Can proxmox run on this old pc?

[qu4k3r]

Hi everybody.

I have an old pc which still works fine and I'd like to use it to host some VMs:
a)pfsense (as dual wan router/firewall becuase I got 2 isp's at home)
b)nas4free (as nas and torrent client)
c)win 8.1 x86 (to run WGC cruncher client)

PC specs are:
cpu: Q6600 2.4ghz
ram: 8GB ddr3-1333mhz
mobo: gigabyte x48t-dq6 (with on board dual gigabit realtek 8111c)
storage: wd 80gb (sata) + wd 320gb (ide)
extra nic: realtek 8139c 10/100mbit (pci)

As you can see it has 3 network adapters, 2 for dual wan interface and 1 for lan.

So I have a couple of doubts:
1)Does proxmox recognize these network adapters? Or must I do something additional to make them work properly?
2)Does proxmox recognize IDE hard drives?

I ask all that because time ago I tried to install esxi on this machine, but it was a real headache because esxi does not recognize none of these network adapters. I did a research and found that esxi iso must be customized with old drivers, but trying to do it I found issues again and again. I finally found a custom iso with realtek drivers which works with 8111c but not with 8139c. After that, I tried to add a datastore on ide drive but it doesn't appear on the list of available drives despite of it is recognized by motherboard bios, so I tried by changing jumper position master/slave/cs but no success.

I know this an old desktop pc with hardware which maybe is not designed for this purpose, but I
want to give it a useful use. So I'd like to hear your opinions, comments, advices, etc. Thanks a lot.-

 

[Tahsin]

You will not have any issues with 8111c nics, shouldnt have issues with the 8139 either. if it doesnt you can always 'apt' it. As for IDE no idea.

 

[LnxBil]

Does proxmox recognize IDE hard drives?

Yes, it works. Just try it out via installing PVE inside of PVE with IDE as the only device.

 

[qu4k3r]

... if it doesnt you can always 'apt' it. As for IDE no idea.

Thanks.
I guess 'Apt' means console or command line right?
For example: ubuntu "apt sudo install..."?

Just try it out via installing PVE inside of PVE with IDE as the only device.

Thanks.
Sorry but I'm not sure about what does it mean.
"Install proxmox inside of proxmox"?
"With IDE as the only device" means I will not be able to use both SATA and IDE drives at the same time?

 

[LnxBil]

"Install proxmox inside of proxmox"?

Yes, IDE always works. You can try it out in PVE itself with PVE. SATA and IDE also work at the same time. In almost all cases, Linux does everything better than any other OS you worked with in the past, so don't worry.

 

[LnxBil]

Have you tried to install PVE already? I presume everything's going to work just fine.

 

[qu4k3r]

Not yet, actually I'm downloading the ISO v5.1-3 and watching videos on youtube about how to install on PVE all VM's I have running on esxi

From what I have been able to see it is quite similar, it changes the interface, some names and the location of the things but the principle is the same

 

[qu4k3r]

Hi, I'm back

I tried to install PVE several times but after installation finishes and then reboot, always got the same error shown in attached image. Any idea of what's wrong? Thanks in advance.-

 

[fabian]

there is no real error there:
- the initrd does not support LVM thin and tells you so, but you don't need LVM thin support at that stage of the boot process
- the pcspkr module always prints that silly message, but it also does not affect booting in any way

maybe you can remove the 'quiet' parameter and get more info that way?

 

[qu4k3r]

Thanks for your response.

But the problem is when PVE boots, it doesn't go further than that message.

And I point my browser to the address assigned to PVE host but does not load.

maybe you can remove the 'quiet' parameter and get more info that way?

Ok, I selected first option from dropdown menu then press 'e', entered into a text editor, removed "quiet" and pressed F10.

and now it goes until here, and still cannot login by typing the ip address in the browser

 

[sienar]

nouveau is the open source nvidia display driver, could possibly be a problem with the GPU you have in the system. Any idea what GPU you have in there?

 

[qu4k3r]

It's seven years old GTX570 which I used to play with. I removed it from my other pc because it shows a lot of artifacts and lost video signal from time to time. I know its useful life is almost over but it actually works fine with esxi, I mean being an output console should not be a problem because is not demanding job I think.

 

[sienar]

Sounds like it's a damaged GPU. I've seen systems in the past work fine with a GPU until an actual GPU driver tries to load. So I bet ESXi isn't trying to initialize the GPU with an actual GPU driver like the nouveau driver does as if a GUI is going to be loaded. Try to boot in single user mode and disable nouveau, I don't think you need it for just displaying the console.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/841876/how-to-disable-nouveau-kernel-driver