I made a live Linux boot key, I find perfect for this purpose Knoppix, CD or DVD doesn't matter.

It works perfectly, except for detecting NVMe M.2 (PCIe) of a laptop (I guess it would be the same for any).
I searched about the problem and it seems it's a common issue with many if not all distros, however it appears to be difficult to have a precise method to resolve it, I tested all possible solutions, to no avail.
Tried UEFI/BIOS various settings, nothing seems to work.

Any idea/solution?

 

Usually your pendrive OS will not even run if UEFI/Bios is preventing it. I always create my pendrives as Persistent Installs, so that any work done may be saved. Did BIOS even show the SSD? You probably want to start with HWINFO command to probe hardware: http://www.polarhome.com/service/man/?qf=HWINFO&af=0&tf=2&of=Knoppix

Many motherboards do not support booting from NVMe drives yet. Does yours? something to look into.

I do not use Knoppix for anything, but I think your best bet for real assistance with this is to ask on the Distro's forums, or a Discord, etc. Especially with it being a Live boot from USB drive.

 

Last edited: Jan 9, 2022

No, I disabled Secure boot.

I do as well, I installed an extra scanner driver in (live) Knoppix, so I did a persistent cache in USB key.

Yes.

Ok I had to be more precise: I use AIO boot with several tools, USB key is working and detecting M.2 drive flawlessly if I use Strelec Win10 PE (And that's a good news, at least).
The problem arises only with Linux, it boots but shows only the USB itself and yet NVMe is supposed to be supported since kernel 3.1, duh?

 

Last edited: Jan 10, 2022

Does this Live USB automatically boot into 32bit? Does NVMe care?



Boot options (can be entered in the startup screen)
adriane Start ADRIANE (32bit) with talking text desktop

knoppix Start KNOPPIX (32bit) with graphical environment

knoppix64 Same as above, with 64-bit kernel (DVD version only)

If it is Knoppix 8 or 9 Live Usb, it should be at least version 4.x. so I don't see that as a problem. But booting to 32bit could be? idk

Since you have confirmed working hardware (more or less), personally I would try using a different distro live usb. Preferably using a different pen drive. Why do you want this on a USB drive, instead of a hdd installation? Is your goal to get the system running on the NVMe drive and then......it may change how you approach your problem.

 

Ya I thought it could be the 32bits thing, so I tried Knoppix 9.1 64bits, CD and DVD, no change, M.2 drive is not in the list.

My USB key(s) are just emergency tools, and I don't want to mess with the drive of a Win10 laptop that is not under my "jurisdiction". At the moment I can use Strelec PE, but this Linux issue is a bit annoying.
And BTW I read that even permanent drive Linux installs are troublesome on M.2, not speaking of dual booting.

As I said it seems that this is a well known issue with most distros, but at the end the few solutions are per single brand/model, like you had to deal with different smartphones to root.

Edit: I'll check the knoppix64 cheat, crossing fingers

 

I'd search for "m2 drive fstab" in a search engine. There's bound to be others who have had the same issue.

 

Knoppix 64bit kernel didn't work, damn.

 

Ok I'm doing.

 

Is Knoppix similar to or different than this; MX workbench?

Would MX Workbench fullfill your needs if it worked with M.2 NVMe?

One last question. Is the SSD internal or external in a USB shell (USB 3.0, USB 3 Gen 1, Gen 2, Gen 2x2 - A or C type) ?

 

1,2) Don't know, I'll download and see;
3) internal, NVMe technology, M.2 form factor, PCIe protocol, I don't have much more infos.

 

I still didn't solve the issue, but at least I found some hints on why.
The bios infos say that the SSD mode is "Optane without RAID" that seems to be reluctant to different OSs but Windows 10+, no matter secure boot option.
At this time, no distro I tried worked, and I guess nothing else will, someone tried workarounds, but on specific hardware, so I just give up on Linux for this.

 

I was asking you about UEFI back at the top of the thread because it sounded like you would be going in that general direction. did you by chance try kali from a pen drive? I have 0 "support experience" with Knoppix. so they could be very fast to help you on their resources, or slow. I think you might locate more help with that kind of active distro for your pendrive. maybe even for getting past secureboot stuff and to the other portion of your problem. just an idea.

you should not even need a persistent usb. all that stands between it and booting and ram is bios/uefi. and then of course you have your newer type of drive, but that is really after boot. right? you are not trying to access the windows drive at this point?

