BUILDING.txt

Requirements
============

To compile rEFInd, you'll need the following:

* A Linux installation. Note that this installation does NOT need to be
  EFI-based. It can be 32- or 64-bit, but unless you use a cross-compiler
  (which I've not tested), it must be the appropriate bit width for your
  EFI implementation. (Normally that means 64-bit.) If you don't normally
  run Linux, you can run it in a VirtualBox or similar virtual machine. (I
  describe some unsupported non-Linux build options shortly.)

* A standard set of Linux development tools, based on GCC.

* One of the following:

  * The TianoCore EDK2 package
    (http://sourceforge.net/projects/tianocore/). I initially used the
    UDK2010 package and others in that series, but beginning with rEFInd
    0.8.2, I've been using UDK2014
    (http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/tianocore/index.php?title=UDK2014).
    All of the UDK release are "frozen," rather than the main EDK2
    development branch, which is changing as the developers add features,
    fix bugs, and so on. See below for TianoCore setup instructions.

  * The GNU-EFI package (http://sourceforge.net/projects/gnu-efi/). You can
    install this from a package called "gnu-efi"; however, rEFInd relies on
    features that were added sometime between version 3.0s and 3.0u, so I
    recommend using 3.0u (or conceivably later). You should check your
    GNU-EFI version number; you may need to download the latest source
    code, compile it, and install it locally. The Makefiles assume a
    GNU-EFI package installed via a package manager. If you install from
    source code, you may need to adjust those Makefiles' paths.

Of the two toolkits, I prefer to use TianoCore because it produces binaries
that are about 20-30KiB smaller than those made by GNU-EFI, and I can
easily build 32-bit binaries on my 64-bit Linux installations. Also, I've
had problems on a 32-bit Mac Mini with the drivers produced by GNU-EFI
hanging the system if I try to load more than one of them. (I haven't
encountered this problem on UEFI-based PCs.) That said, the TianoCore EDK2
package is much harder to install, so you may prefer to use GNU-EFI unless
you have a specific need for the TianoCore toolkit. Automated build tools
like the OpenSUSE Build Service (OBS) and the Ubuntu Personal Package
Archive (PPA) mechanism don't yet support TianoCore.

It's possible to use a non-Linux platform to compile rEFInd. To the best of
my knowledge, the rEFInd code doesn't rely on anything Linux-specific in
its build requirements, and GNU-EFI's Sourceforge page indicates that it
works under Windows and OS X, too; however, my one attempt to compile
GNU-EFI under OS X failed. I've received one report that rEFInd compiles
successfully with Clang and the TianoCore toolkit under OS X by adding the
refind.inf file to a .dsc file that you use for your own projects. You can
find brief instructions here (note that this is not my documentation):

https://github.com/snarez/refind-edk2

Under Windows, you would need to either create a project or Makefile for
your non-GCC compiler or use a GCC port, such as MinGW
(http://www.mingw.org). You'd probably need to adjust the Makefiles in the
latter case. A procedure similar to that used under OS X might work using
GCC or Microsoft's C compiler, but I haven't tested this.


Preparing Your Development Kit
==============================

If you're using Linux, GNU-EFI is the easiest way to compile rEFInd. I
don't describe GNU-EFI's setup here because it's likely to be fairly easy.
If your distribution provides a recent enough version, you should be able
to install a package called gnu-efi and be done with it. If not, you'll
need to download the source code tarball, build it, and install it. This
process is fairly typical of Linux packages. Read the GNU-EFI documentation
if you need help. If you're using GNU-EFI, you can skip the rest of this
section.

You might also want to use the TianoCore toolkit if you have problems with
GNU-EFI or if you want to build rEFInd on a non-Linux platform.
Unfortunately, the TianoCore toolkit is weird by Linux programming
standards. It's also quite large -- it's intended as a means to develop a
complete EFI firmware implementation, so it contains much more code than is
needed to develop standalone EFI applications. I don't know of any Linux
distribution packages for it in RPM, Debian package file, or other formats;
you MUST install the kit from source code using its own unusual compilation
procedure. The installation documentation also omits at least one step and
is a bit unclear about others. Here's how I installed the toolkit:

1) Download UDK2014.SR1.UP1.P1 from
   https://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/tianocore/index.php?title=UDK2014.

2) Type "mkdir /usr/local/UDK2014". You can use another directory, but the
   Makefile for rEFInd's EFI drivers assumes this location. You'll need to
   edit the EDK2BASE line in the Make.tiano file if you install somewhere
   else.

3) Type "cd /usr/local/UDK2014".

4) Unzip the downloaded file (UDK2014.SR1.UP1.P1.Complete.MyWorkSpace.zip)
   in the current directory (/usr/local/UDK2014). This creates a handful of
   files, including a tarball and a couple of .zip files.

