Ubuntu Dell mini 9 MBR 2FA and keyboard types spaces

Here something related http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1024680.html

Hope this helps

Thanks but I guess I should have mentioned I read about this before and no matter how many times I try the escape-enter combination, i can't get it to do anything but boot up to Ubuntu, it never goes to a "grub" menu or any other menu or option. When at the MBR 2FA prompt, pressing any key boots it up normally except for the other issues once booted fully.

Sorry but is confirmed here https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DellMini9

Booting into Recovery mode

If you have an original Dell Mini 9 with Ubuntu pre-installed, you may have a hard time entering the GRUB menu as the default delay is zero. This is particularly problematic if you're trying to reset your password using the passwd command.

You can enter the recovery mode following these steps:

   1. Boot the mini 9 while pressing ESC every second
   2. When you see the "MBR 2FA:" prompt or similar, the boot process is stopped.
   3. Press ENTER and ESC very fast one after the other.
   4. You should then see the GRUB menu. Using the up and down arrows, highlight the second option and press ENTER to boot into recovery mode.

Please also refer to http://mydellmini.com/forum/ and http://www.ubuntumini.com/

Hope this helps

no matter how many times I reboot the computer, at the MBR2FA prompt, escape enter combination does nothing but boot Ubuntu. Have tried esc-enter quickly,slowly, in reverse, never does it do anything but boot.
This still doesn't explain the other behaviors like the first time booted each day, it lets out a constant tone for 30 seconds at the mbr 2fa prompt like someone was holding down a key too long or somethink like that when only the power key was pressed. Or the curser zooming across tex areas when nothing is pressed or the doublespacing when you type. I was able to get into bios and also to some sort of testing prompt that runs tests on hard drive, memory, software,etc. It found no errors everything passed. Any other ideas on accessing the grub menu at the mbr prompt ?

You can reach end edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst (to set the timeout to a value great than zero) by booting your pc from an external cd or usb key with a bootable Linux in it... Ubuntu or other distribution also mini distribution are fine...

Here an huge list http://www.pendrivelinux.com/

i suggest you to try the http://www.pendrivelinux.com/using-unetbootin-to-create-a-live-usb-linux/

Hope this helps

Then i drop here what you can do

You must simply mount the installed ext3

mkdir p
mount -t auto /dev/... p

Then chroot to that mounted partition
chroot p

then edit with "nano" editor the file /boot/grub/menu.lst changing the "timeout" parameter

then type:

update-grub

and then to reboot type:

reboot

Hope this helps

Thank you very much, i have attached the ext3 mount code to https://geometrydashscratch.io