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1 0.7.2 (?/??/2013):
2 ------------------
3
4 - Fixed bug that could cause incorrect scanning or even a rEFInd crash when
5 using volume specification in also_scan_dirs token.
6
7 - Added protection against loading invalid drivers and other EFI programs.
8 (Some EFIs crash when attempting to load such drivers and programs.)
9
10 - Added PreLoader.efi and shim-fedora.efi to default dont_scan_files list;
11 it's now "shim.efi, shim-fedora.efi, PreLoader.efi, TextMode.efi,
12 ebounce.efi, GraphicsConsole.efi, MokManager.efi, HashTool.efi,
13 HashTool-signed.efi".
14
15 - Added icon for Funtoo Linux.
16
17 - Fixed reading of volume icons from user-specified icons directory, which
18 was broken.
19
20 - Fixed handling of /.VolumeBadge.icns (or /.VolumeBadge.png) files, which
21 was broken.
22
23 0.7.1 (7/8/2013):
24 -----------------
25
26 - Fixed build problem with recent development versions of EDK2.
27
28 - Added scan for Boot Repair's backup of the Windows boot loader
29 (bkpbootmgfw.efi). If found, give separate entries for it and for
30 bootmgfw.efi, each with its own descriptive text label.
31
32 - Fixed also_scan_dirs; used to have bug that caused it to ignore
33 volume specification, if present.
34
35 - Fixed bug in driver cache that caused Btrfs driver to hang sometimes.
36
37 0.7.0 (6/27/2013):
38 ------------------
39
40 - Added Btrfs signature to rEFInd, so that it can identify the filesystem
41 type for volumes that lack labels.
42
43 - Changed some critical filesystem driver pointers from 32-bit to 64-bit.
44 This *SHOULD* enable use of over-2TiB filesystems (for those filesystems
45 that support such large volumes). This capability is largely untested,
46 though.
47
48 - Added a cache to the filesystem driver core, and therefore to all the
49 filesystem drivers. This cache greatly improves performance in
50 VirtualBox, and offers modest performance improvements on a few "real"
51 computers. The most dramatic improvement is on ext2/3fs under VirtualBox:
52 Loading a kernel and initrd used to take ~200 seconds on my system, but
53 now takes ~3 seconds! On most "real" hardware, the improvement is much
54 less dramatic -- an improvement of a second or less, presumably because
55 of cacheing within the EFI or on the hard disk itself.
56
57 - Filter boot loaders based on a test of their validity; keeps out Linux
58 kernels without EFI stub loader code, loaders for the wrong architecture,
59 non-EFI loaders, etc.
60
61 - New Btrfs driver, contributed by Samuel Liao based on GRUB 2.00 Btrfs
62 code.
63
64 0.6.12 (6/18/2013):
65 -------------------
66
67 - Changed the 64-bit EFI shell included in the CD-R and USB flash drive
68 images to a version 2 shell that should support the "bcfg" command.
69
70 - Added support for PreBootloader to refind.spec's built-in installation
71 script.
72
73 - Added support for the Linux Foundation's PreLoader to install.sh. It's
74 treated just like shim, including using the --shim option (or, now,
75 --preloader); but it searches for and copies HashTool.efi rather than
76 MokManager.efi, and filenames are adjusted appropriately.
77
78 - Added code to determine Linux root filesystem from /etc/fstab file, if
79 it's on the same partition as the kernel and if the refind_linux.conf
80 file is not available. This enables rEFInd to boot Linux without any
81 rEFInd-specific configuration files on some (but not all) systems.
82
83 0.6.11 (5/13/2013):
84 -------------------
85
86 - New feature: rEFInd now ignores symbolic links to files on filesystems
87 that support them. This prevents the "vmlinuz" symbolic link that some
88 distributions create in the root directory from appearing in the loader
89 list. Note that this does NOT affect symbolic links to directories.
90
91 - Added icons for Lubuntu and Kubuntu.
92
93 - Improved the install.sh script so that it does a better job dealing with
94 directory names that contain spaces.
95
96 - rEFInd now tries to guess the Linux distribution type based on the kernel
97 filename (Fedora and RHEL only) or the "ID" or "NAME" variables in
98 /etc/os-release on the kernel's partition. None of these is guaranteed to
99 work. A fallback of the Tux penguin icon remains in place in case rEFInd
100 can't find anything substantive enough for a guess.
101
102 - Added "EFI\opensuse" to the locations searched for MOK utilities, since
103 OpenSUSE now uses that name.
104
105 - Renamed "Reboot to Firmware User Interface" to "Reboot to Computer Setup
106 Utility" in menu.
107
108 - Fixed bug in gptsync that caused it to hang if the disk had too few GPT
109 partitions to fill the MBR.
110
111 0.6.10 (5/5/2013):
112 ------------------
113
114 - Added support for "screensaver" token. If set to a positive integer, this
115 causes the screen to blank after the specified number of seconds of
116 inactivity. Pressing most keys (unfortunately NOT including Shift, Alt,
117 or Ctrl) will restore the display and restart the screen saver timeout.
118
119 - Added icon for ChromeOS (os_chrome.icns in the icons subdirectory).
120 ChromeBooks reportedly boots using the fallback filename, but if a user
121 wants to install rEFInd on a ChromeBook, renaming the original EFI/BOOT
122 directory to EFI/chrome and then installing rEFInd in the fallback
123 filename will bring up this new icon for ChromeOS.
