nVME crashes system

[mamboman777]

Thanks to everyone who helped this futile effort. It looks like someone updated the recommended lost to reflect the 970 500gb option as a fail. ??

[mamboman777]

Update: got my Intel 660p 1tb today. Plug and play. 0 issues so far.

[Arwen]

@mamboman777, glad it seems to work for you. Update us once in a while, so we know that the Intel 660p 1TB makes a good option.

[mamboman777]

This review+price was a big reason I went for it. I've read several places that it's pretty efficient. It's peak rating is m much lower than the Samsung. That being said... It is QLC. So it may not be for everyone, but according to most reviews I've seen, the average user won't notice other than it may need to be replaced sooner. ?. https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/int...,5719.html

[Arwen]

This review+price was a big reason I went for it.  I've read several places that it's pretty efficient. It's peak rating is m much lower than the Samsung. That being said... It is QLC. So it may not be for everyone, but according to most reviews I've seen, the average user won't notice other than it may need to be replaced sooner. ?. https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/int...,5719.html

I added an entry for it in the compatibility page, (the 1TB model, as we had a 512GB model already). Feel free to update with the model number and other comments you have. Here is a direct link;

Wiki - Pinebook Pro Hardware Accessory Compatibility - NVMe SSD drives

As usual, feel free to correct, improve or comment, (good or politely bad).

[mamboman777]

This review+price was a big reason I went for it.  I've read several places that it's pretty efficient. It's peak rating is m much lower than the Samsung. That being said... It is QLC. So it may not be for everyone, but according to most reviews I've seen, the average user won't notice other than it may need to be replaced sooner. ?. https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/int...,5719.html

I added an entry for it in the compatibility page, (the 1TB model, as we had a 512GB model already). Feel free to update with the model number and other comments you have. Here is a direct link;

Wiki - Pinebook Pro Hardware Accessory Compatibility - NVMe SSD drives

As usual, feel free to correct, improve or comment, (good or politely bad).

Please let me know if there's anything specific that you would like to know.  I ran
 sudo nvme id-ctrl /dev/nvme0 to find the power state ratings. 
PS 0: 4.00W
PS 1: 3.00W
PS 2: 2.20W
PS 3: .0300W
PS 4 .0040W 

PS 4 is the same  as the Samsung 970.  1, 2 & 3 are marginallyless, but PS 0 is where I think the Samsung 970 was causing crashes.  It's PS 0 was 9W.  The intel 660p's is 4W....5W less!!!

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Do you know the command for verifying that apst is enabled and working?

 from Arch Wiki
assuming you have nvme-cli installed:

sudo  nvme get-feature -f 0x0c -H /dev/nvme[0-9]

should be good for any kernel >= 4.11 

I have a mydigital SBX eco (80--so I hacked off part of the adapter with a hacksaw...).  which is a low pwer dramless device and has been running well for weeks now.    It shows APST enabled.....   I don't notice any extraordinary power usage even when running disk tests.   I'm running on Manjaro, using the new SPI mainline Flash, booting the EMMC with root on the NVME.

I run a Samsung pm981 on a rockpro64,  and its gets hot enough that I decided it wouldn't be a good candidate for the notebook.   I thought that Sabrent had also dramless disks,  but couldn't find a single-sided one.

Ran this test on my Intel 660p.  It's showing APSTE Disabled.  I wonder how and if I should try to get it working?

---

Do you know the command for verifying that apst is enabled and working?

 from Arch Wiki
assuming you have nvme-cli installed:

sudo  nvme get-feature -f 0x0c -H /dev/nvme[0-9]

should be good for any kernel >= 4.11 

I have a mydigital SBX eco (80--so I hacked off part of the adapter with a hacksaw...).  which is a low pwer dramless device and has been running well for weeks now.    It shows APST enabled.....   I don't notice any extraordinary power usage even when running disk tests.   I'm running on Manjaro, using the new SPI mainline Flash, booting the EMMC with root on the NVME.

I run a Samsung pm981 on a rockpro64,  and its gets hot enough that I decided it wouldn't be a good candidate for the notebook.   I thought that Sabrent had also dramless disks,  but couldn't find a single-sided one.

[Arwen]

@mamboman777, perfect. I added the active power states, (PS 0-2), and the APSTE info to this device's Wiki entry.

If you have the part number / hardware ID, that would be helpful, (in case someone want to buy that same model).

And yes, I agree that the Samsung model at 9 watts maximum is too high for our Pinebook Pros.

