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Fixed bug that could hang system if a filesystem name was shorter than
[refind] / NEWS.txt
1 0.6.4 (1/?/2013):
2 -----------------
3
4 - Fixed bug that could cause a hang on boot if any partition had a name
5 that was less than three characters long.
6
7 0.6.3 (1/6/2013):
8 -----------------
9
10 - Added the ability to specify a volume name or number in the
11 "dont_scan_dirs" and "also_scan_dirs" tokens.
12
13 - Fixed a bug that caused removable EFI media to not appear in scan lists
14 if rEFInd was installed as EFI/BOOT/boot{arch}.efi on a hard disk.
15
16 - Modified ISO-9660 driver so that it can handle discs with other than
17 2048-byte sectors. This makes it useful for reading "hybrid ISO" images
18 burned to USB flash disks.
19
20 - New mvrefind.sh script to move a rEFInd installation between a standard
21 location (typically EFI/refind) and one of the fallback locations
22 (EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot). It can also do more exotic locations.
23
24 - The install.sh script now installs to EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi or
25 EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi if it's run in BIOS mode. This is
26 intended to give some chance of producing a bootable installation should
27 a user accidentally install Linux in EFI mode and then install rEFInd
28 from that installation.
29
30 - The install.sh script now tries to find an existing rEFInd installation
31 and upgrade it, even if it's in EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot rather
32 than in EFI/refind.
33
34 - New "--yes" option to install.sh to help with unattended or automated
35 installations (as from an RPM or Debian package).
36
37 0.6.2 (12/30/2012):
38 -------------------
39
40 - Inclusion of a sample refind.spec file for the benefit of RPM
41 distribution maintainers who might want to include rEFInd. It's a bit
42 rough, but it gets you a good chunk of the way there....
43
44 - The EFI filesystem drivers can now be built with the GNU-EFI toolkit as
45 well as with the TianoCore EDK2. See the BUILDING.txt file for details on
46 how to build them with either toolkit. This improvement doesn't affect
47 users of my binary packages, but it should make it easier for Linux
48 distributions to adopt rEFInd into their package systems.
49
50 - Tweaked refind.inf file for better build results using "native" TianoCore
51 EDK2 build process (vs. the Makefile-based build process that I use under
52 Linux). This won't affect those who use my binary builds or build under
53 Linux with the "make" command.
54
55 - Fixed bug that prevented Secure Boot launches from working when rEFInd
56 was built with GNU-EFI rather than the TianoCore EDK2.
57
58 - Substantial reworking of Secure Boot code, based on James Bottomley's
59 PreLoader program. This new code eliminates the limitation of launching
60 just one driver in Secure Boot mode and is likely to be more reliable
61 with future or obscure boot loaders. It should also work with non-x86-64
62 systems, although this relies on a platform-specific shim program, which
63 to date exists only for x86-64. The basic features are the same as before
64 -- rEFInd relies on shim for authentication functions and will launch
65 programs that are signed by Secure Boot keys, shim keys, or MOKs.
66
67 - Altered default for "textmode" option (when it's commented out) to not
68 adjust the text mode at all. (Prior versions set it to mode 0 by
69 default.)
70
71 0.6.1 (12/21/2012):
72 -------------------
73
74 - Added "--root" option to install.sh, to enable installation of rEFInd
75 to something other than the currently-running OS. This is intended for
76 use on emergency discs.
77
78 - Thanks to Stefan Agner, the ext4fs driver now supports the "meta_bg"
79 filesystem feature, which distributes metadata throughout the disk. This
80 feature isn't used by default, but can be set at filesystem creation time
81 by passing the "-O meta_bg,^resize_inode" option to mke2fs. (Using
82 "^resize_inode" is necessary because meta_bg is incompatible with
83 resize_inode, which IS used by default.) This feature can be used on
84 ext3fs and ext2fs as well as on ext4fs, so the ext4fs driver can now
85 handle some ext3fs and ext2fs partitions that the ext2fs driver can't
86 handle.
87
88 - Fixed some screen resolution-setting bugs.
89
90 - Added the "words" that make up a filesystem's label (delimited by spaces,
91 dashes, or underscores) to the list of bases used to search for OS icons.
