Getting Started with NVMe Base for Raspberry Pi 5

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2024-04-11 | By Pimoroni

License: See Original Project Raspberry Pi SBC

Guide by Pimoroni‎

About NVMe Base

The new PCIe interface on Raspberry Pi 5 gives us an exciting new option for ‎adding fast, high-capacity storage. PCIe (that's peripheral component ‎interconnect express) is an interface standard for connecting up high-speed ‎components - not only external storage devices, but also graphics cards, USB ‎hubs and so on.‎

Pimoroni's NVMe Base lets you to connect up a large NVMe solid state drive ‎‎(SSD) to Pi 5's ribbon style PCIe connector and turn it into a responsive ‎desktop machine, a capable media player or file server for all your photos, ‎music and documents, or a backup server for your PC.‎

Read on for how to get started!‎

What You'll Need

Raspberry Pi 5
‎27W power supply
A microSD card to get everything set up
An Active Cooler (not essential, but highly recommended)
A NVMe Base (Pimoroni sell them on their own, or bundled with a ‎compatible 250GB or 500GB drive)

If you're planning on sourcing your own NVMe SSD, then bear in mind the ‎following:‎

The SSD needs to be NVMe M.2. Don't get this confused with the ‎SATA M.2, which may look similar but are not compatible. NVMe and ‎SATA refer to the interface communications standards, and M.2 to the ‎form factor.
The NVMe Base can take SSDs of physical sizes ‎between 2230 and 2280. This refers to the size of the board - i.e., ‎‎22mm wide by 30mm to 80mm long.‎
The capacity is up to you. NVMe capacity ranges from 128GB to 2TB ‎and more. Smaller ones are cheaper but will limit how much you can ‎store. Very large drives are still very expensive. At the time of writing ‎the sweet spot appears to be between 256GB and 500GB.‎
The NVMe Base can run at PCIe Gen 2 x1 speeds (the maximum ‎officially supported) but with careful drive selection and a well-seated ‎ribbon-cable you can enable (experimental) Gen 3 x1 speeds for almost ‎double the bandwidth. Almost all available drives at the time of writing ‎are Gen 3 x4 or Gen 4. All SSDs supplied by Pimoroni will be specced ‎for at least Gen 3 but will only use x1 (1 lane.)

There is a list of compatible SSDs (and ones that have been found to be ‎problematic) on the NVMe Base shop page.‎

Putting it Together

When you unpack your NVMe Base you will find the following items:

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A NVMe Base PCB
A flexible ribbon cable with writing on one side
Four sticks on rubber feet
A standoff set

If you purchased a bundle that includes an SSD then you will also have:‎

A 250GB or 500GB NVMe drive

PREPARING THE BASE

Open the standoff set bag and empty the contents into a small pot or tray so ‎they don't roll away. In it you will find these:‎

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Going clockwise from top left you should have:‎

Four long screws, for if you plan to use a HAT on your Raspberry Pi 5.
Eight short screws, for if you do not plan to attach a HAT.
A thin screw and two nuts, used for securing your SSD to the base.
Four standoffs, which are used to space the NVMe Base board from ‎your Raspberry Pi 5.‎

‎(You may also have a few spares!)‎

IF YOU ARE NOT USING A HAT

Start by posting one of the short screws through the larger holes in the Base ‎from the bottom (the side without components) and screw on the standoffs.‎

Repeat with three of the other short bolts and standoffs.‎

A little later you will be placing your Raspberry Pi 5 on the standoffs and use ‎the remaining four short bolts to secure it in place.‎

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IF YOU ARE USING A HAT

Start by posting one of the long screws through the larger holes in the Base ‎from the bottom (the side without components) and screw the standoffs all ‎the way down.‎

Repeat with the other three long bolts and standoffs.‎

A little later you will be placing your Pi on the bolts and using the HATs own ‎standoffs to fix the Raspberry Pi 5 in place.‎

