[SOLVED] Help with "You are attempting to remove the meta-package 'proxmox-ve'!" error on pve-manager 8.2.7

G

gellge

New Member
Dec 14, 2024
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Hi all!

I've been using Proxmox VE with no subscription repos in my homelab for a while: thanks for the amazing work on this product, and the community behind it.

Today I went to update my homelab after some time. Refreshed the repository packages and clicked "Upgrade". Confirmed the upgrade and was met with the infamous You are attempting to remove the meta-package 'proxmox-ve'! error.

I did attempt some light troubleshooting: I've found out that I did not have any Ceph repository configured and, according to another post in this forum, they are required even when Ceph is not used (as is my case). Adding them and running apt update and apt dist-upgrade did not fix the issue.
I did not venture further on my own as I cannot afford to mess up the system currently.

Below are some command outputs that were commonly asked in similar threads, obviously I can provide more upon request.

Output pveversion -v:
Bash: 
proxmox-ve: 8.2.0 (running kernel: 6.8.12-3-pve)
pve-manager: 8.2.7 (running version: 8.2.7/3e0176e6bb2ade3b)
proxmox-kernel-helper: 8.1.0
pve-kernel-5.15: 7.4-13
proxmox-kernel-6.8: 6.8.12-3
proxmox-kernel-6.8.12-3-pve-signed: 6.8.12-3
proxmox-kernel-6.8.12-1-pve-signed: 6.8.12-1
proxmox-kernel-6.8.8-3-pve-signed: 6.8.8-3
proxmox-kernel-6.8.8-2-pve-signed: 6.8.8-2
proxmox-kernel-6.8.4-3-pve-signed: 6.8.4-3
pve-kernel-5.4: 6.4-20
pve-kernel-5.15.152-1-pve: 5.15.152-1
pve-kernel-5.4.203-1-pve: 5.4.203-1
pve-kernel-5.4.195-1-pve: 5.4.195-1
pve-kernel-5.4.34-1-pve: 5.4.34-2
ceph-fuse: 16.2.11+ds-2
corosync: 3.1.7-pve3
criu: 3.17.1-2
glusterfs-client: 10.3-5
ifupdown: residual config
ifupdown2: 3.2.0-1+pmx9
ksm-control-daemon: 1.5-1
libjs-extjs: 7.0.0-4
libknet1: 1.28-pve1
libproxmox-acme-perl: 1.5.1
libproxmox-backup-qemu0: 1.4.1
libproxmox-rs-perl: 0.3.4
libpve-access-control: 8.1.4
libpve-apiclient-perl: 3.3.2
libpve-cluster-api-perl: 8.0.8
libpve-cluster-perl: 8.0.8
libpve-common-perl: 8.2.5
libpve-guest-common-perl: 5.1.4
libpve-http-server-perl: 5.1.2
libpve-network-perl: 0.9.8
libpve-rs-perl: 0.8.10
libpve-storage-perl: 8.2.5
libqb0: 1.0.5-1
libspice-server1: 0.15.1-1
lvm2: 2.03.16-2
lxc-pve: 6.0.0-1
lxcfs: 6.0.0-pve2
novnc-pve: 1.4.0-4
proxmox-backup-client: 3.2.7-1
proxmox-backup-file-restore: 3.2.7-1
proxmox-firewall: 0.5.0
proxmox-kernel-helper: 8.1.0
proxmox-mail-forward: 0.2.3
proxmox-mini-journalreader: 1.4.0
proxmox-offline-mirror-helper: 0.6.7
proxmox-widget-toolkit: 4.2.4
pve-cluster: 8.0.8
pve-container: 5.2.0
pve-docs: 8.2.3
pve-edk2-firmware: 4.2023.08-4
pve-esxi-import-tools: 0.7.2
pve-firewall: 5.0.7
pve-firmware: 3.14-1
pve-ha-manager: 4.0.5
pve-i18n: 3.2.4
pve-qemu-kvm: 9.0.2-3
pve-xtermjs: 5.3.0-3
qemu-server: 8.2.4
smartmontools: 7.3-pve1
spiceterm: 3.3.0
swtpm: 0.8.0+pve1
vncterm: 1.8.0
zfsutils-linux: 2.2.6-pve1


