4 - Tweaked default for dont_scan_volumes: Removed "Recovery HD". This change
5 better suits the needs of OS X 10.10 ("Yosemite") installations, but may
6 result in some stray Recovery HD entries on some Macs.
8 - Updated icons for Fedora and Ubuntu and added an icon for Xubuntu.
10 - Added new configuration option, "enable_and_lock_vmx", which sets an
11 Intel CPU feature that's required for some types of virtualization to
12 work. Most EFIs enable setting this feature in their own setup utilities,
13 but some (such as most Macs) don't.
15 - If rEFInd can't locate an icons directory (either the default or one
16 specified by the icons_dir token), the program switches to text-only
19 - If a loader contains the string "grub" and no other clue to the loader's
20 OS association exists, search for os_grub.{png|icns} (which is not
21 provided with rEFInd) or os_linux.{png|icns}. (Previous versions provided
22 a generic loader icon for GRUB.)
27 - Added new feature: Setting "timeout = -1" in refind.conf causes rEFInd to
28 immediately boot the default option UNLESS a keypress is in the buffer
29 when rEFInd launches. In that case, if the keypress corresponds to a
30 shortcut key, the associated boot loader is launched; or if not, the menu
33 - Added new icons for Clover boot loader and for Mythbuntu Linux
36 - rEFInd now displays the partition's label, when one is available, when
37 offering a BIOS-mode boot option for a partition with no filesystem
38 driver. This works only on Macs doing BIOS-mode booting.
40 - Removed GPLv2 code from the FSW core files. This was done because the
41 Btrfs driver is derived from the GRUB Btrfs driver, which is licensed
42 under the GPLv3. Ironically, the GPLv2 and GPLv3 are incompatible
43 licenses, so ensuring that the Btrfs driver doesn't rely on GPLv2 code
44 was legally necessary. In most cases, I reverted to the original rEFIt
45 code, although I kept my own cache code; since I wrote it, I can
46 change its license to a BSD license.
48 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to unload drivers immediately after loading
49 them. This didn't affect rEFInd's own drivers because they didn't include
50 the unload hooks, but it did affect some other drivers.
52 - Changed default scan_all_linux_kernels setting from "false" to "true",
53 and commented the option out in refind.conf-sample. This should not
54 affect most people, since refind.conf-sample had this option commented
55 out, and most rEFInd users either use it that way or don't have Linux
56 kernels installed at all. I've made this change because I want rEFInd to
57 "do the right thing" by default in as many cases as possible. For a while
58 now, rEFInd has been excluding non-bootable files from its menu, and most
59 kernels "in the wild" now include the EFI stub. Thus, enabling this
60 support by default seems worthwhile. If you prefer to not scan Linux
61 kernels by default, simply uncomment the "scan_all_linux_kernels" line
62 and ensure it's set to "false".
67 - Removed stray bit of debugging code that caused a prompt to press a
68 key to appear at rEFInd startup.
73 - Changed behavior when default_selection is not set: It now boots the
74 previously-booted loader, assuming it's still available; if not, rEFInd
75 boots the first loader (as it does now). Behavior is unchanged if
76 default_selection is set. Note that this behavior depends on the ability
77 of rEFInd to store an EFI variable in NVRAM. It therefore fails on
78 systems with flaky NVRAM storage. You can view the previously-booted
80 /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/PreviousBoot-36d08fa7-cf0b-42f5-8f14-68df73ed3740
83 - Added icon for Mageia Linux (os_mageia.png).
85 - Fixed bug that could misidentify a not-quite-GUID as a GUID in a
86 manual boot stanza's "volume" line.
88 - I've updated my personal build system, and therefore the rEFInd Makefiles
89 and related files, to use TianoCore UDK2014 rather than UDK2010.
91 - Added "deep_uefi_legacy_scan" token. When not set (the default), rEFInd
92 does not modify EFI NVRAM settings when scanning for BIOS-mode boot
93 loaders on UEFI-based (non-Mac) computers. Some computers require
94 uncommenting this setting for rEFInd to reliably detect some BIOS-mode
95 boot devices. Passing "0", "off", or "false" as an option resets it to
96 the default value (useful in a loaded secondary configuration file to
97 override a setting in the main file).
102 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to fail to detect boot loaders stored
103 on the root directory of a partition.
105 - Added two new bitmap fonts to those distributed with rEFInd: Ubuntu Mono
106 and Nimbus Mono. Both come in 12-, 14-, 16-, and 24-point sizes.
108 - Messages about pauses for scanning and re-scanning of boot loaders are
109 now suppressed when doing an initial delayed scan when scan_delay is 1
112 - Improved centering of legacy boot option descriptions on some systems'
115 - Fixed bug that could cause a BIOS-mode boot to boot from an inappropriate
116 device if that device had an innately high boot priority (as set by the
119 - Changed icons from ICNS to PNG form. There are several reasons to do
120 this, all of them minor; but together they're enough to warrant a change.
121 PNG is more common, and therefore more accessible to most users --
122 particularly those who don't use OS X. The PNG files are smaller than
123 their ICNS equivalents. PNG supports a wider range of sizes (although I'm
124 not now using anything that ICNS doesn't support, I might in the future).
125 The icon-scaling support added a few versions ago makes ICNS's support
126 for multiple icon sizes relatively unimportant.
128 - Reversed order of search for icons by extension: rEFInd now searches
129 for PNG files before ICNS files, rather than the other way around. This
130 makes it possible to override a volume icon for rEFInd by giving it the
131 name .VolumeIcon.png, even when a .VolumeIcon.icns file exists on the
132 volume and is used by OS X.
134 - Fixed bug that caused .VolumeIcon.icns to take higher-than-intended
135 precedence in icon setting for OS X.
137 - Chainloading to BIOS-mode boot loaders now works on UEFI-based PCs when
138 rEFInd is built with GNU-EFI, not just when built with Tianocore.
143 - The "dont_scan_volumes" parameter now also works with legacy-boot
144 volumes. Unlike with EFI volumes, where the option you pass must exactly
145 match an entire volume name, when applied to legacy-boot volumes, it
146 matches any part of the description that appears beneath the item when
147 you select it in the rEFInd main menu.
149 - Can now boot in legacy mode from second (and probably later) hard disks!
151 - rEFInd now limits the length of the firmware name string shown in the
152 system information screen to 65 characters. This is done because at least
153 one EFI presents a longer string by default, and this causes the entire
154 information display to come up empty on 800x600 displays.
156 - rEFInd now uses the partition's name (as stored in the GPT data
157 structures) as a fallback for the filesystem's name if the latter can't
158 be found. Exceptions are if the partition name is one of three generic
159 names used by GPT fdisk: "Microsoft basic data", "Linux filesystem", or
160 "Apple HFS/HFS+". These are ignored in favor of the descriptive fallback
161 (e.g., "20 GiB Btrfs volume")
163 - It's now possible to specify a volume by partition GUID number in a
164 manual boot stanza. This should be more reliable (albeit also more
165 awkward) than using a filesystem number (such as fs0: or fs1:).
