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<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:
-12/8/2014, referencing rEFInd 0.8.4</p>
+9/19/2015, referencing rEFInd 0.9.2</p>
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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 boot loader on
- the (FAT) ESP. You might use this driver if you want to store large
- boot files, such as EFI-accessible RAM disk images, from Windows.</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>
<p>All of these drivers rely on filesystem wrapper code written by rEFIt's author, Christoph Phisterer.</p>
-<p class="sidebar"><b>Note:</b> rEFInd's <tt>install.sh</tt> script
does not install drivers by default on OS X, but on Linux, it installs the driver required to read the <tt>/boot</tt> directory, if one is available. The script installs all the available drivers if you pass it the <tt>--drivers</tt> option. See the <a href="installing.html">Installing rEFInd</a> page for details.</p>
+<p class="sidebar"><b>Note:</b> rEFInd's <tt>install.sh</tt> script
, when run from Linux, installs the driver required to read the <tt>/boot</tt> directory. Under OS X, the <tt>install.sh</tt> script installs the ext4fs driver if the script detects a Linux partition—but you might need to change this driver if you use another filesystem. The script installs all the available drivers if you pass it the <tt>--alldrivers</tt> option. (I do <i>not</i> recommend using this feature except for creating general-purpose USB flash drives with rEFInd, since having too many drivers can cause various problems.) See the <a href="installing.html">Installing rEFInd</a> page for details.</p>
<p>If you want to use one or more of these drivers, you can install them from the rEFInd binary package from the <tt>refind/drivers_<tt class="variable">arch</tt></tt> directory, where <tt class="variable">arch</tt> is a CPU architecture code—<tt>x64</tt> or <tt>ia32</tt>. The files are named after the filesystems they handle, such as <tt>ext4_x64.efi</tt> for the 64-bit ext4fs driver. You should copy the files for the filesystems you want to use to the <tt>drivers</tt> or <tt>drivers_<tt class="variable">arch</tt></tt> subdirectory of the main rEFInd installation directory. (You may need to create this subdirectory.) Be careful to install drivers only for your own architecture. Attempting to load drivers for the wrong CPU type will cause a small delay at best, or may cause the computer to crash at worst. I've placed rEFInd's drivers in directories that are named to minimize this risk, but you should exercise care when copying driver files.</p>
<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>