4 - Added new icons for Clover boot loader and for Mythbuntu Linux
7 - rEFInd now displays the partition's label, when one is available, when
8 offering a BIOS-mode boot option for a partition with no filesystem
9 driver. This works only on Macs doing BIOS-mode booting.
11 - Removed GPLv2 code from the FSW core files. This was done because the
12 Btrfs driver is derived from the GRUB Btrfs driver, which is licensed
13 under the GPLv3. Ironically, the GPLv2 and GPLv3 are incompatible
14 licenses, so ensuring that the Btrfs driver doesn't rely on GPLv2 code
15 was legally necessary. In most cases, I reverted to the original rEFIt
16 code, although I kept my own cache code; since I wrote it, I can
17 change its license to a BSD license.
19 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to unload drivers immediately after loading
20 them. This didn't affect rEFInd's own drivers because they didn't include
21 the unload hooks, but it did affect some other drivers.
23 - Changed default scan_all_linux_kernels setting from "false" to "true",
24 and commented the option out in refind.conf-sample. This should not
25 affect most people, since refind.conf-sample had this option commented
26 out, and most rEFInd users either use it that way or don't have Linux
27 kernels installed at all. I've made this change because I want rEFInd to
28 "do the right thing" by default in as many cases as possible. For a while
29 now, rEFInd has been excluding non-bootable files from its menu, and most
30 kernels "in the wild" now include the EFI stub. Thus, enabling this
31 support by default seems worthwhile. If you prefer to not scan Linux
32 kernels by default, simply uncomment the "scan_all_linux_kernels" line
33 and ensure it's set to "false".
38 - Removed stray bit of debugging code that caused a prompt to press a
39 key to appear at rEFInd startup.
44 - Changed behavior when default_selection is not set: It now boots the
45 previously-booted loader, assuming it's still available; if not, rEFInd
46 boots the first loader (as it does now). Behavior is unchanged if
47 default_selection is set. Note that this behavior depends on the ability
48 of rEFInd to store an EFI variable in NVRAM. It therefore fails on
49 systems with flaky NVRAM storage. You can view the previously-booted
51 /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/PreviousBoot-36d08fa7-cf0b-42f5-8f14-68df73ed3740
54 - Added icon for Mageia Linux (os_mageia.png).
56 - Fixed bug that could misidentify a not-quite-GUID as a GUID in a
57 manual boot stanza's "volume" line.
59 - I've updated my personal build system, and therefore the rEFInd Makefiles
60 and related files, to use TianoCore UDK2014 rather than UDK2010.
62 - Added "deep_uefi_legacy_scan" token. When not set (the default), rEFInd
63 does not modify EFI NVRAM settings when scanning for BIOS-mode boot
64 loaders on UEFI-based (non-Mac) computers. Some computers require
65 uncommenting this setting for rEFInd to reliably detect some BIOS-mode
66 boot devices. Passing "0", "off", or "false" as an option resets it to
67 the default value (useful in a loaded secondary configuration file to
68 override a setting in the main file).
73 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to fail to detect boot loaders stored
74 on the root directory of a partition.
76 - Added two new bitmap fonts to those distributed with rEFInd: Ubuntu Mono
77 and Nimbus Mono. Both come in 12-, 14-, 16-, and 24-point sizes.
79 - Messages about pauses for scanning and re-scanning of boot loaders are
80 now suppressed when doing an initial delayed scan when scan_delay is 1
83 - Improved centering of legacy boot option descriptions on some systems'
86 - Fixed bug that could cause a BIOS-mode boot to boot from an inappropriate
87 device if that device had an innately high boot priority (as set by the
90 - Changed icons from ICNS to PNG form. There are several reasons to do
91 this, all of them minor; but together they're enough to warrant a change.
92 PNG is more common, and therefore more accessible to most users --
93 particularly those who don't use OS X. The PNG files are smaller than
94 their ICNS equivalents. PNG supports a wider range of sizes (although I'm
95 not now using anything that ICNS doesn't support, I might in the future).
96 The icon-scaling support added a few versions ago makes ICNS's support
97 for multiple icon sizes relatively unimportant.
99 - Reversed order of search for icons by extension: rEFInd now searches
100 for PNG files before ICNS files, rather than the other way around. This
101 makes it possible to override a volume icon for rEFInd by giving it the
102 name .VolumeIcon.png, even when a .VolumeIcon.icns file exists on the
103 volume and is used by OS X.
105 - Fixed bug that caused .VolumeIcon.icns to take higher-than-intended
106 precedence in icon setting for OS X.
108 - Chainloading to BIOS-mode boot loaders now works on UEFI-based PCs when
109 rEFInd is built with GNU-EFI, not just when built with Tianocore.
114 - The "dont_scan_volumes" parameter now also works with legacy-boot
115 volumes. Unlike with EFI volumes, where the option you pass must exactly
116 match an entire volume name, when applied to legacy-boot volumes, it
117 matches any part of the description that appears beneath the item when
118 you select it in the rEFInd main menu.
120 - Can now boot in legacy mode from second (and probably later) hard disks!
122 - rEFInd now limits the length of the firmware name string shown in the
123 system information screen to 65 characters. This is done because at least
124 one EFI presents a longer string by default, and this causes the entire
125 information display to come up empty on 800x600 displays.
127 - rEFInd now uses the partition's name (as stored in the GPT data
128 structures) as a fallback for the filesystem's name if the latter can't
129 be found. Exceptions are if the partition name is one of three generic
130 names used by GPT fdisk: "Microsoft basic data", "Linux filesystem", or
131 "Apple HFS/HFS+". These are ignored in favor of the descriptive fallback
132 (e.g., "20 GiB Btrfs volume")
134 - It's now possible to specify a volume by partition GUID number in a
135 manual boot stanza. This should be more reliable (albeit also more
136 awkward) than using a filesystem number (such as fs0: or fs1:).
138 - Fixed memory-allocation bug that could cause error message displays,
139 and possibly hangs, when re-scanning boot loaders.
144 - Attempt to fix rEFInd perpetually re-scanning after ejecting a disc on
147 - Added check to remove redundant (or non-functional if Secure Boot is
148 active) kernel entries for Ubuntu, which is now including two versions of
149 kernels, one signed and the other unsigned.
151 - Fixed bug in install.sh that could cause it to display error messages
152 if the dmraid utility was not installed.
154 - The HFS+ driver now reports a correct volume name.
