Originally written: 3/14/2012; last Web page update: -8/14/2014, referencing rEFInd 0.8.3
+12/8/2014, referencing rEFInd 0.8.4This 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!
@@ -134,7 +134,7 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.comOnce you've obtained a rEFInd binary file, you must install it to your computer's EFI System Partition (ESP) (or conceivably to some other location). The details of how you do this depend on your OS and your computer (UEFI-based PC vs. Macintosh). The upcoming sections provide details. See the Contents sidebar to the left for links to specific installation procedures. For most Linux users, an RPM or Debian package is the best way to go. If your Linux system doesn't support these formats, though, or if you're running OS X, using the install.sh script can be a good way to go. If you're using Windows, you'll have to install manually.
- + @@ -168,8 +168,6 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.comBeginning with version 0.6.2, I've included RPM and Debian package files for rEFInd; and starting with version 0.8.3, I'm maintaining an Ubuntu PPA for rEFInd. If you have a working RPM-based or Debian-based Linux installation that boots in EFI mode, using one of these files is likely to be the easiest way to install rEFInd: You need only download the file and issue an appropriate installation command. In some cases, double-clicking the package in your file manager will install it. If that doesn't work, a command like the following will install the RPM on an RPM-based system:
+I provide RPM and Debian package files for rEFInd; and starting with version 0.8.4, I'm maintaining an Ubuntu PPA for rEFInd. If you have a working RPM-based or Debian-based Linux installation that boots in EFI mode, using one of these files is likely to be the easiest way to install rEFInd: You need only download the file and issue an appropriate installation command. In some cases, double-clicking the package in your file manager will install it. If that doesn't work, a command like the following will install the RPM on an RPM-based system:
-# rpm -Uvh refind-0.8.3-1.x86_64.rpm+
# rpm -Uvh refind-0.8.4-1.x86_64.rpm
On a Debian-based system, the equivalent command is:
-# dpkg -i refind_0.8.3-1_amd64.deb+
# dpkg -i refind_0.8.4-1_amd64.deb-
Either command produces output similar to that described for using the install.sh script, so you can check it for error messages and other signs of trouble. The package file installs rEFInd and registers it with the EFI to be the default boot loader. The script that runs as part of the installation process tries to determine if you're using Secure Boot, and if so it will try to configure rEFInd to launch using shim; however, this won't work correctly on all systems. Ubuntu 12.10 users who are booting with Secure Boot active should be wary, since the resulting installation will probably try to use Ubuntu's version of shim, which won't work correctly with rEFInd.
+Either command produces output similar to that described for using the install.sh script, so you can check it for error messages and other signs of trouble. The package file installs rEFInd and registers it with the EFI to be the default boot loader. The script that runs as part of the installation process tries to determine if you're using Secure Boot, and if so it will try to configure rEFInd to launch using shim; however, this won't work correctly on all systems. Ubuntu 12.10 users who are booting with Secure Boot active should be wary, since the resulting installation will probably try to use Ubuntu's version of shim, which won't work correctly with rEFInd. The shim program provided with more recent versions of Ubuntu should work correctly.
If you're using Ubuntu, you should be able to install the PPA as follows:
$ sudo apt-add-repository ppa:rodsmith/refind $ sudo apt-get update -$ apt-get install refind+$ sudo apt-get install refind
The PPA version will update automatically with your other software, which you might or might not want to have happen. It's also built with GNU-EFI rather than with TianoCore. This last detail should have no practical effects, but it might be important if you've got a buggy EFI or if there's some undiscovered rEFInd bug that interacts with the build environment.
-Since version 0.6.3, the installation script makes an attempt to install rEFInd in a bootable way even if you run the script from a BIOS-mode boot, and therefore the RPM and Debian packages do the same. I cannot guarantee that this will work, though, and even if it does, some of the tricks that install.sh uses might not last for long. You might therefore want to use mvrefind.sh to move your rEFInd installation to another name after you boot Linux for the first time from rEFInd.
