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The original was posted on /r/steamdeck by /u/zoidbergsintoyou on 2023-08-11 06:44:05+00:00.
After lots of reading and cloning my original 256gb internal to a new micron 2tb several times over and having issues where it was stuck on the steam logo and unable to boot into SteamOS, I believe i’ve figured out what the issue is.
As some others have pointed out its an issue with the GPT (GUID Partition Table) not being placed in the correct location (at the end) of the data in the new drive, where it is expected. Rather, its somewhere in the middle which prevents the deck from successfully understanding how to boot the operating system.
I believe i’ve figured out how to fix this with some simple commands in Konsole immediately after cloning the original drive.
Goes something like this:
- Boot into desktop mode with the new SSD in an enclosure and connected via usb.
- Open konsole and perform the actual cloning. In my case (and most peoples), that command is: sudo dd if=/dev/nvme0n1 of=/dev/sda conv=sync status=progress
- Upon completing, run sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda
- If all is well, all text will be white and it will spit out no errors. HOWEVER IF IT HAS RED ERROR TEXT saying that there is a mismatch in the location/placement/size of the GPT, this is what we need to fix!
- Now run sudo fdisk /dev/sda
- And now we need to write the new GPT fix. Run (without quotations) the single letter 'w’
- If it asks for confirmation type 'y’ or ‘yes’
- You can now exit konsole and proceed to move that new cloned SSD from the enclosure into the steam deck itself.
I think this should solve those pesky boot issues. I hope so, at least. It’s worked for me and I wanted to share with any other poor souls trying to figure this out.
Cheers! Lemme know if it worked for you.