MEPIS Community Forum

In another thread, a couple of posts mentioned the importance of BIOS settings in Linux. As we have nothing about this in the Manual and only a limited article in the Wiki, and I personally have no experience beyond basic stuff, I would appreciate suggestions and content for M12 use.

A user may not find a setting in his specific bios. So a disclaimer to that effect should be part of this section.

Maybe a section on FOSS bioses meant to replace the proprietary ones some of which don't function well.

Example (not trying to redirect the thread)"
coreboot was formerly known as LinuxBIOS.
http://www.coreboot.org/Welcome_to_coreboot

There may be enough information in the wild to copy and paste and be done with it. Or even just a series of links.

Thanks, but what I am looking for is how to deal with the BIOS the user has. Manual section 5 on Configuration (necessary changes) is where it will go.

How to replace it is a topic for the Wiki, perhaps, but not for the Manual.

Look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS and also the external links on that page. Should be some good info there. I'm also seeing some videos although they won't be accessible to everyone but could be used to make documents.

The beginng stuff on the first/main page is easy. Set the date, time, drives. I think now, auto detect is the norm.

The next page might be called Advanced.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/bios-beginners,1126-3.html
That is page 3 of a THG article from 2005. My board is probably that old.
Overclocking features are here.

Turning onboard sound cards and video cards on and off is done with a click when the user finds the right place to do it, if there is a place.

This is a good article and explains a lot.

This version of the article is dated 2006
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/bios-a-z,1200.html

The Definitive
BIOS Optimization Guide
http://www.techarp.com/freebog.aspx

Then there's the upcoming implementation of Secure Boot with UEFI on Win 8 machines. That'll really make things interesting.

Right off hand UEFI and BIOS need separate entries for the manual.

For the most part the BIOS can generally be accessed by pressing the Escape, F12, Delete, F1, or F2 keys when booting the computer.

Most of the time the is an on-screen text indication for which button the user needs to press to access the BIOS or UEFI. This line will mostly likely read:

However, depending on the user's graphics card, existing BIOS or UEFI implementation, and monitor, the text may not be visible when the computer is turned on. Analog connections are most likely to have a warm-up cycle before the display is active.

Not all computers have BIOS and or UEFI entries that are user accessible. OEM computers from the likes of Dell, HP, Gateway, IBM, Sony, Acer, and Fujitsu may have locks in place to prevent the user from accessing the BIOS or UEFI. In most cases these locks can be defeated by simply clearing the BIOS and/or UEFI data with a jumpered-reset. Not all computers provide reset jumpers. The user will need to check their Motherboard manual to determine whether or not a BIOS and/UEFI reset jumper is available.

Once in the BIOS itself the presented information will change depending on the motherboard in use.

• The BIOS can generally only be navigated with a keyboard.
• UEFI can generally be navigated with both a keyboard and a mouse.

Intel and AMD motherboards typically have different BIOS layouts.

AMD motherboards typically have a vertical BIOS menu consisting of:

• Standard CMOS Features
• Advanced BIOS Features
• Advanced Chipset Features
• Integrated Peripherals
• Power Management Setup
• PnP/PCI Configurations
• PC Health Status.

Some other AMD motherboards will have a horizontal BIOS menu consisting of:

• Main
• Advanced
• Power
• Boot
• Tools
• Exit

AMD laptops typically have a horizontal BIOS menu consisting of:

• Main
• Advanced
• Display
• Security
• Power
• Boot
• Exit

Some Intel motherboards may have the following Vertical BIOS format:

• Standard Cmos Features
• Advanced BIOS Features
• Advanced Chipset Features
• Integrated peripherals
• Power Management Setup
• PnP/PCI Configurations
• PC Health Status

Intel Laptops generally have:

• Main
• Advanced
• Security
• Boot Exit

BIOS layouts may also contain references to

• Genie BIOS Setting
• CMOS reload
• Overclocking

UEFI typically does not have a standardized layout since the entire point of UEFI is the ability to implement customized interfaces.

And let's not forget that many proprietary known brand name systems, primarily laptops, but still applies to desktops, have a stripped down menu that only provides a handful of the real available tweaks, making it possible to only change things like time and date, boot device and not much more.

So what can we look for that might make a difference to some systems?
SATA mode, try not to set as RAID for single drive machines.
Front Audio, try setting to AC97 if having sound issues.
USB Legacy set to yes
Enable virtualisation features like AMD-V / Intel VT-x or similar if intending to run 64-bit VM's or the guest will not be able to use the 64-bit CPU extensions.
apic mode = enabled
If yours has a small logo show EPA type of entry, turn it off. This often allows boot messages to be displayed, such as the boot menu hot keys, speaking of which, this wiki page has some useful tips on boot menu hot keys http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php? ... IS_USB_key
If yours has the option for Cool'n'Quiet, use it

Just a few items that came to mind.

Mike P

Based on everyone's comments, maybe our BIOS section should be subdivided into a comprehensive list of possible settings. That way, instead of being BIOS specific, users could look up settings that are specific to their BIOS configuration.

janthree