The Versatile SAS3008 Chipset: My Vendor Crossflashing Adventures

[Sleyk]

Hi, first of all Thank you for the instructions and your help, you're awesome!
I have encountered problems at step 7.
When trying to flash the card on FreeDos i get the "Failed to initialize PAL" Error, so i tried it via EFI Shell. But there i get the Error:

Leaving ShellOpenFileName (0x000000007) ERROR: Could not open file: 9300it.bin:
Syntax Error see Command Usage below:
-f x: Flash firmware image
x= the firmware file to flash
Exiting Program

I suspect this is a really dumb error on my side with a really easy solution as i am new to this stuff and not at all familiar with FreeDos or EFI commands.

If some kind stranger knows a fix, Thank you for your help!

(Not a native English speaker so excuse my poor grammar)

No problem my friend, it really is a super easy fix. All you need to do is select the flash drive that the EFI shell can pick the firmware from.

So, the EFI shell sometimes needs to see the flash drive where the image is stored. This wasn't too much of a problem in the 2nd gen LSI flashing days, but for the third-gen cards, using SAS3008 chipsets, the EFI shell needs to see the SAS3flash utility and firmware file on the drive itself in order to flash. I think it was a programming choice for safety reasons in the newer generations.

A lot of people new to flashing don't actually know this, so it's not your fault at all!

What you need to do is type: "fs0:" (without the quotes) and press enter. Just > fs0: < and thats it. Then type the flashing commands again, it should go through.

Depending on how many flash drives you have in your system, you may need to keep trying, using "fs1:" or "fs2:", etc.

Most people's systems will select the EFI boot drive as fs0:, so you should be fine trying that one first.

Example: EFI Shell Screen

fs0:
enter
sas3flash -o -f 9300it.bin -b mptsas3.rom -b x64sas3.rom -sasadd xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (where the 16 x's are the sas address you saved)

and it should flash the card with the firmware and dual bios, along with the sas address.

That should fix your problem my friend, and let you flash the card successfully.

 

[Heartware]

No problem my friend, it really is a super easy fix. All you need to do is select the flash drive that the EFI shell can pick the firmware from.

So, the EFI shell sometimes needs to see the flash drive where the image is stored. This wasn't too much of a problem in the 2nd gen LSI flashing days, but for the third-gen cards, using SAS3008 chipsets, the EFI shell needs to see the SAS3flash utility and firmware file on the drive itself in order to flash. I think it was a programming choice for safety reasons in the newer generations.

A lot of people new to flashing don't actually know this, so it's not your fault at all!

What you need to do is type: "fs0:" (without the quotes) and press enter. Just > fs0: < and thats it. Then type the flashing commands again, it should go through.

Depending on how many flash drives you have in your system, you may need to keep trying, using "fs1:" or "fs2:", etc.

Most people's systems will select the EFI boot drive as fs0:, so you should be fine trying that one first.

Example: EFI Shell Screen

fs0:
enter
sas3flash -o -f 9300it.bin -b mptsas3.rom -b x64sas3.rom -sasadd xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (where the 16 x's are the sas address you saved)

and it should flash the card with the firmware and dual bios, along with the sas address.

That should fix your problem my friend, and let you flash the card successfully.

WOW... that was even more painfully easy than i expected xD
In my case it was actually "blk0:", but only because i forgot to remove my NVMe beforehand.
Anyway Thanks again for the quick help you truly are a godsend!

 

[DeerDance]

Reporting in.
Got Fujitsu D3307 / praid cp400i / LSI SAS3008
Was prepping researching testing whole weekend for doing it, the video already posted was my starting point.
But this thread was the home base.

Following @Sleyk posts 48 and 22

for tools I used rufus to create bootable freedos, but also followed this to create EFI shell on that same usb.
reason being that just like previous poster, I also had PAL error with sas3flash in dos, while in efi it worked.

used files from the archive posted in the post 48.
Added megacli downloaded from the broadcom site
Added DOS4GW.EXE that I got from HPE site, but NOT THE megarec, its old version, just the dos memory thingie DOS4GW file
As recommended in 48, I only flashed firmware, and afterward flashed bios and uefi roms, not all in one command.
3rd write was serial and sas address

Cant really 100% confirm everything works like it should, but I had no errors and everything seems fine, the card boots and windows sees it, and esxi sees it and passes it through, but cant test with drives as I will be ordering SFF-8643 to sata cable on monday.
But I think the flashing firmware worked.

