After fresh install to m.2 card, will not boot or show in boot options

[JJT211]

So I installed an m.2 card and installed FreeNAS on the it no problem but after installation, my system will not boot from the m.2 card. My board does not recognize the device at all. Strange cuz the FreeNAS install recognizes it as a drive, but I do not have the option to boot from it afterwards. Any ideas?

First pic is Intel m.2 drive recognized by FreeNAS

Second pic is boot menu with only my NAS disk and no boot drive.

 

[JJT211]

Here's from my mobo manual

M.2 Socket
M.2 is formerly known as Next Generation Form Factor (NGFF). The J21 connector is designed for internal mounting devices. The X10SDV series deploy an M key only dedicated for SSD devices with the ultimate performance capability in a PCI Express 3.0 X4 interface for native PCIe SSD support. The X10SDV M.2 is mux with the I-SATA0 port for legacy SATA SSD devices

Does the part about the m.2 being muxxed with the I-SATA0 port mean I can only use one or the other?

EDIT: Found this in my manual as well.
M.2 Socket (Shared with I-SATA0 when a SATA device is installed in M.2)

 

[Holt Andrei Tiberiu]

So, you want to boot from a 16 GB intel Optaine memory accelerator. Check in BIOS if it is not used/atached to your first SATA drive as a CACHE.
I am not sure if Optane behaves like a regular M2 SSD.
I would better use it for L2ARC, as it is very fast in READ, but not for ZIL, it is slow at write.

Sustained Write:
145 MB/s
Sustained Read:
900 MB/s
4KB Random R/W: Up to 240k/65k IOPS

 

[Holt Andrei Tiberiu]

on intel website:

Can I use the Intel® Optane™ memory module as a standalone boot or data drive instead of system acceleration?

You may use Intel® Optane™ memory as a standalone NVMe* SSD. However, we don't support this configuration.

In "other questions"

https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...8/memory-and-storage/intel-optane-memory.html

 

[LimeCrusher]

Here's from my mobo manual
Does the part about the m.2 being muxxed with the I-SATA0 port mean I can only use one or the other?

EDIT: Found this in my manual as well.
M.2 Socket (Shared with I-SATA0 when a SATA device is installed in M.2)

Some old SSDs using a M.2 connectors were actually SATA SSDs, not the modern NVMe SSDs using PCIe lanes. I think what it means is: if you plug one of those SATA M.2 SSD in the M.2 slot, the PCH will communicate with it through the SATA lane normally used by the I-SATA0 connector.

Any news about the possibility to boot from you M.2 SSD? Is it seen by the BIOS as a bootable option?
I am interested by this. I was considering using a M.2 SSD as a boot device to free up the SATA ports.

 

[JJT211]

No, doesnt look like the BIOS recognizes it at all. I poured over manual and read up on as much as I could. I may reach out to Supermicro about this, but its looking like its a big fat NO

 

[Stux]

Check you bios settings for the slot (slot 7 iirc) and you may want to be in uefi boot mode not legacy etc. and you will then want to ensure that you installed FreeNAS for uefi booting.

Optane should work just like a 2x NVMe device. The issue I’ve heard about is when using it in a 4x bifurcated slot.

FWIW, I know the X10SDV boards can boot off Samsung evo/pro nvme drives.

Have you got the latest bios version installed?

 

[JJT211]

No I havent updated BIOS yet. I may do it shortly.

Cool, think I found it

Which one should I set for EFI? Set the m.2 to EFI, or slot7 to EFI or both??

 

[JJT211]

It worked!!!

I set both of those settings to EFI and installed FreeNAS UEFI and bamm, it recognized the m.2 drive.

Thank you so much!

 

[sremick]

It worked!!!

I set both of those settings to EFI and installed FreeNAS UEFI and bamm, it recognized the m.2 drive.

NVMe booting requires the use of UEFI, unfortunately. This isn't unique to FreeNAS.