New LSI 9200 series controllers: 6Gb/s, 2.88 GB/s seq. reads, 1.87 GB/s seq. writes

[mbreslin]

I don't have a bbu and I have fastpath installed.

[DooRules]

hey COMP...it WORKS bud, had to use megacli to flash but all good now

[Computurd]

amazing, cant believe they finally fixed it

[flamenko]

UD7 arrived and enjoying the reading...I think. LSI in the mail but I am already having probs as the USB3 doesnt work and it was a real biatch trying to get the blue screens to stop initially. new board on the way although the only prob left is the lack of USB3.

[trans am]

amazing, cant believe they finally fixed it

what did I miss Pops? sorry to call you pops paul. Hows everything going? Is there a new lsi refresh? Ive been so busy in the dec stage i havent been paying attention to the cutting edge. I just found out 6950-70 and sandy bridge came out. what the hell?
I have been so busy I havent bothered to reinstall the 9260 after the nov contest. maybe this is a good excuse? what is the change?

ah nevermind I read the thread. so the change is ud7 compatibility.

[Mastakilla]

Hi Trans am,

If I'm not mistaking Computurd is talking about the problem the LSI controller has on EVGA Mobos.

My problem on the UD7 is not solved by the new firmware.

[Mastakilla]

Yesterday night I made another small brake through in figuring out why WebBIOS doesn't start.

As you may remember, mbreslin has similar hardware as me (a Gigabyte UD7 mobo and a LSI 9260-8i), but does not have my problem.
One of the differences between his setup and mine is that he actually boots from the Virtual Drive attached to his LSI 9260.
So I decided to do some testing related to the boot device.

My normal setup is the following:
Intel SSD is attached to the first port of my mobo ICH10 controller. This SSD contains Windows 7 and is used to boot from.
A RAID5 of 4 HDs is attached to LSI controller. This Virtual Drive is just data drive and is not used to boot from.
In WebBIOS no Virtual Drive is "Set as Boot Drive".
In my mobo BIOS the "Hard Disk Boot Priority" is set to boot from the SSD first.

For testing I detached the RAID5 of 4 HDs from my LSI controller and I attached the 2 new HDs to the LSI controller.

First I retested my previously discovered findings:
* WebBIOS starts with 2 "unconfigured good" HDs attached
* WebBIOS does not start with a RAID0 of the 2 HDs attached
This is both with the SSD set first in the mobo "Hard Disk Boot Priority" list and no Virtual Drive set as "Boot Drive" in WebBIOS

Next I tried if changing the boot device settings made any difference:
* WebBIOS still does not start with a RAID0 of the 2 HDs attached and "SCSI-0: (BUS 03 DEV 00) PCI RAI" set first in the mobo "Hard Disk Boot Priority" list and the Virtual Drive set as "Boot Drive" in WebBIOS

Because I only changed the boot priority and since no OS was installed on RAID0 yet, the system booted in the Windows 7 of the SSD during the above testing.
So I got the brilliant idea to to detach my SSD to save some time.
And YIHAAA!! I just found another factor causing WebBIOS not to start!!
With the SSD detached from the ICH0 controller, WebBIOS does start with RAID0 of 2 HDs attached!!

Next I tested if the boot device settings made any difference:
* Setting the Virtual Drive as "Boot Drive" does not make a difference. WebBIOS still only starts with the RAID0 attached IF the SSD is detached.
* Changing the "Hard Disk Boot Priority" also makes no difference. WebBIOS still only starts with the RAID0 attached IF the SSD is detached.

