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Linux Mint installer not seeing SSD

SpaceGhostC2C
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Guys, final nail in the coffin: trying to diagnose a different problem (impossible to install any Windows from USB), I came across a post by someone who solved their issues with a BIOS update. I checked and I was on 3.20 (mid-2018), but there was a 3.50 available (January 2019). After the BIOS update, my Kubuntu install started to see the both drives, and my Mint 19.1 installer had no problem installing anywhere I chose. So, it was a BIOS-distro combination causing the issue. I'll guess I'll mark this post as a "best answer" in case anyone lands here from a search engine, but thanks to everyone who helped me troubleshoot this.

Enjoying life in green right now :D 

 

(Btw, the Windows USB install problem persisted after the BIOS update... 9_9)

Posted

OK, so the illusion of a smooth Linux experience came to an end and it's time to get back to reality :P

 

I'm trying to install Mint into a brand new SSD, from a live USB drive (I'm writing this booted from the USB). This is an  X399 motherboard with two M.2 SSDs on it, a PCIe 3.1 256GB (from here onwards, "Drive 1") and a PCIe 3.0 512GB ("Drive 2"). Both drives have never hosted any data whatsoever.

 

The problem: whether I use the "install Linux Mint" link in the desktop, or choose to install Linux Mint in the boot menu, I always get to the choice between "install now" (red warning about destroying all data, no further questions asked) or "something else", which is the one I choose, as it takes me to a sort of partition manager menu. It allows me to choose how to partition things, and it has a drop-down menu to pick a drive... but only Drive 2 shows up, so not much to choose from. I cannot get Drive 1 (my intended boot drive) to show up in that menu.

 

What I've done:

  • googling, and more googling. I arrived mostly to other people experiencing similar problem due to not using AHCI mode. Checked BIOS: it is in AHCI mode (also, not sure it matters for non-SATA drives, but anyway).
  • Checked if Drive 1 is detected in BIOS: it is, both drives are there (and Drive 1 is first in boot order)
  • run some commands suggested to other people, in particular these 2:
Spoiler

  


mint@mint:~$ sudo parted -l
Model: Kingston DataTraveler 3.0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 62.0GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  62.0GB  62.0GB  primary  fat32        boot, lba


Error: /dev/nvme1n1: unrecognised disk label
Model: INTEL SSDPEKNW512G8 (nvme)                                         
Disk /dev/nvme1n1: 512GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: unknown
Disk Flags:
Spoiler 

mint@mint:~$ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/loop0: 1.8 GiB, 1890041856 bytes, 3691488 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/nvme1n1: 477 GiB, 512110190592 bytes, 1000215216 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/sda: 57.8 GiB, 62008590336 bytes, 121110528 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x04b9e43d

Device     Boot Start       End   Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sda1  *     2048 121110527 121108480 57.8G  c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

 

 

what I get from this is that /dev/nvme1n1 is Drive 2, and Drive 1 is just not detected at all?

 

Hardware info:

Motherboard: ASRock X399 Taichi

Drive 1: 256GB Intel 760p (SSDPEKKW256G801), on slot M.2_1

Drive 2: 512GB Intel 660P (SSDPEKNW512G8XT), on slot M.2_3

 

Any clue on why I can't see Drive 1 as an option to install Mint?

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Posted

Have you tried swapping the drives or using different m.2 slots? Do any other distros detect drive 1?

Don't ask to ask, just ask... please 🤨

sudo chmod -R 000 /*

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1 minute ago, Sauron said:

Have you tried swapping the drives or using different m.2 slots?

I was delaying it as much as possible (tired of fishing those damn M.2 screws) but it sounds like the next step :P

I did re-seat "Drive 1" before, though

 

1 minute ago, Sauron said:

Do any other distros detect drive 1?

Haven't tried, will check for a spare USB drive (otherwise I'll have to overwrite Mint).

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2 minutes ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

I was delaying it as much as possible (tired of fishing those damn M.2 screws) but it sounds like the next step :P

Yeah, that's the first thing I'd check to be honest - if nothing else to know whether the problem is with the drive or the motherboard.

Don't ask to ask, just ask... please 🤨

sudo chmod -R 000 /*

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does the windows installer detects them?

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15 minutes ago, Lukyp said:

does the windows installer detects them?

