0

I have been using rEFInd ver 0.8.7

to boot Linux, Mac, and Windows on my MacBook pro 2013 model.
I've recently updated my os from Maverick to Yosemite, and this problem happened:

When ever I boot, it shows the launcher to choose which operating system. When I was using Mavericks, there are three choices, one for Linux, Mac, and Windows.
However, after I've updated to Yosemite, and followed every step shown in this LINK

including step 7, with and without foo,bar line, the launcher shows 8 unknown entities excluding the three operation system on my mac. They are:

boot\vmlinuz-3.13.0-XX-generic where XX is the numbers 36,39,44,45,46,48,49,51,52,53,54,55.

I want to delete those unknown entities.
Below is my config file that I am using now.

#
# refind.conf
# Configuration file for the rEFInd boot menu
#

# Timeout in seconds for the main menu screen. Setting the timeout to 0
# disables automatic booting (i.e., no timeout).
#
timeout 20

# Screen saver timeout; the screen blanks after the specified number of
# seconds with no keyboard input. The screen returns after most keypresses
# (unfortunately, not including modifier keys such as Shift, Control, Alt,
# or Option). Setting a value of "-1" causes rEFInd to start up with its
# screen saver active. The default is 0, which disables the screen saver.
#screensaver 300

# Hide user interface elements for personal preference or to increase
# security:
#  banner      - the rEFInd title banner (built-in or loaded via "banner")
#  label       - boot option text label in the menu
#  singleuser  - remove the submenu options to boot Mac OS X in single-user
#                or verbose modes; affects ONLY MacOS X
#  safemode    - remove the submenu option to boot Mac OS X in "safe mode"
#  hwtest      - the submenu option to run Apple's hardware test
#  arrows      - scroll arrows on the OS selection tag line
#  hints       - brief command summary in the menu
#  editor      - the options editor (+, F2, or Insert on boot options menu)
#  all         - all of the above
# Default is none of these (all elements active)
#
#hideui singleuser
#hideui all

# Set the name of a subdirectory in which icons are stored. Icons must
# have the same names they have in the standard directory. The directory
# name is specified relative to the main rEFInd binary's directory. If
# an icon can't be found in the specified directory, an attempt is made
# to load it from the default directory; thus, you can replace just some
# icons in your own directory and rely on the default for others.
# Default is "icons".
#
#icons_dir myicons

# Use a custom title banner instead of the rEFInd icon and name. The file
# path is relative to the directory where refind.efi is located. The color
# in the top left corner of the image is used as the background color
# for the menu screens. Currently uncompressed BMP images with color
# depths of 24, 8, 4 or 1 bits are supported, as well as PNG images.
#
#banner hostname.bmp
#banner mybanner.png

# Specify how to handle banners that aren't exactly the same as the screen
# size:
#  noscale     - Crop if too big, show with border if too small
#  fillscreen  - Fill the screen
# Default is noscale
#
#banner_scale fillscreen

# Icon sizes. All icons are square, so just one value is specified. The
# big icons are used for OS selectors in the first row and the small
# icons are used for tools on the second row. Drive-type badges are 1/4
# the size of the big icons. Legal values are 32 and above. If the icon
# files do not hold icons of the proper size, the icons are scaled to
# the specified size. The default values are 48 and 128 for small and
# big icons, respectively.
#
#small_icon_size 96
#big_icon_size 256

# Custom images for the selection background. There is a big one (144 x 144)
# for the OS icons, and a small one (64 x 64) for the function icons in the
# second row. If only a small image is given, that one is also used for
# the big icons by stretching it in the middle. If only a big one is given,
# the built-in default will be used for the small icons.
#
# Like the banner option above, these options take a filename of an
# uncompressed BMP image file with a color depth of 24, 8, 4, or 1 bits,
# or a PNG image. The PNG format is required if you need transparency
# support (to let you "see through" to a full-screen banner).
#
#selection_big   selection-big.bmp
#selection_small selection-small.bmp

