href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com</a></p>
<p>Originally written: 3/14/2012; last Web page update:
-8/14/2014, referencing rEFInd 0.8.3</p>
+12/8/2014, referencing rEFInd 0.8.4</p>
<p>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!</p>
<p>Once you've obtained a rEFInd binary file, you must install it to your computer's EFI System Partition (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. See the Contents sidebar to the left for links to specific installation procedures. For most Linux users, an RPM or Debian package is the best way to go. If your Linux system doesn't support these formats, though, or if you're running OS X, using the <tt>install.sh</tt> script can be a good way to go. If you're using Windows, you'll have to install manually.</p>
-<p class="sidebar" style="width:95%"><b>Important:</b> A rEFInd zip file, when uncompressed, creates a directory called <tt>refind-<i>version</i></tt>, where <tt><i>version</i></tt> is the version number. This directory includes a subdirectory called <tt>refind</tt> that holds the boot loader, along with another that holds documentation, as well as miscellaneous files in <tt>refind-<i>version</i></tt> itself. When I refer to "the <tt>refind</tt> directory" on this page, I mean the directory with that precise name, not the <tt>refind-<i>version</i></tt> directory that is its parent.</p>
+<p class="sidebar" style="width:95%"><b>Important:</b> A rEFInd zip file, when uncompressed, creates a directory called <tt>refind-<i>version</i></tt>, where <tt><i>version</i></tt> is the version number. This directory includes a subdirectory called <tt>refind</tt> that holds the rEFInd binary along with another that holds documentation, as well as miscellaneous files in <tt>refind-<i>version</i></tt> itself. When I refer to "the <tt>refind</tt> directory" on this page, I mean the directory with that precise name, not the <tt>refind-<i>version</i></tt> directory that is its parent.</p>
</div>
<li class="tight"><a href="#efishell">Installing rEFInd Manually Using an EFI Shell</a></ul></li>
-<li class="tight"><a href="#wde">Using OS X Whole-Disk Encryption</a></li>
-
<li class="tight"><a href="#naming">Alternative Naming Options</a>
<ul>
<h2>Installing rEFInd Using an RPM or Debian Package File</h2>
</a>
-<p>Beginning with version 0.6.2, I've included RPM and Debian package files for rEFInd; and starting with version 0.8.3, I'm maintaining an Ubuntu PPA 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:</p>
+<p>I provide RPM and Debian package files for rEFInd; and starting with version 0.8.4, I'm maintaining an Ubuntu PPA 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:</p>
-<pre class="listing"># <tt class="userinput">rpm -Uvh refind-0.8.3-1.x86_64.rpm</tt></pre>
+<pre class="listing"># <tt class="userinput">rpm -Uvh refind-0.8.4-1.x86_64.rpm</tt></pre>
<p>On a Debian-based system, the equivalent command is:</p>
-<pre class="listing"># <tt class="userinput">dpkg -i refind_0.8.3-1_amd64.deb</tt></pre>
+<pre class="listing"># <tt class="userinput">dpkg -i refind_0.8.4-1_amd64.deb</tt></pre>
-<p>Either command produces output similar to that described for <a href="#installsh">using the <tt>install.sh</tt> script,</a> 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.</p>
+<p>Either command produces output similar to that described for <a href="#installsh">using the <tt>install.sh</tt> script,</a> 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. The shim program provided with more recent versions of Ubuntu should work correctly.</p>
<a name="ppa">
<p>If you're using Ubuntu, you should be able to install the PPA as follows:</p></a>
<pre class="listing">$ <tt class="userinput">sudo apt-add-repository ppa:rodsmith/refind</tt>
$ <tt class="userinput">sudo apt-get update</tt>
-$ <tt class="userinput">apt-get install refind</tt></pre></pre>
+$ <tt class="userinput">sudo apt-get install refind</tt></pre></pre>
<p>The PPA version will update automatically with your other software, which you might or might not want to have happen. It's also built with GNU-EFI rather than with TianoCore. This last detail <i>should</i> have no practical effects, but it might be important if you've got a buggy EFI or if there's some undiscovered rEFInd bug that interacts with the build environment.</p>
-<p>Since version 0.6.3, the installation script makes an attempt to install rEFInd in a bootable way even if you run the script from a BIOS-mode boot, and therefore the RPM and Debian packages do the same. I cannot guarantee that this will work, though, and even if it does, some of the tricks that <tt>install.sh</tt> uses might not
last for long. You might therefore want to use <tt><a href="#mvrefind">mvrefind.sh</a></tt> to move your rEFInd installation to another name after you boot Linux for the first time from rEFInd.</p>
+<p>Since version 0.6.3, the installation script makes an attempt to install rEFInd in a bootable way even if you run the script from a BIOS-mode boot, and therefore the RPM and Debian packages do the same. I cannot guarantee that this will work, though, and even if it does, some of the tricks that <tt>install.sh</tt> uses might not
persist for long. You might therefore want to use <tt><a href="#mvrefind">mvrefind.sh</a></tt> to move your rEFInd installation to another name after you boot Linux for the first time from rEFInd.</p>
<p>Since version 0.6.2-2, my package files have installed the rEFInd binaries to <tt>/usr/share/refind-<tt class="variable">version</tt></tt>, the documentation to <tt>/usr/share/doc/refind-<tt class="variable">version</tt></tt>, and a few miscellaneous files elsewhere. (The PPA package omits the version number from the file paths.) Upon installation, the package runs the <tt>install.sh</tt> script to copy the files to the ESP. This enables you to re-install rEFInd after the fact by running <tt>install.sh</tt>, should some other tool or OS wipe the ESP or should the installation go awry. In such cases you can <a href="#installsh">use <tt>install.sh</tt></a> or <a href="#manual">install manually.</a></p>
<a name="installsh">
<h2>Installing rEFInd Using <tt>install.sh</tt> under Linux or Mac OS X</h2>
-<p class="sidebar"><b>Warning:</b> If you're using a Macintosh, you should run <tt>install.sh</tt> from Mac OS X rather than from Linux. If run from Linux, rEFInd is unlikely to be fully installed. Worse, it's conceivable that running <tt>install.sh</tt> from Linux will damage your firmware, requiring that it be re-flashed. The reason is that Apple uses non-standard methods to enable a boot loader, and the Linux functions in <tt>install.sh</tt> assume standard EFI installation methods.</p>
+<p class="sidebar"><b>Warning:</b> If you're using a Macintosh, you should run <tt>install.sh</tt> from Mac OS X rather than from Linux. If run from Linux, rEFInd is unlikely to be fully installed. The reason is that Apple uses non-standard methods to enable a boot loader, and the Linux functions in <tt>install.sh</tt> assume standard EFI installation methods.</p>
<p>If you're using Linux or Mac OS X, the easiest way to install rEFInd is to use the <tt>install.sh</tt> 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, <tt>install.sh</tt> 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 <a href="#extra_installsh">extra instructions</a> for this utility.</p>
<h3>Quick <tt>install.sh</tt> Instructions</h3>
</quickstart>
-<p>
