]> code.delx.au - refind/blob - NEWS.txt
Added primitive cache to most drivers to improve performance,
[refind] / NEWS.txt
1 0.7.0 (?/??/2013):
2 ------------------
3
4 - Added a cache to all the filesystem drivers except for ext2fs. This cache
5 greatly improves performance in VirtualBox, and offers modest performance
6 improvements on a few "real" computers. The ext2fs driver loads blocks in
7 a strange non-linear fashion that causes the cache to degrade
8 performance, so I've disabled the cache for ext2fs. (Ext4fs doesn't
9 suffer from this problem.)
10
11 - Filter boot loaders based on a test of their validity; keeps out Linux
12 kernels without EFI stub loader code, loaders for the wrong architecture,
13 non-EFI loaders, etc.
14
15 - New Btrfs driver, contributed by Samuel Liao based on GRUB 2.00 Btrfs
16 code.
17
18 0.6.12 (6/18/2013):
19 -------------------
20
21 - Changed the 64-bit EFI shell included in the CD-R and USB flash drive
22 images to a version 2 shell that should support the "bcfg" command.
23
24 - Added support for PreBootloader to refind.spec's built-in installation
25 script.
26
27 - Added support for the Linux Foundation's PreLoader to install.sh. It's
28 treated just like shim, including using the --shim option (or, now,
29 --preloader); but it searches for and copies HashTool.efi rather than
30 MokManager.efi, and filenames are adjusted appropriately.
31
32 - Added code to determine Linux root filesystem from /etc/fstab file, if
33 it's on the same partition as the kernel and if the refind_linux.conf
34 file is not available. This enables rEFInd to boot Linux without any
35 rEFInd-specific configuration files on some (but not all) systems.
36
37 0.6.11 (5/13/2013):
38 -------------------
39
40 - New feature: rEFInd now ignores symbolic links to files on filesystems
41 that support them. This prevents the "vmlinuz" symbolic link that some
42 distributions create in the root directory from appearing in the loader
43 list. Note that this does NOT affect symbolic links to directories.
44
45 - Added icons for Lubuntu and Kubuntu.
46
47 - Improved the install.sh script so that it does a better job dealing with
48 directory names that contain spaces.
49
50 - rEFInd now tries to guess the Linux distribution type based on the kernel
51 filename (Fedora and RHEL only) or the "ID" or "NAME" variables in
52 /etc/os-release on the kernel's partition. None of these is guaranteed to
53 work. A fallback of the Tux penguin icon remains in place in case rEFInd
54 can't find anything substantive enough for a guess.
55
56 - Added "EFI\opensuse" to the locations searched for MOK utilities, since
57 OpenSUSE now uses that name.
58
59 - Renamed "Reboot to Firmware User Interface" to "Reboot to Computer Setup
60 Utility" in menu.
61
62 - Fixed bug in gptsync that caused it to hang if the disk had too few GPT
63 partitions to fill the MBR.
64
65 0.6.10 (5/5/2013):
66 ------------------
67
68 - Added support for "screensaver" token. If set to a positive integer, this
69 causes the screen to blank after the specified number of seconds of
70 inactivity. Pressing most keys (unfortunately NOT including Shift, Alt,
71 or Ctrl) will restore the display and restart the screen saver timeout.
72
73 - Added icon for ChromeOS (os_chrome.icns in the icons subdirectory).
74 ChromeBooks reportedly boots using the fallback filename, but if a user
75 wants to install rEFInd on a ChromeBook, renaming the original EFI/BOOT
76 directory to EFI/chrome and then installing rEFInd in the fallback
77 filename will bring up this new icon for ChromeOS.
78
79 - Added new option to reboot the computer into the firmware's user
80 interface. This option is active by default, or can be set via the
81 "firmware" option to the "showtools" token in refind.conf. It works
82 on only some computers, though; older computers lack this feature, and
83 when rEFInd is told to use this feature on such computers, the directive
84 is quietly ignored.
85
86 - Upgraded LodePNG library from version 20121216 to 20130415 and
87 restructured rEFInd-specific modifications to simplify future upgrades.
88
89 - Replaced hexadecimal error code with description if an error is
90 encountered when saving a screen shot.
91
92 - Enable multiple screen shots: Rather than naming all screen shots
93 "screenshot.bmp", the name is now "screenshot_###.bmp", where "###" is a
94 sequence number, starting with "001".
95
96 0.6.9 (4/25/2013):
97 ------------------
98
99 - Modified default banner to include the new rEFInd icon, provided by Erik
100 Kemperman.
101
102 - Worked around a suspected firmware bug that caused rEFInd 0.6.6 to 0.6.8
103 to hang at startup on some systems (DUET and some Macs).
104
105 - Modified rEFInd to search for gptsync under the names gptsync.efi and
106 gptsync_{arch}.efi, where {arch} is ia32 or x64. (Previous versions
107 searched only for gptsync.efi.)
108
109 - Added gptsync program from rEFIt project, but with some changes to
110 improve flexibility and make it less likely that UEFI users will
111 accidentally trash their systems.
112
113 - Changed timeout code so that the timeout continues if the keyboard is
114 disconnected. This can help in booting a headless server or a system with
115 a bluetooth or other keyboard that's not recognized by the EFI.
