How to boot from cd or usb.

[Joel Hocking]

I have a Tempest i5000VS and I am having trouble booting into an os. I want to install a version of linux and I have made a dvd, made a bootable usb and i can not get it to boot into either. I have downloaded the manual and only see the F2 option at boot to change settings. I have already changed boot order and set os to other. I tried install a seperate hard drive with linux already installed and it will boot to that but I can't get it to boot to a cd to do a fresh install. Is there something I am doing wrong?

[Paul]

Installed OS Win2K/XP ==> "PNP OS = No"
Installed OS Other ==> "PNP IS = Yes"

I think you actually want the first one. For the first
choice (Win2K/XP), the BIOS does more of the
Plug and Play setup and IRQ selection and so on.

And I wish they'd use standard terminology when
designing these BIOS. The PNP OS = [Yes/No] has
been around a bit longer than 2007.

I don't see that affecting booting, but it does
saddle whatever boots with a bit more work. Virtually
anything used on the computer, should be able to deal
with both cases. I always leave my PNP set at No,
because I'm not using any ancient OSes.

The SATA Controller Mode should be set to
Enhanced, to enable all SATA ports. Without that,
the Compatible mode limits the storage model
to four drives (as if wired with two ribbon
cables), IRQ14/IRQ15, suited to booting Windows 98.
The disk operation is emulated, the disks use
I/O space decode (3F4?).

When you select Enhanced, the storage controllers
show up in PCI space, and more than four disk ports
are then supported. And instead of IRQ14/IRQ15, the
interrupts move to INTA# or equivalent. That works
fully with Win2K SP4, or a recent incarnation of WinXP.

And it's a motherboard from a server company,
and that BIOS description page seems to cover
a number of generations of concepts (mixing
old and new). So will require some careful
selections. It's strange that the default
values are set to what they are, but this is
to ensure Win98 can boot (for some reason).

It's the same ole thing - user manual never comes
right out and says what a control is for - the user
is supposed to be Kreskin (a mind reader).

Power On By PCI/PCI-X would likely be a PME setting.
You want that enabled, if for example you put the
computer to sleep, and expect to tap the keyboard or
move the mouse and have the computer wake. The implication
as far as I know, is to tie whatever equivalent a
subsystem has to the PME signal of the PCI slot,
to waking the computer.

And with no details in the Boot Menu section,
I'll have to rely on your judgment as to what
that should be set to. Modern BIOS use two-level
menus. The main level selecting "general boot
order", floppy, <some optical>, <some hard drive>
and then submenus for each of those categories
selecting an order of optical drives and an order
of hard drives. It looks like that BIOS is
using a discrete one-level menu for boot, but
I'm just guessing based on the number of slots
listed.

Paul