X570 chipset/UEFI BIOS and HBAs

[stamasd]

I recently built an AMD desktop (Ryzen 5, X570 chipset) and wanted to add a little bit of local bulk storage (aiming for a RAID5 or 6 hardware setup). The BIOS is set to UEFI+CSM for backwards compatibility. I tested many of the HBAs I have, and all of them act weirdly. I should say that all are tested and working on other hardware platforms.

IBM M5015: does not enter WebBIOS. Correct key sequence pressed, it just skips over and goes on to boot without allowing for configuration. (3 cards tested, all act the same)
Fujitsu D2616: freezes during boot without completing (2 cards tested, both act the same)
3Ware 9750 - several cards tested, various port configurations (8i, 4i, 4e4i etc), entering setup is possible and it appears to see the drives attached, but the config UI is unusable; using the arrow keys and tab key results in the selection jumping randomly and very fast between selectable items. Essentially impossible to configure.
Dell H240 with IT mode enabled (1 card tested) during boot complains about missing supercap and cache disabled (which it would be anyway in IT mode, just normally never gives a message about it) then freezes, never completes boot.

This more of less exhausts all of the cards which I was hoping to find a compatible one among. I'd prefer a hardware raid solution, so I can have one large and slow bulk storage device accessible either booted in Linux and in Windows, but it looks like it's not in the cards. I can of course set ZFS in Linux, or a dynamic volume in Windows, but then accessing either from the opposite OS would be a pain. The motherboard has enough SATA ports for me not to need a HBA for that, but again I was looking for a simple cross-platform solution.

(Linux and Windows are installed on a nvme, and I have a bunch of Seagate Barracudas 2TB I was hoping to use for bulk storage)

 

[stamasd]

I'm wondering if I were to take one of the cards that don't block the booting process but cannot be configured on the X570 (either a M5015 or a 9750), put it in another machine, configure the array there and then move card+array to the X570, whether the array would magically appear to be working... But that would be iffy.

 

[stamasd]

Well, I did more tests. Not promising.
Sometimes the exact PCIe slot matters, so I tested all of the cards inserted in the other PCIe slot that I had available. No change in the behavior of either.
I then disabled CSM in the BIOS, and left it as pure UEFI. This time, in either of the PCIe slots, all cards acted exactly the same: no POST, just a blank screen with a blinking cursor. This is especially surprising for the H240, because I have had that card before working in a pure UEFI system without any problem.
My suspicion is that either the X570, the particular BIOS, or both, are causing this incompatibility.
My quest for finding a SAS card that works with this chipset continues. If you have any suggestions I'd appreciate them.

 

[stamasd]

I've ordered a SAS3008 based card (Fujitsu D3307) from China, hopefully this one may work. I'll update here after it comes in a couple of months.

 

[stamasd]

Actually, I have news much sooner than I thought. I went again through my boxes of server parts, and found one card which I had not tried: a LSI 9280-4e4i. I didn't have that much hope for it since it's the same chipset as the M5015, and that one failed... But the 9280 did not block booting, even though it didn't give me the option to enter WebBIOS. But that wasn't a problem, once in the OS I could use MSM to configure an array and initialize it. It seems to work fine, both in Windows and Linux. I'm happy. The card has firmware 12.12 on it, so not the latest - if that matters.

Maybe I'll try to flash a M5015 (I have several) to 9260 and see if that makes it work.

 

[stamasd]

another quick update: indeed, a M5015 flashed to 9260-8i works in this motherboard. Again there is no POST message and no access to webBIOS but it does configure normally in MSM. It's interesting that with the IBM firmware the card wouldn't work at all. I used version 12.15 of the LSI firmware for flashing.

 

[amalurk]

What brand motherboard with X570?

 

[stamasd]

MSI X570 Gaming Edge WiFi: MPG X570 GAMING EDGE WIFI

When I have time I should try to flash one of the D2616 cards to 9260 as well and see if that makes it work.

 

[amalurk]

I have an ASUS X570 board and was close to getting an LSI HBA card. Wonder if it is just BIOS issues with some brands and some not.

 

[stamasd]

It's possible. I'm not saying that my findings above will apply to any other brand, but if it fails then maybe it can serve as a guide as to what to try.
To sum up, so far working but with no access to WebBIOS: LSI 92804i4e (no tricks needed, worked straight away), and M5015 but only after it was flashed to 9260. This is in UEFI-only mode (no CSM). The flashing was done in a separate, older machine.