rEFInd strange behavior

Daiti · 2022-08-18 11:45:12

Hi everyone,
Yesterday I decided to try rEFInd (was using grub). The installation went fine, no problem, same for the test-reboot, the new boot manager worked perfectly, with all the OS (and grub) already present.
Once logged back in, I tried to customize the boot screen, but was not able to find the refind.conf file, and so I tried reinstalling it on to later realize that the reason I wasn't able to locate the config file was that the boot partition was not mounted. I mounted it, added an entry to /etc/fstab and added a theme to refind (copied all the files with the right path, and modified the refind.conf).
When I rebooted the PC the boot manager started with no problem, but the theme was not applied and there was another boot option, another refind instance. All OS can be selected, and each one starts up fine. The fun fact is, if I select the "second" refind instance another refind opens with the theme applied and the same entries, meaning that I can select "refind" and go back to the first instance.
The output of efibootmgr -v is

BootCurrent: 0001
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0001,0000,0002,0003
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager ...
Boot0001* rEFInd Boot Manager .../File(\EFI\REFIND\REFIND_x64.EFI)...
Boot0002* GRUB ...
Boot0003* rEFInd Boot Manager .../File(\EFI\refind\refind_x64.efi) ...

Don't think it is normal to have two rEFInd entries
Anyone knows how to solve this and "keep" only the themed refind?

cfr · 2022-08-18 18:39:11

You can use efibootmgr to delete the boot entry you don't want. Do both entries point to the same partition?

It's hard to say without more information, because you don't say exactly what you mean by reinstalling refind. Did you install stuff under the mount point for your boot partition while it was unmounted? If you unmount the partition, you'll be able to see anything hidden under it. Either move the files there aside or delete them (if you're confident they aren't needed) and remount the partition.

Last edited by cfr (2022-08-18 18:39:41)

Daiti · 2022-08-19 06:39:20

That's easily explained. I uninstalled refind using pacman (pacman -Rsn refind), deleted all the files as per https://rodsbooks.com/refind/installing … inst_linux, reinstalled refind using pacman and then ran refind-install.
I've also tried to unmount the efi partition and check the /boot/efi folder, but it was empty.
Furthermore, I managed to boot in the themed instance by swapping the two refind entries in the boot menu of the mb.
At the end I also tried to deactivate the "wrong" refind instance using efibootmgr -b 0001 -A but got the output:

efibootmgr: Boot entry 1 not found
Could not set active state for Boot0001: No such file or directory

even if efibootmgr -v actually shows a Boot0001 (as for my first comment)

cfr · 2022-08-19 19:02:50

Daiti wrote:

That's easily explained. I uninstalled refind using pacman (pacman -Rsn refind), deleted all the files as per https://rodsbooks.com/refind/installing … inst_linux, reinstalled refind using pacman and then ran refind-install.
I've also tried to unmount the efi partition and check the /boot/efi folder, but it was empty.

Then I think you're just getting two because of the boot entries (assuming that's where you're mounting the partition rather than /boot). I don't know why one should be themed and the other not, though.

Daiti wrote:

Furthermore, I managed to boot in the themed instance by swapping the two refind entries in the boot menu of the mb.
At the end I also tried to deactivate the "wrong" refind instance using efibootmgr -b 0001 -A but got the output:
efibootmgr: Boot entry 1 not found
Could not set active state for Boot0001: No such file or directory
even if efibootmgr -v actually shows a Boot0001 (as for my first comment)

I've always used -B

efibootmgr -b 1 -B

so you could try that but -A should work:

efibootmgr -b 1 -A

See the man page for examples which show the leading zeros get dropped.

Daiti · 2022-08-23 13:55:36

Sorry for the late reply, have been busy last few days. I'll try using only 1 as soon as I get back home and I'll update here soon after. Thank you

EDIT: I tried with only the 1, but got the same output. Also tried to delete the boot entry with

efibootmgr -b 1 -B

and the command succeded. Nevertheless the "secondary" rEFInd entry in the boot menu is still present

Last edited by Daiti (2022-08-23 16:37:20)

Arch Linux

#1 2022-08-18 11:45:12

rEFInd strange behavior

#2 2022-08-18 18:39:11

Re: rEFInd strange behavior

#3 2022-08-19 06:39:20

Re: rEFInd strange behavior

#4 2022-08-19 19:02:50

Re: rEFInd strange behavior

#5 2022-08-23 13:55:36

Re: rEFInd strange behavior

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