SG-3100 M.2 install

stephenw10

Usually you only need to change the bootcmd value from emmcboot to m2boot.

stephenw10

It may also be booting from the m.2 and then mounting root from eMMC confusing the issue.

mcury

@eyes said in SG-3100 M.2 install:

From the instructions I should use m2dev=0

To be able to boot from the M2 SSD, m2dev should be 1.
and setenv bootcmd 'run setLED; run m2boot;'

I always wipe the entire eMMC disk when using SSD to avoid the problem described below:

https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/troubleshooting/multiple-disks.html

Edit:

In addition to the described above, I usually set:

Create the file /boot/loader.conf.local and add to it:
hint.mmcsd.0.disabled="1"

eyes

@mcury

I might want to try to wipe the drive then

Before i do that. This is the M.2 I use.

Sata III is working with the device right?

https://www.proshop.dk/SSD/Intenso-SSD-M2-2280-SATA-III-High-Performance-240GB/2628894

stephenw10

If you were able to install to it as ada0 then it should be fine.

eyes

What is the command in U-boot to erase the eMMC? if i want to wipe it clean.

I cant do it in root, since its the active partition

mcury

I don't have that written down here, but as far as I remember, you will need:

1- Connect to the console
2- Boot the device in single user mode:

At the SG-3100 console press any key to interrupt the boot loader when you see:
Hit [Enter] to boot immediately, or any other key for command prompt.

At the prompt enter: boot -s

That will boot in single user mode to a question asking for a path to the shell, just press return to reach the # prompt.

3- Run the command to wipe the eMMC as described in the link posted above;
Wipe the first 1MB of the disk
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/mmcsd0 bs=1M count=1 status=progress
or:
Wipe the entire disk:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/mmcsd0 bs=1M status=progress

Then, boot through USB drive and perform a normal install using ada0 drive.

@stephenw10 can you confirm if these steps are correct ? I really don't recall exactly what I did at that time..

stephenw10

You should be able to run run m2boot manually then choose single user mode to reach a prompt you can erase the eMMC from.

Or at the uboot prompt try: mmc erase 0 400000

jimp

I recently updated the 3100 M.2 install doc with better info on all this, so make sure you are following the new doc and not older instructions:

https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/solutions/sg-3100/m-2-sata-installation.html

FSC830

Just to still my curiosity...

I checked my Putty log from serial port and as far as I can see I did not run any printenv/setenv command when installing the 22.05 software at ada0.
Also I looked up in my downloaded manual which do not contain this recently added commands.

Because I installed m.2 devices in two appliances at nearly the same time without running in trouble, my question is: was that luck or does the issue only occur in special circumstances/releases?

Regards

stephenw10

I would have expected it to apply there if you added the SSD. Though looking at the internal bug report I opened for this it applied in 22.01-Beta and was present in 23.01 but I couldn't say for sure if it happened in 22.05.

eyes

I found solution for the m.2

setenv m2boot 'scsi reset; fatload scsi 0:1 200000 ubldr.bin; go 200000;'

saveenv

reset

Then it should boot correctly from the m.2

It looked like this for me as default.

setenv m2boot 'scsi reset; fatload scsi 0:0 200000 ubldr.bin; go 200000;'