Installing Proxmox with UEFI BIOS Setting On and Secure Boot Off

L

Lonnie

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Sep 16, 2014
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Does Proxmox install on a UEFI enabled BIOS (with or without secure boot -- my motherboard has the ability to enable UEFI while also disabling secure boot)?

Background:

Because my previous attempts to install Proxmox 3.2 on a server with the UEFI bios-setting enabled have failed, I recently disabled that setting and installed Proxmox 3.3 successfully. Specifically, the 3.2 failures would indeed install Proxmox, but after reboot it would not boot Proxmox.

However, now I'm considering reinstalling Proxmox with UEFI enabled (if that's possible), because of its support for larger than 2TB partitions.

You see, we have a Dell T620 with eight 900GB (10,000 RPM) hard drives. I configured its H710 RAID controller with RAID 10 and created only one virtual volume spanning all 8 drives.

That should produce 3600GB of usable space, but unfortunately I'm just now noticing that Proxmox is only showing 1.65TB of space under the local storage for this node. This is likely due to bios limitations caused by not having UEFI enabled. Or, it could be that I don't have the latest drivers for my H710 RAID controller. I honestly can't remember how much space it reported at the time I created the RAID (going to check that tomorrow).

I hate to do it, but I'm going to miagrate all virtual machines to another node in the cluster and take this machine down for the 2nd time (the first time was to add additional hard drives to the RAID 10).

Man I wish I would have realized this earlier. But, please save me some time if UEFI is a known issue with Proxmox, because my Google searches aren't producing much certainty or guidance. Please testify if you've installed on top of UEFI successfully, and any tips would be greatly appreciated.
 
Last edited:
Lonnie said:
Does Proxmox install on a UEFI enabled BIOS (with or without secure boot -- my motherboard has the ability to enable UEFI while also disabling secure boot)?
Click to expand...

The next CD will support UEFI boot (plan is to release that next month).
 
I have the same pb with my Asus motherboard.

The solution is to install first debian wheezy, Reboot and install over pve at the second time.
 
badji said:
I have the same pb with my Asus motherboard.

The solution is to install first debian wheezy, Reboot and install over pve at the second time.
Click to expand...
I can testify that at least on a Lenovo T420s Thinkpad, THIS didn't work at all.

Installing Debian worked wonderfully, and as expected, but installing Proxmox VE 3.3 over it got me right back to the same problem of the laptop not recognizing the hard drive as being bootable, so it takes me to an endless boot device menu, which won't work when the primary and only hard drive is chosen.

I've updated the bios to the latest version, but there has never been an option in this bios to turn off a "Secure Boot" feature, only whether or not to boot UEFI or Legacy, or both. The symptoms don't change no matter which choice is selected for a Proxmox install, but it does work just fine when I install a clean Debian 7.7 from DVD1.

I used to like this laptop (it isn't mine, it's for someone else I'm trying to introduce to Proxmox), but the more I mess with it, the more I think I'd rather avoid owning one myself.
 
Allen15 said:
I can testify that at least on a Lenovo T420s Thinkpad, THIS didn't work at all.

Installing Debian worked wonderfully, and as expected, but installing Proxmox VE 3.3 over it got me right back to the same problem of the laptop not recognizing the hard drive as being bootable, so it takes me to an endless boot device menu, which won't work when the primary and only hard drive is chosen.

I've updated the bios to the latest version, but there has never been an option in this bios to turn off a "Secure Boot" feature, only whether or not to boot UEFI or Legacy, or both. The symptoms don't change no matter which choice is selected for a Proxmox install, but it does work just fine when I install a clean Debian 7.7 from DVD1.

I used to like this laptop (it isn't mine, it's for someone else I'm trying to introduce to Proxmox), but the more I mess with it, the more I think I'd rather avoid owning one myself.
Click to expand...

For me, I install debian, I reboot it and I install proxmove with this method:

http://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Install_Proxmox_VE_on_Debian_Squeeze

If not, expect the new iso proxmoxve 3.3, which will be available in December that fixes this bug.
Merci.
 
badji said:
For me, I install debian, I reboot it and I install proxmove with this method:

http://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Install_Proxmox_VE_on_Debian_Squeeze

If not, expect the new iso proxmoxve 3.3, which will be available in December that fixes this bug.
Merci.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll have to give that a try. I'll report back either way with my results, though I don't know how far I will get before my wife drags me off to holiday functions with family... ;)
 
Does anyone know how & if it is even possible, to edit the /etc/apt/sources.list file to point to a CD or USB drive for the install when following the installation over a running Debian system?

I have limited internet access at relatives for the weekend, & the laptop that I need to install this on has a wireless adapter that isn't directly supported by Proxmox or Debian without the iwifi firmware (which it doesn't seem to like, or at least the copy that I put on a flash drive)...

IIRC, I've been able to install Proxmox VE 3.3 on other systems with just a bootable CD or USB stick, and everything just worked, so I'm guessing that all of the needed sources are on the install media. That being the case, is there any way to point instead of to an internet repository, but to an optical drive or USB drive to continue the installation?

I'm comfortable using nano to edit the file, I just don't know what to put there... :confused:

Thanks

*Update: Although I'd still like to know how to add a local CDROM/DVD-ROM/USB drive as a local source, I was able to get a wire to this laptop, to bypass the iwlwifi firmware requirement that I didn't figure out how to install from USB flash drive (yet), and I was able to install Proxmox using the instructions at http://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Install_Proxmox_VE_on_Debian_Wheezy.

