Invoking the BIOS/UEFI Set-Up Menu
The BIOS/UEFI provides the basic functions needed to boot your machine and
to allow your operating system to access your hardware. Your system
provides a BIOS/UEFI setup menu, which is used to configure the BIOS/UEFI.
To enter the BIOS/UEFI setup menu you have to press a key or key combination
after turning on the computer. Often it is the Delete
or the F2 key, but some manufacturers use other keys.
Usually upon starting the computer there will be a message
stating which key to press to enter the setup screen.
Boot Device Selection
Within the BIOS/UEFI setup menu, you can select which devices shall be
checked in which sequence for a bootable operating system. Possible choices
usually include the internal harddisks, the CD/DVD-ROM drive and USB mass storage
devices such as USB sticks or external USB harddisks. On modern systems there
is also often a possibility to enable network booting via PXE.
Depending on the installation media (CD/DVD ROM, USB stick, network boot)
you have chosen you should enable the appropriate boot devices if they
are not already enabled.
Most BIOS/UEFI versions allow you to call up a boot menu on system startup in
which you select from which device the computer should start for the
current session. If this option is available, the BIOS/UEFI usually displays
a short message like press F12 for boot
menu
on system startup.
The actual key used to select this menu varies from system to system;
commonly used keys are F12, F11 and
F8. Choosing a device from this menu does not change
the default boot order of the BIOS/UEFI, i.e. you can start once from a
USB stick while having configured the internal harddisk as the normal
primary boot device.
If your BIOS/UEFI does not provide you with a boot menu to do ad-hoc choices
of the current boot device, you will have to change your BIOS/UEFI setup to make
the device from which the &d-i; shall be booted the primary boot device.
Unfortunately some computers may contain buggy BIOS/UEFI versions. Booting &d-i; from
a USB stick might not work even if there is an appropriate option in the
BIOS/UEFI setup menu and the stick is selected as the primary boot device. On
some of these systems using a USB stick as boot medium is impossible; others
can be tricked into booting from the stick by changing the device type in
the BIOS/UEFI setup from the default USB harddisk
or USB
stick
to USB ZIP
or USB CDROM
.
In particular if you use an isohybrid installation image on a USB stick
(see ), changing the device type to
USB CDROM
helps on some BIOSes which will not boot from a USB stick in
USB harddisk mode.
You may need to configure your BIOS/UEFI to enable USB legacy support
.
If you cannot manipulate the BIOS/UEFI to boot directly from a USB stick you
still have the option of using an ISO copied to the stick. Boot &d-i;
using and, after scanning the hard
drives for an installer ISO image, select the USB device and choose an
installation image.