]> code.delx.au - refind/blob - NEWS.txt
New FreeBSD GPT BIOS-mode boot loader detection code. Also,
[refind] / NEWS.txt
1 0.8.7 (?/??/2015):
2 ------------------
3
4 - Added detection of FreeBSD's BIOS-mode GPT boot loader. Previously,
5 rEFInd could detect FreeBSD's BIOS-mode MBR boot loader, which gave
6 FreeBSD an appropriate icon on Macs; but the GPT boot loader code is
7 different, so some recent FreeBSD installations showed up with generic
8 grey diamond icons. This change creates FreeBSD icons instead.
9
10 - Added "Secure Boot [active|inactive]" notice to "about" menu for x86
11 (32-bit) systems, since there are now a few 32-bit UEFI systems that
12 support Secure Boot. (AFAIK, these are mostly tablets and convertibles
13 such as the ASUS T100.)
14
15 - Added KeyTool.efi and KeyTool-signed.efi to list of MOK managers. KeyTool
16 is the "super-deluxe" Secure Boot key and hash manager provided as part
17 of the efitools package.
18
19 - Fixed more instances of "invalid parameter" errors on some EFIs.
20
21 - Improved Secure Boot detection in install.sh.
22
23 - install.sh should no longer complain when copying Shim or MokManager over
24 itself.
25
26 0.8.6 (2/8/2015):
27 -----------------
28
29 - Removed special case of ignoring an HFS+ name of "HFS+ volume", since the
30 old rEFInd HFS+ driver that produced this name for all HFS+ volumes has
31 long since been updated to deliver a real name.
32
33 - Addition of new Windows 8 OS icon. On Macs and for BIOS/legacy boots, the
34 new icon is now used for Windows Vista, 7, and 8, while the old one is
35 used for earlier versions of Windows. For EFI-mode boots, the new icon is
36 used universally.
37
38 - If the NTFS driver is loaded, rEFInd now scans NTFS volumes on Macs for
39 the presence of Windows boot files, and removes any NTFS volume that
40 lacks such files from the BIOS/legacy boot list. This should help
41 unclutter the display on Macs that contain NTFS data partitions.
42
43 - Fixed bug that caused misidentification of both whole disks and NTFS
44 volumes as being FAT. (This bug affected the identification of devices
45 and locations in the rEFInd menu, not actual access to devices.)
46
47 - Code refactoring to clear out legacy-boot functions from the
48 ever-expanding refind/main.c file.
49
50 - Added new "badges" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf. This
51 option hides the device-type badges associated with the OS boot options.
52
53 - Reverted rEFIt commit r472, introduced in rEFInd 0.8.5 to support more
54 BMP images because I've received bug reports that it's causing existing
55 selection images to fail to load.
56
57 - Fixed install.sh bug that caused misidentification of installation
58 directory under OS X if an already-mounted ESP has spaces in its path.
59
60 - Fixed Mac-specific install.sh bug that could cause misidentification of
61 the ESP on disks with partition numbers of 10 or above.
62
63
64 0.8.5 (2/1/2015):
65 -----------------
66
67 - Added NTFS EFI filesystem driver.
68
69 - Minor improvements to filesystem driver framework code.
70
71 - Changes to
72
73 - Fixed bug in Btrfs driver's address reference.
74
75 - Improved install.sh to make it smarter about figuring out where to
76 install on Macs. Specifically, this version now upgrades existing
77 installations, if found (as it always has under Linux), rather than
78 blindly install to EFI/BOOT; it installs to EFI/refind if not existing
79 installation is found; it installs using the --shortform option to bless,
80 which seems to eliminate the 30-second delay problem; and it can handle
81 an HFS+ ESP, which it treats as a separate HFS+ volume (as if the user
82 had used --ownhfs). These changes do not affect behavior under Linux.
83
84 - Added missing check of architecture type for several tools.
85
86 - Applied rEFIt commit r472, which adds support for BMP images with negative
87 height fields, indicating that the image is NOT vertically flipped. This
88 commit and r467 were not incorporated in the original rEFInd because I
89 forked it from a Debian rEFIt package that had been patched to build
90 under GNU-EFI, and was apparently based on a slightly earlier version.
91
92 - Applied rEFIt commit r467, which improves Mac handling of legacy boots
93 from other than the first hard disk.
94
95
96 0.8.4 (12/8/2014):
97 ------------------
98
99 - Tweaked default for dont_scan_volumes: Removed "Recovery HD". This change
100 better suits the needs of OS X 10.10 ("Yosemite") installations, but may
101 result in some stray Recovery HD entries on some Macs.
102
103 - Updated icons for Fedora and Ubuntu and added an icon for Xubuntu.
104
105 - Added new configuration option, "enable_and_lock_vmx", which sets an
106 Intel CPU feature that's required for some types of virtualization to
107 work. Most EFIs enable setting this feature in their own setup utilities,
108 but some (such as most Macs) don't.
109
110 - If rEFInd can't locate an icons directory (either the default or one
111 specified by the icons_dir token), the program switches to text-only
112 mode.
113
114 - If a loader contains the string "grub" and no other clue to the loader's
115 OS association exists, search for os_grub.{png|icns} (which is not
116 provided with rEFInd) or os_linux.{png|icns}. (Previous versions provided
117 a generic loader icon for GRUB.)
118
119 - Fixed bug that caused dont_scan_files to not work with special-case
120 boot loaders (for OS X and Windows) when specifying the complete path to
121 the loader (e.g., EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi).
122
123 - Added support for the iPXE network boot tool (see BUILDING.txt for
124 building and basic use instructions).
125
126 0.8.3 (7/6/2014):
127 -----------------
128
129 - Added new feature: Setting "timeout = -1" in refind.conf causes rEFInd to
130 immediately boot the default option UNLESS a keypress is in the buffer
131 when rEFInd launches. In that case, if the keypress corresponds to a
132 shortcut key, the associated boot loader is launched; or if not, the menu
133 is displayed.
134
135 - Added new icons for Clover boot loader and for Mythbuntu Linux
136 distribution.
137
138 - rEFInd now displays the partition's label, when one is available, when
139 offering a BIOS-mode boot option for a partition with no filesystem
140 driver. This works only on Macs doing BIOS-mode booting.
