---
title: rEFInd
slug: refind
date: 2017-06-02T20:56:04-06:00
.. tags: linux,uefi,boot,secureboot,bootloader
.. category:
.. link:
.. description:
draft: false 
---

Booting linux requires a [boot loader](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Category:Boot_loaders). I chose to use [rEFInd](http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/index.html) vs GRUB or systemd boot. [Installing](https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/REFInd#Installation) is easy once the partitioning is setup. My partition scheme is a vfat esp partition of 512MB a ext2 boot partition 512MB and the rest of the disk for root on btrfs encrypted with dm-crypt and LUKS. This works for a bootable usb as well as internal drive. BTRFS was chosen for the subvolume feature. In the BTRFS root I create a /archroot and /home subvolume. On major system changes/upgrades I snapshot the /archroot subvolume to /archroot-date making a rollback simpler.

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To configure kernels for rEFInd add a file called refind_linux.conf in the same folder(/boot) as the kernel(s). Add kernel command lines here.

    #refind_linux.conf
    "Boot with standard options"        "root=UUID=123456 rw rootfstype=btrfs rootflags=subvol=arch acpi_backlight=video initrd=/intel-ucode.img initrd=initramfs-linux.img i915.enable_psr=0"
    "Boot to single-user mode"          "root=UUID=123456 single"
    "Boot with minimal options"         "root=UUID=123456"

additional options for LUKS would be added here.
change subvol=arch to subvol=arch-date to boot from snapshot

btrfs commands that I use frequently:

    mount /dev/sdaX /mnt #mount the btrfs root(not /)
    cd /mnt #change to the btrfs root
    btrfs subvolume snapshot name-of-subvolume(arch) name-of-snapshot(arch-date)

update: Figured out how refind determines which kernel to boot automatically, it's the one with the most [recent date](https://sourceforge.net/p/refind/discussion/general/thread/87eec9bd/#6f53). Thinking about putting a hook into pacman or something to run touch on vmlinuz after kernel upadtes.