Not sure if I am right to post as new thread so would mods please advise and move if appropriate.
I am now in a position either to upgrade my damaged Leap 155 using installation DVD or do a new install from same medium. The damage to my existing system is entirely with the booting process and errors in my starting files which I have not been able to fix.
The issues on which I would appreciate guidance are as follows.
My system is all on NVME except for the few efi and boot files needed because I cannot boot from NVME. These are on a dedicated partition on my hard drive. I would like to try and get booting from NVME to work again first provided I do not damage my /home directory which I wish to preserve. Is this possible?
If my present booting arrangement must be adopted because NVME will not boot, how do I upgrade or install the new OS if I cannot change the booting arrangement and must boot the starting files from hard drive?
If I run an upgrade from my broken Leap will this fix the broken booting.
If I do a fresh install, can I preserve my /home directory and how do I create the starting files to put on hard drive starting partition.
Would I be better off this time using an internal USB stick for the starting files.
Is anything really stopping you fitting a HDD with sufficient capacity into an USB enclosure and then, either use ācp --archiveā or ārsyncā to create a copy of ā/home/ā on at least one backup drive?
I currently have several such devices for safe backups of my user files plus secure (not on a NAS) backups of my KWallet data.
Then, thereās the NVMe issue ā
# nvme list
Node Generic SN Model Namespace Usage Format FW Rev
--------------------- --------------------- -------------------- ---------------------------------------- ---------- -------------------------- ---------------- --------
/dev/nvme0n1 /dev/ng0n1 50026B768698E5F1 KINGSTON SNV2S2000G 0x1 2.00 TB / 2.00 TB 512 B + 0 B ELFK1N.1
#
# nvme id-ctrl -H /dev/nvme0n1
NVME Identify Controller:
vid : 0x2646
ssvid : 0x2646
sn : 50026B768698E5F1
mn : KINGSTON SNV2S2000G
fr : ELFK1N.1
rab : 4
ieee : 0026b7
cmic : 0
[3:3] : 0 ANA not supported
[2:2] : 0 PCI
[1:1] : 0 Single Controller
[0:0] : 0 Single Port
mdts : 6
.
.
.
#
# nvme smart-log /dev/nvme0
Smart Log for NVME device:nvme0 namespace-id:ffffffff
critical_warning : 0
temperature : 35 Ā°C (308 K)
available_spare : 100%
available_spare_threshold : 10%
percentage_used : 0%
endurance group critical warning summary: 0
Data Units Read : 477232 (244.34 GB)
Data Units Written : 973497 (498.43 GB)
host_read_commands : 5763399
host_write_commands : 16591998
controller_busy_time : 141
power_cycles : 161
power_on_hours : 1179
unsafe_shutdowns : 1
media_errors : 0
num_err_log_entries : 883
Warning Temperature Time : 0
Critical Composite Temperature Time : 0
Temperature Sensor 2 : 43 Ā°C (316 K)
Thermal Management T1 Trans Count : 0
Thermal Management T2 Trans Count : 0
Thermal Management T1 Total Time : 0
Thermal Management T2 Total Time : 0
# nvme smart-log -H /dev/nvme0
Smart Log for NVME device:nvme0 namespace-id:ffffffff
critical_warning : 0
Available Spare[0] : 0
Temp. Threshold[1] : 0
NVM subsystem Reliability[2] : 0
Read-only[3] : 0
Volatile mem. backup failed[4] : 0
Persistent Mem. RO[5] : 0
temperature : 35 Ā°C (308 K)
available_spare : 100%
available_spare_threshold : 10%
percentage_used : 0%
endurance group critical warning summary: 0
Data Units Read : 477.232 (244,34 GB)
Data Units Written : 973.499 (498,43 GB)
host_read_commands : 5.763.399
host_write_commands : 16.592.046
controller_busy_time : 141
power_cycles : 161
power_on_hours : 1.179
unsafe_shutdowns : 1
media_errors : 0
num_err_log_entries : 883
Warning Temperature Time : 0
Critical Composite Temperature Time : 0
Temperature Sensor 2 : 43 Ā°C (316 K)
Thermal Management T1 Trans Count : 0
Thermal Management T2 Trans Count : 0
Thermal Management T1 Total Time : 0
Thermal Management T2 Total Time : 0
#
# nvme fw-log /dev/nvme0
Firmware Log for device:nvme0
afi : 0x1
frs1 : 0x312e4e314b464c45 (ELFK1N.1)
#
# nvme id-ctrl /dev/nvme0 -H | grep Firmware
[9:9] : 0 Firmware Activation Notices Not Supported
[4:4] : 0x1 Firmware Activate Without Reset Supported
[3:1] : 0x1 Number of Firmware Slots
[0:0] : 0 Firmware Slot 1 Read/Write
#
As you can see, I have a Kingston NVMe installed ā and the Firmware can only be upgraded via the Redmond Windows OS ā <Solid state drive/NVMe ā Kingston>
And therefore, Iām resigned to having my Linux system directories on a SATA SSD with the NVMe only being used for user directories.
