One Time Boot Menu can't get in

@Vaelatern Could you try one experiment for us?
I assume you are trying to boot from a USB-A drive using the framework C-A adapter. Could you remove it, boot the system to the boot selection menu F12 with the framework C-A adapter removed, and then insert the adapter and drive and see if the boot option shows up? This might help me narrow down your issue.

also have this issue and reported it to the framework team, who have (thus far) been unable to reproduce.

nothing to add other than “me too”.

Having now installed an OS once, I then shut down, removed the nvme drive containing my OS, and tried to boot again.

I was unable to replicate the F12 freeze bug any more. I attempted setting a timeout of 3 again (was 0 at start of test), same as before, and no change.

However I can replicate the flash drive, from which I was booted with a dongle, unable to boot in the machine.

Encouraged by this failure, I then removed the C-A adapters (I had two equipped). I waited until the “No bootable device detected” dialog box, inserted the C-A adapter and flash drive, and proceeded to the boot menu. There was no option listed. I attempted plugging in just before the boot menu appeared after F12, as well as just after. No change, no option listed. I then plugged in the USB A dongle in to one of the adapters, and the flash drive into that adapter, and was able to see that option in the F12 menu on the first try.

For whatever it’s worth I used exactly this dongle Amazon.com

This allowed me to select PXE as well as plug my flash drive into it.

@Vaelatern Thanks for the test. What thumb drive are you using?

The particular one I’ve ended up using as my live ISO is https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B7JLZUC/ (5 years old now, unlike the dongle).

Though I’ve replicated the “can’t use it” with multiple other drives, all on the side of “been with me for years and been reliable on other machines”.

Can replicate the failure to load the flash drive where there is an OS installed. It doesn’t work plugged in to the C-A adapter, does work when plugged in via the dongle.

I’m also unable to setup my framework, as I can’t get a boot started.

I’m using this Kingston usbc (“DTDUO3C/32GB”) thumb drive: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B010HWCEHM

I get the following blue dialog:

Default Boot Device Missing or Boot Failed.
Insert Recovery Media and Hit any key

Then Select 'Boot Manager' to choose a new Boot Device or to Boot Recovery Media
[Ok]

If I switch the drive to my top-left port (just ever Esc key), or my bottom left port (just under caps lock key), and hit enter, then I at least get to a Boot Manager screen than shows:

Boot Option Menu

EFI Boot Devices
EFI USB Devlon (KingstonDT microDuo 3C)

[up] and [down] to change option, ENTER to select an option, ESC to exit

But if I hit enter, the screen just flashes black, and then the same thing is rendered again.

I can get to the bios settings and confirm USB booting is enabled…
Question: Is there anything else in the bios settings I should ensure?

(Also, my confirmation that this stick should work: booted a Thinkpad from it)

I can get to the bios settings and confirm USB booting is enabled…
Question: Is there anything else in the bios settings I should ensure?

Ah, yeah, this was it: Secure Boot was enabled by default in the bios. Turning it off allowed me to boot from my thumb drive.

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this was it: Secure Boot was enabled by default in the bios. Turning it off allowed me to boot from my thumb drive.

Interestingly, now that I have linux installed, this^ is no longer true. I can no longer boot to usb, despite secure boot being disabled. Discussing over on this “Legacy boot / usb boot” thread though.

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I have the same issue: F12 freezes the machine (got my laptop yesterday). F2 still works, both from the built-in and an external keyboard. The only way I can boot from a USB drive is by getting into BIOS, changing the EFI boot order to and rebooting.

Edit: I have tried every fix in this thread and none would bring the F12 functionality back.

@ctst - from this thread: Cannot load boot menu, laptop freezes - #11 by Quinn_Casey it seemed that setting both quick boot and quiet boot to enabled in the bios did allow f12 to work. Hopefully that will resolve it for you.

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@lbkNhubert - That did it. Thank you!

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@ctst - I’m happy to hear that that worked, but @RandomUser deserves the credit. I just passed the information along. Enjoy the machine!

I just ran into this too. Thank you @lbkNhubert , @RandomUser

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Since setting quick boot and quiet boot seems to make F12 work, it’s clear this is a BIOS bug. Has this been reported to the BIOS vendor? If not, can Framework do that? It really should be fixed.

I reproduced this issue with BIOS 3.06 and enabling both quick boot and quiet boot did make the issue disappear, so this issue is in the lastest BIOS. I realize 3.07 is going to release shortly but I’m skeptical that this has been fixed in it unless this issue was reported.

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Can verify as well that this worked for me.

Agreed. I’m hopeful this can be resolved soon-ish

Just got my 12th gen a week ago and I can confirm that this is an issue that i’m running into as well. Looks like it hasn’t been fixed :frowning:

One thing that does work it seems is following this:

My system freezes if I press F12 while booting

If your system is freezing when you try to enter the F12 menu, try enabling both “quick boot” and “quiet boot” in your BIOS settings. As of BIOS 3.03, there is a bug that causes freezes when pressing F12 with those disabled.

From here: How do I enter the BIOS on the Framework Laptop?

F2 is the bios menu, you have to press it when “Framework” is on the screen.

The default is a zero second delay, so you have to catch it just right.

The first thing I did was to change the boot delay to 5 seconds.

Pressing and holding the key doesn’t work, you have to tap it.

Using my 12th Gen i5. Had the same issue yesterday. Had freezing and the power led light on the side blinked white, then green about 5 times, then blue and lastly orange. The whole system would not continue to boot. Once I re-enabled the BIOS settings for Quick Boot and Quiet Boot, everything worked as expected and I would boot from USB drives once again.

I was really scratching my head at this one. Hopefully, the upcoming BIOS update for the 12th Gen machines will fix this.