Single M.2 socket in PCIe x4 card recommendation

[nabsltd]

I have a Supermicro X9SRL-F with latest BIOS that supports bifurcation. This dual M.2 card works great in an x8 slot and can be seen by any OS I have tested that supports NVMe.

On the other hand, this single M.2 card causes TrueNAS to fail to boot (in very weird ways, and never at the same point...it just hangs somewhere in the boot) unless it is installed in an x8 slot. It also does not show up at all to any OS when installed in the PCIe 2.0 x4 slot. I tested in an X11 motherboard, and it worked fine, but that board only has x8 and x16 slots. Because of these two things, I suspect this card isn't negotiating PCIe correctly.

Does anybody have a recommendation for a single M.2 card that is known to work with TrueNAS? If it is known to work on older Supermicro boards (like the X9), then that'd be a bonus.

Thanks.

 

[T_Minus]

IIRC Supermicro makes their own variant of these cards, maybe check those?
I think I may have one here somewhere I'll try to locate a part # for you

 

[i386]

On the other hand, this single M.2 card causes TrueNAS to fail to boot (in very weird ways, and never at the same point...it just hangs somewhere in the boot) unless it is installed in an x8 slot. It also does not show up at all to any OS when installed in the PCIe 2.0 x4 slot. I tested in an X11 motherboard, and it worked fine, but that board only has x8 and x16 slots. Because of these two things, I suspect this card isn't negotiating PCIe correctly.

This is a "dumb" card without any retimers/redrivers/pcie switch. If it fails it's probably because of the quality of the pcb/traces...
Newer boards/cpus have better handling/signaling for newer pcie revisions and could work with this adapter (no guarantee)

 

[itronin]

I have a Supermicro X9SRL-F with latest BIOS that supports bifurcation.

oh my!

which BIOS version is this? I do not remember seeing bifurcation options in X9SRL-F 3.3 BIOS (latest published on SM's site).

 

[nabsltd]

which BIOS version is this? I do not remember seeing bifurcation options in X9SRL-F 3.3 BIOS (latest published on SM's site).

Version 3.3 supports bifurcation. It's in the "Chipset/Northbridge" menu if my memory is correct. Having the ability to add 4-8 NVMe drives is awesome.