Then I wanted to see if installing an OS the Virtual Drive made any difference:
* After detaching the SSD, I installed Win7 on the RAID0 which was set as "Boot Drive" in WebBIOS and set first in the "Hard Disk Boot Priority" list of the mobo.
* And here comes the tricky part: WebBIOS does no longer start after installing Win7 on it, even with the SSD detached.
* Also when attaching the SSD, WebBIOS does not start (as expected)

Finally I also tested if the same trick also works with my RAID5 (later I discovered I already had tested this before actually and posted about it in xtremesystems.org):
* With only the RAID5 attached to the LSI controller and the SSD detached, WebBIOS does not start

So in short WebBIOS starts when:
* only "unconfigured good" HDs are attached
or
* an empty Virtual Drive is attached and the SSD is not attached
In all other cases WebBIOS refuses to start and simply proceeds with the boot instead of starting itself.
If there is nothing to boot from, it will show a blinking cursor after the last message of the POST.

One other strange thing I noticed when detaching the SSD is that the firmware loading screen of the LSI controller changed a bit:
* With SSD attached
http://iskewl.eu/lsi_probs/IMG_1042.JPG
http://iskewl.eu/lsi_probs/IMG_1043.JPG
* Without SSD attached
http://iskewl.eu/lsi_probs/IMG_1044.JPG
http://iskewl.eu/lsi_probs/IMG_1043.JPG

And finally one more strange difference:
* Booting (without pressing any keys) with the RAID5 attached to the LSI controller and the SSD detached (so no bootable disk is attached, the LSI controller is first in the "Hard Disk Boot Priority" list and no "Boot Drive" is selected in WebBIOS)
http://iskewl.eu/lsi_probs/IMG_1046.JPG
* Booting (without pressing any keys) with not a single HD attached to the LSI controller and the SSD detached (so no bootable disk is attached, actually not a single disk is attached, the LSI controller is first in the "Hard Disk Boot Priority" list and no "Boot Drive" is selected in WebBIOS, since there is no Virtual Drive)
http://iskewl.eu/lsi_probs/IMG_1047.JPG

[mbreslin]

For quite a while I had a 5 disk raid 0 array on the 9260 and a 3 disk raid 0 volume on ich, I do not know the specific lsi firmware I was using at the time but I was able to enter web bios. Not sure if this helps but I figured it couldn't hurt to add.

[JoeChuo]

Guys new firmware released ... hopefully works on EVGA.
http://www.lsi.com/lookup/License.as... set&locale=EN

[Mitchb]

I found I was unable to start webios when using a few particular overclock configurations.

Mitch

[F@32]

Guys, any one had dropped drives issue/hang on boot when installing Windows 7?

[Mastakilla]

Thanks for the input mbreslin and Mitchb!

I haven't overclocked yet btw Mitchb

Still need to order the watercooling

[Mastakilla]

About an hour ago I discovered that WebBIOS does start (even with the SSD attached to ICH10 and RAID5 attached to the LSI) when no Hard Disk is selected as boot device.
So far my boot device tests were done by changing the "Hard Disk Boot Priority", but I didn't change the settings of the actual boot devices yet.

They were set as following:
Primary boot device: Hard Disk
Secondary boot device: CDROM
Third boot device: Floppy (which I actually don't have attached)

Now when I change this into:
Primary boot device: CDROM
and disable all the others,
then WebBIOS does start!!

So once more an updated summary:

WebBIOS starts when:
* Hard Disk isn't set as boot device in the BIOS
or
* Hard Disk is set as boot device in the BIOS
--- and only "unconfigured good" HDs are attached to the LSI
or
* Hard Disk is set as boot device in the BIOS
--- and an empty Virtual Drive is attached to the LSI
--- and the SSD is not attached to the ICH10

In all other cases WebBIOS refuses to start and simply proceeds with the "normal" boot (e.g.: Win7) instead of starting WebBIOS.

Anyone have an idea what can be causing my issues? Could it perhaps be some kind of bootstrap virus or something (this was a vague suggestion by the LSI support person, but I didn't quite understand his reasoning and how it relates this test)

Thanks!

Hopefully I can still solve this issue before new year

[eva2000]

About an hour ago I discovered that WebBIOS does start (even with the SSD attached to ICH10 and RAID5 attached to the LSI) when no Hard Disk is selected as boot device.
So far my boot device tests were done by changing the "Hard Disk Boot Priority", but I didn't change the settings of the actual boot devices yet.

