There are at least three ways to do this, although each has the potential to go awry:
Method 1: From OS X
From OS X, you can use bless
to set rEFInd as the default boot manager. This process is described in the rEFInd documentation:
http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/installing.html#osx
Note that's the complete manual rEFInd installation process. You really only need steps 1, 2, and 8.
The problem with this approach is that, if your rEFIt installation includes rEFItBlesser (as it does by default), it may reset rEFIt as the default boot loader. You can work around this by removing /Library/StartupItems/rEFItBlesser
. Alternatively, you can re-install rEFInd in OS X via the refind-install
script, which should give you the option of removing rEFItBlesser.
Method 2: From Ubuntu
In Ubuntu, typing sudo efibootmgr -v
will produce a list of boot options. You can then use the -o
option to efibootmgr
to change the BootOrder
line to set rEFInd as the first option. (For instance, you might type sudo efibootmgr -o 0081,0080
to make Boot0081
the default option, with Boot0080
as a secondary boot option. The details of what values you type will vary from one system to another; that's why you start with sudo efibootmgr -v
-- that shows you what options exist on your computer.) This will often work on Macs, but Macs are weird, and on some models it might fail. You may also run into the rEFItBlesser problem noted in the previous approach, so you may need to remove rEFItBlesser manually. (Note that re-installing rEFInd in Ubuntu won't remove rEFItBlesser in OS X.)
Method 3: Delete rEFIt
You can completely delete rEFIt from the computer. It normally installs itself to EFI/refit
in OS X, but depending on how you installed it, it may be somewhere else, such as on the ESP. (The ESP is normally not mounted in OS X, but may be mounted at /boot/efi
in Ubuntu.) With rEFIt gone, the computer should boot to its second boot option, which may be rEFInd or OS X. If it starts booting straight to OS X, you'll need to re-install, or at least re-bless, rEFInd. There's a small chance that the computer will refuse to boot at all after you delete rEFIt. If so, holding down the Option key as you start up should produce the Mac's own built-in boot manager, which should enable you to get to OS X and recover.