156 - Fixed some EFI filesystem driver bugs that could cause lockups under
157 some circumstances. These bugs could affect any of the filesystem
160 - Added "gdisk" option to the "showtools" configuration file token. When
161 active, this adds gdisk.efi or gdisk_{arch}.efi, if present in the
162 EFI\tools directory, to the tools row.
164 - Fixed mistaken identification of the MOK utility as the "MOK utility
171 - Added "debian" directory to source, which facilitates creation of Debian
172 packages. Packages built in this way are built with GNU-EFI and don't run
173 any post-installation script, so although the rEFInd binaries are on the
174 hard disk, they aren't installed to be bootable; you must manually run
175 install.sh. Also, at least on Ubuntu, the Make.common file's /usr/lib64
176 references must be changed to /usr/lib. This is more of a proof of
177 concept and a "leg up" for distribution maintainers than anything else.
179 - Two new options, big_icon_size and small_icon_size, set the size of
180 the first-row OS icons and of the second-row tool icons, respectively.
181 The big_icon_size option also indirectly sets the size of disk-type
182 badges; they're 1/4 the size of the big icons. Default values are 128 and
183 48, respectively, to match the actual icon files provided with rEFInd. If
184 the icon you're using is of a different size than you've specified,
185 rEFInd scales it. For best quality, you should both provide icons drawn
186 to the right size and set the icon sizes in refind.conf.
188 - rEFInd now automatically scales icons to fit the standard icon sizes.
189 This won't have any effect with the icons that come with rEFInd, but it
190 can help if you want to use another icon, since you needn't scale it in a
191 graphics program before using it. Note that rEFInd uses bitmap icons, so
192 scaling by a huge amount (say, a 16x16 icon to fit the standard 128x128
193 OS icon) is not likely to look good.
195 - Added new option, banner_scale, that tells rEFInd how to handle banners:
196 Set to "noscale" (the default), banners are not scaled, although they'll
197 be cropped if they're too big for the display. This is the same as the
198 behavior in previous versions. Set to "fillscreen", rEFInd now scales the
199 banner image (larger or smaller) to fill the display.
201 - Adjusted the post-installation script in refind.spec (used to generate
202 RPMs, and therefore also indirectly Debian packages) to search for
203 existing shim program files under the filesnames shim.efi and shimx64.efi
204 rather than just shim.efi. Ubuntu uses shimx64.efi, so Debian packages
205 were failing to detect Ubuntu's shim in previous versions. (Note,
206 however, that Ubuntu's early shim 0.1 is unsuitable for use with rEFInd
207 The newer 0.4 version that's in the repositories now should work fine;
208 it's only when installing on an older system that's NOT been updated that
209 problems might arise.
214 - Can now specify complete paths, optionally including volumes, in
217 - Added shimx64.efi to the default dont_scan_files list.
219 - Added windows_recovery_files token, to specify what program(s) launch a
220 Windows recovery utility; and the "windows_recovery" option to
221 "showtools," to control whether or not to display the Windows recovery
222 utility on the second row of icons.
224 - The use_graphics_for, also_scan_dirs, dont_scan_dirs, dont_scan_files,
225 and scan_driver_dirs tokens in refind.conf now support "+" as the first
226 option, which causes the remaining options to be added to the default
227 value rather than replacing that value. (This has no practical effect for
228 scan_driver_dirs, though, since it has a null default value.)
230 - Added support for specifying the configuration file at program launch,
231 via the "-c" parameter, as in "refind_x64.efi -c foo.conf" to use the
232 foo.conf file as the main configuration file.
234 - Scans of ext2/3/4fs and ReiserFS partitions now omit partitions with
235 duplicate filesystem UUIDs. These are likely parts of RAID arrays and so
236 would have the same boot loaders or kernels as the first one with a given
239 - Added feature in install.sh: Script now tries to locate and mount an ESP
240 in Linux, if it's currently unmounted.
242 - Fixed bug in mkrlconf.sh and install.sh that caused a stray line break
243 and PARTUUID= specification to appear in generated refind_linux.conf file
244 under some circumstances.
249 - Added support for multiple "default_selection" targets. These MUST be
250 comma-separated AND enclosed in quotes, as in:
251 default_selection "fred,ginger"
252 This example will launch "fred" by default if it's available; and if
253 it's not, rEFInd will attempt to launch "ginger" as the default.
255 - Added support for time-sensitive "default_selection" setting. This token
256 may now have either one or three options. If one, it's interpreted as it
257 has been in the past, as setting a default that's independent of times.
258 If you follow this default by two times, however, those are interpreted
259 as the start and end times (in 24-hour format) for a default setting. For
260 instance, "default_selection foo 8:00 17:00" causes foo to be the default
261 from 8:00 (AM) to 17:00 (aka 5:00 PM). You can include multiple
262 "default_selection" lines to set different defaults for a variety of
263 times. If they're in conflict, the last one takes precedence. Note that
264 times are hardware clock's native value, which may be local time or UTC,
265 depending on your computer.
267 - Added support for a blank-screen startup: Set "screensaver -1" and the
268 screen saver will be initialized when rEFInd starts. If you set a low
269 "timeout" value, the result will be a boot straight to the default OS
270 unless you hit a key soon after rEFInd starts. Once you hit a key, the
271 screensaver will be disabled.
273 - Added --ownhfs {target} option to install.sh. This option causes rEFInd
274 to install to an HFS+ partition in a way that's more consistent with the
275 way the Mac's native boot loader is installed. Note that you should NOT
276 install to an already-bootable partition with this option, since it will
277 overwrite the existing boot loader, which would render OS X unbootable.
282 - Fixed bug that caused unbootable exFAT partitions to show up as
283 bootable on Macs with BIOS/CSM/legacy boot options enabled.
285 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused installs to the ESP on recent
286 versions of OS X to fail.
288 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to hang on some Macs when multiple EFI
289 drivers were present.
291 - Fixed bug that caused clear to default gray screen when launching OSes
292 with 'use_graphics_for' enabled, even when the rEFInd background is not
293 gray. Now rEFInd clears to the same background color used in its menu.
294 When launching OS X, though, the OS X boot loader will itself clear to
295 gray a second or so later; and when launching Linux, it will clear to
296 black a second or so later.
301 - My initial 0.7.4 release broke legacy-boot ability on Macs, so I quickly
302 released this version using the original 0.7.4 filenames to fix the
308 - Fixed options passing to loader to include loader's filename as the first
309 option. This omission had no effect on most boot loaders, but caused
310 VMware's mboot64.efi to fail.
312 - Added support for memtest86 as second-row option. Program must be
313 stored in EFI/tools, EFI/tools/memtest, EFI/tools/memtest86, EFI/memtest,
314 or EFI/memtest86; and must use the name memtest86.efi, memtest86_x64.efi,
315 memtest86x64.efi, or bootx64.efi (changing "x64" to "ia32" on IA-32
316 systems). The memtest86 program is scanned for when the "showtools"
317 option includes the "memtest" or "memtest86" token, which it does by
320 - Added space to end of "Boot %s from %s" string; enables adding a space
321 to the end of the "default_selection" item (in quotes) to set a default
322 that matches a volume name that's identical to another one except for
323 extra characters at the end of the non-wanted volume's name.
