Can I use default 6.3 VE installer on machine with only an Nvidia GPU?

[marcosscriven]

I have a Ryzen 3900X (so no APU/iGPU) + 32GB + RTX3080, and just tried the 6.3VE USB installer.

A quick looks at the X server logs shows "cannot run in framebuffer mode". Upon Googling I see a thread in this very forum: https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/proxmox-6-2-installation-failed.70988/

However, that seems to 1) suggest installer won't work at all with an Nvidia card, and 2) seems to be from June (and therefore pre v6.3)

Is this still the case? I'd rather not have to use the Debian setup workaround, and I don't have any non-Nvidia cards.

 

[leesteken]

I think that the installer supports all GPUs that the open-source nouveau driver of Debian supports at the time of creating the installer.
That particular GPU is newer than the Proxmox installer, and I think that proprietary NVidia drivers are never included in the installer.

 

[Ramalama]

Doesn't the installer have an text based setup?
This should work.

 

[marcosscriven]

Doesn't the installer have an text based setup?
This should work.

Interesting - do you know how I can start that please? It’s not mentioned in the instructions.

 

[Ramalama]

You have right, just checked, there is no such option in the proxmox installer....

But a normal debian 10 iso has this...

Maybe @t.lamprecht @tom can help.
A textbased installer is in many cases super usefull.

The only idea i can provide is, installing debian 10 server and go through the howto to make proxmox out of it.

Cheers

 

[ph0x]

Or put either the disks in another computer or another GPU in this one, just for the install.

 

[t.lamprecht]

Yeah, this is highly probably due to that card being very new and NVIDIA not being nice towards Open Source/Linux, to put it nicely.

I have a text based, or possibly even headless (through webinterface/ssh) as optional installation in my mind since quite a bit, but the installer would need some major refactoring to make this work out, and the devs being able to do that without breaking that critical piece are buried in quite a bit of work already. So I would not hold my breath for this coming in 6.x releases, but maybe some time can be found for a future 7.x release.

Or put either the disks in another computer or another GPU in this one, just for the install.

That is always an option, as is using the good old Debian installer which has a text mode, see:
https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Install_Proxmox_VE_on_Debian_Buster

 

[Milan Djabirov]

This is a actually a pretty major issue. A working installer should be high on a priority list - I have issues now with the 5.11 kernel installer where my GPU passthrough is no longer working and trying to use the default one would fail on my Ampere GPUs.

 

[ph0x]

If you're going to use brand new hardware of a manufacturer who's doing a bad job supporting open operating systems, then this is actually your fault.
It used to be and still is a good idea to skip a hardware generation if you're going to use it with Linux. The installer will not be your last issue with Ampere GPUs, I promise.

 

[Milan Djabirov]

Ampere GPUs are now almost a year old. I actually pass them thru to a Windows VM. The installer not working because of a new GPU is a major problem - this is the official installer, it can't just fail because you put in a new GPU.

 

[Milan Djabirov]

I just tried adding an old Nvidia NVS510 GPU (tested and working in another system) and while the installer progressed further to where it's supposed to show the X gui, the end result is a blank screen. Any way the installer can be run on its own on anything but a mid 2010s GPU? I really don't want to be installing Debian, just to recover Proxmox 6 on a 5.14 kernel.

 

[Milan Djabirov]

Who can help with the failing 6.4 installer? I tried Debian but it downloads the latest packages and it causes the same issue (Ampere passthrough mysteriously no longer working - blank screen without even a splash screen at startup). I need a 6.3 or original 6.4 install as I believe the latest virt libraries break my Ampere GPU passthrough. Not having a basic text installer is a major liability that was raised a couple of years back. Please, suggest a workaround that installs an older version.

p.s. Using the 6.4/5.11 kernel is not an option either as it replicates my issue. Only an older version had pt working.