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My Ubuntu installer can't see a SSD drive. I searched for a solution a bit and found people recommeding

  • to switch off secure boot (it's disabled),
  • to switch to legacy mode (can't, I only have uefi option),
  • to switch SATA mode to AHCI (can't, it's greyed out in my bios)

So none of the typical solutions will work for me. There is no other OS on my computer and I'd prefer not to install Windows. It's an Acer laptop with PCie NVMe SSD drive and intel i7-9750H processor.

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  • Blame Intel: they offer a lot of open-source Linux features, but no correct support for their SATA controller when in RAID mode. Then blame the BIOS not offering an option to switch from RAID mode, which is often useless on laptop. That said, if the BIOS is just a lack of feature rather than active prevention of feature, it appears on some (really different: mac) systems, this can be done by GRUB: darkfader.blogspot.com/2010/04/… . At least do tests in interactive mode
    – A.B
    Commented Feb 1, 2020 at 14:48
  • other similar link: win-raid.com/… You know it worked if the device changes ID.
    – A.B
    Commented Feb 1, 2020 at 14:54
  • Linux of course supports NVMe and UEFI. A recent enough version should just work. Do you perhaps have drive encryption enabled or anything the like?
    – Daniel B
    Commented Feb 1, 2020 at 16:52
  • @DanielB I could experience this when replacing some NVMe in Dell Laptop (what's the relation with SATA? no idea). The disk is just not detected at all on Linux. Only changing in the UEFI menu the controller mode from RAID to AHCI makes it discoverable in Linux. To be precise a Dell Latitude E7270 with a PM951 Samsung nvme. It's also a cause of grief when people had this done to their laptop and a year later the UEFI is reset (by changing its battery): "Linux doesn't work anymore", until told to switch back to AHCI.
    – A.B
    Commented Feb 1, 2020 at 17:34
  • Most NVMe SSDs require AHCI and UEFI mode and cannot function without either.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Feb 1, 2020 at 20:50

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
-1

After checking Acer forums I found the following:

  • options to switch to AHCI is indeed greyed out
  • BUT there is a hidden way to change it after pressing ctrl+s in bios
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  • I am the original author (signed in later) and it did solve the problem
    – Janusz
    Commented Feb 1, 2020 at 21:24

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