Under Linux, the <tt>install.sh</tt> 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 <tt>--esp</tt> option, or to a non-boot HFS+ partition by using the <tt>--ownhfs <tt class="variable">devicefile</tt></tt> option. Under either OS, you can install to something other than the currently-running OS by using the <tt>--root <tt class="variable">/mountpoint</tt></tt> option. (See <a href="#table1">Table 1</a> for details.)</p>
+<p>
By default, the <tt>install.sh</tt> script installs rEFInd to your disk's ESP. Under Mac OS X, you can instead install rEFInd to your current OS X boot partition by passing the script the <tt>--notesp</tt> option, or to a non-boot HFS+ partition by using the <tt>--ownhfs <tt class="variable">devicefile</tt></tt> option. Under either OS, you can install to something other than the currently-running OS by using the <tt>--root <tt class="variable">/mountpoint</tt></tt> option. (See <a href="#table1">Table 1</a> for details.)</p>
-<p>Under Linux, <tt>install.sh</tt> will be most reliable if your ESP is already mounted at <tt>/boot</tt> or <tt>/boot/efi</tt>, as described in more detail in the <a href="#linux">Installing rEFInd Manually Using Linux</a> section. (If you installed Linux in EFI mode, chances are your ESP is properly mounted.) If your ESP is not so mounted, <tt>install.sh</tt> will attempt to locate and mount an ESP, but this action is not guaranteed to work correctly. If you run <tt>install.sh</tt> 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 <a href="#mvrefind"><tt>mvrefind.sh</tt> script.</a></p>
+<p>Under Linux, <tt>install.sh</tt> will be most reliable if your ESP is already mounted at <tt>/boot</tt> or <tt>/boot/efi</tt>, as described in more detail in the <a href="#linux">Installing rEFInd Manually Using Linux</a> section. (If you installed Linux in EFI mode, chances are your ESP is properly mounted.) If your ESP is not so mounted, <tt>install.sh</tt> will attempt to locate and mount an ESP, but this action is not guaranteed to work correctly. If you run <tt>install.sh</tt> 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 <a href="#mvrefind"><tt>mvrefind.sh</tt> script</a> after you've booted in EFI mode.</p>
-<p>Under OS X, <tt>install.sh</tt> attempts to install rEFInd to the OS X root partition by default. You can pass the script the <tt>--esp</tt> or <tt>--ownhfs <tt class="variable">device-file</tt></tt> option, as noted in <a href="#table1">Table 1,</a> 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.</p>
+<p>Prior to version 0.8.4, <tt>install.sh</tt> installed rEFInd to the OS X root partition by default. I changed this because the default configuration for OS X 10.10 ("Yosemite") makes this placement unusable. Instead, <tt>install.sh</tt> now installs to the ESP under OS X, just as it does under Linux; however, the default installation location under OS X is <tt>EFI/BOOT/</tt> rather than <tt>EFI/refind/</tt>. This difference accommodates a quirk of Apple's EFI, which sometimes imposes a 30-second delay when using anything but the <tt>EFI/BOOT</tt> location. <i>If you're upgrading a working install of rEFInd to the OS X root partition, it's best to pass the <tt>--notesp</tt> option to <tt>install.sh</tt>.</i> This option is described in more detail shortly.</p>
<p>A sample run under Linux looks something like this:</p>
Not running as root; attempting to elevate privileges via sudo....
Password:
Installing rEFInd on OS X....
-Installing rEFInd to the partition mounted at '/'
+Installing rEFInd to the partition mounted at /Volumes/ESP
+Found suspected Linux partition(s); installing ext4fs driver.
+Installing driver for ext4 (ext4_ia32.efi)
Copied rEFInd binary files
Copying sample configuration file as refind.conf; edit this file to configure
on some systems!!
-Installation has completed successfully.</pre>
+Installation has completed successfully.
+
+Unmounting install dir</pre>
<p>In either case, the details of the output differ depending on your existing configuration and how you ran the program. Unless you see an obvious warning or error, you shouldn't be concerned about minor deviations from these examples. If you run into such a situation, or if you want to install in an unusual way, read on....</p>
+<p>Note that the change to an ESP location for rEFInd with version 0.8.4 means that, if you upgrade rEFInd from an earlier version, you may notice a rEFInd boot option in the rEFInd menu. This option will boot the old version of rEFInd (or the new one, if something went wrong and the old version continues to boot). You can rid yourself of the unwanted boot menu by deleting the old files or by using <tt>dont_scan_dirs</tt> or <tt>dont_scan_files</tt> in <tt>refind.conf</tt>. Before you do this, you should use rEFInd to identify the unwanted files—the filename and volume identifier appear under the icons when you highlight the option. You can then locate and delete them from within OS X. Before you delete the old files, though, you may want to copy over any changes you've made to the rEFInd configuration, icons, and other support files.</p>
+
<a name="extra_installsh">
<h3>Extra <tt>install.sh</tt> Instructions</h3>
</a>
the Terminal window. You'll need to press the Return or Enter key to
run the script.</li>
-<li>If you're using OS X 10.7's Whole Disk Encryption (WDE) feature, you
- <i>must</i> install rEFInd to the ESP, so the <tt>--esp</tt> or
- <tt>--ownhfs <tt class="variable">device-file</tt></tt> option to
- <tt>install.sh</tt> is required. I'm still a little bit foggy about
- what's required to boot the system once this is done; see <a
- href="https://sourceforge.net/p/refind/discussion/general/thread/5c7d0195/">this
- forum thread</a> for a discussion of the topic.</li>
+<li>If you're using OS X 10.7's Whole Disk Encryption (WDE) feature, or the
+ loogical volumes feature in OS X 10.10, you <i>must</i> install rEFInd
+ to the ESP or to a separate HFS+ partition. The default in rEFInd 0.8.4
+ and later is to install to the ESP. If you prefer to use a separate
+ HFS+ volume, the <tt>--ownhfs <tt
+ class="variable">device-file</tt></tt> option to <tt>install.sh</tt> is
+ required.</li>
+
+<li>If you're <i>not</i> using WDE or logical volumes, you can install
+ rEFInd to the OS X root (<tt>/</tt>) partition by using the
+ <tt>--notesp</tt> option to <tt>install.sh</tt>. Using this option is
+ recommended when upgrading from a working rEFInd installation in this
+ location.</li>
<li>If you're replacing rEFIt with rEFInd on a Mac, there's a chance that
<tt>install.sh</tt> will warn you about the presence of a program
partition and if you mount that partition at <tt>/boot</tt> in your
emergency system, and the ESP at <tt>/boot/efi</tt>.</li>
+<li>On OS X, <tt>install.sh</tt> checks your partition tables for signs of
+ a Linux installation. If such a sign is found, the script installs the
+ EFI filesystem driver for the Linux ext4 filesystem. This will enable
+ rEFInd to read your Linux kernel <i>if</i> it's on an ext2, ext3, or
+ ext4 filesystem. Note that some configurations will require a
+ <tt>/boot/refind_linux.conf</tt> file, which can be reliably generated
+ only under Linux. (The <tt>mkrlconf.sh</tt> script that comes with
+ rEFInd will do this job once you've booted Linux.) In the meantime, you
+ can launch GRUB from rEFInd or press F2 or Insert twice after
+ highlighting the Linux option in rEFInd. This will enable you to enter
+ a <tt>root=/dev/<tt class="variable">whatever</tt></tt> specification,
+ where <tt>/dev/<tt class="variable">whatever</tt></tt> is the device
+ identifier of your Linux root (<tt>/</tt>) filesystem.
