]> code.delx.au - refind/blob - NEWS.txt
Version 0.8.3 release
[refind] / NEWS.txt
1 0.8.3 (7/6/2014):
2 -----------------
3
4 - Added new feature: Setting "timeout = -1" in refind.conf causes rEFInd to
5 immediately boot the default option UNLESS a keypress is in the buffer
6 when rEFInd launches. In that case, if the keypress corresponds to a
7 shortcut key, the associated boot loader is launched; or if not, the menu
8 is displayed.
9
10 - Added new icons for Clover boot loader and for Mythbuntu Linux
11 distribution.
12
13 - rEFInd now displays the partition's label, when one is available, when
14 offering a BIOS-mode boot option for a partition with no filesystem
15 driver. This works only on Macs doing BIOS-mode booting.
16
17 - Removed GPLv2 code from the FSW core files. This was done because the
18 Btrfs driver is derived from the GRUB Btrfs driver, which is licensed
19 under the GPLv3. Ironically, the GPLv2 and GPLv3 are incompatible
20 licenses, so ensuring that the Btrfs driver doesn't rely on GPLv2 code
21 was legally necessary. In most cases, I reverted to the original rEFIt
22 code, although I kept my own cache code; since I wrote it, I can
23 change its license to a BSD license.
24
25 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to unload drivers immediately after loading
26 them. This didn't affect rEFInd's own drivers because they didn't include
27 the unload hooks, but it did affect some other drivers.
28
29 - Changed default scan_all_linux_kernels setting from "false" to "true",
30 and commented the option out in refind.conf-sample. This should not
31 affect most people, since refind.conf-sample had this option commented
32 out, and most rEFInd users either use it that way or don't have Linux
33 kernels installed at all. I've made this change because I want rEFInd to
34 "do the right thing" by default in as many cases as possible. For a while
35 now, rEFInd has been excluding non-bootable files from its menu, and most
36 kernels "in the wild" now include the EFI stub. Thus, enabling this
37 support by default seems worthwhile. If you prefer to not scan Linux
38 kernels by default, simply uncomment the "scan_all_linux_kernels" line
39 and ensure it's set to "false".
40
41 0.8.2.1 (6/8/2014):
42 -------------------
43
44 - Removed stray bit of debugging code that caused a prompt to press a
45 key to appear at rEFInd startup.
46
47 0.8.2 (6/8/2014):
48 -----------------
49
50 - Changed behavior when default_selection is not set: It now boots the
51 previously-booted loader, assuming it's still available; if not, rEFInd
52 boots the first loader (as it does now). Behavior is unchanged if
53 default_selection is set. Note that this behavior depends on the ability
54 of rEFInd to store an EFI variable in NVRAM. It therefore fails on
55 systems with flaky NVRAM storage. You can view the previously-booted
56 loader in the
57 /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/PreviousBoot-36d08fa7-cf0b-42f5-8f14-68df73ed3740
58 variable under Linux.
59
60 - Added icon for Mageia Linux (os_mageia.png).
61
62 - Fixed bug that could misidentify a not-quite-GUID as a GUID in a
63 manual boot stanza's "volume" line.
64
65 - I've updated my personal build system, and therefore the rEFInd Makefiles
66 and related files, to use TianoCore UDK2014 rather than UDK2010.
67
68 - Added "deep_uefi_legacy_scan" token. When not set (the default), rEFInd
69 does not modify EFI NVRAM settings when scanning for BIOS-mode boot
70 loaders on UEFI-based (non-Mac) computers. Some computers require
71 uncommenting this setting for rEFInd to reliably detect some BIOS-mode
72 boot devices. Passing "0", "off", or "false" as an option resets it to
73 the default value (useful in a loaded secondary configuration file to
74 override a setting in the main file).
75
76 0.8.1 (5/15/2014):
77 ------------------
78
79 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to fail to detect boot loaders stored
80 on the root directory of a partition.
81
82 - Added two new bitmap fonts to those distributed with rEFInd: Ubuntu Mono
83 and Nimbus Mono. Both come in 12-, 14-, 16-, and 24-point sizes.
84
85 - Messages about pauses for scanning and re-scanning of boot loaders are
86 now suppressed when doing an initial delayed scan when scan_delay is 1
87 second.
88
89 - Improved centering of legacy boot option descriptions on some systems'
90 screens.
91
92 - Fixed bug that could cause a BIOS-mode boot to boot from an inappropriate
93 device if that device had an innately high boot priority (as set by the
94 firmware).
95
96 - Changed icons from ICNS to PNG form. There are several reasons to do
97 this, all of them minor; but together they're enough to warrant a change.
98 PNG is more common, and therefore more accessible to most users --
99 particularly those who don't use OS X. The PNG files are smaller than
100 their ICNS equivalents. PNG supports a wider range of sizes (although I'm
101 not now using anything that ICNS doesn't support, I might in the future).
102 The icon-scaling support added a few versions ago makes ICNS's support
103 for multiple icon sizes relatively unimportant.
104
105 - Reversed order of search for icons by extension: rEFInd now searches
106 for PNG files before ICNS files, rather than the other way around. This
107 makes it possible to override a volume icon for rEFInd by giving it the
108 name .VolumeIcon.png, even when a .VolumeIcon.icns file exists on the
109 volume and is used by OS X.
110
111 - Fixed bug that caused .VolumeIcon.icns to take higher-than-intended
112 precedence in icon setting for OS X.
113
114 - Chainloading to BIOS-mode boot loaders now works on UEFI-based PCs when
115 rEFInd is built with GNU-EFI, not just when built with Tianocore.
116
117 0.8.0 (5/4/2014):
118 -----------------
119
120 - The "dont_scan_volumes" parameter now also works with legacy-boot
121 volumes. Unlike with EFI volumes, where the option you pass must exactly
122 match an entire volume name, when applied to legacy-boot volumes, it
123 matches any part of the description that appears beneath the item when
124 you select it in the rEFInd main menu.
125
126 - Can now boot in legacy mode from second (and probably later) hard disks!
127
128 - rEFInd now limits the length of the firmware name string shown in the
129 system information screen to 65 characters. This is done because at least
130 one EFI presents a longer string by default, and this causes the entire
131 information display to come up empty on 800x600 displays.
132
133 - rEFInd now uses the partition's name (as stored in the GPT data
134 structures) as a fallback for the filesystem's name if the latter can't
135 be found. Exceptions are if the partition name is one of three generic
136 names used by GPT fdisk: "Microsoft basic data", "Linux filesystem", or
137 "Apple HFS/HFS+". These are ignored in favor of the descriptive fallback
138 (e.g., "20 GiB Btrfs volume")
139
140 - It's now possible to specify a volume by partition GUID number in a
141 manual boot stanza. This should be more reliable (albeit also more
142 awkward) than using a filesystem number (such as fs0: or fs1:).
143
144 - Fixed memory-allocation bug that could cause error message displays,
145 and possibly hangs, when re-scanning boot loaders.
146
147 0.7.9 (4/20/2014):
148 ------------------
149
150 - Attempt to fix rEFInd perpetually re-scanning after ejecting a disc on
151 some Macs.
152
153 - Added check to remove redundant (or non-functional if Secure Boot is
154 active) kernel entries for Ubuntu, which is now including two versions of
155 kernels, one signed and the other unsigned.
156
157 - Fixed bug in install.sh that could cause it to display error messages
158 if the dmraid utility was not installed.
159
160 - The HFS+ driver now reports a correct volume name.
