rEFInd doest detect legacy linux OSes
An EFI boot manager utility
Status: Beta
Brought to you by:
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I installed refind on a UEFI PC that has Windows8 (UEFI, not secure boot) and three linux versions. All the linux versions were installed in CSM mode and have grub2 installed to their respective '/' partitions - (not to /sda).
I did a manual install of refind - copying the files to the EFI partition per Rod's instructions, and edited refind.conf - uncommenting the scanfor line and added hdbios & cd options.
rEFInd didn't detect any of the linux installs - it just showed win8. If I disable legacy support in the BIOS, refind informs me that there's no CSM support - so it is trying to find an OS.
In case I missed something, I deleted the /boot/efi/EFI/refind directory and ran the install script. Same thing - no linuxes were shown by refind.
I decided to try Boot repair. That didn't like setting mint32 as the default boot option, but when I selected the 64 bit mint13 partition, it reinstalled grub and that gave me a working grub menu from which I could select all four OSes (in CSM or UEFI modes).
After Boot Repair had run, I noticed that the refind boot menu (which had been renamed to bkp..... something or another), now included the /boot/efi/EFI/linuxmint/grub64.efi boot option.
It looks like refind can detect .efi files in the EFI partition, but it cant seem to detect linux/grub installs.
The documentation says manual stanzas for legacy OSes aren't supported. I cant use the kernel stub loader as I'm booting a prior kernel (Mint13 - the LTS, uses 3.2.0).
Is refind not capable of detecting and booting (or chainloading) legacy linux OSes? or am I missing some steps?
It seems to me that being able to boot legacy is a pretty important function for a boot manager. After all, once all the OSes support EFI boot, it rather removes some of the value of refind. Rod's website is very clear on how to manually install refind (thanks Rod), but IMO rather vague on setting it up for legacy OSes. It would be great if there was an example on how to do that for any common legacy linux.
I much prefer the look of refind over grub, and would like to get it working if possible.
Thanks
Incidently, the 3 linux OSes are mint13 - 32bit mate, 64bit maya, and an older Ubuntu10.04.
rEFInd can launch BIOS boot loaders, but on UEFI-based PCS, this works only if they're installed in the MBR and if rEFInd was compiled with the TianoCore EDK2 toolkit (which my binaries are).
I consider legacy-mode boot support in rEFInd to be something that should be used as a stopgap measure when absolutely required; rEFInd is an EFI boot loader, and as such, you should use it with EFI-mode boot loaders and OSes whenever possible. If you're having problems with EFI-mode booting of Linux, you'll have to treat the disk like a disk on a BIOS-based computer and put a BIOS-mode boot loader in the disk's MBR.