proxmoxve text installer not working on headless ipxe install

[acarter]

I'm trying to install pve on a headless server using ipxe. I don't have access to the physical server and can only connect to it using the serial console at tty0. I'm able to install debian bookworm using a modified netbootxzy ipxe script that I updated to set the console parameters to use tty0. I tried something similar with pve and after loading the kernel, initrd, and iso the terminal just hangs. For some reason it appears that the text installer isn't using the serial terminal. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to proceed other than to install debian and then manually install pve. I'd rather use the installer, but I can't get it to work.
I've tried using the netbootxyz kernel and initrd and I've also tried using the pve-iso-2-pxe generated linux26 and initrd with the same result. Here are the parameters I've tried passing to the kernels:

earlycon=ttyS0,115200 console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200

ramdisk_size=16777216 rw quiet nomodeset initrd=initrd.magic

splash=silent proxtui proxmox-tui-mode

I've tried with and without the gui parameters even though they shouldn't be needed.

vga=791 video=vesafb:ywrap,mtrr

 

[cheiss]

Hi,

after loading the kernel, initrd, and iso the terminal just hangs.

what exactly are the last messages printed?

Also, what is your exact setup? What commandline did you use to boot through iPXE?

To boot the TUI installer with a serial console, ramdisk_size=16777216 rw quiet proxmox-tui-mode console=ttyS0,115200 as kernel parameters should be sufficient - it's a configuration I tested explicitly quite recently.

You may be interested in the following patch: https://lore.proxmox.com/pve-devel/20260204121025.630269-1-c.heiss@proxmox.com/
This will bring an option to proxmox-auto-install-assistant to easily split up an ISO into the required files for (i)PXE and a configuration. For starters, I'd suggest looking at the generated iPXE script there and look for any differences.