161
162 - Fixed some EFI filesystem driver bugs that could cause lockups under
163 some circumstances. These bugs could affect any of the filesystem
164 drivers.
165
166 - Added "gdisk" option to the "showtools" configuration file token. When
167 active, this adds gdisk.efi or gdisk_{arch}.efi, if present in the
168 EFI\tools directory, to the tools row.
169
170 - Fixed mistaken identification of the MOK utility as the "MOK utility
171 utility."
172
173
174 0.7.8 (3/9/2014):
175 -----------------
176
177 - Added "debian" directory to source, which facilitates creation of Debian
178 packages. Packages built in this way are built with GNU-EFI and don't run
179 any post-installation script, so although the rEFInd binaries are on the
180 hard disk, they aren't installed to be bootable; you must manually run
181 install.sh. Also, at least on Ubuntu, the Make.common file's /usr/lib64
182 references must be changed to /usr/lib. This is more of a proof of
183 concept and a "leg up" for distribution maintainers than anything else.
184
185 - Two new options, big_icon_size and small_icon_size, set the size of
186 the first-row OS icons and of the second-row tool icons, respectively.
187 The big_icon_size option also indirectly sets the size of disk-type
188 badges; they're 1/4 the size of the big icons. Default values are 128 and
189 48, respectively, to match the actual icon files provided with rEFInd. If
190 the icon you're using is of a different size than you've specified,
191 rEFInd scales it. For best quality, you should both provide icons drawn
192 to the right size and set the icon sizes in refind.conf.
193
194 - rEFInd now automatically scales icons to fit the standard icon sizes.
195 This won't have any effect with the icons that come with rEFInd, but it
196 can help if you want to use another icon, since you needn't scale it in a
197 graphics program before using it. Note that rEFInd uses bitmap icons, so
198 scaling by a huge amount (say, a 16x16 icon to fit the standard 128x128
199 OS icon) is not likely to look good.
200
201 - Added new option, banner_scale, that tells rEFInd how to handle banners:
202 Set to "noscale" (the default), banners are not scaled, although they'll
203 be cropped if they're too big for the display. This is the same as the
204 behavior in previous versions. Set to "fillscreen", rEFInd now scales the
205 banner image (larger or smaller) to fill the display.
206
207 - Adjusted the post-installation script in refind.spec (used to generate
208 RPMs, and therefore also indirectly Debian packages) to search for
209 existing shim program files under the filesnames shim.efi and shimx64.efi
210 rather than just shim.efi. Ubuntu uses shimx64.efi, so Debian packages
211 were failing to detect Ubuntu's shim in previous versions. (Note,
212 however, that Ubuntu's early shim 0.1 is unsuitable for use with rEFInd
213 The newer 0.4 version that's in the repositories now should work fine;
214 it's only when installing on an older system that's NOT been updated that
215 problems might arise.
216
217 0.7.7 (1/3/2014):
218 -----------------
219
220 - Can now specify complete paths, optionally including volumes, in
221 dont_scan_files.
222
223 - Added shimx64.efi to the default dont_scan_files list.
224
225 - Added windows_recovery_files token, to specify what program(s) launch a
226 Windows recovery utility; and the "windows_recovery" option to
227 "showtools," to control whether or not to display the Windows recovery
228 utility on the second row of icons.
229
230 - The use_graphics_for, also_scan_dirs, dont_scan_dirs, dont_scan_files,
231 and scan_driver_dirs tokens in refind.conf now support "+" as the first
232 option, which causes the remaining options to be added to the default
233 value rather than replacing that value. (This has no practical effect for
234 scan_driver_dirs, though, since it has a null default value.)
235
236 - Added support for specifying the configuration file at program launch,
237 via the "-c" parameter, as in "refind_x64.efi -c foo.conf" to use the
238 foo.conf file as the main configuration file.
239
240 - Scans of ext2/3/4fs and ReiserFS partitions now omit partitions with
241 duplicate filesystem UUIDs. These are likely parts of RAID arrays and so
242 would have the same boot loaders or kernels as the first one with a given
243 UUID.
244
245 - Added feature in install.sh: Script now tries to locate and mount an ESP
246 in Linux, if it's currently unmounted.
247
248 - Fixed bug in mkrlconf.sh and install.sh that caused a stray line break
249 and PARTUUID= specification to appear in generated refind_linux.conf file
250 under some circumstances.
251
252 0.7.6 (12/15/2013):
253 -------------------
254
255 - Added support for multiple "default_selection" targets. These MUST be
256 comma-separated AND enclosed in quotes, as in:
257 default_selection "fred,ginger"
258 This example will launch "fred" by default if it's available; and if
259 it's not, rEFInd will attempt to launch "ginger" as the default.
260
261 - Added support for time-sensitive "default_selection" setting. This token
262 may now have either one or three options. If one, it's interpreted as it
263 has been in the past, as setting a default that's independent of times.
264 If you follow this default by two times, however, those are interpreted
265 as the start and end times (in 24-hour format) for a default setting. For
266 instance, "default_selection foo 8:00 17:00" causes foo to be the default
267 from 8:00 (AM) to 17:00 (aka 5:00 PM). You can include multiple
268 "default_selection" lines to set different defaults for a variety of
269 times. If they're in conflict, the last one takes precedence. Note that
270 times are hardware clock's native value, which may be local time or UTC,
271 depending on your computer.
272
273 - Added support for a blank-screen startup: Set "screensaver -1" and the
274 screen saver will be initialized when rEFInd starts. If you set a low
275 "timeout" value, the result will be a boot straight to the default OS
276 unless you hit a key soon after rEFInd starts. Once you hit a key, the
277 screensaver will be disabled.
278
279 - Added --ownhfs {target} option to install.sh. This option causes rEFInd
280 to install to an HFS+ partition in a way that's more consistent with the
281 way the Mac's native boot loader is installed. Note that you should NOT
282 install to an already-bootable partition with this option, since it will
283 overwrite the existing boot loader, which would render OS X unbootable.
284
285 0.7.5 (11/10/2013):
286 -------------------
287
288 - Fixed bug that caused unbootable exFAT partitions to show up as
289 bootable on Macs with BIOS/CSM/legacy boot options enabled.
290
291 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused installs to the ESP on recent
292 versions of OS X to fail.
293
294 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to hang on some Macs when multiple EFI
295 drivers were present.
296
297 - Fixed bug that caused clear to default gray screen when launching OSes
298 with 'use_graphics_for' enabled, even when the rEFInd background is not
299 gray. Now rEFInd clears to the same background color used in its menu.
300 When launching OS X, though, the OS X boot loader will itself clear to
301 gray a second or so later; and when launching Linux, it will clear to
302 black a second or so later.
303
304 0.7.4.1 (8/25/2013):
305 --------------------
306
307 - My initial 0.7.4 release broke legacy-boot ability on Macs, so I quickly
308 released this version using the original 0.7.4 filenames to fix the
309 problem.
310
311 0.7.4 (8/25/2013):
312 ------------------
313
314 - Fixed options passing to loader to include loader's filename as the first
315 option. This omission had no effect on most boot loaders, but caused
316 VMware's mboot64.efi to fail.
317
318 - Added support for memtest86 as second-row option. Program must be
319 stored in EFI/tools, EFI/tools/memtest, EFI/tools/memtest86, EFI/memtest,
320 or EFI/memtest86; and must use the name memtest86.efi, memtest86_x64.efi,
321 memtest86x64.efi, or bootx64.efi (changing "x64" to "ia32" on IA-32
322 systems). The memtest86 program is scanned for when the "showtools"
323 option includes the "memtest" or "memtest86" token, which it does by
324 default.
