<p class="subhead">by Roderick W. Smith, <a
href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com</a></p>
- <p>Originally written: 3/14/2012; last Web page update: 4/14/2012, referencing rEFInd 0.2.6</p>
+<p>Originally written: 3/14/2012; last Web page update:
+5/6/2012, referencing rEFInd 0.3.3</p>
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<li>You can place a boot loader in a directory with a name that matches one of rEFInd's standard icons, which take names of the form <tt>os_<tt class="variable">name</tt>.icns</tt>. To use this icon, you would place the boot loader in the directory called <tt class="variable">name</tt>.</li>
-<li>You can name an icon file after your boot loader, but with an extension of <tt>.icns</tt>. For instance, if you're using <tt class="variable">loader</tt><tt>.efi</tt>, you would name the icon file <tt class="variable">loader</tt><tt>.icns</tt>. These icon files should be 128x128 images in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Icon_Image_format">Apple's ICNS format.</a> You can create such files easily in OS X or convert PNG files to ICNS format with <a href="http://icns.sourceforge.net/">libicns.</a></li>
+<li>You can name an icon file after your boot loader, but with an extension of <tt>.icns</tt>. For instance, if you're using <tt class="variable">loader</tt><tt>.efi</tt>, you would name the icon file <tt class="variable">loader</tt><tt>.icns</tt>.
(If you use the <tt>scan_all_linux_kernels</tt> option, you can give an icon for a Linux kernel without a <tt>.efi</tt> extension a name based on the kernel name but with a <tt>.icns</tt> extension—for instance, <tt>bzImage-3.3.2.icns</tt> will serve as the icon for the <tt>bzImage-3.3.2</tt> kernel.) These icon files should be 128x128 images in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Icon_Image_format">Apple's ICNS format.</a> You can create such files easily in OS X or convert PNG files to ICNS format with <a href="http://icns.sourceforge.net/">libicns.</a></li>
<li>If you're booting OS X from its standard boot loader, or if you place a boot loader file in the root directory of a partition, you can create a file called <tt>.VolumeIcon.icns</tt> that holds an icon file. OS X uses this file for its volume icons, so rEFInd picks up these icons automatically, provided they include 128x128 bitmaps.</li>
<td><tt>banner</tt>, <tt>label</tt>, <tt>singleuser</tt>, <tt>hwtest</tt>, <tt>arrows</tt>, or <tt>all</tt></td>
<td>Removes the specified user interface features. <tt>banner</tt> removes the banner graphic, <tt>label</tt> removes the text description of each tag, <tt>singleuser</tt> removes the single-user option from the Mac OS sub-menu, <tt>hwtest</tt> removes the Mac OS hardware test option, <tt>arrows</tt> removes the arrows to the right or left of the OS tags when rEFInd finds too many OSes to display simultaneously, and <tt>all</tt> removes all of these options. You can specify multiple parameters with this option. The default is to set none of these values.</td>
</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td><tt>icons_dir</tt></td>
+ <td>directory name</td>
+ <td>Specifies a directory in which custom icons may be found. This directory should contain files with the same names as the files in the standard <tt>icons</tt> directory. The directory name is specified relative to the directory in which the rEFInd binary resides.</td>
+</tr>
<tr>
<td><tt>banner</tt></td>
<td>filename</td>
<td>None</td>
<td>rEFInd defaults to a graphical mode; however, if you prefer to do without the flashy graphics, you can run it in text mode by including this option.</td>
</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td><tt>resolution</tt></td>
+ <td>Two integer values</td>
+ <td>Sets the video resolution used by rEFInd; takes a width and a height as options. For instance, <tt>resolution 1024 768</tt> sets the resolution to 1024x768. If you set a resolution that doesn't work on a UEFI-based system, rEFInd displays a message along with a list of valid modes. On an system built around EFI 1.<i>x</i> (such as a Mac), setting an incorrect resolution fails silently; you'll get the system's default resolution. You'll also get the system's default resolution if you set either resolution value to <tt>0</tt> or if you pass anything but two numbers. (Note that passing a resolution with an <tt>x</tt>, as in <tt>1024x768</tt>, will be interpreted as <i>one</i> option and so will cause the default resolution to be used.) Also, be aware that it is possible to set a valid resolution for your video card that's invalid for your monitor. If you do this, your monitor will go blank until you've booted an OS that resets the video mode.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td><tt>scan_driver_dirs</tt></td>
+ <td>directory path(s)</td>