141
142 - Removed GPLv2 code from the FSW core files. This was done because the
143 Btrfs driver is derived from the GRUB Btrfs driver, which is licensed
144 under the GPLv3. Ironically, the GPLv2 and GPLv3 are incompatible
145 licenses, so ensuring that the Btrfs driver doesn't rely on GPLv2 code
146 was legally necessary. In most cases, I reverted to the original rEFIt
147 code, although I kept my own cache code; since I wrote it, I can
148 change its license to a BSD license.
149
150 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to unload drivers immediately after loading
151 them. This didn't affect rEFInd's own drivers because they didn't include
152 the unload hooks, but it did affect some other drivers.
153
154 - Changed default scan_all_linux_kernels setting from "false" to "true",
155 and commented the option out in refind.conf-sample. This should not
156 affect most people, since refind.conf-sample had this option commented
157 out, and most rEFInd users either use it that way or don't have Linux
158 kernels installed at all. I've made this change because I want rEFInd to
159 "do the right thing" by default in as many cases as possible. For a while
160 now, rEFInd has been excluding non-bootable files from its menu, and most
161 kernels "in the wild" now include the EFI stub. Thus, enabling this
162 support by default seems worthwhile. If you prefer to not scan Linux
163 kernels by default, simply uncomment the "scan_all_linux_kernels" line
164 and ensure it's set to "false".
165
166 0.8.2.1 (6/8/2014):
167 -------------------
168
169 - Removed stray bit of debugging code that caused a prompt to press a
170 key to appear at rEFInd startup.
171
172 0.8.2 (6/8/2014):
173 -----------------
174
175 - Changed behavior when default_selection is not set: It now boots the
176 previously-booted loader, assuming it's still available; if not, rEFInd
177 boots the first loader (as it does now). Behavior is unchanged if
178 default_selection is set. Note that this behavior depends on the ability
179 of rEFInd to store an EFI variable in NVRAM. It therefore fails on
180 systems with flaky NVRAM storage. You can view the previously-booted
181 loader in the
182 /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/PreviousBoot-36d08fa7-cf0b-42f5-8f14-68df73ed3740
183 variable under Linux.
184
185 - Added icon for Mageia Linux (os_mageia.png).
186
187 - Fixed bug that could misidentify a not-quite-GUID as a GUID in a
188 manual boot stanza's "volume" line.
189
190 - I've updated my personal build system, and therefore the rEFInd Makefiles
191 and related files, to use TianoCore UDK2014 rather than UDK2010.
192
193 - Added "deep_uefi_legacy_scan" token. When not set (the default), rEFInd
194 does not modify EFI NVRAM settings when scanning for BIOS-mode boot
195 loaders on UEFI-based (non-Mac) computers. Some computers require
196 uncommenting this setting for rEFInd to reliably detect some BIOS-mode
197 boot devices. Passing "0", "off", or "false" as an option resets it to
198 the default value (useful in a loaded secondary configuration file to
199 override a setting in the main file).
200
201 0.8.1 (5/15/2014):
202 ------------------
203
204 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to fail to detect boot loaders stored
205 on the root directory of a partition.
206
207 - Added two new bitmap fonts to those distributed with rEFInd: Ubuntu Mono
208 and Nimbus Mono. Both come in 12-, 14-, 16-, and 24-point sizes.
209
210 - Messages about pauses for scanning and re-scanning of boot loaders are
211 now suppressed when doing an initial delayed scan when scan_delay is 1
212 second.
213
214 - Improved centering of legacy boot option descriptions on some systems'
215 screens.
216
217 - Fixed bug that could cause a BIOS-mode boot to boot from an inappropriate
218 device if that device had an innately high boot priority (as set by the
219 firmware).
220
221 - Changed icons from ICNS to PNG form. There are several reasons to do
222 this, all of them minor; but together they're enough to warrant a change.
223 PNG is more common, and therefore more accessible to most users --
224 particularly those who don't use OS X. The PNG files are smaller than
225 their ICNS equivalents. PNG supports a wider range of sizes (although I'm
226 not now using anything that ICNS doesn't support, I might in the future).
227 The icon-scaling support added a few versions ago makes ICNS's support
228 for multiple icon sizes relatively unimportant.
229
230 - Reversed order of search for icons by extension: rEFInd now searches
231 for PNG files before ICNS files, rather than the other way around. This
232 makes it possible to override a volume icon for rEFInd by giving it the
233 name .VolumeIcon.png, even when a .VolumeIcon.icns file exists on the
234 volume and is used by OS X.
235
236 - Fixed bug that caused .VolumeIcon.icns to take higher-than-intended
237 precedence in icon setting for OS X.
238
239 - Chainloading to BIOS-mode boot loaders now works on UEFI-based PCs when
240 rEFInd is built with GNU-EFI, not just when built with Tianocore.
241
242 0.8.0 (5/4/2014):
243 -----------------
244
245 - The "dont_scan_volumes" parameter now also works with legacy-boot
246 volumes. Unlike with EFI volumes, where the option you pass must exactly
247 match an entire volume name, when applied to legacy-boot volumes, it
248 matches any part of the description that appears beneath the item when
249 you select it in the rEFInd main menu.
250
251 - Can now boot in legacy mode from second (and probably later) hard disks!
252
253 - rEFInd now limits the length of the firmware name string shown in the
254 system information screen to 65 characters. This is done because at least
255 one EFI presents a longer string by default, and this causes the entire
256 information display to come up empty on 800x600 displays.
257
258 - rEFInd now uses the partition's name (as stored in the GPT data
259 structures) as a fallback for the filesystem's name if the latter can't
260 be found. Exceptions are if the partition name is one of three generic
261 names used by GPT fdisk: "Microsoft basic data", "Linux filesystem", or
262 "Apple HFS/HFS+". These are ignored in favor of the descriptive fallback
263 (e.g., "20 GiB Btrfs volume")
264
265 - It's now possible to specify a volume by partition GUID number in a
266 manual boot stanza. This should be more reliable (albeit also more
267 awkward) than using a filesystem number (such as fs0: or fs1:).
268
269 - Fixed memory-allocation bug that could cause error message displays,
270 and possibly hangs, when re-scanning boot loaders.
271
272 0.7.9 (4/20/2014):
273 ------------------
274
275 - Attempt to fix rEFInd perpetually re-scanning after ejecting a disc on
276 some Macs.
