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