+
<li>If you run <tt>install.sh</tt> on Linux and if
<tt>/boot/refind_linux.conf</tt> doesn't already exist,
<tt>install.sh</tt> creates this file and populates it with a few
<p>In addition to these quirks, you should be aware of some options that <tt>install.sh</tt> supports to enable you to customize your installation in various ways. The syntax for <tt>install.sh</tt> is as follows:</p>
<pre class="listing">
-install.sh [--esp | --usedefault <tt class="variable">device-file</tt> | --root <tt class="variable">mount-point</tt> | \
+install.sh [--notesp | --usedefault <tt class="variable">device-file</tt> | --root <tt class="variable">mount-point</tt> | \
--ownhfs <tt class="variable">device-file</tt> ] \
[--nodrivers | --alldrivers] [--shim <tt class="variable">shim-filename</tt>] [--localkeys] [--yes]
</pre>
-<p>The details of the options are summarized in <a href="#table1">Table 1.</a> Broadly speaking, they come in four classes: installation location options (<tt>--esp</tt>, <tt>--usedefault</tt>, and <tt>--root</tt>), driver options (<tt>--nodrivers</tt> and <tt>--alldrivers</tt>), Secure Boot options (<tt>--shim</tt> and <tt>--localkeys</tt>), and a user input option (<tt>--yes</tt>). Using some of these options in unusual conditions can generate warnings and prompts to confirm your actions. In particular, using <tt>--shim</tt> or <tt>--localkeys</tt> when you're <i>not</i> booted in Secure Boot mode, or failing to use <tt>--shim</tt> when you <i>are</i> booted in Secure Boot mode, will generate a query and a request to confirm your installation. Consult the <a href="secureboot.html">Managing Secure Boot</a> page for more on this topic.</p>
+<p>The details of the options are summarized in <a href="#table1">Table 1.</a> Broadly speaking, they come in four classes: installation location options (<tt>--
notesp</tt>, <tt>--usedefault</tt>, and <tt>--root</tt>), driver options (<tt>--nodrivers</tt> and <tt>--alldrivers</tt>), Secure Boot options (<tt>--shim</tt> and <tt>--localkeys</tt>), and a user input option (<tt>--yes</tt>). Using some of these options in unusual conditions can generate warnings and prompts to confirm your actions. In particular, using <tt>--shim</tt> or <tt>--localkeys</tt> when you're <i>not</i> booted in Secure Boot mode, or failing to use <tt>--shim</tt> when you <i>are</i> booted in Secure Boot mode, will generate a query and a request to confirm your installation. Consult the <a href="secureboot.html">Managing Secure Boot</a> page for more on this topic.</p>
<table border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="2" summary="Table 1: Options to <tt>install.sh</tt>"><a name="table1"><caption><b>Table 1: Options to <tt>install.sh</tt></b></caption></a>
<tr>
<th>Explanation</th>
</tr>
<tr>
- <td><tt>--esp</tt></td>
- <td>This option tells <tt>install.sh</tt> 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 <tt>--esp</tt> 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 <tt>--usedefault</tt>.</td>
+ <td><tt>--notesp</tt></td>
+ <td>This option, which is valid only under OS X, tells <tt>install.sh</tt> to install rEFInd to the OS X root partition rather than to the ESP. This behavior was the default in rEFInd 0.8.3 and earlier, so you may want to use it when upgrading installations of that version, unless you used <tt>--esp</tt> (which is now the default behavior, although the <tt>--esp</tt> option no longer exists) or <tt>--ownhfs</tt>. You may also want to use <tt>--notesp</tt> on new installations if you're sure you're <i>not</i> using whole-disk encryption or logical volumes.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><tt>--usedefault <tt class="variable">device-file</tt></tt></td>
- <td>You can install rEFInd to a disk using the default/fallback filename of <tt>EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi</tt> (and <tt>EFI/BOOT/bootia32.efi</tt>, if the 32-bit build is available) using this option. The <tt class="variable">device-file</tt> should be an <i>unmounted</i> ESP, or at least a FAT partition, as in <tt>--usedefault /dev/sdc1</tt>. Your computer's NVRAM entries will <i>not</i> 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 <tt>--esp</tt> and <tt>--root</tt> (except for implicit use of <tt>--esp</tt> on Linux).</td>
+ <td>You can install rEFInd to a disk using the default/fallback filename of <tt>EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi</tt> (and <tt>EFI/BOOT/bootia32.efi</tt>, if the 32-bit build is available) using this option. The <tt class="variable">device-file</tt> should be an <i>unmounted</i> ESP, or at least a FAT partition, as in <tt>--usedefault /dev/sdc1</tt>. Your computer's NVRAM entries will <i>not</i> 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 <tt>--notesp</tt> and <tt>--root</tt>.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><tt>--ownhfs <tt class="variable">device-file</tt></tt></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><tt>--root <tt class="variable">/mount-point</tt></tt></td>
- <td>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 <tt class="variable">/mount-point</tt>, including your <tt>/boot</tt> directory (if it's separate) at <tt class="variable">/mount-point</tt><tt>/boot</tt> and (on Linux) your ESP at that location or at <tt class="variable">/mount-point</tt><tt>/boot/efi</tt>. The <tt>install.sh</tt> script then installs rEFInd to the appropriate location—on Linux, <tt class="variable">/mount-point</tt><tt>/boot/EFI/refind</tt> or <tt class="variable">/mount-point</tt><tt>/boot/efi/EFI/refind</tt>, depending on where you've mounted your ESP; or on OS X, to <tt class="variable">/mount-point</tt><tt>/EFI/refind</tt>. The script also adds an entry to your NVRAM for rEFInd at this location. You cannot use this option with either <tt>--esp</tt> or <tt>--usedefault</tt>, except for implicit use of <tt>--esp</tt> on Linux. Note that this option is <i>not</i> needed when doing a dual-boot Linux/OS X installation; just install normally in OS X.</td>
+ <td>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 <tt class="variable">/mount-point</tt>, including your <tt>/boot</tt> directory (if it's separate) at <tt class="variable">/mount-point</tt><tt>/boot</tt> and (on Linux) your ESP at that location or at <tt class="variable">/mount-point</tt><tt>/boot/efi</tt>. The <tt>install.sh</tt> script then installs rEFInd to the appropriate location—on Linux, <tt class="variable">/mount-point</tt><tt>/boot/EFI/refind</tt> or <tt class="variable">/mount-point</tt><tt>/boot/efi/EFI/refind</tt>, depending on where you've mounted your ESP. Under OS X, this option is only useful in conjunction with <tt>--notesp</tt>, in which case rEFInd will install to <tt class="variable">/mount-point</tt><tt>/EFI/refind</tt>. The script also adds an entry to your NVRAM for rEFInd at this location. You cannot use this option with <tt>--usedefault</tt>. Note that this option is <i>not</i> needed when doing a dual-boot Linux/OS X installation; just install normally in OS X.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><tt>--nodrivers</tt></td>
