X-Git-Url: https://code.delx.au/refind/blobdiff_plain/32af1a6f9af65e08b7e7bb60a5a8177eb254c8f0..462e719eec6a0f7b8283e8e11ab25455112ffbac:/docs/refind/getting.html
diff --git a/docs/refind/getting.html b/docs/refind/getting.html
index d2070f0..af4a5af 100644
--- a/docs/refind/getting.html
+++ b/docs/refind/getting.html
@@ -14,7 +14,8 @@
by Roderick W. Smith, rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
- Originally written: 3/14/2012; last Web page update: 4/14/2012, referencing rEFInd 0.2.6
+Originally written: 3/14/2012; last Web page update:
+11/6/2012, referencing rEFInd 0.4.7
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!
@@ -88,55 +89,82 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
-Note: I consider rEFInd to be alpha-quality software! Although rEFIt 0.14, upon which rEFInd is based, is beta-quality, I've changed a great deal of the code, and I'm still learning about it. I'm discovering bugs (old and new) and fixing them every day or two. That said, rEFInd is a usable program in its current form on many systems. If you have problems, feel free to drop me a line.
+Note: I consider rEFInd to be beta-quality software! I'm discovering bugs (old and new) and fixing them every few days. That said, rEFInd is a usable program in its current form on many systems. If you have problems, feel free to drop me a line.
Getting rEFInd from Sourceforge
-You can find the rEFInd source code and binary packages at its SourceForge page. Note that rEFInd is OS-independent—it runs before the OS, so you download the same binary package for any OS. You can obtain rEFInd in three different forms:
+You can find the rEFInd source code and binary packages at its SourceForge page. Note that rEFInd is OS-independent—it runs before the OS, so you download the same binary package for any OS. You can obtain rEFInd in four different forms:
-- 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.
-
-- 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 Installing rEFInd page.
-
-- 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 at least some 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.
+ 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
+ binary zip file—Download this if you want to install
+ rEFInd and/or its filesystem drivers 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 Installing rEFInd page.
+
+
+
+- A
+ CD-R image file—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
+ 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
+ browser or get the very latest version (including pre-release bug fixes
+ and updates), you can use the Sourceforge git repository. This access
+ method is most useful to programmers, or at least to those who are
+ familiar with programming tools. Note that if you need to ask "what's
+ git?", this is probably not the best way for you to obtain rEFInd.
-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.)
-If you download a zip file, you'll need to extract the files with 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.
+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.
You should be able to create a bootable USB flash drive from either the binary zip file or the CD-R image file; just treat the flash drive as if it were a hard disk and install rEFInd as described on the installation page. Using the fallback boot loader name of EFI/boot/bootx64.efi is likely to be the most useful way to install rEFInd to a removable medium.
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.
+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.
You can also obtain rEFInd from the Nix Packages collection, which creates packages for a number of OSes using its own packaging system.