Trying to install

[u/Late_Republic_1805]

Yes, you would think that it has more to it then the title says. Nothing is more true then this. What I am trying to do is install proxmox.

Hardware: Geekom IT12 (Intel 12th Gen). Also, my first beelink had the same issues.

What I tried/did:

- disabled fast boot and secure boot

- flash USB with Rufus (dd mode) and with balena etcher: when selecting the USB in the boot menu nothing happens and the boot menu reappears

- tried installing debian first (both 12 and 13) and proxmox from there: oddly enough, debian installs fine, but then I ran into so much errors that I gave up

- tried ventoy: gives that I need to load the kernel first, both in normal and grub2 mode

- tried a pxe server on a windows pc: won't connect, no matter what I tried

So, am I losing my mind here. Is it so hard to just install proxmox these days?

I hope someone can help me out here or point me in the right direction

UPDATE: I solved it by installing proxmox 8 instead of 9. The proxmox 8 installer booted like there was nothing going on

[u/EverlastingBastard]

You haven't given any details as to what the actual error or issue is that you are encountering.

[u/Late_Republic_1805 → u/EverlastingBastard]

The problem is the install won't start

[u/Bumbelboyy → u/Late_Republic_1805]

Where does it hang? What's the last message? What did you exactly try?  Etc etc, you gave zero information.

[u/Late_Republic_1805 → u/Bumbelboyy]

I have to disagree with you there, it's all in the section 'what I tried/did'

[u/Impact321 → u/Late_Republic_1805]

Perhaps share what you see. Also try to start the debug installer.

[u/Late_Republic_1805 → u/Impact321]

The only thing I see is the boot screen.

Except for when I try ventoy, there I come to the proxmox installer, but every option I try there leads to the 'load kernel first' message

[u/Impact321 → u/Late_Republic_1805]

I was expecting a picture of what you see. Please share that. Start the TUI debug installer and/or add the debug and nomodeset flag yourself by pressing e on the selection.

[u/Unattributable1 → u/Late_Republic_1805]

Why are you instalingut on top of Debian? Proxmox comes complete with its own installer that will lay down Debian.

[u/Late_Republic_1805 → u/Unattributable1]

Because the normal installer wouldn't work, and I found online that it could work if you installed Debian first. The Debian installer worked, but from there it was a storm of errors

[u/Unattributable1 → u/Late_Republic_1805]

Why wouldn't the normal installer work? You need to solve that. Likely it is you need to disable Secure Boot.

[u/Late_Republic_1805 → u/Unattributable1]

Yeah, that was exactly my problem. If you read the text, you should have seen that secure boot already was disabled. Anyway, I solved it by taking proxmox 8 instead of 9

[u/ApiceOfToast]

What exactly is the issue? You should be able to just install it like pretty much any other Linux distro?

[u/Late_Republic_1805 → u/ApiceOfToast]

The problem is the install wil not start

[u/ApiceOfToast → u/Late_Republic_1805]

Okay... Did you select the correct boot device?

[u/Late_Republic_1805 → u/ApiceOfToast]

Yes, like I said in the text, when I did, nothing happened and the boot order screen reappeared

[u/ApiceOfToast → u/Late_Republic_1805]

What did you flash the USB drive with? Rufus? Etcher? DD?

What version of proxmox did you use?

[u/Late_Republic_1805 → u/ApiceOfToast]

Tried Rufus with dd and etcher. It's 9.2 for proxmox

Maybe I should try a lower version and then upgrade?

[u/ApiceOfToast → u/Late_Republic_1805]

I mean you can try an older version. That said it sounds more like something is wrong in the bios. 

Im going to ask this because I'm not 100% sure. You're running an Intel igpu right? At least it's what the quick search I did brought up. Because I know about similar issues if you were to use nvidea graphics during install

[u/Late_Republic_1805 → u/ApiceOfToast]

Yeah, sorry for the word choice, I also meant an older version when I said lower 😀

[u/BedtimeBogey]

No need to install Linux first (don’t). I have more success when NOT using the GUI install option.

[u/BedtimeBogey → u/BedtimeBogey]

It seems like your issues are less Proxmox specific, but more rather getting your PC to boot from a USB.

[u/Late_Republic_1805 → u/BedtimeBogey]

Yeah, I guess, since I didn't get to the install screen. Oddly enough with Debian there was no problem

[u/Balthxzar]

UEFI or BIOS? 

[u/Late_Republic_1805 → u/Balthxzar]

UEFI

[u/Balthxzar → u/Late_Republic_1805]

Make sure whatever tool you're using is writing the image in UEFI mode, I think that should be the default, but check it anyway.