Output apt dist-upgrade:
Bash: 
Starting system upgrade: apt-get dist-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  bsdmainutils exfat-fuse gsfonts libboost-context1.74.0 libboost-coroutine1.74.0
  libboost-filesystem1.74.0 libboost-iostreams1.74.0 libboost-program-options1.74.0
  libboost-thread1.74.0 libbpf0 libcbor0 libcupsfilters1 libcupsimage2
  libdns-export1110 libexif12 libgs9-common libicu67 libisc-export1105 libleveldb1d
  libmariadb3 libmpdec3 libnetpbm10 libntfs-3g883 libopts25 libperl5.32 libprocps8
  libprotobuf23 libpython3.11 libpython3.9 libpython3.9-minimal libpython3.9-stdlib
  libsnmp30 libtiff5 libtsk13 liburing1 libwebp6 libyara3 libyara4 libzpool4linux
  linux-image-4.19.0-26-amd64 linux-image-5.10.0-30-amd64
  linux-image-6.1.0-21-amd64 linux-image-6.1.0-22-amd64 mariadb-common mysql-common
  perl-modules-5.32 proxmox-kernel-6.8.4-3-pve-signed
  proxmox-kernel-6.8.8-2-pve-signed proxmox-kernel-6.8.8-3-pve-signed
  proxmox-kernel-helper pve-kernel-5.4.195-1-pve pve-kernel-5.4.203-1-pve
  python3-ldb python3-talloc python3.9 python3.9-minimal sgabios telnet
Use 'apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  proxmox-default-kernel proxmox-kernel-6.8 proxmox-ve pve-firmware pve-kernel-5.15
  pve-kernel-5.4
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  firmware-linux-free libdouble-conversion3 liblttng-ust-common1 liblttng-ust-ctl5
  liblttng-ust1 libpcre2-16-0 libpve-network-api-perl libqt5core5a libqt5dbus5
  libqt5network5 librdkafka1 librgw2 libthrift-0.17.0 linux-image-6.1.0-28-amd64
  python3-rgw qttranslations5-l10n shared-mime-info
The following packages will be upgraded:
  base-files bsdextrautils bsdutils btrfs-progs ceph-common ceph-fuse curl
  distro-info-data eject fdisk filebeat ghostscript ifupdown2 ipmitool iputils-ping
  libarchive13 libblkid1 libc-bin libc-dev-bin libc-devtools libc-l10n libc6
  libc6-dev libcephfs2 libcurl3-gnutls libcurl4 libfdisk1 libglib2.0-0 libgs-common
  libgs10 libgs10-common libgs9-common libjs-extjs libmount1 libmpg123-0
  libnghttp2-14 libnss-systemd libnss3 libntfs-3g89 libpam-systemd
  libpve-access-control libpve-cluster-api-perl libpve-cluster-perl
  libpve-common-perl libpve-guest-common-perl libpve-network-perl
  libpve-notify-perl libpve-rs-perl libpve-storage-perl libpython3.11
  libpython3.11-minimal libpython3.11-stdlib librados2 libradosstriper1 librbd1
  libsmartcols1 libsqlite3-0 libssl3 libsystemd-shared libsystemd0 libudev1
  libuuid1 libvirt-l10n libvirt0 linux-image-amd64 linux-libc-dev locales mount
  novnc-pve ntfs-3g openssl proxmox-archive-keyring proxmox-backup-client
  proxmox-backup-file-restore proxmox-firewall proxmox-mail-forward
  proxmox-widget-toolkit pve-cluster pve-container pve-docs pve-firewall
  pve-ha-manager pve-i18n pve-manager pve-qemu-kvm python3-ceph-argparse
  python3-ceph-common python3-cephfs python3-rados python3-rbd python3.11
  python3.11-minimal qemu-server sqlite3 systemd systemd-sysv tzdata udev
  util-linux util-linux-extra uuid-runtime
101 upgraded, 17 newly installed, 6 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/266 MB of archives.
After this operation, 145 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
W: (pve-apt-hook) !! WARNING !!
W: (pve-apt-hook) You are attempting to remove the meta-package 'proxmox-ve'!
W: (pve-apt-hook)
W: (pve-apt-hook) If you really want to permanently remove 'proxmox-ve' from your system, run the following command
W: (pve-apt-hook)       touch '/please-remove-proxmox-ve'
W: (pve-apt-hook) run apt purge proxmox-ve to remove the meta-package
W: (pve-apt-hook) and repeat your apt invocation.
W: (pve-apt-hook)
W: (pve-apt-hook) If you are unsure why 'proxmox-ve' would be removed, please verify
W: (pve-apt-hook)       - your APT repository settings
W: (pve-apt-hook)       - that you are using 'apt full-upgrade' to upgrade your system
E: Sub-process /usr/share/proxmox-ve/pve-apt-hook returned an error code (1)
E: Failure running script /usr/share/proxmox-ve/pve-apt-hook