325
326 - Added space to end of "Boot %s from %s" string; enables adding a space
327 to the end of the "default_selection" item (in quotes) to set a default
328 that matches a volume name that's identical to another one except for
329 extra characters at the end of the non-wanted volume's name.
330
331 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to hang when launching boot loaders
332 under some conditions. (Launching from Firewire drives on Macs is the
333 known case, but there may be others.)
334
335 0.7.3 (8/7/2013):
336 -----------------
337
338 - Fixed bug that caused missing media-type badges on BIOS-mode boot
339 loaders on Macs.
340
341 - Fixed bug that caused failure when launching BIOS-mode OSes on Macs.
342
343 0.7.2 (8/6/2013):
344 -----------------
345
346 - Fixed bug that caused display glitches in the final entry on the first
347 row of icons if the second row of icons was empty.
348
349 - Fixed bug that could cause incorrect scanning or even a rEFInd crash when
350 using volume specification in also_scan_dirs token.
351
352 - Added protection against loading invalid drivers and other EFI programs.
353 (Some EFIs crash when attempting to load such drivers and programs.)
354
355 - Added PreLoader.efi and shim-fedora.efi to default dont_scan_files list;
356 it's now "shim.efi, shim-fedora.efi, PreLoader.efi, TextMode.efi,
357 ebounce.efi, GraphicsConsole.efi, MokManager.efi, HashTool.efi,
358 HashTool-signed.efi".
359
360 - Added icon for Funtoo Linux.
361
362 - Fixed reading of volume badges from user-specified icons directory, which
363 was broken.
364
365 - Fixed handling of /.VolumeBadge.icns (or /.VolumeBadge.png) files, which
366 was broken.
367
368 0.7.1 (7/8/2013):
369 -----------------
370
371 - Fixed build problem with recent development versions of EDK2.
372
373 - Added scan for Boot Repair's backup of the Windows boot loader
374 (bkpbootmgfw.efi). If found, give separate entries for it and for
375 bootmgfw.efi, each with its own descriptive text label.
376
377 - Fixed also_scan_dirs; used to have bug that caused it to ignore
378 volume specification, if present.
379
380 - Fixed bug in driver cache that caused Btrfs driver to hang sometimes.
381
382 0.7.0 (6/27/2013):
383 ------------------
384
385 - Added Btrfs signature to rEFInd, so that it can identify the filesystem
386 type for volumes that lack labels.
387
388 - Changed some critical filesystem driver pointers from 32-bit to 64-bit.
389 This *SHOULD* enable use of over-2TiB filesystems (for those filesystems
390 that support such large volumes). This capability is largely untested,
391 though.
392
393 - Added a cache to the filesystem driver core, and therefore to all the
394 filesystem drivers. This cache greatly improves performance in
395 VirtualBox, and offers modest performance improvements on a few "real"
396 computers. The most dramatic improvement is on ext2/3fs under VirtualBox:
397 Loading a kernel and initrd used to take ~200 seconds on my system, but
398 now takes ~3 seconds! On most "real" hardware, the improvement is much
399 less dramatic -- an improvement of a second or less, presumably because
400 of cacheing within the EFI or on the hard disk itself.
401
402 - Filter boot loaders based on a test of their validity; keeps out Linux
403 kernels without EFI stub loader code, loaders for the wrong architecture,
404 non-EFI loaders, etc.
405
406 - New Btrfs driver, contributed by Samuel Liao based on GRUB 2.00 Btrfs
407 code.
408
409 0.6.12 (6/18/2013):
410 -------------------
411
412 - Changed the 64-bit EFI shell included in the CD-R and USB flash drive
413 images to a version 2 shell that should support the "bcfg" command.
414
415 - Added support for PreBootloader to refind.spec's built-in installation
416 script.
417
418 - Added support for the Linux Foundation's PreLoader to install.sh. It's
419 treated just like shim, including using the --shim option (or, now,
420 --preloader); but it searches for and copies HashTool.efi rather than
421 MokManager.efi, and filenames are adjusted appropriately.
422
423 - Added code to determine Linux root filesystem from /etc/fstab file, if
424 it's on the same partition as the kernel and if the refind_linux.conf
425 file is not available. This enables rEFInd to boot Linux without any
426 rEFInd-specific configuration files on some (but not all) systems.
427
428 0.6.11 (5/13/2013):
429 -------------------
430
431 - New feature: rEFInd now ignores symbolic links to files on filesystems
432 that support them. This prevents the "vmlinuz" symbolic link that some
433 distributions create in the root directory from appearing in the loader
434 list. Note that this does NOT affect symbolic links to directories.
435
436 - Added icons for Lubuntu and Kubuntu.
437
438 - Improved the install.sh script so that it does a better job dealing with
439 directory names that contain spaces.
440
441 - rEFInd now tries to guess the Linux distribution type based on the kernel
442 filename (Fedora and RHEL only) or the "ID" or "NAME" variables in
443 /etc/os-release on the kernel's partition. None of these is guaranteed to
444 work. A fallback of the Tux penguin icon remains in place in case rEFInd
445 can't find anything substantive enough for a guess.
446
447 - Added "EFI\opensuse" to the locations searched for MOK utilities, since
448 OpenSUSE now uses that name.
449
450 - Renamed "Reboot to Firmware User Interface" to "Reboot to Computer Setup
451 Utility" in menu.
452
453 - Fixed bug in gptsync that caused it to hang if the disk had too few GPT
454 partitions to fill the MBR.
455
456 0.6.10 (5/5/2013):
457 ------------------
458
459 - Added support for "screensaver" token. If set to a positive integer, this
460 causes the screen to blank after the specified number of seconds of
461 inactivity. Pressing most keys (unfortunately NOT including Shift, Alt,
462 or Ctrl) will restore the display and restart the screen saver timeout.
463
464 - Added icon for ChromeOS (os_chrome.icns in the icons subdirectory).
465 ChromeBooks reportedly boots using the fallback filename, but if a user
466 wants to install rEFInd on a ChromeBook, renaming the original EFI/BOOT
467 directory to EFI/chrome and then installing rEFInd in the fallback
468 filename will bring up this new icon for ChromeOS.
469
470 - Added new option to reboot the computer into the firmware's user
471 interface. This option is active by default, or can be set via the
472 "firmware" option to the "showtools" token in refind.conf. It works
473 on only some computers, though; older computers lack this feature, and
474 when rEFInd is told to use this feature on such computers, the directive
475 is quietly ignored.
476
477 - Upgraded LodePNG library from version 20121216 to 20130415 and
478 restructured rEFInd-specific modifications to simplify future upgrades.
479
480 - Replaced hexadecimal error code with description if an error is
481 encountered when saving a screen shot.
482
483 - Enable multiple screen shots: Rather than naming all screen shots
484 "screenshot.bmp", the name is now "screenshot_###.bmp", where "###" is a
485 sequence number, starting with "001".
486
487 0.6.9 (4/25/2013):
488 ------------------
489
490 - Modified default banner to include the new rEFInd icon, provided by Erik
491 Kemperman.
492
493 - Worked around a suspected firmware bug that caused rEFInd 0.6.6 to 0.6.8
494 to hang at startup on some systems (DUET and some Macs).
495
496 - Modified rEFInd to search for gptsync under the names gptsync.efi and
497 gptsync_{arch}.efi, where {arch} is ia32 or x64. (Previous versions
498 searched only for gptsync.efi.)
499
500 - Added gptsync program from rEFIt project, but with some changes to
501 improve flexibility and make it less likely that UEFI users will
502 accidentally trash their systems.
