MiniNVMe and MiniAHCI kernel modules for Linux

[maximus]

I have not been on here in a while, but had some free time I had to fill while waiting for vehicle maintenance, so I was on here looking through some posts and found this one and felt compelled to post. This sounds like a great project.

I am tying to post more, but I keep getting a SQL error, so I am just trying to make this simple post to see if it goes through, and will post more that I have to say if I can figure out what it doesn't like.

[maximus]

Okay, here is more. Here are a few things I remember from when I was thinking about doing it.

1. I was thinking about doing this in hddsuperclone, and had looked at the technical NVMe documentation. It was actually around that time I realized it was a major task, even more complicated than direct ahci, and it was part of the reason I decided to just make hddsuperclone open source and stop supporting it. I also didn’t have any failing NVMe drives to work with, so it would have been difficult to test for real world results. But I did feel it definitely could be done, although the issue I raise in the next point was concerning.

2. I knew that I would have had to disable the Linux NVMe driver, but that did not seem possible because it is in the kernel. My method would have been to boot the computer with the NVMe drive powered off and then power it on afterwards, but that would only work with Linux versions that did not support hot plugging with NVMe, which they did not at the time of my testing, but I knew they would in time. How are you disabling the kernel driver? My research indicated the only way to disable the kernel driver would be to rebuild the kernel with modifications.

[maximus]

3. For those looking for a way to externally connect a NVMe drive with power cycle capabilities (via SATA power connector) and access to control the temperature, here is what I bought when I was doing some testing. The combination definitely works. This is links only, as something about the text descriptions is causing an error when posting. Next post will be text descriptions as links can go dead (surprised they are all still good now).

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01K1 ... X0DER&th=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JH ... DVJF&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07T8 ... QTUY&psc=1

[maximus]

StarTech.com 4-Lane PCI Express to SFF-8643 Adapter for PCIe NVMe U.2 SSD - U.2 2.5" NVMe SSD Adapter , TAA (PEX4SFF8643)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01K1 ... X0DER&th=1

DiLinker 50CM HD Mini-SAS(SFF-8643) to U.2 (SFF-8639) NVMe SSD Cable
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JH ... DVJF&psc=1

ICY DOCK M.2 PCIe 3.0/4.0 NVMe SSD to 2.5" U.2 SSD Converter / Mounting Adapter with Heatsink | EZConvert MB705M2P-B
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07T8 ... QTUY&psc=1

[aekhv]

If someone interested in MiniNVMe sources: https://github.com/aekhv/mininvme

User application library will be available later.

How are you disabling the kernel driver? My research indicated the only way to disable the kernel driver would be to rebuild the kernel with modifications.

I thought about this too and the solution is very simple. See the link upper.

[aekhv]

I also didn’t have any failing NVMe drives to work with, so it would have been difficult to test for real world results.

I bought a few...

[aekhv]

Finally completed: https://github.com/aekhv/QNvmeBlockDevice
Also I wrote a basic test application, so I'll be really appreciate it if someone could test PCIe Hot-Plug feature on their side.

P.S. The next station is MiniAHCI kernel module.

[Amarbir[CDR-Labs]]

Finally completed: https://github.com/aekhv/QNvmeBlockDevice
Also I wrote a basic test application, so I'll be really appreciate it if someone could test PCIe Hot-Plug feature on their side.

P.S. The next station is MiniAHCI kernel module.

Hi ,
what will " MiniAHCI kernel module " Do ? .

[aekhv]

what will " MiniAHCI kernel module " Do ? .

It will recover all the data in the universe. No registration or SMS needed.

[Amarbir[CDR-Labs]]

Finally completed: https://github.com/aekhv/QNvmeBlockDevice
Also I wrote a basic test application, so I'll be really appreciate it if someone could test PCIe Hot-Plug feature on their side.

P.S. The next station is MiniAHCI kernel module.

