]> code.delx.au - refind/blob - NEWS.txt
Finished removal of Oracle's GPLv2-only code from the base FSW files.
[refind] / NEWS.txt
1 0.8.3 (?/??/2014):
2 ------------------
3
4 - Removed GPLv2 code from the FSW core files. This was done because the
5 Btrfs driver is derived from the GRUB Btrfs driver, which is licensed
6 under the GPLv3. Ironically, the GPLv2 and GPLv3 are incompatible
7 licenses, so ensuring that the Btrfs driver doesn't rely on GPLv2 code
8 was legally necessary. In most cases, I reverted to the original rEFIt
9 code, although I kept my own cache code; since I wrote it, I can
10 change its license to a BSD license.
11
12 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to unload drivers immediately after loading
13 them. This didn't affect rEFInd's own drivers because they didn't include
14 the unload hooks, but it did affect some other drivers.
15
16 - Changed default scan_all_linux_kernels setting from "false" to "true",
17 and commented the option out in refind.conf-sample. This should not
18 affect most people, since refind.conf-sample had this option commented
19 out, and most rEFInd users either use it that way or don't have Linux
20 kernels installed at all. I've made this change because I want rEFInd to
21 "do the right thing" by default in as many cases as possible. For a while
22 now, rEFInd has been excluding non-bootable files from its menu, and most
23 kernels "in the wild" now include the EFI stub. Thus, enabling this
24 support by default seems worthwhile. If you prefer to not scan Linux
25 kernels by default, simply uncomment the "scan_all_linux_kernels" line
26 and ensure it's set to "false".
27
28 0.8.2.1 (6/8/2014):
29 -------------------
30
31 - Removed stray bit of debugging code that caused a prompt to press a
32 key to appear at rEFInd startup.
33
34 0.8.2 (6/8/2014):
35 -----------------
36
37 - Changed behavior when default_selection is not set: It now boots the
38 previously-booted loader, assuming it's still available; if not, rEFInd
39 boots the first loader (as it does now). Behavior is unchanged if
40 default_selection is set. Note that this behavior depends on the ability
41 of rEFInd to store an EFI variable in NVRAM. It therefore fails on
42 systems with flaky NVRAM storage. You can view the previously-booted
43 loader in the
44 /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/PreviousBoot-36d08fa7-cf0b-42f5-8f14-68df73ed3740
45 variable under Linux.
46
47 - Added icon for Mageia Linux (os_mageia.png).
48
49 - Fixed bug that could misidentify a not-quite-GUID as a GUID in a
50 manual boot stanza's "volume" line.
51
52 - I've updated my personal build system, and therefore the rEFInd Makefiles
53 and related files, to use TianoCore UDK2014 rather than UDK2010.
54
55 - Added "deep_uefi_legacy_scan" token. When not set (the default), rEFInd
56 does not modify EFI NVRAM settings when scanning for BIOS-mode boot
57 loaders on UEFI-based (non-Mac) computers. Some computers require
58 uncommenting this setting for rEFInd to reliably detect some BIOS-mode
59 boot devices. Passing "0", "off", or "false" as an option resets it to
60 the default value (useful in a loaded secondary configuration file to
61 override a setting in the main file).
62
63 0.8.1 (5/15/2014):
64 ------------------
65
66 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to fail to detect boot loaders stored
67 on the root directory of a partition.
68
69 - Added two new bitmap fonts to those distributed with rEFInd: Ubuntu Mono
70 and Nimbus Mono. Both come in 12-, 14-, 16-, and 24-point sizes.
71
72 - Messages about pauses for scanning and re-scanning of boot loaders are
73 now suppressed when doing an initial delayed scan when scan_delay is 1
74 second.
75
76 - Improved centering of legacy boot option descriptions on some systems'
77 screens.
78
79 - Fixed bug that could cause a BIOS-mode boot to boot from an inappropriate
80 device if that device had an innately high boot priority (as set by the
81 firmware).
82
83 - Changed icons from ICNS to PNG form. There are several reasons to do
84 this, all of them minor; but together they're enough to warrant a change.
85 PNG is more common, and therefore more accessible to most users --
86 particularly those who don't use OS X. The PNG files are smaller than
87 their ICNS equivalents. PNG supports a wider range of sizes (although I'm
88 not now using anything that ICNS doesn't support, I might in the future).
89 The icon-scaling support added a few versions ago makes ICNS's support
90 for multiple icon sizes relatively unimportant.
91
92 - Reversed order of search for icons by extension: rEFInd now searches
93 for PNG files before ICNS files, rather than the other way around. This
94 makes it possible to override a volume icon for rEFInd by giving it the
95 name .VolumeIcon.png, even when a .VolumeIcon.icns file exists on the
96 volume and is used by OS X.
97
98 - Fixed bug that caused .VolumeIcon.icns to take higher-than-intended
99 precedence in icon setting for OS X.
100
101 - Chainloading to BIOS-mode boot loaders now works on UEFI-based PCs when
102 rEFInd is built with GNU-EFI, not just when built with Tianocore.
103
104 0.8.0 (5/4/2014):
105 -----------------
106
107 - The "dont_scan_volumes" parameter now also works with legacy-boot
108 volumes. Unlike with EFI volumes, where the option you pass must exactly
109 match an entire volume name, when applied to legacy-boot volumes, it
110 matches any part of the description that appears beneath the item when
111 you select it in the rEFInd main menu.
112
113 - Can now boot in legacy mode from second (and probably later) hard disks!
114
115 - rEFInd now limits the length of the firmware name string shown in the
116 system information screen to 65 characters. This is done because at least
117 one EFI presents a longer string by default, and this causes the entire
118 information display to come up empty on 800x600 displays.
119
120 - rEFInd now uses the partition's name (as stored in the GPT data
121 structures) as a fallback for the filesystem's name if the latter can't
122 be found. Exceptions are if the partition name is one of three generic
123 names used by GPT fdisk: "Microsoft basic data", "Linux filesystem", or
124 "Apple HFS/HFS+". These are ignored in favor of the descriptive fallback
125 (e.g., "20 GiB Btrfs volume")
126
127 - It's now possible to specify a volume by partition GUID number in a
128 manual boot stanza. This should be more reliable (albeit also more
129 awkward) than using a filesystem number (such as fs0: or fs1:).
130
131 - Fixed memory-allocation bug that could cause error message displays,
132 and possibly hangs, when re-scanning boot loaders.
133
134 0.7.9 (4/20/2014):
135 ------------------
136
137 - Attempt to fix rEFInd perpetually re-scanning after ejecting a disc on
138 some Macs.
139
140 - Added check to remove redundant (or non-functional if Secure Boot is
141 active) kernel entries for Ubuntu, which is now including two versions of
142 kernels, one signed and the other unsigned.
143
144 - Fixed bug in install.sh that could cause it to display error messages
145 if the dmraid utility was not installed.
146
147 - The HFS+ driver now reports a correct volume name.
148
149 - Fixed some EFI filesystem driver bugs that could cause lockups under
150 some circumstances. These bugs could affect any of the filesystem
151 drivers.
152
153 - Added "gdisk" option to the "showtools" configuration file token. When
154 active, this adds gdisk.efi or gdisk_{arch}.efi, if present in the
155 EFI\tools directory, to the tools row.
156
157 - Fixed mistaken identification of the MOK utility as the "MOK utility
158 utility."
