Originally written: 3/14/2012; last Web page update: -12/15/2013, referencing rEFInd 0.7.6
+3/9/2014, referencing rEFInd 0.7.8 -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!
+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!
| filename | Specifies a custom banner file to replace the rEFInd banner image. The file should be a BMP or PNG image with a color depth of 24, 8, 4, or 1 bits. The file path is relative to the directory where the rEFInd binary is stored. | ||
| banner_scale | +noscale or fillscreen | +Tells rEFInd whether to display banner images pixel-for-pixel (noscale) or to scale banner images to fill the screen (fillscreen). The former is the default. | +|
| big_icon_size | +numeric value (at least 32) | +Sets the size of big icons (those used for OSes on the first row). All icons are square, so only one value is specified. If icon files don't contain images of the specified size, the available images are scaled to this size. The disk-type badge size is set indirectly by this token; badges are 1/4 the size of big icons. The default value is 128. | +|
| small_icon_size | +numeric value (at least 32) | +Sets the size of small icons (those used for tools on the second row). All icons are square, so only one value is specified. If icon files don't contain images of the specified size, the available images are scaled to this size. The default value is 128. | +|
| selection_big | filename | @@ -246,7 +271,7 @@ timeout 20||
| showtools | shell, memtest, gptsync, apple_recovery, mok_tool, about, exit, shutdown, reboot, and firmware | -Specifies which tool tags to display on the second row. shell launches an EFI shell, memtest (or memtest86 launches the Memtest86 program, gptsync launches a tool that creates a hybrid MBR, apple_recovery boots the OS X Recovery HD, mok_tool launches a tool to manage Machine Owner Keys (MOKs) on systems with Secure Boot active, about displays information about the program, exit terminates rEFInd, shutdown shuts down the computer (or reboots it, on some UEFI PCs), reboot reboots the computer, and firmware reboots the computer into the computer's own setup utility. The tags appear in the order in which you specify them. The default is shell, memtest, apple_recovery, mok_tool, about, shutdown, reboot, firmware. Note that the shell, memtest, apple_recovery, and mok_tool options all require the presence of programs not included with rEFInd. The gptsync option requires use of a like-named program which, although it ships with rEFInd 0.6.9 and later, is not installed by default except under OS X. See the "Installing Additional Components" section of the Installing rEFInd page for pointers to the shell, Memtest86, and gptsync programs. The apple_recovery option will appear only if you've got an Apple Recovery HD partition (which has a boot loader called com.apple.recovery.boot/boot.efi). The firmware option works only on computers that support this option; on other computers, the option is quietly ignored. See the Secure Boot page for information on Secure Boot and MOK management. | +Specifies which tool tags to display on the second row. shell launches an EFI shell, memtest (or memtest86 launches the Memtest86 program, gptsync launches a tool that creates a hybrid MBR, apple_recovery boots the OS X Recovery HD, windows_recovery boots a Windows recovery tool, mok_tool launches a tool to manage Machine Owner Keys (MOKs) on systems with Secure Boot active, about displays information about the program, exit terminates rEFInd, shutdown shuts down the computer (or reboots it, on some UEFI PCs), reboot reboots the computer, and firmware reboots the computer into the computer's own setup utility. The tags appear in the order in which you specify them. The default is shell, memtest, apple_recovery, mok_tool, about, shutdown, reboot, firmware. Note that the shell, memtest, apple_recovery, and mok_tool options all require the presence of programs not included with rEFInd. The gptsync option requires use of a like-named program which, although it ships with rEFInd 0.6.9 and later, is not installed by default except under OS X. See the "Installing Additional Components" section of the Installing rEFInd page for pointers to the shell, Memtest86, and gptsync programs. The apple_recovery option will appear only if you've got an Apple Recovery HD partition (which has a boot loader called com.apple.recovery.boot/boot.efi). The firmware option works only on computers that support this option; on other computers, the option is quietly ignored. See the Secure Boot page for information on Secure Boot and MOK management. |
| font | @@ -271,7 +296,7 @@ timeout 20|||
| use_graphics_for | osx, linux, elilo, grub, and windows | -Ordinarily, rEFInd clears the screen and displays basic boot information when launching any OS but Mac OS X. For OS X, the default behavior is to clear the screen to the default background color and display no information. You can specify the simpler Mac-style behavior by specifying the OSes or boot loaders you want to work this way with this option. (OSes that should use text-mode displays should be omitted from this list.) Note that this option doesn't affect what the boot loader does; it may display graphics, text, or nothing at all. Thus, the effect of this option is likely to last for just a fraction of a second. On at least one firmware (used on some Gigabyte boards), setting use_graphics_for linux is required to avoid a system hang when launching Linux via its EFI stub loader. | +Ordinarily, rEFInd clears the screen and displays basic boot information when launching any OS but Mac OS X. For OS X, the default behavior is to clear the screen to the default background color and display no information. You can specify the simpler Mac-style behavior by specifying the OSes or boot loaders you want to work this way with this option. (OSes that should use text-mode displays should be omitted from this list.) Note that this option doesn't affect what the boot loader does; it may display graphics, text, or nothing at all. Thus, the effect of this option is likely to last for just a fraction of a second. On at least one firmware (used on some Gigabyte boards), setting use_graphics_for linux is required to avoid a system hang when launching Linux via its EFI stub loader. To add to the default list, specify + as the first option, as in use_graphics_for + windows. |
| scan_driver_dirs | @@ -291,22 +316,27 @@ timeout 20|||