Hello,
i will try n see if i could do some testing for you ,But there is a huge log pile of DR Work @ My place

[WildFloorLamp]

Very interested in this. I'm the current maintainer of the OpenSuperClone fork of HDDSuperClone and this would make for a great addition to the tool. Interested in seeing your progress on this.

[Amarbir[CDR-Labs]]

Very interested in this. I'm the current maintainer of the OpenSuperClone fork of HDDSuperClone and this would make for a great addition to the tool. Interested in seeing your progress on this.

Hello,
have you done any updates on the original project or added new features ?

[WildFloorLamp]

Hello,
have you done any updates on the original project or added new features ?

Most work has gone into making the project work on newer Linux distros and improving the UI,
there are very little under-the-hood changes concerning featureset so far (though I must say that newer Linux kernels
seem to work even better with the virtual driver now). Proper NVMe support would be a very interesting
addition though, so I'll be looking into that now.

Edit: Oh, and not something I did, but UFS Explorer starting with version 10 seems to work flawlessly with HDDSC/OSC now, so there's that.

[Amarbir[CDR-Labs]]

Hello,
have you done any updates on the original project or added new features ?

Most work has gone into making the project work on newer Linux distros and improving the UI,
there are very little under-the-hood changes concerning featureset so far (though I must say that newer Linux kernels
seem to work even better with the virtual driver now). Proper NVMe support would be a very interesting
addition though, so I'll be looking into that now.

Edit: Oh, and not something I did, but UFS Explorer starting with version 10 seems to work flawlessly with HDDSC/OSC now, so there's that.

Well,
you will need this guys brain - > maximus if you need to do changes to the code or add features to it , You will need to read lots of documentation and experiment . Might be few of you who are making different projects can come together and make one solid product

[aekhv]

New toy arrived. I bought this to check how PCIe hot-plug works in M.2 slot. Actually there is no difference, works well as in regular PCIe slot. The only condition: a mainboard chipset must to support hot-plug capability.

Code:

alexander@asus-b760m-plus-wifi:~$ sudo lspci -vv | grep -e "PCI bridge" -e "HotPlug+"
...
00:1a.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 7a48 (rev 11) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
SltCap:   AttnBtn- PwrCtrl- MRL- AttnInd- PwrInd- HotPlug+ Surprise+
...
00:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 7a36 (rev 11) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
SltCap:   AttnBtn- PwrCtrl- MRL- AttnInd- PwrInd- HotPlug+ Surprise+
...


[Lardman]

It's looking increasing more useful as recovery / diagnosis tool.

[terminator2]

Hello,
have you done any updates on the original project or added new features ?

Most work has gone into making the project work on newer Linux distros and improving the UI,
there are very little under-the-hood changes concerning featureset so far (though I must say that newer Linux kernels
seem to work even better with the virtual driver now). Proper NVMe support would be a very interesting
addition though, so I'll be looking into that now.

Edit: Oh, and not something I did, but UFS Explorer starting with version 10 seems to work flawlessly with HDDSC/OSC now, so there's that.

Great going. Keep it up. My Best Wishes. Happy holidays.

[terminator2]

Finally completed: https://github.com/aekhv/QNvmeBlockDevice
Also I wrote a basic test application, so I'll be really appreciate it if someone could test PCIe Hot-Plug feature on their side.

P.S. The next station is MiniAHCI kernel module.

Very much interesting project ,there is almost to such tool for NVME drives.
Thanks for sharing.

[aekhv]

MiniAHCI kernel module basic test: ATA status and error registers are received. Current link speed detection also works fine. Tested with JMicron JMB362 PCI-e SATA AHCI controller.

In DRD+DCS we trust! He-he-he.

[maximus]

I know you are excited about multiple drivers. But if you want to make a difference you should focus on NVMe. HDDSuperClone (opensuperclone) already does a very good job with AHCI. Everyone will agree that NVMe raw access is what they would like to see, with reset capability and timeouts.