No-Subscription Repositories on Proxmox VE: Clear the Notice and Update

August 1, 2026 · 3 min read

Proxmox VE installs with the enterprise repositories enabled, and those require a paid subscription. The result is that apt update fails the moment installation finishes, and every time you open the panel you get the “No valid subscription” notice.

This is not a mistake on your side, and you do not need to pay anything for a home lab: Proxmox publishes no-subscription repositories for exactly this case. Same packages, without the commercial support agreement. This guide sets them up, Ceph included, which is the step most tutorials skip.

Possible Errors When Running apt update

After running apt update, you may get error messages similar to these:

Err:8 https://enterprise.proxmox.com/debian/ceph-quincy bookworm InRelease
  401  Unauthorized [IP: 66.70.154.82 443]
Err:9 https://enterprise.proxmox.com/debian/pve bookworm InRelease
  401  Unauthorized [IP: 66.70.154.82 443]
...
E: The repository 'https://enterprise.proxmox.com/debian/pve bookworm InRelease' is not signed.

Why Does This Happen?

These errors happen because Proxmox tries to pull updates from the Proxmox enterprise servers by default, and those require a valid license. If you do not have one, those update requests fail with authorization errors.

Side Note: Continue Without Updating Proxmox Right Now

If you would rather not change the Proxmox repositories at this point, do not worry. The apt update errors do not affect the current process of enabling Wake-on-LAN. You can move on to step 2 without touching the repositories. Keep in mind, though, that some packages may stay out of date until you switch to the CE repositories or buy an enterprise license.

Fix: Set Up the Proxmox VE CE Repositories

To fix this, you need to switch the repositories to the Community Edition (CE) of Proxmox, which is free. You can follow this post, where I explain how to update Proxmox using CE and go over the pros and cons of this setup.

Summary of the Steps to Switch to the CE Repositories:

Edit the repositories file:

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

Comment out or delete the existing lines:

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

Save and close the file by pressing CTRL + O, then ENTER and CTRL + X.

Add the Proxmox No-Subscription repository:

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

Edit the Ceph Repositories File

You also need to make sure Ceph points to the no-subscription repository.

Edit the ceph.list file:

nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ceph.list

Comment Out the Existing Enterprise Line:

Find the line that points to the Ceph enterprise repository and comment it out:

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

Add the Ceph No-Subscription Repository:

Add the following line to point to the no-subscription repository:

deb http://download.proxmox.com/debian/ceph-quincy bookworm main

Save and close the file (CTRL + O, ENTER, CTRL + X).

Update the packages:

apt update

After making these changes, you should be able to update and install packages without authorization problems.

With the repositories configured you can carry on with whatever you were doing. If you got here from the Wake-on-LAN on Proxmox guide, head back and continue from the step where you identify the network interface.