325 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to hang when launching boot loaders
326 under some conditions. (Launching from Firewire drives on Macs is the
327 known case, but there may be others.)
332 - Fixed bug that caused missing media-type badges on BIOS-mode boot
335 - Fixed bug that caused failure when launching BIOS-mode OSes on Macs.
340 - Fixed bug that caused display glitches in the final entry on the first
341 row of icons if the second row of icons was empty.
343 - Fixed bug that could cause incorrect scanning or even a rEFInd crash when
344 using volume specification in also_scan_dirs token.
346 - Added protection against loading invalid drivers and other EFI programs.
347 (Some EFIs crash when attempting to load such drivers and programs.)
349 - Added PreLoader.efi and shim-fedora.efi to default dont_scan_files list;
350 it's now "shim.efi, shim-fedora.efi, PreLoader.efi, TextMode.efi,
351 ebounce.efi, GraphicsConsole.efi, MokManager.efi, HashTool.efi,
352 HashTool-signed.efi".
354 - Added icon for Funtoo Linux.
356 - Fixed reading of volume badges from user-specified icons directory, which
359 - Fixed handling of /.VolumeBadge.icns (or /.VolumeBadge.png) files, which
365 - Fixed build problem with recent development versions of EDK2.
367 - Added scan for Boot Repair's backup of the Windows boot loader
368 (bkpbootmgfw.efi). If found, give separate entries for it and for
369 bootmgfw.efi, each with its own descriptive text label.
371 - Fixed also_scan_dirs; used to have bug that caused it to ignore
372 volume specification, if present.
374 - Fixed bug in driver cache that caused Btrfs driver to hang sometimes.
379 - Added Btrfs signature to rEFInd, so that it can identify the filesystem
380 type for volumes that lack labels.
382 - Changed some critical filesystem driver pointers from 32-bit to 64-bit.
383 This *SHOULD* enable use of over-2TiB filesystems (for those filesystems
384 that support such large volumes). This capability is largely untested,
387 - Added a cache to the filesystem driver core, and therefore to all the
388 filesystem drivers. This cache greatly improves performance in
389 VirtualBox, and offers modest performance improvements on a few "real"
390 computers. The most dramatic improvement is on ext2/3fs under VirtualBox:
391 Loading a kernel and initrd used to take ~200 seconds on my system, but
392 now takes ~3 seconds! On most "real" hardware, the improvement is much
393 less dramatic -- an improvement of a second or less, presumably because
394 of cacheing within the EFI or on the hard disk itself.
396 - Filter boot loaders based on a test of their validity; keeps out Linux
397 kernels without EFI stub loader code, loaders for the wrong architecture,
398 non-EFI loaders, etc.
400 - New Btrfs driver, contributed by Samuel Liao based on GRUB 2.00 Btrfs
406 - Changed the 64-bit EFI shell included in the CD-R and USB flash drive
407 images to a version 2 shell that should support the "bcfg" command.
409 - Added support for PreBootloader to refind.spec's built-in installation
412 - Added support for the Linux Foundation's PreLoader to install.sh. It's
413 treated just like shim, including using the --shim option (or, now,
414 --preloader); but it searches for and copies HashTool.efi rather than
415 MokManager.efi, and filenames are adjusted appropriately.
417 - Added code to determine Linux root filesystem from /etc/fstab file, if
418 it's on the same partition as the kernel and if the refind_linux.conf
419 file is not available. This enables rEFInd to boot Linux without any
420 rEFInd-specific configuration files on some (but not all) systems.
425 - New feature: rEFInd now ignores symbolic links to files on filesystems
426 that support them. This prevents the "vmlinuz" symbolic link that some
427 distributions create in the root directory from appearing in the loader
428 list. Note that this does NOT affect symbolic links to directories.
430 - Added icons for Lubuntu and Kubuntu.
432 - Improved the install.sh script so that it does a better job dealing with
433 directory names that contain spaces.
435 - rEFInd now tries to guess the Linux distribution type based on the kernel
436 filename (Fedora and RHEL only) or the "ID" or "NAME" variables in
437 /etc/os-release on the kernel's partition. None of these is guaranteed to
438 work. A fallback of the Tux penguin icon remains in place in case rEFInd
439 can't find anything substantive enough for a guess.
441 - Added "EFI\opensuse" to the locations searched for MOK utilities, since
442 OpenSUSE now uses that name.
444 - Renamed "Reboot to Firmware User Interface" to "Reboot to Computer Setup
447 - Fixed bug in gptsync that caused it to hang if the disk had too few GPT
448 partitions to fill the MBR.
453 - Added support for "screensaver" token. If set to a positive integer, this
454 causes the screen to blank after the specified number of seconds of
455 inactivity. Pressing most keys (unfortunately NOT including Shift, Alt,
456 or Ctrl) will restore the display and restart the screen saver timeout.
458 - Added icon for ChromeOS (os_chrome.icns in the icons subdirectory).
459 ChromeBooks reportedly boots using the fallback filename, but if a user
460 wants to install rEFInd on a ChromeBook, renaming the original EFI/BOOT
461 directory to EFI/chrome and then installing rEFInd in the fallback
462 filename will bring up this new icon for ChromeOS.
464 - Added new option to reboot the computer into the firmware's user
465 interface. This option is active by default, or can be set via the
466 "firmware" option to the "showtools" token in refind.conf. It works
467 on only some computers, though; older computers lack this feature, and
468 when rEFInd is told to use this feature on such computers, the directive
471 - Upgraded LodePNG library from version 20121216 to 20130415 and
472 restructured rEFInd-specific modifications to simplify future upgrades.
474 - Replaced hexadecimal error code with description if an error is
475 encountered when saving a screen shot.
477 - Enable multiple screen shots: Rather than naming all screen shots
478 "screenshot.bmp", the name is now "screenshot_###.bmp", where "###" is a
479 sequence number, starting with "001".
484 - Modified default banner to include the new rEFInd icon, provided by Erik
487 - Worked around a suspected firmware bug that caused rEFInd 0.6.6 to 0.6.8
488 to hang at startup on some systems (DUET and some Macs).
490 - Modified rEFInd to search for gptsync under the names gptsync.efi and
491 gptsync_{arch}.efi, where {arch} is ia32 or x64. (Previous versions
492 searched only for gptsync.efi.)
494 - Added gptsync program from rEFIt project, but with some changes to
495 improve flexibility and make it less likely that UEFI users will
496 accidentally trash their systems.
498 - Changed timeout code so that the timeout continues if the keyboard is
499 disconnected. This can help in booting a headless server or a system with
500 a bluetooth or other keyboard that's not recognized by the EFI.
