s5clouds8-lsi9211-8i-IR-to-IT-EFI-bootable-usb

Creating USB Flash drive

The following 'spec' has been confirmed to work

• Sony 4GB USB2.0 Flash Drive. I have been told that USB3 sticks may not work.

Format as follows, use lsblk -f and fdisk -l to locate the correct device and replace /dev/sdX below

• Wipe the drive with dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=16k status=progress
• fdisk /dev/sdX
  • Select o to create new empty DOS partition table.
  • n and choose to create a primary partition, where the last sector is +500M.
  • w to write and exit
• fdisk /dev/sdX1 + a to set the primary partition as bootable (active). Choose w to write and exit.
• sudo mkfs.vfat /dev/sdX1 to format as FAT16.

Preparing the drive

Mount and copy the contents of the usb folder to the root of the USB drive. Here's a breakdown of where these files have been obtained from

• /efi/boot/bootX64.efi - This is Shell_Full.efi from the Tianocore Github repo; the X64 full-shell from the UDK2010.SR1 branch. It's the oldest and I needed to find a version old enough that would work with sas2flash.efi. Refer details by boris_d and the dreaded "InitShellApp: Application not started from Shell" error when using a newer version of the Tianocore shell.

• sas2flash.efi: from 9211-8i_Package_P20_IR_IT_Firmware_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows.zip

• 2118it.bin: from Installer_P20_for_UEFI.zip (link)

• mptsas2.rom: from Installer_P20_for_UEFI.zip (link)

The zip files mentioned above are included in the root of this repo for archival purposes.

Disabling Secure Boot (in Asus UEFI)

In the Boot tab, scroll down to Secure Boot and choose 'Other OS' as the selection. You will need to save and reboot to ensure this persists. This same view will let you verify that keys are unloaded.

You do not need to wipe your Secure Boot keys; if you do, make sure to make a backup first.

Booting the drive (in Asus UEFI)

In Asus UEFI, going to Exit > Launch EFI Shell from USB devices would not work (for me, YMMV); instead it would keep presenting a warning regarding Secure Boot.

Instead, head to the Boot tab in the UEFI and locate a bootable entry starting with UEFI: .... that matches the capacity of your media. In my case, this was a Sony USB drive.

Since Secure Boot was already disabled, this booted into the EFI shell straight away.

Flashing the LSI HBA Card to IT-mode

• Erase controller flash memory: sas2flash.efi -o -e 6 DO NOT REBOOT!!

• Write new firmware and BIOS to card: sas2flash.efi -o -f 2118it.bin -b mptsas2.rom.

• Make sure to verify before rebooting: sas2flash.efi -listall

Reboot and hit Ctrl-C to verify the new firmware in IT mode has persisted.

Hardware Used (as a baseline)

• AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X
• Asus Zenith Extreme X399 (TR4) w/ Noctual NH-U14S-TR4-SP3 Cooler
• G.Skill DDR4 32GB RAM @ 3200MT/s
• Fedora 27 / 4.15.14-300.fc27.x86_64
• Samsung 850 Pro 250GB SSD

Level1Tech's Thread

This repo is a result of posting my findings in a thread on the Level1Tech's forum. Feel free to share your findings there.

Much thanks to Whizdumb for pointing me in the right direction with crucial info about using USB2 drives.

References

• https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/how-to-flash-lsi-9211-8i-using-efi-shell.50902/
• https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/tutorial-updating-ibm-m1015-lsi-9211-8i-firmware-on-uefi-systems.11462/

License

This project is licensed under the terms of the MIT License.