Proxmox 9 installation stuck on “setting up pve-manager”

If, from the console in your customer area, you see the progress stuck on “setting up pve-manager”, follow these steps. They are quick and solve the issue in most cases.

Step 1. Forced reboot

1. Perform a forced reboot of the machine from the console.
2. The machine will reboot twice and will end at the login screen with Debian 13.
3. Log in via SSH as root.

During this phase, do not interact with other panels or procedures.

Step 2. Recovery commands

Run the following commands in sequence, without skipping any.

Note: Remove the space between W and GET in the key download command.

rm -rf /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pve-install-repo.sources
cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pve-install-repo.sources <<EOF
Types: deb
URIs: http://download.proxmox.com/debian/pve
Suites: trixie
Components: pve-no-subscription
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/proxmox-archive-keyring.gpg
EOF
w get -4 -q https://enterprise.proxmox.com/debian/proxmox-archive-keyring-trixie.gpg -O /usr/share/keyrings/proxmox-archive-keyring.gpg
rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pve-enterprise.sources
apt update -y && apt full-upgrade -y
apt install -y proxmox-default-kernel
apt update -y && apt full-upgrade -y
apt install -y proxmox-ve postfix open-iscsi chrony
apt remove -y linux-image-amd64 'linux-image-6.12*' os-prober
rm /etc/rc.local
systemctl reboot 

Step 3. Checks

After the reboot, log in again via SSH, then check the services.

pveversion systemctl status pveproxy systemctl status pvedaemon

If the services are active, the environment is ready.

Step 4. Web access

1. Open the browser at https://IP:8006.
2. Log in as root, use the password set during installation.

If the browser warns about the certificate, proceed via the advanced option.

If something goes wrong

• Run apt update and apt full-upgrade -y again, then reboot.
• Check the latest error logs with journalctl -xe.
• Verify DNS and the reachability of download.proxmox.com.