277
278 - Added check to remove redundant (or non-functional if Secure Boot is
279 active) kernel entries for Ubuntu, which is now including two versions of
280 kernels, one signed and the other unsigned.
281
282 - Fixed bug in install.sh that could cause it to display error messages
283 if the dmraid utility was not installed.
284
285 - The HFS+ driver now reports a correct volume name.
286
287 - Fixed some EFI filesystem driver bugs that could cause lockups under
288 some circumstances. These bugs could affect any of the filesystem
289 drivers.
290
291 - Added "gdisk" option to the "showtools" configuration file token. When
292 active, this adds gdisk.efi or gdisk_{arch}.efi, if present in the
293 EFI\tools directory, to the tools row.
294
295 - Fixed mistaken identification of the MOK utility as the "MOK utility
296 utility."
297
298
299 0.7.8 (3/9/2014):
300 -----------------
301
302 - Added "debian" directory to source, which facilitates creation of Debian
303 packages. Packages built in this way are built with GNU-EFI and don't run
304 any post-installation script, so although the rEFInd binaries are on the
305 hard disk, they aren't installed to be bootable; you must manually run
306 install.sh. Also, at least on Ubuntu, the Make.common file's /usr/lib64
307 references must be changed to /usr/lib. This is more of a proof of
308 concept and a "leg up" for distribution maintainers than anything else.
309
310 - Two new options, big_icon_size and small_icon_size, set the size of
311 the first-row OS icons and of the second-row tool icons, respectively.
312 The big_icon_size option also indirectly sets the size of disk-type
313 badges; they're 1/4 the size of the big icons. Default values are 128 and
314 48, respectively, to match the actual icon files provided with rEFInd. If
315 the icon you're using is of a different size than you've specified,
316 rEFInd scales it. For best quality, you should both provide icons drawn
317 to the right size and set the icon sizes in refind.conf.
318
319 - rEFInd now automatically scales icons to fit the standard icon sizes.
320 This won't have any effect with the icons that come with rEFInd, but it
321 can help if you want to use another icon, since you needn't scale it in a
322 graphics program before using it. Note that rEFInd uses bitmap icons, so
323 scaling by a huge amount (say, a 16x16 icon to fit the standard 128x128
324 OS icon) is not likely to look good.
325
326 - Added new option, banner_scale, that tells rEFInd how to handle banners:
327 Set to "noscale" (the default), banners are not scaled, although they'll
328 be cropped if they're too big for the display. This is the same as the
329 behavior in previous versions. Set to "fillscreen", rEFInd now scales the
330 banner image (larger or smaller) to fill the display.
331
332 - Adjusted the post-installation script in refind.spec (used to generate
333 RPMs, and therefore also indirectly Debian packages) to search for
334 existing shim program files under the filesnames shim.efi and shimx64.efi
335 rather than just shim.efi. Ubuntu uses shimx64.efi, so Debian packages
336 were failing to detect Ubuntu's shim in previous versions. (Note,
337 however, that Ubuntu's early shim 0.1 is unsuitable for use with rEFInd
338 The newer 0.4 version that's in the repositories now should work fine;
339 it's only when installing on an older system that's NOT been updated that
340 problems might arise.
341
342 0.7.7 (1/3/2014):
343 -----------------
344
345 - Can now specify complete paths, optionally including volumes, in
346 dont_scan_files.
347
348 - Added shimx64.efi to the default dont_scan_files list.
349
350 - Added windows_recovery_files token, to specify what program(s) launch a
351 Windows recovery utility; and the "windows_recovery" option to
352 "showtools," to control whether or not to display the Windows recovery
353 utility on the second row of icons.
354
355 - The use_graphics_for, also_scan_dirs, dont_scan_dirs, dont_scan_files,
356 and scan_driver_dirs tokens in refind.conf now support "+" as the first
357 option, which causes the remaining options to be added to the default
358 value rather than replacing that value. (This has no practical effect for
359 scan_driver_dirs, though, since it has a null default value.)
360
361 - Added support for specifying the configuration file at program launch,
362 via the "-c" parameter, as in "refind_x64.efi -c foo.conf" to use the
363 foo.conf file as the main configuration file.
364
365 - Scans of ext2/3/4fs and ReiserFS partitions now omit partitions with
366 duplicate filesystem UUIDs. These are likely parts of RAID arrays and so
367 would have the same boot loaders or kernels as the first one with a given
368 UUID.
369
370 - Added feature in install.sh: Script now tries to locate and mount an ESP
371 in Linux, if it's currently unmounted.
372
373 - Fixed bug in mkrlconf.sh and install.sh that caused a stray line break
374 and PARTUUID= specification to appear in generated refind_linux.conf file
375 under some circumstances.
376
377 0.7.6 (12/15/2013):
378 -------------------
379
380 - Added support for multiple "default_selection" targets. These MUST be
381 comma-separated AND enclosed in quotes, as in:
382 default_selection "fred,ginger"
383 This example will launch "fred" by default if it's available; and if
384 it's not, rEFInd will attempt to launch "ginger" as the default.
385
386 - Added support for time-sensitive "default_selection" setting. This token
387 may now have either one or three options. If one, it's interpreted as it
388 has been in the past, as setting a default that's independent of times.
389 If you follow this default by two times, however, those are interpreted
390 as the start and end times (in 24-hour format) for a default setting. For
391 instance, "default_selection foo 8:00 17:00" causes foo to be the default
392 from 8:00 (AM) to 17:00 (aka 5:00 PM). You can include multiple
393 "default_selection" lines to set different defaults for a variety of
394 times. If they're in conflict, the last one takes precedence. Note that
395 times are hardware clock's native value, which may be local time or UTC,
396 depending on your computer.
397
398 - Added support for a blank-screen startup: Set "screensaver -1" and the
399 screen saver will be initialized when rEFInd starts. If you set a low
400 "timeout" value, the result will be a boot straight to the default OS
401 unless you hit a key soon after rEFInd starts. Once you hit a key, the
402 screensaver will be disabled.
403
404 - Added --ownhfs {target} option to install.sh. This option causes rEFInd
405 to install to an HFS+ partition in a way that's more consistent with the
406 way the Mac's native boot loader is installed. Note that you should NOT
407 install to an already-bootable partition with this option, since it will
408 overwrite the existing boot loader, which would render OS X unbootable.