124
125 - Added new option to reboot the computer into the firmware's user
126 interface. This option is active by default, or can be set via the
127 "firmware" option to the "showtools" token in refind.conf. It works
128 on only some computers, though; older computers lack this feature, and
129 when rEFInd is told to use this feature on such computers, the directive
130 is quietly ignored.
131
132 - Upgraded LodePNG library from version 20121216 to 20130415 and
133 restructured rEFInd-specific modifications to simplify future upgrades.
134
135 - Replaced hexadecimal error code with description if an error is
136 encountered when saving a screen shot.
137
138 - Enable multiple screen shots: Rather than naming all screen shots
139 "screenshot.bmp", the name is now "screenshot_###.bmp", where "###" is a
140 sequence number, starting with "001".
141
142 0.6.9 (4/25/2013):
143 ------------------
144
145 - Modified default banner to include the new rEFInd icon, provided by Erik
146 Kemperman.
147
148 - Worked around a suspected firmware bug that caused rEFInd 0.6.6 to 0.6.8
149 to hang at startup on some systems (DUET and some Macs).
150
151 - Modified rEFInd to search for gptsync under the names gptsync.efi and
152 gptsync_{arch}.efi, where {arch} is ia32 or x64. (Previous versions
153 searched only for gptsync.efi.)
154
155 - Added gptsync program from rEFIt project, but with some changes to
156 improve flexibility and make it less likely that UEFI users will
157 accidentally trash their systems.
158
159 - Changed timeout code so that the timeout continues if the keyboard is
160 disconnected. This can help in booting a headless server or a system with
161 a bluetooth or other keyboard that's not recognized by the EFI.
162
163 0.6.8 (3/18/2013):
164 ------------------
165
166 - Added workaround for presumed EFI bug that was causing "Invalid
167 Parameter" errors when scanning for boot loaders on some computers.
168
169 - Added search for an EFI shell called shell.efi in the root directory
170 (previously this name was only accepted in EFI\tools).
171
172 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused it to fail on some systems (Fedora
173 18, for instance) because of a problem identifying the ESP.
174
175 - Fixed bug that caused icons named after boot loaders to not be used.
176
177 0.6.7 (2/3/2013):
178 -----------------
179
180 - Added a more explicit error message summarizing options when a launch of
181 a program results in a Secure Boot failure.
182
183 - Changed MOK tool detection to scan all volumes, not just the rEFInd
184 home volume. This is desirable because the Linux Foundation's HashTool
185 can only scan its own volume, making it desirable to place copies of this
186 program on every volume that holds EFI boot loader binaries.
187
188 - Added support for launching the Linux Foundation HashTool as a means of
189 managing MOKs (or MOK hashes, at any rate).
190
191 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to present an entry for itself as a
192 Microsoft OS if it was launched as EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi.
193
194 - Fixed bug that caused dont_scan_volumes option to be added to
195 also_scan_dirs list.
196
197 - Fixed dont_scan_volumes so that it works with OS X boot loaders.
198
199 - Fixed broken mixing of PNG and ICNS icons when using a user-specified
200 icons directory -- previously, an ICNS file in the default directory
201 would override a PNG file in the user-specified directory.
202
203 0.6.6 (1/26/2013):
204 ------------------
205
206 - rEFInd now ignores the fallback boot loader (EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi or
207 EFI/BOOT/bootia32.efi) if it's identical to another boot loader on
208 the same volume. This is intended to help unclutter the display on
209 systems that run Windows, since Windows tends to duplicate its own boot
210 loader under the fallback name.
211
212 - Added new "font" token to refind.conf, which enables specifying a font in
213 the form of a PNG file. This file must contain monospace glyphs for the
214 95 characters from ASCII 32 to 126 (space through tilde), inclusive, plus
215 a glyph to be displayed for characters outside of this range, for a total
216 of 96 glyphs.
217
218 - Replaced the old font (inherited from rEFInd) with an anti-aliased
219 version of Luxi Mono Regular 14 point.
220
221 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to ignore manual boot stanzas in files
222 included via the "include" token in refind.conf.
223
224 - Fixed bug that caused ASSERT error on some systems (and conceivably a
225 crash on startup on some) when default_selection line in refind.conf was
226 commented out or empty.
227
228 - Fixed bug that caused "Binary is whitelisted" message to persist on
229 screen after loading MOK-signed drivers in Secure Boot mode.
230
231 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to ignore the "icon" token in refind.conf
232 manual boot stanzas.
233
234 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused the script to fail to update
235 drivers when rEFInd was installed in EFI/BOOT/.
236
237 0.6.5 (1/16/2013):
238 ------------------
239
240 - Improved text color support: rEFInd now uses black text against light
241 backgrounds and white text against dark backgrounds.
242
243 - Added support for PNGs as banners, icons, and selectors.
244
245 - Added icon for ALT Linux.
246
247 - Added "safemode" option to "hideui" token, to hide option to boot into
248 safe mode for OS X ("-v -x" option to boot.efi).
249
250 - Added icon for Haiku (os_haiku.icns).
251
252 - Enable transparency of icons & main-menu text when the banner icon is
253 sized to cover these areas.
254
255 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to crash if fed a banner image that's
256 too big. Note that "too big" can be substantially smaller than the screen
257 resolution!
258
259 0.6.4 (1/8/2013):
260 -----------------
261
262 - Revised install.sh to copy ext2fs driver, rather than ext4fs driver, for
263 ext2/3 filesystems. This can help keep non-functional entries from links
264 from /vmlinuz to /boot/vmlinuz out of the menu if the system uses ext4fs
265 on root and ext2fs or ext3fs on /boot.
