LSI/AVAGO/BROADCOM firmware vs. driver (and upgrade 9.3 to 9.10)

[Lars Jensen]

This gives a warning in FreeNAS-9.10.2-U3 (e1497f269):
freenas mps0: Firmware: 15.00.00.00, Driver: 21.01.00.00-fbsd

This doesn't give a warning in FreeNAS-9.10.2-U3 (e1497f269):
freenas mps0: Firmware: 20.00.04.00, Driver: 21.01.00.00-fbsd

I think that I've read somewhere that driver was bumped to 21 because of a friendly developer doing an update, but set a wrong version number. So FreeNAS doesn't warn about 20 and 21 as they are the same.

Is this correct ?

Currently running 9.3 with 20.00.04.00 which have been stable for a very long time. I hope to upgrade to 9.10 without updating HBA firmware since 20.00.04.00 has been performing well and stable under 9.3.

So upgrading to 9.10 shouldn't cause trouble, right ? ;-)

Also this firmware vs. driver thing, couldn't this be a wiki page that contain updated info for all FreeNAS versions (I know I could go through bug reports or forums where a ixsystems dev clarify things, but time consuming to find the right post).

 

[Ericloewe]

I think that I've read somewhere that driver was bumped to 21 because of a friendly developer doing an update, but set a wrong version number. So FreeNAS doesn't warn about 20 and 21 as they are the same.

Is this correct ?

Mostly correct, but it was on purpose. Brilliant, isn't it?

You might want P20.00.07, though. .04 should be fine, but earlier builds were buggy.

Also this firmware vs. driver thing, couldn't this be a wiki page that contain updated info for all FreeNAS versions (I know I could go through bug reports or forums where a ixsystems dev clarify things, but time consuming to find the right post).

Not a bad idea, but it's not much for a resource, so I'd include it with a flashing guide. The only reason I haven't done so already is because I don't have any SAS controllers and don't really want to write a guide without having tried it myself at least once.