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1 0.6.12 (?/??/2013):
2 -------------------
3
4 - Added code to determine Linux root filesystem from /etc/fstab file, if
5 it's on the same partition as the kernel and if the refind_linux.conf
6 file is not available. This enables rEFInd to boot Linux without any
7 rEFInd-specific configuration files on some (but not all) systems.
8
9 0.6.11 (5/13/2013):
10 -------------------
11
12 - New feature: rEFInd now ignores symbolic links to files on filesystems
13 that support them. This prevents the "vmlinuz" symbolic link that some
14 distributions create in the root directory from appearing in the loader
15 list. Note that this does NOT affect symbolic links to directories.
16
17 - Added icons for Lubuntu and Kubuntu.
18
19 - Improved the install.sh script so that it does a better job dealing with
20 directory names that contain spaces.
21
22 - rEFInd now tries to guess the Linux distribution type based on the kernel
23 filename (Fedora and RHEL only) or the "ID" or "NAME" variables in
24 /etc/os-release on the kernel's partition. None of these is guaranteed to
25 work. A fallback of the Tux penguin icon remains in place in case rEFInd
26 can't find anything substantive enough for a guess.
27
28 - Added "EFI\opensuse" to the locations searched for MOK utilities, since
29 OpenSUSE now uses that name.
30
31 - Renamed "Reboot to Firmware User Interface" to "Reboot to Computer Setup
32 Utility" in menu.
33
34 - Fixed bug in gptsync that caused it to hang if the disk had too few GPT
35 partitions to fill the MBR.
36
37 0.6.10 (5/5/2013):
38 ------------------
39
40 - Added support for "screensaver" token. If set to a positive integer, this
41 causes the screen to blank after the specified number of seconds of
42 inactivity. Pressing most keys (unfortunately NOT including Shift, Alt,
43 or Ctrl) will restore the display and restart the screen saver timeout.
44
45 - Added icon for ChromeOS (os_chrome.icns in the icons subdirectory).
46 ChromeBooks reportedly boots using the fallback filename, but if a user
47 wants to install rEFInd on a ChromeBook, renaming the original EFI/BOOT
48 directory to EFI/chrome and then installing rEFInd in the fallback
49 filename will bring up this new icon for ChromeOS.
50
51 - Added new option to reboot the computer into the firmware's user
52 interface. This option is active by default, or can be set via the
53 "firmware" option to the "showtools" token in refind.conf. It works
54 on only some computers, though; older computers lack this feature, and
55 when rEFInd is told to use this feature on such computers, the directive
56 is quietly ignored.
57
58 - Upgraded LodePNG library from version 20121216 to 20130415 and
59 restructured rEFInd-specific modifications to simplify future upgrades.
60
61 - Replaced hexadecimal error code with description if an error is
62 encountered when saving a screen shot.
63
64 - Enable multiple screen shots: Rather than naming all screen shots
65 "screenshot.bmp", the name is now "screenshot_###.bmp", where "###" is a
66 sequence number, starting with "001".
67
68 0.6.9 (4/25/2013):
69 ------------------
70
71 - Modified default banner to include the new rEFInd icon, provided by Erik
72 Kemperman.
73
74 - Worked around a suspected firmware bug that caused rEFInd 0.6.6 to 0.6.8
75 to hang at startup on some systems (DUET and some Macs).
76
77 - Modified rEFInd to search for gptsync under the names gptsync.efi and
78 gptsync_{arch}.efi, where {arch} is ia32 or x64. (Previous versions
79 searched only for gptsync.efi.)
80
81 - Added gptsync program from rEFIt project, but with some changes to
82 improve flexibility and make it less likely that UEFI users will
83 accidentally trash their systems.
84
85 - Changed timeout code so that the timeout continues if the keyboard is
86 disconnected. This can help in booting a headless server or a system with
87 a bluetooth or other keyboard that's not recognized by the EFI.
88
89 0.6.8 (3/18/2013):
90 ------------------
91
92 - Added workaround for presumed EFI bug that was causing "Invalid
93 Parameter" errors when scanning for boot loaders on some computers.
94
95 - Added search for an EFI shell called shell.efi in the root directory
96 (previously this name was only accepted in EFI\tools).
97
98 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused it to fail on some systems (Fedora
99 18, for instance) because of a problem identifying the ESP.
100
101 - Fixed bug that caused icons named after boot loaders to not be used.
102
103 0.6.7 (2/3/2013):
104 -----------------
105
106 - Added a more explicit error message summarizing options when a launch of
107 a program results in a Secure Boot failure.
108
109 - Changed MOK tool detection to scan all volumes, not just the rEFInd
110 home volume. This is desirable because the Linux Foundation's HashTool
111 can only scan its own volume, making it desirable to place copies of this
112 program on every volume that holds EFI boot loader binaries.
113
114 - Added support for launching the Linux Foundation HashTool as a means of
115 managing MOKs (or MOK hashes, at any rate).
116
117 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to present an entry for itself as a
118 Microsoft OS if it was launched as EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi.
119
120 - Fixed bug that caused dont_scan_volumes option to be added to
121 also_scan_dirs list.
