BIOS Rev A10

[bullitt1821]

Hello,
I currently have a dell 4700 desktop and I am trying to boot Linux from a bootable DVD that came with a textbook that I just got. I checked the BIOS settings and they list an option to boot from an onboard CD-ROM drive but I don't see one for booting from a DVD drive. Is REV A10 capable of booting from a DVD drive? Or do I need to download an upgrade?

 

[bmouring]

Have you actually tried it and it doesn't work, or are you simply going by what the BIOS is indicating? If you have tried it and it doesn't work, what does it behave like? Just skipping on to booting the current OS?

 

[amdfangirl]

Just a word of warning. Textbooks tend to no exactly be up to date with their Linux distros. You should download a newer version anyhow.

 

[bullitt1821]

Have you actually tried it and it doesn't work, or are you simply going by what the BIOS is indicating? If you have tried it and it doesn't work, what does it behave like? Just skipping on to booting the current OS?

I tried changing the BIOS settings to boot from the onboard CD-ROM drive. I put the disc into this drive, and then tried to boot from it. I tried this with the disc both in the CD-ROM drive first, and then next in the DVD drive. I got this same result both times. The computer just gives a single beep and then tells me no bootable device found. It then promp s me to hit F1 to retry or F2 to get back to BIOS. The textbook I have specifies to change the BIOS settings to boot from a DVD drive, not a CD-ROM drive. This is my dilemma. Thanks for the answer.

 

[bmouring]

Ah, a quick bit-o-reading about this machine on the Dell forums indicates that the BIOS option will only look at the master of the IDE channel to boot(ref), I assume you have both optical drives on the same IDE channel, can you double-check if the DVD drive is set to be master

(How to tell: if both drives are set to "CS" or "Cable Select", then the drive on the plug closest to the motherboard will be master. However, if one is set to "MA" or "Master", the other needs to be set as "SL" or "Slave")