]> code.delx.au - refind/blob - NEWS.txt
Fixed bug that caused also_scan_dirs to ignore volume specifier.
[refind] / NEWS.txt
1 0.7.1 (?/??/2013):
2 ------------------
3
4 - Fixed build problem with recent development versions of EDK2.
5
6 - Added scan for Boot Repair's backup of the Windows boot loader
7 (bkpbootmgfw.efi). If found, give separate entries for it and for
8 bootmgfw.efi, each with its own descriptive text label.
9
10 - Fixed also_scan_dirs; used to have bug that caused it to ignore
11 volume specification, if present.
12
13 0.7.0 (6/27/2013):
14 ------------------
15
16 - Added Btrfs signature to rEFInd, so that it can identify the filesystem
17 type for volumes that lack labels.
18
19 - Changed some critical filesystem driver pointers from 32-bit to 64-bit.
20 This *SHOULD* enable use of over-2TiB filesystems (for those filesystems
21 that support such large volumes). This capability is largely untested,
22 though.
23
24 - Added a cache to the filesystem driver core, and therefore to all the
25 filesystem drivers. This cache greatly improves performance in
26 VirtualBox, and offers modest performance improvements on a few "real"
27 computers. The most dramatic improvement is on ext2/3fs under VirtualBox:
28 Loading a kernel and initrd used to take ~200 seconds on my system, but
29 now takes ~3 seconds! On most "real" hardware, the improvement is much
30 less dramatic -- an improvement of a second or less, presumably because
31 of cacheing within the EFI or on the hard disk itself.
32
33 - Filter boot loaders based on a test of their validity; keeps out Linux
34 kernels without EFI stub loader code, loaders for the wrong architecture,
35 non-EFI loaders, etc.
36
37 - New Btrfs driver, contributed by Samuel Liao based on GRUB 2.00 Btrfs
38 code.
39
40 0.6.12 (6/18/2013):
41 -------------------
42
43 - Changed the 64-bit EFI shell included in the CD-R and USB flash drive
44 images to a version 2 shell that should support the "bcfg" command.
45
46 - Added support for PreBootloader to refind.spec's built-in installation
47 script.
48
49 - Added support for the Linux Foundation's PreLoader to install.sh. It's
50 treated just like shim, including using the --shim option (or, now,
51 --preloader); but it searches for and copies HashTool.efi rather than
52 MokManager.efi, and filenames are adjusted appropriately.
53
54 - Added code to determine Linux root filesystem from /etc/fstab file, if
55 it's on the same partition as the kernel and if the refind_linux.conf
56 file is not available. This enables rEFInd to boot Linux without any
57 rEFInd-specific configuration files on some (but not all) systems.
58
59 0.6.11 (5/13/2013):
60 -------------------
61
62 - New feature: rEFInd now ignores symbolic links to files on filesystems
63 that support them. This prevents the "vmlinuz" symbolic link that some
64 distributions create in the root directory from appearing in the loader
65 list. Note that this does NOT affect symbolic links to directories.
66
67 - Added icons for Lubuntu and Kubuntu.
68
69 - Improved the install.sh script so that it does a better job dealing with
70 directory names that contain spaces.
71
72 - rEFInd now tries to guess the Linux distribution type based on the kernel
73 filename (Fedora and RHEL only) or the "ID" or "NAME" variables in
74 /etc/os-release on the kernel's partition. None of these is guaranteed to
75 work. A fallback of the Tux penguin icon remains in place in case rEFInd
76 can't find anything substantive enough for a guess.
77
78 - Added "EFI\opensuse" to the locations searched for MOK utilities, since
79 OpenSUSE now uses that name.
80
81 - Renamed "Reboot to Firmware User Interface" to "Reboot to Computer Setup
82 Utility" in menu.
83
84 - Fixed bug in gptsync that caused it to hang if the disk had too few GPT
85 partitions to fill the MBR.
86
87 0.6.10 (5/5/2013):
88 ------------------
89
90 - Added support for "screensaver" token. If set to a positive integer, this
91 causes the screen to blank after the specified number of seconds of
92 inactivity. Pressing most keys (unfortunately NOT including Shift, Alt,
93 or Ctrl) will restore the display and restart the screen saver timeout.
94
95 - Added icon for ChromeOS (os_chrome.icns in the icons subdirectory).
96 ChromeBooks reportedly boots using the fallback filename, but if a user
97 wants to install rEFInd on a ChromeBook, renaming the original EFI/BOOT
98 directory to EFI/chrome and then installing rEFInd in the fallback
99 filename will bring up this new icon for ChromeOS.
100
101 - Added new option to reboot the computer into the firmware's user
102 interface. This option is active by default, or can be set via the
103 "firmware" option to the "showtools" token in refind.conf. It works
104 on only some computers, though; older computers lack this feature, and
105 when rEFInd is told to use this feature on such computers, the directive
106 is quietly ignored.
107
108 - Upgraded LodePNG library from version 20121216 to 20130415 and
109 restructured rEFInd-specific modifications to simplify future upgrades.
110
111 - Replaced hexadecimal error code with description if an error is
112 encountered when saving a screen shot.
113
114 - Enable multiple screen shots: Rather than naming all screen shots
115 "screenshot.bmp", the name is now "screenshot_###.bmp", where "###" is a
116 sequence number, starting with "001".
