[CentOS] ibm m1015 w/sandy bridge boot failure

Mon Oct 31 23:38:40 UTC 2011
Matt Garman <matthew.garman at gmail.com>

On Thu, Oct 27, 2011 at 09:18:56AM -0500, Matt Garman wrote:
> I have a server running CentOS 6.0.  Last night I replaced the CPU and
> motherboard.  Old hardware: Supermicro x8sil-f + x3440.  New hardware:
> Supermicro x9scl+-f + E3-1230.  This is a new Sandy Bridge Xeon.
> 
> Everything else remained the same, including an IBM m1015 SAS HBA.
> This is just an IBM re-branded LSI 92xx-8i (9220-8i specifically I
> believe), which uses the LSI SAS2008 chipset and the megaraid_sas
> driver.  It worked without any issue on the old motherboard/cpu.
> However, with the new motherboard/cpu, the system makes it through the
> BIOS POST without any issue.  But about half-way through the kernel
> initialization, it basically locks up.  It will sit there for several
> minutes, doing nothing, then start printing out error messages (I was
> unable to get a screenshot or take note of the errors).
> 
> But if I take the m1015 card out, the system boots quickly and without
> issue, as it always has.
> 
> I saw this post[1] on the forums, which suggested that Sandy Bridge
> really needs 6.1, which, for those of us using CentOS, we can only get
> sorta close to by using the continuous release.  So I did a "yum
> install centos-release-cr ; yum update".  I let everything install
> (there were no install errors or problems), and rebooted with the
> m1015 in back in the system, but the problem remains.
> 
> So now I'm at a loss.  Anyone have any thoughts?
> 
> [1] http://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=33878&forum=56


SuperMicro actually has a FAQ[1] on a very similar issue: same
motherboard, but an LSI 9240 RAID card (very similar to the IBM
M1015, same actual chipset I believe), and CentOS 5.5.  But the
described problem is the same as mine.

Simple fix: upgrade BIOS to v1.1a or later.  Works for me!

[1] http://www.supermicro.com/support/faqs/faq.cfm?faq=12830

Hope this helps anyone with the same problem.
-Matt