167 - Fixed memory-allocation bug that could cause error message displays,
168 and possibly hangs, when re-scanning boot loaders.
173 - Attempt to fix rEFInd perpetually re-scanning after ejecting a disc on
176 - Added check to remove redundant (or non-functional if Secure Boot is
177 active) kernel entries for Ubuntu, which is now including two versions of
178 kernels, one signed and the other unsigned.
180 - Fixed bug in install.sh that could cause it to display error messages
181 if the dmraid utility was not installed.
183 - The HFS+ driver now reports a correct volume name.
185 - Fixed some EFI filesystem driver bugs that could cause lockups under
186 some circumstances. These bugs could affect any of the filesystem
189 - Added "gdisk" option to the "showtools" configuration file token. When
190 active, this adds gdisk.efi or gdisk_{arch}.efi, if present in the
191 EFI\tools directory, to the tools row.
193 - Fixed mistaken identification of the MOK utility as the "MOK utility
200 - Added "debian" directory to source, which facilitates creation of Debian
201 packages. Packages built in this way are built with GNU-EFI and don't run
202 any post-installation script, so although the rEFInd binaries are on the
203 hard disk, they aren't installed to be bootable; you must manually run
204 install.sh. Also, at least on Ubuntu, the Make.common file's /usr/lib64
205 references must be changed to /usr/lib. This is more of a proof of
206 concept and a "leg up" for distribution maintainers than anything else.
208 - Two new options, big_icon_size and small_icon_size, set the size of
209 the first-row OS icons and of the second-row tool icons, respectively.
210 The big_icon_size option also indirectly sets the size of disk-type
211 badges; they're 1/4 the size of the big icons. Default values are 128 and
212 48, respectively, to match the actual icon files provided with rEFInd. If
213 the icon you're using is of a different size than you've specified,
214 rEFInd scales it. For best quality, you should both provide icons drawn
215 to the right size and set the icon sizes in refind.conf.
217 - rEFInd now automatically scales icons to fit the standard icon sizes.
218 This won't have any effect with the icons that come with rEFInd, but it
219 can help if you want to use another icon, since you needn't scale it in a
220 graphics program before using it. Note that rEFInd uses bitmap icons, so
221 scaling by a huge amount (say, a 16x16 icon to fit the standard 128x128
222 OS icon) is not likely to look good.
224 - Added new option, banner_scale, that tells rEFInd how to handle banners:
225 Set to "noscale" (the default), banners are not scaled, although they'll
226 be cropped if they're too big for the display. This is the same as the
227 behavior in previous versions. Set to "fillscreen", rEFInd now scales the
228 banner image (larger or smaller) to fill the display.
230 - Adjusted the post-installation script in refind.spec (used to generate
231 RPMs, and therefore also indirectly Debian packages) to search for
232 existing shim program files under the filesnames shim.efi and shimx64.efi
233 rather than just shim.efi. Ubuntu uses shimx64.efi, so Debian packages
234 were failing to detect Ubuntu's shim in previous versions. (Note,
235 however, that Ubuntu's early shim 0.1 is unsuitable for use with rEFInd
236 The newer 0.4 version that's in the repositories now should work fine;
237 it's only when installing on an older system that's NOT been updated that
238 problems might arise.
243 - Can now specify complete paths, optionally including volumes, in
246 - Added shimx64.efi to the default dont_scan_files list.
248 - Added windows_recovery_files token, to specify what program(s) launch a
249 Windows recovery utility; and the "windows_recovery" option to
250 "showtools," to control whether or not to display the Windows recovery
251 utility on the second row of icons.
253 - The use_graphics_for, also_scan_dirs, dont_scan_dirs, dont_scan_files,
254 and scan_driver_dirs tokens in refind.conf now support "+" as the first
255 option, which causes the remaining options to be added to the default
256 value rather than replacing that value. (This has no practical effect for
257 scan_driver_dirs, though, since it has a null default value.)
259 - Added support for specifying the configuration file at program launch,
260 via the "-c" parameter, as in "refind_x64.efi -c foo.conf" to use the
261 foo.conf file as the main configuration file.
263 - Scans of ext2/3/4fs and ReiserFS partitions now omit partitions with
264 duplicate filesystem UUIDs. These are likely parts of RAID arrays and so
265 would have the same boot loaders or kernels as the first one with a given
268 - Added feature in install.sh: Script now tries to locate and mount an ESP
269 in Linux, if it's currently unmounted.
271 - Fixed bug in mkrlconf.sh and install.sh that caused a stray line break
272 and PARTUUID= specification to appear in generated refind_linux.conf file
273 under some circumstances.
278 - Added support for multiple "default_selection" targets. These MUST be
279 comma-separated AND enclosed in quotes, as in:
280 default_selection "fred,ginger"
281 This example will launch "fred" by default if it's available; and if
282 it's not, rEFInd will attempt to launch "ginger" as the default.
284 - Added support for time-sensitive "default_selection" setting. This token
285 may now have either one or three options. If one, it's interpreted as it
286 has been in the past, as setting a default that's independent of times.
287 If you follow this default by two times, however, those are interpreted
288 as the start and end times (in 24-hour format) for a default setting. For
289 instance, "default_selection foo 8:00 17:00" causes foo to be the default
290 from 8:00 (AM) to 17:00 (aka 5:00 PM). You can include multiple
291 "default_selection" lines to set different defaults for a variety of
292 times. If they're in conflict, the last one takes precedence. Note that
293 times are hardware clock's native value, which may be local time or UTC,
294 depending on your computer.
296 - Added support for a blank-screen startup: Set "screensaver -1" and the
297 screen saver will be initialized when rEFInd starts. If you set a low
298 "timeout" value, the result will be a boot straight to the default OS
299 unless you hit a key soon after rEFInd starts. Once you hit a key, the
300 screensaver will be disabled.
302 - Added --ownhfs {target} option to install.sh. This option causes rEFInd
303 to install to an HFS+ partition in a way that's more consistent with the
304 way the Mac's native boot loader is installed. Note that you should NOT
305 install to an already-bootable partition with this option, since it will
306 overwrite the existing boot loader, which would render OS X unbootable.
311 - Fixed bug that caused unbootable exFAT partitions to show up as
312 bootable on Macs with BIOS/CSM/legacy boot options enabled.
314 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused installs to the ESP on recent
315 versions of OS X to fail.
317 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to hang on some Macs when multiple EFI
318 drivers were present.
320 - Fixed bug that caused clear to default gray screen when launching OSes
321 with 'use_graphics_for' enabled, even when the rEFInd background is not
322 gray. Now rEFInd clears to the same background color used in its menu.
323 When launching OS X, though, the OS X boot loader will itself clear to
324 gray a second or so later; and when launching Linux, it will clear to
325 black a second or so later.