+Since version 0.6.3, the installation script makes an attempt to install rEFInd in a bootable way even if you run the script from a BIOS-mode boot, and therefore the RPM and Debian packages do the same. I cannot guarantee that this will work, though, and even if it does, some of the tricks that install.sh uses might not persist for long. You might therefore want to use mvrefind.sh to move your rEFInd installation to another name after you boot Linux for the first time from rEFInd.
Since version 0.6.2-2, my package files have installed the rEFInd binaries to /usr/share/refind-version, the documentation to /usr/share/doc/refind-version, and a few miscellaneous files elsewhere. (The PPA package omits the version number from the file paths.) Upon installation, the package runs the install.sh script to copy the files to the ESP. This enables you to re-install rEFInd after the fact by running install.sh, should some other tool or OS wipe the ESP or should the installation go awry. In such cases you can use install.sh or install manually.
If you're using Linux or Mac OS X, the easiest way to install rEFInd is to use the install.sh script. This script automatically copies rEFInd's files to your ESP or other target location and makes changes to your firmware's NVRAM settings so that rEFInd will start the next time you boot. If you've booted to OS X or in non-Secure-Boot EFI mode to Linux on a UEFI-based PC, install.sh will probably do the right thing, so you can get by with the quick instructions. If your setup is unusual, if your computer uses Secure Boot, or if you want to create a USB flash drive with rEFInd on it, you should read the extra instructions for this utility.
@@ -244,11 +242,11 @@ $ apt-get install refindUnder Linux, the install.sh script installs rEFInd to your disk's ESP. Under Mac OS X, the script installs rEFInd to your current OS X boot partition by default; but you can install to your ESP instead by passing the script the --esp option, or to a non-boot HFS+ partition by using the --ownhfs devicefile option. Under either OS, you can install to something other than the currently-running OS by using the --root /mountpoint option. (See Table 1 for details.)
+By default, the install.sh script installs rEFInd to your disk's ESP. Under Mac OS X, you can instead install rEFInd to your current OS X boot partition by passing the script the --notesp option, or to a non-boot HFS+ partition by using the --ownhfs devicefile option. Under either OS, you can install to something other than the currently-running OS by using the --root /mountpoint option. (See Table 1 for details.)
-Under Linux, install.sh will be most reliable if your ESP is already mounted at /boot or /boot/efi, as described in more detail in the Installing rEFInd Manually Using Linux section. (If you installed Linux in EFI mode, chances are your ESP is properly mounted.) If your ESP is not so mounted, install.sh will attempt to locate and mount an ESP, but this action is not guaranteed to work correctly. If you run install.sh from a BIOS/legacy-mode boot, particularly on a computer that also runs Windows, you should be aware that the tricks the script uses to install itself from BIOS mode are rather delicate. You can convert to a more conventional configuration using the mvrefind.sh script.
+Under Linux, install.sh will be most reliable if your ESP is already mounted at /boot or /boot/efi, as described in more detail in the Installing rEFInd Manually Using Linux section. (If you installed Linux in EFI mode, chances are your ESP is properly mounted.) If your ESP is not so mounted, install.sh will attempt to locate and mount an ESP, but this action is not guaranteed to work correctly. If you run install.sh from a BIOS/legacy-mode boot, particularly on a computer that also runs Windows, you should be aware that the tricks the script uses to install itself from BIOS mode are rather delicate. You can convert to a more conventional configuration using the mvrefind.sh script after you've booted in EFI mode.
-Under OS X, install.sh attempts to install rEFInd to the OS X root partition by default. You can pass the script the --esp or --ownhfs device-file option, as noted in Table 1, to modify the installation location. This is helpful, and even necessary, in some cases, such as when your computer uses whole-disk encryption or if you use suspend-to-disk features.
+Prior to version 0.8.4, install.sh installed rEFInd to the OS X root partition by default. I changed this because the default configuration for OS X 10.10 ("Yosemite") makes this placement unusable. Instead, install.sh now installs to the ESP under OS X, just as it does under Linux; however, the default installation location under OS X is EFI/BOOT/ rather than EFI/refind/. This difference accommodates a quirk of Apple's EFI, which sometimes imposes a 30-second delay when using anything but the EFI/BOOT location. If you're upgrading a working install of rEFInd to the OS X root partition, it's best to pass the --notesp option to install.sh. This option is described in more detail shortly.