117
118 0.6.9 (4/25/2013):
119 ------------------
120
121 - Modified default banner to include the new rEFInd icon, provided by Erik
122 Kemperman.
123
124 - Worked around a suspected firmware bug that caused rEFInd 0.6.6 to 0.6.8
125 to hang at startup on some systems (DUET and some Macs).
126
127 - Modified rEFInd to search for gptsync under the names gptsync.efi and
128 gptsync_{arch}.efi, where {arch} is ia32 or x64. (Previous versions
129 searched only for gptsync.efi.)
130
131 - Added gptsync program from rEFIt project, but with some changes to
132 improve flexibility and make it less likely that UEFI users will
133 accidentally trash their systems.
134
135 - Changed timeout code so that the timeout continues if the keyboard is
136 disconnected. This can help in booting a headless server or a system with
137 a bluetooth or other keyboard that's not recognized by the EFI.
138
139 0.6.8 (3/18/2013):
140 ------------------
141
142 - Added workaround for presumed EFI bug that was causing "Invalid
143 Parameter" errors when scanning for boot loaders on some computers.
144
145 - Added search for an EFI shell called shell.efi in the root directory
146 (previously this name was only accepted in EFI\tools).
147
148 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused it to fail on some systems (Fedora
149 18, for instance) because of a problem identifying the ESP.
150
151 - Fixed bug that caused icons named after boot loaders to not be used.
152
153 0.6.7 (2/3/2013):
154 -----------------
155
156 - Added a more explicit error message summarizing options when a launch of
157 a program results in a Secure Boot failure.
158
159 - Changed MOK tool detection to scan all volumes, not just the rEFInd
160 home volume. This is desirable because the Linux Foundation's HashTool
161 can only scan its own volume, making it desirable to place copies of this
162 program on every volume that holds EFI boot loader binaries.
163
164 - Added support for launching the Linux Foundation HashTool as a means of
165 managing MOKs (or MOK hashes, at any rate).
166
167 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to present an entry for itself as a
168 Microsoft OS if it was launched as EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi.
169
170 - Fixed bug that caused dont_scan_volumes option to be added to
171 also_scan_dirs list.
172
173 - Fixed dont_scan_volumes so that it works with OS X boot loaders.
174
175 - Fixed broken mixing of PNG and ICNS icons when using a user-specified
176 icons directory -- previously, an ICNS file in the default directory
177 would override a PNG file in the user-specified directory.
178
179 0.6.6 (1/26/2013):
180 ------------------
181
182 - rEFInd now ignores the fallback boot loader (EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi or
183 EFI/BOOT/bootia32.efi) if it's identical to another boot loader on
184 the same volume. This is intended to help unclutter the display on
185 systems that run Windows, since Windows tends to duplicate its own boot
186 loader under the fallback name.
187
188 - Added new "font" token to refind.conf, which enables specifying a font in
189 the form of a PNG file. This file must contain monospace glyphs for the
190 95 characters from ASCII 32 to 126 (space through tilde), inclusive, plus
191 a glyph to be displayed for characters outside of this range, for a total
192 of 96 glyphs.
193
194 - Replaced the old font (inherited from rEFInd) with an anti-aliased
195 version of Luxi Mono Regular 14 point.
196
197 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to ignore manual boot stanzas in files
198 included via the "include" token in refind.conf.
199
200 - Fixed bug that caused ASSERT error on some systems (and conceivably a
201 crash on startup on some) when default_selection line in refind.conf was
202 commented out or empty.
203
204 - Fixed bug that caused "Binary is whitelisted" message to persist on
205 screen after loading MOK-signed drivers in Secure Boot mode.
206
207 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to ignore the "icon" token in refind.conf
208 manual boot stanzas.
209
210 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused the script to fail to update
211 drivers when rEFInd was installed in EFI/BOOT/.
212
213 0.6.5 (1/16/2013):
214 ------------------
215
216 - Improved text color support: rEFInd now uses black text against light
217 backgrounds and white text against dark backgrounds.
218
219 - Added support for PNGs as banners, icons, and selectors.
220
221 - Added icon for ALT Linux.
222
223 - Added "safemode" option to "hideui" token, to hide option to boot into
224 safe mode for OS X ("-v -x" option to boot.efi).
225
226 - Added icon for Haiku (os_haiku.icns).
227
228 - Enable transparency of icons & main-menu text when the banner icon is
229 sized to cover these areas.
230
231 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to crash if fed a banner image that's
232 too big. Note that "too big" can be substantially smaller than the screen
233 resolution!
234
235 0.6.4 (1/8/2013):
236 -----------------
237
238 - Revised install.sh to copy ext2fs driver, rather than ext4fs driver, for
239 ext2/3 filesystems. This can help keep non-functional entries from links
240 from /vmlinuz to /boot/vmlinuz out of the menu if the system uses ext4fs
241 on root and ext2fs or ext3fs on /boot.
242
243 - Fixed a couple of memory management bugs that cause rEFInd to hang at
244 startup on some systems.
245
246 0.6.3 (1/6/2013):
247 -----------------
248
249 - Added the ability to specify a volume name or number in the
250 "dont_scan_dirs" and "also_scan_dirs" tokens.
251
252 - Fixed a bug that caused removable EFI media to not appear in scan lists
253 if rEFInd was installed as EFI/BOOT/boot{arch}.efi on a hard disk.
