Failure to use NVMe SSD with Intel RST in Dell Inspiron 7490

kaslusimoes · 2019-12-01 21:43:22

Hi,

I recently bought this Dell Inspiron 7490 and am having trouble using the SSD. It's a 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe kbg40zns Toshiba SSD

What happens is that my BIOS only has options to use Fake RAID (Intel RST) or disable SATA completely (no ACHI option, apparently..). That's a pain, because everywhere I see people recommending to use AHCI and that doesn't apply to me. So I must resort to Fake RAID. I'd be fine with that if it worked..

The real problem comes now: I couldn't make Arch see the NVMe with RST enabled (apparently I should see something at /dev/nv.. or /dev/mapper/.., but I just see control).

I tried a couple of diagnostics and other things to try to solve this:

# dmesg | grep ata
[    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000069e89000-0x0000000069efdfff] ACPI data
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x000000000009dfff] usable
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x000000000009e000-0x00000000000fffff] reserved
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000000100000-0x000000003fffffff] usable
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000040000000-0x00000000403fffff] reserved
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000040400000-0x00000000510c0fff] usable
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x00000000510c1000-0x00000000510c1fff] ACPI NVS
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x00000000510c2000-0x00000000510c2fff] reserved
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x00000000510c3000-0x0000000068346017] usable
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000068346018-0x0000000068372857] usable
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000068372858-0x000000006847bfff] usable
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x000000006847c000-0x0000000069888fff] reserved
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000069889000-0x0000000069e88fff] ACPI NVS
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000069e89000-0x0000000069efdfff] ACPI data
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000069efe000-0x0000000069efefff] usable
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000069eff000-0x000000006f7fffff] reserved
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x00000000ff000000-0x00000000ffffffff] reserved
[    0.000000] reserve setup_data: [mem 0x0000000100000000-0x000000048c7fffff] usable
[    0.012650] ACPI: UEFI 0x0000000069DCE000 00063A (v01 INTEL  RstSataE 00000000 ??   00000000)
[    0.012652] ACPI: UEFI 0x0000000069DCD000 00005C (v01 INTEL  RstSataV 00000000 ??   00000000)
[    0.168979] Memory: 16126500K/16588896K available (12291K kernel code, 1321K rwdata, 3952K rodata, 1632K init, 3548K bss, 462396K reserved, 0K cma-reserved)
[    3.358442] Write protecting the kernel read-only data: 18432k
[    3.483340] wmi_bus wmi_bus-PNP0C14:00: WQ data block query control method not found
[    3.486076] wmi_bus wmi_bus-PNP0C14:00: WQ data block query control method not found
[    3.488033] wmi_bus wmi_bus-PNP0C14:00: WQ data block query control method not found
[    3.488826] wmi_bus wmi_bus-PNP0C14:00: WQ data block query control method not found
[    3.491122] wmi_bus wmi_bus-PNP0C14:04: WQBC data block query control method not found
[    3.542175] libata version 3.00 loaded.
[    3.594961] ata1: DUMMY
[    3.594962] ata2: DUMMY
[    3.594963] ata3: DUMMY
[    3.594964] ata4: DUMMY
[    3.594965] ata5: DUMMY
[    3.594966] ata6: DUMMY
[    3.594967] ata7: DUMMY
[    3.594968] ata8: DUMMY
[    3.594970] ata9: DUMMY
[    3.594971] ata10: DUMMY
[    3.594972] ata11: DUMMY
[    3.594973] ata12: DUMMY
[    3.594974] ata13: DUMMY
[    3.594975] ata14: DUMMY
[    3.594976] ata15: DUMMY
[    3.594977] ata16: DUMMY
[    5.735443] Modules linked in: sd_mod uas usb_storage nouveau(+) crc32_pclmul serio_raw i915 crc32c_intel mxm_wmi ahci i2c_algo_bit atkbd aesni_intel libps2 libahci drm_kms_helper aes_x86_64 glue_helper syscopyarea sysfillrect crypto_simd ttm sysimgblt sdhci_pci fb_sys_fops cryptd libata cqhci thunderbolt drm sdhci scsi_mod mmc_core intel_gtt xhci_pci xhci_hcd agpgart i8042 serio wmi
[    7.843615] cfg80211: Loading compiled-in X.509 certificates for regulatory database
[  727.362093] FAT-fs (sdb1): Volume was not properly unmounted. Some data may be corrupt. Please run fsck.
[  734.096694] FAT-fs (sdb2): Volume was not properly unmounted. Some data may be corrupt. Please run fsck.