- <td>Ordinarily <tt>install.sh</tt> attempts to install the driver required to read <tt>/boot</tt> 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 <tt>--nodrivers</tt> option. This option is the default on OS X or when you use <tt>--usedefault</tt>.</td>
+ <td>Ordinarily <tt>install.sh</tt> attempts to install the driver required to read <tt>/boot</tt> 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 <tt>--nodrivers</tt> option. This option is the implicit when you use <tt>--usedefault</tt>.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><tt>--alldrivers</tt></td>
- <td>When you specify this option, <tt>install.sh</tt> copies <i>all</i> 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.</td>
+ <td>When you specify this option, <tt>install.sh</tt> copies <i>all</i> 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. Note that some computers hang or fail to work with any drivers if you use this option, so use it with caution.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><tt>--shim <tt class="variable">shim-filename</tt></tt> or <tt>--preloader <tt class="variable">preloader-filename</tt></tt></td>
</tr>
</table>
-<p>In any event, you should peruse the script's output to ensure that everything looks OK. <tt>install.sh</tt> 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.</p>
+<p>After you run <tt>install.sh</tt>, you should peruse the script's output to ensure that everything looks OK. <tt>install.sh</tt> 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.</p>
<a name="manual">
<h2>Installing rEFInd Manually</h2>
<li>Type <tt><b>rm refind_ia32.efi</b></tt> to remove the IA32 binary if you're using an <i>x</i>86-64 (64-bit) system; or type <tt><b>rm refind_x64.efi</b></tt> to remove the <i>x</i>86-64 binary if you're using an <i>x</i>86 (32-bit) system. (Note that you must keep the version that's the correct bit width for your EFI; if you've installed a 32-bit Linux on a 64-bit PC with a 64-bit EFI, you'd keep <tt>refind_x64.efi</tt>.</li>
-<li>Optionally, type <tt class="userinput">rm -r drivers_ia32</tt> to remove the <i>x</i>86 drivers from an <i>x</i>86-64 system, or <tt class="userinput">rm -r drivers_x64</tt> to remove the <i>x</i>86-64 drivers from a 32-bit <i>x</i>86 system. You may also want to remove some or all of the drivers for the architecture you are using. If you don't need them, they'll slow down the start process, and worse,
if you're using Secure Boot, rEFInd can load just one shim/MOK-signed driver. See the <a href="drivers.html">page on drivers</a> for more on this topic.</li>
+<li>Optionally, type <tt class="userinput">rm -r drivers_ia32</tt> to remove the <i>x</i>86 drivers from an <i>x</i>86-64 system, or <tt class="userinput">rm -r drivers_x64</tt> to remove the <i>x</i>86-64 drivers from a 32-bit <i>x</i>86 system. You may also want to remove some or all of the drivers for the architecture you are using. If you don't need them, they'll slow down the start process, and worse,
loading unnecessary drivers can cause some systems to hang or interfere with the drivers you do need. See the <a href="drivers.html">page on drivers</a> for more on this topic.</li>
<li>Rename the configuration file by typing <tt><b>mv refind.conf-sample refind.conf</b></tt>. Consult the <a href="configfile.html">Editing the rEFInd Configuration File</a> page for information on how to adjust your options.</li>
<p>The result should include either <tt>EFI32</tt> or <tt>EFI64</tt>, indicating that you should use the <tt>refind_ia32.efi</tt> or <tt>refind_x64.efi</tt> binary, respectively.</p>
+<p>You should also be aware of your OS X version and installation options. If you used whole-disk encryption (WDE) or a logical volume for installation, you <i>cannot</i> install to the OS X root partition; you <i>must</i> install to the ESP or to a separate HFS+ partition. WDE became an option with OS X 10.7 and logical volumes are the default in OS X 10.10. If in doubt, proceed with an installation to the ESP or to a separate HFS+ partition.</p>
+
<p class="sidebar"><b>Warning:</b> Numerous rEFIt bug reports indicate disk corruption problems on disks over about 500 GiB. <a href="https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=3218104&group_id=161917&atid=821764">This</a> report on the problem, and particularly the post by mic-marchen, suggests that the problem is related to a bug in OS X's <tt>bless</tt> utility, and particularly its <tt>--info</tt> option, that causes it to corrupt data on disks with 4 KiB sectors. These <i>Advanced Format</i> disks are becoming increasingly common, particularly at larger disk sizes. Therefore, I <i>strongly</i> recommend that you <i>not</i> type <tt class="userinput">sudo bless --info</tt> to check the status of your installation if you have such a disk, or even if you suspect you might have such a disk. (I've seen Advanced Format disks as small as 320 GB.)</p>
-<p>The procedure for installing rEFInd on a Mac is similar to that for installing it under Linux, except that you can (and probably should) install it to OS X's system partition or some other HFS+ partition rather than to the ESP, and you must use the <tt>bless</tt> utility rather than <tt>efibootmgr</tt>. To be precise, you should follow these steps:</p>
+<p>The procedure for installing rEFInd on a Mac is similar to that for installing it under Linux, except that you must use the <tt>bless</tt> utility rather than <tt>efibootmgr</tt> to register the program with the firmware. Also, you'll probably have to mount your ESP manually, since that's not done by default under OS X. To be precise, you should follow these steps:</p>
<ol>
<li>If you want to install rEFInd on your ESP, you must first mount it. You
can do this by typing <b><tt>mkdir /Volumes/esp</tt></b> followed by
<b><tt>sudo mount -t msdos /dev/disk0s1 /Volumes/esp</tt></b>. Note
- that this step is usually optional, and it makes the procedure a bit
- more complex, so you might want to forego it. On the other hand,
- installing to the ESP is required if you're using the whole-disk
- encryption feature of OS X 10.7. Note that you may need to change
- <tt>/dev/disk0s1</tt> to something else if your ESP is at an unusual
- location. Use a tool such as my <a
+ that you may need to change <tt>/dev/disk0s1</tt> to something else if
