[GTALUG] Booting linux from nvme disk?

[Alex Kink]

I have several workstations at the office running Ubuntu 20.04LTS off NVMes using a completely default UEFI configuration (Secure boot enabled). So the issue is not Linux in general but Arch in particular.

> On Nov 20, 2021, at 10:37, Giles Orr via talk <talk at gtalug.org> wrote:
> 
> On Fri, 19 Nov 2021 at 21:09, Peter King via talk <talk at gtalug.org <mailto:talk at gtalug.org>> wrote:
>> 
>> Anyone had success with getting linux to boot from an nvme disk?  I've
>> been fighting with UEFI and Arch Linux all day now, trying to get a new
>> computer to even recognize the nvme disk as a boot device.  (Last time I
>> encountered this problem I gave up and installed an ordinary HD to boot
>> from.)  For what it's worth, I have disabled Secure Boot, reformatted the
>> nvme disk to have a new EFI partition without Windows, a swap partition,
>> and a root partition; I'm trying to use efibootmgr (so no loading of a
>> further bootloader), and, as far as I can tell, identified all the right
>> partitions by device name or PARTUUID.  Still no go.  I even tried adding
>> the parameter nvme_load=YES into the "root" part of the efibootmgr, and
>> also adding nvme and vmd as modules in mkinitcpio.conf, all without any
>> success.  If necessary I'll just punt and install a regular HD to boot
>> from, but that rather takes away from having an nvme disk in the first
>> place.
>> 
>> (Over the years I've learning to approach installing Linux with fear and
>> loathing, with almost all the problems being with the bootloader -- from
>> LILO through GRUB and GRUB2 now down to UEFI.)
>> 
>> Any suggestions welcome!  I didn't want to spend my weekend doing this.
> 
> Hi Peter.
> 
> I'm pretty sure I have Linux installed on an NVMe disk somewhere.  I
> apologize that I'm not sure where: most of my machines are "older,"
> but not all - however, I have enough of them that I'm not sure where
> that NVMe disk is.  The point is: if it's in this house, I installed
> Linux on it and it evidently wasn't a problem because I don't remember
> it.
> 
> I would suggest downloading and installing a recent Fedora.  You've
> chosen Arch: that's a hard row to hoe.  I'm not saying you should
> change distros, but installing Fedora abstracts away a LOT of the
> difficult work Arch insists you do by hand (I've installed both,
> recently).  If installing Fedora works, A) you've proven this computer
> can be made to work with Linux, and B) the hard drive may be formatted
> in a useful way for another attempt at Arch.  Or you could (and I
> think this might be wise initially) install Arch as a secondary OS to
> Fedora.  With that in mind, you could use Fedora to format two 32G OS
> partitions, and an all-the-rest-of-the-drive partition as /home/.
> 
> Just a thought.
> 
> -- 
> Giles
> https://www.gilesorr.com/ <https://www.gilesorr.com/>
> gilesorr at gmail.com <mailto:gilesorr at gmail.com>
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