409
410 0.7.5 (11/10/2013):
411 -------------------
412
413 - Fixed bug that caused unbootable exFAT partitions to show up as
414 bootable on Macs with BIOS/CSM/legacy boot options enabled.
415
416 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused installs to the ESP on recent
417 versions of OS X to fail.
418
419 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to hang on some Macs when multiple EFI
420 drivers were present.
421
422 - Fixed bug that caused clear to default gray screen when launching OSes
423 with 'use_graphics_for' enabled, even when the rEFInd background is not
424 gray. Now rEFInd clears to the same background color used in its menu.
425 When launching OS X, though, the OS X boot loader will itself clear to
426 gray a second or so later; and when launching Linux, it will clear to
427 black a second or so later.
428
429 0.7.4.1 (8/25/2013):
430 --------------------
431
432 - My initial 0.7.4 release broke legacy-boot ability on Macs, so I quickly
433 released this version using the original 0.7.4 filenames to fix the
434 problem.
435
436 0.7.4 (8/25/2013):
437 ------------------
438
439 - Fixed options passing to loader to include loader's filename as the first
440 option. This omission had no effect on most boot loaders, but caused
441 VMware's mboot64.efi to fail.
442
443 - Added support for memtest86 as second-row option. Program must be
444 stored in EFI/tools, EFI/tools/memtest, EFI/tools/memtest86, EFI/memtest,
445 or EFI/memtest86; and must use the name memtest86.efi, memtest86_x64.efi,
446 memtest86x64.efi, or bootx64.efi (changing "x64" to "ia32" on IA-32
447 systems). The memtest86 program is scanned for when the "showtools"
448 option includes the "memtest" or "memtest86" token, which it does by
449 default.
450
451 - Added space to end of "Boot %s from %s" string; enables adding a space
452 to the end of the "default_selection" item (in quotes) to set a default
453 that matches a volume name that's identical to another one except for
454 extra characters at the end of the non-wanted volume's name.
455
456 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to hang when launching boot loaders
457 under some conditions. (Launching from Firewire drives on Macs is the
458 known case, but there may be others.)
459
460 0.7.3 (8/7/2013):
461 -----------------
462
463 - Fixed bug that caused missing media-type badges on BIOS-mode boot
464 loaders on Macs.
465
466 - Fixed bug that caused failure when launching BIOS-mode OSes on Macs.
467
468 0.7.2 (8/6/2013):
469 -----------------
470
471 - Fixed bug that caused display glitches in the final entry on the first
472 row of icons if the second row of icons was empty.
473
474 - Fixed bug that could cause incorrect scanning or even a rEFInd crash when
475 using volume specification in also_scan_dirs token.
476
477 - Added protection against loading invalid drivers and other EFI programs.
478 (Some EFIs crash when attempting to load such drivers and programs.)
479
480 - Added PreLoader.efi and shim-fedora.efi to default dont_scan_files list;
481 it's now "shim.efi, shim-fedora.efi, PreLoader.efi, TextMode.efi,
482 ebounce.efi, GraphicsConsole.efi, MokManager.efi, HashTool.efi,
483 HashTool-signed.efi".
484
485 - Added icon for Funtoo Linux.
486
487 - Fixed reading of volume badges from user-specified icons directory, which
488 was broken.
489
490 - Fixed handling of /.VolumeBadge.icns (or /.VolumeBadge.png) files, which
491 was broken.
492
493 0.7.1 (7/8/2013):
494 -----------------
495
496 - Fixed build problem with recent development versions of EDK2.
497
498 - Added scan for Boot Repair's backup of the Windows boot loader
499 (bkpbootmgfw.efi). If found, give separate entries for it and for
500 bootmgfw.efi, each with its own descriptive text label.
501
502 - Fixed also_scan_dirs; used to have bug that caused it to ignore
503 volume specification, if present.
504
505 - Fixed bug in driver cache that caused Btrfs driver to hang sometimes.
506
507 0.7.0 (6/27/2013):
508 ------------------
509
510 - Added Btrfs signature to rEFInd, so that it can identify the filesystem
511 type for volumes that lack labels.
512
513 - Changed some critical filesystem driver pointers from 32-bit to 64-bit.
514 This *SHOULD* enable use of over-2TiB filesystems (for those filesystems
515 that support such large volumes). This capability is largely untested,
516 though.
517
518 - Added a cache to the filesystem driver core, and therefore to all the
519 filesystem drivers. This cache greatly improves performance in
520 VirtualBox, and offers modest performance improvements on a few "real"
521 computers. The most dramatic improvement is on ext2/3fs under VirtualBox:
522 Loading a kernel and initrd used to take ~200 seconds on my system, but
523 now takes ~3 seconds! On most "real" hardware, the improvement is much
524 less dramatic -- an improvement of a second or less, presumably because
525 of cacheing within the EFI or on the hard disk itself.
526
527 - Filter boot loaders based on a test of their validity; keeps out Linux
528 kernels without EFI stub loader code, loaders for the wrong architecture,
529 non-EFI loaders, etc.
530
531 - New Btrfs driver, contributed by Samuel Liao based on GRUB 2.00 Btrfs
532 code.
533
534 0.6.12 (6/18/2013):
535 -------------------
536
537 - Changed the 64-bit EFI shell included in the CD-R and USB flash drive
538 images to a version 2 shell that should support the "bcfg" command.
539
540 - Added support for PreBootloader to refind.spec's built-in installation
541 script.
542
543 - Added support for the Linux Foundation's PreLoader to install.sh. It's
544 treated just like shim, including using the --shim option (or, now,
545 --preloader); but it searches for and copies HashTool.efi rather than
546 MokManager.efi, and filenames are adjusted appropriately.
547
548 - Added code to determine Linux root filesystem from /etc/fstab file, if
549 it's on the same partition as the kernel and if the refind_linux.conf
550 file is not available. This enables rEFInd to boot Linux without any
551 rEFInd-specific configuration files on some (but not all) systems.
552
553 0.6.11 (5/13/2013):
554 -------------------
555
556 - New feature: rEFInd now ignores symbolic links to files on filesystems
557 that support them. This prevents the "vmlinuz" symbolic link that some
558 distributions create in the root directory from appearing in the loader
559 list. Note that this does NOT affect symbolic links to directories.
560
561 - Added icons for Lubuntu and Kubuntu.
