Originally written: 3/14/2012; last Web page update:
-7/28/2014, referencing rEFInd 0.8.3
+7/21/2015, referencing rEFInd 0.9.0
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As a special case, rEFInd assigns icons to the Windows and OS X boot loaders based on their conventional locations, so they get suitable icons even if they don't follow these rules.
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In addition to the main OS tag icon, you can set the badge icon for a volume by creating a file called .VolumeBadge.icns or .VolumeBadge.png in the root directory of a partition. If present, it replaces the disk-type icons that are overlaid on the main OS icon. If you use this feature, the badge is applied to all the boot loaders read from the disk, not just those stored in the root directory or the Apple boot loader location. You could use this feature to set a custom badge for different specific disks or to help differentiate multiple OS X installations on one computer. If you don't want any badges, you can replace the three badge icons in the rEFInd icons subdirectory (vol_external.icns, vol_internal.icns, and vol_optical.icns) with a completely transparent badge. The transparent.icns file in the rEFInd icons directory may be used for this purpose.
+
In addition to the main OS tag icon, you can set the badge icon for a volume by creating a file called .VolumeBadge.icns or .VolumeBadge.png in the root directory of a partition. If present, it replaces the disk-type icons that are overlaid on the main OS icon. If you use this feature, the badge is applied to all the boot loaders read from the disk, not just those stored in the root directory or the Apple boot loader location. You could use this feature to set a custom badge for different specific disks or to help differentiate multiple OS X installations on one computer. If you don't want any badges, you can add the badges option to hideui in refind.conf. Alternatively, or to hide just certain types of badges, you can replace the four badge icons in the rEFInd icons subdirectory (vol_external.png, vol_internal.png, vol_optical.png, and vol_net.png) with a completely transparent badge. The transparent.png file in the rEFInd icons directory may be used for this purpose.
The default icon sizes are 128x128 pixels for OS icons, 48x48 pixels for the second-row tools, and 32x32 pixels for badges. You can change the sizes of the big OS icons and the small tool icons with the big_icon_size and small_icon_size tokens in refind.conf, as noted in Table 1. The size of the disk-type badges is 1/4 the size of OS icons.
@@ -234,13 +236,13 @@ timeout 20
hideui
-
banner, label, singleuser, safemode, hwtest, arrows, hints, editor, or all
-
Removes the specified user interface features. banner removes the banner graphic or background image, label removes the text description of each tag and the countdown timer, singleuser removes the single-user option from the OS X sub-menu, safemode removes the option to boot to safe mode from the OS X sub-menu, hwtest removes the Macintosh hardware test option, arrows removes the arrows to the right or left of the OS tags when rEFInd finds too many OSes to display simultaneously, hints removes the brief description of what basic keypresses do, editor disables the options editor, and all removes all of these options. You can specify multiple parameters with this option. The default is to set none of these values.
+
banner, label, singleuser, safemode, hwtest, arrows, hints, editor, badges, or all
+
Removes the specified user interface features. banner removes the banner graphic or background image, label removes the text description of each tag and the countdown timer, singleuser removes the single-user option from the OS X sub-menu, safemode removes the option to boot to safe mode from the OS X sub-menu, hwtest removes the Macintosh hardware test option, arrows removes the arrows to the right or left of the OS tags when rEFInd finds too many OSes to display simultaneously, hints removes the brief description of what basic keypresses do, editor disables the options editor, badges removes the device-type badges from the OS tags, and all removes all of these features. You can specify multiple parameters with this option. The default is to set none of these values.
icons_dir
directory name
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Specifies a directory in which custom icons may be found. This directory should contain files with the same names as the files in the standard icons directory. The directory name is specified relative to the directory in which the rEFInd binary resides. The standard icons directory is searched if an icon can't be found in the one specified by icons_dir, so you can use this location to redefine just some icons.
+
Specifies a directory in which custom icons may be found. This directory should contain files with the same names as the files in the standard icons directory. The directory name is specified relative to the directory in which the rEFInd binary resides. The standard icons directory is searched if an icon can't be found in the one specified by icons_dir, so you can use this location to redefine just some icons. Note that if no icons directory is found (either icons or one specified by icons_dir), rEFInd switches to text-only mode, as if textonly had been specified.
