Ubuntu VM install repeats Gnome Initialization Screen

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Northern Nerd

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Sep 9, 2025
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I'll start by saying I am new to Proxmox.

I thought I was going crazy. When you install Ubuntu, it prompts you for User-id, Password, machine name, time zone etc. Once it's all done, on first boot, it's supposed to log you in, finish setting up apps and it's ready to use.

What was happening was that it prompted for all the above things, but then on first boot, it repeated all of the above questions. It re-ran the Gnome initialization routine. And, I had to choose a different user-id, password, and machine name. Worse, after completing the initialization screen for the second time, I now had two admin users, but not really. If you went into the users settings, you could not see one from the other and therefore could not delete the second (and wrong user) using the GUI.

I tried MANY things. In the end what I've discovered is that in that initial setup, if the login name is 'pvm' it won't work. How is it possible there is a hard coded user name?
 
Hi Northern Nerd,

Just to clarify: which Ubuntu version did you use for the VM?

From your description, it sounds like after completing the installation and rebooting, the system prompted you again for the same setup questions resulting in the creation of two admin users. Is that correct?
 
I am using Ubuntu version 24.04.3. I just downloaded this ISO a few days ago.

Correct, after installing and rebooting, the system prompts again for root user, machine name, etc. Here is a link to a video I made of the installation process (don't worry I edited out all the long waits).

I am really happy for someone to show me something that I am doing wrong. In fact, I hope I am doing something wrong. Otherwise, somewhere between Proxmox and Ubuntu, they put in some really sloppy code that has a dependency on a specific user name.
 
bbgeek17 said:
Have you ensured that ISO is removed before you reboot? That was not in your video.

Blockbridge : Ultra low latency all-NVME shared storage for Proxmox - https://www.blockbridge.com/proxmox
Click to expand...
Yes, I made sure it was removed. In fact, I followed the exact same procedure in all of my test cases. If I repeated everything you saw in the video, and changed the username to something other than 'pvm', it would all work fine.
 
Northern Nerd said:
I am using Ubuntu version 24.04.3. I just downloaded this ISO a few days ago.

Correct, after installing and rebooting, the system prompts again for root user, machine name, etc. Here is a link to a video I made of the installation process (don't worry I edited out all the long waits).

I am really happy for someone to show me something that I am doing wrong. In fact, I hope I am doing something wrong. Otherwise, somewhere between Proxmox and Ubuntu, they put in some really sloppy code that has a dependency on a specific user name.
Click to expand...
Hi @Northern Nerd

Thanks for sharing the recording. I was able to reproduce the issue on Ubuntu 24.04 and 24.10. I also tested the same versions on VirtualBox and observed the same behavior, so it doesn’t seem to be related to PVE. I tried the same with Debian, and the behavior was identical, so it may not be specific to Ubuntu either. It could be related to GNOME, but I’m not certain and will need to investigate further.

Is there a particular reason you want to use that username? If you’d still like to use it, i believe you could create it as an additional user instead.
 
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bbgeek17 said:
You should probably find a way to report this to Ubuntu directly. Being that you are doing a manual install from ISO and not Cloud Image, there is 0 chance that PVE somehow interferes with your username creation.

Blockbridge : Ultra low latency all-NVME shared storage for Proxmox - https://www.blockbridg
Click to expand...

shanv said:
Hi @Northern Nerd

Thanks for sharing the recording. I was able to reproduce the issue on Ubuntu 24.04 and 24.10. I also tested the same versions on VirtualBox and observed the same behavior, so it doesn’t seem to be related to PVE. I tried the same with Debian, and the behavior was identical, so it may not be specific to Ubuntu either. It could be related to GNOME, but I’m not certain and will need to investigate further.

Is there a particular reason you want to use that username? If you’d still like to use it, i believe you could create it as an additional user instead.
Click to expand...
Thanks for testing that and identifying that it isn't a PVE issue.

As I set out to setup Proxmox and began to create a number of VM's, I realized I needed some standard naming conventions for machine names, user-ids, etc. I just happen to pick PVM (Proxmox virtual machine) as a root user name. I've already switched to a different name. I am however a bit concerned that Ubuntu and/or Gnome appear to have a hard code user name. These sorts of hardcoded issues are not something you would expect to encounter in 2025 with mature software.
 
Northern Nerd said:
Thanks for testing that and identifying that it isn't a PVE issue.

As I set out to setup Proxmox and began to create a number of VM's, I realized I needed some standard naming conventions for machine names, user-ids, etc. I just happen to pick PVM (Proxmox virtual machine) as a root user name. I've already switched to a different name. I am however a bit concerned that Ubuntu and/or Gnome appear to have a hard code user name. These sorts of hardcoded issues are not something you would expect to encounter in 2025 with mature software.
Click to expand...
@shanv and @bbgeek17 - how would I go about reporting this to Ubuntu?
 
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