X-Git-Url: https://code.delx.au/refind/blobdiff_plain/63072e911e51d8960638fb086fc8ff0fe62ebc9d..d8f5091fd0d957c7124a4220981f915d65bdeb86:/docs/refind/drivers.html
diff --git a/docs/refind/drivers.html b/docs/refind/drivers.html
index 06031af..7dc2311 100644
--- a/docs/refind/drivers.html
+++ b/docs/refind/drivers.html
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
Originally written: 4/19/2012; last Web page update:
-11/8/2015, referencing rEFInd 0.10.0
+4/24/2016, referencing rEFInd 0.10.3
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!
@@ -185,19 +185,10 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
-- ReiserFS—This driver originated with rEFIt. It's useful
+
- Ext2fs—This driver originated with rEFIt. It's useful
for reading Linux kernels from a separate /boot partition, or
- even from a root (/) filesystem, if you use ReiserFS on it.
- Caution: If you use this driver, you should use the
- notail option in Linux's /etc/fstab file for the
- partition(s) you want the EFI to read. This is because the driver
- doesn't properly handle ReiserFS's "tail-packing" feature, so files can
- seem to be corrupted in EFI if you use this feature, which is disabled
- by notail.
-
-- Ext2fs—This driver also originated with rEFIt. It can be
- used in the same way as the ReiserFS driver. Although it's called an
- "ext2fs" driver, it also works with ext3fs.
+ even from a root (/) filesystem, if you use ext2fs on it.
+ Although it's called an "ext2fs" driver, it also works with ext3fs.
- Ext4fs—Stefan Agner modified the rEFIt/rEFInd
@@ -217,27 +208,34 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
changing /dev/sda2 to your
filesystem's device.
+- ReiserFS—This driver originated with rEFIt. It can be used
+ in the same way as the ext2fs and ext4fs drivers. Caution: If you
+ use this driver, you should use the notail option in Linux's
+ /etc/fstab file for the partition(s) you want the EFI to read.
+ This is because the driver doesn't properly handle ReiserFS's
+ "tail-packing" feature, so files can seem to be corrupted in EFI if you
+ use this feature, which is disabled by notail.
+
- Btrfs—Samuel Liao contributed this driver, which is
based on the rEFIt/rEFInd driver framework and algorithms from the GRUB
- 2.0 Btrfs driver. I've tested this driver with a simple one-partition
- filesystem and with a filesystem that spans two physical devices
- (although I've made no attempt to ensure that the driver can actually
- read files written to both devices). Samuel Liao has used the driver
- with a compressed Btrfs volume. The driver will handle subvolumes, but
- you may need to add kernel options if you're booting a Linux kernel
- directly from a filesystem that uses subvolumes. For instance, on a
- test installation of Ubuntu 14.04 alpha on such a system, I needed to
- set also_scan_dirs + @/boot in refind.conf and add
- rootflags=subvol=@ to the kernel options in my
- refind_linux.conf file. Without the first of these options,
- rEFInd could not locate my kernel; and without the second, the boot
- failed with a message to the effect that the initial RAM disk could not
- find /sbin/init. rEFInd 0.10.0 adds @/boot as a
- standard option to also_scan_dirs, and its
- refind-install and mkrlconf scripts should pick up
- the root flags, assuming the system is booted into the regular
- installation. These additions make it easier to set up rEFInd to work
- with Btrfs.
+ 2.0 Btrfs driver. I've tested this driver with simple one-partition
+ filesystems on several installations, and with a filesystem that spans
+ two physical devices on one (although I've made no attempt to ensure
+ that the driver can actually read files written to both devices). Samuel
+ Liao has used the driver with a compressed Btrfs volume. The driver will
+ handle subvolumes, but you may need to add kernel options if you're
+ booting a Linux kernel directly from a filesystem that uses subvolumes.
+ For instance, when booting Ubuntu from Btrfs, also_scan_dirs +
+ @/boot must be set in refind.conf and
+ rootflags=subvol=@ must be added to the kernel options in
+ refind_linux.conf. Without the first of these options, rEFInd
+ can not locate the kernel; and without the second, the boot fails with a
+ message to the effect that the initial RAM disk could not find
+ /sbin/init. rEFInd 0.10.0 adds @/boot as a standard
+ option to also_scan_dirs, and its refind-install and
+ mkrlconf scripts should pick up the root flags, assuming the
+ system is booted into the regular installation. These additions make it
+ easier to set up rEFInd to work with Btrfs.
- ISO-9660—This driver originated with rEFIt's author, but
he never released a final version. Its code was improved by Oracle for
@@ -264,7 +262,7 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
providing the driver mainly because it compiled cleanly with no extra
work, aside from providing a Makefile entry for it.
-
+
- NTFS—Samuel Liao contributed this driver, which uses the
rEFIt/rEFInd driver framework. Note that this driver is
@@ -337,6 +335,20 @@ initial RAM disk file! Most real computers don't suffer nearly so badly,
but some can take an extra five seconds or so to boot a kernel. I've fixed
the speed problems in rEFInd's drivers as of version 0.7.0.
+
Although I know of no readily-available hardware drivers, I do know of a couple of non-hardware non-filesystem drivers:
+
+
+
+- CrScreenshot—This driver adds a screenshot capability to any EFI. Note that it's available only as source code that requires the Tianocore EDK2 to build. I have not tested it. (Note also that rEFInd provides its own screen shot capability; pressing F10 takes a screen shot within rEFInd.)
+
+- RamDiskPkg—This is a rudimentary RAM disk driver. It must be compiled with a RAM disk image; the resulting binary is hard-coded with a fixed RAM disk image. It's therefore useful mostly for developers.
+
+
+
+Both of these drivers are useful mainly for developers.
+
+
+
Driver availability could increase in the future. If you know of
additional EFI drivers, please tell
me about them, so I can share the information here. Likewise if you
@@ -349,6 +361,8 @@ controller card.
Notes on Specific Drivers
+
+
I've tested several of the drivers described on this page on a handful
of systems. The Pfisterer ext2fs driver (from any source) works on both
ext2fs and ext3fs, but not on ext4fs—but Agner's derivative ext4fs
@@ -375,7 +389,7 @@ ways.
-copyright © 2012–2015 by Roderick W. Smith
+copyright © 2012–2016 by Roderick W. Smith
This document is licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (FDL), version 1.3.