They were set as following:
Primary boot device: Hard Disk
Secondary boot device: CDROM
Third boot device: Floppy (which I actually don't have attached)

Now when I change this into:
Primary boot device: CDROM
and disable all the others,
then WebBIOS does start!!

So once more an updated summary:

WebBIOS starts when:
* Hard Disk isn't set as boot device in the BIOS
or
* Hard Disk is set as boot device in the BIOS
--- and only "unconfigured good" HDs are attached to the LSI
or
* Hard Disk is set as boot device in the BIOS
--- and an empty Virtual Drive is attached to the LSI
--- and the SSD is not attached to the ICH10

In all other cases WebBIOS refuses to start and simply proceeds with the "normal" boot (e.g.: Win7) instead of starting WebBIOS.

Anyone have an idea what can be causing my issues? Could it perhaps be some kind of bootstrap virus or something (this was a vague suggestion by the LSI support person, but I didn't quite understand his reasoning and how it relates this test)

Thanks!

Hopefully I can still solve this issue before new year

maybe similar to my experience at http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...6&postcount=19 swapping around PCI-E slots for devices allowed me to boot web bios fine on Asus P6T6 WS Revo (nf200)

[flamenko]

Ok Im in!!!!!! I just received my 9260-8i and learned real quick that it didn't post BIOs (Ctrl-H) on a normal ASUS setup and since I am about to get my new Giga in...appreciate that. I found another runaround which is to install MegaRAID and setup the RAID from there and then you can migrate or install Win7 fresh.

Got some great scores of the C300s (1500MB/s) and am posting 900MB/s for 4xSATA2 but my 4k writes are dead low (30-40MB/s). Can anyone advise what is the best setup to get these numbers up?

[Mastakilla]

Thanks for the input eva2000!

I indeed have not tried yet to put the LSI in another pci-e slot, since it is now in the most ideal slot which should not have any conflicts (LSI is in PCIEX8_2 and my GPU is in PCIEX16_1).
Since my GPU blocks PCIEX8_1 and I would like to keep PCIEX16_2 free for a 2nd GPU in the future, I prefer on keeping them in the slots they are now.
But still it may be a good test to see if it makes any difference...

@ mbreslin:
Can you tell me in what slot which card is installed in your setup? (please use the slot names as they are in the manual on page 7)

@ flamenko:
I know I can do everything I want in MSM, but currenly I want to expand my RAID5 with 2 new disks and I don't trust Win7 enough to do that in Windows (e.g.: I just found out Catalyst 10.12 has a nasty blue screen bug when going in to sleep mode)
Also WebBIOS simply should work...
Anyway, there now is a better work-a-round than MSM. Just disable "Hard Disk" as boot device in the BIOS. Then you can enter WebBIOS with everything attached. Then do all configuring. Reboot. Set the boot devices back to normal and ready!
I still need to test if it actually works (one of these days, still waiting for a response from LSI and Gigabyte first), but I think that should work...
But once more, WebBIOS should also work when Hard Disk is enabled as boot device! (and I won't rest till that is solved )

Anyway, here are some videos of the starting WebBIOS with "Hard Disk" disabled as boot device and another video showing that disabling stuff in the BIOS does not make a difference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHLArpkV08k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJtARy3RWHE

[flamenko]

Spoke with LSI this morning and the tech explained that it did not work on certain motherboards simply because of the resources required at post.

I am using the Rxtreme III Gene and I can get it to work with the bios change boot drive method but not normally when it is just attached as a secondary.

I am hoping someon can tell me what you did to get the 4ks up however...30-40 is killing me...

[Mastakilla]

I'm still waiting for a decent explanation what these "resources" are (flash mem?)
I really have problems to understand what possible resources our super high end consumer mobos could have less then server mobos...
Especially when it comes down to having resources enough to load some silly BIOS...
It really would surprise me if high end consumer mobos tried to save costs by implementing only 2MB of flash mem instead of 4MB...

