Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: Andrea Conti <alyf@××××.net>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Preparing a blank NVMe as a boot drive...
Date: Mon, 06 Apr 2020 13:35:19
Message-Id: b81bdf60-19c0-5117-a67f-73192358a5a9@alyf.net
In Reply to: [gentoo-user] Preparing a blank NVMe as a boot drive... by tuxic@posteo.de
1 > Then there was something mentioned about namespaces, which should
2 > be allocated smaller than the physical drive
3 > Is this really needed - just to boot from this SSD?
4
5 NVMe namespaces are an abstraction layer that allows a controller to
6 present its connected storage as a number of independent volumes.
7 Think LVM LVs, or the way a hardware RAID card presents volumes as
8 multiple SCSI LUNs.
9
10 Your run-of-the-mill NVMe "gumstick" SSD by default will expose all of
11 its capacity in a single namespace (and I don't even think it can be
12 configured any other way), so you don't have to worry.
13
14 Just remember that NVMe storage is always accessed through a namespace,
15 so the equivalent of good old /dev/sda is not /dev/nvme0 (the
16 controller) but /dev/nvme0n1 (the first namespace on the controller)
17
18 > Or is it sufficient (and harmless for the SSD) to just
19 > partitioning and format the drive?
20
21 It's not only harmless, it's the way it's supposed to be used.
22
23 Remember that you will need to boot in UEFI mode, so you will need a
24 system partition (and you really, really want to use GPT). The gentoo
25 handbook has a good section on UEFI booting.
26
27 > I found some hints regarding page sizes and erase block sizes
28 > when partitioning the drive.
29
30 I wouldn't bother with that, but you're free to experiment :)
31
32 andrea

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