[SOLVED] Proxmox Hangs on Pre-Installation Boot Screen when Installing on Debian Bookworm (Proxmox 8.0)

[Whitterquick]

Hello all, I have an issue with installing a fresh instance of Proxmox 8 (latest as of October 25).

I am able to install plain Debian or Ubuntu without any issues, but unable to complete installation of Proxmox 8 on top of Debian. I am following the instructions from the official Proxmox wiki on installing over Debian Bookworm. After installing the Proxmox VE kernel and actioning the systemctl reboot, I am unable to boot back in unless I manually select the Debian kernel. I have not tried completing this using the Debian default kernel as the wiki states: First you need to install and boot the Proxmox VE kernel, as some packages depend on specific kernel compile flags to be set or feature extensions (e.g., for apparmor) to be available.

I first noticed issues with installing using the later 5.1* kernels in Proxmox 7, but back then a workaround fix was to install 5.13 first and then update from there (for some reason it worked after that). When clean installing Proxmox 8 we have kernel 6* from the beginning and no option to install 5.13 without going back to Proxmox 7, so this trick doesn’t work.

I have tried the suggestion of removing /usr/share/initramfs-tools/modules.d/proxmox-simpledrm and then update-initramfs -u to see if that fixes the issue but that file did not exist so I was unable to remove it. The screen it hangs on is…

Booting ‘Debian GNU/Linux’

Loading Linux 6.2.16-15-pve …
Loading initial ramdisk …


Hoping someone has a solution other than installing Proxmox 7 and then doing a 7to8 upgrade from there

Thanks all

 

[t.lamprecht]

Can you please also give info about the hardware? Is this some server, or a consumer system?

Which CPU, GPU (if any) and mainboard models are in use here?

I have tried the suggestion of removing /usr/share/initramfs-tools/modules.d/proxmox-simpledrm and then update-initramfs -u to see if that fixes the issue but that file did not exist so I was unable to remove it. The screen it hangs on is…

OK, thanks, did you also try to pass the nomodeset kernel parameter? E.g., use the e key in the bootloader to edit the cmdline, or see:
https://pve.proxmox.com/pve-docs/chapter-sysadmin.html#sysboot_edit_kernel_cmdline

 

[Whitterquick]

Can you please also give info about the hardware? Is this some server, or a consumer system?

Which CPU, GPU (if any) and mainboard models are in use here?


OK, thanks, did you also try to pass the nomodeset kernel parameter? E.g., use the e key in the bootloader to edit the cmdline, or see:
https://pve.proxmox.com/pve-docs/chapter-sysadmin.html#sysboot_edit_kernel_cmdline

Thanks Thomas. I tried the above and it didn't seem to work.
It's not on a server, nor my main system, just a Mini PC that I use for testing. CPU is a AMD Ryzen™ 5 3550H, and no GPU is used. Note that Proxmox is not yet installed as it cannot get past the part after loading the kernel.

 

[Whitterquick]

Any suggestions? Tips?

 

[Whitterquick]

So for anyone having this issue when installing Proxmox over Debian Bookworm, I have found a workaround solution.

Follow the instructions on the official wiki and when you come to part where it says Install the Proxmox VE Kernel do NOT do the systemctl reboot part. Instead skip that one step and continue to install. If there is an error at the end of the process just reboot and then try again (it will only need to configure pve-manager but everything else will already be installed). You must have a static IP set, as instructed in the first steps, or it will not work.