I used Linux on a couple of different MacBooks. Usually I had the best experience not using rEFInd as an intermediate layer, but as the EFI boot loader loading the kernel file directly. My setup is based on the ArchLinux Wiki article about it. Every time you update your kernel, you just need to copy the vmlinuz to your EFI partition in the right folder.
http://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/EFI_stub_kernel https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/UEFI_Bootloaders#Using_rEFInd When using EFI mode, I had a couple of problems, which I haven't had in BIOS mode. Depending on your model, it might not be possible to use brightness settings of your graphics card or using the integrated graphics card (if your model has a discrete one) anymore. Another hint for Linux on MBP: For Wifi, you should use the broadcom-sta Version 6.x which is still masked in portage. Older versions had a lot of latency, performance and disconnect issues on my systems. -- Marc Aurel Kastner Computer Science graduate student http://www.marc-kastner.com
