Dell PowerEdge R210ii Server Attempt :)

[vicrod74]

Hello guys,

Bouncing back with an attempt to replace my aging HP EX495.. which served well for many years I should say 🙃 

I came across a Dell R210ii Server and I'm going to flex my hacking muscles starting today... lol!

 

So here's my question... Will the extra.Izma support the following hardware on the Dell PowerEdge R210ii?  I'm planning to use Jun's Boot Loader 1.04b

 

Here's the output from lspci command on my Linux console:

 

0:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 Processor Family DRAM Controller (rev 09)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev b4)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev a4)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation C202 Chipset LPC Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family 6 port Desktop SATA AHCI Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 04)
01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries NetXtreme II BCM5716 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 20)
01:00.1 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Inc. and subsidiaries NetXtreme II BCM5716 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 20)
02:03.0 VGA compatible controller: Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd. MGA G200eW WPCM450 (rev 0a)

 

Any tips & tricks?

 

💪 😎

 

Edited January 5, 2023 by vicrod74

[vicrod74]

I made countless attempts with Juno's boot loader v.1.04b and replacing extra.Izma files to no avail. It just kept freezing post boot.

 

I decided to give RedPill loader a try and I was able to boot successfully,however, my NIC card only has loop back interface and it's not showing eth0 or eth1 (I have two NICS).

 

How do I add get the Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5716 drivers to load? Do I need to manually install the driver?

 

[vicrod74]

So far the Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5716 firmware does not load at boot up and this is preventing me from moving further.

 

When I check using dmesg | grep bnx2 command on the console I get:

 

Can't Load firmware  file "bnx2/bnx2-mips-09-6.2.1b.fw"

 

Is this a bug in initrd not pointing to the right path for the firmware?  

 

Edited January 8, 2023 by vicrod74

[vicrod74]

Just a quick update on the progress of my Dell R210ii server.  I tried several loaders like Jun's Loader and Tiny Core Red Pill (TCRP) to no avail on my issue, although very excellent loaders, I kept having a problem loading the correct firmware for the Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5716 after booting up. Taking a deeper dive and searching through the forums,  I came across another good loader called Automated Red Pill (ARPL). 

 

Let me give this loader a go and see how far it takes me.  I'll report back my findings.

 

[Barrow1990]

@vicrod74

Curious on this 1

I have a R210 ii that i thought maybe i could utilise for a Xpenology.

How much luck have you got with it?

[Barrow1990]

Just got round to installing.

 

Managed to get the server running with APLR with an intel pci card but unfortunately im unable to get the drivers loaded for the Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5716 Gigabit Nics.

Looking through the forums it seems the bnx2/bnx2-mips-09-6.2.1b.fw drivers are broken.

 

If I do the following ssh'd in:

dmesg | grep bnx

 

I get the following output:

[    5.058781] bnx2: QLogic bnx2 Gigabit Ethernet Driver v2.2.6 (January 29, 2014)
[    5.059509] bnx2 0000:02:00.0 eth0: Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5716 1000Base-T (C0) PCI Express found at mem c0000000, IRQ 16, node addr d4:ae:52:bf:32:84
[    5.060220] bnx2 0000:02:00.1 eth1: Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5716 1000Base-T (C0) PCI Express found at mem c2000000, IRQ 17, node addr d4:ae:52:bf:32:85
[   26.645194] bnx2x: QLogic 5771x/578xx 10/20-Gigabit Ethernet Driver bnx2x 1.713.36 ($DateTime: 2016/06/16 03:53:41 $)
[   30.934069] bnx2 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load for bnx2/bnx2-mips-09-6.2.1b.fw failed with error -2
[   30.943569] bnx2 0000:02:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[   30.980277] bnx2: Can't load firmware file "bnx2/bnx2-mips-09-6.2.1b.fw"
[   31.126879] bnx2 0000:02:00.1: Direct firmware load for bnx2/bnx2-mips-09-6.2.1b.fw failed with error -2
[   31.136387] bnx2 0000:02:00.1: Falling back to user helper
[   31.143637] bnx2: Can't load firmware file "bnx2/bnx2-mips-09-6.2.1b.fw"

 

Don't know if anyone can point me in the right direction for getting the correct drivers that work

Edited April 6, 2023 by Barrow1990

[IG-88]

13 hours ago, Barrow1990 said:

Don't know if anyone can point me in the right direction for getting the correct drivers that work

 

you can download the missing firmware files from kernel.org

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/tree/bnx2

(hit "plain" for downloading the file in question or use wget to downlaod directly on the system where you need the file)

there are other sources too (just any kernel firmware source migth do it as the files did not change for a long time)

https://kernel.googlesource.com/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware/+/refs/heads/main/bnx2/

 

 

13 hours ago, Barrow1990 said:

bnx2: Can't load firmware file "bnx2/bnx2-mips-09-6.2.1b.fw"

that indicates the path ("bnx2/" and filename ("bnx2-mips-09-6.2.1b.fw")  of whats missing in the firmware directory and that is /lib/firmware/

 

so copy the *.fw files to /lib/firmware/bnx2/

(you can also go into the destination and wget the files directly there)

 

[Barrow1990]

On 4/7/2023 at 11:09 AM, IG-88 said:

 

you can download the missing firmware files from kernel.org

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/tree/bnx2

(hit "plain" for downloading the file in question or use wget to downlaod directly on the system where you need the file)

there are other sources too (just any kernel firmware source migth do it as the files did not change for a long time)

https://kernel.googlesource.com/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware/+/refs/heads/main/bnx2/

 

 

that indicates the path ("bnx2/" and filename ("bnx2-mips-09-6.2.1b.fw")  of whats missing in the firmware directory and that is /lib/firmware/

 

so copy the *.fw files to /lib/firmware/bnx2/

(you can also go into the destination and wget the files directly there)

 

Just done this and seems that its not working.

