]> code.delx.au - refind/blob - NEWS.txt
Version 0.7.7 full release
[refind] / NEWS.txt
1 0.7.7 (1/3/2014):
2 -----------------
3
4 - Can now specify complete paths, optionally including volumes, in
5 dont_scan_files.
6
7 - Added shimx64.efi to the default dont_scan_files list.
8
9 - Added windows_recovery_files token, to specify what program(s) launch a
10 Windows recovery utility; and the "windows_recovery" option to
11 "showtools," to control whether or not to display the Windows recovery
12 utility on the second row of icons.
13
14 - The use_graphics_for, also_scan_dirs, dont_scan_dirs, dont_scan_files,
15 and scan_driver_dirs tokens in refind.conf now support "+" as the first
16 option, which causes the remaining options to be added to the default
17 value rather than replacing that value. (This has no practical effect for
18 scan_driver_dirs, though, since it has a null default value.)
19
20 - Added support for specifying the configuration file at program launch,
21 via the "-c" parameter, as in "refind_x64.efi -c foo.conf" to use the
22 foo.conf file as the main configuration file.
23
24 - Scans of ext2/3/4fs and ReiserFS partitions now omit partitions with
25 duplicate filesystem UUIDs. These are likely parts of RAID arrays and so
26 would have the same boot loaders or kernels as the first one with a given
27 UUID.
28
29 - Added feature in install.sh: Script now tries to locate and mount an ESP
30 in Linux, if it's currently unmounted.
31
32 - Fixed bug in mkrlconf.sh and install.sh that caused a stray line break
33 and PARTUUID= specification to appear in generated refind_linux.conf file
34 under some circumstances.
35
36 0.7.6 (12/15/2013):
37 -------------------
38
39 - Added support for multiple "default_selection" targets. These MUST be
40 comma-separated AND enclosed in quotes, as in:
41 default_selection "fred,ginger"
42 This example will launch "fred" by default if it's available; and if
43 it's not, rEFInd will attempt to launch "ginger" as the default.
44
45 - Added support for time-sensitive "default_selection" setting. This token
46 may now have either one or three options. If one, it's interpreted as it
47 has been in the past, as setting a default that's independent of times.
48 If you follow this default by two times, however, those are interpreted
49 as the start and end times (in 24-hour format) for a default setting. For
50 instance, "default_selection foo 8:00 17:00" causes foo to be the default
51 from 8:00 (AM) to 17:00 (aka 5:00 PM). You can include multiple
52 "default_selection" lines to set different defaults for a variety of
53 times. If they're in conflict, the last one takes precedence. Note that
54 times are hardware clock's native value, which may be local time or UTC,
55 depending on your computer.
56
57 - Added support for a blank-screen startup: Set "screensaver -1" and the
58 screen saver will be initialized when rEFInd starts. If you set a low
59 "timeout" value, the result will be a boot straight to the default OS
60 unless you hit a key soon after rEFInd starts. Once you hit a key, the
61 screensaver will be disabled.
62
63 - Added --ownhfs {target} option to install.sh. This option causes rEFInd
64 to install to an HFS+ partition in a way that's more consistent with the
65 way the Mac's native boot loader is installed. Note that you should NOT
66 install to an already-bootable partition with this option, since it will
67 overwrite the existing boot loader, which would render OS X unbootable.
68
69 0.7.5 (11/10/2013):
70 -------------------
71
72 - Fixed bug that caused unbootable exFAT partitions to show up as
73 bootable on Macs with BIOS/CSM/legacy boot options enabled.
74
75 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused installs to the ESP on recent
76 versions of OS X to fail.
77
78 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to hang on some Macs when multiple EFI
79 drivers were present.
80
81 - Fixed bug that caused clear to default gray screen when launching OSes
82 with 'use_graphics_for' enabled, even when the rEFInd background is not
83 gray. Now rEFInd clears to the same background color used in its menu.
84 When launching OS X, though, the OS X boot loader will itself clear to
85 gray a second or so later; and when launching Linux, it will clear to
86 black a second or so later.
87
88 0.7.4.1 (8/25/2013):
89 --------------------
90
91 - My initial 0.7.4 release broke legacy-boot ability on Macs, so I quickly
92 released this version using the original 0.7.4 filenames to fix the
93 problem.
94
95 0.7.4 (8/25/2013):
96 ------------------
97
98 - Fixed options passing to loader to include loader's filename as the first
99 option. This omission had no effect on most boot loaders, but caused
100 VMware's mboot64.efi to fail.
101
102 - Added support for memtest86 as second-row option. Program must be
103 stored in EFI/tools, EFI/tools/memtest, EFI/tools/memtest86, EFI/memtest,
104 or EFI/memtest86; and must use the name memtest86.efi, memtest86_x64.efi,
105 memtest86x64.efi, or bootx64.efi (changing "x64" to "ia32" on IA-32
106 systems). The memtest86 program is scanned for when the "showtools"
107 option includes the "memtest" or "memtest86" token, which it does by
108 default.
109
110 - Added space to end of "Boot %s from %s" string; enables adding a space
111 to the end of the "default_selection" item (in quotes) to set a default
112 that matches a volume name that's identical to another one except for
113 extra characters at the end of the non-wanted volume's name.
114
115 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to hang when launching boot loaders
116 under some conditions. (Launching from Firewire drives on Macs is the
117 known case, but there may be others.)
118
119 0.7.3 (8/7/2013):
120 -----------------
121
122 - Fixed bug that caused missing media-type badges on BIOS-mode boot
123 loaders on Macs.
124
125 - Fixed bug that caused failure when launching BIOS-mode OSes on Macs.
126
127 0.7.2 (8/6/2013):
128 -----------------
129
130 - Fixed bug that caused display glitches in the final entry on the first
131 row of icons if the second row of icons was empty.
132
133 - Fixed bug that could cause incorrect scanning or even a rEFInd crash when
134 using volume specification in also_scan_dirs token.
135
136 - Added protection against loading invalid drivers and other EFI programs.
137 (Some EFIs crash when attempting to load such drivers and programs.)