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SECURING THE SSD

Take the thin (2mm) bolt and post it through the board from the bottom in ‎one of the small holes running down the middle of the board. Use the hole ‎which corresponds to the length of your SSD (2280 in the case of the SSD ‎supplied by Pimoroni). Secure it in place with one of the nuts.‎

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Unpack your SSD, being careful to avoid touching any of the gold connectors ‎on the end.‎

You will notice a notch breaking up the connectors on one end of the SSD. ‎This corresponds to the M.2 socket on the Base board.‎

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There is a round semicircular cutout in the middle of the other end. This is ‎where that thin bolt will be used to secure the SSD to the Base.‎

Now carefully push the SSD into the socket. It will only go in one direction ‎and doesn't need much effort.‎

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Gently push the SSD down at the other end and secure it in place by putting ‎the second nut on the screw you fixed in place earlier.‎

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CONNECTING THE RIBBON CABLE

NOTE: You may want to use a pair of tweezers for this part.‎

It is now time to secure the ribbon cable, firstly onto the Base board, and then ‎onto the Raspberry Pi PCIe socket. This can be fiddly, however following ‎these simple steps should ensure success.‎

The two ribbon cable sockets hold the ribbon in place using small plastic clips ‎which you have to 'open' to put the ribbon in, and close again to secure it in ‎place. These clips are quite fragile and require very little pressure to move. ‎The clips on sockets of the Base board and the Raspberry Pi work slightly ‎differently from each other, so be careful to read these instructions before ‎proceeding.‎

Let's first take a look at the ribbon cable. One end is wider than the other. ‎This is the end which goes into the NVMe Base connector and is labelled on ‎the ribbon as 'ADDON'. The other end labelled 'RPI 5' will go into the ‎Raspberry Pi 5's PCIe connector.‎

When in place, the writing and Pirate logo will face outwards.‎

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SECURING THE RIBBON TO THE BASE BOARD

Using tweezers or a fingernail, flip the grey clip of the socket on the NVMe ‎Base upwards. It will swivel into an upright position.‎

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Now gently push the ADDON end of the ribbon cable into the socket, ensuring ‎the side with the writing is pointing downwards. You should see the cable go ‎under the silver 'connectors'; these are in fact what provides the pressure to ‎hold the ribbon down onto the real connectors.‎

Gently rotate the clip back down into its original position. You should be able ‎to see about 1mm of the brown surface of the ribbon protruding from the ‎socket.‎

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SECURING THE RIBBON TO THE RASPBERRY PI 5‎

NOTE: Ensure your Raspberry Pi 5 is not powered on.‎

Now locate the Raspberry Pi 5 PCIe connector. It is the one on the opposite ‎end from the network and USB ports and is located next to the on/off switch. ‎This has a brown clip which slides up and down, at right angles to the ‎Raspberry Pi board.‎

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Carefully, and preferably with tweezers or fingernails, lift the clip up by about ‎‎1mm.‎

With the Raspberry Pi on your desk, hold your NVMe Base directly above the ‎Pi's PCIe connector with the SSD pointing away from the Pi.‎

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Gently lower the Base, posting the ribbon into the PCIe connector until you ‎feel that it has gone as far as it can. With your thumb nail or tweezers, push ‎the brown clip down and back in place.‎

FINAL ASSEMBLY

Now that the two boards are connected by the ribbon cable, gently wrap the ‎NVMe Base down until it is under the Raspberry Pi as though the ribbon cable ‎is a hinge. Make sure you don't put the ribbon under any strain.‎

With the Raspberry Pi sitting on top of the NVMe Base board you now need ‎to secure them together.‎

If you are not using a HAT, use the four remaining short screws to secure the ‎Raspberry Pi 5 on top of the NVMe Base's spacers.‎

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If you are using a HAT, post the long bolts through the four fixing holes of the ‎Raspberry Pi, and then screw the HAT's spacers onto the long screws.‎

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Optionally, stick the four rubber feet onto the bottom of the NVMe Base, one ‎near each corner.‎

