Provide selection of the kernel version in the installer

S

SunBlack

Active Member
Jun 22, 2017
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We got a new server yesterday. Instead of the usual 10 minutes to install Proxmox, it took me a few hours because the network card was recognized, but after every restart I had to reactivate the connection manually. It was only the message on reboot that made me think that it could be a driver issue because it took forever to shut down ("hwring_ring_free type 2 failed") and then I remembered that I had read in the 8.4 changelog that you could switch to a newer kernel (this solved the issue).

What would be nice: Would the installer offer an option to be able to change the kernel directly. So a dropdown with 6.8 kernel marked as default and the 6.14 with the hint that you can take it if you have problems with the 6.8. This would allow you to have it in the back of your mind when installing that changing the kernel could help in the event of problems.
 
Hi!

Does the error occur also for the first restart after the installation?

The current ISO image does only ship the 6.8 kernel and as it's not a network installer, it is only designed to install packages which are shipped with the ISO image and doesn't have knowledge about other available kernels on the repositories. This has the benefit that a single ISO image makes reproducible installs (only best-effort) and users are free to upgrade packages right afterwards, including upgrading the kernel version. AFAICS there is no intention to change that any time soon, but if you see a clear benefit here, you can file a feature request in our Bugzilla.
 
I had the issue even after several restarts. Even after starting the network manually, running "apt update && apt dist-uppgrade" so I'm on 8.4.1 instead of just 8.4 (including reboot).

// Edit: If you need some logs to help you decide whether to put a newer kernel in the offline package, let me know, I think I'll be finalizing the server next Tuesday or Wednesday and until then I can play around with it.
 
Last edited:
It is a Supermicro H13SSL-NT motherboard, so the network card is a Broadcom BCM57416 10GBase-T.

Edit: Related older thread.
 
Last edited:
SunBlack said:
It is a Supermicro H13SSL-NT motherboard, so the network card is a Broadcom BCM57416 10GBase-T.
Click to expand...
SunBlack said:
If you need some logs to help you decide whether to put a newer kernel in the offline package, let me know
Click to expand...
Yes, some boot logs would be great to further investigate here what the problem is, so dmesg/journalctl, and optionally a lspci and ethtool output would be great. On another note, have you tried to upgrade the firmware for the BCM57416?
 
dakralex said:
On another note, have you tried to upgrade the firmware for the BCM57416?
Click to expand...
Yes, but was not successful:

Bash: 
apt install unzip
wget https://www.thomas-krenn.com/redx/tools/mb_download.php/ct.YuuHGw/mid.y9b3b4ba2bf7ab3b8/bnxtnvm.zip
unzip bnxtnvm.zip
chmod +x bnxtnvm
for i in $(./bnxtnvm listdev | grep 'Device Interface Name' | awk '{print $5}')
do
    ./bnxtnvm -dev=$i install -online -y
done

Broadcom NetXtreme-C/E/S firmware update and configuration utility version v222.0.144.0

NetXtreme-E Controller #1 at PCI Domain:0000 Bus:a1 Dev:00

This adapter is not supported for online firmware update.

Then I tried to download the latest firmware from the Broadcom website for BCM57416 and install it via fwupdmgr (Broadcom NetXtreme-E 2Px10GBASE-T BCM57416 OCP 3.0 Ethernet Firmware Image):
Bash: 
fwupdmgr install BCM957416N4160HC.pkg
WARNING: UEFI capsule updates not available or enabled in firmware setup
See https://github.com/fwupd/fwupd/wiki/PluginFlag:capsules-unsupported for more information.
Decompressing…           [ -                                     ]
The input is not of cabinet format

Then I looked to see if I could find the update option somewhere in the BIOS or IPMI, but unfortunately I couldn't find it there either (manual of the Motherboard with BIOS options).

After this I tried it via niccli (see this post). One problem: NIC CLI v233.0.150.0 does not recognize the "backup" option, although you can find it in the option list (see here). So I tried it without backup, but without the "-rescue -force", because I wanted to make sure that the update package is correct. And there I get a PCI id mismatch. Than I found this, but there I'm getting the same issue as before (online update not allowed):
Bash: 
niccli -i 1 install -online

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIC CLI v233.0.150.0 - Broadcom Inc. (c) 2025 (Bld-106.52.39.138.16.0)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


NIC Controller at PCI Domain:0000 Bus:a1 Dev:00


ERROR: This adapter is not supported for online firmware update.



EXIT CODE   : 0B003032
DESCRIPTION : Unsupported command.
              Command install failed.
 
dakralex said:
Yes, some boot logs would be great to further investigate here what the problem is, so dmesg/journalctl, and optionally a lspci and ethtool output would be great.
Click to expand...

Ok, reinstalled the system to collect logs with fixed IP (so setting same IP the DHCP server would set):
- Directly after install: <tool>after_install.log
- Directly after "service networking restart" (without restart): <tool>after_install.log
- Restart: <tool>after_restart.log
- After "apt update && apt dist-upgrade" + 2x restart: <tool>_after_updates.log
- After switching to kernel 6.14: <tool>_after_kernel_updates.log
 

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