On most dell boxes tapping f11 or f12 I can't remember which during bootup pulls up the BIOS boot menu. Then it's usually down arrow once and you get the cd, although you can do it with trial and error and multiple presses of down arrow with a reboot in the middle. Once you know how many down the cdrom is this rarely if ever changes on a particular box. Regards, Kerry. On 9/04/2012 9:39 PM, Martin McCormick wrote: > This discussion brings up a question. There is a most > annoying problem in Dell and possibly other BIOS' in which the > boot sequence reverts to one that puts the hard drive before > the CDROM. If the hard drive appears bootable but isn't or you > don't like what it does, you are out of luck > > All the systems in question have usb ports but they are > not part of the boot selection. One of them has no floppy drive > although the BIOS still lists drive A indicating you could > probably add it temporarily. > > Has anybody else had this happen and did you find a way > short of asking somebody to help you re-order the boot sequence, > to fix this problem? > > I think the low-level code in the BIOS detects a problem > in the boot sequence at some time and resets itself but I am not > sure what triggers it. It has happened often enough on enough > different systems that I am pretty sure they were set properly > at first and then mysteriously re-order themselves some time > later. > > One doesn't notice anything until it is time to try out > a live CD or use a CDROM in rescue mode at which time you > realize that it isn't going to happen just yet. > > Gregory Nowak writes: >> Yes, this should still work, since the installer searches for media >> before actually starting to do the install. So, you should in fact be >> able to boot from an internal cd drive, and do the install from dvd in >> an external drive, provided debian recognizes the external drive, >> which it should. HTH. >> >> Greg >> >> >> - -- >> web site: http://www.romuald.net.eu.org >> gpg public key: http://www.romuald.net.eu.org/pubkey.asc >> skype: gregn1 >> (authorization required, add me to your contacts list first) >> >> - -- >> Free domains: http://www.eu.org/ or mail dns-manager at EU.org >> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- >> Version: GnuPG v1.4.10 (GNU/Linux) >> >> iEYEARECAAYFAk+Cg+wACgkQ7s9z/XlyUyBb6wCgh7OeYCmBA+fx1MJiQkkqAKLF >> n50AmgJ6jNKbKBN0SvaMKlN1wB8YDz4S >> =dw1v >> -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- >> _______________________________________________ >> Speakup mailing list >> Speakup at braille.uwo.ca >> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup >> >> > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
