X35G will it run Linux?

[PaulZ]

So far my answer is kind of.

I have installed a Samsung 950 Pro 512GB NVMe and nothing else.

It will boot from a USB flash drive. But I have not been able to install any Linux distro on my NVMe. I have tried; Ubuntu (20.04 & 20.10), MX-19.3, Arch 5.9.11, Fedora 33, LinuxMint 20, FreeBSD 12.2, CentOS-Stream-8, and Neon 20201224. I am able to install Win10 from USB flash drive to the NVMe. So the NVMe works fine, but that is not what I want. The Linux distributions are just not happy.

One of two things happens once the Linux OS boots from USB and you tell it to install the distro. Either the OS does not recognize the NVMe at all (lsblk, fdisk, parted) or gives an "Turn off RST" error and will not proceed. The poor little X35G's BIOS options are so limited there is no way to turn off Rapid Storage Technology / Optane ... or anything else for that matter. Reading why these distros won't install leads me to think the SATA controller is setup for RAID and not AHCI and it appears that there is no way to change it.

Has anyone been able to install a Linux distro onto an NVMe?

 

[PaulZ]

I made some hardware changes;

1. Removed the Samsung 950 PRO NVMe M.2
2. Installed a Western Digital 1TB Blue NAND SATA SSD 2280 in the non-NVMe M.2 slot

Booted from an USB Flash Drive with Ubuntu 20.10 on it. Running lsblk I now had an sda (1T, the SSD) and sdb (4GB, the boot USB Flash Drive).

I was now able to install the Ubuntu on sda without any issues.

Something is terribly wrong with X35G. The default settings for the NVMe slot are incomparable with anything other than Windows. That might be acceptable if the BIOS had some option to change those settings (Raid to AHCI ?). But the X35G's BIOS options are pitiful; like a half dozen things you can change; date/time, passwords, secure boot, boot options, S5 RTC & PXE. That's it, nothing else. And while it looks old school like BIOS, my attempts to run different OS indicates it is really UEFI.

This is not the HW configuration I wanted to be running. I can't use the new NVMe I purchased, had to steal the WD Blue from another system and now have lost the use of the other M.2 slot.

 

[spikerguy]

I am able to install Win10 from USB flash drive to the NVMe. So the NVMe works fine

If the linux distro's cannot find the nvme then maybe there is something missing in the linux kernel for that kind of support or maybe the nvme port driver is missing.

After doing a quick search on Intel 10th gen cpu and it's chipset I feel that there is something missing in the drivers side.

Can you boot into live usb on Manjaro os and share the output of this command
`sudo dmesg | grep nvme`

This will show if kernel gets any information about nvme drive.

Update: I see that some 2280 m2 nvme doesnt play well with linux.
There is some thread regarding the same on Manjaro forum.
Can you try these steps mentioned in this post?

Installer does not detect M2 -nvme

@Piotr534 I am assuming that you SSD is an M.2 drive since it is not ACHI. Some M.2 drives do not play well with Linux. My Western Digital Black and Samsung drives for example. The kernel will put them into a low power state. This means that they would not be recognized by the installer because...

forum.manjaro.org

 

[joey]

Hi @PaulZ Since Optane memory does not support Linux system, if you want to install linux to avoid RST error, I suggest you remove Optane memory to install liunx.

 

[PaulZ]

Hi @PaulZ Since Optane memory does not support Linux system, if you want to install linux to avoid RST error, I suggest you remove Optane memory to install liunx.

Joey, I wish I had one of the new 1TB Optane SSDs. But they are pricy. I only have the older V-NAND Samsung 850 PRO and 970 EVP Plus NVMe drives in M.2 format.

 

[PaulZ]

If the linux distro's cannot find the nvme then maybe there is something missing in the linux kernel for that kind of support or maybe the nvme port driver is missing.

After doing a quick search on Intel 10th gen cpu and it's chipset I feel that there is something missing in the drivers side.

