Using The System Setup And Boot Manager; Choosing The System Boot Mode - Dell PowerEdge EL Owner's Manual

Using The System Setup And Boot Manager

System Setup enables you to manage your system hardware and specify BIOS-level options.
The following keystrokes provide access to system features during startup:
Keystroke Description
<F2> Enters the System Setup.
<F10> Enters System Services, which opens the Dell Lifecycle Controller 2 (LC2). The Dell LC2
supports systems management features such as operating system deployment, hardware
diagnostics, platform updates, and platform configuration, using a graphical user interface. The
exact LC2 feature set is determined by the iDRAC license purchased. For more information, see
the Dell LC2 documentation.
<F11> Enters the BIOS Boot Manager or the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) Boot
Manager, depending on the system's boot configuration.
<F12> Starts Preboot eXecution Environment (PXE) boot.
From the System Setup, you can:
• Change the NVRAM settings after you add or remove hardware
• View the system hardware configuration
• Enable or disable integrated devices
• Set performance and power management thresholds
• Manage system security
You can access the System Setup using the:
• Standard graphical browser, which is enabled by default
• Text browser, which is enabled using Console Redirection
To enable Console Redirection, in System Setup, select System BIOS → Serial Communication screen → Serial
Communication, select On with Console Redirection.
NOTE: By default, help text for the selected field is displayed in the graphical browser. To view the help text in the
text browser, press <F1>.

Choosing The System Boot Mode

System Setup enables you to specify the boot mode for installing your operating system:
• BIOS boot mode (the default) is the standard BIOS-level boot interface.
• UEFI boot mode is an enhanced 64-bit boot interface based on Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI)
specifications that overlays the system BIOS.
You must select the boot mode in the Boot Mode field of the Boot Settings screen of System Setup. Once you specify the
boot mode, the system boots in the specified boot mode and you then proceed to install your operating system from that
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