503
504 - Changed timeout code so that the timeout continues if the keyboard is
505 disconnected. This can help in booting a headless server or a system with
506 a bluetooth or other keyboard that's not recognized by the EFI.
507
508 0.6.8 (3/18/2013):
509 ------------------
510
511 - Added workaround for presumed EFI bug that was causing "Invalid
512 Parameter" errors when scanning for boot loaders on some computers.
513
514 - Added search for an EFI shell called shell.efi in the root directory
515 (previously this name was only accepted in EFI\tools).
516
517 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused it to fail on some systems (Fedora
518 18, for instance) because of a problem identifying the ESP.
519
520 - Fixed bug that caused icons named after boot loaders to not be used.
521
522 0.6.7 (2/3/2013):
523 -----------------
524
525 - Added a more explicit error message summarizing options when a launch of
526 a program results in a Secure Boot failure.
527
528 - Changed MOK tool detection to scan all volumes, not just the rEFInd
529 home volume. This is desirable because the Linux Foundation's HashTool
530 can only scan its own volume, making it desirable to place copies of this
531 program on every volume that holds EFI boot loader binaries.
532
533 - Added support for launching the Linux Foundation HashTool as a means of
534 managing MOKs (or MOK hashes, at any rate).
535
536 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to present an entry for itself as a
537 Microsoft OS if it was launched as EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi.
538
539 - Fixed bug that caused dont_scan_volumes option to be added to
540 also_scan_dirs list.
541
542 - Fixed dont_scan_volumes so that it works with OS X boot loaders.
543
544 - Fixed broken mixing of PNG and ICNS icons when using a user-specified
545 icons directory -- previously, an ICNS file in the default directory
546 would override a PNG file in the user-specified directory.
547
548 0.6.6 (1/26/2013):
549 ------------------
550
551 - rEFInd now ignores the fallback boot loader (EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi or
552 EFI/BOOT/bootia32.efi) if it's identical to another boot loader on
553 the same volume. This is intended to help unclutter the display on
554 systems that run Windows, since Windows tends to duplicate its own boot
555 loader under the fallback name.
556
557 - Added new "font" token to refind.conf, which enables specifying a font in
558 the form of a PNG file. This file must contain monospace glyphs for the
559 95 characters from ASCII 32 to 126 (space through tilde), inclusive, plus
560 a glyph to be displayed for characters outside of this range, for a total
561 of 96 glyphs.
562
563 - Replaced the old font (inherited from rEFInd) with an anti-aliased
564 version of Luxi Mono Regular 14 point.
565
566 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to ignore manual boot stanzas in files
567 included via the "include" token in refind.conf.
568
569 - Fixed bug that caused ASSERT error on some systems (and conceivably a
570 crash on startup on some) when default_selection line in refind.conf was
571 commented out or empty.
572
573 - Fixed bug that caused "Binary is whitelisted" message to persist on
574 screen after loading MOK-signed drivers in Secure Boot mode.
575
576 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to ignore the "icon" token in refind.conf
577 manual boot stanzas.
578
579 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused the script to fail to update
580 drivers when rEFInd was installed in EFI/BOOT/.
581
582 0.6.5 (1/16/2013):
583 ------------------
584
585 - Improved text color support: rEFInd now uses black text against light
586 backgrounds and white text against dark backgrounds.
587
588 - Added support for PNGs as banners, icons, and selectors.
589
590 - Added icon for ALT Linux.
591
592 - Added "safemode" option to "hideui" token, to hide option to boot into
593 safe mode for OS X ("-v -x" option to boot.efi).
594
595 - Added icon for Haiku (os_haiku.icns).
596
597 - Enable transparency of icons & main-menu text when the banner icon is
598 sized to cover these areas.
599
600 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to crash if fed a banner image that's
601 too big. Note that "too big" can be substantially smaller than the screen
602 resolution!
603
604 0.6.4 (1/8/2013):
605 -----------------
606
607 - Revised install.sh to copy ext2fs driver, rather than ext4fs driver, for
608 ext2/3 filesystems. This can help keep non-functional entries from links
609 from /vmlinuz to /boot/vmlinuz out of the menu if the system uses ext4fs
610 on root and ext2fs or ext3fs on /boot.
611
612 - Fixed a couple of memory management bugs that cause rEFInd to hang at
613 startup on some systems.
614
615 0.6.3 (1/6/2013):
616 -----------------
617
618 - Added the ability to specify a volume name or number in the
619 "dont_scan_dirs" and "also_scan_dirs" tokens.
620
621 - Fixed a bug that caused removable EFI media to not appear in scan lists
622 if rEFInd was installed as EFI/BOOT/boot{arch}.efi on a hard disk.
623
624 - Modified ISO-9660 driver so that it can handle discs with other than
625 2048-byte sectors. This makes it useful for reading "hybrid ISO" images
626 burned to USB flash disks.
627
628 - New mvrefind.sh script to move a rEFInd installation between a standard
629 location (typically EFI/refind) and one of the fallback locations
630 (EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot). It can also do more exotic locations.
631
632 - The install.sh script now installs to EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi or
633 EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi if it's run in BIOS mode. This is
634 intended to give some chance of producing a bootable installation should
635 a user accidentally install Linux in EFI mode and then install rEFInd
636 from that installation.
637
638 - The install.sh script now tries to find an existing rEFInd installation
639 and upgrade it, even if it's in EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot rather
640 than in EFI/refind.
641
642 - New "--yes" option to install.sh to help with unattended or automated
643 installations (as from an RPM or Debian package).
644
645 0.6.2 (12/30/2012):
646 -------------------
647
648 - Inclusion of a sample refind.spec file for the benefit of RPM
649 distribution maintainers who might want to include rEFInd. It's a bit
650 rough, but it gets you a good chunk of the way there....
651
652 - The EFI filesystem drivers can now be built with the GNU-EFI toolkit as
653 well as with the TianoCore EDK2. See the BUILDING.txt file for details on
654 how to build them with either toolkit. This improvement doesn't affect
655 users of my binary packages, but it should make it easier for Linux
656 distributions to adopt rEFInd into their package systems.
657
658 - Tweaked refind.inf file for better build results using "native" TianoCore
659 EDK2 build process (vs. the Makefile-based build process that I use under
660 Linux). This won't affect those who use my binary builds or build under
661 Linux with the "make" command.
662
663 - Fixed bug that prevented Secure Boot launches from working when rEFInd
664 was built with GNU-EFI rather than the TianoCore EDK2.
665
666 - Substantial reworking of Secure Boot code, based on James Bottomley's
667 PreLoader program. This new code eliminates the limitation of launching
668 just one driver in Secure Boot mode and is likely to be more reliable
669 with future or obscure boot loaders. It should also work with non-x86-64
670 systems, although this relies on a platform-specific shim program, which
671 to date exists only for x86-64. The basic features are the same as before
672 -- rEFInd relies on shim for authentication functions and will launch
673 programs that are signed by Secure Boot keys, shim keys, or MOKs.
674
675 - Altered default for "textmode" option (when it's commented out) to not
676 adjust the text mode at all. (Prior versions set it to mode 0 by
677 default.)
678
679 0.6.1 (12/21/2012):
680 -------------------
681
682 - Added "--root" option to install.sh, to enable installation of rEFInd
683 to something other than the currently-running OS. This is intended for
684 use on emergency discs.
