X-Git-Url: https://code.delx.au/refind/blobdiff_plain/e99aa7a04054658c8d5d4595717b9b10e848564d..056ca03285e703164b72c615aeb079fe55113a5e:/docs/refind/todo.html
diff --git a/docs/refind/todo.html b/docs/refind/todo.html
index 459f766..b8930a1 100644
--- a/docs/refind/todo.html
+++ b/docs/refind/todo.html
@@ -15,10 +15,10 @@
href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
Originally written: 3/14/2012; last Web page update:
-12/16/2012, referencing rEFInd 0.6.0
+2/1/2014, referencing rEFInd 0.8.5
-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!
+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!
@@ -26,49 +26,87 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
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@@ -110,12 +148,6 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
systems with a limited number of configurations. Therefore, if you
try rEFInd and run into bugs, please report them to me!
- I have little talent with graphics manipulation programs, so
- rEFInd's boot logo, such as it is, is pretty weak. If you have
- artistic talent and would like to create a rEFInd logo, please feel
- free to send it to me. I won't make any final decision about
- changes until at least June 30 of 2012.
-
rEFIt's original design, and hence rEFInd's design, enables easy
theming by replacing icon files. If you'd like to design a new
theme for rEFInd, feel free to submit it. I might or might not
@@ -145,75 +177,59 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
like to add detection for Itanium and ARM systems, but I have no
way to test such changes.
- The code could be more flexible in its handling of the sizes of
- various graphical elements, and particularly drawn text. Prior to
- version 0.2.2, submenu text was invisible on UEFI-based PCs with
- 800x600 and smaller displays because of an inability to properly
- crop the graphics fields that hold the text. With version 0.2.2,
- I've put a band-aid on this problem by reducing the field size so
- that it now works on 800x600 displays, but smaller displays still
- suffer from this problem. This is just an example of the
- inflexibility of certain layout issues within rEFInd.
-
- Although the ICNS file format used by rEFInd supports multiple
- image sizes, if a size that rEFInd needs isn't present in the file,
- rEFInd can't use the icon. The ability to scale images to the
- desired size would be useful.
-
- I would like to be able to specify the volume on which a boot
- loader resides using a partition GUID value, but extracting a GUID
- from the partition data is harder than extracting the volume's
- label or counting up the filesystem numbers.
-
- The default_selection option in refind.conf could be improved by
- supporting a list of default options, so that if the first item
- isn't found, rEFInd will try to boot the second one in the list,
- and so on. This could be handy in case a driver fails to load, or
- to provide an override in case the user inserts a specific
- removable disk—by placing the removable disk's name first in
- the list, it will take precedence over the normal hard disk
- default.
-
- Along the lines of the previous item, the default_selection might
- be expanded to support some form of specification of disk types, as
- in a special entry for any optical disk or any external disk, no
- matter what its name is.
+ Further to the preceding, rEFInd's GPT-scanning code (used to
+ extract partition names) includes assumptions about byte order, and
+ so will work only on little-endian CPUs such as the x86 and
+ x86-64.
+
+ A way to set the color of the font would be useful for theming
+ purposes.
+
+ The program's font features could be greatly improved by enabling
+ use of a standard font format, by enabling use of non-ASCII
+ characters, and by enabling use of variable-width as well as
+ monospace fonts.
+
+ The default_selection might be expanded to support some
+ form of specification of disk types, as in a special entry for any
+ optical disk or any external disk, no matter what its name is.
It would be useful to be able to specify paths to boot loaders
and/or initial RAM disks relative to the rEFInd directory (or the
boot loader's directory, in the case of initrds).
- Various options (dont_scan_dirs, also_scan_dirs,
- scan_driver_dirs, etc.) refer to directories or files,
- either on the ESP or on all partitions. A way to identify specific
- partitions for these options would be useful in some
- situations.
+ Currently the background for certain subscreens (such as the
+ information page or submenu listings) is a solid color based on the
+ upper-left corner of the screen. Having an option to support a
+ transparent background is desirable to some users.
+
+ When delivering rEFInd as a boot loader from a network server,
+ rEFInd is limited to its default options and can boot only local
+ OSes, not network OSes. The cause is that the server delivers a
+ single file, so rEFInd is divorced from its configuration and
+ support files.
-
+ A way to identify specific Windows versions and present unique
+ icons or change the text is desirable. Currently, a crude
+ distinction of XP and earlier vs. Vista and later is possible for
+ BIOS-booting on Macs, but no such distinction is made for EFI-mode
+ booting, and nothing finer-grained is attempted. Improvements will
+ probably require identifying unique features of each version's boot
+ loader files or boot sector code.
+
+
Known bugs that need squashing:
- - When in Secure Boot mode, rEFInd can launch just one driver that's
- signed with a shim key or MOK. The second and later drivers
- generate "access denied" errors.
-
- - When setting a resolution higher than about 800x600 (or maybe even
- 640x480) in text mode, the text displayed by rEFInd, and on some
- systems shells and other programs launched from rEFInd, is
- restricted to an 80x24-character area in the top-left corner of the
- screen.
+ - I've been receiving reports of blank screens when using rEFInd on
+ some recent Mac models. I've investigated this with the help of one
+ user, and I suspect that Apple has made changes to its firmware
+ that are likely to affect just about any EFI program. I don't have
+ a definitive solution, but at least one user has reported that
+ removing rEFInd's drivers has caused the problem to go into
+ remission.
- The Gigabyte
Hybrid EFI has a bug that causes the allegedly case-insensitive
@@ -233,7 +249,7 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
implementation, and a dismal one at that, so I'm inclined to just
let it go.
- - The Shutdown option works correctly on Macs, but not on UEFI-based
+
- The Shutdown option works correctly on Macs, but not on many UEFI-based
PCs. On such systems, Shutdown reboots the computer. This should be
fixed.
@@ -242,6 +258,24 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
Apple-specific EFI extension, and I know of no standard EFI way to
do it.
+ A couple of Mac users have reported that the brightness-adjustment
+ features in Windows don't work when Windows is booted via rEFInd,
+ but that these features do work when Windows is booted via the
+ Mac's built-in boot manager. Unfortunately, I have no idea what
+ causes this problem, I have no Windows installation on my one
+ (elderly) Mac, and I have no way to debug it. Therefore, it's
+ unlikely that I'll be able to fix this problem myself; but if you
+ have the equipment and skill to do so, I'd be interested in
+ receiving a patch.
+
+ If you use a true MBR disk on a Mac to boot Windows or some other
+ BIOS-only OS, and if that disk has an extended partition, that
+ partition may show up in rEFInd as a bootable FAT partition. The
+ reason is twofold: FAT doesn't contain a simple "magic" signature
+ like most filesystems, so it's easy to misidentify something else
+ as FAT; and it's hard to positively identify boot code vs. other
+ random data.
+
The re-scan feature occasionally produces odd results, such as
ignoring new media or keeping old media that have been ejected.
This should be investigated and fixed.
@@ -257,18 +291,44 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
caused by a truncated DevicePath to the shell, which includes the
shell's pathname but not the device identifier.
+ When specifying a volume by name in dont_scan_dirs,
+ slashes are converted to backslashes in the specification but not
+ in the actual volume name read from disk. Thus, you can't specify a
+ volume by name if it includes a slash (as in Fedora
+ /boot). Workarounds are to rename the volume to omit the slash
+ and to use a filesystem number rather than a volume label.
+
The code is in need of review to search for memory leaks and
similar problems.
+ If the user has a Linux software RAID 1 array with Btrfs, HFS+,
+ or FAT filesystem, rEFInd will detect kernels or boot loaders in
+ RAID 1 twice. Checks to prevent this with ext2/3/4fs and ReiserFS
+ already exist; these checks could be expanded to block such
+ duplication with more filesystems.
+
+ Some Macs experience problems with waking up from suspend states
+ when rEFInd is installed. Unfortunately, I lack the hardware to
+ test and experiment with this (my only Intel-based Mac doesn't
+ exhibit this problem), so I can't fix this myself. Using
+ pmset to disable the autopoweroff option is
+ claimed
+ by some to at least partially fix the problem, though. Using
+ the --ownhfs installation option may also help in some
+ cases.
+
+ If you activate BIOS-mode support on UEFI-based PCs, you may find
+ multiple copies of the BIOS-mode loaders added to your firmware's
+ boot manager. Only one copy shows up in rEFInd, though.
+
New features I'd like to add:
- - EFI supports network boots. rEFInd doesn't, but it would be nice if
- it would.
-
- There's currently no way to create a manual boot stanza for a
BIOS-booted OS. This isn't a big priority for me personally, but I
can see how it could be for some people.
@@ -288,24 +348,40 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
stanzas override auto-detected boot loader definitions for the same
boot loader file.
+ Along similar lines, some users have asked for a way to take
+ detected boot programs and create a set of manual boot stanzas for
+ them, so that they can be modified manually.