 

Last edited: Feb 14, 2022

for emergency measures id say stick to the PE, everything else seems to be a waste of time. the boot stick should "only" be the tool, not the main subject for fixing and tinkering, shouldnt it?

 

Absolutely yes, to no avail.

For those troubled machines of course I use WinPE, but I need Linux for other purposes, I find quite annoying that this pretty common issue has not been yet properly challenged.
But this is it, I accept it.

 

Have you ever tried a "pro" distro like Debian? You can make a live USB or DVD with last Debian 10 [could be more stable to try than new v11 for you] from here: https://cdimage.debian.org/images/u...rchive/10.11.0-live+nonfree/amd64/iso-hybrid/ Debian is an old pal that always worked for me, with anything. Debian's "wiki" is almost as sophisticated as Arch's, which is absolutely fantastic, so full of info. Look it up and maybe you will find the answer there: https://wiki.archlinux.org/

These unofficial builds, by Debian maintainers, actually ;), are great because they include all the proprietary drivers for everything without having to fiddle with the the update repositories. Well, especially when it comes to a live DVD image it is pretty important, to say the least, that the distro contains all the drivers needed for various hardware at disposal to install "PnP" while booting.

I use this debian-live-10.11.0-amd64-mate+nonfree.iso ISO image file for troubleshooting various laptops, desktops, usually with Windows installed, some Macs. MATE is a really nice and friendly desktop environment, low on resources, but still looking very nice [like Windows should], I think of it as a blend between MacOS and Windows XP [if you can imagine that LOL]. I also use this bootable USB and DVD to show my clients the power of Linux.

You can also use this live USB-DVD to install it if you want. Very handy ISO. It's funny how you can boot from a DVD and browse the Internet in a couple of minutes it takes to boot...

Cheers!

 

Last edited: Feb 16, 2022

That's why I used Knoppix (btw is Debian based) a lot since long time, that is specific for live CD/DVD/USB flash.
However I'll give a try to the link you posted.
I'll report ASAP.

 

Tested with Ventoy 1.0.69, no luck (as I expected).

An answer could be this:
Optane and Linux

I guess there is little room to operate.

 

There is a difference between Intel Optane and a conventional M2 flash drive. You didn't mention anything about having Intel Optane M2 drive. However, any normal M2 should work, but...

M2 support/driver has been part of the Linux kernel since v5 [5.10 is shipped with Debian 11] so I actually made a mistake recommending Debian 10. It supports kernel v5.10 only through backports and I'm running kernel v5.10 from backports, that's why I made a mistake thinking Debian 10 comes with v5 kernel. Nope, even the latest Debian 10 comes with kernel 4.19 and 5 is only available through Buster backports. You need Debian 11 "Bullseye". I'm truly sorry for not researching it properly. So you should try with this Debian live image which comes with kernel v5 by default: https://cdimage.debian.org/images/u...rid/debian-live-11.2.0-amd64-mate+nonfree.iso It should work if it's not Intel Optane M2 drive.

Eventually, Intel Optane will be supported in the later versions of v5 kernel, no worries. It's just that Linux kernel and community is always a bit behind supporting specialised hardware like Intel Optane. It's a proprietary M2 drive and needs a different driver than normal M2 flash drive. It might be that the latest "cutting edge" Linux kernel supports it... but I didn't research that and you would need Arch Linux to run all the cutting edge latest kernels.

I read about kernel support for [and booting from] M2 drives yesterday, but I was hoping it might work with Debian 10. No luck though - Debian 10 ships with kernel 4.19 that doesn't support M2 drives! I'm sorry I didn't post this earlier, but I was busy repairing my audio interface. It needs some "re-capping" in its power supply. I'm surprised how hard it is to get simple quality capacitors these days... Damn.

 

Last edited: Feb 18, 2022

I did, see above post:

Ya, I hope so.

 

Kali is built on Debian, and it's always closest to newest kernel as possible for them. well, close enough usually.

I suggested it because of the amount of active assistance you can find. They love this sort of stuff. I mean, their motto is "Try Harder". Did you ask anyone or just boot it and cross your fingers? (sometimes that actually works)

 

Last edited: Feb 18, 2022