# put freebsd on a Dell Optiplex 7050 Micro desktop



## paulfrottawa (Oct 4, 2019)

I wasn't able to know for sure if it'll work so I dual booted it with windows. It worked except for wireless networking all I new was it was x64-based pc. Anyway's I need to fix the boot because it won't boot without hitting F12 and selecting FreeBSD or Windows. Can anyone share a link to fix the problem.


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## Phishfry (Oct 4, 2019)

The question is what does F12 do?
On some computers it allows you to pick the boot device.
This is useful when you are trying to boot from a USB stick or something other than the hard disk.
So assuming this device only has one hard disk I would guess that picking F12 allows you to choose which EFI installation to choose from.

So my question is, Are you trying to wipe Windows out or simply boot from FreeBSD instead of Windows?
You might be able to choose which to boot from in the UEFI/BIOS settings.
EFI handles booting differently than MBR.
MBR booted off hidden code embedded in the boot sector of the hard disk.
EFI boots from a file located in the /EFI/boot/ directory.
The EFI partition is a small FAT partition that can contain multiple bootable *.EFI files.
Windows will have its own EFI boot file as does FreeBSD.


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## k.jacker (Oct 4, 2019)

On Dell machines, F12 is the One-Time-Boot-Menu where you can choose bootabe devices.
Same settings can of course be set permanent from UEFI/BIOS settings by hitting F2.


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## paulfrottawa (Oct 4, 2019)

Thanks guy I can now boot without having to hit F12. I'm keeping windows as a curiosity it the first time I was able to save windows while install FreeBSD.


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