+ your ESP is at an unusual location. Type <tt class="userinput">diskutil
+ list</tt> or use a tool such as my <a
href="http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/">GPT fdisk (<tt>gdisk</tt>)</a>
to examine your partition table to find your ESP if necessary.</li>
-<li>Type <b><tt>sudo mkdir -p /efi/refind</tt></b> to create a suitable
- directory for rEFInd. If you want to place rEFInd on the ESP or some
- other partition, you should adjust the pathname appropriately, as in
- <tt>/Volumes/esp/efi/refind</tt>. Alternatively, you can use the Finder
- to create the directory.</li>
+<li>Type <b><tt>sudo mkdir -p /Volumes/esp/efi/refind</tt></b> to create a
+ suitable directory for rEFInd. If you want to place rEFInd on the OS X
+ root partition, you should adjust the pathname appropriately, as in
+ <tt>/efi/refind</tt>. Alternatively, you can use the Finder to create
+ the directory.</li>
<li>Copy the files in the <tt>refind</tt> subdirectory of the rEFInd binary
package to the like-named directory you've just created. You can do
this in the Finder or by typing <b><tt>sudo cp -r refind/*
- /efi/refind/</tt></b> in your Terminal window after changing into the
- rEFInd package's main directory.</li>
+ /Volumes/esp/efi/refind/</tt></b> in your Terminal window after
+ changing into the rEFInd package's main directory.</li>
<li>Remove the file for the version of rEFInd you're not using, as in
- <b><tt>sudo rm /efi/refind/refind_ia32.efi</tt></b> on a Mac with a
- 64-bit EFI or <b><tt>sudo rm /efi/refind/refind_x64.efi</tt></b> on a
- Mac with a 32-bit EFI.</li>
+ <b><tt>sudo rm Volumes/esp/efi/refind/refind_ia32.efi</tt></b> on a Mac
+ with a 64-bit EFI or <b><tt>sudo rm
+ /Volumes/esp/efi/refind/refind_x64.efi</tt></b> on a Mac with a 32-bit
+ EFI.</li>
<li>Optionally, remove the drivers directory for the architecture you're
- not using—<tt>/efi/refind/drivers_ia32</tt> or
- <tt>/efi/refind/drivers_x64</tt>, as appropriate. You may also want to
- remove some or all of the drivers for the architecture you are using;
- if you don't need them, they'll slow down the start process. See the <a
- href="drivers.html">page on drivers</a> for more on this topic. Note
- that Apple's firmware includes its own HFS+ driver, so the HFS+ driver
- provided with rEFInd is useless on Macs.</li>
+ not using—<tt>/Volumes/esp/efi/refind/drivers_ia32</tt> or
+ <tt>/Volumes/esp/efi/refind/drivers_x64</tt>, as appropriate. You may
+ also want to remove some or all of the drivers for the architecture you
+ are using; if you don't need them, they'll slow down the start process.
+ See the <a href="drivers.html">page on drivers</a> for more on this
+ topic. Note that Apple's firmware includes its own HFS+ driver, so the
+ HFS+ driver provided with rEFInd is useless on Macs.</li>
<li>If this is your first installation, type <b><tt>sudo mv
- /efi/refind/refind.conf-sample /efi/refind/refind.conf</tt></b>
- (adjusting the path as necessary) to rename the sample configuration
- file so that it will serve as a real configuration file. (Again, you
- can do this with the Finder, if you prefer.)</li>
+ /Volumes/esp/efi/refind/refind.conf-sample
+ /Volumes/esp/efi/refind/refind.conf</tt></b> (adjusting the path as
+ necessary) to rename the sample configuration file so that it will
+ serve as a real configuration file. (Again, you can do this with the
+ Finder, if you prefer.)</li>
<li>"Bless" rEFInd by typing one of the following two commands:
<ul>
- <li>If you're installing rEFInd to an ordinary HFS+ volume, type <tt
- class="userinput">sudo bless --setBoot --folder /efi/refind --file
- /efi/refind/refind_x64.efi</tt>. (Adjust the path and filename as
- necessary if you're placing rEFInd somewhere else or using the
- 32-bit version.)</li>
<li>If you're installing rEFInd on the ESP, type <tt
class="userinput">sudo bless --mount /Volumes/esp --setBoot --file
/Volumes/esp/efi/refind/refind_x64.efi</tt>, adjusting the mount
point and exact path to the file as appropriate for your
installation.</li>
+ <li>If you're installing rEFInd to an ordinary HFS+ volume, type <tt
+ class="userinput">sudo bless --setBoot --folder /efi/refind --file
+ /efi/refind/refind_x64.efi</tt>. (Adjust the path and filename as
+ necessary if you're placing rEFInd somewhere else or using the
+ 32-bit version.)</li>
</ul>
As per the Warning earlier, <i>do not</i> use <tt>bless</tt>'s
<tt>--info</tt> option to try to confirm the change to the boot status
<p>When you reboot, your Mac should bring up the rEFInd menu, and should continue to do so thereafter. If you make changes that break this association, you can re-run the <tt>bless</tt> command (if necessary, restoring the rEFInd files first). This might be necessary after installing system updates from Apple or if you upgrade rEFInd to a newer version.</p>
-<p>If you're replacing rEFIt, you may discover that rEFInd works on the first boot, but the system reverts back to rEFIt or a direct boot to OS X on the second boot. To fix this problem, you can remove the rEFItBlesser program, which is located at <tt>/Library/StartupItems/rEFItBlesser</tt>. This program attempts to keep rEFIt set as the default boot loader, but it also has the purpose of protecting the computer from launching the wrong OS after waking from sleep. If you want that protection, my suggestion is to install rEFIt and rEFItBlesser and then replace the <tt>refit.efi</tt> file with <tt>refind_x64.efi</tt> or <tt>refind_ia32.efi</tt> (renaming it to <tt>refit.efi</tt>. Used in this way, rEFInd will still look for its own configuration file, <tt>refind.conf</tt>, so you'll need to move it but <i>not</i> rename it. If you don't move the icons from the rEFInd package, your icons will continue to look like rEFIt icons, and you'll be missing the new icons for specific Linux distributions that rEFInd provides. One final caveat: It's conceivable that rEFItBlesser is what's causing filesystem corruption for some users, so if you've been having this problem with rEFIt, it might be worth disabling this program and not using it with rEFInd.</p>
