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Setting Up Proxmox VE 8.3 for a Homelab

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Ichiro Yamasaki
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2 min read

Setting Up Proxmox VE 8.3 for a Homelab

Downloading the Proxmox ISO

First, download the latest Proxmox VE 8.3 ISO Installer from the official Proxmox website:

Proxmox VE Downloads

Verify the integrity of the downloaded file by checking the SHA256 checksum:

sha256sum ~/Downloads/proxmox-ve_8.3-1.iso

Example output:

b5c2d10d6492d2d763e648bc8562d0f77a90c39fac3a664e676e795735198b45  /Users/ichiro/Downloads/proxmox-ve_8.3-1.iso

Creating a Bootable USB Drive

List available disk devices to identify your USB drive:

diskutil list

Example output:

/dev/disk4 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *62.9 GB    disk4
   1:               Windows_NTFS 64GB-USB                62.9 GB    disk4s1

Burn the ISO image onto the USB drive:

sudo dd if=/Users/ichiro/Downloads/proxmox-ve_8.3-1.iso of=/dev/rdisk4 bs=4M status=progress

Example progress output:

1447034880 bytes (1447 MB, 1380 MiB) transferred 279.097s, 5185 kB/s
345+1 records in
345+1 records out
1449048064 bytes transferred in 279.500273 secs (5184425 bytes/sec)

Safely eject the USB drive:

diskutil eject /dev/disk4

Installing Proxmox

  1. Insert the bootable USB into the target computer.

  2. Enter the BIOS/UEFI settings and modify the boot order to boot from USB.

  3. Select the Graphical UI option to begin installation.

  4. Follow the on-screen installation prompts.

Troubleshooting Boot Issues

If Proxmox gets stuck on loading drivers, the issue might be related to GPU compatibility. In particular, NVIDIA GPUs can cause boot issues. To resolve this:

  1. Edit the boot menu during startup.

  2. Locate the line that starts with linux (e.g., linux /boot/vmlinuz-... root=/dev/ram0 rw quiet splash).

  3. Add nomodeset at the end of the line:

linux /boot/vmlinuz-... root=/dev/ram0 rw quiet splash nomodeset

Removing the Proxmox Subscription Message

Proxmox will display a subscription message when using the free version. You can disable it by modifying the package repository and UI settings.

Step 1: Modify the Repository List

Open the enterprise repository file and comment out the subscription repository:

nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pve-enterprise.list

Ensure the file contains:

# deb https://enterprise.proxmox.com/debian/pve bookworm pve-enterprise

Next, add the no-subscription repository:

echo "deb http://download.proxmox.com/debian/pve bookworm pve-no-subscription" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pve-no-subscription.list

Step 2: Remove the Subscription Warning in the Web UI

Modify the Proxmox JavaScript file to suppress the warning:

sed -i.bak "s|if (data.status !== 'Active')|if (false)|g" /usr/share/javascript/proxmox-widget-toolkit/proxmoxlib.js

Step 3: Restart Proxmox Services

Restart the Proxmox web service:

systemctl restart pveproxy

Reboot the system to apply the changes:

reboot

Once the system restarts, the subscription warning should be gone, and Proxmox should function without interruptions.

Conclusion

You have successfully set up Proxmox VE 8.3 on your homelab, created a bootable USB, installed Proxmox, and removed the subscription message. You are now ready to start managing your virtualized environment!

proxmoxHomelab