562
563 - Improved the install.sh script so that it does a better job dealing with
564 directory names that contain spaces.
565
566 - rEFInd now tries to guess the Linux distribution type based on the kernel
567 filename (Fedora and RHEL only) or the "ID" or "NAME" variables in
568 /etc/os-release on the kernel's partition. None of these is guaranteed to
569 work. A fallback of the Tux penguin icon remains in place in case rEFInd
570 can't find anything substantive enough for a guess.
571
572 - Added "EFI\opensuse" to the locations searched for MOK utilities, since
573 OpenSUSE now uses that name.
574
575 - Renamed "Reboot to Firmware User Interface" to "Reboot to Computer Setup
576 Utility" in menu.
577
578 - Fixed bug in gptsync that caused it to hang if the disk had too few GPT
579 partitions to fill the MBR.
580
581 0.6.10 (5/5/2013):
582 ------------------
583
584 - Added support for "screensaver" token. If set to a positive integer, this
585 causes the screen to blank after the specified number of seconds of
586 inactivity. Pressing most keys (unfortunately NOT including Shift, Alt,
587 or Ctrl) will restore the display and restart the screen saver timeout.
588
589 - Added icon for ChromeOS (os_chrome.icns in the icons subdirectory).
590 ChromeBooks reportedly boots using the fallback filename, but if a user
591 wants to install rEFInd on a ChromeBook, renaming the original EFI/BOOT
592 directory to EFI/chrome and then installing rEFInd in the fallback
593 filename will bring up this new icon for ChromeOS.
594
595 - Added new option to reboot the computer into the firmware's user
596 interface. This option is active by default, or can be set via the
597 "firmware" option to the "showtools" token in refind.conf. It works
598 on only some computers, though; older computers lack this feature, and
599 when rEFInd is told to use this feature on such computers, the directive
600 is quietly ignored.
601
602 - Upgraded LodePNG library from version 20121216 to 20130415 and
603 restructured rEFInd-specific modifications to simplify future upgrades.
604
605 - Replaced hexadecimal error code with description if an error is
606 encountered when saving a screen shot.
607
608 - Enable multiple screen shots: Rather than naming all screen shots
609 "screenshot.bmp", the name is now "screenshot_###.bmp", where "###" is a
610 sequence number, starting with "001".
611
612 0.6.9 (4/25/2013):
613 ------------------
614
615 - Modified default banner to include the new rEFInd icon, provided by Erik
616 Kemperman.
617
618 - Worked around a suspected firmware bug that caused rEFInd 0.6.6 to 0.6.8
619 to hang at startup on some systems (DUET and some Macs).
620
621 - Modified rEFInd to search for gptsync under the names gptsync.efi and
622 gptsync_{arch}.efi, where {arch} is ia32 or x64. (Previous versions
623 searched only for gptsync.efi.)
624
625 - Added gptsync program from rEFIt project, but with some changes to
626 improve flexibility and make it less likely that UEFI users will
627 accidentally trash their systems.
628
629 - Changed timeout code so that the timeout continues if the keyboard is
630 disconnected. This can help in booting a headless server or a system with
631 a bluetooth or other keyboard that's not recognized by the EFI.
632
633 0.6.8 (3/18/2013):
634 ------------------
635
636 - Added workaround for presumed EFI bug that was causing "Invalid
637 Parameter" errors when scanning for boot loaders on some computers.
638
639 - Added search for an EFI shell called shell.efi in the root directory
640 (previously this name was only accepted in EFI\tools).
641
642 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused it to fail on some systems (Fedora
643 18, for instance) because of a problem identifying the ESP.
644
645 - Fixed bug that caused icons named after boot loaders to not be used.
646
647 0.6.7 (2/3/2013):
648 -----------------
649
650 - Added a more explicit error message summarizing options when a launch of
651 a program results in a Secure Boot failure.
652
653 - Changed MOK tool detection to scan all volumes, not just the rEFInd
654 home volume. This is desirable because the Linux Foundation's HashTool
655 can only scan its own volume, making it desirable to place copies of this
656 program on every volume that holds EFI boot loader binaries.
657
658 - Added support for launching the Linux Foundation HashTool as a means of
659 managing MOKs (or MOK hashes, at any rate).
660
661 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to present an entry for itself as a
662 Microsoft OS if it was launched as EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi.
663
664 - Fixed bug that caused dont_scan_volumes option to be added to
665 also_scan_dirs list.
666
667 - Fixed dont_scan_volumes so that it works with OS X boot loaders.
668
669 - Fixed broken mixing of PNG and ICNS icons when using a user-specified
670 icons directory -- previously, an ICNS file in the default directory
671 would override a PNG file in the user-specified directory.
672
673 0.6.6 (1/26/2013):
674 ------------------
675
676 - rEFInd now ignores the fallback boot loader (EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi or
677 EFI/BOOT/bootia32.efi) if it's identical to another boot loader on
678 the same volume. This is intended to help unclutter the display on
679 systems that run Windows, since Windows tends to duplicate its own boot
680 loader under the fallback name.
681
682 - Added new "font" token to refind.conf, which enables specifying a font in
683 the form of a PNG file. This file must contain monospace glyphs for the
684 95 characters from ASCII 32 to 126 (space through tilde), inclusive, plus
685 a glyph to be displayed for characters outside of this range, for a total
686 of 96 glyphs.
687
688 - Replaced the old font (inherited from rEFInd) with an anti-aliased
689 version of Luxi Mono Regular 14 point.
690
691 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to ignore manual boot stanzas in files
692 included via the "include" token in refind.conf.
693
694 - Fixed bug that caused ASSERT error on some systems (and conceivably a
695 crash on startup on some) when default_selection line in refind.conf was
696 commented out or empty.
697
698 - Fixed bug that caused "Binary is whitelisted" message to persist on
699 screen after loading MOK-signed drivers in Secure Boot mode.
700
701 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to ignore the "icon" token in refind.conf
702 manual boot stanzas.
703
704 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused the script to fail to update
705 drivers when rEFInd was installed in EFI/BOOT/.
706
707 0.6.5 (1/16/2013):
708 ------------------
709
710 - Improved text color support: rEFInd now uses black text against light
711 backgrounds and white text against dark backgrounds.
712
713 - Added support for PNGs as banners, icons, and selectors.
