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