330 - My initial 0.7.4 release broke legacy-boot ability on Macs, so I quickly
331 released this version using the original 0.7.4 filenames to fix the
337 - Fixed options passing to loader to include loader's filename as the first
338 option. This omission had no effect on most boot loaders, but caused
339 VMware's mboot64.efi to fail.
341 - Added support for memtest86 as second-row option. Program must be
342 stored in EFI/tools, EFI/tools/memtest, EFI/tools/memtest86, EFI/memtest,
343 or EFI/memtest86; and must use the name memtest86.efi, memtest86_x64.efi,
344 memtest86x64.efi, or bootx64.efi (changing "x64" to "ia32" on IA-32
345 systems). The memtest86 program is scanned for when the "showtools"
346 option includes the "memtest" or "memtest86" token, which it does by
349 - Added space to end of "Boot %s from %s" string; enables adding a space
350 to the end of the "default_selection" item (in quotes) to set a default
351 that matches a volume name that's identical to another one except for
352 extra characters at the end of the non-wanted volume's name.
354 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to hang when launching boot loaders
355 under some conditions. (Launching from Firewire drives on Macs is the
356 known case, but there may be others.)
361 - Fixed bug that caused missing media-type badges on BIOS-mode boot
364 - Fixed bug that caused failure when launching BIOS-mode OSes on Macs.
369 - Fixed bug that caused display glitches in the final entry on the first
370 row of icons if the second row of icons was empty.
372 - Fixed bug that could cause incorrect scanning or even a rEFInd crash when
373 using volume specification in also_scan_dirs token.
375 - Added protection against loading invalid drivers and other EFI programs.
376 (Some EFIs crash when attempting to load such drivers and programs.)
378 - Added PreLoader.efi and shim-fedora.efi to default dont_scan_files list;
379 it's now "shim.efi, shim-fedora.efi, PreLoader.efi, TextMode.efi,
380 ebounce.efi, GraphicsConsole.efi, MokManager.efi, HashTool.efi,
381 HashTool-signed.efi".
383 - Added icon for Funtoo Linux.
385 - Fixed reading of volume badges from user-specified icons directory, which
388 - Fixed handling of /.VolumeBadge.icns (or /.VolumeBadge.png) files, which
394 - Fixed build problem with recent development versions of EDK2.
396 - Added scan for Boot Repair's backup of the Windows boot loader
397 (bkpbootmgfw.efi). If found, give separate entries for it and for
398 bootmgfw.efi, each with its own descriptive text label.
400 - Fixed also_scan_dirs; used to have bug that caused it to ignore
401 volume specification, if present.
403 - Fixed bug in driver cache that caused Btrfs driver to hang sometimes.
408 - Added Btrfs signature to rEFInd, so that it can identify the filesystem
409 type for volumes that lack labels.
411 - Changed some critical filesystem driver pointers from 32-bit to 64-bit.
412 This *SHOULD* enable use of over-2TiB filesystems (for those filesystems
413 that support such large volumes). This capability is largely untested,
416 - Added a cache to the filesystem driver core, and therefore to all the
417 filesystem drivers. This cache greatly improves performance in
418 VirtualBox, and offers modest performance improvements on a few "real"
419 computers. The most dramatic improvement is on ext2/3fs under VirtualBox:
420 Loading a kernel and initrd used to take ~200 seconds on my system, but
421 now takes ~3 seconds! On most "real" hardware, the improvement is much
422 less dramatic -- an improvement of a second or less, presumably because
423 of cacheing within the EFI or on the hard disk itself.
425 - Filter boot loaders based on a test of their validity; keeps out Linux
426 kernels without EFI stub loader code, loaders for the wrong architecture,
427 non-EFI loaders, etc.
429 - New Btrfs driver, contributed by Samuel Liao based on GRUB 2.00 Btrfs
435 - Changed the 64-bit EFI shell included in the CD-R and USB flash drive
436 images to a version 2 shell that should support the "bcfg" command.
438 - Added support for PreBootloader to refind.spec's built-in installation
441 - Added support for the Linux Foundation's PreLoader to install.sh. It's
442 treated just like shim, including using the --shim option (or, now,
443 --preloader); but it searches for and copies HashTool.efi rather than
444 MokManager.efi, and filenames are adjusted appropriately.
446 - Added code to determine Linux root filesystem from /etc/fstab file, if
447 it's on the same partition as the kernel and if the refind_linux.conf
448 file is not available. This enables rEFInd to boot Linux without any
449 rEFInd-specific configuration files on some (but not all) systems.
454 - New feature: rEFInd now ignores symbolic links to files on filesystems
455 that support them. This prevents the "vmlinuz" symbolic link that some
456 distributions create in the root directory from appearing in the loader
457 list. Note that this does NOT affect symbolic links to directories.
459 - Added icons for Lubuntu and Kubuntu.
461 - Improved the install.sh script so that it does a better job dealing with
462 directory names that contain spaces.
464 - rEFInd now tries to guess the Linux distribution type based on the kernel
465 filename (Fedora and RHEL only) or the "ID" or "NAME" variables in
466 /etc/os-release on the kernel's partition. None of these is guaranteed to
467 work. A fallback of the Tux penguin icon remains in place in case rEFInd
468 can't find anything substantive enough for a guess.
470 - Added "EFI\opensuse" to the locations searched for MOK utilities, since
471 OpenSUSE now uses that name.
473 - Renamed "Reboot to Firmware User Interface" to "Reboot to Computer Setup
476 - Fixed bug in gptsync that caused it to hang if the disk had too few GPT
477 partitions to fill the MBR.
482 - Added support for "screensaver" token. If set to a positive integer, this
483 causes the screen to blank after the specified number of seconds of
484 inactivity. Pressing most keys (unfortunately NOT including Shift, Alt,
485 or Ctrl) will restore the display and restart the screen saver timeout.
487 - Added icon for ChromeOS (os_chrome.icns in the icons subdirectory).
488 ChromeBooks reportedly boots using the fallback filename, but if a user
489 wants to install rEFInd on a ChromeBook, renaming the original EFI/BOOT
490 directory to EFI/chrome and then installing rEFInd in the fallback
491 filename will bring up this new icon for ChromeOS.
493 - Added new option to reboot the computer into the firmware's user
494 interface. This option is active by default, or can be set via the
495 "firmware" option to the "showtools" token in refind.conf. It works
496 on only some computers, though; older computers lack this feature, and
497 when rEFInd is told to use this feature on such computers, the directive
500 - Upgraded LodePNG library from version 20121216 to 20130415 and
501 restructured rEFInd-specific modifications to simplify future upgrades.
503 - Replaced hexadecimal error code with description if an error is
504 encountered when saving a screen shot.
506 - Enable multiple screen shots: Rather than naming all screen shots
507 "screenshot.bmp", the name is now "screenshot_###.bmp", where "###" is a
508 sequence number, starting with "001".
