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