A sample run under Linux looks something like this:
@@ -272,7 +270,9 @@ $ ./install.sh Not running as root; attempting to elevate privileges via sudo.... Password: Installing rEFInd on OS X.... -Installing rEFInd to the partition mounted at '/' +Installing rEFInd to the partition mounted at /Volumes/ESP +Found suspected Linux partition(s); installing ext4fs driver. +Installing driver for ext4 (ext4_ia32.efi) Copied rEFInd binary files Copying sample configuration file as refind.conf; edit this file to configure @@ -284,10 +284,14 @@ bless status with 'bless --info', since this is known to cause disk corruption on some systems!! -Installation has completed successfully. +Installation has completed successfully. + +Unmounting install dirIn either case, the details of the output differ depending on your existing configuration and how you ran the program. Unless you see an obvious warning or error, you shouldn't be concerned about minor deviations from these examples. If you run into such a situation, or if you want to install in an unusual way, read on....
+Note that the change to an ESP location for rEFInd with version 0.8.4 means that, if you upgrade rEFInd from an earlier version, you may notice a rEFInd boot option in the rEFInd menu. This option will boot the old version of rEFInd (or the new one, if something went wrong and the old version continues to boot). You can rid yourself of the unwanted boot menu by deleting the old files or by using dont_scan_dirs or dont_scan_files in refind.conf. Before you do this, you should use rEFInd to identify the unwanted files—the filename and volume identifier appear under the icons when you highlight the option. You can then locate and delete them from within OS X. Before you delete the old files, though, you may want to copy over any changes you've made to the rEFInd configuration, icons, and other support files.
+In addition to these quirks, you should be aware of some options that install.sh supports to enable you to customize your installation in various ways. The syntax for install.sh is as follows:
-install.sh [--esp | --usedefault device-file | --root mount-point | \
+install.sh [--notesp | --usedefault device-file | --root mount-point | \
--ownhfs device-file ] \
[--nodrivers | --alldrivers] [--shim shim-filename] [--localkeys] [--yes]
-The details of the options are summarized in Table 1. Broadly speaking, they come in four classes: installation location options (--esp, --usedefault, and --root), driver options (--nodrivers and --alldrivers), Secure Boot options (--shim and --localkeys), and a user input option (--yes). Using some of these options in unusual conditions can generate warnings and prompts to confirm your actions. In particular, using --shim or --localkeys when you're not booted in Secure Boot mode, or failing to use --shim when you are booted in Secure Boot mode, will generate a query and a request to confirm your installation. Consult the Managing Secure Boot page for more on this topic.
+The details of the options are summarized in Table 1. Broadly speaking, they come in four classes: installation location options (--notesp, --usedefault, and --root), driver options (--nodrivers and --alldrivers), Secure Boot options (--shim and --localkeys), and a user input option (--yes). Using some of these options in unusual conditions can generate warnings and prompts to confirm your actions. In particular, using --shim or --localkeys when you're not booted in Secure Boot mode, or failing to use --shim when you are booted in Secure Boot mode, will generate a query and a request to confirm your installation. Consult the Managing Secure Boot page for more on this topic.
