iMac 21" (Late 2012) rEFInd menu doesn't show up
An EFI boot manager utility
Status: Beta
Brought to you by:
srs5694
Menu
▾
▴
Hello, I need some help please.
I have an iMac 21” (Late 2012) with Fusion drive and OSX 10.9.1 dual booted with Windows 7 via boot camp. I wanted to try rEFInd in order to replace Windows with Fedora GNU/Linux. I installed rEFInd from OSX both with the install.sh script and manually and I tried to install it both in the OSX partition and the ESP. In any case I can get the rEFInd menu at the boot up. While it was installed in the OSX partition, simply nothing happens at the boot: the iMac just loads OS X normally. After installing it in the ESP, I get a gray screen at the boot and it just stays there for maybe 10 or 15 seconds and then loads OS X normally. I have noticed that pressing the Enter key will speed up the boot and, really interesting, pressing the left key and then the Enter key will boot up Windows (i just tried to imagine there was a menu like the one shown in the screenshots. By the way, I still can't see no menu. I also tried to enable text mode in the refind.conf file but this did not work.
Thanks a lot for your interest: any help is sincerely appreciated.
Last edit: Vincintosh 2014-02-11
You can't install rEFInd to the Mac OS X partition because it's a core storage partition that consists of a partition on the hard drive and another partition on the SSD. EFI doesn't have access to core storage or software RAID volumes so it can't boot rEFInd from there. EFI boots OS X from a separate "Boot OS X" partition. The Windows and EFI partitions are normal partitions. Use "diskutil list" to see what I mean.
You could try shrinking the Windows partition to create space for a small HFS+ partition (200 MB) to install rEFInd to. I don't know if that will make a difference though. You'll have to make sure the MBR remains in sync with the GPT if you're using BIOS to boot Windows or Linux.
Thanks for your interest.
I'm sorry, but I didn't understand well the part about the MBR and the GPT. I don't know much about that. By the way, creating a new HFS+ partition, installing rEFInd on it and booting from that partition will solve the issue?
rEFInd kinda works now: as I said, pressing left key and then Enter (and waiting some time) will boot Windows even if i can't see anything lol if i don't press nothing or press Enter it boots OS X, again after waiting some time.
EDIT: I can't resize the partitions :/ Disc Utility says my Fusion Drive isn't available for creating other partitions. I tried both from OSX and from the Mavericks Recovery Utility. I also tried from the installation DVD.
UP: Ok, I don't know why, but now rEFInd menu just shows up at the boot screen normally. I just have to wait some time (maybe 5 or 10 seconds), but then it comes up and I can choose between OSX and Windows 7. Now I just would like to remove that annoying delay. Any ideas? (already deleted all useless 32bit drivers)
Last edit: Vincintosh 2014-02-12
Did you delete the HFS driver? You don't need that on Mac. I don't know if the installer installs that or not?
You can try creating an HFS partition and installing rEFInd to that. It might reduce the delay. I don't know for sure.
The disk has two partition tables. MBR and GPT. GPT is used by the Mac. MBR is used to boot Legacy OS's if you're not booting them with EFI.
To view the GPT, use this command:
sudo gpt -r show -l /dev/disk0
To view the MBR, use this command:
sudo fdisk /dev/disk0
Or you can use GPT fdisk (gdisk):
http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/
The first partition in the MBR is the protective partition which is not really a partition - it covers the disk from the first block to the block before the first real MBR partition. The other partitions in the MBR should match a partition in the GPT.
In a normal GPT disk, the protective partition covers the entire disk and there are no other MBR partitions.
Read the gdisk documentation.
You may have to boot from another disk to change the partitions. If you have two Macs, then you could use FireWire Target Disk Mode or Thunderbolt Target Disk Mode.
Instead of using Disk Utility, you could use the command line. Or you could use a utility like iPartition. iPartition can resize partitions, and it can move them around, and it can keep the MBR and GPT in sync.
If you're booting Linux in EFI mode and have removed Windows, you can convert your hybrid MBR into a conventional protective MBR. This might remove the 10-second delay, but I can't make any promises of that. You can do this in
gdiskby typingxto enter the experts' menu, thennto create a new protective MBR, and thenwto save the changes.I haven't installed Linux yet, since I haven't had so much free time in the last days. I'm just using rEFInd to choose between OSX and Windows. I think i'm going to boot Linux in EFI mode, since I will try the last version of Fedora (which as a new OS should support this kind of boot mode - again, sorry I don't know so much about this things). I was wondering about what happens if I uninstall rEFInd and replace Windows with Linux and try to boot the latter using the standard bootcamp boot (option key).
All I can say is "you'll just have to try it." Unfortunately, there's so much variability between computers (even between different Macs) that it's impossible to accurately predict what will happen when you modify a complex configuration. That said, the latest versions of Fedora bend over backwards to provide EFI-mode boot support for Macs, so there's a good chance that in your scenario, your computer will begin booting with GRUB as the default boot loader, offering options to boot either OS X or Fedora.