714
715 - Added icon for ALT Linux.
716
717 - Added "safemode" option to "hideui" token, to hide option to boot into
718 safe mode for OS X ("-v -x" option to boot.efi).
719
720 - Added icon for Haiku (os_haiku.icns).
721
722 - Enable transparency of icons & main-menu text when the banner icon is
723 sized to cover these areas.
724
725 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to crash if fed a banner image that's
726 too big. Note that "too big" can be substantially smaller than the screen
727 resolution!
728
729 0.6.4 (1/8/2013):
730 -----------------
731
732 - Revised install.sh to copy ext2fs driver, rather than ext4fs driver, for
733 ext2/3 filesystems. This can help keep non-functional entries from links
734 from /vmlinuz to /boot/vmlinuz out of the menu if the system uses ext4fs
735 on root and ext2fs or ext3fs on /boot.
736
737 - Fixed a couple of memory management bugs that cause rEFInd to hang at
738 startup on some systems.
739
740 0.6.3 (1/6/2013):
741 -----------------
742
743 - Added the ability to specify a volume name or number in the
744 "dont_scan_dirs" and "also_scan_dirs" tokens.
745
746 - Fixed a bug that caused removable EFI media to not appear in scan lists
747 if rEFInd was installed as EFI/BOOT/boot{arch}.efi on a hard disk.
748
749 - Modified ISO-9660 driver so that it can handle discs with other than
750 2048-byte sectors. This makes it useful for reading "hybrid ISO" images
751 burned to USB flash disks.
752
753 - New mvrefind.sh script to move a rEFInd installation between a standard
754 location (typically EFI/refind) and one of the fallback locations
755 (EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot). It can also do more exotic locations.
756
757 - The install.sh script now installs to EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi or
758 EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi if it's run in BIOS mode. This is
759 intended to give some chance of producing a bootable installation should
760 a user accidentally install Linux in EFI mode and then install rEFInd
761 from that installation.
762
763 - The install.sh script now tries to find an existing rEFInd installation
764 and upgrade it, even if it's in EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot rather
765 than in EFI/refind.
766
767 - New "--yes" option to install.sh to help with unattended or automated
768 installations (as from an RPM or Debian package).
769
770 0.6.2 (12/30/2012):
771 -------------------
772
773 - Inclusion of a sample refind.spec file for the benefit of RPM
774 distribution maintainers who might want to include rEFInd. It's a bit
775 rough, but it gets you a good chunk of the way there....
776
777 - The EFI filesystem drivers can now be built with the GNU-EFI toolkit as
778 well as with the TianoCore EDK2. See the BUILDING.txt file for details on
779 how to build them with either toolkit. This improvement doesn't affect
780 users of my binary packages, but it should make it easier for Linux
781 distributions to adopt rEFInd into their package systems.
782
783 - Tweaked refind.inf file for better build results using "native" TianoCore
784 EDK2 build process (vs. the Makefile-based build process that I use under
785 Linux). This won't affect those who use my binary builds or build under
786 Linux with the "make" command.
787
788 - Fixed bug that prevented Secure Boot launches from working when rEFInd
789 was built with GNU-EFI rather than the TianoCore EDK2.
790
791 - Substantial reworking of Secure Boot code, based on James Bottomley's
792 PreLoader program. This new code eliminates the limitation of launching
793 just one driver in Secure Boot mode and is likely to be more reliable
794 with future or obscure boot loaders. It should also work with non-x86-64
795 systems, although this relies on a platform-specific shim program, which
796 to date exists only for x86-64. The basic features are the same as before
797 -- rEFInd relies on shim for authentication functions and will launch
798 programs that are signed by Secure Boot keys, shim keys, or MOKs.
799
800 - Altered default for "textmode" option (when it's commented out) to not
801 adjust the text mode at all. (Prior versions set it to mode 0 by
802 default.)
803
804 0.6.1 (12/21/2012):
805 -------------------
806
807 - Added "--root" option to install.sh, to enable installation of rEFInd
808 to something other than the currently-running OS. This is intended for
809 use on emergency discs.
810
811 - Thanks to Stefan Agner, the ext4fs driver now supports the "meta_bg"
812 filesystem feature, which distributes metadata throughout the disk. This
813 feature isn't used by default, but can be set at filesystem creation time
814 by passing the "-O meta_bg,^resize_inode" option to mke2fs. (Using
815 "^resize_inode" is necessary because meta_bg is incompatible with
816 resize_inode, which IS used by default.) This feature can be used on
817 ext3fs and ext2fs as well as on ext4fs, so the ext4fs driver can now
818 handle some ext3fs and ext2fs partitions that the ext2fs driver can't
819 handle.
820
821 - Fixed some screen resolution-setting bugs.
822
823 - Added the "words" that make up a filesystem's label (delimited by spaces,
824 dashes, or underscores) to the list of bases used to search for OS icons.
825 For instance, if the filesystem's label is "Arch", rEFInd searches for
826 os_Arch.icns; if it's "Fedora 17", it searches for os_Fedora.icns and
827 os_17.icns; and if it's "NEW_GENTOO", it searches for os_NEW.icns and
828 os_GENTOO.icns.
829
830 - Refined hints displays to be more context-sensitive, particularly in text
831 mode.
832
833 - Instead of displaying a blank filesystem label when a filesystem has
834 none, rEFInd now displays the size and/or type of the filesystem, as in
835 "boot EFI\foo\bar.efi from 200 MiB ext3 volume" rather than "boot
836 EFI\foo\bar.efi from".
837
838 - Fixed a bug that caused the screen to clear after displaying an error
839 message but before displaying the "Hit any key to continue" message when
840 a boot loader launch failed.
841
842 0.6.0 (12/16/2012):
843 -------------------
844
845 - Fixed a memory allocation bug that could cause a program crash when
846 specifying certain values with the "also_scan_dirs", "dont_scan_volumes",
847 "dont_scan_dirs", "dont_scan_files", and "scan_driver_dirs" refind.conf
848 options.
849
850 - Modified Linux kernel initrd-finding code so that if an initrd is
851 specified in refind_linux.conf, rEFInd will not add any initrd it finds.
852 This enables an override of the default initrd, and is likely to be
853 particularly helpful to Arch Linux users.
854
855 - Added ext4fs driver!
856
857 - Made "boot" the default value for "also_scan_dirs".