+ <td>Scans the specified directory or directories for EFI driver files. If rEFInd discovers <tt>.efi</tt> files in those directories, they're loaded and activated as drivers. This option sets directories to scan <i>in addition to</i> the <tt>drivers</tt> subdirectory of the rEFInd installation directory, which is always scanned, if present.</td>
+</tr>
<tr>
<td><tt>scanfor</tt></td>
<td><tt>internal</tt>, <tt>external</tt>, <tt>optical</tt>, <tt>hdbios</tt>, <tt>biosexternal</tt>, <tt>cd</tt>, and <tt>manual</tt></td>
<td>Tells rEFInd what methods to use to locate boot loaders. The <tt>internal</tt>, <tt>external</tt>, and <tt>optical</tt> parameters tell rEFInd to scan for EFI boot loaders on internal, external, and optical (CD, DVD, and Blu-ray) devices, respectively. The <tt>hdbios</tt>, <tt>biosexternal</tt>, and <tt>cd</tt> parameters are similar, but scan for BIOS boot loaders. (Note that the BIOS options are likely to be useless on UEFI PCs.) The <tt>manual</tt> parameter tells rEFInd to scan the configuration file for manual settings. You can specify multiple parameters to have the program scan for multiple boot loader types. When you do so, the order determines the order in which the boot loaders appear in the menu. The default is <tt>internal, external, optical</tt>.</td>
</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td><tt>also_scan_dirs</tt></td>
+ <td>directory path(s)</td>
+ <td>Adds the specified directory or directories to the directory list that rEFInd scans for EFI boot loaders when <tt>scanfor</tt> includes the <tt>internal</tt>, <tt>external</tt>, or <tt>optical</tt> options. Directories are specified relative to the filesystem's root directory. If this option is used, it's applied to <i>all</i> the filesystems that rEFInd scans. If a specified directory doesn't exist, rEFInd ignores it (no error results).</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td><tt>scan_all_linux_kernels</tt></td>
+ <td>None</td>
+ <td>When set, causes rEFInd to add Linux kernels (files with names that begin with <tt>vmlinuz</tt> or <tt>bzImage</tt>) to the list of EFI boot loaders, even if they lack <tt>.efi</tt> filename extensions. The hope is that this will simplify use of rEFInd on distributions that provide kernels with EFI stub loader support but that don't give those kernels names that end in <tt>.efi</tt>. Of course, the kernels must still be stored on a filesystem that rEFInd can read, and in a directory that it scans. (<a href="drivers.html">Drivers</a> and the <tt>also_scan_dirs</tt> options can help with those issues.) Note that this option can cause unwanted files to be improperly detected and given loader tags, such as older kernels without EFI stub loader support. For this reason, it's disabled by default.</td>
+</tr>
<tr>
<td><tt>default_selection</tt></td>
- <td>A substring of a boot loader's title</td>
- <td>Sets the default boot OS based on the loader's title, which appears in the main menu when you select the loader; the text reads <tt>Boot <i>Title</i> from <i>Disk</i></tt>. You can enter any substring of <tt><i>Title</i></tt> as the <tt>default_selection</tt>, so long as it's two or more characters in length. Be sure you enter a unique substring, though; rEFInd stops searching when it finds the first match. One-character entries are matched against the first character of the title, except for digits, which refer to the numeric order of the boot loader entries. (Note: In version 0.2.0, only the first character of this entry was used, and was matched against the first character of the title.)</td>
+ <td>A substring of a boot loader's title; or a numeric position</td>
+ <td>Sets the default boot OS based on the loader's title, which appears in the main menu beneath the icons when you select the loader. You can enter any substring of the title as the <tt>default_selection</tt>, so long as it's two or more characters in length. It's best to use a unique substring, since rEFInd stops searching when it finds the first match. Because rEFInd sorts entries within a directory in descending order by file modification time, if you specify a directory (or volume name, for loaders in a partition's root directory) as the <tt>default_selection</tt>, the most recent loader in that directory will be the default. One-character entries are matched against the first character of the title, except for digits, which refer to the numeric order of the boot loader entries. (Note: In version 0.2.0, only the first character of this entry was used, and was matched against the first character of the title.)</td>
</tr>
</table>
# Sample refind.conf file
timeout 5
banner custom.bmp
+scan_driver_dirs drivers,EFI/tools/drivers
scanfor manual,external,optical
default_selection elilo
</pre>