Installing your OS onto the NVMe SSD

There are a few ways you can install your chosen OS onto the NVMe SSD ‎and experience the speed boost, depending on whether you want to install ‎from scratch or if you already have your OS installed and set up how you ‎want.‎

For all options you need to start from the latest Raspberry Pi OS (Bookworm ‎or later). If you don't already have a microSD card with the OS written to it, ‎create one now using the Raspberry Pi Imager software (it's available for ‎Windows, macOS and Linux), or using your usual method.‎

Alternatively, you can use an existing card, as long as it has the latest OS ‎‎(Bookworm or later) on it.‎

Before doing anything else, boot your Pi from the SD card and ensure the OS ‎is up to date (otherwise it may not have the required updates for the NVMe ‎to be properly recognised).‎

Open a terminal (Ctrl-Alt-T, or find it in the Pi OS menus) and type:‎

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

The Raspberry Pi 5 uses an EEPROM to store some boot settings. This needs ‎to be updated to a version dated newer than December 2023. The command ‎above should have done that for you, but to double check, type the following ‎into a terminal to check:‎

sudo rpi-eeprom-update

If it is not post-December 2023 type the following into a terminal to start the ‎configuration tool:‎

sudo raspi-config

Scroll down to 'Advanced Options' and press Enter:‎

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Scroll down to 'Bootloader Version' and press Enter:‎

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And finally choose 'Latest', and press Enter:‎

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Confirm by pressing Enter:‎

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And exit from the tool by selecting 'Finish':‎

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If asked to reboot, select 'Yes'.‎

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Checking NVMe Base Installation

Before installing an OS, you should first check that the ribbon cable has been ‎connected correctly and the SSD installed properly.‎

Boot your Raspberry Pi from a microSD card.‎

Open a Terminal window and type:‎

ls /dev/nvme0‎

If the file exists (i.e. /dev/nvme0 is repeated back in the terminal) then all is ‎good and you are ready to proceed.‎

If that file cannot be found, the terminal will report:‎

ls: cannot access \'/dev/nvme0\': No such file or directory‎

In which case, turn off your Raspberry Pi and recheck the ribbon cable ‎connections and the SSD installation. Remember that the clips on both the ‎NVMe Base and Raspberry Pi 5 need to be folded/pressed back in place for ‎the connections to work.‎

OS Installation Options

Once the NVMe Base has been properly connected, you have the following ‎options for installing an OS:‎

Install a new OS using Raspberry Pi OS Desktop
Install a new OS using using Network Install
Clone a current microSD card with Raspberry Pi OS Desktop
Clone a current microSD card with Raspberry Pi OS Lite

Boot your Raspberry Pi 5 from microSD card and follow your chosen option.‎

INSTALL A NEW OS USING RASPBERRY PI OS DESKTOP

In this scenario you will need a microSD card with the Desktop version of the ‎Raspberry Pi OS installed. Boot your Raspberry Pi from this card, then open ‎‎'Imager' from the Accessories menu.‎

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First choose the device - in this case the Raspberry Pi 5:‎

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Then choose the OS:‎

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And finally, the storage:‎

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Once it is complete, go to the Setting the Raspberry Pi to boot from the NVMe ‎SSD section below.‎

INSTALL A NEW OS USING NETWORK INSTALL

Raspberry Pi OS Lite is missing a number of useful tools which require the ‎Desktop. However, there is an alternative - Network Boot can be used to ‎install an OS onto any attached storage on the Raspberry Pi. You will need to ‎plug your Raspberry Pi into an ethernet network for this to run.‎

Type the following into a terminal to start the configuration tool:‎

sudo raspi-config

Scroll down to 'Advanced Options' and press Enter:‎

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Scroll down to 'Boot Order' and press Enter:‎

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Choose 'Network Boot' and press Enter:‎

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Configuration will be confirmed. Press Enter:‎

