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