Trying to install eOS on a Dell Laptop, reboot into firmware seems the default. Moreover, the issue seems to be long standing as reported first a few years ago. Any ideas? Thanks.
Have you tried to set the default option in the bootloader?
No. I prepared an eOS boot stick, inserted it into the Laptop and saw it enter BIOS instead of eOS to install it.
The issue could be nailed down to the latest BIOS version from March 2025:
Inspiron 14-5406 2in1
BIOS Version 1.35.0
It does not happen on other hardware. Any ideas which setting could be the culprit? Does anyone have a Dell Laptop out there?
Please elaborate. Thanks.
Section 4
Interestingly “Dell Latitude” are mentioned. So, Debian and Ubuntu first-install-boot-USB-sticks do not run into that issue as they probably still use grub.
I guess, it will take me a very long time to figure out the issue with Dell Latitudes and install eOS w/o systemd-boot. Hopefully, then the issue is solved for operation.
I assumed you were already using systemd-boot with regards to what you posted?
Oh, you’re getting this on the initial boot from USB, I misunderstood. I guess what I posted will help you after you get installed if you still have the issue.
Are you unable to arrow up and down to the appropriate choices for installation?
Yes, that works. I thus installed it to use grub and the issue for in operation is solved. Just sad that systemd-boot does not work with the latest Dell BIOS.
Curiously, perhaps related, I had this happen to one of my machines here that was updated. Instead of booting to Endeavour as usual, it was stuck dropping into the firmware interface. I had to rapidly press the arrow keys to interrupt this and allow Endeavour to be chosen.
Once it booted, I could then use bootctl set-default “” to clear the default flag and things are behaving again.
Really odd. I wonder if this was what happened in your case.
If you install the system and use the default setting in /efi/loader/loader.conf to properly set the default as described in the EOS wiki, that should work no matter what BIOS/firmware you have.
I agree, since I think I pointed that out along with the wiki link 
But maybe it bears saying again lol
Yes, I encountered the problem when trying to install eOS from a boot stick onto a Dell Laptop with no esp partition. The culprit must be the BIOS itsself.
nano /efi/loader/loader.conf
default *hardened*
timeout 5
console-mode auto
reboot-for-bitlocker 1
As I need to use the hardened kernel, the workaround bootctl set-default “” unfortunately does not work nor the direct entry from above.
I have an old-ish Dell Latitude E6510, BIOS version A17. On this, it does select the topmost EOS boot option. But “Reboot Into Firmware Interface” does nothing (what is it actually for?).
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It should boot into your UEFI/“BIOS” settings.
So same behaviour as spamming F2 when your Dell starts.
Thanks. For some reason, it doesn’t, here. But anyway, my question was a bit off-topic. This machine is 12+ years old, still has a Legacy BIOS, so maybe they didn’t do the UEFI implementation too well back then.
A legacy BIOS doesn’t have UEFI at all , because UEFI is more or less a software version of the good old BIOS.
Yeah, sure. It was the time when UEFI started, so they had a legacy BIOS with the option of UEFI boot.
[ot]
I still love it after all these years. It has a fantastic keyboard, matte screen, i7, 16 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD, and runs Mint and EOS just fine. Plus, you still get spare parts. Only drawback is the darn NVIDIA card.
[/ot]
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I just installed EndeavourOS & linux-hardened and tested setting the hardened kernel as the default:
nano /efi/loader/loader.conf
default 607453e21f834b3da42f752d4bda9398-*-hardened
timeout 5
console-mode auto
reboot-for-bitlocker 1
Works for me. The string of numbers & letters should be different on your system though.
$ uname -r
6.13.12-hardened1-1-hardened
You can find your string in /efi
