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Added detection of SIP on Macs to installation script. Also began
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1 0.9.3 (??/??/2015):
2 -------------------
3
4 - Added detection of System Integrity Protection (SIP; aka "rootless") mode
5 to OS X portion of install.sh script. When detected, and if no existing
6 rEFInd installation is found, the script now prints a warning and brief
7 instructions of how to enter the Recovery mode to install rEFInd and
8 suggests aborting the installation. (The user can override and attempt
9 installation anyhow.) If SIP is detected along with an existing rEFInd
10 installation, the script moderates the warning and explains that an
11 update of a working rEFInd will probably succeed, but that re-installing
12 to fix a broken rEFInd will probably fail.
13
14 - Added new "spoof_osx_version" token, which takes an OS X version number
15 (such as "10.9") as an option. This feature, when enabled, causes rEFInd
16 to tell a Mac's firmware that the specified version of OS X is being
17 launched. This option is usually unnecessary, but it can help properly
18 initialize some hardware -- particularly secondary video devices. OTOH,
19 on some Macs it can cause hardware (notably keyboards and mice) to become
20 unresponsive, so you should not use this option unnecessarily.
21
22 - Worked around an EFI bug that affected my 32-bit Mac Mini: That system
23 seems to have a broken EFI, or possibly a buggy CPU, that causes some
24 (but not all) conversions from floating-point to integer numbers to hang
25 the computer. Such operations were performed only in rEFInd's
26 graphics-resizing code, and so would manifest only when icons or
27 background images were resized. My fix eliminates the use of
28 floating-point operations in the affected function, which eliminates the
29 crashes. There may be some degradation in the quality of resized images,
30 though, particularly on 32-bit systems. (64-bit systems use larger
31 integers, which enable greater precision in my floating-point
32 workaround.)
33
34 - Under OS X, install.sh can now be run from the recovery system. This may
35 help work around OS X 10.11's problems with System Integrity Protection,
36 since it should be possible to reboot into the recovery system to install
37 rEFInd without disabling SIP for the main installation, even for just one
38 boot.
39
40 0.9.2 (9/19/2015):
41 ------------------
42
43 - Added "--keepname" option to install.sh. This option causes install.sh
44 to keep refind_x64.efi named as such rather than rename it as grubx64.efi
45 when using Shim. This option is meaningful only if the --shim option is
46 also used. This option passes the refind_x64.efi filename as an option to
47 Shim, which overrides the default filename of grubx64.efi. A big caveat:
48 Only Shim 0.7 and later supports this feature. (Shim 0.4 also works if a
49 refind_x64.efi is referred to as "\refind_x64.efi" on the command line,
50 but the need for a leading backslash to refer to a file in the same
51 directory as Shim is so confusing and wrong that I cannot in good
52 conscience support it.) I've not seen signed Shim binaries between 0.4
53 and 0.7, so I don't know if any of them might work.
54
55 - Implemented a workaround for a bug in Shim 0.8 that prevented
56 authentication of more than one binary. If any filesystem drivers were
57 installed, the first one would be verified, leaving rEFInd unable to
58 launch anything else unless it was signed by a key in the computer's main
59 Secure Boot db list.
60
61 0.9.1 (9/13/2015):
62 ------------------
63
64 - When rEFInd identifies the root (/) partition via the Freedesktop.org
65 Discoverable Partitions Specification, it now checks two of the
66 partition's attributes, as per the DPS (see
67 http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/DiscoverablePartitionsSpec/):
68 - The partition's read-only attribute determines whether to pass a "rw"
69 or "ro" option to the kernel.
70 - If the partition's do-not-automount flag is set, rEFInd will not pass
71 it as a "root=" option to the kernel. This flag can be used to remove
72 all but one partition from consideration as a root (/) partition if a
73 system has more than one with the correct type code.
74
75 - Improved Freedesktop.org Discoverable Partitions Specification support:
76 Previously, if no refind_linux.conf file was present but an /etc/fstab
77 file was found, rEFInd ignored the Discoverable Partitions Specification
78 filesystem-type codes. This was fine if /etc/fstab contained a valid "/"
79 filesystem specification, but if that was absent, the result was no
80 "root=" specification being present. Under these circumstances
81 (refind_linux.conf absent, /etc/fstab present but lacking a "/" entry),
82 rEFInd now tries to identify a device to specify as "root=" via the
83 Discoverable Partitions Specification.
84
85 - Fixed bug that caused "Found match!" and a prompt to press a key to
86 continue to be printed if any partition used the Freedesktop.org
87 Discoverable Partitions Specification root-partition GUID. (This
88 was leftover debugging/testing code that I somehow missed deleting.)
89
90 - Added icon for Elementary OS.
91
92 - Added /etc/lsb-release to files scanned for clues about the Linux
93 distribution. This file differentiates Mint and Elementary OS from Ubuntu
94 better than does /etc/os-release, and may also help with other
95 closely-related distributions.
96
97 - Improvements to handling of case-insensitive string comparisons. These
98 are buggy on some EFIs, and such bugs affect things like dont_scan_*
99 blacklists, removal of rEFInd's own directory from scanning, matching of
100 keyword names in refind.conf, and even loading of icons. I've replaced
101 many calls to problematic functions with safer calls, which should help a
102 lot. There may still be problems on some systems with some computers,
103 though; as far as I can tell, the bugs are buried deep in some EFI
104 firmware, so I can only replace some of the most direct calls to
105 potentially buggy system calls.
106
107 0.9.0 (7/26/2015):
108 ------------------
109
110 - New icon for Kali Linux, submitted by Francesco D'Eugenio.
111
112 - Minor code changes to ensure that rEFInd compiles with GCC 5.1. (Tested
113 with GNU-EFI on a Fedora 22 system; not yet tested with the TianoCore
114 EDK2.)
115
116 - Added new "fold_linux_kernels" token to refind.conf. This option, when
117 active (the default) "folds" all Linux kernels in a directory into a
118 single entry on the rEFInd menu. The kernel with the most recent time
119 stamp is launched by default. To launch another kernel, you must press F2
120 or Insert; additional kernels appear as options on the first kernel's
121 submenu. To see the pre-0.9.0 behavior, you must set "fold_linux_kernels
122 false" (or one of its synonyms, "off" or "0"). The point of this option
123 is to help de-clutter the rEFInd main menu.
124
125 - Added new Linux root (/) partition auto-discovery feature, based on
126 Freedesktop.org's Discoverable Partitions Spec (DPS)
127 (http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/DiscoverablePartitionsSpec/):
128 If no refind_linux.conf file or /etc/fstab file is found, and if a
129 partition with the correct DPS type code for the system architecture is
130 found, rEFInd adds "ro root=/dev/disk/by-partuuid/{GUID}" to the kernel
131 options. This will not help on LVM setups, and will get it right for only
132 one installation on systems with multiple Linux installations, but it may
133 help some users, if/when the DPS type codes become more common.
134
135 - Fixed bug that caused a rEFInd crash if an empty refind_linux.conf
136 file was encountered.
137
138 - The mkrlconf.sh script now checks the OS on which it's running, which
139 should help avoid confusion or problems by users who mistakenly run it
140 under OS X.
141
142 - rEFInd now skips checking for various BIOS-mode boot sector signatures
143 when running on a UEFI-based PC; these checks are run only on Macs. This
144 may reduce startup time on systems with many partitions.
145
146 - Fixed Debian debinstall script to work correctly on IA32 systems. It had
147 a bug that caused filesystem drivers and gptsync to not be packaged for
148 IA32.
149
150 - Modified Debian postinst file to call install.sh with --localkeys option
151 if sbsign and openssl are available, even when NOT in Secure Boot mode or
152 if shim is not detected. This helps with my Ubuntu PPA when using custom
153 Secure Boot keys, since the PPA is delivered unsigned. (Users will have
154 to have added their own local keys to their firmware's db.) For
155 consistency, I've made the same change to the RPM .spec file.
156
157 0.8.7 (3/1/2015):
158 -----------------
159
160 - Fixed install.sh bug that caused inappropriate installation under the
161 name bootx64.efi (or bootia32.efi) under Linux, with a failure to update
162 the boot entries in NVRAM, has been fixed.
163
164 - Added identification of XFS as filesystem type in volume descriptions.
165
166 - More fixes to filesystem type detection code. Previous version sometimes
167 identified FAT or NTFS (or anything with a boot loader) as a whole-disk
168 device rather than the correct filesystem type.
169
170 - Added protections to the code to reduce the risk of crashes that might
171 occur when dereferencing NULL pointers in various situations.
172
173 - I'm deprecating the use of filesystem numbers (as in "fs0:") because
174 they're unreliable -- filesystem numbers can change between boots and
175 might not be the same as those used in an EFI shell or other program.
176 Sooner or later I'll remove code supporting this feature. In the
177 meantime, if it doesn't work for you, please switch to using filesystem
178 labels, partition labels, or partition GUIDs.
179
180 - Added detection of FreeBSD's BIOS-mode GPT boot loader. Previously,
181 rEFInd could detect FreeBSD's BIOS-mode MBR boot loader, which gave
182 FreeBSD an appropriate icon on Macs; but the BIOS-mode GPT boot loader
183 code is different, so some recent FreeBSD installations showed up with
184 generic grey diamond icons. This change creates FreeBSD icons instead.