505 - Added workaround for presumed EFI bug that was causing "Invalid
506 Parameter" errors when scanning for boot loaders on some computers.
508 - Added search for an EFI shell called shell.efi in the root directory
509 (previously this name was only accepted in EFI\tools).
511 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused it to fail on some systems (Fedora
512 18, for instance) because of a problem identifying the ESP.
514 - Fixed bug that caused icons named after boot loaders to not be used.
519 - Added a more explicit error message summarizing options when a launch of
520 a program results in a Secure Boot failure.
522 - Changed MOK tool detection to scan all volumes, not just the rEFInd
523 home volume. This is desirable because the Linux Foundation's HashTool
524 can only scan its own volume, making it desirable to place copies of this
525 program on every volume that holds EFI boot loader binaries.
527 - Added support for launching the Linux Foundation HashTool as a means of
528 managing MOKs (or MOK hashes, at any rate).
530 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to present an entry for itself as a
531 Microsoft OS if it was launched as EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi.
533 - Fixed bug that caused dont_scan_volumes option to be added to
536 - Fixed dont_scan_volumes so that it works with OS X boot loaders.
538 - Fixed broken mixing of PNG and ICNS icons when using a user-specified
539 icons directory -- previously, an ICNS file in the default directory
540 would override a PNG file in the user-specified directory.
545 - rEFInd now ignores the fallback boot loader (EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi or
546 EFI/BOOT/bootia32.efi) if it's identical to another boot loader on
547 the same volume. This is intended to help unclutter the display on
548 systems that run Windows, since Windows tends to duplicate its own boot
549 loader under the fallback name.
551 - Added new "font" token to refind.conf, which enables specifying a font in
552 the form of a PNG file. This file must contain monospace glyphs for the
553 95 characters from ASCII 32 to 126 (space through tilde), inclusive, plus
554 a glyph to be displayed for characters outside of this range, for a total
557 - Replaced the old font (inherited from rEFInd) with an anti-aliased
558 version of Luxi Mono Regular 14 point.
560 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to ignore manual boot stanzas in files
561 included via the "include" token in refind.conf.
563 - Fixed bug that caused ASSERT error on some systems (and conceivably a
564 crash on startup on some) when default_selection line in refind.conf was
565 commented out or empty.
567 - Fixed bug that caused "Binary is whitelisted" message to persist on
568 screen after loading MOK-signed drivers in Secure Boot mode.
570 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to ignore the "icon" token in refind.conf
573 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused the script to fail to update
574 drivers when rEFInd was installed in EFI/BOOT/.
579 - Improved text color support: rEFInd now uses black text against light
580 backgrounds and white text against dark backgrounds.
582 - Added support for PNGs as banners, icons, and selectors.
584 - Added icon for ALT Linux.
586 - Added "safemode" option to "hideui" token, to hide option to boot into
587 safe mode for OS X ("-v -x" option to boot.efi).
589 - Added icon for Haiku (os_haiku.icns).
591 - Enable transparency of icons & main-menu text when the banner icon is
592 sized to cover these areas.
594 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to crash if fed a banner image that's
595 too big. Note that "too big" can be substantially smaller than the screen
601 - Revised install.sh to copy ext2fs driver, rather than ext4fs driver, for
602 ext2/3 filesystems. This can help keep non-functional entries from links
603 from /vmlinuz to /boot/vmlinuz out of the menu if the system uses ext4fs
604 on root and ext2fs or ext3fs on /boot.
606 - Fixed a couple of memory management bugs that cause rEFInd to hang at
607 startup on some systems.
612 - Added the ability to specify a volume name or number in the
613 "dont_scan_dirs" and "also_scan_dirs" tokens.
615 - Fixed a bug that caused removable EFI media to not appear in scan lists
616 if rEFInd was installed as EFI/BOOT/boot{arch}.efi on a hard disk.
618 - Modified ISO-9660 driver so that it can handle discs with other than
619 2048-byte sectors. This makes it useful for reading "hybrid ISO" images
620 burned to USB flash disks.
622 - New mvrefind.sh script to move a rEFInd installation between a standard
623 location (typically EFI/refind) and one of the fallback locations
624 (EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot). It can also do more exotic locations.
626 - The install.sh script now installs to EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi or
627 EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi if it's run in BIOS mode. This is
628 intended to give some chance of producing a bootable installation should
629 a user accidentally install Linux in EFI mode and then install rEFInd
630 from that installation.
632 - The install.sh script now tries to find an existing rEFInd installation
633 and upgrade it, even if it's in EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot rather
636 - New "--yes" option to install.sh to help with unattended or automated
637 installations (as from an RPM or Debian package).
642 - Inclusion of a sample refind.spec file for the benefit of RPM
643 distribution maintainers who might want to include rEFInd. It's a bit
644 rough, but it gets you a good chunk of the way there....
646 - The EFI filesystem drivers can now be built with the GNU-EFI toolkit as
647 well as with the TianoCore EDK2. See the BUILDING.txt file for details on
648 how to build them with either toolkit. This improvement doesn't affect
649 users of my binary packages, but it should make it easier for Linux
650 distributions to adopt rEFInd into their package systems.
652 - Tweaked refind.inf file for better build results using "native" TianoCore
653 EDK2 build process (vs. the Makefile-based build process that I use under
654 Linux). This won't affect those who use my binary builds or build under
655 Linux with the "make" command.
657 - Fixed bug that prevented Secure Boot launches from working when rEFInd
658 was built with GNU-EFI rather than the TianoCore EDK2.
660 - Substantial reworking of Secure Boot code, based on James Bottomley's
661 PreLoader program. This new code eliminates the limitation of launching
662 just one driver in Secure Boot mode and is likely to be more reliable
663 with future or obscure boot loaders. It should also work with non-x86-64
664 systems, although this relies on a platform-specific shim program, which
665 to date exists only for x86-64. The basic features are the same as before
666 -- rEFInd relies on shim for authentication functions and will launch
667 programs that are signed by Secure Boot keys, shim keys, or MOKs.
669 - Altered default for "textmode" option (when it's commented out) to not
670 adjust the text mode at all. (Prior versions set it to mode 0 by
676 - Added "--root" option to install.sh, to enable installation of rEFInd
677 to something other than the currently-running OS. This is intended for
678 use on emergency discs.
680 - Thanks to Stefan Agner, the ext4fs driver now supports the "meta_bg"
681 filesystem feature, which distributes metadata throughout the disk. This
682 feature isn't used by default, but can be set at filesystem creation time
683 by passing the "-O meta_bg,^resize_inode" option to mke2fs. (Using
684 "^resize_inode" is necessary because meta_bg is incompatible with
685 resize_inode, which IS used by default.) This feature can be used on
686 ext3fs and ext2fs as well as on ext4fs, so the ext4fs driver can now
687 handle some ext3fs and ext2fs partitions that the ext2fs driver can't
690 - Fixed some screen resolution-setting bugs.
