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tld
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Joined: 09 Dec 2003
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 Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2023 1:11 pm Post subject: Running refind-install after upgrade of refind [SOLVED] |
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I'm using the refind boot loader on my AMD system. I originally installed version 12 when I built the machine almost three years ago. I just realized that I never updated the EFI binaries after an upgrade to refind-0.13.2 years ago, and the update I'm running now is updating to sys-boot/refind-0.14.0.2. My notes from when I installed that originally are not as good as I'd hoped, and I'm VERY leery of the possibility of bricking my system by running refind-install. As I recall, there wasn't anything especially tricky when I originally installed.
I'm trying to determine how safe that is and how best to go about this safely. My setup is as follows:
I have all my kernels under /boot which itself just lives directly on /. Under that I have an "efi" directory, and my /etc/fstab has this:
| Code: | | /dev/sda1 /boot/efi vfat noauto,noatime 0 0 |
That /dev/sda1 has the EFI directory, so when mounted I end up with /boot/efi/EFI with the "refind" directory below that.
My refind_linux.conf is directly under /boot and contains just this: | Code: | | "Default" "root=/dev/sda3 rootfstype=ext4 net.ifnames=0" |
Am I safe to just run "refind-install"? That /boot/efi as you can see is NOT set to auto mount. Do I need to mount that before running refind-install?
Thanks in advance!
Tom
Last edited by tld on Thu Nov 02, 2023 6:04 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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tld
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Joined: 09 Dec 2003
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| Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2023 3:40 pm Post subject: |
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Holy crap. The more I read about this the more cryptic is gets. I'm never one to lean towards the "If it ain't broke..." approach, but unless I get way more clear on this than I am right now, that'll be the route I'd have to take. I'm not even clear as to exactly what I would do for some sort of backup as a safeguard. If I backup the entire contents of my existing EFI directory on that /dev/sda partition...is that all that's affected?
Interestingly, I originally used refind after a recommendation from Tony0945, and I believed he helped me a bit with that. I see he seems to have been MIA from the forums since Jan 2022.
Tom |
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sMueggli
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Joined: 03 Sep 2022
Posts: 628
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| Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2023 4:33 pm Post subject: |
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I never used refind, but according to https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/REFInd it seems to be quite painless.
The complete output of | Code: | efibootmgr
lsblk -o NAME,FSTYPE,UUID,PARTUUID,MOUNTPOINTS,PARTTYPE |
would help to understand your setup better. |
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pietinger
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Joined: 17 Oct 2006
Posts: 5924
Location: Bavaria
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| Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2023 4:55 pm Post subject: Re: Running refind-install after upgrade sys-boot/refind |
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| tld wrote: | | [...] Do I need to mount that before running refind-install? |
Yes. (because it could be you have also an update of the efi-binary of refind itself; same story would be true with grub) |
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pingtoo
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Joined: 10 Sep 2021
Posts: 1684
Location: Richmond Hill, Canada
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| Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2023 5:08 pm Post subject: Re: Running refind-install after upgrade sys-boot/refind |
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| tld wrote: | | I'm VERY leery of the possibility of bricking my system by running refind-install |
As far as I know boot loader cannot harm a file system, at worst case just not able to boot. So knowing that why don't you try to figure out a way to boot your targeted system without the default storage? For example may be setup a usb stick to boot from some kind live CD system. This way you have a sure way to recover, Now no need to worry about brick system.
And once you have alternative boot procedure it goes long way toward to future recovery. it is time will invested. |
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tld
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Joined: 09 Dec 2003
Posts: 1861
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| Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2023 5:08 pm Post subject: |
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| sMueggli wrote: | I never used refind, but according to https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/REFInd it seems to be quite painless.