# Set the font to be used for all textual displays in graphics mode.
# The font must be a PNG file with alpha channel transparency. It must
# contain ASCII characters 32-126 (space through tilde), inclusive, plus
# a glyph to be displayed in place of characters outside of this range,
# for a total of 96 glyphs. Only monospaced fonts are supported. Fonts
# may be of any size, although large fonts can produce display
# irregularities.
# The default is rEFInd's built-in font, Luxi Mono Regular 12 point.
#
#font myfont.png

# Use text mode only. When enabled, this option forces rEFInd into text mode.
# Passing this option a "0" value causes graphics mode to be used. Pasing
# it no value or any non-0 value causes text mode to be used.
# Default is to use graphics mode.
#
#textonly

# Set the EFI text mode to be used for textual displays. This option
# takes a single digit that refers to a mode number. Mode 0 is normally
# 80x25, 1 is sometimes 80x50, and higher numbers are system-specific
# modes. Mode 1024 is a special code that tells rEFInd to not set the
# text mode; it uses whatever was in use when the program was launched.
# If you specify an invalid mode, rEFInd pauses during boot to inform
# you of valid modes.
# CAUTION: On VirtualBox, and perhaps on some real computers, specifying
# a text mode and uncommenting the "textonly" option while NOT specifying
# a resolution can result in an unusable display in the booted OS.
# Default is 1024 (no change)
#
#textmode 2

# Set the screen's video resolution. Pass this option either:
#  * two values, corresponding to the X and Y resolutions
#  * one value, corresponding to a GOP (UEFI) video mode
# Note that not all resolutions are supported. On UEFI systems, passing
# an incorrect value results in a message being shown on the screen to
# that effect, along with a list of supported modes. On EFI 1.x systems
# (e.g., Macintoshes), setting an incorrect mode silently fails. On both
# types of systems, setting an incorrect resolution results in the default
# resolution being used. A resolution of 1024x768 usually works, but higher
# values often don't.
# Default is "0 0" (use the system default resolution, usually 800x600).
#
#resolution 1024 768
#resolution 3

# Launch specified OSes in graphics mode. By default, rEFInd switches
# to text mode and displays basic pre-launch information when launching
# all OSes except OS X. Using graphics mode can produce a more seamless
# transition, but displays no information, which can make matters
# difficult if you must debug a problem. Also, on at least one known
# computer, using graphics mode prevents a crash when using the Linux
# kernel's EFI stub loader. You can specify an empty list to boot all
# OSes in text mode.
# Valid options:
#   osx     - Mac OS X
#   linux   - A Linux kernel with EFI stub loader
#   elilo   - The ELILO boot loader
#   grub    - The GRUB (Legacy or 2) boot loader
#   windows - Microsoft Windows
# Default value: osx
#
#use_graphics_for osx,linux

# Which non-bootloader tools to show on the tools line, and in what
# order to display them:
#  shell            - the EFI shell (requires external program; see rEFInd
#                     documentation for details)
#  memtest          - the memtest86 program, in EFI/tools, EFI/memtest86,
#                     EFI/memtest, EFI/tools/memtest86, or EFI/tools/memtest
#  gptsync          - the (dangerous) gptsync.efi utility (requires external
#                     program; see rEFInd documentation for details)
#  apple_recovery   - boots the Apple Recovery HD partition, if present
#  windows_recovery - boots an OEM Windows recovery tool, if present
#                     (see also the windows_recovery_files option)
#  mok_tool         - makes available the Machine Owner Key (MOK) maintenance
#                     tool, MokManager.efi, used on Secure Boot systems
#  about            - an "about this program" option
#  exit             - a tag to exit from rEFInd
#  shutdown         - shuts down the computer (a bug causes this to reboot
#                     many UEFI systems)
#  reboot           - a tag to reboot the computer
#  firmware         - a tag to reboot the computer into the firmware's
#                     user interface (ignored on older computers)
# Default is shell,memtest,apple_recovery,windows_recovery,mok_tool,about,shutdown,reboot,firmware
#
#showtools shell, memtest, mok_tool, about, reboot, exit, firmware

