X-Git-Url: https://code.delx.au/refind/blobdiff_plain/40d02977ac1bcda34f2e8851dd8eb8c01282dc5a..7d3dcb8b4f3e617d60b753757e97f16325b77f4b:/docs/refind/revisions.html
diff --git a/docs/refind/revisions.html b/docs/refind/revisions.html
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--- a/docs/refind/revisions.html
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@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
by Roderick W. Smith, rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
-Last Web page update: 4/19/2012
+Last Web page update: 12/5/2012
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!
@@ -93,6 +93,36 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
+- 0.5.0 (12/5/2012)—I've focused on adding support for Matthew J. Garrett's shim program to this version of rEFInd; with this support, rEFInd is capable of launching Linux kernels and other programs signed with a suitable key while the computer is in Secure Boot mode. This initial release, however, requires significant manual configuration and has some known bugs and limitations. See the Managing Secure Boot page for details. Beyond this major new feature, this version includes several more minor improvements. These include a change to the resolution token so that it applies to text mode as well as to graphics mode; a bug fix that caused the line editor to blank out lines that were left unedited; a new dont_scan_files option to blacklist boot programs by filename; support for launching MokManager and Apple's Recovery HD partitions via tools (2nd-row) icons; new --usedefault and --drivers options to the install.sh script; a change of the esp installation script option to --esp; and the ability to use quote marks inside option strings by doubling them up.
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+- 0.4.7 (11/6/2012)—The most important new feature in this version is a boot options editor. From rEFInd's main menu, press Insert or F2 to see the options menu. Select one of the options and press Insert or F2 again and the screen switches to a text-mode display in which you can edit the options that will be passed to the boot loader. A second new feature is a new icon for gummiboot, which is another EFI boot manager. This version also alters the behavior of the scan_delay option, since I've been told that the previous version didn't work; the new one does. Finally, this version omits the space that followed boot options when booting most OSes. This behavior was inherited from rEFIt; a comment in the source code indicates it's needed by OS X, but I've been told it causes boot failures when launching Linux on some Macs. Thus, rEFInd now adds this space only when booting Mac OS X.
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+- 0.4.6 (10/6/2012)—Thanks to contributor John Bressler, rEFInd can now boot legacy (BIOS) boot loaders on many UEFI PCs. (Previously, rEFInd could do this only on Macs.) Other changes include a new scan_delay option that inserts a delay between rEFInd starting and disk scans (to help detect disks that are slow to appear to the firmware) and a change in the default scanfor value so that legacy OSes are detected by default on Macs (but not on PCs). I've also fixed some memory management problems that caused error messages to appear on some systems when rEFInd was compiled with the TianoCore EDK2 toolkit. Finally, I'm now using the TianoCore toolkit to make my primary binary builds, since the new UEFI legacy boot support requires the TianoCore environment. (rEFInd still builds with GNU-EFI, but it doesn't support booting legacy OSes on UEFI systems when built in this way.)
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+- 0.4.5 (8/12/2012)—This version fixes a couple of Mac-related bugs. The most important is that version 0.4.3 and 0.4.4 couldn't boot BIOS-based (aka CSM or Boot Camp) OS installations; 0.4.5 restores this important feature. The second bug is in the install.sh script, which would often fail to detect rEFItBlesser, thus leaving it enabled and causing rEFInd to fail to start after the first reboot into OS X.
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+- 0.4.4 (6/23/2012)—This is a bug-fix release. Most importantly, it fixes a bug in the new use_graphics_for feature; in 0.4.3, the options were set incorrectly (they just happened to work as expected on my main test configuration). I've also fixed problems with volume names in the 32-bit versions of both the drivers and the TianoCore EDK2 build of rEFInd itself. Finally, I've tweaked the install.sh script to do a better job of identifying the computer's ESP under OS X.
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+- 0.4.3 (6/21/2012)—The major user-visible change to this version is the addition of the use_graphics_for option, which enables you to specify the OSes that rEFInd launches in graphics mode vs. text mode. This effect is tiny on most systems, but can be important on some, as noted on the "Configuring the Boot Manager" page. There's also a change to the way graphics-mode boots are handled, to make for a slightly smoother visual transition. This version also fixes the incompatibility between the drivers and the firmware used by Macs (and probably other EFI 1.x systems). I've removed linux.conf as a valid alternative name for the refind_linux.conf file, so if you're still using the old name, now is the time to rename it! The biggest change is behind the scenes, though: I've added support for compiling rEFInd using the TianoCore EDK2, as well as the GNU-EFI toolkit that I've used up to this point. I have no intention of removing GNU-EFI support, but there's a chance that the TianoCore toolkit will help in implementing some future features or in debugging some problems. You can download either version from the downloads page.