159
160
161 0.7.8 (3/9/2014):
162 -----------------
163
164 - Added "debian" directory to source, which facilitates creation of Debian
165 packages. Packages built in this way are built with GNU-EFI and don't run
166 any post-installation script, so although the rEFInd binaries are on the
167 hard disk, they aren't installed to be bootable; you must manually run
168 install.sh. Also, at least on Ubuntu, the Make.common file's /usr/lib64
169 references must be changed to /usr/lib. This is more of a proof of
170 concept and a "leg up" for distribution maintainers than anything else.
171
172 - Two new options, big_icon_size and small_icon_size, set the size of
173 the first-row OS icons and of the second-row tool icons, respectively.
174 The big_icon_size option also indirectly sets the size of disk-type
175 badges; they're 1/4 the size of the big icons. Default values are 128 and
176 48, respectively, to match the actual icon files provided with rEFInd. If
177 the icon you're using is of a different size than you've specified,
178 rEFInd scales it. For best quality, you should both provide icons drawn
179 to the right size and set the icon sizes in refind.conf.
180
181 - rEFInd now automatically scales icons to fit the standard icon sizes.
182 This won't have any effect with the icons that come with rEFInd, but it
183 can help if you want to use another icon, since you needn't scale it in a
184 graphics program before using it. Note that rEFInd uses bitmap icons, so
185 scaling by a huge amount (say, a 16x16 icon to fit the standard 128x128
186 OS icon) is not likely to look good.
187
188 - Added new option, banner_scale, that tells rEFInd how to handle banners:
189 Set to "noscale" (the default), banners are not scaled, although they'll
190 be cropped if they're too big for the display. This is the same as the
191 behavior in previous versions. Set to "fillscreen", rEFInd now scales the
192 banner image (larger or smaller) to fill the display.
193
194 - Adjusted the post-installation script in refind.spec (used to generate
195 RPMs, and therefore also indirectly Debian packages) to search for
196 existing shim program files under the filesnames shim.efi and shimx64.efi
197 rather than just shim.efi. Ubuntu uses shimx64.efi, so Debian packages
198 were failing to detect Ubuntu's shim in previous versions. (Note,
199 however, that Ubuntu's early shim 0.1 is unsuitable for use with rEFInd
200 The newer 0.4 version that's in the repositories now should work fine;
201 it's only when installing on an older system that's NOT been updated that
202 problems might arise.
203
204 0.7.7 (1/3/2014):
205 -----------------
206
207 - Can now specify complete paths, optionally including volumes, in
208 dont_scan_files.
209
210 - Added shimx64.efi to the default dont_scan_files list.
211
212 - Added windows_recovery_files token, to specify what program(s) launch a
213 Windows recovery utility; and the "windows_recovery" option to
214 "showtools," to control whether or not to display the Windows recovery
215 utility on the second row of icons.
216
217 - The use_graphics_for, also_scan_dirs, dont_scan_dirs, dont_scan_files,
218 and scan_driver_dirs tokens in refind.conf now support "+" as the first
219 option, which causes the remaining options to be added to the default
220 value rather than replacing that value. (This has no practical effect for
221 scan_driver_dirs, though, since it has a null default value.)
222
223 - Added support for specifying the configuration file at program launch,
224 via the "-c" parameter, as in "refind_x64.efi -c foo.conf" to use the
225 foo.conf file as the main configuration file.
226
227 - Scans of ext2/3/4fs and ReiserFS partitions now omit partitions with
228 duplicate filesystem UUIDs. These are likely parts of RAID arrays and so
229 would have the same boot loaders or kernels as the first one with a given
230 UUID.
231
232 - Added feature in install.sh: Script now tries to locate and mount an ESP
233 in Linux, if it's currently unmounted.
234
235 - Fixed bug in mkrlconf.sh and install.sh that caused a stray line break
236 and PARTUUID= specification to appear in generated refind_linux.conf file
237 under some circumstances.
238
239 0.7.6 (12/15/2013):
240 -------------------
241
242 - Added support for multiple "default_selection" targets. These MUST be
243 comma-separated AND enclosed in quotes, as in:
244 default_selection "fred,ginger"
245 This example will launch "fred" by default if it's available; and if
246 it's not, rEFInd will attempt to launch "ginger" as the default.
247
248 - Added support for time-sensitive "default_selection" setting. This token
249 may now have either one or three options. If one, it's interpreted as it
250 has been in the past, as setting a default that's independent of times.
251 If you follow this default by two times, however, those are interpreted
252 as the start and end times (in 24-hour format) for a default setting. For
253 instance, "default_selection foo 8:00 17:00" causes foo to be the default
254 from 8:00 (AM) to 17:00 (aka 5:00 PM). You can include multiple
255 "default_selection" lines to set different defaults for a variety of
256 times. If they're in conflict, the last one takes precedence. Note that
257 times are hardware clock's native value, which may be local time or UTC,
258 depending on your computer.
259
260 - Added support for a blank-screen startup: Set "screensaver -1" and the
261 screen saver will be initialized when rEFInd starts. If you set a low
262 "timeout" value, the result will be a boot straight to the default OS
263 unless you hit a key soon after rEFInd starts. Once you hit a key, the
264 screensaver will be disabled.
265
266 - Added --ownhfs {target} option to install.sh. This option causes rEFInd
267 to install to an HFS+ partition in a way that's more consistent with the
268 way the Mac's native boot loader is installed. Note that you should NOT
269 install to an already-bootable partition with this option, since it will
270 overwrite the existing boot loader, which would render OS X unbootable.
271
272 0.7.5 (11/10/2013):
273 -------------------
274
275 - Fixed bug that caused unbootable exFAT partitions to show up as
276 bootable on Macs with BIOS/CSM/legacy boot options enabled.
277
278 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused installs to the ESP on recent
279 versions of OS X to fail.
280
281 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to hang on some Macs when multiple EFI
282 drivers were present.
283
284 - Fixed bug that caused clear to default gray screen when launching OSes
285 with 'use_graphics_for' enabled, even when the rEFInd background is not
286 gray. Now rEFInd clears to the same background color used in its menu.
287 When launching OS X, though, the OS X boot loader will itself clear to
288 gray a second or so later; and when launching Linux, it will clear to
289 black a second or so later.
290
291 0.7.4.1 (8/25/2013):
292 --------------------
293
294 - My initial 0.7.4 release broke legacy-boot ability on Macs, so I quickly
295 released this version using the original 0.7.4 filenames to fix the
296 problem.
297
298 0.7.4 (8/25/2013):
299 ------------------
300
301 - Fixed options passing to loader to include loader's filename as the first
302 option. This omission had no effect on most boot loaders, but caused
303 VMware's mboot64.efi to fail.
304
305 - Added support for memtest86 as second-row option. Program must be
306 stored in EFI/tools, EFI/tools/memtest, EFI/tools/memtest86, EFI/memtest,
307 or EFI/memtest86; and must use the name memtest86.efi, memtest86_x64.efi,
308 memtest86x64.efi, or bootx64.efi (changing "x64" to "ia32" on IA-32
309 systems). The memtest86 program is scanned for when the "showtools"
310 option includes the "memtest" or "memtest86" token, which it does by
311 default.
312
313 - Added space to end of "Boot %s from %s" string; enables adding a space
314 to the end of the "default_selection" item (in quotes) to set a default
315 that matches a volume name that's identical to another one except for
316 extra characters at the end of the non-wanted volume's name.
317
318 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to hang when launching boot loaders
319 under some conditions. (Launching from Firewire drives on Macs is the
320 known case, but there may be others.)