254
255 - Modified ISO-9660 driver so that it can handle discs with other than
256 2048-byte sectors. This makes it useful for reading "hybrid ISO" images
257 burned to USB flash disks.
258
259 - New mvrefind.sh script to move a rEFInd installation between a standard
260 location (typically EFI/refind) and one of the fallback locations
261 (EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot). It can also do more exotic locations.
262
263 - The install.sh script now installs to EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi or
264 EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi if it's run in BIOS mode. This is
265 intended to give some chance of producing a bootable installation should
266 a user accidentally install Linux in EFI mode and then install rEFInd
267 from that installation.
268
269 - The install.sh script now tries to find an existing rEFInd installation
270 and upgrade it, even if it's in EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot rather
271 than in EFI/refind.
272
273 - New "--yes" option to install.sh to help with unattended or automated
274 installations (as from an RPM or Debian package).
275
276 0.6.2 (12/30/2012):
277 -------------------
278
279 - Inclusion of a sample refind.spec file for the benefit of RPM
280 distribution maintainers who might want to include rEFInd. It's a bit
281 rough, but it gets you a good chunk of the way there....
282
283 - The EFI filesystem drivers can now be built with the GNU-EFI toolkit as
284 well as with the TianoCore EDK2. See the BUILDING.txt file for details on
285 how to build them with either toolkit. This improvement doesn't affect
286 users of my binary packages, but it should make it easier for Linux
287 distributions to adopt rEFInd into their package systems.
288
289 - Tweaked refind.inf file for better build results using "native" TianoCore
290 EDK2 build process (vs. the Makefile-based build process that I use under
291 Linux). This won't affect those who use my binary builds or build under
292 Linux with the "make" command.
293
294 - Fixed bug that prevented Secure Boot launches from working when rEFInd
295 was built with GNU-EFI rather than the TianoCore EDK2.
296
297 - Substantial reworking of Secure Boot code, based on James Bottomley's
298 PreLoader program. This new code eliminates the limitation of launching
299 just one driver in Secure Boot mode and is likely to be more reliable
300 with future or obscure boot loaders. It should also work with non-x86-64
301 systems, although this relies on a platform-specific shim program, which
302 to date exists only for x86-64. The basic features are the same as before
303 -- rEFInd relies on shim for authentication functions and will launch
304 programs that are signed by Secure Boot keys, shim keys, or MOKs.
305
306 - Altered default for "textmode" option (when it's commented out) to not
307 adjust the text mode at all. (Prior versions set it to mode 0 by
308 default.)
309
310 0.6.1 (12/21/2012):
311 -------------------
312
313 - Added "--root" option to install.sh, to enable installation of rEFInd
314 to something other than the currently-running OS. This is intended for
315 use on emergency discs.
316
317 - Thanks to Stefan Agner, the ext4fs driver now supports the "meta_bg"
318 filesystem feature, which distributes metadata throughout the disk. This
319 feature isn't used by default, but can be set at filesystem creation time
320 by passing the "-O meta_bg,^resize_inode" option to mke2fs. (Using
321 "^resize_inode" is necessary because meta_bg is incompatible with
322 resize_inode, which IS used by default.) This feature can be used on
323 ext3fs and ext2fs as well as on ext4fs, so the ext4fs driver can now
324 handle some ext3fs and ext2fs partitions that the ext2fs driver can't
325 handle.
326
327 - Fixed some screen resolution-setting bugs.
328
329 - Added the "words" that make up a filesystem's label (delimited by spaces,
330 dashes, or underscores) to the list of bases used to search for OS icons.
331 For instance, if the filesystem's label is "Arch", rEFInd searches for
332 os_Arch.icns; if it's "Fedora 17", it searches for os_Fedora.icns and
333 os_17.icns; and if it's "NEW_GENTOO", it searches for os_NEW.icns and
334 os_GENTOO.icns.
335
336 - Refined hints displays to be more context-sensitive, particularly in text
337 mode.
338
339 - Instead of displaying a blank filesystem label when a filesystem has
340 none, rEFInd now displays the size and/or type of the filesystem, as in
341 "boot EFI\foo\bar.efi from 200 MiB ext3 volume" rather than "boot
342 EFI\foo\bar.efi from".
343
344 - Fixed a bug that caused the screen to clear after displaying an error
345 message but before displaying the "Hit any key to continue" message when
346 a boot loader launch failed.
347
348 0.6.0 (12/16/2012):
349 -------------------
350
351 - Fixed a memory allocation bug that could cause a program crash when
352 specifying certain values with the "also_scan_dirs", "dont_scan_volumes",
353 "dont_scan_dirs", "dont_scan_files", and "scan_driver_dirs" refind.conf
354 options.
355
356 - Modified Linux kernel initrd-finding code so that if an initrd is
357 specified in refind_linux.conf, rEFInd will not add any initrd it finds.
358 This enables an override of the default initrd, and is likely to be
359 particularly helpful to Arch Linux users.
360
361 - Added ext4fs driver!
362
363 - Made "boot" the default value for "also_scan_dirs".
364
365 - Added identifying screen header to line editor.
366
367 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd's display to be mis-sized upon return
368 from a program that set the resolution itself.
369
370 - Adjusted "resolution" refind.conf parameter so that it can accept EITHER
371 a resolution as width and height OR a single digit as a UEFI mode number
372 (which is system-specific). This is done because some systems present the
373 same mode twice in their mode lists, perhaps varying in refresh rate,
374 monitor output, or some other salient characteristics; specifying the
375 mode number enables selecting the higher-numbered mode, whereas using
376 horizontal and vertical resolution values selects the lowest-numbered
377 mode.
