Replacing ArcaOS UEFI Boot Manager with rEFind Boot Manager

[Sigurd Fastenrath]

Just to open a seperate topic on this: As I mentioned here:

https://www.os2world.com/forum/index.php/topic,3537.msg42909.html#msg42909

the ArcaOS UEFI Bootmanager is very small on some devices, due to the Screen Resolution - on my Z13 Gen 2 the boot screen displays 2.880 by 1.800 Pixels.

At our User Meeting in Cologne 2022 Keith Merrington showed up with the rEFInd Bootmanager. This is really a great software! It is very customizable (Screen Resolutions, Backgrounds, Icons and so on) and looks therefore very modern.

I just attach my pictures from the other Thread here again.

In my case I have to disable Secureboot but to activate Pluton/TPM in BIOS to have the result I wanted, Windows 11 Pro and ArcaOS side by side. Next is to add Linux Mint Cinnamon. I added customized symbols for this.

Some Links:

rEFInd can be downloaded here:  https://sourceforge.net/projects/refind/

All the information one need and troubleshooting can be find here: https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/ - really a marvelous page!

Best of all: it is free of charge!

All the best!

[Martin Iturbide]

Thanks for sharing Sigurd.

I noticed that Neil also uses it, and it is on my list to give it a try. It is open source (BSD License, GNU General Public License version 3.0 (GPLv3)) also, so that is great too.

About "Secure Boot" is is also on my list to put in on the Thinkpad T14s.

Regards

[Dave Yeo]

I'm also using it. Here with CSM enabled, it also allows me to boot to legacy partitions from UEFI, via airboot, I have one SSD with MBR partitioning. Even went so far at one point as to do a legacy install while in EUFI mode, with biosexternal added to the scanfor line, the legacy partition on the USB stick showed up in rEFIND and other then having to change the boot device in rEFIND to my 500GB SSD, worked fine including reboots.

[Sigurd Fastenrath]

After installing Linux Mint Cinnamon 21.3 and a bit investigation I finally achieved my goal:

The Triple Boot System I once had on my Samsung Serie 7 Slate in 2011 is back in 2024!! 

I will take a rest and try to adjust ArcaOS as good as possible.

All the best to all of you!!

[Martin Iturbide]

Hello

Just on question here. I had installed Refind from the Windows partition, but did you installed it from ArcaOS or EFI Shell?
How was your procedure?

Regards

[Dave Yeo]

Hi Martin, IIRC, I originally manually installed it (unzip or untar) to the EFI partition, used F12 or maybe it was the Arca Launcher, to boot to it and used itself to change the main boot manager to it. It ends up in \EFI\refind on the EFI volume.
Afterwards I found it not quite right and replaced it with the Deb from the site, which when I updated Mint, I had to downgrade to the version that Mint supported in its repository.
There's lots of information on installing it on their pages. Seems to me that installing it from Windows should also be fine, though any way you install you may have to manually edit refind.conf, especially if like me you have CSM enabled and want to boot legacy ArcaOS via AirBoot.

[Martin Iturbide]

Thanks Dave

On the Lenovo Miix that I'm trying I found that the UEFI BIOS has an options to select which to boot first. I selected ReFind from the list and it is the default now.
I will have to check the others UEFI machines I have.

Another thing, have you tried REFind with Secure Boot enabled on the UEFI BIOS?

Regards

[Rich Walsh]

You can run 'bootorder' (C:\sys\bin\BOOTORDER.EXE) from a command prompt to change the boot sequence from within OS/2.

[Sigurd Fastenrath]

Thanks Dave

On the Lenovo Miix that I'm trying I found that the UEFI BIOS has an options to select which to boot first. I selected ReFind from the list and it is the default now.
I will have to check the others UEFI machines I have.

Another thing, have you tried REFind with Secure Boot enabled on the UEFI BIOS?

Regards

If you do not find such Refind Option (as it is in "my" BIOS), try to select "Windows Boot Manager", what is the one rEFInd replaced in my machine.