Here are my notes on it all, that I had in 3 separate files, one of them was suppose to be question asked online asked if my plan is correct.

Thnx Sleyk.

 

[Sleyk]

Reporting in.
Got Fujitsu D3307 / praid cp400i / LSI SAS3008
Was prepping researching testing whole weekend for doing it, the video already posted was my starting point.
But this thread was the home base.

Following @Sleyk posts 48 and 22

for tools I used rufus to create bootable freedos, but also followed this to create EFI shell on that same usb.
reason being that just like previous poster, I also had PAL error with sas3flash in dos, while in efi it worked.

used files from the archive posted in the post 48.
Added megacli downloaded from the broadcom site
Added DOS4GW.EXE that I got from HPE site, but NOT THE megarec, its old version, just the dos memory thingie DOS4GW file
As recommended in 48, I only flashed firmware, and afterward flashed bios and uefi roms, not all in one command.
3rd write was serial and sas address

Cant really 100% confirm everything works like it should, but I had no errors and everything seems fine, the card boots and windows sees it, and esxi sees it and passes it through, but cant test with drives as I will be ordering SFF-8643 to sata cable on monday.
But I think the flashing firmware worked.

Here are my notes on it all, that I had in 3 separate files, one of them was suppose to be question asked online asked if my plan is correct.

Thnx Sleyk.

You're very welcome, and good job on the notes my friend. It should help someone understand a bit more if doing for the first time :.)

 

[recoco]

Hi all, FYI there is at least one Fujitsu CP400i firmware version that allows a direct disk access (JBOD): 03.25.05.10

if you have Secure Boot disabled:

reboot server, wait until "press Ctrl+R" message from RAID controller appears on the screen, and press Ctrl+R.
delete all virtual drives on the main page "VD Mgmt" (I hope you understand that it will destroy all your data)
open third page "Ctrl Mgmt" and tick the box "Enable JBOD"
open second page "PD Mgmt" and press F2 on every disk, and choose "Make JBOD"
reboot, enjoy direct access to hard drives

if you have Secure Boot enabled:

reboot server, open BIOS, go to Advanced and look for "AVAGO MegaRAID <PRAID CP400i> Configuration" at the bottom of the list.
open it, go to Main Menu -> Controller Management -> Advanced Controller Properties -> JBOD Mode -> make it "Enabled"
then go back and delete the virtual drive (I hope you understand that it will destroy all your data) and make all physical disks as JBOD in Main Menu -> Drive Management
reboot, enjoy direct access to hard drives



(if anyone knows how I could dump the firmware from the controller then I could share it)

Great!
What is your CP400i firmware version? Is it a PRAID CP400i? Or is it a PSAS CP400i？I found there are different, though the board name is same as D3307. PRAID CP400i is a real RAID Control card supporting all RAID features. PSAS CP400i only supports RAID 0/1. These information is in Fujitsu website.
Can you supply these information?
1. Can you supply some picture for your card such as boot screens including firmware version and so on. You can also take some screenshots from the management software.
2. What is your hardware? Is it a Fujitsu workstation/server? Is it a general PC?
3. What is your software? Is it VMware or UNRAID or FreeNAS?
I had the card. But I'm having some problems.
Thank you very much!

 

[Sleyk]

Great!
What is your CP400i firmware version? Is it a PRAID CP400i? Or is it a PSAS CP400i？I found there are different, though the board name is same as D3307. PRAID CP400i is a real RAID Control card supporting all RAID features. PSAS CP400i only supports RAID 0/1. These information is in Fujitsu website.
Can you supply these information?
1. Can you supply some picture for your card such as boot screens including firmware version and so on. You can also take some screenshots from the management software.
2. What is your hardware? Is it a Fujitsu workstation/server? Is it a general PC?
3. What is your software? Is it VMware or UNRAID or FreeNAS?
I had the card. But I'm having some problems.
Thank you very much!

Heheh, someone's putting me to work eh? Lol.

Nah its cool and no problem at all.

I have a Fujistu CP400i/D3307. I dont use the management software, as I always reflash them to LSI firmware, but will provide you with a screenshot of the boot screen, etc.

I use regular hardware, none is fujitsu branded or anything, I just use a regular old intel Q77 matx motherboard to flash/crossflash.

I mostly use in BSD, so Freenas/Xigmanas :.)

If I had to take a guess without knowing anything, I would say you probably are running into problems with the mptbios? For the Fujitsu cards, sometimes the nvsram doesn't like the mptbios, so I wouldn't flash it over.

