Boot to Network Installer fails when NVMe is already written to

Argon ONE V3 RPi 5
1

When I install an unformatted NVMe drive into my Pi 5 I can successfully boot to the network installer and write an OS to it. However, after doing this once it no longer works, only if I remove the NVMe drive and empty it on another system does it work again.

Am I expecting things to work differently then intended?

Extra info:
Case: Argon ONE V3 M.2 NVME PCIE Case

BOOTLOADER: up to date
   CURRENT: Tue 30 Jul 14:25:46 UTC 2024 (1722349546)
    LATEST: Tue 30 Jul 14:25:46 UTC 2024 (1722349546)
   RELEASE: default (/lib/firmware/raspberrypi/bootloader-2712/default)
            Use raspi-config to change the release.

and

[all]
PSU_MAX_CURRENT=5000
WAKE_ON_GPIO=0
PCIE_PROBE=1
BOOT_UART=1
POWER_OFF_ON_HALT=1
BOOT_ORDER=0xf416
2

It’s intended, because with your current bootloader config it’s trying to boot from NVMe as first boot device:

https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/raspberry-pi.html#BOOT_ORDER

The BOOT_ORDER field is parsed beginning from right !

NVMe (6) → SD card (1) → USB (4) → RESTART (f)

If you want to boot from network first, you should change the BOOT_ORDER part to 0xf4162 or something like that. As far as I know, you can also boot from the network if you hold down the shift key on a connected USB keyboard while switching on.

Please keep in mind: If you execute the argon-eeprom.sh or argon1.sh script again, the BOOT_ORDER line could be changed back to the current state.

3

Thanks for the reply.

I should have mentioned that holding the SHIFT key during boot does bring up te white/red screen but it only goes to the network installer if the installed NVMe drive has not been used before.

I was expecting the SHIFT key option to overrule the BOOT_ORDER setting. Having to take out the NVMe and bring it to another system just to wipe it seems silly.

I’ll try your boot order suggestion tomorrow although I am not sure which option is the network installer (not PXE) and how long that value can be.

4

So, putting 0x7 last does make it boot over HTTP. However, now it always boots that way.

I believe there is something wrong with the SHIFT key method. The way i understand it is that it is supposed to work similarly to invoking the boot menu on x64 systems.

Putting the NVMe first in the boot order still allows the red/white boot screen to come up when pressing SHIFT but HTTP boot never runs if the NVMe drive is bootable.

I might have to address this in the Pi forums and not here.

5

The BOOT_ORDER property defines the sequence for the different boot modes. It is read right to left, and up to eight digits may be defined.

According to the current documentation and this article, it doesn’t look that the SHIFT key method was intended to work like a boot menu hot key like available with a UEFI/BIOS at desktop computers. Assuming the NVMe was silently added to the list, it was also mentioned there that no bootable storage device may be found.

https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/getting-started.html#install-over-the-network

Maybe you should open an issue with your feature request here: