTW the SPD of M5110 and 9270-8i are identical (I verified using md5sum) , IMHO only SPR need to crossflash and auto-recovery issue need deal with
Updates here.
I followed this thread
1 clean the sbr
2 clean the norflash
3 write the original 9270's sbr by@vanfawx
4 crossflashed the original sas2208's rom.
And then I got a well-worked original 9270-8i with the subID for LSI.
But,due to the old version bios,it can't work in UEFI-based OS.

So I updated the latest firmware and then the subID changed back to IBM's OEMID
Then It backed to show M5110 in bios.

I tried to flash the single BIOS but neither sas2flsh.exe in DOS nor sas2flash.efi/storcli.efi in EFI Shell can find the adapter...

I'm thinking of making a custom rom by replacing the outdated modules of the 16MB recovery image.
 

Freebsd1976

Active Member
Feb 23, 2018
387
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Updates here.
I followed this thread


And then I got a well-worked original 9270-8i with the subID for LSI.
But,due to the old version bios,it can't work in UEFI-based OS.

So I updated the latest firmware and then the subID changed back to IBM's OEMID
Then It backed to show M5110 in bios.

I tried to flash the single BIOS but neither sas2flsh.exe in DOS nor sas2flash.efi/storcli.efi in EFI Shell can find the adapter...

I'm thinking of making a custom rom by replacing the outdated modules of the 16MB recovery image.
Yeah , now I know why my card show m5110 after crossflash , becasue I used latest firmware to do crossflash.