SOLVED: USB M.2 SSD for use with SWAP
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Best case I imagine is that it just appears like a normal NVMe drive and the RAM cache is all handled on-board. No drivers needed.
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The console port? Nope that is only connected to the serial converter IC. AFAIK you can only use the one external USB A port.
The m.2 slot has USB connectivity but I'm not sure what speeds are available. You're already using that slot anyway though.
The miniPCIe slot does not have USB. It has PCIe of course so it might be possible to run an NVMe drive in an adapter there even if it cant boot from it. Not something I've tried.
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@stephenw10 thanks, I didn’t think about using an adapter, I am not using the AP on that slot right now. Something like this?? M Key? I will have to remove the compex card from it.
Mini PCIE to M.2 M Key Adapter, Support 2230/2242/2260/2280 M.2 SSD M.2 NGFF Nvme M Key Converter Adapter
This has 90 on it
xiwai 90 Degree Angled PCI-E 4.0 NVME M-Key M.2 22x30mm to 22x80mm High Storage Extension SSD Converter Board Upgrade Expansion Adapter Compatible with 2230 to 2280 SSD Handheld ROG Ally Gaming
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To be clear I have no idea if that would work!
If I had such an adapter I would try it out of curiosity. -
@stephenw10 there is some posts about SSD not working in that slot for 1100 but they are using minipcie drives, is it only usb2.0 speed on the mpcie or faster? Thanks for the reply. I am excited but it would have to have a cable because it would be to long in a 2100. It’s one lane, would it only top out at Single Direction: 2.5 Gbps/200MBps
Dual Direction: 5 Gbps/400MBpsThat is where the 5gbps usb0 is at I am thinking on start up logs
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Sintech M.2 (NGFF) nVME SSD to Mini PCIe Adapter with 20cm Cable
I am going to try it with the Intel Optane for swap. It should make use of the usb0 bus technically that is what it is. As long as the drive is connected and has power it should see it. Maybe not boot from it but be able to gpart it and activate it. I have the m key drive so maybe I can get access to 5gbps
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All SSDs I've seen that fit the mPCIe format are mSATA it that socket is not wired for mSATA. It's PCIe only. So theoretically an NVMe drive in that format would be seen on the PCIe bus. As would an m.2 drive in a PCI adapter. Theoretically!
In reality I've never seen an NVMe drive in aarch64 and have no way to test it. But I'd expect it to work.
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@stephenw10 getting it to fit will be a challenge, with the cable I should be able to add nonconductive tape on the bottom of it and Velcro it, the other straight adapters would be too long it would hit the back, and the 90 degree one would work but put the drive directly over the cpu and memory with the added heat that would cause issues. I am thinking about velcroing it to the top side where it is close to the vented area, adding a heat sink or something to it.
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@stephenw10 It works !!!
Amazing!!!
(nda0: nvme version 1.3 x1 (max x2) lanes PCIe Gen2 (max Gen3) link)I still do not know how to access the optane side of this as you can see it only sees 238 the other 16 is not shown is it automatically assigned?
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nvme
geom -t
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(pciconf -vI)
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It is seeing it what one is the optane memory vs the ssd part of it ? I think it is nvme0ns1
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This has to be it nvme0ns1 shows 244 its 256GB SSD and 16GB Optane
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Nice. So that's in a USB enclosure of some sort?
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@stephenw10 thanks for the reply and recommendations. yes but do I have to use specific NVMecontroler commands now to reformat it or is that automatic ? I was reading that it shows up with the n infront of the da0. Again I do not know how to access the Optane side of this. I have never played with NVMe commands before I found some on the FreeBSD forum
Shell Output - nvmecontrol identify nvme0 Controller Capabilities/Features ================================ Vendor ID: 8086 Subsystem Vendor ID: 8086 Serial Number: BTTE9510086T256D-1 Model Number: INTEL HBRPEKNX0101AH Firmware Version: HPS1 Recommended Arb Burst: 6 IEEE OUI Identifier: 5c d2 e4 Multi-Path I/O Capabilities: Not Supported Max Data Transfer Size: 131072 bytes Sanitize Crypto Erase: Supported Sanitize Block Erase: Supported Sanitize Overwrite: Not Supported Sanitize NDI: Not Supported Sanitize NODMMAS: Undefined Controller ID: 0x0001 Version: 1.3.0 Admin Command Set Attributes ============================ Security Send/Receive: Not Supported Format NVM: Supported Firmware Activate/Download: Supported Namespace Management: Not Supported Device Self-test: Supported Directives: Not Supported NVMe-MI Send/Receive: Not Supported Virtualization Management: Not Supported Doorbell Buffer Config: Not Supported Get LBA Status: Not Supported Sanitize: crypto, block, Abort Command Limit: 4 Async Event Request Limit: 8 Number of Firmware Slots: 2 Firmware Slot 1 Read-Only: No Per-Namespace SMART Log: Yes Error Log Page Entries: 256 Number of Power States: 5 Total NVM Capacity: 0 bytes Unallocated NVM Capacity: 0 bytes Firmware Update Granularity: 00 (Not Reported) Host Buffer Preferred Size: 0 bytes Host Buffer Minimum Size: 0 bytes NVM Command Set Attributes ========================== Submission Queue Entry Size Max: 64 Min: 64 Completion Queue Entry Size Max: 16 Min: 16 Number of Namespaces: 1 Compare Command: Supported Write Uncorrectable Command: Supported Dataset Management Command: Supported Write Zeroes Command: Supported Save Features: Supported Reservations: Not Supported Timestamp feature: Supported Verify feature: Not Supported Fused Operation Support: Not Supported Format NVM Attributes: Crypto Erase, Per-NS Erase, Per-NS Format Volatile Write Cache: Present NVM Subsystem Name: nqn.2019-51.com.intel:nvm-subsystem-sn-btte9510086t256d-1 -
Shouldn't be any special commands required.
ndaX is how I expect any NVMe drive to appear.
The interesting thing would be to see how the PCIe device appears as presumably it's a different PCIe bus/controller connected via USB.
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Is this what you are looking for ?
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@stephenw10 it’s no longer on usb it’s over the mPCIE adapter to M.2 it works without the usb ports
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Ah, that's interesting. Nice! What pfSense version is that in?
