Originally written: 3/14/2012; last Web page update:
-5/16/2014, referencing rEFInd 0.8.1
+12/12/2015, referencing rEFInd 0.10.1
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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. Some users of Arch
- Linux have reported problems booting some specific Arch Linux kernels
- with rEFInd and some other tools. For them, a variant
+ href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.10.1/refind-bin-0.10.1.zip/download">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.
+ GNU-EFI rather than the usual TianoCore EDK2. This change helps some users
+ with this problem.
-
-
+ 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.
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 install.sh
-program's --usedefault option, and perhaps the
---alldrivers option, as in bash install.sh
---usedefault /dev/sdd1 --alldrivers to install to the first partition
-on /dev/sdd. This procedure should work even on a BIOS-booted
-computer.
+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
- source code zip file—This is useful if you want to compile
+ href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/files/0.10.1/refind-src-0.10.1.tar.gz/download">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 are also supported.
+ although the GNU-EFI development
+ 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. Note that if you need to ask "what's
- git?", this is probably not the best way for you to obtain rEFInd.
+ familiar with programming tools. If you need to ask "what's git?", this
+ is probably not the best way for you to obtain rEFInd.
@@ -250,21 +237,21 @@ computer.
-
Ubuntu—Although an official Ubuntu package isn't
- available, I've created a rEFInd PPA
- for Ubuntu. To use it, type sudo
- apt-add-repository ppa:rodsmith/refind, then Ubuntu—Although an official Ubuntu package
+ isn't available, 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 apt-get install refind 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.
+ class="userinput">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
@@ -282,6 +269,18 @@ computer.
href="http://packages.altlinux.org/en/Sisyphus/srpms/refind">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
@@ -291,18 +290,13 @@ computer.
collection—This site creates packages for a number of
OSes using its own packaging system.
-
Slackware—Although it doesn't seem to provide an official
- build, this
- site has links to rEFInd binary packages for Slackware 13.37 and
- 14.0.
-
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.