-<p>This example sets a timeout of 5 seconds; loads a custom graphic file called <tt>custom.bmp</tt> from the directory in which <tt>refind.efi</tt> resides; 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 <tt>elilo</tt>. 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....</p>
+<p>This example sets a timeout of 5 seconds; loads a custom graphic file called <tt>custom.bmp</tt> from the directory in which <tt>refind.efi</tt> resides; scans the <tt>drivers</tt> and <tt>EFI/tools/drivers</tt> 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 <tt>elilo</tt>. 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.</p>
<h2>Creating OS Stanzas</h2>
-<p>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 has several options, none of which is ideal:</p>
+<p>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:</p>
<ul>
initrd \kernels\initrd-3.3.0-rc7.img
options "root=/dev/sda3 ro"
}
+
+menuentry "Windows via shell script" {
+ icon \EFI\refind\icons\os_win.icns
+ loader \EFI\tools\shell.efi
+ options "fs0:\EFI\tools\launch_windows.nsh"
+}
</pre>
-<p>This example sets up two entries: one for Ubuntu Linux and one for Gentoo Linux. Note that the two entries use different directory separators, simply to demonstrate the fact that it's possible. The Ubuntu entry sets no icon, since rEFInd will note that the boot loader is stored in the <tt>ubuntu</tt> directory, and it will automatically find the appropriate Ubuntu icon (<tt>os_ubuntu.icns</tt>). This option is, however, disabled, so no matching icon will appear when you reboot unless you first comment out or delete the <tt>disabled</tt> line.</p>
+<p>This example sets up three entries: one for Ubuntu Linux, one for Gentoo Linux, and one to launch a shell script. Note that the first two entries use different directory separators, simply to demonstrate the fact that it's possible. The Ubuntu entry sets no icon, since rEFInd will note that the boot loader is stored in the <tt>ubuntu</tt> directory, and it will automatically find the appropriate Ubuntu icon (<tt>os_ubuntu.icns</tt>). This option is, however, disabled, so no matching icon will appear when you reboot unless you first comment out or delete the <tt>disabled</tt> line.</p>
<p class="sidebar"><b>Tip:</b> Under Linux, you can learn a filesystem's label by using <tt>blkid</tt>, as in <tt class="userinput">blkid /dev/sda1</tt>. The filesystem's label, if set, is identified by the keyword <tt>LABEL</tt> in the output.</p>
<p>The Gentoo entry begins with an icon specification to be sure that the icon is loaded from the same volume as rEFInd. (If the icon were stored on the same filesystem as the kernel, you'd place the <tt>icon</tt> line after the <tt>volume</tt> line.) This entry uses the <tt>volume</tt> token to tell rEFInd to load the kernel and initial RAM disk file from the filesystem called <tt>G_KERNELS</tt>. It passes the filename for an initial RAM disk using the <tt>initrd</tt> line and free-form options using the <tt>options</tt> line. Note that the kernel filename does <i>not</i> include a <tt>.efi</tt> extension, which keeps rEFInd from picking up the kernel file in its auto-scans.</p>
-<p>You can combine these OS stanzas with the global <tt>refind.conf</tt> options presented earlier. The result would contain just one entry on the rEFInd boot menu, unless rEFInd found other boot options on an external or optical disk.</p>
+<p>The <tt>Windows via shell script</tt> entry may seem puzzling, but its purpose is to launch an OS (Windows in this case) after performing additional pre-boot initialization, which is handled by an EFI shell script. This works because you can pass the name of a shell script to an EFI shell—the script is named on the stanza's <tt>options</tt> line, using EFI file notation. The shell script, in turn, does whatever it needs to do and then launches the OS's boot loader:</p>
+
+<pre class="listing">mm 0003003E 8 -pci
+fs0:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi</pre>
+
+<p>This example writes data to the computer's PCI bus via the EFI shell's <tt>mm</tt> command and then launches Windows. Chances are you won't need to engage in such operations, and I do <i>not</i> recommend you try this exact example unless you know what you're doing! This command was required to activate the video hardware on a computer of a person with whom I corresponded prior to booting Windows, but such needs are rare.</p>
+
+<p>You can combine these OS stanzas with the global <tt>refind.conf</tt> 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.</p>
<h2>Creating Submenu Entries</h2>
<p><a href="index.html">Go to the main rEFInd page</a></p>
-<p><a href="linux.html">Learn about methods of booting Linux with rEFInd</a></p>
+<p><a href="linux.html">Learn about how to use EFI drivers with rEFInd</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.rodsbooks.com/">Return</a> to my main Web page.</p>
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