There are some caveats, though -- one MUST insure that both the hostname is correct, AND that the hosts file correctly resolves that hostname to a valid IP address. The instructions mention about the hosts file, but the hostname was set during the Debian NetInstall, and one might not have remembered it or changed it from the default of "debian", which won't work if you don't keep that hostname during the proxmox installation too.

That set of instructions will get you a running copy of Proxmox VE 3.1 OK, and you will need to edit both your /etc/apt/sources.d/pve-enterprise.list to comment out that source (only if you don't have a subscription) and also edit your /etc/apt/sources.list file to replace pve with pve-no-subscription, per this page: http://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Package_repositories

Do an apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade to get to the latest version, and reboot, and VOILA! Log in at the web address on the screen from another system on the same network, and the version is up to date :D

It would still REALLY be nice to be able to do a direct install (that actually booted to the completed installation directly from the install media, like a CD or USB stick, though I don't know if that part could possibly be worked around by just installing grub from a Debian 7.7 disc??? I'd be far more inclined to buy a subscription if the downloadable media would actually work on the hardware that I have available to demo to the folks that sign the checks?!?!! (Like this Thinkpad T420s?)
 
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goseph said:
Do you have any update when the ISO with UEFI-Support will be released?
Will it be downloadable here: http://www.proxmox.com/downloads
The right version will say "Updated on 10 December 2014" i guess?

Thanks a lot!
Click to expand...

I´m also interested in the new ISO with UEFI-Support because i have a new HP DL360G9 which i would like to use as a ProxMox Server.

Is there a release date known?

Greetings
 
Not sure of the release date, but if you have drives to spare, or your new server drive space is currently blank/disposable, you could also do the Debian install first, then install Proxmox on top of it too?

Though it was a bit annoying to need to do it, it was a). a valuable learning experience, and b). effective at accomplishing the task at hand in a timely fashion.

If you are considering going there, first make sure that there is readily available Debian support for your network adapter, but other than that, it should be workable. See above for links & instructions if needed :)
 
I've instal.led Proxmox 3.3 on a HP DL360 Gen9. I had no problems, just create a RAID1 on the Hardware RAID controller, setup the system to boot in Legacy Mode and install Proxmox. It worked perfectly.

I've been trying to install Proxmox 3.3 (and Debian, and Ubuntu...) on a HP DL 180 Gen9 and it's been more complicated. It has an SmartArray Software controller (B140i) and it's not supported on Linux so first of all you have to configure the system to use "SATA AHCI MODE", after that, you can boot on Legacy Mode and install Proxmox, but now the problem is that the fan are working all the time at 58% and the server is very noisy. I've been talking with HP Support but they don't support Proxmox, nor Debian, nor Ubuntu... Just Vmware, RedHat, SuSE.
 
I share your pain, and I have no lost love for proprietary HP host-bus adapters or RAID controllers. This still sounds more like a problem with support for the SmartArray controller than a conflict with the UEFI bios, so I'm not sure that the next release will fix it?
 
If I'm reading that correctly, your biggest problem seems to be the HP B140i controller, which, I believe, is the ancestor of the lowly B110i controller that is embedded on the DL160 G6 and similar. If it is anything like the B110i, it doesn't even have good support from HP until after you pay them for an advanced license key, and even then, its performance is holding down the low end of the bell curve.

On my HP DL160 G6's, I ended up adding an LSI 9280 controller card, because it was about the same price to switch to a full-featured and well supported RAID controller rather than pay HP more money for something that would change from a pig to a pig with lipstick on... On my DL180 G6's, I tried that and found out that the SAS expander in the backplane wasn't compatible with the LSI cards, so it wouldn't ever see any drives plugged in, and I switched back to the slower P410 (for now). I haven't tried it yet, but I've read on some forums that there may be other controllers with different chipsets (intel?) that will work with the HP expander chipsets/firmware, so it may still not be a lost cause for you.

If HP does support RedHat, do you know if their RedHat driver could possibly be manually installed on your system?
 
dietmar said:
Thate latest installer should work on efi systems:

http://forum.proxmox.com/threads/20889-pvetest-updates-and-RC-ISO-installer

Would be great if you can test.
Click to expand...

Proxmox Installer was bootable on Surface Pro after i burned it to CD. Looks like EFI compatible. Sure the CD takes forever to load up the installer.
How to put this on a bootable USB-Stick?
Rufus said: "No compatible Iso"
ImageUSB did format the USB-Stick but it was not bootable. Went in grub-recovery-mode.
Thanks!
 
I tried http://download.proxmox.com/iso/proxmox-ve_3.4-3f2d890e-1.iso. The setup works on ASUS P9D WS but booting is not possible without "external" help. (boot from USB stick with SysRescCD, from menu select Boot from first harddisk)
The P9D WS was ment to replace a P8B WS in a production system. Did not work no matter what the BIOS was set to. Tried a second P9D, switched RAM, tried different flavors of Proxmox up to latest pvetest, to no avail. The box always boots directly into the BIOS.
ASUS hotline was of limited help. They did a test install using the latest Debian stable and it did work using BIOS defaults, so they said OK, it's working, we are out. Meanwhile they stirred a BIOS update for H97 but not for me.. (C226) http://forum.proxmox.com/threads/21107-Now-installation-won-t-boot
 
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