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