rEFInd
{{Short description|Boot manager for UEFI systems}}
{{lowercase}}
{{Infobox software
| name = rEFInd
| title = rEFInd
| logo =
| logo caption =
| collapsible =
| screenshot = REFInd boot selection screenshot.png
| caption = rEFInd with minimalist theme showing boot selection of Windows 10 and Ubuntu
| author =
| developer = Roderick W. Smith
| released = {{Start date|2012|3|14|df=y}}
| discontinued =
| latest release version = {{wikidata|property|reference|edit|Q19599551|P348|P548=Q2804309}}
| latest release date = {{start date and age|{{wikidata|qualifier|Q19599551|P348|P548=Q2804309|P577}}}}
| latest preview version =
| latest preview date =
| 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
| alexa =
|website = {{URL|https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind}}
}}
rEFInd is a boot manager for UEFI and EFI-based machines.{{Cite web|title=Linux Multi-boot with Refind|url=https://teejeetech.com/2020/09/05/linux-multi-boot-with-refind/|access-date=2021-09-03|website=TeeJeeTech|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|last=Axelsson|first=Mats Tage|title=Refind Boot Manager|url=https://linuxhint.com/refind_boot_manager/|access-date=2021-09-03|website=Linux Hint|language=en-US|archive-date=2020-03-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200316124150/https://linuxhint.com/refind_boot_manager/|url-status=dead}} 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.{{cite web|title=The rEFInd boot loader for UEFI Systems: A life (and sanity) saver |url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-refind-boot-loader-for-uefi-systems-a-life-and-sanity-saver/#!|website=ZDnet|date=29 January 2013|first=J.A|last=Watson|access-date=19 February 2016}}{{Cite web|title=rEFInd - ArchWiki|url=https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/REFInd|access-date=7 March 2021|website=Arch Linux Wiki}}
It was forked from discontinued rEFIt in 2012, with 0.2.0 as its first release.{{Cite web|title=The rEFInd Boot Manager: Revisions|url=https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/revisions.html|access-date=8 March 2021|website=www.rodsbooks.com}}{{Cite web|title=rEFIt - An EFI Boot Menu and Toolkit|url=http://refit.sourceforge.net/|access-date=8 March 2021|website=refit.sourceforge.net}}
rEFind supports the IA-32, x86-64, and AArch64 architectures.
Features
rEFInd has several features:{{Cite web|title=The rEFInd Boot Manager: rEFInd Features|url=https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/features.html|access-date=7 March 2021|website=www.rodsbooks.com}}
- Automatic operating systems detection.
- Customisable OS launch options.
- Graphical or text mode. Theme is customisable.{{Cite web|title=The rEFInd Boot Manager: Theming rEFInd|url=https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/themes.html|access-date=7 March 2021|website=www.rodsbooks.com}}
- 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 UEFI boot manager for TrueOS.
rEFInd is included in official repositories of major Linux distributions.{{Cite web|title=Arch Linux - refind 0.13.2-1 (any)|url=https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/any/refind/|access-date=2021-09-03|website=archlinux.org|archive-date=2021-01-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210120011543/https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/any/refind/|url-status=dead}}{{Cite web|title=Debian -- Details of package refind in bullseye|url=https://packages.debian.org/bullseye/refind|access-date=2021-09-03|website=packages.debian.org}}{{Cite web|title=Ubuntu – Package Download Selection -- refind_0.12.0-1_amd64.deb|url=https://packages.ubuntu.com/hirsute/amd64/refind/download|access-date=2021-09-03|website=packages.ubuntu.com}}{{Cite web|title=sys-boot/refind – Gentoo Packages|url=https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/sys-boot/refind|access-date=2021-09-03|website=packages.gentoo.org}}
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.{{Cite web|title=rEFInd / Code / [08c617] /BUILDING.txt|url=https://sourceforge.net/p/refind/code/ci/master/tree/BUILDING.txt|access-date=7 March 2021|website=sourceforge.net}}
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.{{Citation|last=dakanji|title=dakanji/RefindPlus|date=6 March 2021|url=https://github.com/dakanji/RefindPlus|publisher=GitHub|access-date=7 March 2021}}
See also
- GNU GRUB - Another boot loader for Unix-like systems
- Comparison of boot loaders