Specifies which tool tags to display on the second row. shell launches an EFI shell, memtest (or memtest86) launches the Memtest86 program, gdisk launches the partitioning tool of the same name, 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, gdisk, 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, gdisk launches the partitioning tool of the same name, 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, netboot launches the network boot tool (iPXE), about displays information about rEFInd, 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, gdisk, 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
@@ -285,7 +287,7 @@ timeout 20
textonly
none or one of true, on, 1, false, off, or 0
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rEFInd defaults to a graphical mode; however, if you prefer to do without the flashy graphics, you can run it in text mode by including this option (alone or with true, on, or 1). Passing false, off, or 0 causes graphics mode to be used. (This could be useful if you want to override a text-mode setting in an included secondary configuration file.)
+
rEFInd defaults to a graphical mode; however, if you prefer to do without the flashy graphics, you can run it in text mode by including this option (alone or with true, on, or 1). Passing false, off, or 0 causes graphics mode to be used. (This could be useful if you want to override a text-mode setting in an included secondary configuration file.) Text-only mode is implicitly set if rEFInd cannot find either a subdirectory called icons or a subdirectory named by icons_dir.
textmode
@@ -309,8 +311,8 @@ timeout 20
scanfor
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internal, external, optical, hdbios, biosexternal, cd, and manual
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Tells rEFInd what methods to use to locate boot loaders. The internal, external, and optical parameters tell rEFInd to scan for EFI boot loaders on internal, external, and optical (CD, DVD, and Blu-ray) devices, respectively. The hdbios, biosexternal, and cd parameters are similar, but scan for BIOS boot loaders. (Note that the BIOS options scan more thoroughly and actively on Macs than on UEFI-based PCs; for the latter, only options in the firmware's boot list are scanned, as described on the Using rEFInd page.) The manual parameter tells rEFInd to scan the configuration file for manual settings. You can specify multiple parameters to have the program scan for multiple boot loader types. When you do so, the order determines the order in which the boot loaders appear in the menu. The default is internal, external, optical, manual on most systems, but internal, hdbios, external, biosexternal, optical, cd, manual on Macs.
+
internal, external, optical, netboot, hdbios, biosexternal, cd, and manual
+
Tells rEFInd what methods to use to locate boot loaders. The internal, external, and optical parameters tell rEFInd to scan for EFI boot loaders on internal, external, and optical (CD, DVD, and Blu-ray) devices, respectively. The netboot option relies on the presence of the ipxe.efi and ipxe_discover.efi program files in the EFI/tools directory to assist with network (Preboot Execution Environment, or PXE) booting. Note that netboot is experimental. See the BUILDING.txt file for information on building the necessary binaries. The hdbios, biosexternal, and cd parameters are similar, but scan for BIOS boot loaders. (Note that the BIOS options scan more thoroughly and actively on Macs than on UEFI-based PCs; for the latter, only options in the firmware's boot list are scanned, as described on the Using rEFInd page.) The manual parameter tells rEFInd to scan the configuration file for manual settings. You can specify multiple parameters to have the program scan for multiple boot loader types. When you do so, the order determines the order in which the boot loaders appear in the menu. The default is internal, external, optical, manual on most systems, but internal, hdbios, external, biosexternal, optical, cd, manual on Macs.
uefi_deep_legacy_scan
@@ -325,7 +327,7 @@ timeout 20
also_scan_dirs
directory path(s)
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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.
+
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. (This usage is deprecated.) 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
@@ -335,7 +337,7 @@ timeout 20
dont_scan_dirs or don't_scan_dirs
directory path(s)
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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. The default for this token is EFI/tools, EFI/tools/memtest86, EFI/tools/memtest, EFI/memtest86, EFI/memtest, com.apple.recovery.boot.
+
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. (The use of filesystem numbers is deprecated.) 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. The default for this token is EFI/tools, EFI/tools/memtest86, EFI/tools/memtest, EFI/memtest86, EFI/memtest, com.apple.recovery.boot.
dont_scan_files or don't_scan_files
@@ -350,7 +352,12 @@ timeout 20
scan_all_linux_kernels
none or one of true, on, 1, false, off, or 0
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When uncommented or set to true, on, or 1, causes rEFInd to add Linux kernels (files with names that begin with vmlinuz or bzImage) to the list of EFI boot loaders, even if they lack .efi filename extensions. This simplifies use of rEFInd on most Linux distributions, which usually provide kernels with EFI stub loader support but don't give those kernels names that end in .efi. Of course, the kernels must still be stored on a filesystem that rEFInd can read, and in a directory that it scans. (Drivers and the also_scan_dirs options can help with those issues.) As of version 0.5.0, this option is enabled in the default configuration file. The program default remains to not scan for such kernels, though, so you can delete or uncomment this option to keep them from appearing in your boot menu. Passing false, off, or 0 causes these kernels to not be scanned. (This could be useful if you want to override a setting of scan_all_linux_kernels in an included secondary configuration file.)