138
139 - Added PreLoader.efi and shim-fedora.efi to default dont_scan_files list;
140 it's now "shim.efi, shim-fedora.efi, PreLoader.efi, TextMode.efi,
141 ebounce.efi, GraphicsConsole.efi, MokManager.efi, HashTool.efi,
142 HashTool-signed.efi".
143
144 - Added icon for Funtoo Linux.
145
146 - Fixed reading of volume badges from user-specified icons directory, which
147 was broken.
148
149 - Fixed handling of /.VolumeBadge.icns (or /.VolumeBadge.png) files, which
150 was broken.
151
152 0.7.1 (7/8/2013):
153 -----------------
154
155 - Fixed build problem with recent development versions of EDK2.
156
157 - Added scan for Boot Repair's backup of the Windows boot loader
158 (bkpbootmgfw.efi). If found, give separate entries for it and for
159 bootmgfw.efi, each with its own descriptive text label.
160
161 - Fixed also_scan_dirs; used to have bug that caused it to ignore
162 volume specification, if present.
163
164 - Fixed bug in driver cache that caused Btrfs driver to hang sometimes.
165
166 0.7.0 (6/27/2013):
167 ------------------
168
169 - Added Btrfs signature to rEFInd, so that it can identify the filesystem
170 type for volumes that lack labels.
171
172 - Changed some critical filesystem driver pointers from 32-bit to 64-bit.
173 This *SHOULD* enable use of over-2TiB filesystems (for those filesystems
174 that support such large volumes). This capability is largely untested,
175 though.
176
177 - Added a cache to the filesystem driver core, and therefore to all the
178 filesystem drivers. This cache greatly improves performance in
179 VirtualBox, and offers modest performance improvements on a few "real"
180 computers. The most dramatic improvement is on ext2/3fs under VirtualBox:
181 Loading a kernel and initrd used to take ~200 seconds on my system, but
182 now takes ~3 seconds! On most "real" hardware, the improvement is much
183 less dramatic -- an improvement of a second or less, presumably because
184 of cacheing within the EFI or on the hard disk itself.
185
186 - Filter boot loaders based on a test of their validity; keeps out Linux
187 kernels without EFI stub loader code, loaders for the wrong architecture,
188 non-EFI loaders, etc.
189
190 - New Btrfs driver, contributed by Samuel Liao based on GRUB 2.00 Btrfs
191 code.
192
193 0.6.12 (6/18/2013):
194 -------------------
195
196 - Changed the 64-bit EFI shell included in the CD-R and USB flash drive
197 images to a version 2 shell that should support the "bcfg" command.
198
199 - Added support for PreBootloader to refind.spec's built-in installation
200 script.
201
202 - Added support for the Linux Foundation's PreLoader to install.sh. It's
203 treated just like shim, including using the --shim option (or, now,
204 --preloader); but it searches for and copies HashTool.efi rather than
205 MokManager.efi, and filenames are adjusted appropriately.
206
207 - Added code to determine Linux root filesystem from /etc/fstab file, if
208 it's on the same partition as the kernel and if the refind_linux.conf
209 file is not available. This enables rEFInd to boot Linux without any
210 rEFInd-specific configuration files on some (but not all) systems.
211
212 0.6.11 (5/13/2013):
213 -------------------
214
215 - New feature: rEFInd now ignores symbolic links to files on filesystems
216 that support them. This prevents the "vmlinuz" symbolic link that some
217 distributions create in the root directory from appearing in the loader
218 list. Note that this does NOT affect symbolic links to directories.
219
220 - Added icons for Lubuntu and Kubuntu.
221
222 - Improved the install.sh script so that it does a better job dealing with
223 directory names that contain spaces.
224
225 - rEFInd now tries to guess the Linux distribution type based on the kernel
226 filename (Fedora and RHEL only) or the "ID" or "NAME" variables in
227 /etc/os-release on the kernel's partition. None of these is guaranteed to
228 work. A fallback of the Tux penguin icon remains in place in case rEFInd
229 can't find anything substantive enough for a guess.
230
231 - Added "EFI\opensuse" to the locations searched for MOK utilities, since
232 OpenSUSE now uses that name.
233
234 - Renamed "Reboot to Firmware User Interface" to "Reboot to Computer Setup
235 Utility" in menu.
236
237 - Fixed bug in gptsync that caused it to hang if the disk had too few GPT
238 partitions to fill the MBR.
239
240 0.6.10 (5/5/2013):
241 ------------------
242
243 - Added support for "screensaver" token. If set to a positive integer, this
244 causes the screen to blank after the specified number of seconds of
245 inactivity. Pressing most keys (unfortunately NOT including Shift, Alt,
246 or Ctrl) will restore the display and restart the screen saver timeout.
247
248 - Added icon for ChromeOS (os_chrome.icns in the icons subdirectory).
249 ChromeBooks reportedly boots using the fallback filename, but if a user
250 wants to install rEFInd on a ChromeBook, renaming the original EFI/BOOT
251 directory to EFI/chrome and then installing rEFInd in the fallback
252 filename will bring up this new icon for ChromeOS.
253
254 - Added new option to reboot the computer into the firmware's user
255 interface. This option is active by default, or can be set via the
256 "firmware" option to the "showtools" token in refind.conf. It works
257 on only some computers, though; older computers lack this feature, and
258 when rEFInd is told to use this feature on such computers, the directive
259 is quietly ignored.
260
261 - Upgraded LodePNG library from version 20121216 to 20130415 and
262 restructured rEFInd-specific modifications to simplify future upgrades.
263
264 - Replaced hexadecimal error code with description if an error is
265 encountered when saving a screen shot.
266
267 - Enable multiple screen shots: Rather than naming all screen shots
268 "screenshot.bmp", the name is now "screenshot_###.bmp", where "###" is a
269 sequence number, starting with "001".
270
271 0.6.9 (4/25/2013):
272 ------------------
273
274 - Modified default banner to include the new rEFInd icon, provided by Erik
275 Kemperman.
276
277 - Worked around a suspected firmware bug that caused rEFInd 0.6.6 to 0.6.8
278 to hang at startup on some systems (DUET and some Macs).
279
280 - Modified rEFInd to search for gptsync under the names gptsync.efi and
281 gptsync_{arch}.efi, where {arch} is ia32 or x64. (Previous versions
282 searched only for gptsync.efi.)
