ROCKPRO64 suitable for experimenting with custom NVMe drivers?

[spirom]

I'm about to start a hobby project that involves writing a custom user space NVMe driver, and it _seems_ like the ROCKPRO64 with the optional PCIe to m.2 interface card and a suitable m.2 NVMe SSD would be a great experimentation platform. BUT, I was wondering if there are any traps I should be aware of that would make we want to consider a different device? (I presume the Pine64 adapter card is more likely to work well than a third party adapter card?) 

To be extra clear: it's suitability for experimentation that concerns me most: a computer that I can mess up to an arbitrary degree while my main Linux box remains stable to use for other things ;-). I may eventually play with kernel mode drivers too -- be afraid; be *very* afraid!

Any thoughts about suitability? (Thanks in advance!)

[tllim]

I'm about to start a hobby project that involves writing a custom user space NVMe driver, and it _seems_ like the ROCKPRO64 with the optional PCIe to m.2 interface card and a suitable m.2 NVMe SSD would be a great experimentation platform. BUT, I was wondering if there are any traps I should be aware of that would make we want to consider a different device? (I presume the Pine64 adapter card is more likely to work well than a third party adapter card?) 

To be extra clear: it's suitability for experimentation that concerns me most: a computer that I can mess up to an arbitrary degree while my main Linux box remains stable to use for other things ;-). I may eventually play with kernel mode drivers too -- be afraid; be *very* afraid!

Any thoughts about suitability? (Thanks in advance!)

My takes should be suitable. If you runs into issue or question, the best place to explore is ROCK64 IRC chat (http://pine64.xyz, then /join #rock64)

[axelf]

One thing I would say is that there is a problem with the current kernel releases that has made my cluster completely useless for the 6b months I have had it because the current nvme driver in ayfuns kernel release (I've been using the armbian build) hangs the desktop completely. There is a post somewhere in this forum that suggests the issue is with the pulse audio drivers in the desktop.

see here for my saga trying to get nvme working in a desktop release;

https://forum.armbian.com/topic/10036-si...-crashing/

The post somewhere on this forum is quoted belolw;

"Currently working on the issue. It seems - as odd is its sounds - that the problem is somehow linked to pulseaudio. If you uninstall pulseaudio, and use alsa instead, the issue will just vanish. We have tried blacklisting PCIe for pulse in udev, and it prevents the issue from happening, but it also returns a segmentation error (SATA card / other adapter not accessible). Its very very strange".

So if you plan on developing a driver be wary if you enable the desktop