[SOLVED] SBS 2003 Only Boots in Safe Mode

[CitanulEht]

Hello,

I recently installed ProxMox on a system and am having trouble getting my SBS 2003 vm to run. This server was already virtualized and was running as a VMDK under VMware Player. I followed the standard instructions for converting to qcow2, although once I started having problems I tried running the original vmdk as well with the same result. The issue is, whenever I try to boot normally, the initial gray bar across the bottom of the screen fills up and then it stays there. That's it, I get no blue screens or error messages, it just freezes with a black screen and a full gray bar across the bottom. I have tried various booting options for regular such as vga mode but it does the same thing.

Safe mode boots no problem. In safe mode I've tried changing msconfig to a basic boot but it doesn't help.

Thinking there was an issue with a driver or something, I tried making an empty VM and doing a fresh install of SBS 2003 into it, using all of the standard disk types, etc, and guess what - it did the same exact thing. After installing the OS, it reboots and gets stuck at the gray bar.

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

- Mike

 

[acidrop]

Re: SBS 2003 Only Boots in Safe Mode

Have you tried disabling acpi on options tab of vm?

 

[CitanulEht]

Re: SBS 2003 Only Boots in Safe Mode

I hadn't - just did, no change. Thanks for the suggestion though..

 

[CitanulEht]

Re: SBS 2003 Only Boots in Safe Mode

Also recently I had been working with the original vmdk file, but just to be thorough I re-converted it to a qcow2 and tried it again with ACPI off.. but the problem remains.

 

[acidrop]

Re: SBS 2003 Only Boots in Safe Mode

Can you try with .raw format instead, ide disk (no cache) , 1 cpu 1 core and standard vga or vmware compatible as display?
Also try Intel or Realtek as nic. I have several win2003 vms working without problems but haven't tried sbs2003 though.
You said that you are able to boot in safe mode, so that suggest a driver issue. Also try chaning from safe mode -> device manager -> Computer -> update driver from list -> Standard PC or ACPI PC

 

[CitanulEht]

Re: SBS 2003 Only Boots in Safe Mode

Thanks again for the suggestions but unfortunately nothing has worked. I even went back and started the process over by:

1. Verified my VMWare VM would still boot.
2. Re-installed the registry hack file.
3. Re-copied the VMDK to the ProxMox store.
4. Created a new VM in ProxMox with an empty RAW drive according to your specs.
5. Used Acronis with Universal Restore to clone the VMDK into the RAW drive.

After that I removed the VMDK and booted to the RAW drive - same problem. And I can still boot in safe mode, so I went in with networking enabled and tried your last suggestion (it is set to ACPI), but it just says "Cannot continue, no better driver found.."

Does anyone else out there have any tricks up their sleeve? It seems like there must be something causing it, since I was able to recreate the issue so easily (including by doing a fresh install of the OS). I appreciate all of the input!

 

[acidrop]

Re: SBS 2003 Only Boots in Safe Mode

1. pveversion -v

2. try to disable kvm temporarily from vm options (KVM Hardware Virtualization=off).

3. Try a different vcpu (qemu64,qemu32 or any other combination)

4. Try a different disk cache option. (do you store vm disk on local disk or shared storage?)

5.

so I went in with networking enabled and tried your last suggestion (it is set to ACPI), but it just says "Cannot continue, no better driver found.."

You must select it from the list. Do not let it automatically search for better driver.

7. Do not try to convert the vm disk format.It is obvious that it is not a format problem.

8. I assume you have uninstalled vmware tools (if they were installed).

 

[CitanulEht]

Re: SBS 2003 Only Boots in Safe Mode

Where do I enter that first command? Is this something added to ProxMox as it boots, or set into the VM's conf file?
The system I'm using doesn't support KVM anyway so I have that turned off. Anyway I haven't been able to find it in the BIOS yet, although I didn't spend much time on it.
I will try the CPU suggestions later this evening, thank you.
I will check the cache options as well - it is on the local disk.
When you say to manually select it, do you mean manually changing it from ACPI to Standard, using pre-installed drivers? Or is there a driver file somewhere I'm supposed to use?
Ok I'll just stick with the current disk format which is booting into safe mode.
Yes I removed VMware Tools as the first step before doing any of this.

 

[acidrop]

Re: SBS 2003 Only Boots in Safe Mode

Where do I enter that first command? Is this something added to ProxMox as it boots, or set into the VM's conf file?

You must ssh on your proxmox box and give the command from console.You must get familiar with console if you want to use proxmox.

The system I'm using doesn't support KVM anyway so I have that turned off. Anyway I haven't been able to find it in the BIOS yet, although I didn't spend much time on it.