266
267 - Fixed a couple of memory management bugs that cause rEFInd to hang at
268 startup on some systems.
269
270 0.6.3 (1/6/2013):
271 -----------------
272
273 - Added the ability to specify a volume name or number in the
274 "dont_scan_dirs" and "also_scan_dirs" tokens.
275
276 - Fixed a bug that caused removable EFI media to not appear in scan lists
277 if rEFInd was installed as EFI/BOOT/boot{arch}.efi on a hard disk.
278
279 - Modified ISO-9660 driver so that it can handle discs with other than
280 2048-byte sectors. This makes it useful for reading "hybrid ISO" images
281 burned to USB flash disks.
282
283 - New mvrefind.sh script to move a rEFInd installation between a standard
284 location (typically EFI/refind) and one of the fallback locations
285 (EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot). It can also do more exotic locations.
286
287 - The install.sh script now installs to EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi or
288 EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi if it's run in BIOS mode. This is
289 intended to give some chance of producing a bootable installation should
290 a user accidentally install Linux in EFI mode and then install rEFInd
291 from that installation.
292
293 - The install.sh script now tries to find an existing rEFInd installation
294 and upgrade it, even if it's in EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot rather
295 than in EFI/refind.
296
297 - New "--yes" option to install.sh to help with unattended or automated
298 installations (as from an RPM or Debian package).
299
300 0.6.2 (12/30/2012):
301 -------------------
302
303 - Inclusion of a sample refind.spec file for the benefit of RPM
304 distribution maintainers who might want to include rEFInd. It's a bit
305 rough, but it gets you a good chunk of the way there....
306
307 - The EFI filesystem drivers can now be built with the GNU-EFI toolkit as
308 well as with the TianoCore EDK2. See the BUILDING.txt file for details on
309 how to build them with either toolkit. This improvement doesn't affect
310 users of my binary packages, but it should make it easier for Linux
311 distributions to adopt rEFInd into their package systems.
312
313 - Tweaked refind.inf file for better build results using "native" TianoCore
314 EDK2 build process (vs. the Makefile-based build process that I use under
315 Linux). This won't affect those who use my binary builds or build under
316 Linux with the "make" command.
317
318 - Fixed bug that prevented Secure Boot launches from working when rEFInd
319 was built with GNU-EFI rather than the TianoCore EDK2.
320
321 - Substantial reworking of Secure Boot code, based on James Bottomley's
322 PreLoader program. This new code eliminates the limitation of launching
323 just one driver in Secure Boot mode and is likely to be more reliable
324 with future or obscure boot loaders. It should also work with non-x86-64
325 systems, although this relies on a platform-specific shim program, which
326 to date exists only for x86-64. The basic features are the same as before
327 -- rEFInd relies on shim for authentication functions and will launch
328 programs that are signed by Secure Boot keys, shim keys, or MOKs.
329
330 - Altered default for "textmode" option (when it's commented out) to not
331 adjust the text mode at all. (Prior versions set it to mode 0 by
332 default.)
333
334 0.6.1 (12/21/2012):
335 -------------------
336
337 - Added "--root" option to install.sh, to enable installation of rEFInd
338 to something other than the currently-running OS. This is intended for
339 use on emergency discs.
340
341 - Thanks to Stefan Agner, the ext4fs driver now supports the "meta_bg"
342 filesystem feature, which distributes metadata throughout the disk. This
343 feature isn't used by default, but can be set at filesystem creation time
344 by passing the "-O meta_bg,^resize_inode" option to mke2fs. (Using
345 "^resize_inode" is necessary because meta_bg is incompatible with
346 resize_inode, which IS used by default.) This feature can be used on
347 ext3fs and ext2fs as well as on ext4fs, so the ext4fs driver can now
348 handle some ext3fs and ext2fs partitions that the ext2fs driver can't
349 handle.
350
351 - Fixed some screen resolution-setting bugs.
352
353 - Added the "words" that make up a filesystem's label (delimited by spaces,
354 dashes, or underscores) to the list of bases used to search for OS icons.
355 For instance, if the filesystem's label is "Arch", rEFInd searches for
356 os_Arch.icns; if it's "Fedora 17", it searches for os_Fedora.icns and
357 os_17.icns; and if it's "NEW_GENTOO", it searches for os_NEW.icns and
358 os_GENTOO.icns.
359
360 - Refined hints displays to be more context-sensitive, particularly in text
361 mode.
362
363 - Instead of displaying a blank filesystem label when a filesystem has
364 none, rEFInd now displays the size and/or type of the filesystem, as in
365 "boot EFI\foo\bar.efi from 200 MiB ext3 volume" rather than "boot
366 EFI\foo\bar.efi from".
367
368 - Fixed a bug that caused the screen to clear after displaying an error
369 message but before displaying the "Hit any key to continue" message when
370 a boot loader launch failed.
371
372 0.6.0 (12/16/2012):
373 -------------------
374
375 - Fixed a memory allocation bug that could cause a program crash when
376 specifying certain values with the "also_scan_dirs", "dont_scan_volumes",
377 "dont_scan_dirs", "dont_scan_files", and "scan_driver_dirs" refind.conf
378 options.
379
380 - Modified Linux kernel initrd-finding code so that if an initrd is
381 specified in refind_linux.conf, rEFInd will not add any initrd it finds.
382 This enables an override of the default initrd, and is likely to be
383 particularly helpful to Arch Linux users.
