Arch Linux

TheKingElessar

Member

Registered: 2022-05-19

Posts: 6

[SOLVED] rEFInd Boot Manager not loading

I'm trying to install rEFInd as my Arch Linux bootloader, but I can't get the boot manager to start.

I'm installing it from an Arch Linux live installation, booted from USB installation media. I've installed the refind package from pacman. I tried using the installer command (/dev/sdb2 is my EFI partition):

refind-install --usedefault /dev/sdb2 --alldrivers

But that wasn't working, so I deleted everything and tried a manual installation as detailed in the Wiki.

Here's what my EFI directory looks like:

/boot/EFI/refind
                   |___drivers_x64
                   |    |___ext4_x64.efi
                   |___refind.conf
                   |___refind_x64.efi

Here's the output of efibootmgr:

BootCurrent: 0005
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,0004,0005,0006,0007
Boot0000* rEFInd Boot Manager
Boot0004* Windows Boot Manager
Boot0005* UEFI: Generic Flash Disk 8.07
Boot0006* UEFI: Generic Flash Disk 8.07, Partition 2
Boot0007* UEFI: Samsung SSD 860 EVO M.2 1TB, Partition 2

You can see that rEFInd Boot Manager has the highest priority in the BootOrder, but when I try to boot using that, it opens my PC's Dell SupportAssist, meaning it's not loading. This is on a laptop that already has a Windows 10 installation (using the same EFI partition).

The issue is not that rEFInd isn't recognizing Arch Linux—it's that rEFInd isn't loading at all.

Does anybody know what's wrong here? (Happy to provide more details, I'm new to the forums )

Last edited by TheKingElessar (2022-05-19 20:52:21)

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 9,003

Website

Re: [SOLVED] rEFInd Boot Manager not loading

Is SecureBoot disabled?

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Jin, Jîyan, Azadî

Raynman

Member

Registered: 2011-10-22

Posts: 1,539

Re: [SOLVED] rEFInd Boot Manager not loading

Here's the output of efibootmgr:

You should run it with -v to see details of the boot entries. You didn't use a "refind" subdirectory like the wiki does; did you adjust the boot entry (--loader) accordingly?

TheKingElessar

Member

Registered: 2022-05-19

Posts: 6

Re: [SOLVED] rEFInd Boot Manager not loading

Yes, Secure Boot is disabled!

Here's the output of efibootmgr:

You should run it with -v to see details of the boot entries. You didn't use a "refind" subdirectory like the wiki does; did you adjust the boot entry (--loader) accordingly?

Oops, looks like I typed it incorrectly in my post. It does use a /boot/EFI/refind directory (just updated the post). As for the output of efibootmgr -v, I've copied it below, with the Windows Boot Manager entry for comparison:

BootOrder: 0000,0004,0005,0006,0007
Boot0000* rEFInd Boot Manager    HD(2,GPT,[uuid],0x109000,0x200000)/File(\EFI\refind\refind_x64.efi)
Boot0004* Windows Boot Manager   HD(2,GPT,[uuid],0x109000,0x200000)/File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)WINDOWS.....

Since I made this post, I've also tried removing my manual installation and installing with the basic refind-install command, and I tried installing to the fallback boot path with refind-install --usedefault /dev/sdb2. The entry shows up in efibootmgr -v with the correct *.efi path, but it's still the same problem of opening a Dell BIOS menu, and not starting rEFInd.

Another update: I tried using arch-chroot and dd to burn a rEFInd ISO to a USB drive, and then booted from that—it worked, and recognized Windows and what seems to be the Linux kernel from my Arch installation. I haven't gotten the Arch rEFInd config files set up yet, so makes sense it wouldn't recognize Arch yet.

So I can boot into rEFInd using an external USB drive, and it works, but the real installation still isn't working.

Last edited by TheKingElessar (2022-05-19 19:20:44)

TheKingElessar

Member

Registered: 2022-05-19

Posts: 6

Re: [SOLVED] rEFInd Boot Manager not loading

Alright, I got it working. What I ended up doing was:

1. Burn the rEFInd CD image to a USB drive (https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/getting.html). While in arch-chroot I used used wget and then the command: dd if=image.iso of=/dev/sdd

2. Boot into that; it loaded fine

3. Select the installation option from the rEFInd menu

And now it works! Still don't know why it wasn't working before, but the entries in efibootmgr -v are a little different (the working one has some stuff about PciRoot/Pci/Sata/HD instead of just HD).