Solved rEFInd - Unable to boot into other systems

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RisingPheonin

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Hello everyone,

I can't get my refind configuration to work properly.
My goal is to use arch and debian in dual boot. The arch system is automatically recognized by refind and can be booted (and is used). The debian system is not recognized and whenever I try to create a manual entry for the debian system, I get the following error after selecting the debian entry in the boot menu:
Code: 
Error: Not Found while loading vmlinuz-6.1.0-21-amd64

The corresponding entry in my refind.conf looks like this:
Code: 
menuentry DaggerDebian {
    icon EFI/refind/icons/os_debian.png
    volume F736CA13-8DA0-400A-9FC0-A626E6A770A3 # according to the arch wiki this has to match either a filesystems LABLE, a PARTLABEL or a PARTUUID of the partition where the kernel image resides (not the UUID!)
    loader /vmlinuz-6.1.0-18-amd64
    initrd /initrd.img-6.1.0-18-amd64
    options "rw cryptdevice=UUID=431e411a-e641-4715-9d09-dd8cd56da209:daggerdebian-crypt:allow-discards root=/dev/mapper/daggerdebianvg-root quiet"
    # disabled
}

The boot partition for the debian system is /dev/nvme0n1p5
Code: 
sudo blkid /dev/nvme0n1p5
/dev/nvme0n1p5: UUID="d24a13ee-c133-4a87-b9ff-c68ab0097d26" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTLABEL="daggerdebian-boot" PARTUUID="f736ca13-8da0-400a-9fc0-a626e6a770a3"

This is its content:
Code: 
❯ sudo mount /dev/nvme0n1p5 /mnt
❯ ls /mnt
config-6.1.0-18-amd64  grub                       initrd.img-6.1.0-21-amd64  refind_linux.conf          System.map-6.1.0-21-amd64  vmlinuz-6.1.0-21-amd64
config-6.1.0-21-amd64  initrd.img-6.1.0-18-amd64  lost+found                 System.map-6.1.0-18-amd64  vmlinuz-6.1.0-18-amd64
❯ cat /mnt/refind_linux.conf
"Boot daggerdebian System" "rw cryptdevice=UUID=431e411a-e641-4715-9d09-dd8cd56da209:daggerdebian-crypt:allow-discards root=/dev/mapper/daggerdebianvg-root quiet"

I have one EFI partition (which is only an EFI partition) and seperate boot partitions (one for each system).
The only difference between the boot partition of my arch system and the one of the debian system is that the boot partition of my arch system is formatted with FAT32 and the one of the debian system with ext4. But refind supports ext4 so I do not think that this should be an issue.

I no longer have any idea why it shouldn't work.
I would be very grateful for any help!
 


when you boot up , do you get the grub screen with the option of which distro to boot, or do you only get one [if only one which is it]
 
I have not installed grub. I use refind as my boot manager. Both systems (arch and debian) were installed recently. The arch system has been used since then (because it is recognized by refind, so I can boot it), but I have never booted the debian system.
 
I do not think refind is auto install but it is in the Parrot repositoties, use either the synaptic manage to install or try
sudo apt update && $ sudo apt install refind
 
No, refind is not installed automatically. I have installed arch linux, so nothing is installed automatically. So I installed refind manually and it works on my Arch installation. But it doesn't work on the Debian installation. So there is no point in installing it, because it is already installed (especially not with the package manager of Debian, because I can't boot Debian).
 
you need to install it to debian based distributions or it will not work with them
[I will try and find you a link
 
How? Refind is installed on the EFI partition and is started before the Debian system. Its task is to boot the Debian system. So why does refind need to be installed inside the Debian system if the Debian system is not even booted at the time the error occurs? How can this have any influence?
 
What information from this article will help me? This is an article that “explains” the installation very superficially. I don't see that it has anything to do with my problem or why refind needs to be installed from the Debian system (just because it happens to be done that way in this article).
 
That is the most comprehensive one I could find, going back to my previous post all I have seen says you need to install to your Debian distribution for it to work
 
Why do you think that? Can you perhaps explain this in more detail? Are you familiar with refind and boot loaders in general?
I hope you are not just referring to the linked article that says this.

You are welcome to provide detailed information/explanations if you have them and don't have to hold back with technical language. I'm not new to Linux (and I've been using Arch for several years btw xD).
 
I played with it during COVID-19, it was only any good on my desk top [my other 6 computers are pre UEFI] so i didnt keep it, I have however found the link I worked from

Linux Multi-boot with Refind – TeejeeTech

teejeetech.com teejeetech.com
 
But this is yet another superficial article that doesn't address my problem! Thank you for your goodwill, but such superficial articles do not help me with my specific problem.
 
@RisingPheonin welcome to linux.org

rEFInd is (or used to be) produced by Rod Smith of Rod's Books.

You may be better served by contacting him for help.

I don't think a lot of people around here use it, possibly because they have encountered problems with it such as you are experiencing now.

I for one, can't use it because I run 88 or so distros, and it would take forever to scroll through its entries, whereas with Grub I can go a page at a time.

Good luck, and if you do find an answer, please share it with us.

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz
 
I have not used rEFInd and I don't know how it works but I do have a comment. If you install Arch with uefi boot it is possible to have the files normally located under /boot to be located on the efi partition as well. My guess would be then when you run "refind-install" it will look for all those files on the efi partition, so now when you are trying to boot Debian it can't find those files because it could be looking on the wrong partition? Can you share a listing of all the files located on your efi partition just so it can be ruled out our not?
 
Last edited:
Hey everyone,

Thank you for your responses!
@wizardfromoz I have followed your suggestion and contacted Rod Smith directly and quickly received a response that solved my problem.

While it is true that refind does support ext4 filesystems, the driver for it is not installed automatically per default. After installing the driver, it worked out immediately.

To be fair, this is also documented in the installation section of the corresponding Arch Wiki article. However, since I had already installed refind before and only wanted to use it with another operating system, I didn't read the installation section again and therefore overlooked this information.

I will mark this thread as solved.

Thank you all.
 
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