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