# dmesg | grep -i "warn\|error\|fail"
[    3.289747] RAS: Correctable Errors collector initialized.
[    3.488713] i8042: Warning: Keylock active
[    3.602516] ACPI Warning: \_SB.PCI0.GFX0._DSM: Argument #4 type mismatch - Found [Buffer], ACPI requires [Package] (20190703/nsarguments-59)
[    3.602562] ACPI Warning: \_SB.PCI0.RP05.PXSX._DSM: Argument #4 type mismatch - Found [Buffer], ACPI requires [Package] (20190703/nsarguments-59)
[    5.735422] WARNING: CPU: 3 PID: 240 at drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/nvkm/subdev/pmu/base.c:83 nvkm_pmu_reset+0x1a6/0x1c0 [nouveau]
[    8.293236] intel-spi: probe of 0000:00:1f.5 failed with error -5
[    8.672007] iTCO_wdt: probe of iTCO_wdt failed with error -16
[ 1772.602107] WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 189 at drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/nvkm/subdev/pmu/base.c:83 nvkm_pmu_reset+0x1a6/0x1c0 [nouveau]
[ 1811.384490] WARNING: CPU: 7 PID: 64 at drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/nvkm/subdev/pmu/base.c:83 nvkm_pmu_reset+0x1a6/0x1c0 [nouveau]

# mdadm --detail-platform
       Platform : Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology
        Version : 17.5.3.4231
    RAID Levels : raid0 raid1 raid10 raid5
    Chunk Sizes : 4k 8k 16k 32k 64k 128k
    2TB volumes : supported
      2TB disks : supported
      Max Disks : 15
    Max Volumes : 2 per array, 4 per controller
 I/O Controller : /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:17.0 (SATA)
          Port0 : - no device attached -
          Port1 : - no device attached -
          Port2 : - no device attached -
          Port3 : - no device attached -
          Port4 : - no device attached -
          Port5 : - no device attached -
          Port6 : - no device attached -
          Port7 : - no device attached -
          Port8 : - no device attached -
          Port9 : - no device attached -
          Port10 : - no device attached -
          Port11 : - no device attached -
          Port12 : - no device attached -
          Port13 : - no device attached -
          Port14 : - no device attached -
          Port15 : - no device attached -

# ls -l /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:17.0/driver
driver -> ../../../bus/pci/driver/ahci

This last part I found weird, so I tried to force modprobe.blacklist=ahci but that just led me to not find the SSD anymore (mdadm --detail-platform gives me no response). I also tried to use the driver_overide file in that same sys/... folder, but am not sure I did it properly.

I also tried modprobing nvme, intel-rst and maybe other modules/drivers but I don't remember.

I'd gadly delete everything (and Windows) if that were the only solution, but would like to possibly keep a dual boot system. Or maybe (it seems more probable at this point) return this useless piece of metal and ask for a refund

Thanks for any thoughts!

Last edited by kaslusimoes (2019-12-01 21:47:55)

paulkerry · 2019-12-03 14:11:01

I don't have your Dell model, but have you updated to the latest bios version? I can't tell from your dmesg output because your post is truncated.

https://www.dell.com/support/home/uk/en … op/drivers
shows...
Dell Latitude 7290/7390/7490 System BIOS Urgent
Version: 1.12.2
Last Updated Date: 05 Nov 2019 is available.

although there is nothing mentioned in the fixes about ahci.

kaslusimoes · 2019-12-03 14:15:01

Hi @paulkerry,
Thanks for the suggestion. Yes, I updated the latest BIOS and it also didn't show any new AHCI option, unfortunately (although the link you referred to is to Latitude instead of Inspiron)

I'm going to return it and buy another laptop. It seems like a dead end from what I've been searching in the past couple of days. Posting here was my last bit of hope..

paulkerry · 2019-12-03 14:26:48

OK and sorry about the link mistake.

Arch Linux

#1 2019-12-01 21:43:22

Failure to use NVMe SSD with Intel RST in Dell Inspiron 7490

#2 2019-12-03 14:11:01

Re: Failure to use NVMe SSD with Intel RST in Dell Inspiron 7490

#3 2019-12-03 14:15:01

Re: Failure to use NVMe SSD with Intel RST in Dell Inspiron 7490

#4 2019-12-03 14:26:48

Re: Failure to use NVMe SSD with Intel RST in Dell Inspiron 7490

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