.: The book of Freeduc-cd 1.4 :. -- Configuration of your PC to boot Freeduc-cd

Configuration of your PC to boot Freeduc-cd

Configuration of your PC to boot Freeduc-cd

Booting Freeduc-cd is as simple as inserting the CDROM in the drive and rebooting the system. If your PC is configured to boot up from the CDROM drive, Freeduc-cd will run without any other tweaking.

Modern PCs often come configured so that the floppy drive is the first drive tested while booting the operating system. If this drive has no boot disk, the second drive to be tested is often the CDROM drive. And finally, if this drive contains no bootable CDROM, the system will try to boot up from the hard drive.

If your computer does not boot up Freeduc-cd in this fashion, you have to configure the SETUP (BIOS). When you first start up your computer, some lines are displayed in the screen, generally indicating a key (F2, Del, ...) which allows you to do this.

(!) You can try one of the following combinations: Ctrl+Alt+Esc, Ctrl+Alt+A, Ctrl+Alt+S, Esc, Del, F1, F2, F3 then F2/F1, F10

Press the indicated key(s) down, as soon as the message appears and before you hear the beep. A window (BIOS Setup Utility) will cover the screen and present various alternatives. Your modifications will be take action only at the end of your adjustments, when the system gives you a choice between « exit without saving » the changes, or « validate the changes and exit ».

With the help displayed on the screen, go to the menu item "Boot". This screen features some way to configure the sequence of the drives to use during the boot process, namely "Boot devices". You can encounter four alternatives:

First boot device
Second boot device
Third boot device
Fourth boot device

It is advisable to configure them in the following sequence:

First: floppy disk (Removable Devices)
Second : CDROM drive
Third: Hard drive
Fourth (eventually): Network boot

When changes are over, press the key to exit (often "Escape/Esc"). The system will ask you whether you want to save the changes. Reply "yes" for them to be taken in account. Or it can be directly a button "Save and exit" on the screen.

As soon as you quit the utility, you hear a beep and the computer boots. From now on, every time you boot with Freeduc-cd in the CDROM drive, you will launch this system in the RAM. Without the CDROM, your PC will boot with its usual operating system.

For comments and remarks on this document contact OFSET (ofset@ofset.org) or join the Freeduc-cd mailing list at freeduc-cd

Configuration of your PC to boot Freeduc-cd