This is only for the legacy bios rom. The uefi mpt boot rom works well, and will boot with no problems. So I would just flash the uefi version instead of the legacy version.

So use command: sas3flash -o -b x64sas3.rom (this is the UEFI mptbios rom)

Here is a picture of the bootscreen and firmware version: (This is from initial purchase, so its using older firmware. But it doesn't matter for me since I crossflash it to LSI firmware right away)

And here is a pic of the front side of the card:

And the back side of the card:

and the serial/model sticker:

Remember, when you flash these Fujitsu cards, do only one command at a time. So flash the firmware first, then the mptbios (UEFI version) and then add your SAS address after.

 

[recoco]

@Sleyk, you are so nice!
Looks like my card is same as your. I will try later because my card is still on road.

 

[Sleyk]

@Sleyk, you are so nice!
Looks like my card is same as your. I will try later because my card is still on road.

Sure, and youre welcome my friend. I hope this gets you up and running again!

 

[recoco]

After a lot of searching, I finally found there is a "offical" CP400i IT version named CP430i from the Fujitsu website. These two cads are exactly the same. They have just different firmware. CP430i has IT mode firmware. It's SVID:SSID is 1734:124B. PSAS CP400i's SVID:SSID is 1734:1211.
I'm guessing if having a CP430i's SBR, CP400i should be flashed to "CP430i".
Everything is ready except CP430i's SBR. Does somebody own a CP430i card and supply the SBR? After writing the SBR, the PSAS CP400i should be flashed to CP430i which has a official IT mode.
BTW, Fujitsu 3008 series cards has completely different SBR format as 2008 series. So the famous article about flashing Fujitsu D2607(2008/2308) can not used on 3008 cards.

 

[Sleyk]

After a lot of searching, I finally found there is a "offical" CP400i IT version named CP430i from the Fujitsu website. These two cads are exactly the same. They have just different firmware. CP430i has IT mode firmware. It's SVID:SSID is 1734:124B. PSAS CP400i's SVID:SSID is 1734:1211.
I'm guessing if having a CP430i's SBR, CP400i should be flashed to "CP430i".
Everything is ready except CP430i's SBR. Does somebody own a CP430i card and supply the SBR? After writing the SBR, the PSAS CP400i should be flashed to CP430i which has a official IT mode.
BTW, Fujitsu 3008 series cards has completely different SBR format as 2008 series. So the famous article about flashing Fujitsu D2607(2008/2308) can not used on 3008 cards.

Why not use the simple LSI IT mode firmware my friend? My 99.5% guess is that the CP430i firmware is just Fujitsu branded LSI IT mode firmware anyways

 

[fahadshery]

I was wondering if there are any clear instructions to flash the original Broadcom LSI 9300-8i to IT mode? I have been googling in vain. Could you help?

 

[Sleyk]

I was wondering if there are any clear instructions to flash the original Broadcom LSI 9300-8i to IT mode? I have been googling in vain. Could you help?

Hi there my friend,

The oem 9300? Well that card is already flashed to LSI IT mode. It comes standard flashed with IT mode firmware.

Did something happen my friend? If so, the card is easily recoverable from an accidental erase, corrupted firmware flash, etc.

You need a usb flash drive, any size. Then you would download the rufus usb tool (www.rufus.io)

Create a freedos bootable flash drive using rufus. Super easy. Just open rufus, select your drive and then select "freedos" flash drive and press start. Thats it.

Then grab the uefi shell if your motherboard doesnt have one already installed. Its labelled: shellx64.efi. Just rename it to: bootx64.efi and put it in a folder labelled "boot" and put that in a folder labelled: "efi". Super easy as well.
(Folder structure: EFI > BOOT > bootx64.efi)

Then save that to the root of your flash drive.

Then you need a few utilities to put on the flash drive as well:

1. sas3flash and/or sas3flsh (sas3flash for efi/uefi booting, and sas3flsh for dos/legacy booting)

2. The LSI 9300 IT mode firmware. (Usually labelled: 9300it.bin.

Then you boot up your system (dos or uefi) and type the commands:

sas3flsh -o -f 9300it.bin

and it will flash the card. The bootrom is optional. If you need it, just type:

sas3flsh -o -b mptsas3.rom

and it will flash the mptbios boot rom. Then set your sas address:

sas3flsh -o -sasadd 5xxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

and thats it :.)

Let me know if you have any questions my friend.