384
385 - Added ext4fs driver!
386
387 - Made "boot" the default value for "also_scan_dirs".
388
389 - Added identifying screen header to line editor.
390
391 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd's display to be mis-sized upon return
392 from a program that set the resolution itself.
393
394 - Adjusted "resolution" refind.conf parameter so that it can accept EITHER
395 a resolution as width and height OR a single digit as a UEFI mode number
396 (which is system-specific). This is done because some systems present the
397 same mode twice in their mode lists, perhaps varying in refresh rate,
398 monitor output, or some other salient characteristics; specifying the
399 mode number enables selecting the higher-numbered mode, whereas using
400 horizontal and vertical resolution values selects the lowest-numbered
401 mode.
402
403 - Added "textmode" refind.conf parameter to set the text mode used in
404 text-only displays, and for the line editor and boot-time handoff
405 display even in graphics mode.
406
407 - Fixed bug that caused tools (shell, etc.) to launch when they were
408 highlighted and F2 or Insert was pressed.
409
410 - Added "editor" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf, which
411 disables the boot options editor.
412
413 - Added hints text to rEFInd main menu and sub-menus. This can be disabled
414 by setting the new "hints" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf.
415
416 - Added "boot with minimal options" entry to refind_linux.conf file
417 generated by install.sh. This entry boots without the options extracted
418 from the /etc/default/grub file.
419
420 - Added keys subdirectory to main distribution, to hold public Secure
421 Boot/shim keys from known sources.
422
423 - Changed install.sh --drivers option to --alldrivers, added new
424 --nodrivers option, and made the default on Linux to install the one
425 driver that's used on /boot (or the root filesystem if /boot isn't a
426 separate partition). Of course, this won't install a non-existent driver,
427 and it also won't work properly if run from an emergency disk unless you
428 mount a separate /boot partition at that location.
429
430 - Fixed bug in install.sh that prevented creation of refind_linux.conf file
431 on Linux systems.
432
433 0.5.1.1 (12/12/2012):
434 ---------------------
435
436 - Fixed bug in install.sh that prevented it from working on OS X.
437
438 0.5.1 (12/11/2012):
439 -------------------
440
441 - Added support for "0" options to "textonly" and "scan_all_linux_kernels"
442 to reverse the usual meaning of these tokens. This is useful for
443 including these options in a secondary configuration file called with the
444 new "include" token to override a setting set in the main file.
445
446 - Added "include" token for refind.conf, to enable including a secondary
447 configuration file from a primary one.
448
449 - Modified install.sh so that it creates a simple refind_linux.conf file in
450 /boot, if that file doesn't already exist and if install.sh is run from
451 Linux. If that directory happens to be on a FAT, HFS+, ext2fs, ext3fs, or
452 ReiserFS volume, and if the necessary drivers are installed, the result
453 is that rEFInd will detect the Linux installation with no further
454 configuration on many systems. (Some may still require tweaking of kernel
455 options, though; for instance, adding "dolvm" on Gentoo systems that use
456 LVM.)
457
458 - Added --shim and --localkeys options to install.sh to help simplify setup
459 on systems with Secure Boot active.
460
461 - Fixed (maybe) bug that caused resolution options to not be displayed on
462 recent Macs with GOP graphics when specifying an invalid resolution in
463 refind.conf.
464
465 - Fixed bug that caused some programs (EFI shells, in particular) to hang
466 when launching on some systems (DUET, in particular).
467
468 - Implemented a fix to enable ELILO to launch with Secure Boot active.
469 This fix might help with some other boot loaders in Secure Boot mode,
470 too, but I don't know of any specifics.
471
472 0.5.0 (12/6/2012):
473 ------------------
474
475 - Added the ability to include quote marks ('"') in refind.conf and
476 refind_linux.conf tokens by doubling them up, as in:
477 "ro root=/dev/sda4 some_value=""this is it"""
478 This example results in the following string being passed as an
479 option:
480 ro root=/dev/sda4 some_value="this is it"
481
482 - Changed refind.conf-sample to uncomment the scan_all_linux_kernels
483 option by default. If this option is deleted or commented out, the
484 program default remains to not scan all Linux kernels; but with
485 increasing numbers of distributions shipping with kernels that include
486 EFI stub loader support, setting the configuration file default to scan
487 for them makes sense.
488
489 - Modified the "resolution" token so that it affects text mode as well
490 as graphics mode. On my systems, though, the actual text area is still
491 restricted to an 80x25 area. (This seems to be a firmware limitation; my
492 EFI shells are also so limited.)
493
494 - Fixed a bug that caused the options line editor to blank out lines that
495 were not actually edited.
496
497 - Added support for using Matthew Garrett's Shim program and its Machine
498 Owner Keys (MOKs) to extend Secure Boot capabilities. If rEFInd is
499 launched from Shim on a computer with Secure Boot active, rEFInd will
500 launch programs signed with either a standard UEFI Secure Boot key or a
501 MOK. For the moment, this feature works only on x86-64 systems.
502
503 - Added new "dont_scan_files" (aka "don't_scan_files") token for
504 refind.conf. The effect is similar to dont_scan_dirs, but it creates a
505 blacklist of filenames within directories rather than directory names.
506 I'm initially using it to place shim.efi and MokManager.efi in the
507 blacklist to keep these programs out of the OS list. (MokManager.efi is
508 scanned separately as a tool; see below.) I've moved checks for
509 ebounce.efi, GraphicsConsole.efi, and TextMode.efi to this list. (These
510 three had previously been blacklisted by hard-coding in ScanLoaderDir().)