185
186 - Added "Secure Boot [active|inactive]" notice to "about" menu for x86
187 (32-bit) systems, since there are now a few 32-bit UEFI systems that
188 support Secure Boot. (AFAIK, these are mostly tablets and convertibles
189 such as the ASUS T100.)
190
191 - Added KeyTool.efi and KeyTool-signed.efi to list of MOK managers. KeyTool
192 is the "super-deluxe" Secure Boot key and hash manager provided as part
193 of the efitools package.
194
195 - Fixed more instances of "invalid parameter" errors on some EFIs.
196
197 - Improved Secure Boot detection in install.sh.
198
199 - install.sh should no longer complain when copying Shim or MokManager over
200 itself.
201
202 0.8.6 (2/8/2015):
203 -----------------
204
205 - Removed special case of ignoring an HFS+ name of "HFS+ volume", since the
206 old rEFInd HFS+ driver that produced this name for all HFS+ volumes has
207 long since been updated to deliver a real name.
208
209 - Addition of new Windows 8 OS icon. On Macs and for BIOS/legacy boots, the
210 new icon is now used for Windows Vista, 7, and 8, while the old one is
211 used for earlier versions of Windows. For EFI-mode boots, the new icon is
212 used universally.
213
214 - If the NTFS driver is loaded, rEFInd now scans NTFS volumes on Macs for
215 the presence of Windows boot files, and removes any NTFS volume that
216 lacks such files from the BIOS/legacy boot list. This should help
217 unclutter the display on Macs that contain NTFS data partitions.
218
219 - Fixed bug that caused misidentification of both whole disks and NTFS
220 volumes as being FAT. (This bug affected the identification of devices
221 and locations in the rEFInd menu, not actual access to devices.)
222
223 - Code refactoring to clear out legacy-boot functions from the
224 ever-expanding refind/main.c file.
225
226 - Added new "badges" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf. This
227 option hides the device-type badges associated with the OS boot options.
228
229 - Reverted rEFIt commit r472, introduced in rEFInd 0.8.5 to support more
230 BMP images because I've received bug reports that it's causing existing
231 selection images to fail to load.
232
233 - Fixed install.sh bug that caused misidentification of installation
234 directory under OS X if an already-mounted ESP has spaces in its path.
235
236 - Fixed Mac-specific install.sh bug that could cause misidentification of
237 the ESP on disks with partition numbers of 10 or above.
238
239
240 0.8.5 (2/1/2015):
241 -----------------
242
243 - Added NTFS EFI filesystem driver.
244
245 - Minor improvements to filesystem driver framework code.
246
247 - Changes to
248
249 - Fixed bug in Btrfs driver's address reference.
250
251 - Improved install.sh to make it smarter about figuring out where to
252 install on Macs. Specifically, this version now upgrades existing
253 installations, if found (as it always has under Linux), rather than
254 blindly install to EFI/BOOT; it installs to EFI/refind if not existing
255 installation is found; it installs using the --shortform option to bless,
256 which seems to eliminate the 30-second delay problem; and it can handle
257 an HFS+ ESP, which it treats as a separate HFS+ volume (as if the user
258 had used --ownhfs). These changes do not affect behavior under Linux.
259
260 - Added missing check of architecture type for several tools.
261
262 - Applied rEFIt commit r472, which adds support for BMP images with negative
263 height fields, indicating that the image is NOT vertically flipped. This
264 commit and r467 were not incorporated in the original rEFInd because I
265 forked it from a Debian rEFIt package that had been patched to build
266 under GNU-EFI, and was apparently based on a slightly earlier version.
267
268 - Applied rEFIt commit r467, which improves Mac handling of legacy boots
269 from other than the first hard disk.
270
271
272 0.8.4 (12/8/2014):
273 ------------------
274
275 - Tweaked default for dont_scan_volumes: Removed "Recovery HD". This change
276 better suits the needs of OS X 10.10 ("Yosemite") installations, but may
277 result in some stray Recovery HD entries on some Macs.
278
279 - Updated icons for Fedora and Ubuntu and added an icon for Xubuntu.
280
281 - Added new configuration option, "enable_and_lock_vmx", which sets an
282 Intel CPU feature that's required for some types of virtualization to
283 work. Most EFIs enable setting this feature in their own setup utilities,
284 but some (such as most Macs) don't.
285
286 - If rEFInd can't locate an icons directory (either the default or one
287 specified by the icons_dir token), the program switches to text-only
288 mode.
289
290 - If a loader contains the string "grub" and no other clue to the loader's
291 OS association exists, search for os_grub.{png|icns} (which is not
292 provided with rEFInd) or os_linux.{png|icns}. (Previous versions provided
293 a generic loader icon for GRUB.)
294
295 - Fixed bug that caused dont_scan_files to not work with special-case
296 boot loaders (for OS X and Windows) when specifying the complete path to
297 the loader (e.g., EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi).
298
299 - Added support for the iPXE network boot tool (see BUILDING.txt for
300 building and basic use instructions).
301
302 0.8.3 (7/6/2014):
303 -----------------
304
305 - Added new feature: Setting "timeout = -1" in refind.conf causes rEFInd to
306 immediately boot the default option UNLESS a keypress is in the buffer
307 when rEFInd launches. In that case, if the keypress corresponds to a
308 shortcut key, the associated boot loader is launched; or if not, the menu
309 is displayed.
310
311 - Added new icons for Clover boot loader and for Mythbuntu Linux
312 distribution.
313
314 - rEFInd now displays the partition's label, when one is available, when
315 offering a BIOS-mode boot option for a partition with no filesystem
316 driver. This works only on Macs doing BIOS-mode booting.
317
318 - Removed GPLv2 code from the FSW core files. This was done because the
319 Btrfs driver is derived from the GRUB Btrfs driver, which is licensed
320 under the GPLv3. Ironically, the GPLv2 and GPLv3 are incompatible
321 licenses, so ensuring that the Btrfs driver doesn't rely on GPLv2 code
322 was legally necessary. In most cases, I reverted to the original rEFIt
323 code, although I kept my own cache code; since I wrote it, I can
324 change its license to a BSD license.
325
326 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to unload drivers immediately after loading
327 them. This didn't affect rEFInd's own drivers because they didn't include
328 the unload hooks, but it did affect some other drivers.
329
330 - Changed default scan_all_linux_kernels setting from "false" to "true",
331 and commented the option out in refind.conf-sample. This should not
332 affect most people, since refind.conf-sample had this option commented
333 out, and most rEFInd users either use it that way or don't have Linux
334 kernels installed at all. I've made this change because I want rEFInd to
335 "do the right thing" by default in as many cases as possible. For a while
336 now, rEFInd has been excluding non-bootable files from its menu, and most
337 kernels "in the wild" now include the EFI stub. Thus, enabling this
338 support by default seems worthwhile. If you prefer to not scan Linux
339 kernels by default, simply uncomment the "scan_all_linux_kernels" line
340 and ensure it's set to "false".
341
342 0.8.2.1 (6/8/2014):
343 -------------------
344
345 - Removed stray bit of debugging code that caused a prompt to press a
346 key to appear at rEFInd startup.
347
348 0.8.2 (6/8/2014):
349 -----------------
350
351 - Changed behavior when default_selection is not set: It now boots the
352 previously-booted loader, assuming it's still available; if not, rEFInd
353 boots the first loader (as it does now). Behavior is unchanged if
354 default_selection is set. Note that this behavior depends on the ability
355 of rEFInd to store an EFI variable in NVRAM. It therefore fails on
356 systems with flaky NVRAM storage. You can view the previously-booted
357 loader in the
358 /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/PreviousBoot-36d08fa7-cf0b-42f5-8f14-68df73ed3740
359 variable under Linux.
360
361 - Added icon for Mageia Linux (os_mageia.png).
362
363 - Fixed bug that could misidentify a not-quite-GUID as a GUID in a
364 manual boot stanza's "volume" line.
365
366 - I've updated my personal build system, and therefore the rEFInd Makefiles
367 and related files, to use TianoCore UDK2014 rather than UDK2010.
368
369 - Added "deep_uefi_legacy_scan" token. When not set (the default), rEFInd
370 does not modify EFI NVRAM settings when scanning for BIOS-mode boot
371 loaders on UEFI-based (non-Mac) computers. Some computers require
372 uncommenting this setting for rEFInd to reliably detect some BIOS-mode
373 boot devices. Passing "0", "off", or "false" as an option resets it to
374 the default value (useful in a loaded secondary configuration file to
375 override a setting in the main file).
376
377 0.8.1 (5/15/2014):
378 ------------------
379
380 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to fail to detect boot loaders stored
381 on the root directory of a partition.
382
383 - Added two new bitmap fonts to those distributed with rEFInd: Ubuntu Mono
384 and Nimbus Mono. Both come in 12-, 14-, 16-, and 24-point sizes.
385
386 - Messages about pauses for scanning and re-scanning of boot loaders are
387 now suppressed when doing an initial delayed scan when scan_delay is 1
388 second.
389
390 - Improved centering of legacy boot option descriptions on some systems'
391 screens.
392
393 - Fixed bug that could cause a BIOS-mode boot to boot from an inappropriate
394 device if that device had an innately high boot priority (as set by the
395 firmware).
396
397 - Changed icons from ICNS to PNG form. There are several reasons to do
398 this, all of them minor; but together they're enough to warrant a change.
