Request: Please remove required email field from installer

robhost

Active Member
Jun 15, 2014
224
9
38
Dresden
www.robhost.de
Hi,

have you ever tried to setup PVE through a Java emulated KVM from a Linux or Mac system? :)
It can be real pain because you might have no chance to create the "@" sign, but this is required when installing.

We currently use as a workaround to copy (!) the "@" sign from the error message displayed when clicking on "next" with right-click->copy and pasting the "@" then into the email field- but this feels not good at all ;-) See attached screen.

So, why does PVE asks for an email addresse when installing, for what is it used? We could not find the address in /etc on a fresh installed PVE.

Please make this an optional setting and not an requirement or just remove it!
 

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All emails sent to 'root' are forwarded to that address. So, apt notices, etc. The email address is stored in /etc/pve/user.cfg

Curious, what KVM are you using? I've installed Proxmox via iLO, DRAC, IPMI, and Avocent KVMs many times, without issues.
 
All emails sent to 'root' are forwarded to that address. So, apt notices, etc. The email address is stored in /etc/pve/user.cfg

Curious, what KVM are you using? I've installed Proxmox via iLO, DRAC, IPMI, and Avocent KVMs many times, without issues.
We're using HP iLO.
I cant't find an forward from root to this addresse? Should be in /etc/aliases, or not?
 
We're using HP iLO.
I cant't find an forward from root to this addresse? Should be in /etc/aliases, or not?

Hi,

have you ever tried to setup PVE through a Java emulated KVM from a Linux or Mac system? :)
It can be real pain because you might have no chance to create the "@" sign, but this is required when installing.

We currently use as a workaround to copy (!) the "@" sign from the error message displayed when clicking on "next" with right-click->copy and pasting the "@" then into the email field- but this feels not good at all ;-) See attached screen.

So, why does PVE asks for an email addresse when installing, for what is it used? We could not find the address in /etc on a fresh installed PVE.

Please make this an optional setting and not an requirement or just remove it!

Can´t you use a virtual keyboard "Soft keyboard"? I do not know if this is available on HP, but on Supermicro or Intel, there is one.

The email of the root account is an important setting which we do not want to remove.
 
Can´t you use a virtual keyboard "Soft keyboard"? I do not know if this is available on HP, but on Supermicro or Intel, there is one.

The email of the root account is an important setting which we do not want to remove.
Nope, in HP iLO there is no virtual keyboard :( Supermicro provides one, thats right.

To be honest, we have dozens of PVE servers running and never got a single email to the forwarded account. Which kind of mails do you send here?

The only mail we ever got from PVE is the backup notification, which has it's individual mail address setting.

What about making this setting at least not mandatory? :)
 
Nope, in HP iLO there is no virtual keyboard :( Supermicro provides one, thats right.

To be honest, we have dozens of PVE servers running and never got a single email to the forwarded account. Which kind of mails do you send here?

The only mail we ever got from PVE is the backup notification, which has it's individual mail address setting.

What about making this setting at least not mandatory? :)

If you do not get emails from root, there is something wrong in your postfix/email setup - check your syslogs.

For example, you will get an email notification if there are updates available. Or if your disks starts getting problems (smarttools).

I do not think we should remove important settings in order to workaround bugs on other places - better fix the bugs, e.g. request a fix or a soft keyboard from your hardware vendor.
 
If you do not get emails from root, there is something wrong in your postfix/email setup - check your syslogs.
Nope, there is nothing wrong. As i said we're getting mails from backup for expample.

I do not think we should remove important settings in order to workaround bugs on other places - better fix the bugs, e.g. request a fix or a soft keyboard from your hardware vendor.
Well, I dont think HP Enterprise will provide a software keyboard because PVE needs an "@" sign and MacOS emulates the keys so bad when using Java KVM ;-)

Have you ever seen any other distro requiring an email address while installing? I do not know any other beside PVE.

If we're loosing this workaround with copying the sign from the error message we will not be able to install PVE on our servers just because of this @ thing. Would you please re-think your decision and make this field at least optional and changeable from the panel after installation or something? We would really appreciate that.
 
Nope, there is nothing wrong. As i said we're getting mails from backup for expample.

As emails works on all other places, I am totally sure that there is an configuration issue on your side. Also make sure you have a subscription key on your host.

Well, I dont think HP Enterprise will provide a software keyboard because PVE needs an "@" sign and MacOS emulates the keys so bad when using Java KVM ;-)

there is not only Proxmox VE. there is a reason why all others are offering a virtual keyboard. especially for complex password entries, a virtual keyboard is MUCH better - and password entries are in almost all distros.

If no customer requests it, HP will not provide it.

Have you ever seen any other distro requiring an email address while installing? I do not know any other beside PVE.

If we're loosing this workaround with copying the sign from the error message we will not be able to install PVE on our servers just because of this @ thing. Would you please re-think your decision and make this field at least optional and changeable from the panel after installation or something? We would really appreciate that.

I am not aware of any other distro doing this, but I am also not aware of any distribution as good as Proxmox VE.

As this is my personal opinion, please submit a request via https://bugzilla.proxmox.com, maybe a dev picks it up
 
Well, I dont think HP Enterprise will provide a software keyboard because PVE needs an "@" sign and MacOS emulates the keys so bad when using Java KVM ;-)

Count yourself lucky. SuperMicro's IPMI Java KVM has stopped supporting Mac entirely. (Although the very newest model we bought finally appears to have a non-Java KVM, so we're hopeful for the future.)
 
Java 1.6 is banned here, so we have to run ipmiview20 in a virtual machine. :-(
 
I am using the HTML5 console on our supermicro servers (one year old servers) - not bad but I would not call it super stable.
 
Probably make it possible to kind of preseed it via boot options (like maxroot, swapsize, ...) Then one having problems (or me being lazy just want to install as fast as possible and type as less as possible). This would be great for other options too ... provide via kernel append or answer interactively.
 
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I experienced the problem with the @ and HP ILO, too. It's a pain.
It comes to my mind that I asked myself in that situation if the installer couldn't just make the email-field in to parts ______@_____ so the @ is already there.
 
It comes to my mind that I asked myself in that situation if the installer couldn't just make the email-field in to parts ______@_____ so the @ is already there.
Thanks, good to know to be not the only one ;-)
Yes, that sounds like a good idea, but I dont know if it's possible to patch the PVE installer to support this.
 
I think it is the only place during install where a special character is needed IIRC, so eventually it could really be an option to modify the installer here.
I have this issue every time I like to try things out on my microservers (they are dead cheap and good for that, although I am not an HP fan at all) and the installation is straight forward and fast besides this one point where you are sitting around to get that sh*tty @ in there. Especially when setting up three servers at the time and everything is fast but then the @. Half the time installing, half the time getting the @ in there - at least it feels this way.
Of course HP is to blame here in the first place but I have also doubt that HP will improve here in the near future.
 
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Why not setting the email as optional in the installer and allows users to change it from the web interface?

You could also force the email to be changed on first access to the web interface, like some software does for the password change
 

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