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12 <h1>The rEFInd Boot Manager:<br />Revisions</h1>
13
14 <p class="subhead">by Roderick W. Smith, <a
15 href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com</a></p>
16
17 <p>Last Web page update: 1/8/2013</p>
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85 <hr />
86
87 <p>This page is part of the documentation for the rEFInd boot manager. If a Web search has brought you here, you may want to start at the <a href="index.html">main page.</a></p>
88
89 <hr />
90
91 <p>The following summarizes changes in rEFInd's public releases:</p>
92
93 <ul>
94
95 <li><b>0.6.4 (1/8/2013)</b>&mdash;Bug fixes motivate this release; it corrects a couple of memory management bugs in 0.6.3 that cause rEFInd to hang at startup on some computers (unfortunately not on any of mine, so I missed this). I've also made a small change to the <tt>install.sh</tt> script so that it installs the ext2fs driver rather than the ext4fs driver if the script detects that a Linux kernel is on an ext2fs or ext3fs partition. This can keep rEFInd from scanning ext4fs partitions and picking up non-functional symbolic links to vmlinuz on such partitions.</li>
96
97 <li><b>0.6.3 (1/6/2013)</b>&mdash;The installation script and related tools see the biggest changes in this version of the program. The <tt>install.sh</tt> script can now detect a rEFInd installation in <tt>EFI/BOOT</tt> or <tt>EFI/Microsoft/Boot</tt> and update it rather than install to the default location of <tt>EFI/refind</tt>. It will also install to one of these fallback locations if it's run in BIOS mode, thus helping users who want to get a BIOS-mode install of Linux running on an EFI-based computer. A new <tt>mvrefind.sh</tt> script can move the installation between these three locations (or more exotic locations). Outside of scripts, the <tt>dont_scan_dirs</tt> and <tt>also_scan_dirs</tt> tokens can now accept volume specifications, as in <tt>myvol:EFI/bogus</tt> to not scan (or scan) the <tt>EFI/bogus</tt> directory on the <tt>myvol</tt> volume. I've also fixed a bug that caused rEFInd to ignore default boot loaders on removable disks if rEFInd was installed using the fallback filename. I've also modified the ISO-9660 driver so that it works with ISO-9660 images written to non-optical media. This may help with getting "hybrid ISO" images written to USB flash drives to boot.</li>
98
99 <li><b>0.6.2 (12/30/2012)</b>&mdash;This version's biggest changes are "behind-the-scenes" improvements. Specifically, I've completely re-worked the shim/MOK Secure Boot code, based largely on an approach used by James Bottomley in his PreLoader boot loader. This fixes some bugs, such as the inability to launch more than one EFI boot loader in Secure Boot mode. The EFI filesystem drivers can now be built with GNU-EFI, which may help distribution maintainers. I'm also providing RPM packages of rEFInd, although I recommend installing from the binary zip file. Finally, I've changed rEFInd's default text-mode setting behavior to not adjust the text mode. (Recent previous versions forced the system to use text mode 0, which cuased problems on some systems.)</li>
100
101 <li><b>0.6.1 (12/21/2012)</b>&mdash;(Mayan apocalypse edition!) This version features a number of refinements and minor bug fixes. The <tt>install.sh</tt> script now includes a new <tt>--root</tt> option to enable easier installation of rEFInd to a regular OS installation from an emergency disc. The ext4fs driver now supports the <tt>meta_bg</tt> filesystem feature. I've fixed a number of obscure display resolution-setting bugs and a bug that caused the screen to clear after displaying certain error messages but before prompting you to continue. Instead of displaying a blank filesystem label as the "from" location for a boot loader, rEFInd now describes the filesystem by its type (FAT, ext4fs, etc.) and/or size. rEFInd also now uses the filesystem label as a hint about what type of icon to display for a boot loader.</li>
102