5) Type "unzip UDK2014.SR1.UP1.MyWorkSpace.zip". This extracts the
   platform-neutral portion of the development kit.

6) Type "cd MyWorkSpace".

7) Type "tar xvf ../BaseTools\(Unix\).tar". This extracts the
   Linux/Unix-specific portions of the toolkit.

8) Follow the build instructions at
   https://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/tianocore/index.php?title=Using_EDK_II_with_Native_GCC_4.4;
   however, a few changes are required, as detailed below....

9) Type "source edksetup.sh BaseTools". This sets up some environment
   variables, so subsequent steps (NOT including compiling the rEFInd EFI
   drivers) must be typed in the shell you use for this step.

10) Edit Conf/target.txt and change the following:
    - ACTIVE_PLATFORM = MdePkg/MdePkg.dsc
    - TARGET = RELEASE (DEBUG might work, but I've not tested it).
    - TARGET_ARCH = X64 (on x86-64; leave this as IA32 on x86). If you plan
      to build both architectures on an x86-64 system, you can set this to
      "IA32 X64".
    - TOOL_CHAIN_TAG = GCC46 (or other value depending on your GCC version;
      type "gcc -v" to learn your GCC version number). Note that GCC 4.7
      and 4.8 don't have their own entries, so use GCC46 for them.
    The TianoCore Makefiles read some of these variables from this file
    and use them when accessing directories, so be sure to type these
    entries in the case specified.

11) The documentation refers to editing Conf/tools_def.txt in addition to
    Conf/target.txt, but doesn't specify what to change in
    Conf/tools_def.txt. I haven't found it necessary to make any changes in
    Conf/tools_def.txt EXCEPT when using GCC 4.7 on a Fedora 17 system.
    (I haven't used GCC 4.7 on other platforms, so this may well be
    necessary on other systems, too.) With that setup, I found it
    necessary to change the following line:
    *_GCC46_X64_ASM_FLAGS            = DEF(GCC46_ASM_FLAGS) -m64 -melf_x86_64
    to:
    *_GCC46_X64_ASM_FLAGS            = DEF(GCC46_ASM_FLAGS) -m64

12) Type "make -C /usr/local/UDK2014/MyWorkSpace/BaseTools/Source/C".
    (This step is not documented on the EDK Web page.) Note that this
    requires the g++ compiler and UUID development libraries.
    
13) Type "build" to build the main set of EDK2 files. This process is
    likely to take a few minutes. This step requires Python 2; if you have
    Python 3 installed, you may need to adjust the default python for this
    build (for instance, by typing "eselect python set python2.7" in
    Gentoo).

If you installed in a location other than the one I've specified, you must
edit the EDK2BASE variable in the Make.tiano and filesystems/Make.tiano
files in the rEFInd source package. Once the toolkit is installed, you can
build the filesystem drivers or rEFInd, as described below.


Compiling rEFInd
================

With your development system set up, you can compile rEFInd as follows:

1) Download and uncompress the rEFInd source code archive. (If you're
   reading this file, you've probably already done this task.)

2) Open a Linux shell prompt

3) Change into the archive's main directory. You should see several files
   including this BUILDING.txt file and several subdirectories such as
   "refind", "libeg", "mok", "filesystems", and "include".

4) Type "make gnuefi" to build with GNU-EFI, or either "make" alone or
   "make tiano" to build with TianoCore EDK2. With any luck, rEFInd will
   compile without error, leaving the "refind_ia32.efi" or "refind_x64.efi"
   file, depending on your platform, in the "refind" subdirectory. This same
   step builds the "gptsync_x64.efi" or "gptsync_ia32.efi" program file, in
   the "gptsync" subdirectory. If you want to build IA32 binaries on an
   x86-64 (X64) system, type "ARCH=ia32 make". This works only if you're
   using the TianoCore build kit, and only if you set TARGET_ARCH to either
   "IA32" or "IA32 X64" in target.txt when you set up the TianoCore toolkit.
   If you plan to build both architectures, be sure to copy the .efi file
   for the first build out of the refind subdirectory before building the
   second architecture.

5) The default build process does NOT build the filesystem drivers. If you
   want to build them, you must type "make fs" in the main rEFInd source
   directory to build with the TianoCore EDK2, or "make fs_gnuefi" to build
   with GNU-EFI. (Typing "ARCH=ia32 make fs" builds IA32 filesystem drivers
   on an x86-64 system, provided TianoCore is properly configured, as
   described earlier.) The result is filesystem drivers in the filesystems
   subdirectory, and also copies placed in the drivers_{arch} subdirectory.

