[GTALUG] Booting linux from nvme disk?

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Fri, Nov 19, 2021 at 09:09:53PM -0500, Peter King via talk 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.

I tried it 4 or 5 years ago when I was building a machine for a friend
with NVMe.  I tested the Debian installer at the time since it had
recently added nvme support and I wanted to see if it worked.  No problems.

That was a desktop system with an Asus motherboard.  I know some laptops
have done idiotic things to do with intel's raid controller that makes
linux have trouble even detecting the nvme disk.

efibootmgr is of course NOT a boot loader, it is a configuration tool
for setting the UEFI nvram for which boot loaders you want.  You still
need a bootloader (normally grub2).  grub2 normally automatically takes
care of telling efibootmgr what nvram settings it needs.

-- 
Len Sorensen