GRUB verbose boot

Verbose boot with GRUB

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Most PVE boots are entirely quiet. Avoid issues with troubleshooting non-booting system later by setting verbose boots. If you are already in trouble, there is a remedy as well.

Unfortunately, Proxmox VE ships with quiet booting, the screen goes blank and then turns into login prompt. It does not use e.g. Plymouth   that would allow you to optionally see the boot messages, but save on the boot-up time when they are not needed. While trivial, there does not seem to be dedicated official guide on this basic troubleshooting tip.

Note

There is only one exception to the statement above - ZFS install on non-SecureBoot UEFI system, in which case the bootloader is systemd-boot instead, which defaults to verbose boot. You may wish to replace it with GRUB instead, however.

One-off verbose boot

Instantly after power-on, when presented with GRUB   boot menu, press e to edit the commands of the selected boot option:

GRUB Menu
GRUB Menu

Navigate onto the linux line and note the quiet keyword at the end:

GRUB - Edit commands
GRUB - Edit commands

Remove the quiet keyword leaving everything else intact:

GRUB - Edited commands
GRUB - Edited commands

Press F10 to proceed to boot verbosely.

Verbose boot
Verbose boot

Permanent verbose boot

You may want to have verbose setup as your default, it only adds a couple of seconds to your boot-up time.

On a working booted-up system, edit /etc/default/grub:

nano /etc/default/grub
GRUB - /etc/default/grub
GRUB - /etc/default/grub

Remove the quiet keyword, so that the line looks like this:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=""

Save your changed file and apply the changes:

update-grub

In case of ZFS install, you might be instead using e.g. Proxmox boot tool:

proxmox-boot-tool refresh

Upon next reboot, you will be greeted with verbose output.

Tip

The above also applies to other options, e.g. the infamous blank screen woes (not only with NVIDIA) - and the nomodeset parameter.


See also: update-grub
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