321
322 0.7.3 (8/7/2013):
323 -----------------
324
325 - Fixed bug that caused missing media-type badges on BIOS-mode boot
326 loaders on Macs.
327
328 - Fixed bug that caused failure when launching BIOS-mode OSes on Macs.
329
330 0.7.2 (8/6/2013):
331 -----------------
332
333 - Fixed bug that caused display glitches in the final entry on the first
334 row of icons if the second row of icons was empty.
335
336 - Fixed bug that could cause incorrect scanning or even a rEFInd crash when
337 using volume specification in also_scan_dirs token.
338
339 - Added protection against loading invalid drivers and other EFI programs.
340 (Some EFIs crash when attempting to load such drivers and programs.)
341
342 - Added PreLoader.efi and shim-fedora.efi to default dont_scan_files list;
343 it's now "shim.efi, shim-fedora.efi, PreLoader.efi, TextMode.efi,
344 ebounce.efi, GraphicsConsole.efi, MokManager.efi, HashTool.efi,
345 HashTool-signed.efi".
346
347 - Added icon for Funtoo Linux.
348
349 - Fixed reading of volume badges from user-specified icons directory, which
350 was broken.
351
352 - Fixed handling of /.VolumeBadge.icns (or /.VolumeBadge.png) files, which
353 was broken.
354
355 0.7.1 (7/8/2013):
356 -----------------
357
358 - Fixed build problem with recent development versions of EDK2.
359
360 - Added scan for Boot Repair's backup of the Windows boot loader
361 (bkpbootmgfw.efi). If found, give separate entries for it and for
362 bootmgfw.efi, each with its own descriptive text label.
363
364 - Fixed also_scan_dirs; used to have bug that caused it to ignore
365 volume specification, if present.
366
367 - Fixed bug in driver cache that caused Btrfs driver to hang sometimes.
368
369 0.7.0 (6/27/2013):
370 ------------------
371
372 - Added Btrfs signature to rEFInd, so that it can identify the filesystem
373 type for volumes that lack labels.
374
375 - Changed some critical filesystem driver pointers from 32-bit to 64-bit.
376 This *SHOULD* enable use of over-2TiB filesystems (for those filesystems
377 that support such large volumes). This capability is largely untested,
378 though.
379
380 - Added a cache to the filesystem driver core, and therefore to all the
381 filesystem drivers. This cache greatly improves performance in
382 VirtualBox, and offers modest performance improvements on a few "real"
383 computers. The most dramatic improvement is on ext2/3fs under VirtualBox:
384 Loading a kernel and initrd used to take ~200 seconds on my system, but
385 now takes ~3 seconds! On most "real" hardware, the improvement is much
386 less dramatic -- an improvement of a second or less, presumably because
387 of cacheing within the EFI or on the hard disk itself.
388
389 - Filter boot loaders based on a test of their validity; keeps out Linux
390 kernels without EFI stub loader code, loaders for the wrong architecture,
391 non-EFI loaders, etc.
392
393 - New Btrfs driver, contributed by Samuel Liao based on GRUB 2.00 Btrfs
394 code.
395
396 0.6.12 (6/18/2013):
397 -------------------
398
399 - Changed the 64-bit EFI shell included in the CD-R and USB flash drive
400 images to a version 2 shell that should support the "bcfg" command.
401
402 - Added support for PreBootloader to refind.spec's built-in installation
403 script.
404
405 - Added support for the Linux Foundation's PreLoader to install.sh. It's
406 treated just like shim, including using the --shim option (or, now,
407 --preloader); but it searches for and copies HashTool.efi rather than
408 MokManager.efi, and filenames are adjusted appropriately.
409
410 - Added code to determine Linux root filesystem from /etc/fstab file, if
411 it's on the same partition as the kernel and if the refind_linux.conf
412 file is not available. This enables rEFInd to boot Linux without any
413 rEFInd-specific configuration files on some (but not all) systems.
414
415 0.6.11 (5/13/2013):
416 -------------------
417
418 - New feature: rEFInd now ignores symbolic links to files on filesystems
419 that support them. This prevents the "vmlinuz" symbolic link that some
420 distributions create in the root directory from appearing in the loader
421 list. Note that this does NOT affect symbolic links to directories.
422
423 - Added icons for Lubuntu and Kubuntu.
424
425 - Improved the install.sh script so that it does a better job dealing with
426 directory names that contain spaces.
427
428 - rEFInd now tries to guess the Linux distribution type based on the kernel
429 filename (Fedora and RHEL only) or the "ID" or "NAME" variables in
430 /etc/os-release on the kernel's partition. None of these is guaranteed to
431 work. A fallback of the Tux penguin icon remains in place in case rEFInd
432 can't find anything substantive enough for a guess.
433
434 - Added "EFI\opensuse" to the locations searched for MOK utilities, since
435 OpenSUSE now uses that name.
436
437 - Renamed "Reboot to Firmware User Interface" to "Reboot to Computer Setup
438 Utility" in menu.
439
440 - Fixed bug in gptsync that caused it to hang if the disk had too few GPT
441 partitions to fill the MBR.
442
443 0.6.10 (5/5/2013):
444 ------------------
445
446 - Added support for "screensaver" token. If set to a positive integer, this
447 causes the screen to blank after the specified number of seconds of
448 inactivity. Pressing most keys (unfortunately NOT including Shift, Alt,
449 or Ctrl) will restore the display and restart the screen saver timeout.
450
451 - Added icon for ChromeOS (os_chrome.icns in the icons subdirectory).
452 ChromeBooks reportedly boots using the fallback filename, but if a user
453 wants to install rEFInd on a ChromeBook, renaming the original EFI/BOOT
454 directory to EFI/chrome and then installing rEFInd in the fallback
455 filename will bring up this new icon for ChromeOS.
456
457 - Added new option to reboot the computer into the firmware's user
458 interface. This option is active by default, or can be set via the
459 "firmware" option to the "showtools" token in refind.conf. It works
460 on only some computers, though; older computers lack this feature, and
461 when rEFInd is told to use this feature on such computers, the directive
462 is quietly ignored.
463
464 - Upgraded LodePNG library from version 20121216 to 20130415 and
465 restructured rEFInd-specific modifications to simplify future upgrades.
466
467 - Replaced hexadecimal error code with description if an error is
468 encountered when saving a screen shot.
469
470 - Enable multiple screen shots: Rather than naming all screen shots
471 "screenshot.bmp", the name is now "screenshot_###.bmp", where "###" is a
472 sequence number, starting with "001".
473
474 0.6.9 (4/25/2013):
475 ------------------
476
477 - Modified default banner to include the new rEFInd icon, provided by Erik
478 Kemperman.
479
480 - Worked around a suspected firmware bug that caused rEFInd 0.6.6 to 0.6.8
481 to hang at startup on some systems (DUET and some Macs).
482
483 - Modified rEFInd to search for gptsync under the names gptsync.efi and
484 gptsync_{arch}.efi, where {arch} is ia32 or x64. (Previous versions
485 searched only for gptsync.efi.)
486
487 - Added gptsync program from rEFIt project, but with some changes to
488 improve flexibility and make it less likely that UEFI users will
489 accidentally trash their systems.
490
491 - Changed timeout code so that the timeout continues if the keyboard is
492 disconnected. This can help in booting a headless server or a system with
493 a bluetooth or other keyboard that's not recognized by the EFI.
