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<h1>The rEFInd Boot Manager:<br />Methods of Booting Linux</h1>
href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com</a></p>
<p>Originally written: 3/19/2012; 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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href="#efistub">later.</a> Starting with version 0.6.12, rEFInd can
create minimal boot options from <tt>/etc/fstab</tt>, if <tt>/boot</tt>
is <i>not</i> a separate partition, so a <tt>refind_linux.conf</tt>
- file may not be strictly necessary. It remains desirable, though, and
- is necessary if <tt>/boot</tt> is on a separate partition or if you
- need unusual kernel options to boot your computer.</li>
+ file may not be strictly necessary. Version 0.9.0 also adds the ability
+ to identify the root (<tt>/</tt>) partition via the <a
+ href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/DiscoverablePartitionsSpec/">Discoverable
+ Partitions Spec,</a> if your disk uses the appropriate type codes. A
+ <tt>refind_linux.conf</tt> file remains desirable, though, and is
+ necessary in some situations.</li>
</ul>
<p>rEFInd sorts boot loader entries <i>within each directory</i> by time stamp, so that the most recent entry comes first. Thus, if you specify a directory name (or a volume label, for loaders stored in a volume's root directory) as the <tt>default_selection</tt>, rEFInd will make the most recent loader in the directory the default. This can obviate the need to adjust this configuration parameter when you add a new kernel; chances are you want the most recently-added kernel to be the default, and rEFInd makes it so when you set the <tt>default_selection</tt> in this way. If you <i>don't</i> want the latest kernel to become the default, you can use <tt>touch</tt> to give the desired kernel (or other boot loader) in the directory a more recent time stamp, or you can set <tt>default_selection</tt> to a value that uniquely identifies your desired default loader. One caveat you should keep in mind is that the EFI and Windows interpret the hardware clock as local time, whereas Mac OS X uses <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated_Universal_Time">Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)</a>. Linux can work either way. Thus, time stamps for boot loaders can be skewed by several hours depending on the environment in which they were created or last modified.</p>
+<p>Prior to rEFInd 0.9.0, each Linux kernel appeared as a separate entry in the main rEFInd menu. This could make for a very crowded menu if you kept many old kernels and/or if you have several Linux distributions installed. rEFInd 0.9.0 adds a "folding" feature, in which multiple kernel entries in a single directory appear as a single entry in the main menu. Selecting that entry launches the kernel with the most recent time stamp. To launch an older kernel, you must press F2 or Insert; older kernels appear in the submenu shown earlier, but with the kernel filename prepended to the description. If you want to launch an older kernel by default, you can <tt>touch</tt> it in Linux, as in <tt>touch /boot/vmlinuz-3.6.0</tt> to make <tt>/boot/vmlinuz-3.6.0</tt> the default. (You must type this command as <tt>root</tt> or using <tt>sudo</tt>.) If you want to see all your kernels separated on the main menu, as in earlier versions of rEFInd, you should edit <tt>refind.conf</tt>: Uncomment the <tt>fold_linux_kernels</tt> option and set it to <tt>false</tt>, <tt>off</tt>, or <tt>0</tt>.</p>
+
<p class="sidebar"><b>Tip for distribution maintainers:</b> If you maintain an <tt>EFI/<tt class="variable">distname</tt></tt> directory for your kernels, you can place your version of rEFInd in a directory called <tt>EFI/<tt class="variable">distname</tt>/refind</tt>. This will avoid collisions with duplicate rEFInd installations from other distributions.</p>
-<p>On the whole, this method of configuration has a lot going for it. For distribution maintainers, if you place your Linux kernel files (with EFI stub support) on the ESP, with suitable filenames, matching initial RAM disk files, and a <tt>refind_linux.conf</tt> file, then any rEFInd 0.2.3 or later installation should detect your files, even if the user installs another distribution with another rEFInd that takes over from yours. (If the user, or this other rEFInd installation, disables auto-detection, this won't work.)</p>
+<p>On the whole, auto-detecting kernels and passing boot options using <tt>refind_linux.conf</tt> has a lot going for it. For distribution maintainers, if you place your Linux kernel files (with EFI stub support) on the ESP, with suitable filenames, matching initial RAM disk files, and a <tt>refind_linux.conf</tt> file, then any rEFInd 0.2.3 or later installation should detect your files, even if the user installs another distribution with another rEFInd that takes over from yours. (If the user, or this other rEFInd installation, disables auto-detection, this won't work.)</p>
<p>For end users, this method is simpler than maintaining manual configurations in <tt>refind.conf</tt> (or equivalents for ELILO or GRUB). To install a new kernel, you need only copy it and its initial RAM disk, under suitable names, to a scanned directory on the ESP. There's no need to touch any configuration file, provided you've already set up <tt>refind_linux.conf</tt> in your kernel's directory. You will, however, have to adjust <tt>refind_linux.conf</tt> if you make certain changes, such as if your root directory identifier changes.</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>