NVME ssd on a PCIe extension card

[tyskidzik]

Hiya, I recently got a Samsung 980 SSD for a linux install, however because my motherboard (MSI Z370-A PRO) only comes with a single nvme slot i ordered a pcie extension card. The drive showed up in windows and i proceeded with the arch install, however after i finished my arch install and went into bios to set it up as my primary boot device, the bios doesn't see the drive at all. Do you know what could cause the issue? 
 

[Radium_Angel]

1 minute ago, tyskidzik said:

Hiya, I recently got a Samsung 980 SSD for a linux install, however because my motherboard (MSI Z370-A PRO) only comes with a single nvme slot i ordered a pcie extension card. The drive showed up in windows and i proceeded with the arch install, however after i finished my arch install and went into bios to set it up as my primary boot device, the bios doesn't see the drive at all. Do you know what could cause the issue? 
 

Wild guess: The extension card isn't bootable, it's just a "dumb" card, and lacks the chipset to make it bootable

[tyskidzik]

Just now, Radium_Angel said:

Wild guess: The extension card isn't bootable, it's just a "dumb" card, and lacks the chipset to make it bootable

Yeah, you're probably right, I didn't think of that, thank you.

[YoungBlade]

@Radium_Angelis almost certainly right. You'll likely need to set up a boot partition on your primary drive that then hands off the boot to the one on the PCIe card.

[Radium_Angel]

1 minute ago, tyskidzik said:

Yeah, you're probably right, I didn't think of that, thank you.

It's a silly wild guess based on my own experience with a 4 slot nVME card.

There are cheap ones, and really expensive ones.

The cheap ones you can't boot from because it doesnt support Bifurcation. Windows will see it, but that's all

The really expensive one does, and allows me to boot from it.

[manikyath]

4 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Wild guess: The extension card isn't bootable, it's just a "dumb" card, and lacks the chipset to make it bootable

isnt nvme just a pcie device in general? i dont think i've ever seen any PCIe M.2 card that contains any sort of "chipset" on it.

[manikyath]

Just now, Radium_Angel said:

 

The cheap ones you can't boot from because it doesnt support Bifurcation. Windows will see it, but that's all

The really expensive one does, and allows me to boot from it.

bifurcation has nothing to do with being able to boot from it, it's about wether the lanes can be sliced up into 4 devices by the CPU (or whatever chipse is upstream).

[Radium_Angel]

4 minutes ago, manikyath said:

bifurcation has nothing to do with being able to boot from it, it's about wether the lanes can be sliced up into 4 devices by the CPU (or whatever chipse is upstream).

Right, but I bought a cheap one which I can't boot from, and an expensive one that does allow me to boot from it.

Like I said, it's a wild guess, I may be wrong, this may not be the OP's problem

[manikyath]

after doing some googling on the matter, i noticed this:

16 minutes ago, tyskidzik said:

my arch install

if your motherboard is set up to boot windows, it's not unlikely it'll just not see a linux install at all. i'd suggest going this path:

- make note of how your bios is configured currently (or make note as you make changes, so you can undo things to get back into windows..)

- take out the windows SSD, and stick the arch SSD into the M.2 slot. eliminating variables so to speak.

- if it boots that way, your motherboard is just not set up to look for storage devices on the PCIe slots (oversight from MSI...) if that's the case, i suggest sticking your arch bootloader on a USB drive, because clearly that's a place your motherboard can boot from.

- if it doesnt boot that way, you know there's either a problem with the arch install, or a problem with bios settings. back when i last installed arch secure boot had to be off, perhaps it's as simple as that, perhaps there's more details to it.

[tyskidzik]

Just now, manikyath said:

after doing some googling on the matter, i noticed this:

if your motherboard is set up to boot windows, it's not unlikely it'll just not see a linux install at all. i'd suggest going this path:

- make note of how your bios is configured currently (or make note as you make changes, so you can undo things to get back into windows..)

- take out the windows SSD, and stick the arch SSD into the M.2 slot. eliminating variables so to speak.

- if it boots that way, your motherboard is just not set up to look for storage devices on the PCIe slots (oversight from MSI...) if that's the case, i suggest sticking your arch bootloader on a USB drive, because clearly that's a place your motherboard can boot from.

- if it doesnt boot that way, you know there's either a problem with the arch install, or a problem with bios settings. back when i last installed arch secure boot had to be off, perhaps it's as simple as that, perhaps there's more details to it.

Yup, i guess it's software, i swapped the drives around and windows is booting from the extension card, i'll go look into it