| Explanation | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| --esp | -This option tells install.sh to install rEFInd to the ESP of your computer. This option is only useful on OS X; on Linux, installing to the ESP is a practical necessity, so --esp is implicit on Linux. Be aware that some users have reported sluggish boots when installing rEFInd to the ESP on Macs. Installing rEFInd anywhere but the ESP makes little sense on UEFI-based PCs, except for the partial exception of removable boot media, which you can prepare with --usedefault. | +--notesp | +This option, which is valid only under OS X, tells install.sh to install rEFInd to the OS X root partition rather than to the ESP. This behavior was the default in rEFInd 0.8.3 and earlier, so you may want to use it when upgrading installations of that version, unless you used --esp (which is now the default behavior, although the --esp option no longer exists) or --ownhfs. You may also want to use --notesp on new installations if you're sure you're not using whole-disk encryption or logical volumes. |
| --usedefault device-file | -You can install rEFInd to a disk using the default/fallback filename of EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi (and EFI/BOOT/bootia32.efi, if the 32-bit build is available) using this option. The device-file should be an unmounted ESP, or at least a FAT partition, as in --usedefault /dev/sdc1. Your computer's NVRAM entries will not be modified when installing in this way. The intent is that you can create a bootable USB flash drive or install rEFInd on a computer that tends to "forget" its NVRAM settings with this option. This option is mutually exclusive with --esp and --root (except for implicit use of --esp on Linux). | +You can install rEFInd to a disk using the default/fallback filename of EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi (and EFI/BOOT/bootia32.efi, if the 32-bit build is available) using this option. The device-file should be an unmounted ESP, or at least a FAT partition, as in --usedefault /dev/sdc1. Your computer's NVRAM entries will not be modified when installing in this way. The intent is that you can create a bootable USB flash drive or install rEFInd on a computer that tends to "forget" its NVRAM settings with this option. This option is mutually exclusive with --notesp and --root. | |
| --ownhfs device-file | @@ -392,15 +416,15 @@ install.sh [--esp | --usedefault device-file | --root|||
| --root /mount-point | -This option is intended to help install rEFInd from a "live CD" or other emergency system. To use it, you should mount your regular installation at /mount-point, including your /boot directory (if it's separate) at /mount-point/boot and (on Linux) your ESP at that location or at /mount-point/boot/efi. The install.sh script then installs rEFInd to the appropriate location—on Linux, /mount-point/boot/EFI/refind or /mount-point/boot/efi/EFI/refind, depending on where you've mounted your ESP; or on OS X, to /mount-point/EFI/refind. The script also adds an entry to your NVRAM for rEFInd at this location. You cannot use this option with either --esp or --usedefault, except for implicit use of --esp on Linux. Note that this option is not needed when doing a dual-boot Linux/OS X installation; just install normally in OS X. | +This option is intended to help install rEFInd from a "live CD" or other emergency system. To use it, you should mount your regular installation at /mount-point, including your /boot directory (if it's separate) at /mount-point/boot and (on Linux) your ESP at that location or at /mount-point/boot/efi. The install.sh script then installs rEFInd to the appropriate location—on Linux, /mount-point/boot/EFI/refind or /mount-point/boot/efi/EFI/refind, depending on where you've mounted your ESP. Under OS X, this option is only useful in conjunction with --notesp, in which case rEFInd will install to /mount-point/EFI/refind. The script also adds an entry to your NVRAM for rEFInd at this location. You cannot use this option with --usedefault. Note that this option is not needed when doing a dual-boot Linux/OS X installation; just install normally in OS X. | |
| --nodrivers | -Ordinarily install.sh attempts to install the driver required to read /boot on Linux. This attempt works only if you're using ext2fs, ext3fs, ext4fs, or ReiserFS on the relevant partition. If you want to forego this driver installation, pass the --nodrivers option. This option is the default on OS X or when you use --usedefault. | +Ordinarily install.sh attempts to install the driver required to read /boot on Linux. This attempt works only if you're using ext2fs, ext3fs, ext4fs, or ReiserFS on the relevant partition. If you want to forego this driver installation, pass the --nodrivers option. This option is the implicit when you use --usedefault. | |
| --alldrivers | -When you specify this option, install.sh copies all the driver files for your architecture. You may want to remove unused driver files after you use this option, especially if your computer uses Secure Boot. | +When you specify this option, install.sh copies all the driver files for your architecture. You may want to remove unused driver files after you use this option, especially if your computer uses Secure Boot. Note that some computers hang or fail to work with any drivers if you use this option, so use it with caution. | |
| --shim shim-filename or --preloader preloader-filename | @@ -416,7 +440,7 @@ install.sh [--esp | --usedefault device-file | --root
In any event, you should peruse the script's output to ensure that everything looks OK. install.sh displays error messages when it encounters errors, such as if the ESP is mounted read-only or if you run out of disk space. You may need to correct such problems manually and re-run the script. In some cases you may need to fall back on manual installation, which gives you better control over details such as which partition to use for installation.