+
+ Support for touchscreens and/or configurable buttons for rEFInd's
+ actions would enable use of rEFInd on tablet computers that lack
+ complete keyboards.
+
+ GRUB provides a configuration-file command called outb
+ that enables manipulating hardware registers. Something similar,
+ via the mm command, can be done in the EFI shell. I'd like
+ to add such a feature to rEFInd, since it enables doing things like
+ disabling one or another video output on Macs with two video
+ cards.
+
+ I have thoughts about creating an EFI configuration tool and
+ information utility—something to tell you about your hard
+ disks, enable you to manage MOKs, adjust boot loader priority in
+ the NVRAM, and so on. This would be useful in system maintenance
+ and in recovering from boot problems.
+
+ An installation tool for the EFI environment would be useful.
+ A simple EFI shell script might work, but because this function
+ requires access to the bcfg command, this would work
+ only from a version 2 shell or if bcfg were implemented
+ as a standalone program. Another alternative would be a program
+ written in C.
+
It should be possible to override specific auto-detected boot
loader settings—say, to disable one specific boot loader or
change its icon.
- A way to read boot options set via efibootmgr,
- bless, or similar options from NVRAM to add to the boot
- set would be useful.
-
- A way to examine and change the NVRAM settings could be useful.
- This would enable a CD-based boot of rEFInd to fix a broken disk
- boot. Perhaps this could be done via a separate tool that could be
- launched much like the shell or gptsync.
-
- A way to set the color of the font would be useful for theming
- purposes.
-
- Going further, the ability to load arbitrary other fonts, ideally
- in a standard format, would be desirable for theming purposes.
+ The ability to rotate the display for users who rotate their
+ monitors would be helpful.
A GUI configuration tool would be nice, but it's low on my personal
priority list. If you'd like to contribute, I prefer something
@@ -314,38 +390,62 @@ href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com
- Improvements to the EFI drivers:
+Improvements to the EFI drivers:
- - Drivers for additional filesystems are desirable. Given the talk of
- shifting to Btrfs, that should be the priority; however, other
- Linux filesystems, UDF, and perhaps others would all be welcome
- additions. Also along these lines, adding drivers for Linux LVM and
- RAID setups would be useful, too.
-
- - As detailed on the drivers page, there
- are performance issues with the drivers on some systems. I suspect
- that most "real" computers aren't greatly affected (in my tests,
- the problem is worst with VirtualBox, and the next worst is a
- system that uses DUET). Nonetheless,
- I'd like to track down the cause and fix it.
-
- - The HFS+ driver returns a volume label of "HFS+ volume", no matter
- what the volume's real label is.
+ - Drivers for additional filesystems are desirable. Only XFS and JFS
+ are missing from the major Linux filesystems. UDF would also be a
+ welcome addition, as might drivers for other OSes (say, for the
+ BSDs, especially if BSD developers create a boot loader similar to
+ Linux's EFI stub loader). Also along these lines, adding drivers
+ for Linux LVM and RAID setups would be useful.
- This may not be possible, or it may require a new driver, but a way
to have the drivers access files (like a Linux loopback mount) is
desirable.
+ - When built with the GNU-EFI package, an attempt to load more than
+ one driver on my 32-bit Mac Mini causes the computer to hang. I do
+ not have this problem with 64-bit drivers on my UEFI-based
+ computers. I don't know if this is a 32-bit issue or a Mac issue.
+ This is not relevant if you're using my binary package,
+ since I build it with the TianoCore EDK2, and the drivers built in
+ that way don't exhibit this bug.
+
+Improvements to gptsync, install.sh, or other
+ support tools:
+
+
+
+ - The gptsync program can return misleading error codes
+ under some circumstances, such as when it makes no changes to the
+ partition table. Fix this.
+
+ - When updating a system with Secure Boot via an RPM or Debian
+ package, the RPM installation script can detect rEFInd's existing
+ shim or PreLoader program and pass options to install.sh
+ to try to copy these programs over themselves. This results in a
+ message that the copy was over the same file and an error message
+ that there were problems with the installation, although this isn't
+ really the case.
+
+ - rEFInd's support for network booting is primitive and relies on the
+ external iPXE package. In my own testing, iPXE retrieves the
+ BIOS-mode boot loader from some servers that offer both, which
+ makes it useless on those networks.
+
+ - A Mac-specific package is highly desirable.
+
+
+
-copyright © 2012 by Roderick W. Smith
+copyright © 2012–2014 by Roderick W. Smith
This document is licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (FDL), version 1.3.