I've just got hold of a HP Compaq Elite 8300 Ultra Slim & was wanting to put NetBSD or Linux on it, problem is, once an O/S has been written to the internal disk, it doesn't boot, (been trying UEFI on a GPT partitioned disk) tried 4 different O/S, same problem with all of them, install OK, just won't boot, so it must be something on the motherboard or in the UEFI/BIOS setup.

Has anyone successfully got a distro to boot on one of these?

There is no problem accessing the disk to see what is on it, the system just won't boot, & there doesn't seem to be any 'secure boot' or 'quick boot' options to disable(?).

Does your computer actually have EUFI? Supposedly if your computer has a splash screen as displayed on page 5 your computer is UEFI otherwise it is just a regular BIOS.

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c02826744

fatmac,

From what I have read, the BIOS needs updating.

If you have access to a Windows PC, you can always run a BIOS update file on that PC and then put the DOS files on a USB flash drive to update the BIOS using the F10 BIOS flashing setup method.

Which BIOS version do you have?

I will let you sort the pips out of the following:

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Deskto...r/td-p/8499572

Extract:

When you run the v2.99 sp73099.exe file that TheOldMan posted, an info page should open.

You want to follow the instructions under the F10 Setup BIOS flash method.

NB BIOS v02.99 must be installed first:
https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp730...00/sp73099.exe

BIOS v03.08 Rev.A must be installed second:
https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp955...00/sp95971.exe

Format a USB drive with the FAT32 file system.

At the bottom of the F10 Setup BIOS flash section on that info page, you will see a link to click on labelled View Contents of DOS Flash Folder.

Open that folder and copy the file contents of the folder to your USB flash drive.

Just the files, not the folder.

Restart the PC.

Tap the ESC key to get the menu of options.

Select the F10 Setup option.

Select the File tab > Flash System ROM command.

Select the USB flash drive.

The PC should 'see' the BIOS files on the flash drive.

Follow the onscreen instructions to update the BIOS.

Then do the same thing when you run sp95971.

Format the USB flash drive again to remove the older BIOS files before running the newer BIOS update.

fatmac,

Just to add, for illustration, that this HP 8300 SFF is using BIOS v 02.99 (see photo #4):

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/176268350...Bk9SR4aB7q7CYw

Many thanks for the info.

Edit: & the links to the files

Edit2: Gave it a try, but unfortunately it says 'damaged files' - so, I'll just boot from USB3, & use the internal disk for data.