Hello all,
I'm having an issue booting my linux installation after installing refind. I googled the issue but nothing seems relevant to fixing it.
Refind starts up fine and I can see linux (vmlinuz...) but when I select it to boot it says

Failed to open file: install\initrd.gz
Trying to load files to higher address
Failed to open file: install\initrd.gz

It is a dual boot system with Win8. It is an encrypted installation if that makes any difference. Both systems are efi.
How might i go about fixing this? Any pointers and/or relevant threads appreciated

Most 64-bit distro's have efi support now so you don't need refind.
Just boot the installation cd/usb with efi enabled & secure boot disabled.
It will install efi boot for you.
Debian, Fedora & Ubuntu are 3 that I know of that will boot & install to efi without disabling it.

Yes, I'm aware of that. It was already booting efi. The question is why now after installing refind can I not boot and how to fix it?

Maybe because it's not necessary. Is REFind still being maintained?
Also what kernel version are you using I just checked &Refind is actively maintained, but requires 3.3 or later kernel.

I can't recall the kernel version and unfortunately cannot get into my linux distro atm. The boot issue is outside of refind as the OS won't boot by any means citing the same error given above. I'm assuming that it moved some files in my /boot/efi so they are not being read properly but as I cannot access via linux I am having a hard time finding the issue.

Edit: also I had refind booting this kernel version previously, just decided to reinstall and now no boot

Refind is also a bootable cd/usb try it & repair grub. What OS are you using?

I don't have grub installed? Anyway I booted from a refind usb which showed me a little more than I was able to find out with Windows (I'm not as experienced with windows). It seems I erased some nvram entries and it being encrypted wasn't recoverable from what I understand (correct me if I'm wrong). No worries though, I kept backups of the important data. and it seemed easier to reinstall and dd the important data than try to repair. I regularly install new operating systems so I'm used to it