PCIe SSD
 

I purchased a new PCIe NVMe SSD for my 11 yr old Dell T105. I've tried installing two different flavors of Linux onto the new drive and they both hang during the installation, about 3/4 of the way through. I probably should have gone with a SATA SSD but the performance difference was too good to pass up. Anyone experience a similar situation or have any ideas?

Not that I know what I am talking about or you tried this, leave the HD in the laptop along with the SDD. There is a chance the Linux group did raid support for that model. Let me know if that has any effect to what you want.

It is pretty much a waste of money to try and upgrade a really old PC with the latest and greatest. You won't get anywhere near the rated speed even if you can get it to work, because of the limited pcie lanes available on the computer.



Make sure you have the BIOS updated, check the linux forums for the info on installing Linux on legacy BIOS/UEFI systems. You will probably need to install custom drivers to recognize and format the NVME. Sector size can also be an issue, as some drives will only work with a particular size.



Remove any other drives in the system.


Good luck

That's what I'm thinking now, it's just too old to handle the new drive. The BIOS is the latest available but is from 2012. The new drive is the only one installed and I can see it, format it and partition it during the install. Everything looks good when the files start to load, somewhere around 270 out of 350 files load but then it hangs. Tried it about 6 times with Oracle Linux and CentOS. When I put the old drive back in and boot it up, I can see the SSD as an "unknown" device from the h/w manager but can't access it in any way. Should have gone with a SATA SSD. Thanks.

I think I need drivers for the newer technology SSD and my machine is too old. Thanks.

More details would be nice, but the problem could be a simple bios setting. It is unlikely that the problem involves a "driver."

Did you get to the drive formatting stage of the install? If so, was the SSD drive listed?

Did you have any other drives connected? What distros did you try to install?


Not really

On the other hand, if you try to do so with Windows, yes, it is problematic/futile. However, the right Linux/BSD distro will revive and old machine and make it nimble and snappy.

Installing is usually very easy.

He is paying a premium for something that won’t run at the maximum speed. A regular SSD would be a better choice.

I did come across that when searching for a solution but my SATA Configuration in the BIOS has only two choices, "ATA Mode" and "Off". During the install I could see the new drive, format it and partition it. It was the only drive installed at the time I tried the latest releases of Oracle Linux and CentOS, both multiple times with the same result.

Agreed.

It will probably run faster than the typical hard drive.

At any rate (literally), installing a smaller Linux distro should make the machine more responsive and snappy.

So, the problem doesn't seem to be with the BIOS nor OS seeing the drive, as they both can access it and the OS can even partition it.

Could be some other install problem. Do you remember at what file/step the installation was on when it stopped?


Those are both somewhat odd choices, especially for a Linux newbie (and especially Oracle).

Because your machine is older, it might be best to go with a minimal and lightweight distro, that is easy to install and also newbie friendly, such as: Lubuntu; Antix; LXLE; or Bohdi.

The BIOS only sees the NVMe SSD as an "Unknown Device" in a PCIe slot, it does not know what it is. The BIOS is the latest available but is from 2012. I put back the old drive with an old version of CentOS and I can't see the new drive at all from the h/w manager.

When I have only the new SSD installed and attempt to install Linux from a DVD, the installer running off the DVD can see the new PCIe NVMe SSD and knows exactly what it is. As I said before, I can format it, partition it and begin installing to it, from the installation DVD only. It usually stops when installing files, usually around 271 out of 350 files, and usually when installing kernal files.

I can assure you I am not a "newbie". I have worked in UNIX environments for over 30 years. I have worked with different flavors of Linux for almost 20 years. I have no Windows machines that I use anymore and have used Xubuntu exclusively on my desktop PC for 5 years. Oracle Linux seems to me, to be the perfect choice for a machine used almost exclusively for Oracle database. I have worked with Oracle as a dba/developer since 1994.

The server I got out of mothballs has an 8 year old version of CentOS and Oracle Database 11.1. When I booted it up, it still worked perfectly. I have a new project and want to upgrade the server getting the most bang for my buck with h/w and install the latest version of Oracle Linux and Oracle Enterprise Database.

Thanks for everyone's suggestions. Now that I know a bit more about SSD's, I am convinced my 11 year old server cannot handle an NVMe PCIe SSD. I am confident that a SATA SSD will work and I have one arriving on Monday.

What's running off of the DVD is an OS. It certainly sounds like that OS is seeing/accessing the drive in question.


Hmmm... not sure why the install would stop then. Did you double-check the size of the formatted partition(s)?


Probably, but, to solve this problem, you might want to try to boot a small live OS first and see if it can read and write to the drive. I would recommend Slitaz Linux, TinyCore Linux or Puppy Linux.

Also, you might want to try to install a simpler, smaller Linux distro, such as Antix. The complexity of the big, rpm, systemd distros that you are attempting to install might be hanging up the process.


You might worth it double-check the size of the partition(s), and/or try booting/installing a smaller, simpler distro.