Win XP BIOS

[rot_link]

I am attempting to migrate from Windows to Mandrake Linux 9.2 on my Toshiba Satellite, but I've run into a slight snag: I cannot get my computer to boot from the CD. Now I know that the boot order can be changed in the BIOS, if fact I've done it on an older computer I have, but I cannot figure out how to get into my BIOS on this machine. I have tried alot of different combinations, such as F1, F2, F8, F10, Esc, Shift, Shift-S, Del, and Tab, but with no success. I have also searched Google, but I cannot find anything (excluding things I have already tried) to help me. I would appriciate any help on how to get into the BIOS. Thanks.

[TheCotMan]

I am attempting to migrate from Windows to Mandrake Linux 9.2 on my Toshiba Satellite, but I've run into a slight snag: I cannot get my computer to boot from the CD. Now I know that the boot order can be changed in the BIOS, if fact I've done it on an older computer I have, but I cannot figure out how to get into my BIOS on this machine. I have tried alot of different combinations, such as F1, F2, F8, F10, Esc, Shift, Shift-S, Del, and Tab, but with no success. I have also searched Google, but I cannot find anything (excluding things I have already tried) to help me. I would appriciate any help on how to get into the BIOS. Thanks.

Sometimes, POST will check and halt on lack of keyboard.

(Keyboard not connected, press F1 to continue or F2 to enter Setup.)

You can try this.

Another one is sometimes found by holding many keys which sometimes triggers a keyboard failure.

Another is disconnecting all drives to force error to enter setup when no bootable drives are found.

Older Dell used Control-Alt-KeyPadEnter.

Best to check your docs and see what they say. Many vendors of systems provide manuals online for people who buy systems.

HTH

[highwizard]

I am attempting to migrate from Windows to Mandrake Linux 9.2 on my Toshiba Satellite.

I installed Slack on my Toshiba Laptop with no trouble at all, the BIOS was a little trick to get into, but I finally solved that...

Good luck!

[Gadsden]

On my Toshiba Satellite you hit the "C" key on the Toshiba splash screen to boot from cdrom. Mandrake worked well on it, as did redhat and knoppix.

[JoeSchmuck]

This applies mostly to newer laptops, but function keys (F1, etc) don't always work as they should. Hook up an external kb (ps2, not usb) and giving the F-keys a try again.

hth

[skroo]

I would appriciate any help on how to get into the BIOS.

This isn't a break-into-the-BIOS method, but it may help you provided that you can boot from floppy.

Go here and use the appropriate rawrite utility to write the sbootmgr.dsk image to a floppy. Boot from that floppy (make sure that the CD-ROM in the drive), and follow the prompts to make it boot from CD.

I can't guarantee that this will work, but it's saved my bacon many times. Out of curiosity, what model Satellite are you trying to install?