4 - Modified loader scanning code to sort boot loader entries within a
5 directory by modification time, so that the most recently-modified loader
6 is first among those in a given directory. Thus, if you specify a
7 directory name (or volume name, for loaders stored in the root directory
8 of a volume) as the default_selection, the most recent of those loaders
9 will be the default. This is intended to help with Linux kernel
10 maintenance when using the EFI stub loader; set up this way, the most
11 recent kernel copied to your kernel directory will be the default,
12 obviating the need to adjust the refind.conf file when adding a new
13 kernel. If you want to change the default among those in the default
14 directory, you can use "touch" to adjust the modification timestamp.
16 - Tweaked code to find loader-specific .icns file so that it finds files
17 for Linux kernels without .efi extensions. In this case, files should be
18 named the same as the kernels they match, but with .icns extensions. For
19 instance, bzImage-3.3.2 should have an icon called bzImage-3.3.2.icns.
20 (The old code would have looked for an icon called bzImage-3.3.icns.)
22 - Eliminated bogus OS loader tags for filenames that end in ".icns" when
23 the scan_all_linux_kernels option is set.
28 - I'm officially upgrading this project's status from "alpha" to "beta" and
29 giving it a bump from 0.2.x to 0.3.0. This doesn't reflect any major
30 milestone with this version; rather, it reflects my sense that rEFInd has
31 been "out there" for a while, and although I've gotten bug reports,
32 they've been minor and/or have been fixed. The program still has known
33 bugs, but my impression is that it is, overall, usable by ordinary users.
35 - Added "resolution" option to refind.conf, which enables setting the video
36 resolution. To use it, pass two numeric values, as in "resolution 1024
37 768" to use a 1024x768 video mode. Note that not all modes are supported.
38 If you specify a non-supported video mode on a UEFI system, a message
39 appears listing the supported video modes and you must then press a key
40 to continue, using the default video mode (usually 800x600).
41 Unfortunately, I don't know the calls to get a list of supported video
42 modes on older EFI 1.x systems (including Macs), so on Macs setting an
43 incorrect video mode silently fails (you keep using the default mode).
44 This makes changing your video mode a hit-or-miss proposition on Macs.
45 CAUTION: It's possible to set a legal video mode that your monitor can't
46 handle, in which case you'll get a blank display until you boot an OS
47 that resets the video mode.
49 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused rEFInd to crash when returning from an
50 EFI shell or other programs on Macs, particularly when rEFInd used
51 graphical mode. I'm not 100% sure this bug is squashed because I still
52 don't understand the cause and I only have one Mac for testing. See
53 comments in the ReinitRefitLib() function in refit/lib.c for more
56 - Added new refind.conf option: scan_all_linux_kernels, which causes Linux
57 kernels that lack ".efi" extensions to be included in scans for EFI boot
58 loaders. This may help integration with Linux distributions that don't
59 give their kernels such names by default. Beware, though: It can detect
60 unwanted files, such as older non-stub-loader kernels or .icns files used
61 to give kernels with .efi extensions custom icons.
63 - Improved EFI boot loader detection on boards with Gigabyte's Hybrid EFI,
64 and perhaps other EFIs with a buggy StriCmp() function. Files with both
65 ".efi" and ".EFI" extensions should now be detected as boot loaders.
67 - Fixed a bug that caused rEFInd to fail to scan for drivers if the
68 filesystem driver didn't set a volume name (that is, if the relevant
69 field was set to NULL rather than even an empty string). In such
70 situations, rEFInd now reports the volume name as "Unknown".
75 - After much trial and tribulation, I've overcome a GNU-EFI limitation and
76 enabled rEFInd to load EFI drivers. This feature was present in the
77 original build of rEFIt but was removed in the versions that could
78 compile under Linux, but now it's back -- and still being compiled under
79 Linux! To use it, you should place your drivers in a convenient directory
80 on the ESP (or whatever partition you use to launch rEFInd) and add a
81 "scan_driver_dirs" entry to refind.conf to tell rEFInd where to look. (As
82 always, you should specify the driver directory relative to the root of
83 the filesystem.) Note that you can't launch drivers from another
84 filesystem; they must be on the same volume that holds rEFInd. Those who
85 compile from source code should note that implementing this feature
86 necessitated using a more recent version of the GNU-EFI library. I'm
87 currently using version 3.0p, and version 3.0i does NOT work. I don't
88 know where the change occurred, but you may need to upgrade your GNU-EFI
91 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to show up in its own menu sometimes.
93 - Added new refind.conf token: also_scan_dirs. When scanning volumes for
94 EFI boot loaders, rEFInd always scans the root directory and every
95 subdirectory of the /EFI directory, but it doesn't recurse into these
96 directories. The also_scan_dirs token adds more directories to the scan
97 list. It defaults to "elilo,boot", but you can set it to any directory or
103 - Added "volume" keyword to configuration file's stanza options. This
104 option changes the volume from which subsequent files (specified by
105 "loader" and "icon") are loaded. You pass "volume" the name/label of the
106 FILESYSTEM you want to use (not the GPT partition name), or a number
107 followed by a colon (e.g., "1:"). The former should reliably identify a
108 filesystem, assuming the name is unique. The latter assigns numbers based
109 on the order in which they're scanned, which may not be as reliable but
110 should work when a volume is unnamed.