# Boot loaders that can launch a Windows restore or emergency system.
# These tend to be OEM-specific.
# Default is LRS_ESP:/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/LrsBootmgr.efi
#
#windows_recovery_files LRS_ESP:/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/LrsBootmgr.efi

# Directories in which to search for EFI drivers. These drivers can
# provide filesystem support, give access to hard disks on plug-in
# controllers, etc. In most cases none are needed, but if you add
# EFI drivers and you want rEFInd to automatically load them, you
# should specify one or more paths here. rEFInd always scans the
# "drivers" and "drivers_{arch}" subdirectories of its own installation
# directory (where "{arch}" is your architecture code); this option
# specifies ADDITIONAL directories to scan.
# Default is to scan no additional directories for EFI drivers
#
#scan_driver_dirs EFI/tools/drivers,drivers

# Which types of boot loaders to search, and in what order to display them:
#  internal      - internal EFI disk-based boot loaders
#  external      - external EFI disk-based boot loaders
#  optical       - EFI optical discs (CD, DVD, etc.)
#  hdbios        - BIOS disk-based boot loaders
#  biosexternal  - BIOS external boot loaders (USB, eSATA, etc.)
#  cd            - BIOS optical-disc boot loaders
#  manual        - use stanzas later in this configuration file
# Note that the legacy BIOS options require firmware support, which is
# not present on all computers.
# On UEFI PCs, default is internal,external,optical,manual
# On Macs, default is internal,hdbios,external,biosexternal,optical,cd,manual
#
#scanfor internal,external,optical,manual

# Delay for the specified number of seconds before scanning disks.
# This can help some users who find that some of their disks
# (usually external or optical discs) aren't detected initially,
# but are detected after pressing Esc.
# The default is 0.
#
#scan_delay 5

# When scanning volumes for EFI boot loaders, rEFInd always looks for
# Mac OS X's and Microsoft Windows' boot loaders in their normal locations,
# and scans the root directory and every subdirectory of the /EFI directory
# for additional boot loaders, but it doesn't recurse into these directories.
# The also_scan_dirs token adds more directories to the scan list.
# Directories are specified relative to the volume's root directory. This
# option applies to ALL the volumes that rEFInd scans UNLESS you include
# a volume name and colon before the directory name, as in "myvol:/somedir"
# to scan the somedir directory only on the filesystem named myvol. If a
# specified directory doesn't exist, it's ignored (no error condition
# results). The default is to scan the "boot" directory in addition to
# various hard-coded directories.
#
#also_scan_dirs boot,ESP2:EFI/linux/kernels

# Partitions to omit from scans. You must specify a volume by its
# label, which you can obtain in an EFI shell by typing "vol", from
# Linux by typing "blkid /dev/{devicename}", or by examining the
# disk's label in various OSes' file browsers.
# The default is "Recovery HD,LRS_ESP".
#
dont_scan_volumes foo,bar

# Directories that should NOT be scanned for boot loaders. By default,
# rEFInd doesn't scan its own directory, the EFI/tools directory, the
# EFI/memtest directory, or the EFI/memtest86 directory. Using the
# dont_scan_dirs option enables you to "blacklist" other directories;
# but note that using this option removes the EFI/memtest and
# EFI/memtest86 directories, so if you don't want them scanned, be
# sure to include them in your new list. You might use this token to
# keep EFI/boot/bootx64.efi out of the menu if that's a duplicate of
# another boot loader or to exclude a directory that holds drivers
# or non-bootloader utilities provided by a hardware manufacturer. If
# a directory is listed both here and in also_scan_dirs, dont_scan_dirs
# takes precedence. Note that this blacklist applies to ALL the
# filesystems that rEFInd scans, not just the ESP, unless you precede
# the directory name by a filesystem name, as in "myvol:EFI/somedir"
# to exclude EFI/somedir from the scan on the myvol volume but not on
# other volumes.
#
#dont_scan_dirs ESP:/EFI/boot,EFI/Dell,EFI/memtest86

