PVE 8 to 9 In-place Upgrade

leesteken · Saturday at 16:53

You can fix the pve8to9 warning/error either before or after the update . As said before, some people reported problems because they did not do it before the update (see also the other thread I linked to), so I suggest doing it before. pve8to9 tries to be helpful but it's not perfect and it's not the police. Do what you want in whatever order you want to do it.

gfngfn256 · Saturday at 20:34

mcraven said:
systemd-boot-tools package is only available in Trixie repositories???

After researching, I believe so.

I can't really advise you on a strategy, as I only received the warning after the PVE8to9 update (before rebooting), unlike you where it appears you are still fully on PVE8.

In your position, I'd probably resume the full update to PVE9 & then deal with the systemd situation before rebooting.

Good luck.

Tommmii · 2025-09-07T09:29:05+0200

For the sake of completeness, pve8to9 didn't show me the FAILED item prior to update, only after the update.
I was worried about the server not rebooting because of the warning, but it still rebooted fine.
And I followed the pve8to9 instructions after the reboot.
After that i did a final reboot, and all green.

matt69 · 2025-09-07T14:43:17+0200

Did you do the following BEFORE updating to PVE 9?

Tommmii said:
so I did :

Code:

apt install systemd-boot-efi systemd-boot-tools apt remove systemd-boot apt purge systemd-boot

I still have PVE 8.

Code:

# pveversion
pve-manager/8.4.12/c2ea8261d32a5020 (running kernel: 6.8.12-14-pve)

Check with:
pve8to9

I also get this error:

Code:

INFO: Checking bootloader configuration...
FAIL: systemd-boot meta-package installed. This will cause problems on upgrades of other boot-related packages. Remove 'systemd-boot' See https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Upgrade_from_8_to_9#sd-boot-warning for more information.

How can I fix this error in PVE 8?
Same as you?

Do I have to fix this error in PVE 8?

Nagorg · 2025-09-07T17:10:44+0200

matt69 said:
Did you do the following BEFORE updating to PVE 9?

I still have PVE 8.

Code:

# pveversion pve-manager/8.4.12/c2ea8261d32a5020 (running kernel: 6.8.12-14-pve)

Check with:
pve8to9

I also get this error:

Code:

INFO: Checking bootloader configuration... FAIL: systemd-boot meta-package installed. This will cause problems on upgrades of other boot-related packages. Remove 'systemd-boot' See https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Upgrade_from_8_to_9#sd-boot-warning for more information.

How can I fix this error in PVE 8?
Same as you?

Do I have to fix this error in PVE 8?

FWIW, I'm also getting the FAIL message when running the script.

Code:

INFO: Checking bootloader configuration...
FAIL: systemd-boot meta-package installed. This will cause problems on upgrades of other boot-related packages. Remove 'systemd-boot' See https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Upgrade_from_8_to_9#sd-boot-warning for more information.

Looking for how to resolve this! Any help is much appreciated!

esvee · 2025-09-08T05:42:33+0200

leospyke said:

Hi everybody.
@gfngfn256 I faced a similar issue during today's update, and you definitely saved my life!
My setup is similar: one node non-HA, ZFS mirror boot pool.

After issuing the pve8to9 --full cmd I received the same warning...

Code:

FAIL: systemd-boot meta-package installed this will cause issues on upgrades of boot-related packages.
Install 'systemd-boot-efi' and 'systemd-boot-tools' explicitly and remove 'systemd-boot'

...and reading the whole post about your (unlucky) experience, I decided NOT to remove the systemd-boot package after the apt dist-upgrade step, and rather reboot immediately. The system booted as expected with PVE9.

However, the warning is still there, I'm not really sure now if my current setup is actually correct and, if not, what I'm supposed to do in order to fix it.