122
123 - Fixed dont_scan_volumes so that it works with OS X boot loaders.
124
125 - Fixed broken mixing of PNG and ICNS icons when using a user-specified
126 icons directory -- previously, an ICNS file in the default directory
127 would override a PNG file in the user-specified directory.
128
129 0.6.6 (1/26/2013):
130 ------------------
131
132 - rEFInd now ignores the fallback boot loader (EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi or
133 EFI/BOOT/bootia32.efi) if it's identical to another boot loader on
134 the same volume. This is intended to help unclutter the display on
135 systems that run Windows, since Windows tends to duplicate its own boot
136 loader under the fallback name.
137
138 - Added new "font" token to refind.conf, which enables specifying a font in
139 the form of a PNG file. This file must contain monospace glyphs for the
140 95 characters from ASCII 32 to 126 (space through tilde), inclusive, plus
141 a glyph to be displayed for characters outside of this range, for a total
142 of 96 glyphs.
143
144 - Replaced the old font (inherited from rEFInd) with an anti-aliased
145 version of Luxi Mono Regular 14 point.
146
147 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to ignore manual boot stanzas in files
148 included via the "include" token in refind.conf.
149
150 - Fixed bug that caused ASSERT error on some systems (and conceivably a
151 crash on startup on some) when default_selection line in refind.conf was
152 commented out or empty.
153
154 - Fixed bug that caused "Binary is whitelisted" message to persist on
155 screen after loading MOK-signed drivers in Secure Boot mode.
156
157 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to ignore the "icon" token in refind.conf
158 manual boot stanzas.
159
160 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused the script to fail to update
161 drivers when rEFInd was installed in EFI/BOOT/.
162
163 0.6.5 (1/16/2013):
164 ------------------
165
166 - Improved text color support: rEFInd now uses black text against light
167 backgrounds and white text against dark backgrounds.
168
169 - Added support for PNGs as banners, icons, and selectors.
170
171 - Added icon for ALT Linux.
172
173 - Added "safemode" option to "hideui" token, to hide option to boot into
174 safe mode for OS X ("-v -x" option to boot.efi).
175
176 - Added icon for Haiku (os_haiku.icns).
177
178 - Enable transparency of icons & main-menu text when the banner icon is
179 sized to cover these areas.
180
181 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to crash if fed a banner image that's
182 too big. Note that "too big" can be substantially smaller than the screen
183 resolution!
184
185 0.6.4 (1/8/2013):
186 -----------------
187
188 - Revised install.sh to copy ext2fs driver, rather than ext4fs driver, for
189 ext2/3 filesystems. This can help keep non-functional entries from links
190 from /vmlinuz to /boot/vmlinuz out of the menu if the system uses ext4fs
191 on root and ext2fs or ext3fs on /boot.
192
193 - Fixed a couple of memory management bugs that cause rEFInd to hang at
194 startup on some systems.
195
196 0.6.3 (1/6/2013):
197 -----------------
198
199 - Added the ability to specify a volume name or number in the
200 "dont_scan_dirs" and "also_scan_dirs" tokens.
201
202 - Fixed a bug that caused removable EFI media to not appear in scan lists
203 if rEFInd was installed as EFI/BOOT/boot{arch}.efi on a hard disk.
204
205 - Modified ISO-9660 driver so that it can handle discs with other than
206 2048-byte sectors. This makes it useful for reading "hybrid ISO" images
207 burned to USB flash disks.
208
209 - New mvrefind.sh script to move a rEFInd installation between a standard
210 location (typically EFI/refind) and one of the fallback locations
211 (EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot). It can also do more exotic locations.
212
213 - The install.sh script now installs to EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi or
214 EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi if it's run in BIOS mode. This is
215 intended to give some chance of producing a bootable installation should
216 a user accidentally install Linux in EFI mode and then install rEFInd
217 from that installation.
218
219 - The install.sh script now tries to find an existing rEFInd installation
220 and upgrade it, even if it's in EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot rather
221 than in EFI/refind.
222
223 - New "--yes" option to install.sh to help with unattended or automated
224 installations (as from an RPM or Debian package).
225
226 0.6.2 (12/30/2012):
227 -------------------
228
229 - Inclusion of a sample refind.spec file for the benefit of RPM
230 distribution maintainers who might want to include rEFInd. It's a bit
231 rough, but it gets you a good chunk of the way there....
232
233 - The EFI filesystem drivers can now be built with the GNU-EFI toolkit as
234 well as with the TianoCore EDK2. See the BUILDING.txt file for details on
235 how to build them with either toolkit. This improvement doesn't affect
236 users of my binary packages, but it should make it easier for Linux
237 distributions to adopt rEFInd into their package systems.
238
239 - Tweaked refind.inf file for better build results using "native" TianoCore
240 EDK2 build process (vs. the Makefile-based build process that I use under
241 Linux). This won't affect those who use my binary builds or build under
242 Linux with the "make" command.
243
244 - Fixed bug that prevented Secure Boot launches from working when rEFInd
245 was built with GNU-EFI rather than the TianoCore EDK2.