513 - Modified default banner to include the new rEFInd icon, provided by Erik
516 - Worked around a suspected firmware bug that caused rEFInd 0.6.6 to 0.6.8
517 to hang at startup on some systems (DUET and some Macs).
519 - Modified rEFInd to search for gptsync under the names gptsync.efi and
520 gptsync_{arch}.efi, where {arch} is ia32 or x64. (Previous versions
521 searched only for gptsync.efi.)
523 - Added gptsync program from rEFIt project, but with some changes to
524 improve flexibility and make it less likely that UEFI users will
525 accidentally trash their systems.
527 - Changed timeout code so that the timeout continues if the keyboard is
528 disconnected. This can help in booting a headless server or a system with
529 a bluetooth or other keyboard that's not recognized by the EFI.
534 - Added workaround for presumed EFI bug that was causing "Invalid
535 Parameter" errors when scanning for boot loaders on some computers.
537 - Added search for an EFI shell called shell.efi in the root directory
538 (previously this name was only accepted in EFI\tools).
540 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused it to fail on some systems (Fedora
541 18, for instance) because of a problem identifying the ESP.
543 - Fixed bug that caused icons named after boot loaders to not be used.
548 - Added a more explicit error message summarizing options when a launch of
549 a program results in a Secure Boot failure.
551 - Changed MOK tool detection to scan all volumes, not just the rEFInd
552 home volume. This is desirable because the Linux Foundation's HashTool
553 can only scan its own volume, making it desirable to place copies of this
554 program on every volume that holds EFI boot loader binaries.
556 - Added support for launching the Linux Foundation HashTool as a means of
557 managing MOKs (or MOK hashes, at any rate).
559 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to present an entry for itself as a
560 Microsoft OS if it was launched as EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi.
562 - Fixed bug that caused dont_scan_volumes option to be added to
565 - Fixed dont_scan_volumes so that it works with OS X boot loaders.
567 - Fixed broken mixing of PNG and ICNS icons when using a user-specified
568 icons directory -- previously, an ICNS file in the default directory
569 would override a PNG file in the user-specified directory.
574 - rEFInd now ignores the fallback boot loader (EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi or
575 EFI/BOOT/bootia32.efi) if it's identical to another boot loader on
576 the same volume. This is intended to help unclutter the display on
577 systems that run Windows, since Windows tends to duplicate its own boot
578 loader under the fallback name.
580 - Added new "font" token to refind.conf, which enables specifying a font in
581 the form of a PNG file. This file must contain monospace glyphs for the
582 95 characters from ASCII 32 to 126 (space through tilde), inclusive, plus
583 a glyph to be displayed for characters outside of this range, for a total
586 - Replaced the old font (inherited from rEFInd) with an anti-aliased
587 version of Luxi Mono Regular 14 point.
589 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to ignore manual boot stanzas in files
590 included via the "include" token in refind.conf.
592 - Fixed bug that caused ASSERT error on some systems (and conceivably a
593 crash on startup on some) when default_selection line in refind.conf was
594 commented out or empty.
596 - Fixed bug that caused "Binary is whitelisted" message to persist on
597 screen after loading MOK-signed drivers in Secure Boot mode.
599 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to ignore the "icon" token in refind.conf
602 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused the script to fail to update
603 drivers when rEFInd was installed in EFI/BOOT/.
608 - Improved text color support: rEFInd now uses black text against light
609 backgrounds and white text against dark backgrounds.
611 - Added support for PNGs as banners, icons, and selectors.
613 - Added icon for ALT Linux.
615 - Added "safemode" option to "hideui" token, to hide option to boot into
616 safe mode for OS X ("-v -x" option to boot.efi).
618 - Added icon for Haiku (os_haiku.icns).
620 - Enable transparency of icons & main-menu text when the banner icon is
621 sized to cover these areas.
623 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to crash if fed a banner image that's
624 too big. Note that "too big" can be substantially smaller than the screen
630 - Revised install.sh to copy ext2fs driver, rather than ext4fs driver, for
631 ext2/3 filesystems. This can help keep non-functional entries from links
632 from /vmlinuz to /boot/vmlinuz out of the menu if the system uses ext4fs
633 on root and ext2fs or ext3fs on /boot.
635 - Fixed a couple of memory management bugs that cause rEFInd to hang at
636 startup on some systems.
641 - Added the ability to specify a volume name or number in the
642 "dont_scan_dirs" and "also_scan_dirs" tokens.
644 - Fixed a bug that caused removable EFI media to not appear in scan lists
645 if rEFInd was installed as EFI/BOOT/boot{arch}.efi on a hard disk.
647 - Modified ISO-9660 driver so that it can handle discs with other than
648 2048-byte sectors. This makes it useful for reading "hybrid ISO" images
649 burned to USB flash disks.
651 - New mvrefind.sh script to move a rEFInd installation between a standard
652 location (typically EFI/refind) and one of the fallback locations
653 (EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot). It can also do more exotic locations.
655 - The install.sh script now installs to EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi or
656 EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi if it's run in BIOS mode. This is
657 intended to give some chance of producing a bootable installation should
658 a user accidentally install Linux in EFI mode and then install rEFInd
659 from that installation.
661 - The install.sh script now tries to find an existing rEFInd installation
662 and upgrade it, even if it's in EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot rather
665 - New "--yes" option to install.sh to help with unattended or automated
666 installations (as from an RPM or Debian package).
671 - Inclusion of a sample refind.spec file for the benefit of RPM
672 distribution maintainers who might want to include rEFInd. It's a bit
673 rough, but it gets you a good chunk of the way there....
675 - The EFI filesystem drivers can now be built with the GNU-EFI toolkit as
676 well as with the TianoCore EDK2. See the BUILDING.txt file for details on
677 how to build them with either toolkit. This improvement doesn't affect
678 users of my binary packages, but it should make it easier for Linux
679 distributions to adopt rEFInd into their package systems.
681 - Tweaked refind.inf file for better build results using "native" TianoCore
682 EDK2 build process (vs. the Makefile-based build process that I use under
683 Linux). This won't affect those who use my binary builds or build under
684 Linux with the "make" command.
686 - Fixed bug that prevented Secure Boot launches from working when rEFInd
687 was built with GNU-EFI rather than the TianoCore EDK2.
689 - Substantial reworking of Secure Boot code, based on James Bottomley's
690 PreLoader program. This new code eliminates the limitation of launching
691 just one driver in Secure Boot mode and is likely to be more reliable
692 with future or obscure boot loaders. It should also work with non-x86-64
693 systems, although this relies on a platform-specific shim program, which
694 to date exists only for x86-64. The basic features are the same as before
695 -- rEFInd relies on shim for authentication functions and will launch
696 programs that are signed by Secure Boot keys, shim keys, or MOKs.