Can you boot into live usb on Manjaro os and share the output of this command
`sudo dmesg | grep nvme`

I'll give that a try later today/tomorrow. I've pulled the NVMe and put a standard M.2 SSD in the other slot. Linux found that easily. I doubt that dmesg will have anything, neither fdisk or lsblk showed anything other than sda, the USB flash drive.

Not all distros are unable to see the NVMe. Those that can (Ubuntu varriants) error out with the message; "Turn off RST". However, turning off Response Smart Technology or Optane is not an option in the BIOS. I think that the SATA mode is set for RAID (1 drive) rather than AHCI.

 

[PaulZ]

Can you boot into live usb on Manjaro os and share the output of this command
`sudo dmesg | grep nvme`

First the simple answer to your question. Booting from a USB flash drive with Manjaro and issuing the command: sudo dmesg | grep nvme gave no results.
But I wasn't happy with that, so I went a bit further. Sorry for the length.

TLDR: The NVMe shows up randomly when booting from Ubuntu on the M.2 SSD. Lsblk identifies the SATA controller in RAID mode, not AHCI. When booting from Manjaro on a USB flash drive, the NVMe never showed up in 4 tries.

Configuration:
USB1 = Keyboard
USB2 = Wireless Mouse
USB3 = 4GB Flash Drive with manjaro-xfce-20.2.1-210103-linux59
USB3 = 1.2GB Flash Drive with FreeDos [which won't boot on a UEFI class 3 BIOS]
NVMe M.2 = Samsung 950 PRO 512GB NVMe SSD with Windows 10 Pro Build 20279 release 201209
M.2 = Western Digital Blue 1TB SSD with Ubunt 20.10 updated and current as of 5 Jan 2021.

Booted from Ubuntu on SSD
paul@X35G:~$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 931.5G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 512M 0 part /boot/efi
├─sda2 8:2 0 2G 0 part [SWAP]
├─sda3 8:3 0 2G 0 part
└─sda4 8:4 0 927G 0 part
sdb 8:16 1 3.9G 0 disk
└─sdb1 8:17 1 3.9G 0 part /media/paul/MANJARO_XFC
sdc 8:32 1 121.1M 0 disk
└─sdc1 8:33 1 121.1M 0 part /media/paul/READSPEED 1
nvme0n1 259:0 0 476.9G 0 disk [Note - this was intermittent 2/4 times it did not show up]
├─nvme0n1p1 259:1 0 529M 0 part
├─nvme0n1p2 259:2 0 100M 0 part
├─nvme0n1p3 259:3 0 16M 0 part
└─nvme0n1p4 259:4 0 476.3G 0 part

paul@X35G:~$ sudo dmesg | grep SATA
[ 1.006134] ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m2048@0x82602000 port 0x82602180 irq 127
[ 1.006136] ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m2048@0x82602000 port 0x82602200 irq 127
[ 1.321015] ata2: SATA link down (SStatus 4 SControl 300)
[ 1.321040] ata3: SATA link up 6.0 Gbps (SStatus 133 SControl 300)

paul@X35G:~$ sudo dmesg | grep -i sata | grep 'link up'
[ 1.321040] ata3: SATA link up 6.0 Gbps (SStatus 133 SControl 300)

paul@X35G:~$ sudo hdparm -I /dev/sda | egrep "Model|speed|Transport"
Model Number: WDC WDS100T2B0B-00YS70
Transport: Serial, ATA8-AST, SATA 1.0a, SATA II Extensions, SATA Rev 2.5, SATA Rev 2.6, SATA Rev 3.0
* Gen1 signaling speed (1.5Gb/s)
* Gen2 signaling speed (3.0Gb/s)
* Gen3 signaling speed (6.0Gb/s)

