Unable to browse to Proxmox VE running on Mini PC

PresidentWillem

New Member
Jul 21, 2023
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I am a complete newbie to Proxmox, but I want to learn about virtualization so I bought a mini PC and installed proxmox ve from an usb device. The installation goes fine and there are no issues. Obviously I'm doing something wrong in setting up the network configuration. I've been browsing this forum to try and get it to work but I can't seem to be able to connect to the web portal.

Some considerations:
  1. I have a router from my ISP which has a DHCP server on which I freed the 192.168.2.1 - 192.168.2.9 for static IP's
  2. The mini pc is connected via LAN
  3. I have configured proxmox to run on 192.168.2.4, although I dont see it in connected devices on my router.
  4. I have tried to configure it to allow for dhcp to see if I could get it to connect with the router and make an IP reservation. No dice.
  5. pinging the ipv4 results in: Destination host unreachable
  6. I've reinstalled multiple times with different network configuration to try and match the values in my router web portal. No dice.
This is my current interfaces contents:

Code:
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

iface enp1s0 inet manual

auto vmbr0
iface vmbr0 inet static
    address 192.168.2.4/24
    gateway 192.168.2.254
    bridge-ports enp1s0
    bridge-stp off
    bridge-fd 0

iface wlp2s0 inet manual

This is my hosts content (I left out the ip6 config lines):
Code:
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
192.168.2.4 pve.example.local pve

I am not sure what I can do to get my desktop PC to connect to the browser portal. What am I missing here?
 
Last edited:
NO-CARRIER usually means that the cable is not plugged-in. Search the forum if you insist on using WiFi, which is not support by Proxmox but can work (in a limited way).
 
NO-CARRIER usually means that the cable is not plugged-in. Search the forum if you insist on using WiFi, which is not support by Proxmox but can work (in a limited way).
I really wouldn't want to use Wi-Fi if possible. The ethernet cable is connected and I can confirm its one steady green light and an orange one blinking besides the ethernet port.
 
As @leesteken said, your issue is "carrier detection". That is OSI layer1/2 problem.
You will not solve this issue with any changes to /etc/network/interfaces or related files.
There is an array of possible causes, just to name a few:
a) bad cable
b) bad nic (physical or firmware)
c) bad switch port
d) incompatible kernel driver implementation

Things to try:
a) replace cable
b) plug it to a different port
c) plug the cable directly to another PC
d) replace NIC
e) try Live boot using Ubuntu ISO

Each step will give you a bit more info. Continue checking and keeping track of the "ip a" state. In the end, it is possible that your miniPC has a bottom of the barrel NIC (on-board?) that simply wont work with PVE.


Blockbridge : Ultra low latency all-NVME shared storage for Proxmox - https://www.blockbridge.com/proxmox
 
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As @leesteken said, your issue is "carrier detection". That is OSI layer1/2 problem.
You will not solve this issue with any changes to /etc/network/interfaces or related files.
There is an array of possible causes, just to name a few:
a) bad cable
b) bad nic (physical or firmware)
c) bad switch port
d) incompatible kernel driver implementation

Things to try:
a) replace cable
b) plug it to a different port
c) plug the cable directly to another PC
d) replace NIC
e) try Live boot using Ubuntu ISO

Each step will give you a bit more info. Continue checking and keeping track of the "ip a" state. In the end, it is possible that your miniPC has a bottom of the barrel NIC (on-board?) that simply wont work with PVE.


Blockbridge : Ultra low latency all-NVME shared storage for Proxmox - https://www.blockbridge.com/proxmox

Okay so, I tried another cable and that didn't change anything unfortunately. I have tested this cable with other hardware and it did work.
I installed windows to check that the hardware is capable of working on this unit. It does work with Windows 10. Browsing the internet etc is fine.
I tried live boot with ubuntu and couldnt get the NIC to work.

I am now reading Spoonman2002's thread so I hope that will fix it.
 
Just a few hours ago this thread appeared that may be of help: https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/network-problem-r8169.131100/


Blockbridge : Ultra low latency all-NVME shared storage for Proxmox - https://www.blockbridge.com/proxmox
This might be the solution, but I can't connect to the internet with my mini pc, I've put them on a usb but the dependency tree for the package is huge. Is there any way to get all these packages without downloading them individually ?
 
