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Refit/rEFIud boot manager - Help.

HiDeHo

HiDeHo

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 19, 2012
68
2
Not sure if this is the best place to put this post.

I have created a dual boot on my macbook pro
Macbook Pro 13": October 2011
processor: 2.4GHz Intel Core i5
Memory(ram): 4GB 1333 MHZ DDR3 (2x2gb chips)
HDD: 500gb

what i did was to
1. installed refit
2. created a 40gb partition using Disk Utility.
3. installed Linux Mint 13 Lts (cinnamon version)

what i would like to know is
1. there a way to edit refit so i can change the default linux image to the Linux mint logo.
2. can i get refit to boot a usb setup with grub4dos boot loader on a small fat32 partition.

any help would be appreciated.

Edit: there is not much info out there about refit boot manager. but i am guessing if nothing else there is a config file around that i can edit to achieve what i want. :Edit

Edit 2: as mentioned below i have removed rEFIt and installed rEFIud. I have Linux Mint setup and working with a default Linux entry. Not the Linux Mint one. As far as i can tell the Linux Mint entry should be done automatically by rEFIud. I am having trouble working out what to do to setup a manual entry for my Linux Mint OS which i have installed on a separate ext4 partition. Disk Utility does not recognise the ext4 partition. I have installed osxfuse click here but Disk Utility still wont recognise and mount the ext4 linux mint partition so i can setup the entry for Linux Mint.

If anyone can help it would be great. :Edit
 
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HiDeHo

HiDeHo

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 19, 2012
68
2
so am i to understand that rEFIt is discontinued, and rEFInd is a fork of rEFIt (built on rEFIt) that is currently maintained and up to date. I assume it is then similar in resect to setup cool. muse give it a try.
 
HiDeHo

HiDeHo

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 19, 2012
68
2
I am wondering how it is going and what i can do to fix such errors. its a real pain that things are not formatting properly for the boot manager. and that in this day and age Mac does not support ext4 the standard Linux format, see edit to main topic. Makes me wonder if mac has a deal with Windows regarding MS office for Mac, bootcamp to install Windows support ntfs filesystems etc.

I guess for one small little bit of refit that is not working properly. i can put up with it as i can boot into Linux mint 13, I don't know how rEFIud gets Linux mint to work. ext partitions to boot, etc.
 
HiDeHo

HiDeHo

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 19, 2012
68
2
Shelltoe said:
I've no experience with Mint but there are several tutorials. Did none of them work for you?
Click to expand...

actually you only linked to one tutorial.

i did say that i have mint already set up and working but the auto-detection. of linux mint in rEFInd which should work does not. it just gives generic linux icons for the os, but it can still boot.
I just wonder how to get it to recognise the linux os is mint that is all. I thought it might be to do that mac osx cannot read and wright to ext4.

I would love to know how to manually edit the rEFInd config file so i can either add my own menu entry for Mint (disabling the auto-detected one) or edit the auto-detected entry so it has the linux mint logo, instead of the general linux one.

(As i understand rEFInd has linux mint detection built in, and rEFIt does not)
 
S

srs5694

macrumors newbie
Mar 18, 2012
22
0
HiDeHo said:
i did say that i have mint already set up and working but the auto-detection. of linux mint in rEFInd which should work does not. it just gives generic linux icons for the os, but it can still boot.
Click to expand...

In that case, the auto-detection is working; it's just that rEFInd doesn't know that it's Mint as opposed to Fedora, Ubuntu, or whatever, so you get a generic icon. To get a Mint icon, you have to throw Mint a bone, such as:

  • Giving the filesystem that contains the kernels a name that includes the string "linuxmint" (one word).
  • Copying the os_linuxmint.icns file (or another .icns or .png file with your preferred icon) to the root directory of the partition that holds the kernels and giving it a name of .VolumeIcon.icns (or .VolumeIcon.png for a PNG file). Note the leading dot (".").
  • Copying the icon file to the directory that holds the kernels and renaming it after the kernel file(s). For instance, if the kernel is vmlinuz-3.5.6, you'd name the file vmlinuz-3.5.6.icns or vmlinuz-3.5.6.png.

