Two 3.5" Drives and trying to boot from SSD in SATA1

ARGON EON DISCUSSION
1

Hello,

I have two 3.5" 4 TB drives installed in the two center slots (SATA2 and SATA3). I don’t have an NVMe drive/USB adapter so I have an SSD installed in SATA1. Bullseye (32-bit) is enumerating the drives as follows…

SATA1 (256 GB SSD) = /dev/sdb
SATA2 (4 TB HDD) = /dev/sda
SATA3 (4 TB HDD) = /dev/sdc
SATA4 = empty

I can boot off an SD card fine. Using the Raspberry Pi Imager, I wrote Bullseye (32-bit) to the SSD. After updating the bootloader (2022/02/08), shutting down the EON, removing the SD card, and attempting to boot from the SSD in SATA1, it fails with a “fatal error-code 45” on the boot screen.

I was fiddling around with this configuration before I had the two 4 TB drives installed and it was booting from the SSD in SATA1. I can’t get it to boot from the SSD with the two 4 TB drives installed no matter what I try.

Is there something I’m doing incorrectly?

2

Why aren’t you using the 64bit Rasbian? it can be up to 50% faster than the 32bit version. Also you need to make sure you have the latest firmware for the raspberry pi and tell it to boot from USB first. I have a similar setup as yours and I’m booting from my /dev/sdc which is a Samsung Evo SSD.

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3

32-bit and 64-bit both behave the same. Here is what I’m getting…any ideas/suggestions?

IMG_20220222_195054114_HDR

4

Please set the boot order as described in the documentation here:

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5

At the top of my screenshot, the boot order is set to “f14” which according to the documentation you linked, means “Try USB first, followed by SD then repeat.” There appears to be something else going on because it never repeats. It only attempts to boot once, presents the fatal error message, and then stops.

6

Do you happen to have the following in your /boot/config.txt file?

dtparam=sd_poll_once

That tells the OS to look for the microSD only once and then stop.
I add that to my decices that boot from SSD or other non-microSD devices.

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7

Actually yes, I put that line on my devices that do not use Micro SD cards, too. I tried with and without the line and got the same results.

I ended up plugging a USB extension cable into the port on the SATA board and then plugging a USB-to-mSATA adapter with a 256 GB mSATA drive that I had into the cable. I’m currently booting from this configuration and all seems well. I couldn’t plug the adapter straight into the port because the mSATA drive is slightly wider than an NVMe drive and didn’t have enough clearance. This also keeps both SATA1 and SATA4 free for future expansion.

8

Got my Eon today. You addressed two burning questions in my mind. I wondered if I could boot via USB and the manual didn’t mention the purpose of the internal USB port. Thanks!

Have you noticed system performance improvements? I figured there may be performance hit when multiple drives are active (ie: incoming backups), unless the system is mostly running in RAM.

9

Did somebody actually manage to boot from for example an SSD in sata1/sata4 (typically with a couple of 3,5" HDD in sata2 & sata3?

10

Hi everyone,

I recently purchased the GeekPi Argon Neo 5 case for my Raspberry Pi 5 and installed an M.2 NVMe SSD to use as the boot drive. However, I’m unable to get the Pi to boot from the NVMe.

Here’s what I’ve done so far:

  1. Installed the OS on the NVMe SSD.

  2. Assembled the Pi into the case, ensuring all connections seem secure.

  3. Powered on the Pi, but it doesn’t boot or show up on my network.

What I’ve noticed:

There’s a cable that came with the Argon case that I haven’t used. It’s labeled:

• 12172023V1.2

• 219724A_P103-240125

I suspect this cable might be necessary to signal the Pi to boot from the NVMe, but I don’t know where or how to connect it, or if it’s related to the issue at all.

Questions:

• Has anyone successfully booted the Pi 5 from an NVMe in this case?

• Is this cable essential, and if so, how should I connect it?

• Are there any specific bootloader settings or updates I need to apply?

Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated! If you know of any video guides or documentation, feel free to share those too.

Thank you in advance!