Original Answer
My second answer differs from this answer in the following ways.
- In the second answer, the second EFI partition is replaced by a HFS+ partition. This type of partition is easier to create and modify.
- In the second answer, the label displayed in the Startup Manager will be "Ubuntu" instead of the generic "EFI Boot".
I will assume the following:
- You have install Ubuntu to use the EFI boot method.
- You are using grub to boot Ubuntu
- Grub boots from the EFI partition.
- There is only one EFI partition.
- The EFI partition is the first partition on the Disk.
- There is only one disk involved and the disk is internal.
- rEFInd is installed in the EFI partition.
I will give two way to solve your problem. Each has it pros and cons.
The Mac Startup Manager will display an operating system if you place the .efi file in the right location. This location is the EFI/boot
folder of the volume in a EFI partition. The file name must be bootx64.efi
. Furthermore, you can customize the icon displayed for the operating system by placing a .VolumeIcon.icns
file in the root folder of the volume in the EFI partition.
The First Way.
Note: Here, rEFInd is still being used, but not as a replacement for the Startup Manager. You will be able to use a firmware password. In fact, no rEFInd menus are displayed. The rEFInd boot manager just silently boots grub (which boots Ubuntu).
- Download rEFInd from this SourceForge website. I assume the downloaded file is named
refund-bin-0.11.2.zip
and this file was downloaded to your ~/Downloads
folder.
- Create a new EFI partition. Instructions are given in the section "Adding a EFI Partition".
- Download the rEFInd Boot Manager software from this SourceForge web site.
Install rEFInd into the volume on the new EFI partition.
cd ~/Downloads/refind-bin-0.11.2
./refind-install --usedefault /dev/disk0s3
Unmount and mount the new EFI partition, by entering the following commands.
diskutil unmount disk0s3
sudo diskutil mount disk0s3
The new EFI partition will have the volume name EFI2
.
Configure the TextEdit application. Open TextEdit, then navigate to the "Preferences..." window. Uncheck all the "Options", as shown below. When finished, quit TextEdit.

Use the command below to navigate to the folder containing the refind.conf
file.
cd /Volumes/EFI2/EFI/BOOT
Make a backup copy of this file.
cp refind.conf refind.conf.orignal
Open the file in the TextEdit application.
open -e refind.conf
In this volume, edit the EFI/BOOT/refind.conf
file to silently boot grub (which will intern boot Ubuntu). This can be accomplished by adding the following lines to the end of the refind.conf
file. You should be able to just cut and paste these lines. When finished, save the changes, then quit TextEdit.
#
# Added to make rEFInd silent.
#
menuentry "Ubuntu" {
icon \EFI\BOOT\icons\os_ubuntu.png
volume "EFI"
loader \EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi
ostype Linux
graphics on
}
timeout -1
hideui all
scanfor manual
Unmount the new volume named EFI2
.
diskutil unmount disk0s3
Pros: Ubuntu is unaffected, so any Ubuntu updates will not require attention.
Cons: You need to use the third party boot manager rEFInd.
The Second Way.
- Create a new EFI partition. Instructions are given in the section "Adding a EFI Partition".
Mount the original and new EFI partitions, by entering the following commands.
sudo diskutil mount disk0s1
sudo diskutil mount disk0s3
The original EFI partition will have the name EFI
and the new EFI partition will have the name EFI2
.
In the new volume named EFI2
, create the folders EFI/ubuntu
and EFI/boot
, by entering the following commands.
mkdir -p /Volumes/EFI2/EFI/ubuntu
mkdir -p /Volumes/EFI2/EFI/boot
Copy the files grub.cfg
and grubx64.efi
to the new volume named EFI2
. The commands needed are given below.
cp /Volumes/EFI/EFI/ubuntu/grub.cfg /Volumes/EFI2/EFI/ubuntu/grub.cfg
cp /Volumes/EFI/EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi /Volumes/EFI2/EFI/boot/bootx64.efi
Pros: You do not need to use the third party boot manager rEFInd.
Cons: If the grubx64.efi
or grub.cfg
is updated, you have to manually copy these files to new volume named EFI2
.
Adding a Custom Icon
The steps below will add the following Ubuntu icon to the Startup Menu.

- Download a collection of icons from the sourceforge web site Mac icns.
- Use the Finder application to open the downloaded file
mac-icns.dmg
. I assume this file downloaded to your ~/Downloads
folder.
Mount the volume named EFI2
by entering the following command.
sudo diskutil mount disk0s3
Use the Finder application to copy the os_ubuntu.icns
icon file to the root folder of the volume named EFI2
. Alternatively, you can use the command shown below.
cp /Volumes/mac-icns/os_ubuntu.icns /Volumes/EFI2/.
Rename the os_ubuntu.icns
icon file to .VolumeIcon.icns
. This can be accomplished by entering the following command.
mv /Volumes/EFI2/os_ubuntu.icns /Volumes/EFI2/.VolumeIcon.icns
Note: Files starting with a period (.
) do not normally appear in a Finder application window.
Use the Finder application to eject the EFI System partition with the volume name EFI2
. Alternatively, you can use the command shown below to unmount the volume.
diskutil unmount disk0s3
Use the Finder application to eject the volume named mac-icns
.
Adding a EFI Partition
Note: Below is based on the output from diskutil list
that you provided in your question.
While booted to macOS, enter the commands below in a Terminal application window.
sudo diskutil apfs resizecontainer disk0s2 242300M %EFI% n 200M
sudo newfs_msdos -F 32 -v EFI2 /dev/disk0s3
If you need me to expand on any of the above steps, let me know.
diskutil list
command. Your question has been asked before. There are several simple solutions. – David Anderson Dec 29 '17 at 19:46diskutil list
output: Pastebin – kouwei32 Dec 29 '17 at 19:52diskutil list
. Replace the output in your answer with this new output. I ask this becausedisk0s3
is missing in your presently displayed output. – David Anderson Dec 31 '17 at 11:40