Proxmox VE installs fine, won't boot on Dell 2950 Perc 6/i

[adamm]

I've got a Dell 2950 with a Perc 6/i RAID controller.

I've installed Proxmox VE 3.0 from a CD and everything seemed to go fine except on the first reboot attempt I can't boot the system. I'll get a "no bootable device, Press F1 to retry" message from the BIOS. Or something to that effect...it's the message you would get if you had no OS installed.

I can boot again from the CD with "pveboot" and it seems to boot up the newly installed system ok. From that point I ran "grub-install /dev/sda" and it completed without error, but the system still won't boot and still acts like there's no OS.

For the fun of it I tried installing Debian 7.0 and Ubuntu 12.04 and those both install and boot up normally. I then tried Proxmox VE 2.3 and just like 3.0 it seems to install perfectly, but the newly installed system won't boot off the hard disk.

This has been driving me nuts all morning and I feel like I'm missing something obvious.

 

[adamm]

I found lots of posts from people who couldn't get a guest to boot. I guess I'm the only joker who can't boot the host. Does anyone have any ideas at all?

 

[adamm]

Well, I've now updated the Perc RAID controller firmware and the BIOS and reinitialized the RAID disks.
I'm guess I'm going to install Proxmox on top of Debian for lack of any alternative.

 

[udo]

I've got a Dell 2950 with a Perc 6/i RAID controller.

I've installed Proxmox VE 3.0 from a CD and everything seemed to go fine except on the first reboot attempt I can't boot the system. I'll get a "no bootable device, Press F1 to retry" message from the BIOS. Or something to that effect...it's the message you would get if you had no OS installed.

I can boot again from the CD with "pveboot" and it seems to boot up the newly installed system ok. From that point I ran "grub-install /dev/sda" and it completed without error, but the system still won't boot and still acts like there's no OS.

For the fun of it I tried installing Debian 7.0 and Ubuntu 12.04 and those both install and boot up normally. I then tried Proxmox VE 2.3 and just like 3.0 it seems to install perfectly, but the newly installed system won't boot off the hard disk.

This has been driving me nuts all morning and I feel like I'm missing something obvious.

Hi,
looks a little bit for an wrong bios settings (hdd ranking and boot-device order).

Udo

 

[adamm]

Hi,
looks a little bit for an wrong bios settings (hdd ranking and boot-device order).

Udo

Thank you, I appreciate the response. I am certain it's nothing quite that easy though
I can press F11 to choose a bootup device at startup, and I select what I know is the correct disk, but it still tells me there is no bootable device. Also consider that Ubuntu and Debian both boot up ok on this system. I suppose there must be something different about how the bootloader is installed, but I'm not certain how to diagnose it.

 

[JasonMHall]

Thank you, I appreciate the response. I am certain it's nothing quite that easy though
I can press F11 to choose a bootup device at startup, and I select what I know is the correct disk, but it still tells me there is no bootable device. Also consider that Ubuntu and Debian both boot up ok on this system. I suppose there must be something different about how the bootloader is installed, but I'm not certain how to diagnose it.

I've got a similar machine at home with the 2970 and everything went fine. I've also got your identical machine at work and will be installing Proxmox as well. Hopefully I can get to the installation on the 2950 tomorrow or Friday, and I will let you know either way how the install goes.

 

[adamm]

Well...now I feel like a jerk. When I initialized new Virtual Disks in the Perc 6/i controller I didn't specify the "bootable" VD and for some reason it picked the second one I created rather than the first (which I assumed it would have done). I'm not actually sure how Debian and Ubuntu were able to boot....I guess I got lucky with them.

So JasonMHall: From the Perc 6/i setup utility, with the cusor at the top of the menu press Ctrl+N twice to reach the menu where you specify the bootable VD. I now remember doing this some years ago when we bought the thing and time just made the issue dusty in my mind I guess.

 

[JasonMHall]

Well...now I feel like a jerk. When I initialized new Virtual Disks in the Perc 6/i controller I didn't specify the "bootable" VD and for some reason it picked the second one I created rather than the first (which I assumed it would have done). I'm not actually sure how Debian and Ubuntu were able to boot....I guess I got lucky with them.

So JasonMHall: From the Perc 6/i setup utility, with the cusor at the top of the menu press Ctrl+N twice to reach the menu where you specify the bootable VD. I now remember doing this some years ago when we bought the thing and time just made the issue dusty in my mind I guess.

Glad you got the issue ironed out. I'll be sure to go through that menu with a fine-toothed comb, Thanks!