href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com</a></p>
<p>Originally written: 3/14/2012; last Web page update:
-12/14/2013, referencing rEFInd 0.7.5</p>
+12/15/2013, referencing rEFInd 0.7.6</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>Adjusting the Global Configuration</h2>
</a>
-<p>You can adjust many of rEFInd's options by editing its <tt>refind.conf</tt> file. You can use any text editor you like for the job, but be sure it saves the file in plain ASCII text, not in a word processing format. (In theory, a UTF-16 encoding should also work, but I've not tried that myself.) Note that the EFI shell includes its own editor. If you need to make a change before you launch an OS, you can launch a shell, change to the rEFInd directory, and type <b><tt>edit refind.conf</tt></b> to edit the file. This EFI editor is quite primitive, but it gets the job done. After editing, you'll need to reboot for rEFInd to read the changed configuration file.</p>
+<p>You can adjust many of rEFInd's options by editing its configuration file. This file is called <tt>refind.conf</tt> by default; but you can use another filename by passing <tt>-c <tt class="variable">filename</tt></tt> as an option, as in <tt>refind_x64.efi -c myrefind.conf</tt> to use <tt>myrefind.conf</tt> in rEFInd's main directory. You can specify a configuration file in another directory, but to do so, you <i>must</i> use backslashes as directory separators, as in <tt>-c \EFI\other\refind.conf</tt>. This feature is intended for users who want to have rEFInd appear in its own menu, with the version launched in this way behaving differently from the original—for instance, to have a secondary rEFInd that provides boot options hidden by the main one. In this scenario, the default <tt>refind.conf</tt> would have a <a href="#stanzas">manual boot stanza</a> defining the new rEFInd instance, including its <tt>-c</tt> option.</p>
+
+<p>You can use any text editor you like to edit <tt>refind.conf</tt>, but be sure it saves the file in plain ASCII text, not in a word processing format. (In theory, a UTF-16 encoding should also work, but this has been poorly tested.) Note that the EFI shell includes its own editor. If you need to make a change before you launch an OS, you can launch a shell, change to the rEFInd directory, and type <b><tt>edit refind.conf</tt></b> to edit the file. This EFI editor is quite primitive, but it gets the job done. After editing, you'll need to reboot or re-launch rEFInd for rEFInd to read the changed configuration file.</p>
<p>Global configuration file options consist of a name token followed by one or more parameters, as in:</p>
<tr>
<td><tt>showtools</tt></td>
<td><tt>shell</tt>, <tt>memtest</tt>, <tt>gptsync</tt>, <tt>apple_recovery</tt>, <tt>mok_tool</tt>, <tt>about</tt>, <tt>exit</tt>, <tt>shutdown</tt>, <tt>reboot</tt>, and <tt>firmware</tt></td>
- <td>Specifies which tool tags to display on the second row. <tt>shell</tt> launches an EFI shell, <tt>memtest</tt> (or <tt>memtest86</tt> launches the <a href="http://www.memtest86.com/download.htm">Memtest86</a> program, <tt>gptsync</tt> launches a tool that creates a hybrid MBR, <tt>apple_recovery</tt> boots the OS X Recovery HD, <tt>mok_tool</tt> launches a tool to manage Machine Owner Keys (MOKs) on systems with Secure Boot active, <tt>about</tt> displays information about the program, <tt>exit</tt> terminates rEFInd, <tt>shutdown</tt> shuts down the computer (or reboots it, on some UEFI PCs), <tt>reboot</tt> reboots the computer, and <tt>firmware</tt> reboots the computer into the computer's own setup utility. The tags appear in the order in which you specify them. The default is <tt>shell, memtest, apple_recovery, mok_tool, about, shutdown, reboot, firmware</tt>. Note that the <tt>shell</tt>, <tt>memtest</tt>, <tt>apple_recovery</tt>, and <tt>mok_tool</tt> options all require the presence of programs not included with rEFInd. The <tt>gptsync</tt> option requires use of a like-named program which, although it ships with rEFInd 0.6.9 and later, is not installed by default except under OS X. See the <a href="installing.html#addons">"Installing Additional Components"</a> section of the <a href="installing.html">Installing rEFInd</a> page for pointers to the shell, Memtest86, and <tt>gptsync</tt> programs. The <tt>apple_recovery</tt> option will appear only if you've got an Apple Recovery HD partition (which has a boot loader called <tt>com.apple.recovery.boot/boot.efi</tt>). The <tt>firmware</tt> option works only on computers that support this option; on other computers, the option is quietly ignored. See the <a href="secureboot.html">Secure Boot</a> page for information on Secure Boot and MOK management.</td>