246
247 - Substantial reworking of Secure Boot code, based on James Bottomley's
248 PreLoader program. This new code eliminates the limitation of launching
249 just one driver in Secure Boot mode and is likely to be more reliable
250 with future or obscure boot loaders. It should also work with non-x86-64
251 systems, although this relies on a platform-specific shim program, which
252 to date exists only for x86-64. The basic features are the same as before
253 -- rEFInd relies on shim for authentication functions and will launch
254 programs that are signed by Secure Boot keys, shim keys, or MOKs.
255
256 - Altered default for "textmode" option (when it's commented out) to not
257 adjust the text mode at all. (Prior versions set it to mode 0 by
258 default.)
259
260 0.6.1 (12/21/2012):
261 -------------------
262
263 - Added "--root" option to install.sh, to enable installation of rEFInd
264 to something other than the currently-running OS. This is intended for
265 use on emergency discs.
266
267 - Thanks to Stefan Agner, the ext4fs driver now supports the "meta_bg"
268 filesystem feature, which distributes metadata throughout the disk. This
269 feature isn't used by default, but can be set at filesystem creation time
270 by passing the "-O meta_bg,^resize_inode" option to mke2fs. (Using
271 "^resize_inode" is necessary because meta_bg is incompatible with
272 resize_inode, which IS used by default.) This feature can be used on
273 ext3fs and ext2fs as well as on ext4fs, so the ext4fs driver can now
274 handle some ext3fs and ext2fs partitions that the ext2fs driver can't
275 handle.
276
277 - Fixed some screen resolution-setting bugs.
278
279 - Added the "words" that make up a filesystem's label (delimited by spaces,
280 dashes, or underscores) to the list of bases used to search for OS icons.
281 For instance, if the filesystem's label is "Arch", rEFInd searches for
282 os_Arch.icns; if it's "Fedora 17", it searches for os_Fedora.icns and
283 os_17.icns; and if it's "NEW_GENTOO", it searches for os_NEW.icns and
284 os_GENTOO.icns.
285
286 - Refined hints displays to be more context-sensitive, particularly in text
287 mode.
288
289 - Instead of displaying a blank filesystem label when a filesystem has
290 none, rEFInd now displays the size and/or type of the filesystem, as in
291 "boot EFI\foo\bar.efi from 200 MiB ext3 volume" rather than "boot
292 EFI\foo\bar.efi from".
293
294 - Fixed a bug that caused the screen to clear after displaying an error
295 message but before displaying the "Hit any key to continue" message when
296 a boot loader launch failed.
297
298 0.6.0 (12/16/2012):
299 -------------------
300
301 - Fixed a memory allocation bug that could cause a program crash when
302 specifying certain values with the "also_scan_dirs", "dont_scan_volumes",
303 "dont_scan_dirs", "dont_scan_files", and "scan_driver_dirs" refind.conf
304 options.
305
306 - Modified Linux kernel initrd-finding code so that if an initrd is
307 specified in refind_linux.conf, rEFInd will not add any initrd it finds.
308 This enables an override of the default initrd, and is likely to be
309 particularly helpful to Arch Linux users.
310
311 - Added ext4fs driver!
312
313 - Made "boot" the default value for "also_scan_dirs".
314
315 - Added identifying screen header to line editor.
316
317 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd's display to be mis-sized upon return
318 from a program that set the resolution itself.
319
320 - Adjusted "resolution" refind.conf parameter so that it can accept EITHER
321 a resolution as width and height OR a single digit as a UEFI mode number
322 (which is system-specific). This is done because some systems present the
323 same mode twice in their mode lists, perhaps varying in refresh rate,
324 monitor output, or some other salient characteristics; specifying the
325 mode number enables selecting the higher-numbered mode, whereas using
326 horizontal and vertical resolution values selects the lowest-numbered
327 mode.
328
329 - Added "textmode" refind.conf parameter to set the text mode used in
330 text-only displays, and for the line editor and boot-time handoff
331 display even in graphics mode.
332
333 - Fixed bug that caused tools (shell, etc.) to launch when they were
334 highlighted and F2 or Insert was pressed.
335
336 - Added "editor" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf, which
337 disables the boot options editor.
338
339 - Added hints text to rEFInd main menu and sub-menus. This can be disabled
340 by setting the new "hints" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf.
341
342 - Added "boot with minimal options" entry to refind_linux.conf file
343 generated by install.sh. This entry boots without the options extracted
344 from the /etc/default/grub file.
345
346 - Added keys subdirectory to main distribution, to hold public Secure
347 Boot/shim keys from known sources.
348
349 - Changed install.sh --drivers option to --alldrivers, added new
350 --nodrivers option, and made the default on Linux to install the one
351 driver that's used on /boot (or the root filesystem if /boot isn't a
352 separate partition). Of course, this won't install a non-existent driver,
353 and it also won't work properly if run from an emergency disk unless you
354 mount a separate /boot partition at that location.
355
356 - Fixed bug in install.sh that prevented creation of refind_linux.conf file
357 on Linux systems.
