href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com</a></p>
<p>Originally written: 3/14/2012; last Web page update:
-8/25/2013, referencing rEFInd 0.7.4</p>
+7/6/2014, referencing rEFInd 0.8.3</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>
<ul>
<li><b><a
- href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.7.4/refind-bin-0.7.4.zip/download">A
+ href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.8.3/refind-bin-0.8.3.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
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/0.7.4/refind-bin-gnuefi-0.7.4.zip/download">variant
+ href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.8.3/refind-bin-gnuefi-0.8.3.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; but using GNU-EFI also means that this version
- can't launch BIOS-mode OSes.</li>
+ users with this problem.</li>
<li><b><a
- href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.7.4/refind-0.7.4-1.x86_64.rpm/download">A
+ href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.8.3/refind-0.8.3-1.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
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/0.7.4/refind-0.7.4-1.src.rpm/download">source
+ href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.8.3/refind-0.8.3-1.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/0.7.4/refind_0.7.4-1_amd64.deb/download">A
+ href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.8.3/refind_0.8.3-1_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>
+ package using <tt>alien</tt>. Note that an <a href="#ppa">Ubuntu
+ PPA</a> is available, which may install more smoothly and will cause
+ rEFInd to automatically update with other packages.</li>
<!--
<li><b><a
either build.)</li>
-->
-<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.</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/0.7.4/refind-cd-0.7.4.zip/download">A
+ href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.8.3/refind-cd-0.8.3.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
computer.</p>
<li><b><a
- href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.7.4/refind-flashdrive-0.7.4.zip/download">A
+ href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.8.3/refind-flashdrive-0.8.3.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/0.7.4/refind-src-0.7.4.zip/download">A
+ href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.8.3/refind-src-0.8.3.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
<ul>
+<li><a name="ppa"><b>Ubuntu</b></a>—Although an official Ubuntu
+ package isn't available, I've created a <a
+ href="https://launchpad.net/~rodsmith/+archive/refind">rEFInd PPA</a>
+ for Ubuntu. To use it, type <tt class="userinput">sudo
+ apt-add-repository ppa:rodsmith/refind</tt>, then <tt
+ class="userinput">sudo apt-get update</tt>. You can then type <tt
+ class="userinput">apt-get install refind</tt> to install the package.
+ Thereafter, the rEFInd version will update along with your other
+ software. This package is built with GNU-EFI and is not signed with a
+ Secure Boot key; however, the install script (which launches
+ automatically when you install the package) should sign the binary with
+ a locally-generated key if it detects that your system uses Secure
+ Boot. Thus, if you've previously installed one of my binaries on a
+ Secure Boot system and added its key as a MOK, you'll have to add your
+ local key when you reboot.</li>
+
<li><b>Arch Linux</b>—You can obtain rEFInd from the Arch
repositories, in both a stable version (the <tt>refind-efi</tt> package
installable via <tt>pacman</tt>) and an experimental release built from
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>
-
-<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>
+ 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
collection</a></b>—This site creates packages for a number of
OSes using its own packaging system.</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>
<p>To the best of my knowledge, no other Linux distribution yet includes rEFInd in its repositories. That's likely to change in time. If you hear of rEFInd being included in an OS's official package set, feel free to <a href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">drop me a line.</a></p>
<hr />
-<p>copyright © 2012–2013 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>