Comment 57 for bug 1276705

Just a note; I've got a lot of experience with the 1068E controller. Make sure you're running a recent firmware.

I have 1.33.00, "Phase 21", flashed on most of my 1068Es of various vendor brands.

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=12767.0

Versions at Phase 20 (1.32.00 and below) had significant issues while negotiating link speeds for me, I could either get everything running fine at 1.5/3Gbit and all the drives worked, or I would get 6Gbit and all the older drives would be missing.

I believe the latest dell-branded firmware is:
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=8R2N4&fileId=3098294144&osCode=LNUX&productCode=poweredge-r300&languageCode=EN&categoryId=SF

Unfortunately, it seems to come only as an .exe, but I didn't try to download it.

I've got two 1068Es paired up with HP SAS Expanders:
http://www.amazon.com/HP-468406-B21-Sas-Expander-Card/dp/B0025ZQ16K
At one point I tried to connect I think about 60 drives (If I recall correctly, I got up to /dev/sdbd)

Getting that working properly was another firmware hassle story involving purchasing a used HP server just to flash it; but I won't bore you with it in a LP bug# comment.

But still -- out of date firmware can lead to wacky results.
Good luck convincing Kay to raise the udev timeout from 30sec!