283
284 - Added gptsync program from rEFIt project, but with some changes to
285 improve flexibility and make it less likely that UEFI users will
286 accidentally trash their systems.
287
288 - Changed timeout code so that the timeout continues if the keyboard is
289 disconnected. This can help in booting a headless server or a system with
290 a bluetooth or other keyboard that's not recognized by the EFI.
291
292 0.6.8 (3/18/2013):
293 ------------------
294
295 - Added workaround for presumed EFI bug that was causing "Invalid
296 Parameter" errors when scanning for boot loaders on some computers.
297
298 - Added search for an EFI shell called shell.efi in the root directory
299 (previously this name was only accepted in EFI\tools).
300
301 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused it to fail on some systems (Fedora
302 18, for instance) because of a problem identifying the ESP.
303
304 - Fixed bug that caused icons named after boot loaders to not be used.
305
306 0.6.7 (2/3/2013):
307 -----------------
308
309 - Added a more explicit error message summarizing options when a launch of
310 a program results in a Secure Boot failure.
311
312 - Changed MOK tool detection to scan all volumes, not just the rEFInd
313 home volume. This is desirable because the Linux Foundation's HashTool
314 can only scan its own volume, making it desirable to place copies of this
315 program on every volume that holds EFI boot loader binaries.
316
317 - Added support for launching the Linux Foundation HashTool as a means of
318 managing MOKs (or MOK hashes, at any rate).
319
320 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to present an entry for itself as a
321 Microsoft OS if it was launched as EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi.
322
323 - Fixed bug that caused dont_scan_volumes option to be added to
324 also_scan_dirs list.
325
326 - Fixed dont_scan_volumes so that it works with OS X boot loaders.
327
328 - Fixed broken mixing of PNG and ICNS icons when using a user-specified
329 icons directory -- previously, an ICNS file in the default directory
330 would override a PNG file in the user-specified directory.
331
332 0.6.6 (1/26/2013):
333 ------------------
334
335 - rEFInd now ignores the fallback boot loader (EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi or
336 EFI/BOOT/bootia32.efi) if it's identical to another boot loader on
337 the same volume. This is intended to help unclutter the display on
338 systems that run Windows, since Windows tends to duplicate its own boot
339 loader under the fallback name.
340
341 - Added new "font" token to refind.conf, which enables specifying a font in
342 the form of a PNG file. This file must contain monospace glyphs for the
343 95 characters from ASCII 32 to 126 (space through tilde), inclusive, plus
344 a glyph to be displayed for characters outside of this range, for a total
345 of 96 glyphs.
346
347 - Replaced the old font (inherited from rEFInd) with an anti-aliased
348 version of Luxi Mono Regular 14 point.
349
350 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to ignore manual boot stanzas in files
351 included via the "include" token in refind.conf.
352
353 - Fixed bug that caused ASSERT error on some systems (and conceivably a
354 crash on startup on some) when default_selection line in refind.conf was
355 commented out or empty.
356
357 - Fixed bug that caused "Binary is whitelisted" message to persist on
358 screen after loading MOK-signed drivers in Secure Boot mode.
359
360 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to ignore the "icon" token in refind.conf
361 manual boot stanzas.
362
363 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused the script to fail to update
364 drivers when rEFInd was installed in EFI/BOOT/.
365
366 0.6.5 (1/16/2013):
367 ------------------
368
369 - Improved text color support: rEFInd now uses black text against light
370 backgrounds and white text against dark backgrounds.
371
372 - Added support for PNGs as banners, icons, and selectors.
373
374 - Added icon for ALT Linux.
375
376 - Added "safemode" option to "hideui" token, to hide option to boot into
377 safe mode for OS X ("-v -x" option to boot.efi).
378
379 - Added icon for Haiku (os_haiku.icns).
380
381 - Enable transparency of icons & main-menu text when the banner icon is
382 sized to cover these areas.
383
384 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to crash if fed a banner image that's
385 too big. Note that "too big" can be substantially smaller than the screen
386 resolution!
387
388 0.6.4 (1/8/2013):
389 -----------------
390
391 - Revised install.sh to copy ext2fs driver, rather than ext4fs driver, for
392 ext2/3 filesystems. This can help keep non-functional entries from links
393 from /vmlinuz to /boot/vmlinuz out of the menu if the system uses ext4fs
394 on root and ext2fs or ext3fs on /boot.
395
396 - Fixed a couple of memory management bugs that cause rEFInd to hang at
397 startup on some systems.
398
399 0.6.3 (1/6/2013):
400 -----------------
401
402 - Added the ability to specify a volume name or number in the
403 "dont_scan_dirs" and "also_scan_dirs" tokens.
404
405 - Fixed a bug that caused removable EFI media to not appear in scan lists
406 if rEFInd was installed as EFI/BOOT/boot{arch}.efi on a hard disk.
407
408 - Modified ISO-9660 driver so that it can handle discs with other than
409 2048-byte sectors. This makes it useful for reading "hybrid ISO" images
410 burned to USB flash disks.
411
412 - New mvrefind.sh script to move a rEFInd installation between a standard
413 location (typically EFI/refind) and one of the fallback locations
414 (EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot). It can also do more exotic locations.
415
416 - The install.sh script now installs to EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi or
417 EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi if it's run in BIOS mode. This is
418 intended to give some chance of producing a bootable installation should
419 a user accidentally install Linux in EFI mode and then install rEFInd
420 from that installation.
421
422 - The install.sh script now tries to find an existing rEFInd installation
423 and upgrade it, even if it's in EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot rather
424 than in EFI/refind.
425
426 - New "--yes" option to install.sh to help with unattended or automated
427 installations (as from an RPM or Debian package).
428
429 0.6.2 (12/30/2012):
430 -------------------
431
432 - Inclusion of a sample refind.spec file for the benefit of RPM
433 distribution maintainers who might want to include rEFInd. It's a bit
434 rough, but it gets you a good chunk of the way there....
435
436 - The EFI filesystem drivers can now be built with the GNU-EFI toolkit as
437 well as with the TianoCore EDK2. See the BUILDING.txt file for details on
438 how to build them with either toolkit. This improvement doesn't affect
439 users of my binary packages, but it should make it easier for Linux
440 distributions to adopt rEFInd into their package systems.
