GUI to enter BIOS or select boot device

[costinell]

I have used Workstation since it's 1.0 release in 1999.

I simply cannot believe we are more than 20 years later and still in order to enter BIOS or select boot device I must edit configuration files

why is so difficult to add these simple elements in the UI?

[scott28tt]

Seen the option for Workstation mentioned in this? https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1004129

[costinell]

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[costinell]

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[btmp]

I just use the menu option

VM > Power > "Power on to firmware"

to start it when I want to access those options at boot of a VM.

Update: As it turns out, the link that Scott shared also has that menu option mentioned tho it is buried at the bottom of the other stuff filling the 'Resolution' area so I could understand why it doesn't pop out on the first glance! I didn't see it during my first skim.

IMO, they should update several titles in there to use the same aspects. For example make the "Fusion", "Player" & "Workstation 7.x and later" titles the same size...aka more akin to how "ESXi / vCenter Server" pops out as its own section instead of how "Workstation 7.x and later" ends up looking like a footnote instead of an actual resolution! (The extra gap aka space doesn't help it to appear connected at first) Heck there are already collapsible elements in there so why not just add one sub option for each product so that a user can load a help page and then 'expand' the element related to the product they are *actually* looking for help about? Regardless of how it's done, the formatting across entries could use some standardizing!

[costinell]

thank you btmp

however able to easily select boot device is still impossible. you’d have to power on to firmware, navigate to bios/efi setup and select from there. 

virt-manager for example allows selecting the boot device in the vm user interface configuration view.