698 - Altered default for "textmode" option (when it's commented out) to not
699 adjust the text mode at all. (Prior versions set it to mode 0 by
705 - Added "--root" option to install.sh, to enable installation of rEFInd
706 to something other than the currently-running OS. This is intended for
707 use on emergency discs.
709 - Thanks to Stefan Agner, the ext4fs driver now supports the "meta_bg"
710 filesystem feature, which distributes metadata throughout the disk. This
711 feature isn't used by default, but can be set at filesystem creation time
712 by passing the "-O meta_bg,^resize_inode" option to mke2fs. (Using
713 "^resize_inode" is necessary because meta_bg is incompatible with
714 resize_inode, which IS used by default.) This feature can be used on
715 ext3fs and ext2fs as well as on ext4fs, so the ext4fs driver can now
716 handle some ext3fs and ext2fs partitions that the ext2fs driver can't
719 - Fixed some screen resolution-setting bugs.
721 - Added the "words" that make up a filesystem's label (delimited by spaces,
722 dashes, or underscores) to the list of bases used to search for OS icons.
723 For instance, if the filesystem's label is "Arch", rEFInd searches for
724 os_Arch.icns; if it's "Fedora 17", it searches for os_Fedora.icns and
725 os_17.icns; and if it's "NEW_GENTOO", it searches for os_NEW.icns and
728 - Refined hints displays to be more context-sensitive, particularly in text
731 - Instead of displaying a blank filesystem label when a filesystem has
732 none, rEFInd now displays the size and/or type of the filesystem, as in
733 "boot EFI\foo\bar.efi from 200 MiB ext3 volume" rather than "boot
734 EFI\foo\bar.efi from".
736 - Fixed a bug that caused the screen to clear after displaying an error
737 message but before displaying the "Hit any key to continue" message when
738 a boot loader launch failed.
743 - Fixed a memory allocation bug that could cause a program crash when
744 specifying certain values with the "also_scan_dirs", "dont_scan_volumes",
745 "dont_scan_dirs", "dont_scan_files", and "scan_driver_dirs" refind.conf
748 - Modified Linux kernel initrd-finding code so that if an initrd is
749 specified in refind_linux.conf, rEFInd will not add any initrd it finds.
750 This enables an override of the default initrd, and is likely to be
751 particularly helpful to Arch Linux users.
753 - Added ext4fs driver!
755 - Made "boot" the default value for "also_scan_dirs".
757 - Added identifying screen header to line editor.
759 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd's display to be mis-sized upon return
760 from a program that set the resolution itself.
762 - Adjusted "resolution" refind.conf parameter so that it can accept EITHER
763 a resolution as width and height OR a single digit as a UEFI mode number
764 (which is system-specific). This is done because some systems present the
765 same mode twice in their mode lists, perhaps varying in refresh rate,
766 monitor output, or some other salient characteristics; specifying the
767 mode number enables selecting the higher-numbered mode, whereas using
768 horizontal and vertical resolution values selects the lowest-numbered
771 - Added "textmode" refind.conf parameter to set the text mode used in
772 text-only displays, and for the line editor and boot-time handoff
773 display even in graphics mode.
775 - Fixed bug that caused tools (shell, etc.) to launch when they were
776 highlighted and F2 or Insert was pressed.
778 - Added "editor" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf, which
779 disables the boot options editor.
781 - Added hints text to rEFInd main menu and sub-menus. This can be disabled
782 by setting the new "hints" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf.
784 - Added "boot with minimal options" entry to refind_linux.conf file
785 generated by install.sh. This entry boots without the options extracted
786 from the /etc/default/grub file.
788 - Added keys subdirectory to main distribution, to hold public Secure
789 Boot/shim keys from known sources.
791 - Changed install.sh --drivers option to --alldrivers, added new
792 --nodrivers option, and made the default on Linux to install the one
793 driver that's used on /boot (or the root filesystem if /boot isn't a
794 separate partition). Of course, this won't install a non-existent driver,
795 and it also won't work properly if run from an emergency disk unless you
796 mount a separate /boot partition at that location.
798 - Fixed bug in install.sh that prevented creation of refind_linux.conf file
801 0.5.1.1 (12/12/2012):
802 ---------------------
804 - Fixed bug in install.sh that prevented it from working on OS X.
809 - Added support for "0" options to "textonly" and "scan_all_linux_kernels"
810 to reverse the usual meaning of these tokens. This is useful for
811 including these options in a secondary configuration file called with the
812 new "include" token to override a setting set in the main file.
814 - Added "include" token for refind.conf, to enable including a secondary
815 configuration file from a primary one.
817 - Modified install.sh so that it creates a simple refind_linux.conf file in
818 /boot, if that file doesn't already exist and if install.sh is run from
819 Linux. If that directory happens to be on a FAT, HFS+, ext2fs, ext3fs, or
820 ReiserFS volume, and if the necessary drivers are installed, the result
821 is that rEFInd will detect the Linux installation with no further
822 configuration on many systems. (Some may still require tweaking of kernel
823 options, though; for instance, adding "dolvm" on Gentoo systems that use
826 - Added --shim and --localkeys options to install.sh to help simplify setup
827 on systems with Secure Boot active.
829 - Fixed (maybe) bug that caused resolution options to not be displayed on
830 recent Macs with GOP graphics when specifying an invalid resolution in
833 - Fixed bug that caused some programs (EFI shells, in particular) to hang
834 when launching on some systems (DUET, in particular).
836 - Implemented a fix to enable ELILO to launch with Secure Boot active.
837 This fix might help with some other boot loaders in Secure Boot mode,
838 too, but I don't know of any specifics.
843 - Added the ability to include quote marks ('"') in refind.conf and
844 refind_linux.conf tokens by doubling them up, as in:
845 "ro root=/dev/sda4 some_value=""this is it"""
846 This example results in the following string being passed as an
848 ro root=/dev/sda4 some_value="this is it"
850 - Changed refind.conf-sample to uncomment the scan_all_linux_kernels
851 option by default. If this option is deleted or commented out, the
852 program default remains to not scan all Linux kernels; but with
853 increasing numbers of distributions shipping with kernels that include
854 EFI stub loader support, setting the configuration file default to scan
855 for them makes sense.
857 - Modified the "resolution" token so that it affects text mode as well
858 as graphics mode. On my systems, though, the actual text area is still
859 restricted to an 80x25 area. (This seems to be a firmware limitation; my
860 EFI shells are also so limited.)
862 - Fixed a bug that caused the options line editor to blank out lines that
863 were not actually edited.
865 - Added support for using Matthew Garrett's Shim program and its Machine
866 Owner Keys (MOKs) to extend Secure Boot capabilities. If rEFInd is
867 launched from Shim on a computer with Secure Boot active, rEFInd will
868 launch programs signed with either a standard UEFI Secure Boot key or a
869 MOK. For the moment, this feature works only on x86-64 systems.
871 - Added new "dont_scan_files" (aka "don't_scan_files") token for
872 refind.conf. The effect is similar to dont_scan_dirs, but it creates a
873 blacklist of filenames within directories rather than directory names.