[mbreslin]

@Mastakilla: Sorry I didn't see your question before. (and I'm not going to find the manual or search giga for it :p)

My card is in the very last slot. The 2 1x's are filled with a soundcard and a network card, then a 5970, then empty, then 5870, then 9260.

[Mastakilla]

ok thanks, clear enough

my lsi is in the same slot as yours and my 5870 in the slot where you have the 5970, so I don't think my card positioning is the issue

[Mastakilla]

I just ran a full scan with avg free and avast free
Also a quick online scan with Panda

except for some tracking cookies and some false positives in old keygens, nothing was found

if anyone knows some must-do av scan to find possible bootstrap viruses, please let me know...

[eva2000]

I'm still waiting for a decent explanation what these "resources" are (flash mem?)
I really have problems to understand what possible resources our super high end consumer mobos could have less then server mobos...
Especially when it comes down to having resources enough to load some silly BIOS...
It really would surprise me if high end consumer mobos tried to save costs by implementing only 2MB of flash mem instead of 4MB...

i think resources = bios space ???

would make sense of top end boards seem to be the one with issues and those are the boards with more bios options/features taking up space as opposed to lower end boards with simpler bioses

[Mastakilla]

Thanks for the explanation Eva2000!

In meanwhile LSI and Gigabyte are in contact with each other to swap products, so they can both test this hardware combination.

I only did a few minor new tests in meanwhile and the results seem to indicate some weird behavior of the Gigabyte UD7 regarding boot devices.

Here is what I tested so far:

* primary / secondary / third boot device ALL disabled in the UD7 BIOS
--> WebBIOS does not start
--> Win7 installed on the SSD attached to ICH10 does start (uh?? weird eh? seems like a bug to me)

* primary boot device = CDROM, secondary /third boot device disabled in the UD7 BIOS
--> WebBIOS DOES start!! No matter what is attached... (even with the RAID5 + 2 unconfigured good drives attached!!)
--> Win7 installed on the SSD attached to ICH10 does start (uh?? weird eh? seems like a bug to me)

* primary boot device = CDROM, secondary boot device = Harddisk (or visa versa), third boot device disabled in the UD7 BIOS
--> WebBIOS does not start
--> Win7 installed on the SSD attached to ICH10 does start (as expected)

IF the reason would be a BIOS Space Issue, then I also find it very weird that a minor setting change like the boot device configuration can *fix* the WebBIOS issue and major setting changes like disabling audio, firewire, usb, extra controllers, all lan, etc all at the same time, do not have any impact at all...

btw:
LSI explained me that adding new HDs to my RAID5 (which is done by reconstructing the RAID5) is done by the controller itself (so is not handled by MSM or WebBIOS itself).
Because of this, the reconstructing can resume after reboots or power downs.
Since that made me feel a bit more safe about doing this with MSM, I started the reconstruction 3 days ago in MSM (which doesn't mean I no longer want to fix the WebBIOS issue the LSI controller is the most expensive part of my new computer and I really want it to work as it should :p)
Anyway the reconstruction is now at 96% (I expect it to take 3 more hours), so I'm very curious if it will work

[F@32]

Did a quick bench of 9240-8i (IBM M1015). Why would it cause large CPU utilization when it has LSISAS2008 IOP PowerPC 440 @ 533MHz? I saw almost 25% on 4K random read at QD16. I realize this is not ROC LSISAS2108, but still, should it offload CPU?

@CT I will post extensive benches as promised later P67 is very fast though, hehe.

[Computurd]

hy would it cause large CPU utilization when it has LSISAS2008 IOP PowerPC 440 @ 533MHz? I

the implementation on that board is called IR (integrated raid) if i recall correctly. it basically allows it to boot, then kicks it over to the CPU on your comp. it is just enough to boot. its kinda a HBA/Raid card hybrid. thats why it gives uber soft-raid esque numbers. that is how the 9211 functions.
the max stripe size is 64 for that btw?