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I have a new PC, based on a Gigabyte H81m motherboard. With no hdd, I can access BIOS settings by pressing DEL at startup.

When I install Windows 8.1 with EFI boot, to access BIOS settings I have to press shift while rebooting. At that point I have an option "change manufacturer settings" or something like that.

Now, that on my PC there's only Ubuntu 14.10, there's no way to access the BIOS or choose another startup disk. DEL keys or F2 keys are ignored.

I see AMI for a split second saying "booting in unsecure mode", then the Ubuntu logo

It looks like the bootmanager should "boot to the BIOS settings" or something like that, but... HOW?

(Note: this is not a duplicate of other questions like this: Unable to access BIOS - I know which is the key to access it, the problem is that with EFI boot, it's ignored.

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  • This is a conjecture but if you hold shift during boot to access grub, there is a menu item about system settings, could that be it?
    – Organic Marble
    Mar 9, 2015 at 12:45
  • I tried, nothing appears
    – Magnetic_dud
    Mar 9, 2015 at 12:49

1 Answer 1

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You wrote:

It looks like the bootmanager should "boot to the BIOS settings" or something like that, but... HOW?

If you're saying that GRUB has a menu entry with that label, try using it. Many EFI boot managers (I think including GRUB) now offer such an option. The option doesn't work on all EFIs, though, so it's conceivable that GRUB has such an option but it doesn't work on your computer.

There's an option in Windows to reboot into the setup utility. This Acer page describes how to access it, but I'm not sure offhand if the instructions are specific to Acer's configuration or if they apply universally. I know I've seen a "generic" description somewhere, but I don't happen to have the URL bookmarked.

Another option is to use my rEFInd boot manager. It definitely offers an option to reboot into the firmware setup utility, although if rEFInd thinks the firmware doesn't support it, the option won't appear in the menu. (The option appears as an icon of a computer chip on the second row of icons.) You can try rEFInd temporarily by creating a CD-R or USB flash drive; ready-made images for these are available on the rEFInd downloads page. That could be a chicken-and-egg scenario, though, since you'll probably need to get to the computer's built-in boot manager to boot from a CD-R or USB drive. Thus, you may need to go all-in and install rEFInd to your hard disk to try it. (If you don't like it, you can always use efibootmgr to disable rEFInd. Type efibootmgr to see the current boot options, then change the boot order with efibootmgr -o, as in efibootmgr -o 2,0,7 to boot options 2, 0, and 7, in that order of preference.)

Once you're into the setup utility, look for options called fast boot, USB support, or variants of those terms. It's conceivable that installing Windows somehow changed the firmware defaults to speed up the boot process, and in doing so disabled the key to access the firmware at boot time. Adjusting these options back to their defaults should re-enable the feature you want, at the cost of a second or two of extra boot time.

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  • nice! I installed rEFInd, and, finally, by clicking on the "reboot to firmware setup" button, I managed to get in! Thanks!
    – Magnetic_dud
    Mar 9, 2015 at 15:45

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