92 For instance, if the filesystem's label is "Arch", rEFInd searches for
93 os_Arch.icns; if it's "Fedora 17", it searches for os_Fedora.icns and
94 os_17.icns; and if it's "NEW_GENTOO", it searches for os_NEW.icns and
95 os_GENTOO.icns.
96
97 - Refined hints displays to be more context-sensitive, particularly in text
98 mode.
99
100 - Instead of displaying a blank filesystem label when a filesystem has
101 none, rEFInd now displays the size and/or type of the filesystem, as in
102 "boot EFI\foo\bar.efi from 200 MiB ext3 volume" rather than "boot
103 EFI\foo\bar.efi from".
104
105 - Fixed a bug that caused the screen to clear after displaying an error
106 message but before displaying the "Hit any key to continue" message when
107 a boot loader launch failed.
108
109 0.6.0 (12/16/2012):
110 -------------------
111
112 - Fixed a memory allocation bug that could cause a program crash when
113 specifying certain values with the "also_scan_dirs", "dont_scan_volumes",
114 "dont_scan_dirs", "dont_scan_files", and "scan_driver_dirs" refind.conf
115 options.
116
117 - Modified Linux kernel initrd-finding code so that if an initrd is
118 specified in refind_linux.conf, rEFInd will not add any initrd it finds.
119 This enables an override of the default initrd, and is likely to be
120 particularly helpful to Arch Linux users.
121
122 - Added ext4fs driver!
123
124 - Made "boot" the default value for "also_scan_dirs".
125
126 - Added identifying screen header to line editor.
127
128 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd's display to be mis-sized upon return
129 from a program that set the resolution itself.
130
131 - Adjusted "resolution" refind.conf parameter so that it can accept EITHER
132 a resolution as width and height OR a single digit as a UEFI mode number
133 (which is system-specific). This is done because some systems present the
134 same mode twice in their mode lists, perhaps varying in refresh rate,
135 monitor output, or some other salient characteristics; specifying the
136 mode number enables selecting the higher-numbered mode, whereas using
137 horizontal and vertical resolution values selects the lowest-numbered
138 mode.
139
140 - Added "textmode" refind.conf parameter to set the text mode used in
141 text-only displays, and for the line editor and boot-time handoff
142 display even in graphics mode.
143
144 - Fixed bug that caused tools (shell, etc.) to launch when they were
145 highlighted and F2 or Insert was pressed.
146
147 - Added "editor" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf, which
148 disables the boot options editor.
149
150 - Added hints text to rEFInd main menu and sub-menus. This can be disabled
151 by setting the new "hints" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf.
152
153 - Added "boot with minimal options" entry to refind_linux.conf file
154 generated by install.sh. This entry boots without the options extracted
155 from the /etc/default/grub file.
156
157 - Added keys subdirectory to main distribution, to hold public Secure
158 Boot/shim keys from known sources.
159
160 - Changed install.sh --drivers option to --alldrivers, added new
161 --nodrivers option, and made the default on Linux to install the one
162 driver that's used on /boot (or the root filesystem if /boot isn't a
163 separate partition). Of course, this won't install a non-existent driver,
164 and it also won't work properly if run from an emergency disk unless you
165 mount a separate /boot partition at that location.
166
167 - Fixed bug in install.sh that prevented creation of refind_linux.conf file
168 on Linux systems.
169
170 0.5.1.1 (12/12/2012):
171 ---------------------
172
173 - Fixed bug in install.sh that prevented it from working on OS X.
174
175 0.5.1 (12/11/2012):
176 -------------------
177
178 - Added support for "0" options to "textonly" and "scan_all_linux_kernels"
179 to reverse the usual meaning of these tokens. This is useful for
180 including these options in a secondary configuration file called with the
181 new "include" token to override a setting set in the main file.
182
183 - Added "include" token for refind.conf, to enable including a secondary
184 configuration file from a primary one.
