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  12   <h1>The rEFInd Boot Manager</h1>
  13
  14   <p class="subhead">by Roderick W. Smith, <a
  15 href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com</a></p>
  16
  17   <p>Originally written: 3/14/2012; last Web page update: 4/9/2012, referencing rEFInd 0.2.5</p>
  18
  19
  20 <p>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!</p>
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  85
  86 <hr />
  87
  88 <h2>Introduction</h2>
  89
  90 <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. 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. rEFInd, though, relies on a separate boot loader to finish the handoff to an OS; it just presents a pretty menu and gives you options for how to proceed prior to booting an OS. 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. See <a href="http://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/index.html">my Web page on this topic</a> for more information.</p>
  91
  92     <br /><center><img src="refind.png" align="center" width="905"
  93     height="389" alt="rEFInd presents a GUI menu for selecting your boot
  94     OS." border=2> </center><br />
  95
  96 <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 rEFIt and rEFInd come into play.</p>
  97
  98 <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. I fixed a few of these bugs and released a patched version <a href="http://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/refit.html">here;</a> however, rEFIt's author, Christoph Pfisterer, didn't respond to my e-mails, and the latest official version of rEFIt, 0.14, was released in March of 2010. Thus, it appears that rEFIt has been abandoned. Forking the project to give rEFIt new features seemed like the thing to do.</p>
  99
 100 <p>The <a href="http://refit.sourceforge.net">rEFIt Web page</a> has a distinct Mac bias, and the provided binaries work only on Macs because they're 32-/64-bit "fat" binaries, which Macs can handle but UEFI-based PCs can't. rEFIt can be recompiled to work on UEFI-based PCs, but prebuilt binaries for such systems are relatively rare. Although I do own a Mac Mini, my interest lies more on the side of standard PC hardware, and hence with UEFI. My development platform is Linux, and my installation instructions and binaries are much more platform-neutral. I'm aware that many Mac users will consider this a step backward, but I ask their indulgence; I only have so many hours a day to work on this project, and I prefer to devote my efforts to improvements that will benefit all rEFInd users, at least initially.</p>
 101
 102 <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. 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 below subsections.</p>
 103
 104 <p>Subsequent sections of this document are on separate pages:</p>
 105
 106 <ul>
 107
 108 <li><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>
 109
 110 <li><a href="features.html">rEFInd Features</a>&mdash;An overview of rEFInd's features</li>
 111
 112 <li><a href="getting.html">Getting rEFInd</a>&mdash;Links to obtain rEFInd</li>
 113
 114 <li><a href="installing.html">Installing rEFInd</a>&mdash;Instructions for installing rEFInd, using Linux, OS X, and Windows</li>
 115
 116 <li><a href="using.html">Using rEFInd</a>&mdash;Basic usage instructions for the boot loader</li>
 117
 118 <li><a href="configfile.html">Configuring the Boot Manager</a>&mdash;For advanced users, information on customizing a rEFInd installation</li>
 119
 120 <li><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>
 121
 122 <li><a href="revisions.html">Revisions</a>&mdash;Information on the history of rEFInd releases</li>
 123
 124 <li><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>
 125
 126 </ul>
 127
 128 <p><b>Note:</b> I consider rEFInd to be <i>alpha-quality software!</i> 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.</p>
 129
 130 <a name="references">
 131 <h2>References and Additional Information</h2>
 132 </a>
 133
 134 <ul>
 135
 136 <li><b>Informational Web pages</b>
 137
 138 <ul>
 139
 140 <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>
 141
 142 <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's appearing in the Linux 3.3 kernel series.</li>
 143
 144 <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>
 145
 146 <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>
 147
 148 </ul></li> <!-- Informational Web pages -->
 149
 150 <li><b>Additional programs</b>
 151
 152 <ul>
 153
 154 <li><a href="http://refit.sourceforge.net">The official rEFIt Web page</a></li>
 155
 156 <li><a href="http://elilo.sourceforge.net/">The official ELILO Web page</a></li>
 157
 158 <li><a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/">The official GRUB Web page</a></li>
 159
 160 <li><a href="http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/">The official GPT fdisk partitioning software Web page</a></li>
 161
 162 </ul></li> <!-- Additional programs -->
 163
 164 <li><b>Communications</b>
 165
 166 <ul>
 167
 168 <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>
 169
 170 <li>You can <a href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">e-mail me</a> with queries or bug reports.</li>
 171
 172 <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>
 173
 174 </ul></li>
 175
 176 </ul>
 177
 178 <hr />
 179
 180 <p>copyright &copy; 2012 by Roderick W. Smith</p>
 181
 182 <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>
 183
 184 <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>
 185
 186   <p><a href="http://www.rodsbooks.com/">Return</a> to my main Web page.</p>
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