<p class="subhead">by Roderick W. Smith, <a
href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com</a></p>
- <p>Originally written: 3/14/2012; last Web page update: 4/19/2012, referencing rEFInd 0.2.7</p>
+<p>Originally written: 3/14/2012; last Web page update:
+5/20/2012, referencing rEFInd 0.4.0</p>
<p>I'm a technical writer and consultant specializing in Linux technologies. 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>
<hr />
-<p><b>Note:</b> I consider rEFInd to be <i>alpha-quality software!</i> Although rEFIt 0.14, upon which rEFInd is based, is beta-quality, I've changed a great deal of the code, and I'm still learning about it. I'm discovering bugs (old and new) and fixing them every day or two. That said, rEFInd is a usable program in its current form on many systems. If you have problems, feel free to drop me a line.</p>
+<p><b>Note:</b> I consider rEFInd to be <i>beta-quality software!</i> I'm discovering bugs (old and new) and fixing them every few days. That said, rEFInd is a usable program in its current form on many systems. If you have problems, feel free to drop me a line.</p>
<h2>Getting rEFInd from Sourceforge</h2>
-<p>You can find the rEFInd source code and binary packages at <a href="http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/refind/">its SourceForge page.</a> Note that rEFInd is OS-independent—it runs before the OS, so you download the same binary package for any OS. You can obtain rEFInd in three different forms:</p>
+<p>You can find the rEFInd source code and binary packages at <a href="http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/refind/">its SourceForge page.</a> Note that rEFInd is OS-independent—it runs before the OS, so you download the same binary package for any OS. You can obtain rEFInd in four different forms:</p>
<ul>
-<li><b><a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.2.7/refind-src-0.2.7.zip/download">A
+<li><b><a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.4.0/refind-src-0.4.0.zip/download">A
source code zip file</a></b>—This is useful if you want to
compile the software locally. Note that I use Linux with the <a
href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/gnu-efi">GNU-EFI</a> development
- tools. rEFIt used an Intel/Microsoft toolchain. Backporting rEFInd to
- that toolchain is theoretically possible, but I've not attempted
- it.</li>
-
-<li><b><a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.2.7/refind-bin-0.2.7.zip/download">A
- binary zip file</a></b>—Download this if you want to install rEFInd on
- an <i>x</i>86 or <i>x</i>86-64 computer and have no need to test rEFInd
- first by booting it on an optical disc. This zip file package includes both
- <i>x</i>86 (aka IA32) and <i>x</i>86-64 (aka <i>x</i>64, AMD64, or EM64T)
- versions of rEFInd. Which you install depends on your architecture, as
- described on the <a href="installing.html">Installing rEFInd</a> page.</li>
+ tools to build the main rEFInd binary, and Linux with the <a
+ href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/tianocore/">TianoCore
+ development kit</a> for the drivers. rEFIt used an Intel/Microsoft
+ toolchain. Backporting rEFInd to that toolchain is theoretically
+ possible, but I've not attempted it.</li>
<li><b><a
- href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.2.7/refind-cd-0.2.7.zip/download">A
+ href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.4.0/refind-bin-0.4.0.zip/download">A
+ binary zip file</a></b>—Download this if you want to install
+ rEFInd and/or its filesystem drivers on an <i>x</i>86 or <i>x</i>86-64
+ computer and have no need to test rEFInd first by booting it on an
+ optical disc. This zip file package includes both <i>x</i>86 (aka IA32)
+ and <i>x</i>86-64 (aka <i>x</i>64, AMD64, or EM64T) versions of rEFInd.
+ Which you install depends on your architecture, as described on the <a
+ href="installing.html">Installing rEFInd</a> page.</li>
+
+<li><b><a
+ href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.4.0/refind-cd-0.4.0.zip/download">A
CD-R image file</a></b>—This download contains the same files as
- the zip file, but you can burn it to a CD-R to test rEFInd without
- installing it first. (It boots on UEFI PCs, but fails on some older
- Macs.) If you like it, you can then copy the files from the CD-R to
- your hard disk. The files are named in such a way that the disc should
- boot on either 64-bit (<i>x</i>86-64) or 32-bit (<i>x</i>86) EFI
- computers. Note that there's a bug that causes rEFInd to complain about
- invalid parameters while scanning various directories. You can safely
- ignore this message, but you'll need to press a key to dismiss it. I've
- included an open source EFI shell program on this disc that's not
- included in the binary zip file, so that you can access an EFI shell
- from a bootable disc even if you don't have an EFI shell available from
- your regular hard disk. This can be an extremely valuable diagnostic
- tool if you know about about using an EFI shell.</li>
+ the zip file, but you can burn it to a CD-R to test rEFInd (and its
+ filesystem drivers) without installing it first. (It boots on UEFI PCs,
+ but fails on some older Macs.) If you like it, you can then copy the
+ files from the CD-R to your hard disk. The files are named in such a
+ way that the disc should boot on either 64-bit (<i>x</i>86-64) or
+ 32-bit (<i>x</i>86) EFI computers. I've included an open source EFI
+ shell program on this disc that's not included in the binary zip file,
+ so that you can access an EFI shell from a bootable disc even if you
+ don't have an EFI shell available from your regular hard disk. This can
+ be an extremely valuable diagnostic tool if you know how to use an EFI
+ shell.</li>
+
+<li><b><a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/refind/code">Source code via
+ git</a></b>—If you want to peruse the source code in your Web
+ browser or get the very latest version (including pre-release bug fixes
+ and updates), you can use the Sourceforge git repository. This access
+ method is most useful to programmers, or at least to those who are
+ familiar with programming tools. Note that if you need to ask "what's
+ git?", this is probably not the best way for you to obtain rEFInd.</li>
</ul>