[SOLVED] Can't install ProxMox 6.x inside Virtualbox

[hybrid512]

Hi,

I just wanted to quickly setup a small lab to testbed some ProxMox setup within Virtualbox but the installation keeps failing whatever the settings I try.

I don't want to do something serious with this setup, this is just for test and demo purpose.
Here is my setup :
* Linux Ubuntu 19.10 desktop
* Virtualbox 6.1.10 (latest at this time)
* ProxMox ISO 6.0, 6.1, 6.2

They all fail but strangely, not at the same moment depending on the ISO.

You'll find attached 3 screen captures with respectively 6.0, 6.1 and 6.2 ISO and their failure message.
As you can see, they don't fail at the same moment but they allways fail at that precise moment for each ISO.

Any idea ?

 

[t.lamprecht]

Hi.

You could try to switch over to the other TTY with CTRL+ALT+F2 to get a glimpse of the possible "real" error once you see this error.
Could be a too small disk.

Also, maybe check: https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Proxmox_VE_inside_VirtualBox

 

[hybrid512]

Hi.

You could try to switch over to the other TTY with CTRL+ALT+F2 to get a glimpse of the possible "real" error once you see this error.
Could be a too small disk.

Also, maybe check: https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Proxmox_VE_inside_VirtualBox

Damn ... you're right !
I was using a 8GB drive (this was the default value from Virtualobx and I thought this was enough for a base install).
Using a 12GB hard drive fixed the issue.

Thanks for your help.

 

[t.lamprecht]

Glad you solved it.

I was using a 8GB drive (this was the default value from Virtualobx and I thought this was enough for a base install).

For just our root data it should be enough, but by default we create a LVM volume group, and split that up for root and some VM data and swap - if those extra LVs are substracted from the 8GB storage the root partition probably had only less than 4 GB or so available which then failed. We should probably check this, or adapt the check to the current requirement.

 

[hybrid512]

That's a good point.
This is a question I wanted to ask too ... Is it possible to disable that LVM group for VMs completely at install time ?
It is useless to me since I'm using Ceph and other shared storage solutions so I'd like to remove this completely and reclaim that space for some other usage.
I guess I can do that afterwards but would be nice to be able to not create it at first when not needed.

 

[t.lamprecht]

Just remembered: We take also 512 MiB out for an EFI partition, even for non EFI systems to allow switching if/once necessary.

You can limit it in the installer on the disk selection step if you click on "Options" there.
You can set "maxvz" to 0 there if you do. If you want to leave unpartitioned space on the root disk, you can also lower "hdsize".

 

[hybrid512]

Just remembered: We take also 512 MiB out for an EFI partition, even for non EFI systems to allow switching if/once necessary.

You can limit it in the installer on the disk selection step if you click on "Options" there.
You can set "maxvz" to 0 there if you do. If you want to leave unpartitioned space on the root disk, you can also lower "hdsize".

Wow, 512MB just for EFI ? Isn't it a bit big ? But ok, good to know.

Thanks for the maxvz option !
Maybe something more explicit would be welcome such as a simple checkbox "Create default LVM storage for VMs/CTs" or something to enable/disable this feature would be a nice addition.

Thanks anyway

 

[t.lamprecht]

Wow, 512MB just for EFI ? Isn't it a bit big ? But ok, good to know.

The "EFI System Partition" will hold all bootable kernels, the EFI specification doesn't have clear recommendation but implicit some OS require at minimum 256 MB and some seem to even need more than 500 MB - so you'll have such a partition on all modern operating systems with EFI support.
Going for 512MB allows to have multiple kernels on the boot partition, which helps on updating as one can go back to the older one if the upgrade failed or the new Kernel introduces a regression.
Also, a single 512 MB partition isn't that much nowadays where one can get 1TB SSDs for about 100 bucks, so better be future proof than doing some space optimization saving at max 256 MB. Just to give some more rationale