[SOLVED] Welcome to grub after disk clone

[besgum]

Hi all,

I make a mistake thinking something like cloning a disk was a easy task. I took out my proxmox NVME and on another machine y clone to a bigger one using clonezilla. Everything works great, so i plugged the new cloned nvme and i just have the "Welcome to grub". To get my server back i went and switch again to the original NVME, but for my surprise the same problem.....
I really dont want to install fresh, because im missing some backups.

I have tried many things on the cloned disk, like booting from proxmox live and use rescue boot, but it just hangs, dont know why.
Then on a ubuntu live session i mount the files and use

chroot /mnt

, then run

umount /boot/efi
proxmox-boot-tool init /dev/nvme1n1p2

After that the system recognize the proxmox disk but it get stuck loading, attached picture from recovery mode for debug

Other detail, is that the pve-root size is 220G with used 211G but the use% is 100%, i think this is weird
Should i surrender? I can imagine there is something i can do, at least the original disk is there, i just have been manipulating the cloned one, with better advise i would try on the original disk.


i will keep trying to save this, because i really really dont want to start from scratch (i didnt backup a critical VM, my bad...)

 

[uzumo]

This is just a guess, but since you seem to be using Ventoy, could it be the following?

E

[SOLVED] Thread 'proxmox-ve_8.1-2 new install ventoy initramfs hangs'

May 6, 2024

Hi
I am posting this for people experiencing this as i have read the accepted solutions and none address this.
Condition:
New Install version proxmox-ve_8.1-2, installed via ventoy usb. Install completes normally however system fails to boot past "loading initramfs" and hangs the system.
Attempting to boot recovery option results in system hanging around this error "Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)"

Solution/Condition confirmation:
-boot proxmox from install medium (ventoy flash) using the "rescue boot" option
-login to root using...

• ExoNos
• Replies: 3
• Forum: Proxmox VE: Installation and configuration

In terms of recovering the data, we need to know what type of disk was used.

It's a grub, so it doesn't look like a zfs. lvm?
If you are using lvm, you can check it with the following command.

lsblk
pvdisplay
vgdisplay
lvdisplay

With a new ventoy there is no problem, but unless you are faced with a problem you usually will not update it.

Also, if you are cloning a disk, running dd will not change anything.

<vmid>.conf is in a database like pmxcfs, so it is not easy to retrieve it, but not impossible if you mount the filesystem and retrieve it.

https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Proxmox_Cluster_File_System_(pmxcfs)

 

[besgum]

This is just a guess, but since you seem to be using Ventoy, could it be the following?

E

[SOLVED] Thread 'proxmox-ve_8.1-2 new install ventoy initramfs hangs'

May 6, 2024

Hi
I am posting this for people experiencing this as i have read the accepted solutions and none address this.
Condition:
New Install version proxmox-ve_8.1-2, installed via ventoy usb. Install completes normally however system fails to boot past "loading initramfs" and hangs the system.
Attempting to boot recovery option results in system hanging around this error "Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)"

Solution/Condition confirmation:
-boot proxmox from install medium (ventoy flash) using the "rescue boot" option
-login to root using...

• ExoNos
• Replies: 3
• Forum: Proxmox VE: Installation and configuration

In terms of recovering the data, we need to know what type of disk was used.

It's a grub, so it doesn't look like a zfs. lvm?
If you are using lvm, you can check it with the following command.



With a new ventoy there is no problem, but unless you are faced with a problem you usually will not update it.

Also, if you are cloning a disk, running dd will not change anything.

<vmid>.conf is in a database like pmxcfs, so it is not easy to retrieve it, but not impossible if you mount the filesystem and retrieve it.

https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Proxmox_Cluster_File_System_(pmxcfs)

I didn't get this, this mean that running clonezilla through Ventoy made some changes?
Because I really don't remember if I use Ventoy for installing proxmox, the server have been working well for years

Its grub (no zfs). Will check the command and show the results
Thanks for the help and hopefully I can make the system work again

 

[uzumo]

If no changes have been made, it should work fine, but I don't know how the software is cloned.

By the way, while the pre-cloned disk is connected to the system, the cloned disk is not also connected to the system, is it?

I would think that disks with the same ID would affect the system.

 

[besgum]

If no changes have been made, it should work fine, but I don't know how the software is cloned.

By the way, while the pre-cloned disk is connected to the system, the cloned disk is not also connected to the system, is it?

I would think that disks with the same ID would affect the system.

I have only one disk connected on every test. There is another NVMe that have some VMs, but I don't think this can affect right?

