Booting NVMe SSD with M.2 E-Key Slot on Jetson Device

Robotics & Edge Computing Jetson & Embedded Systems Jetson Orin NX
1

I am attempting to boot my Jetson device from an NVMe SSD attached to the M.2 E-Key slot. The reason for this is that I reserve the M.2 M-Key slot for another purpose.

To achieve this, I followed the steps below:

  1. I used an M.2 E-Key to M-Key converter to connect the NVMe SSD.
  2. After starting the Jetson device, I entered the BIOS menu. However, it appears that the device does not recognize the NVMe SSD. As a result, the device fails to boot from it.

How can I boot my Jetson device using an NVMe SSD connected through an M.2 E-Key to M-Key converter? Is it necessary to modify the device tree configuration to enable this? Additionally, I would appreciate it if you could explain the technical reasoning.

2

How did you flash your board there?

3

I have not performed any flashing operation on my Orin NX while the NVMe SSD was attached to the E-Key to M-Key converter.
But I flashed the Orin NX while the NVMe SSD was connected to the M-Key slot.(suggested way)

Do I need to flash the device again with the NVMe SSD connected through the E-Key to M-Key converter in order to use it? If this is the case, then do I need to change aconfiguration files before flashing?

5

Yes, please try to flash the device again with new slot.

If flash failed, please share us the log.

6

I would like to share the results of two tests I when the NVMe SSD attached through an E-Key to M-Key converter on my Jetson devkit:

  1. I tried to flash the devkit using the base image (the default image, not a backup). During the flashing process, I encountered the following error:
    “Could not stat device /dev/nvme0n1 - No such file or directory.
    Flash failure
    Either the device cannot mount the NFS server on the host or a flash command has failed.Check your network setting(VPN, firewall) to make sure the device can mount NFS server.”

  2. A long time ago, I had created a backup of the system when the NVMe SSD was connected to a standard M-Key slot. I tried to restore this image with the NVMe connected through the E-Key to M-Key converter. The process failed with the following error:
    nvrestore_partitions.sh: Use the default nvpartitionmap.txt as the index file
    Error: Unable to partprobe /dev/nvme0n1

/mnt/nvrestore_partitions.sh line:312 659 Segmentation fault partprobe “/dev/${BLOCK_DEVICE}” > /dev/null 2>&1

For comparison, when the NVMe SSD is connected directly via the M-Key slot, both the base image flash and the backup image restoration works fine.

7

Please share the UART log during flash process.

8

I wanted to inform you that the issue appears to have been caused by my converter. I tested with a different E-Key to M-Key converter, and everything is now working as expected. My Jetson is able to boot successfully.

Thank you for your support.

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