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