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GRUB EFI Error Proxmox 8.4: Force BIOS Installation

Jean26843326 Posted messages 130 Status Member -  
steph810 Posted messages 1865 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   -

Hello everyone,

I am trying to install Proxmox VE 8.4-1 on an old server equipped with a classic BIOS (no UEFI).
The installer crashes at the end with this error:

 failed to prepare EFI boot using Grub on '/dev/sda2': unable to install the EFI boot loader on '/dev/sda'

What I have already checked / tried:

  1. Server boot mode:

    • Secure Boot is disabled.

  2. USB boot support:

    • The USB drive is formatted with Rufus.

3 answers

  1.
    steph810 Posted messages 1865 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   152
     

    Hello,

    Which software did you use to create your bootable USB drive?

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    1. Jean26843326 Posted messages 130 Status Member 1
       

      I used the latest versions of balenaEtcher and Rufus.

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  2. mamiemando Posted messages 33228 Registration date   Status Moderator Last intervention   7 940
     

    Hello,

    Although Secure Boot is disabled, the Proxmox installer still seems to want to reference your EFI partition (apparently /dev/sda2). Given the error message, it is unable to do so. Two possible explanations: either this partition is not formatted in FAT32 (vfat), or there is not enough space left.

    What is the size and nature of the /dev/sda2 partition? Is there still space on /dev/sda2?

    sudo parted -l df -h

    If it's a lack of space, it might be that old systems have left unnecessary traces there. You could then remove them from the EFI partition via your BIOS/UEFI interface.

    Good luck.

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  3. steph810 Posted messages 1865 Registration date   Status Member Last intervention   152
     

    Hi again,

    There is indeed a solution, but it's not accessible to everyone. The simplest would be to install an older version and make the upgrades.

    See here for previous versions: http://download.proxmox.com/iso/

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