+ <td>Specifies which tool tags to display on the second row. <tt>shell</tt> launches an EFI shell, <tt>memtest</tt> (or <tt>memtest86</tt> launches the <a href="http://www.memtest86.com/download.htm">Memtest86</a> program, <tt>gptsync</tt> launches a tool that creates a hybrid MBR, <tt>apple_recovery</tt> boots the OS X Recovery HD, <tt>
windows_recovery</tt> boots a Windows recovery tool, <tt>mok_tool</tt> launches a tool to manage Machine Owner Keys (MOKs) on systems with Secure Boot active, <tt>about</tt> displays information about the program, <tt>exit</tt> terminates rEFInd, <tt>shutdown</tt> shuts down the computer (or reboots it, on some UEFI PCs), <tt>reboot</tt> reboots the computer, and <tt>firmware</tt> reboots the computer into the computer's own setup utility. The tags appear in the order in which you specify them. The default is <tt>shell, memtest, apple_recovery, mok_tool, about, shutdown, reboot, firmware</tt>. Note that the <tt>shell</tt>, <tt>memtest</tt>, <tt>apple_recovery</tt>, and <tt>mok_tool</tt> options all require the presence of programs not included with rEFInd. The <tt>gptsync</tt> option requires use of a like-named program which, although it ships with rEFInd 0.6.9 and later, is not installed by default except under OS X. See the <a href="installing.html#addons">"Installing Additional Components"</a> section of the <a href="installing.html">Installing rEFInd</a> page for pointers to the shell, Memtest86, and <tt>gptsync</tt> programs. The <tt>apple_recovery</tt> option will appear only if you've got an Apple Recovery HD partition (which has a boot loader called <tt>com.apple.recovery.boot/boot.efi</tt>). The <tt>firmware</tt> option works only on computers that support this option; on other computers, the option is quietly ignored. See the <a href="secureboot.html">Secure Boot</a> page for information on Secure Boot and MOK management.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><tt>font</tt></td>
<tr>
<td><tt>use_graphics_for</tt></td>
<td><tt>osx</tt>, <tt>linux</tt>, <tt>elilo</tt>, <tt>grub</tt>, and <tt>windows</tt></td>
- <td>Ordinarily, rEFInd clears the screen and displays basic boot information when launching any OS but Mac OS X. For OS X, the default behavior is to clear the screen to the default background color and display no information. You can specify the simpler Mac-style behavior by specifying the OSes or boot loaders you want to work this way with this option. (OSes that should use text-mode displays should be omitted from this list.) Note that this option doesn't affect what the boot loader does; it may display graphics, text, or nothing at all. Thus, the effect of this option is likely to last for just a fraction of a second. On at least one firmware (used on some Gigabyte boards), setting <tt>use_graphics_for linux</tt> is required to avoid a system hang when launching Linux via its EFI stub loader.</td>
+ <td>Ordinarily, rEFInd clears the screen and displays basic boot information when launching any OS but Mac OS X. For OS X, the default behavior is to clear the screen to the default background color and display no information. You can specify the simpler Mac-style behavior by specifying the OSes or boot loaders you want to work this way with this option. (OSes that should use text-mode displays should be omitted from this list.) Note that this option doesn't affect what the boot loader does; it may display graphics, text, or nothing at all. Thus, the effect of this option is likely to last for just a fraction of a second. On at least one firmware (used on some Gigabyte boards), setting <tt>use_graphics_for linux</tt> is required to avoid a system hang when launching Linux via its EFI stub loader. To add to the default list, specify <tt>+</tt> as the first option, as in <tt>use_graphics_for + windows</tt>.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><tt>scan_driver_dirs</tt></td>
<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. You may precede a directory path with a volume name and colon, as in <tt>somevol:/extra/path</tt>, to restrict the extra scan to a single volume. A volume number, preceded by <tt>fs</tt>, can be used for volumes that lack names, as in <tt>fs1:/extra/path</tt>. If you don't specify a volume name or number, this option is applied to <i>all</i> the filesystems that rEFInd scans. If a specified directory doesn't exist, rEFInd ignores it (no error results). The default value is <tt>boot</tt>, which is useful for locating Linux kernels when you have an EFI driver for your Linux root (<tt>/</tt>) filesystem.