399 PNG is more common, and therefore more accessible to most users --
400 particularly those who don't use OS X. The PNG files are smaller than
401 their ICNS equivalents. PNG supports a wider range of sizes (although I'm
402 not now using anything that ICNS doesn't support, I might in the future).
403 The icon-scaling support added a few versions ago makes ICNS's support
404 for multiple icon sizes relatively unimportant.
405
406 - Reversed order of search for icons by extension: rEFInd now searches
407 for PNG files before ICNS files, rather than the other way around. This
408 makes it possible to override a volume icon for rEFInd by giving it the
409 name .VolumeIcon.png, even when a .VolumeIcon.icns file exists on the
410 volume and is used by OS X.
411
412 - Fixed bug that caused .VolumeIcon.icns to take higher-than-intended
413 precedence in icon setting for OS X.
414
415 - Chainloading to BIOS-mode boot loaders now works on UEFI-based PCs when
416 rEFInd is built with GNU-EFI, not just when built with Tianocore.
417
418 0.8.0 (5/4/2014):
419 -----------------
420
421 - The "dont_scan_volumes" parameter now also works with legacy-boot
422 volumes. Unlike with EFI volumes, where the option you pass must exactly
423 match an entire volume name, when applied to legacy-boot volumes, it
424 matches any part of the description that appears beneath the item when
425 you select it in the rEFInd main menu.
426
427 - Can now boot in legacy mode from second (and probably later) hard disks!
428
429 - rEFInd now limits the length of the firmware name string shown in the
430 system information screen to 65 characters. This is done because at least
431 one EFI presents a longer string by default, and this causes the entire
432 information display to come up empty on 800x600 displays.
433
434 - rEFInd now uses the partition's name (as stored in the GPT data
435 structures) as a fallback for the filesystem's name if the latter can't
436 be found. Exceptions are if the partition name is one of three generic
437 names used by GPT fdisk: "Microsoft basic data", "Linux filesystem", or
438 "Apple HFS/HFS+". These are ignored in favor of the descriptive fallback
439 (e.g., "20 GiB Btrfs volume")
440
441 - It's now possible to specify a volume by partition GUID number in a
442 manual boot stanza. This should be more reliable (albeit also more
443 awkward) than using a filesystem number (such as fs0: or fs1:).
444
445 - Fixed memory-allocation bug that could cause error message displays,
446 and possibly hangs, when re-scanning boot loaders.
447
448 0.7.9 (4/20/2014):
449 ------------------
450
451 - Attempt to fix rEFInd perpetually re-scanning after ejecting a disc on
452 some Macs.
453
454 - Added check to remove redundant (or non-functional if Secure Boot is
455 active) kernel entries for Ubuntu, which is now including two versions of
456 kernels, one signed and the other unsigned.
457
458 - Fixed bug in install.sh that could cause it to display error messages
459 if the dmraid utility was not installed.
460
461 - The HFS+ driver now reports a correct volume name.
462
463 - Fixed some EFI filesystem driver bugs that could cause lockups under
464 some circumstances. These bugs could affect any of the filesystem
465 drivers.
466
467 - Added "gdisk" option to the "showtools" configuration file token. When
468 active, this adds gdisk.efi or gdisk_{arch}.efi, if present in the
469 EFI\tools directory, to the tools row.
470
471 - Fixed mistaken identification of the MOK utility as the "MOK utility
472 utility."
473
474
475 0.7.8 (3/9/2014):
476 -----------------
477
478 - Added "debian" directory to source, which facilitates creation of Debian
479 packages. Packages built in this way are built with GNU-EFI and don't run
480 any post-installation script, so although the rEFInd binaries are on the
481 hard disk, they aren't installed to be bootable; you must manually run
482 install.sh. Also, at least on Ubuntu, the Make.common file's /usr/lib64
483 references must be changed to /usr/lib. This is more of a proof of
484 concept and a "leg up" for distribution maintainers than anything else.
485
486 - Two new options, big_icon_size and small_icon_size, set the size of
487 the first-row OS icons and of the second-row tool icons, respectively.
488 The big_icon_size option also indirectly sets the size of disk-type
489 badges; they're 1/4 the size of the big icons. Default values are 128 and
490 48, respectively, to match the actual icon files provided with rEFInd. If
491 the icon you're using is of a different size than you've specified,
492 rEFInd scales it. For best quality, you should both provide icons drawn
493 to the right size and set the icon sizes in refind.conf.
494
495 - rEFInd now automatically scales icons to fit the standard icon sizes.
496 This won't have any effect with the icons that come with rEFInd, but it
497 can help if you want to use another icon, since you needn't scale it in a
498 graphics program before using it. Note that rEFInd uses bitmap icons, so
499 scaling by a huge amount (say, a 16x16 icon to fit the standard 128x128
500 OS icon) is not likely to look good.
501
502 - Added new option, banner_scale, that tells rEFInd how to handle banners:
503 Set to "noscale" (the default), banners are not scaled, although they'll
504 be cropped if they're too big for the display. This is the same as the
505 behavior in previous versions. Set to "fillscreen", rEFInd now scales the
506 banner image (larger or smaller) to fill the display.
507
508 - Adjusted the post-installation script in refind.spec (used to generate
509 RPMs, and therefore also indirectly Debian packages) to search for
510 existing shim program files under the filesnames shim.efi and shimx64.efi
511 rather than just shim.efi. Ubuntu uses shimx64.efi, so Debian packages
512 were failing to detect Ubuntu's shim in previous versions. (Note,
513 however, that Ubuntu's early shim 0.1 is unsuitable for use with rEFInd
514 The newer 0.4 version that's in the repositories now should work fine;
515 it's only when installing on an older system that's NOT been updated that
516 problems might arise.
517
518 0.7.7 (1/3/2014):
519 -----------------
520
521 - Can now specify complete paths, optionally including volumes, in
522 dont_scan_files.
523
524 - Added shimx64.efi to the default dont_scan_files list.
525
526 - Added windows_recovery_files token, to specify what program(s) launch a
527 Windows recovery utility; and the "windows_recovery" option to
528 "showtools," to control whether or not to display the Windows recovery
529 utility on the second row of icons.
530
531 - The use_graphics_for, also_scan_dirs, dont_scan_dirs, dont_scan_files,
532 and scan_driver_dirs tokens in refind.conf now support "+" as the first
533 option, which causes the remaining options to be added to the default
534 value rather than replacing that value. (This has no practical effect for
535 scan_driver_dirs, though, since it has a null default value.)
536
537 - Added support for specifying the configuration file at program launch,
538 via the "-c" parameter, as in "refind_x64.efi -c foo.conf" to use the
539 foo.conf file as the main configuration file.
540
541 - Scans of ext2/3/4fs and ReiserFS partitions now omit partitions with
542 duplicate filesystem UUIDs. These are likely parts of RAID arrays and so
543 would have the same boot loaders or kernels as the first one with a given
544 UUID.
545
546 - Added feature in install.sh: Script now tries to locate and mount an ESP
547 in Linux, if it's currently unmounted.
548
549 - Fixed bug in mkrlconf.sh and install.sh that caused a stray line break
550 and PARTUUID= specification to appear in generated refind_linux.conf file
551 under some circumstances.
552
553 0.7.6 (12/15/2013):
554 -------------------
555
556 - Added support for multiple "default_selection" targets. These MUST be
557 comma-separated AND enclosed in quotes, as in:
558 default_selection "fred,ginger"
559 This example will launch "fred" by default if it's available; and if
560 it's not, rEFInd will attempt to launch "ginger" as the default.
561
562 - Added support for time-sensitive "default_selection" setting. This token
563 may now have either one or three options. If one, it's interpreted as it
564 has been in the past, as setting a default that's independent of times.
565 If you follow this default by two times, however, those are interpreted
566 as the start and end times (in 24-hour format) for a default setting. For
567 instance, "default_selection foo 8:00 17:00" causes foo to be the default
568 from 8:00 (AM) to 17:00 (aka 5:00 PM). You can include multiple
569 "default_selection" lines to set different defaults for a variety of
570 times. If they're in conflict, the last one takes precedence. Note that
571 times are hardware clock's native value, which may be local time or UTC,
572 depending on your computer.
573
574 - Added support for a blank-screen startup: Set "screensaver -1" and the
575 screen saver will be initialized when rEFInd starts. If you set a low
576 "timeout" value, the result will be a boot straight to the default OS
577 unless you hit a key soon after rEFInd starts. Once you hit a key, the
578 screensaver will be disabled.
579
580 - Added --ownhfs {target} option to install.sh. This option causes rEFInd
581 to install to an HFS+ partition in a way that's more consistent with the
582 way the Mac's native boot loader is installed. Note that you should NOT
583 install to an already-bootable partition with this option, since it will
584 overwrite the existing boot loader, which would render OS X unbootable.
585
586 0.7.5 (11/10/2013):
587 -------------------
588
589 - Fixed bug that caused unbootable exFAT partitions to show up as
590 bootable on Macs with BIOS/CSM/legacy boot options enabled.
591
592 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused installs to the ESP on recent
593 versions of OS X to fail.
594
595 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to hang on some Macs when multiple EFI
596 drivers were present.
597
598 - Fixed bug that caused clear to default gray screen when launching OSes
599 with 'use_graphics_for' enabled, even when the rEFInd background is not
600 gray. Now rEFInd clears to the same background color used in its menu.
