[Solved] Debian 12 installer doesn't see SSD, but calamares live installer does (Asus vivobook go E1504GA)

[nunudebian]

I have tried installing debian on my laptop using stable and testing (trixie) netinstall images and none of them detect my laptop's ssd disk (asus vivobook go E1504GA). Fast boot and secure boot are disabled in the BIOS, still they don't detect the ssd.

However, debian 12 xfce live desktop from a usb does see the ssd! It shows the small windows partition as an encrypted drive, there on the desktop. So I tried installing from calamares, and it worked (thankfully!!).

I assume this is some kind of bug in the debian installer? I have tried the testing netinstall iso (the image that installs debian testing but is also a testing version of the installer) and it still doesn't see the ssd.

I have no real problem with this, since I have already installed debian on my laptop, but I do wanna know if maybe it is due to the installer, or to my specific laptop, since I'm having a variety of problems with hardware compatibility etc with this laptop.

How can I report this possible problem with the installer? Is there a way this experience can help patch this in the future?

More info on my laptop:

I was sold the laptop 4 days ago, and it supposedly has a 256GB M.2 NVMe™ PCIe® 3.0 SSD. But I don't really know how to corroborate this using command line.

From inxi -b

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System:
  Host: deb-vivobook Kernel: 6.5.0-0.deb12.1-amd64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64
    Desktop: Xfce v: 4.18.1 Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: Vivobook Go E1504GA_E1504GA v: 1.0
    serial: R4N0CV061115156
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: E1504GA v: 1.0 serial: R414NBCV0021YHMB UEFI: American
    Megatrends LLC. v: E1504GA.301 date: 04/28/2023
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 26.6 Wh (61.3%) condition: 43.4/41.9 Wh (103.7%)
    volts: 11.5 min: 11.8
CPU:
  Info: 8-core Intel Core i3-N305 [MCP] speed (MHz): avg: 807
    min/max: 800/3800
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel Alder Lake-N [UHD Graphics] driver: i915 v: kernel
  Device-2: ShineTech USB2.0 HD UVC WebCam type: USB driver: uvcvideo
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 driver: X: loaded: modesetting
    unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: iris gpu: i915 resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: Mesa Intel Graphics (ADL-N)

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$ sudo lshw -class disk -class storage
  *-storage                 
       description: Universal Flash Storage controller
       product: Intel Corporation
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 12.7
       bus info: pci@0000:00:12.7
       logical name: scsi0
       version: 00
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: storage pm ufshci bus_master cap_list
       configuration: driver=ufshcd latency=0
       resources: iomemory:600-5ff irq:18 memory:600215d000-600215dfff
     *-disk
          description: SCSI Disk
          product: HN8T15DEHKX075
          vendor: SKhynix
          physical id: 0.0.0
          bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0
          logical name: /dev/sda
          version: A003
          serial: 331030CF7300
          size: 238GiB (255GB)
          capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
          configuration: ansiversion=6 logicalsectorsize=4096 sectorsize=4096 signature=45e0cbcc

[Aki]

Hello,

I have tried installing debian on my laptop using stable and testing (trixie) netinstall images and none of them detect my laptop's ssd disk (asus vivobook go E1504GA). Fast boot and secure boot are disabled in the BIOS, still they don't detect the ssd.

Is the SSD disk already used by other operating systems ?

Did you try installing using Debian installer booting your computer configured to boot with UEFI enabled ?

Did you installed Debian using the Calamares installer from Debian Bookworm Live ISO, after all ?

[nunudebian]

Hi!

I was able to successfully install Debian using the Calamares installer from the Bookworm Live ISO, no problems there, the SSD appeared when detecting disks.
I posted here about this with the objective of maybe helping someone else who has the same problem, since I was desperate for a bit two days ago when it happened, thinking that I wouldn't be able to use debian, but calamares saved me. Is this the right place to post? Should I be posting in another subject? I'm a newbie to the forum (just created account yesterday)

The SSD is used also by Windows 11 (the laptop came with it installed). Before trying to install debian, I shrunk the windows system to its minimal size, so that the debian would occupy the free space resulting (as I have always done when installing dual-boot).

Did you try installing using Debian installer booting your computer configured to boot with UEFI enabled ?

My computer has what the manufacturer calls "MyASUS UEFI BIOS", so I assume it has UEFI enabled? In all menus, it refers to UEFI, I don't recall there being an option to enable or disable UEFI, but I will reboot in a bit and check it.

[Aki]

Hello,

I was able to successfully install Debian using the Calamares installer from the Bookworm Live ISO, no problems there, the SSD appeared when detecting disks. I posted here about this with the objective of maybe helping someone else who has the same problem, since I was desperate for a bit two days ago when it happened, thinking that I wouldn't be able to use debian, but calamares saved me.

Yes, of course. Your experience could be useful for other debian users and forum readers installing Debian on the same computer model, indeed.

