I am trying to install Volumio 3 onto the Lexar 2TB MicroSDXC card in my Holo Audio Red transport. I am using the Raspberry PI Imager to format the card and copy across the .img
Everything works fine if I use a smaller MicroSD card than the 2TB card, but the Holo Audio Red fails to start properly if I use the 2TB card, I get the dreaded “welcome to emergency mode”.
Looking at the journalctl -xb error messages, it seems that the mmcblk0p3 partition is not mounting correctly.
I have tried the same 2TB MicroSDXC card in a Raspberry Pi 4B, with the same emergency mode. I have used the Raspberry Pi Imager to install 64 bit Raspberry Pi OS on the 2TB card, and everything is fine, runs perfectly, no emergency mode, so I know the 2TB card is fine…
I wonder if 2TB MicroSDXC cards are an edge case that Volumio haven’t tested…
EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p3): ext4_check_descriptors: Block bitmap for group 131056 not in group (block 35184857724488)!
EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p3): group descriptors corrupted!
On very large microSDXC cards (2 TB class), Volumio’s first-boot script tries to expand the mmcblk0p3 data partition. The resize logic parses partition size in MB, but when parted reports sizes in TB the parsing fails. As a result, mmcblk0p3 ends up with a broken geometry. The subsequent resize2fs runs against corrupted metadata, producing the ext4_check_descriptors and “group descriptors corrupted” errors. This explains why Volumio’s pre-built image created for “safe” size MiroSD does not boot cleanly.
This procedure avoids the MB/TB parsing bug by forcing parted to resize partition 3 to 100% of the device and then expanding the filesystem. It has been tested to recover from the emergency-mode failure on oversized cards.
Hi nerd! Same issue with boot up with ssd nvme drive.
After a clean flashed using balenca etcher and booting up again same goes happen in my display showing emergency mode.
Do i need to do the instruction above?
Hardware : rpi 5 and nvme ssd m.2 drive/hat
Os version : volumio 3.832
The steps outlined by Nerd worked for me, I have been running Volumio on the 2TB microSDXC in my Holo Audio Red since I followed Nerd’s steps without any problems. And better still the Holo Audio Red sounds much better than the Ian Canada streamer and it doesn’t look like a pile of bits that has fallen out of a toaster. Cheaper too…
Thanks for reporting this. Let’s clarify the situation a bit:
Normally, the supported installation flow is to flash VolumioOS to a microSD card, boot from that card, and then use Install to Disk from the Volumio UI to install VolumioOS onto NVMe or SSD storage. This path has been tested successfully even on very large NVMe drives (above 4 TB).
From your message you mentioned “after a clean flashed using balena etcher.” Can you confirm which device you flashed with Etcher - was it the microSD card, or the NVMe drive directly?
If you wrote directly to the NVMe drive, that is not the supported method.
If you flashed the microSD card as expected, then it’s the different story altogether.
Please confirm whether you flashed the NVMe drive directly or used the microSD first.
Hi @nerd! thank you for your response.
i’d tried to install/flashed the image to NVME directly using balena etcher , i thought still gonna work coz some of my project are working with this.but, this is the first time to use a large storage nvme such 2 TB nvme drive. so i assumed it was gonna work this time.
so i come up with this thread to confirm and to know if there’s any here same problem with me so there it is.
Now, i amm asking if there’s a tutorial here to work to directly boot the volumio os to this massive drive.
because, my main purpose to my project is making the nvme drive as volumio os with music storage. on the other hand i can also use the KODI on SD card to boot. after the kodi i will remove the sd card and then switch to volumio( NVME boot ).
Flashing the Volumio image directly to NVMe with Etcher is not a supported install path. The image is only designed to boot from microSD first, then you use Install to Disk from the Volumio UI to migrate onto SSD/NVMe.
The Install-to-Disk process has been tested to work reliably even on very large NVMe drives because it uses sector-aligned partitioning.
What you are seeing is the same partition-resize bug we identified with oversized cards. The script misparses the free space on large devices and corrupts the data partition, which drops you into emergency mode.
Workarounds available now:
If you want to keep testing this Etcher-flashed NVMe, you can repair it from the emergency shell using the manual resize steps above.
The recommended way: flash Volumio to a microSD, boot from it, then use Install-to-Disk to put Volumio onto the NVMe. That path avoids the bug entirely and is the supported method.
Hi @nerd! Thanks for clarification.
One thing to ask, in every boot of volumio os which for example I’d already install to disk the image to nvme drives. Does sd cards on rpi is still intact in every boot? Or is it fine to boot it from nvme without sd card on rpi since it’s already install to disk via web ui?
Second thing to ask, if i want to insert another sd card with kodi os install and boot does kodi can access the files from nvme drive? Is it visible from the kodi GUI?