874 I'm initially using it to place shim.efi and MokManager.efi in the
875 blacklist to keep these programs out of the OS list. (MokManager.efi is
876 scanned separately as a tool; see below.) I've moved checks for
877 ebounce.efi, GraphicsConsole.efi, and TextMode.efi to this list. (These
878 three had previously been blacklisted by hard-coding in ScanLoaderDir().)
880 - Added the directory from which rEFInd launched to dont_scan_dirs. This
881 works around a bug in which rEFInd would show itself as a bogus Windows
882 entry if it's installed as EFI/Microsoft/boot/bootmgfw.efi.
884 - Added support for launching MokManager.efi for managing the Machine Owner
885 Keys (MOKs) maintained by the shim boot loader developed by Fedora and
886 SUSE. This program is scanned and presented as a second-row tool.
888 - Added support for Apple's Recovery HD partition: If it's detected, a new
889 icon appears on the second row. This icon can be removed by explicitly
890 setting the "showtools" option in refind.conf and excluding the
891 "apple_recovery" option from that line.
893 - Fixed bug that caused text-mode ("textonly" refind.conf option enabled)
894 menu entries to be right-aligned rather than left-aligned when rEFInd was
895 compiled with the TianoCore EDK2.
897 - Added "--usedefault {devicename}" and "--drivers" options to the
898 install.sh script and changed the "esp" option to "--esp".
903 - Added an icon for gummiboot.
905 - Added a boot option editor: Pressing the Insert or F2 key from a boot
906 tag's options menu opens a simple text-mode line editor on which the boot
907 options may be edited for a one-time boot with altered options.
909 - Modified the "scan_delay" feature to delay and then perform a re-scan,
910 which may work better than the first attempt at this feature (which I'm
911 told isn't working as planned).
913 - Modified rEFInd to add a space after the command-line options only when
914 launching Mac OS X. On some early Macs, the extra space (which had been
915 present by default, as a carryover from rEFIt) causes problems when
916 booting Linux kernels from FAT partitions.
921 - Fixed some minor memory management issues.
923 - Added new "scan_delay" feature to impose a delay before scanning
926 - Changed default "scanfor" option from internal-external-optical to either
927 internal-external-optical-manual (for non-Macs) or
928 internal-hdbios-external-biosexternal-optical-cd-manual (for Macs). I've
929 done this for two reasons:
930 - Many Mac users have been confused by the fact that rEFInd needs
931 reconfiguration to detect Windows (or Linux installed in BIOS mode),
932 since rEFIt scans BIOS devices by default. Adding the BIOS options as
933 default for them should help them.
934 - Adding the "manual" option enables users to simply add manual boot
935 stanzas and have them work, which is more intuitive. Adding the
936 "manual" option will have no effect unless manual stanzas are created
937 or uncommented, so this part of the change won't affect users' working
938 default configurations.
940 - Added new legacy (BIOS) boot support for UEFI-based PCs.
945 - Fixed bug that caused a failure to boot BIOS-based OSes on Macs.
947 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused it to fail to detect rEFItBlesser.
952 - Fixed bug that caused filesystem labels to be corrupted by rEFInd on
955 - Fixed bug that caused filesystem labels to be truncated in the drivers
958 - Fixed bug in use_graphics_for option parsing that caused most options
959 to set graphics mode for OS X and/or Linux but not other boot
962 - Tweaked install script to better isolate the ESP under OS X.
967 - rEFInd now supports compilation using the TianoCore UDK2010/EDK2
968 development kit in addition to GNU-EFI.
970 - Added new "use_graphics_for" option to control which OSes to boot in
971 graphics mode. (This effect lasts for a fraction of a second on most
972 systems, since the boot loader that rEFInd launches is likely to set
973 graphics or text mode itself.)
975 - Graphics-mode booting now clears the screen to the current rEFInd
976 background color (rather than black) and does NOT display boot messages.
977 The intent is for a smoother transition when booting OS X, or perhaps
978 other OSes that don't display boot loader messages. In practice, this
979 effect will be tiny for many OSes, since the boot loader generally clears
980 the screen within a fraction of a second of being launched; but the
981 "flicker" of a rEFInd message in that time can sometimes be distracting.
983 - Filesystem drivers now work on EFI 1.x systems, such as Macs.
985 - Removed "linux.conf" as a valid alternative name for "refind_linux.conf"
986 for holding Linux kernel options. The kernel developers plan to use
987 "linux.conf" themselves.
992 - Added a message to install.sh when run on Macs to remind users to update
993 the "scanfor" line in refind.conf if they need to boot BIOS-based OSes
996 - Modified install.sh script to be smarter about running efibootmgr on
997 Linux. It now uses the whole path to the rEFInd binary as a key to
998 determine whether an existing entry exists, rather than just the filename
999 portion. If an entry exists and is the first entry in the boot order, the
1000 script does nothing to the NVRAM entries. If such an entry exists but is
1001 not the default, the script deletes that entry and creates a new one
1002 (implicitly making it the first in the boot order). If such an entry does
1003 not exist, the script creates a new one (again, making it the first in
1006 - Added "dont_scan_dirs" configuration file option, which adds directories
1007 to a "blacklist" of directories that are NOT scanned for boot loaders.
1012 - Added "scanning for new boot loaders" message to the re-scan function
1013 (hitting Esc at the main menu). It usually flashes up too quickly to
1014 be of importance, but if the scan function takes a while because of
1015 access to a CD that must be spun up, it should make it clear that the
1018 - Modified install.sh script to detect rEFItBlesser on Macs, and if
1019 present, to ask the user if it should be removed.
1021 - Cleaned up the Make.common file for the filesystem drivers.
1023 - Changed HFS+ driver to return volume label of "HFS+ volume" rather than
1024 an empty label. (The driver doesn't currently read the real volume
1027 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to appear in its own menu after
1028 running a shell and then re-scanning for boot loaders.
1033 - Inclusion of drivers for ISO-9660, HFS+, ReiserFS, and ext2fs. Most of
1034 these drivers originated with rEFIt, although the HFS+ driver seems to
1035 have come from Oracle's VirtualBox, with some files from Apple. I hadn't
1036 included these drivers previously because the build process proved
1037 challenging. As it is, they don't work on my Mac Mini, I suspect because
1038 the build process with the UDK2010 development kit may not work with the
1039 EFI 1.x that Apple uses.
1041 - Addition of support for drivers in the "drivers_{arch}" subdirectory of
1042 the main rEFInd binary directory (e.g., "drivers_x64" or "drivers_ia32").
1043 Drivers may continue to be placed in the "drivers" subdirectory.
1045 - Added new feature to eject CDs (and other removable media): Press F12 to
1046 eject all such media. This function works only on some Macs, though (it
1047 relies on an Apple-specific EFI extension, and this extension isn't even
1048 implemented on all Macs, much less on UEFI-based PCs).