paul@X35G:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Device 8a02 (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Iris Plus Graphics G1 (Ice Lake) (rev 07)
00:07.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Ice Lake Thunderbolt 3 PCI Express Root Port #0 (rev 03)
00:0d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Ice Lake Thunderbolt 3 USB Controller (rev 03)
00:0d.2 System peripheral: Intel Corporation Ice Lake Thunderbolt 3 NHI #0 (rev 03)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Ice Lake-LP USB 3.1 xHCI Host Controller (rev 30)
00:14.2 RAM memory: Intel Corporation Device 34ef (rev 30)
00:15.0 Serial bus controller [0c80]: Intel Corporation Ice Lake-LP Serial IO I2C Controller #0 (rev 30)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Management Engine Interface (rev 30)
00:17.0 RAID bus controller: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile SATA Controller [RAID mode] (rev 30) [I think this is where the problem is, RAID mode]
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 34ba (rev 30)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Ice Lake-LP PCI Express Root Port #5 (rev 30)
00:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Ice Lake-LP PCI Express Root Port #9 (rev 30)
00:1d.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 34b4 (rev 30)
00:1e.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Ice Lake-LP Serial IO UART Controller #0 (rev 30)
00:1e.3 Serial bus controller [0c80]: Intel Corporation Ice Lake-LP Serial IO SPI Controller #1 (rev 30)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Ice Lake-LP LPC Controller (rev 30)
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Smart Sound Technology Audio Controller (rev 30)
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Ice Lake-LP SMBus Controller (rev 30)
00:1f.5 Serial bus controller [0c80]: Intel Corporation Ice Lake-LP SPI Controller (rev 30)
2c:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (rev 1a)
2d:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 15)
2e:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd NVMe SSD Controller SM951/PM951 (rev 01)
2f:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 15)
paul@X35G:~$

Booted from Manjaro on USB
[manjaro@manjaro ~]$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 931.5G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 512M 0 part
├─sda2 8:2 0 2G 0 part
├─sda3 8:3 0 2G 0 part
└─sda4 8:4 0 927G 0 part
sdb 8:16 1 121.1M 0 disk
└─sdb1 8:17 1 121.1M 0 part
sdc 8:32 1 3.9G 0 disk /run/miso/bootmnt
├─sdc1 8:33 1 2.7G 0 part
└─sdc2 8:34 1 4M 0 part

[manjaro@manjaro ~]$ sudo dmesg | grep SATA
[ 6.407039] ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m524288@0x82500000 port 0x82500180 irq 16
[ 6.407041] ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m524288@0x82500000 port 0x82500200 irq 16
[ 6.718675] ata2: SATA link down (SStatus 4 SControl 300)
[ 6.718710] ata3: SATA link up 6.0 Gbps (SStatus 133 SControl 300)

[manjaro@manjaro ~]$ sudo dmesg | grep -i sata | grep 'link up'
[ 6.718710] ata3: SATA link up 6.0 Gbps (SStatus 133 SControl 300)

[manjaro@manjaro ~]$ lspci
All the same except missing:
00:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Ice Lake-LP PCI Express Root Port #9 (rev 30)
2e:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd NVMe SSD Controller SM951/PM951 (rev 01)

 

[joey]

Hi @PaulZ
After my test. First of all, ubuntu can be installed on M.2 2280 SATA SSD.
Regarding in Optane mode, you cannot install Ubuntu on M.2 2280 PCIe SSD or 2.5inch HDD. You need to use Intel OptaneMemory Optane memory management tool in Optane Memory+HDD mode to release Optane Memory. Then you can install ubuntu without any problems.

 

[PaulZ]

Hi @PaulZ
After my test. First of all, ubuntu can be installed on M.2 2280 SATA SSD.
Regarding in Optane mode, you cannot install Ubuntu on M.2 2280 PCIe SSD or 2.5inch HDD. You need to use Intel OptaneMemory Optane memory management tool in Optane Memory+HDD mode to release Optane Memory. Then you can install ubuntu without any problems.

Joey,
I'm going to need more instructions than that. I only see a CLI version of the Intel Memory and Storage tool that supports Linux. The command switches are very complicated.

 

[joey]

Hi @PaulZ I have send the email to you, please refer the document to fix it