378
379 - Added "textmode" refind.conf parameter to set the text mode used in
380 text-only displays, and for the line editor and boot-time handoff
381 display even in graphics mode.
382
383 - Fixed bug that caused tools (shell, etc.) to launch when they were
384 highlighted and F2 or Insert was pressed.
385
386 - Added "editor" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf, which
387 disables the boot options editor.
388
389 - Added hints text to rEFInd main menu and sub-menus. This can be disabled
390 by setting the new "hints" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf.
391
392 - Added "boot with minimal options" entry to refind_linux.conf file
393 generated by install.sh. This entry boots without the options extracted
394 from the /etc/default/grub file.
395
396 - Added keys subdirectory to main distribution, to hold public Secure
397 Boot/shim keys from known sources.
398
399 - Changed install.sh --drivers option to --alldrivers, added new
400 --nodrivers option, and made the default on Linux to install the one
401 driver that's used on /boot (or the root filesystem if /boot isn't a
402 separate partition). Of course, this won't install a non-existent driver,
403 and it also won't work properly if run from an emergency disk unless you
404 mount a separate /boot partition at that location.
405
406 - Fixed bug in install.sh that prevented creation of refind_linux.conf file
407 on Linux systems.
408
409 0.5.1.1 (12/12/2012):
410 ---------------------
411
412 - Fixed bug in install.sh that prevented it from working on OS X.
413
414 0.5.1 (12/11/2012):
415 -------------------
416
417 - Added support for "0" options to "textonly" and "scan_all_linux_kernels"
418 to reverse the usual meaning of these tokens. This is useful for
419 including these options in a secondary configuration file called with the
420 new "include" token to override a setting set in the main file.
421
422 - Added "include" token for refind.conf, to enable including a secondary
423 configuration file from a primary one.
424
425 - Modified install.sh so that it creates a simple refind_linux.conf file in
426 /boot, if that file doesn't already exist and if install.sh is run from
427 Linux. If that directory happens to be on a FAT, HFS+, ext2fs, ext3fs, or
428 ReiserFS volume, and if the necessary drivers are installed, the result
429 is that rEFInd will detect the Linux installation with no further
430 configuration on many systems. (Some may still require tweaking of kernel
431 options, though; for instance, adding "dolvm" on Gentoo systems that use
432 LVM.)
433
434 - Added --shim and --localkeys options to install.sh to help simplify setup
435 on systems with Secure Boot active.
436
437 - Fixed (maybe) bug that caused resolution options to not be displayed on
438 recent Macs with GOP graphics when specifying an invalid resolution in
439 refind.conf.
440
441 - Fixed bug that caused some programs (EFI shells, in particular) to hang
442 when launching on some systems (DUET, in particular).
443
444 - Implemented a fix to enable ELILO to launch with Secure Boot active.
445 This fix might help with some other boot loaders in Secure Boot mode,
446 too, but I don't know of any specifics.
447
448 0.5.0 (12/6/2012):
449 ------------------
450
451 - Added the ability to include quote marks ('"') in refind.conf and
452 refind_linux.conf tokens by doubling them up, as in:
453 "ro root=/dev/sda4 some_value=""this is it"""
454 This example results in the following string being passed as an
455 option:
456 ro root=/dev/sda4 some_value="this is it"
457
458 - Changed refind.conf-sample to uncomment the scan_all_linux_kernels
459 option by default. If this option is deleted or commented out, the
460 program default remains to not scan all Linux kernels; but with
461 increasing numbers of distributions shipping with kernels that include
462 EFI stub loader support, setting the configuration file default to scan
463 for them makes sense.
464
465 - Modified the "resolution" token so that it affects text mode as well
466 as graphics mode. On my systems, though, the actual text area is still
467 restricted to an 80x25 area. (This seems to be a firmware limitation; my
468 EFI shells are also so limited.)
469
470 - Fixed a bug that caused the options line editor to blank out lines that
471 were not actually edited.
472
473 - Added support for using Matthew Garrett's Shim program and its Machine
474 Owner Keys (MOKs) to extend Secure Boot capabilities. If rEFInd is
475 launched from Shim on a computer with Secure Boot active, rEFInd will
476 launch programs signed with either a standard UEFI Secure Boot key or a
477 MOK. For the moment, this feature works only on x86-64 systems.
478
479 - Added new "dont_scan_files" (aka "don't_scan_files") token for
480 refind.conf. The effect is similar to dont_scan_dirs, but it creates a
481 blacklist of filenames within directories rather than directory names.
482 I'm initially using it to place shim.efi and MokManager.efi in the
483 blacklist to keep these programs out of the OS list. (MokManager.efi is
484 scanned separately as a tool; see below.) I've moved checks for
485 ebounce.efi, GraphicsConsole.efi, and TextMode.efi to this list. (These
486 three had previously been blacklisted by hard-coding in ScanLoaderDir().)
487
488 - Added the directory from which rEFInd launched to dont_scan_dirs. This
489 works around a bug in which rEFInd would show itself as a bogus Windows
490 entry if it's installed as EFI/Microsoft/boot/bootmgfw.efi.