685
686 - Thanks to Stefan Agner, the ext4fs driver now supports the "meta_bg"
687 filesystem feature, which distributes metadata throughout the disk. This
688 feature isn't used by default, but can be set at filesystem creation time
689 by passing the "-O meta_bg,^resize_inode" option to mke2fs. (Using
690 "^resize_inode" is necessary because meta_bg is incompatible with
691 resize_inode, which IS used by default.) This feature can be used on
692 ext3fs and ext2fs as well as on ext4fs, so the ext4fs driver can now
693 handle some ext3fs and ext2fs partitions that the ext2fs driver can't
694 handle.
695
696 - Fixed some screen resolution-setting bugs.
697
698 - Added the "words" that make up a filesystem's label (delimited by spaces,
699 dashes, or underscores) to the list of bases used to search for OS icons.
700 For instance, if the filesystem's label is "Arch", rEFInd searches for
701 os_Arch.icns; if it's "Fedora 17", it searches for os_Fedora.icns and
702 os_17.icns; and if it's "NEW_GENTOO", it searches for os_NEW.icns and
703 os_GENTOO.icns.
704
705 - Refined hints displays to be more context-sensitive, particularly in text
706 mode.
707
708 - Instead of displaying a blank filesystem label when a filesystem has
709 none, rEFInd now displays the size and/or type of the filesystem, as in
710 "boot EFI\foo\bar.efi from 200 MiB ext3 volume" rather than "boot
711 EFI\foo\bar.efi from".
712
713 - Fixed a bug that caused the screen to clear after displaying an error
714 message but before displaying the "Hit any key to continue" message when
715 a boot loader launch failed.
716
717 0.6.0 (12/16/2012):
718 -------------------
719
720 - Fixed a memory allocation bug that could cause a program crash when
721 specifying certain values with the "also_scan_dirs", "dont_scan_volumes",
722 "dont_scan_dirs", "dont_scan_files", and "scan_driver_dirs" refind.conf
723 options.
724
725 - Modified Linux kernel initrd-finding code so that if an initrd is
726 specified in refind_linux.conf, rEFInd will not add any initrd it finds.
727 This enables an override of the default initrd, and is likely to be
728 particularly helpful to Arch Linux users.
729
730 - Added ext4fs driver!
731
732 - Made "boot" the default value for "also_scan_dirs".
733
734 - Added identifying screen header to line editor.
735
736 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd's display to be mis-sized upon return
737 from a program that set the resolution itself.
738
739 - Adjusted "resolution" refind.conf parameter so that it can accept EITHER
740 a resolution as width and height OR a single digit as a UEFI mode number
741 (which is system-specific). This is done because some systems present the
742 same mode twice in their mode lists, perhaps varying in refresh rate,
743 monitor output, or some other salient characteristics; specifying the
744 mode number enables selecting the higher-numbered mode, whereas using
745 horizontal and vertical resolution values selects the lowest-numbered
746 mode.
747
748 - Added "textmode" refind.conf parameter to set the text mode used in
749 text-only displays, and for the line editor and boot-time handoff
750 display even in graphics mode.
751
752 - Fixed bug that caused tools (shell, etc.) to launch when they were
753 highlighted and F2 or Insert was pressed.
754
755 - Added "editor" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf, which
756 disables the boot options editor.
757
758 - Added hints text to rEFInd main menu and sub-menus. This can be disabled
759 by setting the new "hints" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf.
760
761 - Added "boot with minimal options" entry to refind_linux.conf file
762 generated by install.sh. This entry boots without the options extracted
763 from the /etc/default/grub file.
764
765 - Added keys subdirectory to main distribution, to hold public Secure
766 Boot/shim keys from known sources.
767
768 - Changed install.sh --drivers option to --alldrivers, added new
769 --nodrivers option, and made the default on Linux to install the one
770 driver that's used on /boot (or the root filesystem if /boot isn't a
771 separate partition). Of course, this won't install a non-existent driver,
772 and it also won't work properly if run from an emergency disk unless you
773 mount a separate /boot partition at that location.
774
775 - Fixed bug in install.sh that prevented creation of refind_linux.conf file
776 on Linux systems.
777
778 0.5.1.1 (12/12/2012):
779 ---------------------
780
781 - Fixed bug in install.sh that prevented it from working on OS X.
782
783 0.5.1 (12/11/2012):
784 -------------------
785
786 - Added support for "0" options to "textonly" and "scan_all_linux_kernels"
787 to reverse the usual meaning of these tokens. This is useful for
788 including these options in a secondary configuration file called with the
789 new "include" token to override a setting set in the main file.
790
791 - Added "include" token for refind.conf, to enable including a secondary
792 configuration file from a primary one.
793
794 - Modified install.sh so that it creates a simple refind_linux.conf file in
795 /boot, if that file doesn't already exist and if install.sh is run from
796 Linux. If that directory happens to be on a FAT, HFS+, ext2fs, ext3fs, or
797 ReiserFS volume, and if the necessary drivers are installed, the result
798 is that rEFInd will detect the Linux installation with no further
799 configuration on many systems. (Some may still require tweaking of kernel
800 options, though; for instance, adding "dolvm" on Gentoo systems that use
801 LVM.)
802
803 - Added --shim and --localkeys options to install.sh to help simplify setup
804 on systems with Secure Boot active.
805
806 - Fixed (maybe) bug that caused resolution options to not be displayed on
807 recent Macs with GOP graphics when specifying an invalid resolution in
808 refind.conf.
809
810 - Fixed bug that caused some programs (EFI shells, in particular) to hang
811 when launching on some systems (DUET, in particular).
812
813 - Implemented a fix to enable ELILO to launch with Secure Boot active.
814 This fix might help with some other boot loaders in Secure Boot mode,
815 too, but I don't know of any specifics.
816
817 0.5.0 (12/6/2012):
818 ------------------
819
820 - Added the ability to include quote marks ('"') in refind.conf and
821 refind_linux.conf tokens by doubling them up, as in:
822 "ro root=/dev/sda4 some_value=""this is it"""
823 This example results in the following string being passed as an
824 option:
825 ro root=/dev/sda4 some_value="this is it"
826
827 - Changed refind.conf-sample to uncomment the scan_all_linux_kernels
828 option by default. If this option is deleted or commented out, the
829 program default remains to not scan all Linux kernels; but with
830 increasing numbers of distributions shipping with kernels that include
831 EFI stub loader support, setting the configuration file default to scan
832 for them makes sense.
833
834 - Modified the "resolution" token so that it affects text mode as well
835 as graphics mode. On my systems, though, the actual text area is still
836 restricted to an 80x25 area. (This seems to be a firmware limitation; my
837 EFI shells are also so limited.)
838
839 - Fixed a bug that caused the options line editor to blank out lines that
840 were not actually edited.
841
842 - Added support for using Matthew Garrett's Shim program and its Machine
843 Owner Keys (MOKs) to extend Secure Boot capabilities. If rEFInd is
844 launched from Shim on a computer with Secure Boot active, rEFInd will
845 launch programs signed with either a standard UEFI Secure Boot key or a
846 MOK. For the moment, this feature works only on x86-64 systems.
847
848 - Added new "dont_scan_files" (aka "don't_scan_files") token for
849 refind.conf. The effect is similar to dont_scan_dirs, but it creates a
850 blacklist of filenames within directories rather than directory names.
851 I'm initially using it to place shim.efi and MokManager.efi in the
852 blacklist to keep these programs out of the OS list. (MokManager.efi is
853 scanned separately as a tool; see below.) I've moved checks for
854 ebounce.efi, GraphicsConsole.efi, and TextMode.efi to this list. (These
855 three had previously been blacklisted by hard-coding in ScanLoaderDir().)
