I am using VMware Fusion 2.0.6. I want to boot virtual machine from iso file. How do I get into bios and change boot options?
2 Answers
To force the machine to enter the BIOS setup once (but continue booting normally on subsequent start-ups), add bios.forceSetupOnce = "TRUE"
to VM's .vmx
file.
Alternatively, quickly press F2 while booting. To make this easier, set bios.bootDelay = "xxxx"
in the .vmx
file, where xxxx
is the number of milliseconds during which the VM will wait for the F2 signal.
The process varies when using vSphere for VMWare vCenter, which is a far more common scenario in Enterprise environments.
- Right-click the VM in the Navigator pane (or use the Actions menu at the top of the primary pane) and choose
Edit Settings...
. - Click the
VM Options
tab at the top. - Expand the
Boot Options
twirl-down menu on the left. - Locate the
Force BIOS setup
option (alternatively, it may be calledForce EFI setup
).
NOTE: If your boot device and virtual hardware configuration support it, changing the Firmware
setting from BIOS to EFI (requires powering-off the VM first) is advantageous in that it allows for one-time boot device selection, whereas BIOS does not; with the BIOS firmware, it's necessary to re-order the boot devices and save the changes, which is in no way ideal because if you forget to disconnect the drive or unmount the media, the VM could boot into the BIOS the next time it restarts unexpectedly, leaving a production machine unreachable until someone intervenes.
(Even though the Asker is using Fusion, this Question's visibility is such that solutions for other VMWare implementations seem appropriate.)
See: Delay the Boot Sequence in the vSphere Documentation for more information.