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   7   <title>The rEFInd Boot Manager</title>
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  14   <h1>The rEFInd Boot Manager</h1>
  15
  16   <p class="subhead">by Roderick W. Smith, <a
  17 href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com</a></p>
  18
  19 <p>Originally written: 3/14/2012; last Web page update:
  20 11/1/2015, referencing rEFInd 0.9.3</p>
  21
  22
  23 <p>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!</p>
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 113 <form action="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method="post">
 114 <input type="hidden" name="cmd" value="_donations">
 115 <input type="hidden" name="business" value="rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">
 116 <input type="hidden" name="lc" value="US">
 117 <input type="hidden" name="no_note" value="0">
 118 <input type="hidden" name="currency_code" value="USD">
 119 <input type="hidden" name="item_name" value="rEFInd Boot Manager">
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 125 </table>
 126
 127 <hr />
 128
 129 <h2>Introduction</h2>
 130
 131 <p>This page describes rEFInd, my fork of the <a href="http://refit.sourceforge.net">rEFIt</a> boot manager for computers based on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface">Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) and Unified EFI (UEFI).</a> Like rEFIt, rEFInd is a <i>boot manager,</i> meaning that it presents a menu of options to the user when the computer first starts up, as shown below. rEFInd is not a <i>boot loader,</i> which is a program that loads an OS kernel and hands off control to it. (Since version 3.3.0, the Linux kernel has included a built-in boot loader, though, so this distinction is rather artificial these days, at least for Linux.) Many popular boot managers, such as <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/">the Grand Unified Bootloader (GRUB),</a> are also boot loaders, which can blur the distinction in many users' minds. All EFI-capable OSes include boot loaders, so this limitation isn't a problem. If you're using Linux, you should be aware that several EFI boot loaders are available, so choosing between them can be a challenge. In fact, the Linux kernel can function as an EFI boot loader for itself, which gives rEFInd characteristics similar to a boot loader for Linux. See <a href="http://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/index.html">my Web page on this topic</a> for more information.</p>
 132
 133     <br /><center><img src="refind.png" align="center" width="750"
 134     height="558" alt="rEFInd presents a graphical menu for selecting your
 135     boot OS." border=2> </center><br />
 136
 137 <div style="float:right; width:55%">
 138
 139 <p>In theory, EFI implementations should provide boot managers. Unfortunately, in practice these boot managers are often so poor as to be useless. The worst I've personally encountered is on <a href="http://www.rodsbooks.com/gb-hybrid-efi/">Gigabyte's Hybrid EFI,</a> which provides you with no boot options whatsoever, beyond choosing the boot device (hard disk vs. optical disc, for instance). I've heard of others that are just as bad. For this reason, a good EFI boot manager&mdash;either standalone or as part of a boot loader&mdash;is a practical necessity for multi-booting on an EFI computer. That's where rEFInd comes into play.</p>
 140
 141 <p>I decided to fork the earlier rEFIt project because, although rEFIt is a useful program, it's got several important limitations, such as poor control over the boot loader detection process and an ability to display at most a handful of boot loader entries on its main screen. Christoph Pfisterer, rEFIt's author, stopped updating rEFIt with version 0.14, which was released in March of 2010. Since I forked rEFIt to rEFInd, Christoph has begun pointing rEFIt users to rEFInd as a successor project.</p>
 142