# Files that should NOT be included as EFI boot loaders (on the
# first line of the display). If you're using a boot loader that
# relies on support programs or drivers that are installed alongside
# the main binary or if you want to "blacklist" certain loaders by
# name rather than location, use this option. Note that this will
# NOT prevent certain binaries from showing up in the second-row
# set of tools. Most notably, various Secure Boot and recovery
# tools are present in this list, but may appear as second-row
# items.
# The file may be specified as a bare name (e.g., "notme.efi"), as
# a complete filename (e.g., "/EFI/somedir/notme.efi"), or as a
# complete filename with volume (e.g., "SOMEDISK:/EFI/somedir/notme.efi").
# The default is shim.efi,shim-fedora.efi,shimx64.efi,PreLoader.efi,
# TextMode.efi,ebounce.efi,GraphicsConsole.efi,MokManager.efi,HashTool.efi,
# HashTool-signed.efi,bootmgr.efi
#
#dont_scan_files shim.efi,MokManager.efi

# Scan for Linux kernels that lack a ".efi" filename extension. This is
# useful for better integration with Linux distributions that provide
# kernels with EFI stub loaders but that don't give those kernels filenames
# that end in ".efi", particularly if the kernels are stored on a
# filesystem that the EFI can read. When uncommented, this option causes
# all files in scanned directories with names that begin with "vmlinuz"
# or "bzImage" to be included as loaders, even if they lack ".efi"
# extensions. The drawback to this option is that it can pick up kernels
# that lack EFI stub loader support and other files. Passing this option
# a "0" value causes kernels without ".efi" extensions to NOT be scanned;
# passing it alone or with any other value causes all kernels to be scanned.
# Default is to NOT scan for kernels without ".efi" extensions.
#
scan_all_linux_kernels

# Set the maximum number of tags that can be displayed on the screen at
# any time. If more loaders are discovered than this value, rEFInd shows
# a subset in a scrolling list. If this value is set too high for the
# screen to handle, it's reduced to the value that the screen can manage.
# If this value is set to 0 (the default), it's adjusted to the number
# that the screen can handle.
#
#max_tags 0

# Set the default menu selection.  The available arguments match the
# keyboard accelerators available within rEFInd.  You may select the
# default loader using:
#  - A digit between 1 and 9, in which case the Nth loader in the menu
#    will be the default. 
#  - Any substring that corresponds to a portion of the loader's title
#    (usually the OS's name or boot loader's path).
# You may also specify multiple selectors by separating them with commas
# and enclosing the list in quotes.
# If you follow the selector(s) with two times, in 24-hour format, the
# default will apply only between those times. The times are in the
# motherboard's time standard, whether that's UTC or local time, so if
# you use UTC, you'll need to adjust this from local time manually.
# Times may span midnight as in "23:30 00:30", which applies to 11:30 PM
# to 12:30 AM. You may specify multiple default_selection lines, in which
# case the last one to match takes precedence. Thus, you can set a main
# option without a time followed by one or more that include times to
# set different defaults for different times of day.
#
#default_selection 1
#default_selection Microsoft
#default_selection "bzImage,vmlinuz"
#default_selection Maintenance 23:30 2:00
#default_selection "Maintenance,OS X" 1:00 2:30

# Include a secondary configuration file within this one. This secondary
# file is loaded as if its options appeared at the point of the "include"
# token itself, so if you want to override a setting in the main file,
# the secondary file must be referenced AFTER the setting you want to
# override. Note that the secondary file may NOT load a tertiary file.
#
#include manual.conf