103 <li><b>0.6.0 (12/16/2012)</b>&mdash;The donation of a working ext4fs driver from Stefan Agner has prompted another big jump in the rEFInd version number, since this driver will greatly simplify installation on many systems: You may be able to simply run the <tt>install.sh</tt> script to get a working rEFInd that boots your Linux kernels directly, bypassing GRUB or ELILO. Other improvements in this version include bug fixes and minor changes to <tt>install.sh</tt>, the addition of hint text to the rEFInd main menu, the ability to disable the options editor via the <tt>editor</tt> option to <tt>hideui</tt> in <tt>refind.conf</tt>, a new <tt>textmode</tt> option to <tt>refind.conf</tt> to set the size of the text-mode display, a change to the code that adds your initial RAM disk to the boot options so that if you specify one manually (via <tt>refind_linux.conf</tt>), it will take precedence, and assorted obscure bug fixes. The <tt>NEWS.txt</tt> file goes into more details about many of these changes, as do the relevant pages of this HTML documentation.</li>
104
105 <li><b>0.5.1.1 (12/12/2012)</b>&mdash;This is a micro-update to fix a bug in the <tt>install.sh</tt> script that prevented it from working under OS X. Aside from that, and a few small documentation changes, this version changes nothing in rEFInd.</li>
106
107 <li><b>0.5.1 (12/11/2012)</b>&mdash;The most important changes to this version are to the <tt>install.sh</tt> script. It now supports two options, <tt>--shim</tt> and <tt>--localkeys</tt>, to aid in installation on a Secure Boot system. See the <a href="installing.html">Installing rEFInd</a> and <a href="secureboot.html">Managing Secure Boot</a> pages for details. The script also now creates a sample <tt>/boot/refind_linux.conf</tt> file to assist in setting up boots via the Linux EFI stub loader. All of these <tt>install.sh</tt> improvements work only in Linux. A separate <tt>mkrlconf.sh</tt> script creates a <tt>/boot/refind_linux.conf</tt> file if it doesn't exist, for help in post-installation configuration. In rEFInd itself, I've fixed the bug that caused ELILO to be unable to locate its configuration file when launched in Secure Boot mode and fixed a couple of more obscure bugs. I've also added an <tt>include</tt> token to <tt>refind.conf</tt>, to enable you to create a secondary configuration file (say, one managed by scripts while leaving the main file untouched; or one dedicated to manual boot stanzas).</li>
108
109 <li><b>0.5.0 (12/6/2012)</b>&mdash;I've focused on adding support for Matthew J. Garrett's shim program to this version of rEFInd; with this support, rEFInd is capable of launching Linux kernels and other programs signed with a suitable key while the computer is in Secure Boot mode. This initial release, however, requires significant manual configuration and has some known bugs and limitations. See the <a href="secureboot.html">Managing Secure Boot</a> page for details. Beyond this major new feature, this version includes several more minor improvements. These include a change to the <tt>resolution</tt> token so that it applies to text mode as well as to graphics mode; a bug fix that caused the line editor to blank out lines that were left unedited; a new <tt>dont_scan_files</tt> option to blacklist boot programs by filename; support for launching MokManager and Apple's Recovery HD partitions via tools (2nd-row) icons; new <tt>--usedefault</tt> and <tt>--drivers</tt> options to the <tt>install.sh</tt> script; a change of the <tt>esp</tt> installation script option to <tt>--esp</tt>; and the ability to use quote marks inside option strings by doubling them up.</li>
110
111 <li><b>0.4.7 (11/6/2012)</b>&mdash;The most important new feature in this version is a boot options editor. From rEFInd's main menu, press Insert or F2 to see the options menu. Select one of the options and press Insert or F2 again and the screen switches to a text-mode display in which you can edit the options that will be passed to the boot loader. A second new feature is a new icon for <a href="http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/gummiboot">gummiboot,</a> which is another EFI boot manager. This version also alters the behavior of the <tt>scan_delay</tt> option, since I've been told that the previous version didn't work; the new one does. Finally, this version omits the space that followed boot options when booting most OSes. This behavior was inherited from rEFIt; a comment in the source code indicates it's needed by OS X, but I've been told it causes boot failures when launching Linux on some Macs. Thus, rEFInd now adds this space only when booting Mac OS X.</li>
112
