REFInd explained

rEFInd
rEFInd
Developer:	Roderick W. Smith
Programming Language:	C
Operating System:	Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows, TrueOS
Platform:	IA-32, x86-64, AArch64
Size:	~ 4 MiB
Language:	English
Genre:	UEFI boot manager
License:	GPL-3.0-or-later, BSD-3-Clause (original program), additional components released under various licenses

rEFInd is a boot manager for UEFI and EFI-based machines.^{[1] [2]} 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.^{[3] [4]}

It was forked from discontinued rEFIt in 2012, with 0.2.0 as its first release.^{[5] [6]}

rEFind supports the IA-32, x86-64, and AArch64 architectures.

Features

rEFInd has several features:^[7]

• Automatic operating systems detection.
• Customisable OS launch options.
• Graphical or text mode. Theme is customisable.^[8]
• 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.^{[9] [10] [11] [12]}

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.

rEFInd can be built with either GNU-EFI or TianoCore EDK2/UDK.^[13]

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.

See also

• GNU GRUB - Another boot loader for Unix-like systems
• Comparison of boot loaders

References

1. Web site: Linux Multi-boot with Refind. 2021-09-03. TeeJeeTech. en-US.
2. Web site: Axelsson. Mats Tage. Refind Boot Manager. 2021-09-03. Linux Hint. en-US. 2020-03-16. https://web.archive.org/web/20200316124150/https://linuxhint.com/refind_boot_manager/. dead.
3. Web site: The rEFInd boot loader for UEFI Systems: A life (and sanity) saver . ZDnet. 29 January 2013. J.A. Watson. 19 February 2016.
4. Web site: rEFInd - ArchWiki. 7 March 2021. Arch Linux Wiki.
5. Web site: The rEFInd Boot Manager: Revisions. 8 March 2021. www.rodsbooks.com.
6. Web site: rEFIt - An EFI Boot Menu and Toolkit. 8 March 2021. refit.sourceforge.net.
7. Web site: The rEFInd Boot Manager: rEFInd Features. 7 March 2021. www.rodsbooks.com.
8. Web site: The rEFInd Boot Manager: Theming rEFInd. 7 March 2021. www.rodsbooks.com.
9. Web site: Arch Linux - refind 0.13.2-1 (any). 2021-09-03. archlinux.org. 2021-01-20. https://web.archive.org/web/20210120011543/https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/any/refind/. dead.
10. Web site: Debian -- Details of package refind in bullseye. 2021-09-03. packages.debian.org.
11. Web site: Ubuntu – Package Download Selection -- refind_0.12.0-1_amd64.deb. 2021-09-03. packages.ubuntu.com.
12. Web site: sys-boot/refind – Gentoo Packages. 2021-09-03. packages.gentoo.org.
13. Web site: rEFInd / Code / [08c617] /BUILDING.txt]. 7 March 2021. sourceforge.net.