# Sample manual configuration stanzas. Each begins with the "menuentry"
# keyword followed by a name that's to appear in the menu (use quotes
# if you want the name to contain a space) and an open curly brace
# ("{"). Each entry ends with a close curly brace ("}"). Common
# keywords within each stanza include:
#
#  volume    - identifies the filesystem from which subsequent files
#              are loaded. You can specify the volume by label or by
#              a number followed by a colon (as in "0:" for the first
#              filesystem or "1:" for the second).
#  loader    - identifies the boot loader file
#  initrd    - Specifies an initial RAM disk file
#  icon      - specifies a custom boot loader icon
#  ostype    - OS type code to determine boot options available by
#              pressing Insert. Valid values are "MacOS", "Linux",
#              "Windows", and "XOM". Case-sensitive.
#  graphics  - set to "on" to enable graphics-mode boot (useful
#              mainly for MacOS) or "off" for text-mode boot.
#              Default is auto-detected from loader filename.
#  options   - sets options to be passed to the boot loader; use
#              quotes if more than one option should be passed or
#              if any options use characters that might be changed
#              by rEFInd parsing procedures (=, /, #, or tab).
#  disabled  - use alone or set to "yes" to disable this entry.
#
# Note that you can use either DOS/Windows/EFI-style backslashes (\)
# or Unix-style forward slashes (/) as directory separators. Either
# way, all file references are on the ESP from which rEFInd was
# launched.
# Use of quotes around parameters causes them to be interpreted as
# one keyword, and for parsing of special characters (spaces, =, /,
# and #) to be disabled. This is useful mainly with the "options"
# keyword. Use of quotes around parameters that specify filenames is
# permissible, but you must then use backslashes instead of slashes,
# except when you must pass a forward slash to the loader, as when
# passing a root= option to a Linux kernel.

# Below are several sample boot stanzas. All are disabled by default.
# Find one similar to what you need, copy it, remove the "disabled" line,
# and adjust the entries to suit your needs.

# A sample entry for a Linux 3.3 kernel with its new EFI boot stub
# support on a filesystem called "KERNELS". This entry includes
# Linux-specific boot options and specification of an initial RAM disk.
# Note uses of Linux-style forward slashes, even in the initrd
# specification. Also note that a leading slash is optional in file
# specifications.
menuentry Linux {
    icon EFI/refind/icons/os_linux.icns
    volume KERNELS
    loader bzImage-3.3.0-rc7
    initrd initrd-3.3.0.img
    options "ro root=UUID=5f96cafa-e0a7-4057-b18f-fa709db5b837"
    disabled
}

# A sample entry for loading Ubuntu using its standard name for
# its GRUB 2 boot loader. Note uses of Linux-style forward slashes
menuentry Ubuntu {
    loader /EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi
    icon /EFI/refined/icons/os_linux.icns
    disabled
}

# A minimal ELILO entry, which probably offers nothing that
# auto-detection can't accomplish.
menuentry "ELILO" {
    loader \EFI\elilo\elilo.efi
    disabled
}

# Like the ELILO entry, this one offers nothing that auto-detection
# can't do; but you might use it if you want to disable auto-detection
# but still boot Windows....
menuentry "Windows 7" {
    loader \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
    disabled
}

# EFI shells are programs just like boot loaders, and can be
# launched in the same way. You can pass a shell the name of a
# script that it's to run on the "options" line. The script
# could initialize hardware and then launch an OS, or it could
# do something entirely different.
menuentry "Windows via shell script" {
    icon \EFI\refind\icons\os_win.icns
    loader \EFI\tools\shell.efi
    options "fs0:\EFI\tools\launch_windows.nsh"
    disabled
}