To give some context, I'll paste the output of the snippets provided by @Stoiko Ivanov:

Code:

$> proxmox-boot-tool status
Re-executing '/usr/sbin/proxmox-boot-tool' in new private mount namespace..
System currently booted with uefi
6B8D-1D9B is configured with: grub (versions: 6.14.8-2-pve, 6.8.12-13-pve)
6B8D-7C65 is configured with: grub (versions: 6.14.8-2-pve, 6.8.12-13-pve)

Code:

$> dmesg |grep secure
[    0.000000] secureboot: Secure boot enabled
[    0.011017] secureboot: Secure boot enabled

Code:

$> mount |grep -i efi
efivarfs on /sys/firmware/efi/efivars type efivarfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)

Code:

$> dpkg -l |grep -Ei 'systemd-boot|grub'
ii  grub-common                          2.12-9+pmx2                     amd64        GRand Unified Bootloader (common files)
ii  grub-efi-amd64                       2.12-9+pmx2                     amd64        GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2 (EFI-AMD64 version)
ii  grub-efi-amd64-bin                   2.12-9+pmx2                     amd64        GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2 (EFI-AMD64 modules)
ii  grub-efi-amd64-signed                1+2.12+9+pmx2                   amd64        GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2 (amd64 UEFI signed by Debian)
ii  grub-efi-amd64-unsigned              2.12-9+pmx2                     amd64        GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2 (EFI-AMD64 images)
ii  grub-pc-bin                          2.12-9+pmx2                     amd64        GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2 (PC/BIOS modules)
ii  grub2-common                         2.12-9+pmx2                     amd64        GRand Unified Bootloader (common files for version 2)
ii  proxmox-grub                         2.12-9+pmx2                     amd64        Empty package to ensure Proxmox Grub packages are installed
ii  systemd-boot                         257.7-1+pmx2                    amd64        simple UEFI boot manager - integration and services
ii  systemd-boot-efi:amd64               257.7-1                         amd64        simple UEFI boot manager - EFI binaries
ii  systemd-boot-tools                   257.7-1                         amd64        simple UEFI boot manager - tools

Let me know if you need further details.

Thank you in advance for the help!

hey @leospyke , I also have a ZFS mirror boot pool. I decided against removing systemd-boot after reading the section in upgrade article "

Systemd-boot meta-package changes the bootloader configuration automatically and should be uninstalled"

https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Upgrade_from_8_to_9

I rebooted and all good. However, I'm still wondering if systemd-boot should be removed. Did you end up removing it?

fabian · 2025-09-08T09:51:15+0200

systemd-boot should be removed in almost all cases (before the upgrade) - you should only keep it installed if

- you are using systemd-boot to boot AND
- you are not using proxmox-boot-tool

you can only end up using such a setup if you manually configure it.

we should probably make the message even more explicit to make it clear that
- systemd-boot should be removed before the upgrade
- the other two packages should be installed afterwards

the systemd-boot package basically changed what it does from bookworm to trixie, with no way of migrating cleanly..

gfngfn256 · 2025-09-08T09:57:25+0200

fabian said:
- you are using systemd-boot to boot
- you are not using proxmox-boot-tool

Is that an and or an or condition?

fabian · 2025-09-08T10:00:09+0200

Nagorg · 2025-09-08T12:55:58+0200

How do you determine these things?

"- you are using systemd-boot to boot AND
- you are not using proxmox-boot-tool"

I'll add that I didn't manually configure this. I did a "guided" install from the .iso. I have two hosts in my cluster (yes and a qdevice for quorum) and only one of the two presents this FAIL message when running "pve8to9 --full".

fabian · 2025-09-08T13:01:00+0200

if you never configured systemd-boot manually, then it should be safe to remove. you can check with "efibootmgr -v" and "proxmox-boot-tool status" what the current boot loader stituation looks like.

Nagorg · 2025-09-08T13:11:31+0200

fabian said:
if you never configured systemd-boot manually, then it should be safe to remove. you can check with "efibootmgr -v" and "proxmox-boot-tool status" what the current boot loader stituation looks like.