113 <li><b>0.4.6 (10/6/2012)</b>&mdash;Thanks to contributor John Bressler, rEFInd can now boot legacy (BIOS) boot loaders on many UEFI PCs. (Previously, rEFInd could do this only on Macs.) Other changes include a new <tt>scan_delay</tt> option that inserts a delay between rEFInd starting and disk scans (to help detect disks that are slow to appear to the firmware) and a change in the default <tt>scanfor</tt> value so that legacy OSes are detected by default on Macs (but not on PCs). I've also fixed some memory management problems that caused error messages to appear on some systems when rEFInd was compiled with the TianoCore EDK2 toolkit. Finally, I'm now using the TianoCore toolkit to make my primary binary builds, since the new UEFI legacy boot support requires the TianoCore environment. (rEFInd still builds with GNU-EFI, but it doesn't support booting legacy OSes on UEFI systems when built in this way.)</li>
114
115 <li><b>0.4.5 (8/12/2012)</b>&mdash;This version fixes a couple of Mac-related bugs. The most important is that version 0.4.3 and 0.4.4 couldn't boot BIOS-based (aka CSM or Boot Camp) OS installations; 0.4.5 restores this important feature. The second bug is in the <tt>install.sh</tt> script, which would often fail to detect rEFItBlesser, thus leaving it enabled and causing rEFInd to fail to start after the first reboot into OS X.</li>
116
117 <li><b>0.4.4 (6/23/2012)</b>&mdash;This is a bug-fix release. Most importantly, it fixes a bug in the new <tt>use_graphics_for</tt> feature; in 0.4.3, the options were set incorrectly (they just happened to work as expected on my main test configuration). I've also fixed problems with volume names in the 32-bit versions of both the drivers and the TianoCore EDK2 build of rEFInd itself. Finally, I've tweaked the <tt>install.sh</tt> script to do a better job of identifying the computer's ESP under OS X.</li>
118
119 <li><b>0.4.3 (6/21/2012)</b>&mdash;The major user-visible change to this version is the addition of the <tt>use_graphics_for</tt> option, which enables you to specify the OSes that rEFInd launches in graphics mode vs. text mode. This effect is tiny on most systems, but can be important on some, as noted on the <a href="configfile.html">"Configuring the Boot Manager"</a> page. There's also a change to the way graphics-mode boots are handled, to make for a slightly smoother visual transition. This version also fixes the incompatibility between the drivers and the firmware used by Macs (and probably other EFI 1.x systems). I've removed <tt>linux.conf</tt> as a valid alternative name for the <tt>refind_linux.conf</tt> file, so if you're still using the old name, now is the time to rename it! The biggest change is behind the scenes, though: I've added support for compiling rEFInd using the TianoCore EDK2, as well as the GNU-EFI toolkit that I've used up to this point. I have no intention of removing GNU-EFI support, but there's a chance that the TianoCore toolkit will help in implementing some future features or in debugging some problems. You can download either version from the <a href="http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/getting.html">downloads page.</a></li>
120
121 <li><b>0.4.2 (6/3/2012)</b>&mdash;I've added a new <tt>dont_scan_dirs</tt> option to the configuration file, enabling creation of a directory-scanning "blacklist." See the <a href="configfile.html">"Configuring the Boot Manager"</a> page for details. This version also makes a couple of changes to the <tt>install.sh</tt> script. The first is a reminder for Mac users to update <tt>refind.conf</tt> if they need to boot BIOS-based OSes. The second change makes the script a bit smarter about updating NVRAM settings when run from Linux; it now attempts to make itself the default boot loader if an entry for rEFInd already exists but isn't the default. I've made this change in response to problem reports from users; apparently some distributions' GRUB update scripts make GRUB the default boot loader under all circumstances, which causes rEFInd to be taken out of the picture after a GRUB update. The previous <tt>install.sh</tt> code wouldn't add rEFInd back to the "top spot" after this happened, but the new code should do the trick. (Although re-installing rEFInd is overkill in this case, it's something many users would logically try.)</li>
122