491
492 - Added support for launching MokManager.efi for managing the Machine Owner
493 Keys (MOKs) maintained by the shim boot loader developed by Fedora and
494 SUSE. This program is scanned and presented as a second-row tool.
495
496 - Added support for Apple's Recovery HD partition: If it's detected, a new
497 icon appears on the second row. This icon can be removed by explicitly
498 setting the "showtools" option in refind.conf and excluding the
499 "apple_recovery" option from that line.
500
501 - Fixed bug that caused text-mode ("textonly" refind.conf option enabled)
502 menu entries to be right-aligned rather than left-aligned when rEFInd was
503 compiled with the TianoCore EDK2.
504
505 - Added "--usedefault {devicename}" and "--drivers" options to the
506 install.sh script and changed the "esp" option to "--esp".
507
508 0.4.7 (11/6/2012):
509 ------------------
510
511 - Added an icon for gummiboot.
512
513 - Added a boot option editor: Pressing the Insert or F2 key from a boot
514 tag's options menu opens a simple text-mode line editor on which the boot
515 options may be edited for a one-time boot with altered options.
516
517 - Modified the "scan_delay" feature to delay and then perform a re-scan,
518 which may work better than the first attempt at this feature (which I'm
519 told isn't working as planned).
520
521 - Modified rEFInd to add a space after the command-line options only when
522 launching Mac OS X. On some early Macs, the extra space (which had been
523 present by default, as a carryover from rEFIt) causes problems when
524 booting Linux kernels from FAT partitions.
525
526 0.4.6 (10/6/2012):
527 ------------------
528
529 - Fixed some minor memory management issues.
530
531 - Added new "scan_delay" feature to impose a delay before scanning
532 for disks.
533
534 - Changed default "scanfor" option from internal-external-optical to either
535 internal-external-optical-manual (for non-Macs) or
536 internal-hdbios-external-biosexternal-optical-cd-manual (for Macs). I've
537 done this for two reasons:
538 - Many Mac users have been confused by the fact that rEFInd needs
539 reconfiguration to detect Windows (or Linux installed in BIOS mode),
540 since rEFIt scans BIOS devices by default. Adding the BIOS options as
541 default for them should help them.
542 - Adding the "manual" option enables users to simply add manual boot
543 stanzas and have them work, which is more intuitive. Adding the
544 "manual" option will have no effect unless manual stanzas are created
545 or uncommented, so this part of the change won't affect users' working
546 default configurations.
547
548 - Added new legacy (BIOS) boot support for UEFI-based PCs.
549
550 0.4.5 (8/12/2012):
551 ------------------
552
553 - Fixed bug that caused a failure to boot BIOS-based OSes on Macs.
554
555 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused it to fail to detect rEFItBlesser.
556
557 0.4.4 (6/23/2012):
558 ------------------
559
560 - Fixed bug that caused filesystem labels to be corrupted by rEFInd on
561 32-bit systems.
562
563 - Fixed bug that caused filesystem labels to be truncated in the drivers
564 on 32-bit systems.
565
566 - Fixed bug in use_graphics_for option parsing that caused most options
567 to set graphics mode for OS X and/or Linux but not other boot
568 loaders/OSes.
569
570 - Tweaked install script to better isolate the ESP under OS X.
571
572 0.4.3 (6/21/2012):
573 ------------------
574
575 - rEFInd now supports compilation using the TianoCore UDK2010/EDK2
576 development kit in addition to GNU-EFI.
577
578 - Added new "use_graphics_for" option to control which OSes to boot in
579 graphics mode. (This effect lasts for a fraction of a second on most
580 systems, since the boot loader that rEFInd launches is likely to set
581 graphics or text mode itself.)
582
583 - Graphics-mode booting now clears the screen to the current rEFInd
584 background color (rather than black) and does NOT display boot messages.
585 The intent is for a smoother transition when booting OS X, or perhaps
586 other OSes that don't display boot loader messages. In practice, this
587 effect will be tiny for many OSes, since the boot loader generally clears
588 the screen within a fraction of a second of being launched; but the
589 "flicker" of a rEFInd message in that time can sometimes be distracting.
590
591 - Filesystem drivers now work on EFI 1.x systems, such as Macs.
592
593 - Removed "linux.conf" as a valid alternative name for "refind_linux.conf"
594 for holding Linux kernel options. The kernel developers plan to use
595 "linux.conf" themselves.
596
597 0.4.2 (6/3/2012):
598 -----------------
599
600 - Added a message to install.sh when run on Macs to remind users to update
601 the "scanfor" line in refind.conf if they need to boot BIOS-based OSes
602 via rEFInd.
603
604 - Modified install.sh script to be smarter about running efibootmgr on
605 Linux. It now uses the whole path to the rEFInd binary as a key to
606 determine whether an existing entry exists, rather than just the filename
607 portion. If an entry exists and is the first entry in the boot order, the
608 script does nothing to the NVRAM entries. If such an entry exists but is
609 not the default, the script deletes that entry and creates a new one
610 (implicitly making it the first in the boot order). If such an entry does
611 not exist, the script creates a new one (again, making it the first in
612 the boot order).
613
614 - Added "dont_scan_dirs" configuration file option, which adds directories
615 to a "blacklist" of directories that are NOT scanned for boot loaders.
616
617 0.4.1 (5/25/2012):
618 ------------------
619
620 - Added "scanning for new boot loaders" message to the re-scan function
621 (hitting Esc at the main menu). It usually flashes up too quickly to
622 be of importance, but if the scan function takes a while because of
623 access to a CD that must be spun up, it should make it clear that the
624 system hasn't hung.
