| NOTICE: This website contains information that is out of date and may be harmful to new computers.
The author only has old computers and is not contemplating the purchase of any new equipment now or in the near future. The information given below is relevant to old computers and may still be useful for some people. |
| Links: This web page is a very brief one on BIOS settings, and is only here to try to explain the BIOS settings which might affect the installation and booting of Ubuntu Linux in someone's computer. I realize, of course that most computers will have a much different BIOS than mine, but I'm hoping I can give people the idea of what to do in the BIOS anyway. The BIOS settings in our PCs are very important to the way our PC works. There are many more interesting things to learn about BIOS settings which can't be covered here. It might be a good idea to spend a little more time exploring in your own computer's BIOS setup. You may find settings there that will surprise you and help you get more satisfaction out of the use of your computer. The best place to start is at your motherboard manufacturer's website. Most motherboard manufacturers publish a motherboard manual, (.pdf), which you can download for free. If you don't know exactly what motherboard your computer has, try Getting Product Information to find out. If you can boot your Ubuntu Live CD, try running some of the commands in this website's Hardware Detection and Testing for even more information. For some great general information about all kinds of BIOS settings that are beyond the scope of this web page, here are a few of my favorite links to some more comprehensive web sites dedicated to BIOS settings, The Definitive BIOS Optimisation Guide The BIOS: The 'Basic Input Output System' Setup Program Used in PCs Wimsbios.com And here's a very useful link, HOWTO: Flash BIOS, The Ubuntu Way - ciscosurfer, Ubuntu Web Forums |
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My Ubuntu CD doesn't boot, If you can't get your computer to boot with the Ubuntu CD, check to see if your computer can boot a different live CD. Any live CD will do, GParted -- LiveCD or Super Grub Disk , System Rescue CD or Puppy Linux are all examples of Live CDs that should boot easily in most computers. You might also be able to try the Ubuntu CD in a different computer and see if it will boot. If it seems like your Ubuntu CD is no good in any computer then it might be that you have burned a data CD or a faulty Ubuntu CD. Maybe you should do an MD5 checksum integrity test on the .iso file you downloaded. If the .iso file passes the MD5 sum test then try burning again, make sure you burn it as an .iso CD and not as a data CD, burn at a slow speed and buy good quality CDs and try not to allow them to get dirty (fingerprints) or be scratched. Keep them in a CD cover or case, not lying around bare on the table or desk. If the .iso file you downloaded didn't pass the MD5sum test then you have a corrupted download and you will need to try downloading the same file all over again. If you are trying to download through a web browser like Internet Explorer or Firefox, you might have trouble downloading large files perfectly. Try some other way of downloading your files, such as BitTorrent or use the Linux wget command. |
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My computer can't boot any Live CD If it seems like your computer can't boot any live CD, then the most common reason is that your computer's CMOS, or 'BIOS' 'boot order' (or sequence), is not set up to boot from the CD-ROM drive. Most computers come like that when they are new for security reasons. 1) You can change the BIOS boot order to boot from the CD drive before the hard drive quite easily before you run your Live CD.
3) If the Live CD is good, and boots in other computers with no problems but not the one you want, it could be that you have some other kind of hardware problem. First, look in System Health Check to see if you see any temperature or voltage problems. If your voltage and temperatures are okay, try running memtest86+ to check that your RAM modules are alright. If your RAM is okay, you might have some deeper problem like a motherboard or CPU problem of some kind. 4) Look at the time and date in the hardware clock in your BIOS. If the system time and date are wrong, you might need a new motherboard CMOS battery. 5) Try totally unplugging the machine totally and plug the box in to a completely different set of power cords, keyboard, mouse, monitor and so on. It if still doesn't work you probably need a dedicated hardware trouble shooting website or a computer technician or a new computer. If the computer is old and has no value, and only if you know what you're doing, you might try dis-assembling the machine and putting it back together again, cleaning each part as you do so. Make sure all of the sockets are clean and all components are plugged in properly. Often, that seems to fix temperamental old computers without even actually replacing any parts. If the computer is old and you're not sure you know what you're doing, don't touch anything. Wait for a knowledgeable friend who might be able to help you. It is better to wait than to ruin a nice old computer, even if you might have to wait for a long time. |
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The easiest way to get into the BIOS There's normally a key you can press during the early stages of boot-up that will get you into the BIOS programming mode in any PC. If you're not sure which key it is, the easiest way to find out would be to check the owner's manual and see if it's explained in the manufacturer's instructions. If the owner's manual isn't easy to find, you might need to find out which key to press by trial and error. In those circumstances, it may be useful to find the 'Pause/Break' key on your keyboard first. Restart your computer and while it is starting up, watch carefully and press the 'Pause/Break' key as soon as anything appears on your monitor. That way computer will stop and wait until you have time to read any messages on your screen. After you have read whatever is there, just press your 'Enter' key to resume booting the computer, then press the 'Pause/Break' key again in the next page of text. There should be some information there somewhere telling you what key to press to enter your computer's BIOS. On many computers it's the 'Delete' key, but other computers may use the F2 or F1 key or some other key. Try the Esc key or F10 maybe. If you still can't discover the ket to press to enter your computer's BOIS, try reading this link > Change the BIOS settings (from Tips For Linux Explorers, brunolinux.com). When you find the right key and press it at the right time, you should expect to see something like the image in the illustration below. This is what mine looks like, I expect that yours will probably be different, but you can still get a few ideas from looking at mine, I hope.