123 <li><b>0.4.1 (5/25/2012)</b>&mdash;This version provides a number of small bug fixes and improvements: When re-scanning (initiated by pressing Esc in the main menu), a message that re-scanning is occurring appears on the screen; I've fixed a bug that could cause rEFInd to appear as an option in its own menu after running a shell program and re-scanning; the <tt>install.sh</tt> script now checks for, and optionally deletes, the rEFItBlesser program when run under OS X; and the HFS+ driver now returns a volume label of <tt>HFS+ volume</tt>, rather than nothing at all (unlike other drivers, the HFS+ driver can't yet return the volume's true label).</li>
124
125 <li><b>0.4.0 (5/20/2012)</b>&mdash;I've bumped up this version number more than usual to reflect the addition of four filesystem drivers (for ext2fs, ReiserFS, HFS+, and ISO-9660) to the rEFInd package. These drivers originate with the original rEFIt, VirtualBox, and Clover boot loader projects. You can learn more on the <a href="drivers.html">drivers page.</a> To facilitate inclusion of drivers on the CD image, rEFInd also now supports reading drivers from architecture-specific subdirectories&mdash;<tt>drivers_x64</tt> and <tt>drivers_ia32</tt> for <i>x</i>86-64 and <i>x</i>86 systems, respectively. This version also adds the ability to eject removable media on some Macs (this won't work on UEFI-based PCs, unfortunately). Finally, this version fixes a problem that could cause GRUB 2 to be unable to read its configuration file in some settings when launched from rEFInd.</li>
126
127 <li><b>0.3.5 (5/15/2012)</b>&mdash;This version's biggest new feature is the ability to re-scan for boot loaders after launching the program. This is done by pressing the Esc key, which causes rEFInd to re-read its configuration file, to tell the EFI to reconnect all disks, and to do a fresh scan of all disks for loaders. This is useful if you insert a removable disk after starting the computer, if rEFInd starts before a disk has fully settled, if you make a change to the configuration file, or if you manually load a driver. This version also fixes a minor bug that could cause the scroll-right arrow to be replaced with a left-pointing arrow under some circumstances; and I've removed the scan for a BIOS Boot Partition that I added in 0.3.2, since I'm told it isn't launching correctly. (BIOS-mode GRUB 2 can still be launched on Macs from its boot code in the MBR.)</li>
128
129 <li><b>0.3.4 (5/9/2012)</b>&mdash;The biggest change to this version is the addition of the <tt>icons_dir</tt> configuration file token, which enables you to specify a directory that holds icons that override those in the default <tt>icons</tt> subdirectory. See the <a href="themes.html">Theming rEFInd</a> and <a href="configfile.html">Configuring the Boot Manager</a> pages for details. This version also reduces flicker when moving your selection around the screen and modifies the <tt>install.sh</tt> script so that it can be used directly after building rEFInd from source code. Related to this, building from source now creates a binary that includes an architecture code&mdash;<tt>refind_ia32.efi</tt> or <tt>refind_x64.efi</tt> rather than <tt>refind.efi</tt>.</li>
130
131 <li><b>0.3.3 (5/6/2012)</b>&mdash;I've focused on user interface improvements for this release. The biggest improvement is in the text-mode interface, which suffered from assorted display glitches in previous releases. These have now been fixed, so the text-mode interface should be more usable. I've also fine-tuned the use of keyboard keys, particularly in graphical mode. The up and down arrow keys now move between the two rows of the display, and Page Up and Page Down scroll the first row if it's too big for the display. (They'll also move between rows, but only when at the end of the first row or the start of the second.) Returning from a failed loader or a tool or built-in function now renders that tag as the currently-selected item, rather than setting the default loader as active, as happened with previous versions.</li>
132
133 <li><b>0.3.2 (5/4/2012)</b>&mdash;rEFInd's core functionality changes very little with this version; I've tweaked the detection of BIOS-mode boot loaders to keep unbootable FAT partitions created under Linux and Windows out of the boot list, while adding detection of GRUB BIOS Boot Partitions to the list. I've also made a change that improves screen-clearing when launching EFI utilities and OSes in text mode. The major change to this version is the addition of a new Linux/OS X installation script, <tt>install.sh</tt>. In most cases, this makes it possible to install rEFInd simply by typing <tt class="userinput">./install.sh</tt> from the rEFInd package directory; however, you should see the <a href="installing.html">Installing rEFInd</a> page for details. In some cases, manual installation may still be required. Also, you may prefer to copy over the old rEFInd program file with the new one when upgrading.</li>