692 - Added the "words" that make up a filesystem's label (delimited by spaces,
693 dashes, or underscores) to the list of bases used to search for OS icons.
694 For instance, if the filesystem's label is "Arch", rEFInd searches for
695 os_Arch.icns; if it's "Fedora 17", it searches for os_Fedora.icns and
696 os_17.icns; and if it's "NEW_GENTOO", it searches for os_NEW.icns and
699 - Refined hints displays to be more context-sensitive, particularly in text
702 - Instead of displaying a blank filesystem label when a filesystem has
703 none, rEFInd now displays the size and/or type of the filesystem, as in
704 "boot EFI\foo\bar.efi from 200 MiB ext3 volume" rather than "boot
705 EFI\foo\bar.efi from".
707 - Fixed a bug that caused the screen to clear after displaying an error
708 message but before displaying the "Hit any key to continue" message when
709 a boot loader launch failed.
714 - Fixed a memory allocation bug that could cause a program crash when
715 specifying certain values with the "also_scan_dirs", "dont_scan_volumes",
716 "dont_scan_dirs", "dont_scan_files", and "scan_driver_dirs" refind.conf
719 - Modified Linux kernel initrd-finding code so that if an initrd is
720 specified in refind_linux.conf, rEFInd will not add any initrd it finds.
721 This enables an override of the default initrd, and is likely to be
722 particularly helpful to Arch Linux users.
724 - Added ext4fs driver!
726 - Made "boot" the default value for "also_scan_dirs".
728 - Added identifying screen header to line editor.
730 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd's display to be mis-sized upon return
731 from a program that set the resolution itself.
733 - Adjusted "resolution" refind.conf parameter so that it can accept EITHER
734 a resolution as width and height OR a single digit as a UEFI mode number
735 (which is system-specific). This is done because some systems present the
736 same mode twice in their mode lists, perhaps varying in refresh rate,
737 monitor output, or some other salient characteristics; specifying the
738 mode number enables selecting the higher-numbered mode, whereas using
739 horizontal and vertical resolution values selects the lowest-numbered
742 - Added "textmode" refind.conf parameter to set the text mode used in
743 text-only displays, and for the line editor and boot-time handoff
744 display even in graphics mode.
746 - Fixed bug that caused tools (shell, etc.) to launch when they were
747 highlighted and F2 or Insert was pressed.
749 - Added "editor" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf, which
750 disables the boot options editor.
752 - Added hints text to rEFInd main menu and sub-menus. This can be disabled
753 by setting the new "hints" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf.
755 - Added "boot with minimal options" entry to refind_linux.conf file
756 generated by install.sh. This entry boots without the options extracted
757 from the /etc/default/grub file.
759 - Added keys subdirectory to main distribution, to hold public Secure
760 Boot/shim keys from known sources.
762 - Changed install.sh --drivers option to --alldrivers, added new
763 --nodrivers option, and made the default on Linux to install the one
764 driver that's used on /boot (or the root filesystem if /boot isn't a
765 separate partition). Of course, this won't install a non-existent driver,
766 and it also won't work properly if run from an emergency disk unless you
767 mount a separate /boot partition at that location.
769 - Fixed bug in install.sh that prevented creation of refind_linux.conf file
772 0.5.1.1 (12/12/2012):
773 ---------------------
775 - Fixed bug in install.sh that prevented it from working on OS X.
780 - Added support for "0" options to "textonly" and "scan_all_linux_kernels"
781 to reverse the usual meaning of these tokens. This is useful for
782 including these options in a secondary configuration file called with the
783 new "include" token to override a setting set in the main file.
785 - Added "include" token for refind.conf, to enable including a secondary
786 configuration file from a primary one.
788 - Modified install.sh so that it creates a simple refind_linux.conf file in
789 /boot, if that file doesn't already exist and if install.sh is run from
790 Linux. If that directory happens to be on a FAT, HFS+, ext2fs, ext3fs, or
791 ReiserFS volume, and if the necessary drivers are installed, the result
792 is that rEFInd will detect the Linux installation with no further
793 configuration on many systems. (Some may still require tweaking of kernel
794 options, though; for instance, adding "dolvm" on Gentoo systems that use
797 - Added --shim and --localkeys options to install.sh to help simplify setup
798 on systems with Secure Boot active.
800 - Fixed (maybe) bug that caused resolution options to not be displayed on
801 recent Macs with GOP graphics when specifying an invalid resolution in
804 - Fixed bug that caused some programs (EFI shells, in particular) to hang
805 when launching on some systems (DUET, in particular).
807 - Implemented a fix to enable ELILO to launch with Secure Boot active.
808 This fix might help with some other boot loaders in Secure Boot mode,
809 too, but I don't know of any specifics.
814 - Added the ability to include quote marks ('"') in refind.conf and
815 refind_linux.conf tokens by doubling them up, as in:
816 "ro root=/dev/sda4 some_value=""this is it"""
817 This example results in the following string being passed as an
819 ro root=/dev/sda4 some_value="this is it"
821 - Changed refind.conf-sample to uncomment the scan_all_linux_kernels
822 option by default. If this option is deleted or commented out, the
823 program default remains to not scan all Linux kernels; but with
824 increasing numbers of distributions shipping with kernels that include
825 EFI stub loader support, setting the configuration file default to scan
826 for them makes sense.
828 - Modified the "resolution" token so that it affects text mode as well
829 as graphics mode. On my systems, though, the actual text area is still
830 restricted to an 80x25 area. (This seems to be a firmware limitation; my
831 EFI shells are also so limited.)
833 - Fixed a bug that caused the options line editor to blank out lines that
834 were not actually edited.
836 - Added support for using Matthew Garrett's Shim program and its Machine
837 Owner Keys (MOKs) to extend Secure Boot capabilities. If rEFInd is
838 launched from Shim on a computer with Secure Boot active, rEFInd will
839 launch programs signed with either a standard UEFI Secure Boot key or a
840 MOK. For the moment, this feature works only on x86-64 systems.
842 - Added new "dont_scan_files" (aka "don't_scan_files") token for
843 refind.conf. The effect is similar to dont_scan_dirs, but it creates a
844 blacklist of filenames within directories rather than directory names.
845 I'm initially using it to place shim.efi and MokManager.efi in the
846 blacklist to keep these programs out of the OS list. (MokManager.efi is
847 scanned separately as a tool; see below.) I've moved checks for
848 ebounce.efi, GraphicsConsole.efi, and TextMode.efi to this list. (These
849 three had previously been blacklisted by hard-coding in ScanLoaderDir().)
