Rock Pi 4B - unable to boot from NVME SSD

    Hello,

    I am using Rock Pi 4B, downloaded following image: LibreELEC-RK3399.arm-10.0.2-rock-pi-4.img.gz

    I flashed image to SD card with Balena Etcher and everything was working fine.

    Then I tried to do the same with NVME SSD. I used USB SSD reader, wrote the image through Balena Etcher and tried it on Rock Pi 4B. During the boot, console gives the following message: "libreelec could not mount uuid". Afterwards, device is stuck and only LE logo appears.

    What should be done to boot LE from SSD?

    For reference, I also opened an issue on radxa forum, but their forum is not very active, so I am not sure if someone will reply.

    Also, I want to note that I tried the same with another image(Armbian OS), and it was working fine. So, I believe it is somehow related to the LE image.

    If the image was written correctly, perhaps your USB/HDD adapter is not supported by kernel.

    Try another imaging tool to confirm the issue still persist, also check if the FAT partition is active.

    You may also test the latest LE 11 Nightly build from test.libreelec.tv and if the issue is still the same, use another USB/HDD adapter.

    Thank you very much for assistance.

    Quote

    If the image was written correctly, perhaps your USB/HDD adapter is not supported by kernel.

    Actually I am not using USB to SSD adapter in the Rock Pi 4B, I am attaching NVME directly to M2 slot on the SBC. And through this type of connection, Armbian OS is working. USB adapter is used only for writing the image into NVME.

    Quote

    Try another imaging tool to confirm the issue still persist, also check if the FAT partition is active.

    You may also test the latest LE 11 Nightly build from test.libreelec.tv and if the issue is still the same, use another USB/HDD adapter.

    I tried following imaging tools:

    Balena Etcher, Rufus,Win32DiskImager, USBImager. The latter two didn't recognize the SSD. So I used only Etcher and Rufus, and wrote latest LE 11 Nightly build, and same thing happened.

    When inside LE boot console, the NVME is not listed in /dev.

    Below you can find various screenshots:

    1) The text that appears during boot

    2) When I type "exit", LE logo appears

    3) Contents of /dev

    4) Contents of NVME as seen from Windows after writing the image


    You could boot from SD card and use nvme only for storage. You won't be riping SD card port out RPi and NVME is way more expensive than sd card for running fixed OS image.

    Thank you.

    Yes, I know this approach, but it is not proper approach for us (especially when considered for large quantity).

    The project actually requires NVME storage, and SD card would be unnecessary cost for us.

    Is it possible that LE doesn't support booting from NVME? Is NVME booting OS related or SPI flash U-boot related? Because the same U-boot can handle booting when NVME is flashed with Debian or Armbian.

    Unfortunately I don't own this kind of HW so can't offer any personal experience. So just some links to posts of another users with the same / similar issue:

    Posts by rua1 - LibreELEC Forum

    Post

    RE: Unofficial LE for RK356x RK3328\RK3399 RK3588(s)

    […]

    No, nvme don't found on this stage. Message on TV screen obtained. ls /dev is without nvme, only mmcblk1 and 2.

    nvme found only after run kodi with version 20200201 . With versions 20200205 and 20200127 nvme not found never. If I copy fdt file from version 0201 to 0205, then with it nvme is also present after run kodi.
    rua1
    February 11, 2020 at 4:16 PM
    Thread

    Rock Pi 4 PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD not accessible

    Samsung 970 Evo connected to the M.2 slot is not mounted. I have also tested a m.2 ssd from Intel, same problem, I can't access the drive.

    If I connect the M.2 SSD via USB 3.0 it works fine.
    Any ideas how to fix the problem? Or have I to wait for a new build from LibreElec?
    Bier2020
    April 4, 2019 at 8:36 PM

    Perhaps some of developers could give a comment on this.

    Thank you for sending the links. I went through their content. In some of them, it was mentioned that with older versions of some files NVME is detected. I went to: https://libreelec.tv/downloads/rockchip/ and downloaded Old Version (2020.11) instead of the latest, and this time OS is booting fine from NVME.

    Thanks a lot for your support.

    It would be cool if the latest versions would support this feature as well.

    I believe this issue could be closed.