116
117 0.6.8 (3/18/2013):
118 ------------------
119
120 - Added workaround for presumed EFI bug that was causing "Invalid
121 Parameter" errors when scanning for boot loaders on some computers.
122
123 - Added search for an EFI shell called shell.efi in the root directory
124 (previously this name was only accepted in EFI\tools).
125
126 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused it to fail on some systems (Fedora
127 18, for instance) because of a problem identifying the ESP.
128
129 - Fixed bug that caused icons named after boot loaders to not be used.
130
131 0.6.7 (2/3/2013):
132 -----------------
133
134 - Added a more explicit error message summarizing options when a launch of
135 a program results in a Secure Boot failure.
136
137 - Changed MOK tool detection to scan all volumes, not just the rEFInd
138 home volume. This is desirable because the Linux Foundation's HashTool
139 can only scan its own volume, making it desirable to place copies of this
140 program on every volume that holds EFI boot loader binaries.
141
142 - Added support for launching the Linux Foundation HashTool as a means of
143 managing MOKs (or MOK hashes, at any rate).
144
145 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to present an entry for itself as a
146 Microsoft OS if it was launched as EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi.
147
148 - Fixed bug that caused dont_scan_volumes option to be added to
149 also_scan_dirs list.
150
151 - Fixed dont_scan_volumes so that it works with OS X boot loaders.
152
153 - Fixed broken mixing of PNG and ICNS icons when using a user-specified
154 icons directory -- previously, an ICNS file in the default directory
155 would override a PNG file in the user-specified directory.
156
157 0.6.6 (1/26/2013):
158 ------------------
159
160 - rEFInd now ignores the fallback boot loader (EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi or
161 EFI/BOOT/bootia32.efi) if it's identical to another boot loader on
162 the same volume. This is intended to help unclutter the display on
163 systems that run Windows, since Windows tends to duplicate its own boot
164 loader under the fallback name.
165
166 - Added new "font" token to refind.conf, which enables specifying a font in
167 the form of a PNG file. This file must contain monospace glyphs for the
168 95 characters from ASCII 32 to 126 (space through tilde), inclusive, plus
169 a glyph to be displayed for characters outside of this range, for a total
170 of 96 glyphs.
171
172 - Replaced the old font (inherited from rEFInd) with an anti-aliased
173 version of Luxi Mono Regular 14 point.
174
175 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to ignore manual boot stanzas in files
176 included via the "include" token in refind.conf.
177
178 - Fixed bug that caused ASSERT error on some systems (and conceivably a
179 crash on startup on some) when default_selection line in refind.conf was
180 commented out or empty.
181
182 - Fixed bug that caused "Binary is whitelisted" message to persist on
183 screen after loading MOK-signed drivers in Secure Boot mode.
184
185 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to ignore the "icon" token in refind.conf
186 manual boot stanzas.
187
188 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused the script to fail to update
189 drivers when rEFInd was installed in EFI/BOOT/.
190
191 0.6.5 (1/16/2013):
192 ------------------
193
194 - Improved text color support: rEFInd now uses black text against light
195 backgrounds and white text against dark backgrounds.
196
197 - Added support for PNGs as banners, icons, and selectors.
198
199 - Added icon for ALT Linux.
200
201 - Added "safemode" option to "hideui" token, to hide option to boot into
202 safe mode for OS X ("-v -x" option to boot.efi).
203
204 - Added icon for Haiku (os_haiku.icns).
205
206 - Enable transparency of icons & main-menu text when the banner icon is
207 sized to cover these areas.
208
209 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to crash if fed a banner image that's
210 too big. Note that "too big" can be substantially smaller than the screen
211 resolution!
212
213 0.6.4 (1/8/2013):
214 -----------------
215
216 - Revised install.sh to copy ext2fs driver, rather than ext4fs driver, for
217 ext2/3 filesystems. This can help keep non-functional entries from links
218 from /vmlinuz to /boot/vmlinuz out of the menu if the system uses ext4fs
219 on root and ext2fs or ext3fs on /boot.
220
221 - Fixed a couple of memory management bugs that cause rEFInd to hang at
222 startup on some systems.
223
224 0.6.3 (1/6/2013):
225 -----------------
226
227 - Added the ability to specify a volume name or number in the
228 "dont_scan_dirs" and "also_scan_dirs" tokens.
229
230 - Fixed a bug that caused removable EFI media to not appear in scan lists
231 if rEFInd was installed as EFI/BOOT/boot{arch}.efi on a hard disk.
232
233 - Modified ISO-9660 driver so that it can handle discs with other than
234 2048-byte sectors. This makes it useful for reading "hybrid ISO" images
235 burned to USB flash disks.
236
237 - New mvrefind.sh script to move a rEFInd installation between a standard
238 location (typically EFI/refind) and one of the fallback locations
239 (EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot). It can also do more exotic locations.
240
241 - The install.sh script now installs to EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi or
242 EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi if it's run in BIOS mode. This is
243 intended to give some chance of producing a bootable installation should
244 a user accidentally install Linux in EFI mode and then install rEFInd
245 from that installation.
246
247 - The install.sh script now tries to find an existing rEFInd installation
248 and upgrade it, even if it's in EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot rather
249 than in EFI/refind.