1050 - Fixed a problem that could cause GRUB 2 to fail to read its configuration
1051 file when launched from rEFInd.
1056 - Removed the GRUB 2 detection "reciped" added with 0.3.2, since I've
1057 received reports that it's not working as intended.
1059 - Added re-scan feature: Press the Esc key to have rEFInd re-read its
1060 configuration file, tell the EFI to scan for new filesystems, and re-scan
1061 those filesystems for boot loaders. The main purpose is to enable
1062 scanning a new removable medium that you insert after launching rEFInd;
1063 however, it can also be used to immediately implement changes to the
1064 configuration file or new drivers you load from an EFI shell.
1066 - Fixed a bug that could cause the scroll-right arrow to be replaced by the
1067 scroll-left arrow under some circumstances.
1072 - Added new configuration file option: "icons_dir", which sets the name
1073 of the subdirectory in which icons are found. See the documentation or
1074 sample configuration file for a full description.
1076 - Modified Makefile to generate rEFInd binary that includes architecture
1077 code -- refind_ia32.efi or refind_x64.efi, rather than the generic
1078 refind.efi. This is done mainly to help the install.sh script. The
1079 program can be named anything you like on the disk. (The generic name
1080 refind.efi is used on unknown architectures.)
1082 - Improved install.sh script: Fixed bug on OS X 10.7 and enable it to be
1083 used after building from source code (or via new "make install" Makefile
1086 - Improved screen redraws to produce less flicker when moving among the
1087 second-row tags or to the last tag on the first row.
1092 - Improved menu navigation:
1093 - In graphics mode, left & right arrow keys move left & right, while up &
1094 down arrows move between rows.
1095 - Page Up and Page Down now move through chunks of visible tags (in both
1096 text & graphics modes), jumping from one row to another only when at
1097 the edge of the row. In text mode, the "rows" are broken down as in
1098 graphics mode, but they aren't visibly distinguished on the screen.
1100 - Improved text-mode use: rEFInd now displays the proper number of entries
1101 when first started in text mode and scrolling is done sensibly when too
1102 many entries exist to fit on the screen.
1107 - Added the install.sh script to install rEFInd on Linux and Mac OS X
1108 systems. This script must be run as root (or via sudo). It requires
1109 no options, but on Mac OS X, passing it the "esp" option causes it
1110 to install rEFInd on the computer's ESP rather than the default of the
1111 currently OS X boot partition. (Under Linux, the default is to install to
1112 the ESP.) Note that there may be some unusual cases in which this script
1115 - Does a better job of clearing the screen when launching OSes in text
1118 - Added detection "recipe" for GRUB 2's BIOS Boot Partition.
1120 - Fixed bogus detection of ESPs created by Linux's mkdosfs utility or
1121 Windows as bootable partitions when "scanfor" includes BIOS scanning
1128 - Fixed bug that caused spurious "Unsupported while scanning the root
1129 directory" messages under some conitions on Macs.
1131 - Modified loader scanning code to sort boot loader entries within a
1132 directory by modification time, so that the most recently-modified loader
1133 is first among those in a given directory. Thus, if you specify a
1134 directory name (or volume name, for loaders stored in the root directory
1135 of a volume) as the default_selection, the most recent of those loaders
1136 will be the default. This is intended to help with Linux kernel
1137 maintenance when using the EFI stub loader; set up this way, the most
1138 recent kernel copied to your kernel directory will be the default,
1139 obviating the need to adjust the refind.conf file when adding a new
1140 kernel. If you want to change the default among those in the default
1141 directory, you can use "touch" to adjust the modification timestamp.
1143 - Tweaked code to find loader-specific .icns file so that it finds files
1144 for Linux kernels without .efi extensions. In this case, files should be
1145 named the same as the kernels they match, but with .icns extensions. For
1146 instance, bzImage-3.3.2 should have an icon called bzImage-3.3.2.icns.
1147 (The old code would have looked for an icon called bzImage-3.3.icns.)
1149 - Eliminated bogus OS loader tags for filenames that end in ".icns" when
1150 the scan_all_linux_kernels option is set.
1155 - I'm officially upgrading this project's status from "alpha" to "beta" and
1156 giving it a bump from 0.2.x to 0.3.0. This doesn't reflect any major
1157 milestone with this version; rather, it reflects my sense that rEFInd has
1158 been "out there" for a while, and although I've gotten bug reports,
1159 they've been minor and/or have been fixed. The program still has known
1160 bugs, but my impression is that it is, overall, usable by ordinary users.
1162 - Added "resolution" option to refind.conf, which enables setting the video
1163 resolution. To use it, pass two numeric values, as in "resolution 1024
1164 768" to use a 1024x768 video mode. Note that not all modes are supported.
1165 If you specify a non-supported video mode on a UEFI system, a message
1166 appears listing the supported video modes and you must then press a key
1167 to continue, using the default video mode (usually 800x600).
1168 Unfortunately, I don't know the calls to get a list of supported video
1169 modes on older EFI 1.x systems (including Macs), so on Macs setting an
1170 incorrect video mode silently fails (you keep using the default mode).
1171 This makes changing your video mode a hit-or-miss proposition on Macs.
1172 CAUTION: It's possible to set a legal video mode that your monitor can't
1173 handle, in which case you'll get a blank display until you boot an OS
1174 that resets the video mode.
1176 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused rEFInd to crash when returning from an
1177 EFI shell or other programs on Macs, particularly when rEFInd used
1178 graphical mode. I'm not 100% sure this bug is squashed because I still
1179 don't understand the cause and I only have one Mac for testing. See
1180 comments in the ReinitRefitLib() function in refit/lib.c for more
1183 - Added new refind.conf option: scan_all_linux_kernels, which causes Linux
1184 kernels that lack ".efi" extensions to be included in scans for EFI boot
1185 loaders. This may help integration with Linux distributions that don't
1186 give their kernels such names by default. Beware, though: It can detect
1187 unwanted files, such as older non-stub-loader kernels or .icns files used
1188 to give kernels with .efi extensions custom icons.
1190 - Improved EFI boot loader detection on boards with Gigabyte's Hybrid EFI,
1191 and perhaps other EFIs with a buggy StriCmp() function. Files with both
1192 ".efi" and ".EFI" extensions should now be detected as boot loaders.
1194 - Fixed a bug that caused rEFInd to fail to scan for drivers if the
1195 filesystem driver didn't set a volume name (that is, if the relevant
1196 field was set to NULL rather than even an empty string). In such
1197 situations, rEFInd now reports the volume name as "Unknown".
