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