250
251 - New "--yes" option to install.sh to help with unattended or automated
252 installations (as from an RPM or Debian package).
253
254 0.6.2 (12/30/2012):
255 -------------------
256
257 - Inclusion of a sample refind.spec file for the benefit of RPM
258 distribution maintainers who might want to include rEFInd. It's a bit
259 rough, but it gets you a good chunk of the way there....
260
261 - The EFI filesystem drivers can now be built with the GNU-EFI toolkit as
262 well as with the TianoCore EDK2. See the BUILDING.txt file for details on
263 how to build them with either toolkit. This improvement doesn't affect
264 users of my binary packages, but it should make it easier for Linux
265 distributions to adopt rEFInd into their package systems.
266
267 - Tweaked refind.inf file for better build results using "native" TianoCore
268 EDK2 build process (vs. the Makefile-based build process that I use under
269 Linux). This won't affect those who use my binary builds or build under
270 Linux with the "make" command.
271
272 - Fixed bug that prevented Secure Boot launches from working when rEFInd
273 was built with GNU-EFI rather than the TianoCore EDK2.
274
275 - Substantial reworking of Secure Boot code, based on James Bottomley's
276 PreLoader program. This new code eliminates the limitation of launching
277 just one driver in Secure Boot mode and is likely to be more reliable
278 with future or obscure boot loaders. It should also work with non-x86-64
279 systems, although this relies on a platform-specific shim program, which
280 to date exists only for x86-64. The basic features are the same as before
281 -- rEFInd relies on shim for authentication functions and will launch
282 programs that are signed by Secure Boot keys, shim keys, or MOKs.
283
284 - Altered default for "textmode" option (when it's commented out) to not
285 adjust the text mode at all. (Prior versions set it to mode 0 by
286 default.)
287
288 0.6.1 (12/21/2012):
289 -------------------
290
291 - Added "--root" option to install.sh, to enable installation of rEFInd
292 to something other than the currently-running OS. This is intended for
293 use on emergency discs.
294
295 - Thanks to Stefan Agner, the ext4fs driver now supports the "meta_bg"
296 filesystem feature, which distributes metadata throughout the disk. This
297 feature isn't used by default, but can be set at filesystem creation time
298 by passing the "-O meta_bg,^resize_inode" option to mke2fs. (Using
299 "^resize_inode" is necessary because meta_bg is incompatible with
300 resize_inode, which IS used by default.) This feature can be used on
301 ext3fs and ext2fs as well as on ext4fs, so the ext4fs driver can now
302 handle some ext3fs and ext2fs partitions that the ext2fs driver can't
303 handle.
304
305 - Fixed some screen resolution-setting bugs.
306
307 - Added the "words" that make up a filesystem's label (delimited by spaces,
308 dashes, or underscores) to the list of bases used to search for OS icons.
309 For instance, if the filesystem's label is "Arch", rEFInd searches for
310 os_Arch.icns; if it's "Fedora 17", it searches for os_Fedora.icns and
311 os_17.icns; and if it's "NEW_GENTOO", it searches for os_NEW.icns and
312 os_GENTOO.icns.
313
314 - Refined hints displays to be more context-sensitive, particularly in text
315 mode.
316
317 - Instead of displaying a blank filesystem label when a filesystem has
318 none, rEFInd now displays the size and/or type of the filesystem, as in
319 "boot EFI\foo\bar.efi from 200 MiB ext3 volume" rather than "boot
320 EFI\foo\bar.efi from".
321
322 - Fixed a bug that caused the screen to clear after displaying an error
323 message but before displaying the "Hit any key to continue" message when
324 a boot loader launch failed.
325
326 0.6.0 (12/16/2012):
327 -------------------
328
329 - Fixed a memory allocation bug that could cause a program crash when
330 specifying certain values with the "also_scan_dirs", "dont_scan_volumes",
331 "dont_scan_dirs", "dont_scan_files", and "scan_driver_dirs" refind.conf
332 options.
333
334 - Modified Linux kernel initrd-finding code so that if an initrd is
335 specified in refind_linux.conf, rEFInd will not add any initrd it finds.
336 This enables an override of the default initrd, and is likely to be
337 particularly helpful to Arch Linux users.
338
339 - Added ext4fs driver!
340
341 - Made "boot" the default value for "also_scan_dirs".
342
343 - Added identifying screen header to line editor.
344
345 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd's display to be mis-sized upon return
346 from a program that set the resolution itself.
347
348 - Adjusted "resolution" refind.conf parameter so that it can accept EITHER
349 a resolution as width and height OR a single digit as a UEFI mode number
350 (which is system-specific). This is done because some systems present the
351 same mode twice in their mode lists, perhaps varying in refresh rate,
352 monitor output, or some other salient characteristics; specifying the
353 mode number enables selecting the higher-numbered mode, whereas using
354 horizontal and vertical resolution values selects the lowest-numbered
355 mode.
356
357 - Added "textmode" refind.conf parameter to set the text mode used in
358 text-only displays, and for the line editor and boot-time handoff
359 display even in graphics mode.
360
361 - Fixed bug that caused tools (shell, etc.) to launch when they were
362 highlighted and F2 or Insert was pressed.
363
364 - Added "editor" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf, which
365 disables the boot options editor.
366
367 - Added hints text to rEFInd main menu and sub-menus. This can be disabled
368 by setting the new "hints" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf.
