Black screen (VGA) on Proxmox VE 8.1 Installer boot

onlime

onlime

Renowned Member
Aug 9, 2013
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Zurich, Switzerland
www.onlime.ch
I am trying to set up Proxmox VE 8.1 from scratch on a legacy system (Supermicro X9DRW-3LN4F+ board). In the past, PVE 6/7 installer worked fine on that server, but with 8.1-1 ISO (also tried with 8.0-2), the screen blacks out right after boot. Same problem with Graphical or Terminal UI installer modes.

I have also tried modifying grub boot params with e and appending vga=794 or vga=788 to the linux line, or also this before the linux line:

Code: 
set gfxmode=1680x1050,1680x1050x32,auto
set gfxpayload=keep

Tried with several different monitors, directly attached to the VGA port. It always blacks out, also when attached to a KVM-IP (Raritan Dominion KX IV-101). That's the last boot messages I see right before it goes black:

screenshot_1701425362407.png

Any idea how I could get this running?
I need to set up this system from scratch as it needs repartitioning (related to https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/help-grub-rescue-proxmox-8-1.137120/#post-611186).

Thanks, Philip
 
OK, this was already discussed/resolved here:


So my solution was (no editing of grub boot params required):

  1. Ctrl-Alt-F2 (2nd terminal): Check Xorg errors
  2. Ctrl-Alt-F3 (3rd terminal): Configure /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-quirks.conf
  3. Ctrl-Alt-F1 (1st terminal / Installer): $ xinit
I had to lookup VGA controller with lspci for the correct BusID:

Bash: 
$ lspci | grep VGA
08:01.0 VGA compatible controller: Matrox Electronics Systems Ltd. MGA G200eW WPCM450 (rev 0a)

So the section I have added to /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-quirks.conf was:

Bash: 
Section "Device"
    Identifier "Card0"
    Driver "fbdev"
    BusID "pci0:00:8:1:"
EndSection

The important thing was to put it into 10-quirks.conf and then run xinit from the first terminal, otherwise the installer would not show up, only a prompt.

Like this, I have managed to install Proxmox VE 8.1 successfully. BUT... It didn't help, as when booting into the fresh system, the same problem occurrs, screen just blacks out. Still struggling with this server, running out of time and may give up that hardware.

If you have any further hints what could be tuned via Rescue (PVE Debug mode) on that system, please let me know.
 
I am still struggling with this. When booting into the freshly set up PVE 8.1, Grub boot works fine but soon after it gets stuck in black screen. From there, I don't find a way to apply any tunings, as no terminal shows up and I cannot switch to any terminal with Ctrl-Alt-F1 (F2, F3,...). Also, networking does not work, even though correctly set up (and detected as active interface) in the installer. So there is no way to access that server and I am running out of ideas of how to resolve that.

If I remove the quiet from the Grub linux line and replace it by nomodeset, I get some more boot output, but the screen then also goes black. Same with Recovery boot.

Any help greatly appreciated!!!
 
I also struggeled with this the last two days ... I tried anything I could find including nomodeset or other stuff.

In the end I used the latest 7.4 iso installer and this one works flawlessly!! After that first was updating all packages and upgrading to 8 ...

But yes something has really changed in the 8.x installer iso. I also tried different cables and also my TV vs an older monitor, USD-C vs HDMI and such.
 
Last edited:
The good thing is ... that also after upgrade to 8.x then the "shell" is shown on my TV ... so I think the issue really relies in the installer part which should not have any impact on the real usage afterwards
 
Apollon77 said:
The good thing is ... that also after upgrade to 8.x then the "shell" is shown on my TV ... so I think the issue really relies in the installer part which should not have any impact on the real usage afterwards
Click to expand...
again, very good to know! I thought the same, as it didn't happen on any of my 4 affected servers running on PVE 8.1
The only reason I need to set them up from scratch is for re-partitioning (see https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/help-grub-rescue-proxmox-8-1.137120/#post-611680), and PVE 7.4 definitely uses the newer partitioning.
 