511
512 - Added the directory from which rEFInd launched to dont_scan_dirs. This
513 works around a bug in which rEFInd would show itself as a bogus Windows
514 entry if it's installed as EFI/Microsoft/boot/bootmgfw.efi.
515
516 - Added support for launching MokManager.efi for managing the Machine Owner
517 Keys (MOKs) maintained by the shim boot loader developed by Fedora and
518 SUSE. This program is scanned and presented as a second-row tool.
519
520 - Added support for Apple's Recovery HD partition: If it's detected, a new
521 icon appears on the second row. This icon can be removed by explicitly
522 setting the "showtools" option in refind.conf and excluding the
523 "apple_recovery" option from that line.
524
525 - Fixed bug that caused text-mode ("textonly" refind.conf option enabled)
526 menu entries to be right-aligned rather than left-aligned when rEFInd was
527 compiled with the TianoCore EDK2.
528
529 - Added "--usedefault {devicename}" and "--drivers" options to the
530 install.sh script and changed the "esp" option to "--esp".
531
532 0.4.7 (11/6/2012):
533 ------------------
534
535 - Added an icon for gummiboot.
536
537 - Added a boot option editor: Pressing the Insert or F2 key from a boot
538 tag's options menu opens a simple text-mode line editor on which the boot
539 options may be edited for a one-time boot with altered options.
540
541 - Modified the "scan_delay" feature to delay and then perform a re-scan,
542 which may work better than the first attempt at this feature (which I'm
543 told isn't working as planned).
544
545 - Modified rEFInd to add a space after the command-line options only when
546 launching Mac OS X. On some early Macs, the extra space (which had been
547 present by default, as a carryover from rEFIt) causes problems when
548 booting Linux kernels from FAT partitions.
549
550 0.4.6 (10/6/2012):
551 ------------------
552
553 - Fixed some minor memory management issues.
554
555 - Added new "scan_delay" feature to impose a delay before scanning
556 for disks.
557
558 - Changed default "scanfor" option from internal-external-optical to either
559 internal-external-optical-manual (for non-Macs) or
560 internal-hdbios-external-biosexternal-optical-cd-manual (for Macs). I've
561 done this for two reasons:
562 - Many Mac users have been confused by the fact that rEFInd needs
563 reconfiguration to detect Windows (or Linux installed in BIOS mode),
564 since rEFIt scans BIOS devices by default. Adding the BIOS options as
565 default for them should help them.
566 - Adding the "manual" option enables users to simply add manual boot
567 stanzas and have them work, which is more intuitive. Adding the
568 "manual" option will have no effect unless manual stanzas are created
569 or uncommented, so this part of the change won't affect users' working
570 default configurations.
571
572 - Added new legacy (BIOS) boot support for UEFI-based PCs.
573
574 0.4.5 (8/12/2012):
575 ------------------
576
577 - Fixed bug that caused a failure to boot BIOS-based OSes on Macs.
578
579 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused it to fail to detect rEFItBlesser.
580
581 0.4.4 (6/23/2012):
582 ------------------
583
584 - Fixed bug that caused filesystem labels to be corrupted by rEFInd on
585 32-bit systems.
586
587 - Fixed bug that caused filesystem labels to be truncated in the drivers
588 on 32-bit systems.
589
590 - Fixed bug in use_graphics_for option parsing that caused most options
591 to set graphics mode for OS X and/or Linux but not other boot
592 loaders/OSes.
593
594 - Tweaked install script to better isolate the ESP under OS X.
595
596 0.4.3 (6/21/2012):
597 ------------------
598
599 - rEFInd now supports compilation using the TianoCore UDK2010/EDK2
600 development kit in addition to GNU-EFI.
601
602 - Added new "use_graphics_for" option to control which OSes to boot in
603 graphics mode. (This effect lasts for a fraction of a second on most
604 systems, since the boot loader that rEFInd launches is likely to set
605 graphics or text mode itself.)
606
607 - Graphics-mode booting now clears the screen to the current rEFInd
608 background color (rather than black) and does NOT display boot messages.
609 The intent is for a smoother transition when booting OS X, or perhaps
610 other OSes that don't display boot loader messages. In practice, this
611 effect will be tiny for many OSes, since the boot loader generally clears
612 the screen within a fraction of a second of being launched; but the
613 "flicker" of a rEFInd message in that time can sometimes be distracting.
614
615 - Filesystem drivers now work on EFI 1.x systems, such as Macs.
616
617 - Removed "linux.conf" as a valid alternative name for "refind_linux.conf"
618 for holding Linux kernel options. The kernel developers plan to use
619 "linux.conf" themselves.
620
621 0.4.2 (6/3/2012):
622 -----------------
623
624 - Added a message to install.sh when run on Macs to remind users to update
625 the "scanfor" line in refind.conf if they need to boot BIOS-based OSes
626 via rEFInd.
627
628 - Modified install.sh script to be smarter about running efibootmgr on
629 Linux. It now uses the whole path to the rEFInd binary as a key to
630 determine whether an existing entry exists, rather than just the filename
631 portion. If an entry exists and is the first entry in the boot order, the
632 script does nothing to the NVRAM entries. If such an entry exists but is
633 not the default, the script deletes that entry and creates a new one
634 (implicitly making it the first in the boot order). If such an entry does
635 not exist, the script creates a new one (again, making it the first in
636 the boot order).
