How to remove BIOS ROM from LSI card

[@geepeezee5030]

I was able to remove the bios with just the sas2flash tool under efi shell. sas2flash -c 0 -o -e 5 5 being the parameter for boot services. Sounds like your tool does some additional functions too. It was more work to set up a linux environment than to just try the above first. Worked well on 2 sas2308 ibm cards. Nice to have fast boot times back again. Not sure what I flashed the bios to begin with. Sure it's nice to have the config utility right there, but with just 11 drives, boot up delay was a good 30 seconds or more. Oddly enough, ran into a bizarre issue. Asus x570e, 5900x. Two identical boards (and bios versions and settings) and cpus. On one, if CSM was disabled in the bios, with any drives attached to the sas controller, the system would do its drive scan, then just blank screen (tested with secure boot enabled and disabled, same result). If no drives connected system would boot. Enabling CSM support allowed the system to boot. The CSM setting was not needed in the 2nd system. Oddest thing. After getting rid of the bios in the card in the first system, it booted fine without CSM enabled. These asus boards are decent (relatively speaking), but the bios is buggy. Set a parameter that screws something up and not even a clear bios jumper works. Seems the only way to clear it was to flash a different bios version entirely. Annoying..

[@ArtofServer]

Thanks for sharing this tip!

[@sharpandshort]

Thanks. This works for a Dell Precision T5600 box which has the Intel C602 Chipset which uses the isci drivers which is one of the ones dropped, but for which ELRepo has a DUD iso for. A main issue you clarified is why we need to have the driver on an iso, and not a a bare rpm. It's probably because the boot-up procedure wants to see drives, not files. So I put my DUD iso on a usb key with dd. I booted up the centos install iso on another USB (I kept the DUD iso out until after the installation disk boot up, to avoid bootup confusion).

[@ArtofServer]

Did you mean to leave this comment on the CentOS 8 on SAS2008 controller video? Not sure how this applies to removing the LSI BIOS ROM?

[@sharpandshort]

@@ArtofServer yes, I'm such a dodo.

[@danielvalentin7925]

Huge thanks! A real lifesaver video, thanks for the binary as well!

[@ArtofServer]

Glad it helped!

[@ChrisProElite]

you literally saved me time and work. I cant compliment you more!

[@ArtofServer]

Glad I could help!

[@toto99303]

THANKS!!! Awesome information!!!

[@ArtofServer]

Glad it was helpful!

[@corey736]

THANK YOU!

[@ArtofServer]

You're welcome!

[@TheDopalgangr]

Nice work, I really enjoy your videos. What would you do if you wanted to put the bios back on?

[@ArtofServer]

Watch any of my how to flash IT mode firmware videos and I show how to do that. You just leave out the firmware part, but do the BIOS ROM part.

[@TheDopalgangr]

@@ArtofServer Thanks for that. If BTW I have an H200 HBA already do you still have to flash the IT mode? I ask because Im trying the repurpose drives from 520-512k like in your other video but its not working with it. Thanks for the time and knowledge!!

[@brokentradgedy]

How do I get my LSI 2116 SAS2 card to work? I plugged it in and it show up in device manager, but when I plug in Harddrives to it nothing happens and they dont show up in file explorer or windows partition. When I boot the computer there is no bios for the LSI card it just boots like normally.

[@fujitsubo3323]

i used wget to dump sas2flash and lsiutil into /usr/local/sbin when i try just run sas2lfash -list i get permission denied error. when i run it as sudo i just get command not found. what im i missing or doing wrong ? im using unraid and doing this via putty. im logged in as root

[@fujitsubo3323]

update: i fixed it i just ran it off a usb drive mounted in exfat and it worked thanks you are a legend this video rocks

[@ArtofServer]

OK. glad you figured it out on your own! Thanks for watching! :-)

[@gg-gn3re]

finally I found the answer, I guess my server board doesn't support the LSI having a bios ROM or is there a setting? Went through tons of forum posts of people telling others to just go into bios and and change boot order with the card.. but my motherboard doesn't even get past loading with the card when it has it's bios erasing it (using a different computer that I guess does support it) worked I guess I owe you an ebay purchase.. Any idea why the supermicro X11DPH-T would not support it? or settings?

[@ArtofServer]

Glad this helped. not exactly sure why you had a problem. I usually don't see this type of issue with Supermicro boards. I have seen HP Proliant BIOS have a conflict with some versions of the LSI BIOS ROM. Another option is to disable the Option ROM on the PCIe slot you are using in the motherboard setup menu.

[@gg-gn3re]

@@ArtofServer thanks I'll write that down (option ROM part).. my asus AM4 desktop board was able to load the LSI card so I could delete the stuff and it boots. Since it's storage only as you say and not boot I prob won't do the firmware.. If it was still on there I'd try it though. Their ~230 manual doesn't even mention pcie roms or lsi or anything unfortunately =/ I maybe tried the option rom since I went through so many forum posts, but I forgot all of it since it was trial -> fail -> trial -> fail for like 50+ different things lol

[@andrewr5357]

What are your options if you PC won't post with the card installed beside installing the card in another PC?

