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