# Mac OS is normally detected and run automatically; however,
# if you want to do something unusual, a manual boot stanza may
# be the way to do it. This one does nothing very unusual, but
# it may serve as a starting point. Note that you'll almost
# certainly need to change the "volume" line for this example
# to work.
menuentry "My Mac OS X" {
    icon \EFI\refind\icons\os_mac.icns
    volume "OS X boot"
    loader \System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi
    disabled
}
include next-theme/theme.conf

2 Answers 2

1

First, if you're using the latest version of rEFInd (0.8.7), the instructions you referenced as "LINK" do not apply; as noted in bold at the top of that page:

This page is largely obsolete, as of rEFInd 0.8.4. This version of rEFInd makes changes to both its install.sh script and default options to make rEFInd better able to cope with OS X 10.10 without the changes to procedure described herein.

If you're using an earlier version of rEFInd, and especially if you're running a pre-0.8.4 version, I strongly suggest you upgrade. An upgrade alone might eliminate one or more of those unwanted extra boot menu items, since, as the quoted passage specifies, rEFInd 0.8.4 made changes to defaults to help it manage Yosemite. This includes better recognition of Yosemite boot options, which might turn up as unwanted extra options in earlier versions of rEFInd.

Beyond that, properly diagnosing your problem requires more details. In particular, what are the new and unwanted options? Each one will have some sort of description when you highlight it in the menu. These normally take the form of "Boot X from Y," where X is a filename or OS description and Y is a volume name or description. Knowing what happens when you select an option might also be helpful.

In most cases, you can use the dont_scan_files, dont_scan_dirs, or dont_scan_volumes options in refind.conf to remove unwanted boot options. You should also remove the dont_scan_volumes foo,bar line you've got there now -- unless of course you need to use dont_scan_volumes to remove something else, in which case it must be adjusted. In some cases, removing the hdbios option from scanfor might help -- but this is often needed to boot Windows, so that might not be a viable option.

Your own examination of the unwanted boot items may be enough to get you a working solution with the various dont_scan_* options. If not, edit your question with details of what you've got and post a comment to this answer to get my attention.

8
  • thank you for answering. I edited that I am using 0.8.7. I am going to reboot and check for the unknown boot option names. Thanks for the help. I will be back again soon.
    – Tom
    Commented Jul 8, 2015 at 0:03
  • ok, it seems like the problem is that I have the options boot\vmlinuz-3.13.0-XX-generic where XX is the numbers 36,39,44,45,46,48,49,51,52,53,54,55. This is I am guessing that there is some issues with linux's old kernels. Am I right? Should I ask a new question?
    – Tom
    Commented Jul 8, 2015 at 0:14
  • In Linux, open a Terminal and type sudo apt-get autoremove. That will remove most of your kernels. You'll probably have just two or three left. I don't recommend trying to remove more than that, since it's useful to have backups. If you can boot Ubuntu via GRUB and don't want to see the kernel entries, you can remove the EFI filesystem driver for whatever filesystem you're using (probably ext4_x64.efi). If you want to boot your kernel directly and don't want to see GRUB, you can use dont_scan_dirs or dont_scan_files in refind.conf to remove GRUB.
    – Rod Smith
    Commented Jul 8, 2015 at 12:38
  • ,Do you know how exactly I should write the lines to delete those entities? is it something like dont_scan_files boot\vmlinuz-3.13.0-36-generic or something like that?
    – Tom
    Commented Jul 8, 2015 at 14:39
  • dont_scan_files vmlinuz-3.13.0-36-generic should remove that kernel from any directory.
    – Rod Smith
    Commented Jul 9, 2015 at 12:48
0

Turns out, it was a problem with the old kernels in ubuntu (linux) partition of the HD. So, what I did was adding
dont_scan_volumes LINUX
to the config file.
I know that it is disrespectful to answer my own question, but I thought this would be best for people who is having a same problem, so that they can find answer easily on the answer post rather than reading through the comments.
Credits to Rod Smith, thank you very much.

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