1202 - After much trial and tribulation, I've overcome a GNU-EFI limitation and
1203 enabled rEFInd to load EFI drivers. This feature was present in the
1204 original build of rEFIt but was removed in the versions that could
1205 compile under Linux, but now it's back -- and still being compiled under
1206 Linux! To use it, you should place your drivers in a convenient directory
1207 on the ESP (or whatever partition you use to launch rEFInd) and add a
1208 "scan_driver_dirs" entry to refind.conf to tell rEFInd where to look. (As
1209 always, you should specify the driver directory relative to the root of
1210 the filesystem.) Note that you can't launch drivers from another
1211 filesystem; they must be on the same volume that holds rEFInd. Those who
1212 compile from source code should note that implementing this feature
1213 necessitated using a more recent version of the GNU-EFI library. I'm
1214 currently using version 3.0p, and version 3.0i does NOT work. I don't
1215 know where the change occurred, but you may need to upgrade your GNU-EFI
1218 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to show up in its own menu sometimes.
1220 - Added new refind.conf token: also_scan_dirs. When scanning volumes for
1221 EFI boot loaders, rEFInd always scans the root directory and every
1222 subdirectory of the /EFI directory, but it doesn't recurse into these
1223 directories. The also_scan_dirs token adds more directories to the scan
1224 list. It defaults to "elilo,boot", but you can set it to any directory or
1225 directories you like.
1230 - Added "volume" keyword to configuration file's stanza options. This
1231 option changes the volume from which subsequent files (specified by
1232 "loader" and "icon") are loaded. You pass "volume" the name/label of the
1233 FILESYSTEM you want to use (not the GPT partition name), or a number
1234 followed by a colon (e.g., "1:"). The former should reliably identify a
1235 filesystem, assuming the name is unique. The latter assigns numbers based
1236 on the order in which they're scanned, which may not be as reliable but
1237 should work when a volume is unnamed.
1239 - Fixed bug in 0.2.5 that caused failure of Linux initial RAM disk
1240 mapping on some (but not all) systems. Affected computers include at
1241 least some Intel motherboards, maybe others.
1246 - Fixed bug that caused an inability to associate initial RAM disks with
1247 Linux kernels stored in a volume's root directory.
1249 - Volume badges (that override default badges) are now stored in
1250 .VolumeBadge.icns. Although undocumented, rEFInd formerly loaded custom
1251 volume badges from .VolumeIcon.icns. This carryover from rEFIt was a
1252 confusing name, given the next (new) feature, so I've changed and
1253 documented the name....
1255 - Added ability to set a default icon for a loader stored in the root
1256 directory of a volume: The icon is stored in .VolumeIcon.icns. This icon
1257 is also used for Mac OS X volumes booted from the standard location.
1259 - Fixed bug that caused icons to drop back to generic icons when rEFInd
1260 was launched in certain ways (such as from an EFI shell in rEFInd's
1261 directory) on certain systems.
1263 - Fixed bug that caused "unknown disable flag" to be shown (very briefly)
1264 instead of "unknown hideui flag" when an improper hideui flag was set.
1269 - Created new refind.conf entry: "showtools". This entry takes options of
1270 "shell", "gptsync", "about", "exit", "reboot", and "shutdown". This
1271 option is in some respects an affirmative version of portions of the old
1272 "disable" and "hideui" options; however, it enables users to specify the
1273 order in which these options appear on the screen. Also, the "exit"
1274 option is new; it terminates the program. The effect is usually to return
1275 to whatever tool launched it or to launch a default OS; however, this is
1276 somewhat unpredictable. The default therefore omits the "exit" option, as
1277 well as "gptsync", which has always been dangerous (but necessary on most
1278 MacOS/Windows dual-boot setups on Macs). As part of this reconfiguration,
1279 I've eliminated the "rescue Linux" option, which always seemed pointless
1282 - Folded "disable" and "hideui" refind.conf entries into one ("disable"),
1283 and reduced the number of options to six: "banner", "label",
1284 "singleuser", "hwtest", "arrows", and "all". ("arrows" is new and
1285 disables the scroll arrows when a system has too many tags to display
1288 - Added max_tags option to the refind.conf file, enabling users to reduce
1289 the maximum number of OS loader tags that can be displayed at once.
1291 - Updated rEFIt icon, based on the 128x128 volume label from the rEFIt CD
1294 - Added x86 and x86-64 EFI shells to the CD image version of the binary,
1295 but NOT to the binary zip file. The logic is that the CD image is more
1296 likely to be used directly as an emergency disc and so may need this
1297 feature, even though the source isn't part of the rEFInd project. (The
1298 source is readily available from the TianoCore project.)
1300 - EFI shells may now be stored at /shellx64.efi for x86-64 systems or at
1301 /shellia32.efi for x86 systems. The /EFI/tools/shell.efi name is also
1302 recognized; however, if both files are present, two EFI shell icons will
1303 appear on the main menu. The /efi/{refind-path/apps/shell.efi filename,
1304 which was never officially documented but worked as a carryover from
1305 rEFIt, is no longer valid.
1310 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused hangs when launching a second program
1311 after returning from a first. There are some weird system-to-system
1312 differences, though, and this fix causes (apparently harmless) error
1313 messages about "(re)opening our installation volume" on at least one
1314 system (a 32-bit Mac Mini). I'm committing this change because, imperfect
1315 though it is, it's preferable to the earlier version, at least on my
1316 small sample of computers.
1318 - Because of news that the Linux kernel developers are planning to use the
1319 filename linux.conf to hold Linux kernel configuration data for EFI
1320 booting, I'm transitioning rEFInd away from that name and to
1321 refind_linux.conf to avoid a conflict. This version can use either name,
1322 with refind_linux.conf taking precedence if both are present.
1324 - Added logo for Arch Linux.
1329 - Fixed bug that caused program failure when Linux kernels with EFI stub
1330 support were detected with no associated version numbers. rEFInd now
1331 permits automatic linking of *ONE* versionless kernel to *ONE*
1332 versionless initrd file.
1334 - Fixed bug that caused program hangs when a boot loader filename or label
1335 was too long. Such names are now properly truncated and program execution
1338 - Fixed bug that caused no text to appear in submenus on UEFI systems with
1339 small screens (800x600). NOTE: Problem still occurs on screens smaller
1340 than this, but such systems are very rare.
1345 - Added ability to set a "default_selection" that's a title or a substring
1346 of one -- the name given to a stanza in a "menuentry" or the boot
1347 loader's filename, in most cases, although "Mac OS X", "Windows XP
1348 (XoM)", and "Microsoft EFI boot" are also titles.
1350 - Added support for semi-automatic scans of Linux kernels with EFI stub
1351 loader support. The program auto-detects matching initial RAM disk files
1352 and loads additional options from the "linux.conf" file in the same
1353 directory as the kernel.
1355 - Added support for "submenuentry" keyword and associated sub-stanza
1356 entries in refind.conf file.
1358 - Renamed icons/os_mint.icns to icons/os_linuxmint.icns to match the
1359 filename Linux Mint ACTUALLY uses for its ESP boot loader directory.
1365 - Initial public release