Category: Uncategorized

Flash LSI 2308 to IT-mode on a SuperMicro X10SL7-F mainboard

For a new SSD-only Ceph deployment I got my hands on a couple of SuperMicro SYS-1018D-73MTF 1U server with 8 Intel SSDs.

Great machines, but by default SuperMicro ships them with the IR (Integrated RAID) firmware and I wanted to use the IT (JBOD) firmware.

The X10SL7 mainboard has a UEFI bios, so flashing the controller was rather easy.

First, download the latest firmware for the LSI 2308 controller from SuperMicro. At this moment it is the PH19-IT firmware.

Now we have to create a small disk image with a FAT32 filesystem to use as a virtual drive for the IPMI.

I run Ubuntu on my desktops and laptops, so this is how I created that small disk image:

NOTE: You can generate the ISO with the steps below, or download it directly.

mkfs.msdos -C ipmi.iso 2880
sudo mkdir /media/ipmi/
sudo mount -o loop ipmi.iso /media/ipmi/
wget ftp://ftp.supermicro.com/Driver/SAS/LSI/2308/Firmware/IT/PH19-IT.zip
sudo unzip PH19-IT.zip UEFI/* -d /media/ipmi/
sudo umount /media/ipmi/

Now open your IPMI and attach ipmi.iso to your server.

Reboot the machine and hit the F11 key to open a boot menu and start the build in UEFI shell.

When in the UEFI shell enter these commands:

fs0:
cd UEFI
SMC2308T.NSH

At some point it will ask for the 9 remaining digits of the SAS address. Simply enter 000000000 (9 zeros) and you’re fine.

Reboot the system and the controller should now be in IT mode

Cisco 887VA with VDSL2 vectoring on XS4All/KPN

Note: This post is in Dutch since it’s targeted towards a Dutch audience.

Vandaag werd op kantoor onze VDSL2 verbinding van 50Mbit (non-vectoring) naar 65Mbit (vectoring) geupgrade door XS4All. Dat liep niet helemaal lekker. Onze Cisco 887VA router/modem kon daar niet goed mee overweg.

Na wat zoeken (uren) kwam ik er achter dat er een andere firmware nodig is, te weten VA_A_38k1_B_38h_24g1.bin

Om iedereen de moeite te besparen, deze firmware is hier te downloaden. (Hekel aan dat Cisco alles achter logins plaatst!)

Plaats vervolgens de firmware in de router door middel van TFTP of een HTTP-copy en dan is het slechts dit stukje configuratie:

!         
controller VDSL 0
 firmware filename flash:VA_A_38k1_B_38h_24g1.bin
!

Als ik nu in de Cisco kijk zie ik dit:

firewall#show controllers VDSL 0
Controller VDSL 0 is UP

Daemon Status:		 Up 

			XTU-R (DS)		XTU-C (US)
Chip Vendor ID:		'BDCM'			 'BDCM'
Chip Vendor Specific:   0x0000			 0xA45F
Chip Vendor Country:    0xB500			 0xB500
Modem Vendor ID:	'CSCO'			 '    '
Modem Vendor Specific:  0x4602			 0x0000
Modem Vendor Country:   0xB500			 0x0000
Serial Number Near:    FCZ162390P2 887VA-SE 15.3(3)   
Serial Number Far:     AA1250FE43S-05
Modem Version Near:    15.3(3)
Modem Version Far:     0xa45f

Modem Status:		 TC Sync (Showtime!) 
DSL Config Mode:	 AUTO 
Trained Mode:		 G.993.2 (VDSL2) Profile 17a
TC Mode:		 PTM 
Selftest Result:	 0x00 
DELT configuration:	 disabled 
DELT state:		 not running 
Trellis:		 ON			  ON
SRA: 			 disabled			 disabled
 SRA count: 		 0			 0
Bit swap: 		 enabled			 enabled
 Bit swap count:	 1710			 5
Line Attenuation:	  0.0 dB		  0.0 dB
Signal Attenuation:	  0.0 dB		  0.0 dB
Noise Margin:		 12.1 dB		 26.2 dB
Attainable Rate:	90384 kbits/s		 36750 kbits/s
Actual Power:		 12.4 dBm		 - 1.2 dBm
Per Band Status:       	D1 	D2 	D3 	U0 	U1 	U2 	U3
Line Attenuation(dB):   11.7	28.0	44.0	4.0	21.5	33.8	N/A	
Signal Attenuation(dB): 16.3	27.6	44.0	4.0	20.8	33.3	N/A	
Noise Margin(dB):       12.2	12.2	12.1	26.2	26.1	26.2	N/A	
Total FECC:		54			 0
Total ES:		0			 0
Total SES:		0			 0
Total LOSS:		0			 0
Total UAS:		78			 78
Total LPRS:		0			 0
Total LOFS:		0			 0
Total LOLS:		0			 0

Full inits:		1
Failed full inits:	0
Short inits:		0
Failed short inits:	0

Firmware	Source		File Name (version)
--------	------		-------------------
VDSL		user config	flash:VA_A_38k1_B_38h_24g1.bin (10)

Modem FW  Version:	130208_1314-4.02L.03.A2pv6C038k1.d24g1
Modem PHY Version:	A2pv6C038k1.d24g1
Vendor Version:		Ap6v38k1.24g1 68


 		  DS Channel1	  DS Channel0	US Channel1	  US Channel0
Speed (kbps):	          0	       83997	         0	        8399
SRA Previous Speed:       0	           0	         0	           0
Previous Speed:	          0	           0	         0	           0
Reed-Solomon EC:          0	          54	         0	           0
CRC Errors:	          0	           0	         0	           0
Header Errors:	          0	           0	         0	           0
Interleave (ms):       3.00	        0.00	      0.00	        0.00
Actual INP:	       4.00	       55.00	      4.00	       55.00

Training Log :	Stopped
Training Log Filename :	flash:vdsllog.bin

firewall#

USB boot issues on a Soekris net6501-70

After 5 years of great service it was time to replace my Soekris net5501-70 by a new net6501-70.

I tried to install Ubuntu 14.04 via USB, but the Soekris wouldn’t boot from my Kingston Datatraveler USB stick.

It seems the Soekris is rather picky on the USB stick. This is what you don’t want to see:

comBIOS ver. 1.41c  20121115  Copyright (C) 2000-2011 Soekris Engineering.

net6501

2048 Mbyte Memory                        CPU Atom E6xx 1600 Mhz 


SATA AHCI BIOS ver. 0.61 20121115  Copyright (C) 2003-2011 Intel Corporation

Controller Bus#02, Device#06, Function#00: 02 Ports, 02 Devices
  Port-00: Hard Disk, INTEL SSDMCEAC060B3            
  Port-01: Hard Disk, WDC WD10JPVX-80JC3T0           

Soekris USB Expansion ROM ver. 1.01  20111203

82: USB 01                          Xlt -2-32   Mbyte

At 82 you see the USB stick isn’t properly discovered. This is what it should look like:

Soekris USB Expansion ROM ver. 1.01  20111203

82: USB 01  General UDisk           Xlt 994-255-63  7988 Mbyte

That shows t he USB stick is detected properly and you can now install Ubuntu! Simply dd a ISO to the USB stick.