You must have VT-d capable CPU and motherboard if you want to use this vm in production.Without KVM acceleration it will be very very slow.

When you say to manually select it, do you mean manually changing it from ACPI to Standard, using pre-installed drivers? Or is there a driver file somewhere I'm supposed to use?

Yes I mean pre-installed drivers for example Standard PC, or ACPI PC (Not Multiprocessor), MIPS etc.
Be sure to select the proper vcpu on vm before changing this setting otherwise you won't be able to beoot either in safe mode.
Take a snapshot (if you use qcow2) before doing this.

 

[CitanulEht]

Re: SBS 2003 Only Boots in Safe Mode

I have no problem using the console, I guess what I don't get is what this command does? Is this a permanent change which will apply even if I shut the ProxMox server down?
I'm not really worried about the speed; this server has very basic utilization and will probably be replaced by 2012 Essentials and Office 365 down the road, but that isn't in the budget yet. Like I said it was running in VMware Player, but that was annoying me because I had to run it manually, plus VMware was giving me memory leaks and high CPU use on the workstation I was running it on. That's why I opted to try this method, when I was searching for free VM software which was more like VMware Server or Hyper-V. And also I'm not completely sure the motherboard won't support KVM I'll look again.
Ok I will check out those CPU drivers later this evening. Thanks again for your help!

 

[acidrop]

Re: SBS 2003 Only Boots in Safe Mode

I have no problem using the console, I guess what I don't get is what this command does? Is this a permanent change which will apply even if I shut the ProxMox server down?

It just shows the Proxmox components version Do you have the latest proxmox?

 

[CitanulEht]

Re: SBS 2003 Only Boots in Safe Mode

Oh ok gotcha - I will say that I downloaded it about a week ago so I believe so, but I have everything powered down since it still isn't working, and I'm at work, so I will check it tonight and let you know. Thanks!

 

[acidrop]

Re: SBS 2003 Only Boots in Safe Mode

I did a clean install of sbs2003 r2 on a vm with default settings, 1 cpu 2 cores (kvm=enabled).
Installation went fine and boot also.
After that I disabled kvm to see what happens.This time I didn't boot (black screen as u mentioned) neither on safe or normal mode.
Shutdown vm, changed processor to 1 cpu 1 core , kvm=disabled, acpi=enabled and it booted normally.
Conclusion: With kvm disabled you must use 1 cpu 1 core only, otherwise it does not boot (hal.dll maybe problem).
Try to get a VT-d capable hardware so you will be able to enable kvm and you will not have any issues.

 

[CitanulEht]

Re: SBS 2003 Only Boots in Safe Mode

Hmm.. well I double checked and the system I'm using doesn't have VT-d capabilities. Also I verified that I already have 1 CPU, 1 Core, KVM disabled and ACPI enabled, but it still only boots in safe mode, with a permanent gray bar at the bottom of a black screen otherwise. One thought I had - I noticed that the proc type is Default (kvm64). When your test with KVM disabled worked was that the same CPU type you were using?

 

[acidrop]

Re: SBS 2003 Only Boots in Safe Mode

For me it worked with default (kvm64 cpu).You can try with other one if you want.

But the different thing for me is that I was not able to boot either in safe mode.So I think your situation maybe is different..

The last thing you can try is what I mentioned before.Change computer type inside Windows to ACPI (no multiprocessor) PC.
Beware though,if you change it you won't be able to revert it and you will loose multiprocessor capability on win2003.So take a snapshot if possible before doing that change.

 

[CitanulEht]

Re: SBS 2003 Only Boots in Safe Mode

Ok so taking a cue from our proc discussion, I switched the CPU type from the default of kvm64 to kvm32 - and guess what? It works!!! I guess the reason being that the SBS server software itself was 32 bit? Makes sense to me.. thanks for all your assistance in helping me figure this one out!

 

[cesarpk]

Re: SBS 2003 Only Boots in Safe Mode

Ok so taking a cue from our proc discussion, I switched the CPU type from the default of kvm64 to kvm32 - and guess what? It works!!! I guess the reason being that the SBS server software itself was 32 bit? Makes sense to me.. thanks for all your assistance in helping me figure this one out!

Hi itanulEht

I guess these things:
For better yield of your VM, you should do these things:
- Enable CPU type: Host (to enable all flags of your processor type)
- Enable Virtio-disk and Virtio-net (In Internet and in the PVE wiki you will get much information on how to do this).
- Enable KVM (quintessential is the better option)

Maybe that starting your VM in save mode can help you for install the virtio-block and virtio-net for get the better performance (please see the documentation for how do this task)

The latest version of virtio drivers is here (Official version and official provider):
http://alt.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/virtio-win/latest/images/bin/virtio-win-0.1-81.iso

Best regards
Cesar