[mamboman777]

@mamboman777, perfect. I added the active power states, (PS 0-2), and the APSTE info to this device's Wiki entry.

If you have the part number / hardware ID, that would be helpful, (in case someone want to buy that same model).

And yes, I agree that the Samsung model at 9 watts maximum is too high for our Pinebook Pros.

I was wrong about the power states for the Samsung 970 EVO.  Here's what was reported:
0 - 6.2
1 - 4.3
2 - 2.1
3 - .04
4 - .005

Still, the intel is 2w less at the top end. 

Product Code for the INtel 660p 1tb is SSDPEKNW010T8X1

I've been doing some additional reading....I'm guessing this drive does not support APST.  When I run sudo nvme get-feature -f 0x0c -H /dev/nvme0 as instructed by the wiki I get APST: Disabled.  That either means the controller on the SSD doesn't have this implimented or the Kernel doesn't support the implementation.  That being said, I think that means the Kernel manages the reported power states and switches between them as it sees fit instead of letting the drive Autonomously Transition the Power State  (APST).  All things being said, the battery life is fine even without APSt.  Currently reporting 5:21 remaining with %62 charge remaining.  That means to me, the drive is able to get to power state 3-4.    Here's a more detailed review of the ssd power states...this might be a good site to shop for SSD's: https://www.anandtech.com/show/13078/the...-arrives/8

[mamboman777]

AaaaaandI was wrong again.  I checked using "nvme get-feature -f 2" and the drive is running in PS 0 (the most hungry).  I was able to add the script "nvme set-feature -f 2 -v 2" to a cron job at reboot and the drive says it's running in power state 2 now.

---

Ok. I ran a couple benchmarks to see the difference between power states and performance.  The results are staggering to me. PS 2 write speed is 85.  PS 0 write speed is 850.  PS 2 read 65.  PS 0 read is 1.1gb.  I'm going to keep reading on APST and see if I can get the patch running on my system. I'll keep you all posted.t:
edit:  I have decided to go with PS1 for my default.  Read and write speed benchmarked at just under 750 MiB.  That means I'm paying .8W  for %80 the performance.  I'm saving 1W for a %20 loss.  Seems like the best compromise until APST is up and running.

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Well...it seems this has quickly gone over my head.  

Here's the link to the patch:  https://github.com/damige/linux-nvme/blo.../README.md

According to this it says "4.8.x" is the lowest non-ARCH kernel patch available.  Since the current bionic image is at 4.4.190, does that mean this patch is not compatible?   I think t his patch went into the kernel at 4.11.x or something like that, so hopefully in a future update this will not be an issue.  This could mean considerable power savings for NVME'ers.  I'll stop posting about this and wait until someone smarter than me talks about how to get this enabled in the kernel for the PBP.  Thanks!

[mamboman777]

AaaaaandI was wrong again.  I checked using "nvme get-feature -f 2" and the drive is running in PS 0 (the most hungry).  I was able to add the script "nvme set-feature -f 2 -v 2" to a cron job at reboot and the drive says it's running in power state 2 now.

---

Ok. I ran a couple benchmarks to see the difference between power states and performance.  The results are staggering to me. PS 2 write speed is 85.  PS 0 write speed is 850.  PS 2 read 65.  PS 0 read is 1.1gb.  I'm going to keep reading on APST and see if I can get the patch running on my system. I'll keep you all posted.t:
edit:  I have decided to go with PS1 for my default.  Read and write speed benchmarked at just under 750 MiB.  That means I'm paying .8W  for %80 the performance.  I'm saving 1W for a %20 loss.  Seems like the best compromise until APST is up and running.

---

Well...it seems this has quickly gone over my head.  

Here's the link to the patch:  https://github.com/damige/linux-nvme/blo.../README.md

According to this it says "4.8.x" is the lowest non-ARCH kernel patch available.  Since the current bionic image is at 4.4.190, does that mean this patch is not compatible?   I think t his patch went into the kernel at 4.11.x or something like that, so hopefully in a future update this will not be an issue.  This could mean considerable power savings for NVME'ers.  I'll stop posting about this and wait until someone smarter than me talks about how to get this enabled in the kernel for the PBP.  Thanks!

Well, I messed my system up yesterday, so I decided to start over.  I went with Manjaro to see if the NVME APST is working and I can confirm that APST is working as expected in Manjaro, no patch needed.  I'll keep you posted on the battery life and performance.  I was getting about  6 hours battery life.