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