601 When launching OS X, though, the OS X boot loader will itself clear to
602 gray a second or so later; and when launching Linux, it will clear to
603 black a second or so later.
604
605 0.7.4.1 (8/25/2013):
606 --------------------
607
608 - My initial 0.7.4 release broke legacy-boot ability on Macs, so I quickly
609 released this version using the original 0.7.4 filenames to fix the
610 problem.
611
612 0.7.4 (8/25/2013):
613 ------------------
614
615 - Fixed options passing to loader to include loader's filename as the first
616 option. This omission had no effect on most boot loaders, but caused
617 VMware's mboot64.efi to fail.
618
619 - Added support for memtest86 as second-row option. Program must be
620 stored in EFI/tools, EFI/tools/memtest, EFI/tools/memtest86, EFI/memtest,
621 or EFI/memtest86; and must use the name memtest86.efi, memtest86_x64.efi,
622 memtest86x64.efi, or bootx64.efi (changing "x64" to "ia32" on IA-32
623 systems). The memtest86 program is scanned for when the "showtools"
624 option includes the "memtest" or "memtest86" token, which it does by
625 default.
626
627 - Added space to end of "Boot %s from %s" string; enables adding a space
628 to the end of the "default_selection" item (in quotes) to set a default
629 that matches a volume name that's identical to another one except for
630 extra characters at the end of the non-wanted volume's name.
631
632 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to hang when launching boot loaders
633 under some conditions. (Launching from Firewire drives on Macs is the
634 known case, but there may be others.)
635
636 0.7.3 (8/7/2013):
637 -----------------
638
639 - Fixed bug that caused missing media-type badges on BIOS-mode boot
640 loaders on Macs.
641
642 - Fixed bug that caused failure when launching BIOS-mode OSes on Macs.
643
644 0.7.2 (8/6/2013):
645 -----------------
646
647 - Fixed bug that caused display glitches in the final entry on the first
648 row of icons if the second row of icons was empty.
649
650 - Fixed bug that could cause incorrect scanning or even a rEFInd crash when
651 using volume specification in also_scan_dirs token.
652
653 - Added protection against loading invalid drivers and other EFI programs.
654 (Some EFIs crash when attempting to load such drivers and programs.)
655
656 - Added PreLoader.efi and shim-fedora.efi to default dont_scan_files list;
657 it's now "shim.efi, shim-fedora.efi, PreLoader.efi, TextMode.efi,
658 ebounce.efi, GraphicsConsole.efi, MokManager.efi, HashTool.efi,
659 HashTool-signed.efi".
660
661 - Added icon for Funtoo Linux.
662
663 - Fixed reading of volume badges from user-specified icons directory, which
664 was broken.
665
666 - Fixed handling of /.VolumeBadge.icns (or /.VolumeBadge.png) files, which
667 was broken.
668
669 0.7.1 (7/8/2013):
670 -----------------
671
672 - Fixed build problem with recent development versions of EDK2.
673
674 - Added scan for Boot Repair's backup of the Windows boot loader
675 (bkpbootmgfw.efi). If found, give separate entries for it and for
676 bootmgfw.efi, each with its own descriptive text label.
677
678 - Fixed also_scan_dirs; used to have bug that caused it to ignore
679 volume specification, if present.
680
681 - Fixed bug in driver cache that caused Btrfs driver to hang sometimes.
682
683 0.7.0 (6/27/2013):
684 ------------------
685
686 - Added Btrfs signature to rEFInd, so that it can identify the filesystem
687 type for volumes that lack labels.
688
689 - Changed some critical filesystem driver pointers from 32-bit to 64-bit.
690 This *SHOULD* enable use of over-2TiB filesystems (for those filesystems
691 that support such large volumes). This capability is largely untested,
692 though.
693
694 - Added a cache to the filesystem driver core, and therefore to all the
695 filesystem drivers. This cache greatly improves performance in
696 VirtualBox, and offers modest performance improvements on a few "real"
697 computers. The most dramatic improvement is on ext2/3fs under VirtualBox:
698 Loading a kernel and initrd used to take ~200 seconds on my system, but
699 now takes ~3 seconds! On most "real" hardware, the improvement is much
700 less dramatic -- an improvement of a second or less, presumably because
701 of cacheing within the EFI or on the hard disk itself.
702
703 - Filter boot loaders based on a test of their validity; keeps out Linux
704 kernels without EFI stub loader code, loaders for the wrong architecture,
705 non-EFI loaders, etc.
706
707 - New Btrfs driver, contributed by Samuel Liao based on GRUB 2.00 Btrfs
708 code.
709
710 0.6.12 (6/18/2013):
711 -------------------
712
713 - Changed the 64-bit EFI shell included in the CD-R and USB flash drive
714 images to a version 2 shell that should support the "bcfg" command.
715
716 - Added support for PreBootloader to refind.spec's built-in installation
717 script.
718
719 - Added support for the Linux Foundation's PreLoader to install.sh. It's
720 treated just like shim, including using the --shim option (or, now,
721 --preloader); but it searches for and copies HashTool.efi rather than
722 MokManager.efi, and filenames are adjusted appropriately.
723
724 - Added code to determine Linux root filesystem from /etc/fstab file, if
725 it's on the same partition as the kernel and if the refind_linux.conf
726 file is not available. This enables rEFInd to boot Linux without any
727 rEFInd-specific configuration files on some (but not all) systems.
728
729 0.6.11 (5/13/2013):
730 -------------------
731
732 - New feature: rEFInd now ignores symbolic links to files on filesystems
733 that support them. This prevents the "vmlinuz" symbolic link that some
734 distributions create in the root directory from appearing in the loader
735 list. Note that this does NOT affect symbolic links to directories.
736
737 - Added icons for Lubuntu and Kubuntu.
738
739 - Improved the install.sh script so that it does a better job dealing with
740 directory names that contain spaces.
741
742 - rEFInd now tries to guess the Linux distribution type based on the kernel
743 filename (Fedora and RHEL only) or the "ID" or "NAME" variables in
744 /etc/os-release on the kernel's partition. None of these is guaranteed to
745 work. A fallback of the Tux penguin icon remains in place in case rEFInd
746 can't find anything substantive enough for a guess.
747
748 - Added "EFI\opensuse" to the locations searched for MOK utilities, since
749 OpenSUSE now uses that name.
750
751 - Renamed "Reboot to Firmware User Interface" to "Reboot to Computer Setup
752 Utility" in menu.
753
754 - Fixed bug in gptsync that caused it to hang if the disk had too few GPT
755 partitions to fill the MBR.
756
757 0.6.10 (5/5/2013):
758 ------------------
759
760 - Added support for "screensaver" token. If set to a positive integer, this
761 causes the screen to blank after the specified number of seconds of
762 inactivity. Pressing most keys (unfortunately NOT including Shift, Alt,
763 or Ctrl) will restore the display and restart the screen saver timeout.
764
765 - Added icon for ChromeOS (os_chrome.icns in the icons subdirectory).
766 ChromeBooks reportedly boots using the fallback filename, but if a user
767 wants to install rEFInd on a ChromeBook, renaming the original EFI/BOOT
768 directory to EFI/chrome and then installing rEFInd in the fallback
769 filename will bring up this new icon for ChromeOS.
770
771 - Added new option to reboot the computer into the firmware's user
772 interface. This option is active by default, or can be set via the
773 "firmware" option to the "showtools" token in refind.conf. It works
774 on only some computers, though; older computers lack this feature, and
775 when rEFInd is told to use this feature on such computers, the directive
776 is quietly ignored.
777
778 - Upgraded LodePNG library from version 20121216 to 20130415 and
779 restructured rEFInd-specific modifications to simplify future upgrades.
780
781 - Replaced hexadecimal error code with description if an error is
782 encountered when saving a screen shot.
783
784 - Enable multiple screen shots: Rather than naming all screen shots
785 "screenshot.bmp", the name is now "screenshot_###.bmp", where "###" is a
786 sequence number, starting with "001".
787
788 0.6.9 (4/25/2013):
789 ------------------
790
791 - Modified default banner to include the new rEFInd icon, provided by Erik
792 Kemperman.
793
794 - Worked around a suspected firmware bug that caused rEFInd 0.6.6 to 0.6.8
795 to hang at startup on some systems (DUET and some Macs).
796
797 - Modified rEFInd to search for gptsync under the names gptsync.efi and
798 gptsync_{arch}.efi, where {arch} is ia32 or x64. (Previous versions
799 searched only for gptsync.efi.)
800
801 - Added gptsync program from rEFIt project, but with some changes to
802 improve flexibility and make it less likely that UEFI users will
803 accidentally trash their systems.
804
805 - Changed timeout code so that the timeout continues if the keyboard is
806 disconnected. This can help in booting a headless server or a system with
807 a bluetooth or other keyboard that's not recognized by the EFI.
808
809 0.6.8 (3/18/2013):
810 ------------------
811
812 - Added workaround for presumed EFI bug that was causing "Invalid
813 Parameter" errors when scanning for boot loaders on some computers.
814
815 - Added search for an EFI shell called shell.efi in the root directory
816 (previously this name was only accepted in EFI\tools).
817
818 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused it to fail on some systems (Fedora
819 18, for instance) because of a problem identifying the ESP.
820
821 - Fixed bug that caused icons named after boot loaders to not be used.
