X-Git-Url: https://code.delx.au/refind/blobdiff_plain/7e41f7799b358fdd955115c904e5862cb1efc44d..12cfc677aad6ab1519212ee74eae05b2d04b8dc6:/docs/refind/getting.html
diff --git a/docs/refind/getting.html b/docs/refind/getting.html
index 2899079..788d087 100644
--- a/docs/refind/getting.html
+++ b/docs/refind/getting.html
@@ -14,7 +14,8 @@
by Roderick W. Smith, rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
- Originally written: 3/14/2012; last Web page update: 4/19/2012, referencing rEFInd 0.2.7
+Originally written: 3/14/2012; last Web page update:
+6/23/2012, referencing rEFInd 0.4.4
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!
@@ -88,46 +89,67 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
-Note: I consider rEFInd to be alpha-quality software! Although rEFIt 0.14, upon which rEFInd is based, is beta-quality, I've changed a great deal of the code, and I'm still learning about it. I'm discovering bugs (old and new) and fixing them every day or two. That said, rEFInd is a usable program in its current form on many systems. If you have problems, feel free to drop me a line.
+Note: I consider rEFInd to be beta-quality software! I'm discovering bugs (old and new) and fixing them every few days. That said, rEFInd is a usable program in its current form on many systems. If you have problems, feel free to drop me a line.
Getting rEFInd from Sourceforge
-You can find the rEFInd source code and binary packages at its SourceForge page. Note that rEFInd is OS-independent—it runs before the OS, so you download the same binary package for any OS. You can obtain rEFInd in three different forms:
+You can find the rEFInd source code and binary packages at its SourceForge page. Note that rEFInd is OS-independent—it runs before the OS, so you download the same binary package for any OS. You can obtain rEFInd in four different forms:
-- A
+
- A
source code zip file—This is useful if you want to
compile the software locally. Note that I use Linux with the GNU-EFI development
- tools. rEFIt used an Intel/Microsoft toolchain. Backporting rEFInd to
- that toolchain is theoretically possible, but I've not attempted
- it.
-
-- A
- binary zip file—Download this if you want to install rEFInd on
- an x86 or x86-64 computer and have no need to test rEFInd
- first by booting it on an optical disc. This zip file package includes both
- x86 (aka IA32) and x86-64 (aka x64, AMD64, or EM64T)
- versions of rEFInd. Which you install depends on your architecture, as
- described on the Installing rEFInd page.
+ tools to build the main rEFInd binary, and Linux with the TianoCore
+ development kit for the drivers. rEFIt used an Intel/Microsoft
+ toolchain. Backporting rEFInd to that toolchain is theoretically
+ possible, but I've not attempted it.
- A
+ href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.4.4/refind-bin-0.4.4.zip/download">A
+ binary zip file (built with GNU-EFI)—Download this if you
+ want to install rEFInd and/or its filesystem drivers on an x86
+ or x86-64 computer and have no need to test rEFInd first by
+ booting it on an optical disc. This zip file package includes both
+ x86 (aka IA32) and x86-64 (aka x64, AMD64, or
+ EM64T) versions of rEFInd. Which you install depends on your
+ architecture, as described on the Installing
+ rEFInd page.
+
+- A
+ binary zip file (built with TianoCore EDK2)—This package
+ is just like the preceding one, except that it was built using the
+ TianoCore EFI Development Kit 2 (EDK2) rather than the GNU-EFI that was
+ used to build the other binary. In theory, the two should work
+ identically. In practice, they might not. I originally used GNU-EFI to
+ develop rEFInd, so it's the safer version; however, I would appreciate
+ feedback about the TianoCore EDK2 build.
+
+- A
CD-R image file—This download contains the same files as
- the zip file, but you can burn it to a CD-R to test rEFInd without
- installing it first. (It boots on UEFI PCs, but fails on some older
- Macs.) If you like it, you can then copy the files from the CD-R to
- your hard disk. The files are named in such a way that the disc should
- boot on either 64-bit (x86-64) or 32-bit (x86) EFI
- computers. Note that there's a bug that causes rEFInd to complain about
- invalid parameters while scanning various directories. You can safely
- ignore this message, but you'll need to press a key to dismiss it. I've
- included an open source EFI shell program on this disc that's not
- included in the binary zip file, so that you can access an EFI shell
- from a bootable disc even if you don't have an EFI shell available from
- your regular hard disk. This can be an extremely valuable diagnostic
- tool if you know about about using an EFI shell.
+ the GNU-EFI zip file, but you can burn it to a CD-R to test rEFInd (and its
+ filesystem drivers) without installing it first. (It boots on UEFI PCs,
+ but fails on some older Macs.) If you like it, you can then copy the
+ files from the CD-R to your hard disk. The files are named in such a
+ way that the disc should boot on either 64-bit (x86-64) or
+ 32-bit (x86) EFI computers. I've included an open source EFI
+ shell program on this disc that's not included in the binary zip file,
+ so that you can access an EFI shell from a bootable disc even if you
+ don't have an EFI shell available from your regular hard disk. This can
+ be an extremely valuable diagnostic tool if you know how to use an EFI
+ shell.
+
+- Source code via
+ git—If you want to peruse the source code in your Web
+ browser or get the very latest version (including pre-release bug fixes
+ and updates), you can use the Sourceforge git repository. This access
+ method is most useful to programmers, or at least to those who are
+ familiar with programming tools. Note that if you need to ask "what's
+ git?", this is probably not the best way for you to obtain rEFInd.
@@ -139,7 +161,7 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
Getting rEFInd from Your OS's Repositories
-If you use Arch Linux, you can obtain rEFInd from its repositories, in both stable and git (experimental) releases. The git release is likely to include pre-release bug fixes and new features, but those features may be poorly tested or undocumented.
+If you use Arch Linux, you can obtain rEFInd from its repositories, in both stable and git (experimental) releases. The git release is likely to include pre-release bug fixes and new features, but those features may be poorly tested or undocumented.
You can also obtain rEFInd from the Nix Packages collection, which creates packages for a number of OSes using its own packaging system.