+<p>If you're replacing rEFIt, you may discover that rEFInd works on the first boot, but the system reverts back to rEFIt or a direct boot to OS X on the second boot. To fix this problem, you can remove the rEFItBlesser program, which is located at <tt>/Library/StartupItems/rEFItBlesser</tt>. This program attempts to keep rEFIt set as the default boot loader, but it also has the purpose of protecting the computer from launching the wrong OS after waking from sleep. If you want that protection, my suggestion is to install rEFIt and rEFItBlesser and then replace the <tt>refit.efi</tt> file with <tt>refind_x64.efi</tt> or <tt>refind_ia32.efi</tt> (renaming it to <tt>refit.efi</tt>). Used in this way, rEFInd will still look for its own configuration file, <tt>refind.conf</tt>, so you'll need to move it but <i>not</i> rename it. If you don't move the icons from the rEFInd package, your icons will continue to look like rEFIt icons, and you'll be missing the new icons for specific Linux distributions that rEFInd provides. One final caveat: It's conceivable that rEFItBlesser is what's causing filesystem corruption for some users, so if you've been having this problem with rEFIt, it might be worth disabling this program and not using it with rEFInd.</p>
<p>If you want to remove rEFInd from your system, you can delete its files. The Mac will revert to booting using whatever standard boot loader it can find. Alternatively, you can use <tt>bless</tt> to bless another EFI boot loader. The GUI Startup Disk utility in System Preferences provides a simplified interface that enables you to select which OS X installation to boot, but it doesn't look for non-Apple boot loaders, so you can't use it to enable rEFInd.</p>
<p class="sidebar"><b>Warning:</b> Windows 8 implements a fast shutdown feature that helps speed up shutdown and startup operations on a single-boot computer. Unfortunately, this feature can cause filesystem corruption if it's used on a multi-boot computer. You can disable the feature by launching an Administrator Command Prompt window and typing <tt class="userinput">powercfg /h off</tt> in it.</p>
-<p>To install rEFInd under Windows, you must first find a way to access the ESP, which Windows normally hides from view. One way to accomplish this goal, and to proceed forward once the ESP is accessible, is as follows:</p>
+<p>Attempt this method of installation only on a UEFI-based PC; this method will not work on Windows that's installed on a Mac in BIOS/CSM/legacy mode. To install rEFInd under Windows, you must first find a way to access the ESP, which Windows normally hides from view. One way to accomplish this goal, and to proceed forward once the ESP is accessible, is as follows:</p>
<ol>
<li>Type <b><tt>cd EFI\refind</tt></b> to change into the <tt>refind</tt> subdirectory</li>
-<li>You may want to selectively delete some of the drivers in the <tt>drivers_x64</tt> or <tt>drivers_ia32</tt> directory, depending on your architecture and needs. Unnecessary drivers will slow the rEFInd start process. See the <a href="drivers.html">page on drivers</a> for more on this topic.</li>
+<li>You may want to selectively delete some of the drivers in the <tt>drivers_x64</tt> or <tt>drivers_ia32</tt> directory, depending on your architecture and needs. Unnecessary drivers will slow the rEFInd start process
, and can even cause the drivers you need to not work or cause a system crash. See the <a href="drivers.html">page on drivers</a> for more on this topic.</li>
<li>Type <b><tt>rename refind.conf-sample refind.conf</tt></b> to rename rEFInd's configuration file.</li>
</ol>
-<p>At this point, when you reboot, rEFInd should appear as your new default boot program. One caveat: My only EFI Windows installation uses UEFI DUET, which "forgets" its boot options upon reboot. Thus, I'm unable to test the last two steps (which were provided by a helpful user) myself. If it doesn't work for you, you have several other options, such as:</p>
+<p>At this point, when you reboot, rEFInd should appear as your new default boot program. If it doesn't work for you, you have several other options, such as:</p>
<ul>
-<li>You can rename files on the ESP. as described
in the next section, <a href="#naming">Alternative Naming Options.</a></li>
+<li>You can rename files on the ESP. as described
later, in <a href="#naming">Alternative Naming Options.</a></li>
<li>You can boot from an optical disc into an emergency OS to do the job. Ubuntu, for instance, provides an EFI-bootable installer with a "try before installation" mode. You'll need to type <b><tt>sudo apt-get install efibootmgr</tt></b> to install <tt>efibootmgr</tt>, but you can then use that program as described <a href="#efibootmgr">earlier</a>. (If you're using Ubuntu, you'll need to precede the command with <b><tt>sudo</tt></b>. If you use an Ubuntu image, you can install rEFInd <a href="#ppa">via its PPA,</a> which is an easy way to do the job. (In fact, the rEFInd PPA depends on the <tt>efibootmgr</tt> package, so you shouldn't need to manually install it.) The PPA approach may even be easier than installing from Windows using its tools, at least if you're familiar with Linux and have an Ubuntu desktop image handy.</li>
need to adjust them if it's not.) If rEFInd's source files are on
another device, you must identify it, too.</li>
-<p class="sidebar"><b>Note:</b> Skip ahead to step #9 if you're merely re-activating an already-installed rEFInd binary. If an entry exists but it's no longer the primary one, you can skip ahead to step #14.</p>
+<p class="sidebar"><b>Note:</b> Skip ahead to step #12 if you're merely re-activating an already-installed rEFInd binary. If an entry exists but it's no longer the primary one, you can skip ahead to step #14.</p>
<li>If necessary, create a directory for rEFInd by typing <tt
class="userinput">mkdir fs0:\EFI\refind</tt>. (If the <tt>fs0:\EFI</tt>
(<tt>3</tt> in this example), filesystem (<tt>fs0:</tt>), and filename
(<tt>\EFI\refind\refind_x64.efi</tt>) as necessary for your system. If
you're used to Linux, be sure to use backslashes (<tt>\</tt>), not
- Linux-style forward slashes (<tt>/</tt>) as directory separators. Note
+ Linux-style forward slashes (<tt>/</tt>), as directory separators. Note
that some shells may ignore the number you entered and use another one,
so watch for this possibility.</li>
<p>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 <tt class="userinput">bcfg boot dump -b</tt> 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 <a href="#naming">fallback filename</a> that your firmware will recognize.</p>
-<a name="wde">
-<h2>Using OS X Whole-Disk Encryption</h2>
-</a>
-
-<p>If you're using OS X's Whole-Disk Encryption (WDE) feature, you must do two extra things:</p>
-
-<ul>
-
-<li>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 <a href="#sluggish">section on fixing sluggish Mac boots</a> if you run into this problem.</li>
-
-<li>You must uncomment the <tt>dont_scan_volumes</tt> line in <tt>refind.conf</tt> and ensure that <tt>"Recovery HD"</tt> is <i>not</i> 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.</li>
-
-</ul>
-
<a name="naming">
<h2>Alternative Naming Options</h2>
</a>
<h3>Renaming Files Manually</h3>
</a>
