Originally written: 3/14/2012; last Web page update:
-2/8/2015, referencing rEFInd 0.8.6
+7/21/2015, referencing rEFInd 0.9.0
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Adds the specified directory or directories to the directory list that rEFInd scans for EFI boot loaders when scanfor includes the internal, external, or optical options. Directories are specified relative to the filesystem's root directory. You may precede a directory path with a volume name and colon, as in somevol:/extra/path, to restrict the extra scan to a single volume. A volume number, preceded by fs, can be used for volumes that lack names, as in fs1:/extra/path. If you don't specify a volume name or number, this option is applied to all the filesystems that rEFInd scans. If a specified directory doesn't exist, rEFInd ignores it (no error results). The default value is boot, which is useful for locating Linux kernels when you have an EFI driver for your Linux root (/) filesystem. To add to, rather than replace, the default value, specify + as the first item in the list, as in also_scan_dirs +,loaders.
+
Adds the specified directory or directories to the directory list that rEFInd scans for EFI boot loaders when scanfor includes the internal, external, or optical options. Directories are specified relative to the filesystem's root directory. You may precede a directory path with a volume name and colon, as in somevol:/extra/path, to restrict the extra scan to a single volume. A volume number, preceded by fs, can be used for volumes that lack names, as in fs1:/extra/path. (This usage is deprecated.) If you don't specify a volume name or number, this option is applied to all the filesystems that rEFInd scans. If a specified directory doesn't exist, rEFInd ignores it (no error results). The default value is boot, which is useful for locating Linux kernels when you have an EFI driver for your Linux root (/) filesystem. To add to, rather than replace, the default value, specify + as the first item in the list, as in also_scan_dirs +,loaders.
dont_scan_volumes or don't_scan_volumes
@@ -335,7 +339,7 @@ timeout 20
dont_scan_dirs or don't_scan_dirs
directory path(s)
-
Adds the specified directory or directories to a directory "blacklist"—these directories are not scanned for boot loaders. You may optionally precede a directory path with a volume name and a colon to limit the blacklist to that volume; otherwise all volumes are affected. For instance, EFI/BOOT prevents scanning the EFI/BOOT directory on all volumes, whereas ESP:EFI/BOOT blocks scans of EFI/BOOT on the volume called ESP but not on other volumes. You can use a filesystem number, as in fs0, in place of a volume name. This token may be useful to keep duplicate boot loaders out of the menu; or to keep drivers or utilities out of the boot menu, if you've stored them in a subdirectory of EFI. This option takes precedence over also_scan_dirs; if a directory appears in both lists, it will not be scanned. To add directories to the default list rather than replace the list, specify + as the first option, as in dont_scan_dirs + EFI/dontscan. The default for this token is EFI/tools, EFI/tools/memtest86, EFI/tools/memtest, EFI/memtest86, EFI/memtest, com.apple.recovery.boot.
+
Adds the specified directory or directories to a directory "blacklist"—these directories are not scanned for boot loaders. You may optionally precede a directory path with a volume name and a colon to limit the blacklist to that volume; otherwise all volumes are affected. For instance, EFI/BOOT prevents scanning the EFI/BOOT directory on all volumes, whereas ESP:EFI/BOOT blocks scans of EFI/BOOT on the volume called ESP but not on other volumes. You can use a filesystem number, as in fs0, in place of a volume name. (The use of filesystem numbers is deprecated.) This token may be useful to keep duplicate boot loaders out of the menu; or to keep drivers or utilities out of the boot menu, if you've stored them in a subdirectory of EFI. This option takes precedence over also_scan_dirs; if a directory appears in both lists, it will not be scanned. To add directories to the default list rather than replace the list, specify + as the first option, as in dont_scan_dirs + EFI/dontscan. The default for this token is EFI/tools, EFI/tools/memtest86, EFI/tools/memtest, EFI/memtest86, EFI/memtest, com.apple.recovery.boot.
dont_scan_files or don't_scan_files
@@ -350,7 +354,12 @@ timeout 20
scan_all_linux_kernels
none or one of true, on, 1, false, off, or 0
-
When uncommented or set to true, on, or 1, causes rEFInd to add Linux kernels (files with names that begin with vmlinuz or bzImage) to the list of EFI boot loaders, even if they lack .efi filename extensions. This simplifies use of rEFInd on most Linux distributions, which usually provide kernels with EFI stub loader support but don't give those kernels names that end in .efi. Of course, the kernels must still be stored on a filesystem that rEFInd can read, and in a directory that it scans. (Drivers and the also_scan_dirs options can help with those issues.) As of version 0.5.0, this option is enabled in the default configuration file. The program default remains to not scan for such kernels, though, so you can delete or uncomment this option to keep them from appearing in your boot menu. Passing false, off, or 0 causes these kernels to not be scanned. (This could be useful if you want to override a setting of scan_all_linux_kernels in an included secondary configuration file.)