822
823 0.6.7 (2/3/2013):
824 -----------------
825
826 - Added a more explicit error message summarizing options when a launch of
827 a program results in a Secure Boot failure.
828
829 - Changed MOK tool detection to scan all volumes, not just the rEFInd
830 home volume. This is desirable because the Linux Foundation's HashTool
831 can only scan its own volume, making it desirable to place copies of this
832 program on every volume that holds EFI boot loader binaries.
833
834 - Added support for launching the Linux Foundation HashTool as a means of
835 managing MOKs (or MOK hashes, at any rate).
836
837 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to present an entry for itself as a
838 Microsoft OS if it was launched as EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi.
839
840 - Fixed bug that caused dont_scan_volumes option to be added to
841 also_scan_dirs list.
842
843 - Fixed dont_scan_volumes so that it works with OS X boot loaders.
844
845 - Fixed broken mixing of PNG and ICNS icons when using a user-specified
846 icons directory -- previously, an ICNS file in the default directory
847 would override a PNG file in the user-specified directory.
848
849 0.6.6 (1/26/2013):
850 ------------------
851
852 - rEFInd now ignores the fallback boot loader (EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi or
853 EFI/BOOT/bootia32.efi) if it's identical to another boot loader on
854 the same volume. This is intended to help unclutter the display on
855 systems that run Windows, since Windows tends to duplicate its own boot
856 loader under the fallback name.
857
858 - Added new "font" token to refind.conf, which enables specifying a font in
859 the form of a PNG file. This file must contain monospace glyphs for the
860 95 characters from ASCII 32 to 126 (space through tilde), inclusive, plus
861 a glyph to be displayed for characters outside of this range, for a total
862 of 96 glyphs.
863
864 - Replaced the old font (inherited from rEFInd) with an anti-aliased
865 version of Luxi Mono Regular 14 point.
866
867 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to ignore manual boot stanzas in files
868 included via the "include" token in refind.conf.
869
870 - Fixed bug that caused ASSERT error on some systems (and conceivably a
871 crash on startup on some) when default_selection line in refind.conf was
872 commented out or empty.
873
874 - Fixed bug that caused "Binary is whitelisted" message to persist on
875 screen after loading MOK-signed drivers in Secure Boot mode.
876
877 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to ignore the "icon" token in refind.conf
878 manual boot stanzas.
879
880 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused the script to fail to update
881 drivers when rEFInd was installed in EFI/BOOT/.
882
883 0.6.5 (1/16/2013):
884 ------------------
885
886 - Improved text color support: rEFInd now uses black text against light
887 backgrounds and white text against dark backgrounds.
888
889 - Added support for PNGs as banners, icons, and selectors.
890
891 - Added icon for ALT Linux.
892
893 - Added "safemode" option to "hideui" token, to hide option to boot into
894 safe mode for OS X ("-v -x" option to boot.efi).
895
896 - Added icon for Haiku (os_haiku.icns).
897
898 - Enable transparency of icons & main-menu text when the banner icon is
899 sized to cover these areas.
900
901 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to crash if fed a banner image that's
902 too big. Note that "too big" can be substantially smaller than the screen
903 resolution!
904
905 0.6.4 (1/8/2013):
906 -----------------
907
908 - Revised install.sh to copy ext2fs driver, rather than ext4fs driver, for
909 ext2/3 filesystems. This can help keep non-functional entries from links
910 from /vmlinuz to /boot/vmlinuz out of the menu if the system uses ext4fs
911 on root and ext2fs or ext3fs on /boot.
912
913 - Fixed a couple of memory management bugs that cause rEFInd to hang at
914 startup on some systems.
915
916 0.6.3 (1/6/2013):
917 -----------------
918
919 - Added the ability to specify a volume name or number in the
920 "dont_scan_dirs" and "also_scan_dirs" tokens.
921
922 - Fixed a bug that caused removable EFI media to not appear in scan lists
923 if rEFInd was installed as EFI/BOOT/boot{arch}.efi on a hard disk.
924
925 - Modified ISO-9660 driver so that it can handle discs with other than
926 2048-byte sectors. This makes it useful for reading "hybrid ISO" images
927 burned to USB flash disks.
928
929 - New mvrefind.sh script to move a rEFInd installation between a standard
930 location (typically EFI/refind) and one of the fallback locations
931 (EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot). It can also do more exotic locations.
932
933 - The install.sh script now installs to EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi or
934 EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi if it's run in BIOS mode. This is
935 intended to give some chance of producing a bootable installation should
936 a user accidentally install Linux in EFI mode and then install rEFInd
937 from that installation.
938
939 - The install.sh script now tries to find an existing rEFInd installation
940 and upgrade it, even if it's in EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot rather
941 than in EFI/refind.
942
943 - New "--yes" option to install.sh to help with unattended or automated
944 installations (as from an RPM or Debian package).
945
946 0.6.2 (12/30/2012):
947 -------------------
948
949 - Inclusion of a sample refind.spec file for the benefit of RPM
950 distribution maintainers who might want to include rEFInd. It's a bit
951 rough, but it gets you a good chunk of the way there....
952
953 - The EFI filesystem drivers can now be built with the GNU-EFI toolkit as
954 well as with the TianoCore EDK2. See the BUILDING.txt file for details on
955 how to build them with either toolkit. This improvement doesn't affect
956 users of my binary packages, but it should make it easier for Linux
957 distributions to adopt rEFInd into their package systems.
958
959 - Tweaked refind.inf file for better build results using "native" TianoCore
960 EDK2 build process (vs. the Makefile-based build process that I use under
961 Linux). This won't affect those who use my binary builds or build under
962 Linux with the "make" command.
963
964 - Fixed bug that prevented Secure Boot launches from working when rEFInd
965 was built with GNU-EFI rather than the TianoCore EDK2.
966
967 - Substantial reworking of Secure Boot code, based on James Bottomley's
968 PreLoader program. This new code eliminates the limitation of launching
969 just one driver in Secure Boot mode and is likely to be more reliable
970 with future or obscure boot loaders. It should also work with non-x86-64
971 systems, although this relies on a platform-specific shim program, which
972 to date exists only for x86-64. The basic features are the same as before
973 -- rEFInd relies on shim for authentication functions and will launch
974 programs that are signed by Secure Boot keys, shim keys, or MOKs.
975
976 - Altered default for "textmode" option (when it's commented out) to not
977 adjust the text mode at all. (Prior versions set it to mode 0 by
978 default.)
979
980 0.6.1 (12/21/2012):
981 -------------------
982
983 - Added "--root" option to install.sh, to enable installation of rEFInd
984 to something other than the currently-running OS. This is intended for
985 use on emergency discs.
986
987 - Thanks to Stefan Agner, the ext4fs driver now supports the "meta_bg"
988 filesystem feature, which distributes metadata throughout the disk. This
989 feature isn't used by default, but can be set at filesystem creation time
990 by passing the "-O meta_bg,^resize_inode" option to mke2fs. (Using
991 "^resize_inode" is necessary because meta_bg is incompatible with
992 resize_inode, which IS used by default.) This feature can be used on
993 ext3fs and ext2fs as well as on ext4fs, so the ext4fs driver can now
994 handle some ext3fs and ext2fs partitions that the ext2fs driver can't
995 handle.
996
997 - Fixed some screen resolution-setting bugs.
998
999 - Added the "words" that make up a filesystem's label (delimited by spaces,
1000 dashes, or underscores) to the list of bases used to search for OS icons.
1001 For instance, if the filesystem's label is "Arch", rEFInd searches for
1002 os_Arch.icns; if it's "Fedora 17", it searches for os_Fedora.icns and
1003 os_17.icns; and if it's "NEW_GENTOO", it searches for os_NEW.icns and
1004 os_GENTOO.icns.
1005
1006 - Refined hints displays to be more context-sensitive, particularly in text
1007 mode.
1008
1009 - Instead of displaying a blank filesystem label when a filesystem has
1010 none, rEFInd now displays the size and/or type of the filesystem, as in
1011 "boot EFI\foo\bar.efi from 200 MiB ext3 volume" rather than "boot
1012 EFI\foo\bar.efi from".
1013
1014 - Fixed a bug that caused the screen to clear after displaying an error
1015 message but before displaying the "Hit any key to continue" message when
1016 a boot loader launch failed.
1017
1018 0.6.0 (12/16/2012):
1019 -------------------
1020
1021 - Fixed a memory allocation bug that could cause a program crash when
1022 specifying certain values with the "also_scan_dirs", "dont_scan_volumes",
1023 "dont_scan_dirs", "dont_scan_files", and "scan_driver_dirs" refind.conf
1024 options.
1025
1026 - Modified Linux kernel initrd-finding code so that if an initrd is
1027 specified in refind_linux.conf, rEFInd will not add any initrd it finds.
1028 This enables an override of the default initrd, and is likely to be
1029 particularly helpful to Arch Linux users.
1030
1031 - Added ext4fs driver!
1032
1033 - Made "boot" the default value for "also_scan_dirs".
1034
1035 - Added identifying screen header to line editor.
1036
1037 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd's display to be mis-sized upon return
1038 from a program that set the resolution itself.
1039
1040 - Adjusted "resolution" refind.conf parameter so that it can accept EITHER
1041 a resolution as width and height OR a single digit as a UEFI mode number
1042 (which is system-specific). This is done because some systems present the
1043 same mode twice in their mode lists, perhaps varying in refresh rate,
1044 monitor output, or some other salient characteristics; specifying the
1045 mode number enables selecting the higher-numbered mode, whereas using
1046 horizontal and vertical resolution values selects the lowest-numbered
1047 mode.