 143 <p>As already noted, rEFInd is a boot manager for EFI and UEFI computers. (I use "EFI" to refer to either version unless the distinction is important.) You're likely to benefit from it on computers that boot multiple OSes, such as two or more of Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. You will <i>not</i> find rEFInd useful on older BIOS-based computers or on systems with other types of firmware, such as older PowerPC-based Macs. Prior to mid-2011, few computers outside of Intel-based Macs used EFI; but starting in 2011, computer manufacturers began adopting UEFI in droves, so most computers bought since then use EFI. Even so, many modern PCs support both EFI-style booting and BIOS-style booting, the latter via a BIOS compatibility mode that's known as the <i>Compatibility Support Module (CSM).</i> Thus, you may be using BIOS-style booting on an EFI-based computer. If you're unsure which boot method your computer uses, check the first of the subsections, <a href="bootmode.html">What's Your Boot Mode</a>.</p>
 144
 145 <p>Subsequent sections of this document are on separate pages. Be aware that you probably don't need to read them all; just skip to the sections that interest you:</p>
 146
 147 </div>
 148
 149 <div class="navbar">
 150
 151 <h4 class="tight">Contents</h4>
 152
 153 <ul>
 154
 155 <li class="tight"><a href="bootmode.html">What's Your Boot Mode?</a>&mdash;Information to help you determine whether you're using EFI or BIOS booting</li>
 156
 157 <li class="tight"><a href="features.html">rEFInd Features</a>&mdash;An overview of rEFInd's features</li>
 158
 159 <li class="tight"><a href="getting.html">Getting rEFInd</a>&mdash;Links to download rEFInd</li>
 160
 161 <li class="tight"><a href="installing.html">Installing rEFInd</a>&mdash;Instructions for installing rEFInd, using Linux, OS X, and Windows</li>
 162
 163 <li class="tight"><a href="yosemite.html">rEFInd and OS X 10.10 (Yosemite)</a>&mdash;Apple's latest OS X makes some changes that require your attention (this subpage is rendered obsolete by rEFInd 0.8.4 and later</li>
 164
 165 <li class="tight"><a href="sip.html">rEFInd and System Integrity Protection</a>&mdash;How to install rEFInd on Macs running OS X 10.11 (El Capitan)</a>
 166
 167 <li class="tight"><a href="using.html">Using rEFInd</a>&mdash;Basic usage instructions for the boot loader</li>
 168
 169 <li class="tight"><a href="configfile.html">Configuring the Boot Manager</a>&mdash;For advanced users, information on customizing a rEFInd installation</li>
 170
 171 <li class="tight"><a href="drivers.html">Using EFI Drivers</a>&mdash;Why and how to have rEFInd launch EFI drivers</li>
 172
 173 <li class="tight"><a href="themes.html">Theming rEFind</a>&mdash;Information on third-party themes for rEFInd</li>
 174
 175 <li class="tight"><a href="linux.html">Options for Booting Linux</a>&mdash;Methods of booting Linux, particularly with the EFI stub loader (distribution maintainers should read this!)</li>
 176
 177 <li class="tight"><a href="secureboot.html">Managing Secure Boot</a>&mdash;Some pointers on using rEFInd on a computer with Secure Boot active</li>
 178
 179 <li class="tight"><a href="revisions.html">Revisions</a>&mdash;Information on the history of rEFInd releases</li>
 180
 181 <li class="tight"><a href="todo.html">The Future of rEFInd</a>&mdash;Current bugs that need squashing and features that I hope to one day add</a></li>
 182
 183 </ul>
 184
 185 </div>
 186
 187 <p><b>Note:</b> I consider rEFInd to be <i>beta-quality software!</i> 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.</p>
 188
 189 <a name="references">
 190 <h2>References and Additional Information</h2>
 191 </a>
 192
 193 <ul>
 194
 195 <li><b>Informational Web pages</b>
 196
 197 <ul>
 198
 199 <li><a href="http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jonathan.deboynepollard/FGA/efi-boot-process.html">The EFI Boot Process</a> describes, in broad strokes, how EFI systems boot.</li>
 200
 201 <li><a href="https://lkml.org/lkml/2011/10/17/81">A Linux kernel mailing list thread</a> describing the new EFI stub loader that was introduced in the Linux 3.3 kernel series.</li>
 202
 203 <li>The <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface">Arch Linux UEFI wiki page</a> has a great deal of information on UEFI and Linux.</li>
 204
 205 <li>My own <a href="http://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/">EFI Boot Loaders for Linux</a> page provides information on installing and configuring several common Linux EFI boot loaders and boot managers.</li>
 206
 207 <li><a href="http://www.rodsbooks.com/linux-uefi/">My Linux on UEFI: A Quick Installation Guide</a> page provides helpful tips on how to install Linux on EFI-based systems.</li>
 208