369
370 - Added "boot with minimal options" entry to refind_linux.conf file
371 generated by install.sh. This entry boots without the options extracted
372 from the /etc/default/grub file.
373
374 - Added keys subdirectory to main distribution, to hold public Secure
375 Boot/shim keys from known sources.
376
377 - Changed install.sh --drivers option to --alldrivers, added new
378 --nodrivers option, and made the default on Linux to install the one
379 driver that's used on /boot (or the root filesystem if /boot isn't a
380 separate partition). Of course, this won't install a non-existent driver,
381 and it also won't work properly if run from an emergency disk unless you
382 mount a separate /boot partition at that location.
383
384 - Fixed bug in install.sh that prevented creation of refind_linux.conf file
385 on Linux systems.
386
387 0.5.1.1 (12/12/2012):
388 ---------------------
389
390 - Fixed bug in install.sh that prevented it from working on OS X.
391
392 0.5.1 (12/11/2012):
393 -------------------
394
395 - Added support for "0" options to "textonly" and "scan_all_linux_kernels"
396 to reverse the usual meaning of these tokens. This is useful for
397 including these options in a secondary configuration file called with the
398 new "include" token to override a setting set in the main file.
399
400 - Added "include" token for refind.conf, to enable including a secondary
401 configuration file from a primary one.
402
403 - Modified install.sh so that it creates a simple refind_linux.conf file in
404 /boot, if that file doesn't already exist and if install.sh is run from
405 Linux. If that directory happens to be on a FAT, HFS+, ext2fs, ext3fs, or
406 ReiserFS volume, and if the necessary drivers are installed, the result
407 is that rEFInd will detect the Linux installation with no further
408 configuration on many systems. (Some may still require tweaking of kernel
409 options, though; for instance, adding "dolvm" on Gentoo systems that use
410 LVM.)
411
412 - Added --shim and --localkeys options to install.sh to help simplify setup
413 on systems with Secure Boot active.
414
415 - Fixed (maybe) bug that caused resolution options to not be displayed on
416 recent Macs with GOP graphics when specifying an invalid resolution in
417 refind.conf.
418
419 - Fixed bug that caused some programs (EFI shells, in particular) to hang
420 when launching on some systems (DUET, in particular).
421
422 - Implemented a fix to enable ELILO to launch with Secure Boot active.
423 This fix might help with some other boot loaders in Secure Boot mode,
424 too, but I don't know of any specifics.
425
426 0.5.0 (12/6/2012):
427 ------------------
428
429 - Added the ability to include quote marks ('"') in refind.conf and
430 refind_linux.conf tokens by doubling them up, as in:
431 "ro root=/dev/sda4 some_value=""this is it"""
432 This example results in the following string being passed as an
433 option:
434 ro root=/dev/sda4 some_value="this is it"
435
436 - Changed refind.conf-sample to uncomment the scan_all_linux_kernels
437 option by default. If this option is deleted or commented out, the
438 program default remains to not scan all Linux kernels; but with
439 increasing numbers of distributions shipping with kernels that include
440 EFI stub loader support, setting the configuration file default to scan
441 for them makes sense.
442
443 - Modified the "resolution" token so that it affects text mode as well
444 as graphics mode. On my systems, though, the actual text area is still
445 restricted to an 80x25 area. (This seems to be a firmware limitation; my
446 EFI shells are also so limited.)
447
448 - Fixed a bug that caused the options line editor to blank out lines that
449 were not actually edited.
450
451 - Added support for using Matthew Garrett's Shim program and its Machine
452 Owner Keys (MOKs) to extend Secure Boot capabilities. If rEFInd is
453 launched from Shim on a computer with Secure Boot active, rEFInd will
454 launch programs signed with either a standard UEFI Secure Boot key or a
455 MOK. For the moment, this feature works only on x86-64 systems.
456
457 - Added new "dont_scan_files" (aka "don't_scan_files") token for
458 refind.conf. The effect is similar to dont_scan_dirs, but it creates a
459 blacklist of filenames within directories rather than directory names.
460 I'm initially using it to place shim.efi and MokManager.efi in the
461 blacklist to keep these programs out of the OS list. (MokManager.efi is
462 scanned separately as a tool; see below.) I've moved checks for
463 ebounce.efi, GraphicsConsole.efi, and TextMode.efi to this list. (These
464 three had previously been blacklisted by hard-coding in ScanLoaderDir().)
465
466 - Added the directory from which rEFInd launched to dont_scan_dirs. This
467 works around a bug in which rEFInd would show itself as a bogus Windows
468 entry if it's installed as EFI/Microsoft/boot/bootmgfw.efi.
469
470 - Added support for launching MokManager.efi for managing the Machine Owner
471 Keys (MOKs) maintained by the shim boot loader developed by Fedora and
472 SUSE. This program is scanned and presented as a second-row tool.
473
474 - Added support for Apple's Recovery HD partition: If it's detected, a new
475 icon appears on the second row. This icon can be removed by explicitly
476 setting the "showtools" option in refind.conf and excluding the
477 "apple_recovery" option from that line.
478
479 - Fixed bug that caused text-mode ("textonly" refind.conf option enabled)
480 menu entries to be right-aligned rather than left-aligned when rEFInd was
481 compiled with the TianoCore EDK2.