494
495 0.6.8 (3/18/2013):
496 ------------------
497
498 - Added workaround for presumed EFI bug that was causing "Invalid
499 Parameter" errors when scanning for boot loaders on some computers.
500
501 - Added search for an EFI shell called shell.efi in the root directory
502 (previously this name was only accepted in EFI\tools).
503
504 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused it to fail on some systems (Fedora
505 18, for instance) because of a problem identifying the ESP.
506
507 - Fixed bug that caused icons named after boot loaders to not be used.
508
509 0.6.7 (2/3/2013):
510 -----------------
511
512 - Added a more explicit error message summarizing options when a launch of
513 a program results in a Secure Boot failure.
514
515 - Changed MOK tool detection to scan all volumes, not just the rEFInd
516 home volume. This is desirable because the Linux Foundation's HashTool
517 can only scan its own volume, making it desirable to place copies of this
518 program on every volume that holds EFI boot loader binaries.
519
520 - Added support for launching the Linux Foundation HashTool as a means of
521 managing MOKs (or MOK hashes, at any rate).
522
523 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to present an entry for itself as a
524 Microsoft OS if it was launched as EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi.
525
526 - Fixed bug that caused dont_scan_volumes option to be added to
527 also_scan_dirs list.
528
529 - Fixed dont_scan_volumes so that it works with OS X boot loaders.
530
531 - Fixed broken mixing of PNG and ICNS icons when using a user-specified
532 icons directory -- previously, an ICNS file in the default directory
533 would override a PNG file in the user-specified directory.
534
535 0.6.6 (1/26/2013):
536 ------------------
537
538 - rEFInd now ignores the fallback boot loader (EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi or
539 EFI/BOOT/bootia32.efi) if it's identical to another boot loader on
540 the same volume. This is intended to help unclutter the display on
541 systems that run Windows, since Windows tends to duplicate its own boot
542 loader under the fallback name.
543
544 - Added new "font" token to refind.conf, which enables specifying a font in
545 the form of a PNG file. This file must contain monospace glyphs for the
546 95 characters from ASCII 32 to 126 (space through tilde), inclusive, plus
547 a glyph to be displayed for characters outside of this range, for a total
548 of 96 glyphs.
549
550 - Replaced the old font (inherited from rEFInd) with an anti-aliased
551 version of Luxi Mono Regular 14 point.
552
553 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to ignore manual boot stanzas in files
554 included via the "include" token in refind.conf.
555
556 - Fixed bug that caused ASSERT error on some systems (and conceivably a
557 crash on startup on some) when default_selection line in refind.conf was
558 commented out or empty.
559
560 - Fixed bug that caused "Binary is whitelisted" message to persist on
561 screen after loading MOK-signed drivers in Secure Boot mode.
562
563 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to ignore the "icon" token in refind.conf
564 manual boot stanzas.
565
566 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused the script to fail to update
567 drivers when rEFInd was installed in EFI/BOOT/.
568
569 0.6.5 (1/16/2013):
570 ------------------
571
572 - Improved text color support: rEFInd now uses black text against light
573 backgrounds and white text against dark backgrounds.
574
575 - Added support for PNGs as banners, icons, and selectors.
576
577 - Added icon for ALT Linux.
578
579 - Added "safemode" option to "hideui" token, to hide option to boot into
580 safe mode for OS X ("-v -x" option to boot.efi).
581
582 - Added icon for Haiku (os_haiku.icns).
583
584 - Enable transparency of icons & main-menu text when the banner icon is
585 sized to cover these areas.
586
587 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to crash if fed a banner image that's
588 too big. Note that "too big" can be substantially smaller than the screen
589 resolution!
590
591 0.6.4 (1/8/2013):
592 -----------------
593
594 - Revised install.sh to copy ext2fs driver, rather than ext4fs driver, for
595 ext2/3 filesystems. This can help keep non-functional entries from links
596 from /vmlinuz to /boot/vmlinuz out of the menu if the system uses ext4fs
597 on root and ext2fs or ext3fs on /boot.
598
599 - Fixed a couple of memory management bugs that cause rEFInd to hang at
600 startup on some systems.
601
602 0.6.3 (1/6/2013):
603 -----------------
604
605 - Added the ability to specify a volume name or number in the
606 "dont_scan_dirs" and "also_scan_dirs" tokens.
607
608 - Fixed a bug that caused removable EFI media to not appear in scan lists
609 if rEFInd was installed as EFI/BOOT/boot{arch}.efi on a hard disk.
610
611 - Modified ISO-9660 driver so that it can handle discs with other than
612 2048-byte sectors. This makes it useful for reading "hybrid ISO" images
613 burned to USB flash disks.
614
615 - New mvrefind.sh script to move a rEFInd installation between a standard
616 location (typically EFI/refind) and one of the fallback locations
617 (EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot). It can also do more exotic locations.
618
619 - The install.sh script now installs to EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi or
620 EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi if it's run in BIOS mode. This is
621 intended to give some chance of producing a bootable installation should
622 a user accidentally install Linux in EFI mode and then install rEFInd
623 from that installation.
624
625 - The install.sh script now tries to find an existing rEFInd installation
626 and upgrade it, even if it's in EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot rather
627 than in EFI/refind.
628
629 - New "--yes" option to install.sh to help with unattended or automated
630 installations (as from an RPM or Debian package).
631
632 0.6.2 (12/30/2012):
633 -------------------
634
635 - Inclusion of a sample refind.spec file for the benefit of RPM
636 distribution maintainers who might want to include rEFInd. It's a bit
637 rough, but it gets you a good chunk of the way there....
638
639 - The EFI filesystem drivers can now be built with the GNU-EFI toolkit as
640 well as with the TianoCore EDK2. See the BUILDING.txt file for details on
641 how to build them with either toolkit. This improvement doesn't affect
642 users of my binary packages, but it should make it easier for Linux
643 distributions to adopt rEFInd into their package systems.
644
645 - Tweaked refind.inf file for better build results using "native" TianoCore
646 EDK2 build process (vs. the Makefile-based build process that I use under
647 Linux). This won't affect those who use my binary builds or build under
648 Linux with the "make" command.
649
650 - Fixed bug that prevented Secure Boot launches from working when rEFInd
651 was built with GNU-EFI rather than the TianoCore EDK2.
652
653 - Substantial reworking of Secure Boot code, based on James Bottomley's
654 PreLoader program. This new code eliminates the limitation of launching
655 just one driver in Secure Boot mode and is likely to be more reliable
656 with future or obscure boot loaders. It should also work with non-x86-64
657 systems, although this relies on a platform-specific shim program, which
658 to date exists only for x86-64. The basic features are the same as before
659 -- rEFInd relies on shim for authentication functions and will launch
660 programs that are signed by Secure Boot keys, shim keys, or MOKs.
661
662 - Altered default for "textmode" option (when it's commented out) to not
663 adjust the text mode at all. (Prior versions set it to mode 0 by
664 default.)
665
666 0.6.1 (12/21/2012):
667 -------------------
668
669 - Added "--root" option to install.sh, to enable installation of rEFInd
670 to something other than the currently-running OS. This is intended for
671 use on emergency discs.
672
673 - Thanks to Stefan Agner, the ext4fs driver now supports the "meta_bg"
674 filesystem feature, which distributes metadata throughout the disk. This
675 feature isn't used by default, but can be set at filesystem creation time
676 by passing the "-O meta_bg,^resize_inode" option to mke2fs. (Using
677 "^resize_inode" is necessary because meta_bg is incompatible with
678 resize_inode, which IS used by default.) This feature can be used on
679 ext3fs and ext2fs as well as on ext4fs, so the ext4fs driver can now
680 handle some ext3fs and ext2fs partitions that the ext2fs driver can't
681 handle.