358
359 0.5.1.1 (12/12/2012):
360 ---------------------
361
362 - Fixed bug in install.sh that prevented it from working on OS X.
363
364 0.5.1 (12/11/2012):
365 -------------------
366
367 - Added support for "0" options to "textonly" and "scan_all_linux_kernels"
368 to reverse the usual meaning of these tokens. This is useful for
369 including these options in a secondary configuration file called with the
370 new "include" token to override a setting set in the main file.
371
372 - Added "include" token for refind.conf, to enable including a secondary
373 configuration file from a primary one.
374
375 - Modified install.sh so that it creates a simple refind_linux.conf file in
376 /boot, if that file doesn't already exist and if install.sh is run from
377 Linux. If that directory happens to be on a FAT, HFS+, ext2fs, ext3fs, or
378 ReiserFS volume, and if the necessary drivers are installed, the result
379 is that rEFInd will detect the Linux installation with no further
380 configuration on many systems. (Some may still require tweaking of kernel
381 options, though; for instance, adding "dolvm" on Gentoo systems that use
382 LVM.)
383
384 - Added --shim and --localkeys options to install.sh to help simplify setup
385 on systems with Secure Boot active.
386
387 - Fixed (maybe) bug that caused resolution options to not be displayed on
388 recent Macs with GOP graphics when specifying an invalid resolution in
389 refind.conf.
390
391 - Fixed bug that caused some programs (EFI shells, in particular) to hang
392 when launching on some systems (DUET, in particular).
393
394 - Implemented a fix to enable ELILO to launch with Secure Boot active.
395 This fix might help with some other boot loaders in Secure Boot mode,
396 too, but I don't know of any specifics.
397
398 0.5.0 (12/6/2012):
399 ------------------
400
401 - Added the ability to include quote marks ('"') in refind.conf and
402 refind_linux.conf tokens by doubling them up, as in:
403 "ro root=/dev/sda4 some_value=""this is it"""
404 This example results in the following string being passed as an
405 option:
406 ro root=/dev/sda4 some_value="this is it"
407
408 - Changed refind.conf-sample to uncomment the scan_all_linux_kernels
409 option by default. If this option is deleted or commented out, the
410 program default remains to not scan all Linux kernels; but with
411 increasing numbers of distributions shipping with kernels that include
412 EFI stub loader support, setting the configuration file default to scan
413 for them makes sense.
414
415 - Modified the "resolution" token so that it affects text mode as well
416 as graphics mode. On my systems, though, the actual text area is still
417 restricted to an 80x25 area. (This seems to be a firmware limitation; my
418 EFI shells are also so limited.)
419
420 - Fixed a bug that caused the options line editor to blank out lines that
421 were not actually edited.
422
423 - Added support for using Matthew Garrett's Shim program and its Machine
424 Owner Keys (MOKs) to extend Secure Boot capabilities. If rEFInd is
425 launched from Shim on a computer with Secure Boot active, rEFInd will
426 launch programs signed with either a standard UEFI Secure Boot key or a
427 MOK. For the moment, this feature works only on x86-64 systems.
428
429 - Added new "dont_scan_files" (aka "don't_scan_files") token for
430 refind.conf. The effect is similar to dont_scan_dirs, but it creates a
431 blacklist of filenames within directories rather than directory names.
432 I'm initially using it to place shim.efi and MokManager.efi in the
433 blacklist to keep these programs out of the OS list. (MokManager.efi is
434 scanned separately as a tool; see below.) I've moved checks for
435 ebounce.efi, GraphicsConsole.efi, and TextMode.efi to this list. (These
436 three had previously been blacklisted by hard-coding in ScanLoaderDir().)
437
438 - Added the directory from which rEFInd launched to dont_scan_dirs. This
439 works around a bug in which rEFInd would show itself as a bogus Windows
440 entry if it's installed as EFI/Microsoft/boot/bootmgfw.efi.
441
442 - Added support for launching MokManager.efi for managing the Machine Owner
443 Keys (MOKs) maintained by the shim boot loader developed by Fedora and
444 SUSE. This program is scanned and presented as a second-row tool.
445
446 - Added support for Apple's Recovery HD partition: If it's detected, a new
447 icon appears on the second row. This icon can be removed by explicitly
448 setting the "showtools" option in refind.conf and excluding the
449 "apple_recovery" option from that line.
450
451 - Fixed bug that caused text-mode ("textonly" refind.conf option enabled)
452 menu entries to be right-aligned rather than left-aligned when rEFInd was
453 compiled with the TianoCore EDK2.
454
455 - Added "--usedefault {devicename}" and "--drivers" options to the
456 install.sh script and changed the "esp" option to "--esp".
457
458 0.4.7 (11/6/2012):
459 ------------------
460
461 - Added an icon for gummiboot.
462
463 - Added a boot option editor: Pressing the Insert or F2 key from a boot
464 tag's options menu opens a simple text-mode line editor on which the boot
465 options may be edited for a one-time boot with altered options.
466
467 - Modified the "scan_delay" feature to delay and then perform a re-scan,
468 which may work better than the first attempt at this feature (which I'm
469 told isn't working as planned).
