<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: 4/9/2012, referencing rEFInd 0.2.5</p>
+ <p>Originally written: 3/14/2012; last Web page update: 4/14/2012, referencing rEFInd 0.2.6</p>
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<td>name for the entry</td>
<td>Sets the name that's displayed along with the icon for this entry. If the name should contain a space, it <i>must</i> be enclosed in quotes. Following the name, an open curly brace (<tt>{</tt>) ends the <tt>menuentry</tt> line.</td>
</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td><tt>volume</tt></td>
+ <td>filesystem label</td>
+ <td>Sets the volume that's used for subsequent file accesses (by <tt>icon</tt> and <tt>loader</tt>, and by implication by <tt>initrd</tt> if <tt>loader</tt> follows <tt>volume</tt>). You pass this token a filesystem's name/label, which is typically displayed under the volume's icon in file managers and that rEFInd displays on its menu at the end of the boot prompt string. If this label isn't unique, the first volume with the specified label is used. The matching is nominally case-insensitive, but on some EFIs it's case-sensitive.</td>
+</tr>
<tr>
<td><tt>loader</tt></td>
<td>filename</td>
}
menuentry Gentoo {
- loader \EFI\linux\bzImage-3.3.0-rc7
- initrd \EFI\linux\initrd-3.3.0-rc7.img
- options "root=/dev/sda3 ro"
icon \EFI\refind\icons\os_gentoo.icns
+ volume G_KERNELS
+ loader \kernels\bzImage-3.3.0-rc7
+ initrd \kernels\initrd-3.3.0-rc7.img
+ options "root=/dev/sda3 ro"
}
</pre>
<p>This example sets up two entries: one for Ubuntu Linux and one for Gentoo Linux. Note that the two entries use different directory separators, simply to demonstrate the fact that it's possible. The Ubuntu entry sets no icon, since rEFInd will note that the boot loader is stored in the <tt>ubuntu</tt> directory, and it will automatically find the appropriate Ubuntu icon (<tt>os_ubuntu.icns</tt>). This option is, however, disabled, so no matching icon will appear when you reboot unless you first comment out or delete the <tt>disabled</tt> line.</p>
-<p>The Gentoo entry passes the filename for an initial RAM disk using the <tt>initrd</tt> line and free-form options using the <tt>option</tt> line. It also sets an icon name, since the path to the kernel doesn't include the distribution's name. Note that the kernel filename does <i>not</i> include a <tt>.efi</tt> extension, which keeps rEFInd from picking up the kernel file in its auto-scans.</p>
+<p class="sidebar"><b>Tip:</b> Under Linux, you can learn a filesystem's label by using <tt>blkid</tt>, as in <tt class="userinput">blkid /dev/sda1</tt>. The filesystem's label, if set, is identified by the keyword <tt>LABEL</tt> in the output.</p>
-<p>You can combine these OS stanzas with the global <tt>refind.conf</tt> options presented earlier. The result would contain just one entry on the rEFInd boot menu, unless rEFInd found other boot options on an external or optical disk.</p>
+<p>The Gentoo entry begins with an icon specification to be sure that the icon is loaded from the same volume as rEFInd. (If the icon were stored on the same filesystem as the kernel, you'd place the <tt>icon</tt> line after the <tt>volume</tt> line.) This entry uses the <tt>volume</tt> token to tell rEFInd to load the kernel and initial RAM disk file from the filesystem called <tt>G_KERNELS</tt>. It passes the filename for an initial RAM disk using the <tt>initrd</tt> line and free-form options using the <tt>options</tt> line. Note that the kernel filename does <i>not</i> include a <tt>.efi</tt> extension, which keeps rEFInd from picking up the kernel file in its auto-scans.</p>
-<p>Presently, an important limitation of rEFInd is that the manual boot loader definitions can only read files on the partition from which rEFInd launched. rEFInd can, however, auto-detect boot loaders on other disks or partitions via the <tt>internal</tt>, <tt>external</tt>, and similar options.</p>
+<p>You can combine these OS stanzas with the global <tt>refind.conf</tt> options presented earlier. The result would contain just one entry on the rEFInd boot menu, unless rEFInd found other boot options on an external or optical disk.</p>
<h2>Creating Submenu Entries</h2>