Proxmox Questions

Sorry in advance if I've put this in the wrong place. There are like 5 different sub-forums where this could've gone.

I watched the Proxmox video a few times and have taken the plunge into building a visualization server (Any excuse to build another computer, right?).

I have a few specific questions though, so please enlighten me.

I'm going to use an FX 8350 if that's of any importance.

My first and foremost desire when doing this was to virtualize OSX. I don't develop iOS apps or anything, I honestly just want to be at least adequate at using the OS were it ever to be thrust upon me to fix or look at someone's Mac. I haven't used a Mac since OS 9.2 in highschool.

So obviously, my first question is can I do this? I read about nested VMs being necessary to pull this off with a couple of workarounds. And since Apple just made Yosemite free can't  I just download an ISO, or whatever it is?

Next is just using it to try out various distros on the fly and just generally upping my Linux exp.

So my question there is, if I want a specific distro with a specific DE that's not in the Proxmox default templates, do I just need to have the ISO for it? And do I just need to download it onto the machine I'm using the network interface on or on a flash drive plugged directly into the Proxmox machine?

Finally, and just for the lulz, is running old versions of Windows into the ground with viruses and malware.

Same sort of question. Do I just need to find an installer ISO and use that in the same fashion as above?

Also, is there anything I'm overlooking that I can do with this software? I'm willing to give anything a shot.

Thanks in advance.

Any KVM option requires the ISO (or similar (e.g. IMG)) to install the OS. Containers are what operate off of the templates and are.... kinda limited. But are the best performance options.

I haven't tried virtualising OSx on Proxmox as i've never had to (have a Mac anyway). Plus if it really matters to you, it breaks one of the EULAs to do so. But there shouldn't be an issue with it (providing you have the ISO). I do not know of any limitations that are present. (There might be something that prevents the latest versions running on the older kernel that Proxmox uses (but you can update that if you really need to))

Alright. I'm a fucking idiot. I can't even install this fucking thing.

Why is Linux so damn transfixed on my non-existent CD-ROM drive?

I've tried to boot several different things since I've had his computer put together this morning. Every time it just tells me "No cdrom detected"

I Googled the problem and tried the solution "mount /sdb1/mnt" but that doesn't do a damn thing, like everything in my life.

Managed to install Linux Mint though...but that was just a troubleshooting thing.

Please someone help!

So I presume you are installing from a USB. How did you image the drive?

Every god damn thing under the sun.

My usual go to is YUMI multiboot.

That didn't work so I tried Rufus win32diskimager, ISO to USB, UNetbiootin, though I think some of those weren't what I wanted.

Either way, I have determined YUMI was not the issue.

Writing the ISO to USB doesn't work directly. Change the extension to RAW and write it using SUESWriter or Win32DiskImager

Proxmox Wiki

The ISO tag makes the installer believe it is coming form a CD, so hence the installer starts looking for the drive. To which it gets confused because... well there isn't one. Bit silly really, but then it is also why some distributions of stuff have an ISO for CD/DVD and an IMG for USB.

So I want an IMG not an ISO?

No, of the ISO you have, just change the extension to RAW. Its in the wiki linked above.

It's still giving me the same error.

I'm real close to just throwing away all my computers and just living in a cave.

In a world run by things I know nothing about, I feel useless.

Right okay. When it gives you the boot prompt instead of just hitting return. Type 'debug' and then hit return.

It shall trawl through some crud, but eventually pop out with the message of no cd rom.

At which point type 'fdisk -l'. This will tell you the disks connected to your system. Take note of the USB address (should be similar to /dev/sda1. The a maybe another character depending how many drives are in your computer)

Follow this with 'mount /dev/sda1 /mnt' replacing sda1 with your drive. At this point try typing 'boot' it may work.

 

Other than that. Start fresh, if your using Windows use diskpart to clean the disk and give it a new fat32 partition. Writing the proxmox.raw to the drive using SUES (running under admin privileges).

If all else fails, install debian and install proxmox on top. (Proxmox on Debian Wiki)

I don't understand the problem here at all. I've literally never had this happen before yesterday. I've always happily burned ISOs to flash drives and booted them perfectly fine.

I've booted Ubuntu, Mint, GParted, DBAN, etc. all without this issue. Then I get it with not only Proxmox, but Stresslinux I tried to use to test my computer's stability.

It's not a BIOS or hardware thing either. This happens on my Dell D430 as well.

Everything you mentioned didn't help. I noticed when I was booting with the .raw instead of the ISO, fdisk doesn't even show the flash drive at all. Before, with the ISO I at least saw /sdb1 volume.

Is the SUSEwriter supposed to make your flash drive unrecognizable in Windows?

I didn't try the installing on top of Debian, though. Simply because looking at it, I know 100% I couldn't do it if I can't even do this.

Relax. You're not an idiot. You're certainly not the first person who's had issues out of a CD drive. What are we trying to install here, Proxmox (the host OS) or the OS for a VM? If you're trying to set up a VM, save yourself the trouble of burning a billion CDs and just upload the ISO file to the server.

Proxmox is a bit strange in how it handles itself in regards to not being on a CD.

SUES will make your drive unrecognisable as due to the formatting type.

What size is the USB drive out of curiosity?

2GB. But I've also unsuccessfully tried with a 4GB drive as well.

Can you not just borrow a CD drive from another machine just temporarily? I had similar issues when I tried a USB stick, so I kid you not I went and got the 500mhz AMD K6-2 box out from under my bed and just stole the IDE drive out of it. The thing was slow as Christmas but it worked in the end, and I haven't needed the CD drive since (I don't even have it in the case anymore)

I actually always had that option but considered it admitting defeat. I eventually did whip out my SATA/IDE to USB kit and do it though.

Even that was a god damn mess. I had two drives lying around and tried each one. They apparently were both non-functioning, so I had to move the computer to a different room and move some stuff around to use the drive in my external enclosure. Although I realize now it probably wouldn't have been to much of a hassle to move the enclosure instead.

Oh well. I ended up getting it installed but because of the odd placement did so without having it plugged into the network. This apparently caused some issues as I wasn't able to access the web GUI.

I read about this issue online and just reinstalling while connected seems to fix it.

However, I still want to know why that cdrom issue happened in the first place, and how to fix it in the future.

     ..."However, I still want to know why that cdrom issue happened in the first place, and how to fix it in the future."

This happens when you use the wrong install medium. ie; cd-rom vs netboot or media.

A simple work around is to mount your flash drive to /cdrom.

Thanks for all the help, guys. You are great.

Kinda forgot to show my gratitude...