Rename "Boot EFI"

**Vinodh Moodley** · April 26th, 2014

I installed Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on my MacBook Air 2013 6,1 in dual boot configuration with Mavericks. I did not use refit or refind and chose to use Apple's EFI boot. When I hold down the Option key on startup, I get the option to choose between "Mavericks" and "Boot EFI". Choosing "Boot EFI" boots Ubuntu. Does anyone know how to rename "Boot EFI" to "Ubuntu"? Renaming "Mavericks" is just a matter of booting into OS X and renaming the Mavericks partition using the Finder. I tried the "bless" command in Terminal to rename the EFI boot volume to Ubuntu but it didn't work. Any help is appreciated.

**Quackers** · April 27th, 2014

I don't know whether that should be done or not.
I suspect that renaming it may break the boot sequence as the files needed to boot are in that folder.
For example, if you now install Windows in EFI mode, that too will have files placed in the EFI Boot folder and on booting you would select that option from the boot menu and you'd get a choice between booting Windows and Ubuntu.

Just my best guess.

**Vinodh Moodley** · April 27th, 2014

Thanks for the reply. If I plugin a bootable USB installer, then I get two Boot EFI's which means that if I install Windows in EFI mode, then i'll just get two Boot EFI's, one for Ubuntu and one for Windows. I also saw on a screenshot somewhere that what i'm asking is actually possible but I can't find info on exactly how to do it.

The other issue that I would love to sort out is:

When I select "Boot EFI", GRUB loads and then boots Ubuntu. There is a way to boot into Ubuntu directly via EFI stub without using GRUB at all. I also read in several places that this is possible but I can't find any info on how to exactly do it.

**Quackers** · April 27th, 2014

As I said, I'm not sure about your first point, so can't really comment further on it.
The only way I know of to boot Ubuntu via EFI stub is by using rEFInd which will do that after copying the appropriate driver across (details on the rEFInd site).This method of booting will boot Ubuntu more directly (by-passing grub) but then there is no way (that I know of) to enter boot prompts, should a booting problem occur.

**Vinodh Moodley** · April 28th, 2014

I deleted Ubuntu and created some free space for Fedora. I installed Fedora and it automatically created a separate EFI HFS+ partition. On restart, if I hold down the Option key, I get the Apple boot picker showing the Fedora logo and the Fedora name below it. Selecting it starts up Fedora.

I'm not sure why but Fedora works great out of the box with both my MacBooks with regards to EFI booting. Ubuntu needs extra attention just to boot and it's still not the way I would like it. If I had the know how, I'd use the Fedora installer to Ubuntu.

**Quackers** · April 28th, 2014

Interesting. Fedora must do it differently.

**Vinodh Moodley** · April 28th, 2014

Fedora created a System/Library/CoreServices folder within the EFI partition and added a SystemVersion.plist file as well as a dummy mach_kernel. This plist text file has the name of the OS in it. I created a separate HFS+ partition, named it "ubuntu", added grub and the above-mention folder and edited the plist file accordingly. I then deleted all the files in the apple efi folder, blessed grub and rebooted. Holding down option gives the option of choosing OSX or "Boot EFI" with the Ubuntu logo. This means that I got Ubuntu to boot via efi from a custom efi partition but I still cannot understand where the name "Boot EFI" comes from and why Fedora works fine.

These explain how to do what I want but I some steps just doesn't work:

http://nosemaj.org/dual-boot-mac-linux

http://glandium.org/blog/?p=2830

**Vinodh Moodley** · April 28th, 2014

Nevermind. I got it working! Once I did all the stuff that I mentioned above, "EFI Boot" appeared as per normal in the boot picker. Actually booting into Ubuntu and then restarting with the option key held in showed "ubuntu" instead of "EFI Boot". I'm not sure why this finally fixed it and i'm also not sure if I can get it working again but it works for now.