625
626 - Modified install.sh script to detect rEFItBlesser on Macs, and if
627 present, to ask the user if it should be removed.
628
629 - Cleaned up the Make.common file for the filesystem drivers.
630
631 - Changed HFS+ driver to return volume label of "HFS+ volume" rather than
632 an empty label. (The driver doesn't currently read the real volume
633 label.)
634
635 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to appear in its own menu after
636 running a shell and then re-scanning for boot loaders.
637
638 0.4.0 (5/20/2012):
639 ------------------
640
641 - Inclusion of drivers for ISO-9660, HFS+, ReiserFS, and ext2fs. Most of
642 these drivers originated with rEFIt, although the HFS+ driver seems to
643 have come from Oracle's VirtualBox, with some files from Apple. I hadn't
644 included these drivers previously because the build process proved
645 challenging. As it is, they don't work on my Mac Mini, I suspect because
646 the build process with the UDK2010 development kit may not work with the
647 EFI 1.x that Apple uses.
648
649 - Addition of support for drivers in the "drivers_{arch}" subdirectory of
650 the main rEFInd binary directory (e.g., "drivers_x64" or "drivers_ia32").
651 Drivers may continue to be placed in the "drivers" subdirectory.
652
653 - Added new feature to eject CDs (and other removable media): Press F12 to
654 eject all such media. This function works only on some Macs, though (it
655 relies on an Apple-specific EFI extension, and this extension isn't even
656 implemented on all Macs, much less on UEFI-based PCs).
657
658 - Fixed a problem that could cause GRUB 2 to fail to read its configuration
659 file when launched from rEFInd.
660
661 0.3.5 (5/15/2012):
662 ------------------
663
664 - Removed the GRUB 2 detection "reciped" added with 0.3.2, since I've
665 received reports that it's not working as intended.
666
667 - Added re-scan feature: Press the Esc key to have rEFInd re-read its
668 configuration file, tell the EFI to scan for new filesystems, and re-scan
669 those filesystems for boot loaders. The main purpose is to enable
670 scanning a new removable medium that you insert after launching rEFInd;
671 however, it can also be used to immediately implement changes to the
672 configuration file or new drivers you load from an EFI shell.
673
674 - Fixed a bug that could cause the scroll-right arrow to be replaced by the
675 scroll-left arrow under some circumstances.
676
677 0.3.4 (5/9/2012):
678 -----------------
679
680 - Added new configuration file option: "icons_dir", which sets the name
681 of the subdirectory in which icons are found. See the documentation or
682 sample configuration file for a full description.
683
684 - Modified Makefile to generate rEFInd binary that includes architecture
685 code -- refind_ia32.efi or refind_x64.efi, rather than the generic
686 refind.efi. This is done mainly to help the install.sh script. The
687 program can be named anything you like on the disk. (The generic name
688 refind.efi is used on unknown architectures.)
689
690 - Improved install.sh script: Fixed bug on OS X 10.7 and enable it to be
691 used after building from source code (or via new "make install" Makefile
692 target).
693
694 - Improved screen redraws to produce less flicker when moving among the
695 second-row tags or to the last tag on the first row.
696
697 0.3.3 (5/6/2012):
698 -----------------
699
700 - Improved menu navigation:
701 - In graphics mode, left & right arrow keys move left & right, while up &
702 down arrows move between rows.
703 - Page Up and Page Down now move through chunks of visible tags (in both
704 text & graphics modes), jumping from one row to another only when at
705 the edge of the row. In text mode, the "rows" are broken down as in
706 graphics mode, but they aren't visibly distinguished on the screen.
707
708 - Improved text-mode use: rEFInd now displays the proper number of entries
709 when first started in text mode and scrolling is done sensibly when too
710 many entries exist to fit on the screen.
711
712 0.3.2 (5/4/2012):
713 -----------------
714
715 - Added the install.sh script to install rEFInd on Linux and Mac OS X
716 systems. This script must be run as root (or via sudo). It requires
717 no options, but on Mac OS X, passing it the "esp" option causes it
718 to install rEFInd on the computer's ESP rather than the default of the
719 currently OS X boot partition. (Under Linux, the default is to install to
720 the ESP.) Note that there may be some unusual cases in which this script
721 will fail to work.
722
723 - Does a better job of clearing the screen when launching OSes in text
724 mode.
725
726 - Added detection "recipe" for GRUB 2's BIOS Boot Partition.
727
728 - Fixed bogus detection of ESPs created by Linux's mkdosfs utility or
729 Windows as bootable partitions when "scanfor" includes BIOS scanning
730 options.
731
732
733 0.3.1 (4/27/2012):
734 ------------------
735
736 - Fixed bug that caused spurious "Unsupported while scanning the root
737 directory" messages under some conitions on Macs.
738
739 - Modified loader scanning code to sort boot loader entries within a
740 directory by modification time, so that the most recently-modified loader
741 is first among those in a given directory. Thus, if you specify a
742 directory name (or volume name, for loaders stored in the root directory
743 of a volume) as the default_selection, the most recent of those loaders
744 will be the default. This is intended to help with Linux kernel
745 maintenance when using the EFI stub loader; set up this way, the most
746 recent kernel copied to your kernel directory will be the default,
747 obviating the need to adjust the refind.conf file when adding a new
748 kernel. If you want to change the default among those in the default
749 directory, you can use "touch" to adjust the modification timestamp.