470
471 - Modified rEFInd to add a space after the command-line options only when
472 launching Mac OS X. On some early Macs, the extra space (which had been
473 present by default, as a carryover from rEFIt) causes problems when
474 booting Linux kernels from FAT partitions.
475
476 0.4.6 (10/6/2012):
477 ------------------
478
479 - Fixed some minor memory management issues.
480
481 - Added new "scan_delay" feature to impose a delay before scanning
482 for disks.
483
484 - Changed default "scanfor" option from internal-external-optical to either
485 internal-external-optical-manual (for non-Macs) or
486 internal-hdbios-external-biosexternal-optical-cd-manual (for Macs). I've
487 done this for two reasons:
488 - Many Mac users have been confused by the fact that rEFInd needs
489 reconfiguration to detect Windows (or Linux installed in BIOS mode),
490 since rEFIt scans BIOS devices by default. Adding the BIOS options as
491 default for them should help them.
492 - Adding the "manual" option enables users to simply add manual boot
493 stanzas and have them work, which is more intuitive. Adding the
494 "manual" option will have no effect unless manual stanzas are created
495 or uncommented, so this part of the change won't affect users' working
496 default configurations.
497
498 - Added new legacy (BIOS) boot support for UEFI-based PCs.
499
500 0.4.5 (8/12/2012):
501 ------------------
502
503 - Fixed bug that caused a failure to boot BIOS-based OSes on Macs.
504
505 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused it to fail to detect rEFItBlesser.
506
507 0.4.4 (6/23/2012):
508 ------------------
509
510 - Fixed bug that caused filesystem labels to be corrupted by rEFInd on
511 32-bit systems.
512
513 - Fixed bug that caused filesystem labels to be truncated in the drivers
514 on 32-bit systems.
515
516 - Fixed bug in use_graphics_for option parsing that caused most options
517 to set graphics mode for OS X and/or Linux but not other boot
518 loaders/OSes.
519
520 - Tweaked install script to better isolate the ESP under OS X.
521
522 0.4.3 (6/21/2012):
523 ------------------
524
525 - rEFInd now supports compilation using the TianoCore UDK2010/EDK2
526 development kit in addition to GNU-EFI.
527
528 - Added new "use_graphics_for" option to control which OSes to boot in
529 graphics mode. (This effect lasts for a fraction of a second on most
530 systems, since the boot loader that rEFInd launches is likely to set
531 graphics or text mode itself.)
532
533 - Graphics-mode booting now clears the screen to the current rEFInd
534 background color (rather than black) and does NOT display boot messages.
535 The intent is for a smoother transition when booting OS X, or perhaps
536 other OSes that don't display boot loader messages. In practice, this
537 effect will be tiny for many OSes, since the boot loader generally clears
538 the screen within a fraction of a second of being launched; but the
539 "flicker" of a rEFInd message in that time can sometimes be distracting.
540
541 - Filesystem drivers now work on EFI 1.x systems, such as Macs.
542
543 - Removed "linux.conf" as a valid alternative name for "refind_linux.conf"
544 for holding Linux kernel options. The kernel developers plan to use
545 "linux.conf" themselves.
546
547 0.4.2 (6/3/2012):
548 -----------------
549
550 - Added a message to install.sh when run on Macs to remind users to update
551 the "scanfor" line in refind.conf if they need to boot BIOS-based OSes
552 via rEFInd.
553
554 - Modified install.sh script to be smarter about running efibootmgr on
555 Linux. It now uses the whole path to the rEFInd binary as a key to
556 determine whether an existing entry exists, rather than just the filename
557 portion. If an entry exists and is the first entry in the boot order, the
558 script does nothing to the NVRAM entries. If such an entry exists but is
559 not the default, the script deletes that entry and creates a new one
560 (implicitly making it the first in the boot order). If such an entry does
561 not exist, the script creates a new one (again, making it the first in
562 the boot order).
563
564 - Added "dont_scan_dirs" configuration file option, which adds directories
565 to a "blacklist" of directories that are NOT scanned for boot loaders.
566
567 0.4.1 (5/25/2012):
568 ------------------
569
570 - Added "scanning for new boot loaders" message to the re-scan function
571 (hitting Esc at the main menu). It usually flashes up too quickly to
572 be of importance, but if the scan function takes a while because of
573 access to a CD that must be spun up, it should make it clear that the
574 system hasn't hung.
575
576 - Modified install.sh script to detect rEFItBlesser on Macs, and if
577 present, to ask the user if it should be removed.
578
579 - Cleaned up the Make.common file for the filesystem drivers.
580
581 - Changed HFS+ driver to return volume label of "HFS+ volume" rather than
582 an empty label. (The driver doesn't currently read the real volume
583 label.)
584
585 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to appear in its own menu after
586 running a shell and then re-scanning for boot loaders.
