Yet more trouble with LSI 9240-8i

E

EugenOS

Hello everyone.

I have a well-known
Code: 
mfi0: Timeout on command <massive hex> xx seconds
message during the MFI driver initialization. I have two systems installed on a PC. One is FreeBSD 9.3-RELEASE x64 (and it does not work with that card). Second is Windows 7 x64. And it works properly only with this firmware:
Code: 
BIOS: 4.30.00 (26th August 2011),  Firmware: 20.10.1-0107, Image: 2.130.354-1664
(maybe not only with this, but when it was not working in FreeBSD, first of all I tried the latest firmware, and when I found it did not work on both Windows 7 and FreeBSD, then tried about 5 or 6 other firmwares. So I do not want any experiment in that way anymore).

So I need to make it work on FreeBSD.

Following the LSI instructions (I try both. old MFI driver and new MRSAS, one by one, in both ways, static and dynamic modules).

  1. I remove the card from PC. And start FreeBSD.
  2. Move the /usr/src/sys/dev/mfi (or... /mrsas) directory to some backup place
  3. Unpack to /usr/src/sys/dev/mfi the sources which come in the LSI archive
  4. Perform the similar action with /usr/src/sys/modules/mfi (.../mrsas)
  5. Copy /usr/src/sys/amd64/conf/GENERIC to a backup place and edit it:
    Code: 
    comment these lines
[/LIST]
           #device   cbb   # cardbus (yenta) bridge
           #device   mpt   # LSI-Logic MPT-Fusion
    and also comment/uncomment/add one of the next lines. Relative to the driver and linkage way I try:
    Code: 
                device   mfi   # LSI MegaRAID SAS
            device   mrsas  # LSI MegaRAID SAS2
    compile and install the new kernel.

    So in any way is does not work properly. When I comment the
    Code: 
    device mfi
    line, then the operating system starts, but if I try to start the driver it hangs and writes timeout messages, repeating infinitely.

    When I start the mrsas driver (dynamically) it says that all is OK, and id=2. But there are no new devices in /dev and its subdirectories. When I add mrsas statically it did not say anything and I have no new devices either. (Later I saw that mrsas can work only with devices starting from 9265, not 9240).

    So when I create a support ticket with LSI they send me the last driver from their site and write this:
    Code: 
    Driver source files for FreeBSD 7.x, 8.x, and 9.x
  located here:
  For mfi driver, components/src/mfi.tgz
  For mrsas driver, components/src/mrsas.tgz

    And close the ticket. He he, a lot of laughs, it seems like dark sarcasm. There has not been a mfi.tgz in any of the last LSI driver archives since 2011, only mrsas.tgz. I wrote them about it. The new answer still looks like sarcasm. It contradicts their previous message and again does not give any solutions.

    Code: 
    “Special Notes for FreeBSD9.1 with inbox <mfi> driver has support for
Thunderbolt(device ID 0x005b)
================================================
FreeBSD-9.1-RELEASE is first RELEASED FREEBSD kernel which has mfi driver
capability to detect Thunderbolt without any intellegency to switch
preferences as explained in this document. FreeBSD-9.1 will have mfi inbuilt
into the kernel and without mrsas inbox support. Because of this issue,
FreeBSD-9.1 will give priority to <mfi> driver for Thunderbolt.
If user wants to achieve same behavior in FreeBSD-9.1, LSI recommend to switch
to next available FreeBSD-x release which can provide this feature. Below is
another option to use mrsas Driver for Thunderbolt on FreeBSD-9.1”

    So anybody. Please help a newbie. What must I do with that? How do I make MFI work or may be switch FreeBSD to use MRSAS driver to work with that card?
 
Hi, as I wrote:
Code: 
BIOS: 4.30.00 (26th August 2011), Firmware: 20.10.1-0107, Image: 2.130.354-1664
Board revision I can check tomorrow. But I think it's 04A. So it is like in the post you give and it does not work. I do not know why, because I do not have enough experience with FreeBSD (and *nix too).
 
One of the users reports a working configuration as:
Code: 
Product Name: LSI MegaRAID SAS 9240-8i
mfi0: 6559 (boot + 3s/0x0020/info) - Firmware version 2.130.374-2023
mfi0: 6560 (boot + 5s/0x0020/info) - Package version 20.10.1-0126
mfi0: 6561 (boot + 5s/0x0020/info) - Board Revision 04A

Also, this not working has nothing to do with experience with FreeBSD, its just a hardware support issue. It should be the job of the vendor to provide a working driver and where necessary provide information about which firmware works on which OS with which driver. Sorry your first experience is with a difficult bit of hardware.
 
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