482
483 - Added "--usedefault {devicename}" and "--drivers" options to the
484 install.sh script and changed the "esp" option to "--esp".
485
486 0.4.7 (11/6/2012):
487 ------------------
488
489 - Added an icon for gummiboot.
490
491 - Added a boot option editor: Pressing the Insert or F2 key from a boot
492 tag's options menu opens a simple text-mode line editor on which the boot
493 options may be edited for a one-time boot with altered options.
494
495 - Modified the "scan_delay" feature to delay and then perform a re-scan,
496 which may work better than the first attempt at this feature (which I'm
497 told isn't working as planned).
498
499 - Modified rEFInd to add a space after the command-line options only when
500 launching Mac OS X. On some early Macs, the extra space (which had been
501 present by default, as a carryover from rEFIt) causes problems when
502 booting Linux kernels from FAT partitions.
503
504 0.4.6 (10/6/2012):
505 ------------------
506
507 - Fixed some minor memory management issues.
508
509 - Added new "scan_delay" feature to impose a delay before scanning
510 for disks.
511
512 - Changed default "scanfor" option from internal-external-optical to either
513 internal-external-optical-manual (for non-Macs) or
514 internal-hdbios-external-biosexternal-optical-cd-manual (for Macs). I've
515 done this for two reasons:
516 - Many Mac users have been confused by the fact that rEFInd needs
517 reconfiguration to detect Windows (or Linux installed in BIOS mode),
518 since rEFIt scans BIOS devices by default. Adding the BIOS options as
519 default for them should help them.
520 - Adding the "manual" option enables users to simply add manual boot
521 stanzas and have them work, which is more intuitive. Adding the
522 "manual" option will have no effect unless manual stanzas are created
523 or uncommented, so this part of the change won't affect users' working
524 default configurations.
525
526 - Added new legacy (BIOS) boot support for UEFI-based PCs.
527
528 0.4.5 (8/12/2012):
529 ------------------
530
531 - Fixed bug that caused a failure to boot BIOS-based OSes on Macs.
532
533 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused it to fail to detect rEFItBlesser.
534
535 0.4.4 (6/23/2012):
536 ------------------
537
538 - Fixed bug that caused filesystem labels to be corrupted by rEFInd on
539 32-bit systems.
540
541 - Fixed bug that caused filesystem labels to be truncated in the drivers
542 on 32-bit systems.
543
544 - Fixed bug in use_graphics_for option parsing that caused most options
545 to set graphics mode for OS X and/or Linux but not other boot
546 loaders/OSes.
547
548 - Tweaked install script to better isolate the ESP under OS X.
549
550 0.4.3 (6/21/2012):
551 ------------------
552
553 - rEFInd now supports compilation using the TianoCore UDK2010/EDK2
554 development kit in addition to GNU-EFI.
555
556 - Added new "use_graphics_for" option to control which OSes to boot in
557 graphics mode. (This effect lasts for a fraction of a second on most
558 systems, since the boot loader that rEFInd launches is likely to set
559 graphics or text mode itself.)
560
561 - Graphics-mode booting now clears the screen to the current rEFInd
562 background color (rather than black) and does NOT display boot messages.
563 The intent is for a smoother transition when booting OS X, or perhaps
564 other OSes that don't display boot loader messages. In practice, this
565 effect will be tiny for many OSes, since the boot loader generally clears
566 the screen within a fraction of a second of being launched; but the
567 "flicker" of a rEFInd message in that time can sometimes be distracting.
568
569 - Filesystem drivers now work on EFI 1.x systems, such as Macs.
570
571 - Removed "linux.conf" as a valid alternative name for "refind_linux.conf"
572 for holding Linux kernel options. The kernel developers plan to use
573 "linux.conf" themselves.
574
575 0.4.2 (6/3/2012):
576 -----------------
577
578 - Added a message to install.sh when run on Macs to remind users to update
579 the "scanfor" line in refind.conf if they need to boot BIOS-based OSes
580 via rEFInd.
581
582 - Modified install.sh script to be smarter about running efibootmgr on
583 Linux. It now uses the whole path to the rEFInd binary as a key to
584 determine whether an existing entry exists, rather than just the filename
585 portion. If an entry exists and is the first entry in the boot order, the
586 script does nothing to the NVRAM entries. If such an entry exists but is
587 not the default, the script deletes that entry and creates a new one
588 (implicitly making it the first in the boot order). If such an entry does
589 not exist, the script creates a new one (again, making it the first in
590 the boot order).
591
592 - Added "dont_scan_dirs" configuration file option, which adds directories
593 to a "blacklist" of directories that are NOT scanned for boot loaders.
594
595 0.4.1 (5/25/2012):
596 ------------------
597
598 - Added "scanning for new boot loaders" message to the re-scan function
599 (hitting Esc at the main menu). It usually flashes up too quickly to
600 be of importance, but if the scan function takes a while because of
601 access to a CD that must be spun up, it should make it clear that the
602 system hasn't hung.
603
604 - Modified install.sh script to detect rEFItBlesser on Macs, and if
605 present, to ask the user if it should be removed.
606
607 - Cleaned up the Make.common file for the filesystem drivers.
