[TUTORIAL] SuperMicro H8SGL-F / Matrox G200 Proxmox Boot Problems Fix

[johnyb0y]

I recently tried to install Proxmox VE 5.3 on an older SuperMicro Node:

• SuperMicro H8SGL-F Motherboard with integrated Matrox G200E Graphics
• AMD Opteron 6348
  
• 128GB DDR3 ECC Ram

The Problem: Proxmox wouldn't boot, neither the installer nor a finished install from another node (Blackscreen and complete server crash a few seconds after proxmox started booting)

I found several threads from people with the same problem:

• https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/supermicro-h8sgl-f-motherboard.35036/
  
• https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/monitor-schaltet-ab-blackscreen.51919/ (Same Matrox iGPU)

At least in my case I found a fix and I wanted to share it here:

1. Update Bios to newest version (3.5b).
2. Go into Bios and "Reset to Failsafe Defaults". It's not enough to use "Reset to Optimized Defaults" - don't ask me why.
3. At this point the Proxmox installer should boot up fine. You can now reenter the Bios and configure everything to your liking. The Proxmox installer should still boot up after your changes.

It seems that after updating the SuperMicro H8SGL-F Motherboard to the newest version, "something" in the bios configuration is set in a wrong way (probably related to the Matrox G200E iGPU) and only the "Failsafe Defaults" fix this. A CMOS reset will probably have the same effect.

It might have something to do with jumping from a very old BIOS version to the newest one in just one step - at least that's what I did before running into this problem.

Anyway, I hope this will help someone in the future.

 

[gm001]

Sorry for digging up an old post...

I have a few H8DCL-6F boards still in use (they were running CentOS 7). When I attempted to install Proxmox, I couldn't get these boards to boot from the installation media. I updated the BIOS to 3.5b. Nothing. I updated the BMC to 3.20. Nothing. I updated the LSI 2008 controller. Nothing. I tried setting the BIOS to "failsafe defaults". I still couldn't get past Loading Initial ramdisk". I tried a Debian Buster disc. Same problem. I tried Proxmox 6.1, 5.4, and 5.2. Same issue. I tried adding "nomodeset" to the kernel parameters. Nothing. However, a CentOS 7 or CentOS 8 disc boots fine - so long as you install in "basic graphics" mode (CentOS 8 has another issue, in that the LSI 2008 drivers were removed).

Finally, I tried dropping in a video card. The first one I tried was an old PCI-e Radeon card. Same issue. Then, I tried an old PCI-e Nvidia card (Geforce 8400). Bingo! It booted the Proxmox 6.2 installer disc perfectly.

Once Proxmox 6.2 completed installation, I shut down the server and removed the Nvidia card. Proxmox booted back up from the hard drives perfectly. I'm able to use the iKVM, or a monitor directly attached to the motherboard without any trouble. In other words, Proxmox has no issue with this motherboard or the Matrox GPU - it's the Proxmox GUI installer that doesn't play nice with the onboard GPU...

 

[RolandK]

also see https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/generic-solution-when-install-gets-framebuffer-mode-fails.111577/