Strange booting problem

[jd1008]

On 06/24/2015 06:40 PM, Rick Stevens wrote:
> On 06/24/2015 05:36 PM, jd1008 wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 06/24/2015 06:25 PM, Rick Stevens wrote:
>>> On 06/24/2015 05:07 PM, jd1008 wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 06/24/2015 05:57 PM, Rick Stevens wrote:
>>>>> On 06/24/2015 04:25 PM, jd1008 wrote:
>>>>>> Laptop: Dell Latitude E6510.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> OS: F20 with all updates
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Grub installed on sda.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Power up ,and after bios's internal works, I do not get the grub 
>>>>>> menu.
>>>>>> All I get is an empty screen with the underscore cursor blinking at
>>>>>> upper left corner.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Reboot.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Press F12 to get the BIOS boot menu.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Select Internal HDD
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Boots just fine.
>>>>>
>>>>> Looks like the BIOS' concept of the primary boot drive is different
>>>>> than "internal HDD". Check the boot order on the BIOS.
>>>> Boot order is
>>>> 1. CD drive
>>>> 2. USB drive
>>>> 3. Internal Drive
>>>> 4. Network
>>>
>>> Ok, so do you have a CD in the drive or a USB drive plugged in? If
>>> so, it's going to try to boot from them first.
>>
>> OK, so how long before bios times out and move on
>> to the internal HD? The usb drive, which is
>> NOT bootable, has no booter installed, and
>> neither one of it's partitions are bootable:
>>
>>
>>
>> # fdisk -l /dev/sdb
>>
>> Disk /dev/sdb: 1.8 TiB, 2000398933504 bytes, 3907029167 sectors
>> Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
>> Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
>> I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
>> Disklabel type: dos
>> Disk identifier: 0x1bc5003b
>>
>> Device    Boot      Start        End     Blocks  Id System
>> /dev/sdb3            2048 3890251950 1945124951+ 83 Linux
>> /dev/sdb4      3890288670 3907029166    8370248+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
>
> It's irrelevant. You might get a "No OS found" message after a while,
> but it's going to keep trying to boot that as long as it's plugged in.
>
> If you MUST leave that plugged in, then change the boot order to:
>
>     CD-->HDD-->USB-->Network
>
> and I'll bet it works.
Well, that is strange!!! It really says that BIOS is busted
and does not have the good sense to realize the drive is not
bootable - just as in the case of having an audio CD in the
CD drive, and it ignores the presenc of the audio CD and
moves on to the next item (USB drive), which is also not
bootable, and none of it's partitions are marked bootable.

I think that what I will resort to is unplugging the usb drive
for the first few seconds to let the BIOS select internal HD
and start the boot, then plugin in the USB drive.
Sometimes, I do need to boot from a USB drive.