1 <?xml version=
"1.0" encoding=
"utf-8" standalone=
"no"?>
2 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC
"-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN"
3 "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
5 <html xmlns=
"http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
7 <title>The rEFInd Boot Manager: Getting rEFInd
</title>
8 <link href=
"../Styles/styles.css" rel=
"stylesheet" type=
"text/css" />
12 <h1>The rEFInd Boot Manager:
<br />Getting rEFInd
</h1>
14 <p class=
"subhead">by Roderick W. Smith,
<a
15 href=
"mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
</a></p>
17 <p>Originally written:
3/
14/
2012; last Web page update:
18 12/
30/
2012, referencing rEFInd
0.6.2</p>
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>
27 <td>Donate $
10.00</td>
28 <td>Donate another value
</td>
31 <td><form name=
"_xclick" action=
"https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method=
"post">
32 <input type=
"hidden" name=
"cmd" value=
"_xclick">
33 <input type=
"hidden" name=
"business" value=
"rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">
34 <input type=
"hidden" name=
"item_name" value=
"rEFInd Boot Manager">
35 <input type=
"hidden" name=
"currency_code" value=
"USD">
36 <input type=
"hidden" name=
"amount" value=
"1.00">
37 <input type=
"image" src=
"http://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_donate_LG.gif" border=
"0" name=
"submit" alt=
"Make payments with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!">
41 <td><form name=
"_xclick" action=
"https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method=
"post">
42 <input type=
"hidden" name=
"cmd" value=
"_xclick">
43 <input type=
"hidden" name=
"business" value=
"rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">
44 <input type=
"hidden" name=
"item_name" value=
"rEFInd Boot Manager">
45 <input type=
"hidden" name=
"currency_code" value=
"USD">
46 <input type=
"hidden" name=
"amount" value=
"2.50">
47 <input type=
"image" src=
"http://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_donate_LG.gif" border=
"0" name=
"submit" alt=
"Make payments with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!">
51 <td><form name=
"_xclick" action=
"https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method=
"post">
52 <input type=
"hidden" name=
"cmd" value=
"_xclick">
53 <input type=
"hidden" name=
"business" value=
"rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">
54 <input type=
"hidden" name=
"item_name" value=
"rEFInd Boot Manager">
55 <input type=
"hidden" name=
"currency_code" value=
"USD">
56 <input type=
"hidden" name=
"amount" value=
"5.00">
57 <input type=
"image" src=
"http://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_donate_LG.gif" border=
"0" name=
"submit" alt=
"Make payments with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!">
61 <td><form name=
"_xclick" action=
"https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method=
"post">
62 <input type=
"hidden" name=
"cmd" value=
"_xclick">
63 <input type=
"hidden" name=
"business" value=
"rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">
64 <input type=
"hidden" name=
"item_name" value=
"rEFInd Boot Manager">
65 <input type=
"hidden" name=
"currency_code" value=
"USD">
66 <input type=
"hidden" name=
"amount" value=
"10.00">
67 <input type=
"image" src=
"http://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_donate_LG.gif" border=
"0" name=
"submit" alt=
"Make payments with PayPal - it's fast, free and secure!">
72 <form action=
"https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr" method=
"post">
73 <input type=
"hidden" name=
"cmd" value=
"_donations">
74 <input type=
"hidden" name=
"business" value=
"rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">
75 <input type=
"hidden" name=
"lc" value=
"US">
76 <input type=
"hidden" name=
"no_note" value=
"0">
77 <input type=
"hidden" name=
"currency_code" value=
"USD">
78 <input type=
"hidden" name=
"item_name" value=
"rEFInd Boot Manager">
79 <input type=
"hidden" name=
"bn" value=
"PP-DonationsBF:btn_donate_LG.gif:NonHostedGuest">
80 <input type=
"image" src=
"https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/btn/btn_donate_LG.gif" border=
"0" name=
"submit" alt=
"PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!">
81 <img alt=
"Donate with PayPal" border=
"0" src=
"https://www.paypalobjects.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif" width=
"1" height=
"1">
88 <p>This page is part of the documentation for the rEFInd boot manager. If a Web search has brought you here, you may want to start at the
<a href=
"index.html">main page.
</a></p>
92 <p><b>Note:
</b> I consider rEFInd to be
<i>beta-quality software!
</i> 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.