The complete output of | Code: | efibootmgr
lsblk -o NAME,FSTYPE,UUID,PARTUUID,MOUNTPOINTS,PARTTYPE |
would help to understand your setup better. |
Here are those:
| Code: | efibootmgr
BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,0002
Boot0000* rEFInd Boot Manager HD(1,GPT,ea4b1e5e-81bf-4342-bbda-d6b2297ac8cc,0x800,0x40000)/File(\EFI\refind\refind_x64.efi)
Boot0002* Hard Drive BBS(HD,,0x0)0000474f00004e4fc1000000010000008100570044004300200057004400340030003000350046005a00420058002d0... |
| Code: | lsblk -o NAME,FSTYPE,UUID,PARTUUID,MOUNTPOINTS,PARTTYPE
NAME FSTYPE UUID PARTUUID MOUNTPOINTS PARTTYPE
sda
├─sda1 vfat E59A-1E1D ea4b1e5e-81bf-4342-bbda-d6b2297ac8cc c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b
├─sda2 swap ec377fb6-324d-4692-8bdf-e8d22821ff3e d8ae19de-4e2d-4de3-9735-b64f2c36ee61 [SWAP] 0fc63daf-8483-4772-8e79-3d69d8477de4
├─sda3 ext4 75c36c1a-b4d4-4490-b19f-443b1d124126 4826aaeb-afb1-4f99-875b-4e48da3729b5 / 0fc63daf-8483-4772-8e79-3d69d8477de4
└─sda4 ext4 332b6a7b-0416-4af6-9b68-3e4a30f5fe19 c60aea94-bcb9-4289-bc8e-81e8a0933c17 /home 0fc63daf-8483-4772-8e79-3d69d8477de4
sdb
└─sdb1 ext4 ab080257-d4e5-4a17-80ff-ff073a0d2e86 208bc6ff-3284-426a-8dad-c4695dddff64 /disk2 0fc63daf-8483-4772-8e79-3d69d8477de4
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NOTE that I chopped off one massively long line in that efibootmgr...that is the last line.
Tom |
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tld
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Joined: 09 Dec 2003
Posts: 1861
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| Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2023 5:14 pm Post subject: Re: Running refind-install after upgrade sys-boot/refind |
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| pingtoo wrote: | | And once you have alternative boot procedure it goes long way toward to future recovery. it is time will invested. |
Yea, that's true. I have all sorts ways I could boot to a recovery system for sure.
I guess what I was really looking to find out is whether or not my existing contents of that EFI (on my /dev/sda1) would be all I needed to revert to what I have now.
Tom |
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pingtoo
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Joined: 10 Sep 2021
Posts: 1684
Location: Richmond Hill, Canada
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| Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2023 5:26 pm Post subject: Re: Running refind-install after upgrade sys-boot/refind |
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| tld wrote: | | I guess what I was really looking to find out is whether or not my existing contents of that EFI (on my /dev/sda1) would be all I needed to revert to what I have now. |
I am sorry if I sound offensive, But don't you have backup?
If you find NeddySeagoon's Signature you will notice that | NeddySeagoon wrote: | Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail. |
Once I was a person worry a lot and that slow me down dramatically, but I learn to think have plan B ready then just proceed to the idea, Because there is always a way out. |
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tld
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| Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2023 5:41 pm Post subject: Re: Running refind-install after upgrade sys-boot/refind |
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| pingtoo wrote: | | I am sorry if I sound offensive, But don't you have backup? |
Yes I do...specifically clonzilla backups of my /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda3. I just figured that simply having a copy of the contents of that EFI directory elsewhere on the file system would be easier than getting involved with a partition restore.
All sort of moot now: I decided to just make that copy of everything in /boot/eft/EFI and to do that refind-install. Just rebooted. All went without a hitch!
Thanks for all the replies.
Tom |
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Goverp
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Joined: 07 Mar 2007
Posts: 2287
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| Posted: Mon Oct 30, 2023 7:14 pm Post subject: |
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My view is that if rEFInd is working for you, leave it alone!
Unless you have a complex setup, it's job is just to locate kernels and boot them, and that task really doesn't change much. Once your system has booted, rEFInd is out of the picture. Rather like BIOS, it's not work updating your boot loader unless you have a genuine issue with the current version.
FWIW I recently updated GRUB, and that's introduced a bug which means sometimes I get the GRUB rescue prompt for no logical reason. I should have left well alone.
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Greybeard |
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Viorel
Developer
Joined: 13 Feb 2012
Posts: 17
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| Posted: Tue Oct 31, 2023 3:12 pm Post subject: |
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| Refind can find another refind when it scans for new kernels, so if you copy the new refind somewhere on your EFI partition it should show up in your boot menu, you can run it and test it and see if it works properly. Use it a few times, and if satisfied simply replace it. Or you can keep running the old one if it's good enough. |
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tld
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Joined: 09 Dec 2003
Posts: 1861
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| Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2023 6:04 pm Post subject: |
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| Viorel wrote: | | Refind can find another refind when it scans for new kernels, so if you copy the new refind somewhere on your EFI partition it should show up in your boot menu, you can run it and test it and see if it works properly. Use it a few times, and if satisfied simply replace it. Or you can keep running the old one if it's good enough. |
Interesting. Good to know. As noted above the refind-install work fine. Thanks!
Tom |
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