Help flashing LSI 9211-8i to IT Mode

Hi.

I have tried flashing my LSI 9211-8i to IT mode for the past hour and can't seem to get it to work.

First I have tried using the DOS install using FreeDOS on a USB but I get

error: Failed to Init PAL. Closing program.

Then I tried launching my UEFI Shell but the shell wont launch, it says something about not finding "Shell64.efi"

The I tried windows 8.1 and I get

can't do it in this platform.

And everything I read is that Lunix also does not work and only the UEFI Shell method works.

Anybody have any ideas?  I am running a ESXi 5.5 server with a Asrock c226 WS motherboar.

My motherboard didn't work for flashing so I used another one that I use for preclearing and testing

Sent from a mobile device, sorry for any typos.

apparently I need a file called Shellx64.efi on my flash drive to launch the shell.  Why wouldn't this be right in the UEFI rom?  Well I have been trying to find one to download but google is comming up with squat.  I found one forum that had a link to download a shell.efi but that didn't work even with changing it to shellx64.efi.  You would think that if you searched for UEFI shell or shellx64.efi there would be a thousand links to download one but no.

Does anybody know where I can get a Asrock c226 ws compatible shellx64.efi?

apparently I need a file called Shellx64.efi on my flash drive to launch the shell.  Why wouldn't this be right in the UEFI rom?  Well I have been trying to find one to download but google is comming up with squat.  I found one forum that had a link to download a shell.efi but that didn't work even with changing it to shellx64.efi.  You would think that if you searched for UEFI shell or shellx64.efi there would be a thousand links to download one but no.

 

Does anybody know where I can get a Asrock c226 ws compatible shellx64.efi?

Not sure if it's compatible for you but a quick google search found this https://edk2.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/edk2/trunk/edk2/EdkShellBinPkg/FullShell/X64/Shell_Full.efi from this forum post #4

That's the right path. Another option is to use a different motherboard. This AND MORE are covered in the sticky thread about flashing LSI cards in the controller forum

Not sure if it's compatible for you but a quick google search found this https://edk2.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/edk2/trunk/edk2/EdkShellBinPkg/FullShell/X64/Shell_Full.efi from this forum post #4

 

That's the right path. Another option is to use a different motherboard. This AND MORE are covered in the sticky thread about flashing LSI cards in the controller forum

I was able to find a UEFI that worked after the fourth one.  But if froze during the erase and bricked the card.  So I talked to LSI and apparently if you have a UEFI Motherboard DOS will not work, Windows and Linux NEVER works when going from IR to IT.  So that left me with UEFI which also didn't work (probably because of the lack of info on downloading the correct shell.efi).

So I RMA'ed the card and the guy seemed tired of getting the call "I tried to flash my card to IT and now it doesn't work."  He kind of went on a rant about it, and how you should be able to flash in Windows and Linux but LSI deliberately disabled this when going from IR to IT.  He sent me a detailed instructions on how to flash to IT which is not on the website.

Any chance you could post the instructions, assuming that they aren't protected by nda or the like?

Sent from a mobile device, sorry for any typos.

Any chance you could post the instructions, assuming that they aren't protected by nda or the like?

 

Sent from a mobile device, sorry for any typos.

These are the instructions he sent me.

Below are the instructions.

 

To create a Dos bootable USB drive

 

Download from the internet “HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool, v2.1.8”. This is freely available on the internet. Install

 

this utility.

 

Download the ME version of DOS. This is freely available on the internet. Try www.bootdisk.com. Extract the files to

 

a known location.

 

Insert the USB drive (all data currently on it will be lost), run the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool utility and point it

 

to the location of the DOS.

 

Check “Create DOS startup disk” and browse to the location of DOS. Start.

 

After the USB device is made into a DOS bootable USB device.

 

Extract all the files needed to the root of the drive.

 

1) 2118it.bin ­( IT Firmware file from firmware/HBA_9211_4i_IT/ directory )

 

2) mptsas2.rom ­(bios file from sasbios_rel directory)

 

3) sas2flsh.exe ­(sas2flsh from the DOS directory (sas2flash_dos_rel of the download file))

 

A file that is good to have is “SAS2Flash_ReferenceGuide.pdf” which is the sas2flsh user manual.

 

1) First boot with flash drive to a DOS prompt.

 

2) Run commands to find out if the 9211­4I is the only adapter in the system

 

a) sas2flsh –list

 

b) sas2flsh –listall

 

3) If the above command has only one adapter it will be listed as –c 0

 

4) Now we need to erase the IR firmware

 

a) sas2flsh –o –e 6 –c 0 (­o is a alpha o)

 

5) Now without rebooting we need to flash the firmware.

 

a) sas2flsh ­o –f 2114it.bin –c 0 (­c 0 if this is the only adapter as listed by the –list command

 

above)

 

6) Now flash the bios

 

a) sas2flsh –o –b mptsas2.rom –c 0

 

7) As soon as Dos comes back to a command prompt the flash is complete.

 

8 ) You could check at this time to see if the new Firmware and bios is on the adapter by running the – list

 

and –listall commands.

 

a) sas2flsh –list

 

b) sas2flsh –listall

 

http://www.lsi.com/downloads/Public/Host%20Bus%20Adapters/Host%20Bus%20Adapters%20Common%20Files/SAS_SATA_6G_P18/9211­

 

8i_Package_P18_IR_IT_Firmware_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows.zip

Update:

It turns out I had a bought a counterfit board from amazon that was sold by spaceout but shipped by amazon.  Stay away from the seller spaceout.

Update:

 

It turns out I had a bought a counterfit board from amazon that was sold by spaceout but shipped by amazon.  Stay away from the seller spaceout.

Wow!  Just curious:  Did Amazon take care of this (i.e. did they refund your $$) ??    ... and how did you confirm that the board was counterfeit?

Update:

 

It turns out I had a bought a counterfit board from amazon that was sold by spaceout but shipped by amazon.  Stay away from the seller spaceout.

 

Wow!  Just curious:  Did Amazon take care of this (i.e. did they refund your $$) ??    ... and how did you confirm that the board was counterfeit?

I actually set up the refund with amazon before I complete the RMA with LSI because I had to the 11th to make the return if I needed to.  On the 9th LSI told me that they couldn't find the S/N in their system and asked me to send them pictures and receipt so they can look into it.  On the 10th I got an email from them saying it was either counterfeit or stolen because the S/N was not in the right format.  I read about this happening on eBay with LSI cards be for I even bought it that is why I went amazon.  I should have seen the red flag when it was the only one on amazon that was $50 cheaper then the others.

Amazon has already sent me a confirmation that I am getting a refund but I didn't tell them that it was counterfeit because at the time I didn't know.

Here is the card.

Sas9211-8i 8port Int Single 6gb Sata+sas Pcie 2.0 sold by spaceout

Here is the Seller.

spaceout

I have since repurchased the card from newegg.com because it is an authorized dealer.

Interesting -- I wonder if the seller realizes they're selling a counterfeit product ... the issue may be their supplier.    The feedback on Amazon is actually fairly good.

I'd send them a note so they know about this [but perhaps not until you have your refund  ].

Interesting -- I wonder if the seller realizes they're selling a counterfeit product ... the issue may be their supplier.    The feedback on Amazon is actually fairly good.

 

I'd send them a note so they know about this [but perhaps not until you have your refund  ].

It looks like I got part of my refund back already.  I bought it using $50 amazon gift card, $66.57 on rewards points, and $62.43 on my credit card.  I got the amazon gift card back.