[SOLVED] Installing From USB Hard/SSD Drive

[Sensiva]

Hello,

I am trying to install Proxmox VE from an external USB hard drive or SSD. Yet I receive an error at the beginning of the boot process that no cdrom is found - after testing for cdrom every 5 seconds.

I burned the image using Etcher, ImgUSB with no luck. However it works if I used a USB flash stick.

Is it possible to install from External USB drive?

Thank you

Update:
Well.. it seems that it's a bigger thing than I thought.

Here is the thing:

- External USB drives like WD Passport/Elements are not the same as generic USB3 drives enclosures. WD or similar external drives uses kernel module "usb_storage", however USB drive enclosures uses kernel module "uas"

- In Proxmox VE installer usb_storage is loaded automatically. However uas isn't loaded from the first time.
After booting from a USB drive in an enclousre the boot drops to shell. The output of "fdisk -l" doesn't show the boot drive.
Loading uas module "modprobe uas" then listing drives again "fdisk -l", the drive in the USB enclousre shows up.
Now, restart again.. At the shell and without loading uas manually, running ./init again will load the uas module.

- While troubleshooting I had to examine the init script in the initrd.img of the PVE installer. Here are my findings:

- Neither types of external USB drives will boot the installer directly because:

1- The init script searches for removable drives only
2- The init script tests the found removable drives against iso9660 mount type​

- Kernel boot args accepts root= parameter which defines the "root" path to the PVE installer
After boot failure, run fdisk -l and blkid to identify which partition is the correct boot drive. Press CTRL-D to reset and then in GRUB edit the linux line to add root=/dev/sdX (in case you created the boot drive using DD mode) or root=/dev/sdXN (in case you created the boot drive using ISO mode)
- Adding the ISO file inside the initrd.img will make PVE installer boot right away (the ISO file should be /proxmox.iso)​

- Burning the ISO image using DD mode will make the drive read only. While doing it using ISO mode (Rufus or UNetbootin) you can modify the drive contents (adjust the init script or repack initrd.img)
- Busybox shell in the installer image includes fdisk, blkid and vi

 

[helojunkie]

??

Are you trying to install from a USB CDROM drive or a USB thumb drive? It sounds like you are trying from a CD.

As far as installing from a CDROM drive, I have done it in the past so I assume that it should still work. You may want to verify if your system itself supports booting from CD/DVD.

 

[Sensiva]

??

Are you trying to install from a USB CDROM drive or a USB thumb drive? It sounds like you are trying from a CD.

As far as installing from a CDROM drive, I have done it in the past so I assume that it should still work. You may want to verify if your system itself supports booting from CD/DVD.

I am trying to install from a USB hard disk drive not from a USB CD-ROM or thumb drives.

I will edit the post..

 

[helojunkie]

hummmm.......that is a good question. While I have not tried it personally, I would imagine that since you can install from a USB thumb drive and a USB CD/DVD drive that you should be able to install from a USB hard drive.

If I were in your position I would throw Parted Magic or Hirens (or similar) on the drive and see if you can get that to boot on your machines. If you can, then you should have no issue installing Prox.

 

[Sensiva]

hummmm.......that is a good question. While I have not tried it personally, I would imagine that since you can install from a USB thumb drive and a USB CD/DVD drive that you should be able to install from a USB hard drive.

If I were in your position I would throw Parted Magic or Hirens (or similar) on the drive and see if you can get that to boot on your machines. If you can, then you should have no issue installing Prox.

Well, the drive can boot anything I needed so far. It seems that Proxmox VE iso image didn't include uas module. I am not sure yet.

 

[W.Rusman]

I had the same problem using older hardware that would not recognize the UEFI data on the USB (thumb) drive. After a bios update and "reset to factory defaults" of the bios it all worked fine.

 

[Sensiva]

I had the same problem using older hardware that would not recognize the UEFI data on the USB (thumb) drive. After a bios update and "reset to factory defaults" of the bios it all worked fine.

Well.. it seems that it's a bigger thing than this. I will update the post.

 

[AlexLup]

This might also be the reason why I could install fine from an external USB to an external SSD caddie (which might use the modules above) but couldn't boot from the said external SSD caddie if the proxmox install usb was removed...

Thanks for your efforts