851 - Added the directory from which rEFInd launched to dont_scan_dirs. This
852 works around a bug in which rEFInd would show itself as a bogus Windows
853 entry if it's installed as EFI/Microsoft/boot/bootmgfw.efi.
855 - Added support for launching MokManager.efi for managing the Machine Owner
856 Keys (MOKs) maintained by the shim boot loader developed by Fedora and
857 SUSE. This program is scanned and presented as a second-row tool.
859 - Added support for Apple's Recovery HD partition: If it's detected, a new
860 icon appears on the second row. This icon can be removed by explicitly
861 setting the "showtools" option in refind.conf and excluding the
862 "apple_recovery" option from that line.
864 - Fixed bug that caused text-mode ("textonly" refind.conf option enabled)
865 menu entries to be right-aligned rather than left-aligned when rEFInd was
866 compiled with the TianoCore EDK2.
868 - Added "--usedefault {devicename}" and "--drivers" options to the
869 install.sh script and changed the "esp" option to "--esp".
874 - Added an icon for gummiboot.
876 - Added a boot option editor: Pressing the Insert or F2 key from a boot
877 tag's options menu opens a simple text-mode line editor on which the boot
878 options may be edited for a one-time boot with altered options.
880 - Modified the "scan_delay" feature to delay and then perform a re-scan,
881 which may work better than the first attempt at this feature (which I'm
882 told isn't working as planned).
884 - Modified rEFInd to add a space after the command-line options only when
885 launching Mac OS X. On some early Macs, the extra space (which had been
886 present by default, as a carryover from rEFIt) causes problems when
887 booting Linux kernels from FAT partitions.
892 - Fixed some minor memory management issues.
894 - Added new "scan_delay" feature to impose a delay before scanning
897 - Changed default "scanfor" option from internal-external-optical to either
898 internal-external-optical-manual (for non-Macs) or
899 internal-hdbios-external-biosexternal-optical-cd-manual (for Macs). I've
900 done this for two reasons:
901 - Many Mac users have been confused by the fact that rEFInd needs
902 reconfiguration to detect Windows (or Linux installed in BIOS mode),
903 since rEFIt scans BIOS devices by default. Adding the BIOS options as
904 default for them should help them.
905 - Adding the "manual" option enables users to simply add manual boot
906 stanzas and have them work, which is more intuitive. Adding the
907 "manual" option will have no effect unless manual stanzas are created
908 or uncommented, so this part of the change won't affect users' working
909 default configurations.
911 - Added new legacy (BIOS) boot support for UEFI-based PCs.
916 - Fixed bug that caused a failure to boot BIOS-based OSes on Macs.
918 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused it to fail to detect rEFItBlesser.
923 - Fixed bug that caused filesystem labels to be corrupted by rEFInd on
926 - Fixed bug that caused filesystem labels to be truncated in the drivers
929 - Fixed bug in use_graphics_for option parsing that caused most options
930 to set graphics mode for OS X and/or Linux but not other boot
933 - Tweaked install script to better isolate the ESP under OS X.
938 - rEFInd now supports compilation using the TianoCore UDK2010/EDK2
939 development kit in addition to GNU-EFI.
941 - Added new "use_graphics_for" option to control which OSes to boot in
942 graphics mode. (This effect lasts for a fraction of a second on most
943 systems, since the boot loader that rEFInd launches is likely to set
944 graphics or text mode itself.)
946 - Graphics-mode booting now clears the screen to the current rEFInd
947 background color (rather than black) and does NOT display boot messages.
948 The intent is for a smoother transition when booting OS X, or perhaps
949 other OSes that don't display boot loader messages. In practice, this
950 effect will be tiny for many OSes, since the boot loader generally clears
951 the screen within a fraction of a second of being launched; but the
952 "flicker" of a rEFInd message in that time can sometimes be distracting.
954 - Filesystem drivers now work on EFI 1.x systems, such as Macs.
956 - Removed "linux.conf" as a valid alternative name for "refind_linux.conf"
957 for holding Linux kernel options. The kernel developers plan to use
958 "linux.conf" themselves.
963 - Added a message to install.sh when run on Macs to remind users to update
964 the "scanfor" line in refind.conf if they need to boot BIOS-based OSes
967 - Modified install.sh script to be smarter about running efibootmgr on
968 Linux. It now uses the whole path to the rEFInd binary as a key to
969 determine whether an existing entry exists, rather than just the filename
970 portion. If an entry exists and is the first entry in the boot order, the
971 script does nothing to the NVRAM entries. If such an entry exists but is
972 not the default, the script deletes that entry and creates a new one
973 (implicitly making it the first in the boot order). If such an entry does
974 not exist, the script creates a new one (again, making it the first in
977 - Added "dont_scan_dirs" configuration file option, which adds directories
978 to a "blacklist" of directories that are NOT scanned for boot loaders.
983 - Added "scanning for new boot loaders" message to the re-scan function
984 (hitting Esc at the main menu). It usually flashes up too quickly to
985 be of importance, but if the scan function takes a while because of
986 access to a CD that must be spun up, it should make it clear that the
989 - Modified install.sh script to detect rEFItBlesser on Macs, and if
990 present, to ask the user if it should be removed.
992 - Cleaned up the Make.common file for the filesystem drivers.
994 - Changed HFS+ driver to return volume label of "HFS+ volume" rather than
995 an empty label. (The driver doesn't currently read the real volume
998 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to appear in its own menu after
999 running a shell and then re-scanning for boot loaders.
1004 - Inclusion of drivers for ISO-9660, HFS+, ReiserFS, and ext2fs. Most of
1005 these drivers originated with rEFIt, although the HFS+ driver seems to
1006 have come from Oracle's VirtualBox, with some files from Apple. I hadn't
1007 included these drivers previously because the build process proved
1008 challenging. As it is, they don't work on my Mac Mini, I suspect because
1009 the build process with the UDK2010 development kit may not work with the
1010 EFI 1.x that Apple uses.
1012 - Addition of support for drivers in the "drivers_{arch}" subdirectory of
1013 the main rEFInd binary directory (e.g., "drivers_x64" or "drivers_ia32").
1014 Drivers may continue to be placed in the "drivers" subdirectory.
1016 - Added new feature to eject CDs (and other removable media): Press F12 to
1017 eject all such media. This function works only on some Macs, though (it
1018 relies on an Apple-specific EFI extension, and this extension isn't even
1019 implemented on all Macs, much less on UEFI-based PCs).
1021 - Fixed a problem that could cause GRUB 2 to fail to read its configuration
1022 file when launched from rEFInd.
1027 - Removed the GRUB 2 detection "reciped" added with 0.3.2, since I've
1028 received reports that it's not working as intended.
