**GUIDE: Bootable Mac Pro 2009-10 SATA III + eSATA Guide + TRIM **

[0134168]

Upgrade

I would like to share with you my experience, just in case it could help anyone.
I have a Mac Pro 2010. Two OCZ-VERTEX3 MI 128GbB as boot unit in RAID 0. I include the before and after after to install a 88SE9230 card.
Of course, the previous raid before booted as a charm when plugged the SSD´s to the card.

 

[supertox]

It seems like there is a new firmware for the Marvell 88SE92xx available. The flasher is originally designed for a HighPoint R640L.

AUTOLOAD VERSION[0x00000000]: 200017
LOADER VERSION[0x0000C000]: 21001006
BIOS VERSION[0x00020000]: 1.0.0.1018
FIRMWARE VERSION[0x00030000]: 2.3.0.1053

VENDOR_ID = 1B4B
DEVICE_ID_LIST = 9220,9230,9236,9215,9225,9235,922A,923A

Link
Mirror

MD5: a47fc815f4409271bd5e5e97572318a4

 

[0134168]

It seems like there is a new firmware for the Marvell 88SE92xx available. The flasher is originally designed for a HighPoint R640L.

AUTOLOAD VERSION[0x00000000]: 200017
LOADER VERSION[0x0000C000]: 21001006
BIOS VERSION[0x00020000]: 1.0.0.1018
FIRMWARE VERSION[0x00030000]: 2.3.0.1053

VENDOR_ID = 1B4B
DEVICE_ID_LIST = 9220,9230,9236,9215,9225,9235,922A,923A

Link
Mirror

MD5: a47fc815f4409271bd5e5e97572318a4

Im not going to use it. As father used to say. "Don´t fix what is not broken"

 

[Solomon N.]

Thanks for the guide and useful tips!

I do have a couple of questions:

• I'm curious to know why is not suggested to use a RocketRAID 642L instead of the RocketRAID 640L?
  The RocketRAID 640L belongs to the same serie, so it provides 4 full indipendent sata III ports as well, but it cost a solid 35eu less (at least on amazon.de) and comes with 2 internal sata ports and 2 external sata ports.
  So by using a RocketRAID 642L, you would also cut the cost of the 2-Port SATA to eSATA Adapter Plate and you would save also some space.
  
  
• My ideal setup would be: 2 indipendent sdds, one with MacOSX and the second with Win7/bootcamp, connected to the two internal Sata ports of the RocketRAID, and one 4-bay external raid enclosure with 4 hdds in RAID10 (that means raid0 speed) connected to one e-sata of the RocketRAID. Plus one last external 2-bay box (two hdds in RAID0) connected to the second e-sata port. Should it works? Do you have any concern regarding possible speed bottlenecks or conflicts of any sort?
  The RocketRAID cards are supposed to provide 4 full indipendent sata III channels, but I'm concerned about overpopulating a single PCI-e slot. What's your guess/experience?
  

 

[Inconsequential]

Thanks for the guide and useful tips!

I do have a couple of questions:

• I'm curious to know why is not suggested to use a RocketRAID 642L instead of the RocketRAID 640L?
  The RocketRAID 640L belongs to the same serie, so it provides 4 full indipendent sata III ports as well, but it cost a solid 35eu less (at least on amazon.de) and comes with 2 internal sata ports and 2 external sata ports.
  So by using a RocketRAID 642L, you would also cut the cost of the 2-Port SATA to eSATA Adapter Plate and you would save also some space.
  
  
• My ideal setup would be: 2 indipendent sdds, one with MacOSX and the second with Win7/bootcamp, connected to the two internal Sata ports of the RocketRAID, and one 4-bay external raid enclosure with 4 hdds in RAID10 (that means raid0 speed) connected to one e-sata of the RocketRAID. Plus one last external 2-bay box (two hdds in RAID0) connected to the second e-sata port. Should it works? Do you have any concern regarding possible speed bottlenecks or conflicts of any sort?
  The RocketRAID cards are supposed to provide 4 full indipendent sata III channels, but I'm concerned about overpopulating a single PCI-e slot. What's your guess/experience?
  

1. The 642L isn't cheaper in the UK...
2. Potential bottlenecks tbh.

 

[Solomon N.]

thanks Concorde Rules,
could you extend a little bit more the n.2, please?

Bottlenecks would be due to the overpopulation (i.e. the PCI-e slot of Mac-Pro can't afford 4 different streams of data at the same time), or is it more that that configuration would demand too much in terms of bandwidth (i.e. connecting slower devices would prevent any bottlenecks)?

 

[Rorqual]

It seems like there is a new firmware for the Marvell 88SE92xx available. The flasher is originally designed for a HighPoint R640L.

