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