Originally written: 3/14/2012; last Web page update: -12/6/2012, referencing rEFInd 0.5.0
+12/30/2012, referencing rEFInd 0.6.2I'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!
@@ -92,18 +92,18 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com -Once you've uncompressed a rEFInd binary zip file, you must install it to your computer's ESP (or conceivably to some other location). The details of how you do this depend on your OS and your computer (UEFI-based PC vs. Macintosh). The upcoming sections provide details. For Linux and Mac OS X, you can use the installation script, install.sh, which provides easy one-command installation on most systems. Occasionally this script will fail, though, so I also provide explicit instructions for Linux and Mac OS X. Installation under Windows also must be done manually. In some cases, you'll have to deviate from the default naming conventions, as described in a section on this topic. If you're upgrading rEFInd, see the section on upgrading. Finally, I describe how to install some additional components you might find useful. Note that this page describes installing the main rEFInd program; if you want to use the EFI filesystem drivers included with rEFInd, you should consult the page on using drivers with rEFInd.
+Once you've uncompressed a rEFInd binary zip file, you must install it to your computer's ESP (or conceivably to some other location). The details of how you do this depend on your OS and your computer (UEFI-based PC vs. Macintosh). The upcoming sections provide details. For Linux and Mac OS X, you can use the installation script, install.sh, which provides easy one-command installation on most systems. Occasionally this script will fail, though, so I also provide explicit instructions for Linux and Mac OS X. Installation under Windows also must be done manually. You can even install rEFInd using an EFI shell (version 2 only). In some cases, you'll have to deviate from the default naming conventions, as described in a section on this topic. If you're upgrading rEFInd, see the section on upgrading. Finally, I describe how to install some additional components you might find useful.
If you're using Linux or Mac OS X, the easiest way to install rEFInd is to use the install.sh script. This script automatically copies rEFInd's files to your ESP or other target location and makes changes to your firmware's NVRAM settings so that rEFInd will start the next time you boot. If you've booted to OS X or in EFI mode to Linux on a UEFI-based PC, install.sh will probably do the right thing, so you can get by with the quick instructions. If your setup is unusual, though, or if you want to create a USB flash drive with rEFInd on it, you should read the extra instructions for this utility.
+If you're using Linux or Mac OS X, the easiest way to install rEFInd is to use the install.sh script. This script automatically copies rEFInd's files to your ESP or other target location and makes changes to your firmware's NVRAM settings so that rEFInd will start the next time you boot. If you've booted to OS X or in non-Secure-Boot EFI mode to Linux on a UEFI-based PC, install.sh will probably do the right thing, so you can get by with the quick instructions. If your setup is unusual, if your computer uses Secure Boot, or if you want to create a USB flash drive with rEFInd on it, you should read the extra instructions for this utility.
Under Linux, the install.sh script installs rEFInd to your disk's ESP. Under Mac OS X, the script installs rEFInd to your current OS X boot partition by default; but you can install to your ESP instead by passing the script the --esp option.
+Under Linux, the install.sh script installs rEFInd to your disk's ESP. Under Mac OS X, the script installs rEFInd to your current OS X boot partition by default; but you can install to your ESP instead by passing the script the --esp option. Under either OS, you can install to something other than the currently-running OS by using the --root /mountpoint option. (See Table 1 for details.)
Before running this script under Linux, you should ensure that your ESP is mounted at /boot or /boot/efi, as described in more detail in the Installing rEFInd Manually Using Linux section. (If you installed Linux in EFI mode, chances are your ESP is properly mounted.) This precaution isn't necessary under OS X.
@@ -113,7 +113,8 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com # ./install.sh Installing rEFInd on Linux.... ESP was found at /boot/efi using vfat -Copied rEFInd binary file refind_x64.efi +Installing driver for ext4 (ext4_x64.efi) +Copied rEFInd binary files Copying sample configuration file as refind.conf; edit this file to configure rEFInd. @@ -129,7 +130,7 @@ Not running as root; attempting to elevate privileges via sudo.... Password: Installing rEFInd on OS X.... Installing rEFInd to the partition mounted at '/' -Copied rEFInd binary file refind_ia32.efi +Copied rEFInd binary files Copying sample configuration file as refind.conf; edit this file to configure rEFInd. @@ -164,14 +165,6 @@ Installation has completed successfully. the Terminal window. You'll need to press the Return or Enter key to run the script. -In addition to these quirks, you should be aware of some options that install.sh supports to enable you to customize your installation in various ways. The syntax for install.sh is as follows:
+ ++install.sh [--esp | --usedefault device-file | --root mount-point ] \ + [--nodrivers | --alldrivers] [--shim shim-filename] [--localkeys] ++ +
The details of the options are summarized in Table 1. Broadly speaking, they come in three classes: installation location options (--esp, --usedefault, and --root), driver options (--nodrivers and --alldrivers), and Secure Boot options (--shim and --localkeys). Using some of these options in unusual conditions can generate warnings and prompts to confirm your actions. In particular, using --shim or --localkeys when you're not booted in Secure Boot mode, or failing to use --shim when you are booted in Secure Boot mode, will generate a query and a request to confirm your installation. Consult the Managing Secure Boot page for more on this topic.
