RefindPlus

Overview

RefindPlus is a variant of the rEFInd Boot Manager incorporating various fixes and additional features.

The main development focus is on the following units:

• MacPro3,1: Early 2008 Mac Pro
• MacPro4,1: Early 2009 Mac Pro
• MacPro5,1: Mid 2010 and Mid 2012 Mac Pros
• Xserve2,1: Early 2008 Xserve
• Xserve3,1: Early 2009 Xserve

However, the enhancements added to RefindPlus are not limited in scope to those units and include several UEFI-PC and other Apple Mac related enhancements that may be of interest to anyone requiring a capable and flexible boot manager.

Headline Features

• Maintains feature and configuration parity with the base upstream version.
• Protects against damage to Mac NVRAM when booting UEFI Windows.
• Provides Pre-Boot Configuration Screen on units running GPUs without native EFI on Macs.
• Provides UGADraw on modern GOP based GPUs to permit booting legacy EFI Boot operating systems.
• Provides improved support for languages that use unicode text
• Emulates UEFI 2.3 on EFI 1.x units to permit running UEFI 2.x utilities on such units
• Adds a debug version that provides extensive logging.
  • The release version is kept as an optimised version for day to day use.
• Fixes upstream inability to print to screen on Macs
  • This prevented receiving program messages as well as leveraging advanced features such as EFI shell.
• Provides NVMe capability, if required, via a built in NvmExpress driver.
  • Removes the need to add NVMe drivers on units without NVMe support.
  • Basically allows working as if NVMe is natively supported by the firmware
    • Removes the need for a risky firmware flash operation on units such as the MacPro3,1
• Provides APFS filesystem capability, if required, via a built in APFS JumpStart driver.
  • Removes the need to add APFS drivers to run recent MacOS releases on units without APFS support.
  • Additionally, this ensures that matching APFS drivers for specific MacOS releases are used.
  • Basically allows working as if APFS is natively supported by the firmware
    • Removes the need for a risky firmware flash operation on units such as the MacPro3,1
• Fully supports Apple's APFS filesystem requirements
  • This allows booting MacOS 11.x (Big Sur) or later from single named volumes on the main screen.
    • As opposed to generic and difficult to distinguish PreBoot volumes.
    • Avoids potentially compromising system integrity by otherwise requiring SIP to be disabled.
  • This also allows booting FileVault encrypted volumes from single named volumes on the main screen.
    • As opposed to generic and difficult to distinguish PreBoot volumes.

Installation

MyBootMgr is recommended to automate installing RefindPlus on Mac OS. Alternatively, as the RefindPlus efi file can function as a drop-in replacement for the upstream efi file, you can install the rEFInd package first and replace its efi file with the RefindPlus efi file. (Ensure you rename the RefindPlus efi file to match). This manual process allows installing RefindPlus on any operating systems supported upstream. On Mac OS, MyBootMgr can optionally be used to set a RefindPlus|OpenCore chain-loading arrangement up on MacPro3,1 to MacPro5,1 as well as on Xserve2,1 and Xserve3,1.

Users may also want to replace upstream filesystem drivers with those packaged with RefindPlus as these are always either exactly the same as upstream versions or have had fixes applied.

RefindPlus will function with the upstream configuration file, refind.conf, but users may wish to replace this with the RefindPlus configuration file, config.conf, to configure the additional options provided by RefindPlus. A sample RefindPlus configuration file is available here: config.conf-sample. RefindPlus-Specific options can also be added to a refind.conf file and used that way if preferred.

Note that if you run RefindPlus without activating the additional options, as will be the case if using an unmodified upstream configuration file, a RefindPlus run will be equivalent to running the upstream version it is based on, currently v0.13.3. That is, the additional options provided in RefindPlus must be actively enabled if they are required. This equivalence is subject to a few divergent items in RefindPlus as outlined under the Divergence section below. NB: Upstream post-release code updates are typically ported to RefindPlus as they happen and as such, RefindPlus releases are actually at the state of the base upstream release version plus any such updates and typically include updates for subsequent upstream release versions since the base version.

Additional Functionality

RefindPlus-Specific funtionality can be configured by adding the tokens below to the upstream configuration file. Additional information is provided in the sample RefindPlus configuration file.