Is this the right place to post? Should I be posting in another subject? I'm a newbie to the forum (just created account yesterday)

Yes. It could be useful to send a so called "installation report" to the debian gug tracking system and the debian-boot mailing list. You can do it following the instruction of the "Debian GNU/Linux Installation Guide Install" at:

• Debian GNU/Linux Installation Guide Install - A.4. Send us an installation report

The SSD is used also by Windows 11 (the laptop came with it installed). Before trying to install debian, I shrunk the windows system to its minimal size, so that the debian would occupy the free space resulting (as I have always done when installing dual-boot).

OK.

Did you try installing using Debian installer booting your computer configured to boot with UEFI enabled ?

My computer has what the manufacturer calls "MyASUS UEFI BIOS", so I assume it has UEFI enabled? In all menus, it refers to UEFI, I don't recall there being an option to enable or disable UEFI, but I will reboot in a bit and check it.

I'll wait for your feedback :D

[nunudebian]

Hi,

I have checked the UEFI BIOS, and can now assure there is no option to enable or disable UEFI.

Thanks to your sugestion though, I went digging with more attention around the UEFI BIOS, and found out that this laptop actually has a 256GB UFS SSD, not the type of SSD the store I bought it from advertised (and not the type of SSD I mentioned in my first post, as quoted below).

I was sold the laptop 4 days ago, and it supposedly has a 256GB M.2 NVMe™ PCIe® 3.0 SSD. But I don't really know how to corroborate this using command line.

I did some googling around, and it seems other people have had trouble getting their UFS SSDs recognized, across a variety linux OSs. Maybe the installer struggles with it being a UFS SSD?

I did the bug report just now thanks to your guidance, including the correct info about my SSD, and will report back whatever relevant news I get!

[Aki]

Hello,

It appears that your bug report has been addressed:

• Debian Bug report logs - #1055806 installation-reports: Installer doesn't recognize laptop's SSD, but calamares does

  From: Cyril Brulebois <kibi@debian.org>
  To: Patrick Rudin <taxi_bs@gmx.ch>, 1053937@bugs.debian.org
  Subject: Re: Bug#1053937: debian-installer: installer does not detect internal UFS-drive
  Date: Sun, 15 Oct 2023 18:00:37 +0200
  
  [Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]
  
  Hi Patrick,
  
  and thanks for your report.
  
  Patrick Rudin <taxi_bs@gmx.ch> (2023-10-14):
  > I have a Microsoft Surface Go 4 Tablet, which has an internal 256 GB UFS-Drive.
  > Debian Live works fine, but its not possible to install Debian: When I get to
  > partitioning, the installer does not see the drive (the ubuntu installer does)
  > and only shows my installer-stick.
  >
  > I guess the installer would need the ufshci-module to recognize the internal
  > UFS-Flash.
  
  Looking around, it seems “ufshci-module” is a best guess name for what
  the industry calls UFSHCI, and seems to be shipped as ufshcd-core.ko
  (ufs/core) and ufshcd-pci.ko (ufs/host). Those are likely to be
  sufficient as the only dependency is between them (no extra modules
  should be needed), and I can load both of them in a test VM. But we've
  already seen that sometimes another seemingly unrelated module might be
  needed (I did spot a softdep on a governor, so I'm not sure about the
  runtime when such a device is present).
  
  I've built a test netboot-gtk installation image; contrary to a full
  netinst ISO, there's no firmware in there, but I thought it might be
  good enough for you to test and report whether the storage appears,
  without going through the whole installation process.
  
  https://people.debian.org/~kibi/bug-1053937/
  
  Your follow-up about Live was very nice as well. Hopefully that fits
  your immediate needs and lets you install Debian without waiting on a
  fix in debian-installer; a full netinst ISO could be arranged
  otherwise.
  
  
  Cheers,
  --
  Cyril Brulebois (kibi@debian.org) <https://debamax.com/>
  D-I release manager -- Release team member -- Freelance Consultant

  And:

  From: Pascal Hambourg <pascal@plouf.fr.eu.org>
  To: 1055806@bugs.debian.org
  Subject: Re: Bug#1055806: installation-reports: Installer doesn't recognize laptop's SSD, but calamares does
  Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2023 22:47:56 +0100
  
  On 11/11/2023 à 21:43, Jessie wrote:
  >
  > However, when detecting disks, the only disk available for install was the usb drive I had the installer on - it did not detect the 256gb UFS SSD.
  
  It looks like UFS (Universal Flash Storage, not Unix filesystem) kernel
  modules are not included in d-i initrd or udebs.

Did you sort it out ?

[nunudebian]

Hi,

Sorry for the long wait/delay in responding!

In the end, I just used the calamares installer through a debian live, and the installation went okay.

My bug repport was addressed just like you said, it appears the issue was already known and will be fixed in future versions of the installer.

I imagine that in future installations when they resolve the problem detecting USF SSDs, I'll be able to install using the netinstall iso like always.

Thank you for the help!

[Aki]

Thak you for reporting back.

I'm glad you sorted it out. :)

Please, mark the discussion as "solved" manually adding the text tag "[Solved]" at the beginning of the subject of the first message (after other tags, if any); i.e. :

[Solved] Debian 12 installer doesn't see SSD, but calamares live installer does (Asus vivobook go E1504GA)

Happy Debian !