185
186 - Modified install.sh so that it creates a simple refind_linux.conf file in
187 /boot, if that file doesn't already exist and if install.sh is run from
188 Linux. If that directory happens to be on a FAT, HFS+, ext2fs, ext3fs, or
189 ReiserFS volume, and if the necessary drivers are installed, the result
190 is that rEFInd will detect the Linux installation with no further
191 configuration on many systems. (Some may still require tweaking of kernel
192 options, though; for instance, adding "dolvm" on Gentoo systems that use
193 LVM.)
194
195 - Added --shim and --localkeys options to install.sh to help simplify setup
196 on systems with Secure Boot active.
197
198 - Fixed (maybe) bug that caused resolution options to not be displayed on
199 recent Macs with GOP graphics when specifying an invalid resolution in
200 refind.conf.
201
202 - Fixed bug that caused some programs (EFI shells, in particular) to hang
203 when launching on some systems (DUET, in particular).
204
205 - Implemented a fix to enable ELILO to launch with Secure Boot active.
206 This fix might help with some other boot loaders in Secure Boot mode,
207 too, but I don't know of any specifics.
208
209 0.5.0 (12/6/2012):
210 ------------------
211
212 - Added the ability to include quote marks ('"') in refind.conf and
213 refind_linux.conf tokens by doubling them up, as in:
214 "ro root=/dev/sda4 some_value=""this is it"""
215 This example results in the following string being passed as an
216 option:
217 ro root=/dev/sda4 some_value="this is it"
218
219 - Changed refind.conf-sample to uncomment the scan_all_linux_kernels
220 option by default. If this option is deleted or commented out, the
221 program default remains to not scan all Linux kernels; but with
222 increasing numbers of distributions shipping with kernels that include
223 EFI stub loader support, setting the configuration file default to scan
224 for them makes sense.
225
226 - Modified the "resolution" token so that it affects text mode as well
227 as graphics mode. On my systems, though, the actual text area is still
228 restricted to an 80x25 area. (This seems to be a firmware limitation; my
229 EFI shells are also so limited.)
230
231 - Fixed a bug that caused the options line editor to blank out lines that
232 were not actually edited.
233
234 - Added support for using Matthew Garrett's Shim program and its Machine
235 Owner Keys (MOKs) to extend Secure Boot capabilities. If rEFInd is
236 launched from Shim on a computer with Secure Boot active, rEFInd will
237 launch programs signed with either a standard UEFI Secure Boot key or a
238 MOK. For the moment, this feature works only on x86-64 systems.
239
240 - Added new "dont_scan_files" (aka "don't_scan_files") token for
241 refind.conf. The effect is similar to dont_scan_dirs, but it creates a
242 blacklist of filenames within directories rather than directory names.
243 I'm initially using it to place shim.efi and MokManager.efi in the
244 blacklist to keep these programs out of the OS list. (MokManager.efi is
245 scanned separately as a tool; see below.) I've moved checks for
246 ebounce.efi, GraphicsConsole.efi, and TextMode.efi to this list. (These
247 three had previously been blacklisted by hard-coding in ScanLoaderDir().)
248
249 - Added the directory from which rEFInd launched to dont_scan_dirs. This
250 works around a bug in which rEFInd would show itself as a bogus Windows
251 entry if it's installed as EFI/Microsoft/boot/bootmgfw.efi.
252
253 - Added support for launching MokManager.efi for managing the Machine Owner
254 Keys (MOKs) maintained by the shim boot loader developed by Fedora and
255 SUSE. This program is scanned and presented as a second-row tool.
256
257 - Added support for Apple's Recovery HD partition: If it's detected, a new
258 icon appears on the second row. This icon can be removed by explicitly
259 setting the "showtools" option in refind.conf and excluding the
260 "apple_recovery" option from that line.
261
262 - Fixed bug that caused text-mode ("textonly" refind.conf option enabled)
263 menu entries to be right-aligned rather than left-aligned when rEFInd was
264 compiled with the TianoCore EDK2.
265
266 - Added "--usedefault {devicename}" and "--drivers" options to the
267 install.sh script and changed the "esp" option to "--esp".
268
269 0.4.7 (11/6/2012):
270 ------------------
271
272 - Added an icon for gummiboot.
273
274 - Added a boot option editor: Pressing the Insert or F2 key from a boot
275 tag's options menu opens a simple text-mode line editor on which the boot
276 options may be edited for a one-time boot with altered options.