112 - Fixed bug in 0.2.5 that caused failure of Linux initial RAM disk
113 mapping on some (but not all) systems. Affected computers include at
114 least some Intel motherboards, maybe others.
119 - Fixed bug that caused an inability to associate initial RAM disks with
120 Linux kernels stored in a volume's root directory.
122 - Volume badges (that override default badges) are now stored in
123 .VolumeBadge.icns. Although undocumented, rEFInd formerly loaded custom
124 volume badges from .VolumeIcon.icns. This carryover from rEFIt was a
125 confusing name, given the next (new) feature, so I've changed and
126 documented the name....
128 - Added ability to set a default icon for a loader stored in the root
129 directory of a volume: The icon is stored in .VolumeIcon.icns. This icon
130 is also used for Mac OS X volumes booted from the standard location.
132 - Fixed bug that caused icons to drop back to generic icons when rEFInd
133 was launched in certain ways (such as from an EFI shell in rEFInd's
134 directory) on certain systems.
136 - Fixed bug that caused "unknown disable flag" to be shown (very briefly)
137 instead of "unknown hideui flag" when an improper hideui flag was set.
142 - Created new refind.conf entry: "showtools". This entry takes options of
143 "shell", "gptsync", "about", "exit", "reboot", and "shutdown". This
144 option is in some respects an affirmative version of portions of the old
145 "disable" and "hideui" options; however, it enables users to specify the
146 order in which these options appear on the screen. Also, the "exit"
147 option is new; it terminates the program. The effect is usually to return
148 to whatever tool launched it or to launch a default OS; however, this is
149 somewhat unpredictable. The default therefore omits the "exit" option, as
150 well as "gptsync", which has always been dangerous (but necessary on most
151 MacOS/Windows dual-boot setups on Macs). As part of this reconfiguration,
152 I've eliminated the "rescue Linux" option, which always seemed pointless
155 - Folded "disable" and "hideui" refind.conf entries into one ("disable"),
156 and reduced the number of options to six: "banner", "label",
157 "singleuser", "hwtest", "arrows", and "all". ("arrows" is new and
158 disables the scroll arrows when a system has too many tags to display
161 - Added max_tags option to the refind.conf file, enabling users to reduce
162 the maximum number of OS loader tags that can be displayed at once.
164 - Updated rEFIt icon, based on the 128x128 volume label from the rEFIt CD
167 - Added x86 and x86-64 EFI shells to the CD image version of the binary,
168 but NOT to the binary zip file. The logic is that the CD image is more
169 likely to be used directly as an emergency disc and so may need this
170 feature, even though the source isn't part of the rEFInd project. (The
171 source is readily available from the TianoCore project.)
173 - EFI shells may now be stored at /shellx64.efi for x86-64 systems or at
174 /shellia32.efi for x86 systems. The /EFI/tools/shell.efi name is also
175 recognized; however, if both files are present, two EFI shell icons will
176 appear on the main menu. The /efi/{refind-path/apps/shell.efi filename,
177 which was never officially documented but worked as a carryover from
178 rEFIt, is no longer valid.
183 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused hangs when launching a second program
184 after returning from a first. There are some weird system-to-system
185 differences, though, and this fix causes (apparently harmless) error
186 messages about "(re)opening our installation volume" on at least one
187 system (a 32-bit Mac Mini). I'm committing this change because, imperfect
188 though it is, it's preferable to the earlier version, at least on my
189 small sample of computers.
191 - Because of news that the Linux kernel developers are planning to use the
192 filename linux.conf to hold Linux kernel configuration data for EFI
193 booting, I'm transitioning rEFInd away from that name and to
194 refind_linux.conf to avoid a conflict. This version can use either name,
195 with refind_linux.conf taking precedence if both are present.
197 - Added logo for Arch Linux.
202 - Fixed bug that caused program failure when Linux kernels with EFI stub
203 support were detected with no associated version numbers. rEFInd now
204 permits automatic linking of *ONE* versionless kernel to *ONE*
205 versionless initrd file.
207 - Fixed bug that caused program hangs when a boot loader filename or label
208 was too long. Such names are now properly truncated and program execution
211 - Fixed bug that caused no text to appear in submenus on UEFI systems with
212 small screens (800x600). NOTE: Problem still occurs on screens smaller
213 than this, but such systems are very rare.
218 - Added ability to set a "default_selection" that's a title or a substring
219 of one -- the name given to a stanza in a "menuentry" or the boot
220 loader's filename, in most cases, although "Mac OS X", "Windows XP
221 (XoM)", and "Microsoft EFI boot" are also titles.
223 - Added support for semi-automatic scans of Linux kernels with EFI stub
224 loader support. The program auto-detects matching initial RAM disk files
225 and loads additional options from the "linux.conf" file in the same
226 directory as the kernel.
228 - Added support for "submenuentry" keyword and associated sub-stanza
229 entries in refind.conf file.
231 - Renamed icons/os_mint.icns to icons/os_linuxmint.icns to match the
232 filename Linux Mint ACTUALLY uses for its ESP boot loader directory.
238 - Initial public release