Tried rEFInd USB - comments & questions

[computerhelp69]

I have an HP desktop (2018 model). I use Windows 10 on an internal hard drive, with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS on an external hard drive. Each have their own ESP.

Ubuntu isn't recognized in the EFI built-in boot manager unless I've already been in Ubuntu and reboot. Until then, I have to select the HD/dock entry itself in UEFI to start Ubuntu. Doing so causes the computer to shut down, wait about 6 seconds, and then Ubuntu boots up fine. I assume this is because of HP's EFI.

The rEFInd USB allows me to select Ubuntu from the start without the extra reboot. It works great.

I have two questions before I install rEFInd on the hard drive.

1) rEFInd shows a fallback entry, but I don' know if it's referring to a Windows or Ubuntu fallback entry? Does Windows have a fallback also ?

2) Does rEFInd replace the EFI built-in boot manager, or supplement it? In other words, is the built-in boot manager still accessible by typing F9 (for HP) on boot-up?

Thank you so much for your help and for rEFInd.

[Roderick W. Smith]

Your main problem is likely caused by a delay in the EFI enabling access to the external drive. Try hitting the Esc key in rEFInd; this will cause it to re-scan for boot loaders. If that helps, try uncommenting the scan_delay option in refind.conf. You can adjust the delay value; most people report that just one second of delay is sufficient.

The fallback boot loader is EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi (or a variant depending on the EFI's architecture). That boot loader can be anything -- a duplicate of the Windows boot loader, a duplicate of GRUB, the fallback.efi/fbx64.efi program, another rEFInd installation, or something else. Short of storing a library of hashes or searching the boot loader for identifying strings, rEFInd has no way of making this determination; hence, it simply calls it the fallback boot loader. You can launch it yourself to see what it is on your system, and if desired, you can hide it from view.

rEFInd is a separate program; it does not replace the built-in boot manager.

[computerhelp69]

The install instructions for Linux say to read the man page if your setup is unusual.

Is my setup unusual if I have Windows 10 on the internal hard drive, Ubuntu on the external hard drive, each with their own ESP? Do I need to do anything different for this?

I read the man page. The only option I see that might come into play is --usedefault?

[Roderick W. Smith]

rEFInd should have no problems with systems that have multiple ESPs. The --usedefault option to refind-install adjusts the directory and filename to which rEFInd installs itself. It's intended for creating USB flash drives with rEFInd, when installing rEFInd from BIOS/CSM/legacy mode, or when the EFI is badly buggy. This feature won't affect rEFInd's ability to detect boot loaders on multiple ESPs.