+After you run install.sh, you should peruse the script's output to ensure that everything looks OK. install.sh displays error messages when it encounters errors, such as if the ESP is mounted read-only or if you run out of disk space. You may need to correct such problems manually and re-run the script. In some cases you may need to fall back on manual installation, which gives you better control over details such as which partition to use for installation.
The result should include either EFI32 or EFI64, indicating that you should use the refind_ia32.efi or refind_x64.efi binary, respectively.
+You should also be aware of your OS X version and installation options. If you used whole-disk encryption (WDE) or a logical volume for installation, you cannot install to the OS X root partition; you must install to the ESP or to a separate HFS+ partition. WDE became an option with OS X 10.7 and logical volumes are the default in OS X 10.10. If in doubt, proceed with an installation to the ESP or to a separate HFS+ partition.
+ -The procedure for installing rEFInd on a Mac is similar to that for installing it under Linux, except that you can (and probably should) install it to OS X's system partition or some other HFS+ partition rather than to the ESP, and you must use the bless utility rather than efibootmgr. To be precise, you should follow these steps:
+The procedure for installing rEFInd on a Mac is similar to that for installing it under Linux, except that you must use the bless utility rather than efibootmgr to register the program with the firmware. Also, you'll probably have to mount your ESP manually, since that's not done by default under OS X. To be precise, you should follow these steps:
When you reboot, your Mac should bring up the rEFInd menu, and should continue to do so thereafter. If you make changes that break this association, you can re-run the bless command (if necessary, restoring the rEFInd files first). This might be necessary after installing system updates from Apple or if you upgrade rEFInd to a newer version.
-If you're replacing rEFIt, you may discover that rEFInd works on the first boot, but the system reverts back to rEFIt or a direct boot to OS X on the second boot. To fix this problem, you can remove the rEFItBlesser program, which is located at /Library/StartupItems/rEFItBlesser. This program attempts to keep rEFIt set as the default boot loader, but it also has the purpose of protecting the computer from launching the wrong OS after waking from sleep. If you want that protection, my suggestion is to install rEFIt and rEFItBlesser and then replace the refit.efi file with refind_x64.efi or refind_ia32.efi (renaming it to refit.efi. Used in this way, rEFInd will still look for its own configuration file, refind.conf, so you'll need to move it but not rename it. If you don't move the icons from the rEFInd package, your icons will continue to look like rEFIt icons, and you'll be missing the new icons for specific Linux distributions that rEFInd provides. One final caveat: It's conceivable that rEFItBlesser is what's causing filesystem corruption for some users, so if you've been having this problem with rEFIt, it might be worth disabling this program and not using it with rEFInd.
+If you're replacing rEFIt, you may discover that rEFInd works on the first boot, but the system reverts back to rEFIt or a direct boot to OS X on the second boot. To fix this problem, you can remove the rEFItBlesser program, which is located at /Library/StartupItems/rEFItBlesser. This program attempts to keep rEFIt set as the default boot loader, but it also has the purpose of protecting the computer from launching the wrong OS after waking from sleep. If you want that protection, my suggestion is to install rEFIt and rEFItBlesser and then replace the refit.efi file with refind_x64.efi or refind_ia32.efi (renaming it to refit.efi). Used in this way, rEFInd will still look for its own configuration file, refind.conf, so you'll need to move it but not rename it. If you don't move the icons from the rEFInd package, your icons will continue to look like rEFIt icons, and you'll be missing the new icons for specific Linux distributions that rEFInd provides. One final caveat: It's conceivable that rEFItBlesser is what's causing filesystem corruption for some users, so if you've been having this problem with rEFIt, it might be worth disabling this program and not using it with rEFInd.
