External SSD Drive fails to appear in BIOS???

Jeff Maxwell · 01-23-2021, 03:27 PM

I'm trying to set up a Linux OS on an external SSD.
This is my system:

Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.14.5 wm: kwin_x11 dm: SDDM
Distro: MX-19.3_KDE-beta2_x64 patito feo July 5 2020 base: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)
Machine: Type: Desktop Mobo: Micro-Star model: X370 GAMING PRO CARBON (MS-7A32) v: 1.0 serial: <filter>
UEFI [Legacy]: American Megatrends v: 1.L0 date: 01/21/2019
CPU: Topology: Quad Core model: AMD Ryzen 3 1200 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Zen family: 17 (23)
model-id: 1 stepping: 1 microcode: 8001137 L2 cache: 2048
Speed: 2571 MHz min/max: 1550/3100 MHz boost: enabled Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2571 2: 1799 3: 2031
4: 1968
Graphics: Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Baffin [Radeon RX 460] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: amdgpu
v: kernel bus ID: 1d:00.0 chip ID: 1002:67ef
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: amdgpu,ati unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa
compositor: kwin_x11 resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: Radeon RX 560 Series (POLARIS11 DRM 3.36.0 5.6.0-2-amd64 LLVM 10.0.0)
v: 4.6 Mesa 20.1.8 direct render: Yes
Audio: Device-1: AMD Baffin HDMI/DP Audio [Radeon RX 550 640SP / RX 560/560X] vendor: ASUSTeK
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 1d:00.1 chip ID: 1002:aae0
Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 17h HD Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 1f:00.3 chip ID: 1022:1457

The SSD is recognized from inside my running system without a problem and it has been formatted and the Linux OS installed but my BIOS doesn't recognize it as a boot device. I have successfully run 6 or 8 different OS's including the one I want on this SSD from a standard USB (thumb) drive. The SSD is a JOIOT 120GB usb 2.0/3.0/3.1.
Any assistance would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Jeff

HappyTux · 01-23-2021, 06:56 PM

Improper method of booting chosen would be my thoughts on it. The BIOS/UEFI firmware on the machine is not set for it. Either the SSD is setup for MBR and the BIOS/UEFI is set for EFI booting or the reverse is true. With each method of booting the firmware needs to be set for it to be seen on booting. Look around for the settings mentioning the EFI booting only or CSM compatibility mode, then change to the one it is not set too and see if it shows up for booting.

Jeff Maxwell · 01-26-2021, 07:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HappyTux

Improper method of booting chosen would be my thoughts on it. The BIOS/UEFI firmware on the machine is not set for it. Either the SSD is setup for MBR and the BIOS/UEFI is set for EFI booting or the reverse is true. With each method of booting the firmware needs to be set for it to be seen on booting. Look around for the settings mentioning the EFI booting only or CSM compatibility mode, then change to the one it is not set too and see if it shows up for booting.

I'm not sure the solution is that simple. I've checked those settings and made changes in the bios but still no visibility. Maybe I need some kind of an adapter that allows the bios to see it as an internal ssd?

Thanks for your help though.

Jeff

jefro · 01-26-2021, 08:40 PM

Usually an external usb attached drive will appear as a hard drive order choice.

In some cases you have to boot twice to get bios to see it.

I guess it could be that some issue of power up or power usage may be at work.

Possible that uefi has some oddity or setting or security to prevent usb.

michaelk · 01-26-2021, 09:15 PM

Just one comment, have you tried booting the drive from different USB ports? 2.0 as well as 3.0?

jefro · 01-26-2021, 10:04 PM

I bought a similar gizmo from Netac that fails to work on usb-c to desktop usb-c. I'd guess that these low priced deals have some issues. Kinda expect that stuff nowadays.

fatmac · 01-27-2021, 04:47 AM

One thing to check - does the external disk have the correct fstab entry for it, (some distros don't create the right disk designations).

jsbjsb001 · 01-27-2021, 06:49 AM

Given your external drive works with other distributions, I'm kinda with fatmac on this one.

Some questions:

Is your machine a UEFI machine or a non-UEFI machine?

If it's a UEFI machine; do you have an EFI partition, and is it setup correctly? For example, does it have the esp boot flag set on it? Is there an /boot/efi/ directory with the appropriate bootloader installed there?

For example, this is what mine looks like:

Code:

[root@jamespc ~]# cd /boot/efi/
[root@jamespc efi]# ls -la
total 5
drwx------ 3 root root  512 Jan  1  1970 .
dr-xr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Jan  6 00:08 ..
drwx------ 4 root root  512 Nov 10 16:43 EFI
[root@jamespc efi]# cd EFI/
[root@jamespc EFI]# ls -la
total 2
drwx------ 4 root root 512 Nov 10 16:43 .
drwx------ 3 root root 512 Jan  1  1970 ..
drwx------ 2 root root 512 Nov 10 16:43 boot
drwx------ 2 root root 512 Jan  6 00:09 openmandriva
[root@jamespc EFI]# ls -la boot
total 133
drwx------ 2 root root    512 Nov 10 16:43 .
drwx------ 4 root root    512 Nov 10 16:43 ..
-rwx------ 1 root root 135168 May 27  2020 bootx64.efi
[root@jamespc EFI]# ls -la openmandriva/
total 1729
drwx------ 2 root root     512 Jan  6 00:09 .
drwx------ 4 root root     512 Nov 10 16:43 ..
-rwx------ 1 root root 1630208 Dec 17 21:56 grub.efi
-rwx------ 1 root root  139264 Jan  6 00:08 grubx64.efi

You may also find this insightful,
https://superuser.com/questions/1378...-in-partitions

JSB · 01-31-2021, 03:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Maxwell

I'm trying to set up a Linux OS on an external SSD.
This is my system:

Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.14.5 wm: kwin_x11 dm: SDDM
Distro: MX-19.3_KDE-beta2_x64 patito feo July 5 2020 base: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)
Machine: Type: Desktop Mobo: Micro-Star model: X370 GAMING PRO CARBON (MS-7A32) v: 1.0 serial: <filter>
UEFI [Legacy]: American Megatrends v: 1.L0 date: 01/21/2019
CPU: Topology: Quad Core model: AMD Ryzen 3 1200 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Zen family: 17 (23)
model-id: 1 stepping: 1 microcode: 8001137 L2 cache: 2048
Speed: 2571 MHz min/max: 1550/3100 MHz boost: enabled Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2571 2: 1799 3: 2031
4: 1968
Graphics: Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Baffin [Radeon RX 460] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: amdgpu
v: kernel bus ID: 1d:00.0 chip ID: 1002:67ef
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: amdgpu,ati unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa
compositor: kwin_x11 resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: Radeon RX 560 Series (POLARIS11 DRM 3.36.0 5.6.0-2-amd64 LLVM 10.0.0)
v: 4.6 Mesa 20.1.8 direct render: Yes
Audio: Device-1: AMD Baffin HDMI/DP Audio [Radeon RX 550 640SP / RX 560/560X] vendor: ASUSTeK
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 1d:00.1 chip ID: 1002:aae0
Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 17h HD Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 1f:00.3 chip ID: 1022:1457

The SSD is recognized from inside my running system without a problem and it has been formatted and the Linux OS installed but my BIOS doesn't recognize it as a boot device. I have successfully run 6 or 8 different OS's including the one I want on this SSD from a standard USB (thumb) drive. The SSD is a JOIOT 120GB usb 2.0/3.0/3.1.
Any assistance would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Jeff

How is SSD connect to computer?
Is it USB? amaybe it is a problem with USB connection.