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