@@ -168,6 +168,8 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
Installing rEFInd Manually Using an EFI Shell
+Using OS X Whole-Disk Encryption
+
Alternative Naming Options
@@ -206,11 +208,11 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
Beginning with version 0.6.2, I've included RPM and Debian package files for rEFInd. If you have a working RPM-based or Debian-based Linux installation that boots in EFI mode, using one of these files is likely to be the easiest way to install rEFInd: You need only download the file and issue an appropriate installation command. In some cases, double-clicking the package in your file manager will install it. If that doesn't work, a command like the following will install the RPM on an RPM-based system:
-
# rpm -Uvh refind-0.6.11-1.x86_64.rpm
+# rpm -Uvh refind-0.7.8-1.x86_64.rpm
On a Debian-based system, the equivalent command is:
-# dpkg -i refind_0.6.11-1_amd64.deb
+# dpkg -i refind_0.7.8-1_amd64.deb
Either command produces output similar to that described for using the install.sh script, so you can check it for error messages and other signs of trouble. The package file installs rEFInd and registers it with the EFI to be the default boot loader. The script that runs as part of the installation process tries to determine if you're using Secure Boot, and if so it will try to configure rEFInd to launch using shim; however, this won't work correctly on all systems. Ubuntu 12.10 users who are booting with Secure Boot active should be wary, since the resulting installation will probably try to use Ubuntu's version of shim, which won't work correctly with rEFInd.
@@ -229,9 +231,11 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
Quick install.sh Instructions
-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.)
+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, or to a non-boot HFS+ partition by using the --ownhfs devicefile 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.)
+
+Under Linux, install.sh will be most reliable if your ESP is already 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.) If your ESP is not so mounted, install.sh will attempt to locate and mount an ESP, but this action is not guaranteed to work correctly. If you run install.sh from a BIOS/legacy-mode boot, particularly on a computer that also runs Windows, you should be aware that the tricks the script uses to install itself from BIOS mode are rather delicate. You can convert to a more conventional configuration using the mvrefind.sh script.
-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. If you run install.sh from a BIOS/legacy-mode boot, particularly on a computer that also runs Windows, you should be aware that the tricks the script uses to install itself from BIOS mode are rather delicate. You can convert to a more conventional configuration using the mvrefind.sh script.
+Under OS X, install.sh attempts to install rEFInd to the OS X root partition by default. You can pass the script the --esp or --ownhfs device-file option, as noted in Table 1, to modify the installation location. This is helpful, and even necessary, in some cases, such as when your computer uses whole-disk encryption or if you use suspend-to-disk features.
A sample run under Linux looks something like this:
@@ -292,7 +296,8 @@ Installation has completed successfully.
run the script.
If you're using OS X 10.7's Whole Disk Encryption (WDE) feature, you
- must install rEFInd to the ESP, so the --esp option to
+ must install rEFInd to the ESP, so the --esp or
+ --ownhfs device-file option to
install.sh is required. I'm still a little bit foggy about
what's required to boot the system once this is done; see this
@@ -348,7 +353,8 @@ Installation has completed successfully.
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 ] \
+install.sh [--esp | --usedefault device-file | --root mount-point | \
+ --ownhfs device-file ] \
[--nodrivers | --alldrivers] [--shim shim-filename] [--localkeys] [--yes]
@@ -367,6 +373,10 @@ install.sh [--esp | --usedefault device-file | --root
--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. |
@@ -592,6 +602,8 @@ $ ioreg -l -p IODeviceTree | grep firmware-abi
Installing rEFInd Manually Using an EFI Shell
+
+
If 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.
@@ -691,6 +703,20 @@ $ ioreg -l -p IODeviceTree | grep firmware-abi
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.
+
+Using OS X Whole-Disk Encryption
+
+
+If you're using OS X's Whole-Disk Encryption (WDE) feature, you must do two extra things:
+
+
+
+- You must install rEFInd to the ESP. Unfortunately, as described earlier, this can result in a delay (usually of 30 seconds) as the firmware launches rEFInd. See the upcoming section on fixing sluggish Mac boots if you run into this problem.
+
+- You must uncomment the dont_scan_volumes line in refind.conf and ensure that "Recovery HD" is not among its options. (You can use a blank line or provide a dummy value if you want to scan all your volumes.) Alternatively, you can create a manual boot stanza to boot OS X.
+
+
+
Alternative Naming Options
@@ -920,7 +946,9 @@ $ ioreg -l -p IODeviceTree | grep firmware-abi
Most of the reports of sluggish Macintosh boots I've seen note that the user installed rEFInd to the ESP rather than to the OS X root partition. Some users have reported that re-installing rEFInd to the OS X root partition clears up the problem. This is obviously a straightforward solution to the problem, if it works. Note that rEFInd can launch boot loaders that are stored on any partition that the EFI can read no matter where it's installed; therefore, you'll still be able to launch boot loaders stored on the ESP (or elsewhere) if you install it in this way.
-The biggest drawback to this approach is that you won't be able to edit the rEFInd configuration file or move rEFInd-related binaries from an EFI shell if you install it in this way, since Apple's HFS+ driver for EFI is read-only. (The same is true of rEFInd's HFS+ driver, so it won't help you overcome this limitation.) You may also be limited in making changes to your rEFInd configuration from Linux or other OSes, too, since Linux's HFS+ drivers disable write support by default on volumes with an active journal. You can force write access by using the force option to mount; however, this procedure is noted as being risky in the Linux HFS+ documentation, so I don't recommend doing this on a regular basis. As a compromise, you might try creating a small non-journaled HFS+ volume that's dedicated to holding rEFInd. You could even mount it as the Linux /boot partition, in which case it would also hold the Linux kernel and related files. You'll need to install rEFInd manually if you try this.
+A variant of this solution is to create a small (~100MiB) HFS+ volume to be used exclusively by rEFInd. You can then install rEFInd to that volume with the --ownhfs option to install.sh, as in ./install.sh --ownhfs /dev/disk0s6 if the volume is /dev/disk0s6. This approach has the advantage that it can be managed via OS X's own Startup Disk tool in System Preferences.
+
+The biggest drawback to storing rEFInd on an HFS+ volume is that you won't be able to edit the rEFInd configuration file or move rEFInd-related binaries from an EFI shell if you install it in this way, since Apple's HFS+ driver for EFI is read-only. (The same is true of rEFInd's HFS+ driver, so it won't help you overcome this limitation.) You may also be limited in making changes to your rEFInd configuration from Linux or other OSes, too, since Linux's HFS+ drivers disable write support by default on volumes with an active journal. You can force write access by using the force option to mount; however, this procedure is noted as being risky in the Linux HFS+ documentation, so I don't recommend doing this on a regular basis on the OS X boot volume. This isn't as risky if you use a dedicated HFS+ rEFInd partition, though. You could even mount it as the Linux /boot partition, in which case it would also hold the Linux kernel and related files. If you use disk encryption, you can't store rEFInd on the OS X root (/) partition, but you could still use an (unencrypted) separate HFS+ partition.
A variant of this solution is suggested in this blog post, which recommends placing rEFInd on an HFS+ volume on the first SATA channel. (In the blogger's case, that channel used to hold an optical drive, but that drive was replaced by a hard disk.)
@@ -995,7 +1023,7 @@ Boot0007* CD/DVD Drive
-copyright © 2012–2013 by Roderick W. Smith
+copyright © 2012–2014 by Roderick W. Smith
This document is licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (FDL), version 1.3.