Install to NVMe drive while running mobo w/o native NVMe

crispyambulance · 2016-05-12 22:46:17

I want to put the root file system on a 950 Pro, but I know I can't boot. Is it possible to rig it so that the parts necessary to boot are on a SATA drive while the rest of the filesystem is on the NVMe drive? Would this be as simple as putting /boot on the SATA drive?

If it helps, my motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3

bstaletic · 2016-05-13 06:18:22

If you boot the live cd does it recognize the NVMe drive? If yes then just place /booton the SATA drive.

crispyambulance · 2016-05-13 23:15:03

Awesome. I actually haven't even bought it yet because I didn't know if this should be possible. I'll update this thread when I do with my results

bstaletic · 2016-05-14 10:06:19

Have you read my reply carefully? Do you know if your motherboard will recognise a NVMe device? And if it does does Arch have a kernel with the driver for it?

crispyambulance · 2016-05-14 11:16:48

I'm still looking into the former.

Does the stock kernel not come with the NVMe driver?

bstaletic · 2016-05-14 11:59:42

I don't know as I'm running a custom kernel on Gentoo. To check run:

zgrep -E "DEV_NVME" /proc/config.gz

Drew · 2016-05-16 16:32:16

I have a 950 pro and boot directly from it via EFISTUB. The stock kernel does support NVMe. Grub was recently updated to support booting into NVMe root partitions, and systemd-boot has supported it for a while. If your motherboard does not support booting from NVMe, you can use one of these bootloaders to boot into it from a SATA drive. I had it setup like that initially because I was having trouble adding NVMe boot entries. So I did something like this:

# mount /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt
# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
# arch-chroot /mnt

And then just followed the normal steps for setting up a bootloader. Then you can mount the SATA drive at /boot in fstab to keep it up to date.

Last edited by Drew (2016-05-16 17:44:14)

graysky · 2016-05-16 20:05:34

bstaletic wrote:

I don't know as I'm running a custom kernel on Gentoo. To check run:
zgrep -E "DEV_NVME" /proc/config.gz

@bstaletic - Interesting. Am I to understand that this module is needed in order to boot or use an NVMe device? On 4.5.4-1-ARCH it is not enabled:

% zgrep -E "DEV_NVME" /proc/config.gz
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_NVME=m
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_NVME_SCSI is not set

If true, seems like you should open a flyspray against the linux package and hope to get it in before they mint the 2016.06.01 iso.

Last edited by graysky (2016-05-16 20:07:16)

bstaletic · 2016-05-16 21:06:34

@graysky

As far as I know CONFIG_BLK_DEV_NVME is needed, CONFIG_BLK_DEV_NVME_SCSI is not. The SCSI module, as far as I know, is just a way to pass SCSI commands to NVMe devices andthus is usually not needed. The kernel documentation also says it's needed if the distro "abuses" SCSI and gave OpenSUSE and SLES as examples of distros that do.

Back to Arch' kernel. Sinse the default kernel has it builtas a module, one can utilise NVMe devices. One can boot from NVMe device too, if the module is in initramfs for the kernel to be able to discover such a device at boot.

crispyambulance · 2016-05-25 22:48:27

Surprisingly, my mobo has undocumented full support for NVMe. It's pretty odd because it's one of the last boards with an Award BIOS rather than UEFI. I had to use grub-git in the AUR to get an NVMe capable bootloader and now I can boot from it and see it in the BIOS.

Thanks for the help everyone.

graysky · 2016-05-25 23:51:26

Yes, grub-git is required. Glad you're up and running.

Arch Linux

#1 2016-05-12 22:46:17

Install to NVMe drive while running mobo w/o native NVMe

#2 2016-05-13 06:18:22

Re: Install to NVMe drive while running mobo w/o native NVMe

#3 2016-05-13 23:15:03

Re: Install to NVMe drive while running mobo w/o native NVMe

#4 2016-05-14 10:06:19

Re: Install to NVMe drive while running mobo w/o native NVMe

#5 2016-05-14 11:16:48

Re: Install to NVMe drive while running mobo w/o native NVMe

#6 2016-05-14 11:59:42

Re: Install to NVMe drive while running mobo w/o native NVMe

#7 2016-05-16 16:32:16

Re: Install to NVMe drive while running mobo w/o native NVMe

#8 2016-05-16 20:05:34

Re: Install to NVMe drive while running mobo w/o native NVMe

#9 2016-05-16 21:06:34

Re: Install to NVMe drive while running mobo w/o native NVMe

#10 2016-05-25 22:48:27

Re: Install to NVMe drive while running mobo w/o native NVMe

#11 2016-05-25 23:51:26

Re: Install to NVMe drive while running mobo w/o native NVMe

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