750
751 - Tweaked code to find loader-specific .icns file so that it finds files
752 for Linux kernels without .efi extensions. In this case, files should be
753 named the same as the kernels they match, but with .icns extensions. For
754 instance, bzImage-3.3.2 should have an icon called bzImage-3.3.2.icns.
755 (The old code would have looked for an icon called bzImage-3.3.icns.)
756
757 - Eliminated bogus OS loader tags for filenames that end in ".icns" when
758 the scan_all_linux_kernels option is set.
759
760 0.3.0 (4/22/2012):
761 ------------------
762
763 - I'm officially upgrading this project's status from "alpha" to "beta" and
764 giving it a bump from 0.2.x to 0.3.0. This doesn't reflect any major
765 milestone with this version; rather, it reflects my sense that rEFInd has
766 been "out there" for a while, and although I've gotten bug reports,
767 they've been minor and/or have been fixed. The program still has known
768 bugs, but my impression is that it is, overall, usable by ordinary users.
769
770 - Added "resolution" option to refind.conf, which enables setting the video
771 resolution. To use it, pass two numeric values, as in "resolution 1024
772 768" to use a 1024x768 video mode. Note that not all modes are supported.
773 If you specify a non-supported video mode on a UEFI system, a message
774 appears listing the supported video modes and you must then press a key
775 to continue, using the default video mode (usually 800x600).
776 Unfortunately, I don't know the calls to get a list of supported video
777 modes on older EFI 1.x systems (including Macs), so on Macs setting an
778 incorrect video mode silently fails (you keep using the default mode).
779 This makes changing your video mode a hit-or-miss proposition on Macs.
780 CAUTION: It's possible to set a legal video mode that your monitor can't
781 handle, in which case you'll get a blank display until you boot an OS
782 that resets the video mode.
783
784 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused rEFInd to crash when returning from an
785 EFI shell or other programs on Macs, particularly when rEFInd used
786 graphical mode. I'm not 100% sure this bug is squashed because I still
787 don't understand the cause and I only have one Mac for testing. See
788 comments in the ReinitRefitLib() function in refit/lib.c for more
789 details.
790
791 - Added new refind.conf option: scan_all_linux_kernels, which causes Linux
792 kernels that lack ".efi" extensions to be included in scans for EFI boot
793 loaders. This may help integration with Linux distributions that don't
794 give their kernels such names by default. Beware, though: It can detect
795 unwanted files, such as older non-stub-loader kernels or .icns files used
796 to give kernels with .efi extensions custom icons.
797
798 - Improved EFI boot loader detection on boards with Gigabyte's Hybrid EFI,
799 and perhaps other EFIs with a buggy StriCmp() function. Files with both
800 ".efi" and ".EFI" extensions should now be detected as boot loaders.
801
802 - Fixed a bug that caused rEFInd to fail to scan for drivers if the
803 filesystem driver didn't set a volume name (that is, if the relevant
804 field was set to NULL rather than even an empty string). In such
805 situations, rEFInd now reports the volume name as "Unknown".
806
807 0.2.7 (4/19/2012):
808 ------------------
809
810 - After much trial and tribulation, I've overcome a GNU-EFI limitation and
811 enabled rEFInd to load EFI drivers. This feature was present in the
812 original build of rEFIt but was removed in the versions that could
813 compile under Linux, but now it's back -- and still being compiled under
814 Linux! To use it, you should place your drivers in a convenient directory
815 on the ESP (or whatever partition you use to launch rEFInd) and add a
816 "scan_driver_dirs" entry to refind.conf to tell rEFInd where to look. (As
817 always, you should specify the driver directory relative to the root of
818 the filesystem.) Note that you can't launch drivers from another
819 filesystem; they must be on the same volume that holds rEFInd. Those who
820 compile from source code should note that implementing this feature
821 necessitated using a more recent version of the GNU-EFI library. I'm
822 currently using version 3.0p, and version 3.0i does NOT work. I don't
823 know where the change occurred, but you may need to upgrade your GNU-EFI
824 installation.
825
826 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to show up in its own menu sometimes.
827
828 - Added new refind.conf token: also_scan_dirs. When scanning volumes for
829 EFI boot loaders, rEFInd always scans the root directory and every
830 subdirectory of the /EFI directory, but it doesn't recurse into these
831 directories. The also_scan_dirs token adds more directories to the scan
832 list. It defaults to "elilo,boot", but you can set it to any directory or
833 directories you like.
834
835 0.2.6 (4/14/2012):
836 ------------------
837
838 - Added "volume" keyword to configuration file's stanza options. This
839 option changes the volume from which subsequent files (specified by
840 "loader" and "icon") are loaded. You pass "volume" the name/label of the
841 FILESYSTEM you want to use (not the GPT partition name), or a number
842 followed by a colon (e.g., "1:"). The former should reliably identify a
843 filesystem, assuming the name is unique. The latter assigns numbers based
844 on the order in which they're scanned, which may not be as reliable but
845 should work when a volume is unnamed.
846
847 - Fixed bug in 0.2.5 that caused failure of Linux initial RAM disk
848 mapping on some (but not all) systems. Affected computers include at
849 least some Intel motherboards, maybe others.