| also_scan_dirs | directory path(s) | -Adds the specified directory or directories to the directory list that rEFInd scans for EFI boot loaders when scanfor includes the internal, external, or optical options. Directories are specified relative to the filesystem's root directory. You may precede a directory path with a volume name and colon, as in somevol:/extra/path, to restrict the extra scan to a single volume. A volume number, preceded by fs, can be used for volumes that lack names, as in fs1:/extra/path. If you don't specify a volume name or number, this option is applied to all the filesystems that rEFInd scans. If a specified directory doesn't exist, rEFInd ignores it (no error results). The default value is boot, which is useful for locating Linux kernels when you have an EFI driver for your Linux root (/) filesystem. | +Adds the specified directory or directories to the directory list that rEFInd scans for EFI boot loaders when scanfor includes the internal, external, or optical options. Directories are specified relative to the filesystem's root directory. You may precede a directory path with a volume name and colon, as in somevol:/extra/path, to restrict the extra scan to a single volume. A volume number, preceded by fs, can be used for volumes that lack names, as in fs1:/extra/path. If you don't specify a volume name or number, this option is applied to all the filesystems that rEFInd scans. If a specified directory doesn't exist, rEFInd ignores it (no error results). The default value is boot, which is useful for locating Linux kernels when you have an EFI driver for your Linux root (/) filesystem. To add to, rather than replace, the default value, specify + as the first item in the list, as in also_scan_dirs +,loaders. |
| dont_scan_volumes or don't_scan_volumes | filesystem label(s) | -Adds the specified volume or volumes to a volume "blacklist"—these filesystems are not scanned for EFI boot loaders. This may be useful to keep unwanted EFI boot entries, such as for a Macintosh recovery partition, from appearing on the main list of boot loaders. The default value is Recovery HD, to keep the Mac recovery volume from appearing. (It should get its own tools icon instead—see the showtools token.) Note that on a Macintosh with whole-disk encryption, you may need to uncomment this token and leave "Recovery HD" off the list to boot the system. | +Adds the specified volume or volumes to a volume "blacklist"—these filesystems are not scanned for EFI boot loaders. This may be useful to keep unwanted EFI boot entries, such as for a Macintosh recovery partition, from appearing on the main list of boot loaders. The default value is "Recovery HD", LRS_ESP, to keep the Mac OS X and Lenovo Windows recovery volumes from appearing. (These should get their own tools icon instead—see the showtools token.) Note that on a Macintosh with whole-disk encryption, you may need to uncomment this token and leave "Recovery HD" off the list to boot the system. |
| dont_scan_dirs or don't_scan_dirs | directory path(s) | -Adds the specified directory or directories to a directory "blacklist"—these directories are not scanned for boot loaders. You may optionally precede a directory path with a volume name and a colon to limit the blacklist to that volume; otherwise all volumes are affected. For instance, EFI/BOOT prevents scanning the EFI/BOOT directory on all volumes, whereas ESP:EFI/BOOT blocks scans of EFI/BOOT on the volume called ESP but not on other volumes. You can use a filesystem number, as in fs0, in place of a volume name. This token may be useful to keep duplicate boot loaders out of the menu; or to keep drivers or utilities out of the boot menu, if you've stored them in a subdirectory of EFI. This option takes precedence over also_scan_dirs; if a directory appears in both lists, it will not be scanned. | +Adds the specified directory or directories to a directory "blacklist"—these directories are not scanned for boot loaders. You may optionally precede a directory path with a volume name and a colon to limit the blacklist to that volume; otherwise all volumes are affected. For instance, EFI/BOOT prevents scanning the EFI/BOOT directory on all volumes, whereas ESP:EFI/BOOT blocks scans of EFI/BOOT on the volume called ESP but not on other volumes. You can use a filesystem number, as in fs0, in place of a volume name. This token may be useful to keep duplicate boot loaders out of the menu; or to keep drivers or utilities out of the boot menu, if you've stored them in a subdirectory of EFI. This option takes precedence over also_scan_dirs; if a directory appears in both lists, it will not be scanned. To add directories to the default list rather than replace the list, specify + as the first option, as in dont_scan_dirs + EFI/dontscan. |
| dont_scan_files or don't_scan_files | filename(s) | -Adds the specified filename or filenames to a filename "blacklist"—these files are not included as boot loader options even if they're found on the disk. This is useful to exclude support programs (such as shim.efi and MokManager.efi) and drivers from your OS list. The default value is shim.efi, shim-fedora.efi, PreLoader.efi, TextMode.efi, ebounce.efi, GraphicsConsole.efi, MokManager.efi, HashTool.efi, HashTool-signed.efi. | +Adds the specified filename or filenames to a filename "blacklist"—these files are not included as boot loader options even if they're found on the disk. This is useful to exclude support programs (such as shim.efi and MokManager.efi) and drivers from your OS list. The default value is shim.efi, shim-fedora.efi, shimx64.efi, PreLoader.efi, TextMode.efi, ebounce.efi, GraphicsConsole.efi, MokManager.efi, HashTool.efi, HashTool-signed.efi. You can add a pathname and even a volume specification, as in ESP:/EFI/BOOT/backup.efi, /boot/vmlinuz-bad, to block the boot loaders only in those specified locations. To add files to the default list rather than replace the list, specify + as the first option, as in dont_scan_files + badloader.efi. | +
| windows_recovery_files | +filename(s) | +Adds the specified filename or filenames to list that will be recognized as Windows recovery tools and presented as such on the second row, if windows_recovery is among the options to showtools. The filename must include a complete path and may optionally include a filesystem label, as in LRS_EFI:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\LrsBootmgr.efi. Whatever you specify here is added to the dont_scan_files list. The default value is EFI\Microsoft\Boot\LrsBootmgr.efi. If you specify + as the first option, the following options will be added to the default rather than replace it. | |
| scan_all_linux_kernels | @@ -557,7 +587,7 @@ menuentry Gentoo {