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+- 0.4.2 (6/3/2012)—I've added a new dont_scan_dirs option to the configuration file, enabling creation of a directory-scanning "blacklist." See the "Configuring the Boot Manager" page for details. This version also makes a couple of changes to the install.sh script. The first is a reminder for Mac users to update refind.conf if they need to boot BIOS-based OSes. The second change makes the script a bit smarter about updating NVRAM settings when run from Linux; it now attempts to make itself the default boot loader if an entry for rEFInd already exists but isn't the default. I've made this change in response to problem reports from users; apparently some distributions' GRUB update scripts make GRUB the default boot loader under all circumstances, which causes rEFInd to be taken out of the picture after a GRUB update. The previous install.sh code wouldn't add rEFInd back to the "top spot" after this happened, but the new code should do the trick. (Although re-installing rEFInd is overkill in this case, it's something many users would logically try.)
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+- 0.4.1 (5/25/2012)—This version provides a number of small bug fixes and improvements: When re-scanning (initiated by pressing Esc in the main menu), a message that re-scanning is occurring appears on the screen; I've fixed a bug that could cause rEFInd to appear as an option in its own menu after running a shell program and re-scanning; the install.sh script now checks for, and optionally deletes, the rEFItBlesser program when run under OS X; and the HFS+ driver now returns a volume label of HFS+ volume, rather than nothing at all (unlike other drivers, the HFS+ driver can't yet return the volume's true label).
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+- 0.4.0 (5/20/2012)—I've bumped up this version number more than usual to reflect the addition of four filesystem drivers (for ext2fs, ReiserFS, HFS+, and ISO-9660) to the rEFInd package. These drivers originate with the original rEFIt, VirtualBox, and Clover boot loader projects. You can learn more on the drivers page. To facilitate inclusion of drivers on the CD image, rEFInd also now supports reading drivers from architecture-specific subdirectories—drivers_x64 and drivers_ia32 for x86-64 and x86 systems, respectively. This version also adds the ability to eject removable media on some Macs (this won't work on UEFI-based PCs, unfortunately). Finally, this version fixes a problem that could cause GRUB 2 to be unable to read its configuration file in some settings when launched from rEFInd.
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+- 0.3.5 (5/15/2012)—This version's biggest new feature is the ability to re-scan for boot loaders after launching the program. This is done by pressing the Esc key, which causes rEFInd to re-read its configuration file, to tell the EFI to reconnect all disks, and to do a fresh scan of all disks for loaders. This is useful if you insert a removable disk after starting the computer, if rEFInd starts before a disk has fully settled, if you make a change to the configuration file, or if you manually load a driver. This version also fixes a minor bug that could cause the scroll-right arrow to be replaced with a left-pointing arrow under some circumstances; and I've removed the scan for a BIOS Boot Partition that I added in 0.3.2, since I'm told it isn't launching correctly. (BIOS-mode GRUB 2 can still be launched on Macs from its boot code in the MBR.)
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+- 0.3.4 (5/9/2012)—The biggest change to this version is the addition of the icons_dir configuration file token, which enables you to specify a directory that holds icons that override those in the default icons subdirectory. See the Theming rEFInd and Configuring the Boot Manager pages for details. This version also reduces flicker when moving your selection around the screen and modifies the install.sh script so that it can be used directly after building rEFInd from source code. Related to this, building from source now creates a binary that includes an architecture code—refind_ia32.efi or refind_x64.efi rather than refind.efi.
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+- 0.3.3 (5/6/2012)—I've focused on user interface improvements for this release. The biggest improvement is in the text-mode interface, which suffered from assorted display glitches in previous releases. These have now been fixed, so the text-mode interface should be more usable. I've also fine-tuned the use of keyboard keys, particularly in graphical mode. The up and down arrow keys now move between the two rows of the display, and Page Up and Page Down scroll the first row if it's too big for the display. (They'll also move between rows, but only when at the end of the first row or the start of the second.) Returning from a failed loader or a tool or built-in function now renders that tag as the currently-selected item, rather than setting the default loader as active, as happened with previous versions.
