rEFInd

rEFInd is a boot manager for UEFI and EFI-based machines.[2][3] It can be used to boot multiple operating systems that are installed on a single non-volatile device. It also provides a way to launch UEFI applications.[4][5]

rEFInd
Developer(s)Roderick W. Smith
Initial release14 March 2012 (2012-03-14)
Stable release
0.14.4.2[1] Edit this on Wikidata / 6 March 2023 (6 March 2023)
Repository
Written inC
Operating systemLinux, macOS, Microsoft Windows, TrueOS
Platformx86, x86-64, AArch64
Size~ 4 MiB
Available inEnglish
TypeUEFI boot manager
LicenseGPL-3.0-or-later,
BSD-3-Clause (original program), additional components released under various licenses
Websitewww.rodsbooks.com/refind/ Edit this on Wikidata

It was forked from discontinued rEFIt in 2012, with 0.2.0 as its first release.[6][7]

rEFind supports x86, x86-64, and AArch64 architecture.

Features

rEFInd has several features:[8]

  • Automatic operating systems detection.
  • Customisable OS launch options.
  • Graphical or text mode. Theme is customisable.[9]
  • Mac-specific features, including spoofing booting process to enable secondary video chipsets on some Mac.
  • Linux-specific features, including autodetecting EFI stub loader to boot Linux kernel directly and using fstab in lieu of rEFInd configuration file for boot order.
  • Support for Secure Boot.

Adoption

rEFInd is the default Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) boot manager for TrueOS.

rEFInd is included in official repositories of major Linux distributions.[10][11][12][13]

Development

GNU-EFI and TianoCore are supported as main development platforms for writing binary UEFI applications in C to launch right from the rEFInd GUI menu. Typical purposes of an EFI application are fixing boot problems and programmatically modifying settings within UEFI environment, which would otherwise be performed from within the BIOS of a personal computer (PC) without UEFI.[8]

rEFInd can be built with either GNU-EFI or TianoCore EDK2/UDK.[14]

Fork

RefindPlus is a fork of rEFInd that add several features and improvements for Mac devices, specifically MacPro3,1 and MacPro5,1, and equivalent Xserve.[15]

See also

References
  1. "0.14.4.2 (3/6/2023)". Archived from the original on 5 September 2023. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
  2. "Linux Multi-boot with Refind". TeeJeeTech. Retrieved 2021-09-03.
  3. Axelsson, Mats Tage. "Refind Boot Manager". Linux Hint. Retrieved 2021-09-03.
  4. Watson, J.A (29 January 2013). "The rEFInd boot loader for UEFI Systems: A life (and sanity) saver". ZDnet. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  5. "rEFInd - ArchWiki". Arch Linux Wiki. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
  6. "The rEFInd Boot Manager: Revisions". www.rodsbooks.com. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  7. "rEFIt - An EFI Boot Menu and Toolkit". refit.sourceforge.net. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
  8. "The rEFInd Boot Manager: rEFInd Features". www.rodsbooks.com. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
  9. "The rEFInd Boot Manager: Theming rEFInd". www.rodsbooks.com. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
  10. "Arch Linux - refind 0.13.2-1 (any)". archlinux.org. Retrieved 2021-09-03.
  11. "Debian -- Details of package refind in bullseye". packages.debian.org. Retrieved 2021-09-03.
  12. "Ubuntu – Package Download Selection -- refind_0.12.0-1_amd64.deb". packages.ubuntu.com. Retrieved 2021-09-03.
  13. "sys-boot/refind – Gentoo Packages". packages.gentoo.org. Retrieved 2021-09-03.
  14. "rEFInd / Code / [08c617] /BUILDING.txt". sourceforge.net. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
  15. dakanji (6 March 2021), dakanji/RefindPlus, GitHub, retrieved 7 March 2021
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