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Pheonix - AwardBIOS CMOS Setup Utility
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| Getting Product Information |
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Pheonix - AwardBIOS CMOS Setup Utility
Product Information
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| Making sure your hard disk is properly detected in your BIOS And checking installed memory You cannot do anything with a hard disk that is not properly detected in the BIOS. If you have a hard disk that is not being detected in your BIOS, check to make sure it is spinning up when you start your computer. A stethoscope would be useful.
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Pheonix - AwardBIOS CMOS Setup Utility
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Step 1 Select 'Standard CMOS Features, and press Enter. |
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Pheonix - AwardBIOS CMOS Setup Utility
Standard CMOS Features
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| Step 2 You can see near the bottom of the screen here, how much memory is installed. This is autodetected by the system, you don't have to do anything manually to install new memory. |
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Pheonix - AwardBIOS CMOS Setup Utility
IDE Channel 0 Master
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| Step 3 When you plug a different hard disk drive into your computer, most modern computers will automatically detect the hard disk and add it to the CMOS settings without the user doing anything at all. Step 3 is to just press Enter. You can look in here if you suspect there is a problem. For example if you try to install an operating system on a new hard disk and the installer doesn't 'see' your hard disk at all. You can check here to see if your hard disk was detected okay in the BIOS and just to make sure you can press 'Enter' to auto detect again. Older computers needed this done every time a hard disk was added. Very old hard drives in very old computers used to need the disk geometry (cylinders, heads etc.) information typed in manually. You should probably not attempt to do that unless you really have to and you know what you are doing. |
| Links: This web page is a very brief one on BIOS settings, and is only here to try to explain the BIOS settings which might affect the installation and booting of Ubuntu Linux in someone's computer. The BIOS settings in our PCs are very important to the way our PC works. There are many more interesting things to learn about BIOS settings which can't be covered here. It might be a good idea to spend a little more time exploring in your own computer's BIOS setup. You may find settings there that will surprise you and help you get more satisfaction out of the use of your computer. For some great information about all kinds of BIOS settings that are beyond the scope of this web page, here are a few of my favorite links to some more comprehensive web sites dedicated to BIOS settings, The Definitive BIOS Optimisation Guide The BIOS: The 'Basic Input Output System' Setup Program Used in PCs Wimsbios.com |
| Changing the 'Hard Disk Boot Priority' In most computers, this not only controls which hard disk will boot, it also controls which hard disk will be set as the number 1 hard disk and which will be number 2 hard disk and so on. This is a way to over-ride the BIOS's opinion about the hard drive numbering.