Probs just missing something.

Here's the output of 

ls -la /lib/firmware/bnx2/

drwx------ 2 root root   4096 Apr 10 16:57 .
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root   4096 Apr 10 16:24 ..
-rw------- 1 root root  92824 Apr 10 16:21 bnx2-mips-06-6.2.3.fw
-rw------- 1 root root 103904 Apr 10 16:25 bnx2-mips-09-6.2.1b.fw
-rw------- 1 root root   5696 Apr 10 16:55 bnx2-rv2p-06-6.0.15.fw
-rw------- 1 root root   6104 Apr 10 16:56 bnx2-rv2p-09-6.0.17.fw
-rw------- 1 root root   6616 Apr 10 16:57 bnx2-rv2p-09ax-6.0.17.fw

and

dmesg | grep bnx

[    5.671628] bnx2: QLogic bnx2 Gigabit Ethernet Driver v2.2.6 (January 29, 2014)
[    5.672351] bnx2 0000:02:00.0 eth0: Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5716 1000Base-T (C0) PCI Express found at mem c0000000, IRQ 16, node addr d4:ae:52:bf:32:84
[    5.673068] bnx2 0000:02:00.1 eth1: Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5716 1000Base-T (C0) PCI Express found at mem c2000000, IRQ 17, node addr d4:ae:52:bf:32:85
[   68.374936] bnx2x: QLogic 5771x/578xx 10/20-Gigabit Ethernet Driver bnx2x 1.713.36 ($DateTime: 2016/06/16 03:53:41 $)
[   73.729898] bnx2 0000:02:00.0: Direct firmware load for bnx2/bnx2-mips-09-6.2.1b.fw failed with error -2
[   73.739906] bnx2 0000:02:00.0: Falling back to user helper
[   73.851143] bnx2: Can't load firmware file "bnx2/bnx2-mips-09-6.2.1b.fw"
[   73.963230] bnx2 0000:02:00.1: Direct firmware load for bnx2/bnx2-mips-09-6.2.1b.fw failed with error -2
[   73.972749] bnx2 0000:02:00.1: Falling back to user helper
[   73.979967] bnx2: Can't load firmware file "bnx2/bnx2-mips-09-6.2.1b.fw"

 

[vicrod74]

Yes it's a bit of a challenge with the R210 II.  I came across another decommissioned server the Dell PowerEdge R620 and I'm going to give a go and see what happens.  So far Tiny Core Red Pill seems to recognize the NIC controller. I'm guessing this is a good sign lol.   Ok let me see what other challenges I face with this server.

 

Just FYI - I'm using TinyCoreLinux 12.0.  I have 8 SAS drives and a Raid Controller.  Let's see what awaits for me in this new journey.  lol

Edited May 27, 2023 by vicrod74

[vicrod74]

Ok Dell R620 with H710 Mini Raid Controller on IT Mode (already flashed controller) but when I go to DSM for setup it says "No drives detected in DS3622xs+"'

 

UGH!!! lol  I'm so close!  

 

And I have it running with  7.2-64561 on TCRP.  Help!

 

 

Edited May 28, 2023 by vicrod74

[vicrod74]

Ok so just a quick update on the R210 II server.  I managed to get it working by using an external USB dongle at the beginning.  It was just the quick and dirty way to get TCRP up and running without searching for network drivers - i'm lazy 😜 , I was able to build the DSM and add the needed proper extensions for the network driver.  Honestly,  I learned a lot working with TCRP... Nice little loader and hats off to pocopico for his contributions to the community.

 

I have it working with ds3622xsp-7.2.0 64561 build

Both NICS are working I  needed to add e1000 extension so DSM can recognize them.  Full 1000 Mbps  and Full Duplex as well, so good speed.

Ihave an ESATA external drive 4 drive bay - at that was also recognized,  however,  I have a slight problem with the drive count.  So I have six  2 TB drives and it only recognized 5 of them.  I have to check why it's not recognizing the last drive. 

 

I made it this far - so it's a small win for me this weekend. Woohoo!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[vicrod74]

On 4/7/2023 at 6:09 AM, IG-88 said:

 

you can download the missing firmware files from kernel.org

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/tree/bnx2

(hit "plain" for downloading the file in question or use wget to downlaod directly on the system where you need the file)

there are other sources too (just any kernel firmware source migth do it as the files did not change for a long time)

https://kernel.googlesource.com/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware/+/refs/heads/main/bnx2/

 

 

that indicates the path ("bnx2/" and filename ("bnx2-mips-09-6.2.1b.fw")  of whats missing in the firmware directory and that is /lib/firmware/

 

so copy the *.fw files to /lib/firmware/bnx2/

(you can also go into the destination and wget the files directly there)

 

 

I had a little time to check on this reference you posted for adding the firmware file.  So when I go into TCRP console and go to the root directory -  I see \lib but there is no path that indicates \lib\firmware folder is there.  In fact, when I create the firmware folder manually and add the missing  .fw file above, it gets erased when I reboot.   Perhaps I'm not in the right partition of the USB? let me know.   Also, I'm running UEFI Mode so I checked \lib64 as well... the same thing.