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:
+6/24/2016, referencing rEFInd 0.10.3
-
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!
+
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!
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 several different forms:
-
A
- source code zip file—This is useful if you want to
- compile the software locally. Note that I use Linux with the A
+ binary zip file—Download this if you want to install rEFInd
+ and/or its filesystem drivers on an x86, x86-64, or ARM64
+ computer and have no need to test rEFInd first by booting it on an optical
+ disc. This zip file package includes x86 (aka IA32), x86-64
+ (aka x64, AMD64, or EM64T), and ARM64 (aka AARCH64 or AA64) versions
+ of rEFInd. Which you install depends on your architecture, as described on
+ the Installing rEFInd page. Some users of Arch
+ Linux have reported problems booting some specific Arch Linux kernels with
+ rEFInd and some other tools. For them, a variant
+ package exists in which the x86-64 binary was compiled with
+ GNU-EFI rather than the usual TianoCore EDK2. This change helps some users
+ with this problem.
+
+
A
+ binary RPM file—If you use an RPM-based x86-64
+ 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
+ equivalent 32-bit [x86] or ARM64 packages.) This package runs the
+ refind-install script (described on the Installing rEFInd page) as part of the
+ installation process. Distribution maintainers can examine the
+ refind.spec file in the source package and tweak it to their
+ needs. The source
+ RPM file might or might not build on your system as-is; it relies
+ on assumptions about the locations of the GNU-EFI development
+ files.
+
+
A
+ binary Debian package—If you use an x86-64 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 alien. Note that an Ubuntu
+ PPA is available, which may install more smoothly and will cause
+ rEFInd to automatically update with other packages.
+
+
Note: 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 ALT Linux Rescue disc uses a Secure Boot-enabled rEFInd, though, so you may find that useful in some situations.
+
+
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.
+
+
Tip: If you want to make your own bootable USB
+flash drive, download the binary zip file or CD-R image file, prepare a USB
+flash drive with a FAT32 partition, and then use the
+refind-install program's --usedefault option, and perhaps
+the --alldrivers option, as in bash
+refind-install --usedefault /dev/sdd1 --alldrivers to install to the
+first partition on /dev/sdd. This procedure should work even on a
+BIOS-booted computer.
+
+
A
+ USB flash drive image file—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 dd or some
+ other low-level disk copying utility.
+
+
A
+ source code tarball—This is useful if you want to compile
+ the software locally. Note that I use Linux with the TianoCore EFI
+ Development Kit 2 (EDK2) to build my binary packages (above),
+ although 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.
+ tools are also supported, and are used in building the Ubuntu PPA.
+
+
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. 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.
+
I know of a small number of pre-packaged versions of rEFInd, either in official OS repositories or in ancillary repositories:
-
You can also obtain rEFInd from the Nix Packages collection, which creates packages for a number of OSes using its own packaging system.
+
+
+
Debian—Debian added rEFInd 0.10.3 to its "sid" (unstable")
+ repository in June of 2016. Because most people don't use this
+ "bleeding-edge" version of the distribution, it is not yet a practical
+ option for most users; but it is on the way. You can download and
+ install it as a separate package here.
+ Debian's inclusion of rEFInd means that derivative distributions, such
+ as Ubuntu and Mint, will eventually receive rEFInd packages, too. Be
+ aware that Debian's package is not signed with a Secure Boot key,
+ although if the sbsigntool package is installed, the
+ installation scripts will generate and use their own Secure Boot
+ keys and sign the binary with them.
+
+
Ubuntu—Two Ubuntu-specific methods of installing rEFInd in
+ this distribution exist:
+
+
+
+
Ubuntu 16.10 ("Yakkety Yak") has synced the Debian package. As I
+ write (in late June, 2016), it's not yet available in the
+ repositories, but it should appear there eventually. Note that, like
+ the Debian package, this one is not signed for use with Secure Boot,
+ but if your system includes the sbsigntool package, the
+ installer will generate a local key for this purpose.
+
+
I've created a rEFInd
+ PPA for Ubuntu. To use it, open a Terminal window and type sudo apt-add-repository ppa:rodsmith/refind,
+ then sudo apt-get update. You can then
+ type sudo apt-get install refind to
+ install the package. You'll be asked to decide whether to install
+ rEFInd to the ESP when you first install it. 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 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.
+
+
+
+
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.
+
+
ALT Linux—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 this
+ page for details.
+
+
Gentoo Linux—An official ebuild of rEFInd is available; see here for
+ details and here for
+ Gentoo's official rEFInd documentation. A separately-maintained overlay
+ exists (see here),
+ which can be compiled with TianoCore and may be more up-to-date.
+
+
Slackware—As far as I know, an official rEFInd package is
+ not available as part of Slackware; however, a Slackware
+ package from SlackBuilds is available.
+
+
Fat
+ Dog—This variant of Puppy Linux uses a combination of
+ rEFInd and GRUB 2 to boot its installation medium in EFI mode and
+ provides a rEFInd package in its repository set.
+
+
The Nix Packages
+ collection—This site creates packages for a number of
+ OSes using its own packaging system.
+
+
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.