Fortunately, you can take control of your hard disk boot priority by changing the settings in your PCs BIOS. Often you might need to do it this way if you have both SATA and IDE drives and there's a problem with the software deciding which should be first, IDE or SATA drives. Changing the hard disk boot priority in the BIOS is now thought to be the easiest way to cure Grub error 17 when it is caused by the IDE vs SATA drive numbering priority question in the BIOS. |
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Pheonix - AwardBIOS CMOS Setup Utility
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Step 1 Select 'Advanced BIOS Features, and press Enter. |
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Pheonix - AwardBIOS CMOS Setup Utility
Standard CMOS Features
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Step 2 Select 'Hard Disk Boot Priority', and press Enter. |
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Pheonix - AwardBIOS CMOS Setup Utility
Standard CMOS Features
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| Step 3 Press the + or - keys to move the selected item up or down in the list. This way you can tell your PCs BIOS how you want your hard disk to be numbered rather than just letting it decide for itself. |
| Booting a non-first MBR with GRUB If you use Grub as your bootloader you can boot any hard disk you want whenever you like without the need to go into your PC's BIOS at all. To boot a non-first MBR, just paste a command sequence like this one to the bottom of your menu.lst file, Code:
or, use a sequence of commands like this from Grub's Command Line Interface Code:
Other ways are to boot a non-first hard disk's MBR are,
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| Changing the boot sequence in CMOS This setting controls the sequence in which the PC's BIOS will search for a bootable device at each boot-up. The computer will try to boot the first bootable device it finds. If you have a bootable floppy disc or a bootable CD-ROM, you need to set the BIOS to look in the floppy disc drive and/or the CD/DVD drive before it looks at the hard disk drive or your floppy disk or CD won't boot. |
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Pheonix - AwardBIOS CMOS Setup Utility
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Step 1 Select 'Advanced BIOS Features, and press Enter. |
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Pheonix - AwardBIOS CMOS Setup Utility
Standard CMOS Features
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Step 2 Select the 'First Boot Device', and press Enter. |
| Step 3 This is what it looks like in my computer when I'm changing the boot sequence. I use my 'Up Arrow' key or my 'Down Arrow' key to move the little white square next to the item I want to select for 'First Boot Device'. Then I press 'Enter', and do the same for 'Second Boot Device', until have the three or four bootable devices listed the way I want them. Be sure your hard disk drive is one of the devices in your list, or your computer might not boot up when you want it to. All you'll have to do is come back here and change it again, but it cause you a delay and possibly some frustration if you don't realize what the problem is. That's all you need to do to set your BIOS boot sequence, now if you are in a hurry, just press 'F10' to save, (or whatever the instructions tell you in your brand of BIOS program), and 'Y' to confirm if it asks you, and 'Esc' to exit. If your BIOS has different instructions then just follow whatever instructions you are given, but that's how mine works. Here's an article about the BIOS option "Plug & Play Operating System ", alias "PnP OS" or "PnP Aware O/S". SDB:Problems Caused by the BIOS Option "PnP OS" That article is for SuSe Linux, but it might be true for Ubuntu too, I'm not sure. |
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Pheonix - AwardBIOS CMOS Setup Utility
Standard CMOS Features
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Step 4 Press F10 to save your settings and exit. Don't forget to check and make sure they're correct before you do. As you can see here, I have set my floppy disk as the first boot device and my CD drive second. My computer will check for a bootable hard disk only after checking the floppy disk and CD/DVD drives for bootable media. If there is more than one hard disk in my PC to choose from, I can set the 'Hard Disk Boot Priority' if I need to as well, here's a link about that, Hard Disk Boot Priority. |
| Links: This web page is a very brief one on BIOS settings, and is only here to try to explain the BIOS settings which might affect the installation and booting of Ubuntu Linux in someone's computer. The BIOS settings in our PCs are very important to the way our PC works. There are many more interesting things to learn about BIOS settings which can't be covered here. It might be a good idea to spend a little more time exploring in your own computer's BIOS setup. You may find settings there that will surprise you and help you get more satisfaction out of the use of your computer. For some great information about all kinds of BIOS settings that are beyond the scope of this web page, here are a few of my favorite links to some more comprehensive web sites dedicated to BIOS settings, The Definitive BIOS Optimisation Guide The BIOS: The 'Basic Input Output System' Setup Program Used in PCs Wimsbios.com |
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Turn off MBR antivirus or write protect |
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sector antivirus' or 'MBR' protection features are supposed to protect the MBR from being written to by so called 'boot
