href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com</a></p>
<p>Originally written: 3/14/2012; last Web page update:
-12/30/2012, referencing rEFInd 0.6.2</p>
+5/4/2014, referencing rEFInd 0.8.0</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>
+<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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+</table>
<hr />
<ul>
<li><b><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 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/0.6.2/refind-bin-0.6.2.zip/download">A
+ href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.8.0/refind-bin-0.8.0.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
optical disc. This zip file package includes both <i>x</i>86 (aka IA32)
and <i>x</i>86-64 (aka <i>x</i>64, AMD64, or EM64T) versions of rEFInd.
Which you install depends on your architecture, as described on the <a
- href="installing.html">Installing rEFInd</a> page.</li>
+ href="installing.html">Installing rEFInd</a> page. Some users of Arch
+ Linux have reported problems booting some specific Arch Linux kernels
+ with rEFInd and some other tools. For them, a <a
+ href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.8.0/refind-bin-gnuefi-0.8.0.zip/download">variant
+ package</a> exists in which the <i>x</i>86-64 binary was compiled with
+ GNU-EFI rather than the usual TianoCore EDK2. This change helps some
+ users with this problem.</li>
+
+<li><b><a
+ href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.8.0/refind-0.8.0-1.x86_64.rpm/download">A
+ binary RPM file</a></b>—If you use an RPM-based <i>x</i>86-64
+ Linux system such as Fedora or openSUSE, you can install the binary RPM
+ package rather than use the binary zip file. (I don't provide an
+ equivalent 32-bit package.) This package runs the <tt>install.sh</tt>
+ script (described on the <a href="installing.html">Installing
+ rEFInd</a> page) as part of the installation process. Distribution
+ maintainers can examine the <tt>refind.spec</tt> file in the source
+ package and tweak it to their needs. The <a
+ href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.8.0/refind-0.8.0-1.src.rpm/download">source
+ RPM file</a> might or might not build on your system as-is; it relies
+ on assumptions about the locations of the GNU-EFI development
+ files.</li>
+
+<li><b><a
+ href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.8.0/refind_0.8.0-1_amd64.deb/download">A
+ binary Debian package</a></b>—If you use an <i>x</i>86-64 version
+ of Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, or another Debian-based distribution, you can
+ install from this package, which was converted from the binary RPM
+ package using <tt>alien</tt>.</li>
<!--
<li><b><a
either build.)</li>
-->
-<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>
+<p class="sidebar"><b>Note:</b> At the moment, neither the bootable CD-R image file nor the bootable USB flash drive image file supports booting with Secure Boot active. The x86-64 version of the <a href="http://en.altlinux.org/Rescue">ALT Linux Rescue disc</a> uses a Secure Boot-enabled rEFInd, though, so you may find that useful in some situations.</p>
<li><b><a
- href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.6.2/refind-cd-0.6.2.zip/download">A
+ href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.8.0/refind-cd-0.8.0.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>
+<p class="sidebar"><b>Tip:</b> If you want to make your own 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/0.6.2/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>
+ href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.8.0/refind-flashdrive-0.8.0.zip/download">A
+ USB flash drive image file</a></b>—Although you can create
+ your own rEFInd USB flash drive, you may find it easier to download
+ this version and copy it to your USB drive with <tt>dd</tt> or some
+ other low-level disk copying utility.</li>
+
+<li><b><a
+ href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.8.0/refind-src-0.8.0.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 binary packages (above),
+ although the <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/gnu-efi">GNU-EFI</a>
+ development tools are also supported.</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
rEFInd's git repository in the Arch User Repository (AUR), under the
name <tt>refind-efi-git</tt>. The git release is likely to include
pre-release bug fixes and new features, but those features may be
- poorly tested or undocumented. The last I checked, both builds used the
- Tianocore toolkit, and so support booting BIOS/legacy boot loaders on
- UEFI-based PCs.</li>
+ poorly tested or undocumented.</li>
+
+<li><b>ALT Linux</b>—This RPM-based distribution is experimenting
+ with using rEFInd on EFI-based computers. As I write, the ALT
+ developers haven't yet nailed down booting from an optical disc (it's a
+ tricky and delicate task, especially when preparing a "hybrid" image),
+ but they're working on the problem. They have an RPM of rEFInd; see <a
+ href="http://packages.altlinux.org/en/Sisyphus/srpms/refind">this
+ page</a> for details.</li>
+
+<li><b><a href="http://distro.ibiblio.org/fatdog/web/">Fat
+ Dog</a></b>—This variant of Puppy Linux uses a combination of
+ rEFInd and GRUB 2 to boot its installation medium in EFI mode and
+ provides a rEFInd package in its repository set.</li>
<li><b>The <a href="http://nixos.org/nixpkgs/">Nix Packages
collection</a></b>—This site creates packages for a number of
OSes using its own packaging system.</li>
-<li><b><a
- href="https://build.opensuse.org/package/show?package=refind&project=home%3Amichael-chang%3AUEFI">OpenSUSE
- Build Service (OBS)</a></b>—This site holds a binary x86-64 build
- of rEFInd that should install on any RPM-based distribution. It doesn't
- completely set up rEFInd, though; it just places the rEFInd files in
- the <tt>/usr/share/refind</tt> directory, and a copy of
- <tt>install.sh</tt> as <tt>/usr/sbin/refind_install</tt>.
- Unfortunately, the script makes assumptions about the locations of
- files and so is useless when files are moved around in this way. Thus,
- you'll need to install manually after installing this RPM, so you might
- as well download the rEFInd binary <tt>.zip</tt> file from Sourceforge
- instead.</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
<hr />
-<p>copyright © 2012 by Roderick W. Smith</p>
+<p>copyright © 2012–2014 by Roderick W. Smith</p>
<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>