Trying to Get to Sony Vaio BIOS - SOLVED

[Martin109]

I'm trying to access the BIOS screen on a Sony Vaio of uncertain age, so that I can set it to boot from the CD/DVD drive, to load a much newer version of Debian.  I've tried pressing F10, F11 & F12 during the very brief period that 'SONY' appears on the screen, but it just keeps booting from the HDD.  On other machines, it usually tells you which F-key to press to access the BIOS as soon as you turn on the computer.  Any help appreciated.

[Martin109]

Solved this bit - you have to press F2 before pressing the power button, and this gets you into the BIOS menu.

However, CD-ROM Drive appears to be set as the first option for booting, so why isn't it booting with a valid disk in the drive?  Any ideas?

[Polar Bear]

Drive not working?

[Martin109]

After many attempts, is bringing up Debian install menu, but just beeps when you hit any menu option and does nothing.  The stupid thing is I have previously installed Debian on this machine via the DC-Rom drive, so can't understand why it isn't working this time.  Will try disk in another machine, just to make sure.

[Feanor]

I don't think I've installed from an actual optical drive for years.

Can't you get the OS installer set up on a bootable USB stick,and boot from that?
It's faster and more reliable IMHO.

[Martin109]

That's certainly an idea to try next time, but I seem to have got the installation going, finally!

Thanks for the suggestions.