587
588 0.4.0 (5/20/2012):
589 ------------------
590
591 - Inclusion of drivers for ISO-9660, HFS+, ReiserFS, and ext2fs. Most of
592 these drivers originated with rEFIt, although the HFS+ driver seems to
593 have come from Oracle's VirtualBox, with some files from Apple. I hadn't
594 included these drivers previously because the build process proved
595 challenging. As it is, they don't work on my Mac Mini, I suspect because
596 the build process with the UDK2010 development kit may not work with the
597 EFI 1.x that Apple uses.
598
599 - Addition of support for drivers in the "drivers_{arch}" subdirectory of
600 the main rEFInd binary directory (e.g., "drivers_x64" or "drivers_ia32").
601 Drivers may continue to be placed in the "drivers" subdirectory.
602
603 - Added new feature to eject CDs (and other removable media): Press F12 to
604 eject all such media. This function works only on some Macs, though (it
605 relies on an Apple-specific EFI extension, and this extension isn't even
606 implemented on all Macs, much less on UEFI-based PCs).
607
608 - Fixed a problem that could cause GRUB 2 to fail to read its configuration
609 file when launched from rEFInd.
610
611 0.3.5 (5/15/2012):
612 ------------------
613
614 - Removed the GRUB 2 detection "reciped" added with 0.3.2, since I've
615 received reports that it's not working as intended.
616
617 - Added re-scan feature: Press the Esc key to have rEFInd re-read its
618 configuration file, tell the EFI to scan for new filesystems, and re-scan
619 those filesystems for boot loaders. The main purpose is to enable
620 scanning a new removable medium that you insert after launching rEFInd;
621 however, it can also be used to immediately implement changes to the
622 configuration file or new drivers you load from an EFI shell.
623
624 - Fixed a bug that could cause the scroll-right arrow to be replaced by the
625 scroll-left arrow under some circumstances.
626
627 0.3.4 (5/9/2012):
628 -----------------
629
630 - Added new configuration file option: "icons_dir", which sets the name
631 of the subdirectory in which icons are found. See the documentation or
632 sample configuration file for a full description.
633
634 - Modified Makefile to generate rEFInd binary that includes architecture
635 code -- refind_ia32.efi or refind_x64.efi, rather than the generic
636 refind.efi. This is done mainly to help the install.sh script. The
637 program can be named anything you like on the disk. (The generic name
638 refind.efi is used on unknown architectures.)
639
640 - Improved install.sh script: Fixed bug on OS X 10.7 and enable it to be
641 used after building from source code (or via new "make install" Makefile
642 target).
643
644 - Improved screen redraws to produce less flicker when moving among the
645 second-row tags or to the last tag on the first row.
646
647 0.3.3 (5/6/2012):
648 -----------------
649
650 - Improved menu navigation:
651 - In graphics mode, left & right arrow keys move left & right, while up &
652 down arrows move between rows.
653 - Page Up and Page Down now move through chunks of visible tags (in both
654 text & graphics modes), jumping from one row to another only when at
655 the edge of the row. In text mode, the "rows" are broken down as in
656 graphics mode, but they aren't visibly distinguished on the screen.
657
658 - Improved text-mode use: rEFInd now displays the proper number of entries
659 when first started in text mode and scrolling is done sensibly when too
660 many entries exist to fit on the screen.
661
662 0.3.2 (5/4/2012):
663 -----------------
664
665 - Added the install.sh script to install rEFInd on Linux and Mac OS X
666 systems. This script must be run as root (or via sudo). It requires
667 no options, but on Mac OS X, passing it the "esp" option causes it
668 to install rEFInd on the computer's ESP rather than the default of the
669 currently OS X boot partition. (Under Linux, the default is to install to
670 the ESP.) Note that there may be some unusual cases in which this script
671 will fail to work.
672
673 - Does a better job of clearing the screen when launching OSes in text
674 mode.
675
676 - Added detection "recipe" for GRUB 2's BIOS Boot Partition.
677
678 - Fixed bogus detection of ESPs created by Linux's mkdosfs utility or
679 Windows as bootable partitions when "scanfor" includes BIOS scanning
680 options.
681
682
683 0.3.1 (4/27/2012):
684 ------------------
685
686 - Fixed bug that caused spurious "Unsupported while scanning the root
687 directory" messages under some conitions on Macs.
688
689 - Modified loader scanning code to sort boot loader entries within a
690 directory by modification time, so that the most recently-modified loader
691 is first among those in a given directory. Thus, if you specify a
692 directory name (or volume name, for loaders stored in the root directory
693 of a volume) as the default_selection, the most recent of those loaders
694 will be the default. This is intended to help with Linux kernel
695 maintenance when using the EFI stub loader; set up this way, the most
696 recent kernel copied to your kernel directory will be the default,
697 obviating the need to adjust the refind.conf file when adding a new
698 kernel. If you want to change the default among those in the default
699 directory, you can use "touch" to adjust the modification timestamp.
700
701 - Tweaked code to find loader-specific .icns file so that it finds files
702 for Linux kernels without .efi extensions. In this case, files should be
703 named the same as the kernels they match, but with .icns extensions. For
704 instance, bzImage-3.3.2 should have an icon called bzImage-3.3.2.icns.
705 (The old code would have looked for an icon called bzImage-3.3.icns.)
706
707 - Eliminated bogus OS loader tags for filenames that end in ".icns" when
708 the scan_all_linux_kernels option is set.