If you want to remove rEFInd from your system, you can delete its files. The Mac will revert to booting using whatever standard boot loader it can find. Alternatively, you can use bless to bless another EFI boot loader. The GUI Startup Disk utility in System Preferences provides a simplified interface that enables you to select which OS X installation to boot, but it doesn't look for non-Apple boot loaders, so you can't use it to enable rEFInd.
@@ -571,7 +596,7 @@ $ ioreg -l -p IODeviceTree | grep firmware-abi -To install rEFInd under Windows, you must first find a way to access the ESP, which Windows normally hides from view. One way to accomplish this goal, and to proceed forward once the ESP is accessible, is as follows:
+Attempt this method of installation only on a UEFI-based PC; this method will not work on Windows that's installed on a Mac in BIOS/CSM/legacy mode. To install rEFInd under Windows, you must first find a way to access the ESP, which Windows normally hides from view. One way to accomplish this goal, and to proceed forward once the ESP is accessible, is as follows:
At this point, when you reboot, rEFInd should appear as your new default boot program. One caveat: My only EFI Windows installation uses UEFI DUET, which "forgets" its boot options upon reboot. Thus, I'm unable to test the last two steps (which were provided by a helpful user) myself. If it doesn't work for you, you have several other options, such as:
+At this point, when you reboot, rEFInd should appear as your new default boot program. If it doesn't work for you, you have several other options, such as:
With any luck, rEFInd will start up at this point. If not, you can check your settings using a shell or an emergency system for your OS of choice. In an EFI shell, you might type bcfg boot dump -b to view your boot loader entries and verify that rEFInd appears at the top of the list. Be sure to check the pathname for typos. If you continue to have problems, you might look into giving rEFInd a fallback filename that your firmware will recognize.
- -If you're using OS X's Whole-Disk Encryption (WDE) feature, you must do two extra things:
- -Some EFI implementations do a poor job of honoring the boot options set via Linux's efibootmgr or other tools. You may also lack access to such utilities, such as if you must install rEFInd in Windows. In such cases, you may need to change the boot loader's name so that the EFI will see it as the default boot loader. rEFInd should then boot when your NVRAM lacks information on specific boot loaders to use. To do this, follow these steps:
+You can move and rename rEFInd manually from any OS by following these steps:
In all cases, if the new version includes new or altered configuration file options, you may need to manually update your configuration file. Alternatively, if you've used the default configuration file, you can replace your working refind.conf with refind.conf-sample from the rEFInd zip file. (When using install.sh, this file will be copied to rEFInd's installation directory under its original name, so you can rename it within that directory to replace the old file.)
@@ -941,6 +961,20 @@ $ ioreg -l -p IODeviceTree | grep firmware-abi detail on the Managing Secure Boot page. +I've seen links to other versions of these tools from time to time on the Web, so if you try one of these programs and it crashes or behaves strangely, try performing a Web search; you may turn up something that works better for you than the one to which I've linked.
@@ -949,31 +983,31 @@ $ ioreg -l -p IODeviceTree | grep firmware-abiI've received a few reports of a sluggish boot process (a delay of about 30 seconds before starting rEFInd) on some Macs after installing rEFInd, as well as some other Mac-specific peculiarities. I've been unable to replicate this problem myself, and its true cause remains mysterious to me. I have found three possible solutions, though: moving rEFInd to an HFS+ volume, using the fallback filename, and clearing NVRAM entries.
+I've received a few reports of a sluggish boot process (a delay of about 30 seconds before starting rEFInd) on some Macs after installing rEFInd, as well as some other Mac-specific peculiarities. I've been unable to replicate thess problems myself, and their true causes remains mysterious to me. I have found several possible solutions, though: using the fallback filename, moving rEFInd to an HFS+ volume, clearing NVRAM entries, and fixing wake problems.
+ + +I've received a few reports that installing rEFInd to the ESP using the fallback filename (EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi on most systems, or EFI/BOOT/bootia32.efi on very old Macs) can work around a sluggish boot problem. In fact, since version 0.8.4, the install.sh script copies the rEFInd binary to this name when run under OS X. If you installed manually to another name, though, renaming (and re-blessing) the installation is worth trying.