134
135 <li><b>0.3.1 (4/27/2012)</b>&mdash;You'll find a few minor enhancements and bug fixes in this version, none of which affect the configuration files. rEFInd now sorts its boot loader entries <i>within each directory</i> by date, with the newest items first. The intent is that you can specify a directory name as the <tt>default_selection</tt> and the most recent boot loader in that directory will become the default. This may obviate the need to adjust the default after adding a new Linux kernel with EFI stub loader support. I've also improved the handling of <tt>.icns</tt> files for Linux kernels that lack <tt>.efi</tt> extensions; loader-specific icons for these kernels should now take the name of the kernel plus <tt>.icns</tt>&mdash;for instance, <tt>vmlinuz-0.3.2.icns</tt> for <tt>vmlinuz-0.3.2</tt>. rEFInd also now hides all <tt>.icns</tt> files from the boot loader list. Finally, this version fixes a bug, introduced in version 0.3.0, that could cause spurious <tt>Unsupported while scanning the root directory</tt> errors under some conditions on Macs.</li>
136
137 <li><b>0.3.0 (4/22/2012)</b>&mdash;This version marks the official transition from alpha to beta status for rEFInd. This isn't because of any important objective milestone being passed; it's just that rEFInd has been used by many people who have reported no show-stopping bugs, so I'm now confident that rEFInd is stable enough for general use. That's not to say it's perfect; it still has numerous <a href="todo.html">known bugs and limitations.</a> That's why it's still beta. To get down to specifics, this version adds two new configuration file tokens: <tt>resolution</tt>, which sets the screen resolution; and <tt>scan_all_linux_kernels</tt>, which adds Linux kernel files to the boot loader list even if they lack <tt>.efi</tt> filename extensions. See the <a href="configfile.html">Configuring the Boot Manager</a> page for details on these new options. I've also fixed some bugs: One that sometimes caused Macs to crash when returning from the EFI shell or other programs; another that caused rEFInd to fail to scan filesystems if the filesystem driver didn't return a volume name; and a third that caused rEFInd to fail to detect boot loaders depending on the case of the filename on some EFIs (this is really a workaround for an EFI implementation bug). The first of these is a <i>very</i> tentative fix and it could have negative effects on some systems (non-Mac EFI 1.x systems or Macs that weren't affected by the bug in other recent releases), so be sure to <a href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">contact me</a> if rEFInd crashes or otherwise misbehaves after you use an EFI shell.</li>
138
139 <li><b>0.2.7 (4/19/2012)</b>&mdash;I've added two new tokens to the <tt>refind.conf</tt> file, with associated new functionality. The new <tt>scan_driver_dirs</tt> option tells rEFInd where to scan for EFI drivers, in addition to the default of the <tt>drivers</tt> subdirectory of the rEFInd installation directory. For more on EFI drivers, see <a href="drivers.html">Using EFI Drivers.</a> Note that previous versions of rEFInd couldn't load drivers at all, although they could make use of hardware and filesystems activated by drivers loaded before rEFInd launched. The second new token is <tt>also_scan_dirs</tt>, which adds arbitrary directories to the list that rEFInd scans for boot loaders. (Without this option, rEFInd scans each volume's boot directory and every subdirectory of the <tt>/EFI</tt> directory, with the exception of <tt>/EFI/tools</tt> and rEFInd's own directory.) This version also fixes a minor bug that caused rEFInd to sometimes include itself in the list of OS options. Finally, if you build rEFInd yourself, you should be aware that it now requires a newer version of the GNU-EFI library than it required in the past. See the <tt>BUILDING.txt</tt> file, included in the source code package, for details.</li>
140
