Problems updating BIOS on a PE 860

[Jens Vagelpohl]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1


On 27 Aug 2007, at 18:33, <Michael_E_Brown at Dell.com> wrote:

> This is a relatively common and expected error message. You can do  
> a couple things:
>
> 1) Shut down any unneeded programs and retry the update a few times  
> (up to four or five).
>
> 2) reboot the computer and retry the update a few times.
>
> Basically, the update on your machine requires *physically*  
> contiguous RAM, 1MB of it. This can sometimes be difficult to find  
> and the update fails. Usually just retrying a few times and  
> possibly rebooting will fix it.

Thanks, Michael, retrying it again and again did let me install the  
BIOS update. However, the newer RAID controller firmware, which is  
what I was mainly after, doesn't seem to grab. update_firmware seems  
to succeed:

[root at rex ~]# update_firmware --yes

Searching storage directory for available BIOS updates...

Checking System BIOS for PowerEdge 860 - a04
         Available: system_bios(ven_0x1028_dev_0x01e6) - a04
         Did not find a newer package to install that meets all  
installation checks.
Checking Dell SAS 5/iR Adapter Controller 1 Firmware -  
00.06.50.00.06.06.00.02
         Available: pci_firmware 
(ven_0x1000_dev_0x0054_subven_0x1028_subdev_0x1f09) -  
00.10.49.00.06.12.02.00
         Found Update: pci_firmware 
(ven_0x1000_dev_0x0054_subven_0x1028_subdev_0x1f09) -  
00.10.49.00.06.12.02.00

Found firmware which needs to be updated.

Running updates...
Installing pci_firmware 
(ven_0x1000_dev_0x0054_subven_0x1028_subdev_0x1f09) -  
00.10.49.00.06.12.02.00

However, after rebooting I still have the old firmware:

[root at rex ~]# omreport storage controller
Controller  SAS 5/iR Adapter (Slot 2)

Controllers
ID                                : 0
Status                            : Non-Critical
Name                              : SAS 5/iR Adapter
Slot ID                           : PCI Slot 2
State                             : Degraded
Firmware Version                  : 00.06.50.00.06.06.00.02
Minimum Required Firmware Version : 00.10.49.00.06.12.02.00
Driver Version                    : 3.02.73rh

Notice how the state is "degraded", which is probably due to the  
outdated firmware.

jens




-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (Darwin)

iD8DBQFG0wLHRAx5nvEhZLIRAnQTAKCMOShPSR+od5dGQ17SmZgcJIXA8QCgrYNW
pf0Gh0kZMLcf45B0ul+BGKk=
=zVns
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----