682
683 - Fixed some screen resolution-setting bugs.
684
685 - Added the "words" that make up a filesystem's label (delimited by spaces,
686 dashes, or underscores) to the list of bases used to search for OS icons.
687 For instance, if the filesystem's label is "Arch", rEFInd searches for
688 os_Arch.icns; if it's "Fedora 17", it searches for os_Fedora.icns and
689 os_17.icns; and if it's "NEW_GENTOO", it searches for os_NEW.icns and
690 os_GENTOO.icns.
691
692 - Refined hints displays to be more context-sensitive, particularly in text
693 mode.
694
695 - Instead of displaying a blank filesystem label when a filesystem has
696 none, rEFInd now displays the size and/or type of the filesystem, as in
697 "boot EFI\foo\bar.efi from 200 MiB ext3 volume" rather than "boot
698 EFI\foo\bar.efi from".
699
700 - Fixed a bug that caused the screen to clear after displaying an error
701 message but before displaying the "Hit any key to continue" message when
702 a boot loader launch failed.
703
704 0.6.0 (12/16/2012):
705 -------------------
706
707 - Fixed a memory allocation bug that could cause a program crash when
708 specifying certain values with the "also_scan_dirs", "dont_scan_volumes",
709 "dont_scan_dirs", "dont_scan_files", and "scan_driver_dirs" refind.conf
710 options.
711
712 - Modified Linux kernel initrd-finding code so that if an initrd is
713 specified in refind_linux.conf, rEFInd will not add any initrd it finds.
714 This enables an override of the default initrd, and is likely to be
715 particularly helpful to Arch Linux users.
716
717 - Added ext4fs driver!
718
719 - Made "boot" the default value for "also_scan_dirs".
720
721 - Added identifying screen header to line editor.
722
723 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd's display to be mis-sized upon return
724 from a program that set the resolution itself.
725
726 - Adjusted "resolution" refind.conf parameter so that it can accept EITHER
727 a resolution as width and height OR a single digit as a UEFI mode number
728 (which is system-specific). This is done because some systems present the
729 same mode twice in their mode lists, perhaps varying in refresh rate,
730 monitor output, or some other salient characteristics; specifying the
731 mode number enables selecting the higher-numbered mode, whereas using
732 horizontal and vertical resolution values selects the lowest-numbered
733 mode.
734
735 - Added "textmode" refind.conf parameter to set the text mode used in
736 text-only displays, and for the line editor and boot-time handoff
737 display even in graphics mode.
738
739 - Fixed bug that caused tools (shell, etc.) to launch when they were
740 highlighted and F2 or Insert was pressed.
741
742 - Added "editor" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf, which
743 disables the boot options editor.
744
745 - Added hints text to rEFInd main menu and sub-menus. This can be disabled
746 by setting the new "hints" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf.
747
748 - Added "boot with minimal options" entry to refind_linux.conf file
749 generated by install.sh. This entry boots without the options extracted
750 from the /etc/default/grub file.
751
752 - Added keys subdirectory to main distribution, to hold public Secure
753 Boot/shim keys from known sources.
754
755 - Changed install.sh --drivers option to --alldrivers, added new
756 --nodrivers option, and made the default on Linux to install the one
757 driver that's used on /boot (or the root filesystem if /boot isn't a
758 separate partition). Of course, this won't install a non-existent driver,
759 and it also won't work properly if run from an emergency disk unless you
760 mount a separate /boot partition at that location.
761
762 - Fixed bug in install.sh that prevented creation of refind_linux.conf file
763 on Linux systems.
764
765 0.5.1.1 (12/12/2012):
766 ---------------------
767
768 - Fixed bug in install.sh that prevented it from working on OS X.
769
770 0.5.1 (12/11/2012):
771 -------------------
772
773 - Added support for "0" options to "textonly" and "scan_all_linux_kernels"
774 to reverse the usual meaning of these tokens. This is useful for
775 including these options in a secondary configuration file called with the
776 new "include" token to override a setting set in the main file.
777
778 - Added "include" token for refind.conf, to enable including a secondary
779 configuration file from a primary one.
780
781 - Modified install.sh so that it creates a simple refind_linux.conf file in
782 /boot, if that file doesn't already exist and if install.sh is run from
783 Linux. If that directory happens to be on a FAT, HFS+, ext2fs, ext3fs, or
784 ReiserFS volume, and if the necessary drivers are installed, the result
785 is that rEFInd will detect the Linux installation with no further
786 configuration on many systems. (Some may still require tweaking of kernel
787 options, though; for instance, adding "dolvm" on Gentoo systems that use
788 LVM.)
789
790 - Added --shim and --localkeys options to install.sh to help simplify setup
791 on systems with Secure Boot active.
792
793 - Fixed (maybe) bug that caused resolution options to not be displayed on
794 recent Macs with GOP graphics when specifying an invalid resolution in
795 refind.conf.
796
797 - Fixed bug that caused some programs (EFI shells, in particular) to hang
798 when launching on some systems (DUET, in particular).
799
800 - Implemented a fix to enable ELILO to launch with Secure Boot active.
801 This fix might help with some other boot loaders in Secure Boot mode,
802 too, but I don't know of any specifics.
803
804 0.5.0 (12/6/2012):
805 ------------------
806
807 - Added the ability to include quote marks ('"') in refind.conf and
808 refind_linux.conf tokens by doubling them up, as in:
809 "ro root=/dev/sda4 some_value=""this is it"""
810 This example results in the following string being passed as an
811 option:
812 ro root=/dev/sda4 some_value="this is it"
813
814 - Changed refind.conf-sample to uncomment the scan_all_linux_kernels
815 option by default. If this option is deleted or commented out, the
816 program default remains to not scan all Linux kernels; but with
817 increasing numbers of distributions shipping with kernels that include
818 EFI stub loader support, setting the configuration file default to scan
819 for them makes sense.
820
821 - Modified the "resolution" token so that it affects text mode as well
822 as graphics mode. On my systems, though, the actual text area is still
823 restricted to an 80x25 area. (This seems to be a firmware limitation; my
824 EFI shells are also so limited.)
825
826 - Fixed a bug that caused the options line editor to blank out lines that
827 were not actually edited.
828
829 - Added support for using Matthew Garrett's Shim program and its Machine
830 Owner Keys (MOKs) to extend Secure Boot capabilities. If rEFInd is
831 launched from Shim on a computer with Secure Boot active, rEFInd will
832 launch programs signed with either a standard UEFI Secure Boot key or a
833 MOK. For the moment, this feature works only on x86-64 systems.
834
835 - Added new "dont_scan_files" (aka "don't_scan_files") token for
836 refind.conf. The effect is similar to dont_scan_dirs, but it creates a
837 blacklist of filenames within directories rather than directory names.
838 I'm initially using it to place shim.efi and MokManager.efi in the
839 blacklist to keep these programs out of the OS list. (MokManager.efi is
840 scanned separately as a tool; see below.) I've moved checks for
841 ebounce.efi, GraphicsConsole.efi, and TextMode.efi to this list. (These
842 three had previously been blacklisted by hard-coding in ScanLoaderDir().)
843
844 - Added the directory from which rEFInd launched to dont_scan_dirs. This
845 works around a bug in which rEFInd would show itself as a bogus Windows
846 entry if it's installed as EFI/Microsoft/boot/bootmgfw.efi.