637
638 - Added "dont_scan_dirs" configuration file option, which adds directories
639 to a "blacklist" of directories that are NOT scanned for boot loaders.
640
641 0.4.1 (5/25/2012):
642 ------------------
643
644 - Added "scanning for new boot loaders" message to the re-scan function
645 (hitting Esc at the main menu). It usually flashes up too quickly to
646 be of importance, but if the scan function takes a while because of
647 access to a CD that must be spun up, it should make it clear that the
648 system hasn't hung.
649
650 - Modified install.sh script to detect rEFItBlesser on Macs, and if
651 present, to ask the user if it should be removed.
652
653 - Cleaned up the Make.common file for the filesystem drivers.
654
655 - Changed HFS+ driver to return volume label of "HFS+ volume" rather than
656 an empty label. (The driver doesn't currently read the real volume
657 label.)
658
659 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to appear in its own menu after
660 running a shell and then re-scanning for boot loaders.
661
662 0.4.0 (5/20/2012):
663 ------------------
664
665 - Inclusion of drivers for ISO-9660, HFS+, ReiserFS, and ext2fs. Most of
666 these drivers originated with rEFIt, although the HFS+ driver seems to
667 have come from Oracle's VirtualBox, with some files from Apple. I hadn't
668 included these drivers previously because the build process proved
669 challenging. As it is, they don't work on my Mac Mini, I suspect because
670 the build process with the UDK2010 development kit may not work with the
671 EFI 1.x that Apple uses.
672
673 - Addition of support for drivers in the "drivers_{arch}" subdirectory of
674 the main rEFInd binary directory (e.g., "drivers_x64" or "drivers_ia32").
675 Drivers may continue to be placed in the "drivers" subdirectory.
676
677 - Added new feature to eject CDs (and other removable media): Press F12 to
678 eject all such media. This function works only on some Macs, though (it
679 relies on an Apple-specific EFI extension, and this extension isn't even
680 implemented on all Macs, much less on UEFI-based PCs).
681
682 - Fixed a problem that could cause GRUB 2 to fail to read its configuration
683 file when launched from rEFInd.
684
685 0.3.5 (5/15/2012):
686 ------------------
687
688 - Removed the GRUB 2 detection "reciped" added with 0.3.2, since I've
689 received reports that it's not working as intended.
690
691 - Added re-scan feature: Press the Esc key to have rEFInd re-read its
692 configuration file, tell the EFI to scan for new filesystems, and re-scan
693 those filesystems for boot loaders. The main purpose is to enable
694 scanning a new removable medium that you insert after launching rEFInd;
695 however, it can also be used to immediately implement changes to the
696 configuration file or new drivers you load from an EFI shell.
697
698 - Fixed a bug that could cause the scroll-right arrow to be replaced by the
699 scroll-left arrow under some circumstances.
700
701 0.3.4 (5/9/2012):
702 -----------------
703
704 - Added new configuration file option: "icons_dir", which sets the name
705 of the subdirectory in which icons are found. See the documentation or
706 sample configuration file for a full description.
707
708 - Modified Makefile to generate rEFInd binary that includes architecture
709 code -- refind_ia32.efi or refind_x64.efi, rather than the generic
710 refind.efi. This is done mainly to help the install.sh script. The
711 program can be named anything you like on the disk. (The generic name
712 refind.efi is used on unknown architectures.)
713
714 - Improved install.sh script: Fixed bug on OS X 10.7 and enable it to be
715 used after building from source code (or via new "make install" Makefile
716 target).
717
718 - Improved screen redraws to produce less flicker when moving among the
719 second-row tags or to the last tag on the first row.
720
721 0.3.3 (5/6/2012):
722 -----------------
723
724 - Improved menu navigation:
725 - In graphics mode, left & right arrow keys move left & right, while up &
726 down arrows move between rows.
727 - Page Up and Page Down now move through chunks of visible tags (in both
728 text & graphics modes), jumping from one row to another only when at
729 the edge of the row. In text mode, the "rows" are broken down as in
730 graphics mode, but they aren't visibly distinguished on the screen.
731
732 - Improved text-mode use: rEFInd now displays the proper number of entries
733 when first started in text mode and scrolling is done sensibly when too
734 many entries exist to fit on the screen.
735
736 0.3.2 (5/4/2012):
737 -----------------
738
739 - Added the install.sh script to install rEFInd on Linux and Mac OS X
740 systems. This script must be run as root (or via sudo). It requires
741 no options, but on Mac OS X, passing it the "esp" option causes it
742 to install rEFInd on the computer's ESP rather than the default of the
743 currently OS X boot partition. (Under Linux, the default is to install to
744 the ESP.) Note that there may be some unusual cases in which this script
745 will fail to work.
746
747 - Does a better job of clearing the screen when launching OSes in text
748 mode.
749
750 - Added detection "recipe" for GRUB 2's BIOS Boot Partition.
751
752 - Fixed bogus detection of ESPs created by Linux's mkdosfs utility or
753 Windows as bootable partitions when "scanfor" includes BIOS scanning
754 options.
755
756
757 0.3.1 (4/27/2012):
758 ------------------
759
760 - Fixed bug that caused spurious "Unsupported while scanning the root
761 directory" messages under some conitions on Macs.