Most of the reports of sluggish Macintosh boots I've seen note that the user installed rEFInd to the ESP rather than to the OS X root partition. Some users have reported that re-installing rEFInd to the OS X root partition clears up the problem. This is obviously a straightforward solution to the problem, if it works. Note that rEFInd can launch boot loaders that are stored on any partition that the EFI can read no matter where it's installed; therefore, you'll still be able to launch boot loaders stored on the ESP (or elsewhere) if you install it in this way.
+Most of the reports of sluggish Macintosh boots I've seen note that the user installed rEFInd to the ESP rather than to the OS X root partition. Some users have reported that re-installing rEFInd to the OS X root partition clears up the problem. This is obviously a straightforward solution to the problem, if it works. (This location is not an option when using WDE or OS X logical volumes.) Note that rEFInd can launch boot loaders that are stored on any partition that the EFI can read no matter where it's installed; therefore, you'll still be able to launch boot loaders stored on the ESP (or elsewhere) if you install it in this way.
A variant of this solution is to create a small (~100MiB) HFS+ volume to be used exclusively by rEFInd. You can then install rEFInd to that volume with the --ownhfs option to install.sh, as in ./install.sh --ownhfs /dev/disk0s6 if the volume is /dev/disk0s6. This approach has the advantage that it can be managed via OS X's own Startup Disk tool in System Preferences.
-The biggest drawback to storing rEFInd on an HFS+ volume is that you won't be able to edit the rEFInd configuration file or move rEFInd-related binaries from an EFI shell if you install it in this way, since Apple's HFS+ driver for EFI is read-only. (The same is true of rEFInd's HFS+ driver, so it won't help you overcome this limitation.) You may also be limited in making changes to your rEFInd configuration from Linux or other OSes, too, since Linux's HFS+ drivers disable write support by default on volumes with an active journal. You can force write access by using the force option to mount; however, this procedure is noted as being risky in the Linux HFS+ documentation, so I don't recommend doing this on a regular basis on the OS X boot volume. This isn't as risky if you use a dedicated HFS+ rEFInd partition, though. You could even mount it as the Linux /boot partition, in which case it would also hold the Linux kernel and related files. If you use disk encryption, you can't store rEFInd on the OS X root (/) partition, but you could still use an (unencrypted) separate HFS+ partition.
+The biggest drawback to storing rEFInd on an HFS+ volume is that you won't be able to edit the rEFInd configuration file or move rEFInd-related binaries from an EFI shell if you install it in this way, since Apple's HFS+ driver for EFI is read-only. (The same is true of rEFInd's HFS+ driver, so it won't help you overcome this limitation.) You may also be limited in making changes to your rEFInd configuration from Linux or other OSes, too, since Linux's HFS+ drivers disable write support by default on volumes with an active journal. You can force write access by using the force option to mount; however, this procedure is noted as being risky in the Linux HFS+ documentation, so I don't recommend doing this on a regular basis on the OS X boot volume. This isn't as risky if you use a dedicated HFS+ rEFInd partition, though. You could even mount it as the Linux /boot partition, in which case it would also hold the Linux kernel and related files.
A variant of this solution is suggested in this blog post, which recommends placing rEFInd on an HFS+ volume on the first SATA channel. (In the blogger's case, that channel used to hold an optical drive, but that drive was replaced by a hard disk.)
- -I've received a few reports that installing rEFInd to the ESP using the fallback filename (EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi on most systems, or EFI/BOOT/bootia32.efi on very old Macs) can work around the problem.
