<p class="subhead">by Roderick W. Smith, <a
href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com</a></p>
-<p>Last Web page update: 6/27/2013</p>
+<p>Last Web page update: 1/3/2014</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>
<ul>
+<li><b>0.7.7 (1/3/2014)</b>—A new configuration file token, <tt>windows_recovery_files</tt>, leads this list of changes; you can use it to specify files that boot Windows recovery tools. If you include the <tt>windows_recovery</tt> option on the <tt>showtools</tt> line, these files will then be represented by a small Windows recovery badge on the second row rather than as a full-sized OS loader, thus reducing clutter and making the purpose of this loader clearer. You can also now specify a complete path to <tt>dont_scan_files</tt> items, including a volume specifier. The <tt>use_graphics_for</tt>, <tt>also_scan_dirs</tt>, <tt>dont_scan_dirs</tt>, <tt>dont_scan_files</tt>, <tt>scan_driver_dirs</tt>, and <tt>windows_recovery_files</tt> tokens can all now accept <tt>+</tt> as their first option, which causes subsequent list items to be added to their defaults rather than replacing them. The configuration file can now be specified at program launch by passing a <tt>-c</tt> option, as in <tt>-c myconf.conf</tt>; you can use this feature to set up a manual boot stanza that launches rEFInd with modified boot options. Scans of ext2/3/4fs and ReiserFS partitions now omit partitions with filesystem UUIDs that have already been seen. This is an effort to reduce clutter from such partitions that are components of RAID 1 arrays. The <tt>install.sh</tt> script now attempts to locate and mount an unmounted ESP when run under Linux. Finally, I've fixed a bug in both <tt>install.sh</tt> and <tt>mkrlconf.sh</tt> that caused the generated <tt>refind_linux.conf</tt> file to contain a stray line break and unnecessary <tt>PARTUUID=</tt> specification on some systems.</li>
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+<li><b>0.7.6 (12/15/2013)</b>—The biggest changes in this version relate to the <tt>default_selection</tt> setting. You can now provide multiple default selections by listing them <i>within quotes</i> and separated by commas, as in <tt>default_selection "ubuntu,fedora"</tt> which boots <tt>ubuntu</tt> if it's present and <tt>fedora</tt> if <tt>ubuntu</tt> is not present but <tt>fedora</tt> is. This should be helpful with removable disks. You can also include two times, in 24-hour format, following a <tt>default_selection</tt> specification, as in <tt>default_selection Maintenance 1:00 2:00</tt>, which boots <tt>Maintenance</tt> by default between 1:00 and 2:00. If another <tt>default_selection</tt> without a time specification preceded this line, the earlier one will still apply at other times. Another change to the main program is that you can now set <tt>screensaver -1</tt> to have rEFInd come up with its screen blanked. You'll probably want to combine this with a short <tt>timeout</tt> value to have rEFInd boot your default OS quickly unless you press a key first. Finally, I've added a new option to the <tt>install.sh</tt> script: <tt>--ownhfs <i>target_partition</i></tt>. This option is valid only under OS X. It installs rEFInd to an HFS+ volume that does <i><b>not</b></i> currently hold an OS X installation. The installation method differs from the usual rEFInd installation in that the result looks to the firmware more like an OS X installation. This makes rEFInd appear as an option in the firmware's own boot manager and it may help suspend-to-RAM operations.</li>
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+<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>
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+<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>
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+<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>
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+<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>
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+<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>
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<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>
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-<p>copyright © 2012–2013 by Roderick W. Smith</p>
+<p>copyright © 2012–2014 by Roderick W. Smith</p>
<p>This document is licensed under the terms of the <a href="FDL-1.3.txt">GNU Free Documentation License (FDL), version 1.3.</a></p>