 209 <li>Phoenix Technologies maintains a <a href="http://wiki.phoenix.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page">wiki on EFI topics,</a> including <a href="http://wiki.phoenix.com/wiki/index.php/Category:UEFI_2.0">information on many EFI system calls</a> useful to programmers.</li>
 210
 211 <li>Matthew J. Garrett, the developer of the shim boot loader to manage Secure Boot, maintains <a href="http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/">a blog</a> in which he often writes about EFI issues.</li>
 212
 213 <li>Adam Williamson has written a good <a href="https://www.happyassassin.net/2014/01/25/uefi-boot-how-does-that-actually-work-then/">summary of what EFI is and how it works.</a></li>
 214
 215 <li>J. A. Watson has a <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/the-refind-boot-loader-for-uefi-systems-7000010275/">review of rEFInd on an HP laptop</a> on ZDNet. He had serious problems because of the HP's UEFI bugs, but finally got it to work.</li>
 216
 217 <li>James Jesudason has a tutorial on installing Ubuntu 13.04 beta on a Macbook Retina Pro on <a href="http://randomtutor.blogspot.com/2013_02_01_archive.html">this blog page.</a> I'd recommend using a Linux filesystem driver to read the kernel directly from a Linux filesystem rather than copy the kernel to the OS X partition as in the tutorial, but either method will work.</li>
 218
 219 <li><a href="http://sdnalloh.com/converting-win7-from-mbr-to-gpt/">This blog post</a> describes how to convert Windows from BIOS-mode to EFI-mode booting. This task is rarely necessary, but when you need it, you <i>really</i> need it.</li>
 220
 221 <li>If you're interested in developing EFI software yourself, my <a href="http://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-programming/">Programming for EFI</a> can help you get started.</li>
 222
 223 </ul></li> <!-- Informational Web pages -->
 224
 225 <li><b>Additional programs</b>
 226
 227 <ul>
 228
 229 <li><a href="http://refit.sourceforge.net">The official rEFIt Web page</a></li>
 230
 231 <li><a href="http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/gummiboot">The official gummiboot Web page</a></li>
 232
 233 <li><a href="http://elilo.sourceforge.net/">The official ELILO Web page</a></li>
 234
 235 <li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/">The official GRUB Web page</a></li>
 236
 237 <li><a href="http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/">The official GPT fdisk partitioning software Web page</a></li>
 238
 239 <li>The <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/cloverefiboot/">Clover</a> boot loader is a Hackintosh boot loader that incorporates, among other things, its own unique forks of rEFIt and of DUET (a <a href="http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/tianocore/index.php?title=Welcome">TianoCore</a> tool to boot UEFI on BIOS-based computers).</li>
 240
 241 <li>Pete Batard's <a href="https://github.com/pbatard/efifs">efifs</a> project aims to port GRUB's filesystem drivers to function as standalone EFI filesystem drivers. It's currently a work in progress but shows great promise, and several drivers are usable for limited purposes today.</li>
 242
 243 </ul></li> <!-- Additional programs -->
 244
 245 <li><b>Communications</b>
 246
 247 <ul>
 248
 249 <li>The <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/refind/discussion/">rEFInd discussion forum on Sourceforge</a> provides a way to discuss rEFInd with other users or with me.</li>
 250
 251 <li>You can <a href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">e-mail me</a> with queries or bug reports.</li>
 252
 253 <li><a href="http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=696523">This thread</a> on MacRumors details efforts to boot Windows 7 and Windows 8 in EFI mode, rather than using Boot Camp, on 64-bit Macs. It can be done with some models, but is difficult, particularly for Windows 7. Be aware that the thread is long and has many false leads.</li>
 254
 255 </ul></li>
 256
 257 </ul>
 258
 259 <hr />
 260
 261 <p>copyright &copy; 2012&ndash;2015 by Roderick W. Smith</p>
 262
 263 <p>This document is licensed under the terms of the <a href="FDL-1.3.txt">GNU Free Documentation License (FDL), version 1.3.</a></p>
 264
 265 <p>If you have problems with or comments about this Web page, please e-mail me at <a href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com.</a> Thanks.</p>
 266
 267   <p><a href="http://www.rodsbooks.com/">Return</a> to my main Web page.</p>
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