[SOLVED] How to edit refind.conf

[TwoFistedJustice]

I have installed rEFInd as my boot manager.

Now I'd like to change the default boot option so it loads Kubuntu either automatically or after only a very short delay, say 3 seconds.

how do I access refind.conf to edit it?

[Don B. Cilly]

My refind.conf is in /boot/efi/EFI/refind/
If it isn't, try locate refind.conf
If it doesn't find it, you'll have to sudo updatedb ;·)
The timeout is the first option, default is 8 (seconds).

The comment before it explains it quite well.

[TwoFistedJustice]

I found the example file. But even udatedb can't get into /boot/efi

I don't have direct access to /boot/efi

So how do I get access to that. The rEFInd docs suggest that I have to boot into a shell to do that.

I'm still pretty green. How do I boot into a shell to get access to the efi?

[Snowhog]

You 'should' be able to use Kate and navigate to the location of the file to open. As it's a root owned file, you'll be prompted for your pwd when you attempt to save it.

[Qqmike]

What Snowhog said about Kate.

Fyi:

How to access your ESP (since you can't open Dolphin as root anymore):
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...l=1#post418408

Configuring the rEFInd Boot Manager:
www.rodsbooks.com/refind/configfile.html

[Don B. Cilly]

Hmm. On my Neon, /boot/efi is readable by anything.
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Jan 1 1970 efi/
So is /boot/efi/EFI.
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 4096 Aug 26 12:18 EFI/
I can edit refind.conf in simple user (not root) mode directly from Dolphin.

Still, why /boot/efi should be dated Jan 1 1970... :·/

[EDIT] Out of curiosity, what does df-h return?

[TwoFistedJustice]

You 'should' be able to use Kate and navigate to the location of the file to open. As it's a root owned file, you'll be prompted for your pwd when you attempt to save it.

Permission denied.

I was under the impression that it is not accessible from inside the OS

From the docs on Rodbooks:

"Note that the EFI shell includes its own editor. If you need to make a change before you launch an OS, you can launch a shell, change to the rEFInd directory, and type edit refind.conf to edit the file. This EFI editor is quite primitive, but it gets the job done. After editing, you'll need to reboot or re-launch rEFInd for rEFInd to read the changed configuration file."

Doesn't this imply that I have to edit it outside of my main OS?

[Qqmike]

Doesn't this imply that I have to edit it outside of my main OS?

No.

"Note that the [B][COLOR=#ff0000]EFI shell[/COLOR][/B] includes its own editor. If you need to ...

He is talking about an advanced feature of UEFI: using the EFI Shell. You will probably never ever need to learn the shell. You do all your work using efibootmgr (which is NOT the shell), or by working inside the Kubuntu OS using normal commands, using Kate, and so on.

[kubicle]

Hmm. On my Neon, /boot/efi is readable by anything.
I can edit refind.conf in simple user (not root) mode directly from Dolphin.

That's true for older installs, the new default for newer installs is readable for root only (mounted with umask=0077 permissions mask in /etc/fstab)

Still, why /boot/efi should be dated Jan 1 1970... :·/

Probably because it's a FAT filesystem mounted there (with the quirky timestamps)

[TwoFistedJustice]

I can get into /boot. but my system is denying me access to the /boot/efi directory.

How do I get access to it?

[Don B. Cilly]

That's true for older installs, the new default for newer installs is readable for root only

Which results in having a configuration file (which is supposed to be edited) in a place where it can't be even located.
Oh well. I guess sudo chmod 755 /boot/efi would fix it.
One can always set it back to whatever it was after the file is edited...

Or just use krusader in root mode.

[kubicle]

Oh well. I guess sudo chmod 755 /boot/efi would fix it.

That won't work, since it is a fat file system which does not support POSIX ownerships/permissions (these attributes are defined at mount time with mount options with fat and otner non-posix file systems).

I'd use a root shell (sudo -i) to browse the directory and use nano (or another cli editor) to edit...or alternatively use krusader in root mode to browse and it's internal editor (F4) to edit. You can change the umask option for the mount to more permissive 0022, but only if you really know what you're doing...(or just temporarily remount it with umask=0022, note that this umask only makes it readable for everyone [for easier browsing], you'd still need to be root to edit/write...and I'd not recommend making it world writable, even temporarily).

[jlittle]

... the /boot/efi directory.
How do I get access to it?

Edit /etc/fstab to add "umask=000" to the options. F.ex., my /etc/fstab has the line

LABEL=EFI      /boot/efi   vfat    umask=000,noauto,noatime,user         0       1

Non-standardly, I also have "noauto" so that it is not mounted automatically at start-up (stops the debian grub scripts messing with it), and "user" so that I can mount it without sudo.

[kubicle]

Non-standardly, I also have "noauto" so that it is not mounted automatically at start-up (stops the debian grub scripts messing with it), and "user" so that I can mount it without sudo.

I'm confident you are savvy enough to have a a good reason for that, but this is generally a bad idea for most users. There are more than a few bug reports from people who had failed upgrades because the EFI partition isn't mounted (because "debian grub scripts *can't be* messing with it"). Also security-wise having it editable as a regular user is a questionable practice IMO, but everyone can be the best judge of how tight a ship they wish to run.

[Qqmike]

And my Post #5 answers the question (how to access the ESP), also. In that thread, we discussed this matter in full detail. Then I gave a summary.