Token	Functionality
continue_on_warning	Proceed as if a key was pressed after screen warnings (for unattended boot)
csr_dynamic	Actively enables or disables the SIP Policy on Macs
csr_normalise	Removes the APPLE_INTERNAL bit, when present, to permit OTA updates
decline_apfs_load	Disables built in provision of APFS filesystem capability
decline_apfs_mute	Disables suppression of verbose APFS text on boot
decline_apfs_sync	Disables feature allowing direct APFS/FileVault boot (Without "PreBoot")
decline_apple_fb	Disables provision under some circumstances of missing AppleFramebuffers
decline_help_tags	Disables feature that ensures hidden tags can always be unhidden
decline_help_text	Disables complementary text colours if not required
decline_nvram_protect	Disables blocking of potentially harmful write attempts to Legacy Mac NVRAM
decline_reload_gop	Disables reinstallation of UEFI 2.x GOP drivers on EFI 1.x units
decouple_key_f10	Unmaps the F10 key from native screenshots (the \ key remains mapped)
disable_amfi	Disables AMFI Checks on MacOS if required
disable_compat_check	Disables Mac version compatibility checks if required
disable_nvram_paniclog	Disables MacOS kernel panic logging to NVRAM
disable_rescan_dxe	Disables scanning for newly revealed DXE drivers when connecting handles
enable_esp_filter	Prevents other ESPs other than the RefindPlus ESP being scanned for loaders
follow_symlinks	Allows following symbolic links to loaders (Ignored by default)
force_trim	Forces TRIM on non-Apple SSDs on Macs if required
hidden_icons_external	Allows scanning for .VolumeIcon icons on external volumes
hidden_icons_ignore	Disables scanning for .VolumeIcon image icons if not required
hidden_icons_prefer	Prioritises .VolumeIcon image icons when available
icon_row_move	Repositions the main screen icon rows (vertically)
icon_row_tune	Fine tunes the resulting icon_row_move outcome
nvram_protect_ex	Extends NvramProtect, if set, to Mac OS and unknown UEFI boots
nvram_variable_limit	Limits NVRAM write attempts to the specified variable size
pass_uga_through	Provides UGA instance on GOP to permit EFI Boot with modern GPUs
prefer_uga	Prefers UGA use (when available) regardless of GOP availability
provide_console_gop	Fixes issues with GOP on some legacy units
ransom_drives	Frees partitions locked by how certain firmware load inbuilt drivers
renderer_direct_gop	Provides a potentially improved GOP instance for certain GPUs
renderer_text	Provides a text renderer for text output when otherwise unavailable
scale_ui	Provides control of UI element scaling
screen_rgb	Allows setting arbitrary screen background colours
set_boot_args	Allows setting arbitrary MacOS boot arguments
supply_nvme	Enables a built in NvmExpress Driver
supply_uefi	Enables feature that emulates UEFI 2.x support on EFI 1.x units
transient_boot	Disables selection of the last booted loader if not required
unicode_collation	Provides fine tuned support for languages that use unicode text

Modified Functionality

In addition to the new functionality listed above, the following upstream tokens have been modified:

• "use_graphics_for" Token: OpenCore and Clover added as options that can be set to boot in graphics mode.
• "showtools" Token: Additional tool added:
  • clean_nvram : Allows resetting nvram directly from RefindPlus.
    • When run on Apple Firmware, RefindPlus will additionally trigger NVRAM garbage collection
• "csr_values" Token: A value of 0 can be set as the Enabled value to ensure Over The Air (OTA) updates from Apple when running MacOS 11.x (Big Sur), or later, with SIP enabled.
  • This is equivalent to activating the csr_normalise token.
• "timeout" Token: The default is no timeout unless explicitly set.
• "screensaver" Token: The RefindPlus screensaver cycles through a set of colours as opposed to a single grey colour.
• "use_nvram" Token: RefindPlus variables are written to the file system and not the motherboard's NVRAM unless explicitly set to do so by activating this configuration token.
• "log_level" Token: Controls the native log format and an implementation of the upstream format.
  • Only active on DEBUG and NOOPT builds while RELEASE builds remain optimised for day-to-day use.
  • Level 0 does not switch logging off but activates the native summary format.
  • Levels 1 and 2 output logs similar to the detailed upstream format.
    • Level 1 is broadly equivalent to upstream Level 4 (upstream Levels 1 to 3 were dispensed with)
    • Level 2 is only exposed on NOOPT builds and outputs logs at a very detailed level
      • Create NOOPT builds by passing ALL as a second parameter to the RefindPlus build script
      • The first parameter is the build branch, which also needs to be specified in such instances
    • When Level 2 is not exposed, selected levels above 1 will be capped at Level 1
    • When exposed, selected levels above 2 will be capped at Level 2
• "resolution" Token: The max setting is redundant in RefindPlus which always defaults to the maximum available resolution whenever the resolution is not set or is otherwise not available.