441
442 - Tweaked refind.inf file for better build results using "native" TianoCore
443 EDK2 build process (vs. the Makefile-based build process that I use under
444 Linux). This won't affect those who use my binary builds or build under
445 Linux with the "make" command.
446
447 - Fixed bug that prevented Secure Boot launches from working when rEFInd
448 was built with GNU-EFI rather than the TianoCore EDK2.
449
450 - Substantial reworking of Secure Boot code, based on James Bottomley's
451 PreLoader program. This new code eliminates the limitation of launching
452 just one driver in Secure Boot mode and is likely to be more reliable
453 with future or obscure boot loaders. It should also work with non-x86-64
454 systems, although this relies on a platform-specific shim program, which
455 to date exists only for x86-64. The basic features are the same as before
456 -- rEFInd relies on shim for authentication functions and will launch
457 programs that are signed by Secure Boot keys, shim keys, or MOKs.
458
459 - Altered default for "textmode" option (when it's commented out) to not
460 adjust the text mode at all. (Prior versions set it to mode 0 by
461 default.)
462
463 0.6.1 (12/21/2012):
464 -------------------
465
466 - Added "--root" option to install.sh, to enable installation of rEFInd
467 to something other than the currently-running OS. This is intended for
468 use on emergency discs.
469
470 - Thanks to Stefan Agner, the ext4fs driver now supports the "meta_bg"
471 filesystem feature, which distributes metadata throughout the disk. This
472 feature isn't used by default, but can be set at filesystem creation time
473 by passing the "-O meta_bg,^resize_inode" option to mke2fs. (Using
474 "^resize_inode" is necessary because meta_bg is incompatible with
475 resize_inode, which IS used by default.) This feature can be used on
476 ext3fs and ext2fs as well as on ext4fs, so the ext4fs driver can now
477 handle some ext3fs and ext2fs partitions that the ext2fs driver can't
478 handle.
479
480 - Fixed some screen resolution-setting bugs.
481
482 - Added the "words" that make up a filesystem's label (delimited by spaces,
483 dashes, or underscores) to the list of bases used to search for OS icons.
484 For instance, if the filesystem's label is "Arch", rEFInd searches for
485 os_Arch.icns; if it's "Fedora 17", it searches for os_Fedora.icns and
486 os_17.icns; and if it's "NEW_GENTOO", it searches for os_NEW.icns and
487 os_GENTOO.icns.
488
489 - Refined hints displays to be more context-sensitive, particularly in text
490 mode.
491
492 - Instead of displaying a blank filesystem label when a filesystem has
493 none, rEFInd now displays the size and/or type of the filesystem, as in
494 "boot EFI\foo\bar.efi from 200 MiB ext3 volume" rather than "boot
495 EFI\foo\bar.efi from".
496
497 - Fixed a bug that caused the screen to clear after displaying an error
498 message but before displaying the "Hit any key to continue" message when
499 a boot loader launch failed.
500
501 0.6.0 (12/16/2012):
502 -------------------
503
504 - Fixed a memory allocation bug that could cause a program crash when
505 specifying certain values with the "also_scan_dirs", "dont_scan_volumes",
506 "dont_scan_dirs", "dont_scan_files", and "scan_driver_dirs" refind.conf
507 options.
508
509 - Modified Linux kernel initrd-finding code so that if an initrd is
510 specified in refind_linux.conf, rEFInd will not add any initrd it finds.
511 This enables an override of the default initrd, and is likely to be
512 particularly helpful to Arch Linux users.
513
514 - Added ext4fs driver!
515
516 - Made "boot" the default value for "also_scan_dirs".
517
518 - Added identifying screen header to line editor.
519
520 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd's display to be mis-sized upon return
521 from a program that set the resolution itself.
522
523 - Adjusted "resolution" refind.conf parameter so that it can accept EITHER
524 a resolution as width and height OR a single digit as a UEFI mode number
525 (which is system-specific). This is done because some systems present the
526 same mode twice in their mode lists, perhaps varying in refresh rate,
527 monitor output, or some other salient characteristics; specifying the
528 mode number enables selecting the higher-numbered mode, whereas using
529 horizontal and vertical resolution values selects the lowest-numbered
530 mode.
531
532 - Added "textmode" refind.conf parameter to set the text mode used in
533 text-only displays, and for the line editor and boot-time handoff
534 display even in graphics mode.
535
536 - Fixed bug that caused tools (shell, etc.) to launch when they were
537 highlighted and F2 or Insert was pressed.
538
539 - Added "editor" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf, which
540 disables the boot options editor.
541
542 - Added hints text to rEFInd main menu and sub-menus. This can be disabled
543 by setting the new "hints" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf.
544
545 - Added "boot with minimal options" entry to refind_linux.conf file
546 generated by install.sh. This entry boots without the options extracted
547 from the /etc/default/grub file.
548
549 - Added keys subdirectory to main distribution, to hold public Secure
550 Boot/shim keys from known sources.
551
552 - Changed install.sh --drivers option to --alldrivers, added new
553 --nodrivers option, and made the default on Linux to install the one
554 driver that's used on /boot (or the root filesystem if /boot isn't a
555 separate partition). Of course, this won't install a non-existent driver,
556 and it also won't work properly if run from an emergency disk unless you
557 mount a separate /boot partition at that location.
558
559 - Fixed bug in install.sh that prevented creation of refind_linux.conf file
560 on Linux systems.
561
562 0.5.1.1 (12/12/2012):
563 ---------------------
564
565 - Fixed bug in install.sh that prevented it from working on OS X.
566
567 0.5.1 (12/11/2012):
568 -------------------
569
570 - Added support for "0" options to "textonly" and "scan_all_linux_kernels"
571 to reverse the usual meaning of these tokens. This is useful for
572 including these options in a secondary configuration file called with the
573 new "include" token to override a setting set in the main file.
574
575 - Added "include" token for refind.conf, to enable including a secondary
576 configuration file from a primary one.