709
710 0.3.0 (4/22/2012):
711 ------------------
712
713 - I'm officially upgrading this project's status from "alpha" to "beta" and
714 giving it a bump from 0.2.x to 0.3.0. This doesn't reflect any major
715 milestone with this version; rather, it reflects my sense that rEFInd has
716 been "out there" for a while, and although I've gotten bug reports,
717 they've been minor and/or have been fixed. The program still has known
718 bugs, but my impression is that it is, overall, usable by ordinary users.
719
720 - Added "resolution" option to refind.conf, which enables setting the video
721 resolution. To use it, pass two numeric values, as in "resolution 1024
722 768" to use a 1024x768 video mode. Note that not all modes are supported.
723 If you specify a non-supported video mode on a UEFI system, a message
724 appears listing the supported video modes and you must then press a key
725 to continue, using the default video mode (usually 800x600).
726 Unfortunately, I don't know the calls to get a list of supported video
727 modes on older EFI 1.x systems (including Macs), so on Macs setting an
728 incorrect video mode silently fails (you keep using the default mode).
729 This makes changing your video mode a hit-or-miss proposition on Macs.
730 CAUTION: It's possible to set a legal video mode that your monitor can't
731 handle, in which case you'll get a blank display until you boot an OS
732 that resets the video mode.
733
734 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused rEFInd to crash when returning from an
735 EFI shell or other programs on Macs, particularly when rEFInd used
736 graphical mode. I'm not 100% sure this bug is squashed because I still
737 don't understand the cause and I only have one Mac for testing. See
738 comments in the ReinitRefitLib() function in refit/lib.c for more
739 details.
740
741 - Added new refind.conf option: scan_all_linux_kernels, which causes Linux
742 kernels that lack ".efi" extensions to be included in scans for EFI boot
743 loaders. This may help integration with Linux distributions that don't
744 give their kernels such names by default. Beware, though: It can detect
745 unwanted files, such as older non-stub-loader kernels or .icns files used
746 to give kernels with .efi extensions custom icons.
747
748 - Improved EFI boot loader detection on boards with Gigabyte's Hybrid EFI,
749 and perhaps other EFIs with a buggy StriCmp() function. Files with both
750 ".efi" and ".EFI" extensions should now be detected as boot loaders.
751
752 - Fixed a bug that caused rEFInd to fail to scan for drivers if the
753 filesystem driver didn't set a volume name (that is, if the relevant
754 field was set to NULL rather than even an empty string). In such
755 situations, rEFInd now reports the volume name as "Unknown".
756
757 0.2.7 (4/19/2012):
758 ------------------
759
760 - After much trial and tribulation, I've overcome a GNU-EFI limitation and
761 enabled rEFInd to load EFI drivers. This feature was present in the
762 original build of rEFIt but was removed in the versions that could
763 compile under Linux, but now it's back -- and still being compiled under
764 Linux! To use it, you should place your drivers in a convenient directory
765 on the ESP (or whatever partition you use to launch rEFInd) and add a
766 "scan_driver_dirs" entry to refind.conf to tell rEFInd where to look. (As
767 always, you should specify the driver directory relative to the root of
768 the filesystem.) Note that you can't launch drivers from another
769 filesystem; they must be on the same volume that holds rEFInd. Those who
770 compile from source code should note that implementing this feature
771 necessitated using a more recent version of the GNU-EFI library. I'm
772 currently using version 3.0p, and version 3.0i does NOT work. I don't
773 know where the change occurred, but you may need to upgrade your GNU-EFI
774 installation.
775
776 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to show up in its own menu sometimes.
777
778 - Added new refind.conf token: also_scan_dirs. When scanning volumes for
779 EFI boot loaders, rEFInd always scans the root directory and every
780 subdirectory of the /EFI directory, but it doesn't recurse into these
781 directories. The also_scan_dirs token adds more directories to the scan
782 list. It defaults to "elilo,boot", but you can set it to any directory or
783 directories you like.
784
785 0.2.6 (4/14/2012):
786 ------------------
787
788 - Added "volume" keyword to configuration file's stanza options. This
789 option changes the volume from which subsequent files (specified by
790 "loader" and "icon") are loaded. You pass "volume" the name/label of the
791 FILESYSTEM you want to use (not the GPT partition name), or a number
792 followed by a colon (e.g., "1:"). The former should reliably identify a
793 filesystem, assuming the name is unique. The latter assigns numbers based
794 on the order in which they're scanned, which may not be as reliable but
795 should work when a volume is unnamed.
796
797 - Fixed bug in 0.2.5 that caused failure of Linux initial RAM disk
798 mapping on some (but not all) systems. Affected computers include at
799 least some Intel motherboards, maybe others.
800
801 0.2.5 (4/9/2012):
802 -----------------
803
804 - Fixed bug that caused an inability to associate initial RAM disks with
805 Linux kernels stored in a volume's root directory.
806
807 - Volume badges (that override default badges) are now stored in
808 .VolumeBadge.icns. Although undocumented, rEFInd formerly loaded custom
809 volume badges from .VolumeIcon.icns. This carryover from rEFIt was a
810 confusing name, given the next (new) feature, so I've changed and
811 documented the name....
