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<h1>The rEFInd Boot Manager:<br />Methods of Booting Linux</h1>
href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com</a></p>
<p>Originally written: 3/19/2012; last Web page update:
-12/15/2013, referencing rEFInd 0.7.6</p>
+3/1/2015, referencing rEFInd 0.8.7</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>
<table border="1">
<tr>
<h2>Using a Traditional Linux Boot Loader</h2>
</a>
-<p>I consider <a href="http://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/elilo.html">ELILO,</a> <a href="http://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/grub_legacy.html">GRUB Legacy,</a> and <a href="http://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/grub2.html">GRUB 2</a> to be traditional Linux boot loaders. These programs all exist independent of the Linux kernel, but they can load a kernel and hand off control to it. All three programs have their own configuration files that reside in the same directory as the boot loader itself (or optionally elsewhere, in the case of GRUB 2).</p>
+<p>I consider <a href="http://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/elilo.html">ELILO</a>, <a href="http://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/grub_legacy.html">GRUB Legacy</a>, <a href="http://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/grub2.html">GRUB 2</a>, and <a href="http://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/syslinux.html">SYSLINUX</a> to be traditional Linux boot loaders. These programs all exist independent of the Linux kernel, but they can load a kernel and hand off control to it. All four programs have their own configuration files that reside in the same directory as the boot loader itself (or optionally elsewhere, in the case of GRUB 2).</p>
<p>Ordinarily, rEFInd will detect these traditional boot loaders and provide main menu entries for them. If the boot loader exists in a directory with a name that matches a Linux distribution's icon filename, you'll automatically get a distribution-specific icon to refer to the boot loader.</p>
<li>Copy the relevant driver file for your filesystem and architecture to
the <tt>drivers</tt> or <tt>drivers_<tt class="variable">arch</tt></tt>
- subdirectory of the rEFInd installation directory on the ESP. You may
- need to create this subdirectory, too.</li>
+ subdirectory of the rEFInd installation directory on the EFI System
+ Partition (ESP). You may need to create this subdirectory, too.</li>
<li>Create a <tt>refind_linux.conf</tt> file in your <tt>/boot</tt>
directory. The <tt>mkrlconf.sh</tt> script that comes with rEFInd
loader to another. The same solution is possible under EFI, but rEFInd
offers another possibility.</p>
-<p>rEFInd 0.2.1 and later supports semi-automatic Linux EFI stub loader detection. This feature works as part of the standard boot loader scan operation, but it extends it as follows:</p>
+<p>rEFInd supports semi-automatic Linux EFI stub loader detection. This
+feature works as part of the standard boot loader scan operation, but it
+extends it as follows:</p>
<ol>
rEFInd won't scan for kernels that lack <tt>.efi</tt> filename
extensions.</li>
+<li>If a file's name ends in <tt>.efi.signed</tt>, any other file with an
+ otherwise-identical name that <i>lacks</i> this extension is excluded.
+ This peculiar rule exists because Ubuntu has begun delivering two
+ copies of every kernel, one with and one without this extension. The
+ one with the extension is signed with a Secure Boot key; the one
+ without it is not so signed. Thus, if both files are present, the one
+ without the key won't boot on a computer with Secure Boot active, and
+ either will boot if Secure Boot is inactive. Thus, rEFInd excludes the
+ redundant (unsigned) file in order to help keep the list of boot
+ options manageable.</li>
+
<p class="sidebar">A kernel whose filename lacks a version string matches an initial RAM disk that also lacks a version string in its filename. Note that you can reliably use only <i>one</i> kernel and initial RAM disk per directory that lack version numbers in their filenames.</p>
<li>rEFInd looks for an initial RAM disk in the same directory as the
initial RAM disk is identified, rEFInd passes a suitable
<tt>initrd=</tt> option to the kernel when it boots.</li>
-<p class="sidebar">rEFInd 0.2.1 and 0.2.2 used a filename of <tt>linux.conf</tt> to hold Linux kernel options; however, the Linux kernel developers plan to use this name themselves, so I've switched to <tt>refind_linux.conf</tt> as of rEFInd 0.2.3. Through version 0.4.2, rEFInd still supported the <tt>linux.conf</tt> filename as a backup to <tt>refind_linux.conf</tt>, but as of version 0.4.3, <tt>linux.conf</tt> no longer works, so you should rename rEFInd's <tt>linux.conf</tt> file to <tt>refind_linux.conf</tt> if you're upgrading.</p>
-
<li>rEFInd looks for a file called <tt>refind_linux.conf</tt> in the same
- directory as the kernel file. This file is a practical requirement for
- booting from an auto-detected kernel. It consists of a series of lines,
+ directory as the kernel file. It consists of a series of lines,
each of which consists of a label followed by a series of kernel
options. The first line sets default options, and subsequent lines set
options that are accessible from the main menu tag's submenu screen. If
<hr/>
-<p>copyright © 2012 by Roderick W. Smith</p>
+<p>copyright © 2012–2015 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>