141 <li><b>0.2.6 (4/14/2012)</b>&mdash;This version provides one bug fix and one new feature. The bug was introduced in version 0.2.5 and prevents rEFInd from identifying a Linux initial RAM disk file on some (but not all) EFI implementations. The new feature is the <tt>volume</tt> stanza token, which enables you to manually load a boot program from a filesystem other than the one from which rEFInd launched. You can specify a volume either by its label (as in <tt>volume KERNELS</tt> to load from the volume with a filesystem name <tt>KERNELS</tt>) or by number followed by a colon (as in <tt>volume 0:</tt> for the first filesystem or <tt>volume 1:</tt> for the second). See the <a href="configfile.html">Configuring the Boot Manager</a> page for more on this new feature.</li>
142
143 <li><b>0.2.5 (4/9/2012)</b>&mdash;Icon-handling improvements are key in this version. I've fixed a bug that caused icons to be replaced with ugly "not-found" default icons when rEFInd was launched in certain ways. I've also added support for <tt>.VolumeIcon.icns</tt> and <tt>.VolumeBadge.icns</tt> files to set loader tags and disk-type badges, respectively. (See the <a href="configfile.html">configuration page</a> for details.) I've also fixed a bug that prevented rEFInd from finding the correct initial RAM disk for Linux kernels stored in the root directory of a partition.</li>
144
145 <li><b>0.2.4 (4/5/2012)</b>&mdash;This version adds support for a new location for EFI shells (<tt>shell<tt class="variable">arch</tt>.efi</tt> in the ESP's root directory. It also adds two new <tt>refind.conf</tt> options: <tt>showtools</tt> and <tt>max_tags</tt>, and removes another one (<tt>disable</tt>). The options available in <tt>hideui</tt> are now essentially a combination of what <tt>disable</tt> and <tt>hideui</tt> did, minus functionality now present in <tt>showtools</tt>. I made these changes to reduce redundancy and to increase flexibility. See the <a href="configfile.html">Configuring the Boot Manager</a> page for details.</li>
146
147 <li><b>0.2.3 (3/26/2012)</b>&mdash;I've changed the Linux kernel configuration filename from <tt>linux.conf</tt> to <tt>refind_linux.conf</tt> with this version, to avoid a name collision with a planned future Linux kernel ability to read its options from a file called <tt>linux.conf</tt>. This version also includes a tentative bug fix for a problem that caused rEFInd to hang upon launching the second program (say, a boot loader after using a shell) on some systems; but on some computers, this fix causes an (apparently harmless) error message about "(re)opening our installation volume" upon returning from the first program. I've also added a logo for Arch Linux.</li>
148
149 <li><b>0.2.2 (3/23/2012)</b>&mdash;This version fixes three bugs: One caused submenus to not appear on systems with screens of 800x600 or smaller; another caused rEFInd to hang when boot loader names were too long; and the third caused the program to fail when Linux kernels and their initial RAM disk files lacked version numbers.</li>
150
151 <li><b>0.2.1 (3/19/2012)</b>&mdash;This version adds the ability to auto-scan Linux kernels with EFI stub loader support, provided a suitable <tt>linux.conf</tt> file exists in the kernel's directory. It also adds support for manual specification of submenus in <tt>refind.conf</tt>.</li>
152
153 <li><b>0.2.0 (3/14/2012)</b>&mdash;This is the program's initial public release. It's based on rEFIt 0.14 plus a large number of patches taken from Debian's Linux-compilable rEFIt package. I then added UEFI-specific fixes, support for OS definition stanzas in the configuration file, a scrolling icon list on the main menu, and other minor improvements. This release has quite a few <a href="todo.html">known bugs and limitations.</a></li>
154
155 </ul>
156
157 <hr />
158
159 <p>copyright &copy; 2012&ndash;2013 by Roderick W. Smith</p>
160
161 <p>This document is licensed under the terms of the <a href="FDL-1.3.txt">GNU Free Documentation License (FDL), version 1.3.</a></p>
162
163 <p>If you have problems with or comments about this Web page, please e-mail me at <a href="mailto:rodsmith@rodsbooks.com">rodsmith@rodsbooks.com.</a> Thanks.</p>
164
165 <p><a href="index.html">Go to the main rEFInd page</a></p>
166
167 <p><a href="todo.html">Learn about problems with and the future of rEFInd</a></p>
168
169 <p><a href="http://www.rodsbooks.com/">Return</a> to my main Web page.</p>
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