[EdLUG] Unexpected Change in Boot Manager

[Jeremy Nicoll]

On Tue, 30 Mar 2021, at 08:22, Andrew Ramage wrote:
> I don't see FnLock.  

I don't know if your machine has it.  Some do; if it exists it 
means keys that normally need Fn pressed don't need it, 
but it also means the non-Fn meanings aren't accessible.
And it might mean the FnLock + Fn + a function key does
not work.

Those Lenovo laptops that do have a FnLock sometimes 
have it as a second function on the Esc key, in fact one
that is accessed by pressing Fn+Esc.  

(My present laptop has FnLock next to Insert, where it is
easy to press by accident.  When it IS pressed all the 
hardware functions like brightness, volume etc stop
working, and when one eg presses F3 one gets a 
brightness change rather than whatever the program 
one is running would normally do with F3).


Some Lenovo machines also have a thing called a "Novo"
button - which (apparently) gives one direct access to 
some (all?) boot options.  I've a new Lenovo machine 
that claims (in one piece of documentation) not to have
one, but in another says it has.  In my case the "Novo"
button is behind a small hole, and has to be prodded
with a fine wire eg a straightened paperclip.  My machine
has the hole but I don't yet know if there's a button 
inside it.

I also don't like the idea that such a thing exists, if it 
cannot be turned off in the password-protected 
[USEFI] BIOS.   If it does work for anyone it may mean 
that anybody at all could reboot the machine off a 
USB drive, whereas I'd prefer that only to be possible 
if one enters the BIOS and changes what devices are
eligible for use for boot.



-- 
Jeremy Nicoll - my opinions are my own.