AUTOLOAD VERSION[0x00000000]: 200017
LOADER VERSION[0x0000C000]: 21001006
BIOS VERSION[0x00020000]: 1.0.0.1018
FIRMWARE VERSION[0x00030000]: 2.3.0.1053

Thanks for the heads up. I flashed my Syba SI-PEX40058 (looks very similar to the RocketRAID 642L), which had BIOS 1.0.0.1012, with this firmware: this fixed the sleep issues the card had.

Note you don't have to put the card in a PC: I prepared a FreeDOS boot CD-RW which worked like a charm in my Mac Pro 4,1 (flashed to 5,1). I can make the disk image available if anyone needs it.

 

[WaveMechanic]

Go.bat Parameters When Flashing Syba SI-PEX40058

Thanks for the heads up. I flashed my Syba SI-PEX40058 (looks very similar to the RocketRAID 642L), which had BIOS 1.0.0.1012, with this firmware: this fixed the sleep issues the card had.

Rorqual, did you use the parameters suggested in the "readme_end_user.txt" included in the Highpoint 1.0.0.1018 / 2.3.0.1053 rar file linked by supertox:

1. \> go.bat -w -y /*Chip erase*/
2. \> go.bat -y

Because when I flashed my SI-PEX40058 and SI-PEX40057 cards using the station driver BIOS/firmware (from stock 1.0.0.1010 / 2.3.0.1031 to 1.0.0.1012 / 2.3.0.1043) I simply ran go.bat (and manually answered "y" in the confirm step). I did not do the chip erase step (go.bat -w) first.

If you did the erase "-w" first, Rorqual, and were successful, then I will follow in your footsteps! But if you just ran go.bat without the 'w' parameter, please let me know and I won't either.

One other question: an early Highpoint load.exe BIOS updater for the 640L (dated 2/22/2012, BIOS version "1.0") includes the following note: "Default setting of BIOS does not support booting from RAID controller. For booting support, please enalbe INT13 support when flashing BIOS. Load.exe: Use -c option to enable INT13 support."

There's no mention of INT13 support in any of the other BIOS / Firmware packages I've seen, including the latest linked by supertox.

Have you got any idea how to verify and enable INT13 support? I'm trying to fix a very long boot delay (over 150 min.) when both cards are installed (no delay when either is used by itself, just when both are in place), and at this point I'm willing to try anything.

 

[Rorqual]

Rorqual, did you use the parameters suggested in the "readme_end_user.txt" included in the Highpoint 1.0.0.1018 / 2.3.0.1053 rar file linked by supertox:

1. \> go.bat -w -y /*Chip erase*/
2. \> go.bat -y

Because when I flashed my SI-PEX40058 and SI-PEX40057 cards using the station driver BIOS/firmware (from stock 1.0.0.1010 / 2.3.0.1031 to 1.0.0.1012 / 2.3.0.1043) I simply ran go.bat (and manually answered "y" in the confirm step). I did not do the chip erase step (go.bat -w) first.

If you did the erase "-w" first, Rorqual, and were successful, then I will follow in your footsteps! But if you just ran go.bat without the 'w' parameter, please let me know and I won't either.

go.bat is just a script which accepts various inputs and calls the flasher (mvf_mag.exe) to do the real work. The go.bat in the 1.0.0.18 package seems broken, or I didn't use the right parameters, because I couldn't get it to work; I must admit I didn't search for very long, because I had the feeling there are more options available to the flasher than the ones given in the Read Me files, and I don't like knowing all my available options!

After some Googling(TM), I ended up simply launching directly the flasher with these arguments:
mvf_mag ImageA1.bin -newimg -y (move in the bin directory first, of course, with cd bin)

-newimg: see what I was saying about undocumented arguments!

This had the effect of first erasing the chip, then flashing the new firmware image. So basically it should be the same as the two step go.bat process in the Read Me. Make sure you don't make a typo in the image name (ImageA1.bin here), because the flasher will erase the chip, then report success! I made the mistake at first, and thanksfully before rebooting the Mac, I noticed nothing was flashed, and tried again with the correct image name this time (it takes roughly 30 s).

One other question: For booting support, please enalbe INT13 support when flashing BIOS. Load.exe: Use -c option to enable INT13 support."
Have you got any idea how to verify and enable INT13 support?

Not at all, but as seen above, there are more arguments to the flasher than documented in these Read Me files, so -c might be perfectly valid!
I don't think there's much risk in trying. In the worst case, just reflash without the -c option.

 

[WaveMechanic]

Two-card 88SE9230 Success

Rorqual, I plunged ahead and ran the -w -y erase and -y updates to 1018 on both my cards, and by golly, no more boot delay. However I'd be the last person to ascribe this simply to the flash update. Mac Pro with its elegantly blank screen gives me no insight into what its EFI is passing to the SMB.

