From: srs5694 Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2013 19:45:32 +0000 (-0500) Subject: Version 0.6.3 release. X-Git-Url: https://code.delx.au/refind/commitdiff_plain/2f941c1b8c2d841cc62de2ef00108278cee7f280 Version 0.6.3 release. --- diff --git a/NEWS.txt b/NEWS.txt index 139dd2b..9102215 100644 --- a/NEWS.txt +++ b/NEWS.txt @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -0.6.3 (?/?/2013): +0.6.3 (1/6/2013): ----------------- - Added the ability to specify a volume name or number in the @@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ burned to USB flash disks. - New mvrefind.sh script to move a rEFInd installation between a standard - location (typically EFI/refind) or one of the fallback locations + location (typically EFI/refind) and one of the fallback locations (EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot). It can also do more exotic locations. - The install.sh script now installs to EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi or diff --git a/README.txt b/README.txt index bd9e16d..e79447c 100644 --- a/README.txt +++ b/README.txt @@ -12,8 +12,12 @@ following files and subdirectories: refind/icons/ Subdirectory containing icons refind/drivers_ia32/ Subdirectory containing IA32 drivers refind/drivers_x64/ Subdirectory containing x86-64 drivers + keys/ Subdirectory containing MOKs install.sh Linux/MacOS installation script + mkrlconf.sh A script to create refind_linux.conf + mvrefind.sh A script to move a rEFInd installation README.txt This file + NEWS.txt A summary of program changes LICENSE.txt The original rEFIt license COPYING.txt The rEFInd license CREDITS.txt Acknowledgments of code sources @@ -23,7 +27,9 @@ The easiest way of installing rEFInd is generally to use the install.sh script; however, you must be running under Linux or OS X to do this. If you're using either of those OSes, simply typing "./install.sh" will generally install rEFInd. If you have problems with this method, though, -you'll have to do a manual installation. +you'll have to do a manual installation. The install.sh script supports a +number of options that you might want to use; consult the +docs/refind/installing.html file for details. To install the binary package manually, you must first access your EFI System Partition (ESP). You can then place the files from the refind diff --git a/docs/refind/bootmode.html b/docs/refind/bootmode.html index b0672df..531e5bf 100644 --- a/docs/refind/bootmode.html +++ b/docs/refind/bootmode.html @@ -14,8 +14,8 @@

by Roderick W. Smith, rodsmith@rodsbooks.com

-

Originally written: 3/14/2012; last Web page update: -12/30/2012, referencing rEFInd 0.6.2

+

Originally written: 3/14/2013; last Web page update: +1/6/2012, referencing rEFInd 0.6.3

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!

@@ -90,11 +90,33 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com

+
+

Before you invest time in downloading and trying to install rEFInd, you may want to verify that you can actually use the program at all. rEFInd is useful only on EFI-based computers, not older BIOS-based computers. In fact, most EFI-based x86-64 computers provide a Compatibility Support Module (CSM), which is essentially a BIOS emulation mode. Some EFI implementations are in fact built atop a conventional BIOS, and retain BIOS's boot abilities via this underlying code. Thus, it's possible that you're currently booting a modern EFI-capable computer in BIOS mode.

+
+ +
+ +

Contents

+ + + +
+

Unfortunately, determining which mode you're using can be tricky; the clues are subtle or hidden in ways that require specialized knowledge to extract. This page will help you figure it out. I first present general information on identifying your hardware's capabilities. I then describe ways to identify your current boot mode in both Linux and Windows.

+

Identifying Your Hardware's Capabilities

+

Let's get the easy case out of the way: If you have a Macintosh with an Intel CPU, it's got EFI capabilities, and you'll be able to use rEFInd. Earlier Macs with PowerPC CPUs use OpenFirmware, and rEFInd can't be used with them.

@@ -114,7 +136,9 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com

Positive identification of EFI support in your firmware does not guarantee that your current OSes are booting in EFI mode. (Mac OS X booting on a Mac is an exception to this rule, though.) For that, you'll need to run some tests in your running OSes.

+

Identifying Your Linux Boot Mode

+

Identifying your boot mode in Linux is relatively straightforward. The simplest way is to check for the presence of a /sys/firmware/efi directory. The mere existence of this directory indicates that the computer has booted in EFI mode. Its absence suggests a BIOS-mode boot—but see below for an important caveat.

@@ -149,7 +173,9 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com

One caveat exists to these tests: It's possible to boot Linux in EFI mode but disable the EFI features that create the /sys/firmware/efi directory and the copious EFI output in dmesg. This can happen because your kernel was compiled without EFI support or because you've added the noefi line to your existing BIOS boot loader configuration. To the best of my knowledge, no major Linux distribution ships with EFI support disabled in either of these ways, so chances are your tests won't mislead you to thinking you're using BIOS mode unless you've recompiled your kernel or deliberately added a noefi parameter to your boot loader configuration.

+

Identifying Your Windows Boot Mode

+

The easiest way to determine your boot mode in Windows is probably to use the bcdedit program to examine your boot loader configuration. To do so, launch an administrative Command Prompt (by right-clicking a Command Prompt icon and selecting Run As Administrator from the context menu) and then type bcdedit in the window. The result will include two blocks of information, on the boot manager and the boot loader. The latter is more diagnostic. On an EFI-booted system, it will resemble the following:

@@ -194,7 +220,7 @@ resumeobject {3aa4c728-9935-11e0-9f12-806e6f6e6963}
-

copyright © 2012 by Roderick W. Smith

+

copyright © 2012–2013 by Roderick W. Smith

This document is licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (FDL), version 1.3.

diff --git a/docs/refind/configfile.html b/docs/refind/configfile.html index 3ca8977..eb85930 100644 --- a/docs/refind/configfile.html +++ b/docs/refind/configfile.html @@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com

Originally written: 3/14/2012; last Web page update: -12/30/2012, referencing rEFInd 0.6.2

+1/6/2013, referencing rEFInd 0.6.3

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!

