Trixie install to NVME
2025-08-08 Motivation
Provide detailed instructions for installing the Trixie image from https://raspi.debian.net/tested-images/ to an NVME SSD without unnecessarily cluttering the instructions for running Debian on the Downstream kernel.
2025-08-08 Overview
Use the Ansible playbooks at https://github.com/HankB/polana-ansible to install and configure a bootable (on a Pi 4B) Trixie system.
2025-08-08 Provisioning
Copy previously downloaded image to the target media and tweak some settings. The SSD in the adapter/enclosure appears as /dev/sdb. This step is performed on an X86_64 host but could also be done on a Raspberry Pi. If done on a CM4 booted from SD and with the NVME SSD in a PCIe adapter, the erase SSD (blkdiscard) step should succeed. With a USB connected SSD it may fail and failure is ignored.
ansible-playbook provision-Debian-lite.yml -b -K --extra-vars "ssd_dev=/dev/sdb \
os_image=/home/hbarta/Downloads/Pi/Debian/20231111_raspi_4_trixie.img.xz \
new_host_name=kweli part_prefix=\"\" \
eth_spoof_mac=dc:a6:32:bf:65:b5 wifi_spoof_mac=dc:a6:32:bf:65:b4"
2025-08-08 First boot
No boot. :-/ Steps requiring a running system are deferred until the upstream kernel is installed and the system boots from the target media on a Pi 5.
2025-08-08 Continue Setup
Identify the IP address or hostname for the Pi 5 and edit inventory accordingly. Confirm that ssh root@[pi 5 host] works.
ansible-playbook first-boot-Debian.yml -i inventory -u root
2025-08-09 second post boot playbook
Put the 2242 NVME SSD in the Pi 5 and booted from an SD card running RpiOS. Edited the config.txt in the SSD to reflect the correct kernel. The host then booted the Debian install on the RpiOS kernel. Next logged in using root@kweli and performed an apt update. The list of updates included a kernel so that was held apt-mark hold .... The subsequent update still overwrote config.txt so that was modified again. Perhaps following the instructions in the file
# If you need to set boot-time parameters, do so via the
# /etc/default/raspi-firmware, /etc/default/raspi-firmware-custom or
# /etc/default/raspi-extra-cmdline files.
Running the second post boot playbook. (By mistake, the one that builds the ZFS modules - it will be interesting to see if that works. It did not)
ansible-playbook second-boot-bookworm-Debian.yml -i inventory -u root
ansible-playbook second-boot-bookworm-lite-Debian.yml -i inventory -u root
Edit /etc/default/raspi-firmware-custom and fixum config.txt and subsequent boot halts on pinctrl_lookup_state. Added dtparam=pciex1 to config.txt with same result.