+ +| Option | +Explanation | +
|---|---|
| --esp | +This option tells install.sh to install rEFInd to the ESP of your computer. This option is only useful on OS X; on Linux, installing to the ESP is a practical necessity, so --esp is implicit on Linux. Be aware that some users have reported sluggish boots when installing rEFInd to the ESP on Macs. Installing rEFInd anywhere but the ESP makes little sense on UEFI-based PCs, except for the partial exception of removable boot media, which you can prepare with --usedefault. | +
| --usedefault device-file | +You can install rEFInd to a disk using the default/fallback filename of EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi (and EFI/BOOT/bootia32.efi, if the 32-bit build is available) using this option. The device-file should be an unmounted ESP, or at least a FAT partition, as in --usedefault /dev/sdc1. Your computer's NVRAM entries will not be modified when installing in this way. The intent is that you can create a bootable USB flash drive or install rEFInd on a computer that tends to "forget" its NVRAM settings with this option. This option is mutually exclusive with --esp and --root (except for implicit use of --esp on Linux). | +
| --root /mount-point | +This option is intended to help install rEFInd from a "live CD" or other emergency system. To use it, you should mount your regular installation at /mount-point, including your /boot directory (if it's separate) at /mount-point/boot and (on Linux) your ESP at that location or at /mount-point/boot/efi. The install.sh script then installs rEFInd to the appropriate location—on Linux, /mount-point/boot/EFI/refind or /mount-point/boot/efi/EFI/refind, depending on where you've mounted your ESP; or on OS X, to /mount-point/EFI/refind. The script also adds an entry to your NVRAM for rEFInd at this location. You cannot use this option with either --esp or --usedefault, except for implicit use of --esp on Linux. Note that this option is not needed when doing a dual-boot Linux/OS X installation; just install normally in OS X. | +
| --nodrivers | +Ordinarily install.sh attempts to install the driver required to read /boot on Linux. This attempt works only if you're using ext2fs, ext3fs, ext4fs, or ReiserFS on the relevant partition. If you want to forego this driver installation, pass the --nodrivers option. This option is the default on OS X or when you use --usedefault. | +
| --alldrivers | +When you specify this option, install.sh copies all the driver files for your architecture. You may want to remove unused driver files after you use this option, especially if your computer uses Secure Boot. | +
| --shim shim-filename | +If you pass this option to install.sh, the script will copy the specified shim program file to the target directory, copy the MokManager.efi file from the shim program file's directory to the target directory, copy the 64-bit version of rEFInd as grubx64.efi, and register shim with the firmware. (If you also specify --usedefault, the NVRAM registration is skipped.) The intent is to simplify rEFInd installation on a computer that uses Secure Boot; when so set up, rEFInd will boot in Secure Boot mode, with one caveat: The first time you boot, MokManager will launch, and you must use it to locate and install a public key. This key file will be located in the rEFInd directory's keys subdirectory under the name refind.cer. Note that I'm not providing a shim binary myself, but you can download one from here. In the not-too-distant future, most distributions will provide their own shim programs, so you'll be able to point to them—for instance, in /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/shim.efi. | +
| --localkeys | +This option tells install.sh to generate a new Machine Owner Key (MOK), store it in /etc/refind.d/keys as refind_local.*, and re-sign all the 64-bit rEFInd binaries with this key before installing them. This is the preferable way to install rEFInd in Secure Boot mode, since it means your binaries will be signed locally rather than with my own key, which is used to sign many other users' binaries; however, this method requires that both the openssl and sbsign binaries be installed. The former is readily available in most distributions' repositories, but the latter is not, so this option is not the default. | +
In any event, you should peruse the script's output to ensure that everything looks OK. install.sh displays error messages when it encounters errors, such as if the ESP is mounted read-only or if you run out of disk space. You may need to correct such problems manually and re-run the script. In some cases you may need to fall back on manual installation, which gives you better control over details such as which partition to use for installation.
@@ -247,20 +288,20 @@ Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted onIf you can't currently boot any OS (say, because a firmware update has wiped your NVRAM entries), you may find it convenient to install rEFInd using an EFI version 2 shell. Unfortunately, the bcfg command described here is not available in the EFI version 1 shell, and the version 2 shell is unusable on many firmware implementations prior to 2.3.1. Thus, this procedure won't work for all systems.
+ +In addition to emergency situations, using bcfg can be desirable if efibootmgr or other OS-hosted tools don't do the job. This happens under VirtualBox, for instance. An alternative in such cases can be to use alternative names for rEFInd.
+ +To begin, you must have a way to launch your shell. Unfortunately, this can pose a dilemma, since without rEFInd or some other boot manager, many EFI implementations lack the means to launch a shell. Some will do so, though, if the shell is stored as shellx64.efi (for x86-64) or shellia32.efi (for x86) in the root directory of the ESP. Thus, you can try copying your shell file there. You can obtain EFI 2 shells here:
+ +Note that the shell included in rEFInd's CD-R image version is a version 1 shell, so you can't use it for this purpose. You can, however, copy rEFInd's files from the CD-R. You can even launch the version 1 shell included with rEFInd and then use that to launch a version 2 shell. Once you've booted the shell, you can proceed as follows:
+ +With any luck, rEFInd will start up at this point. If not, you can check your settings using a shell or an emergency system for your OS of choice. In an EFI shell, you might type bcfg boot dump -b to view your boot loader entries and verify that rEFInd appears at the top of the list. Be sure to check the pathname for typos. If you continue to have problems, you might look into giving rEFInd a fallback filename that your firmware will recognize.
+Some sources suggest that delayed launches of rEFInd on Macs are more common when installing rEFInd to the ESP, so if you've done this, you could try re-installing it to your OS X boot partition.
+