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