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