277
278 - Modified the "scan_delay" feature to delay and then perform a re-scan,
279 which may work better than the first attempt at this feature (which I'm
280 told isn't working as planned).
281
282 - Modified rEFInd to add a space after the command-line options only when
283 launching Mac OS X. On some early Macs, the extra space (which had been
284 present by default, as a carryover from rEFIt) causes problems when
285 booting Linux kernels from FAT partitions.
286
287 0.4.6 (10/6/2012):
288 ------------------
289
290 - Fixed some minor memory management issues.
291
292 - Added new "scan_delay" feature to impose a delay before scanning
293 for disks.
294
295 - Changed default "scanfor" option from internal-external-optical to either
296 internal-external-optical-manual (for non-Macs) or
297 internal-hdbios-external-biosexternal-optical-cd-manual (for Macs). I've
298 done this for two reasons:
299 - Many Mac users have been confused by the fact that rEFInd needs
300 reconfiguration to detect Windows (or Linux installed in BIOS mode),
301 since rEFIt scans BIOS devices by default. Adding the BIOS options as
302 default for them should help them.
303 - Adding the "manual" option enables users to simply add manual boot
304 stanzas and have them work, which is more intuitive. Adding the
305 "manual" option will have no effect unless manual stanzas are created
306 or uncommented, so this part of the change won't affect users' working
307 default configurations.
308
309 - Added new legacy (BIOS) boot support for UEFI-based PCs.
310
311 0.4.5 (8/12/2012):
312 ------------------
313
314 - Fixed bug that caused a failure to boot BIOS-based OSes on Macs.
315
316 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused it to fail to detect rEFItBlesser.
317
318 0.4.4 (6/23/2012):
319 ------------------
320
321 - Fixed bug that caused filesystem labels to be corrupted by rEFInd on
322 32-bit systems.
323
324 - Fixed bug that caused filesystem labels to be truncated in the drivers
325 on 32-bit systems.
326
327 - Fixed bug in use_graphics_for option parsing that caused most options
328 to set graphics mode for OS X and/or Linux but not other boot
329 loaders/OSes.
330
331 - Tweaked install script to better isolate the ESP under OS X.
332
333 0.4.3 (6/21/2012):
334 ------------------
335
336 - rEFInd now supports compilation using the TianoCore UDK2010/EDK2
337 development kit in addition to GNU-EFI.
338
339 - Added new "use_graphics_for" option to control which OSes to boot in
340 graphics mode. (This effect lasts for a fraction of a second on most
341 systems, since the boot loader that rEFInd launches is likely to set
342 graphics or text mode itself.)
343
344 - Graphics-mode booting now clears the screen to the current rEFInd
345 background color (rather than black) and does NOT display boot messages.
346 The intent is for a smoother transition when booting OS X, or perhaps
347 other OSes that don't display boot loader messages. In practice, this
348 effect will be tiny for many OSes, since the boot loader generally clears
349 the screen within a fraction of a second of being launched; but the
350 "flicker" of a rEFInd message in that time can sometimes be distracting.
351
352 - Filesystem drivers now work on EFI 1.x systems, such as Macs.
353
354 - Removed "linux.conf" as a valid alternative name for "refind_linux.conf"
355 for holding Linux kernel options. The kernel developers plan to use
356 "linux.conf" themselves.
357
358 0.4.2 (6/3/2012):
359 -----------------
360
361 - Added a message to install.sh when run on Macs to remind users to update
362 the "scanfor" line in refind.conf if they need to boot BIOS-based OSes
363 via rEFInd.
364
365 - Modified install.sh script to be smarter about running efibootmgr on
366 Linux. It now uses the whole path to the rEFInd binary as a key to
367 determine whether an existing entry exists, rather than just the filename
368 portion. If an entry exists and is the first entry in the boot order, the
369 script does nothing to the NVRAM entries. If such an entry exists but is
370 not the default, the script deletes that entry and creates a new one
371 (implicitly making it the first in the boot order). If such an entry does
372 not exist, the script creates a new one (again, making it the first in
373 the boot order).
