Can't get Proxmox to boot

[jbergen]

Hi,

I'm fairly new to proxmox and I'm trying to install it on one of my servers, but it seems to always hang after "loading initial ramdisk" line comes up. And I've not been able to figure myself out yet with the threads I've gone through on this forum so I hope someone can help me. The specs for the system are as follows:

Motherboard: Asus Pro WS WRX80E-SAGE SE WIFI
CPU: AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 3955WX
RAM: 32GB ECC

I have tried updating my BIOS to the latest version, tried using different USBs, tried using proxmox versions 6, 7, and 8 with all the same results. I have also tried enabling "nomodest" as some threads recommended but that didn't' change anything either. I have also tried the memtest tools and no errors showed up. I have attached a screenshot of the few lines that show up for a second before the proxmox gui comes up, the proxmox gui that does show up, as well as a screenshot of where it hangs. I'm sure I must be missing something since it doesn't work with any proxmox version, but I can't figure it out. My guess is something to do with the first few lines that show up for a second.

 

[gfngfn256]

To me it looks like that some older pre-installed OS is trying to boot incorrectly. You don't provide details on what Storage medium you are trying to install. I'd remove any older disk/s from the server, & only attach a completely wiped disk for the installation.

 

[jbergen]

Oh, sorry. But to answer your question, I currently have two NVMe SSDs in the system so I can mirror the proxmox installation on them. But yes, one previously had a different OS on it. I assumed I would be able to wipe it during the installation of proxmox, but I will try wiping it manually and getting back to you on whether that solved my problem. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[gfngfn256]

I assumed I would be able to wipe it during the installation of proxmox

Your assumption is correct. But some times - depending on boot situation/settings (BIOS UEFI etc.) this may cause a problem.

 

[jbergen]

I have tried using Secure Erase from within the BIOS on both SSDs now, and no progress. But I had to do this via the remote management since I'm not home at the moment. So I'll taking them out and using a different physical machine to format them again to see if that solves the problem then next week when I have physical access again.

 

[jbergen]

I've taken both SSDs out now and manually reformated them as well, but no luck. Looking around in my BIOS, I see a "Key Management" option under secure boot. Is it safe to delete all Secure Boot keys? Would that help?

 

[jbergen]

I've tried some more things now, maybe this gives you ideas on what the issue could be. I went and enabled CSM in my BIOS and set everything to legacy only as shown in this screenshot below.

After that, when booting from the USB the message changed slightly as shown by the screenshot below, but it brought me to the proxmox menu again.

So I tried using the "Install Proxmox VE (Graphical, Debug Mode)" option and it gave me the following error.

I rebooted and hit "e" to edit the entry and removed the vga 788 and replaced it with "set gfxpayload..." which did then get past the loading initial ramdisk stage, but that brought me to the following error.

 

[jbergen]

Found this thread but unplugging and plugging back in didn't work for me. And I did use Balena Etcher to create the USB. Perhaps I should try using ventoy.

 

[insomniac]

Disable CSM, enable UEFI+Legacy if you can.. otherwise UEFI only should work.

 

[jbergen]

I have disabled CSM again, but I don't see any way to do Legacy mode. The only options under Secure Boot are OS Type which I have set to "Other OS" and Key management. And now I'm trying Ventoy now, but after switching to UEFI the installation always hangs after "loading initial ramdisk". Even when I use the debug mode. Switching to Ventoy didn't change anything, still had the same errors when using CSM as well.

 

[insomniac]

What options are there when CSM is enabled? Perhaps CSM has to be enabled and then you can select UEFI?

 

[jbergen]

The bottom 3 settings all have the exact same 3 options so I only took a screenshot of them once. But these are the options I get when enabling CSM.

 

[insomniac]

Ahh yes, I would try Boot Device Control: UEFI and Legacy OPROM

 

[jbergen]

So I've set that setting accordingly now, and when I set the boot order to boot from the non-UEFI version of the bootloader first and load up the Proxmox installer in "normal mode" through Ventoy and not "Grub2" mode. Then I can select the debug option and change the settings of the installer to remove "vga788" and type "set gfxpayload=800x600x16,800x600" after which it ends up at the screenshot I have attached here.

If instead in the boot order I select the UEFI version of the USB installer, then after a few seconds of showing "loading initial ramdisk" the screen just goes dark, no matter whether I use debug or not, grub2 or normal, or change the vga to gfxpayload. And it never comes back up. I'm wondering do I perhaps need a dedicated GPU to at least install it once and then can run it without again? Or do I have to try the complicated method of installing Debian first and then installing Proxmox on top of that?

 

[cwt]

Is „Fast Boot“ disabled? The mainboard is also known for various boot problems with older BIOS and BMC versions in combination with Linux installations. If any newer firmware is available I would recommend to update it.

You could also try the kernel commandline: pci=nommconf

 

[jbergen]

Looks like somewhere I must've re-enabled Fast Boot because I know I disabled it at least once during troubleshooting, but turned it off again. I completely updated the BIOS and BMC to ensure those weren't problems. However the command line you suggested seems to have gotten it working!! I've gotten it to install and I can access the web interface. Thanks so much for all your help!! Y'all are seriously amazing!!

Question though, if my server ever needs to reboot, will I have to use any of these commands again to bring it back up now that it's installed?
Also side note, sucks that I only now found out my motherboard doesn't play well with Proxmox, but so it goes I guess. But anyway thanks again so very much for your help!!

 

[gfngfn256]

This discussion may help you.

 

[jbergen]

Thanks! I'll try doing what's suggested there to hopefully prevent further issues. Appreciate your help!

 

[jolene]

Maybe I am not doing it right, but I have the same problem.

Enter the recovery boot, login with the root user, edit my /etc/default/grub and change

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet"

to `

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet pci=nommconf"

`, then run `update-grub` and reboot.

I see no effect, still the same.

 

[jbergen]

I'm pretty new to Proxmox as well so I'm not sure I can help the best, but a couple things to note is that I had an issue during the installation. And also I'm using ZFS for my Proxmox boot drives as well so I had to change a different file according to that reddit thread.