Stoiko Ivanov said:
The ISOs of PVE 8.0 and 8.1 ship with a text-based UI as well - this does not start X.org - maybe this works on your setup?
https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Roadmap#Proxmox_VE_8.0
Click to expand...
Thanks. That sure was the first thing I tried but struggled with exactly the same issues, screen going black right after having selected "Install Proxmox VE (Terminal UI)". And as I have reported above, I could get past the whole install process (by modifying /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-quirks.conf), fully installing PVE on the system. But then, when trying to boot into the installed PVE, I again get a black screen.
Proxmox VE 8.x seems to apply some VGA configuration that also affects regular startup. I don't think Xorg ever gets started on a regular boot, or I wouldn't understand why it needs to. But with a black screen and no way to access a console, this is hard to debug.
 
I had this same problem with a Supermicro X9DRW-7/iTPF board.

I was able to install from a PVE 8.1 live USB stick by doing this :
  1. Boot from USB choosing the UEFI entry in the boot menu
  2. Move the cursor of the TUI installer option
  3. Press "e" to edit, replace "vga=xxx" at the end of the line with "nomodeset"
  4. Press Ctrl-X to boot with your changes
 
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Reactions: korvir
I think that same problem. I need my computer as a workstation not as a dedicated server virtualization.
In my case, i've install debian 12 with graphical interface and later i installed proxmox. When booting the OS, i see grub options but later only see black screen.
 
Hi there. I tried everything and am still struggling with this same issue. I have managed to set up two servers from PVE 7.4 live USB stick as a workaround and then on a running system upgrade to PVE 8.1. But one server won't even work with PVE 7.4 installer, installing fine until the end, but upon first reboot into the system, the screen goes black again shortly after the blue Grub screen.

I wasted endless hours on this and I just cannot give up on this server and trash it. Really disappointed that even the latest 8.1-2 ISO installer does not fix this. After so many years running Proxmox and never having any issues with the installer on more than 20 physical servers, I just can't get this thing working.

Any further advice?
 
I have similar problems and wasted hours. "nomodeset" in TEXT mode fixed the problem.
What is the point of such a complicated installer?
Cant you just make it simple text based and be done with it?
Nobody really cares how it looks if it works. And nobody really looks at the consoles ever after the installation unless there is some problem.
And you really need that console to work if there is a problem.
 
This fixes the problem:

https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Installation#nomodeset_kernel_param

Adding the nomodeset Kernel Parameter​

Problems may arise on very old or very new hardware due to graphics drivers. If the installation hangs during boot, you can try adding the nomodeset parameter. This prevents the Linux kernel from loading any graphics drivers and forces it to continue using the BIOS/UEFI- provided framebuffer.
On the Proxmox VE bootloader menu, navigate to Install Proxmox VE (Terminal UI) and press e to edit the entry. Using the arrow keys, navigate to the line starting with linux, move the cursor to the end of that line and add the parameter nomodeset, separated by a space from the pre-existing last parameter.
Then press Ctrl-X or F10 to boot the configuration.
 
Last edited:
izzy84 said:
This fixes the problem:

https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Installation#nomodeset_kernel_param

Adding the nomodeset Kernel Parameter​

Problems may arise on very old or very new hardware due to graphics drivers. If the installation hangs during boot, you can try adding the nomodeset parameter. This prevents the Linux kernel from loading any graphics drivers and forces it to continue using the BIOS/UEFI- provided framebuffer.
On the Proxmox VE bootloader menu, navigate to Install Proxmox VE (Terminal UI) and press e to edit the entry. Using the arrow keys, navigate to the line starting with linux, move the cursor to the end of that line and add the parameter nomodeset, separated by a space from the pre-existing last parameter.
Then press Ctrl-X or F10 to boot the configuration.
Click to expand...
This resolved it for me. Thank you very much.
 
Just to add,

if someone tries on Dell OptiPlex 9020 sff or similar, at BIOS i had to specify video card to intel (CPU) - NOT automatic, and it works both on Proxmox server and VE with graphical interface. I was totally freezing installation, ctrl+alt+fx had no output. Every time i had to kill pc.

proxmox-backup-server_3.2-1.iso
proxmox-ve_8.2-2.iso

CPU 4 x Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-4150 CPU @ 3.50GHz (1 Socket)
Kernel Version Linux 6.8.4-2-pve (2024-04-10T17:36Z)
Boot Mode EFI

cheers!
 
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