@@ -90,11 +90,35 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com

+
+

Many casual users will be able to use rEFInd without making changes to its settings; in its default configuration, the boot manager automatically detects all the EFI boot loader programs you have on your ESP (or your OS X boot partition, in the case of Macs) and displays icons for them. On Macs, rEFInd also presents legacy BIOS boot options by default. Sometimes, though, you may want to tweak rEFInd's configuration. Sometimes you can obtain your desired results by adjusting the filenames of your boot loaders. Other times, you can edit rEFInd's configuration file, refind.conf, which resides in the same directory as its binary file (refind.efi or whatever you've renamed it).

+
+ +
+ +

Contents

+ + + +
+

Broadly speaking, rEFInd's configuration file is broken down into two sections: global options and OS stanzas. The global options section sets options that apply globally—to set the timeout period, enable graphics or text mode, and so on. OS stanzas are optional, but if present, they enable you to add new boot options or replace the auto-detected options with customized ones. Both sections include configuration lines and comment lines, the latter being denoted by a leading hash mark (#). rEFInd ignores comment lines, so you can add explanatory text. The default configuration file includes numerous comments explaining each of the options.

+

Hiding and Displaying EFI Boot Loaders

+

ESPs use the FAT filesystem, which is case-insensitive. Unfortunately, at least one EFI implementation (Gigabyte's Hybrid EFI) contains a bug that causes string comparisons that should be case-insensitive to actually be done in a case-sensitive way. This can cause files that are present to appear to be missing. rEFInd includes code to work around this bug in some situations, but not in all of them. If boot loaders appear to be missing, try changing the case on their filenames or on the EFI directory in the ESP. (It's coded as uppercase in rEFInd; but EFI loader filename extensions are coded as lowercase .efi. I made these choices because they seem to be the most common uses on real-world installations.)

@@ -124,7 +148,9 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com

In addition to the main OS tag icon, you can set the badge icon for a volume by creating a file called .VolumeBadge.icns in the root directory of a partition. This icon file must include a 32x32 bitmap. 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.

+

Adjusting the Global Configuration

+

You can adjust many of rEFInd's options by editing its refind.conf file. You can use any text editor you like for the job, but be sure it saves the file in plain ASCII text, not in a word processing format. (In theory, a UTF-16 encoding should also work, but I've not tried that myself.) Note that the EFI shell includes its own editor. If you need to make a change before you launch an OS, you can launch a shell, change to the rEFInd directory, and type edit refind.conf to edit the file. This EFI editor is quite primitive, but it gets the job done. After editing, you'll need to reboot for rEFInd to read the changed configuration file.

@@ -264,7 +290,9 @@ default_selection elilo

This example sets a timeout of 5 seconds; loads a custom graphic file called custom.bmp from the directory in which refind.efi 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.

+

Creating OS Stanzas

+

OS stanzas in rEFInd are similar to those in GRUB Legacy, GRUB 2, or ELILO. You can use them to add configuration options to those that are auto-detected. You cannot modify the auto-detected options, though; if you just want to tweak one OS's configuration, you have several options, none of which is ideal:

@@ -376,7 +404,9 @@ fs0:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi

You can combine these OS stanzas with the global refind.conf options presented earlier. The result would contain just two entries on the rEFInd boot menu (for Gentoo and Windows, since the Ubuntu entry is disabled), unless rEFInd found other boot options on an external or optical disk.

+

Creating Submenu Entries

+

As described on the Using rEFInd page, rEFInd can present a menu of options for certain loader tags when you press the Insert, F2, or + key. rEFInd does this automatically when it detects Mac OS X or ELILO boot loaders, or when you set the OS type via the ostype option. The Mac OS X boot loader, in particular, accepts various options that you can use to boot in various ways.

@@ -472,7 +502,7 @@ menuentry Gentoo {
-

copyright © 2012 by Roderick W. Smith

+

copyright © 2012–2013 by Roderick W. Smith

This document is licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (FDL), version 1.3.

diff --git a/docs/refind/drivers.html b/docs/refind/drivers.html index aa4bcee..4920313 100644 --- a/docs/refind/drivers.html +++ b/docs/refind/drivers.html @@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com

Originally written: 4/19/2012; last Web page update: -12/30/2012, referencing rEFInd 0.6.2

+1/6/2013, referencing rEFInd 0.6.3

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!

@@ -90,14 +90,41 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com

+
+

Beginning with version 0.2.7, rEFInd has been able to load EFI drivers, and as of version 0.4.0, it has shipped with some EFI filesystem drivers. Although EFI implementations should be able to load drivers prior to rEFInd's launch, in my experience, most EFI implementations offer such poor control over EFI driver loading that they can't be counted on to do this. Thus, if you want to use EFI drivers, rEFInd's ability to do so can be useful. This page tells you why you might want to use drivers, how you can install and use rEFInd's own drivers, where you can go to find other drivers, and provides tips on a few specific drivers.

+
+ +
+ +

Contents

+ + + +
+ +
+

Why Should You Use EFI Drivers?

+

EFI supports drivers, which can activate hardware or filesystems in the pre-boot environment. At the moment, EFI drivers are few and far between; but you can or might want to use them for various reasons: