X-Git-Url: https://code.delx.au/refind/blobdiff_plain/c7fd2c588919ca599aaec9ec9b9d7e6784482b08..4de918f70e9382d26cc9f2047a3c1fb1b7ca12a1:/NEWS.txt diff --git a/NEWS.txt b/NEWS.txt index 6225007..0e192ec 100644 --- a/NEWS.txt +++ b/NEWS.txt @@ -1,3 +1,276 @@ +0.3.5 (5/15/2012): +------------------ + +- Removed the GRUB 2 detection "reciped" added with 0.3.2, since I've + received reports that it's not working as intended. + +- Added re-scan feature: Press the Esc key to have rEFInd re-read its + configuration file, tell the EFI to scan for new filesystems, and re-scan + those filesystems for boot loaders. The main purpose is to enable + scanning a new removable medium that you insert after launching rEFInd; + however, it can also be used to immediately implement changes to the + configuration file or new drivers you load from an EFI shell. + +- Fixed a bug that could cause the scroll-right arrow to be replaced by the + scroll-left arrow under some circumstances. + +0.3.4 (5/9/2012): +----------------- + +- Added new configuration file option: "icons_dir", which sets the name + of the subdirectory in which icons are found. See the documentation or + sample configuration file for a full description. + +- Modified Makefile to generate rEFInd binary that includes architecture + code -- refind_ia32.efi or refind_x64.efi, rather than the generic + refind.efi. This is done mainly to help the install.sh script. The + program can be named anything you like on the disk. (The generic name + refind.efi is used on unknown architectures.) + +- Improved install.sh script: Fixed bug on OS X 10.7 and enable it to be + used after building from source code (or via new "make install" Makefile + target). + +- Improved screen redraws to produce less flicker when moving among the + second-row tags or to the last tag on the first row. + +0.3.3 (5/6/2012): +----------------- + +- Improved menu navigation: + - In graphics mode, left & right arrow keys move left & right, while up & + down arrows move between rows. + - Page Up and Page Down now move through chunks of visible tags (in both + text & graphics modes), jumping from one row to another only when at + the edge of the row. In text mode, the "rows" are broken down as in + graphics mode, but they aren't visibly distinguished on the screen. + +- Improved text-mode use: rEFInd now displays the proper number of entries + when first started in text mode and scrolling is done sensibly when too + many entries exist to fit on the screen. + +0.3.2 (5/4/2012): +----------------- + +- Added the install.sh script to install rEFInd on Linux and Mac OS X + systems. This script must be run as root (or via sudo). It requires + no options, but on Mac OS X, passing it the "esp" option causes it + to install rEFInd on the computer's ESP rather than the default of the + currently OS X boot partition. (Under Linux, the default is to install to + the ESP.) Note that there may be some unusual cases in which this script + will fail to work. + +- Does a better job of clearing the screen when launching OSes in text + mode. + +- Added detection "recipe" for GRUB 2's BIOS Boot Partition. + +- Fixed bogus detection of ESPs created by Linux's mkdosfs utility or + Windows as bootable partitions when "scanfor" includes BIOS scanning + options. + + +0.3.1 (4/27/2012): +------------------ + +- Fixed bug that caused spurious "Unsupported while scanning the root + directory" messages under some conitions on Macs. + +- Modified loader scanning code to sort boot loader entries within a + directory by modification time, so that the most recently-modified loader + is first among those in a given directory. Thus, if you specify a + directory name (or volume name, for loaders stored in the root directory + of a volume) as the default_selection, the most recent of those loaders + will be the default. This is intended to help with Linux kernel + maintenance when using the EFI stub loader; set up this way, the most + recent kernel copied to your kernel directory will be the default, + obviating the need to adjust the refind.conf file when adding a new + kernel. If you want to change the default among those in the default + directory, you can use "touch" to adjust the modification timestamp. + +- Tweaked code to find loader-specific .icns file so that it finds files + for Linux kernels without .efi extensions. In this case, files should be + named the same as the kernels they match, but with .icns extensions. For + instance, bzImage-3.3.2 should have an icon called bzImage-3.3.2.icns. + (The old code would have looked for an icon called bzImage-3.3.icns.) + +- Eliminated bogus OS loader tags for filenames that end in ".icns" when + the scan_all_linux_kernels option is set. + +0.3.0 (4/22/2012): +------------------ + +- I'm officially upgrading this project's status from "alpha" to "beta" and + giving it a bump from 0.2.x to 0.3.0. This doesn't reflect any major + milestone with this version; rather, it reflects my sense that rEFInd has + been "out there" for a while, and although I've gotten bug reports, + they've been minor and/or have been fixed. The program still has known + bugs, but my impression is that it is, overall, usable by ordinary users. + +- Added "resolution" option to refind.conf, which enables setting the video + resolution. To use it, pass two numeric values, as in "resolution 1024 + 768" to use a 1024x768 video mode. Note that not all modes are supported. + If you specify a non-supported video mode on a UEFI system, a message + appears listing the supported video modes and you must then press a key + to continue, using the default video mode (usually 800x600). + Unfortunately, I don't know the calls to get a list of supported video + modes on older EFI 1.x systems (including Macs), so on Macs setting an + incorrect video mode silently fails (you keep using the default mode). + This makes changing your video mode a hit-or-miss proposition on Macs. + CAUTION: It's possible to set a legal video mode that your monitor can't + handle, in which case you'll get a blank display until you boot an OS + that resets the video mode. + +- Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused rEFInd to crash when returning from an + EFI shell or other programs on Macs, particularly when rEFInd used + graphical mode. I'm not 100% sure this bug is squashed because I still + don't understand the cause and I only have one Mac for testing. See + comments in the ReinitRefitLib() function in refit/lib.c for more + details. + +- Added new refind.conf option: scan_all_linux_kernels, which causes Linux + kernels that lack ".efi" extensions to be included in scans for EFI boot + loaders. This may help integration with Linux distributions that don't + give their kernels such names by default. Beware, though: It can detect + unwanted files, such as older non-stub-loader kernels or .icns files used + to give kernels with .efi extensions custom icons. + +- Improved EFI boot loader detection on boards with Gigabyte's Hybrid EFI, + and perhaps other EFIs with a buggy StriCmp() function. Files with both + ".efi" and ".EFI" extensions should now be detected as boot loaders. + +- Fixed a bug that caused rEFInd to fail to scan for drivers if the + filesystem driver didn't set a volume name (that is, if the relevant + field was set to NULL rather than even an empty string). In such + situations, rEFInd now reports the volume name as "Unknown". + +0.2.7 (4/19/2012): +------------------ + +- After much trial and tribulation, I've overcome a GNU-EFI limitation and + enabled rEFInd to load EFI drivers. This feature was present in the + original build of rEFIt but was removed in the versions that could + compile under Linux, but now it's back -- and still being compiled under + Linux! To use it, you should place your drivers in a convenient directory + on the ESP (or whatever partition you use to launch rEFInd) and add a + "scan_driver_dirs" entry to refind.conf to tell rEFInd where to look. (As + always, you should specify the driver directory relative to the root of + the filesystem.) Note that you can't launch drivers from another + filesystem; they must be on the same volume that holds rEFInd. Those who + compile from source code should note that implementing this feature + necessitated using a more recent version of the GNU-EFI library. I'm + currently using version 3.0p, and version 3.0i does NOT work. I don't + know where the change occurred, but you may need to upgrade your GNU-EFI + installation. + +- Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to show up in its own menu sometimes. + +- Added new refind.conf token: also_scan_dirs. When scanning volumes for + EFI boot loaders, rEFInd always scans the root directory and every + subdirectory of the /EFI directory, but it doesn't recurse into these + directories. The also_scan_dirs token adds more directories to the scan + list. It defaults to "elilo,boot", but you can set it to any directory or + directories you like. + +0.2.6 (4/14/2012): +------------------ + +- Added "volume" keyword to configuration file's stanza options. This + option changes the volume from which subsequent files (specified by + "loader" and "icon") are loaded. You pass "volume" the name/label of the + FILESYSTEM you want to use (not the GPT partition name), or a number + followed by a colon (e.g., "1:"). The former should reliably identify a + filesystem, assuming the name is unique. The latter assigns numbers based + on the order in which they're scanned, which may not be as reliable but + should work when a volume is unnamed. + +- Fixed bug in 0.2.5 that caused failure of Linux initial RAM disk + mapping on some (but not all) systems. Affected computers include at + least some Intel motherboards, maybe others. + +0.2.5 (4/9/2012): +----------------- + +- Fixed bug that caused an inability to associate initial RAM disks with + Linux kernels stored in a volume's root directory. + +- Volume badges (that override default badges) are now stored in + .VolumeBadge.icns. Although undocumented, rEFInd formerly loaded custom + volume badges from .VolumeIcon.icns. This carryover from rEFIt was a + confusing name, given the next (new) feature, so I've changed and + documented the name.... + +- Added ability to set a default icon for a loader stored in the root + directory of a volume: The icon is stored in .VolumeIcon.icns. This icon + is also used for Mac OS X volumes booted from the standard location. + +- Fixed bug that caused icons to drop back to generic icons when rEFInd + was launched in certain ways (such as from an EFI shell in rEFInd's + directory) on certain systems. + +- Fixed bug that caused "unknown disable flag" to be shown (very briefly) + instead of "unknown hideui flag" when an improper hideui flag was set. + +0.2.4 (4/5/2012): +----------------- + +- Created new refind.conf entry: "showtools". This entry takes options of + "shell", "gptsync", "about", "exit", "reboot", and "shutdown". This + option is in some respects an affirmative version of portions of the old + "disable" and "hideui" options; however, it enables users to specify the + order in which these options appear on the screen. Also, the "exit" + option is new; it terminates the program. The effect is usually to return + to whatever tool launched it or to launch a default OS; however, this is + somewhat unpredictable. The default therefore omits the "exit" option, as + well as "gptsync", which has always been dangerous (but necessary on most + MacOS/Windows dual-boot setups on Macs). As part of this reconfiguration, + I've eliminated the "rescue Linux" option, which always seemed pointless + to me. + +- Folded "disable" and "hideui" refind.conf entries into one ("disable"), + and reduced the number of options to six: "banner", "label", + "singleuser", "hwtest", "arrows", and "all". ("arrows" is new and + disables the scroll arrows when a system has too many tags to display + simultaneously.) + +- Added max_tags option to the refind.conf file, enabling users to reduce + the maximum number of OS loader tags that can be displayed at once. + +- Updated rEFIt icon, based on the 128x128 volume label from the rEFIt CD + image. + +- Added x86 and x86-64 EFI shells to the CD image version of the binary, + but NOT to the binary zip file. The logic is that the CD image is more + likely to be used directly as an emergency disc and so may need this + feature, even though the source isn't part of the rEFInd project. (The + source is readily available from the TianoCore project.) + +- EFI shells may now be stored at /shellx64.efi for x86-64 systems or at + /shellia32.efi for x86 systems. The /EFI/tools/shell.efi name is also + recognized; however, if both files are present, two EFI shell icons will + appear on the main menu. The /efi/{refind-path/apps/shell.efi filename, + which was never officially documented but worked as a carryover from + rEFIt, is no longer valid. + +0.2.3 (3/26/2012): +------------------ + +- Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused hangs when launching a second program + after returning from a first. There are some weird system-to-system + differences, though, and this fix causes (apparently harmless) error + messages about "(re)opening our installation volume" on at least one + system (a 32-bit Mac Mini). I'm committing this change because, imperfect + though it is, it's preferable to the earlier version, at least on my + small sample of computers. + +- Because of news that the Linux kernel developers are planning to use the + filename linux.conf to hold Linux kernel configuration data for EFI + booting, I'm transitioning rEFInd away from that name and to + refind_linux.conf to avoid a conflict. This version can use either name, + with refind_linux.conf taking precedence if both are present. + +- Added logo for Arch Linux. + 0.2.2 (3/23/2012): ------------------