-<p>Some EFI implementations do a poor job of honoring the boot options set via Linux's <tt>efibootmgr</tt> or other tools. You may also lack access to such utilities, such as if you must install rEFInd in Windows. In such cases, you may need to change the boot loader's name so that the EFI will see it as the default boot loader. rEFInd should then boot when your NVRAM lacks information on specific boot loaders to use. To do this, follow these steps:</p>
+<p>You can move and rename rEFInd manually from any OS by following these steps:</p>
<ol>
-<li>Access your ESP and install rEFInd to it, as described in earlier sections.</li>
+<li>Access your ESP, as described in earlier sections.</li>
<li>Look for an existing directory called <tt>EFI/BOOT</tt> or <tt>EFI/Microsoft/Boot</tt>. If neither of these directories exist, skip the next step. (Note that FAT is case-insensitive, so the name may vary in case.)</li>
icons directory (<tt>icons-backup</tt>, which holds the original icons,
whereas <tt>icons</tt> holds the icons from the new package). Normally
this just wastes some disk space; but if you've customized your icons,
- you'll need to copy your altered icons back. Since version 0.6.2,
- <tt>install.sh</tt> has searched for rEFInd in several locations on the
- ESP, and will upgrade whatever it finds.</li>
+ you'll need to copy your altered icons back. Under Linux, versions
+ 0.6.2 and later of <tt>install.sh</tt> search for rEFInd in several
+ locations on the ESP, and will upgrade whatever is found.</li>
<li>Under an RPM- or Debian-based Linux distribution, you can use your
package system to install a newer version of the RPM or Debian package
options, you'll waste a little disk space on duplicated icons, but the
process should otherwise work quite well.</li>
+<li>If you installed using my Ubuntu PPA or a package provided by an OS
+ distribution (such as the packages that ship with Arch and ALT Linux),
+ performing a system update will probably update rEFInd, too. Depending
+ on how the package was created, though, this update might or might not
+ install the update to the ESP; you might need to manually re-run the
+ installation script. Consult your distribution's documentation for
+ details. My Ubuntu PPA will automatically run <tt>install.sh</tt> after
+ the package is installed.</li>
+
</ul>
<p>In all cases, if the new version includes new or altered configuration file options, you may need to manually update your configuration file. Alternatively, if you've used the default configuration file, you can replace your working <tt>refind.conf</tt> with <tt>refind.conf-sample</tt> from the rEFInd zip file. (When using <tt>install.sh</tt>, this file will be copied to rEFInd's installation directory under its original name, so you can rename it within that directory to replace the old file.)</p>
detail on the <a href="secureboot.html">Managing Secure Boot</a>
page.</li>
+<li><b><a href="http://ipxe.org/">iPXE</a></b>—This tool provides the
+ ability to boot a computer from a network server. Consult the
+ <tt>BUILDING.txt</tt> file in the rEFInd source code package for
+ information on building and installing these tools. You must also
+ activate rEFInd's support by adding the <tt>netboot</tt> option to the
+ <tt>scanfor</tt> and/or <tt>showtools</tt> lines in
+ <tt>refind.conf</tt>. <i>Network-boot/iPXE support is currently
+ experimental;</i> I recommend that only developers or those who are
+ willing to use "bleeding-edge" software try it. Once activated, rEFInd
+ will present a new menu item for booting from the network server.
+ rEFInd itself will normally be installed locally. (You can deliver
+ rEFInd as a network-boot image, but that image will be able to boot
+ only OSes on the local disk.)</li>
+
</ul>
<p>I've seen links to other versions of these tools from time to time on the Web, so if you try one of these programs and it crashes or behaves strangely, try performing a Web search; you may turn up something that works better for you than the one to which I've linked.</p>
<h2>Fixing Macintosh Boot Problems</h2>
</a>
-<p>I've received a few reports of a sluggish boot process (a delay of about 30 seconds before starting rEFInd) on some Macs after installing rEFInd, as well as some other Mac-specific peculiarities. I've been unable to replicate this problem myself, and its true cause remains mysterious to me. I have found three possible solutions, though: <a href="#moving">moving rEFInd to an HFS+ volume,</a> <a href="#fallback">using the fallback filename,</a> and <a href="#clearing">clearing NVRAM entries.</a></p>
+<p>I've received a few reports of a sluggish boot process (a delay of about 30 seconds before starting rEFInd) on some Macs after installing rEFInd, as well as some other Mac-specific peculiarities. I've been unable to replicate thess problems myself, and their true causes remains mysterious to me. I have found several possible solutions, though: <a href="#fallback">using the fallback filename,</a> <a href="#moving">moving rEFInd to an HFS+ volume,</a> <a href="#clearing">clearing NVRAM entries,</a> and <a href="#wakeprobs">fixing wake problems.</a></p>
+
+<a name="fallback">
+<h3>Using the Fallback Filename</h3>
+</a>
+
+<p>I've received a few reports that installing rEFInd to the ESP using the fallback filename (<tt>EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi</tt> on most systems, or <tt>EFI/BOOT/bootia32.efi</tt> on very old Macs) can work around a sluggish boot problem. In fact, since version 0.8.4, the <tt>install.sh</tt> script copies the rEFInd binary to this name when run under OS X. If you installed manually to another name, though, renaming (and re-<tt>bless</tt>ing) the installation is worth trying.</p>
<a name="moving">
<h3>Moving rEFInd to an HFS+ Volume</h3>
</a>
-<p>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.</p>
+<p>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. (This location is not an option when using WDE or OS X logical volumes.) 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.</p>
<p>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 <tt>--ownhfs</tt> option to <tt>install.sh</tt>, as in <tt class="userinput">./install.sh --ownhfs /dev/disk0s6</tt> if the volume is <tt>/dev/disk0s6</tt>. This approach has the advantage that it can be managed via OS X's own Startup Disk tool in System Preferences.</p>
-<p>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 <tt>force</tt> option to <tt>mount</tt>; 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 <tt>/boot</tt> 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 (<tt>/</tt>) partition, but you could still use an (unencrypted) separate HFS+ partition.</p>
