I have a brand new Dell Precision 3460 SFF which has bios that do not allow booting from dvd or usb (or maybe I can't find the option) and I want to replace Windows with Debian 11.

How can I flash it with new bios that will allow me to do that?

This desktop has 2 x 500GB PCIe SSD drives, I have removed the drive 1 (Windows) and saved it and replaced it with an empty new 500GB identical drive on which to put Debian.

Thank you for your help.

I just don't understand. But I don't have to understand everything. The best bet is to boot windows with the original disk, find a bios (if possible at all) and use the official tool from dell to upload it (if it will allow to flash it). Otherwise I think you have no chance. But probably others will have better ideas.
From the other hand you may try to install a general debian onto a disk with another host and just put it afterward into this computer (probably you can boot it).

1 members found this post helpful.

Have you seen and tried the suggestion at the link below?

https://www.dell.com/community/Preci...n/td-p/7882070

1 members found this post helpful.

I don't think you have much choice either. Maybe this link will help.

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/e...ndows-10-8-1-8

1 members found this post helpful.

Any one of the below 'could' be preventing booting from external media, you'll need to check them out for yourself, I'm just giving a push in the direction that I think may be the problem.

2 members found this post helpful.

I use PLOP when in your situation.
https://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager/download.html

Heck. I can even boot my panasonic cf-48 off usb using my plop floppy drive.

Cf-48 comes with a cdr and floppy drive. USB 1.1. Award bios is pretty old also.

Here is a video

1 members found this post helpful.

I will try the proposed solutions.

If everything fail, is it a reasonable proposition to replace the motherboard? Or does Dell have motherboards custom-made?

I am asking this question because BIOS chips may be easily replaced if not soldered to the motherboard although a suitable replacement may not be easy to find.
I do not care about any warranty.

That is like asking do you ride the bus or take your lunch. As far as I know Dell uses proprietary parts so the connectors may not match but I thought the power supply connectors were standardized. The BIOS/UEFI firmware AFAIK is designed for the motherboard so simply swapping chips if that was possible would not work. The libreboot replacement firmware only works with specific motherboards but I do not think Dell's are supported.

1 members found this post helpful.

There is info in the dell service manual about your issue.

That machine specifically states that it supports ubuntu 20.04 in the specs so installing linux should be possible.

Windows 11 will only boot with tpm enabled and possibly having tpm & secure boot enabled prevents direct access to the boot menu and setting the system to allow boot from USB. I would suggest that you try getting into the bios, then disable tpm and secure boot, then set the system to allow booting from usb. After that I would expect you could boot from usb and do the install. Fastboot can prevent access to the bios but that can be disabled from within windows.

The service manual says
boot menu ---> F12
BIOS setup ---> F2

The machine is by default configured with SATA in RAID mode and some systems will not allow linux to even see the drive when SATA is set to RAID. Those machines require SATA to be reset to AHCI before linux can see the device and install properly.

2 members found this post helpful.

I think it's that stupid windows locking it.

1 members found this post helpful.

My apologies for the delay, I was wasting too much time on something that was only meant to be an improvement.
The Dell desktop has two ssd (m.2) installed and I replaced ssd 1 (Windows OS) with a brand new one and got the same result. This seems to indicate that it is not the ssd drive (Windows) that prevents the install but (Windows in) the BIOS.

I will try again when I have a bit more time but that may take a few months.
I have read a post suggesting to try all Fx keys to solve another problem and, to ensure I try all the possibilities, I'll try that.

When purchasing the machine, part of the "Form" ask to select a configuration in some unclear manner and, with insight, I suspect this is to tailor the BIOS specifically to the machine as ordered so that it does not work as soon as you make the slightest change.

If everything fail, including trying to change the BIOS, I will try to convince myself it was not all a $AU4,000 waste by finding a not-for-profit that needs a (Window) computer and give it to them.

No one has even suggested it may be the windows drive. It was mentioned that if the system is set for fast boot (which prevents bios access) then you should be able to disable that from within windows.
It only takes 5 minutes to try getting into the bios and it was mentioned that bios setup is F2 and boot menu is F12 (from the service manual)
Without trying what has been suggested that seems awfully expensive to give away.

You should be able to follow the suggestions to get into the bios and change the config there so booting from a USB device is possible.

1 members found this post helpful.

IME, some Dell cases can accept a generic motherboard. Mostly they cannot, for reasons that vary. All Dell motherboards are made to Dell specifications that variously differ from generic motherboards, and all have limited BIOS options.

1 members found this post helpful.

rblampain,

You may be able to extract something useful from this link:
https://www.dell.com/community/Inspi...k/td-p/6239562

Extract:

Many thanks jphughan for pointing the path \EFI\Boot\Bootx64.efi of the bootloader file in Windows 10 64 bits USB Media creator tool.

It was missing in following Dell support article: https://www.dell.com/support/article...d-option-with-...

and I was able to boot from USB stick with UEFI boot mode enabled by adding it in BIOS UEFI File Name entry which has not to be left blank.

This link refers to adding a CD or DVD boot (presumably can be amended to suit USB boot):
https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/e...ndows-10-8-1-8

ALTERNATIVELY:

It may be simpler as rokytnji suggests to use Plop Linux.

1 members found this post helpful.

Page 82 of 98

USB Configuration

Enable or disable booting from USB mass storage devices through the boot
sequence or boot menu.

By default, all the options are enabled.

Front USB Configuration

Enable or disable the individual front USB ports.
By default, all the options are enabled.

Rear USB Configuration

Enable or disable the individual rear USB ports.
By default, all the options are enabled.

Precision 3460 Small Form Factor Service Manual - prec-3460-sff-sm-en-us.pdf
https://dl.dell.com/content/manual35...=en-us&ps=true

Precision 3460 Small Form Factor Setup and Specifications - prec-3460-sff-ss-en-us.pdf
https://dl.dell.com/content/manual37...=en-us&ps=true

There's an available UEFI/BIOS update dated 14 Dec 2022

Support for Precision 3460 Small Form Factor | Drivers & Downloads | Dell US
https://www.dell.com/support/home/en...tation/drivers

1 members found this post helpful.