Can't access anything after dist-update

[Stephen Gibson]

Hi guys,

I have been using Proxmox for about a year, all my containers have been using Ubuntu 16.04 so never really had a problem. I tried to use Ubuntu 20.04 for a container and had some errors (of which I never took note of) but Google led me to believe that Proxmox needed updated since, well it was old. Pretty sure I was on a version of 5.

After swapping to the non subscription repository, I ran

apt dist-update

. It then asked me to confirm the removal of proxmox-ve and this is where I think it all went tits up. After the update, I attempted to run pveam and it said the command could not be found. I thought, fair enough, probably need to renter shell if something has changed. I exited shell, still the same. However, at this time, my containers where still working just fine.

So in my infinite wisdom, I decided to reboot the entire system.

Now it's completely goosed. Can't access the web GUI or any of the containers via ssh or web GUIs. I think I have nuked it.

I don't even know how to begin trying to recover the system. There is nothing important on it, I don't use it for storage. It's only used for basic hosting, pihole, vpn as well as a reverse proxy. I often spin up a Kali VM or a Ubuntu container to compile code. Basically, nothing is lost except time if the easiest option is to nuke it and reinstall.

The hypervisor is installed on a Dell R710 R720 with an iDrac card, however I currently don't have a system configured to access this via legacy Java dist. So again, another pain to deal with I would like to avoid.

How would I start to fix this?

 

[oguz]

hi,

surely you mean dist-upgrade ?

. It then asked me to confirm the removal of proxmox-ve and this is where I think it all went tits up.

indeed. did you have an extra repository set up? it can cause conflicts with our packages...

Now it's completely goosed. Can't access the web GUI or any of the containers via ssh or web GUIs. I think I have nuked it.

the packages are uninstalled, it's quite normal

How would I start to fix this?

start by posting the output of cat /etc/apt/sources.list*/*. what we could do is something like this:
1. fix the repositories (revert back to default debian repositories matching your current release version, stretch or buster)
2. install PVE on top [0] (change 'Buster' to 'Stretch' in link if you're still on stretch)
3. update to latest package versions
4. upgrade to PVE 6 [1]

it's definitely fixable but if you don't want to spend time on it then you can just reinstall (maybe copy the backups you made previously to save some data)

[0]: https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Install_Proxmox_VE_on_Debian_Buster
[1]: https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Upgrade_from_5.x_to_6.0#In-place_upgrade

 

[Stephen Gibson]

Thanks for the reply! Yes, I did mean dist-upgrade .

indeed. did you have an extra repository set up? it can cause conflicts with our packages...

Yep. I removed the enterprise repo from /etc/apt/sources.list.d/enterprise something file and I then added the non subscription repository to the /etc/apt/sources.list as instructed on the Wiki.

the packages are uninstalled, it's quite normal

Yeah I assumed proxmox-ve package is the core package with all the dependencies lol.

start by posting the output.....

I guess I'll need to connect via iDrac shell, get into the OS and do all these steps. I should have done more reading on upgrading from 5 to 6 before going ham fisted to this.

(maybe copy the backups you made previously to save some data)

Haha nice of you to assume I done such a thing! Like I said, pretty basic containers and all the other ones are literally throw away. Except my Jenkins VM, that one was probably worthy of a backup . Aw well. Live and learn.

 

[oguz]

Yep. I removed the enterprise repo from /etc/apt/sources.list.d/enterprise something file and I then added the non subscription repository to the /etc/apt/sources.list as instructed on the Wiki.

is it possible you added the wrong repository? i.e. buster repo on stretch ? these repositories should not be mixed.

 

[Stephen Gibson]

So, yeah. I have a feeling I may have accidentally commented out the main repository.

 

[oguz]

enable the pve-no-subscription repository and the main debian repository. then run apt update, please post the full output here

 

[Stephen Gibson]

Right, sorry for late reply! Had to fix DNS since the pve host was using a container as a DNS provider -_-.

Not sure what the deal is with the public key error.

EDIT: Sorry, just got SSH working so no more screenshots!

 

[Stephen Gibson]

Fixed the pub key error by adding the following key:

wget [URL]http://download.proxmox.com/debian/proxmox-ve-release-6.x.gpg[/URL] -O /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/proxmox-ve-release-6.x.gpg

I shall reinstall the packages and then come back, I assume we need to do some sort of configuration changes to get the new version of PVE to recognize the discs/network bridge/containers/vms from a previous install. I've not ready the upgrade Wiki article yet, will get to it.

 

[Stephen Gibson]

OK. Thanks for the help so far!

I have managed to reinstall the missing packages and can now connect to the web GUI. However, I seem to have a version 6.x of the web GUI despite not upgrading anything. I simply installed the packages using APT.

Is there anything I have to do to ensure a full 6.x upgrade? Or did that just sort of happen as part of the installation?

 

[oguz]

I have managed to reinstall the missing packages and can now connect to the web GUI. However, I seem to have a version 6.x of the web GUI despite not upgrading anything. I simply installed the packages using APT.

since you deleted the whole package and reinstalled it from the buster repository, it installed the new version...

can you post the output of pveversion -v ?