href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com</a></p>
<p>Originally written: 3/19/2012; last Web page update:
-12/30/2012, referencing rEFInd 0.6.2</p>
+1/8/2013, referencing rEFInd 0.6.4</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 />
+<div style="float:right; width:55%">
+
<p>Windows and Mac OS X both provide relatively simple EFI boot loader programs. Launch them, and if they're launched from the correct locations and have the correct files in place, they'll boot their respective OSes. This makes rEFInd's job easy; it just locates the boot loader program files and runs them.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="navbar">
+
+<h4 class="tight">Contents</h4>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li class="tight"><a href="#traditional">Using a Traditional Linux Boot Loader</li>
+
+<li class="tight"><a href="#quickstart">Using the EFI Stub Loader: Three Configuration Options</a>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li class="tight"><a href="#easiest">For Those With Foresight or Luck: The Easiest Method</a></li>
+
+<li class="tight"><a href="#testing">Preparing a Test Configuration</a></li>
+
+<li class="tight"><a href="#reconfigure">If You Need to Reconfigure Your Partitions....</a></li>
+
+</ul></li>
+
+<li class="tight"><a href="#efistub">EFI Stub Loader Support Technical Details</a></li>
+
+</ul>
+
+</div>
+
<p>Under Linux, by contrast, things can get complicated. As detailed on my <a href="http://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/index.html">Managing EFI Boot Loaders for Linux</a> page, several different EFI boot loaders for Linux exist, and all of them require configuration. If you're lucky, your distribution will have set up a Linux boot loader in a sensible way, in which case rEFInd should detect it and it will work as easily as a Windows or Mac OS X boot loader. If you're not lucky, though, you may need to configure it further. rEFInd offers options to help out with this task. Naturally, rEFInd supports <a href="#traditional">traditional Linux boot loaders.</a> It works even better with the Linux EFI stub loader, so I provide <a href="#quickstart">instructions on starting with it.</a> For those interested in manual configuration, I also provide <a href="#efistub">detailed instructions</a> on how the EFI stub support works and how to configure it.</p>
<a name="traditional">
<p>If you prefer, you can disable automatic scanning and create an entry in <tt>refind.conf</tt> for your distribution, as described on the <a href="configfile.html">Configuring the Boot Manager</a> page. This method is harder to set up but can be preferable if you want to customize your options.</p>
<a name="quickstart">
-<h2>Using the EFI Stub Loader: A Quick Setup Guide</h2>
+<h2>Using the EFI Stub Loader: Three Configuration Options</h2>
</a>
<p>The EFI stub loader is basic and reliable, but it requires some setup to use it on some computers. I describe three methods of using it: an <a href="#easiest">easiest method</a> for those with compatible partition and filesystem layouts, a <a href="#testing">quick test configuration</a> for those without such a layout, and <a href="#longterm">a long-term setup</a> for those without the ideal setup.</p>
<p>When you reboot, you should see rEFInd options for your Linux kernels. If they work, your job is done, although you might want to apply some of the tweaks described in the <a href="#longterm">maintenance-free setup</a> section. If you have problems, you may need to adjust the <tt>refind_linux.conf</tt> file, as described in the <a href="#efistub">detailed configuration section.</a></p>
<a name="testing">
-<h3>Testing the EFI Stub Loader</h3>
+<h3>Preparing a Test Configuration</h3>
</a>
<p>If you're not sure you want to use the EFI stub loader in the long term, you can perform a fairly quick initial test of it. This procedure assumes that you have access to a 3.3.0 or later Linux kernel with EFI stub support compiled into it. (Fedora 17, Ubuntu 12.10, and probably other distributions ship with such kernels.) Creating this configuration poses no risk to your current boot options, provided you don't accidentally delete existing files. The procedure for a quick test is:</p>
<p>You can continue to boot your computer with this type of configuration; however, the drawback is that you'll need to copy your kernel whenever it's updated. This can be a hassle. A better way is to configure you system so that the EFI, and therefore rEFInd, can read your Linux <tt>/boot</tt> directory, where most Linux distributions place their kernels.</p>
-<a name="longterm">
-<h3>Configuring a Maintenance-Free Setup</h3>
+<a name="reconfigure">
+<h3>If You Need to Reconfigure Your Partitions....</h3>
</a>
<p>If your <tt>/boot</tt> directory happens to be on an XFS, JFS, or Btrfs partition that the EFI can't read, or it's tucked away in an LVM or RAID configuration that the EFI can't read, you won't be able to use the <a href="#easiest">easiest solution.</a> Fortunately, this problem can be overcome with relatively little fuss. Several variant procedures are possible, but I begin by describing one that will almost always work, although it's got some important caveats (described at the end). You should perform the following steps as <tt>root</tt>, or precede each of these commands with <tt>sudo</tt>:</p>