Enabling Second Drive

Question

My Inspiron 3880 arrived today, and I've been working on setting it up.  My intention is to use it on Solus OS about 99%of the time, but I want to keep Windows 10 available for the odd time that I might need Windows for something that doesn't support Linux. Normally, when I install Linux on a machine that originally came with Windows installed, I need to enter the BIOS/UEFI and disable the Secure Boot setting and also disable the boot device for the Windows Boot Manager, if that's on the machine.  Nothing I've tried is getting me access to the BIOS. The Inspiron 3880 manual online states that to enter the BIOS, one must press F2 immediately at startup.  And to display a startup device, one can press F12 immediately at startup.  Those are very common methods, and in fact they're the same as on my DELL laptop, but they don't work at all for this desktop. Obviously, I need access to both of these features.  The second drive is a 500 GB Samsung SSD, connected via a PCI adapter, and it shows up in both the Device Manager and the Disk Management plug-in, so the system definitely recognizes it. Has anyone here successfully accessed the BIOS on the 3880?  If so, what did you need to do in order to get access?  Extra points if you've successfully installed a Linux distribution on a second drive. Thanks for any help with this!

Mary G · Accepted Answer

This is new method- Access UEFI (BIOS) System Setup from Windows on your Dell System | Dell US

WetGeek · Accepted Answer

Thanks to all who helped me here. With nothing to lose, I also posted my question in the Solus forum, and got the answer that finally helped me there. What the Dell manual doesn't say is that you need to press and hold the key while you restart from Windows. That starts you on the way (after selecting a few more buttons) to accessing the BIOS.

From there, it was easy to change all the settings I needed to change (secure boot, fast boot, boot order, etc.). I'm now typing this on my Inspiron 3880 running on Solus 4.3. I'll probably never boot to Windows again, but I've left that installed on the original SSD, just in case.

This is my first experience with this forum. If users can't mark a thread "solved" somehow, will an admin please so mark this one?

RoHe · Answer

Power PC on and immediately start tapping F2 to open BIOS setup. You didn't mention if the boot drive is an SSD or a HDD, PCs boot very quickly from an SSD so you have to be fast to start tapping F2 or F12. How is the monitor connected? Do you have an add-in video card or only onboard Intel Graphics? If you have an add-in video card, the monitor should be connected to the card, not to either of the onboard video ports.  And what type video port are you using on PC and on the monitor?

speedstep · Answer

Bios cannot be used as a boot selector.

Once in bios secure boot must be OFF.

Boot drive must be attached to SATA 0

You can add a new drive and install linux on it but it will not be supported by dell or anyone else.

There is linux support its not free.

To get into setup turn on and immediately press

F2 then F12

WetGeek · Answer

That's exactly what I've been doing, with no luck. You make a good point about the boot drive being an SSD. I'll try exercising the F2 key even before the DELL logo appears, and see if that helps. Thanks for pointing that out.

This machine has just one HDMI port, and one VGA port, so I have to connect my two monitors to those. There is no separate video card - the PCI slot contains the adapter for the 2.25" SSD that will hopefully contain my Solus distribution.

Inspiron Desktops

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