File '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found : installation on HP Proliant DL360p g8

[mas]

Hi there,
I'm new to Proxmox but not to linux. Time ago I bought an HP Proliant DL360p g8 and now I'm trying to install Proxmox. Possibly the capabilities of such machine can be over my knowledge.
I managed to install Windows with a little of trouble but succesfull on a SSD 480gb

Now as testing and before to reset the SSD I'm trying to install new systems on 2 HDD 4TB. It is a temp installation because I'd like to use this HDD for a NAS.

My installation process is using an USB dongle as per any standard pc/laptops

The installation proces takes ages so far at the first attempts I though there was something wrong. With a little research and patience I understood it was normal situation and I managed to install it on the partitioned HDD. My installation was done on the first partition of 480GB keeping the default settings during installation.

After several hours (I think about 6hrs) the installation ended. I did not restart the machine right away.

At the first start of the machine (without USB Dongle, I assume it is not needed as usual) the process halt at grub with the error
File '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found

Considering the amount of hours required for installation (it is normal first of all) I hope to be able to fix it.

Does anyone have some hints?

Is there any SW setting of the machine itself I should verify prior installtion? This machine has the HPE management suits to tune the machine settings beside the OS installation.

Thanks a lot for your support. The greater frustration is the installation time which not allow many random tries before getting the right one

Cheers

[Partial solution]
I played with the hdd managemet feature from HP setting the first partition as bootable. Now the system boots but can't access the online address. If I log as root at the cli, system doesn't show the prompt to digit any command...]

 

[dblanchard]

I have the exact same issue, also on an HP ProLiant, but on a DL380p Gen8. It took forever to install (have tried twice using two different USB drives, installing once using the GUI and once with console). I have been able to install straight Debian with no issue, but only did that to see if GRUB had some issue. I'm not a complete Linux noob, but am absolutely new to ProxMox and also new to server hardware.

I get the error in the image below, which does have a grub rescue prompt and I'll pursue online resources on how to leverage that next.



In case it helps in getting an answer, the server is not connected to any network, and possibly ProxMox needs an Internet connection to pull some drivers or something. I'll work on that, but it will take a few days. The server had ESXi installed when I bought it (two days ago) and booted with no issue. I want to learn ProxMox, so....

The server has a 500GB SSD installed in the lower right drive bay that I'm using for the OS and installation does create a 1GB paging partition on that drive. Aside from the SSD, I have six 1.2TB SAS drives, which I don't think are set up in any way for ProxMox to see/use them, but I don't know.

I also have two Dell PowerEdge 610 servers that I can use for troubleshooting. Perhaps I can install ProxMox on one of those and then copy files that are missing on the ProLiant from the PowerEdge.

I would really love any help here.

 

[dblanchard]

I'm trying commands at the GRUB rescue prompt and am able to ls the drives. I see hd0 with two partitions, each with unknown filesystems and (lvm,pve-root) which is ext2 and (lvm/pve-swap) which has an unknown filesystem. None of the partitions list any contents when I ls them, only the filesystem gets listed.

The search command is not found.

 

[dblanchard]

Good news, I rebooted, and ProxMox came up with no issue.