PCIe NVMe compatibility

Rochambeaux · July 30, 2024, 4:15pm

So here’s what I did and it appears to be working fine…granted I’ve probably been through 30 variations of starting from scratch to figure all these steps out and what order they need to take place in).

Booted into the Pi5 using RaspberryOS lite.
Updated the EEPROM, switched boot order and changed PCIE speed using raspi-config.
Burned Volumio image to the SSD using Pi Imager.
Conceded via browser and preformed all the require configuration, including 5.5 AMOLED display

I’ve installed the following PlugIns and everything seems to be working:

Touch Display
Now Playing
Peppy Meters
Peppy Spectrum
System Info
Roon Bridge

Hardware:

Pi5 4MB RAM

nerd · July 31, 2024, 5:59am

Hey @Rochambeaux,

Thank you for the detailed report. This is significant taking that the WD SN740 series NVMe based on 20-82-10081-A1 Polaris MP16+ controller had issues in the past.

Kind Regards,

Rochambeaux · July 31, 2024, 6:06am

Now you have me worried

What should I be on the lookout for?

nerd · July 31, 2024, 6:22am

Hey @Rochambeaux,

Beginning of this thread has the summary of our findings: PCIe NVMe compatibility.
Frequently it is related to the absence of lane controller on most of the HATs. Engineers from Pineberry are not taking shortcuts here. Although I can not find WD SN740 being explicitly mentioned in the eeprom releases rpi-eeprom/firmware-2712/release-notes.md at master · raspberrypi/rpi-eeprom · GitHub nonetheless could have been fixed back in January.

Kind Regards,

naimnatnod · October 4, 2024, 4:26am

It’s been a while since I installed a 1TB NVMe on my RPi5 and been working flawlessly. My friend asks me to build him one set but with a 4TB NVMe, so I order all the same components except using a 4TB NVMe this time.

Components:
Raspberry Pi5/4GB
Silicon Power 4TB UD90 NVMe 4.0 Gen4 PCIe M.2
Geekworm PCIe Metal Case P579-V2 for Raspberry Pi 5
Geekworm X1001 PCIe to M.2 HAT Key-M NVMe SSD PIP PCIe Peripheral Board for Raspberry Pi 5
CanaKit 45W USB-C Power Supply with PD for Raspberry Pi 5 with PiSwitch

After inserted a Micro SD card with Volumio 3.757 and up to the point of installing to Disk NVMe, Volumio sees 3.7T (which is normal for a 4TB size) and then it says “Install to Disk failed: undefined”.

Does this mean this particular NVMe is not compatible or needs more power?

Anybody with a 4TB NVMe out there?

Andy

naimnatnod · October 4, 2024, 5:01am

Hey @nerd , where did you buy this cable?

Andy

nerd · October 4, 2024, 5:06am

Hey Andy,

Controller: Phison E21T which should not be a problem with September’s eeprom release.

Once booted to the VolumioOS, prior install to disk, please inspect early boot device discovery with dmesg and journalctl.
If you can see device reported as available check reported device tree with sudo lsblk -a.
Also, examine the NVMe partition layout with sudo fdisk /dev/nvme0n1 and rebuild partition table if Volumio partitions are present.
Whilst you do the install please try run dmesg -w command in the background.
Link to the log will help to inspect it further.

Kind Regards,

nerd · October 4, 2024, 5:12am

Hey Andy,

“Crimped” myself from parts. Took a generic dupont connector AWG23 wire and added 2-pin XH2.54 connector. These are easily available on Amazon.

In technical terms - “shorten the power path, less loss will…” - keep the wires reasonably short.

Kind Regards,

naimnatnod · October 4, 2024, 5:19am

This is what I got. Then what?

nerd · October 4, 2024, 5:28am

Hey Andy,

I was expecting incompatibly from partition type with larger storage device. I do not have automated install at this time (yet).
Let me test manual steps with gparted or similar available in Buster.

Kind Regards,

naimnatnod · October 4, 2024, 6:03am

I didn’t have problem installing 2TB NVMe before.

nerd · October 4, 2024, 6:51am

Hey Andy,

With 512 byte sectors, this sets the maximum partition size at 2TB (512 * 2³²).

Kind Regards,

nerd · October 4, 2024, 7:16am

Hey Andy,

Edit /boot/partconfig.json on your MicroSD and locate line:

{"name":"boot_type","value":"msdos"}
change to:
{"name":"boot_type","value":"gpt"}

After booting your SBC with updated json file, run the installer again.

Once booted to NVMe update /boot/partconfig.json again. You will find that the same change is needed on every OS update.

NOTICE: This is currently unsupported and things like OTA may not work like expected.

naimnatnod · October 4, 2024, 10:45pm

Thank you @nerd , it works now.

nerd · October 5, 2024, 4:53am

Hey Andy,

This is very promising. However it will not be changed in VolumiOS before sectors alignment logic is introduced first and proven stable.

Kind Regards,

naimnatnod · October 5, 2024, 5:49am

No problem. As long as it works even with some manual file editing, I’ll be okay!

So far over 50k files has been transferred to the 4TB NVMe, another 24k files (1.6T) to go.