These and other icon-changing options are documented in the rEFInd documentation.
 
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HiDeHo

HiDeHo

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 19, 2012
68
2
srs5694 said:
In that case, the auto-detection is working; it's just that rEFInd doesn't know that it's Mint as opposed to Fedora, Ubuntu, or whatever, so you get a generic icon. To get a Mint icon, you have to throw Mint a bone, such as:

  • Giving the filesystem that contains the kernels a name that includes the string "linuxmint" (one word).
  • Copying the os_linuxmint.icns file (or another .icns or .png file with your preferred icon) to the root directory of the partition that holds the kernels and giving it a name of .VolumeIcon.icns (or .VolumeIcon.png for a PNG file). Note the leading dot (".").
  • Copying the icon file to the directory that holds the kernels and renaming it after the kernel file(s). For instance, if the kernel is vmlinuz-3.5.6, you'd name the file vmlinuz-3.5.6.icns or vmlinuz-3.5.6.png.

These and other icon-changing options are documented in the rEFInd documentation.
Click to expand...

this is weird as the image of the rEFIud boot screen has a linux mint Logo on it if you go the the website. am still sure it has something to do with the ext3, ext for issues mac has.

Edit: the link you posted ^ is broken it looks like it is only part of the full link. can you repost please thanks.
 
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S

srs5694

macrumors newbie
Mar 18, 2012
22
0
HiDeHo said:
this is weird as the image of the rEFIud boot screen has a linux mint Logo on it if you go the the website.
Click to expand...

True, but irrelevant. There are so many variables involved that there's no such thing as a "standard" installation, so you shouldn't read too much into details like what icons appear in the screen shots. BTW, it's "rEFInd," not "rEFIud."

am still sure it has something to do with the ext3, ext for issues mac has.
Click to expand...

I maintain rEFInd, and I guarantee you that the fact that you're seeing a generic Linux penguin icon rather than a Mint icon has nothing to do with filesystems or the fact that you're running on a Mac. The issue is this: When loading a standard kernel (vmlinuz* or bzImage* file) from Linux's /boot directory, there are no reliable clues about what the distribution is. The /boot directory for Mint looks much like the /boot directory for Ubuntu, which looks much like the /boot directory for Fedora or OpenSUSE or Gentoo. There are some subtle differences in filenames in some cases, but hard-coding those into rEFInd would be a nightmare. Thus, rEFInd defaults to a generic Linux icon when it sees a Linux kernel. This default is overridden if there's something more specific available, such as a .VolumeIcon.icns file or a filesystem label with a suitable name. It's also overridden if the file is read from a directory named after the distribution (for instance, if you were to move your kernels to /boot/linuxmint). This last is the case when rEFInd discovers the GRUB or ELILO that the distribution installs, since they normally go in such a directory on the ESP; but kernels don't normally reside there. Unfortunately, the only way that rEFInd will ever be able to provide distribution-specific icons without some sort of explicit user intervention will be if I add some serious distribution-detection code to rEFInd or if distributions begin doing something to identify ownership of their root and/or /boot partitions, such as giving them filesystem labels with their distribution names. Adding distribution-detection code is a possibility, but it's never likely to be 100% reliable, since the most reliable information (such as in /etc/*-release) is outside of the /boot directory, and may therefore be on a different partition than the kernel to which it applies. Identifying the root (/) partition with which a /boot partition is associated is theoretically possible, but would be far too difficult to do for the very modest feature of getting a distribution-specific icon.

The bottom line: If you want a distribution-specific icon, that's fine. Creating one is not hard, but it does require a small amount of effort on your part.

Edit: the link you posted ^ is broken it looks like it is only part of the full link. can you repost please thanks.
Click to expand...

Sorry about that; I've gone back and fixed it.
 
HiDeHo

HiDeHo

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 19, 2012
68
2
srs5694 said:
True, but irrelevant. There are so many variables involved that there's no such thing as a "standard" installation, so you shouldn't read too much into details like what icons appear in the screen shots. BTW, it's "rEFInd," not "rEFIud."



