This is a really interesting approach, as embedding into an option ROM means you could potentially flash it into a modded BIOS.<p>My preferred method to boot NVMe on a legacy system though is to boot tianocore UEFI with an NVME module in it[1]. This is a UEFI firmware that you can chainload from a legacy bios. Extremely good compatibility this way, and a great option for any system with an unused usb header.<p>1: <a href="https://winraid.level1techs.com/t/guide-nvme-boot-for-systems-with-legacy-bios-and-uefi-board-duet-refind/32251" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://winraid.level1techs.com/t/guide-nvme-boot-for-system...</a>
You can do this with Linux easily as long as your bios allows you to boot from USB. Just put /boot on the USB and everything else on the NVMe (via PCI Express to NVMe card). This trick has allowed me to save several old PCs and use them as home servers and for my home lab.
Looks like an interesting project, but upon seeing that screenshot and this...<p><i>It's a heavily modified version of iPXE (which usually allows for booting from the network), but instead of the network, this code uses a port of the SeaBIOS NVMe implementation to talk to a local NVMe drive.</i><p>I can't help but feel like that's a very roundabout way of doing it (especially the fact that it seems to be manual?); after all, the BIOS Boot Specification exists and it's what lets PCs boot from things like SCSI and other block devices.
Their example of a ThinkPad T43 is an interesting choice, because it was a rare model that used a problematic SATA-PATA bridge kludge for storage.<p><a href="https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Problem_with_non-ThinkPad_hard_disks" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Problem_with_non-ThinkPad_har...</a><p>It couldn't even take a proper hard drive when new, 18 years ago, but now it can boot from NVMe.
»This project allows old x86 computers using a classic BIOS to boot from modern NVMe storage attached via PCI(e). It's a heavily modified version of iPXE (which usually allows for booting from the network), but instead of the network, this code uses a port of the SeaBIOS NVMe implementation to talk to a local NVMe drive.«
Using network boot to inject a custom loader is ingenious! Was literally faced with this today. My AMD motherboard circa 2012 did not recognize the PCIe NVMe SSD. It was rather slow on this PC for some reason anyway (yes, I did my due diligence). Ended up putting it in a laptop which was thankfully able to muster a higher throughput.
A lot of NVME drives already ship such an option ROM. This has only become a problem relatively recently now that most SSDs do not care to ship one (or ship untested ones).