762
763 - Modified loader scanning code to sort boot loader entries within a
764 directory by modification time, so that the most recently-modified loader
765 is first among those in a given directory. Thus, if you specify a
766 directory name (or volume name, for loaders stored in the root directory
767 of a volume) as the default_selection, the most recent of those loaders
768 will be the default. This is intended to help with Linux kernel
769 maintenance when using the EFI stub loader; set up this way, the most
770 recent kernel copied to your kernel directory will be the default,
771 obviating the need to adjust the refind.conf file when adding a new
772 kernel. If you want to change the default among those in the default
773 directory, you can use "touch" to adjust the modification timestamp.
774
775 - Tweaked code to find loader-specific .icns file so that it finds files
776 for Linux kernels without .efi extensions. In this case, files should be
777 named the same as the kernels they match, but with .icns extensions. For
778 instance, bzImage-3.3.2 should have an icon called bzImage-3.3.2.icns.
779 (The old code would have looked for an icon called bzImage-3.3.icns.)
780
781 - Eliminated bogus OS loader tags for filenames that end in ".icns" when
782 the scan_all_linux_kernels option is set.
783
784 0.3.0 (4/22/2012):
785 ------------------
786
787 - I'm officially upgrading this project's status from "alpha" to "beta" and
788 giving it a bump from 0.2.x to 0.3.0. This doesn't reflect any major
789 milestone with this version; rather, it reflects my sense that rEFInd has
790 been "out there" for a while, and although I've gotten bug reports,
791 they've been minor and/or have been fixed. The program still has known
792 bugs, but my impression is that it is, overall, usable by ordinary users.
793
794 - Added "resolution" option to refind.conf, which enables setting the video
795 resolution. To use it, pass two numeric values, as in "resolution 1024
796 768" to use a 1024x768 video mode. Note that not all modes are supported.
797 If you specify a non-supported video mode on a UEFI system, a message
798 appears listing the supported video modes and you must then press a key
799 to continue, using the default video mode (usually 800x600).
800 Unfortunately, I don't know the calls to get a list of supported video
801 modes on older EFI 1.x systems (including Macs), so on Macs setting an
802 incorrect video mode silently fails (you keep using the default mode).
803 This makes changing your video mode a hit-or-miss proposition on Macs.
804 CAUTION: It's possible to set a legal video mode that your monitor can't
805 handle, in which case you'll get a blank display until you boot an OS
806 that resets the video mode.
807
808 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused rEFInd to crash when returning from an
809 EFI shell or other programs on Macs, particularly when rEFInd used
810 graphical mode. I'm not 100% sure this bug is squashed because I still
811 don't understand the cause and I only have one Mac for testing. See
812 comments in the ReinitRefitLib() function in refit/lib.c for more
813 details.
814
815 - Added new refind.conf option: scan_all_linux_kernels, which causes Linux
816 kernels that lack ".efi" extensions to be included in scans for EFI boot
817 loaders. This may help integration with Linux distributions that don't
818 give their kernels such names by default. Beware, though: It can detect
819 unwanted files, such as older non-stub-loader kernels or .icns files used
820 to give kernels with .efi extensions custom icons.
821
822 - Improved EFI boot loader detection on boards with Gigabyte's Hybrid EFI,
823 and perhaps other EFIs with a buggy StriCmp() function. Files with both
824 ".efi" and ".EFI" extensions should now be detected as boot loaders.
825
826 - Fixed a bug that caused rEFInd to fail to scan for drivers if the
827 filesystem driver didn't set a volume name (that is, if the relevant
828 field was set to NULL rather than even an empty string). In such
829 situations, rEFInd now reports the volume name as "Unknown".
830
831 0.2.7 (4/19/2012):
832 ------------------
833
834 - After much trial and tribulation, I've overcome a GNU-EFI limitation and
835 enabled rEFInd to load EFI drivers. This feature was present in the
836 original build of rEFIt but was removed in the versions that could
837 compile under Linux, but now it's back -- and still being compiled under
838 Linux! To use it, you should place your drivers in a convenient directory
839 on the ESP (or whatever partition you use to launch rEFInd) and add a
840 "scan_driver_dirs" entry to refind.conf to tell rEFInd where to look. (As
841 always, you should specify the driver directory relative to the root of
842 the filesystem.) Note that you can't launch drivers from another
843 filesystem; they must be on the same volume that holds rEFInd. Those who
844 compile from source code should note that implementing this feature
845 necessitated using a more recent version of the GNU-EFI library. I'm
846 currently using version 3.0p, and version 3.0i does NOT work. I don't
847 know where the change occurred, but you may need to upgrade your GNU-EFI
848 installation.
849
850 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to show up in its own menu sometimes.
851
852 - Added new refind.conf token: also_scan_dirs. When scanning volumes for
853 EFI boot loaders, rEFInd always scans the root directory and every
854 subdirectory of the /EFI directory, but it doesn't recurse into these
855 directories. The also_scan_dirs token adds more directories to the scan
856 list. It defaults to "elilo,boot", but you can set it to any directory or
857 directories you like.
858
859 0.2.6 (4/14/2012):
860 ------------------
861
862 - Added "volume" keyword to configuration file's stanza options. This
863 option changes the volume from which subsequent files (specified by
864 "loader" and "icon") are loaded. You pass "volume" the name/label of the
865 FILESYSTEM you want to use (not the GPT partition name), or a number
866 followed by a colon (e.g., "1:"). The former should reliably identify a
867 filesystem, assuming the name is unique. The latter assigns numbers based
868 on the order in which they're scanned, which may not be as reliable but
869 should work when a volume is unnamed.
870
871 - Fixed bug in 0.2.5 that caused failure of Linux initial RAM disk
872 mapping on some (but not all) systems. Affected computers include at
873 least some Intel motherboards, maybe others.
