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How would I be able to access my UEFI settings on my Toshiba computer after I install Ubuntu? It used to have Windows 10, and I used to be able to do Shift+Restart when I still had it. Would I just have to mash the button that opens UEFI as soon as the computer turns on, or is there some kind of boot-up manager that lets me get in?

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    I think Toshiba still uses f12 to get to UEFI boot menu. But it may not let you set ubuntu as default UEFI boot entry. If you only have Ubuntu, you can rename the ubuntu entry to "Windows Boot Manager". Many brands seem to be modifing UEFI to use description as part of boot (but they do not check actual boot files). Or use fallback/hard drive entry. Details: Sony, HP & others: askubuntu.com/questions/486752/…
    – oldfred
    Aug 29, 2017 at 20:18

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I don't know what keys Toshiba uses to access the firmware setup utility, if that's what you're asking. Installing Ubuntu should not change this detail, but I've seen enough reports from people who say it does to be pretty sure that some EFIs are buggy and change this detail after installing Ubuntu. If you think this is happening to you, you might want to post on a Toshiba forum. Somebody here might know what's happening to you, but brand-specific questions are sometimes best answered on brand-specific forums.

That said, there are OS- and bootloader-specific ways to enter the firmware setup utility. In Ubuntu, on an EFI-based computer, the following command will usually do the trick:

sudo systemctl reboot --firmware

This command doesn't always work -- it relies on EFI features that didn't become common until a few years ago.

Some boot managers also provide a way to enter the firmware setup utility. GRUB provides this functionality, but it's not always available in the default menu. (I don't think Ubuntu activates it by default, but you may be able to activate it with the help of GRUB Customizer or by manually editing grub.cfg. I can't say how to do it with more specificity than that, though.) My own rEFInd boot manager also provides this functionality, in the form of a second-row icon of a computer chip. In the case of rEFInd, this icon appears on the menu by default, but only if the firmware supports the necessary function.

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  • this has an example of boot stanza to add to grub's 40_custom for shutdown or reboot. ubuntuforums.org/…
    – oldfred
    Aug 30, 2017 at 0:07
  • thanks a lot! this worked on my alienware M15 R4 smoothly.
    – morhook
    Sep 21, 2021 at 16:51

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