Refind

Requirements

If you want to install rEFInd on your laptop or PC you must have, UEFI on your motherboard. I tested on my laptop, where I use Fedora 18. Firs check that if you have UEFI by typing on your teminal

# ls -l /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/

If output will be something like that:

-rw-r--r--. 1 root root   12 06-02 20:35 AcpiGlobalVariable-af9ffd67-ec10-488a-9dfc-6cbf5ee22c2e
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root   64 06-02 20:35 AdvancedPage-397faf4e-893e-468f-992d-9acf30c52142
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root   64 06-02 20:35 AdvancedPage-3b3c2158-22b2-4cef-98f4-c79f8d7b266e
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root   64 06-02 20:35 AdvancedPage-5bb720c3-e550-42c2-9662-f440345a309e
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root   64 06-02 20:35 AdvancedPage-5ed3915b-5575-4efd-ab8d-c455dd439a2e
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root   64 06-02 20:35 AdvancedPage-7c2f01c2-1486-4347-bbc2-a8a8d7b1fcb8
....

you have UEFI. Now we need to obtain an rEFInd for RPM based system. (direct link)

Instalation

When we get rEFInd for you system, just install package with rpm or yum

# rpm -Uvh refind-0.6.11-1.x86_64.rpm
# yum localinstall refind-0.6.11-1.x86_64.rpm 

after the instalation, we should have this information

Installing rEFInd on Linux....
ESP was found at /boot/efi using vfat
Installing driver for ext4 (ext4_x64.efi)
Copied rEFInd binary files

Copying sample configuration file as refind.conf; edit this file to configure
rEFInd.


Installation has completed successfully.

and the information that, we have already boot system manager (default is GRUB2-EFI).

Warning!
Always update kernel and initramfs on /boot/efi/EFI/fedora after update.

Now copy the kernel image and initramfs, from /boot to /boot/efi/EFI/fedora

Boot File Source	UEFI Destination
/boot/vmlinuz-3.9.4-200.fc18.x86_64	/boot/efi/EFI/fedora/vmlinuz-fedora.efi
/boot/initramfs-3.9.4-200.fc18.x86_64.img	/boot/efi/EFI/fedora/initramfs-3.9.4-200.fc18.x86_64.img

# cp /boot/vmlinuz-3.9.4-200.fc18.x86_64 /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/vmlinuz-fedora.efi
# cp /boot/initramfs-3.9.4-200.fc18.x86_64.img /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/initramfs-3.9.4-200.fc18.x86_64.img 

Create an file named refind_linux.conf in directory /boot/efi/EFI/fedora and write

"Boot with defaults" "root=YOUR ROOT PARTITION ro rootfstype=ext4 add_efi_memmap systemd.unit=graphical.target"

Now we need to add information to boot manager with efibootmgr(if you don't have, just install with yum install efibootmgr), where X is your disk (a, b, c or something) and Y is number whre is EFI partition.

# efibootmgr -c -w -d /dev/sdX -p Y -l '\EFI\refind\refind_x64.efi' -L "rEFInd""

for most system nothing will show up, that is normal. We need to add manual add entry in UEFI Shell. So reboot you PC or laptop, and get in the UEFI Shell.

 bcfg boot add 00 FSX:\EFI\refind\refind_x64.efi

Where X is your disk with EFI directory. After that, we should see information, that we add new entry to UEFI. Reboot, and enjoy life.

Links

http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/