856
857 - Added the directory from which rEFInd launched to dont_scan_dirs. This
858 works around a bug in which rEFInd would show itself as a bogus Windows
859 entry if it's installed as EFI/Microsoft/boot/bootmgfw.efi.
860
861 - Added support for launching MokManager.efi for managing the Machine Owner
862 Keys (MOKs) maintained by the shim boot loader developed by Fedora and
863 SUSE. This program is scanned and presented as a second-row tool.
864
865 - Added support for Apple's Recovery HD partition: If it's detected, a new
866 icon appears on the second row. This icon can be removed by explicitly
867 setting the "showtools" option in refind.conf and excluding the
868 "apple_recovery" option from that line.
869
870 - Fixed bug that caused text-mode ("textonly" refind.conf option enabled)
871 menu entries to be right-aligned rather than left-aligned when rEFInd was
872 compiled with the TianoCore EDK2.
873
874 - Added "--usedefault {devicename}" and "--drivers" options to the
875 install.sh script and changed the "esp" option to "--esp".
876
877 0.4.7 (11/6/2012):
878 ------------------
879
880 - Added an icon for gummiboot.
881
882 - Added a boot option editor: Pressing the Insert or F2 key from a boot
883 tag's options menu opens a simple text-mode line editor on which the boot
884 options may be edited for a one-time boot with altered options.
885
886 - Modified the "scan_delay" feature to delay and then perform a re-scan,
887 which may work better than the first attempt at this feature (which I'm
888 told isn't working as planned).
889
890 - Modified rEFInd to add a space after the command-line options only when
891 launching Mac OS X. On some early Macs, the extra space (which had been
892 present by default, as a carryover from rEFIt) causes problems when
893 booting Linux kernels from FAT partitions.
894
895 0.4.6 (10/6/2012):
896 ------------------
897
898 - Fixed some minor memory management issues.
899
900 - Added new "scan_delay" feature to impose a delay before scanning
901 for disks.
902
903 - Changed default "scanfor" option from internal-external-optical to either
904 internal-external-optical-manual (for non-Macs) or
905 internal-hdbios-external-biosexternal-optical-cd-manual (for Macs). I've
906 done this for two reasons:
907 - Many Mac users have been confused by the fact that rEFInd needs
908 reconfiguration to detect Windows (or Linux installed in BIOS mode),
909 since rEFIt scans BIOS devices by default. Adding the BIOS options as
910 default for them should help them.
911 - Adding the "manual" option enables users to simply add manual boot
912 stanzas and have them work, which is more intuitive. Adding the
913 "manual" option will have no effect unless manual stanzas are created
914 or uncommented, so this part of the change won't affect users' working
915 default configurations.
916
917 - Added new legacy (BIOS) boot support for UEFI-based PCs.
918
919 0.4.5 (8/12/2012):
920 ------------------
921
922 - Fixed bug that caused a failure to boot BIOS-based OSes on Macs.
923
924 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused it to fail to detect rEFItBlesser.
925
926 0.4.4 (6/23/2012):
927 ------------------
928
929 - Fixed bug that caused filesystem labels to be corrupted by rEFInd on
930 32-bit systems.
931
932 - Fixed bug that caused filesystem labels to be truncated in the drivers
933 on 32-bit systems.
934
935 - Fixed bug in use_graphics_for option parsing that caused most options
936 to set graphics mode for OS X and/or Linux but not other boot
937 loaders/OSes.
938
939 - Tweaked install script to better isolate the ESP under OS X.
940
941 0.4.3 (6/21/2012):
942 ------------------
943
944 - rEFInd now supports compilation using the TianoCore UDK2010/EDK2
945 development kit in addition to GNU-EFI.
946
947 - Added new "use_graphics_for" option to control which OSes to boot in
948 graphics mode. (This effect lasts for a fraction of a second on most
949 systems, since the boot loader that rEFInd launches is likely to set
950 graphics or text mode itself.)
951
952 - Graphics-mode booting now clears the screen to the current rEFInd
953 background color (rather than black) and does NOT display boot messages.
954 The intent is for a smoother transition when booting OS X, or perhaps
955 other OSes that don't display boot loader messages. In practice, this
956 effect will be tiny for many OSes, since the boot loader generally clears
957 the screen within a fraction of a second of being launched; but the
958 "flicker" of a rEFInd message in that time can sometimes be distracting.
959
960 - Filesystem drivers now work on EFI 1.x systems, such as Macs.
961
962 - Removed "linux.conf" as a valid alternative name for "refind_linux.conf"
963 for holding Linux kernel options. The kernel developers plan to use
964 "linux.conf" themselves.
965
966 0.4.2 (6/3/2012):
967 -----------------
968
969 - Added a message to install.sh when run on Macs to remind users to update
970 the "scanfor" line in refind.conf if they need to boot BIOS-based OSes
971 via rEFInd.
972
973 - Modified install.sh script to be smarter about running efibootmgr on
974 Linux. It now uses the whole path to the rEFInd binary as a key to
975 determine whether an existing entry exists, rather than just the filename
976 portion. If an entry exists and is the first entry in the boot order, the
977 script does nothing to the NVRAM entries. If such an entry exists but is
978 not the default, the script deletes that entry and creates a new one
979 (implicitly making it the first in the boot order). If such an entry does
980 not exist, the script creates a new one (again, making it the first in
981 the boot order).
982
983 - Added "dont_scan_dirs" configuration file option, which adds directories
984 to a "blacklist" of directories that are NOT scanned for boot loaders.
985
986 0.4.1 (5/25/2012):
987 ------------------
988
989 - Added "scanning for new boot loaders" message to the re-scan function
990 (hitting Esc at the main menu). It usually flashes up too quickly to
991 be of importance, but if the scan function takes a while because of
992 access to a CD that must be spun up, it should make it clear that the
993 system hasn't hung.
994
995 - Modified install.sh script to detect rEFItBlesser on Macs, and if
996 present, to ask the user if it should be removed.
997
998 - Cleaned up the Make.common file for the filesystem drivers.
999
1000 - Changed HFS+ driver to return volume label of "HFS+ volume" rather than
1001 an empty label. (The driver doesn't currently read the real volume
1002 label.)
1003
1004 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to appear in its own menu after
1005 running a shell and then re-scanning for boot loaders.
1006
1007 0.4.0 (5/20/2012):
1008 ------------------
1009
1010 - Inclusion of drivers for ISO-9660, HFS+, ReiserFS, and ext2fs. Most of
1011 these drivers originated with rEFIt, although the HFS+ driver seems to
1012 have come from Oracle's VirtualBox, with some files from Apple. I hadn't
1013 included these drivers previously because the build process proved
1014 challenging. As it is, they don't work on my Mac Mini, I suspect because
1015 the build process with the UDK2010 development kit may not work with the
1016 EFI 1.x that Apple uses.
1017
1018 - Addition of support for drivers in the "drivers_{arch}" subdirectory of
1019 the main rEFInd binary directory (e.g., "drivers_x64" or "drivers_ia32").
1020 Drivers may continue to be placed in the "drivers" subdirectory.
1021
1022 - Added new feature to eject CDs (and other removable media): Press F12 to
1023 eject all such media. This function works only on some Macs, though (it
1024 relies on an Apple-specific EFI extension, and this extension isn't even
1025 implemented on all Macs, much less on UEFI-based PCs).
1026
1027 - Fixed a problem that could cause GRUB 2 to fail to read its configuration
1028 file when launched from rEFInd.
