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