I've run these but I can't say I understand the output as it relates to systemd-boot and the potential use of it.

efibootmgr -v returns a lot of info but I think the relevant lines are:
Snipped for brevity...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BootCurrent: 0000
BootOrder: 0000,0016,0007,0008,0009,000A,0017,0018,0019,001A,0002,0001
Boot0000* proxmox HD(2,GPT,89e447db-a49f-4085-8b7f-575c61c4ac21,0x800,0x200000)/File(\EFI\proxmox\shimx64.efi)
and
Boot0002* UEFI: Built-in EFI Shell VenMedia(5023b95c-db26-429b-a648-bd47664c8012)..BO
and
Boot0016* UEFI OS HD(2,GPT,89e447db-a49f-4085-8b7f-575c61c4ac21,0x800,0x200000)/File(\EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI)..BO
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"proxmox-boot-tool status" returns:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Re-executing '/usr/sbin/proxmox-boot-tool' in new private mount namespace..
E: /etc/kernel/proxmox-boot-uuids does not exist.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thoughts?

EDITED: Added the missing "BootCurrent: 0000" info that was previously omitted from the efibootmgr -v output above. Thanks to @fabian and @gfngfn256 for the assist!

If it helps, I'm starting to see the meaning of the efibootmgr output now. At least as it relates to BootCurrent and BootOrder and the other referenced Bootxxxx lines. I'll get there...

gfngfn256 · 2025-09-08T13:15:37+0200

Nagorg said:
Snipped for brevity...

You left out BootCurrent: ????

Nagorg said:
Re-executing '/usr/sbin/proxmox-boot-tool' in new private mount namespace..
E: /etc/kernel/proxmox-boot-uuids does not exist.

Looks like you are not using proxmox-boot-tool

Nagorg · 2025-09-08T13:20:20+0200

gfngfn256 said:
You left out BootCurrent: ????

Ahh... See? I said I didn't understand the output.. lol

This is BootCurrent:

"BootCurrent: 0000"

Okay, so I should be good to remove systemd-boot then it sounds like... Right?

fabian · 2025-09-08T13:26:13+0200

Nagorg · 2025-09-08T13:34:21+0200

Excellent... Thanks for the assistance. I'll learn this stuff eventually.

matt69 · 2025-09-08T17:15:35+0200

I have also checked my system.
Can I remove systemd-boot without any problems?

There is BootCurrent: 0002

Code:

# efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0002
Timeout: 2 seconds
BootOrder: 0002,0000,0001,0006,0003,0004
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager  HD(1,GPT,80f05ce7-b75d-4045-9f5a-c834d284f054,0x800,0xfa000)/File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)WINDOWS.........x...B.C.D.O.B.J.E.C.T.=.{.9.d.e.a.8.6.2.c.-.5.c.d.d.-.4.e.7.0.-.a.c.c.1.-.f.3.2.b.3.4.4.d.4.7.9.5.}...................
Boot0001  Merlin Non-Pxe        HD(3,GPT,e07bc39c-6f23-41d7-a1ea-84aa6011bf3f,0x113800,0x145000)/File(\EFI\Merlin\BootX64.efi)
Boot0002* proxmox       HD(2,GPT,d3f30a60-e3fd-428e-a2a5-32384360b0d4,0x800,0x100000)/File(\EFI\proxmox\grubx64.efi)
Boot0003* Onboard NIC(IPV4)     PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/MAC(6c2b593bddaa,0)/IPv4(0.0.0.00.0.0.0,0,0)..BO
Boot0004* Onboard NIC(IPV6)     PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/MAC(6c2b593bddaa,0)/IPv6([::]:<->[::]:,0,0)..BO
Boot0006* UEFI: INTEL SSDSCKKW256G8, Partition 2        HD(2,GPT,d3f30a60-e3fd-428e-a2a5-32384360b0d4,0x800,0x100000)/File(EFI\boot\bootx64.efi)..BO

Code:

# proxmox-boot-tool status
Re-executing '/usr/sbin/proxmox-boot-tool' in new private mount namespace..
E: /etc/kernel/proxmox-boot-uuids does not exist.

Must I install systemd-boot-efi systemd-boot-tools?

Is that right?

Code:

apt install systemd-boot-efi systemd-boot-tools
apt remove systemd-boot
apt purge  systemd-boot

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