858
859 - Added identifying screen header to line editor.
860
861 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd's display to be mis-sized upon return
862 from a program that set the resolution itself.
863
864 - Adjusted "resolution" refind.conf parameter so that it can accept EITHER
865 a resolution as width and height OR a single digit as a UEFI mode number
866 (which is system-specific). This is done because some systems present the
867 same mode twice in their mode lists, perhaps varying in refresh rate,
868 monitor output, or some other salient characteristics; specifying the
869 mode number enables selecting the higher-numbered mode, whereas using
870 horizontal and vertical resolution values selects the lowest-numbered
871 mode.
872
873 - Added "textmode" refind.conf parameter to set the text mode used in
874 text-only displays, and for the line editor and boot-time handoff
875 display even in graphics mode.
876
877 - Fixed bug that caused tools (shell, etc.) to launch when they were
878 highlighted and F2 or Insert was pressed.
879
880 - Added "editor" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf, which
881 disables the boot options editor.
882
883 - Added hints text to rEFInd main menu and sub-menus. This can be disabled
884 by setting the new "hints" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf.
885
886 - Added "boot with minimal options" entry to refind_linux.conf file
887 generated by install.sh. This entry boots without the options extracted
888 from the /etc/default/grub file.
889
890 - Added keys subdirectory to main distribution, to hold public Secure
891 Boot/shim keys from known sources.
892
893 - Changed install.sh --drivers option to --alldrivers, added new
894 --nodrivers option, and made the default on Linux to install the one
895 driver that's used on /boot (or the root filesystem if /boot isn't a
896 separate partition). Of course, this won't install a non-existent driver,
897 and it also won't work properly if run from an emergency disk unless you
898 mount a separate /boot partition at that location.
899
900 - Fixed bug in install.sh that prevented creation of refind_linux.conf file
901 on Linux systems.
902
903 0.5.1.1 (12/12/2012):
904 ---------------------
905
906 - Fixed bug in install.sh that prevented it from working on OS X.
907
908 0.5.1 (12/11/2012):
909 -------------------
910
911 - Added support for "0" options to "textonly" and "scan_all_linux_kernels"
912 to reverse the usual meaning of these tokens. This is useful for
913 including these options in a secondary configuration file called with the
914 new "include" token to override a setting set in the main file.
915
916 - Added "include" token for refind.conf, to enable including a secondary
917 configuration file from a primary one.
918
919 - Modified install.sh so that it creates a simple refind_linux.conf file in
920 /boot, if that file doesn't already exist and if install.sh is run from
921 Linux. If that directory happens to be on a FAT, HFS+, ext2fs, ext3fs, or
922 ReiserFS volume, and if the necessary drivers are installed, the result
923 is that rEFInd will detect the Linux installation with no further
924 configuration on many systems. (Some may still require tweaking of kernel
925 options, though; for instance, adding "dolvm" on Gentoo systems that use
926 LVM.)
927
928 - Added --shim and --localkeys options to install.sh to help simplify setup
929 on systems with Secure Boot active.
930
931 - Fixed (maybe) bug that caused resolution options to not be displayed on
932 recent Macs with GOP graphics when specifying an invalid resolution in
933 refind.conf.
934
935 - Fixed bug that caused some programs (EFI shells, in particular) to hang
936 when launching on some systems (DUET, in particular).
937
938 - Implemented a fix to enable ELILO to launch with Secure Boot active.
939 This fix might help with some other boot loaders in Secure Boot mode,
940 too, but I don't know of any specifics.
941
942 0.5.0 (12/6/2012):
943 ------------------
944
945 - Added the ability to include quote marks ('"') in refind.conf and
946 refind_linux.conf tokens by doubling them up, as in:
947 "ro root=/dev/sda4 some_value=""this is it"""
948 This example results in the following string being passed as an
949 option:
950 ro root=/dev/sda4 some_value="this is it"
951
952 - Changed refind.conf-sample to uncomment the scan_all_linux_kernels
953 option by default. If this option is deleted or commented out, the
954 program default remains to not scan all Linux kernels; but with
955 increasing numbers of distributions shipping with kernels that include
956 EFI stub loader support, setting the configuration file default to scan
957 for them makes sense.
958
959 - Modified the "resolution" token so that it affects text mode as well
960 as graphics mode. On my systems, though, the actual text area is still
961 restricted to an 80x25 area. (This seems to be a firmware limitation; my
962 EFI shells are also so limited.)
963
964 - Fixed a bug that caused the options line editor to blank out lines that
965 were not actually edited.
966
967 - Added support for using Matthew Garrett's Shim program and its Machine
968 Owner Keys (MOKs) to extend Secure Boot capabilities. If rEFInd is
969 launched from Shim on a computer with Secure Boot active, rEFInd will
970 launch programs signed with either a standard UEFI Secure Boot key or a
971 MOK. For the moment, this feature works only on x86-64 systems.
972
973 - Added new "dont_scan_files" (aka "don't_scan_files") token for
974 refind.conf. The effect is similar to dont_scan_dirs, but it creates a
975 blacklist of filenames within directories rather than directory names.
976 I'm initially using it to place shim.efi and MokManager.efi in the
977 blacklist to keep these programs out of the OS list. (MokManager.efi is
978 scanned separately as a tool; see below.) I've moved checks for
979 ebounce.efi, GraphicsConsole.efi, and TextMode.efi to this list. (These
980 three had previously been blacklisted by hard-coding in ScanLoaderDir().)
981
982 - Added the directory from which rEFInd launched to dont_scan_dirs. This
983 works around a bug in which rEFInd would show itself as a bogus Windows
984 entry if it's installed as EFI/Microsoft/boot/bootmgfw.efi.
985
986 - Added support for launching MokManager.efi for managing the Machine Owner
987 Keys (MOKs) maintained by the shim boot loader developed by Fedora and
988 SUSE. This program is scanned and presented as a second-row tool.
989
990 - Added support for Apple's Recovery HD partition: If it's detected, a new
991 icon appears on the second row. This icon can be removed by explicitly
992 setting the "showtools" option in refind.conf and excluding the
993 "apple_recovery" option from that line.
994
995 - Fixed bug that caused text-mode ("textonly" refind.conf option enabled)
996 menu entries to be right-aligned rather than left-aligned when rEFInd was
997 compiled with the TianoCore EDK2.
