href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com</a></p>
<p>Originally written: 3/14/2012; last Web page update:
-12/21/2012, referencing rEFInd 0.6.1</p>
+12/30/2012, referencing rEFInd 0.6.2</p>
<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>
<h2>Getting rEFInd from Sourceforge</h2>
-<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 four different forms:</p>
+<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>
<ul>
<li><b><a
- href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.6.1/refind-src-0.6.1.zip/download">A
- source code zip file</a></b>—This is useful if you want to
-
compile the software locally. Note that I use Linux with the <a
+ href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.6.2/refind-src-0.6.2.zip/download">A
+ source code zip file</a></b>—This is useful if you want to compile
+ the software locally. Note that I use Linux with the <a
href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/tianocore/">TianoCore EFI
- Development Kit 2 (EDK2)</a> to build my binaries (below), although the
- <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/gnu-efi">GNU-EFI</a>
- development tools are also supported. rEFIt used an Intel/Microsoft
- toolchain. Backporting rEFInd to that toolchain is theoretically
- possible, but I've not attempted it.</li>
+ Development Kit 2 (EDK2)</a> to build my binary zip package (below),
+ although the <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/gnu-efi">GNU-EFI</a>
+ development tools are also supported.</li>
<li><b><a
- href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.6.1/refind-bin-0.6.1.zip/download">A
+ href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.6.2/refind-bin-0.6.2.zip/download">A
binary zip file</a></b>—Download this if you want to install
rEFInd and/or its filesystem drivers on an <i>x</i>86 or <i>x</i>86-64
computer and have no need to test rEFInd first by booting it on an
<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>
<li><b><a
- href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.6.1/refind-cd-0.6.1.zip/download">A
+ href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.6.2/refind-cd-0.6.2.zip/download">A
CD-R image file</a></b>—This download contains the same files as
the binary zip file, but you can burn it to a CD-R to test rEFInd
(and its filesystem drivers) without installing it first. (It boots on
be an extremely valuable diagnostic tool if you know how to use an EFI
shell.</li>
+<li><b><a
+ href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.6.2/refind-0.6.2-1.src.rpm/download">Source</a>
+ and <a
+ href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.6.2/refind-0.6.2-1.x86_64.rpm/download">binary</a>
+ RPM files</b>—These files are intended more as demonstrations than
+ as practical packages. If you use an RPM-based <i>x</i>86-64 Linux system,
+ though, you can install the binary RPM package. (I don't provide an
+ equivalent 32-bit package.) Note, however, that this package's files are
+ not signed for use with shim or Secure Boot, and it installs four
+ filesystem drivers, which can slow down the boot process. It was also
+ compiled with GNU-EFI, which means that it lacks the ability to boot
+ BIOS-based OSes. Thus, I recommend using the binary zip file instead. If
+ you do use the RPM file, be aware that it installs rEFInd directly to
+ <tt>/boot/efi/EFI/refind</tt>, so your ESP must be mounted at
+ <tt>/boot/efi</tt>. The post-installation script, which adds rEFInd to the
+ NVRAM entries, requires <tt>efibootmgr</tt> and is likely to fail if you
+ try to install from a live CD. Distribution maintainers can examine the
+ <tt>refind.spec</tt> file in the source package and tweak it to their
+ needs and to eliminate some or all of these deficiencies.</li>
+
<li><b><a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/refind/code">Source code via
git</a></b>—If you want to peruse the source code in your Web
browser or get the very latest version (including pre-release bug fixes
as well download the rEFInd binary <tt>.zip</tt> file from Sourceforge
instead.</li>
-<li><b>Slackware</b>—Although it doesn't seem to be an official build, <a
- href="http://franck-barbenoire.fr/spip.php?article198">this site</a> has links to rEFInd
- binary packages for Slackware 13.37 and 14.0.</li>
+<li><b>Slackware</b>—Although it doesn't seem to provide an official
+ build, <a href="http://franck-barbenoire.fr/spip.php?article198">this
+ site</a> has links to rEFInd binary packages for Slackware 13.37 and
+ 14.0.</li>
</ul>