Is there an alternative to rEFIt?

Question

Is there an alternative to rEFIt as a bootloader where you can choose between OS X and Ubuntu? I already installed Ubuntu on my Mac with rEFIt, so if there's a better option, I can remove it now.

I'm exploring, mainly because I want one with a more appealing UI. Other improvements are still very much welcome, though.

Solution 1

It's been over two years since rEFIt has been updated, which is why I forked the rEFInd project from rEFIt. rEFInd includes a number of improvements, many of them related to directly booting Linux kernels with EFI stub loader support.

Solution 2

There's elilo

• elilo (the efi linux loader), is the EFI equivalent of LILO, a linux boot-loader like grub. This seems to be very modern and functional software, but it's not all that easy to use. There are some installation instructions, they're rather technical.

  Note that the rEFIt page on Myths and Facts About Intel Macs says that you won't be able to use accelerated graphics when using a straight EFI boot, you need to use rEFIt for that.

I think this is the only one. Not 100% sure though.

Solution 3

Grub is also EFI aware.

You may find more information here:-

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=85508

Personally I would use Grub if possible.

Considering the amount of trouble I had getting my PC to boot from GPT partitions and the lack of documentation regarding EFI/GPT and Grub/Lilo I would say you are going to have a few hours banging your head against a brick wall before you are successful. Best of luck with it.

Comments

[Admin]

You should also consider asking this question on SuperUser.com. They may not be able to tell you how to do it using Ubuntu, but they might know more.

[Rod Smith]

ELILO won't enable switching between Linux and OS X; ELILO is strictly a Linux boot loader, not a boot manager (except insofar as it lets you select which Linux kernel to boot).

[Rod Smith]

The rEFIt documentation is very much out of date, and the claim that accelerated graphics can't be used from a direct EFI-mode boot is quite dubious. It's probably still true of some specific Mac models, but such problems have been overcome (or never existed) for many others.

[Rod Smith]

Given when you posted this, you probably ran into a bug in the 0.6.3 release. It's fixed in 0.6.4.

[Natalie Adams]

I managed to get rEFIt working. The only problem I have at this point is getting Linux to play nice with the hardware.

[trusktr]

@RodSmith I've installed rEFInd as per the manual instructions for Mac OSX at rodsbooks.com/refind/installing.html#osx, but now my Mac Mini is stuck in a boot loop and the startup sound repeating over and over (the first sound is fine, but all subsequent sound distorted). What do I do now?

[trusktr]

Also, I do not have a mac keyboard, so it doesn't recognize any boot commands.

[trusktr]

Also, I did not use the bless --info command.

[Rod Smith]

Try holding down the Option key at boot time; that should bring up the Mac's built-in boot manager, which should enable you to get into OS X. If the problem persists or if that doesn't work, try resetting the PRAM, as described at support.apple.com/kb/ht1379. You can then try installing again.

[trusktr]

@RodSmith Is it possible to install rEFInd on a CD and use it like that, instead of installing it on my OSX hard disk?