No bios, help plz!!!!

[nadielaya7]

Was using the regular xfce gui , then I pressed ctrl alt f2 on debian stable xfce, and my computer just died. I cannot access the bios. I have some extremely sensitive data, i am in panic. I cannot boot a cd or anything, as soon as i press f2 on the bios it just gives me a blank screen. I had messed around with the display configuration files before, however everything was working fine until i pressed ctrl alt f2 and then it got stuck after i typed exit and enter because i did not want to be in that shell.

How do i get it to give me boot options, boot from a cd, or give me a bios at least? Wth is this?? I try putting the install cds so it boots from cds and it just does not give me the debian installer!!!! Cd rom was working fine. How can i get my super important sensitive programming data that i was working on for the past year??

[steve_v]

Was using the regular xfce gui , then I pressed ctrl alt f2 on debian stable xfce, and my computer just died. I cannot access the bios.

This is most weird, and honestly it sounds like coincidental hardware failure to me.
What variety of "computer" is this anyway?

As far as Linux vs. BIOS issues go, the only current problem I am aware of is the SPI driver shipped with Ubuntu 17.10 bricking certain Lenovo laptops. Dunno whether this affects Debian or not, but I doubt it.

How do i get it to give me boot options, boot from a cd, or give me a bios at least?

First up, do a complete power down (if it's a laptop remove the battery) and clear the CMOS by setting the appropriate jumper / removing the BIOS battery. If you still cannot access the BIOS setup after this (and assuming it's not some loathsome disk based utility - do these still exist?), there's little you can do from the software side. Search for a BIOS recovery / reflash procedure for your make & model. This varies from "Insert specially formatted USB drive" to "Send in the motherboard for EEPROM replacement".

How can i get my super important sensitive programming data that i was working on for the past year??

Put the hard disk in another machine, or restore from backup. You do have backups for this years worth of super important data, right?

[dilberts_left_nut]

That's a hardware problem - nothing to do with Debian, or any other OS you might have on it.

I take it that it powers on, but no POST or anything further?

Try resetting the BIOS/UEFI to defaults with the jumper if possible (check your MB manual).
Check / reseat all the cable connections and ram, add on cards etc.

If still no joy, you'll need to start replacing parts.

To get your data back, attach the HDD to a working machine.

[steve_v]

I take it that it powers on, but no POST or anything further?

Good point, I should have queried that first.

as soon as i press f2 on the bios it just gives me a blank screen.

I read this as: The machine POSTs successfully, and the "press F2 to enter BIOS setup" prompt appears, but pressing F2 results in a blank screen rather than the expected setup utility. Correct?
If it doesn't POST, it's definitely a hardware problem. If that's the case, ignore (most of) what I said and listen to Dilbert.
Which make uses F2 anyway? I don't recognise this one.

[nadielaya7]

Does POST. Its a software issue having to do probably with my messing with the computer's display configuration files earlier months ago. That time i set it to a display resolution setting 1600×1200 or something which borked the display. Xfce instead of asking the usual "if you read this text, press whatever or it will revert back to normal in 10 seconds", just  doesnt do this and has you instead have to go in recovery mode and try your luck like that. Design flaw. That time I got it working again by going into home folders x configuration files and typing the default display settings.

This time I was using xfce gui normally, pressed ctrl alt f2 and computer went to the shell. I then immediately wanted back out into normal gui again, so i typed exit right away at the login credentials of the ctrl alt f2 console at the first prompt opportunity you get (at the password asking prompt, first one right awat; did not log in there or type my password right as i just wanted out and typing exit at the password prompt had gotteb me out of these shells successfully  before). After this, the computer's screen went completely black. I waited a bit, then proceeded to power it off and back on as it was stuck at that black screen. Asus  press f2 for bios greeting message appears however for a shorter time now after reboot. I also do not get the usual boot sequence where it asks you what device to boot from. At the asus screen it asks that if you want bios press f2 or delete key. I tried both, and it does not go into bios. After the asus screen it does its little text lines and flickers as to be taking in the monitor's settings like in normal boot, however it then goes black again as it is seemingly reestablishing the messed up display cobfiguration from the ctrl alt f2 state. Its a software issue!!!!

Is there a key combo you can press to revert from ctrl alt f2 back to normal mode or something like that? Must be s way to go from cgrl alt f2 back to X's normal confoguration settings. Looks like a jey combo like that is all it takes hiwever ive searched and cant find it. No way to force it into recovery mode or something from the ctrl alt f2 state display configuration state? Pressed ctrl alt f everything to no avail.

Computer does take ctrl alt delete and reboots. Sometimes its not even doing its little text line adter the asus.

[nadielaya7]

Wow after letting computer on for a while in the black state, i started pressing ctrl alt f everything / ctrl and keypad minus and plus and then ctrl alt delete and it sort of took a different reboot about it and i now got to bios!!!!!

However i wanted to reproduce it again and now cant do it again. What a retard. Locked out again

[bw123]

Must be s way to go from cgrl alt f2 back to X's normal confoguration settings.

alt-f7 usually takes you back to the VT running X, some newer setups are running X rootless on VT1 now, so alt-F1

[nadielaya7]

Anyone know of any ctrl or alt + anything combos at tty other than ctrl alt fn?

[GarryRicketson]

Anyone know of any ctrl or alt + anything combos at tty other than ctrl alt fn?

Yields some interesting results.

Use the w command to find out which tty your X session uses, so you won't need to guess which Fn to press.

[nadielaya7]

All i got is asus greet screen for 2 seconds and then blank screen. Please read my posts.

[bw123]

What debian version are you running? try these and post the results.

Code: Select all

$ uname -a
$ cat /etc/debian_version


also, posting inxi info will give readers you bios version, maybe it's a known issue with that machine.

[GarryRicketson]

All i got is asus greet screen for 2 seconds and then blank screen. Please read my posts.

I did, but can't make much sense of it.

, i started pressing ctrl alt f everything / ctrl and keypad minus and plus and then ctrl alt delete and it sort of took a different reboot about it and i now got to bios!!!!!

Randomly hitting ctr-alt -f everything, no clue as to what you hit,... amazing, you actually got the bios once, but because what you were doing was random, you have no clue as to how you did it,... Why should I read it all again ?

nadielaya7>>However i wanted to reproduce it again and now cant do it again. What a retard. Locked out again

You said it, not me,...

Read the search results, I saw something about some key combination that
effectively locks you out of the bios, but fortunately it is a "toogle", so if you hit the same key combination again, it toogles, and unlocks the bios.
That is why I said

Yields some interesting results.

[nadielaya7]

Do not tell me to type anything at the terminal because i dont have anything but a black screen!!

[nadielaya7]

What debian version are you running? try these and post the results.

Code: Select all

$ uname -a
$ cat /etc/debian_version


Only black sceen, no terminal.

[nadielaya7]

All i got is asus greet screen for 2 seconds and then blank screen. Please read my posts.

I did, but can't make much sense of it.

What dont you understand?