Flashing Mylex dac960 firmware problem

[Fred_87]

J'essai d'upgrader le firmware d'une carte mylex dac960pl sur un netserver lhplus.
Pour mener à bien cette opération, la documentation précise "Disable ALL Adapter BIOS shadowing in system CMOS setup", mais je ne trouve pas cette option dans le bios (plus exactement dans les menus ECU).
Comment faire?
Car l'upgrade du firmware échoue systématiquement, je

[CA467151]

These forums are in English only. Can you repeat your question in English?

[Fred_87]

Sorry, I'll try to translate.
I have to upgrade the firmware of a mylex dac 960PL card installed in a netserver LH plus from version 2.38 to version 2.73 (in order to install linux).
I've found the firmware 2.73 and the install instructions says "Disable ALL Adapter BIOS shadowing in system CMOS setup".
But I can't found this option through ECU menus.
How can I do that?

[CA467151]

Where are you getting the firmware update? Can you attach the install instructions to your reply?

[Fred_87]

I get the firmware update here:
http://www.alfa.com.au/supports/mylex/raid/dac960/main.htm
You'll find the installation instruction attached to this reponse.

[CA467151]

I'm assuming this is the HP Mylex card. Does anyone else have info on flashing this Mylex card with non-HP firmware?

[Fred_87]

Yes, it is the HP Mylex card.
Any help to upgrade the firmware to 2.73 would be greatly appreciated.

[Fred_87]

Today I found an option in ECU to disable level 2 and level 1 cache.
So, I try to disable them (but I think it concerns processor cache and not cache or shadow memory...) and retry the flash of the mylex card.
But I get the same error message, which is:
"ERROR:
Hardware error encountered while trying to execute commands to the DAC960. Ensure that the DAC is plugged in properly, and retry the download."
But the DAC IS plugged properly because the update program detects it properly as a 2 channel DAC960PL, Firmware version 2.39 and single EEPROM.
I hope these last informations could help someone to see whats wrong and tells me how to do this upgrade.

[CA660088]

Just as a note..
I have never needed to upgrade the BIOS on any HP DAC to install Linux. I have installed it successfully on many older Netservers (original LH 's and LF's) with and without DACS . I have needed to upgrade Disk BIOS however. What symptoms are you having during the install?

[Fred_87]

The problem appears during linux installation, when I have to create disk partitions: no disk is visible/reachable!
And when I read the requirements for the linux driver for DAC960 (here:http://www.dandelion.com/Linux/DAC960.html, and I don't know any other linux driver for dac960), it's written:
"...In addition, this release provides support for older DAC960PU/PD/PL/P models with firmware version 2.73." and "For the DAC960PU, DAC960PD, DAC960PL, and DAC960P, either firmware version
3.51-0-04 or above is required (for dual Flash ROM controllers), or firmware
version 2.73-0-00 or above is required (for single Flash ROM controllers)"(http://www.dandelion.com/Linux/README.DAC960).
So, is there a way to bypass this "limitation"? Is there another driver without this "limitation"?
Any solution is welcome.

[CA984331]

Hi,

can you give us the precise name of the version of the adapter?

Michael

[CA984331]

Hi again,

isn't the controller a pci adapter and the ecu the eisa configuration utility?
Correct me if I am wrong.

Michael

[Fred_87]

You are right,
the controller is a pci raid adapter, model DAC960PL single EEPROM.
The ECU is, as you said, EISA Configuration Utility. It's used to access and configure BIOS options on the netserver, not only EISA parameters, but also cache memory, IDE and PCI connections, etc...

[Fred_87]

Here is the response from LSILogic which support now Mylex products:
"The controller you are using has been OEMed to HP. If you are using this controller in the HP server or with the HP server SCSI hard drives, you will need to flash with OEM specific firmware obtained through HP. If you are not and there is a Maintenance jumper on the controller, short it and attempted to reflash from OEM firmware to Distribution firmware. Caution, using the jumper will corrupt the BIOS and if unable to flash, the controller will be dead."
So, does HP offers the 2.73 version of the firmware and how to get it?
If not, I'll try to flash with Mylex/LSI Logic firmware.
Does anybody already do that and know something about this Maintenance jumper?

[CA984331]

Hi,

I have seen so far firmware up to 2.70

Michael

[Fred_87]

Hello,
So, before trying to flash with LSI logic firmware, where can I find the latest firmware from hp?

[CA984331]

Hi Fred,

you find it here:
http://h18002.www1.hp.com/alphaserver/products/storage/ra230/index.html

Michael

[Fred_87]

I don't think because I have a netserver, and not an alphaserver...

[Fred_87]

I've just found one here :
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DriverDownload.jsp?pnameOID=15597&locale=en_US&taskId=135&prodSeriesId=62427&prodTypeId=329290&swEnvOID=54
But it's only a version 2.14

[CA984331]

Hi Fred,

unless someone can correct me, I would think, that the bios is plattform independent, because it contains code for the Intel 960 and not for the alpha, it is installed in.

Michael