X-Git-Url: https://code.delx.au/refind/blobdiff_plain/0d5ee58bd6562186ea980fcca99484d8272369bf..d2370de648f795ccdf7fe76786c9516568cbe529:/docs/refind/getting.html
diff --git a/docs/refind/getting.html b/docs/refind/getting.html
index dc44ae0..4d81329 100644
--- a/docs/refind/getting.html
+++ b/docs/refind/getting.html
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
Originally written: 3/14/2012; last Web page update:
-5/9/2012, referencing rEFInd 0.3.4
+12/18/2012, referencing rEFInd 0.6.0
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!
@@ -97,40 +97,56 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
-- A
+
- A
source code zip file—This is useful if you want to
compile the software locally. Note that I use Linux with the GNU-EFI development
- tools. rEFIt used an Intel/Microsoft toolchain. Backporting rEFInd to
- that toolchain is theoretically possible, but I've not attempted
- it.
+ href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/tianocore/">TianoCore EFI
+ Development Kit 2 (EDK2) to build my binaries (below), although the
+ GNU-EFI
+ development tools are also supported. rEFIt used an Intel/Microsoft
+ toolchain. Backporting rEFInd to that toolchain is theoretically
+ possible, but I've not attempted it.
- A
+ href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.6.0/refind-bin-0.6.0.zip/download">A
binary zip file—Download this if you want to install
- rEFInd on an x86 or x86-64 computer and have no need to
- test rEFInd first by booting it on an optical disc. This zip file
- package includes both x86 (aka IA32) and x86-64 (aka
- x64, AMD64, or EM64T) versions of rEFInd. Which you install
- depends on your architecture, as described on the x86 or x86-64
+ computer and have no need to test rEFInd first by booting it on an
+ optical disc. This zip file package includes both x86 (aka IA32)
+ and x86-64 (aka x64, AMD64, or EM64T) versions of rEFInd.
+ Which you install depends on your architecture, as described on the Installing rEFInd page.
+
+
+
+
- A
+ href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.6.0/refind-cd-0.6.0.zip/download">A
CD-R image file—This download contains the same files as
- the zip file, but you can burn it to a CD-R to test rEFInd without
- installing it first. (It boots on UEFI PCs, but fails on some older
- Macs.) If you like it, you can then copy the files from the CD-R to
- your hard disk. The files are named in such a way that the disc should
- boot on either 64-bit (x86-64) or 32-bit (x86) EFI
- computers. Note that there's a bug that causes rEFInd to complain about
- invalid parameters while scanning various directories. You can safely
- ignore this message, but you'll need to press a key to dismiss it. I've
- included an open source EFI shell program on this disc that's not
- included in the binary zip file, so that you can access an EFI shell
- from a bootable disc even if you don't have an EFI shell available from
- your regular hard disk. This can be an extremely valuable diagnostic
- tool if you know about about using an EFI shell.
+ 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
+ UEFI PCs, but fails on some older Macs.) If you like it, you can then
+ copy the files from the CD-R to your hard disk. The files are named in
+ such a way that the disc should boot on either 64-bit (x86-64)
+ or 32-bit (x86) EFI computers. I've included an open source EFI
+ shell program on this disc that's not included in the binary zip file,
+ so that you can access an EFI shell from a bootable disc even if you
+ don't have an EFI shell available from your regular hard disk. This can
+ be an extremely valuable diagnostic tool if you know how to use an EFI
+ shell.
- Source code via
git—If you want to peruse the source code in your Web
@@ -142,7 +158,7 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
-If you're using another platform, you can give rEFInd a try; however, you'll need to build it from source code yourself or track down a binary from another source. (Perhaps by the time you read this it will be included in Linux distributions built for unusual CPUs.)
+If you're using a platform other than x86 or x86-64, you can give rEFInd a try; however, you'll need to build it from source code yourself or track down a binary from another source. (Perhaps by the time you read this it will be included in Linux distributions built for unusual CPUs.)
To extract the files from the zip file images I've provided, you'll need a tool such as unzip, which is included with Linux and Mac OS X. Numerous Windows utilities also support this format, such as PKZIP and 7-Zip.
@@ -150,9 +166,38 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
Getting rEFInd from Your OS's Repositories
-If you use Arch Linux, you can obtain rEFInd from its repositories, in both stable and git (experimental) releases. The git release is likely to include pre-release bug fixes and new features, but those features may be poorly tested or undocumented.
+I know of a small number of pre-packaged versions of rEFInd, either in official OS repositories or in ancillary repositories:
+
+
+
+- Arch Linux—You can obtain rEFInd from the Arch
+ repositories, in both a stable version (the refind-efi package
+ installable via pacman) and an experimental release built from
+ rEFInd's git repository in the Arch User Repository (AUR), under the
+ name refind-efi-git. 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.
+
+- The Nix Packages
+ collection—This site creates packages for a number of
+ OSes using its own packaging system.
-You can also obtain rEFInd from the Nix Packages collection, which creates packages for a number of OSes using its own packaging system.
+- OpenSUSE
+ Build Service (OBS)—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 /usr/share/refind directory, and a copy of
+ install.sh as /usr/sbin/refind_install.
+ 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 .zip file from Sourceforge
+ instead.
+
+
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 drop me a line.