577
578 - Modified install.sh so that it creates a simple refind_linux.conf file in
579 /boot, if that file doesn't already exist and if install.sh is run from
580 Linux. If that directory happens to be on a FAT, HFS+, ext2fs, ext3fs, or
581 ReiserFS volume, and if the necessary drivers are installed, the result
582 is that rEFInd will detect the Linux installation with no further
583 configuration on many systems. (Some may still require tweaking of kernel
584 options, though; for instance, adding "dolvm" on Gentoo systems that use
585 LVM.)
586
587 - Added --shim and --localkeys options to install.sh to help simplify setup
588 on systems with Secure Boot active.
589
590 - Fixed (maybe) bug that caused resolution options to not be displayed on
591 recent Macs with GOP graphics when specifying an invalid resolution in
592 refind.conf.
593
594 - Fixed bug that caused some programs (EFI shells, in particular) to hang
595 when launching on some systems (DUET, in particular).
596
597 - Implemented a fix to enable ELILO to launch with Secure Boot active.
598 This fix might help with some other boot loaders in Secure Boot mode,
599 too, but I don't know of any specifics.
600
601 0.5.0 (12/6/2012):
602 ------------------
603
604 - Added the ability to include quote marks ('"') in refind.conf and
605 refind_linux.conf tokens by doubling them up, as in:
606 "ro root=/dev/sda4 some_value=""this is it"""
607 This example results in the following string being passed as an
608 option:
609 ro root=/dev/sda4 some_value="this is it"
610
611 - Changed refind.conf-sample to uncomment the scan_all_linux_kernels
612 option by default. If this option is deleted or commented out, the
613 program default remains to not scan all Linux kernels; but with
614 increasing numbers of distributions shipping with kernels that include
615 EFI stub loader support, setting the configuration file default to scan
616 for them makes sense.
617
618 - Modified the "resolution" token so that it affects text mode as well
619 as graphics mode. On my systems, though, the actual text area is still
620 restricted to an 80x25 area. (This seems to be a firmware limitation; my
621 EFI shells are also so limited.)
622
623 - Fixed a bug that caused the options line editor to blank out lines that
624 were not actually edited.
625
626 - Added support for using Matthew Garrett's Shim program and its Machine
627 Owner Keys (MOKs) to extend Secure Boot capabilities. If rEFInd is
628 launched from Shim on a computer with Secure Boot active, rEFInd will
629 launch programs signed with either a standard UEFI Secure Boot key or a
630 MOK. For the moment, this feature works only on x86-64 systems.
631
632 - Added new "dont_scan_files" (aka "don't_scan_files") token for
633 refind.conf. The effect is similar to dont_scan_dirs, but it creates a
634 blacklist of filenames within directories rather than directory names.
635 I'm initially using it to place shim.efi and MokManager.efi in the
636 blacklist to keep these programs out of the OS list. (MokManager.efi is
637 scanned separately as a tool; see below.) I've moved checks for
638 ebounce.efi, GraphicsConsole.efi, and TextMode.efi to this list. (These
639 three had previously been blacklisted by hard-coding in ScanLoaderDir().)
640
641 - Added the directory from which rEFInd launched to dont_scan_dirs. This
642 works around a bug in which rEFInd would show itself as a bogus Windows
643 entry if it's installed as EFI/Microsoft/boot/bootmgfw.efi.
644
645 - Added support for launching MokManager.efi for managing the Machine Owner
646 Keys (MOKs) maintained by the shim boot loader developed by Fedora and
647 SUSE. This program is scanned and presented as a second-row tool.
648
649 - Added support for Apple's Recovery HD partition: If it's detected, a new
650 icon appears on the second row. This icon can be removed by explicitly
651 setting the "showtools" option in refind.conf and excluding the
652 "apple_recovery" option from that line.
653
654 - Fixed bug that caused text-mode ("textonly" refind.conf option enabled)
655 menu entries to be right-aligned rather than left-aligned when rEFInd was
656 compiled with the TianoCore EDK2.
657
658 - Added "--usedefault {devicename}" and "--drivers" options to the
659 install.sh script and changed the "esp" option to "--esp".
660
661 0.4.7 (11/6/2012):
662 ------------------
663
664 - Added an icon for gummiboot.
665
666 - Added a boot option editor: Pressing the Insert or F2 key from a boot
667 tag's options menu opens a simple text-mode line editor on which the boot
668 options may be edited for a one-time boot with altered options.
669
670 - Modified the "scan_delay" feature to delay and then perform a re-scan,
671 which may work better than the first attempt at this feature (which I'm
672 told isn't working as planned).
673
674 - Modified rEFInd to add a space after the command-line options only when
675 launching Mac OS X. On some early Macs, the extra space (which had been
676 present by default, as a carryover from rEFIt) causes problems when
677 booting Linux kernels from FAT partitions.
678
679 0.4.6 (10/6/2012):
680 ------------------
681
682 - Fixed some minor memory management issues.
683
684 - Added new "scan_delay" feature to impose a delay before scanning
685 for disks.
686
687 - Changed default "scanfor" option from internal-external-optical to either
688 internal-external-optical-manual (for non-Macs) or
689 internal-hdbios-external-biosexternal-optical-cd-manual (for Macs). I've
690 done this for two reasons:
691 - Many Mac users have been confused by the fact that rEFInd needs
692 reconfiguration to detect Windows (or Linux installed in BIOS mode),
693 since rEFIt scans BIOS devices by default. Adding the BIOS options as
694 default for them should help them.
695 - Adding the "manual" option enables users to simply add manual boot
696 stanzas and have them work, which is more intuitive. Adding the
697 "manual" option will have no effect unless manual stanzas are created
698 or uncommented, so this part of the change won't affect users' working
699 default configurations.
700
701 - Added new legacy (BIOS) boot support for UEFI-based PCs.
702
703 0.4.5 (8/12/2012):
704 ------------------
705
706 - Fixed bug that caused a failure to boot BIOS-based OSes on Macs.
707
708 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused it to fail to detect rEFItBlesser.
709
710 0.4.4 (6/23/2012):
711 ------------------
712
713 - Fixed bug that caused filesystem labels to be corrupted by rEFInd on
714 32-bit systems.
715
716 - Fixed bug that caused filesystem labels to be truncated in the drivers
717 on 32-bit systems.
718
719 - Fixed bug in use_graphics_for option parsing that caused most options
720 to set graphics mode for OS X and/or Linux but not other boot
721 loaders/OSes.
722
723 - Tweaked install script to better isolate the ESP under OS X.