847
848 - Added support for launching MokManager.efi for managing the Machine Owner
849 Keys (MOKs) maintained by the shim boot loader developed by Fedora and
850 SUSE. This program is scanned and presented as a second-row tool.
851
852 - Added support for Apple's Recovery HD partition: If it's detected, a new
853 icon appears on the second row. This icon can be removed by explicitly
854 setting the "showtools" option in refind.conf and excluding the
855 "apple_recovery" option from that line.
856
857 - Fixed bug that caused text-mode ("textonly" refind.conf option enabled)
858 menu entries to be right-aligned rather than left-aligned when rEFInd was
859 compiled with the TianoCore EDK2.
860
861 - Added "--usedefault {devicename}" and "--drivers" options to the
862 install.sh script and changed the "esp" option to "--esp".
863
864 0.4.7 (11/6/2012):
865 ------------------
866
867 - Added an icon for gummiboot.
868
869 - Added a boot option editor: Pressing the Insert or F2 key from a boot
870 tag's options menu opens a simple text-mode line editor on which the boot
871 options may be edited for a one-time boot with altered options.
872
873 - Modified the "scan_delay" feature to delay and then perform a re-scan,
874 which may work better than the first attempt at this feature (which I'm
875 told isn't working as planned).
876
877 - Modified rEFInd to add a space after the command-line options only when
878 launching Mac OS X. On some early Macs, the extra space (which had been
879 present by default, as a carryover from rEFIt) causes problems when
880 booting Linux kernels from FAT partitions.
881
882 0.4.6 (10/6/2012):
883 ------------------
884
885 - Fixed some minor memory management issues.
886
887 - Added new "scan_delay" feature to impose a delay before scanning
888 for disks.
889
890 - Changed default "scanfor" option from internal-external-optical to either
891 internal-external-optical-manual (for non-Macs) or
892 internal-hdbios-external-biosexternal-optical-cd-manual (for Macs). I've
893 done this for two reasons:
894 - Many Mac users have been confused by the fact that rEFInd needs
895 reconfiguration to detect Windows (or Linux installed in BIOS mode),
896 since rEFIt scans BIOS devices by default. Adding the BIOS options as
897 default for them should help them.
898 - Adding the "manual" option enables users to simply add manual boot
899 stanzas and have them work, which is more intuitive. Adding the
900 "manual" option will have no effect unless manual stanzas are created
901 or uncommented, so this part of the change won't affect users' working
902 default configurations.
903
904 - Added new legacy (BIOS) boot support for UEFI-based PCs.
905
906 0.4.5 (8/12/2012):
907 ------------------
908
909 - Fixed bug that caused a failure to boot BIOS-based OSes on Macs.
910
911 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused it to fail to detect rEFItBlesser.
912
913 0.4.4 (6/23/2012):
914 ------------------
915
916 - Fixed bug that caused filesystem labels to be corrupted by rEFInd on
917 32-bit systems.
918
919 - Fixed bug that caused filesystem labels to be truncated in the drivers
920 on 32-bit systems.
921
922 - Fixed bug in use_graphics_for option parsing that caused most options
923 to set graphics mode for OS X and/or Linux but not other boot
924 loaders/OSes.
925
926 - Tweaked install script to better isolate the ESP under OS X.
927
928 0.4.3 (6/21/2012):
929 ------------------
930
931 - rEFInd now supports compilation using the TianoCore UDK2010/EDK2
932 development kit in addition to GNU-EFI.
933
934 - Added new "use_graphics_for" option to control which OSes to boot in
935 graphics mode. (This effect lasts for a fraction of a second on most
936 systems, since the boot loader that rEFInd launches is likely to set
937 graphics or text mode itself.)
938
939 - Graphics-mode booting now clears the screen to the current rEFInd
940 background color (rather than black) and does NOT display boot messages.
941 The intent is for a smoother transition when booting OS X, or perhaps
942 other OSes that don't display boot loader messages. In practice, this
943 effect will be tiny for many OSes, since the boot loader generally clears
944 the screen within a fraction of a second of being launched; but the
945 "flicker" of a rEFInd message in that time can sometimes be distracting.
946
947 - Filesystem drivers now work on EFI 1.x systems, such as Macs.
948
949 - Removed "linux.conf" as a valid alternative name for "refind_linux.conf"
950 for holding Linux kernel options. The kernel developers plan to use
951 "linux.conf" themselves.
952
953 0.4.2 (6/3/2012):
954 -----------------
955
956 - Added a message to install.sh when run on Macs to remind users to update
957 the "scanfor" line in refind.conf if they need to boot BIOS-based OSes
958 via rEFInd.
959
960 - Modified install.sh script to be smarter about running efibootmgr on
961 Linux. It now uses the whole path to the rEFInd binary as a key to
962 determine whether an existing entry exists, rather than just the filename
963 portion. If an entry exists and is the first entry in the boot order, the
964 script does nothing to the NVRAM entries. If such an entry exists but is
965 not the default, the script deletes that entry and creates a new one
966 (implicitly making it the first in the boot order). If such an entry does
967 not exist, the script creates a new one (again, making it the first in
968 the boot order).
969
970 - Added "dont_scan_dirs" configuration file option, which adds directories
971 to a "blacklist" of directories that are NOT scanned for boot loaders.
972
973 0.4.1 (5/25/2012):
974 ------------------
975
976 - Added "scanning for new boot loaders" message to the re-scan function
977 (hitting Esc at the main menu). It usually flashes up too quickly to
978 be of importance, but if the scan function takes a while because of
979 access to a CD that must be spun up, it should make it clear that the
980 system hasn't hung.
981
982 - Modified install.sh script to detect rEFItBlesser on Macs, and if
983 present, to ask the user if it should be removed.
984
985 - Cleaned up the Make.common file for the filesystem drivers.
986
987 - Changed HFS+ driver to return volume label of "HFS+ volume" rather than
988 an empty label. (The driver doesn't currently read the real volume
989 label.)
990
991 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to appear in its own menu after
992 running a shell and then re-scanning for boot loaders.
993
994 0.4.0 (5/20/2012):
995 ------------------
996
997 - Inclusion of drivers for ISO-9660, HFS+, ReiserFS, and ext2fs. Most of
998 these drivers originated with rEFIt, although the HFS+ driver seems to
999 have come from Oracle's VirtualBox, with some files from Apple. I hadn't
1000 included these drivers previously because the build process proved
1001 challenging. As it is, they don't work on my Mac Mini, I suspect because
1002 the build process with the UDK2010 development kit may not work with the
1003 EFI 1.x that Apple uses.
1004
1005 - Addition of support for drivers in the "drivers_{arch}" subdirectory of
1006 the main rEFInd binary directory (e.g., "drivers_x64" or "drivers_ia32").
1007 Drivers may continue to be placed in the "drivers" subdirectory.
1008
1009 - Added new feature to eject CDs (and other removable media): Press F12 to
1010 eject all such media. This function works only on some Macs, though (it
1011 relies on an Apple-specific EFI extension, and this extension isn't even
1012 implemented on all Macs, much less on UEFI-based PCs).
1013
1014 - Fixed a problem that could cause GRUB 2 to fail to read its configuration
1015 file when launched from rEFInd.
1016
1017 0.3.5 (5/15/2012):
1018 ------------------
1019
1020 - Removed the GRUB 2 detection "reciped" added with 0.3.2, since I've
1021 received reports that it's not working as intended.