608
609 - Changed HFS+ driver to return volume label of "HFS+ volume" rather than
610 an empty label. (The driver doesn't currently read the real volume
611 label.)
612
613 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to appear in its own menu after
614 running a shell and then re-scanning for boot loaders.
615
616 0.4.0 (5/20/2012):
617 ------------------
618
619 - Inclusion of drivers for ISO-9660, HFS+, ReiserFS, and ext2fs. Most of
620 these drivers originated with rEFIt, although the HFS+ driver seems to
621 have come from Oracle's VirtualBox, with some files from Apple. I hadn't
622 included these drivers previously because the build process proved
623 challenging. As it is, they don't work on my Mac Mini, I suspect because
624 the build process with the UDK2010 development kit may not work with the
625 EFI 1.x that Apple uses.
626
627 - Addition of support for drivers in the "drivers_{arch}" subdirectory of
628 the main rEFInd binary directory (e.g., "drivers_x64" or "drivers_ia32").
629 Drivers may continue to be placed in the "drivers" subdirectory.
630
631 - Added new feature to eject CDs (and other removable media): Press F12 to
632 eject all such media. This function works only on some Macs, though (it
633 relies on an Apple-specific EFI extension, and this extension isn't even
634 implemented on all Macs, much less on UEFI-based PCs).
635
636 - Fixed a problem that could cause GRUB 2 to fail to read its configuration
637 file when launched from rEFInd.
638
639 0.3.5 (5/15/2012):
640 ------------------
641
642 - Removed the GRUB 2 detection "reciped" added with 0.3.2, since I've
643 received reports that it's not working as intended.
644
645 - Added re-scan feature: Press the Esc key to have rEFInd re-read its
646 configuration file, tell the EFI to scan for new filesystems, and re-scan
647 those filesystems for boot loaders. The main purpose is to enable
648 scanning a new removable medium that you insert after launching rEFInd;
649 however, it can also be used to immediately implement changes to the
650 configuration file or new drivers you load from an EFI shell.
651
652 - Fixed a bug that could cause the scroll-right arrow to be replaced by the
653 scroll-left arrow under some circumstances.
654
655 0.3.4 (5/9/2012):
656 -----------------
657
658 - Added new configuration file option: "icons_dir", which sets the name
659 of the subdirectory in which icons are found. See the documentation or
660 sample configuration file for a full description.
661
662 - Modified Makefile to generate rEFInd binary that includes architecture
663 code -- refind_ia32.efi or refind_x64.efi, rather than the generic
664 refind.efi. This is done mainly to help the install.sh script. The
665 program can be named anything you like on the disk. (The generic name
666 refind.efi is used on unknown architectures.)
667
668 - Improved install.sh script: Fixed bug on OS X 10.7 and enable it to be
669 used after building from source code (or via new "make install" Makefile
670 target).
671
672 - Improved screen redraws to produce less flicker when moving among the
673 second-row tags or to the last tag on the first row.
674
675 0.3.3 (5/6/2012):
676 -----------------
677
678 - Improved menu navigation:
679 - In graphics mode, left & right arrow keys move left & right, while up &
680 down arrows move between rows.
681 - Page Up and Page Down now move through chunks of visible tags (in both
682 text & graphics modes), jumping from one row to another only when at
683 the edge of the row. In text mode, the "rows" are broken down as in
684 graphics mode, but they aren't visibly distinguished on the screen.
685
686 - Improved text-mode use: rEFInd now displays the proper number of entries
687 when first started in text mode and scrolling is done sensibly when too
688 many entries exist to fit on the screen.
689
690 0.3.2 (5/4/2012):
691 -----------------
692
693 - Added the install.sh script to install rEFInd on Linux and Mac OS X
694 systems. This script must be run as root (or via sudo). It requires
695 no options, but on Mac OS X, passing it the "esp" option causes it
696 to install rEFInd on the computer's ESP rather than the default of the
697 currently OS X boot partition. (Under Linux, the default is to install to
698 the ESP.) Note that there may be some unusual cases in which this script
699 will fail to work.
700
701 - Does a better job of clearing the screen when launching OSes in text
702 mode.
703
704 - Added detection "recipe" for GRUB 2's BIOS Boot Partition.
705
706 - Fixed bogus detection of ESPs created by Linux's mkdosfs utility or
707 Windows as bootable partitions when "scanfor" includes BIOS scanning
708 options.
709
710
711 0.3.1 (4/27/2012):
712 ------------------
713
714 - Fixed bug that caused spurious "Unsupported while scanning the root
715 directory" messages under some conitions on Macs.
716
717 - Modified loader scanning code to sort boot loader entries within a
718 directory by modification time, so that the most recently-modified loader
719 is first among those in a given directory. Thus, if you specify a
720 directory name (or volume name, for loaders stored in the root directory
721 of a volume) as the default_selection, the most recent of those loaders
722 will be the default. This is intended to help with Linux kernel
723 maintenance when using the EFI stub loader; set up this way, the most
724 recent kernel copied to your kernel directory will be the default,
725 obviating the need to adjust the refind.conf file when adding a new
726 kernel. If you want to change the default among those in the default
727 directory, you can use "touch" to adjust the modification timestamp.