-The first is a Web forum post that describes a possible fix. Be aware, though, that this procedure involves using the efibootmgr utility on Macs, which has been known to damage the firmware on some Macs. Other reports indicate that this problem has been fixed with 3.3.0 and later kernels. Thus, I present this information cautiously and with a strong "use at your own risk" warning. If you care to proceed, I recommend you update your Linux kernel to the latest possible version and then proceed as follows:
+Another possible solution is documented in a Web forum post. Be aware, though, that this procedure involves using the efibootmgr utility on Macs, which has been known to damage the firmware on some Macs. Other reports indicate that this problem has been fixed with 3.3.0 and later kernels. Thus, I present this information cautiously and with a strong "use at your own risk" warning. If you care to proceed, I recommend you update your Linux kernel to the latest possible version and then proceed as follows:
Some sources suggest that delayed launches of rEFInd on Macs are more common when installing rEFInd to the ESP, so if you've done this, you could try re-installing it to your OS X boot partition.
-This example assumes that your ESP is mounted at /boot/efi and that rEFInd is installed in EFI/refind on that partition. If you've mounted your ESP elsewhere, or installed rEFInd elsewhere, you should adjust the command appropriately.
-The same procedure works in OS X, with the caveat that the ESP isn't normally mounted in OS X and rEFInd is installed to the OS X boot partition by default. You'll also need to use sudo to acquire root privileges. Thus, you'd probably use a command like the following in OS X:
+The same procedure works in OS X, with the caveat that the ESP isn't normally mounted in OS X. Thus, you must first mount the ESP, as described earlier, in the section on manually installing rEFInd in OS X. (You can forego this step if you installed to the OS X root partition.) You'll also need to use sudo to acquire root privileges. Thus, you'd probably use a command like the following in OS X:
-$ sudo rm -r /EFI/refind +$ sudo rm -r /Volumes/esp/EFI/refind-
Many variants of both of these commands are possible on both OS X and Linux. For instance, you'd probably use sudo on Ubuntu; and if you installed rEFInd to your ESP on a Mac, you'd need to first mount the ESP and include its path in the rm command.
+Many variants of both of these commands are possible on both OS X and Linux. For instance, you'd probably use sudo on Ubuntu. Note that dragging the rEFInd files to the Trash in OS X does not delete them; it just moves them to a different folder. Given the way that Macs reference boot loaders, this means that rEFInd may still launch. If you want to use the Finder to delete rEFInd, be sure to empty the trash after you drag the files there. That should do the job, provided there's no second installation hiding somewhere.
If you installed via an RPM or Debian package in Linux, using your package manager will remove the package files, but not the files that the installer places on your ESP. Thus, you must uninstall those files manually, as just described. To complete the job, you'll also have to remove /boot/refind_linux.conf, and perhaps the /etc/refind.d directory.
@@ -1074,9 +1106,9 @@ Timeout: 10 seconds BootOrder: 0007 Boot0007* CD/DVD Drive - + -This example shows use of efibootmgr's --verbose (-v) option to display boot loaders so as to identify which one is rEFInd, followed by --delete-bootnum (-B) to delete a boot program and --bootnum (-b) to identify which one to delete. Of course, in this example there's not much else left, so you'd presumably want to install another boot loader at this point! If you already have another one installed, you may want to check the BootOrder line to determine which one will take precedence when you reboot. If you don't like what it shows, you can adjust it with the --bootorder (-o) option; consult efibootmgr's man page for details.
+This example shows use of efibootmgr's --verbose (-v) option to display boot programs so as to identify which one is rEFInd, followed by --delete-bootnum (-B) to delete a boot program and --bootnum (-b) to identify which one to delete. Of course, in this example there's not much else left, so you'd presumably want to install another boot program at this point! If you already have another one installed, you may want to check the BootOrder line to determine which one will take precedence when you reboot. If you don't like what it shows, you can adjust it with the --bootorder (-o) option; consult efibootmgr's man page for details.
If you're not using Linux, you may be able to find a utility that serves a similar function. The OS X bless utility (or its GUI equivalent, the Startup Disk item in System Preferences) should do the trick; but Macs pick up standard OS X boot loaders when they boot and find that a configured non-standard boot loader is missing, so this shouldn't be necessary on Macs. Under Windows, the bcdedit command, described in the section on installing rEFInd under Windows, may work, although I've not attempted this.