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+- 0.3.2 (5/4/2012)—rEFInd's core functionality changes very little with this version; I've tweaked the detection of BIOS-mode boot loaders to keep unbootable FAT partitions created under Linux and Windows out of the boot list, while adding detection of GRUB BIOS Boot Partitions to the list. I've also made a change that improves screen-clearing when launching EFI utilities and OSes in text mode. The major change to this version is the addition of a new Linux/OS X installation script, install.sh. In most cases, this makes it possible to install rEFInd simply by typing ./install.sh from the rEFInd package directory; however, you should see the Installing rEFInd page for details. In some cases, manual installation may still be required. Also, you may prefer to copy over the old rEFInd program file with the new one when upgrading.
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+- 0.3.1 (4/27/2012)—You'll find a few minor enhancements and bug fixes in this version, none of which affect the configuration files. rEFInd now sorts its boot loader entries within each directory by date, with the newest items first. The intent is that you can specify a directory name as the default_selection and the most recent boot loader in that directory will become the default. This may obviate the need to adjust the default after adding a new Linux kernel with EFI stub loader support. I've also improved the handling of .icns files for Linux kernels that lack .efi extensions; loader-specific icons for these kernels should now take the name of the kernel plus .icns—for instance, vmlinuz-0.3.2.icns for vmlinuz-0.3.2. rEFInd also now hides all .icns files from the boot loader list. Finally, this version fixes a bug, introduced in version 0.3.0, that could cause spurious Unsupported while scanning the root directory errors under some conditions on Macs.
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+- 0.3.0 (4/22/2012)—This version marks the official transition from alpha to beta status for rEFInd. This isn't because of any important objective milestone being passed; it's just that rEFInd has been used by many people who have reported no show-stopping bugs, so I'm now confident that rEFInd is stable enough for general use. That's not to say it's perfect; it still has numerous known bugs and limitations. That's why it's still beta. To get down to specifics, this version adds two new configuration file tokens: resolution, which sets the screen resolution; and scan_all_linux_kernels, which adds Linux kernel files to the boot loader list even if they lack .efi filename extensions. See the Configuring the Boot Manager page for details on these new options. I've also fixed some bugs: One that sometimes caused Macs to crash when returning from the EFI shell or other programs; another that caused rEFInd to fail to scan filesystems if the filesystem driver didn't return a volume name; and a third that caused rEFInd to fail to detect boot loaders depending on the case of the filename on some EFIs (this is really a workaround for an EFI implementation bug). The first of these is a very tentative fix and it could have negative effects on some systems (non-Mac EFI 1.x systems or Macs that weren't affected by the bug in other recent releases), so be sure to contact me if rEFInd crashes or otherwise misbehaves after you use an EFI shell.
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- 0.2.7 (4/19/2012)—I've added two new tokens to the refind.conf file, with associated new functionality. The new scan_driver_dirs option tells rEFInd where to scan for EFI drivers, in addition to the default of the drivers subdirectory of the rEFInd installation directory. For more on EFI drivers, see Using EFI Drivers. Note that previous versions of rEFInd couldn't load drivers at all, although they could make use of hardware and filesystems activated by drivers loaded before rEFInd launched. The second new token is also_scan_dirs, which adds arbitrary directories to the list that rEFInd scans for boot loaders. (Without this option, rEFInd scans each volume's boot directory and every subdirectory of the /EFI directory, with the exception of /EFI/tools and rEFInd's own directory.) This version also fixes a minor bug that caused rEFInd to sometimes include itself in the list of OS options. Finally, if you build rEFInd yourself, you should be aware that it now requires a newer version of the GNU-EFI library than it required in the past. See the BUILDING.txt file, included in the source code package, for details.
- 0.2.6 (4/14/2012)—This version provides one bug fix and one new feature. The bug was introduced in version 0.2.5 and prevents rEFInd from identifying a Linux initial RAM disk file on some (but not all) EFI implementations. The new feature is the volume stanza token, which enables you to manually load a boot program from a filesystem other than the one from which rEFInd launched. You can specify a volume either by its label (as in volume KERNELS to load from the volume with a filesystem name KERNELS) or by number followed by a colon (as in volume 0: for the first filesystem or volume 1: for the second). See the Configuring the Boot Manager page for more on this new feature.