728
729 - Tweaked code to find loader-specific .icns file so that it finds files
730 for Linux kernels without .efi extensions. In this case, files should be
731 named the same as the kernels they match, but with .icns extensions. For
732 instance, bzImage-3.3.2 should have an icon called bzImage-3.3.2.icns.
733 (The old code would have looked for an icon called bzImage-3.3.icns.)
734
735 - Eliminated bogus OS loader tags for filenames that end in ".icns" when
736 the scan_all_linux_kernels option is set.
737
738 0.3.0 (4/22/2012):
739 ------------------
740
741 - I'm officially upgrading this project's status from "alpha" to "beta" and
742 giving it a bump from 0.2.x to 0.3.0. This doesn't reflect any major
743 milestone with this version; rather, it reflects my sense that rEFInd has
744 been "out there" for a while, and although I've gotten bug reports,
745 they've been minor and/or have been fixed. The program still has known
746 bugs, but my impression is that it is, overall, usable by ordinary users.
747
748 - Added "resolution" option to refind.conf, which enables setting the video
749 resolution. To use it, pass two numeric values, as in "resolution 1024
750 768" to use a 1024x768 video mode. Note that not all modes are supported.
751 If you specify a non-supported video mode on a UEFI system, a message
752 appears listing the supported video modes and you must then press a key
753 to continue, using the default video mode (usually 800x600).
754 Unfortunately, I don't know the calls to get a list of supported video
755 modes on older EFI 1.x systems (including Macs), so on Macs setting an
756 incorrect video mode silently fails (you keep using the default mode).
757 This makes changing your video mode a hit-or-miss proposition on Macs.
758 CAUTION: It's possible to set a legal video mode that your monitor can't
759 handle, in which case you'll get a blank display until you boot an OS
760 that resets the video mode.
761
762 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused rEFInd to crash when returning from an
763 EFI shell or other programs on Macs, particularly when rEFInd used
764 graphical mode. I'm not 100% sure this bug is squashed because I still
765 don't understand the cause and I only have one Mac for testing. See
766 comments in the ReinitRefitLib() function in refit/lib.c for more
767 details.
768
769 - Added new refind.conf option: scan_all_linux_kernels, which causes Linux
770 kernels that lack ".efi" extensions to be included in scans for EFI boot
771 loaders. This may help integration with Linux distributions that don't
772 give their kernels such names by default. Beware, though: It can detect
773 unwanted files, such as older non-stub-loader kernels or .icns files used
774 to give kernels with .efi extensions custom icons.
775
776 - Improved EFI boot loader detection on boards with Gigabyte's Hybrid EFI,
777 and perhaps other EFIs with a buggy StriCmp() function. Files with both
778 ".efi" and ".EFI" extensions should now be detected as boot loaders.
779
780 - Fixed a bug that caused rEFInd to fail to scan for drivers if the
781 filesystem driver didn't set a volume name (that is, if the relevant
782 field was set to NULL rather than even an empty string). In such
783 situations, rEFInd now reports the volume name as "Unknown".
784
785 0.2.7 (4/19/2012):
786 ------------------
787
788 - After much trial and tribulation, I've overcome a GNU-EFI limitation and
789 enabled rEFInd to load EFI drivers. This feature was present in the
790 original build of rEFIt but was removed in the versions that could
791 compile under Linux, but now it's back -- and still being compiled under
792 Linux! To use it, you should place your drivers in a convenient directory
793 on the ESP (or whatever partition you use to launch rEFInd) and add a
794 "scan_driver_dirs" entry to refind.conf to tell rEFInd where to look. (As
795 always, you should specify the driver directory relative to the root of
796 the filesystem.) Note that you can't launch drivers from another
797 filesystem; they must be on the same volume that holds rEFInd. Those who
798 compile from source code should note that implementing this feature
799 necessitated using a more recent version of the GNU-EFI library. I'm
800 currently using version 3.0p, and version 3.0i does NOT work. I don't
801 know where the change occurred, but you may need to upgrade your GNU-EFI
802 installation.
803
804 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to show up in its own menu sometimes.
805
806 - Added new refind.conf token: also_scan_dirs. When scanning volumes for
807 EFI boot loaders, rEFInd always scans the root directory and every
808 subdirectory of the /EFI directory, but it doesn't recurse into these
809 directories. The also_scan_dirs token adds more directories to the scan
810 list. It defaults to "elilo,boot", but you can set it to any directory or
811 directories you like.
812
813 0.2.6 (4/14/2012):
814 ------------------
815
816 - Added "volume" keyword to configuration file's stanza options. This
817 option changes the volume from which subsequent files (specified by
818 "loader" and "icon") are loaded. You pass "volume" the name/label of the
819 FILESYSTEM you want to use (not the GPT partition name), or a number
820 followed by a colon (e.g., "1:"). The former should reliably identify a
821 filesystem, assuming the name is unique. The latter assigns numbers based
822 on the order in which they're scanned, which may not be as reliable but
823 should work when a volume is unnamed.
824
825 - Fixed bug in 0.2.5 that caused failure of Linux initial RAM disk
826 mapping on some (but not all) systems. Affected computers include at
827 least some Intel motherboards, maybe others.
