pe224 - 2014-08-26

Hi everybody.

I'm trying to live boot an image of Kali Linux 1.0.8 on a USB stick on my Mac. I use the 32bit version, since it is a Mac with 32bit EFI. First, here is some information about my initial system configuration:

blkid of USB stick

/dev/sdb1: LABEL="Kali Live" TYPE="iso9660"
/dev/sdb2: SEC_TYPE="msdos" UUID="0805-0038" TYPE="vfat" LABEL="EFIBOOT"

(parted) print

Model: JetFlash Transcend 16GB (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 15.8GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 1      32.8kB  3122MB  3122MB  primary               hidden
 2      3122MB  3185MB  62.9MB  primary  fat16        boot

ls -R /media/sdb2 (mount point of EFIBOOT volume)

/media/sdb2:
EFI  install  live

/media/sdb2/EFI:
BOOT

/media/sdb2/EFI/BOOT:
advanced.cfg
BOOTX64.efi
install.cfg
isolinux.cfg
live.cfg
menu.cfg
splash.png
stdmenu.cfg
syslinux.cfg
syslinux.efi
some *.c32 files

/media/sdb2/install:
gtk  initrd.gz  install.bat  vmlinuz

/media/sdb2/install/gtk:
initrd.gz  install.bat  vmlinuz

/media/sdb2/live:
initrd.img  vmlinuz

rEFInd correctly detects the two .efi bootloaders, if I boot into them, I get the correct boot menu defined in the .cfg files. I can select "Live Boot" and it boots into Linux, however, doing a install (graphic or text) gives some scrambled graphics on the top of the screen. (There is also an refind option "Legacy OS via Fat Drive" which gives an error: Not Found returned from legacy loader)
This is where I thought: Maybe my graphics problem is solved by using rEFInd to boot directly into the vmlinuz, not using the other bootloaders.
However, I was not able to do so.
I modified my refind.conf

timeout 20
also_scan_dirs boot,EFIBOOT:/install,EFIBOOT:/live
menuentry KaliLiveLinux {
icon EFI/refind/icons/os_linux.png
volume EFIBOOT
loader /live/vmlinuz
initrd /live/initrd.img
options "ro root=/dev/sdb1 boot=live noconfig=sudo username=root hostname=kali"
}

to also scan /install and /live directories, I also added a manual boot stanza just in case
Finally, I created following /live/refind_linux.conf

"Default options" "root=/dev/sdb1 ro boot=live noconfig=sudo username=root hostname=kali"
"Minimal options" "root=/dev/sdb1 ro"

Results are:
All kernels/stanzas/linux.confs are detected by rEFInd, i.e. I see following options to boot:
- the bootloaders in EFI/BOOT -> live boot works, but install not
- Linux via live/vmlinuz -> it finds kernel/initrd and shows menu from refind_linux.conf, but no matter what options, it prints "Failed to open file: live/initrd.img"
- Linux via install/vmlinuz -> it finds kernel/initrd, but also "Failed to open file: live/initrd.img"
- KaliLiveLinux via EFIBOOT -> my manual stanza, it imports also the correct options, but fails to open initrd.img

My question:
1) Why can I not reproduce the live booting with rEFInd - why does it not find the initrd.img file, although it automatically detects the kernel/initrd pair via the scanned directories list?
2) If 1) works, I would like to try text/graphics install, hoping that rEFInd fixes the scrambled graphics issues. Any chance that could be the solution?

Thanks a lot for any pointers!