1029
1030 0.3.5 (5/15/2012):
1031 ------------------
1032
1033 - Removed the GRUB 2 detection "reciped" added with 0.3.2, since I've
1034 received reports that it's not working as intended.
1035
1036 - Added re-scan feature: Press the Esc key to have rEFInd re-read its
1037 configuration file, tell the EFI to scan for new filesystems, and re-scan
1038 those filesystems for boot loaders. The main purpose is to enable
1039 scanning a new removable medium that you insert after launching rEFInd;
1040 however, it can also be used to immediately implement changes to the
1041 configuration file or new drivers you load from an EFI shell.
1042
1043 - Fixed a bug that could cause the scroll-right arrow to be replaced by the
1044 scroll-left arrow under some circumstances.
1045
1046 0.3.4 (5/9/2012):
1047 -----------------
1048
1049 - Added new configuration file option: "icons_dir", which sets the name
1050 of the subdirectory in which icons are found. See the documentation or
1051 sample configuration file for a full description.
1052
1053 - Modified Makefile to generate rEFInd binary that includes architecture
1054 code -- refind_ia32.efi or refind_x64.efi, rather than the generic
1055 refind.efi. This is done mainly to help the install.sh script. The
1056 program can be named anything you like on the disk. (The generic name
1057 refind.efi is used on unknown architectures.)
1058
1059 - Improved install.sh script: Fixed bug on OS X 10.7 and enable it to be
1060 used after building from source code (or via new "make install" Makefile
1061 target).
1062
1063 - Improved screen redraws to produce less flicker when moving among the
1064 second-row tags or to the last tag on the first row.
1065
1066 0.3.3 (5/6/2012):
1067 -----------------
1068
1069 - Improved menu navigation:
1070 - In graphics mode, left & right arrow keys move left & right, while up &
1071 down arrows move between rows.
1072 - Page Up and Page Down now move through chunks of visible tags (in both
1073 text & graphics modes), jumping from one row to another only when at
1074 the edge of the row. In text mode, the "rows" are broken down as in
1075 graphics mode, but they aren't visibly distinguished on the screen.
1076
1077 - Improved text-mode use: rEFInd now displays the proper number of entries
1078 when first started in text mode and scrolling is done sensibly when too
1079 many entries exist to fit on the screen.
1080
1081 0.3.2 (5/4/2012):
1082 -----------------
1083
1084 - Added the install.sh script to install rEFInd on Linux and Mac OS X
1085 systems. This script must be run as root (or via sudo). It requires
1086 no options, but on Mac OS X, passing it the "esp" option causes it
1087 to install rEFInd on the computer's ESP rather than the default of the
1088 currently OS X boot partition. (Under Linux, the default is to install to
1089 the ESP.) Note that there may be some unusual cases in which this script
1090 will fail to work.
1091
1092 - Does a better job of clearing the screen when launching OSes in text
1093 mode.
1094
1095 - Added detection "recipe" for GRUB 2's BIOS Boot Partition.
1096
1097 - Fixed bogus detection of ESPs created by Linux's mkdosfs utility or
1098 Windows as bootable partitions when "scanfor" includes BIOS scanning
1099 options.
1100
1101
1102 0.3.1 (4/27/2012):
1103 ------------------
1104
1105 - Fixed bug that caused spurious "Unsupported while scanning the root
1106 directory" messages under some conitions on Macs.
1107
1108 - Modified loader scanning code to sort boot loader entries within a
1109 directory by modification time, so that the most recently-modified loader
1110 is first among those in a given directory. Thus, if you specify a
1111 directory name (or volume name, for loaders stored in the root directory
1112 of a volume) as the default_selection, the most recent of those loaders
1113 will be the default. This is intended to help with Linux kernel
1114 maintenance when using the EFI stub loader; set up this way, the most
1115 recent kernel copied to your kernel directory will be the default,
1116 obviating the need to adjust the refind.conf file when adding a new
1117 kernel. If you want to change the default among those in the default
1118 directory, you can use "touch" to adjust the modification timestamp.
1119
1120 - Tweaked code to find loader-specific .icns file so that it finds files
1121 for Linux kernels without .efi extensions. In this case, files should be
1122 named the same as the kernels they match, but with .icns extensions. For
1123 instance, bzImage-3.3.2 should have an icon called bzImage-3.3.2.icns.
1124 (The old code would have looked for an icon called bzImage-3.3.icns.)
1125
1126 - Eliminated bogus OS loader tags for filenames that end in ".icns" when
1127 the scan_all_linux_kernels option is set.
1128
1129 0.3.0 (4/22/2012):
1130 ------------------
1131
1132 - I'm officially upgrading this project's status from "alpha" to "beta" and
1133 giving it a bump from 0.2.x to 0.3.0. This doesn't reflect any major
1134 milestone with this version; rather, it reflects my sense that rEFInd has
1135 been "out there" for a while, and although I've gotten bug reports,
1136 they've been minor and/or have been fixed. The program still has known
1137 bugs, but my impression is that it is, overall, usable by ordinary users.
1138
1139 - Added "resolution" option to refind.conf, which enables setting the video
1140 resolution. To use it, pass two numeric values, as in "resolution 1024
1141 768" to use a 1024x768 video mode. Note that not all modes are supported.
1142 If you specify a non-supported video mode on a UEFI system, a message
1143 appears listing the supported video modes and you must then press a key
1144 to continue, using the default video mode (usually 800x600).
1145 Unfortunately, I don't know the calls to get a list of supported video
1146 modes on older EFI 1.x systems (including Macs), so on Macs setting an
1147 incorrect video mode silently fails (you keep using the default mode).
1148 This makes changing your video mode a hit-or-miss proposition on Macs.
1149 CAUTION: It's possible to set a legal video mode that your monitor can't
1150 handle, in which case you'll get a blank display until you boot an OS
1151 that resets the video mode.
1152
1153 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused rEFInd to crash when returning from an
1154 EFI shell or other programs on Macs, particularly when rEFInd used
1155 graphical mode. I'm not 100% sure this bug is squashed because I still
1156 don't understand the cause and I only have one Mac for testing. See
1157 comments in the ReinitRefitLib() function in refit/lib.c for more
1158 details.
1159
1160 - Added new refind.conf option: scan_all_linux_kernels, which causes Linux
1161 kernels that lack ".efi" extensions to be included in scans for EFI boot
1162 loaders. This may help integration with Linux distributions that don't
1163 give their kernels such names by default. Beware, though: It can detect
1164 unwanted files, such as older non-stub-loader kernels or .icns files used
1165 to give kernels with .efi extensions custom icons.
1166
1167 - Improved EFI boot loader detection on boards with Gigabyte's Hybrid EFI,
1168 and perhaps other EFIs with a buggy StriCmp() function. Files with both
1169 ".efi" and ".EFI" extensions should now be detected as boot loaders.
1170
1171 - Fixed a bug that caused rEFInd to fail to scan for drivers if the
1172 filesystem driver didn't set a volume name (that is, if the relevant
1173 field was set to NULL rather than even an empty string). In such
1174 situations, rEFInd now reports the volume name as "Unknown".