1030 - Added re-scan feature: Press the Esc key to have rEFInd re-read its
1031 configuration file, tell the EFI to scan for new filesystems, and re-scan
1032 those filesystems for boot loaders. The main purpose is to enable
1033 scanning a new removable medium that you insert after launching rEFInd;
1034 however, it can also be used to immediately implement changes to the
1035 configuration file or new drivers you load from an EFI shell.
1037 - Fixed a bug that could cause the scroll-right arrow to be replaced by the
1038 scroll-left arrow under some circumstances.
1043 - Added new configuration file option: "icons_dir", which sets the name
1044 of the subdirectory in which icons are found. See the documentation or
1045 sample configuration file for a full description.
1047 - Modified Makefile to generate rEFInd binary that includes architecture
1048 code -- refind_ia32.efi or refind_x64.efi, rather than the generic
1049 refind.efi. This is done mainly to help the install.sh script. The
1050 program can be named anything you like on the disk. (The generic name
1051 refind.efi is used on unknown architectures.)
1053 - Improved install.sh script: Fixed bug on OS X 10.7 and enable it to be
1054 used after building from source code (or via new "make install" Makefile
1057 - Improved screen redraws to produce less flicker when moving among the
1058 second-row tags or to the last tag on the first row.
1063 - Improved menu navigation:
1064 - In graphics mode, left & right arrow keys move left & right, while up &
1065 down arrows move between rows.
1066 - Page Up and Page Down now move through chunks of visible tags (in both
1067 text & graphics modes), jumping from one row to another only when at
1068 the edge of the row. In text mode, the "rows" are broken down as in
1069 graphics mode, but they aren't visibly distinguished on the screen.
1071 - Improved text-mode use: rEFInd now displays the proper number of entries
1072 when first started in text mode and scrolling is done sensibly when too
1073 many entries exist to fit on the screen.
1078 - Added the install.sh script to install rEFInd on Linux and Mac OS X
1079 systems. This script must be run as root (or via sudo). It requires
1080 no options, but on Mac OS X, passing it the "esp" option causes it
1081 to install rEFInd on the computer's ESP rather than the default of the
1082 currently OS X boot partition. (Under Linux, the default is to install to
1083 the ESP.) Note that there may be some unusual cases in which this script
1086 - Does a better job of clearing the screen when launching OSes in text
1089 - Added detection "recipe" for GRUB 2's BIOS Boot Partition.
1091 - Fixed bogus detection of ESPs created by Linux's mkdosfs utility or
1092 Windows as bootable partitions when "scanfor" includes BIOS scanning
1099 - Fixed bug that caused spurious "Unsupported while scanning the root
1100 directory" messages under some conitions on Macs.
1102 - Modified loader scanning code to sort boot loader entries within a
1103 directory by modification time, so that the most recently-modified loader
1104 is first among those in a given directory. Thus, if you specify a
1105 directory name (or volume name, for loaders stored in the root directory
1106 of a volume) as the default_selection, the most recent of those loaders
1107 will be the default. This is intended to help with Linux kernel
1108 maintenance when using the EFI stub loader; set up this way, the most
1109 recent kernel copied to your kernel directory will be the default,
1110 obviating the need to adjust the refind.conf file when adding a new
1111 kernel. If you want to change the default among those in the default
1112 directory, you can use "touch" to adjust the modification timestamp.
1114 - Tweaked code to find loader-specific .icns file so that it finds files
1115 for Linux kernels without .efi extensions. In this case, files should be
1116 named the same as the kernels they match, but with .icns extensions. For
1117 instance, bzImage-3.3.2 should have an icon called bzImage-3.3.2.icns.
1118 (The old code would have looked for an icon called bzImage-3.3.icns.)
1120 - Eliminated bogus OS loader tags for filenames that end in ".icns" when
1121 the scan_all_linux_kernels option is set.
1126 - I'm officially upgrading this project's status from "alpha" to "beta" and
1127 giving it a bump from 0.2.x to 0.3.0. This doesn't reflect any major
1128 milestone with this version; rather, it reflects my sense that rEFInd has
1129 been "out there" for a while, and although I've gotten bug reports,
1130 they've been minor and/or have been fixed. The program still has known
1131 bugs, but my impression is that it is, overall, usable by ordinary users.
1133 - Added "resolution" option to refind.conf, which enables setting the video
1134 resolution. To use it, pass two numeric values, as in "resolution 1024
1135 768" to use a 1024x768 video mode. Note that not all modes are supported.
1136 If you specify a non-supported video mode on a UEFI system, a message
1137 appears listing the supported video modes and you must then press a key
1138 to continue, using the default video mode (usually 800x600).
1139 Unfortunately, I don't know the calls to get a list of supported video
1140 modes on older EFI 1.x systems (including Macs), so on Macs setting an
1141 incorrect video mode silently fails (you keep using the default mode).
1142 This makes changing your video mode a hit-or-miss proposition on Macs.
1143 CAUTION: It's possible to set a legal video mode that your monitor can't
1144 handle, in which case you'll get a blank display until you boot an OS
1145 that resets the video mode.
1147 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused rEFInd to crash when returning from an
1148 EFI shell or other programs on Macs, particularly when rEFInd used
1149 graphical mode. I'm not 100% sure this bug is squashed because I still
1150 don't understand the cause and I only have one Mac for testing. See
1151 comments in the ReinitRefitLib() function in refit/lib.c for more
1154 - Added new refind.conf option: scan_all_linux_kernels, which causes Linux
1155 kernels that lack ".efi" extensions to be included in scans for EFI boot
1156 loaders. This may help integration with Linux distributions that don't
1157 give their kernels such names by default. Beware, though: It can detect
1158 unwanted files, such as older non-stub-loader kernels or .icns files used
1159 to give kernels with .efi extensions custom icons.
1161 - Improved EFI boot loader detection on boards with Gigabyte's Hybrid EFI,
1162 and perhaps other EFIs with a buggy StriCmp() function. Files with both
1163 ".efi" and ".EFI" extensions should now be detected as boot loaders.
1165 - Fixed a bug that caused rEFInd to fail to scan for drivers if the
1166 filesystem driver didn't set a volume name (that is, if the relevant
1167 field was set to NULL rather than even an empty string). In such
1168 situations, rEFInd now reports the volume name as "Unknown".
