I saw one Microsoft help page in which the customer service agent recommended to cut power to the PC during the Windows 8 or 10 boot process, three times! After three failed boots, newer Windows will bring up the UEFI boot options dialog.
My Sharp PC-7000 has a Setup key on the keyboard.
Can’t you just hold f2 and it works the same as mashing it now?
I’d like to talk about the secret third option, escape.
On my system, I can just run
$ sudo systemctl reboot --firmware-setupAnd it’ll take the system to the BIOS.
From the
systemctl(1)man page:--firmware-setup When used with the reboot, poweroff, or halt command, indicate to the system's firmware to reboot into the firmware setup interface for the next boot. Note that this functionality is not available on all systems. Added in version 220. --boot-loader-menu=timeout When used with the reboot, poweroff, or halt command, indicate to the system's boot loader to show the boot loader menu on the following boot. Takes a time value as parameter — indicating the menu timeout. Pass zero in order to disable the menu timeout. Note that not all boot loaders support this functionality. Added in version 242.But that requires me to boot into an os first. I do use it but if it’s off then it feels redundant.
Might still be useful for when you configured fast booting on your hardware. Stuff like that usually doesn’t leave enough time for you to manually hit the hotkey during boot.
Is there anything systemd can’t do?!
It can’t make gentoo users like it 😭
Me pressing Del like Im Rowan Atkinson at the 2012 Olympics
I’ve been buying Gigabyte and pressing “DEL” since 1998.
It’s insane that there is no accepted UX standard for this.
The keys should be standard and work if just held down.
I dont know enough about electronics to say for certain but I think Holding down the key doesn’t work from a technical standpoint. If you press it down before the relevant stage of the boot process is running there might not actually run any code to even detect the key press. And holding down a key doesn’t continuously send new keypresses. Only “key down” and “key released”.
But 100% agree on the standardised key. And it should be something that ia on every keyboard and not behind an alternative funktion! No alt/shift/fn. Just make it enter or something!
If you press it down before the relevant stage of the boot process is running there might not actually run any code to even detect the key press.
I think I have seen it work on several machines, but stopped doing it because often it does not
Keyboards don’t run like that. The keyboard itself does not know when a key is pressed. They poll the keys and send a message when they find one that is depressed
nah this is how ps2 works
PS2 is hardly used in consumer products these days.
aren’t most internal laptop keyboards ps2?
That’s actually a good point. I don’t know. I only know of one example, where I it was USB.
yep, on ps2 keyboards this is the case
Actually, holding down the key does work!
work if just held down
They do!
On some machines.
Wait, what brands don’t support holding down the key? /gen
With sequel "The Escape or F12“ coming to theaters Fall 2025.
I have one that uses f8.
Would have been nice if they could have standardized this like 30 years ago. Or at least just label the key.
On unfamiliar machines, I just faceroll over the function keys hoping to hit the right one…
ALL the keys, not just BIOS. PXE, hardware test, all of it. And a button to pause at the screen listing them all.
Thinkpads use Enter for some reason. My laptop uses Escape.
Mine uses F8 for the boot picker
Plot twist: It was INS the whole time.
Why can’t they make a universal freakin’ dedicated button to enter UEFI?
Lenovos have those, but it’s not very obvious.
Best I can do is an Alexa button.
🤮
Me pressing F1, F2, DEL, Enter, … to be sure.
FU Dell BIOS and your F11 b/s.
You know you can just hold the button down right?
Right, I’ve been waiting for somebody to say this. You come in here with your smarmy attitude “you can just hold it down you know 😏”. How many computers have you tried this on? I’ve tried it on one. Once. And it didn’t work. I looked like a FOOL because I trusted some idiot on the internet. So fuck you I’m not doing it again. I’m going to repeatedly smash F2 and Del and maybe F12. Like God intended.
Sometimes this works. Sometimes it makes the PC speaker beep for two minutes straight while it slowly makes its way through the keyboard buffer.
Sometimes it doesn’t work though. If you start to hold the enter-the-uefi-setup button too early it might not do anything. And mashing the keys sometimes don’t work either.
This shit gives me headaches sometimes. ESPECIALLY WHEN FUCKING WINDOWS STARTS TO BOOT UP.
WHAT
This Trick took better timing and more skill than all the rest of the movies combined.
F in chat for family
