No "Install alongside ..." option when using an M.2 SSD

[sacentre]

Dear All

Newbie here.

I have been trying out many different Linux versions on a Samsung 850 Pro SATA SSD and usually see an option to "Install alongside .." when installing a second Linux version. After that, there's the boot menu at startup which allows me to select which one I want to boot.

I've now switched to a Samsung V-NAND 950 Pro M.2 SSD and no longer see the "Install alongside ..." option when I try to install a second Linux version. I've tried starting over erasing/re-installing but this hasn't helped. For example, I installed Fedora Workstation 25 x64 after first deleting all partitions and reclaiming the space. When I tried to install Linux Mint Cinnamon 18.1 x64, afterwards, it said it couldn't detect any existing OS on the SSD.

I'm not confident enough to try manually creating/editing boot partitions. I just want to find out what's changed and whether this is some limitation with M.2 SSD's.

Thanks in advance.
Trevor

 

[atanere]

Welcome to the forums!

Linux sometimes has problems with SSD's. A couple of quick things to try are:

1. Check BIOS setting that SATA is set to AHCI, not RAID.
2. While in BIOS, consider other settings too. Maybe disabling "secure boot" (enable legacy/csm) will help.
3. Install BIOS firmware update if available from manufacturer.

This kind of problem goes back many years, so there may be other solutions you can find on Google.

Good luck!

 

[sacentre]

Thanks, atanare
I'll try your suggestions. Annoying to learn that there IS an issue with SSDs. I was hoping it was just something I was doing wrong.

I wonder if there's any way to clone my SATA SSD which already has the boot loader menu plus 2 Linux kernels on it over to the M.2 to get around it.

I know I can't use Samsung's Magician utility as that a Windows app.
Trevor

 

[atanere]

I wonder if there's any way to clone my SATA SSD which already has the boot loader menu plus 2 Linux kernels on it over to the M.2 to get around it.

I would think you can do this with Clonezilla, except consider if both the source and destination computers are using newer UEFI (GPT) or old style BIOS (MBR). They may not mix/match very well if not the same, but it may be possible to get around that.

 

[sacentre]

Hi atanare

Thanks again. I'm using MBR BIOS on this machine (Gigabyte GA-Z787-D3HP) not the newer UEFI.

As you suggested, I tried Clonezilla amd64 to see if I could copy the dual boot SATA SSD contents to the M.2 SSD.
The SATA SSD has Linux Mint Cinnamon 18.1 and Fedora Workstation 25 on it with the GRUB menu, of course.

It all seemed to progress correctly so was hopeful it would work but when I rebooted the machine it booted straight to Linux Mint - bypassing GRUB. If I press F12 to select the M.2 boot drive manually, I then see the GRUB boot menu but this does not list the Fedora kernel so it looks as if only Mint was copied.

It seems the only choice now is to try installing the second kernel by adding/configuring/resizing partitions but I have no confidence to do this right now. Also, I don't know if there's any way to add the GRUB bootloader separately. In the past, GRUB always gets installed automatically when the second kernel is installed (at least I think that's how it usually works) when the "Install alongside ..." option is available.

Thanks again
Trevor

 

[sacentre]

Ok, I managed to solve the problem. All I did was to resize the partition occupied by Linux Mint to roughly half the size and Fedora installed without issue. So I now see the boot menu on startup allowing me to choose which kernel I want.

I'm not sure what conclusion to draw from this. It seems that with M.2 SSDs, when installing a second kernel, the installer either can't recognise the presence of an already installed kernel and/or can't automatically resize the partition. I don't know.

I'm sure those more expert than me will know all this. Probably some developer will get around to putting in M.2 SSD support or whatever needs doing to automate the process.

 

[atanere]

Hi Trevor, glad you got it going! But I am surprised and confused that Fedora did not go along for the ride.

Some of the issue(s) with SSD's are driver related. Of course, driver issues have really long been a problem for Linux, and they probably always will be. So I don't know if there will ever be a fully automated process that always works. A big problem these days is also with UEFI, although that is slowly improving.

Something else you don't always hear about is taking care of SSD's using Linux. As drives improve, this may become less of an issue, but I guess it still bears some consideration today. Take a look at this and see if you think its a good idea in your situation:
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/ssd

I only recently got a used laptop with an SSD, so I'm not a guru on these things, but I did follow through with the instructions on that link since I use an Ubuntu based system. I also have plenty of RAM, so I did not even configure any swap on mine.

Cheers!

 

[sacentre]

Hi atanare
Thanks for the detailed reply and link. Very useful.
Trevor