Failure to launch: fresh install on a fresh mainboard

Framework Desktop Linux
21

What SSDs were/are you using? The bad one and the last one.

I have two brand new SSDs bought specifically for the Framework Desktop that do not work at all in either of the M.2 slots.

In the end I gave up and put an older SSD in one slot and one SSD that I bought with the FD in the other slot. Since both of those that don’t work are pretty speedy Gen 4 drives it was a pity not using them, so I got one of them working in the PCIe slot, with a PCIe to NVME extender.

The idea is that FD has issues with some brands/models of SSDs in the M.2 slots, even if they are new/recent, they simply don’t work. I did not see this reported in this forum.

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22

oh snap! this is good to know! the faulty SSD was a samsung 950 PRO. I don’t know what the current one is as it was just some random one i borrowed from a friend. my plan was to go buy one this evening at a local store before they go extinct. What brand is working for you?

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I think it’s better to tell you first what IS NOT WORKING for me, so you don’t buy them:

  • Seagate Firecuda 530 2TB (new)
  • TeamGroup T-FORCE G70 PRO 4TB (new, I got this one working in the PCIe slot)

Those that work in the M.2 slots are:

  • Sandisk OPTIMUS GX PRO SN850X 8TB (new)
  • Sabrent Rocket 4.0 2TB (old)
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OK! Tl,Dr, I got everything working. It it was several things that collided at once, but I’m confident that I narrowed down an issue with framework to be a potential clash between the desktop mainboard bios 3.06 and the AMD drivers used to create the Ubuntu 26.04 desktop iso. There may also be an issue with the bios update shell script but I didn’t investigate that thoroughly once i got the bios updated…

Issue 1) bad M.2 drive

It turns out, it IS possible for a faulty drive to be discoverable by a live OS but not the bios. Replacing the drive with one that already had an install of windows on it booted just fine and without issue.

Issue 2) broken secure boot

Somewhere in my install attempts or maybe when the bios update crashed the first time (it’s not clear) secure boot was partially activated: specifically the MOK enrollment. I was able to resolve this by going back to ubuntu (which comes with mmx64.efi as part of the iso). Doing this allowed the system to complete mok enrollment and continue with booting… which hanged…

Issue 3) potential 3.06 bios conflict with ubuntu 26.04 desktop

Once I got through the MOK enrollment issue, the ubuntu install would hang just before it tried to load the AMD drivers. I was able to get around this by installing ubuntu server first, and then updating / upgrading from the command line to ubuntu desktop.

Thank you all for helping me work through this!

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