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