1175
1176 0.2.7 (4/19/2012):
1177 ------------------
1178
1179 - After much trial and tribulation, I've overcome a GNU-EFI limitation and
1180 enabled rEFInd to load EFI drivers. This feature was present in the
1181 original build of rEFIt but was removed in the versions that could
1182 compile under Linux, but now it's back -- and still being compiled under
1183 Linux! To use it, you should place your drivers in a convenient directory
1184 on the ESP (or whatever partition you use to launch rEFInd) and add a
1185 "scan_driver_dirs" entry to refind.conf to tell rEFInd where to look. (As
1186 always, you should specify the driver directory relative to the root of
1187 the filesystem.) Note that you can't launch drivers from another
1188 filesystem; they must be on the same volume that holds rEFInd. Those who
1189 compile from source code should note that implementing this feature
1190 necessitated using a more recent version of the GNU-EFI library. I'm
1191 currently using version 3.0p, and version 3.0i does NOT work. I don't
1192 know where the change occurred, but you may need to upgrade your GNU-EFI
1193 installation.
1194
1195 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to show up in its own menu sometimes.
1196
1197 - Added new refind.conf token: also_scan_dirs. When scanning volumes for
1198 EFI boot loaders, rEFInd always scans the root directory and every
1199 subdirectory of the /EFI directory, but it doesn't recurse into these
1200 directories. The also_scan_dirs token adds more directories to the scan
1201 list. It defaults to "elilo,boot", but you can set it to any directory or
1202 directories you like.
1203
1204 0.2.6 (4/14/2012):
1205 ------------------
1206
1207 - Added "volume" keyword to configuration file's stanza options. This
1208 option changes the volume from which subsequent files (specified by
1209 "loader" and "icon") are loaded. You pass "volume" the name/label of the
1210 FILESYSTEM you want to use (not the GPT partition name), or a number
1211 followed by a colon (e.g., "1:"). The former should reliably identify a
1212 filesystem, assuming the name is unique. The latter assigns numbers based
1213 on the order in which they're scanned, which may not be as reliable but
1214 should work when a volume is unnamed.
1215
1216 - Fixed bug in 0.2.5 that caused failure of Linux initial RAM disk
1217 mapping on some (but not all) systems. Affected computers include at
1218 least some Intel motherboards, maybe others.
1219
1220 0.2.5 (4/9/2012):
1221 -----------------
1222
1223 - Fixed bug that caused an inability to associate initial RAM disks with
1224 Linux kernels stored in a volume's root directory.
1225
1226 - Volume badges (that override default badges) are now stored in
1227 .VolumeBadge.icns. Although undocumented, rEFInd formerly loaded custom
1228 volume badges from .VolumeIcon.icns. This carryover from rEFIt was a
1229 confusing name, given the next (new) feature, so I've changed and
1230 documented the name....
1231
1232 - Added ability to set a default icon for a loader stored in the root
1233 directory of a volume: The icon is stored in .VolumeIcon.icns. This icon
1234 is also used for Mac OS X volumes booted from the standard location.
1235
1236 - Fixed bug that caused icons to drop back to generic icons when rEFInd
1237 was launched in certain ways (such as from an EFI shell in rEFInd's
1238 directory) on certain systems.
1239
1240 - Fixed bug that caused "unknown disable flag" to be shown (very briefly)
1241 instead of "unknown hideui flag" when an improper hideui flag was set.
1242
1243 0.2.4 (4/5/2012):
1244 -----------------
1245
1246 - Created new refind.conf entry: "showtools". This entry takes options of
1247 "shell", "gptsync", "about", "exit", "reboot", and "shutdown". This
1248 option is in some respects an affirmative version of portions of the old
1249 "disable" and "hideui" options; however, it enables users to specify the
1250 order in which these options appear on the screen. Also, the "exit"
1251 option is new; it terminates the program. The effect is usually to return
1252 to whatever tool launched it or to launch a default OS; however, this is
1253 somewhat unpredictable. The default therefore omits the "exit" option, as
1254 well as "gptsync", which has always been dangerous (but necessary on most
1255 MacOS/Windows dual-boot setups on Macs). As part of this reconfiguration,
1256 I've eliminated the "rescue Linux" option, which always seemed pointless
1257 to me.
1258
1259 - Folded "disable" and "hideui" refind.conf entries into one ("disable"),
1260 and reduced the number of options to six: "banner", "label",
1261 "singleuser", "hwtest", "arrows", and "all". ("arrows" is new and
1262 disables the scroll arrows when a system has too many tags to display
1263 simultaneously.)
1264
1265 - Added max_tags option to the refind.conf file, enabling users to reduce
1266 the maximum number of OS loader tags that can be displayed at once.
1267
1268 - Updated rEFIt icon, based on the 128x128 volume label from the rEFIt CD
1269 image.
1270
1271 - Added x86 and x86-64 EFI shells to the CD image version of the binary,
1272 but NOT to the binary zip file. The logic is that the CD image is more
1273 likely to be used directly as an emergency disc and so may need this
1274 feature, even though the source isn't part of the rEFInd project. (The
1275 source is readily available from the TianoCore project.)
1276
1277 - EFI shells may now be stored at /shellx64.efi for x86-64 systems or at
1278 /shellia32.efi for x86 systems. The /EFI/tools/shell.efi name is also
1279 recognized; however, if both files are present, two EFI shell icons will
1280 appear on the main menu. The /efi/{refind-path/apps/shell.efi filename,
1281 which was never officially documented but worked as a carryover from
1282 rEFIt, is no longer valid.
1283
1284 0.2.3 (3/26/2012):
1285 ------------------
1286
1287 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused hangs when launching a second program
1288 after returning from a first. There are some weird system-to-system
1289 differences, though, and this fix causes (apparently harmless) error
1290 messages about "(re)opening our installation volume" on at least one
1291 system (a 32-bit Mac Mini). I'm committing this change because, imperfect
1292 though it is, it's preferable to the earlier version, at least on my
1293 small sample of computers.
1294
1295 - Because of news that the Linux kernel developers are planning to use the
1296 filename linux.conf to hold Linux kernel configuration data for EFI
1297 booting, I'm transitioning rEFInd away from that name and to
1298 refind_linux.conf to avoid a conflict. This version can use either name,
1299 with refind_linux.conf taking precedence if both are present.
1300
1301 - Added logo for Arch Linux.
1302
1303 0.2.2 (3/23/2012):
1304 ------------------
1305
1306 - Fixed bug that caused program failure when Linux kernels with EFI stub
1307 support were detected with no associated version numbers. rEFInd now
1308 permits automatic linking of *ONE* versionless kernel to *ONE*
1309 versionless initrd file.
1310
1311 - Fixed bug that caused program hangs when a boot loader filename or label
1312 was too long. Such names are now properly truncated and program execution
1313 continues.
1314
1315 - Fixed bug that caused no text to appear in submenus on UEFI systems with
1316 small screens (800x600). NOTE: Problem still occurs on screens smaller
1317 than this, but such systems are very rare.
1318
1319 0.2.1 (3/19/2012):
1320 ------------------
1321
1322 - Added ability to set a "default_selection" that's a title or a substring
1323 of one -- the name given to a stanza in a "menuentry" or the boot
1324 loader's filename, in most cases, although "Mac OS X", "Windows XP
1325 (XoM)", and "Microsoft EFI boot" are also titles.
1326
1327 - Added support for semi-automatic scans of Linux kernels with EFI stub
1328 loader support. The program auto-detects matching initial RAM disk files
1329 and loads additional options from the "linux.conf" file in the same
1330 directory as the kernel.
1331
1332 - Added support for "submenuentry" keyword and associated sub-stanza
1333 entries in refind.conf file.
1334
1335 - Renamed icons/os_mint.icns to icons/os_linuxmint.icns to match the
1336 filename Linux Mint ACTUALLY uses for its ESP boot loader directory.
1337
1338
1339 0.2.0 (3/14/2012):
1340 ------------------
1341
1342 - Initial public release