For the clone process, I use the expert mode and select disk_to_local_disk (followed this video clonezilla youtube) and use the create partitions table proportionally

The weird thing is that I can't load rescue boot from a proxmox ISO using Ventoy. Should I use Rufus to flash the image on another USB stick?

 

[uzumo]

I don't remember seeing it in the latest ISO.
Perhaps it's because I'm using Ventoy. I remember only doing this when I used ISO and Rufus in the past, so I'll have to try it out.
I can't try that far.

 

[besgum]

I don't remember seeing it in the latest ISO.
Perhaps it's because I'm using Ventoy. I remember only doing this when I used ISO and Rufus in the past, so I'll have to try it out.
I can't try that far.

What I mean is that using Ventoy. I load the proxmox image, select rescue boot but after a while the PC reboot and end with the screen with green lines like artifacts. That's why maybe flashing the proxmox directly to a USB stick could be a better option?

 

[uzumo]

I booted Rescue Boot using the installation ISO in the environment, but since it was a normal environment, it worked as if nothing had happened.

First, let's think about how to recover the data.

For now, please boot up Ubuntu. Please back up the following somewhere.

/mnt/proxmox/root
/mnt/var/lib/pve-cluster/config.db
/mnt/proxmox/etc/network/interfaces
/mnt/proxmox/var/lib/vz/snippets/*
/mnt/proxmox/etc/modprobe.d/*
/mnt/proxmox/etc/kernel/cmdline
/mnt/proxmox/etc/default/grub
/mnt/proxmox/usr/share/kvm/*
/mnt/proxmox/etc/modules

Please show the results of the following commands.

lsblk
pvdisplay
vgdisplay
lvdisplay

 

[uzumo]

You can install Proxmox on a completely different disk. I think it would be easier to extract the data from the original disk and restore it from there.

If you do not need the configuration information of the virtual machine, you can install Proxmox on another disk with the disk containing the necessary data connected. Even if you are using LVM, the name of the disk containing the target data will be changed during the installation process.

After that, you can restore the disk containing the necessary data using the PVE Web UI.

 

[besgum]

You can install Proxmox on a completely different disk. I think it would be easier to extract the data from the original disk and restore it from there.

If you do not need the configuration information of the virtual machine, you can install Proxmox on another disk with the disk containing the necessary data connected. Even if you are using LVM, the name of the disk containing the target data will be changed during the installation process.

After that, you can restore the disk containing the necessary data using the PVE Web UI.

So it would be like:
1) plug both disk (original proxmox and new disk)
2) install proxmox on the new disk using Ventoy
3) access the files of the original disk from the new proxmox terminal?

The configuration information of the VM are like passthrough settings?

 

[uzumo]

It is quicker to restore the backed-up files using this procedure.

My vacation is over, so I will probably not be able to provide any further support.

 

[uzumo]

// install proxmox on the new disk using Ventoy

Ventoy should also be avoided as it may be the cause of the problem. Please use rufus.
A dialog box will appear during installation, so please respond by changing the name.

// access the files of the original disk

I have prepared all the screen captures. Please check them.

// The configuration information of the VM

The VM configuration information is stored in a file named <vmid>.conf within an SQL file named config.db.
To extract this information, overwrite this file in the test environment, restart, and then copy the /etc/pve/qemu-server directory or open the SQL file to retrieve the information.

Wouldn't it be quicker to create a new one?

 

[besgum]

// install proxmox on the new disk using Ventoy

Ventoy should also be avoided as it may be the cause of the problem. Please use rufus.
A dialog box will appear during installation, so please respond by changing the name.

// access the files of the original disk

I have prepared all the screen captures. Please check them.

// The configuration information of the VM

The VM configuration information is stored in a file named <vmid>.conf within an SQL file named config.db.
To extract this information, overwrite this file in the test environment, restart, and then copy the /etc/pve/qemu-server directory or open the SQL file to retrieve the information.

Wouldn't it be quicker to create a new one?

I fix it! it was as easy as using balena etcher to burn the proxmox ISO, then i was able to boot using the recovery boot and follow some commands (some chatgpt also)

Man i dont know how to thank you for your quick and nice response, you are awesome to do so much. Thank you very much
If it was not for you, i would just wipe the disk and start all over again!

 

[uzumo]

I'm glad the problem was solved.

Please keep your backups.

Virtual disks can be recovered using the above procedure as long as there is no data corruption.

/var/lib/pve-cluster/config.db
/etc/network/interfaces
/var/lib/vz/snippets/*
/etc/modprobe.d/*
/etc/kernel/cmdline
/etc/default/grub
/usr/share/kvm/*
/etc/modules

If anyone else has a similar problem, please help them.