1048
1049 - Added "textmode" refind.conf parameter to set the text mode used in
1050 text-only displays, and for the line editor and boot-time handoff
1051 display even in graphics mode.
1052
1053 - Fixed bug that caused tools (shell, etc.) to launch when they were
1054 highlighted and F2 or Insert was pressed.
1055
1056 - Added "editor" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf, which
1057 disables the boot options editor.
1058
1059 - Added hints text to rEFInd main menu and sub-menus. This can be disabled
1060 by setting the new "hints" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf.
1061
1062 - Added "boot with minimal options" entry to refind_linux.conf file
1063 generated by install.sh. This entry boots without the options extracted
1064 from the /etc/default/grub file.
1065
1066 - Added keys subdirectory to main distribution, to hold public Secure
1067 Boot/shim keys from known sources.
1068
1069 - Changed install.sh --drivers option to --alldrivers, added new
1070 --nodrivers option, and made the default on Linux to install the one
1071 driver that's used on /boot (or the root filesystem if /boot isn't a
1072 separate partition). Of course, this won't install a non-existent driver,
1073 and it also won't work properly if run from an emergency disk unless you
1074 mount a separate /boot partition at that location.
1075
1076 - Fixed bug in install.sh that prevented creation of refind_linux.conf file
1077 on Linux systems.
1078
1079 0.5.1.1 (12/12/2012):
1080 ---------------------
1081
1082 - Fixed bug in install.sh that prevented it from working on OS X.
1083
1084 0.5.1 (12/11/2012):
1085 -------------------
1086
1087 - Added support for "0" options to "textonly" and "scan_all_linux_kernels"
1088 to reverse the usual meaning of these tokens. This is useful for
1089 including these options in a secondary configuration file called with the
1090 new "include" token to override a setting set in the main file.
1091
1092 - Added "include" token for refind.conf, to enable including a secondary
1093 configuration file from a primary one.
1094
1095 - Modified install.sh so that it creates a simple refind_linux.conf file in
1096 /boot, if that file doesn't already exist and if install.sh is run from
1097 Linux. If that directory happens to be on a FAT, HFS+, ext2fs, ext3fs, or
1098 ReiserFS volume, and if the necessary drivers are installed, the result
1099 is that rEFInd will detect the Linux installation with no further
1100 configuration on many systems. (Some may still require tweaking of kernel
1101 options, though; for instance, adding "dolvm" on Gentoo systems that use
1102 LVM.)
1103
1104 - Added --shim and --localkeys options to install.sh to help simplify setup
1105 on systems with Secure Boot active.
1106
1107 - Fixed (maybe) bug that caused resolution options to not be displayed on
1108 recent Macs with GOP graphics when specifying an invalid resolution in
1109 refind.conf.
1110
1111 - Fixed bug that caused some programs (EFI shells, in particular) to hang
1112 when launching on some systems (DUET, in particular).
1113
1114 - Implemented a fix to enable ELILO to launch with Secure Boot active.
1115 This fix might help with some other boot loaders in Secure Boot mode,
1116 too, but I don't know of any specifics.
1117
1118 0.5.0 (12/6/2012):
1119 ------------------
1120
1121 - Added the ability to include quote marks ('"') in refind.conf and
1122 refind_linux.conf tokens by doubling them up, as in:
1123 "ro root=/dev/sda4 some_value=""this is it"""
1124 This example results in the following string being passed as an
1125 option:
1126 ro root=/dev/sda4 some_value="this is it"
1127
1128 - Changed refind.conf-sample to uncomment the scan_all_linux_kernels
1129 option by default. If this option is deleted or commented out, the
1130 program default remains to not scan all Linux kernels; but with
1131 increasing numbers of distributions shipping with kernels that include
1132 EFI stub loader support, setting the configuration file default to scan
1133 for them makes sense.
1134
1135 - Modified the "resolution" token so that it affects text mode as well
1136 as graphics mode. On my systems, though, the actual text area is still
1137 restricted to an 80x25 area. (This seems to be a firmware limitation; my
1138 EFI shells are also so limited.)
1139
1140 - Fixed a bug that caused the options line editor to blank out lines that
1141 were not actually edited.
1142
1143 - Added support for using Matthew Garrett's Shim program and its Machine
1144 Owner Keys (MOKs) to extend Secure Boot capabilities. If rEFInd is
1145 launched from Shim on a computer with Secure Boot active, rEFInd will
1146 launch programs signed with either a standard UEFI Secure Boot key or a
1147 MOK. For the moment, this feature works only on x86-64 systems.
1148
1149 - Added new "dont_scan_files" (aka "don't_scan_files") token for
1150 refind.conf. The effect is similar to dont_scan_dirs, but it creates a
1151 blacklist of filenames within directories rather than directory names.
1152 I'm initially using it to place shim.efi and MokManager.efi in the
1153 blacklist to keep these programs out of the OS list. (MokManager.efi is
1154 scanned separately as a tool; see below.) I've moved checks for
1155 ebounce.efi, GraphicsConsole.efi, and TextMode.efi to this list. (These
1156 three had previously been blacklisted by hard-coding in ScanLoaderDir().)
1157
1158 - Added the directory from which rEFInd launched to dont_scan_dirs. This
1159 works around a bug in which rEFInd would show itself as a bogus Windows
1160 entry if it's installed as EFI/Microsoft/boot/bootmgfw.efi.
1161
1162 - Added support for launching MokManager.efi for managing the Machine Owner
1163 Keys (MOKs) maintained by the shim boot loader developed by Fedora and
1164 SUSE. This program is scanned and presented as a second-row tool.
1165
1166 - Added support for Apple's Recovery HD partition: If it's detected, a new
1167 icon appears on the second row. This icon can be removed by explicitly
1168 setting the "showtools" option in refind.conf and excluding the
1169 "apple_recovery" option from that line.
1170
1171 - Fixed bug that caused text-mode ("textonly" refind.conf option enabled)
1172 menu entries to be right-aligned rather than left-aligned when rEFInd was
1173 compiled with the TianoCore EDK2.
1174
1175 - Added "--usedefault {devicename}" and "--drivers" options to the
1176 install.sh script and changed the "esp" option to "--esp".
1177
1178 0.4.7 (11/6/2012):
1179 ------------------
1180
1181 - Added an icon for gummiboot.
1182
1183 - Added a boot option editor: Pressing the Insert or F2 key from a boot
1184 tag's options menu opens a simple text-mode line editor on which the boot
1185 options may be edited for a one-time boot with altered options.
1186
1187 - Modified the "scan_delay" feature to delay and then perform a re-scan,
1188 which may work better than the first attempt at this feature (which I'm
1189 told isn't working as planned).
1190
1191 - Modified rEFInd to add a space after the command-line options only when
1192 launching Mac OS X. On some early Macs, the extra space (which had been
1193 present by default, as a carryover from rEFIt) causes problems when
1194 booting Linux kernels from FAT partitions.
1195
1196 0.4.6 (10/6/2012):
1197 ------------------
1198
1199 - Fixed some minor memory management issues.
1200
1201 - Added new "scan_delay" feature to impose a delay before scanning
1202 for disks.
1203
1204 - Changed default "scanfor" option from internal-external-optical to either
1205 internal-external-optical-manual (for non-Macs) or
1206 internal-hdbios-external-biosexternal-optical-cd-manual (for Macs). I've
1207 done this for two reasons:
1208 - Many Mac users have been confused by the fact that rEFInd needs
1209 reconfiguration to detect Windows (or Linux installed in BIOS mode),
1210 since rEFIt scans BIOS devices by default. Adding the BIOS options as
1211 default for them should help them.
1212 - Adding the "manual" option enables users to simply add manual boot
1213 stanzas and have them work, which is more intuitive. Adding the
1214 "manual" option will have no effect unless manual stanzas are created
1215 or uncommented, so this part of the change won't affect users' working
1216 default configurations.
1217
1218 - Added new legacy (BIOS) boot support for UEFI-based PCs.
1219
1220 0.4.5 (8/12/2012):
1221 ------------------
1222
1223 - Fixed bug that caused a failure to boot BIOS-based OSes on Macs.
1224
1225 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused it to fail to detect rEFItBlesser.
1226
1227 0.4.4 (6/23/2012):
1228 ------------------
1229
1230 - Fixed bug that caused filesystem labels to be corrupted by rEFInd on
1231 32-bit systems.
1232
1233 - Fixed bug that caused filesystem labels to be truncated in the drivers
1234 on 32-bit systems.
1235
1236 - Fixed bug in use_graphics_for option parsing that caused most options
1237 to set graphics mode for OS X and/or Linux but not other boot
1238 loaders/OSes.
1239
1240 - Tweaked install script to better isolate the ESP under OS X.
1241
1242 0.4.3 (6/21/2012):
1243 ------------------
1244
1245 - rEFInd now supports compilation using the TianoCore UDK2010/EDK2
1246 development kit in addition to GNU-EFI.
1247
1248 - Added new "use_graphics_for" option to control which OSes to boot in
1249 graphics mode. (This effect lasts for a fraction of a second on most
1250 systems, since the boot loader that rEFInd launches is likely to set
1251 graphics or text mode itself.)
