<p class="subhead">by Roderick W. Smith, <a
href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com</a></p>
-<p>Last Web page update: 1/8/2013</p>
+<p>Last Web page update: 11/10/2013</p>
<p>I'm a technical writer and consultant specializing in Linux technologies. This Web page is provided free of charge and with no annoying outside ads; however, I did take time to prepare it, and Web hosting does cost money. If you find this Web page useful, please consider making a small donation to help keep this site up and running. Thanks!</p>
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<hr />
<ul>
+<li><b>0.7.5 (11/10/2013)</b>—This version fixes a few bugs, the most important of which is one that caused some Macs to hang when multiple EFI drivers were present. Another squashed bug caused the screen to clear to the default gray rather than the actual background color when launching OSes in graphics mode. rEFInd no longer shows all exFAT partitions as being bootable on Macs when legacy boot options are enabled; now such partitions only show up as bootable if rEFInd spots a known boot loader installed on them. Finally, I've fixed a bug that caused <tt>install.sh</tt> to fail when installing to the ESP with recent versions of OS X.</li>
+
+<li><b>0.7.4 (8/25/2013)</b>—This version fixes problems in booting VMware's <tt>mboot64.efi</tt> boot loader and when launching boot loaders from some types of Mac drives. These fixes might improve matters for other boot loaders, too. I've also added a space to the end of the <tt>Boot <i>X</i> from <i>Y</i></tt> description, which means you can use <tt><i>Y</i></tt> in the <tt>default_selection</tt> field even if another entry contains the same <tt><i>Y</i></tt> string, but with something added. To do this, you must enclose <tt><i>Y</i></tt> in quotes and add a space to its end, as in <tt>default_selection "Bit "</tt>, which sets the first boot loader on the <tt>Bit</tt> volume as the default, even if you also have a disk called <tt>Bitten</tt>. Finally, this version adds explicit support for the new EFI version of <a href="http://www.memtest86.com/download.htm">Memtest86.</a> See the <a href="installing.html#addons">"Installing Additional Components"</a> section of the <a href="installing.html">Installing rEFInd</a> page for details on this support.</li>
+
+<li><b>0.7.3 (8/7/2013)</b>—This version fixes a bug that caused boot failures when launching BIOS-mode OSes on Macs. It also fixes a bug that caused such OSes' disk-type icons to disappear.</li>
+
+<li><b>0.7.2 (8/6/2013)</b>—This version primarily fixes a number of minor bugs: A display glitch when the second row of icons is empty; improper scanning when a volume specification was used in <tt>also_scan_dirs</tt>; improper reading of volume badges from user-specific icons directory or from <tt>.VolumeBadge.icns</tt> files. Also, This version adds protection against loading invalid files as drivers, which can crash some EFIs, adds an icon for Funtoo Linux, and adds <tt>PreLoader.efi</tt> and <tt>shim-fedora.efi</tt> to the default <tt>dont_scan_files</tt> list.</li>
+
+<li><b>0.7.1 (7/8/2013)</b>—The most important improvement to this version is a bug fix to the filesystem drivers. In version 0.7.0, drivers could hang the system (the Btrfs driver in particular generated problem reports, although the bug could theoretically affect any driver). Version 0.7.1 fixes this problem. I've also fixed a build problem with development versions of the TianoCore EDK2. In rEFInd proper, I've added a scan for <tt>EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bkpbootmgfw.efi</tt>, which is how recent versions of Ubuntu's Boot Repair utility rename the Windows boot loader. This change enables rEFInd to launch Windows even on systems that have been "repaired" by this overzealous tool. I've also fixed a bug that caused volume specifications in <tt>also_scan_dirs</tt> tokens to be ignored.</li>
+
+<li><b>0.7.0 (6/27/2013)</b>—Improvements to the filesystem drivers dominate this version. The biggest change is a new Btrfs driver, created by Samuel Liao and based in part on the GRUB 2.0 Btrfs support. The drivers also now include a read cache to improve their speed. This has only a tiny effect on most computers, but on some it can speed boot times by a few seconds, and under VirtualBox the effect is dramatic—the ext2fs driver goes from a sluggish three <i>minutes</i> to load a kernel and initrd to three <i>seconds</i>. I've also changed some critical filesystem driver pointers from 32-bit to 64-bit, which may enable some of them to work with larger filesystems, although this isn't yet tested. The main rEFInd binary sports only two changes: It can now identify Btrfs volumes as such for labelling purposes and it can now filter out invalid loaders (those for the wrong architecture or Linux kernels that lack EFI stub loader support, for instance).</li>
+