374
375 - Added "dont_scan_dirs" configuration file option, which adds directories
376 to a "blacklist" of directories that are NOT scanned for boot loaders.
377
378 0.4.1 (5/25/2012):
379 ------------------
380
381 - Added "scanning for new boot loaders" message to the re-scan function
382 (hitting Esc at the main menu). It usually flashes up too quickly to
383 be of importance, but if the scan function takes a while because of
384 access to a CD that must be spun up, it should make it clear that the
385 system hasn't hung.
386
387 - Modified install.sh script to detect rEFItBlesser on Macs, and if
388 present, to ask the user if it should be removed.
389
390 - Cleaned up the Make.common file for the filesystem drivers.
391
392 - Changed HFS+ driver to return volume label of "HFS+ volume" rather than
393 an empty label. (The driver doesn't currently read the real volume
394 label.)
395
396 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to appear in its own menu after
397 running a shell and then re-scanning for boot loaders.
398
399 0.4.0 (5/20/2012):
400 ------------------
401
402 - Inclusion of drivers for ISO-9660, HFS+, ReiserFS, and ext2fs. Most of
403 these drivers originated with rEFIt, although the HFS+ driver seems to
404 have come from Oracle's VirtualBox, with some files from Apple. I hadn't
405 included these drivers previously because the build process proved
406 challenging. As it is, they don't work on my Mac Mini, I suspect because
407 the build process with the UDK2010 development kit may not work with the
408 EFI 1.x that Apple uses.
409
410 - Addition of support for drivers in the "drivers_{arch}" subdirectory of
411 the main rEFInd binary directory (e.g., "drivers_x64" or "drivers_ia32").
412 Drivers may continue to be placed in the "drivers" subdirectory.
413
414 - Added new feature to eject CDs (and other removable media): Press F12 to
415 eject all such media. This function works only on some Macs, though (it
416 relies on an Apple-specific EFI extension, and this extension isn't even
417 implemented on all Macs, much less on UEFI-based PCs).
418
419 - Fixed a problem that could cause GRUB 2 to fail to read its configuration
420 file when launched from rEFInd.
421
422 0.3.5 (5/15/2012):
423 ------------------
424
425 - Removed the GRUB 2 detection "reciped" added with 0.3.2, since I've
426 received reports that it's not working as intended.
427
428 - Added re-scan feature: Press the Esc key to have rEFInd re-read its
429 configuration file, tell the EFI to scan for new filesystems, and re-scan
430 those filesystems for boot loaders. The main purpose is to enable
431 scanning a new removable medium that you insert after launching rEFInd;
432 however, it can also be used to immediately implement changes to the
433 configuration file or new drivers you load from an EFI shell.
434
435 - Fixed a bug that could cause the scroll-right arrow to be replaced by the
436 scroll-left arrow under some circumstances.
437
438 0.3.4 (5/9/2012):
439 -----------------
440
441 - Added new configuration file option: "icons_dir", which sets the name
442 of the subdirectory in which icons are found. See the documentation or
443 sample configuration file for a full description.
444
445 - Modified Makefile to generate rEFInd binary that includes architecture
446 code -- refind_ia32.efi or refind_x64.efi, rather than the generic
447 refind.efi. This is done mainly to help the install.sh script. The
448 program can be named anything you like on the disk. (The generic name
449 refind.efi is used on unknown architectures.)
450
451 - Improved install.sh script: Fixed bug on OS X 10.7 and enable it to be
452 used after building from source code (or via new "make install" Makefile
453 target).
454
455 - Improved screen redraws to produce less flicker when moving among the
456 second-row tags or to the last tag on the first row.
457
458 0.3.3 (5/6/2012):
459 -----------------
460
461 - Improved menu navigation:
462 - In graphics mode, left & right arrow keys move left & right, while up &
463 down arrows move between rows.
464 - Page Up and Page Down now move through chunks of visible tags (in both
465 text & graphics modes), jumping from one row to another only when at
466 the edge of the row. In text mode, the "rows" are broken down as in
467 graphics mode, but they aren't visibly distinguished on the screen.