724
725 0.4.3 (6/21/2012):
726 ------------------
727
728 - rEFInd now supports compilation using the TianoCore UDK2010/EDK2
729 development kit in addition to GNU-EFI.
730
731 - Added new "use_graphics_for" option to control which OSes to boot in
732 graphics mode. (This effect lasts for a fraction of a second on most
733 systems, since the boot loader that rEFInd launches is likely to set
734 graphics or text mode itself.)
735
736 - Graphics-mode booting now clears the screen to the current rEFInd
737 background color (rather than black) and does NOT display boot messages.
738 The intent is for a smoother transition when booting OS X, or perhaps
739 other OSes that don't display boot loader messages. In practice, this
740 effect will be tiny for many OSes, since the boot loader generally clears
741 the screen within a fraction of a second of being launched; but the
742 "flicker" of a rEFInd message in that time can sometimes be distracting.
743
744 - Filesystem drivers now work on EFI 1.x systems, such as Macs.
745
746 - Removed "linux.conf" as a valid alternative name for "refind_linux.conf"
747 for holding Linux kernel options. The kernel developers plan to use
748 "linux.conf" themselves.
749
750 0.4.2 (6/3/2012):
751 -----------------
752
753 - Added a message to install.sh when run on Macs to remind users to update
754 the "scanfor" line in refind.conf if they need to boot BIOS-based OSes
755 via rEFInd.
756
757 - Modified install.sh script to be smarter about running efibootmgr on
758 Linux. It now uses the whole path to the rEFInd binary as a key to
759 determine whether an existing entry exists, rather than just the filename
760 portion. If an entry exists and is the first entry in the boot order, the
761 script does nothing to the NVRAM entries. If such an entry exists but is
762 not the default, the script deletes that entry and creates a new one
763 (implicitly making it the first in the boot order). If such an entry does
764 not exist, the script creates a new one (again, making it the first in
765 the boot order).
766
767 - Added "dont_scan_dirs" configuration file option, which adds directories
768 to a "blacklist" of directories that are NOT scanned for boot loaders.
769
770 0.4.1 (5/25/2012):
771 ------------------
772
773 - Added "scanning for new boot loaders" message to the re-scan function
774 (hitting Esc at the main menu). It usually flashes up too quickly to
775 be of importance, but if the scan function takes a while because of
776 access to a CD that must be spun up, it should make it clear that the
777 system hasn't hung.
778
779 - Modified install.sh script to detect rEFItBlesser on Macs, and if
780 present, to ask the user if it should be removed.
781
782 - Cleaned up the Make.common file for the filesystem drivers.
783
784 - Changed HFS+ driver to return volume label of "HFS+ volume" rather than
785 an empty label. (The driver doesn't currently read the real volume
786 label.)
787
788 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to appear in its own menu after
789 running a shell and then re-scanning for boot loaders.
790
791 0.4.0 (5/20/2012):
792 ------------------
793
794 - Inclusion of drivers for ISO-9660, HFS+, ReiserFS, and ext2fs. Most of
795 these drivers originated with rEFIt, although the HFS+ driver seems to
796 have come from Oracle's VirtualBox, with some files from Apple. I hadn't
797 included these drivers previously because the build process proved
798 challenging. As it is, they don't work on my Mac Mini, I suspect because
799 the build process with the UDK2010 development kit may not work with the
800 EFI 1.x that Apple uses.
801
802 - Addition of support for drivers in the "drivers_{arch}" subdirectory of
803 the main rEFInd binary directory (e.g., "drivers_x64" or "drivers_ia32").
804 Drivers may continue to be placed in the "drivers" subdirectory.
805
806 - Added new feature to eject CDs (and other removable media): Press F12 to
807 eject all such media. This function works only on some Macs, though (it
808 relies on an Apple-specific EFI extension, and this extension isn't even
809 implemented on all Macs, much less on UEFI-based PCs).
810
811 - Fixed a problem that could cause GRUB 2 to fail to read its configuration
812 file when launched from rEFInd.
813
814 0.3.5 (5/15/2012):
815 ------------------
816
817 - Removed the GRUB 2 detection "reciped" added with 0.3.2, since I've
818 received reports that it's not working as intended.
819
820 - Added re-scan feature: Press the Esc key to have rEFInd re-read its
821 configuration file, tell the EFI to scan for new filesystems, and re-scan
822 those filesystems for boot loaders. The main purpose is to enable
823 scanning a new removable medium that you insert after launching rEFInd;
824 however, it can also be used to immediately implement changes to the
825 configuration file or new drivers you load from an EFI shell.
826
827 - Fixed a bug that could cause the scroll-right arrow to be replaced by the
828 scroll-left arrow under some circumstances.
829
830 0.3.4 (5/9/2012):
831 -----------------
832
833 - Added new configuration file option: "icons_dir", which sets the name
834 of the subdirectory in which icons are found. See the documentation or
835 sample configuration file for a full description.
836
837 - Modified Makefile to generate rEFInd binary that includes architecture
838 code -- refind_ia32.efi or refind_x64.efi, rather than the generic
839 refind.efi. This is done mainly to help the install.sh script. The
840 program can be named anything you like on the disk. (The generic name
841 refind.efi is used on unknown architectures.)
842
843 - Improved install.sh script: Fixed bug on OS X 10.7 and enable it to be
844 used after building from source code (or via new "make install" Makefile
845 target).
846
847 - Improved screen redraws to produce less flicker when moving among the
848 second-row tags or to the last tag on the first row.
849
850 0.3.3 (5/6/2012):
851 -----------------
852
853 - Improved menu navigation:
854 - In graphics mode, left & right arrow keys move left & right, while up &
855 down arrows move between rows.
856 - Page Up and Page Down now move through chunks of visible tags (in both
857 text & graphics modes), jumping from one row to another only when at
858 the edge of the row. In text mode, the "rows" are broken down as in
859 graphics mode, but they aren't visibly distinguished on the screen.
860
861 - Improved text-mode use: rEFInd now displays the proper number of entries
862 when first started in text mode and scrolling is done sensibly when too
863 many entries exist to fit on the screen.