I'm also avoiding that :P Although I can hook up a DVD reader and sidestep the USB-drive overwriting issue (should have Win 7, Windows server 2012, and even some win 10 preview disc somewhere).

 

I have to eat now we'll try your suggestions later (although I'm low on hope for GParted based on the result from calling it within the live USB. But if it's a driver issue, it may as well work).

 

Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far! :) 

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Check the secure boot option in your bios is disabled.

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Something to take into account:

 

In my research a couple months ago, I came across some motherboards that said if a SATA device was plugged into M.2 slot 1, M.2 slot 2 would be disabled.  Just mentioning that to make sure no silly shenanigans like that are taking place.

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Show us also lsblk output

Wait, isn't that correctly detected? It seems just unformatted to me, what is not detected is the other ssd, am I wrong?

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On 3/1/2019 at 9:58 AM, Lukyp said:

Wait, isn't that correctly detected? It seems just unformatted to me, what is not detected is the other ssd, am I wrong?

Exactly, it detected 1 out of 2 drives connected.

Sorry I couldn't update later, but my Win10 laptop updated itself and kill my WIFI. That's right, a 2-month old laptop, with all connections set to "metered", and configured to not download updates on metered connections, downloaded and installed an update, and kill the WiFi driver in the process... 9_9 Too bad I don't have a linux driver for the WiFi card yet, because this machine will get Linux more than any other.

 

Anyway, one full Windows reinstall later (it's so fun to re-install every program you actually care about - should also de-bloat all over again but ain't nobody got time for that...) I can resume my tasks and confirm that Server 2012 saw all drives and allow me to choose either to install itself. Looking more and more as a driver issue, but will have to do more research for confirm. I will go try your other suggestions and report back with the results.

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mint@mint:~$ lsblk
NAME    MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
loop0     7:0    0  1.8G  1 loop /rofs
sda       8:0    1 57.8G  0 disk 
└─sda1    8:1    1 57.8G  0 part /cdrom
nvme1n1 259:0    0  477G  0 disk
On 3/1/2019 at 12:58 PM, Lukyp said:

Show us also lsblk output

It's just this:

Spoiler

mint@mint:~$ lsblk
NAME    MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
loop0     7:0    0  1.8G  1 loop /rofs
sda       8:0    1 57.8G  0 disk
└─sda1    8:1    1 57.8G  0 part /cdrom
nvme1n1 259:0    0  477G  0 disk

 

First two seem to be the USB drive, third one is Drive 2 (which now has a Server 2012 recovery partition, because why would it use only the drive I chose? 9_9).

 

Next up: Ubuntu 14 and Scientific Linux 7, as I have the install media ready. May as well try Windows 7, since Intel has drives for that (they would not confirm the 760p series work on Linux, only that they got it working in "some Linux-based OSs, and I found tests on Ubuntu 18 for it).

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Update: Ubuntu 14 detected it as nvme1n1, with Drive 2 as nvme0n1, currently overwriting the Windows Server installation. The installation menu is pretty horrible, though, but luckily similar in Mint and Ubuntu. Hence, I'll try again with Mint to see if I get my way around using Drive 1, but it all points to a Mint-specific (or maybe even "My-Mint-USB-specific") issue.

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OK, final update @Sauron @SuperCloneRanger @Lukyp @fargonaz @captain_aggravated

 

Ubuntu 14 (2015 DVD): detects both Drives, installs to whichever I choose.

Scientific Linux 7 (2015 DVD): detects both Drives, installs to whichever I choose.
Windows Server 2012 R2 (2016 DVD): detects both Drives, installs in whichever I choose.

Windows 7 (Pleistocene DVD): I don't know because no USB 2.0 port in the rear I/O of this motherboard xD.

Linux Mint 19.1 (January 2019 USB Drive): nope, only Drive 2 is detected, Drive 1 is as good as unplugged... ?‍♂️

 

 

Whatever it is, it seems to be specific to Mint and we'll probably remain a mystery for the time being.

 

 

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6 minutes ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

OK, final update @Sauron @SuperCloneRanger @Lukyp @fargonaz @captain_aggravated

 

Ubuntu 14 (2015 DVD): detects both Drives, installs to whichever I choose.

Scientific Linux 7 (2015 DVD): detects both Drives, installs to whichever I choose.
Windows Server 2012 R2 (2016 DVD): detects both Drives, installs in whichever I choose.