1252
1253 - Graphics-mode booting now clears the screen to the current rEFInd
1254 background color (rather than black) and does NOT display boot messages.
1255 The intent is for a smoother transition when booting OS X, or perhaps
1256 other OSes that don't display boot loader messages. In practice, this
1257 effect will be tiny for many OSes, since the boot loader generally clears
1258 the screen within a fraction of a second of being launched; but the
1259 "flicker" of a rEFInd message in that time can sometimes be distracting.
1260
1261 - Filesystem drivers now work on EFI 1.x systems, such as Macs.
1262
1263 - Removed "linux.conf" as a valid alternative name for "refind_linux.conf"
1264 for holding Linux kernel options. The kernel developers plan to use
1265 "linux.conf" themselves.
1266
1267 0.4.2 (6/3/2012):
1268 -----------------
1269
1270 - Added a message to install.sh when run on Macs to remind users to update
1271 the "scanfor" line in refind.conf if they need to boot BIOS-based OSes
1272 via rEFInd.
1273
1274 - Modified install.sh script to be smarter about running efibootmgr on
1275 Linux. It now uses the whole path to the rEFInd binary as a key to
1276 determine whether an existing entry exists, rather than just the filename
1277 portion. If an entry exists and is the first entry in the boot order, the
1278 script does nothing to the NVRAM entries. If such an entry exists but is
1279 not the default, the script deletes that entry and creates a new one
1280 (implicitly making it the first in the boot order). If such an entry does
1281 not exist, the script creates a new one (again, making it the first in
1282 the boot order).
1283
1284 - Added "dont_scan_dirs" configuration file option, which adds directories
1285 to a "blacklist" of directories that are NOT scanned for boot loaders.
1286
1287 0.4.1 (5/25/2012):
1288 ------------------
1289
1290 - Added "scanning for new boot loaders" message to the re-scan function
1291 (hitting Esc at the main menu). It usually flashes up too quickly to
1292 be of importance, but if the scan function takes a while because of
1293 access to a CD that must be spun up, it should make it clear that the
1294 system hasn't hung.
1295
1296 - Modified install.sh script to detect rEFItBlesser on Macs, and if
1297 present, to ask the user if it should be removed.
1298
1299 - Cleaned up the Make.common file for the filesystem drivers.
1300
1301 - Changed HFS+ driver to return volume label of "HFS+ volume" rather than
1302 an empty label. (The driver doesn't currently read the real volume
1303 label.)
1304
1305 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to appear in its own menu after
1306 running a shell and then re-scanning for boot loaders.
1307
1308 0.4.0 (5/20/2012):
1309 ------------------
1310
1311 - Inclusion of drivers for ISO-9660, HFS+, ReiserFS, and ext2fs. Most of
1312 these drivers originated with rEFIt, although the HFS+ driver seems to
1313 have come from Oracle's VirtualBox, with some files from Apple. I hadn't
1314 included these drivers previously because the build process proved
1315 challenging. As it is, they don't work on my Mac Mini, I suspect because
1316 the build process with the UDK2010 development kit may not work with the
1317 EFI 1.x that Apple uses.
1318
1319 - Addition of support for drivers in the "drivers_{arch}" subdirectory of
1320 the main rEFInd binary directory (e.g., "drivers_x64" or "drivers_ia32").
1321 Drivers may continue to be placed in the "drivers" subdirectory.
1322
1323 - Added new feature to eject CDs (and other removable media): Press F12 to
1324 eject all such media. This function works only on some Macs, though (it
1325 relies on an Apple-specific EFI extension, and this extension isn't even
1326 implemented on all Macs, much less on UEFI-based PCs).
1327
1328 - Fixed a problem that could cause GRUB 2 to fail to read its configuration
1329 file when launched from rEFInd.
1330
1331 0.3.5 (5/15/2012):
1332 ------------------
1333
1334 - Removed the GRUB 2 detection "reciped" added with 0.3.2, since I've
1335 received reports that it's not working as intended.
1336
1337 - Added re-scan feature: Press the Esc key to have rEFInd re-read its
1338 configuration file, tell the EFI to scan for new filesystems, and re-scan
1339 those filesystems for boot loaders. The main purpose is to enable
1340 scanning a new removable medium that you insert after launching rEFInd;
1341 however, it can also be used to immediately implement changes to the
1342 configuration file or new drivers you load from an EFI shell.
1343
1344 - Fixed a bug that could cause the scroll-right arrow to be replaced by the
1345 scroll-left arrow under some circumstances.
1346
1347 0.3.4 (5/9/2012):
1348 -----------------
1349
1350 - Added new configuration file option: "icons_dir", which sets the name
1351 of the subdirectory in which icons are found. See the documentation or
1352 sample configuration file for a full description.
1353
1354 - Modified Makefile to generate rEFInd binary that includes architecture
1355 code -- refind_ia32.efi or refind_x64.efi, rather than the generic
1356 refind.efi. This is done mainly to help the install.sh script. The
1357 program can be named anything you like on the disk. (The generic name
1358 refind.efi is used on unknown architectures.)
1359
1360 - Improved install.sh script: Fixed bug on OS X 10.7 and enable it to be
1361 used after building from source code (or via new "make install" Makefile
1362 target).
1363
1364 - Improved screen redraws to produce less flicker when moving among the
1365 second-row tags or to the last tag on the first row.
1366
1367 0.3.3 (5/6/2012):
1368 -----------------
1369
1370 - Improved menu navigation:
1371 - In graphics mode, left & right arrow keys move left & right, while up &
1372 down arrows move between rows.
1373 - Page Up and Page Down now move through chunks of visible tags (in both
1374 text & graphics modes), jumping from one row to another only when at
1375 the edge of the row. In text mode, the "rows" are broken down as in
1376 graphics mode, but they aren't visibly distinguished on the screen.
1377
1378 - Improved text-mode use: rEFInd now displays the proper number of entries
1379 when first started in text mode and scrolling is done sensibly when too
1380 many entries exist to fit on the screen.
1381
1382 0.3.2 (5/4/2012):
1383 -----------------
1384
1385 - Added the install.sh script to install rEFInd on Linux and Mac OS X
1386 systems. This script must be run as root (or via sudo). It requires
1387 no options, but on Mac OS X, passing it the "esp" option causes it
1388 to install rEFInd on the computer's ESP rather than the default of the
1389 currently OS X boot partition. (Under Linux, the default is to install to
1390 the ESP.) Note that there may be some unusual cases in which this script
1391 will fail to work.
1392
1393 - Does a better job of clearing the screen when launching OSes in text
1394 mode.
1395
1396 - Added detection "recipe" for GRUB 2's BIOS Boot Partition.
1397
1398 - Fixed bogus detection of ESPs created by Linux's mkdosfs utility or
1399 Windows as bootable partitions when "scanfor" includes BIOS scanning
1400 options.
1401
1402
1403 0.3.1 (4/27/2012):
1404 ------------------
1405
1406 - Fixed bug that caused spurious "Unsupported while scanning the root
1407 directory" messages under some conitions on Macs.
1408
1409 - Modified loader scanning code to sort boot loader entries within a
1410 directory by modification time, so that the most recently-modified loader
1411 is first among those in a given directory. Thus, if you specify a
1412 directory name (or volume name, for loaders stored in the root directory
1413 of a volume) as the default_selection, the most recent of those loaders
1414 will be the default. This is intended to help with Linux kernel
1415 maintenance when using the EFI stub loader; set up this way, the most
1416 recent kernel copied to your kernel directory will be the default,
1417 obviating the need to adjust the refind.conf file when adding a new
1418 kernel. If you want to change the default among those in the default
1419 directory, you can use "touch" to adjust the modification timestamp.
1420
1421 - Tweaked code to find loader-specific .icns file so that it finds files
1422 for Linux kernels without .efi extensions. In this case, files should be
1423 named the same as the kernels they match, but with .icns extensions. For
1424 instance, bzImage-3.3.2 should have an icon called bzImage-3.3.2.icns.
1425 (The old code would have looked for an icon called bzImage-3.3.icns.)
1426
1427 - Eliminated bogus OS loader tags for filenames that end in ".icns" when
1428 the scan_all_linux_kernels option is set.
1429
1430 0.3.0 (4/22/2012):
1431 ------------------
1432
1433 - I'm officially upgrading this project's status from "alpha" to "beta" and
1434 giving it a bump from 0.2.x to 0.3.0. This doesn't reflect any major
1435 milestone with this version; rather, it reflects my sense that rEFInd has
1436 been "out there" for a while, and although I've gotten bug reports,
1437 they've been minor and/or have been fixed. The program still has known
1438 bugs, but my impression is that it is, overall, usable by ordinary users.
1439
1440 - Added "resolution" option to refind.conf, which enables setting the video
1441 resolution. To use it, pass two numeric values, as in "resolution 1024
1442 768" to use a 1024x768 video mode. Note that not all modes are supported.
1443 If you specify a non-supported video mode on a UEFI system, a message
1444 appears listing the supported video modes and you must then press a key
1445 to continue, using the default video mode (usually 800x600).
1446 Unfortunately, I don't know the calls to get a list of supported video
1447 modes on older EFI 1.x systems (including Macs), so on Macs setting an
1448 incorrect video mode silently fails (you keep using the default mode).