System not fully up to date (found 113 new packages)

Output head -n-0 /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*:
Bash: 
==> /etc/apt/sources.list <==
deb http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib
deb http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib

# PVE pve-no-subscription repository provided by proxmox.com,
# NOT recommended for production use
deb http://download.proxmox.com/debian/pve bookworm pve-no-subscription

# security updates
deb http://security.debian.org bookworm-security main contrib

==> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ceph.list <==
deb http://download.proxmox.com/debian/ceph-reef bookworm no-subscription


==> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/elastic-7.x.list <==
deb https://artifacts.elastic.co/packages/7.x/apt stable main

==> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pve-enterprise.list <==
#deb https://enterprise.proxmox.com/debian/pve bookworm pve-enterprise

==> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pve-enterprise.list.dpkg-dist <==
deb https://enterprise.proxmox.com/debian/pve bookworm pve-enterprise

Thanks in advance for your help.

Gellge
 
Cheers @leesteken.

I don't remember removing any kernel package, nor following that guide.

The story of this node is fairly long, so I hope I'm not misremembering, but I am quite sure I did a bare metal ISO install of proxmox VE 6.x. As a matter of fact, I don't remember ever doing any Proxmox installation on top of an existing Debian.

Specifically (not sure if it matters) this was part of a 2-node cluster that was not update for a long time. ~6 months ago I performed a 6.x->8.x upgrade of both nodes (some troubles were encountered, but in the end it worked out). Then I decided to decommission one of the two nodes: shut it down and forced the quorum for the remaining node. It did work flawlessly since then, through multiple updates.

These are the currently installed kernels, as per dpkg --list | grep linux-image output:

Bash: 
root@pve2:~# dpkg --list | grep linux-image
rc  linux-image-4.19.0-23-amd64          4.19.269-1                             amd64        Linux 4.19 for 64-bit PCs (signed)
ii  linux-image-4.19.0-26-amd64          4.19.304-1                             amd64        Linux 4.19 for 64-bit PCs (signed)
ii  linux-image-5.10.0-30-amd64          5.10.218-1                             amd64        Linux 5.10 for 64-bit PCs (signed)
ii  linux-image-6.1.0-21-amd64           6.1.90-1                               amd64        Linux 6.1 for 64-bit PCs (signed)
ii  linux-image-6.1.0-22-amd64           6.1.94-1                               amd64        Linux 6.1 for 64-bit PCs (signed)
ii  linux-image-6.1.0-23-amd64           6.1.99-1                               amd64        Linux 6.1 for 64-bit PCs (signed)
ii  linux-image-6.1.0-26-amd64           6.1.112-1                              amd64        Linux 6.1 for 64-bit PCs (signed)
ii  linux-image-amd64                    6.1.112-1                              amd64        Linux for 64-bit PCs (meta-package)

Are there adverse consequences were I to remove the kernel package as per instructions in your link if I did a bare metal proxmox ISO install?