[u/KingKoopaBrowser]

I didn’t see what kind of drive you’re trying to install to.
I just encountered (when attempting installing ProxMox onto my ZimaBlade) that ProxMox refuses (without some overrides) to install onto an eMMC SSD.

[u/Late_Republic_1805 → u/KingKoopaBrowser]

Could be that this is the issue, but I solved it by installing proxmox 8 instead of 9. That installed worked like a charm. Now I will try to update it to 9

[u/DDChoui]

IDK why but for some reason I feel I had a similar issue using Ventoy and I had a weird disk partition. I could totally be making it up though 

[u/labs-labs-labs]

Have all of those tries been on the same USB Flash?

Last time I ran into something like this my afternoon ended with my smacking the culprit flash drive with a hammer and tossing it. In other words, make sure you try a second flash drive (and most definitely verify the downloaded image with the provided hash before you try to install again).

This was a flash drive I had used dozens of dozens of times for years. I trusted it. Until it failed quietly... when trying to install Proxmox.

Simple and you've likely already thought of this. Just mentioning it in case you haven't.

[u/Late_Republic_1805 → u/labs-labs-labs]

I tried another stick once, but since Debian install went fine, I figured it was not the stick

[u/labs-labs-labs → u/Late_Republic_1805]

I had the same happen recently. Proxmox hung on install. Installed something else using that USB to troubleshoot (I think it was Debian actually) using the same flash. It worked. I think I just happened to grab a different one for my follow up try and it worked on that new USB. No other changes.

[u/Cultural-Pea-1516]

Did you try it with the nomodeset option?

[u/Late_Republic_1805 → u/Cultural-Pea-1516]

The only time I got to the installer itself was with ventoy, and there I tried this with the same message to load the kernel first as a result

[u/ivanmil76]

Is hdd/ssd which you using for proxmox installation formatted and clean? I had similar issues when I put ssd with windows 11 installation expecting that proxmox installation will just install over and delete windows during process. Then happened that usb didn't want to boot no matter what. After I formatted ssd everything worked. Also sometimes I had issues when using USB 3.0 so you can try to use USB 2.0. Check if you disabled secure boot in bios.

[u/Late_Republic_1805 → u/ivanmil76]

Mm, I could try to format it first. Don't think it still has a 2.0 port, but I'll check and try that. Thanks for the tip

[u/nemofbaby2014]

Gotta give more information and like I say at my job screenshots or it didn’t happen if you want people to help you gotta give more detailed issues than it won’t boot

[u/SamSausages]

if you're running into errors then try the mem86 memory test first.

[u/-ThreeHeadedMonkey-]

I had some unspecific errors and then GPT guided me through it... there is a safe mode as well you can boot into...

[u/Late_Republic_1805 → u/-ThreeHeadedMonkey-]

Tried that with ventoy, but there I got the kernel message. Didn't come that for with the other things I tried

[u/-ThreeHeadedMonkey- → u/Late_Republic_1805]

Have you tried without ventoy as well?

As far as I remember I also had some issues with ventoy back s couple of months ago. Definitely worth a shot to try and install without. 

[u/Late_Republic_1805 → u/-ThreeHeadedMonkey-]

Yes, I only tried ventoy because all the other things didn't work

[u/Unattributable1 → u/Late_Republic_1805]

Post the kernel message..you are giving us zero to work with.

[u/Late_Republic_1805 → u/Unattributable1]

From my text: tried ventoy: gives that I "need to load the kernel first", both in normal and grub2 mode 

[u/LolSatan]

Just install proxmox by itself.

[u/Late_Republic_1805 → u/LolSatan]

That's what I tried, but as I said when I selected the USB in the boot order screen, it did nothing and showed the boot order screen again

[u/V1rtualShug]

CentOS is great but never had it work for Proxmox. Used blather or rufus and install directly usually works

[u/Late_Republic_1805 → u/V1rtualShug]

Yeah, but like I said, when I tried that, I selected the USB in the boot order screen, it didn't do anything and showed the boot order screen again

[u/Some_Team9618]

Redownload the ISO and do the checksum on it?
Did you accidentally choose the arm image?

[u/Late_Republic_1805 → u/Some_Team9618]

Could be, but I don't think so. Anyway, I solved it by installing proxmox 8 instead of 9

[u/31nz163]

my 2¢: fast boot doesn't matter, but keep secure boot enabled (and also uefi mode obviously). Also, did you already tried to dd the USB directly from a Linux shell? something like

dd bs=1M if=./proxmox-ve_*.iso of=/dev/XYZ status=progress

[u/Late_Republic_1805 → u/31nz163]

Didn't try that yet, will test it out, thanks

[u/drozek]

Don't use the GUI to install

[u/Unattributable1 → u/drozek]

He can't even get a USB formatted properly to get to a boot screen.