Recently, I installed Kali Linux on an older laptop of mine (Samsung NP0027C S01US). Today, I tried to boot from a flash drive, and it did not work. I tried to access my BIOS (F2 key), and it did not work (before people tell me to try the F keys, I have tried them already). Every time the computer booted, it would go right to the grub loader:
Previously when I have been unable to access the BIOS, I removed my hard drive. So I pulled out the hard drive and now the computer does not boot or go to the BIOS. It starts up and shows me a boot menu:
How does it know that Kali is a boot option with no disk present? I have been working with computers for years and this is the first time I have ever seen an issue like this. It is like linux has locked down my computer to only work with this installation. The future implications of this are a serious problem.
I have tried inserting both a bootable USB and a bootable CD and the boot menu does not show either of them. They used to work when I had Windows installed on here.
Also, there is nothing underneath the App Menu shown in the photo.
Any suggestions? I want my old boot options back and I especially want to be able to access BIOS.
EDIT 3/7/19: I have used the BIOS on this particular laptop many times in the past. I know the keyboard combinations are F2 for BIOS/setup and F11 for boot menu. Just for the heck of it I tried some other ones, but no success. Its as if my BIOS is in a fast boot mode where it ignores user input before boot (but again, normally to fix this problem in the past, I just pull the HDD).
Another interesting observation: my change brightness key is F2. When I hold Fn-F2, it will change the brightness while inside an OS. This time, however, it changed the brightness during my samsung splash screen. Is this helpful information? I don't recall if I was ever able to do this before.
(also changed title from " Linux does not allow me to boot from any other device" to more accurately reflect my issue based on comments)
EDIT 3/9/19: I reset CMOS today, thinking that it would correct any BIOS issues. Now it still does not work and the "Kali" boot option has disappeared. It will not even boot when I have the working hard drive installed. It shows the boot menu with 0 listings. As of now, the computer is a brick. Looks like my issue is related to this question: Cannot access BIOS after installing a Linux distro
They have fixes if you can still boot, but I cannot. Any recommendations?