468
469 - Improved text-mode use: rEFInd now displays the proper number of entries
470 when first started in text mode and scrolling is done sensibly when too
471 many entries exist to fit on the screen.
472
473 0.3.2 (5/4/2012):
474 -----------------
475
476 - Added the install.sh script to install rEFInd on Linux and Mac OS X
477 systems. This script must be run as root (or via sudo). It requires
478 no options, but on Mac OS X, passing it the "esp" option causes it
479 to install rEFInd on the computer's ESP rather than the default of the
480 currently OS X boot partition. (Under Linux, the default is to install to
481 the ESP.) Note that there may be some unusual cases in which this script
482 will fail to work.
483
484 - Does a better job of clearing the screen when launching OSes in text
485 mode.
486
487 - Added detection "recipe" for GRUB 2's BIOS Boot Partition.
488
489 - Fixed bogus detection of ESPs created by Linux's mkdosfs utility or
490 Windows as bootable partitions when "scanfor" includes BIOS scanning
491 options.
492
493
494 0.3.1 (4/27/2012):
495 ------------------
496
497 - Fixed bug that caused spurious "Unsupported while scanning the root
498 directory" messages under some conitions on Macs.
499
500 - Modified loader scanning code to sort boot loader entries within a
501 directory by modification time, so that the most recently-modified loader
502 is first among those in a given directory. Thus, if you specify a
503 directory name (or volume name, for loaders stored in the root directory
504 of a volume) as the default_selection, the most recent of those loaders
505 will be the default. This is intended to help with Linux kernel
506 maintenance when using the EFI stub loader; set up this way, the most
507 recent kernel copied to your kernel directory will be the default,
508 obviating the need to adjust the refind.conf file when adding a new
509 kernel. If you want to change the default among those in the default
510 directory, you can use "touch" to adjust the modification timestamp.
511
512 - Tweaked code to find loader-specific .icns file so that it finds files
513 for Linux kernels without .efi extensions. In this case, files should be
514 named the same as the kernels they match, but with .icns extensions. For
515 instance, bzImage-3.3.2 should have an icon called bzImage-3.3.2.icns.
516 (The old code would have looked for an icon called bzImage-3.3.icns.)
517
518 - Eliminated bogus OS loader tags for filenames that end in ".icns" when
519 the scan_all_linux_kernels option is set.
520
521 0.3.0 (4/22/2012):
522 ------------------
523
524 - I'm officially upgrading this project's status from "alpha" to "beta" and
525 giving it a bump from 0.2.x to 0.3.0. This doesn't reflect any major
526 milestone with this version; rather, it reflects my sense that rEFInd has
527 been "out there" for a while, and although I've gotten bug reports,
528 they've been minor and/or have been fixed. The program still has known
529 bugs, but my impression is that it is, overall, usable by ordinary users.
530
531 - Added "resolution" option to refind.conf, which enables setting the video
532 resolution. To use it, pass two numeric values, as in "resolution 1024
533 768" to use a 1024x768 video mode. Note that not all modes are supported.
534 If you specify a non-supported video mode on a UEFI system, a message
535 appears listing the supported video modes and you must then press a key
536 to continue, using the default video mode (usually 800x600).
537 Unfortunately, I don't know the calls to get a list of supported video
538 modes on older EFI 1.x systems (including Macs), so on Macs setting an
539 incorrect video mode silently fails (you keep using the default mode).
540 This makes changing your video mode a hit-or-miss proposition on Macs.
541 CAUTION: It's possible to set a legal video mode that your monitor can't
542 handle, in which case you'll get a blank display until you boot an OS
543 that resets the video mode.
544
545 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused rEFInd to crash when returning from an
546 EFI shell or other programs on Macs, particularly when rEFInd used
547 graphical mode. I'm not 100% sure this bug is squashed because I still
548 don't understand the cause and I only have one Mac for testing. See
549 comments in the ReinitRefitLib() function in refit/lib.c for more
550 details.
551
552 - Added new refind.conf option: scan_all_linux_kernels, which causes Linux
553 kernels that lack ".efi" extensions to be included in scans for EFI boot
554 loaders. This may help integration with Linux distributions that don't
555 give their kernels such names by default. Beware, though: It can detect
556 unwanted files, such as older non-stub-loader kernels or .icns files used
557 to give kernels with .efi extensions custom icons.
