NVMe controller problem

Hello to all


I just bought a Lenovo Legion Y520-15IKBN laptop. It has two hard drives: a mechanical one (hdd) and o solid state one (ssd). The later seems to be a problem to FreeBSD since, the corresponding module is not loaded at boot times. Thus, I am not able to install FreeBSD 11.2 in my system, because I get nvme controller related errors (see attached picture). So, to the point: is there any way to insert the commands

Bash:
nvme_load="YES"
nvd_load="YES"

at boot time, in order for the installer to start without problems?

Thank you all in advance

IMG_20180719_232614.jpg
 
You can mount the installer "drive" on another system and edit `/boot/loader.conf` prior to trying to install on your machine.
 
Hey, gop !Bummer. :(
You can hit the escape key at the loader prompt, and load the drivers from there. Then resume the boot/install process, as normal. :)
When prompted at the end of the installation. Choose YES to exit to a terminal prompt to make final changes. Then add the needed lines to loader.conf(5), and you should be golden. :)

HTH

--Chris
 
There are no settings needed for NVMe at all. They work out of the box.

I have a trouble with my Toshiba XG3 with FreeBSD 11.2 as I cannot reboot. Have to do a full shutdown, otherwise the NVMe gets dropped from BIOS with a reboot. Device not found.
FreeBSD 11.1-RELEASE was fine. Something has changed in the NVMe driver for FreeBSD 11.2. I need to file a bug report about my issue.

Your problem seems different.
 
You know. This is the second drive related issue, in the last 24hrs. While that's not necessarily too unusual. The errors are oddly similar. I should maybe check the mailing lists, or bugzilla. Maybe somethings up?

--Chris
 
You can mount the installer "drive" on another system and edit `/boot/loader.conf` prior to trying to install on your machine.

First of all thank you much all of you.

Yet I have a simple question: how do I load the drivers?

Also I would like to mention that it is not a problem to be found in 11.2 release but in 11.1 as well (checked, indirectly, by testing GhostBSD, based on 11.1).
 
No need as you can see the nvme0 node has been established. The drivers are built in and no settings are needed.

I do know from this thread, that some other users NVMe did not work right on FreeBSD 11. Someone mentions Samsung NVMe.
https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/my-nvme-experience.58170/

Of course, I am aware of that link. The thing is that, essentially, there is no solution to my problem -at least for the current being.
 
I linked the thread to see if you had the Samsung 961 NVMe. Notice in the thread all the other Samsungs work from what I see.
So do you have the Samsung 961 by chance?
 
I linked the thread to see if you had the Samsung 961 NVMe. Notice in the thread all the other Samsungs work from what I see.
So do you have the Samsung 961 by chance?

Unfortunately, yes... this is what I have.
 
So do you have the Samsung 961 by chance?
I'm trying to install FreeBSD 11.2-RELEASE on a ThinkPad P71 which also has a Samsung 961 (a Samsung MZVLW1T0HMLH-000L7 to be precise) and I get the exact same error messages like gop. Maybe this problem only affects the Samsung 961 series? My plan B would be to use a standard 1TB SSD but I could imagine that the performance hit would be pretty huge. Other NVMe modules seem to work (including the Samsung 950 Evo). Maybe the 970 series works also?

FYI, a PR 211713 for this problem has already been filed in 2016 - also for the Samsung 961 series. There doesn't seem to be a solution yet though.

Edit: There are already two threads about NVMe modules which have been reported to work with FreeBSD (Thread 59429, Thread 63005) which might be useful to someone. I'll try my luck with a 970 Pro now. ;)
 
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Just for the record: Installing FreeBSD on a Samsung 970 Pro worked without any issues. So this problem indeed seems to be related to the Samsung 961 series.

Thomas
 
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