But with this config:

SI-PEX40057 in slot 2 w/2xCrucial M4 SSD RAID0 Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 on ports 2 and 3, and a Samsung 840 EVO on port 0; and,
SI-PEX40058 in slot 4 w/2xSeagate Barracuda 2TB RAID0 HSF+; and,
4xWD 2TB Enterprise Green drives in OSX software RAID0 in the internal drives of an early-2009 (4.1) Mac Pro -- it boots - OSX, Win7 Ult SP1, both with relatively little (<45sec) delay.

Not all is completely jake, however. An 88SE9128 PCIeX1 card (Sonnet, I think) in Slot 3 with a WD3TB SATAIII drive on one eSata port and an Elite Pro enclosure w/2TB WD SATAII drive on the other produces the result,

"No Bootable Disk Found"

But hey, I can turn those drives on after I boot. And considering that I was waiting over 2 hours for W7 boot previously, I'm a happy camper...

...and have refitted the side cover - for the foreseeable future.

 

[Inconsequential]

Guys,

As I've just sold (or am I the process of selling) my Mac Pro, the kit to do what I did in the OP is up for grabs (minus the Rocket card).

If anyone wants it I'm happy to post it off to someone for some beer money!

Otherwise I'll either let it go with the Mac or shove it in my wires box...

 

[i-rui]

Small update after I have been running this config for a week. Works perfectly, including sleep, no fan run up, etc.

I was wondering if you could follow up and let me know if you ever experienced any sleep issues or disc ejects with the 640L card, specifically under 10.9?

Also, Is the only difference between the rocket and rocketraid 640L the hardware raid options? No difference in speed correct?

Thanks

 

[Inconsequential]

I was wondering if you could follow up and let me know if you ever experienced any sleep issues or disc ejects with the 640L card, specifically under 10.9?

Also, Is the only difference between the rocket and rocketraid 640L the hardware raid options? No difference in speed correct?

Thanks

None.

Worked perfectly - bar the requirement for a firmware update for 10.9, but other than that it was perfect.

As for the latter question, I wouldn't be able to answer. I think the answer is the performance difference is negligible as they are essentially the same hardware, even my Rocket says RocketRAID on the PCB!

 

[0488568]

Hello,

I am looking to do this on my 2009 (flashed 2010) mac pro with OSX 10.9 with 2 samsung 840 pro 256gb raid0. Can anyone confirm the following:

Is the Highpoint Rocket 640L Lite the best card for the job?

-Thanks

 

[Inconsequential]

Hello,

I am looking to do this on my 2009 (flashed 2010) mac pro with OSX 10.9 with 2 samsung 840 pro 256gb raid0. Can anyone confirm the following:

Is the Highpoint Rocket 640L Lite the best card for the job?

-Thanks

Unless something new has come out that is better, I would say yes.

 

[Cableaddict]

I'm also looking for 2 internal 2 external, and am wondering about the Highpoint Rocket 640L L. That is a 2012 vintage card, and on New Egg it doesn't even say it supports a Mac (let alone Windows 8)

Where exactly would I find the latest Mac drivers?

 

[0134168]

I'm also looking for 2 internal 2 external, and am wondering about the Highpoint Rocket 640L L. That is a 2012 vintage card, and on New Egg it doesn't even say it supports a Mac (let alone Windows 8)

Where exactly would I find the latest Mac drivers?

Here you are...

http://www.hptmac.com/product-Introduction.php?_index=94

That´s for the 642L.

Thats the site of Highpoint for Mac.

----------

Cableaddict, i confirm you that you can boot from that card. Even in Raid 0.

Also, if two sata ports are enough for you, you have this very cheap card on Ebay

http://www.ebay.es/itm/261533799149?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

...though you must choose by jumpers to enable the two external ports or the internals.

 

[milton99]

Rorqual could you make the bootable cd image available ? I'd would help me quite a bit... thanks!

Note you don't have to put the card in a PC: I prepared a FreeDOS boot CD-RW which worked like a charm in my Mac Pro 4,1 (flashed to 5,1). I can make the disk image available if anyone needs it.

 

[0488568]

Hello,

It's been a while since I've been around and ended up getting a 640L rocket. Problem was that when I went to flash the card the dos flasher did not work. I had to install the card in a PC with Windows and using the software provided for the Management of the card use the option to flash.
The flasher in the hight point website does not include go.bat anymore it's just load.exe and an autoloader and flash file. I'm not sure if this could be done from boot camp.

 

[0488568]

Just installed the card and the drivers are not getting loaded. I can see the card in system information but it states no driver loaded and I do not see any change under SATA drives....