+<li><b>0.6.12 (6/18/2013)</b>—This version changes relatively little code, but it adds one feature that will simplify rEFInd installation for some users: The program can now deduce minimal Linux boot options based on an <tt>/etc/fstab</tt> file <i>if</i> that file is on the same partition as the kernel (in other words, if you do <i>not</i> use a separate <tt>/boot</tt> partition). Put another way, <tt>refind_linux.conf</tt> is no longer required for some installations, although it's still desirable. If you're already using rEFInd, this isn't likely to be important, but it can help when you're just starting out. In addition, this version adds support for the Linux Foundation's PreBootloader in the <tt>install.sh</tt> script. I've also changed the default 64-bit shell included on the CD-R and USB flash drive images to a modified version 2 shell, so as to enable use of the <tt>bcfg</tt> command to help install rEFInd (or make other changes to the firmware's boot manager configuration).</li>
+
+<li><b>0.6.11 (5/13/2013)</b>—Two new features may have a noticeable affect for many users: First, rEFInd now ignores symbolic links on filesystems that support them. I've implemented this change because I've been receiving too many reports from users who want to remove redundant or non-functional Linux boot entries caused by symbolic links created by distributions. Although this is possible by editing the <tt>dont_scan_dirs</tt> or <tt>dont_scan_files</tt> options in <tt>refind.conf</tt>, telling users how to do this has become tedious. If you <i>want</i> to use links to create multiple entries for one kernel or boot loader, use hard links instead of symbolic links. The second major user-visible change is that rEFInd now tries to guess the distribution type based on the naming of the kernel file (effective only for Fedora and RHEL) or the contents of the <tt>/etc/os-release</tt> file (effective only if the installation does <i>not</i> have a separate </tt>/boot</tt> partition or if <tt>/etc/os-release</tt> is copied to that location on the partition that holds the kernel). There are several other minor cosmetic issues that some users may notice, including icons for Lubuntu and Kubuntu and a change in the name of the "Reboot to Firmware User Interface" option to "Reboot to Computer Setup Utility." I've also fixed a bug in <tt>gptsync</tt> that could cause it to hang if the disk had too few GPT partitions. Finally, I've improved the <tt>install.sh</tt> script so that it works better from a path with directory names that include spaces.</li>
+
+<li><b>0.6.10 (5/5/2013)</b>—This version adds a number of minor improvements: The ability to create multiple screen shots under a sequence of names rather than using just one name; a new screen saver feature, activated by the <tt>screensaver</tt> token in <tt>refind.conf</tt>; and an option to reboot the computer into the firmware's setup utility on computers that support this feature. I've also added an OS for ChromeOS (<tt>os_chrome.icns</tt>), and I've updated the LodePNG library to the latest version, which might improve rendering of some PNG files.</li>
+
+<li><b>0.6.9 (4/25/2013)</b>—The most visible change to this version is to the rEFInd banner image, which now includes an icon provided by Erik Kemperman. The biggest change with this version is the inclusion of an updated version of <tt>gptsync</tt>, which is popular on Macs as a means of maintaining the <a href="http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/hybrid.html">hybrid MBR</a> that's required to boot Windows in BIOS mode on that platform. Because hybrid MBRs are ugly and dangerous, though, the rEFInd <tt>install.sh</tt> script installs the program only under OS X, and even then it must be activated by uncommending the <tt>scanfor</tt> line in <tt>refind.conf</tt> and adding <tt>gptsync</tt> to its options list. If you want to use <tt>gptsync</tt> on a PC, you can, but you'll need to copy the program file manually to the ESP's <tt>EFI/tools</tt> directory. Other changes with this version include working around a suspected firmware bug that can cause hangs when rEFInd starts on some systems and changing the timeout code so that rEFInd will launch its default OS even if the computer is started without a keyboard.</li>
+
+<li><b>0.6.8 (3/18/2013)</b>—This version fixes a few obscure bugs but adds only one minor new feature. Most notably, it fixes a problem that caused "Invalid Parameter" errors to appear when scanning for boot loaders on some systems; fixes a bug that caused icons defined in files named after boot loaders to not appear; and fixes a bug in the <tt>install.sh</tt> script that caused the script to fail on some systems. It also enables you to name a shell <tt>shell.efi</tt> in the root directory (previously only <tt>shell_<i>arch</i>.efi</tt> worked in the root directory, although <tt>shell.efi</tt> worked in the <tt>EFI/tools</tt> directory).</li>
+
+<li><b>0.6.7 (2/3/2013)</b>—This version fixes a few bugs and adds some minor features relating to Secure Boot. Bug fixes include keeping rEFInd out of its own menu when it's launched as <tt>EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi</tt>; keeping the <tt>dont_scan_volumes</tt> option out of the <tt>also_scan_dirs</tt> list; a fix for <tt>dont_scan_volumes</tt> so that it applies to the OS X boot loader; and a fix for a bug that caused PNG files in a user-specified icons directory to be ignored if an ICNS file was available in the standard icons directory. New features include support for the Linux Foundation's <tt>HashTool.efi</tt> as a MOK utility, scanning for MOK utilities on all volumes, and a more verbose error message when a Secure Boot authentication failure occurs.</li>