</p>
94 <h2>Getting rEFInd from Sourceforge
</h2>
96 <p>You can find the rEFInd source code and binary packages at
<a href=
"http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/refind/">its SourceForge page.
</a> 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 several different forms:
</p>
101 href=
"http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.6.2/refind-src-0.6.2.zip/download">A
102 source code zip file
</a></b>—This is useful if you want to compile
103 the software locally. Note that I use Linux with the
<a
104 href=
"https://sourceforge.net/projects/tianocore/">TianoCore EFI
105 Development Kit
2 (EDK2)
</a> to build my binary zip package (below),
106 although the
<a href=
"http://sourceforge.net/projects/gnu-efi">GNU-EFI
</a>
107 development tools are also supported.
</li>
110 href=
"http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.6.2/refind-bin-0.6.2.zip/download">A
111 binary zip file
</a></b>—Download this if you want to install
112 rEFInd and/or its filesystem drivers on an
<i>x
</i>86 or
<i>x
</i>86-
64
113 computer and have no need to test rEFInd first by booting it on an
114 optical disc. This zip file package includes both
<i>x
</i>86 (aka IA32)
115 and
<i>x
</i>86-
64 (aka
<i>x
</i>64, AMD64, or EM64T) versions of rEFInd.
116 Which you install depends on your architecture, as described on the
<a
117 href=
"installing.html">Installing rEFInd
</a> page.
</li>
121 href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.4.7/refind-bin-gnuefi-0.4.7.zip/download">A
122 binary zip file (built with GNU-EFI)</a></b>—This package is just
123 like the preceding one, except that it was built using the GNU-EFI
124 development kit rather than the TianoCore EFI Development Kit 2 (EDK2)
125 that was used to build the other binary. I originally used GNU-EFI to
126 develop rEFInd, but the GNU-EFI toolkit doesn't support the legacy
127 (BIOS-mode) boot calls on UEFI-based PCs, so I now consider the
128 TianoCore build to be the primary one. (Macs can boot legacy OSes using
132 <p class=
"sidebar"><b>Tip:
</b> If you want a bootable USB flash drive, download the binary zip file or CD-R image file, prepare a USB flash drive with a FAT32 partition, and then use the
<tt>install.sh
</tt> program's
<tt>--usedefault
</tt> option, and perhaps the
<tt>--alldrivers
</tt> option, as in
<tt class=
"userinput">bash install.sh --usedefault /dev/sdd1 --alldrivers
</tt> to install to the first partition on
<tt>/dev/sdd
</tt>. This procedure should work even on a BIOS-booted computer.
</p>
135 href=
"http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.6.2/refind-cd-0.6.2.zip/download">A
136 CD-R image file
</a></b>—This download contains the same files as
137 the binary zip file, but you can burn it to a CD-R to test rEFInd
138 (and its filesystem drivers) without installing it first. (It boots on
139 UEFI PCs, but fails on some older Macs.) If you like it, you can then
140 copy the files from the CD-R to your hard disk. The files are named in
141 such a way that the disc should boot on either
64-bit (
<i>x
</i>86-
64)
142 or
32-bit (
<i>x
</i>86) EFI computers. I've included an open source EFI
143 shell program on this disc that's not included in the binary zip file,
144 so that you can access an EFI shell from a bootable disc even if you
145 don't have an EFI shell available from your regular hard disk. This can
146 be an extremely valuable diagnostic tool if you know how to use an EFI
150 href=
"http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.6.2/refind-0.6.2-1.src.rpm/download">Source
</a>
152 href=
"http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.6.2/refind-0.6.2-1.x86_64.rpm/download">binary
</a>
153 RPM files
</b>—These files are intended more as demonstrations than
154 as practical packages. If you use an RPM-based
<i>x
</i>86-
64 Linux system,
155 though, you can install the binary RPM package. (I don't provide an
156 equivalent
32-bit package.) Note, however, that this package's files are
157 not signed for use with shim or Secure Boot, and it installs four
158 filesystem drivers, which can slow down the boot process. It was also
159 compiled with GNU-EFI, which means that it lacks the ability to boot
160 BIOS-based OSes. Thus, I recommend using the binary zip file instead. If
161 you do use the RPM file, be aware that it installs rEFInd directly to
162 <tt>/boot/efi/EFI/refind
</tt>, so your ESP must be mounted at
163 <tt>/boot/efi
</tt>. The post-installation script, which adds rEFInd to the
164 NVRAM entries, requires
<tt>efibootmgr
</tt> and is likely to fail if you
165 try to install from a live CD. Distribution maintainers can examine the
166 <tt>refind.spec
</tt> file in the source package and tweak it to their
167 needs and to eliminate some or all of these deficiencies.