[@andrewr5357]

I figured out how to boot from a PC that doesn't post (black screen). If you kapton tape the B5 and B6 pins it will boot. Something to do with the card expecting a Dell PC.

[@ArtofServer]

Thank you for the follow up and sharing your solution. Indeed, I've talked about the SMBus issue in one of my older videos: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fnPRf5Semr6gmqM

[@billycroan2336]

how can I backup my current rom (bios, efibios, firmware, and anything else) before doing this, and before updating it as well? I have three lsi adapters that I'd like to carefully backup, then update and remove the bios from all three to speed up and lower complexity of boot

[@ArtofServer]

what do you mean by backup bios, uefi, and firmware? those files are available for download from broadcom.com so why do you need to back them up? (see this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/rGbZaYd5mNt0btU) What you might want to backup are things like the SAS address, assembly number, serial number, etc. On genuine LSI cards, those things are printed on labels on the card so you can always look at them. Or, you can save that information in a file using the sas2flash program.

[@Felix-ve9hs]

BIOS ROM: You shall not POST Art of Server: _yeet_

[@ArtofServer]

LOL

[@frankruhl4256]

i am trying to put the bios back onto the two cards (hp9205-8i and a lsi9300-8i). i keep getting errors "ERROR: Failed to initialize PAL. Exiting Program" i tryed this on a boot usb with freedos on it. Any sugestions. This is so i can see the drives in windows, unraid, and freenas.

[@ArtofServer]

Your motherboard BIOS might be missing a few features required by the DOS version of the sas2flash or sas3flash programs. Try using the UEFI version instead, or do it from within the OS by using the Linux version. This is one of the reasons why I don't like the DOS versions.

[@beecee793]

Will that run on TrueNAS Scale?

[@ArtofServer]

Being based on Linux, I suspect so.

[@beecee793]

@@ArtofServer Thanks, ill try it

[@mrls2550]

Hello. Im a total newby. I just bought a sunoracle f80 800gb. I want to use it only as a storage for my tower pc, but everytime I restart my pc it just open LSI bios. With this method can I solve my problem?

[@ArtofServer]

First of all, welcome to my channel! :-) Secondly, that's really strange that your system automatically executes the LSI BIOS ROM program? It shouldn't be doing that... that should only happen if you press the ctrl-c sequence to invoke it. So, there's something strange going on there... As for whether this procedure will stop it from happening, perhaps... I don't know that F80 that well, so not 100% sure.

[@mrls2550]

@@ArtofServer Hello. Thanks for the reply. I found out that I had my bios to legacy boot. Now Im trying to flash it, but you video got me the idea to check my bios

[@carlmacek2]

I am using a SAS card under windows, I would like to remove the bios, I used this tutorial under ubuntu (without install it), just from the pendrive, but even if I go to the download folder under the terminal and I see the lsiutil file, when I run as root user it says "command not found". I also tried ./lsutil and it shows "PErmission denied" I am obviously not a Linux user, I just want to do this to speed up Windows, what am I doing wrong?

[@ArtofServer]

it's hard to tell what you're doing with the description above, but my *guess* is that you downloaded the program, but did not set it for execute permission. To do that, you need to run this command on the file: # chmod +x lsiutil and then try to run it as 'root'.

[@carlmacek2]

@@ArtofServer Thank you

[@carlmacek2]

@@ArtofServer root@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu/Downloads# ./lsiutil LSI Logic MPT Configuration Utility, Version 1.72, Sep 09, 2014 0 MPT Ports found root@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu/Downloads# ./sas2flash bash: ./sas2flash: Permission denied root@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu/Downloads# chmod +x sas2flash root@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu/Downloads# ./sas2flash LSI Corporation SAS2 Flash Utility Version 20.00.00.00 (2014.09.18) Copyright (c) 2008-2014 LSI Corporation. All rights reserved No LSI SAS adapters found! Limited Command Set Available! Finished Processing Commands Successfully. Exiting SAS2Flash. root@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu/Downloads# I think my SAS card is not compatible, it is an HP 16 Gb, the Ubuntu "Disks" app shows both of my SAS drives so even Ubuntu is running from a pendrive it is detecting my disks properly. I like SAS drives, the only issue is the long booting time, specially that I use them for home and not for servers, good that Windows fast boot is only affected in the restart, so I just avoid to restart, but would be nice to have a SAS card that is already without any bios, so I just plug my hard disks, and does not slow down the rebooting time, I use them not as primary disks, of course I have my NVMe for that, so I think I don't need a a bios for the SAS LSI card, if you sell a card already configured I would buy it, the only issue is that I am in Chile, if you considered to post here using the eBay global shipping program I would be interested

[@nifo91]

@@ArtofServer Hi! I installed ubuntu just for this as I have a problem with my lsi-card not letting me boot into my motherboard bios or into any os. But I have a problem. I can't get the program to work. I do the same thing as the guy above. I also tried to cd into my downloads folder and run the # chmod command but it does not do anything. what am I doing wrong? 😕

[@josephregular]

Can anybody help with this... I'm unable to remove the bios. I flash with freedos, erase the firmware, add new firmware but the bios survives options 5 & 6.