812
813 - Added ability to set a default icon for a loader stored in the root
814 directory of a volume: The icon is stored in .VolumeIcon.icns. This icon
815 is also used for Mac OS X volumes booted from the standard location.
816
817 - Fixed bug that caused icons to drop back to generic icons when rEFInd
818 was launched in certain ways (such as from an EFI shell in rEFInd's
819 directory) on certain systems.
820
821 - Fixed bug that caused "unknown disable flag" to be shown (very briefly)
822 instead of "unknown hideui flag" when an improper hideui flag was set.
823
824 0.2.4 (4/5/2012):
825 -----------------
826
827 - Created new refind.conf entry: "showtools". This entry takes options of
828 "shell", "gptsync", "about", "exit", "reboot", and "shutdown". This
829 option is in some respects an affirmative version of portions of the old
830 "disable" and "hideui" options; however, it enables users to specify the
831 order in which these options appear on the screen. Also, the "exit"
832 option is new; it terminates the program. The effect is usually to return
833 to whatever tool launched it or to launch a default OS; however, this is
834 somewhat unpredictable. The default therefore omits the "exit" option, as
835 well as "gptsync", which has always been dangerous (but necessary on most
836 MacOS/Windows dual-boot setups on Macs). As part of this reconfiguration,
837 I've eliminated the "rescue Linux" option, which always seemed pointless
838 to me.
839
840 - Folded "disable" and "hideui" refind.conf entries into one ("disable"),
841 and reduced the number of options to six: "banner", "label",
842 "singleuser", "hwtest", "arrows", and "all". ("arrows" is new and
843 disables the scroll arrows when a system has too many tags to display
844 simultaneously.)
845
846 - Added max_tags option to the refind.conf file, enabling users to reduce
847 the maximum number of OS loader tags that can be displayed at once.
848
849 - Updated rEFIt icon, based on the 128x128 volume label from the rEFIt CD
850 image.
851
852 - Added x86 and x86-64 EFI shells to the CD image version of the binary,
853 but NOT to the binary zip file. The logic is that the CD image is more
854 likely to be used directly as an emergency disc and so may need this
855 feature, even though the source isn't part of the rEFInd project. (The
856 source is readily available from the TianoCore project.)
857
858 - EFI shells may now be stored at /shellx64.efi for x86-64 systems or at
859 /shellia32.efi for x86 systems. The /EFI/tools/shell.efi name is also
860 recognized; however, if both files are present, two EFI shell icons will
861 appear on the main menu. The /efi/{refind-path/apps/shell.efi filename,
862 which was never officially documented but worked as a carryover from
863 rEFIt, is no longer valid.
864
865 0.2.3 (3/26/2012):
866 ------------------
867
868 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused hangs when launching a second program
869 after returning from a first. There are some weird system-to-system
870 differences, though, and this fix causes (apparently harmless) error
871 messages about "(re)opening our installation volume" on at least one
872 system (a 32-bit Mac Mini). I'm committing this change because, imperfect
873 though it is, it's preferable to the earlier version, at least on my
874 small sample of computers.
875
876 - Because of news that the Linux kernel developers are planning to use the
877 filename linux.conf to hold Linux kernel configuration data for EFI
878 booting, I'm transitioning rEFInd away from that name and to
879 refind_linux.conf to avoid a conflict. This version can use either name,
880 with refind_linux.conf taking precedence if both are present.
881
882 - Added logo for Arch Linux.
883
884 0.2.2 (3/23/2012):
885 ------------------
886
887 - Fixed bug that caused program failure when Linux kernels with EFI stub
888 support were detected with no associated version numbers. rEFInd now
889 permits automatic linking of *ONE* versionless kernel to *ONE*
890 versionless initrd file.
891
892 - Fixed bug that caused program hangs when a boot loader filename or label
893 was too long. Such names are now properly truncated and program execution
894 continues.
895
896 - Fixed bug that caused no text to appear in submenus on UEFI systems with
897 small screens (800x600). NOTE: Problem still occurs on screens smaller
898 than this, but such systems are very rare.
899
900 0.2.1 (3/19/2012):
901 ------------------
902
903 - Added ability to set a "default_selection" that's a title or a substring
904 of one -- the name given to a stanza in a "menuentry" or the boot
905 loader's filename, in most cases, although "Mac OS X", "Windows XP
906 (XoM)", and "Microsoft EFI boot" are also titles.
907
908 - Added support for semi-automatic scans of Linux kernels with EFI stub
909 loader support. The program auto-detects matching initial RAM disk files
910 and loads additional options from the "linux.conf" file in the same
911 directory as the kernel.
912
913 - Added support for "submenuentry" keyword and associated sub-stanza
914 entries in refind.conf file.
915
916 - Renamed icons/os_mint.icns to icons/os_linuxmint.icns to match the
917 filename Linux Mint ACTUALLY uses for its ESP boot loader directory.
918
919
920 0.2.0 (3/14/2012):
921 ------------------
922
923 - Initial public release