+
When uncommented or set to true, on, or 1, causes rEFInd to add Linux kernels (files with names that begin with vmlinuz or bzImage) to the list of EFI boot loaders, even if they lack .efi filename extensions. This simplifies use of rEFInd on most Linux distributions, which usually provide kernels with EFI stub loader support but don't give those kernels names that end in .efi. Of course, the kernels must still be stored on a filesystem that rEFInd can read, and in a directory that it scans. (Drivers and the also_scan_dirs options can help with those issues.) As of version 0.8.3, this option is enabled by default; to disable this feature, you must uncomment this token and set it to false or one of its synonyms (off or 0).
+
+
+
fold_linux_kernels
+
none or one of true, on, 1, false, off, or 0
+
When uncommented or set to true, on, or 1, causes rEFInd to "fold" all Linux kernels in a given directory into a single main-menu icon. Selecting that icon launches the most recent kernel. To launch an older kernel, you must press F2 or Insert; older kernels appear on the resulting submenu display. If you prefer to see all your kernels in the main menu, set this option to false, off, or 0. Note that this option is new with version 0.9.0, which changes the default behavior; earlier versions of rEFInd behaved as if fold_linux_kernels false was set.
max_tags
@@ -385,13 +392,17 @@ default_selection elilo
This example sets a timeout of 5 seconds; loads a custom graphic file called custom.bmp from the directory in which the rEFInd binary resides; scans the drivers and EFI/tools/drivers directories for EFI drivers; uses manual boot loader configuration but also scans for external EFI boot loaders and EFI boot loaders on optical discs; and sets the default boot loader to the first loader found that includes the string elilo. Of course, since this file specifies use of manual boot loader configuration, it's not complete; you'll need to add at least one OS stanza to be able to boot from anything but an external disk or optical drive, as described shortly.
OS stanzas in rEFInd are similar to those in GRUB Legacy, GRUB 2, or ELILO. You can use them to add EFI boot loaders to those that are auto-detected. rEFInd does not yet support manual boot stanzas for BIOS-mode boot loaders. You also cannot modify the auto-detected options; if you just want to tweak one OS's configuration, you have several options, none of which is ideal:
+
Note: Don't create manual boot stanzas unless you need to do so! Many people try to create them when rEFInd's auto-detection mechanisms will do the job just as well and with less hassle and chance of error. (Note that you can pass kernel options to a Linux kernel in the /boot/refind_linux.conf file; see the Methods of Booting Linux page for details.) Efforts to create manual boot stanzas when auto-detection can do the job just create pointless work for yourself!
+
+
Manual boot stanzas in rEFInd are similar to those in GRUB Legacy, GRUB 2, or ELILO. You can use them to add EFI boot loaders to those that are auto-detected. rEFInd does not yet support manual boot stanzas for BIOS-mode boot loaders. You also cannot modify the auto-detected options; if you just want to tweak one OS's configuration, you have several options:
+
You can use the dont_scan_volumes, dont_scan_dirs, or dont_scan_files options in refind.conf to hide the tag you want to modify, then create a manual boot stanza to replace it.
+
You can move or rename the boot loader file for the boot loader you want to tweak.
You can disable all auto-detection options and add manual configurations for all your boot loaders, even those that work fine when auto-detected.
@@ -572,10 +583,10 @@ menuentry Gentoo {
}
-
The main menu item for this entry won't look different with the submenus defined than without them; but if you press the Insert key, you'll see the submenu items:
+
The main menu item for this entry won't look different with the submenus defined than without them; but if you press the F2 or Insert key, you'll see the submenu items:
-
The main menu item appears at the top of the list—Run bzImage-3.3.0-rc7 in this example. The three submenus defined in this example's configuration file appear next, enabling you to launch in single-user mode, run the 3.3.0 release kernel, or boot via ELILO, respectively. Submenus also include an item called Return to Main Menu that does just as it says. (Alternatively, you can return to the main menu by pressing the Esc key.)