This might be the solution, but I can't connect to the internet with my mini pc, I've put them on a usb but the dependency tree for the package is huge. Is there any way to get all these packages without downloading them individually ?

What Realtek do you have, the 8168 ?
And do you have network connectivity when using the 8169 driver ?
If so, then quickly apply the "fix" and download all files.
If not, then maybe set the ip address of the PVE host to something other then 192.168.2.4

"I have a router from my ISP which has a DHCP server on which I freed the 192.168.2.1 - 192.168.2.9 for static IP's"
- you meant to say : I have made DHCP reservations.
And what is your DHCP scope now ?
By the way, do not use ip address .1 (and .254) because many routers and devices have that as default address = ip conflict.
 
What Realtek do you have, the 8168 ?
And do you have network connectivity when using the 8169 driver ?
If so, then quickly apply the "fix" and download all files.
If not, then maybe set the ip address of the PVE host to something other then 192.168.2.4

"I have a router from my ISP which has a DHCP server on which I freed the 192.168.2.1 - 192.168.2.9 for static IP's"
- you meant to say : I have made DHCP reservations.
And what is your DHCP scope now ?
By the way, do not use ip address .1 (and .254) because many routers and devices have that as default address = ip conflict.
I do have the 8168... But I cant use apt-get because it's the only NIC on my device and it can't connect before I've installed the correct packages. If I download the package to USB and install it, it needs the dkms dependency. And then dkms needs 8 other dependencies, and those have multiple dependencies as well. Isn't there a way to download all those at once, or the repo itself?

I'm pretty sure it is the solution because when I run lspci -nnk | grep -A2 Ethernet I get Kernel driver and module for r8169 instead of 8168... Same as in the article.

Also the DHCP range is now: 192.168.2.10 - 192.168.2.250. I won't use .1 or .254 (which is my gateway/router in this case)
 
"I have configured proxmox to run on 192.168.2.4, although I dont see it in connected devices on my router."
"I have tried to configure it to allow for dhcp to see if I could get it to connect with the router and make an IP reservation. No dice."

- that's correct because Proxmox uses static ip address after installing.
You can use DHCP reservation, if you really want to (or just use a static ip).
 
Last edited:
I do have the 8168... But I cant use apt-get because it's the only NIC on my device and it can't connect before I've installed the correct packages. If I download the package to USB and install it, it needs the dkms dependency. And then dkms needs 8 other dependencies, and those have multiple dependencies as well. Isn't there a way to download all those at once, or the repo itself?

I'm pretty sure it is the solution because when I run lspci -nnk | grep -A2 Ethernet I get Kernel driver and module for r8169 instead of 8168... Same as in the article.

Also the DHCP range is now: 192.168.2.10 - 192.168.2.250. I won't use .1 or .254 (which is my gateway/router in this case)
I thought I read in the forum some people having the same realtek problem,
but had network connectivity (with a lot of drop outs and instability issues).
 
I thought I read in the forum some people having the same realtek problem,
but had network connectivity (with a lot of drop outs and instability issues).
yup. but I do not have any network connectivity at all. I am currently trying to install proxmox to a usb drive and putting that drive into my laptop to check if I can at least get all the required driver packages.
 
Yesterday I tried for the last time, but I still couldnt get it to work. I gave up.
Decided to install Ubuntu Server 22.04.2 LTS on which I have zero issues and use Docker instead.

Topic is not really solved, but it can be closed. Maybe I'll try again in the future with other hardware, because in the end I think that would've made my life way easier.
 
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Just out of curiosity, what mini pc did you buy ?
I’m also looking for a mini pc to run Proxmox on without problems.
I bought the GK3 plus mini PC. I think it’s basically brandless. But if you Google it you’ll find it. The specs seemed pretty good to me:
  • Intel N95
  • 256gb M2 ssd
  • 8 GB ram
There is a 16GB version which is like 40 dollars more. But for my uses I want as little as possible to reduce power consumption
 

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