Proxmox failing to pick up NIC during initial install

[jarth]

I've just put together a new system (specs here). When attempting to boot into Proxmox VE 6.4 (via flashed USB), it gets stuck on the step:

No broadcast interfaces found - exiting.
done
Starting chrony for opportunistic time-sync... Starting a root shell on tty3.
\nInstallation aborted - unable to continue (type exit or CTRL-D to reboot)

It looks like it's failing simply because it isn't picking up the ethernet cable that's plugged in.

root@proxmox:/# cat /etc/network/interfaces
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

Since it's a new system, I thought it entirely possible the MOBO ethernet port was dodgy as I hadn't tested before. I decided to boot into Ubuntu to test, but the network indeed seems to be working fine in there.

I'm starting to think it's directly related to the relatively new motherboard (Z590M). Keen to hear other's thoughts or debug ideas.. Would buying a dedicated NIC solve the problem? (not exactly ideal)

 

[Dunuin]

Proxmox is using kernel 5.4 and if your onboard NIC is too new it just might not be supported. There is a optional 5.11 kernel that can be installed to support newer hardware but I don't know if it is possible to choose it while installing. So you could check first if your NICs chipset is supported by kernel 5.4.

Edit:
You mobo is using the Intel I219V. If you google for "I219V debian" there are some people that can't install Debian Buster because of missing drivers. Proxmox is based on Debian Buster with Ubuntu 5.4 LTS kernel so you might need to load some additional drivers while installing or install the lastest Debian Buster and install Proxmox ontop.

 

[jarth]

This is frustrating, I feel like I'm so close now (with the help of your comment). I'm on the 5.11 kernel now, and the ethernet is finally showing up -- however I still don't have any internet connectivity.

Any ideas why the below is failing? I likely have something configured incorrectly...

root@pve:~# uname -r
5.11.7-1-pve

root@pve:~# ip addr show
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: enp0s31f6: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast master vmbr0 state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether a8:a1:59:6a:fe:3e brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
4: vmbr0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether d2:32:44:29:bc:6e brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.42.43/24 brd 192.168.42.255 scope global vmbr0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::d032:44ff:fe29:bc63/64 scope link
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

root@pve:~# dhcp enp0s31f6

root@pve:~# ip addr show
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: enp0s31f6: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast master vmbr0 state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether a8:a1:59:6a:fe:3e brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.0.10/24 brd 192.168.0.255 scope global dynamic enp0s31f6
       valid_lft 85711sec preferred_lft 85711sec
    inet6 fe80::aaa1:59ff:fe6a:fe3e/64 scope link
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
4: vmbr0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/ether d2:32:44:29:bc:6e brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.42.43/24 brd 192.168.42.255 scope global vmbr0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::d032:44ff:fe29:bc63/64 scope link
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

root@pve:~# cat /etc/network/interfaces
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

iface enp0s31f6 inet manual

auto vmbr0
iface vmbr0 inet static
               address 192.168.42.43/24
               gateway 192.168.42.129
               bridge_ports enp0s31f6
               bridge_stp off
               bridge_fd 0

root@pve:~# ping 8.8.8.8
PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8) 56(84) bytes of data.
From 192.168.42.43 icmp_seq=1 Destination Host Unreachable
From 192.168.42.43 icmp_seq=2 Destination Host Unreachable
From 192.168.42.43 icmp_seq=3 Destination Host Unreachable
From 192.168.42.43 icmp_seq=4 Destination Host Unreachable

 

[Dunuin]

Looks fine to me if "192.168.42.129" is really your gateway (router).

You also could try to disable IPv6 if you don't need it (add "net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6 = 1" to "/etc/sysctl.conf"). And try to reboot if you didn't done that already.

 

[jarth]

Looks fine to me if "192.168.42.129" is really your gateway (router).

Good callout, I'm not sure why this IP was thrown in for the gateway. It should instead be 192.168.0.1 I believe. I've made the change but alas, this still isn't enough to appease the networking gods.

I've tried disabling ipv6 a couple of times now (including after changing the gateway). I can't even ping the router itself, or any other devices within the network.

Below is the routing information, I'm unsure whether this is correct or not either.

root@pve:~# ip route
default via 192.168.0.1 dev vmbr0 onlink
192.168.0.0/24 dev enp0s31f6 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.0.10
192.168.42.0/24 dev vmbr0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.42.43

I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to further troubleshoot to be honest, so if you have any other ideas I'd greatly appreciate it.

 

[jarth]

Something that might be interesting to note is that pinging 8.8.8.8 above came from vmbr0 (192.168.42.43), and now (possibly after fixing the gateway in /etc/network/interfaces) if I ping the router, it comes from enp0s31f6 (192.168.0.10).

root@pve:~# ping 192.168.0.1
PING 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
From 192.168.0.10 icmp_seq=1 Destination Host Unreachable
From 192.168.0.10 icmp_seq=2 Destination Host Unreachable
From 192.168.0.10 icmp_seq=3 Destination Host Unreachable
From 192.168.0.10 icmp_seq=4 Destination Host Unreachable

So I tried to ping 8.8.8.8 again, but now it seems to hang on anything outside the network.

root@pve:~# ping 8.8.8.8
PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8) 56(84) bytes of data.

 

[jarth]

Solved! The issue was that when changing the gateway to 192.168.0.1, it fell outside the IP address subnet (192.168.42.0/24). I changed the IP of vmbr0 to 192.168.0.100 and I'm now able to ping inside and outside the local network.

Unfortunately I'm still unable to connect to the Proxmox server via web browser, but I think that will warrant a new thread if I cannot solve.
EDIT: Solved the above as well! Solution was to update /etc/hosts with 192.168.0.100 address change.