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How to add a CDROM boot option on a Dell 5810 workstation

A new Dell Precision workstation 5810 has Secure Boot enabled in the BIOS setup. I tried disabling Secure Boot so I could add a CDROM boot option but this did not work - even with Secure Boot disabled there was still no choice for a CDROM drive boot source.

Two questions:

* Is Secure Boot so valuable that I should not even consider disabling it?

* If I do disable it, would you know how to add the CDROM boot path in the Dell BIOS?

Thanks,
Pete

SOLUTION

Tom Cieslik

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Peter Bye

ASKER

Thanks, Tom. I thought I tried that although I may not have rebooted. I'll give it a try.

Regarding the first part of the question, how much value does Secure Boot provide? Is it safer to leave Secure Boot on and only enable the legacy boot options in those infrequent situations when I might need it?

Pete

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

noxcho

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Peter Bye

ASKER

Thanks Noxcho and Tom for the procedure and the background.

Tom - I found that your procedure works although I needed two restarts. One after disabling Secure Boot, then another after enabling Legacy ROMs in Advanced Boot Options. Then by choosing Legacy in Boot Options I found all the legacy options including CDROM and USB. So, now I know how to enable CDROM or USB booting if needed.

This also motivated me to search a bit more about Secure Boot. I found this article:

https://www.howtogeek.com/116569/htg-explains-how-windows-8s-secure-boot-feature-works-what-it-means-for-linux/

It highlighted another aspect - claiming that Secure Boot provides some protection against root kits taking over one's computer. Assuming this is accurate then I think I will leave Secure Boot enabled for the root kit protection and keep the procedure for enabling legacy boot options accessible when/if needed.

Thanks again,
Pete