Sil3512 flashing (SATA)

[MacJunky]

This is a post I made on MacMod back before MacTech took over..then it turned into AppleCentral sometime when I was not looking. <_< >_>

I never got involved with MacTech but I want this here as well because it is useful information. (IMO anyway)

I have a Syba SD-SATA-150R in my Digital Audio G4. It is a card that uses the Sil3512 chipset and like other Sil3512 cards with suitable eeprom, can be flashed with the wiebetech TCS1-1 firmware.I know it can be flashed because there is a forum thread in another language based in another country that google translates very badly. It has a link to the firmware, a screenshot of System profiler with the card being used in OS X but as far as I recall I never read anything about booting off the card.(at least nothing translated into english)

I was looking for something to do just now and I remembered that I wanted to see if my card was in fact bootable so I poked around on google for a bit to try and find what wiebtech cards were bootable in Macs.

Turns out the Sil3512 based WeibeTech TeraCard is in fact bootable. After verifying that I was actually using the same firmware as the bootable card, I booted my G4 off a Leopard install disc then installed to the SATA drive as a test.

It boots!

This is incredibly awesome.

This is the card I got:

http://ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=33440&vpn=SD-SATA150R&manufacture=Syba

Others should work as well but not all. I have a Sil3512 based cheapo noname shady bargain-bin in Japan card and it seems that it cannot be flashed at all, even with DOS flashing programs. *shrug*

Anyway, this is how I went about doing it.

Insert the card into Mac.

Boot up.

Run the flasher program.

Follow the prompts and select the Firmware option.(it looks like Firmware option = Mac and BIOS option = PC, I might be wrong, I did not extensively test aside from that if you use the BIOS option it is no longer usable in OS X)

Reboot

Check System Profiler for card recognition.

Shutdown and connect drive

Boot

????

PROFIT!



http://i27.tinypic.com/11h6ky8.png

To be fair, you might not need to do that extra reboot between flashing and connecting the drive. I just did not have the drive in my case at that point of testing.

TCS1-1 flasher is here:

http://www.wiebetech.com/webtech.php?sfid=133&pcode=TC-PCI

The WiebeTech site says that this card should support hotswap but I do not recall having that work. So far I have had to connect my drives while my Mac was off for them to work. However, since it is bootable then I would want to boot off it simply because it means I can remove my older and more likely to fail PATA drive from the case and completely sidestep the LBA48 issue that forces me to partition my PATA HDD then use an enablery-mabob to access the rest of it.

Also of note. My Quicksilver 2002 would not initialize the video adapter or even chime with this card in it no matter what slot I put it in or what other cards are in it. According to the macgurus forum this is a known issue with some Silicon Image cards and some Digital Audios and Quicksilvers. It is not related to the WiebeTech firmware on the card or the fact that the card is flashed! Looks like at this point nobody knows the real cause, only that you need to try another card or another Mac.

With regard to the hotswap and non-boot issues.. YMMV.

Either way, this is frikkin great!

It is about time we had this posted somewhere in english. :

I did later get a second Sil3512 card that also flashed well.

I need to mention, you cannot boot or otherwise use OS 9 or lower with Sil3512. At least not with this firmware. OS X only. Still though, great for G4s and G3s that run X only.

 

[protocol7]

Firmware option is indeed Mac, and BIOS is PC. Just confirming that.

It wasn't so easy with the 3112 firmware and my cheapo generic card. The flasher wouldn't work, saying the ROM was unsupported. So I had to force it on with the DOS flasher.

 

[Renegade]

Hi guys,

I did later get a second Sil3512 card that also flashed well

MacJunky > can you provide a picture of this card ?

Thanks!

 

[MacJunky]

They were slightly different but looked quite similar. As far as I know I only have a picture of one but really, these cards all have a similar generic look to them even between different chipsets. You really have to see the chipset to know if it will work or not.

 

[Renegade]

Thanks.

I'll post my results if I give it a try.

 

[Renegade]

Is there a chance a 4-port version (see pic) could work ?

 

[Bolle]

just try.

the 4 port versions i saw are like you can use either both external/one internal + one external/both internal at once so it is basically a 2 port version.

Dont know how yours is supposed to work.

 

[Bunsen]

I would be especially interested in hearing of any successful flashes of a hardware RAID card.

 

[eastone]

I found 3 models of supported cards:

2xsil3112 - (one of them) http://www.flickr.com/photos/56693287@N05/6085549989/

2xsil3512

I successfully flashed to mac




regards,

Kris

 

[MacJunky]

That is great!

 

[Renegade]

I can confirm the 3512 models from Syba are still flashable with Wiebtech's Mac Firmware.

I gave a try on my B&W G3 and it works (haven't tried booting from it yet).

 

[MacJunky]

I actually recently tried hotswapping on mine and it did work, even though previously I seem to recall it did not.. idk what the deal is but if it works for you then great.

 

[Renegade]

I'm happy to report that the card is recognized by 10.2 & 10.4 installers, and is bootable on my B&W G3.

I'll try with 10.0 and 10.1 soon, just for fun

I'd be curious to see if a SATA optical drive is bootable...

 

[Renegade]

Too bad there's no workaround for the bug that prevents G4 DA & G4 QS from booting with a Silicon Image PCI card installed.

Oddly enough, my QS once booted with a Sil3512 card (with pc bios) installed in the leftmost slot, but flashing attempt ended up with a "bus error" result from the flasher.

 

[MacJunky]

Both of my Sil3512 cards are usable in my Digital Audio(even at the same time) but they were not in a QS2002 I had for a bit(never had a QS2001 nor any other DAs).. So I do not really know what to make of the situation; people say that the Digital Audio is affected even though mine works. I do not know how to determine compatibility aside from just trying it. If you are lucky your DA/QS will work and if you are not it will not. :/

If would be nice if someone had the tools and brains to figure this one out good and proper.

 

[supernova777]

if someone could figure it out i bet you could tape some pins on the card to prevent it from not working in the QS 

there are other cards that have an electrical incompatibility in this fashion.. and it must be an electrical incompatbility in the way the card is constructed

conflicting with the PCI/AGP implementation of the QS. i have a few flashed sil3112 cards and they work in my QS2002 933 im pretty sure

and my original Tempo Sata Purple PCB card also works in the QS2002 933 im pretty sure aswell

doesnt matter now because thanks to harrymatic going public with the osx-only wiebetech flash -- there are no sil3112 cards left to buy on ebay or anywhere online

to make os9 compatible cards with the firmtek firmware. i always hoped/dreamed of someone cracking this to be able to make other cards that are os9 bootable. its obviously possible if someone had the right skill set to make it happen.