Multi-partition USB boot

[Tice]

I've created a pendrive with Windows 10 and Ubuntu install images.
The partition map is like this:
/dev/sdc1 FAT32 EFI
/dev/sdc2 FAT32 Win10_install
/dev/sdc3 FAT32 Ubuntu install

I've installed rEFInd onto the EFI partition, and created manual config entries to point to the other two partitions.

The problems:
1. I had to install rEFInd in /EFI/BOOT, as /EFI/refind didn't work at all. Now it seems that in this case rEFInd doesn't reads its config file. Why?
2. rEFInd cannot see the other two partitions. Actually the EFI shell doesn't see them either. There are BLKx: entries, but the filesystem cannot be seen (only the EFI partition as FS0:). As far as I know FAT32 doesn't require additional drivers... What could be the problem?
3. Is it possible to disable the scan feature of rEFInd altogether, and rely on manual config only? I would like to be sure that when I boot from this pendrive, no other OS's on the HDD can be seen. Empty "scanfor" entry doesn't seem to work.

Thank you very much in advance...
TGy

[Roderick W. Smith]

For #1, external media normally boot via the fallback filename (EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi for AMD64/x86-64/x64 systems). This is because a standard filename is required when booting on a system to which the boot program hasn't been explicitly installed, and you can't explicitly install a boot program until the system has booted. rEFInd should be reading its configuration file from the same directory as the one to which it's been installed, so EFI/BOOT in this case. If refind.conf is in EFI/refind, it will be ignored. If rEFInd is not reading its configuration file from EFI/BOOT, then something is wrong. If you could e-mail me the configuration file, I can look into it further.

For #2, my best guess is that there's something wrong with the partitions. You might check them with filesytem-check tools like dosfsck in Ubuntu or CHKDSK in Windows. Also, if you boot into Windows, be sure to do a full shutdown or explicitly unmount the disk; Windows 8 and later have a "fast startup" feature that turns a shutdown into a suspend-to-disk operation, which leaves filesystems in an inconsistent state. I don't know offhand if this affects removable disks as well as hard disks, but it's best to be sure about this.

For #3, yes; you need to uncomment the scanfor line and adjust it so that its only option is manual.

[Tice]

Thank you for the answers. I've made some changes, it seems to be promising.
The filesystems are OK, but cannot be seen by EFI shell (and rEFInd). I'll investigate further...

One more question: what do the directories "icon" and "loader" mean in a manual entry like this?

menuentry "ubuntu" {
    icon EFI/BOOT/icons/os_ubuntu.png
    volume xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
    loader EFI/boot/grubx64.efi
    enabled
}

In my understanding the "icon" is on the EFI partition, and the "loader" is on the other parition (volume defined by UUID). Am I right?

[Tice]

I've figured it out, the filesystem problem was because I copied partitions between MBR and GPT formatted pendrives.

By the way: I found an almost perfect description what I would like to achieve:
https://mmanoba.wordpress.com/2013/03/30/howto-make-multiboot-installation-usb-stick/

[Roderick W. Smith]

In the menuentry stanza you quoted, the line beginning icon identifies the icon file that rEFInd displays and the loader line identifies the boot loader program file. The intervening volume line identifies the volume used for subsequent lines' file references, but preceding lines' file references are interpreted as being on the same volume as rEFInd itself. All of this is described in the rEFInd documentation:

http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/configfile.html#stanzas

Copying a filesystem from an MBR to a GPT disk should not affect the filesystem's readability. Chances are the cause of your problem was something else.