Vmware

[aswedc]

The BIOS goes by in about half a second. I've restarted the VM about twenty times now trying to get it to recognize a F2 or ESC so I can get it to boot from a CD instead of the hard drive image but I can't do it in time! This is either the most horrible software design ever or I am missing something really obvious. Someone tell me which one it is!

 

[Red Squirrel]

I find even real bioses are a pita for that. They should give at least 5 seconds. The dell servers do this for the raid setup and stuff, like "hit ctrl+d within 5 seconds to enter raid setup" and it actually gives you time to see that message and know what to press.

Best way is spam the F2 key as soon as you power it on, be sure to click inside the vm so input focus is to the vm. Don't hold down the key though just keep tapping it every .5 secs or so.

Once your in the vmware bios it will look pretty much like a standard bios and theres an option for boot order.

 

[Nothinman]

I've never had a problem hitting Esc in time to bring up the boot menu in VMWare.

 

[quikah]

Power On VM
Mount your CD
Ctrl-Alt-Ins from the VM's console
Boots from the CD automatically

That procedure has always worked for me on ESX, no idea about server/workstation.