</li>
169 <li><b><a href=
"https://sourceforge.net/p/refind/code">Source code via
170 git
</a></b>—If you want to peruse the source code in your Web
171 browser or get the very latest version (including pre-release bug fixes
172 and updates), you can use the Sourceforge git repository. This access
173 method is most useful to programmers, or at least to those who are
174 familiar with programming tools. Note that if you need to ask
"what's
175 git?", this is probably not the best way for you to obtain rEFInd.
</li>
179 <p>If you're using a platform other than
<i>x
</i>86 or
<i>x
</i>86-
64, you can give rEFInd a try; however, you'll need to build it from source code yourself or track down a binary from another source. (Perhaps by the time you read this it will be included in Linux distributions built for unusual CPUs.)
</p>
181 <p>To extract the files from the zip file images I've provided, you'll need a tool such as
<tt>unzip
</tt>, which is included with Linux and Mac OS X. Numerous Windows utilities also support this format, such as
<a href=
"http://www.pkware.com/software/pkzip/">PKZIP
</a> and
<a href=
"http://www.7-zip.org/">7-Zip.
</a></p>
183 <p>You should be able to create a bootable USB flash drive from either the binary zip file or the CD-R image file; just treat the flash drive as if it were a hard disk and install rEFInd as described on the
<a href=
"installing.html">installation page.
</a> Using the fallback boot loader name of
<tt>EFI/boot/bootx64.efi
</tt> is likely to be the most useful way to install rEFInd to a removable medium.
</p>
185 <h2>Getting rEFInd from Your OS's Repositories
</h2>
187 <p>I know of a small number of pre-packaged versions of rEFInd, either in official OS repositories or in ancillary repositories:
</p>
191 <li><b>Arch Linux
</b>—You can obtain rEFInd from the Arch
192 repositories, in both a stable version (the
<tt>refind-efi
</tt> package
193 installable via
<tt>pacman
</tt>) and an experimental release built from
194 rEFInd's git repository in the Arch User Repository (AUR), under the
195 name
<tt>refind-efi-git
</tt>. The git release is likely to include
196 pre-release bug fixes and new features, but those features may be
197 poorly tested or undocumented. The last I checked, both builds used the
198 Tianocore toolkit, and so support booting BIOS/legacy boot loaders on
201 <li><b>The
<a href=
"http://nixos.org/nixpkgs/">Nix Packages
202 collection
</a></b>—This site creates packages for a number of
203 OSes using its own packaging system.
</li>
206 href=
"https://build.opensuse.org/package/show?package=refind&project=home%3Amichael-chang%3AUEFI">OpenSUSE
207 Build Service (OBS)
</a></b>—This site holds a binary x86-
64 build
208 of rEFInd that should install on any RPM-based distribution. It doesn't
209 completely set up rEFInd, though; it just places the rEFInd files in
210 the
<tt>/usr/share/refind
</tt> directory, and a copy of
211 <tt>install.sh
</tt> as
<tt>/usr/sbin/refind_install
</tt>.
212 Unfortunately, the script makes assumptions about the locations of
213 files and so is useless when files are moved around in this way. Thus,
214 you'll need to install manually after installing this RPM, so you might
215 as well download the rEFInd binary
<tt>.zip
</tt> file from Sourceforge
218 <li><b>Slackware
</b>—Although it doesn't seem to provide an official
219 build,
<a href=
"http://franck-barbenoire.fr/spip.php?article198">this
220 site
</a> has links to rEFInd binary packages for Slackware
13.37 and
225 <p>To the best of my knowledge, no other Linux distribution yet includes rEFInd in its repositories. That's likely to change in time. If you hear of rEFInd being included in an OS's official package set, feel free to
<a href=
"mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">drop me a line.
</a></p>
229 <p>copyright
© 2012 by Roderick W. Smith
</p>
231 <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>
233 <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>
235 <p><a href=
"index.html">Go to the main rEFInd page
</a></p>
237 <p><a href=
"installing.html">Learn how to install rEFInd
</a></p>
239 <p><a href=
"http://www.rodsbooks.com/">Return
</a> to my main Web page.
</p>