Has anyone installed Linux onto an Intel RST SATA drive?

[Phil Marsh]

Sorry I can't help with the Dell laptop RST setting and I assume you did
a good search of the BIOS options and on Google. I have one myself but
older and different model. My laptop has 16GB RAM and that's just enough to
run Window 10 as a VM (Virtualbox) on Ubuntu 22.04 host. And it runs quite
well so long as I set the Windows client to limit at about 8GB RAM. I
really recommend that one run a Linux-Windows box as a linux host and
Windows client rather than dual-boot - provided you have enough RAM and you
aren't using this for Windows gaming or other Windows graphics-intensive
operations. If you do want to run Windows as a VM (virtual machine) then,
in hindsight, I'd get a laptop with 32GB or more to be comfortable.
Best, Phil


On Fri, Dec 8, 2023 at 7:50 PM Bob Proulx <bob at proulx.com> wrote:

> Hi Brian,
>
> bsimpson nvastro.com wrote:
> > I've just bought a new Dell laptop with Windows 11.  I have shrunk
> > the Windows partition so that I can dual-boot it and Linux Mint.
> > Unfortunately the Linux installer doesn't recognize the 1TB SSD
> > drive.  I did some web search and it appears that the issue is the
> > Intel RST driver for the SSD.
>
> Intel RST is like on-board hardware RAID.  It is always to be avoided.
>
> As far as I know RST is only supported in RHEL where it has been
> patched in.  Pretty sure.  Don't quote me on it and don't count on it
> unless you have personally verified that information.  So that would
> be an option.  A terrible option.  But I will mention it anyway.  Not
> that I would do it.  It's just not worth the hassle.  And then you
> would forever be vendor locked-in to RHEL.
>
> > The web pages I've seen say to go to BIOS and change the storage
> > mode from RST to AHCI.
>
> Yes.  That's the way.  But since you want to dual boot be aware that
> Windows will need to be switched from RST to AHCI or Windows won't
> boot.  You would need to investigate the recipe to do this.  I have
> switched Windows from SATA to virtio for use in virtualized
> installations and think the process to switch from RST to SATA would
> be similar.
>
> > But there is no such option with the bios on
> > this Dell 7630 laptop.  It appears only RST is available.  I thought
>
> There is no option in the BIOS to disable RST?  That would be a
> showstopper bug for me.
>
> It seems that other people are having similar problems with that
> laptop.  Here is the tale of another person who is also stuck.
>
>
> https://www.dell.com/community/en/conversations/inspiron/inspiron-16-7630-not-able-to-set-sata-operation-to-ahci-in-bios/64d49505b5233436677d3767
>
> > I'd query this group to see if there is any option other than
> > returning this laptop.
>
> I have said all that I know.  Good luck!
>
> Bob
>
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