SSD in WWAN?

SoPunny · February 25, 2022, 12:57am

I haven’t bought one yet so I don’t know. I’ll do some more research and wait for more replies. I know that the Western Digital SN520 2242 works for the T480 for other OS’s though. Do have error logs? That could give us more insight.

github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues

SSD connected to USB-C does not work

opened 03:11PM - 15 Dec 19 UTC

ThomasWaldmann

T: enhancement C: Xen P: default

**Qubes OS version** R4.0 with all updates **Affected component(s) or func…tionality** Kernel? dom0? sys-usb? **Brief summary** HW: Thinkpad T470s, Orico NVME M.2 SSD enclosure If I plug in the USB-C SSD **into the USB-C/Thunderbolt port**, there is no reaction at all. lsusb in sys-usb does not show it, the usb menu does not show it. If I plug it **into a normal USB3 port** (using a cable that converts from USB-C to USB-A connector), it works as expected: shows up in lsusb, shows up in the usb menu, can be assigned to a VM, can be used in a VM. The external SSD case is based on the JMicron 152d:0583 USB-C to PCIe bridge and has a Samsung M.2 NVME/PCIe SSD inside. **Solutions you've tried** I have installed all Qubes updates, did a cold boot of the machine. Also checked the Thinkpad T470s' BIOS to see whether Thunderbolt/USB-C functionality is disabled (it is not, it is enabled, "no security" thunderbolt setting). Also cold booted with the USB-C device already attached, did not help. Also tried another USB-C cable, did not help.

This might be related. They’re talking about connecting an external SSD through thunderbolt, but someone said:

The real problem is that dom0 does not support PCI hotplug. The correct approach is probably to enable PCI hotplug, but ensure (using the IOMMU) that DMA is only enabled for whitelisted PCI devices. This ensures that new PCI devices are visible, but cannot attack the system until they are explicitly assigned to a VM.

And another:

And unfortunately PCI hotplug + IOMMU situation in Xen is not great and for this reason we have it disabled. So, the answer for now is “this feature is not supported”, sadly.

I know that the WWAN slot for my thinkpad needs a PCI NVME SSD, whatever that means… Better research more. However, in this thread, people accept that PCI SSDs work.

Is there any difference security-wise between SATA SSD and PCIe SSD?

unman:

I don’t believe there is any significant security issue between SATA and
PCI disks.

Edit: I guess it’s not that relevant to you because you’re using an mSATA or something. Maybe Qubes just has a problem with booting on the WWAN slot regardless of the SSD type.