1173 - After much trial and tribulation, I've overcome a GNU-EFI limitation and
1174 enabled rEFInd to load EFI drivers. This feature was present in the
1175 original build of rEFIt but was removed in the versions that could
1176 compile under Linux, but now it's back -- and still being compiled under
1177 Linux! To use it, you should place your drivers in a convenient directory
1178 on the ESP (or whatever partition you use to launch rEFInd) and add a
1179 "scan_driver_dirs" entry to refind.conf to tell rEFInd where to look. (As
1180 always, you should specify the driver directory relative to the root of
1181 the filesystem.) Note that you can't launch drivers from another
1182 filesystem; they must be on the same volume that holds rEFInd. Those who
1183 compile from source code should note that implementing this feature
1184 necessitated using a more recent version of the GNU-EFI library. I'm
1185 currently using version 3.0p, and version 3.0i does NOT work. I don't
1186 know where the change occurred, but you may need to upgrade your GNU-EFI
1189 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to show up in its own menu sometimes.
1191 - Added new refind.conf token: also_scan_dirs. When scanning volumes for
1192 EFI boot loaders, rEFInd always scans the root directory and every
1193 subdirectory of the /EFI directory, but it doesn't recurse into these
1194 directories. The also_scan_dirs token adds more directories to the scan
1195 list. It defaults to "elilo,boot", but you can set it to any directory or
1196 directories you like.
1201 - Added "volume" keyword to configuration file's stanza options. This
1202 option changes the volume from which subsequent files (specified by
1203 "loader" and "icon") are loaded. You pass "volume" the name/label of the
1204 FILESYSTEM you want to use (not the GPT partition name), or a number
1205 followed by a colon (e.g., "1:"). The former should reliably identify a
1206 filesystem, assuming the name is unique. The latter assigns numbers based
1207 on the order in which they're scanned, which may not be as reliable but
1208 should work when a volume is unnamed.
1210 - Fixed bug in 0.2.5 that caused failure of Linux initial RAM disk
1211 mapping on some (but not all) systems. Affected computers include at
1212 least some Intel motherboards, maybe others.
1217 - Fixed bug that caused an inability to associate initial RAM disks with
1218 Linux kernels stored in a volume's root directory.
1220 - Volume badges (that override default badges) are now stored in
1221 .VolumeBadge.icns. Although undocumented, rEFInd formerly loaded custom
1222 volume badges from .VolumeIcon.icns. This carryover from rEFIt was a
1223 confusing name, given the next (new) feature, so I've changed and
1224 documented the name....
1226 - Added ability to set a default icon for a loader stored in the root
1227 directory of a volume: The icon is stored in .VolumeIcon.icns. This icon
1228 is also used for Mac OS X volumes booted from the standard location.
1230 - Fixed bug that caused icons to drop back to generic icons when rEFInd
1231 was launched in certain ways (such as from an EFI shell in rEFInd's
1232 directory) on certain systems.
1234 - Fixed bug that caused "unknown disable flag" to be shown (very briefly)
1235 instead of "unknown hideui flag" when an improper hideui flag was set.
1240 - Created new refind.conf entry: "showtools". This entry takes options of
1241 "shell", "gptsync", "about", "exit", "reboot", and "shutdown". This
1242 option is in some respects an affirmative version of portions of the old
1243 "disable" and "hideui" options; however, it enables users to specify the
1244 order in which these options appear on the screen. Also, the "exit"
1245 option is new; it terminates the program. The effect is usually to return
1246 to whatever tool launched it or to launch a default OS; however, this is
1247 somewhat unpredictable. The default therefore omits the "exit" option, as
1248 well as "gptsync", which has always been dangerous (but necessary on most
1249 MacOS/Windows dual-boot setups on Macs). As part of this reconfiguration,
1250 I've eliminated the "rescue Linux" option, which always seemed pointless
1253 - Folded "disable" and "hideui" refind.conf entries into one ("disable"),
1254 and reduced the number of options to six: "banner", "label",
1255 "singleuser", "hwtest", "arrows", and "all". ("arrows" is new and
1256 disables the scroll arrows when a system has too many tags to display
1259 - Added max_tags option to the refind.conf file, enabling users to reduce
1260 the maximum number of OS loader tags that can be displayed at once.
1262 - Updated rEFIt icon, based on the 128x128 volume label from the rEFIt CD
1265 - Added x86 and x86-64 EFI shells to the CD image version of the binary,
1266 but NOT to the binary zip file. The logic is that the CD image is more
1267 likely to be used directly as an emergency disc and so may need this
1268 feature, even though the source isn't part of the rEFInd project. (The
1269 source is readily available from the TianoCore project.)
1271 - EFI shells may now be stored at /shellx64.efi for x86-64 systems or at
1272 /shellia32.efi for x86 systems. The /EFI/tools/shell.efi name is also
1273 recognized; however, if both files are present, two EFI shell icons will
1274 appear on the main menu. The /efi/{refind-path/apps/shell.efi filename,
1275 which was never officially documented but worked as a carryover from
1276 rEFIt, is no longer valid.
1281 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused hangs when launching a second program
1282 after returning from a first. There are some weird system-to-system
1283 differences, though, and this fix causes (apparently harmless) error
1284 messages about "(re)opening our installation volume" on at least one
1285 system (a 32-bit Mac Mini). I'm committing this change because, imperfect
1286 though it is, it's preferable to the earlier version, at least on my
1287 small sample of computers.
1289 - Because of news that the Linux kernel developers are planning to use the
1290 filename linux.conf to hold Linux kernel configuration data for EFI
1291 booting, I'm transitioning rEFInd away from that name and to
1292 refind_linux.conf to avoid a conflict. This version can use either name,
1293 with refind_linux.conf taking precedence if both are present.
1295 - Added logo for Arch Linux.
1300 - Fixed bug that caused program failure when Linux kernels with EFI stub
1301 support were detected with no associated version numbers. rEFInd now
1302 permits automatic linking of *ONE* versionless kernel to *ONE*
1303 versionless initrd file.
1305 - Fixed bug that caused program hangs when a boot loader filename or label
1306 was too long. Such names are now properly truncated and program execution
1309 - Fixed bug that caused no text to appear in submenus on UEFI systems with
1310 small screens (800x600). NOTE: Problem still occurs on screens smaller
1311 than this, but such systems are very rare.
1316 - Added ability to set a "default_selection" that's a title or a substring
1317 of one -- the name given to a stanza in a "menuentry" or the boot
1318 loader's filename, in most cases, although "Mac OS X", "Windows XP
1319 (XoM)", and "Microsoft EFI boot" are also titles.
1321 - Added support for semi-automatic scans of Linux kernels with EFI stub
1322 loader support. The program auto-detects matching initial RAM disk files
1323 and loads additional options from the "linux.conf" file in the same
1324 directory as the kernel.
1326 - Added support for "submenuentry" keyword and associated sub-stanza
1327 entries in refind.conf file.
1329 - Renamed icons/os_mint.icns to icons/os_linuxmint.icns to match the
1330 filename Linux Mint ACTUALLY uses for its ESP boot loader directory.
1336 - Initial public release