</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. You may precede a directory path with a volume name and colon, as in <tt>somevol:/extra/path</tt>, to restrict the extra scan to a single volume. A volume number, preceded by <tt>fs</tt>, can be used for volumes that lack names, as in <tt>fs1:/extra/path</tt>. If you don't specify a volume name or number, this option is applied to <i>all</i> the filesystems that rEFInd scans. If a specified directory doesn't exist, rEFInd ignores it (no error results). The default value is <tt>boot</tt>, which is useful for locating Linux kernels when you have an EFI driver for your Linux root (<tt>/</tt>) filesystem. To add to, rather than replace, the default value, specify <tt>+</tt> as the first item in the list, as in <tt>also_scan_dirs +,loaders</tt>.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><tt>dont_scan_volumes</tt> or <tt>don't_scan_volumes</tt></td>
<tr>
<td><tt>dont_scan_dirs</tt> or <tt>don't_scan_dirs</tt></td>
<td>directory path(s)</td>
- <td>Adds the specified directory or directories to a directory "blacklist"—these directories are <i>not</i> scanned for boot loaders. You may optionally precede a directory path with a volume name and a colon to limit the blacklist to that volume; otherwise all volumes are affected. For instance, <tt>EFI/BOOT</tt> prevents scanning the <tt>EFI/BOOT</tt> directory on <i>all</i> volumes, whereas <tt>ESP:EFI/BOOT</tt> blocks scans of <tt>EFI/BOOT</tt> on the volume called <tt>ESP</tt> but not on other volumes. You can use a filesystem number, as in <tt>fs0</tt>, in place of a volume name. This token may be useful to keep duplicate boot loaders out of the menu; or to keep drivers or utilities out of the boot menu, if you've stored them in a subdirectory of <tt>EFI</tt>. This option takes precedence over <tt>also_scan_dirs</tt>; if a directory appears in both lists, it will <i>not</i> be scanned.</td>
+ <td>Adds the specified directory or directories to a directory "blacklist"—these directories are <i>not</i> scanned for boot loaders. You may optionally precede a directory path with a volume name and a colon to limit the blacklist to that volume; otherwise all volumes are affected. For instance, <tt>EFI/BOOT</tt> prevents scanning the <tt>EFI/BOOT</tt> directory on <i>all</i> volumes, whereas <tt>ESP:EFI/BOOT</tt> blocks scans of <tt>EFI/BOOT</tt> on the volume called <tt>ESP</tt> but not on other volumes. You can use a filesystem number, as in <tt>fs0</tt>, in place of a volume name. This token may be useful to keep duplicate boot loaders out of the menu; or to keep drivers or utilities out of the boot menu, if you've stored them in a subdirectory of <tt>EFI</tt>. This option takes precedence over <tt>also_scan_dirs</tt>; if a directory appears in both lists, it will <i>not</i> be scanned. To add directories to the default list rather than replace the list, specify <tt>+</tt> as the first option, as in <tt>dont_scan_dirs + EFI/dontscan</tt>.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><tt>dont_scan_files</tt> or <tt>don't_scan_files</tt></td>
<td>filename(s)</td>
- <td>Adds the specified filename or filenames to a filename "blacklist"—these files are <i>not</i> included as boot loader options even if they're found on the disk. This is useful to exclude support programs (such as <tt>shim.efi</tt> and <tt>MokManager.efi</tt>) and drivers from your OS list. The default value is <tt>shim.efi, shim-fedora.efi, PreLoader.efi, TextMode.efi, ebounce.efi, GraphicsConsole.efi, MokManager.efi, HashTool.efi, HashTool-signed.efi</tt>.</td>
+ <td>Adds the specified filename or filenames to a filename "blacklist"—these files are <i>not</i> included as boot loader options even if they're found on the disk. This is useful to exclude support programs (such as <tt>shim.efi</tt> and <tt>MokManager.efi</tt>) and drivers from your OS list. The default value is <tt>shim.efi, shim-fedora.efi, PreLoader.efi, TextMode.efi, ebounce.efi, GraphicsConsole.efi, MokManager.efi, HashTool.efi, HashTool-signed.efi</tt>. To add files to the default list rather than replace the list, specify <tt>+</tt> as the first option, as in <tt>dont_scan_files + badloader.efi</tt>.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td><tt>windows_recovery_files</tt></td>
+ <td>filename(s)</td>
+ <td>Adds the specified filename or filenames to list that will be recognized as Windows recovery tools and presented as such on the second row, if <tt>windows_recovery</tt> is among the options to <tt>showtools</tt>. The filename must include a complete path and may optionally include a filesystem label, as in <tt>LRS_EFI:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\LrsBootmgr.efi</tt>.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><tt>scan_all_linux_kernels</tt></td>