+
When uncommented or set to true, on, or 1, causes rEFInd to add Linux kernels (files with names that begin with vmlinuz or bzImage) to the list of EFI boot loaders, even if they lack .efi filename extensions. This simplifies use of rEFInd on most Linux distributions, which usually provide kernels with EFI stub loader support but don't give those kernels names that end in .efi. Of course, the kernels must still be stored on a filesystem that rEFInd can read, and in a directory that it scans. (Drivers and the also_scan_dirs options can help with those issues.) As of version 0.8.3, this option is enabled by default; to disable this feature, you must uncomment this token and set it to false or one of its synonyms (off or 0).
+
+
+
fold_linux_kernels
+
none or one of true, on, 1, false, off, or 0
+
When uncommented or set to true, on, or 1, causes rEFInd to "fold" all Linux kernels in a given directory into a single main-menu icon. Selecting that icon launches the most recent kernel. To launch an older kernel, you must press F2 or Insert; older kernels appear on the resulting submenu display. (You can type, as root, touch /boot/vmlinuz-{whatever}, to make /boot/vmlinuz-{whatever} your default kernel in a directory.) If you prefer to see all your kernels in the main menu, set this option to false, off, or 0. Note that this option is new with version 0.9.0, which changes the default behavior; earlier versions of rEFInd behaved as if fold_linux_kernels false was set.
max_tags
@@ -385,13 +394,17 @@ default_selection elilo
This example sets a timeout of 5 seconds; loads a custom graphic file called custom.bmp from the directory in which the rEFInd binary resides; scans the drivers and EFI/tools/drivers directories for EFI drivers; uses manual boot loader configuration but also scans for external EFI boot loaders and EFI boot loaders on optical discs; and sets the default boot loader to the first loader found that includes the string elilo. Of course, since this file specifies use of manual boot loader configuration, it's not complete; you'll need to add at least one OS stanza to be able to boot from anything but an external disk or optical drive, as described shortly.
OS stanzas in rEFInd are similar to those in GRUB Legacy, GRUB 2, or ELILO. You can use them to add EFI boot loaders to those that are auto-detected. rEFInd does not yet support manual boot stanzas for BIOS-mode boot loaders. You also cannot modify the auto-detected options; if you just want to tweak one OS's configuration, you have several options, none of which is ideal:
+
Note: Don't create manual boot stanzas unless you need to do so! Many people try to create them when rEFInd's auto-detection mechanisms will do the job just as well and with less hassle and chance of error. (Note that you can pass kernel options to a Linux kernel in the /boot/refind_linux.conf file; see the Methods of Booting Linux page for details.) Efforts to create manual boot stanzas when auto-detection can do the job just create pointless work for yourself!
+
+
Manual boot stanzas in rEFInd are similar to those in GRUB Legacy, GRUB 2, or ELILO. You can use them to add EFI boot loaders to those that are auto-detected. rEFInd does not yet support manual boot stanzas for BIOS-mode boot loaders. You also cannot modify the auto-detected options; if you just want to tweak one OS's configuration, you have several options:
+
You can use the dont_scan_volumes, dont_scan_dirs, or dont_scan_files options in refind.conf to hide the tag you want to modify, then create a manual boot stanza to replace it.
+
You can move or rename the boot loader file for the boot loader you want to tweak.
You can disable all auto-detection options and add manual configurations for all your boot loaders, even those that work fine when auto-detected.
@@ -572,10 +585,10 @@ menuentry Gentoo {
}
-
The main menu item for this entry won't look different with the submenus defined than without them; but if you press the Insert key, you'll see the submenu items:
+
The main menu item for this entry won't look different with the submenus defined than without them; but if you press the F2 or Insert key, you'll see the submenu items:
-
The main menu item appears at the top of the list—Run bzImage-3.3.0-rc7 in this example. The three submenus defined in this example's configuration file appear next, enabling you to launch in single-user mode, run the 3.3.0 release kernel, or boot via ELILO, respectively. Submenus also include an item called Return to Main Menu that does just as it says. (Alternatively, you can return to the main menu by pressing the Esc key.)
Just before launching an OS, rEFInd stores the description in the EFI variable PreviousBoot with a GUID of 36d08fa7-cf0b-42f5-8f14-68df73ed3740. The next time it launches, it reads that same variable and sets the default boot loader to that value, if it's still available and if the first item in default_selection in the refind.conf file is a plus sign (+).
+
+
Under Linux, the variable that rEFInd uses to store this information is accessible as /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/PreviousBoot-36d08fa7-cf0b-42f5-8f14-68df73ed3740. Thus, you can back up this value, modify it, and write it back out to adjust your next-booted OS. Getting this string just right can be a bit tricky, though, and if the kernel doesn't like its format, it will not let you modify the variable. If you try to modify the variable, be aware that it's stored in UTF-16 format. As with the default_selection token in refind.conf, you can enter any substring that uniquely identifies the entry you want to boot.
+
+
In principle, you should be able to use a similar procedure to force rEFInd to boot another OS by default in any other OS that supports writing EFI runtime variables. Unfortunately, I don't know the mechanisms used for this task in Windows, OS X, FreeBSD, or any other OS.
+
+
If you want to consistently boot a particular OS by default and ignore the previous boot, you can use default_selection, but omit the + at the start of the line.
