Re: strange "3FA:" prompt on toshiba tecra boot

[David Reviejo <dreviejo@terra.es>]

* Mark Phillips <mark@ist.flinders.edu.au> [001226 02:16]:
> My friend's Toshiba Tecra 8000 laptop won't boot.  Previously it has
> booted fine, but currently all it comes up with is a
> 
> 3FA:
> 
> prompt.  Hitting return just causes this prompt to repeat itself.  It
> doesn't even seem to get to lilo.  I can't think what is wrong, and I
> couldn't find anything in the archives on it.
> 
> Any ideas anyone?
> 

I don't know if this can help...; anyway, from the Slink debian guide:

---------

Secure Boot

NA 2.2 

Those concerned about the security of their Debian system - if it is used by
others - should be aware that, by default, the Slink system can be booted from
a floppy even when booting is disabled in the BIOS and a password is given in
/etc/lilo.conf. 

To so boot, press the Shift key when the system is booted (and before the
default boot/lilo prompt appears) and you get a prompt similar to 3FA which
indicates partition 3 can be booted (3), a floppy can be booted from (by
pressing the F key) and Advanced mode is available (which enables booting from
any partition). 

To boot the default partition, at this 3FA type prompt simply press the Return
key. (See /usr/doc/mbr/README for more details.) To boot from, say, partition 2
- press a key followed by number of partition, here 2. 

To disable this facility, you can edit the boot= line in /etc/lilo.conf - for
example 

boot=/dev/hda root=/dev/hda1 

or probably best of all physically disable or remove the floppy drive. 

This mbr facility can be very useful - for example, if there is another OS on
hda1, with GNU/Linux root partition on hda2, then simply pressing Shift+A+1
will boot this other OS, and Shift+A+2 will boot GNU/Linux. 

---------


And this is from a message in comp.os.linux.setup:

---------

Debian uses a nonstandard boot loader chained before LILO.  If you do nothing
during system start, it will simply load the default operating system.  To get
a menu that lets you boot from another partition (i.e. Linux!), press the shift
key while the computer is just beginning to boot.  (It is sometimes tricky to
get the timing right.  You may want to hit the shift key repeatedly, starting
during the RAM test, until you get the following result...)
  
You will get a message such as "3FA:".  (Exact numbers shown depend on your
system.)  Press "a", and it changes to "1234F:".  Select the partition you want
to boot from there.

---------

HTH,
-- 
David