 

[recoco]

Why not use the simple LSI IT mode firmware my friend? My 99.5% guess is that the CP430i firmware is just Fujitsu branded LSI IT mode firmware anyways

Because I think the CP430i firmware is the "Original" firmware.
A bad news, I received my CP400i card that is broken yesterday. I have returned the card today. The seller does not have any other CP400i card. I have to find it elsewhere.

 

[fahadshery]

Hi there my friend,

The oem 9300? Well that card is already flashed to LSI IT mode. It comes standard flashed with IT mode firmware.

Did something happen my friend? If so, the card is easily recoverable from an accidental erase, corrupted firmware flash, etc.

You need a usb flash drive, any size. Then you would download the rufus usb tool (www.rufus.io)

Create a freedos bootable flash drive using rufus. Super easy. Just open rufus, select your drive and then select "freedos" flash drive and press start. Thats it.

Then grab the uefi shell if your motherboard doesnt have one already installed. Its labelled: shellx64.efi. Just rename it to: bootx64.efi and put it in a folder labelled "boot" and put that in a folder labelled: "efi". Super easy as well.
(Folder structure: EFI > BOOT > bootx64.efi)

Then save that to the root of your flash drive.

Then you need a few utilities to put on the flash drive as well:

1. sas3flash and/or sas3flsh (sas3flash for efi/uefi booting, and sas3flsh for dos/legacy booting)

2. The LSI 9300 IT mode firmware. (Usually labelled: 9300it.bin.

Then you boot up your system (dos or uefi) and type the commands:

sas3flsh -o -f 9300it.bin

and it will flash the card. The bootrom is optional. If you need it, just type:

sas3flsh -o -b mptsas3.rom

and it will flash the mptbios boot rom. Then set your sas address:

sas3flsh -o -sasadd 5xxx xxxx xxxx xxxx

and thats it :.)

Let me know if you have any questions my friend.

Thank you so much for your detailed reply. I will give it a bash.
PS I liked your lovely way of explaining things. Keep it up bro

 

[Sleyk]

Because I think the CP430i firmware is the "Original" firmware.
A bad news, I received my CP400i card that is broken yesterday. I have returned the card today. The seller does not have any other CP400i card. I have to find it elsewhere.

Ok sorry to hear that. Well let me know if I can help if you get another one!

 

[fjstore]

Sleyk
hi，dear friend. i have sas 9300-8i card，but i want to crossflash 9340-8i,how do i can?thanks.

 

[Sleyk]

Sleyk
hi，dear friend. i have sas 9300-8i card，but i want to crossflash 9340-8i,how do i can?thanks.

Hey there!

So you have a LSI 9300-8i, and you want to crossflash to a 9340-8i? Hmm. Just so you know, the 9340-8i runs IBM branded firmware.

Essentially the same thing, just with IBM branded firmware labels.

Why flash to 9340 when 9300-8i is the same firmware my friend?

 

[fjstore]

Hey there!

So you have a LSI 9300-8i, and you want to crossflash to a 9340-8i? Hmm. Just so you know, the 9340-8i runs IBM branded firmware.

Essentially the same thing, just with IBM branded firmware labels.

Why flash to 9340 when 9300-8i is the same firmware my friend?

The card is IBM N2215，but I want to use imr function。

 

[Thebokke]

@Sleyk - thanks for a very helpful series of posts, much appreciated.

Following your guides and the ArtofServer video I was able to flash a Dell H330 to HBA330 for my dell system, great!!

Now I have a Intel RS3UC080 which I was hoping to do the same to use as a HBA330 in another Dell server. In the process of flashing the card it become unusable and not recognised by Sas3flsh and I had to flah emptysbr and cleanflash using Megarec. MegaCLI wouldnt recognise the card

I think the issue was the dell firmware seems to be a file HBA330.FW when all other vendors have a .BIN file. Are these interchangeable? When I flashed the HBA330.FW it knew the card wasnt Dell and the flash aborted.

After using Megarec I was able to flash with LSI 9300-8I IT Firmware which is better than the stock Intel IR/IT firmware, but I'd still prefer HBA330 so I can use in my Dell machine. I found a guide suggesting to put a jumper on the card which may have helped with the Dell FW.

Do you have some instructions to go from 9300-8I to HBA330? Im using the DOS process.

Thanks for your help

 

[Sleyk]

The card is IBM N2215，but I want to use imr function。

Oh ok, gotcha. Then the process to crossflash is simple, just grab the IBM N2215 firmware, which is the same as LSI 9300/9302, but since you want IMR, you would need the IR version of firmware :.)