The PINEBOOK Pro M.2/NGFF NVMe SSD Interface Adapter

[tgrauss]

It should be bootable with the right uboot on NOR flash.

[bcnaz]

hmm
                 I wonder,  if just re-drilling mounting the holes in the M.2 adapter card to move it over just a little would work  ?
           IF that works,  the original ribbon cable may possibly still work also.
 
           From the picture in the WIKI
                      It does not appear to need to move much to get it out from under the touch pad.

---

It should be bootable with the right uboot on NOR flash.

        ******

      I am Hopeful for a solution   For sure,
 
     But I saw a post from TLLIM  (posted this evening)  stating something about the SOC is set up to boot from the EMMc or the sdcard.
         but not the PCIe slot  ...  but TLLIM  likely knows the most about the whole project.
                     (I am not sure I am correct in my recollection)
     
       Wish I could give a link to his post.  But it was just this evening

[danielt]

It should be bootable with the right uboot on NOR flash.

        ******

      I am Hopeful for a solution   For sure,
 
     But I saw a post from TLLIM  (posted this evening)  stating something about the SOC is set up to boot from the EMMc or the sdcard.
         but not the PCIe slot  ...  but TLLIM  likely knows the most about the whole project.
                     (I am not sure I am correct in my recollection)

The RK3399 first tries to boot from a small SPI NOR flash device. As shipped there is no bootloader in NOR flash so the RK3399 looks in eMMC where is finds and loads u-boot. If eMMC is damaged (or disabled) the chip will also try to find a bootloader via the USB ports and via SD card.

It will never try to load u-boot from PCIe... but that might be OK! In principle if PCIe and NVME drivers can be enabled in u-boot then, although the RK3399 would load u-boot from SPI or eMMC, the PBP would *appear* to be booting from NVME because u-boot could fetch the operating system kernel from the SSD.

To be honest this is pretty much how USB and SD card booting is designed to work today. u-boot is normally loaded from eMMC but u-boot itself will (with default settings) look for an operating system on USB 2.0 and SD card *before* it tries to load the OS from eMMC.

[bcnaz]

It should be bootable with the right uboot on NOR flash.

        ******

      I am Hopeful for a solution   For sure,
 
     But I saw a post from TLLIM  (posted this evening)  stating something about the SOC is set up to boot from the EMMc or the sdcard.
         but not the PCIe slot  ...  but TLLIM  likely knows the most about the whole project.
                     (I am not sure I am correct in my recollection)

The RK3399 first tries to boot from a small SPI NOR flash device. As shipped there is no bootloader in NOR flash so the RK3399 looks in eMMC where is finds and loads u-boot. If eMMC is damaged (or disabled) the chip will also try to find a bootloader via the USB ports and via SD card.

It will never try to load u-boot from PCIe... but that might be OK! In principle if PCIe and NVME drivers can be enabled in u-boot then, although the RK3399 would load u-boot from SPI or eMMC, the PBP would *appear* to be booting from NVME because u-boot could fetch the operating system kernel from the SSD.

To be honest this is pretty much how USB and SD card booting is designed to work today. u-boot is normally loaded from eMMC but u-boot itself will (with default settings) look for an operating system on USB 2.0 and SD card *before* it tries to load the OS from eMMC.

       *********

            Great   Thank  you very Much...  !

           NOW,   We just need to make it fit inside the PBP
                            We do have the adapter,  just got to get it away from the touch pad

[danielt]

           NOW,   We just need to make it fit inside the PBP
                            We do have the adapter,  just got to get it away from the touch pad

If I understood Luke comments correctly then I think someone may have to do the work to get the drivers working in u-boot... however my PBP hasn't landed yet so I can't be certain (if it is not implemented it will be on my list of "things I'd like to do with PBP" but since my time is short and my list is long I suspect someone else will get there before I do).

[hdk]

It should be bootable with the right uboot on NOR flash.

        ******

      I am Hopeful for a solution   For sure,
 
     But I saw a post from TLLIM  (posted this evening)  stating something about the SOC is set up to boot from the EMMc or the sdcard.
         but not the PCIe slot  ...  but TLLIM  likely knows the most about the whole project.
                     (I am not sure I am correct in my recollection)

The RK3399 first tries to boot from a small SPI NOR flash device. As shipped there is no bootloader in NOR flash so the RK3399 looks in eMMC where is finds and loads u-boot. If eMMC is damaged (or disabled) the chip will also try to find a bootloader via the USB ports and via SD card.

It will never try to load u-boot from PCIe... but that might be OK! In principle if PCIe and NVME drivers can be enabled in u-boot then, although the RK3399 would load u-boot from SPI or eMMC, the PBP would *appear* to be booting from NVME because u-boot could fetch the operating system kernel from the SSD.

To be honest this is pretty much how USB and SD card booting is designed to work today. u-boot is normally loaded from eMMC but u-boot itself will (with default settings) look for an operating system on USB 2.0 and SD card *before* it tries to load the OS from eMMC.

       *********

            Great   Thank  you very Much...  !

           NOW,   We just need to make it fit inside the PBP
                            We do have the adapter,  just got to get it away from the touch pad

A small NVMe SSD, M.2 2242 (42mm) will do the trick?

[Arwen]

...
       *********

            Great   Thank  you very Much...  !

           NOW,   We just need to make it fit inside the PBP
                            We do have the adapter,  just got to get it away from the touch pad

A small NVMe SSD, M.2 2242 (42mm) will do the trick?

I was thinking the same thing, shorter NVMe module. However, some shorter ones are only 2 PCIe lanes, because they are designed for the different keyed slots. (Those slots support SATA, USB & 2 x PCIe.) Will have to do some research.

For example, a quick check finds this on Amazon;

Lexar NM520 M.2 2242 512GB NVMe Solid-State Drive (LNM520-512RBNA)

The NM520 is supported by the PCIe Gen3x2 NVMe
...

Edit: Further checks, found this;
Toshiba Announces Fourth-Generation BGA SSD with 96L 3D NAND - BG4

[erosketak]

Can I boot the system from PINEBOOK Pro M.2/NGFF NVMe SSD Interface Adapter ??

[danielt]

Can I boot the system from PINEBOOK Pro M.2/NGFF NVMe SSD Interface Adapter ??

Not yet.

At present the best you can do is put the firmware and boot partition in eMMC and place the rootfs (and any others) on NVMe.

At some point in the future it may be possible to put the firmware in SPI and place all operating system partitions on the NVMe... but that will take time (not least because getting SPI firmware wrong will partially brick the board).

[8jef]

Got some Toshiba 128GB SSD M.2 2242 NVMe SSS0P38304 off eBay

It should fit

Love this project, been looking for this kind of hardware for ages

And love this forum

You guys are bound for some amazing hacks on PBP

Glad to be around