874
875 0.2.5 (4/9/2012):
876 -----------------
877
878 - Fixed bug that caused an inability to associate initial RAM disks with
879 Linux kernels stored in a volume's root directory.
880
881 - Volume badges (that override default badges) are now stored in
882 .VolumeBadge.icns. Although undocumented, rEFInd formerly loaded custom
883 volume badges from .VolumeIcon.icns. This carryover from rEFIt was a
884 confusing name, given the next (new) feature, so I've changed and
885 documented the name....
886
887 - Added ability to set a default icon for a loader stored in the root
888 directory of a volume: The icon is stored in .VolumeIcon.icns. This icon
889 is also used for Mac OS X volumes booted from the standard location.
890
891 - Fixed bug that caused icons to drop back to generic icons when rEFInd
892 was launched in certain ways (such as from an EFI shell in rEFInd's
893 directory) on certain systems.
894
895 - Fixed bug that caused "unknown disable flag" to be shown (very briefly)
896 instead of "unknown hideui flag" when an improper hideui flag was set.
897
898 0.2.4 (4/5/2012):
899 -----------------
900
901 - Created new refind.conf entry: "showtools". This entry takes options of
902 "shell", "gptsync", "about", "exit", "reboot", and "shutdown". This
903 option is in some respects an affirmative version of portions of the old
904 "disable" and "hideui" options; however, it enables users to specify the
905 order in which these options appear on the screen. Also, the "exit"
906 option is new; it terminates the program. The effect is usually to return
907 to whatever tool launched it or to launch a default OS; however, this is
908 somewhat unpredictable. The default therefore omits the "exit" option, as
909 well as "gptsync", which has always been dangerous (but necessary on most
910 MacOS/Windows dual-boot setups on Macs). As part of this reconfiguration,
911 I've eliminated the "rescue Linux" option, which always seemed pointless
912 to me.
913
914 - Folded "disable" and "hideui" refind.conf entries into one ("disable"),
915 and reduced the number of options to six: "banner", "label",
916 "singleuser", "hwtest", "arrows", and "all". ("arrows" is new and
917 disables the scroll arrows when a system has too many tags to display
918 simultaneously.)
919
920 - Added max_tags option to the refind.conf file, enabling users to reduce
921 the maximum number of OS loader tags that can be displayed at once.
922
923 - Updated rEFIt icon, based on the 128x128 volume label from the rEFIt CD
924 image.
925
926 - Added x86 and x86-64 EFI shells to the CD image version of the binary,
927 but NOT to the binary zip file. The logic is that the CD image is more
928 likely to be used directly as an emergency disc and so may need this
929 feature, even though the source isn't part of the rEFInd project. (The
930 source is readily available from the TianoCore project.)
931
932 - EFI shells may now be stored at /shellx64.efi for x86-64 systems or at
933 /shellia32.efi for x86 systems. The /EFI/tools/shell.efi name is also
934 recognized; however, if both files are present, two EFI shell icons will
935 appear on the main menu. The /efi/{refind-path/apps/shell.efi filename,
936 which was never officially documented but worked as a carryover from
937 rEFIt, is no longer valid.
938
939 0.2.3 (3/26/2012):
940 ------------------
941
942 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused hangs when launching a second program
943 after returning from a first. There are some weird system-to-system
944 differences, though, and this fix causes (apparently harmless) error
945 messages about "(re)opening our installation volume" on at least one
946 system (a 32-bit Mac Mini). I'm committing this change because, imperfect
947 though it is, it's preferable to the earlier version, at least on my
948 small sample of computers.
949
950 - Because of news that the Linux kernel developers are planning to use the
951 filename linux.conf to hold Linux kernel configuration data for EFI
952 booting, I'm transitioning rEFInd away from that name and to
953 refind_linux.conf to avoid a conflict. This version can use either name,
954 with refind_linux.conf taking precedence if both are present.
955
956 - Added logo for Arch Linux.
957
958 0.2.2 (3/23/2012):
959 ------------------
960
961 - Fixed bug that caused program failure when Linux kernels with EFI stub
962 support were detected with no associated version numbers. rEFInd now
963 permits automatic linking of *ONE* versionless kernel to *ONE*
964 versionless initrd file.
965
966 - Fixed bug that caused program hangs when a boot loader filename or label
967 was too long. Such names are now properly truncated and program execution
968 continues.
969
970 - Fixed bug that caused no text to appear in submenus on UEFI systems with
971 small screens (800x600). NOTE: Problem still occurs on screens smaller
972 than this, but such systems are very rare.
973
974 0.2.1 (3/19/2012):
975 ------------------
976
977 - Added ability to set a "default_selection" that's a title or a substring
978 of one -- the name given to a stanza in a "menuentry" or the boot
979 loader's filename, in most cases, although "Mac OS X", "Windows XP
980 (XoM)", and "Microsoft EFI boot" are also titles.
981
982 - Added support for semi-automatic scans of Linux kernels with EFI stub
983 loader support. The program auto-detects matching initial RAM disk files
984 and loads additional options from the "linux.conf" file in the same
985 directory as the kernel.
986
987 - Added support for "submenuentry" keyword and associated sub-stanza
988 entries in refind.conf file.
989
990 - Renamed icons/os_mint.icns to icons/os_linuxmint.icns to match the
991 filename Linux Mint ACTUALLY uses for its ESP boot loader directory.
992
993
994 0.2.0 (3/14/2012):
995 ------------------
996
997 - Initial public release