How to add Kaos to Refind bootloader

mogplus8

Hi, I use Refind for my bootloader and have a few distros booting from it. I installed Kaos with the 'no bootloader' option as I thought I could add it to my existing Refind install. However Refind can't find it, and neither can I. Were Are the vmlinuz and initrd files to boot Kaos? I need to figure out what to put in the Refind manual stanza to boot Kaos.
Thanks.

demm

More info is needed to help with that.
Is this a BIOS or UEFI system?
For UEFI, /boot is a separate partition and contains the kernel modules (unless you choose manual partitioning, and choose not to install the EFI partition).
So best is to pastebin the /var/log/installation.log from the KaOS partition.

mogplus8

@demm thanks for the reply. I had a look in /var/log but there is no installation.log, only a pacman log. Is that what you need?
Sorry I don't know how to work pastebin. I hope you can retrieve the dropbox image.
;-)

![https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/0bmtret4j26lbmd64qlw8/Screenshot_20240215_234556.png?rlkey=oxrm581jb2tx23aq3bsdbz4cu&dl=0]

demm

If there is no installation log, that means the install did not happen/finish, the next to last step always creates that log.

mogplus8

@demm that's interesting. I guess the 'no bootloader' option maybe caused that?
The second thing I noticed in your initial reply, that didn't really register the first time, is that for UEFI /boot needs to be a separate partition. I am using UEFI and there is an EFI partition already. I pointed /boot to the existing EFI partition in the manual partitioning step (and created a "/" partition and a "/home" partition), but there was nothing created in the EFI partition related to Kaos that I could find.
Anyway I'll try the install again.
Thanks again.

demm

mogplus8 I guess the 'no bootloader' option maybe caused that?

No, it only selects which bootloader to use, nothing else.
But when using the manual partitioning, you are presented with a warning in bold about how to set the EFI partition, right before you can select manual, failing to do so in the correct way will of course result in a failed install.
But.....manual is there for those who know what they are doing, otherwise automated should be used.

mogplus8

Well, reinstalled and I selected refind as the bootloader, and basically nothing happened. My existing refind still didn't find it, and I still couldn't booto it. So I reinstalled again and selected systemd. This time a .efi file appeared in the systemd folder in the EFI partition, Refind found it and I can now boot Kaos. Only tiny fly in the ointment is that it boots into grubbish looking screen with a couple of choices on it, and I would prefer it booted directly into Kaos, but I can live with that. Still no idea where the vmlinuz/initrd files are, but I'll h ave another look later.
;-)

shalokshalom

Can we close this?

mogplus8

shalokshalom Absolutely. I no longer have the problem. ;-)