rEFInd is using the fallback initramfs

cmm7825 · 2013-08-06 19:31:43

Similar problem to this thread: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=154591 but there no definitive solution was reached. I installed rEFInd on an Lenovo ideapad y510p. The initrd is set to the fallback initramfs by default and I'm not sure how to change it.

WonderWoofy · 2013-08-06 20:06:06

I cannot answer your question specifically. But I personally like to configure things by hand. Automation to me is not the "best" way to handle things. I do think that it is very awesome that rEFInd has this feature, as it really lowers overall required user knowledge in order to get things going, but it is just not for me. So I turn off the scanning in the refind.conf and then simply use manual stanzas (there are some nice examples at the bottom of the refind.conf sample) to configure it the way I like it.

To be fair, I also think that the grub2 grub-mkconfig functionality is not really my style either. But in that sense rEFInd is a much better implementation of automation as it still requires that the user have some general knowledge about how the machine is set up. Grub on the other hand uses a crap load of scripts to try to figure out your machine for you, and does so in a way that tries to ensure that the user needs no knowledge whatsoever about even what partition the system is on. That to me does the user no favors.

Can you post the refind_linux.conf and the refind.conf? I'm not sure that I can help you even with those things, as my usage is totally different, but I think it might be relevant to your situation and debugging. Hopefully srs5694 will swoop in and save the day. (Did you hear that srs5694? Your superpowers are needed!)

cmm7825 · 2013-08-06 20:20:28

Ah, thanks. I didn't realize I could disable scanning. I'll give that a shot when I get home.

WonderWoofy · 2013-08-06 20:28:59

Only do so if you feel comfortable configuring rEFInd by hand. I find it incredibly simple to do, but I can see how a new user would get particularly confused by such a task. That said, I see your forum resigtration date is before mine, so I think you should be okay.

If you are not dead set on the fancy graphical stuff that rEFInd offers, you could try gummiboot. I also keep this on my machine (it is my default loader), and I particularly like the way it is configured. Instead of just one large configuration file, you set the default boot option and timeout in <ESP>\loader\loader.conf and then each entry is created by an individual conf file such as <ESP>\loader\entries\archlinux.conf. Otherwise, you can set rEFInd with the "text-only" option in refind.conf, though it is not quite as minimalist as gummiboot.

Oh and useing gummiboot will give you the firmware load time and the gummiboot load time as well in systemd-analyze. It is not the reason I use gummiboot as my primary boot manager, bit it is pretty neat.

$ systemd-analyze
Startup finished in 1.798s (firmware) + 41ms (loader) + 1.144s (kernel) + 1.313s (initrd) + 751ms (userspace) = 5.050s

cmm7825 · 2013-08-06 20:47:20

Yea I've been using different flavors of linux for a while now so I don't mind manual configuration, but this is my first EFI install. Thanks for the advice, I might give gummiboot a shot if rEFInd doesn't work out.

srs5694 · 2013-08-07 04:21:10

WonderWoofy's suggestion of manual boot stanzas should work. Another option, which might be simpler for relatively inexperienced users, is to edit the refind_linux.conf file where the kernels reside. Do something like this:

"Boot using standard initramfs" "ro root=/dev/whatever initrd=initramfs-linux.img"
"Boot using fallback initramfs" "ro root=/dev/whatever initrd=initramfs-linux-fallback.img"

This should create one entry in the main rEFInd menu for Arch. Hit Enter and it should boot with the standard initramfs. Press F2 or Insert to see a menu that lets you boot with the standard initramfs or with the fallback initramfs. You'll have to adjust the options to suit your system, of course. If you've got an existing refind_linux.conf, you should use it as a base; just duplicate your main entry and add the initrd= options that specify the initramfs to use.

FWIW, the reason the problem cropped up is that rEFInd uses the first initramfs that it finds that matches the version of the kernel. Both the main and fallback initramfs files in Arch match, so rEFInd uses whichever one the EFI returns first, which is unpredictable. Adding an "initrd=" option in refind_linux.conf, though, overrides the normal matching algorithms, so you can specify the initramfs file you want to use.

WonderWoofy · 2013-08-07 04:26:21

srs5694 wrote:

FWIW, the reason the problem cropped up is that rEFInd uses the first initramfs that it finds that matches the version of the kernel. Both the main and fallback initramfs files in Arch match, so rEFInd uses whichever one the EFI returns first, which is unpredictable. Adding an "initrd=" option in refind_linux.conf, though, overrides the normal matching algorithms, so you can specify the initramfs file you want to use.

...and the day has been saved by srs5694 once again! You have no idea what an amazingly valuable part of our community you are.

cfr · 2013-08-08 03:24:26

Just one thing: if you use the fsck hook in mkinitcpio.conf, replace 'ro' with 'rw' in the code srs5694 provided.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-08-06 19:31:43

rEFInd is using the fallback initramfs

#2 2013-08-06 20:06:06

Re: rEFInd is using the fallback initramfs

#3 2013-08-06 20:20:28

Re: rEFInd is using the fallback initramfs

#4 2013-08-06 20:28:59

Re: rEFInd is using the fallback initramfs

#5 2013-08-06 20:47:20

Re: rEFInd is using the fallback initramfs

#6 2013-08-07 04:21:10

Re: rEFInd is using the fallback initramfs

#7 2013-08-07 04:26:21

Re: rEFInd is using the fallback initramfs

#8 2013-08-08 03:24:26

Re: rEFInd is using the fallback initramfs

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