1022
1023 - Added re-scan feature: Press the Esc key to have rEFInd re-read its
1024 configuration file, tell the EFI to scan for new filesystems, and re-scan
1025 those filesystems for boot loaders. The main purpose is to enable
1026 scanning a new removable medium that you insert after launching rEFInd;
1027 however, it can also be used to immediately implement changes to the
1028 configuration file or new drivers you load from an EFI shell.
1029
1030 - Fixed a bug that could cause the scroll-right arrow to be replaced by the
1031 scroll-left arrow under some circumstances.
1032
1033 0.3.4 (5/9/2012):
1034 -----------------
1035
1036 - Added new configuration file option: "icons_dir", which sets the name
1037 of the subdirectory in which icons are found. See the documentation or
1038 sample configuration file for a full description.
1039
1040 - Modified Makefile to generate rEFInd binary that includes architecture
1041 code -- refind_ia32.efi or refind_x64.efi, rather than the generic
1042 refind.efi. This is done mainly to help the install.sh script. The
1043 program can be named anything you like on the disk. (The generic name
1044 refind.efi is used on unknown architectures.)
1045
1046 - Improved install.sh script: Fixed bug on OS X 10.7 and enable it to be
1047 used after building from source code (or via new "make install" Makefile
1048 target).
1049
1050 - Improved screen redraws to produce less flicker when moving among the
1051 second-row tags or to the last tag on the first row.
1052
1053 0.3.3 (5/6/2012):
1054 -----------------
1055
1056 - Improved menu navigation:
1057 - In graphics mode, left & right arrow keys move left & right, while up &
1058 down arrows move between rows.
1059 - Page Up and Page Down now move through chunks of visible tags (in both
1060 text & graphics modes), jumping from one row to another only when at
1061 the edge of the row. In text mode, the "rows" are broken down as in
1062 graphics mode, but they aren't visibly distinguished on the screen.
1063
1064 - Improved text-mode use: rEFInd now displays the proper number of entries
1065 when first started in text mode and scrolling is done sensibly when too
1066 many entries exist to fit on the screen.
1067
1068 0.3.2 (5/4/2012):
1069 -----------------
1070
1071 - Added the install.sh script to install rEFInd on Linux and Mac OS X
1072 systems. This script must be run as root (or via sudo). It requires
1073 no options, but on Mac OS X, passing it the "esp" option causes it
1074 to install rEFInd on the computer's ESP rather than the default of the
1075 currently OS X boot partition. (Under Linux, the default is to install to
1076 the ESP.) Note that there may be some unusual cases in which this script
1077 will fail to work.
1078
1079 - Does a better job of clearing the screen when launching OSes in text
1080 mode.
1081
1082 - Added detection "recipe" for GRUB 2's BIOS Boot Partition.
1083
1084 - Fixed bogus detection of ESPs created by Linux's mkdosfs utility or
1085 Windows as bootable partitions when "scanfor" includes BIOS scanning
1086 options.
1087
1088
1089 0.3.1 (4/27/2012):
1090 ------------------
1091
1092 - Fixed bug that caused spurious "Unsupported while scanning the root
1093 directory" messages under some conitions on Macs.
1094
1095 - Modified loader scanning code to sort boot loader entries within a
1096 directory by modification time, so that the most recently-modified loader
1097 is first among those in a given directory. Thus, if you specify a
1098 directory name (or volume name, for loaders stored in the root directory
1099 of a volume) as the default_selection, the most recent of those loaders
1100 will be the default. This is intended to help with Linux kernel
1101 maintenance when using the EFI stub loader; set up this way, the most
1102 recent kernel copied to your kernel directory will be the default,
1103 obviating the need to adjust the refind.conf file when adding a new
1104 kernel. If you want to change the default among those in the default
1105 directory, you can use "touch" to adjust the modification timestamp.
1106
1107 - Tweaked code to find loader-specific .icns file so that it finds files
1108 for Linux kernels without .efi extensions. In this case, files should be
1109 named the same as the kernels they match, but with .icns extensions. For
1110 instance, bzImage-3.3.2 should have an icon called bzImage-3.3.2.icns.
1111 (The old code would have looked for an icon called bzImage-3.3.icns.)
1112
1113 - Eliminated bogus OS loader tags for filenames that end in ".icns" when
1114 the scan_all_linux_kernels option is set.
1115
1116 0.3.0 (4/22/2012):
1117 ------------------
1118
1119 - I'm officially upgrading this project's status from "alpha" to "beta" and
1120 giving it a bump from 0.2.x to 0.3.0. This doesn't reflect any major
1121 milestone with this version; rather, it reflects my sense that rEFInd has
1122 been "out there" for a while, and although I've gotten bug reports,
1123 they've been minor and/or have been fixed. The program still has known
1124 bugs, but my impression is that it is, overall, usable by ordinary users.
1125
1126 - Added "resolution" option to refind.conf, which enables setting the video
1127 resolution. To use it, pass two numeric values, as in "resolution 1024
1128 768" to use a 1024x768 video mode. Note that not all modes are supported.
1129 If you specify a non-supported video mode on a UEFI system, a message
1130 appears listing the supported video modes and you must then press a key
1131 to continue, using the default video mode (usually 800x600).
1132 Unfortunately, I don't know the calls to get a list of supported video
1133 modes on older EFI 1.x systems (including Macs), so on Macs setting an
1134 incorrect video mode silently fails (you keep using the default mode).
1135 This makes changing your video mode a hit-or-miss proposition on Macs.
1136 CAUTION: It's possible to set a legal video mode that your monitor can't
1137 handle, in which case you'll get a blank display until you boot an OS
1138 that resets the video mode.
1139
1140 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused rEFInd to crash when returning from an
1141 EFI shell or other programs on Macs, particularly when rEFInd used
1142 graphical mode. I'm not 100% sure this bug is squashed because I still
1143 don't understand the cause and I only have one Mac for testing. See
1144 comments in the ReinitRefitLib() function in refit/lib.c for more
1145 details.
1146
1147 - Added new refind.conf option: scan_all_linux_kernels, which causes Linux
1148 kernels that lack ".efi" extensions to be included in scans for EFI boot
1149 loaders. This may help integration with Linux distributions that don't
1150 give their kernels such names by default. Beware, though: It can detect
1151 unwanted files, such as older non-stub-loader kernels or .icns files used
1152 to give kernels with .efi extensions custom icons.
1153
1154 - Improved EFI boot loader detection on boards with Gigabyte's Hybrid EFI,
1155 and perhaps other EFIs with a buggy StriCmp() function. Files with both
1156 ".efi" and ".EFI" extensions should now be detected as boot loaders.
1157
1158 - Fixed a bug that caused rEFInd to fail to scan for drivers if the
1159 filesystem driver didn't set a volume name (that is, if the relevant
1160 field was set to NULL rather than even an empty string). In such
1161 situations, rEFInd now reports the volume name as "Unknown".
1162
1163 0.2.7 (4/19/2012):
1164 ------------------
1165
1166 - After much trial and tribulation, I've overcome a GNU-EFI limitation and
1167 enabled rEFInd to load EFI drivers. This feature was present in the
1168 original build of rEFIt but was removed in the versions that could
1169 compile under Linux, but now it's back -- and still being compiled under
1170 Linux! To use it, you should place your drivers in a convenient directory
1171 on the ESP (or whatever partition you use to launch rEFInd) and add a
1172 "scan_driver_dirs" entry to refind.conf to tell rEFInd where to look. (As
1173 always, you should specify the driver directory relative to the root of
1174 the filesystem.) Note that you can't launch drivers from another
1175 filesystem; they must be on the same volume that holds rEFInd. Those who
1176 compile from source code should note that implementing this feature
1177 necessitated using a more recent version of the GNU-EFI library. I'm
1178 currently using version 3.0p, and version 3.0i does NOT work. I don't
1179 know where the change occurred, but you may need to upgrade your GNU-EFI
1180 installation.