If rEFInd doesn't compile correctly, you'll need to track down the source
of the problem. Double-check that you've got all the necessary development
tools installed, including GCC, make, and either GNU-EFI or TianoCore EDK2.
You may also need to adjust the Makefile, Make.common file, or Make.tiano
file for your system. (The main Makefile controls the process for both
toolkits, while Make.common holds GNU-EFI options and Make.tiano holds
TianoCore options.) The most likely thing you'll need to change is the path
to the various GNU-EFI include files and libraries. Since rEFInd 0.6.2, the
default Make.common file includes the following definitions:

EFIINC          = /usr/include/efi
GNUEFILIB       = /usr/lib
EFILIB          = /usr/lib
EFICRT0         = /usr/lib

If you've installed GNU-EFI from source code, you may need to add "local"
to those paths, as in "/usr/local/include/efi". You might need to change
references to "lib" to "lib32" or "lib64" on some systems. Recall that you
need at least GNU-EFI version 3.0l to build rEFInd, and until very
recently, most distributions provided out-of-date versions of this package.

If you're using TianoCore's EDK2, as noted earlier, you may need to adjust
the EDK2BASE variable in Make.tiano and filesystems/Make.tiano.

When I tried to compile rEFInd under Ubuntu 12.04 (i386) using GNU-EFI,
even with a locally-compiled GNU-EFI 3.0p or 3.0q, I got errors like this:

main.o: In function `StartLegacy.isra.0':
main.c:(.text+0x8b1): undefined reference to `__stack_chk_fail_local'
lib.o: In function `ScanVolumeBootcode.part.3':
lib.c:(.text+0xf2f): undefined reference to `__stack_chk_fail_local'
lib.o: In function `ScanExtendedPartition.isra.4':

The solution was to recompile GNU-EFI with the -fno-stack-protector GCC
flag. In GNU-EFI, this can be added to the CFLAGS line in Make.defaults.


Installing rEFInd
=================

With rEFInd compiled, you can install it. The easiest way to do this is
with the install.sh script, which works on both Linux and Mac OS X.
Alternatively, you can type "make install" to install using this script.
Note that this script copies files to the ESP and uses "efibootmgr" (on
Linux) or "bless" (on OS X) to add rEFInd to the firmware's boot loader
list. The docs/refind/installing.html file provides more details on this
script and its use.

If install.sh doesn't work for you or if you prefer to do the job manually,
you may. On a UEFI-based system, you'll want to copy files on the ESP as
follows:

* Create a directory for rEFInd, such as EFI/refind.
* Copy refind/refind_ia32.efi or refind_x64.efi to the ESP's EFI/refind
  directory.
* Copy refind.conf-sample to the EFI/refind directory as refind.conf.
* Copy the icons subdirectory, including all its files, to EFI/refind.

You'll then need to activate rEFInd in your EFI. This can be done with
tools such as "efibootmgr" under Linux or "bless" under OS X. See the
docs/refind/installing.html file for details.


Note to Distribution Maintainers
================================

The install.sh script, and therefore the "install" target in the Makefile,
installs the program directly to the ESP and it modifies the *CURRENT
COMPUTER's* NVRAM. Thus, you should *NOT* use this target as part of the
build process for your binary packages (RPMs, Debian packages, etc.).
(Gentoo could use it in an ebuild, though....) You COULD, however, install
the files to a directory somewhere (/usr/share/refind or whatever) and then
call install.sh as part of the binary package installation process. Placing
the files directly in /boot/efi/EFI/{distname}/refind and then having a
post-install script call efibootmgr is probably the better way to go,
but this assumes that the ESP is mounted at /boot/efi.


Compiling the EFI Filesystem Drivers
====================================

To build all the drivers, you can type "make fs" or "make fs_gnuefi" from
the main directory, which builds the drivers and places copies in both the
filesystems and drivers_{arch} subdirectories. If you want to build just
one driver, you can change into the "filesystems" directory and type "make
{fsname}" or "make {fsname}_gnuefi", where {fsname} is a filesystem name --
"ext2", "ext4", "reiserfs", "iso9660", or "hfs". In all cases, the build
target that appends "_gnuefi" builds with GNU-EFI and the one that doesn't
builds with TianoCore.

To install drivers, you can type "make install" in the "filesystems"
directory. This copies all the drivers to the
"/boot/efi/EFI/refind/drivers" directory. Alternatively, you can copy the
files you want manually. As of version 0.4.8, the install.sh script
includes an optional "--drivers" option that will install the drivers along
with the main rEFInd program, but to the drivers_{arch} subdirectory of the
main rEFInd installation directory.

*CAUTION:* Install drivers for your system's architecture *ONLY*.
Installing drivers for the wrong architecture causes some systems to hang
at boot time. This risk can be minimized by including the architecture code
in the drivers subdirectory name (drivers_x64 or drivers_ia32).

The drivers all rely on filesystem wrapper code created by rEFIt's author,
Christoph Pfisterer. Most of the drivers seem to have passed through
Oracle's VirtualBox project (https://www.virtualbox.org) and the Clover
boot loader project (https://sourceforge.net/projects/cloverefiboot/),
which I used as the source for this build.