sector' viruses. Boot Sector viruses were very common in the old days when people used floppy disks a lot. An computer could become contaminated with a boot sector virus if it was rebooted with a non-write-protected floppy disk in the floppy disk drive. How to Write-Protect a Floppy Diskette - HelpDesk (external link). Floppy disks could carry and spread a boot sector virus if they were used in an infected computer. When this feature is turned on, it stops anything being written to the IPL area of the MBR. The problem is, it can also stop programs we want from being written to the MBR, like GRUB, GAG or LiLo Boot Loaders/Managers. If you are having trouble trying to install the IPL for your new boot loader to your MBR, this could be the problem.. If the 'MBR', or 'boot sector' is locked, then you won't be able to boot Linux except by CD or floppy disk, - such as Super Grub Disk. Please do not become confused by the terms 'boot sector' and 'Master Boot Record'. A 'boot sector' is normally the first sector of a partition. A 'boot sector' could be said to belong to the operating system inside the partition. The MBR (Master Boot Record) is the first sector or a hard disk, it is also a boot sector, but it is a very special kind of boot sector. The MBR is the first sector of a hard disk and does not belong to any partitions or the operating systems in them. Rather, the partitions and operating systems in the hard disk belong to the MBR, because the partition table itself is part of the MBR. That is why it is called the Master Boot Record. It is not correct to call a MBR "The (insert-name-of-operating-system) MBR". The MBR does not belong to any particular operating system. The MBR belongs to the hard disk and the hard disk belongs to whoever owns the computer. If you went to a martial arts class and you stood in the place reserved for the master and you were one of the students would you not expect to be disciplined? Then why does an operating system think it owns the Master Boot Record of all hard disks in the world, when it is just one of many operating systems? The owner of the computer may choose any software he or she likes and install it in the MBR. |
| System Health Check If you have time, there's something else interesting to look at in most computer's BIOS's, the 'System Health Status'. |
| fig 4 bios To enter the PC Health Status page, highlight that line and press 'Enter'. |
| fig 5 bios In 'PC Health Status' you can check your computer's temperatures and voltmeter readings and that sort of thing. Needless to say, if you suspect you may be having some kind of a hardware problem, it's a good idea to take a look in here, it may help you to diagnose the problem. Look for good steady voltages, (not fluctuating wildly), and temperatures that are within the normal range for your hardware. What is 'normal'? Look it up in your computer's motherboard manual. Most motherboard manufacturers publish a motherboard manual, (.pdf), which you can download for free. You should be able to get one from your motherboard manufacturer's website. If you don't know exactly what motherboard your computer has, try Getting Product Information to find out. If you can boot your Ubuntu Live CD, try running some of the commands in this website's Hardware Detection and Testing for even more information about what hardware you have. |
| Links: This web page is a very brief one on BIOS settings, and is only here to try to explain the BIOS settings which might affect the installation and booting of Ubuntu Linux in someone's computer. The BIOS settings in our PCs are very important to the way our PC works. There are many more interesting things to learn about BIOS settings which can't be covered here. It might be a good idea to spend a little more time exploring in your own computer's BIOS setup. You may find settings there that will surprise you and help you get more satisfaction out of the use of your computer. For some great information about all kinds of BIOS settings that are beyond the scope of this web page, here are a few of my favorite links to some more comprehensive web sites dedicated to BIOS settings, The Definitive BIOS Optimisation Guide The BIOS: The 'Basic Input Output System' Setup Program Used in PCs Wimsbios.com |
| How I boot from my BIOS with my F8 key (or F12 key in some PCs) To boot a non-first hard drive with the BIOS when the BIOS boot priority is not set for that, you can press a special key on keyboard when the computer is booting up for a BIOS boot menu. The key to use will be diffrerent for different machines. The best way to find out would be to consult your motherboard manual, or the documentation that came with your computer when it was new. If you don't have that, try your motherboard manufacturer's website. Otherwise, you should be able to discover it by watching carefully during boot up for a message on your screen for a clue. Be prepared to tap your 'pause' key to stop the boot to give you time to read the messages. In some computers it could be the 'Esc' key, and in others it could be F2, or your F8 or F12 key. You may need to reboot several times until you discover the right key to press. Not all computers have a BIOS boot menu and if you can't get one after several tries you might want to give up and use a boot loader in a CD instead. As long as you have a bootloader installed in the MBR of whichever non-first hard disk you select, (to be more correct I should have said 'an IPL for a bootloader installed in the MBR'), the BIOS will boot up from the MBR of the chosen hard disk. This example shows how I boot a bootable USB disk in this fashion, during boot-up I press my F12 key on my keyboard when the computer manufacturer's splash screen is showing. I then get this sign,
In this instance, I'm selecting the usbdisk. I could just as easily have chosen my primary slave hard disk instead. In some computers there might be more hard disks listed here and we can chose to try to boot any hard disk in the computer this way. The USB disk needs to be plugged in before booting begins (of course), so the BIOS will detect it at the P.O.S.T time when booting the computer or it might not be listed here in this list of hard disks. Now my USB disk will boot. I may have my own Grub installed in the USB disk, or Super Grub Disk for USB. |