864
865 0.3.2 (5/4/2012):
866 -----------------
867
868 - Added the install.sh script to install rEFInd on Linux and Mac OS X
869 systems. This script must be run as root (or via sudo). It requires
870 no options, but on Mac OS X, passing it the "esp" option causes it
871 to install rEFInd on the computer's ESP rather than the default of the
872 currently OS X boot partition. (Under Linux, the default is to install to
873 the ESP.) Note that there may be some unusual cases in which this script
874 will fail to work.
875
876 - Does a better job of clearing the screen when launching OSes in text
877 mode.
878
879 - Added detection "recipe" for GRUB 2's BIOS Boot Partition.
880
881 - Fixed bogus detection of ESPs created by Linux's mkdosfs utility or
882 Windows as bootable partitions when "scanfor" includes BIOS scanning
883 options.
884
885
886 0.3.1 (4/27/2012):
887 ------------------
888
889 - Fixed bug that caused spurious "Unsupported while scanning the root
890 directory" messages under some conitions on Macs.
891
892 - Modified loader scanning code to sort boot loader entries within a
893 directory by modification time, so that the most recently-modified loader
894 is first among those in a given directory. Thus, if you specify a
895 directory name (or volume name, for loaders stored in the root directory
896 of a volume) as the default_selection, the most recent of those loaders
897 will be the default. This is intended to help with Linux kernel
898 maintenance when using the EFI stub loader; set up this way, the most
899 recent kernel copied to your kernel directory will be the default,
900 obviating the need to adjust the refind.conf file when adding a new
901 kernel. If you want to change the default among those in the default
902 directory, you can use "touch" to adjust the modification timestamp.
903
904 - Tweaked code to find loader-specific .icns file so that it finds files
905 for Linux kernels without .efi extensions. In this case, files should be
906 named the same as the kernels they match, but with .icns extensions. For
907 instance, bzImage-3.3.2 should have an icon called bzImage-3.3.2.icns.
908 (The old code would have looked for an icon called bzImage-3.3.icns.)
909
910 - Eliminated bogus OS loader tags for filenames that end in ".icns" when
911 the scan_all_linux_kernels option is set.
912
913 0.3.0 (4/22/2012):
914 ------------------
915
916 - I'm officially upgrading this project's status from "alpha" to "beta" and
917 giving it a bump from 0.2.x to 0.3.0. This doesn't reflect any major
918 milestone with this version; rather, it reflects my sense that rEFInd has
919 been "out there" for a while, and although I've gotten bug reports,
920 they've been minor and/or have been fixed. The program still has known
921 bugs, but my impression is that it is, overall, usable by ordinary users.
922
923 - Added "resolution" option to refind.conf, which enables setting the video
924 resolution. To use it, pass two numeric values, as in "resolution 1024
925 768" to use a 1024x768 video mode. Note that not all modes are supported.
926 If you specify a non-supported video mode on a UEFI system, a message
927 appears listing the supported video modes and you must then press a key
928 to continue, using the default video mode (usually 800x600).
929 Unfortunately, I don't know the calls to get a list of supported video
930 modes on older EFI 1.x systems (including Macs), so on Macs setting an
931 incorrect video mode silently fails (you keep using the default mode).
932 This makes changing your video mode a hit-or-miss proposition on Macs.
933 CAUTION: It's possible to set a legal video mode that your monitor can't
934 handle, in which case you'll get a blank display until you boot an OS
935 that resets the video mode.
936
937 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused rEFInd to crash when returning from an
938 EFI shell or other programs on Macs, particularly when rEFInd used
939 graphical mode. I'm not 100% sure this bug is squashed because I still
940 don't understand the cause and I only have one Mac for testing. See
941 comments in the ReinitRefitLib() function in refit/lib.c for more
942 details.
943
944 - Added new refind.conf option: scan_all_linux_kernels, which causes Linux
945 kernels that lack ".efi" extensions to be included in scans for EFI boot
946 loaders. This may help integration with Linux distributions that don't
947 give their kernels such names by default. Beware, though: It can detect
948 unwanted files, such as older non-stub-loader kernels or .icns files used
949 to give kernels with .efi extensions custom icons.
950
951 - Improved EFI boot loader detection on boards with Gigabyte's Hybrid EFI,
952 and perhaps other EFIs with a buggy StriCmp() function. Files with both
953 ".efi" and ".EFI" extensions should now be detected as boot loaders.
954
955 - Fixed a bug that caused rEFInd to fail to scan for drivers if the
956 filesystem driver didn't set a volume name (that is, if the relevant
957 field was set to NULL rather than even an empty string). In such
958 situations, rEFInd now reports the volume name as "Unknown".
959
960 0.2.7 (4/19/2012):
961 ------------------
962
963 - After much trial and tribulation, I've overcome a GNU-EFI limitation and
964 enabled rEFInd to load EFI drivers. This feature was present in the
965 original build of rEFIt but was removed in the versions that could
966 compile under Linux, but now it's back -- and still being compiled under
967 Linux! To use it, you should place your drivers in a convenient directory
968 on the ESP (or whatever partition you use to launch rEFInd) and add a
969 "scan_driver_dirs" entry to refind.conf to tell rEFInd where to look. (As
970 always, you should specify the driver directory relative to the root of
971 the filesystem.) Note that you can't launch drivers from another
972 filesystem; they must be on the same volume that holds rEFInd. Those who
973 compile from source code should note that implementing this feature
974 necessitated using a more recent version of the GNU-EFI library. I'm
975 currently using version 3.0p, and version 3.0i does NOT work. I don't
976 know where the change occurred, but you may need to upgrade your GNU-EFI
977 installation.
978
979 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to show up in its own menu sometimes.
980
981 - Added new refind.conf token: also_scan_dirs. When scanning volumes for
982 EFI boot loaders, rEFInd always scans the root directory and every
983 subdirectory of the /EFI directory, but it doesn't recurse into these
984 directories. The also_scan_dirs token adds more directories to the scan
985 list. It defaults to "elilo,boot", but you can set it to any directory or
986 directories you like.
987
988 0.2.6 (4/14/2012):
989 ------------------
990
991 - Added "volume" keyword to configuration file's stanza options. This
992 option changes the volume from which subsequent files (specified by
993 "loader" and "icon") are loaded. You pass "volume" the name/label of the
994 FILESYSTEM you want to use (not the GPT partition name), or a number
995 followed by a colon (e.g., "1:"). The former should reliably identify a
996 filesystem, assuming the name is unique. The latter assigns numbers based
997 on the order in which they're scanned, which may not be as reliable but
998 should work when a volume is unnamed.
