[SOLVED] Cannot install PVE as UEFI OS

[promoxer]

While reinstalling PVE, I was able to install it as an UEFI OS on a Transcend SSD but not on my Kingston SSD SV300S37A120G.
I'm able to differentiate because the BIOS selections will prefix with UEFI OS.

Also checked that Windows 10 had no issues installing itself on Kingston as an UEFI OS.
Also checked that there was no newer firmware for this Kingston.

At the end of the PVE install, it says

bootloader setup errors:
- failed to prepare EFI boot using Grub on '/dev/sda2': unable to install the EFI boot loader on '/dev/sda'

Even though there was this error, PVE was still able to boot (non UEFI) after a restarting

There was another thread about making the Kingston the only UEFI bootable device, but that did not have an effect for me
https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/proxmox-7-0-failed-to-prepare-efi.95466/

2 reasons why this is of interest to me:

1. What's wrong with my Kingston? (Can it happen to my other storage?)
2. Does UEFI play a role in making GPU passthrough less hassle? (in my UEFI PVE, I did not had to configure anything for GPU passthrough to work)

 

[promoxer]

EFI variables was clogged up with dump entries

1. While installing PVE, press ctrl + alt + F3
2. Ran rm /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/dump-* to fix
3. ctrl + alt + F4 to switch back to installer

BE CAREFUL IF YOU ARE GOING TO TRY THIS, REMOVING THE WRONG ENTRIES COULD BREAK YOUR MACHINE

 

[kevinivek]

EFI variables was clogged up with dump entries

1. While installing PVE, press ctrl + alt + F3
2. Ran rm /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/dump-* to fix
3. ctrl + alt + F4 to switch back to installer

BE CAREFUL IF YOU ARE GOING TO TRY THIS, REMOVING THE WRONG ENTRIES COULD BREAK YOUR MACHINE

Thx a lot!!! It works for me.

 

[boopzz]

This also worked for me, I must've had about 80 dump files in there. Legend!

 

[fdgdfglkjflkjlwkdw]

EFI variables was clogged up with dump entries

1. While installing PVE, press ctrl + alt + F3
2. Ran rm /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/dump-* to fix

When should this be done? There are no `/sys/firmware/efi/efivars/dump-*` files

 

[bryanpedini]

When should this be done? There are no `/sys/firmware/efi/efivars/dump-*` files

IIRC efi variables are stored in the motherboard nvram, they're entrypoints to your os bootstrap, if you reinstall a lot, and you reinstall systems that do not reuse variables, you could end up with no space left to insert another entry to boot your last installation of [something] - if you don't perform a fresh windows install every 3 months (as it seems needed for that stupid os to work because it breaks itself randomly, but I digress) or something similar, you shouldn't encounter this issue.

 

[fdgdfglkjflkjlwkdw]

IIRC efi variables are stored in the motherboard nvram, they're entrypoints to your os bootstrap, if you reinstall a lot, and you reinstall systems that do not reuse variables, you could end up with no space left to insert another entry to boot your last installation of [something] - if you don't perform a fresh windows install every 3 months (as it seems needed for that stupid os to work because it breaks itself randomly, but I digress) or something similar, you shouldn't encounter this issue.

Thanks.
in my case (Dell Inspiron 3050)

• deleted all UEFI entries
• disabled secure boot
• erased both SSD's partition table with dd
• UEFI boot from PVE USB

there were no dump-* files, but insllation always fails at the end with this `bootloader setup errors`. Eventually I gave up and switched to installation from legacy boot, which worked without any issues

 

[bsm9]

EFI variables was clogged up with dump entries

1. While installing PVE, press ctrl + alt + F3
2. Ran rm /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/dump-* to fix
3. ctrl + alt + F4 to switch back to installer

BE CAREFUL IF YOU ARE GOING TO TRY THIS, REMOVING THE WRONG ENTRIES COULD BREAK YOUR MACHINE

This really saved me I never would have figured it out otherwise! I even took out the motherboard cmos battery for a couple hours and then tried again, but it stil didn't work. Thanks!!!

 

[promoxer]

Welcome. I'm glad the steps have helped.

 

[HanzoHuang]

Thanks.
in my case (Dell Inspiron 3050)

• deleted all UEFI entries
• disabled secure boot
• erased both SSD's partition table with dd
• UEFI boot from PVE USB

there were no dump-* files, but insllation always fails at the end with this `bootloader setup errors`. Eventually I gave up and switched to installation from legacy boot, which worked without any issues

I have the same problem, it now working on legacy boot. But I really want to use UEFI.

 

[promoxer]

Run this, how much Use% remaining?

# df -h
Filesystem               Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
...
efivarfs                 256K  149K  103K  60% /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
...

 

[HanzoHuang]

Run this, how much Use% remaining?

# df -h
Filesystem               Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
...
efivarfs                 256K  149K  103K  60% /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
...

It worked after I installed it five times.

 

[promoxer]

Without an answer to my question, it is hard to tell why it worked after 5 times.

 

[HanzoHuang]

Without an answer to my question, it is hard to tell why it worked after 5 times.

It works now, so if next time there is still problem, I will do it. Thanks a lot.