Re: [gentoo-user] ASUS EeePC 1000HA : boot query

[Peter Humphrey <peter@humphrey.ukfsn.org>]

On Sunday 25 October 2009 00:30:48 Philip Webb wrote:
> I've got my new toy to boot from USB with SystemRescue 1.3.1 ,
> which comes up beautifully with Gentoo using 'Altker32'
> (the 'default' kernel boots into some kind of emergency mode);
> despite what the intro help says, the desktop manager is Xfce,
> which is started via 'wizard' & offers basic useful apps,
> eg Terminal Emelfm Firefox Geany Gparted .

I let it boot the default system, which seems fine to me as I don't need a GUI 
when I'm booting the rescue system.

> There's  1  problem : you hold F2 down to get BIOS,
> then use Esc for a boot menu (you have to go in/out of BIOS first).
> However, this doesn't work when I first switch the machine on :
> M$ XP starts regardless & I have to reboot from there to get BIOS,
> the boot menu & the USB (I've disabled 'quiet boot' in BIOS,
> but POST msgs still don't appear).  Is this because it takes a few seconds
> before the USB stick warms up & gets recognised (its light blinks) ?

There's an accelerated-boot option in the BIOS. You have to switch that off to 
be able to boot a USB stick (unless you can find the few milliseconds that 
the BIOS is listening to the keyboard). Took me days to find that one :-(

-- 
Rgds
Peter