How to delete Refind entries

Question

I'm not sure which area this post would be appropriate, but here goes. I have attempted several different Linux distributions on my Macbook Pro Retina (10.1) before settling on Ubuntu 13.04 and I have noticed that some entries still remain in the Refind screen on system boot. The answer on this (How can I remove Ubuntu from the UEFI boot options?) page mentions using EFI bootmgr to show my entries and then delete them, but I don't really understand the resulting information. Just so you know, I am trying to remove a Manjaro entry and an Ubuntu entry (I have two on boot). Thank you for any help in advance.

sudo efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0080
Timeout: 5 seconds
BootOrder: 0080
Boot0080* Mac OS X  ACPI(a0341d0,0)PCI(1f,2)03120a00000000000000HD(2,64028,d634458,8430687d-0f85-4d7c-809b-e2b8078d1149)
Boot0081* Mac OS X  ACPI(a0341d0,0)PCI(1f,2)03120a00000000000000HD(1,28,64000,75fae237-ad7a-42bf-8691-5f73dab765df)File(\EFI\APPLE\FIRMWARE\ThorUtil.efi)-.o. .-.e.e. .-.f. .e.f.i.-.a.p.p.l.e.-.p.a.y.l.o.a.d.0.-.d.a.t.a...
Boot0082*   ACPI(a0341d0,0)PCI(1f,2)03120a00000000000000HD(2,64028,a7a3580,8430687d-0f85-4d7c-809b-e2b8078d1149)
BootFFFF*   ACPI(a0341d0,0)PCI(1f,2)03120a00000000000000HD(2,64028,10e15640,8430687d-0f85-4d7c-809b-e2b8078d1149)File(\System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi)

Answer 1

If you want to use rEFInd but trim the number of options rEFInd itself shows, editing the entries as shown by efibootmgr won't work. In fact, using efibootmgr on a Mac is unlikely to have any desirable result, since Macs are weird in how they manage boot programs.

Instead, you need to manage your boot entries in one of the ways that rEFInd supports, such as:

• Deleting unwanted boot loader programs from the hard disk.
• Using the dont_scan_volumes, dont_scan_dirs, or dont_scan_files options in refind.conf to blacklist specific partitions, directories, or filenames from rEFInd's auto-detection.
• Deleting filesystem drivers to prevent rEFInd from scanning particular partitions.
• Adjusting the scanfor line in refind.conf to prevent scanning for certain broad classes of boot programs, such as BIOS-mode boot loaders (by removing hdbios from the list).
• Using dd to delete BIOS boot loaders from specific partitions or from the hard disk's MBR. This method is potentially dangerous, though.

Chances are one of the first two or three options will do what you want to do, but it's not clear from your description which one will work best for your situation. For instance, if you've deleted Manjaro or Ubuntu completely but still see boot options for them, chances are you've got leftover boot loaders for these OSes in the EFI System Partition (ESP), and deleting those files may be in order. OTOH, if you're seeing entries for an OS that you're booting in some other way, perhaps one of the dont_scan options would work better.

Note that in some cases rEFInd will produce multiple entries for one distribution, and these should not be trimmed. The reason is that rEFInd may detect multiple kernels. You can see the exact filename beneath the icon when you highlight an entry. If the filenames take the form vmlinuz-{version} but differ in their version numbers, this is what you're seeing. You should keep such multiple entries because sometimes a new kernel doesn't work properly, and having multiple kernels can therefore provide a fallback in case a new one doesn't work. If all your kernels work, you can get rid of older entries by uninstalling the older kernel package with dpkg, apt-get, synaptic, or some other tool. That's a variant on the first option. Just be sure that whatever's left actually boots successfully.

Answer 2

I'm having this same issue except I have Manjaro installed and removed Solus from a separate drive in my system. Refind still offers an entry for Solus as an option even though I thought I deleted the pertinent files from the EFI folder.