# NVMe controller problem



## gop (Jul 20, 2018)

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


```
nvme_load="YES"
nvd_load="YES"
```

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

Thank you all in advance


----------



## jef (Jul 20, 2018)

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


----------



## Chris_H (Jul 20, 2018)

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


----------



## Phishfry (Jul 20, 2018)

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.


----------



## Chris_H (Jul 20, 2018)

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


----------



## gop (Jul 20, 2018)

jef said:


> 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).


----------



## Phishfry (Jul 21, 2018)

gop said:


> how do I load the drivers?


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/


----------



## gop (Jul 22, 2018)

Phishfry said:


> 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.


----------



## Phishfry (Jul 22, 2018)

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?


----------



## gop (Jul 23, 2018)

Phishfry said:


> 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.


----------



## volatilevoid (Jul 30, 2018)

Phishfry said:


> 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.


----------



## volatilevoid (Oct 6, 2018)

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


----------

