4 - Fixed a bug that caused rEFInd to fail to scan for drivers if the
5 filesystem driver didn't set a volume name (that is, if the relevant
6 field was set to NULL rather than even an empty string). In such
7 situations, rEFInd now reports the volume name as "Unknown".
12 - After much trial and tribulation, I've overcome a GNU-EFI limitation and
13 enabled rEFInd to load EFI drivers. This feature was present in the
14 original build of rEFIt but was removed in the versions that could
15 compile under Linux, but now it's back -- and still being compiled under
16 Linux! To use it, you should place your drivers in a convenient directory
17 on the ESP (or whatever partition you use to launch rEFInd) and add a
18 "scan_driver_dirs" entry to refind.conf to tell rEFInd where to look. (As
19 always, you should specify the driver directory relative to the root of
20 the filesystem.) Note that you can't launch drivers from another
21 filesystem; they must be on the same volume that holds rEFInd. Those who
22 compile from source code should note that implementing this feature
23 necessitated using a more recent version of the GNU-EFI library. I'm
24 currently using version 3.0p, and version 3.0i does NOT work. I don't
25 know where the change occurred, but you may need to upgrade your GNU-EFI
28 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to show up in its own menu sometimes.
30 - Added new refind.conf token: also_scan_dirs. When scanning volumes for
31 EFI boot loaders, rEFInd always scans the root directory and every
32 subdirectory of the /EFI directory, but it doesn't recurse into these
33 directories. The also_scan_dirs token adds more directories to the scan
34 list. It defaults to "elilo,boot", but you can set it to any directory or
40 - Added "volume" keyword to configuration file's stanza options. This
41 option changes the volume from which subsequent files (specified by
42 "loader" and "icon") are loaded. You pass "volume" the name/label of the
43 FILESYSTEM you want to use (not the GPT partition name), or a number
44 followed by a colon (e.g., "1:"). The former should reliably identify a
45 filesystem, assuming the name is unique. The latter assigns numbers based
46 on the order in which they're scanned, which may not be as reliable but
47 should work when a volume is unnamed.
49 - Fixed bug in 0.2.5 that caused failure of Linux initial RAM disk
50 mapping on some (but not all) systems. Affected computers include at
51 least some Intel motherboards, maybe others.
56 - Fixed bug that caused an inability to associate initial RAM disks with
57 Linux kernels stored in a volume's root directory.
59 - Volume badges (that override default badges) are now stored in
60 .VolumeBadge.icns. Although undocumented, rEFInd formerly loaded custom
61 volume badges from .VolumeIcon.icns. This carryover from rEFIt was a
62 confusing name, given the next (new) feature, so I've changed and
63 documented the name....
65 - Added ability to set a default icon for a loader stored in the root
66 directory of a volume: The icon is stored in .VolumeIcon.icns. This icon
67 is also used for Mac OS X volumes booted from the standard location.
69 - Fixed bug that caused icons to drop back to generic icons when rEFInd
70 was launched in certain ways (such as from an EFI shell in rEFInd's
71 directory) on certain systems.
73 - Fixed bug that caused "unknown disable flag" to be shown (very briefly)
74 instead of "unknown hideui flag" when an improper hideui flag was set.
79 - Created new refind.conf entry: "showtools". This entry takes options of
80 "shell", "gptsync", "about", "exit", "reboot", and "shutdown". This
81 option is in some respects an affirmative version of portions of the old
82 "disable" and "hideui" options; however, it enables users to specify the
83 order in which these options appear on the screen. Also, the "exit"
84 option is new; it terminates the program. The effect is usually to return
85 to whatever tool launched it or to launch a default OS; however, this is
86 somewhat unpredictable. The default therefore omits the "exit" option, as
87 well as "gptsync", which has always been dangerous (but necessary on most
88 MacOS/Windows dual-boot setups on Macs). As part of this reconfiguration,
89 I've eliminated the "rescue Linux" option, which always seemed pointless
92 - Folded "disable" and "hideui" refind.conf entries into one ("disable"),
93 and reduced the number of options to six: "banner", "label",
94 "singleuser", "hwtest", "arrows", and "all". ("arrows" is new and
95 disables the scroll arrows when a system has too many tags to display
98 - Added max_tags option to the refind.conf file, enabling users to reduce
99 the maximum number of OS loader tags that can be displayed at once.
101 - Updated rEFIt icon, based on the 128x128 volume label from the rEFIt CD
104 - Added x86 and x86-64 EFI shells to the CD image version of the binary,
105 but NOT to the binary zip file. The logic is that the CD image is more
106 likely to be used directly as an emergency disc and so may need this
107 feature, even though the source isn't part of the rEFInd project. (The
108 source is readily available from the TianoCore project.)
110 - EFI shells may now be stored at /shellx64.efi for x86-64 systems or at
111 /shellia32.efi for x86 systems. The /EFI/tools/shell.efi name is also
112 recognized; however, if both files are present, two EFI shell icons will
113 appear on the main menu. The /efi/{refind-path/apps/shell.efi filename,
114 which was never officially documented but worked as a carryover from
115 rEFIt, is no longer valid.
120 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused hangs when launching a second program
121 after returning from a first. There are some weird system-to-system
122 differences, though, and this fix causes (apparently harmless) error
123 messages about "(re)opening our installation volume" on at least one
124 system (a 32-bit Mac Mini). I'm committing this change because, imperfect
125 though it is, it's preferable to the earlier version, at least on my
126 small sample of computers.
128 - Because of news that the Linux kernel developers are planning to use the
129 filename linux.conf to hold Linux kernel configuration data for EFI
130 booting, I'm transitioning rEFInd away from that name and to
131 refind_linux.conf to avoid a conflict. This version can use either name,
132 with refind_linux.conf taking precedence if both are present.
134 - Added logo for Arch Linux.
139 - Fixed bug that caused program failure when Linux kernels with EFI stub
140 support were detected with no associated version numbers. rEFInd now
141 permits automatic linking of *ONE* versionless kernel to *ONE*
142 versionless initrd file.
144 - Fixed bug that caused program hangs when a boot loader filename or label
145 was too long. Such names are now properly truncated and program execution
148 - Fixed bug that caused no text to appear in submenus on UEFI systems with
149 small screens (800x600). NOTE: Problem still occurs on screens smaller
150 than this, but such systems are very rare.
155 - Added ability to set a "default_selection" that's a title or a substring
156 of one -- the name given to a stanza in a "menuentry" or the boot
157 loader's filename, in most cases, although "Mac OS X", "Windows XP
158 (XoM)", and "Microsoft EFI boot" are also titles.
160 - Added support for semi-automatic scans of Linux kernels with EFI stub
161 loader support. The program auto-detects matching initial RAM disk files
162 and loads additional options from the "linux.conf" file in the same
163 directory as the kernel.
165 - Added support for "submenuentry" keyword and associated sub-stanza
166 entries in refind.conf file.
168 - Renamed icons/os_mint.icns to icons/os_linuxmint.icns to match the
169 filename Linux Mint ACTUALLY uses for its ESP boot loader directory.
175 - Initial public release