Thanks,
Gellge
 
I just upgraded my PVE machine that just runs PBS from 8.1 and didn't get this error, but I did get it when updating my main PVE machine which was on 8.2.

In my case, it was because I'd added "deb [trusted=yes] http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian trixie main" to /etc/apt/sources.list in order to upgrade cryptsetup. After I commented that out, apt upgrade worked fine.
 
gellge said:
Are there adverse consequences were I to remove the kernel package as per instructions in your link if I did a bare metal proxmox ISO install?
Click to expand...
Proxmox never used the Debian kernels; they used RedHat until they switched to Ubuntu. You must have installed them by accident at some point.
 
dmpm said:
I just upgraded my PVE machine that just runs PBS from 8.1 and didn't get this error, but I did get it when updating my main PVE machine which was on 8.2.

In my case, it was because I'd added "deb [trusted=yes] http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian trixie main" to /etc/apt/sources.list in order to upgrade cryptsetup. After I commented that out, apt upgrade worked fine.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input @dmpm. I'm afraid this is not applicable to my case, as I have only enabled the basic repositories described in the Proxmox VE Administration guide (link: https://pve.proxmox.com/pve-docs/pve-admin-guide.html#sysadmin_no_subscription_repo), plus Proxmox Ceph reef repository as part of a troubleshooting attempt performed yesterday. Previously I also enabled the https://artifacts.elastic.co/packages/7.x/apt repo but it is now commented out and the problem persists.

Output of head -n-0 /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/* :
Bash: 
==> /etc/apt/sources.list <==
deb http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib
deb http://ftp.it.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib

# PVE pve-no-subscription repository provided by proxmox.com,
# NOT recommended for production use
deb http://download.proxmox.com/debian/pve bookworm pve-no-subscription

# security updates
deb http://security.debian.org bookworm-security main contrib

==> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ceph.list <==
deb http://download.proxmox.com/debian/ceph-reef bookworm no-subscription


==> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/elastic-7.x.list <==
#deb https://artifacts.elastic.co/packages/7.x/apt stable main

==> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pve-enterprise.list <==
#deb https://enterprise.proxmox.com/debian/pve bookworm pve-enterprise

==> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pve-enterprise.list.dpkg-dist <==
deb https://enterprise.proxmox.com/debian/pve bookworm pve-enterprise
 
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leesteken said:
Proxmox never used the Debian kernels; they used RedHat until they switched to Ubuntu. You must have installed them by accident at some point.
Click to expand...
Hey @leesteken , is there anything I can do from my current standpoint, then?

Besides, any ideas on how I could have "accidentally" installed debian kernel packages?
I am assuming that everything was fine after the upgrade to 8.x, as I updated the system multiple times since, without troubles. Given that I only ever updated the node via the web application Upgrade function, what could have caused it?
 
Last edited:
Thanks @leesteken, that did the trick.

I was hesitating at the beginning because I didn't know what kernel I was running, and I was afraid removing the Debian kernels would've removed the kernel I was on.

Summing it up here for posterity:

I went back and realized that pveversion -v specified I was running 6.8.12-3-pve. I double checked with dpkg --list | grep 6.8.12, which confirmed that 6.8.12-3-pve kernel package was installed.

So I went on and uninstalled the Debian kernels as per instructions in your link (here: https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Install_Proxmox_VE_on_Debian_12_Bookworm#Remove_the_Debian_Kernel), and updated grub config as recommended. Note that update-grub was intercepted by proxmox and proxmox-boot-tool refresh was ran instead, see warning here:

Bash: 
root@pve2:~# update-grub
Generating grub configuration file ...
W: This system is booted via proxmox-boot-tool:
W: Executing 'update-grub' directly does not update the correct configs!
W: Running: 'proxmox-boot-tool refresh'
...

After that, I was able to run apt update and apt dist-upgrade succesfully.

Marking this as solved. Again, thanks for the help!
Gellge
 
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