558
559 - Improved EFI boot loader detection on boards with Gigabyte's Hybrid EFI,
560 and perhaps other EFIs with a buggy StriCmp() function. Files with both
561 ".efi" and ".EFI" extensions should now be detected as boot loaders.
562
563 - Fixed a bug that caused rEFInd to fail to scan for drivers if the
564 filesystem driver didn't set a volume name (that is, if the relevant
565 field was set to NULL rather than even an empty string). In such
566 situations, rEFInd now reports the volume name as "Unknown".
567
568 0.2.7 (4/19/2012):
569 ------------------
570
571 - After much trial and tribulation, I've overcome a GNU-EFI limitation and
572 enabled rEFInd to load EFI drivers. This feature was present in the
573 original build of rEFIt but was removed in the versions that could
574 compile under Linux, but now it's back -- and still being compiled under
575 Linux! To use it, you should place your drivers in a convenient directory
576 on the ESP (or whatever partition you use to launch rEFInd) and add a
577 "scan_driver_dirs" entry to refind.conf to tell rEFInd where to look. (As
578 always, you should specify the driver directory relative to the root of
579 the filesystem.) Note that you can't launch drivers from another
580 filesystem; they must be on the same volume that holds rEFInd. Those who
581 compile from source code should note that implementing this feature
582 necessitated using a more recent version of the GNU-EFI library. I'm
583 currently using version 3.0p, and version 3.0i does NOT work. I don't
584 know where the change occurred, but you may need to upgrade your GNU-EFI
585 installation.
586
587 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to show up in its own menu sometimes.
588
589 - Added new refind.conf token: also_scan_dirs. When scanning volumes for
590 EFI boot loaders, rEFInd always scans the root directory and every
591 subdirectory of the /EFI directory, but it doesn't recurse into these
592 directories. The also_scan_dirs token adds more directories to the scan
593 list. It defaults to "elilo,boot", but you can set it to any directory or
594 directories you like.
595
596 0.2.6 (4/14/2012):
597 ------------------
598
599 - Added "volume" keyword to configuration file's stanza options. This
600 option changes the volume from which subsequent files (specified by
601 "loader" and "icon") are loaded. You pass "volume" the name/label of the
602 FILESYSTEM you want to use (not the GPT partition name), or a number
603 followed by a colon (e.g., "1:"). The former should reliably identify a
604 filesystem, assuming the name is unique. The latter assigns numbers based
605 on the order in which they're scanned, which may not be as reliable but
606 should work when a volume is unnamed.
607
608 - Fixed bug in 0.2.5 that caused failure of Linux initial RAM disk
609 mapping on some (but not all) systems. Affected computers include at
610 least some Intel motherboards, maybe others.
611
612 0.2.5 (4/9/2012):
613 -----------------
614
615 - Fixed bug that caused an inability to associate initial RAM disks with
616 Linux kernels stored in a volume's root directory.
617
618 - Volume badges (that override default badges) are now stored in
619 .VolumeBadge.icns. Although undocumented, rEFInd formerly loaded custom
620 volume badges from .VolumeIcon.icns. This carryover from rEFIt was a
621 confusing name, given the next (new) feature, so I've changed and
622 documented the name....
623
624 - Added ability to set a default icon for a loader stored in the root
625 directory of a volume: The icon is stored in .VolumeIcon.icns. This icon
626 is also used for Mac OS X volumes booted from the standard location.
627
628 - Fixed bug that caused icons to drop back to generic icons when rEFInd
629 was launched in certain ways (such as from an EFI shell in rEFInd's
630 directory) on certain systems.
631
632 - Fixed bug that caused "unknown disable flag" to be shown (very briefly)
633 instead of "unknown hideui flag" when an improper hideui flag was set.
