I dont know enough about electronics to say for certain but I think Holding down the key doesn't work from a technical standpoint. If you press it down before the relevant stage of the boot process is running there might not actually run any code to even detect the key press. And holding down a key doesn't continuously send new keypresses. Only "key down" and "key released".
But 100% agree on the standardised key. And it should be something that ia on every keyboard and not behind an alternative funktion! No alt/shift/fn. Just make it enter or something!
Keyboards don't run like that. The keyboard itself does not know when a key is pressed. They poll the keys and send a message when they find one that is depressed
Most pc brands' boot menus have kinda blended together for me. The last time I tried it and remember the brand, it was someone's razer laptop, so that at least doesn't support it. Macs always do, which is nice.
--firmware-setup
When used with the reboot, poweroff, or halt
command, indicate to the system's firmware to
reboot into the firmware setup interface for the
next boot. Note that this functionality is not
available on all systems.
Added in version 220.
--boot-loader-menu=timeout
When used with the reboot, poweroff, or halt
command, indicate to the system's boot loader to
show the boot loader menu on the following boot.
Takes a time value as parameter — indicating the
menu timeout. Pass zero in order to disable the
menu timeout. Note that not all boot loaders
support this functionality.
Added in version 242.
Might still be useful for when you configured fast booting on your hardware. Stuff like that usually doesn't leave enough time for you to manually hit the hotkey during boot.
I saw one Microsoft help page in which the customer service agent recommended to cut power to the PC during the Windows 8 or 10 boot process, three times! After three failed boots, newer Windows will bring up the UEFI boot options dialog.
Sometimes it doesn't work though. If you start to hold the enter-the-uefi-setup button too early it might not do anything. And mashing the keys sometimes don't work either.
This shit gives me headaches sometimes. ESPECIALLY WHEN FUCKING WINDOWS STARTS TO BOOT UP.
Right, I've been waiting for somebody to say this. You come in here with your smarmy attitude "you can just hold it down you know 😏". How many computers have you tried this on? I've tried it on one. Once. And it didn't work. I looked like a FOOL because I trusted some idiot on the internet. So fuck you I'm not doing it again. I'm going to repeatedly smash F2 and Del and maybe F12. Like God intended.
yeh.... this works 100% if you are single booting Linux. As soon as Windows enter the equation, things get fucked up because of stupid Windows update. Say you have an update and it fails to install because the message "Windows is wotking on updates. Don't turn off the PC. This will take a while" appears for like 6 hrs. Try to press F2/Del to enter Bios? Tough luck, I smashed the shit out of those keys and still... booted straight into Windows.
You then need to go do some convoluted shits like the Shift + Restart combo to go the Diagnostic screen and restart into Setup page (the Bios).
51 replies
I've been buying Gigabyte and pressing "DEL" since 1998.
It's insane that there is no accepted UX standard for this.
The keys should be standard and work if just held down.
I dont know enough about electronics to say for certain but I think Holding down the key doesn't work from a technical standpoint. If you press it down before the relevant stage of the boot process is running there might not actually run any code to even detect the key press. And holding down a key doesn't continuously send new keypresses. Only "key down" and "key released".
But 100% agree on the standardised key. And it should be something that ia on every keyboard and not behind an alternative funktion! No alt/shift/fn. Just make it enter or something!
I think I have seen it work on several machines, but stopped doing it because often it does not
Keyboards don't run like that. The keyboard itself does not know when a key is pressed. They poll the keys and send a message when they find one that is depressed
nah this is how ps2 works
PS2 is hardly used in consumer products these days.
aren't most internal laptop keyboards ps2?
That's actually a good point. I don't know. I only know of one example, in which it was USB.
yep, on ps2 keyboards this is the case
Actually, holding down the key does work!
They do!
On some machines.
Wait, what brands don't support holding down the key? /gen
Most pc brands' boot menus have kinda blended together for me. The last time I tried it and remember the brand, it was someone's razer laptop, so that at least doesn't support it. Macs always do, which is nice.
With sequel "The Escape or F12“ coming to theaters Fall 2025.
I have one that uses f8.
Would have been nice if they could have standardized this like 30 years ago. Or at least just label the key.
On unfamiliar machines, I just faceroll over the function keys hoping to hit the right one..
Mine uses F8 for the boot picker
Thinkpads use Enter for some reason. My laptop uses Escape.
ALL the keys, not just BIOS. PXE, hardware test, all of it. And a button to pause at the screen listing them all.
Plot twist: It was INS the whole time.
On my system, I can just run
And it'll take the system to the BIOS.
From the
systemctl(1)man page:But that requires me to boot into an os first. I do use it but if it's off then it feels redundant.
Might still be useful for when you configured fast booting on your hardware. Stuff like that usually doesn't leave enough time for you to manually hit the hotkey during boot.
Usually I just hold down the esc key when I start my PC. I have an nvme ssd in mine and it boots quick.
Is there anything systemd can't do?!
It can’t make gentoo users like it 😭
Why can't they make a universal freakin' dedicated button to enter UEFI?
Best I can do is an Alexa button.
🤮
Lenovos have those, but it's not very obvious.
The space is already occupied by the Copilot key. :(
I saw one Microsoft help page in which the customer service agent recommended to cut power to the PC during the Windows 8 or 10 boot process, three times! After three failed boots, newer Windows will bring up the UEFI boot options dialog.
My Sharp PC-7000 has a Setup key on the keyboard.
Oh my god, it exists. An Enter key large enough to please both ANSI and ISO fans.
In the mechanical keyboard community this even-larger-than-ISO-enter size is generally referred to, quite affectionately, as the "bigass" enter.
I hate it
Me pressing F1, F2, DEL, Enter, ... to be sure.
FU Dell BIOS and your F11 b/s.
Me pressing Del like Im Rowan Atkinson at the 2012 Olympics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwzjlmBLfrQ
You know you can just hold the button down right?
Sometimes it doesn't work though. If you start to hold the enter-the-uefi-setup button too early it might not do anything. And mashing the keys sometimes don't work either.
This shit gives me headaches sometimes. ESPECIALLY WHEN FUCKING WINDOWS STARTS TO BOOT UP.
Right, I've been waiting for somebody to say this. You come in here with your smarmy attitude "you can just hold it down you know 😏". How many computers have you tried this on? I've tried it on one. Once. And it didn't work. I looked like a FOOL because I trusted some idiot on the internet. So fuck you I'm not doing it again. I'm going to repeatedly smash F2 and Del and maybe F12. Like God intended.
WHAT
Sometimes this works. Sometimes it makes the PC speaker beep for two minutes straight while it slowly makes its way through the keyboard buffer.
I'd like to talk about the secret third option, escape.
This Trick took better timing and more skill than all the rest of the movies combined.
F in chat for family
Can't you just hold f2 and it works the same as mashing it now?
yeh.... this works 100% if you are single booting Linux. As soon as Windows enter the equation, things get fucked up because of stupid Windows update. Say you have an update and it fails to install because the message "Windows is wotking on updates. Don't turn off the PC. This will take a while" appears for like 6 hrs. Try to press F2/Del to enter Bios? Tough luck, I smashed the shit out of those keys and still... booted straight into Windows.
You then need to go do some convoluted shits like the Shift + Restart combo to go the Diagnostic screen and restart into Setup page (the Bios).