1449 This makes changing your video mode a hit-or-miss proposition on Macs.
1450 CAUTION: It's possible to set a legal video mode that your monitor can't
1451 handle, in which case you'll get a blank display until you boot an OS
1452 that resets the video mode.
1453
1454 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused rEFInd to crash when returning from an
1455 EFI shell or other programs on Macs, particularly when rEFInd used
1456 graphical mode. I'm not 100% sure this bug is squashed because I still
1457 don't understand the cause and I only have one Mac for testing. See
1458 comments in the ReinitRefitLib() function in refit/lib.c for more
1459 details.
1460
1461 - Added new refind.conf option: scan_all_linux_kernels, which causes Linux
1462 kernels that lack ".efi" extensions to be included in scans for EFI boot
1463 loaders. This may help integration with Linux distributions that don't
1464 give their kernels such names by default. Beware, though: It can detect
1465 unwanted files, such as older non-stub-loader kernels or .icns files used
1466 to give kernels with .efi extensions custom icons.
1467
1468 - Improved EFI boot loader detection on boards with Gigabyte's Hybrid EFI,
1469 and perhaps other EFIs with a buggy StriCmp() function. Files with both
1470 ".efi" and ".EFI" extensions should now be detected as boot loaders.
1471
1472 - Fixed a bug that caused rEFInd to fail to scan for drivers if the
1473 filesystem driver didn't set a volume name (that is, if the relevant
1474 field was set to NULL rather than even an empty string). In such
1475 situations, rEFInd now reports the volume name as "Unknown".
1476
1477 0.2.7 (4/19/2012):
1478 ------------------
1479
1480 - After much trial and tribulation, I've overcome a GNU-EFI limitation and
1481 enabled rEFInd to load EFI drivers. This feature was present in the
1482 original build of rEFIt but was removed in the versions that could
1483 compile under Linux, but now it's back -- and still being compiled under
1484 Linux! To use it, you should place your drivers in a convenient directory
1485 on the ESP (or whatever partition you use to launch rEFInd) and add a
1486 "scan_driver_dirs" entry to refind.conf to tell rEFInd where to look. (As
1487 always, you should specify the driver directory relative to the root of
1488 the filesystem.) Note that you can't launch drivers from another
1489 filesystem; they must be on the same volume that holds rEFInd. Those who
1490 compile from source code should note that implementing this feature
1491 necessitated using a more recent version of the GNU-EFI library. I'm
1492 currently using version 3.0p, and version 3.0i does NOT work. I don't
1493 know where the change occurred, but you may need to upgrade your GNU-EFI
1494 installation.
1495
1496 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to show up in its own menu sometimes.
1497
1498 - Added new refind.conf token: also_scan_dirs. When scanning volumes for
1499 EFI boot loaders, rEFInd always scans the root directory and every
1500 subdirectory of the /EFI directory, but it doesn't recurse into these
1501 directories. The also_scan_dirs token adds more directories to the scan
1502 list. It defaults to "elilo,boot", but you can set it to any directory or
1503 directories you like.
1504
1505 0.2.6 (4/14/2012):
1506 ------------------
1507
1508 - Added "volume" keyword to configuration file's stanza options. This
1509 option changes the volume from which subsequent files (specified by
1510 "loader" and "icon") are loaded. You pass "volume" the name/label of the
1511 FILESYSTEM you want to use (not the GPT partition name), or a number
1512 followed by a colon (e.g., "1:"). The former should reliably identify a
1513 filesystem, assuming the name is unique. The latter assigns numbers based
1514 on the order in which they're scanned, which may not be as reliable but
1515 should work when a volume is unnamed.
1516
1517 - Fixed bug in 0.2.5 that caused failure of Linux initial RAM disk
1518 mapping on some (but not all) systems. Affected computers include at
1519 least some Intel motherboards, maybe others.
1520
1521 0.2.5 (4/9/2012):
1522 -----------------
1523
1524 - Fixed bug that caused an inability to associate initial RAM disks with
1525 Linux kernels stored in a volume's root directory.
1526
1527 - Volume badges (that override default badges) are now stored in
1528 .VolumeBadge.icns. Although undocumented, rEFInd formerly loaded custom
1529 volume badges from .VolumeIcon.icns. This carryover from rEFIt was a
1530 confusing name, given the next (new) feature, so I've changed and
1531 documented the name....
1532
1533 - Added ability to set a default icon for a loader stored in the root
1534 directory of a volume: The icon is stored in .VolumeIcon.icns. This icon
1535 is also used for Mac OS X volumes booted from the standard location.
1536
1537 - Fixed bug that caused icons to drop back to generic icons when rEFInd
1538 was launched in certain ways (such as from an EFI shell in rEFInd's
1539 directory) on certain systems.
1540
1541 - Fixed bug that caused "unknown disable flag" to be shown (very briefly)
1542 instead of "unknown hideui flag" when an improper hideui flag was set.
1543
1544 0.2.4 (4/5/2012):
1545 -----------------
1546
1547 - Created new refind.conf entry: "showtools". This entry takes options of
1548 "shell", "gptsync", "about", "exit", "reboot", and "shutdown". This
1549 option is in some respects an affirmative version of portions of the old
1550 "disable" and "hideui" options; however, it enables users to specify the
1551 order in which these options appear on the screen. Also, the "exit"
1552 option is new; it terminates the program. The effect is usually to return
1553 to whatever tool launched it or to launch a default OS; however, this is
1554 somewhat unpredictable. The default therefore omits the "exit" option, as
1555 well as "gptsync", which has always been dangerous (but necessary on most
1556 MacOS/Windows dual-boot setups on Macs). As part of this reconfiguration,
1557 I've eliminated the "rescue Linux" option, which always seemed pointless
1558 to me.
1559
1560 - Folded "disable" and "hideui" refind.conf entries into one ("disable"),
1561 and reduced the number of options to six: "banner", "label",
1562 "singleuser", "hwtest", "arrows", and "all". ("arrows" is new and
1563 disables the scroll arrows when a system has too many tags to display
1564 simultaneously.)
1565
1566 - Added max_tags option to the refind.conf file, enabling users to reduce
1567 the maximum number of OS loader tags that can be displayed at once.
1568
1569 - Updated rEFIt icon, based on the 128x128 volume label from the rEFIt CD
1570 image.
1571
1572 - Added x86 and x86-64 EFI shells to the CD image version of the binary,
1573 but NOT to the binary zip file. The logic is that the CD image is more
1574 likely to be used directly as an emergency disc and so may need this
1575 feature, even though the source isn't part of the rEFInd project. (The
1576 source is readily available from the TianoCore project.)
1577
1578 - EFI shells may now be stored at /shellx64.efi for x86-64 systems or at
1579 /shellia32.efi for x86 systems. The /EFI/tools/shell.efi name is also
1580 recognized; however, if both files are present, two EFI shell icons will
1581 appear on the main menu. The /efi/{refind-path/apps/shell.efi filename,
1582 which was never officially documented but worked as a carryover from
1583 rEFIt, is no longer valid.
1584
1585 0.2.3 (3/26/2012):
1586 ------------------
1587
1588 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused hangs when launching a second program
1589 after returning from a first. There are some weird system-to-system
1590 differences, though, and this fix causes (apparently harmless) error
1591 messages about "(re)opening our installation volume" on at least one
1592 system (a 32-bit Mac Mini). I'm committing this change because, imperfect
1593 though it is, it's preferable to the earlier version, at least on my
1594 small sample of computers.
1595
1596 - Because of news that the Linux kernel developers are planning to use the
1597 filename linux.conf to hold Linux kernel configuration data for EFI
1598 booting, I'm transitioning rEFInd away from that name and to
1599 refind_linux.conf to avoid a conflict. This version can use either name,
1600 with refind_linux.conf taking precedence if both are present.
1601
1602 - Added logo for Arch Linux.
1603
1604 0.2.2 (3/23/2012):
1605 ------------------
1606
1607 - Fixed bug that caused program failure when Linux kernels with EFI stub
1608 support were detected with no associated version numbers. rEFInd now
1609 permits automatic linking of *ONE* versionless kernel to *ONE*
1610 versionless initrd file.
1611
1612 - Fixed bug that caused program hangs when a boot loader filename or label
1613 was too long. Such names are now properly truncated and program execution
1614 continues.
1615
1616 - Fixed bug that caused no text to appear in submenus on UEFI systems with
1617 small screens (800x600). NOTE: Problem still occurs on screens smaller
1618 than this, but such systems are very rare.
1619
1620 0.2.1 (3/19/2012):
1621 ------------------
1622
1623 - Added ability to set a "default_selection" that's a title or a substring
1624 of one -- the name given to a stanza in a "menuentry" or the boot
1625 loader's filename, in most cases, although "Mac OS X", "Windows XP
1626 (XoM)", and "Microsoft EFI boot" are also titles.
1627
1628 - Added support for semi-automatic scans of Linux kernels with EFI stub
1629 loader support. The program auto-detects matching initial RAM disk files
1630 and loads additional options from the "linux.conf" file in the same
1631 directory as the kernel.
1632
1633 - Added support for "submenuentry" keyword and associated sub-stanza
1634 entries in refind.conf file.
1635
1636 - Renamed icons/os_mint.icns to icons/os_linuxmint.icns to match the
1637 filename Linux Mint ACTUALLY uses for its ESP boot loader directory.
1638
1639
1640 0.2.0 (3/14/2012):
1641 ------------------
1642
1643 - Initial public release