634
635 0.2.4 (4/5/2012):
636 -----------------
637
638 - Created new refind.conf entry: "showtools". This entry takes options of
639 "shell", "gptsync", "about", "exit", "reboot", and "shutdown". This
640 option is in some respects an affirmative version of portions of the old
641 "disable" and "hideui" options; however, it enables users to specify the
642 order in which these options appear on the screen. Also, the "exit"
643 option is new; it terminates the program. The effect is usually to return
644 to whatever tool launched it or to launch a default OS; however, this is
645 somewhat unpredictable. The default therefore omits the "exit" option, as
646 well as "gptsync", which has always been dangerous (but necessary on most
647 MacOS/Windows dual-boot setups on Macs). As part of this reconfiguration,
648 I've eliminated the "rescue Linux" option, which always seemed pointless
649 to me.
650
651 - Folded "disable" and "hideui" refind.conf entries into one ("disable"),
652 and reduced the number of options to six: "banner", "label",
653 "singleuser", "hwtest", "arrows", and "all". ("arrows" is new and
654 disables the scroll arrows when a system has too many tags to display
655 simultaneously.)
656
657 - Added max_tags option to the refind.conf file, enabling users to reduce
658 the maximum number of OS loader tags that can be displayed at once.
659
660 - Updated rEFIt icon, based on the 128x128 volume label from the rEFIt CD
661 image.
662
663 - Added x86 and x86-64 EFI shells to the CD image version of the binary,
664 but NOT to the binary zip file. The logic is that the CD image is more
665 likely to be used directly as an emergency disc and so may need this
666 feature, even though the source isn't part of the rEFInd project. (The
667 source is readily available from the TianoCore project.)
668
669 - EFI shells may now be stored at /shellx64.efi for x86-64 systems or at
670 /shellia32.efi for x86 systems. The /EFI/tools/shell.efi name is also
671 recognized; however, if both files are present, two EFI shell icons will
672 appear on the main menu. The /efi/{refind-path/apps/shell.efi filename,
673 which was never officially documented but worked as a carryover from
674 rEFIt, is no longer valid.
675
676 0.2.3 (3/26/2012):
677 ------------------
678
679 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused hangs when launching a second program
680 after returning from a first. There are some weird system-to-system
681 differences, though, and this fix causes (apparently harmless) error
682 messages about "(re)opening our installation volume" on at least one
683 system (a 32-bit Mac Mini). I'm committing this change because, imperfect
684 though it is, it's preferable to the earlier version, at least on my
685 small sample of computers.
686
687 - Because of news that the Linux kernel developers are planning to use the
688 filename linux.conf to hold Linux kernel configuration data for EFI
689 booting, I'm transitioning rEFInd away from that name and to
690 refind_linux.conf to avoid a conflict. This version can use either name,
691 with refind_linux.conf taking precedence if both are present.
692
693 - Added logo for Arch Linux.
694
695 0.2.2 (3/23/2012):
696 ------------------
697
698 - Fixed bug that caused program failure when Linux kernels with EFI stub
699 support were detected with no associated version numbers. rEFInd now
700 permits automatic linking of *ONE* versionless kernel to *ONE*
701 versionless initrd file.
702
703 - Fixed bug that caused program hangs when a boot loader filename or label
704 was too long. Such names are now properly truncated and program execution
705 continues.
706
707 - Fixed bug that caused no text to appear in submenus on UEFI systems with
708 small screens (800x600). NOTE: Problem still occurs on screens smaller
709 than this, but such systems are very rare.
710
711 0.2.1 (3/19/2012):
712 ------------------
713
714 - Added ability to set a "default_selection" that's a title or a substring
715 of one -- the name given to a stanza in a "menuentry" or the boot
716 loader's filename, in most cases, although "Mac OS X", "Windows XP
717 (XoM)", and "Microsoft EFI boot" are also titles.
718
719 - Added support for semi-automatic scans of Linux kernels with EFI stub
720 loader support. The program auto-detects matching initial RAM disk files
721 and loads additional options from the "linux.conf" file in the same
722 directory as the kernel.
723
724 - Added support for "submenuentry" keyword and associated sub-stanza
725 entries in refind.conf file.
726
727 - Renamed icons/os_mint.icns to icons/os_linuxmint.icns to match the
728 filename Linux Mint ACTUALLY uses for its ESP boot loader directory.
729
730
731 0.2.0 (3/14/2012):
732 ------------------
733
734 - Initial public release