<link href="../Styles/styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
</head>
+<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
+
<body>
<h1>The rEFInd Boot Manager:<br />Using EFI Drivers</h1>
href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com</a></p>
<p>Originally written: 4/19/2012; last Web page update:
-2/1/2014, referencing rEFInd 0.8.5</p>
+9/19/2015, referencing rEFInd 0.9.2</p>
<p>This Web page is provided free of charge and with no annoying outside ads; however, I did take time to prepare it, and Web hosting does cost money. If you find this Web page useful, please consider making a small donation to help keep this site up and running. Thanks!</p>
2.0 Btrfs driver. I've tested this driver with a simple one-partition
filesystem and with a filesystem that spans two physical devices
(although I've made no attempt to ensure that the driver can actually
- read files written to both devices). Lamuel Liao has used the driver
+ read files written to both devices). Samuel Liao has used the driver
with a compressed Btrfs volume. The driver will handle subvolumes, but
you may need to add kernel options if you're booting a Linux kernel
directly from a filesystem that uses subvolumes. For instance, on a
mainly because it compiled cleanly with no extra work, aside from
providing a Makefile entry for it.</li>
+<p class="sidebar"><b>Warning:</b> I've received multiple reports of system hangs when using the NTFS driver; however, I've been unable to replicate the problem. (The problem is probably triggered either by interactions with specific EFIs or by unique features of the "problem" NTFS volumes.) I therefore recommend avoiding it unless it's absolutely necessary. I've added a couple of checks to the driver code in rEFInd 0.9.1 that <i>may</i> fix this problem, but these checks may also have no effect.</p>
+
<li><b>NTFS</b>—Samuel Liao contributed this driver, which uses the
- rEFIt/rEFInd driver framework. My own testing of it is limited, but it
- does work for me. Note that this driver is <i><b>not</b></i> required
- to boot Windows with rEFInd, since Windows stores its EFI boot loader
- on the (FAT) ESP, and the BIOS boot process (generally used when
- dual-booting on a Mac) relies only on the partition's boot sector,
- which is read without the benefit of this driver. You might use this
- driver if you want to store large boot files, such as EFI-accessible
- RAM disk images, from Windows. Also, if you have NTFS data partitions
- on a Mac, loading this driver should exclude them from the boot menu;
- and you should see NTFS volume names in the boot menu on a Mac if you
- load this driver.</li>
+ rEFIt/rEFInd driver framework. Note that this driver is
+ <i><b>not</b></i> required to boot Windows with rEFInd, since Windows
+ stores its EFI boot loader on the (FAT) ESP, and the BIOS boot process
+ (generally used when dual-booting on a Mac) relies only on the
+ partition's boot sector, which is read without the benefit of this
+ driver. Reasons to use this driver include:
+ <ul>
+ <li>If you want to store large boot files to be read from EFI, such as
+ RAM disk images, from Windows.</li>
+ <li>If you have a Mac and NTFS data partitions, loading this driver
+ should exclude those data partitions from the boot menu.</li>
+ <li>If you have a Mac that dual-boots with Windows, using this driver
+ should provide NTFS volume names in the boot menu.</li>
+ </ul>
+ </li>
</ul>
<hr />
-<p>copyright © 2012–2014 by Roderick W. Smith</p>
+<p>copyright © 2012–2015 by Roderick W. Smith</p>
<p>This document is licensed under the terms of the <a href="FDL-1.3.txt">GNU Free Documentation License (FDL), version 1.3.</a></p>