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Return to the first screen by selecting 'Back' or pressing the Esc key. Then ‎navigate to Finish using the right cursor key.‎

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You will be asked whether you want to reboot now. Click 'No':‎

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You now need to shut down your Raspberry Pi 5, remove the microSD card, ‎remove power, and then reboot.‎

Your Raspberry Pi will reboot and show a red/white screen asking you to hold ‎the Shift key to boot from the network. Hold the shift key until the network ‎installer starts to load. Leave it to do so, and when the familiar Raspberry Pi ‎Installer loads, choose your required OS, and choose the SSD as storage.‎

The OS will be downloaded and installed onto your SSD. Once complete, the ‎Raspberry Pi will be restarted, and your chosen OS booted from your SSD. ‎Remember, first boot may take a little longer than usual as the OS may be ‎configuring itself. Don't worry, the next boot will be much faster!‎

CLONE A CURRENT MICROSD CARD WITH RASPBERRY PI OS DESKTOP

If you have been using your Raspberry Pi 5 for a while and have it set up how ‎you want, with the applications you want installed, then you can 'clone' the ‎current microSD card onto the SSD.‎

The desktop version of Raspberry Pi OS has a tool pre-installed for this task. ‎Under the Accessories menu start 'SD Card Copier'. Choose the current ‎microSD (/dev/mmcblk0) card in the Copy From Device dropdown and the ‎NVMe SSD (/dev/nvme0n1) from the Copy To Device dropdown:‎

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Click on start to start copying your microSD card over to the SSD.‎

Once it is complete, go to the Setting the Raspberry Pi to Boot from the NVMe ‎SSD section below.‎

CLONE A CURRENT MICROSD CARD WITH RASPBERRY PI OS LITE

The SD Card Copier application is not available in Raspberry Pi OS Lite, so ‎instead you will have to use the 'dd' ('disk duplicator') command. Various ‎devices in Linux are identified by 'device files' located in the /dev folder. The ‎microSD card's device file is /dev/mmcblk0, and the NVMe SSD device file ‎is /dev/nvme0n1.‎

From the terminal, type the following:‎

sudo dd if=/dev/mmcblk0 of=/dev/nvme0n1 status=progress

The microSD data will be copied over to the SSD. Once it is complete, go to ‎the Setting the Raspberry Pi to Boot from the NVMe SSD section below.‎

Setting the Raspberry Pi to Boot from the NVMe SSD

There is one vital step left to do, and that's to set the Raspberry Pi to boot ‎from the SSD.‎

Reboot your Raspberry Pi once again from the microSD card, open a terminal ‎window and start the Raspberry Pi configuration tool with:‎

sudo raspi-config

Scroll down to 'Advanced Options' and press Enter:‎

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Scroll down to 'Boot Order' and press Enter:‎

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Choose NVMe/USB Boot' and press Enter:‎

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Configuration will be confirmed. Press Enter:‎

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Return to the first screen by selecting 'Back' or pressing the Esc key. Then ‎navigate to Finish using the right cursor key.‎

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You will be asked whether you want to reboot now. Click 'Yes':‎

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Your Raspberry Pi should now boot from the NVMe SSD.‎

Optional and Unsupported Speed Increase

What? There is more speed?‎

As mentioned at the start, the Raspberry Pi 5 PCIe port uses the PCIe 1.0 ‎specification. However, it can run faster, although this is not officially ‎supported and is a little experimental. This only works on Raspberry Pi OS.‎

To enable 'PCIe 3' mode, open a terminal window and type:‎

sudo nano /boot/firmware/config.txt

Add the follow line to the [all] section at the end of the file:‎

dtparam=pciex1_gen=3‎

Save the file (using Ctrl+X, y and Enter). Reboot again and you may see a ‎speed increase!‎

Next steps

You should now have a Raspberry Pi 5 which is no longer limited by the ‎speed of the microSD card, with extra capacity to store all your music, photos ‎and videos!‎

That's all folks!‎