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