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Installing pfSense on Dell R230 error mfi0: failed to get command

Last week I had to install the latest version of pfsense (2.3.2) on a Dell server poweredge 230 with a raid controller Perc H330 on board. After the boot from the install cd I follow the first steps of installation and configuration, when it starts to write on the disk to install the operating system I have the feeling that it takes too much time’ .…. after a few minutes with the cursor that continues to “rotate” this error appears:

error mfi0: failed to get command

and then a series of messages like these:

mfi0: COMMAND 0xfffffe00013a6440 TIMEOUT AFTER 37 SECONDS

mfi0: COMMAND 0xfffffe00013a6440 TIMEOUT AFTER 40 SECONDS

At first glance I thought about some card that was not detected correctly, but the server was very minimal, the only thing that was added was a second network card of Broadcom that I was sure it was correctly recognised by pfsense.

At the end, because I noticed that the errors show up when the installer started to write on disk , I thought about a problem related to teh raid controller but one of my collegues had installed the same pfsense version on a identical machine without any problem. Just to be sure I upgraded all of the server firmware including that of Perc… result the installation completed successfully…

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