999
1000 - Fixed bug in 0.2.5 that caused failure of Linux initial RAM disk
1001 mapping on some (but not all) systems. Affected computers include at
1002 least some Intel motherboards, maybe others.
1003
1004 0.2.5 (4/9/2012):
1005 -----------------
1006
1007 - Fixed bug that caused an inability to associate initial RAM disks with
1008 Linux kernels stored in a volume's root directory.
1009
1010 - Volume badges (that override default badges) are now stored in
1011 .VolumeBadge.icns. Although undocumented, rEFInd formerly loaded custom
1012 volume badges from .VolumeIcon.icns. This carryover from rEFIt was a
1013 confusing name, given the next (new) feature, so I've changed and
1014 documented the name....
1015
1016 - Added ability to set a default icon for a loader stored in the root
1017 directory of a volume: The icon is stored in .VolumeIcon.icns. This icon
1018 is also used for Mac OS X volumes booted from the standard location.
1019
1020 - Fixed bug that caused icons to drop back to generic icons when rEFInd
1021 was launched in certain ways (such as from an EFI shell in rEFInd's
1022 directory) on certain systems.
1023
1024 - Fixed bug that caused "unknown disable flag" to be shown (very briefly)
1025 instead of "unknown hideui flag" when an improper hideui flag was set.
1026
1027 0.2.4 (4/5/2012):
1028 -----------------
1029
1030 - Created new refind.conf entry: "showtools". This entry takes options of
1031 "shell", "gptsync", "about", "exit", "reboot", and "shutdown". This
1032 option is in some respects an affirmative version of portions of the old
1033 "disable" and "hideui" options; however, it enables users to specify the
1034 order in which these options appear on the screen. Also, the "exit"
1035 option is new; it terminates the program. The effect is usually to return
1036 to whatever tool launched it or to launch a default OS; however, this is
1037 somewhat unpredictable. The default therefore omits the "exit" option, as
1038 well as "gptsync", which has always been dangerous (but necessary on most
1039 MacOS/Windows dual-boot setups on Macs). As part of this reconfiguration,
1040 I've eliminated the "rescue Linux" option, which always seemed pointless
1041 to me.
1042
1043 - Folded "disable" and "hideui" refind.conf entries into one ("disable"),
1044 and reduced the number of options to six: "banner", "label",
1045 "singleuser", "hwtest", "arrows", and "all". ("arrows" is new and
1046 disables the scroll arrows when a system has too many tags to display
1047 simultaneously.)
1048
1049 - Added max_tags option to the refind.conf file, enabling users to reduce
1050 the maximum number of OS loader tags that can be displayed at once.
1051
1052 - Updated rEFIt icon, based on the 128x128 volume label from the rEFIt CD
1053 image.
1054
1055 - Added x86 and x86-64 EFI shells to the CD image version of the binary,
1056 but NOT to the binary zip file. The logic is that the CD image is more
1057 likely to be used directly as an emergency disc and so may need this
1058 feature, even though the source isn't part of the rEFInd project. (The
1059 source is readily available from the TianoCore project.)
1060
1061 - EFI shells may now be stored at /shellx64.efi for x86-64 systems or at
1062 /shellia32.efi for x86 systems. The /EFI/tools/shell.efi name is also
1063 recognized; however, if both files are present, two EFI shell icons will
1064 appear on the main menu. The /efi/{refind-path/apps/shell.efi filename,
1065 which was never officially documented but worked as a carryover from
1066 rEFIt, is no longer valid.
1067
1068 0.2.3 (3/26/2012):
1069 ------------------
1070
1071 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused hangs when launching a second program
1072 after returning from a first. There are some weird system-to-system
1073 differences, though, and this fix causes (apparently harmless) error
1074 messages about "(re)opening our installation volume" on at least one
1075 system (a 32-bit Mac Mini). I'm committing this change because, imperfect
1076 though it is, it's preferable to the earlier version, at least on my
1077 small sample of computers.
1078
1079 - Because of news that the Linux kernel developers are planning to use the
1080 filename linux.conf to hold Linux kernel configuration data for EFI
1081 booting, I'm transitioning rEFInd away from that name and to
1082 refind_linux.conf to avoid a conflict. This version can use either name,
1083 with refind_linux.conf taking precedence if both are present.
1084
1085 - Added logo for Arch Linux.
1086
1087 0.2.2 (3/23/2012):
1088 ------------------
1089
1090 - Fixed bug that caused program failure when Linux kernels with EFI stub
1091 support were detected with no associated version numbers. rEFInd now
1092 permits automatic linking of *ONE* versionless kernel to *ONE*
1093 versionless initrd file.
1094
1095 - Fixed bug that caused program hangs when a boot loader filename or label
1096 was too long. Such names are now properly truncated and program execution
1097 continues.
1098
1099 - Fixed bug that caused no text to appear in submenus on UEFI systems with
1100 small screens (800x600). NOTE: Problem still occurs on screens smaller
1101 than this, but such systems are very rare.
1102
1103 0.2.1 (3/19/2012):
1104 ------------------
1105
1106 - Added ability to set a "default_selection" that's a title or a substring
1107 of one -- the name given to a stanza in a "menuentry" or the boot
1108 loader's filename, in most cases, although "Mac OS X", "Windows XP
1109 (XoM)", and "Microsoft EFI boot" are also titles.
1110
1111 - Added support for semi-automatic scans of Linux kernels with EFI stub
1112 loader support. The program auto-detects matching initial RAM disk files
1113 and loads additional options from the "linux.conf" file in the same
1114 directory as the kernel.
1115
1116 - Added support for "submenuentry" keyword and associated sub-stanza
1117 entries in refind.conf file.
1118
1119 - Renamed icons/os_mint.icns to icons/os_linuxmint.icns to match the
1120 filename Linux Mint ACTUALLY uses for its ESP boot loader directory.
1121
1122
1123 0.2.0 (3/14/2012):
1124 ------------------
1125
1126 - Initial public release