[@ArtofServer]

If you followed this video, you should know now that you don't need to erase the firmware at all. just run the commands in this video to remove the BIOS ROM.

[@josephregular]

​@@ArtofServer Hi, thanks for the reply and for taking the time to make this helpful video. TLDR - I got it working with another system/ MB with the freedos process.... Broadcom support helped me figure out it was the configuration of my MSI gaming MB on my new build. I didn't want to mess with all the setup I did for clocks, timing, rtx 3090, boot, fans, etc. I just put the card on another system and the flash process worked just fine. Again, thank you, much respect for KZbinrs like you that make helpful videos such as this one.

[@rabinovitch4629]

Any method using storcli?

[@ArtofServer]

sorry, not sure.

[@GuillermoPradoObando]

Why I need to do that? I guess to convert the control to IT mode?

[@ArtofServer]

I explained why during the first few minutes of the video.

[@carlmacek2]

I like SAS drives, the only issue is the long booting time, specially that I use them for home and not for servers, good that Windows fast boot is only affected in the restart, so I just avoid to restart, but would be nice to have a SAS card that is already without any bios, so I just plug my hard disks, and does not slow down the rebooting time, I use them not as primary disks, of course I have my NVMe for that, so I think I don't need a a bios for the SAS LSI card, if you sell a card already configured I would buy it, the only issue is that I am in Chile, if you considered to post here using the eBay global shipping program I would be interested

[@ArtofServer]

All my internal HBA SAS controllers have the BIOS ROM; I find it useful to help troubleshoot problems and choose boot device. All my external HBA cards do not have the BIOS ROM; since some times people attach really large arrays and not likely to boot off an external disk shelf. Of course, you can always follow this video to remove the BIOS ROM if that is desired. I do ship outside the USA via eBay Global shipping, including Chile. Link to my store is in the video description if you'd like to look around.

[@carlmacek2]

@@ArtofServer Hi, For some reason Chile is not listed, which is weird as is a country where ebay global shipping is common. Would you sell an internal HBA SAS with no BIOS ROM? Thanks

[@carlmacek2]

@@ArtofServer I would like this card HP H240 SAS-3 12Gbps HBA Host Bus Adapter 779134-001 761873-B21 726907-B21 ZFS Would be possible to sell it without bios for fast startup? For some reason this item does not post to Chile, biut I was checking other items frtom your store and they do post to Chile, would be possible to make it happen? :) Thanks

[@ArtofServer]

i have a video around here showing how to remove the BIOS ROM from an LSI card if that might help you. but no, I don't sell any internal HBAs without the BIOS ROM.

[@ArtofServer]

No the H240 is not like the LSI SAS cards... not sure you can remove the BIOS ROM on those like you do with LSI cards. I'm not sure why Chile is not listed? I've certainly sold to Chile before, and I have no exclusions in my listing (just checked). I would say contact eBay... could be a glitch on their end or their eBay global shipping temporarily suspended shipping to Chile. Not sure.. i have no control over that part.

[@fassst]

A lot of us dont have actual servers... A lot of us use unraid..

[@janbernhardt2886]

lsiutil does not see my MPT (0 MPT Ports found). sas2flash -list does. mptctl is loaded. LSI Corporation SAS2 Flash Utility Version 20.00.00.00 (2014.09.18) Copyright (c) 2008-2014 LSI Corporation. All rights reserved Adapter Selected is a LSI SAS: SAS2308_2(D1) Controller Number : 0 Controller : SAS2308_2(D1) PCI Address : 00:01:00:00 SAS Address : 500605b-0-0a2a-6570 NVDATA Version (Default) : 14.01.00.06 NVDATA Version (Persistent) : 14.01.00.06 Firmware Product ID : 0x2214 (IT) Firmware Version : 20.00.04.00 NVDATA Vendor : LSI NVDATA Product ID : SAS9207-8e BIOS Version : 07.39.00.00 UEFI BSD Version : 07.27.01.00 FCODE Version : N/A Board Name : SAS9207-8e Board Assembly : H3-25427-02J Board Tracer Number : SV51102479 Finished Processing Commands Successfully. Exiting SAS2Flash. Any idea?

[@ArtofServer]

did you run lsiutil with root privileges?

[@janbernhardt2886]

@@ArtofServer yes did so

[@ArtofServer]

Sorry, then I'm not sure what is going on there.

[@janbernhardt2886]

@@ArtofServer No worries, thank you.