+
+<li><b>0.6.6 (1/26/2013)</b>—This version includes two new features and a number of minor bug fixes. The first new feature is support for changing rEFInd's font via the <tt>font</tt> token in <tt>refind.conf</tt>. You're limited to monospace fonts that are encoded as PNG files; you can't use variable-width fonts or normal font files like TrueType fonts. The fonts support only ASCII characters. See the <a href="themes.html#fonts">fonts section on the Theming rEFInd page</a> for details. I've also changed the default font to a slightly larger one that's anti-aliased. The second new feature is that rEFInd now detects when the <tt>EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi</tt> (or <tt>EFI/BOOT/bootia32.efi</tt> on 32-bit systems) boot loader is a duplicate of another boot loader, and automatically excludes it from the OS list. This is useful on systems that boot with Windows, since Windows tends to install its boot loader twice, once using the <tt>EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi</tt> filename. Bug fixes are described in the <tt>NEWS.txt</tt> file, and include fixes for bugs that prevented manual boot stanzas in included configuration files from being detected; that caused an <tt>ASSERT</tt> error to appear on the screen on some systems if <tt>default_selection</tt> was not set; the caused <tt>Binary is whitelisted</tt> messages to persist on the screen when loading signed EFI drivers with Secure Boot active; that caused rEFInd to ignore <tt>icon</tt> tokens in <tt>refind.conf</tt> manual boot stanzas; and that caused the <tt>install.sh</tt> script to fail to update drivers when rEFInd was installed to <tt>EFI/BOOT</tt>.</li>
+
+<li><b>0.6.5 (1/16/2013)</b>—Most of this version's changes relate to icon, graphics, and theming features. The biggest code change is in support for PNG files for banners, icons, and selection backgrounds. I've also fixed bugs that prevented large banners from being used; you can now use banners as big as the screen (or bigger, but they'll be cropped), as illustrated on the <a href="themes.html">Theming rEFInd</a> page. The text color also now automatically switches between black and white depending on the background over which it's displayed. If you don't use these features, you're likely to notice some changes in where certain elements are displayed. Most obviously, the banner appears higher on the screen than it did previously, so as to minimize the chance of overlap with text displays such as the information screen. These text displays should appear correctly even on tiny 640x480 displays (they were blank on such small displays in the past). I've added icons for <a href="https://www.haiku-os.org/">Haiku</a> and <a href="http://www.altlinux.com/">ALT Linux.</a> Finally, the only non-graphics development is the addition of a "safe mode" boot option for OS X, which you can disable by adding <tt>safemode</tt> to the <tt>hideui</tt> option in <tt>refind.conf</tt>.</li>
+
<li><b>0.6.4 (1/8/2013)</b>—Bug fixes motivate this release; it corrects a couple of memory management bugs in 0.6.3 that cause rEFInd to hang at startup on some computers (unfortunately not on any of mine, so I missed this). I've also made a small change to the <tt>install.sh</tt> script so that it installs the ext2fs driver rather than the ext4fs driver if the script detects that a Linux kernel is on an ext2fs or ext3fs partition. This can keep rEFInd from scanning ext4fs partitions and picking up non-functional symbolic links to vmlinuz on such partitions.</li>
<li><b>0.6.3 (1/6/2013)</b>—The installation script and related tools see the biggest changes in this version of the program. The <tt>install.sh</tt> script can now detect a rEFInd installation in <tt>EFI/BOOT</tt> or <tt>EFI/Microsoft/Boot</tt> and update it rather than install to the default location of <tt>EFI/refind</tt>. It will also install to one of these fallback locations if it's run in BIOS mode, thus helping users who want to get a BIOS-mode install of Linux running on an EFI-based computer. A new <tt>mvrefind.sh</tt> script can move the installation between these three locations (or more exotic locations). Outside of scripts, the <tt>dont_scan_dirs</tt> and <tt>also_scan_dirs</tt> tokens can now accept volume specifications, as in <tt>myvol:EFI/bogus</tt> to not scan (or scan) the <tt>EFI/bogus</tt> directory on the <tt>myvol</tt> volume. I've also fixed a bug that caused rEFInd to ignore default boot loaders on removable disks if rEFInd was installed using the fallback filename. I've also modified the ISO-9660 driver so that it works with ISO-9660 images written to non-optical media. This may help with getting "hybrid ISO" images written to USB flash drives to boot.</li>