1181
1182 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to show up in its own menu sometimes.
1183
1184 - Added new refind.conf token: also_scan_dirs. When scanning volumes for
1185 EFI boot loaders, rEFInd always scans the root directory and every
1186 subdirectory of the /EFI directory, but it doesn't recurse into these
1187 directories. The also_scan_dirs token adds more directories to the scan
1188 list. It defaults to "elilo,boot", but you can set it to any directory or
1189 directories you like.
1190
1191 0.2.6 (4/14/2012):
1192 ------------------
1193
1194 - Added "volume" keyword to configuration file's stanza options. This
1195 option changes the volume from which subsequent files (specified by
1196 "loader" and "icon") are loaded. You pass "volume" the name/label of the
1197 FILESYSTEM you want to use (not the GPT partition name), or a number
1198 followed by a colon (e.g., "1:"). The former should reliably identify a
1199 filesystem, assuming the name is unique. The latter assigns numbers based
1200 on the order in which they're scanned, which may not be as reliable but
1201 should work when a volume is unnamed.
1202
1203 - Fixed bug in 0.2.5 that caused failure of Linux initial RAM disk
1204 mapping on some (but not all) systems. Affected computers include at
1205 least some Intel motherboards, maybe others.
1206
1207 0.2.5 (4/9/2012):
1208 -----------------
1209
1210 - Fixed bug that caused an inability to associate initial RAM disks with
1211 Linux kernels stored in a volume's root directory.
1212
1213 - Volume badges (that override default badges) are now stored in
1214 .VolumeBadge.icns. Although undocumented, rEFInd formerly loaded custom
1215 volume badges from .VolumeIcon.icns. This carryover from rEFIt was a
1216 confusing name, given the next (new) feature, so I've changed and
1217 documented the name....
1218
1219 - Added ability to set a default icon for a loader stored in the root
1220 directory of a volume: The icon is stored in .VolumeIcon.icns. This icon
1221 is also used for Mac OS X volumes booted from the standard location.
1222
1223 - Fixed bug that caused icons to drop back to generic icons when rEFInd
1224 was launched in certain ways (such as from an EFI shell in rEFInd's
1225 directory) on certain systems.
1226
1227 - Fixed bug that caused "unknown disable flag" to be shown (very briefly)
1228 instead of "unknown hideui flag" when an improper hideui flag was set.
1229
1230 0.2.4 (4/5/2012):
1231 -----------------
1232
1233 - Created new refind.conf entry: "showtools". This entry takes options of
1234 "shell", "gptsync", "about", "exit", "reboot", and "shutdown". This
1235 option is in some respects an affirmative version of portions of the old
1236 "disable" and "hideui" options; however, it enables users to specify the
1237 order in which these options appear on the screen. Also, the "exit"
1238 option is new; it terminates the program. The effect is usually to return
1239 to whatever tool launched it or to launch a default OS; however, this is
1240 somewhat unpredictable. The default therefore omits the "exit" option, as
1241 well as "gptsync", which has always been dangerous (but necessary on most
1242 MacOS/Windows dual-boot setups on Macs). As part of this reconfiguration,
1243 I've eliminated the "rescue Linux" option, which always seemed pointless
1244 to me.
1245
1246 - Folded "disable" and "hideui" refind.conf entries into one ("disable"),
1247 and reduced the number of options to six: "banner", "label",
1248 "singleuser", "hwtest", "arrows", and "all". ("arrows" is new and
1249 disables the scroll arrows when a system has too many tags to display
1250 simultaneously.)
1251
1252 - Added max_tags option to the refind.conf file, enabling users to reduce
1253 the maximum number of OS loader tags that can be displayed at once.
1254
1255 - Updated rEFIt icon, based on the 128x128 volume label from the rEFIt CD
1256 image.
1257
1258 - Added x86 and x86-64 EFI shells to the CD image version of the binary,
1259 but NOT to the binary zip file. The logic is that the CD image is more
1260 likely to be used directly as an emergency disc and so may need this
1261 feature, even though the source isn't part of the rEFInd project. (The
1262 source is readily available from the TianoCore project.)
1263
1264 - EFI shells may now be stored at /shellx64.efi for x86-64 systems or at
1265 /shellia32.efi for x86 systems. The /EFI/tools/shell.efi name is also
1266 recognized; however, if both files are present, two EFI shell icons will
1267 appear on the main menu. The /efi/{refind-path/apps/shell.efi filename,
1268 which was never officially documented but worked as a carryover from
1269 rEFIt, is no longer valid.
1270
1271 0.2.3 (3/26/2012):
1272 ------------------
1273
1274 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused hangs when launching a second program
1275 after returning from a first. There are some weird system-to-system
1276 differences, though, and this fix causes (apparently harmless) error
1277 messages about "(re)opening our installation volume" on at least one
1278 system (a 32-bit Mac Mini). I'm committing this change because, imperfect
1279 though it is, it's preferable to the earlier version, at least on my
1280 small sample of computers.
1281
1282 - Because of news that the Linux kernel developers are planning to use the
1283 filename linux.conf to hold Linux kernel configuration data for EFI
1284 booting, I'm transitioning rEFInd away from that name and to
1285 refind_linux.conf to avoid a conflict. This version can use either name,
1286 with refind_linux.conf taking precedence if both are present.
1287
1288 - Added logo for Arch Linux.
1289
1290 0.2.2 (3/23/2012):
1291 ------------------
1292
1293 - Fixed bug that caused program failure when Linux kernels with EFI stub
1294 support were detected with no associated version numbers. rEFInd now
1295 permits automatic linking of *ONE* versionless kernel to *ONE*
1296 versionless initrd file.
1297
1298 - Fixed bug that caused program hangs when a boot loader filename or label
1299 was too long. Such names are now properly truncated and program execution
1300 continues.
1301
1302 - Fixed bug that caused no text to appear in submenus on UEFI systems with
1303 small screens (800x600). NOTE: Problem still occurs on screens smaller
1304 than this, but such systems are very rare.
1305
1306 0.2.1 (3/19/2012):
1307 ------------------
1308
1309 - Added ability to set a "default_selection" that's a title or a substring
1310 of one -- the name given to a stanza in a "menuentry" or the boot
1311 loader's filename, in most cases, although "Mac OS X", "Windows XP
1312 (XoM)", and "Microsoft EFI boot" are also titles.
1313
1314 - Added support for semi-automatic scans of Linux kernels with EFI stub
1315 loader support. The program auto-detects matching initial RAM disk files
1316 and loads additional options from the "linux.conf" file in the same
1317 directory as the kernel.
1318
1319 - Added support for "submenuentry" keyword and associated sub-stanza
1320 entries in refind.conf file.
1321
1322 - Renamed icons/os_mint.icns to icons/os_linuxmint.icns to match the
1323 filename Linux Mint ACTUALLY uses for its ESP boot loader directory.
1324
1325
1326 0.2.0 (3/14/2012):
1327 ------------------
1328
1329 - Initial public release