Divergence

Implementation differences with the upstream base version v0.13.3 are:

• Screenshots: These are saved in the PNG format with a significantly smaller file size. Additionally, the file naming is slightly different and the files are always saved to the same ESP as the RefindPlus efi file.
• UI Scaling: WQHD monitors are correctly determined not to be HiDPI monitors and UI elements are not scaled up on such monitors when the RefindPlus-Specific scale_ui configuration token is set to automatically detect the screen resolution. RefindPlus also takes vertically orientated screens into account and additionally scales UI elements down when low resolution screens (less than 1025px on the longest edge) are detected.
• Hidden Tags: RefindPlus always makes the "hidden_tags" tool available (even when the tool is not specified in the "showtools" list). This is done to ensure that when users hide items (always possible), such items can also be unhidden (only possible when the "hidden_tags" tool is available). Users that prefer not to use this feature can activate the RefindPlus-Specific decline_help_tags configuration token to switch it off.
• GOP Driver Provision: RefindPlus attempts to ensure that UEFI 2.x GOP drivers are available on EFI 1.x units by attempting to reload such drivers when it detects an absence of GOP on such units to permit the use of modern GPUs on legacy units. Users that prefer not to use this feature can activate the RefindPlus-Specific decline_reload_gop configuration token to switch it off.
• AppleFramebuffer Provision: RefindPlus defaults to always providing Apple frame buffers on Macs, when not available under certain circumstances. This is done using a built in SupplyAppleFB feature. Users that prefer not to use this feature can activate the RefindPlus-Specific decline_apple_fb configuration token to switch it off.
• APFS Filesystem Provision: RefindPlus defaults to always providing APFS Filesystem capability, when not available but is required, without a need to load an APFS driver. This is done using a built in SupplyAPFS feature. Users that prefer not to use this feature can activate the RefindPlus-Specific decline_apfs_load configuration token to switch it off.
• APFS Verbose Text Suppression: RefindPlus defaults to always suppresses verbose text output associated with loading APFS functionality by the built in SupplyAPFS feature. Users that prefer not to use this feature can activate the RefindPlus-Specific decline_apfs_mute configuration token to switch it off.
• APFS PreBoot Volumes: RefindPlus always synchronises APFS System and PreBoot partitions transparently such that the Preboot partitions of APFS volumes are always used to boot APFS formatted MacOS. Hence, a single option for booting MacOS on APFS volumes is presented in RefindPlus to provide maximum APFS compatibility, consistent with Apple's implementation. Users that prefer not to use this feature can activate the RefindPlus-Specific decline_apfs_sync configuration token to switch it off.
• Apple NVRAM Protection: RefindPlus always prevents UEFI Windows Secure Boot from saving certificates to Apple NVRAM as this can result in damage and an inability to boot. Blocking these certificates does not impact the operation of UEFI Windows on Apple Macs. This filtering only happens when Apple firmware is detected and is not applied to other types of firmware. Users that prefer not to use this feature can activate the RefindPlus-Specific decline_nvram_protect configuration token to switch it off.
• Secondary Configuration Files: While the upstream documentation prohibits including tertiary configuration files from secondary configuration files, there is no mechanism enforcing this prohibition. Hence, tertiary, quaternary, quinary, and more, configuration files can in fact be included. RefindPlus enforces a limitation to secondary configuration files.
• Included Manual Stanza Files: The upstream implementation has an undocumented feature whereby files containing manual configuration stanzas could be included similar to a secondary configuration file. This is documented in the RefindPlus config file along with the documentation for including secondary configuration files. The while the RefindPlus implementation also allows multiple include lines for such, it differs from the undocumented upstream implementation in that included manual configuration stanza files cannot include other such files in turn, similar to the implementation for secondary configuration files.
• Disabled Manual Stanzas: The processing of a user configured boot stanza is halted once a Disabled setting is encountered and the Entry object immediately discarded. The outcome is the same as upstream, which always continues to create and return a fully built object in such cases to be discarded later. The approach adopted in RefindPlus allows for an optimised loading process particularly when such Disabled tokens are placed immediately after the menuentry line (see examples in the config.conf-sample file). This also applies to submenuentry items which can be enabled or disabled separately.
• Pointer Priority: The upstream implementation of pointer priority is based on how the tokens appear in the configuration file(s) when both pointer control tokens, enable_mouse and enable_touch, are active. The last token read in the main configuration file and/or any supplementary/override configuration file will be used and the other disregarded. In RefindPlus however, the enable_touch token always takes priority when both tokens are active without regard to the order of appearance in the configuration file(s). This means that to use a mouse in RefindPlus, the enable_touch token must be disabled (default) in addition to enabling the enable_mouse token.

Roll Your Own

Refer to BUILDING.md for build instructions (x86_64 Only).

CLICK HERE for the ReadMe File related to the current (work in progress) code base.