Bottom line ā
AFAIKS, using an NVMe as a system disk is viable only if the NVMe firmware can be updated via Linux.
To expand on malcolmlewisā response, M.2 sockets and NVME storage arrived in hardware before UEFI BIOS support for booting NVME storage resident in PCIe host expansion adapters (add-in cards).
@Budgie2
Isnāt there a firmware upgrade to provide support for NVME?
Without the NVME support, you can stick with your currently arrangement of: /home on NVME, /boot on HD and get rid of the flash drive. To achive this, you will need to use the expert partitioner during the partitioning.
If possible go with a fresh installation.
On the question of firmware my IBM servers are now EOL and support depends on Lenovo forum and a reply from somebody who cares, so I am not holding my breath.
My quickest option now is to go for a fresh installation of Leap 156 using the hard drive partition I created previously for the efi files. I shall of course use the expert partitioner but I would ask Malcolm to remind me please which files to put in the efi and boot directories and how. I have a vague memory of adding these files manually.
If I have time I would like to revisit using an USB for these efi and boot starting files both for my own trials and for the sake of others who have run into this problem with NVMe.
As I recall some had voiced concerns on the life of the USB and the recommendation that it should be formatted to ext2 to reduce wear. I only have two comments on this; I thought the efi had to be on a dos partition and surely these files are seldom changed during a zypper up update. A reasonable quality USB would surely last as long as an hard drive?
Hi Malcolm,
Interesting, I wonder why. At present all my OS other than the starting files are btrfs.
Not keen to change these unless you say as NVMe is 3/4 full.
I assume the additional complication and problems I have had trying to repair my system booting are attributable to the damaged starting scripts and handling of snapshots. Once booted all has been fine.
From your advice above I assume sdX1, sdX2 or USB equivalent. Is that right?
@Budgie2 Yes, I think not using btrfs with having to separate /boot should work better. Other forum users may have differing advice to offer for your setupā¦
Yes, the appropriate partitions for what ever the device is in your setup.
OK I have put my NVMe drive back in the original machine and have booted the Leap 156 installation.
Very nervous now as I wish to retain my /home directory.
I have selected expert partitioner and am starting with the existing partitions which are
all present and correct but how do I now stop the partitioner from formatting the lot?
There are warnings particularly wrt btrfs so I think I am at a decision point. I now regret going down the btrfs route but would appreciate advice on implications of not formatting if I stay with btrfs. Any thoughts?
By default, existing native filesystem to be utilized during an installation via your use of partitioner are not to be formatted, except for / filesystem(s). A home partition would by default not be formatted without you clicking a checkbox indicating you wish that filesystem replaced through formatting.
First a big thank you to mrmazda for his timely intervention. I took the plunge as I stated above with the expert partitioner and using the existing partitions and doing an full installation without formatting so only mounted the three critical mounts, / sda1 for /boot/efi and and sda2 for ext4 /boot.
This was successful and all my system is available so that was the good news.
I then wasted a couple of hours fixing my network configuration which had been so damaged previously that I had to remove all the configuration files and start again. The trouble was that although I had the basic connections correctly configured and working there was no DNS working.
Fortunately others had posted this problem of no internet after upgrading to Leap 15.6 and Deano had the fix which is to change the search order in /etc/nsswitch.conf so that [NOTFOUND=return] does not apply before dns in the list.
I have no idea why this was originally written in a different and for me the wrong order. I hope it will be fixed and now I can connect to the internet again I can run sudo zypper up and find out!!!