IBM X3650 M3 cannot boot PVE from USB stick

[DanielLien]

Hi,

I followed the official instructions and used Rufus (DD mode) to make a USB thumb drive for my old IBM X3650 M3 (with latest UEFI firmware) but it does not boot up at all.
After the UEFI screen, I pressed F12 to select USB device as usual, the screen became black and nothing show up, USB thumb LED does not flash at all, I waited for long time without any new result and had to reset the server. I tried different USB port but got the same result.

I'm sure the ISO file is ok since it can boot up inside my virtual machine and installed. My X3650 M3 does not have a DVD-ROM drive so burning a DVD disc is not an option for now.
Does anyone have similar situation before? I used the same method to install VMware ESXi without any problem, but I don't know why it does not work for PVE at all.

ISO name I used: proxmox-ve_6.2-1.iso
SHA1: EDECAD50C208232BE7F9121338493A3BC590C23B

 

[DanielLien]

ok. I found the problem and solved eventually, hope this can help others who has similar issue in the future:
In UEFI settings, there's a "Legacy Support" section, enable "Force Legacy Video on Boot", then you can install PVE without any problem.

The description of this function:
Force Int 0x10h video support: required if the OS does not support UEFI video output standards.

So obviously, the boot image inside the PVE installer is not compliant with UEFI standards. I think this somehow should be fixed anyway, at least ESXi installer does not have this problem.

BTW, if the USB stick is inserted in the back side of x3650 M3, PVE installer won't boot. It will show like this:
searching for block device containing the ISO proxmox-ve-6.2-1
with ISO ID 'xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'
testing again in 5 seconds
testing again in 5 seconds
testing again in 5 seconds
testing again in 5 seconds
no cdrom found
unable to continue (type exit or CTRL-D to reboot)

Then I inserted the USB stick in the front panel USB port instead, it worked. I think this bug should be fixed as well, since the trace does not reveal enough information why PVE installer cannot found ISO, the debug trace might also need to revise.

BTW, after I entered the install screen, I cannot use keyboard to install it without a mouse cursor, this is really inconvenient! The 'tab' key cannot switch to the 'Next' button no matter how hard I tried.
The server room I stayed does not have any mouse, so I need to find a mouse and reboot server start over again (it won't recognize the new mouse unless reboot).