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