I maintain rEFInd, and I guarantee you that the fact that you're seeing a generic Linux penguin icon rather than a Mint icon has nothing to do with filesystems or the fact that you're running on a Mac. The issue is this: When loading a standard kernel (vmlinuz* or bzImage* file) from Linux's /boot directory, there are no reliable clues about what the distribution is. The /boot directory for Mint looks much like the /boot directory for Ubuntu, which looks much like the /boot directory for Fedora or OpenSUSE or Gentoo. There are some subtle differences in filenames in some cases, but hard-coding those into rEFInd would be a nightmare. Thus, rEFInd defaults to a generic Linux icon when it sees a Linux kernel. This default is overridden if there's something more specific available, such as a .VolumeIcon.icns file or a filesystem label with a suitable name. It's also overridden if the file is read from a directory named after the distribution (for instance, if you were to move your kernels to /boot/linuxmint). This last is the case when rEFInd discovers the GRUB or ELILO that the distribution installs, since they normally go in such a directory on the ESP; but kernels don't normally reside there. Unfortunately, the only way that rEFInd will ever be able to provide distribution-specific icons without some sort of explicit user intervention will be if I add some serious distribution-detection code to rEFInd or if distributions begin doing something to identify ownership of their root and/or /boot partitions, such as giving them filesystem labels with their distribution names. Adding distribution-detection code is a possibility, but it's never likely to be 100% reliable, since the most reliable information (such as in /etc/*-release) is outside of the /boot directory, and may therefore be on a different partition than the kernel to which it applies. Identifying the root (/) partition with which a /boot partition is associated is theoretically possible, but would be far too difficult to do for the very modest feature of getting a distribution-specific icon.

The bottom line: If you want a distribution-specific icon, that's fine. Creating one is not hard, but it does require a small amount of effort on your part.



Sorry about that; I've gone back and fixed it.
Click to expand...

ok that is find but first as i kept saying. my rEFInd bootloader is on mac mac cant read and wright to ext4 partitions. no i am going to have to copy the linux mint icns file from rEFInd and then boot Linux mint. how after that i am stuck as to where to put the icns file in Linux mint so that it is recognised by rEFInd. this may be fairly easy to do but i dont understand how. i am going to look for tutorials in the mint and ubuntu forums and see if i can work something out.

Thansk for taking the time to respond and for any further assistance you feel to give.

Edit: also wondering if you can provide support for grub4dos bootloader. its is a bit old but used to boot puppylinux from flashdrives as it is the only bootloader, that will auto-detect and run pupylinux's unique frugal (save file) boot setup, A handy grub4dos installer comes built as one of the default applications in most puppylinux os.
 
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S

srs5694

macrumors newbie
Mar 18, 2012
22
0
HiDeHo said:
ok that is find but first as i kept saying. my rEFInd bootloader is on mac mac cant read and wright to ext4 partitions.
Click to expand...

rEFInd ships with an ext4fs driver for EFI. You may already be using it if you're booting the Linux kernel directly from rEFInd.

no i am going to have to copy the linux mint icns file from rEFInd and then boot Linux mint. how after that i am stuck as to where to put the icns file in Linux mint so that it is recognised by rEFInd. this may be fairly easy to do but i dont understand how.
Click to expand...

See the documentation to which I pointed earlier (albeit with a broken URL, which I subsequently fixed):

http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/configfile.html#hiding

See the bulleted list of options for how to control the icons. Personally, I like naming the filesystem in such a way that the icon gets picked up, since that doesn't involve copying any files.

Edit: also wondering if you can provide support for grub4dos bootloader.
Click to expand...

No, I have no interest in it and I have plenty to handle already.
 
S

Shelltoe

macrumors member
Dec 11, 2012
31
0
Afaik grub4dos has several problems with EFI (at least Apples EFI) so its worthless.
You probably won't even be able to chainload your OS. Use grub2 which has efi support.
Though it's not needed to run PuppyLinux. rEFInd should work fine.
 
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