Samsung 970 EVO SSD 1TB - M.2 NVMe works on workstation but not Pinebook Pro

[belfastraven]

I have a Samsung 970 EVO SSD 1TB - M.2 NVMe in a SSK Aluminum M.2 NVME external case, see here for the product on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MNF...UTF8&psc=1

I installed the gnome-disks utility on the Pinebook Pro to assist me with this.

NVMe and enclosure work without problem on my workstation running Fedora 30. Format, partition, read, write, all good.


dmesg reports:
[341405.622922] usb 6-2: new SuperSpeed Gen 1 USB device number 6 using xhci_hcd
[341405.635207] usb 6-2: New USB device found, idVendor=152d, idProduct=0562, bcdDevice= 2.06
[341405.635211] usb 6-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[341405.635214] usb 6-2: Product: SSK Storage
[341405.635215] usb 6-2: Manufacturer: SSK
[341405.635217] usb 6-2: SerialNumber: DF56419883E5B
[341405.823661] usb 6-2: USB controller 0000:0c:00.0 does not support streams, which are required by the UAS driver.
[341405.823667] usb 6-2: Please try an other USB controller if you wish to use UAS.
[341405.823671] usb-storage 6-2:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[341405.824043] scsi host15: usb-storage 6-2:1.0
[341406.842939] scsi 15:0:0:0: Direct-Access     SSK                       0206 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[341406.843583] sd 15:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg8 type 0
[341409.512535] sd 15:0:0:0: [sdg] 1953525168 512-byte logical blocks: (1.00 TB/932 GiB)
[341409.515399] sd 15:0:0:0: [sdg] Write Protect is off
[341409.515407] sd 15:0:0:0: [sdg] Mode Sense: 53 00 00 08
[341409.518240] sd 15:0:0:0: [sdg] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[341409.528580]  sdg: sdg1
[341409.534874] sd 15:0:0:0: [sdg] Attached SCSI disk

However, the Pinebook Pro recognizes the enclosure when plugged in to a USB 3 port, assigning it the device file /dev/sda, but gnome-disks reports "No Media".  dmesg reports:

[ 1490.403480] usb 2-1.1: new high-speed USB device number 4 using ehci-platform
[ 1490.564908] usb 2-1.1: New USB device found, idVendor=152d, idProduct=0562, bcdDevice= 2.06
[ 1490.565662] usb 2-1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[ 1490.566313] usb 2-1.1: Product: SSK Storage
[ 1490.566693] usb 2-1.1: Manufacturer: SSK
[ 1490.567050] usb 2-1.1: SerialNumber: DF56419883E5B
[ 1490.569695] scsi host0: uas
[ 1490.571524] scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access     SSK                       0206 PQ: 0 ANSI: 6
[ 1490.573978] sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
[ 1499.433316] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Unit Not Ready
[ 1499.433767] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Sense Key : Hardware Error [current]
[ 1499.434347] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] ASC=0x44 <<vendor>>ASCQ=0x81
[ 1499.435414] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Read Capacity(16) failed: Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[ 1499.436252] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Sense Key : Hardware Error [current]
[ 1499.436829] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] ASC=0x44 <<vendor>>ASCQ=0x81
[ 1499.437890] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Read Capacity(10) failed: Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[ 1499.438720] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Sense Key : Hardware Error [current]
[ 1499.439285] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] ASC=0x44 <<vendor>>ASCQ=0x81
[ 1499.440892] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 0 512-byte logical blocks: (0 B/0 B)
[ 1499.441442] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 0-byte physical blocks
[ 1499.442261] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Test WP failed, assume Write Enabled
[ 1499.443012] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Asking for cache data failed
[ 1499.443537] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 1499.444514] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Optimal transfer size 33553920 bytes not a multiple of physical block size (0 bytes)
[ 1499.485275] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Unit Not Ready
[ 1499.485675] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Sense Key : Hardware Error [current]
[ 1499.486252] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] ASC=0x44 <<vendor>>ASCQ=0x81
[ 1499.487290] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Read Capacity(16) failed: Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[ 1499.488131] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Sense Key : Hardware Error [current]
[ 1499.488711] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] ASC=0x44 <<vendor>>ASCQ=0x81
[ 1499.489911] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Read Capacity(10) failed: Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
[ 1499.490756] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Sense Key : Hardware Error [current]
[ 1499.491336] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] ASC=0x44 <<vendor>>ASCQ=0x81
[ 1499.494885] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk

I note that there is a package named nvme-cli, is this necessary?

Same problem with the default operating system, and with an install of the Mandriva KDE image.

Is this the problem: [ 1499.490756] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Sense Key : Hardware Error [current], is the Pinebook Pro not capable of supplying sufficient current for this device?


Thanks for any ideas offered!

Did you notice that on the machine on  which it works, the uas driver isn't being used,  but on the pinebookpro, it is.  I know that in some past cases,  some types of drives/controllers needed to be blacklisted from using uas . Don't know if that is still the case.

It seems that the pinebookpro sees the drive and gets its serial no. 

First,  if you put it back on the other machine,  does it still work?  (Just asking in case it was accidentally remove while mounted, or came lose in the adapter)

If it does,  I would try it on other USB ports on the Pinebookpro.  I believe it comes with two cables?  So you could try both the d and a ports?
fg.  I have one of those adapters which I haven't tried yet.  I'm curious,  if you wanted to use the nvme in another machine, not in the adapter,  are you able to remove the head exchanger pad from it?  If you can I can try with  a Samsung 981 in the adapter on the pinebookpro.

The nvme-cli package lets you control and monitor certain aspects of the disk,  load firmware,  etc.  but you do not need it to make the disk
work. 

If you google that sense key error,  you will see that it has been happening in various circumstances for a number of years, none of which appear to have anything to do with actual current..but who knows.