+<p>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 <tt>force</tt> option to <tt>mount</tt>; 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 <tt>/boot</tt> partition, in which case it would also hold the Linux kernel and related files.</p>
<p>A variant of this solution is suggested in <a href="http://www.sparxeng.com/blog/software/fixing-slow-boot-on-a-triple-boot-mountain-lion-mac">this blog post,</a> 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.)</p>
-<a name="fallback">
-<h3>Using the Fallback Filename</h3>
-</a>
-
-<p>I've received a few reports that installing rEFInd to the ESP using the fallback filename (<tt>EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi</tt> on most systems, or <tt>EFI/BOOT/bootia32.efi</tt> on very old Macs) can work around the problem.</p>
-
<a name="clearing">
<h3>Clearing the NVRAM Entries</h3>
</a>
-<p>The first is <a href="http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=12256273&postcount=200">a Web forum post</a> that describes a possible fix. Be aware, though, that this procedure involves using the <tt>efibootmgr</tt> utility on Macs, which has been known to damage the firmware on some Macs. Other reports indicate that this problem has been fixed with 3.3.0 and later kernels. Thus, I present this information cautiously and with a strong "use at your own risk" warning. If you care to proceed, I recommend you update your Linux kernel to the latest possible version and then proceed as follows:</p>
+<p>Another possible solution is documented in <a href="http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=12256273&postcount=200">a Web forum post.</a> Be aware, though, that this procedure involves using the <tt>efibootmgr</tt> utility on Macs, which has been known to damage the firmware on some Macs. Other reports indicate that this problem has been fixed with 3.3.0 and later kernels. Thus, I present this information cautiously and with a strong "use at your own risk" warning. If you care to proceed, I recommend you update your Linux kernel to the latest possible version and then proceed as follows:</p>
<ol>
</ol>
-<p>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.</p>
-
<a name="wakeprobs">
<h3>Fixing Wake Problems</h3>
</a>
<p>This example assumes that your ESP is mounted at <tt>/boot/efi</tt> and that rEFInd is installed in <tt>EFI/refind</tt> on that partition. If you've mounted your ESP elsewhere, or installed rEFInd elsewhere, you should adjust the command appropriately.</p>
-<p>The same procedure works in OS X, with the caveat that the ESP isn't normally mounted in OS X and rEFInd is installed to the OS X boot partition by default. You'll also need to use <tt>sudo</tt> to acquire <tt>root</tt> privileges. Thus, you'd probably use a command like the following in OS X:</p>
+<p>The same procedure works in OS X, with the caveat that the ESP isn't normally mounted in OS X. Thus, you must first mount the ESP, as described earlier, in the section on <a href="#osx">manually installing rEFInd in OS X.</a> (You can forego this step if you installed to the OS X root partition.) You'll also need to use <tt>sudo</tt> to acquire <tt>root</tt> privileges. Thus, you'd probably use a command like the following in OS X:</p>
<pre class="listing">
-$ <tt class="userinput">sudo rm -r /EFI/refind</tt>
+$ <tt class="userinput">sudo rm -r /Volumes/esp/EFI/refind</tt>
</pre>
-<p>Many variants of both of these commands are possible on both OS X and Linux. For instance, you'd probably use <tt>sudo</tt> on Ubuntu; and if you installed rEFInd to your ESP on a Mac, you'd need to first mount the ESP and include its path in the <tt>rm</tt> command.</p>
+<p>Many variants of both of these commands are possible on both OS X and Linux. For instance, you'd probably use <tt>sudo</tt> on Ubuntu.</p>
<p>If you installed via an RPM or Debian package in Linux, using your package manager will remove the package files, but not the files that the installer places on your ESP. Thus, you must uninstall those files manually, as just described. To complete the job, you'll also have to remove <tt>/boot/refind_linux.conf</tt>, and perhaps the <tt>/etc/refind.d</tt> directory.</p>
BootOrder: 0007
Boot0007* CD/DVD Drive</pre>
-<p class="sidebar"><b>Warning:</b> As noted earlier, <tt>efibootmgr</tt> has been linked to firmware corruption on some Macs, at least with pre-3.0 Linux kernels. Therefore, I don't recommend using <tt>efibootmgr</tt> on Macs.</p>
+<p class="sidebar"><b>Warning:</b> As noted earlier, <tt>efibootmgr</tt> has been linked to firmware corruption on some Macs, at least with pre-3.3.0 Linux kernels. Therefore, I don't recommend using <tt>efibootmgr</tt> on Macs.</p>
-<p>This example shows use of <tt>efibootmgr</tt>'s <tt>--verbose</tt> (<tt>-v</tt>) option to display boot loaders so as to identify which one is rEFInd, followed by <tt>--delete-bootnum</tt> (<tt>-B</tt>) to delete a boot program and <tt>--bootnum</tt> (<tt>-b</tt>) to identify which one to delete. Of course, in this example there's not much else left, so you'd presumably want to install another boot loader at this point! If you already have another one installed, you may want to check the <tt>BootOrder</tt> line to determine which one will take precedence when you reboot. If you don't like what it shows, you can adjust it with the <tt>--bootorder</tt> (<tt>-o</tt>) option; consult <tt>efibootmgr</tt>'s <tt>man</tt> page for details.</p>
+<p>This example shows use of <tt>efibootmgr</tt>'s <tt>--verbose</tt> (<tt>-v</tt>) option to display boot programs so as to identify which one is rEFInd, followed by <tt>--delete-bootnum</tt> (<tt>-B</tt>) to delete a boot program and <tt>--bootnum</tt> (<tt>-b</tt>) to identify which one to delete. Of course, in this example there's not much else left, so you'd presumably want to install another boot program at this point! If you already have another one installed, you may want to check the <tt>BootOrder</tt> line to determine which one will take precedence when you reboot. If you don't like what it shows, you can adjust it with the <tt>--bootorder</tt> (<tt>-o</tt>) option; consult <tt>efibootmgr</tt>'s <tt>man</tt> page for details.</p>
<p>If you're not using Linux, you may be able to find a utility that serves a similar function. The OS X <tt>bless</tt> utility (or its GUI equivalent, the Startup Disk item in System Preferences) should do the trick; but Macs pick up standard OS X boot loaders when they boot and find that a configured non-standard boot loader is missing, so this shouldn't be necessary on Macs. Under Windows, the <tt>bcdedit</tt> command, described in the <a href="#windows">section on installing rEFInd under Windows,</a> may work, although I've not attempted this.</p>