850
851 0.2.5 (4/9/2012):
852 -----------------
853
854 - Fixed bug that caused an inability to associate initial RAM disks with
855 Linux kernels stored in a volume's root directory.
856
857 - Volume badges (that override default badges) are now stored in
858 .VolumeBadge.icns. Although undocumented, rEFInd formerly loaded custom
859 volume badges from .VolumeIcon.icns. This carryover from rEFIt was a
860 confusing name, given the next (new) feature, so I've changed and
861 documented the name....
862
863 - Added ability to set a default icon for a loader stored in the root
864 directory of a volume: The icon is stored in .VolumeIcon.icns. This icon
865 is also used for Mac OS X volumes booted from the standard location.
866
867 - Fixed bug that caused icons to drop back to generic icons when rEFInd
868 was launched in certain ways (such as from an EFI shell in rEFInd's
869 directory) on certain systems.
870
871 - Fixed bug that caused "unknown disable flag" to be shown (very briefly)
872 instead of "unknown hideui flag" when an improper hideui flag was set.
873
874 0.2.4 (4/5/2012):
875 -----------------
876
877 - Created new refind.conf entry: "showtools". This entry takes options of
878 "shell", "gptsync", "about", "exit", "reboot", and "shutdown". This
879 option is in some respects an affirmative version of portions of the old
880 "disable" and "hideui" options; however, it enables users to specify the
881 order in which these options appear on the screen. Also, the "exit"
882 option is new; it terminates the program. The effect is usually to return
883 to whatever tool launched it or to launch a default OS; however, this is
884 somewhat unpredictable. The default therefore omits the "exit" option, as
885 well as "gptsync", which has always been dangerous (but necessary on most
886 MacOS/Windows dual-boot setups on Macs). As part of this reconfiguration,
887 I've eliminated the "rescue Linux" option, which always seemed pointless
888 to me.
889
890 - Folded "disable" and "hideui" refind.conf entries into one ("disable"),
891 and reduced the number of options to six: "banner", "label",
892 "singleuser", "hwtest", "arrows", and "all". ("arrows" is new and
893 disables the scroll arrows when a system has too many tags to display
894 simultaneously.)
895
896 - Added max_tags option to the refind.conf file, enabling users to reduce
897 the maximum number of OS loader tags that can be displayed at once.
898
899 - Updated rEFIt icon, based on the 128x128 volume label from the rEFIt CD
900 image.
901
902 - Added x86 and x86-64 EFI shells to the CD image version of the binary,
903 but NOT to the binary zip file. The logic is that the CD image is more
904 likely to be used directly as an emergency disc and so may need this
905 feature, even though the source isn't part of the rEFInd project. (The
906 source is readily available from the TianoCore project.)
907
908 - EFI shells may now be stored at /shellx64.efi for x86-64 systems or at
909 /shellia32.efi for x86 systems. The /EFI/tools/shell.efi name is also
910 recognized; however, if both files are present, two EFI shell icons will
911 appear on the main menu. The /efi/{refind-path/apps/shell.efi filename,
912 which was never officially documented but worked as a carryover from
913 rEFIt, is no longer valid.
914
915 0.2.3 (3/26/2012):
916 ------------------
917
918 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused hangs when launching a second program
919 after returning from a first. There are some weird system-to-system
920 differences, though, and this fix causes (apparently harmless) error
921 messages about "(re)opening our installation volume" on at least one
922 system (a 32-bit Mac Mini). I'm committing this change because, imperfect
923 though it is, it's preferable to the earlier version, at least on my
924 small sample of computers.
925
926 - Because of news that the Linux kernel developers are planning to use the
927 filename linux.conf to hold Linux kernel configuration data for EFI
928 booting, I'm transitioning rEFInd away from that name and to
929 refind_linux.conf to avoid a conflict. This version can use either name,
930 with refind_linux.conf taking precedence if both are present.
931
932 - Added logo for Arch Linux.
933
934 0.2.2 (3/23/2012):
935 ------------------
936
937 - Fixed bug that caused program failure when Linux kernels with EFI stub
938 support were detected with no associated version numbers. rEFInd now
939 permits automatic linking of *ONE* versionless kernel to *ONE*
940 versionless initrd file.
941
942 - Fixed bug that caused program hangs when a boot loader filename or label
943 was too long. Such names are now properly truncated and program execution
944 continues.
945
946 - Fixed bug that caused no text to appear in submenus on UEFI systems with
947 small screens (800x600). NOTE: Problem still occurs on screens smaller
948 than this, but such systems are very rare.
949
950 0.2.1 (3/19/2012):
951 ------------------
952
953 - Added ability to set a "default_selection" that's a title or a substring
954 of one -- the name given to a stanza in a "menuentry" or the boot
955 loader's filename, in most cases, although "Mac OS X", "Windows XP
956 (XoM)", and "Microsoft EFI boot" are also titles.
957
958 - Added support for semi-automatic scans of Linux kernels with EFI stub
959 loader support. The program auto-detects matching initial RAM disk files
960 and loads additional options from the "linux.conf" file in the same
961 directory as the kernel.
962
963 - Added support for "submenuentry" keyword and associated sub-stanza
964 entries in refind.conf file.
965
966 - Renamed icons/os_mint.icns to icons/os_linuxmint.icns to match the
967 filename Linux Mint ACTUALLY uses for its ESP boot loader directory.
968
969
970 0.2.0 (3/14/2012):
971 ------------------
972
973 - Initial public release