Windows 7 (Pleistocene DVD): I don't know because no USB 2.0 port in the rear I/O of this motherboard xD.

Linux Mint 19.1 (January 2019 UDB Drive): nope, only Drive 2 is detected, Drive 1 is as good as unplugged... ?‍♂️

 

 

Whatever it is, it seems to be specific to Mint and we'll probably remain a mystery for the time being.

 

 

Interesting... if you ever have the time you should report this to the Mint maintainers, maybe they'll know what's up. Just for science, try a more recent version of ubuntu (18.04 for instance) - maybe it's a bug in the more recent kernels (both SL and Ubuntu 14.04 are almost 5 years old at this point).

Don't ask to ask, just ask... please 🤨

sudo chmod -R 000 /*

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42 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Interesting... if you ever have the time you should report this to the Mint maintainers, maybe they'll know what's up. Just for science, try a more recent version of ubuntu (18.04 for instance) - maybe it's a bug in the more recent kernels (both SL and Ubuntu 14.04 are almost 5 years old at this point).

Seconded.  Give today's Ubuntu a shot.

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On 3/5/2019 at 10:06 PM, Sauron said:

Just for science, try a more recent version of ubuntu (18.04 for instance) - maybe it's a bug in the more recent kernels (both SL and Ubuntu 14.04 are almost 5 years old at this point).

 

On 3/5/2019 at 10:50 PM, captain_aggravated said:

Seconded.  Give today's Ubuntu a shot.

 

Small update:

  • Latest Kubuntu (18.10): same as Mint 19.1, only sees Drive 1
  • Previous-to-last Mint (18.1): Sees both drives (unfortunately, no wifi doesn't work and cabling not finished yet, so can't try installing, then upgrading yet).
  • Latest SL (7.6): Sees both drives and wifi works. But it's on Kernel 3.1 or something (I believe the others are at 4.3.x or similar). Also, it sucks :P but I like its partition options at install (and most nothing else).
  • Latest (Intel's) Clear Linux (28100): sees no drive (both being Intel), can't remember wifi. ?‍♂️

At this point, I'm blaming Clear Linux results on it being beta, and the rest seem to follow the pattern "new kernel, good for wifi, old kernel, good for Drive 1".

I may just end up with Mint or Kubuntu on Drive 2 for now, if I manage to prevent them from using the full drive, as they provided the best live boot experience (SL 7.6 is not that bad but comes too barren -not even a kind of "software center"-, and too unpopular for easy plug-and-play solutions). I continue to wonder what's so specific about that kernel-drive combination, though.

 

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24 minutes ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

I continue to wonder what's so specific about that kernel-drive combination, though.

It may be that the newer versions have different modules enabled by default, you could try compiling your own kernel if you feel particularly brave. Maybe try an Arch based distro to see if the newest kernels still have this issue (we're on 5.0 now).

Don't ask to ask, just ask... please 🤨

sudo chmod -R 000 /*

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Mint 19.1 seems to use 4.15 and Ubuntu 18.10 uses 4.18... which is weird, because it doesn't seem like Intel would screw things up THAT much.  I'd use lspci -v on the drives and see what modules they're using and the PCI addresses.  (Ex "Kernel driver in use: nvme" on my system for my NVME drives.)   Then turn on debugging in the kernel arguments and see if that module or others are outputting anything interesting, the PCI address can help too.

"Anger, which, far sweeter than trickling drops of honey, rises in the bosom of a man like smoke."

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Guys, final nail in the coffin: trying to diagnose a different problem (impossible to install any Windows from USB), I came across a post by someone who solved their issues with a BIOS update. I checked and I was on 3.20 (mid-2018), but there was a 3.50 available (January 2019). After the BIOS update, my Kubuntu install started to see the both drives, and my Mint 19.1 installer had no problem installing anywhere I chose. So, it was a BIOS-distro combination causing the issue. I'll guess I'll mark this post as a "best answer" in case anyone lands here from a search engine, but thanks to everyone who helped me troubleshoot this.

Enjoying life in green right now :D 

 

(Btw, the Windows USB install problem persisted after the BIOS update... 9_9)

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Those AMD BIOSs... Glad you found out what was wrong. 

"Anger, which, far sweeter than trickling drops of honey, rises in the bosom of a man like smoke."

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