Installing from USB Drive issues

crittersmagic

New Member
Mar 20, 2014
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Hello all,I work at a data center and would like to get the 3 current versions of ProxMox to install off of a usb thumb drive. It is hard to say WHAT program i use to load all my ISO's with, not sure if it is fira disk or grub4dos but it all comes from easy2boot. I have found some threads here where they got it to work, not sure HOW tho. So i am asking here if anyone might be able to help me so that i can get this to workThe USB Drive boots, but after some time I get a boot screen with:...testing cdrom /dev/sr0mount: mounting /dev/sr0 on /mnt failed: Invalid argumentumont: can't umount /mnt: Invalid argument....This message is repeated a few times and ends with no cdrom found - unable to continue (type exit ot CTRL-D to reboot)Thanks for the help,
 
That way might put ONE image on a thumb drive. BUT i am looking for a way to have 2.3, 3.0, 3.1 and 3.2 all on to my already working thumb drive that has all of our other software on it.
 
That way might put ONE image on a thumb drive. BUT i am looking for a way to have 2.3, 3.0, 3.1 and 3.2 all on to my already working thumb drive that has all of our other software on it.

as we have rolling releases, it makes no sense to me to offer outdated and not supported installation media. I suggest you offer latest only.
 
I have to do the same here.
I have a USB stick with about 80 ISOs, the only one not working is the Proxmox one.
 
The howto force to use one USB stick for the whole proxmox.
As wrote by me and by other, we need to use an existing usb stick with multiple ISOs inside. The only ISO that doesn't work is the proxmox one.

You should fix your iso and not forcing users to use a dedicated usb stick. If I have to use a dedicated usb stick, i can also use a cdrom!
 
The howto force to use one USB stick for the whole proxmox.
As wrote by me and by other, we need to use an existing usb stick with multiple ISOs inside. The only ISO that doesn't work is the proxmox one.

You should fix your iso and not forcing users to use a dedicated usb stick. If I have to use a dedicated usb stick, i can also use a cdrom!

How do you create this USB with 80 ISO images?
 
syslinux with a very simple menu:

MENU TITLE xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

DEFAULT menu.c32
PROMPT 0
ALLOWOPTIONS 0

LABEL Debian 8.6.0-amd64-netinst all firmwares
LINUX memdisk
APPEND iso
INITRD /iso/Debian-8.6.0/firmware-8.6.0-amd64-netinst.iso

LABEL ProxMox VE 4.2-725d76f0-28
LINUX memdisk
APPEND iso raw nopass
INITRD /iso/ProxMox/proxmox-ve_4.2-725d76f0-28.iso

..............

The proxmox one doesn't work. Is searching for a cdrom...
 
EDIT: Solved. Used ImgUSB (recommended by Proxmox website). Rufus is apparently not compatible with the Proxmox image. Strange, since it seems to work fine with other bootable linux images.

Hello, I came across this thread while searching for a similar error. It may be that Alessandro 123 is mis-stating the issue here, and it may not actually be the technique he is using (which sounds like he's using a bootloader like GRUB on a USB stick with multiple OS images on it to select which to boot into).

I've created USB install media using the proxmox-ve_4.3-e7cdc165-2.iso image downloaded on Oct 7th, 2016 from this site, and using the program "Rufus" which I have found in the past to be a very reliable tool for creating bootable USB sticks. It should be noted that this is my very first experience with Proxmox, I've never installed or run it before - Rufus was used to create Ubuntu and CentOS installer or live media, for example.

Just like Alessandro 123, I am able to get the image to attempt to boot. I am even prompted with the Proxmox spash screen where I am asked if I'd like to Install PVE, Install PVE (Debug), Rescue Boot, or Mem Test. Here's where the problem begins (and what Alessandro 123 left out): After selecting either Install Proxmox VE or Install Proxmox VE (Debug), the system errors out during boot. After the "loading drivers:" line, I get the following errors:

modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'ghash_clmulni_intel': Invalid argument
searching for cdrom
testing cdrom /dev/sr0
mount: can't umount /mnt: Invalid argument
testing again in 5 seconds
[ 4.963300] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] No Caching mode page found
[ 4.963903] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page found
[ 4.963905] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 4.971196] sd 2:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
testing cdrom /dev/sr0
mount: can't umount /mnt: Invalid argument
testing cdrom /dev/sda
mount: can't umount /mnt: Invalid argument
testing cdrom /dev/sdb
mount: can't umount /mnt: Invalid argument

testing again in 5 seconds

(Note that this part repeats from the second "testing cdrom /dev/sr0" through "testing again in 5 seconds" 3 more times)
no cdrom found
unable to continue (type exit or CTRL-D to reboot)
/ #


Unfortunately at this point I am unable to do anything, but that may be my fault as the only keyboard I have available as a spare for this box (a Dell PowerEdge R710) is an old Apple keyboard that came with a Power Mac G4 (it's a USB keyboard and works most places, but under a barebones installer image I could see how there could be problems).

The system still goes into screen saver mode after some time (5 minutes?) and I can wake it up again by tapping the power button on the server (waking it via ACPI). So, I know the OS itself is "alive", it just doesn't seem to see any devices when booting. BIOS sees the DVD-ROM drive. This server does NOT currently have a RAID controller or any hard drives installed in it - only another USB stick which was to be the installation target (which I know is not a good idea, but this is only for quick tests and I don't care if this USB stick gets burned up). Is my lack of more durable storage devices causing a problem for the installer?

I haven't done anything fancy to my USB stick (no dual-boot, etc.). My problem, which sounds very similar to above, occurs after GRUB completes and the Proxmox VE installer image is attempting to boot.
 
Last edited:
I had the same problem using Easy2Boot. The tool was used to create a multiboot USB stick with different OS images (some Linux distributions like Kubuntu, Live-CDs and also multiple Windows versions from 7 to 10. It gaves me the same error on a test system with 220GB Crucial SSD, 1x160GB WD IDE and 1x200GB WD IDE HDDs. The system hadn't any CD/DVD device. But I plugged one in and the error stays.

I used ImgUSB on a different USB stick, so I don't have to erase my multi boot one. That works, which is acceptable, since installing a Proxmox NAS doesn't happen too often. But it would be nice to have all images on one stick.
 
Exactly. This should be fixed, allowing to install directly from an ISO image and not from a dedicated device.
 
I have the same issue. The installation stops during the cdrom tests. I've tried with usb sticks and DVDs, but always stops at the same point.
I've downloaded the latest ISO from proxmox site.
I'm trying in a DELL T410 server, but with Oracle VM virtual toolbox the problem persists...
 
It's a shame that PVE is still requiring a dedicated USB drive and can't be placed on the same USB driver with tons of other ISO images.
it's a known 18 months bug. I've also seen a bugzilla about this.
 
It's now end of 2018 and i stumbled across this post, also using Easy2Boot and Version 5.2 still does not support multibootsystems. Sad :(
going to burn a CD-RW i found behind a shelf. lol
 
ok guys take this fix (for all who use rufus or same)
use DD mode for coping ISO in USB-stick, dont use default ISO creation
 

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