828
829 0.2.5 (4/9/2012):
830 -----------------
831
832 - Fixed bug that caused an inability to associate initial RAM disks with
833 Linux kernels stored in a volume's root directory.
834
835 - Volume badges (that override default badges) are now stored in
836 .VolumeBadge.icns. Although undocumented, rEFInd formerly loaded custom
837 volume badges from .VolumeIcon.icns. This carryover from rEFIt was a
838 confusing name, given the next (new) feature, so I've changed and
839 documented the name....
840
841 - Added ability to set a default icon for a loader stored in the root
842 directory of a volume: The icon is stored in .VolumeIcon.icns. This icon
843 is also used for Mac OS X volumes booted from the standard location.
844
845 - Fixed bug that caused icons to drop back to generic icons when rEFInd
846 was launched in certain ways (such as from an EFI shell in rEFInd's
847 directory) on certain systems.
848
849 - Fixed bug that caused "unknown disable flag" to be shown (very briefly)
850 instead of "unknown hideui flag" when an improper hideui flag was set.
851
852 0.2.4 (4/5/2012):
853 -----------------
854
855 - Created new refind.conf entry: "showtools". This entry takes options of
856 "shell", "gptsync", "about", "exit", "reboot", and "shutdown". This
857 option is in some respects an affirmative version of portions of the old
858 "disable" and "hideui" options; however, it enables users to specify the
859 order in which these options appear on the screen. Also, the "exit"
860 option is new; it terminates the program. The effect is usually to return
861 to whatever tool launched it or to launch a default OS; however, this is
862 somewhat unpredictable. The default therefore omits the "exit" option, as
863 well as "gptsync", which has always been dangerous (but necessary on most
864 MacOS/Windows dual-boot setups on Macs). As part of this reconfiguration,
865 I've eliminated the "rescue Linux" option, which always seemed pointless
866 to me.
867
868 - Folded "disable" and "hideui" refind.conf entries into one ("disable"),
869 and reduced the number of options to six: "banner", "label",
870 "singleuser", "hwtest", "arrows", and "all". ("arrows" is new and
871 disables the scroll arrows when a system has too many tags to display
872 simultaneously.)
873
874 - Added max_tags option to the refind.conf file, enabling users to reduce
875 the maximum number of OS loader tags that can be displayed at once.
876
877 - Updated rEFIt icon, based on the 128x128 volume label from the rEFIt CD
878 image.
879
880 - Added x86 and x86-64 EFI shells to the CD image version of the binary,
881 but NOT to the binary zip file. The logic is that the CD image is more
882 likely to be used directly as an emergency disc and so may need this
883 feature, even though the source isn't part of the rEFInd project. (The
884 source is readily available from the TianoCore project.)
885
886 - EFI shells may now be stored at /shellx64.efi for x86-64 systems or at
887 /shellia32.efi for x86 systems. The /EFI/tools/shell.efi name is also
888 recognized; however, if both files are present, two EFI shell icons will
889 appear on the main menu. The /efi/{refind-path/apps/shell.efi filename,
890 which was never officially documented but worked as a carryover from
891 rEFIt, is no longer valid.
892
893 0.2.3 (3/26/2012):
894 ------------------
895
896 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused hangs when launching a second program
897 after returning from a first. There are some weird system-to-system
898 differences, though, and this fix causes (apparently harmless) error
899 messages about "(re)opening our installation volume" on at least one
900 system (a 32-bit Mac Mini). I'm committing this change because, imperfect
901 though it is, it's preferable to the earlier version, at least on my
902 small sample of computers.
903
904 - Because of news that the Linux kernel developers are planning to use the
905 filename linux.conf to hold Linux kernel configuration data for EFI
906 booting, I'm transitioning rEFInd away from that name and to
907 refind_linux.conf to avoid a conflict. This version can use either name,
908 with refind_linux.conf taking precedence if both are present.
909
910 - Added logo for Arch Linux.
911
912 0.2.2 (3/23/2012):
913 ------------------
914
915 - Fixed bug that caused program failure when Linux kernels with EFI stub
916 support were detected with no associated version numbers. rEFInd now
917 permits automatic linking of *ONE* versionless kernel to *ONE*
918 versionless initrd file.
919
920 - Fixed bug that caused program hangs when a boot loader filename or label
921 was too long. Such names are now properly truncated and program execution
922 continues.
923
924 - Fixed bug that caused no text to appear in submenus on UEFI systems with
925 small screens (800x600). NOTE: Problem still occurs on screens smaller
926 than this, but such systems are very rare.
927
928 0.2.1 (3/19/2012):
929 ------------------
930
931 - Added ability to set a "default_selection" that's a title or a substring
932 of one -- the name given to a stanza in a "menuentry" or the boot
933 loader's filename, in most cases, although "Mac OS X", "Windows XP
934 (XoM)", and "Microsoft EFI boot" are also titles.
935
936 - Added support for semi-automatic scans of Linux kernels with EFI stub
937 loader support. The program auto-detects matching initial RAM disk files
938 and loads additional options from the "linux.conf" file in the same
939 directory as the kernel.
940
941 - Added support for "submenuentry" keyword and associated sub-stanza
942 entries in refind.conf file.
943
944 - Renamed icons/os_mint.icns to icons/os_linuxmint.icns to match the
945 filename Linux Mint ACTUALLY uses for its ESP boot loader directory.
946
947
948 0.2.0 (3/14/2012):
949 ------------------
950
951 - Initial public release