Checking system dependencies for rEFInd 0.12.0

[Markus Elfring]

I configured a boot menu for the software “rEFInd 0.12.0”. It worked for a while according to a simple test.

I got into the mood to install the BIOS update “X399AOPR.F2” here. I noticed then that error messages were displayed on a text screen after computer restarts.

🤔 It seems that I need to reactivate desired menus with an other boot manager then.

[Roderick W. Smith]

It's hard to say what's happening without knowing what the error messages are. I can't even say if they're from rEFInd, from the EFI, from an OS, or conceivably something else.

That said, I've just made a pre-release test version available that fixes a memory management bug in rEFInd (among other improvements), so you may want to look at that. I wrote about it, and provide a link to the binaries, here:

https://sourceforge.net/p/refind/discussion/general/thread/09ef58e5a3/

[Markus Elfring]

It's hard to say what's happening without knowing what the error messages are.

• I am curious then if a corresponding photograph would become relevant.
• Do rEFInd messages contain any prefixes so that the displayed text can be distinguished from information by other software components?

---

I became also curious how a specific BIOS version influenced the detection (or further handling) of the EFI system partition by your current boot manager in special ways.

[Markus Elfring]

It's hard to say what's happening without knowing what the error messages are.

Would you like to add any further thoughts according to information from the following text in a white font on a black background?

Reboot and Select proper Boot device
or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key

[Roderick W. Smith]

That's an error message that appears when there's no valid boot loader specified in the firmware's own boot manager. Either nothing is defined (as on a new computer or one that's been restored to factory settings) or any definitions are invalid (their files have been moved or deleted, the filesystem is badly damaged, the disk has failed, etc.).

You mentioned that you updated the firmware, so my guess is that the update process also wiped your boot entries. If so, then the best solution is likely to use another computer to prepare a rEFInd USB flash drive and boot with that in the affected computer. You should then be able to use rEFInd on the USB drive to re-install directly to the ESP; or use rEFInd on the USB drive to boot your OS and recover from there (re-installing rEFInd, using efibootmgr in Linux to create a fresh entry, or do whatever else you want to fix the problem).

[Markus Elfring]

…, so my guess is that the update process also wiped your boot entries.

I did not get such an impression.
The system configuration files were still available at the usual places.

[Roderick W. Smith]

The system configuration files were still available at the usual places.

I'm not sure what you mean by that. I'm referring to NVRAM-based settings, not files.

I've seen computers wipe their NVRAM-based boot order lists when the firmware updates. Because rEFInd (or GRUB or any other boot loader) relies on an entry in the NVRAM-based boot order list to launch, wiping it can render the computer unbootable. (If there's a boot loader in the fallback position of EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi, that problem can be avoided, or at least mitigated. Some EFIs will also launch the Microsoft boot loader, at EFI/Microsoft/boot/bootmgfw.efi; and Macs will of course launch the macOS boot loader.) rEFInd is not so privileged, though, unless you install it in a fallback position or use fallback.efi there, as described here.

Whatever the cause, the recovery process of using refind-mkdefault or efibootmgr, or of re-installing rEFInd, should work. If these steps don't work, then please elaborate.

[Markus Elfring]

I'm referring to NVRAM-based settings, not files.

Thanks for your distinction.

---

• A boot entry was activated based on the boot manager “GRUB 2.04” in the meantime.
• I would become interested to add further boot entries for example by using the software “rEFInd” as a secondary boot manager.