Unable to clone OS to NVMe

Troubleshooting
1

I have searched the existing open and closed issues

Required Information

  • DietPi version | Core:9 Sub:20 RC:1 branch:master owner:MichaIng
  • Distro version | trixie
  • Kernel version | Linux DietPi 6.1.115-vendor-rk35xx #1 SMP Mon Dec 1 08:58:34 UTC 2025 aarch64 GNU/Linux
  • Architecture | arm64
  • SBC model | ROCK 5B (aarch64)
  • Power supply used | 30 W (5V-3A 9V-3A 12V-2.5A 15V-2A 20V-1.5A)
  • SD card used | Toshiba 4GB HC 4
  • NVMe used | Kingston NV2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 1TB M.2 2280 -SNV2S/1000G

Additional Information

  • Software title | rpi-clone
  • freshly installed
  • lsblk command output:
    NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
    mtddblock0 31:0 0 16M 0 disk
    mmcblk1 179:0 0 3.6G 0 disk
    L_mmcblk1p1 191:1 0 3,6G 0 part /
    nvme0n1 259:0 0 931.5G 0 disk

  • Steps to reproduce

sudo rpi-clone nvme0n1

Expected behaviour

The boot drive should be cloned to the NVMe

Actual behaviour

rpi-clone Version:2.0.26
Unable to locate boot device

Extra details

  • Since the read speed of the SD card slot of the ROCK 5B is quite slow, and I only have a 4GB SD card that’s not in operation, I wanted to clone the OS to the NVMe that I installed.
  • I first tried to follow this guide but since this is written for the Radxa OS it doesn’t work
  • So I found this question with my problem as the solution
  • Unfortunately, as seen above, rpi-clone doesn’t clone the OS to the NVMe as it’s unable to locate the boot device despite both the SD card and the NVMe showing up when using the lsblk command
  • If you need more information, just tell me what you need and how I can provide it
2

rpi-clone is for RPi, not for radxa devices.

On your device the boatloader need to be on the SD card or the SPI flash.
You could clone your root path to the nvme and then flash the SPI (like described in the radxa guide you posted). Or leave the bootloader on NVME

2 Likes
3

right, initial “boot” stuff needs to reside on a cheap slower SD card (which must remain in the device), which then initiates the boot, loads the initial kernel yadda yadda, then points everything else to the MUCH faster NVME drive, just make sure you follow the directions
[nice thing with this method, you clone the /boot SD card and keep the .img safe, if it ever corrupts or fries, just reimage and it will automatically come up like it never had a problem]

I also found this…but you might have to tweak it a little to ensure it does everything you need (it appears tailor built for “rasbian” but should work with almost all distro’s as long as they use the same type of filesystem and whatnot

At least that is what I have been doing on many of my simple SBC’s…usually in the form of a larger faster Sandisk Ultrafit USB drive (many of my SBC’s don’t have NVME onboard)