998
999 - Added "--usedefault {devicename}" and "--drivers" options to the
1000 install.sh script and changed the "esp" option to "--esp".
1001
1002 0.4.7 (11/6/2012):
1003 ------------------
1004
1005 - Added an icon for gummiboot.
1006
1007 - Added a boot option editor: Pressing the Insert or F2 key from a boot
1008 tag's options menu opens a simple text-mode line editor on which the boot
1009 options may be edited for a one-time boot with altered options.
1010
1011 - Modified the "scan_delay" feature to delay and then perform a re-scan,
1012 which may work better than the first attempt at this feature (which I'm
1013 told isn't working as planned).
1014
1015 - Modified rEFInd to add a space after the command-line options only when
1016 launching Mac OS X. On some early Macs, the extra space (which had been
1017 present by default, as a carryover from rEFIt) causes problems when
1018 booting Linux kernels from FAT partitions.
1019
1020 0.4.6 (10/6/2012):
1021 ------------------
1022
1023 - Fixed some minor memory management issues.
1024
1025 - Added new "scan_delay" feature to impose a delay before scanning
1026 for disks.
1027
1028 - Changed default "scanfor" option from internal-external-optical to either
1029 internal-external-optical-manual (for non-Macs) or
1030 internal-hdbios-external-biosexternal-optical-cd-manual (for Macs). I've
1031 done this for two reasons:
1032 - Many Mac users have been confused by the fact that rEFInd needs
1033 reconfiguration to detect Windows (or Linux installed in BIOS mode),
1034 since rEFIt scans BIOS devices by default. Adding the BIOS options as
1035 default for them should help them.
1036 - Adding the "manual" option enables users to simply add manual boot
1037 stanzas and have them work, which is more intuitive. Adding the
1038 "manual" option will have no effect unless manual stanzas are created
1039 or uncommented, so this part of the change won't affect users' working
1040 default configurations.
1041
1042 - Added new legacy (BIOS) boot support for UEFI-based PCs.
1043
1044 0.4.5 (8/12/2012):
1045 ------------------
1046
1047 - Fixed bug that caused a failure to boot BIOS-based OSes on Macs.
1048
1049 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused it to fail to detect rEFItBlesser.
1050
1051 0.4.4 (6/23/2012):
1052 ------------------
1053
1054 - Fixed bug that caused filesystem labels to be corrupted by rEFInd on
1055 32-bit systems.
1056
1057 - Fixed bug that caused filesystem labels to be truncated in the drivers
1058 on 32-bit systems.
1059
1060 - Fixed bug in use_graphics_for option parsing that caused most options
1061 to set graphics mode for OS X and/or Linux but not other boot
1062 loaders/OSes.
1063
1064 - Tweaked install script to better isolate the ESP under OS X.
1065
1066 0.4.3 (6/21/2012):
1067 ------------------
1068
1069 - rEFInd now supports compilation using the TianoCore UDK2010/EDK2
1070 development kit in addition to GNU-EFI.
1071
1072 - Added new "use_graphics_for" option to control which OSes to boot in
1073 graphics mode. (This effect lasts for a fraction of a second on most
1074 systems, since the boot loader that rEFInd launches is likely to set
1075 graphics or text mode itself.)
1076
1077 - Graphics-mode booting now clears the screen to the current rEFInd
1078 background color (rather than black) and does NOT display boot messages.
1079 The intent is for a smoother transition when booting OS X, or perhaps
1080 other OSes that don't display boot loader messages. In practice, this
1081 effect will be tiny for many OSes, since the boot loader generally clears
1082 the screen within a fraction of a second of being launched; but the
1083 "flicker" of a rEFInd message in that time can sometimes be distracting.
1084
1085 - Filesystem drivers now work on EFI 1.x systems, such as Macs.
1086
1087 - Removed "linux.conf" as a valid alternative name for "refind_linux.conf"
1088 for holding Linux kernel options. The kernel developers plan to use
1089 "linux.conf" themselves.
1090
1091 0.4.2 (6/3/2012):
1092 -----------------
1093
1094 - Added a message to install.sh when run on Macs to remind users to update
1095 the "scanfor" line in refind.conf if they need to boot BIOS-based OSes
1096 via rEFInd.
1097
1098 - Modified install.sh script to be smarter about running efibootmgr on
1099 Linux. It now uses the whole path to the rEFInd binary as a key to
1100 determine whether an existing entry exists, rather than just the filename
1101 portion. If an entry exists and is the first entry in the boot order, the
1102 script does nothing to the NVRAM entries. If such an entry exists but is
1103 not the default, the script deletes that entry and creates a new one
1104 (implicitly making it the first in the boot order). If such an entry does
1105 not exist, the script creates a new one (again, making it the first in
1106 the boot order).
1107
1108 - Added "dont_scan_dirs" configuration file option, which adds directories
1109 to a "blacklist" of directories that are NOT scanned for boot loaders.
1110
1111 0.4.1 (5/25/2012):
1112 ------------------
1113
1114 - Added "scanning for new boot loaders" message to the re-scan function
1115 (hitting Esc at the main menu). It usually flashes up too quickly to
1116 be of importance, but if the scan function takes a while because of
1117 access to a CD that must be spun up, it should make it clear that the
1118 system hasn't hung.
1119
1120 - Modified install.sh script to detect rEFItBlesser on Macs, and if
1121 present, to ask the user if it should be removed.
1122
1123 - Cleaned up the Make.common file for the filesystem drivers.
1124
1125 - Changed HFS+ driver to return volume label of "HFS+ volume" rather than
1126 an empty label. (The driver doesn't currently read the real volume
1127 label.)
1128
1129 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to appear in its own menu after
1130 running a shell and then re-scanning for boot loaders.
1131
1132 0.4.0 (5/20/2012):
1133 ------------------
1134
1135 - Inclusion of drivers for ISO-9660, HFS+, ReiserFS, and ext2fs. Most of
1136 these drivers originated with rEFIt, although the HFS+ driver seems to
1137 have come from Oracle's VirtualBox, with some files from Apple. I hadn't
1138 included these drivers previously because the build process proved
1139 challenging. As it is, they don't work on my Mac Mini, I suspect because
1140 the build process with the UDK2010 development kit may not work with the
1141 EFI 1.x that Apple uses.
1142
1143 - Addition of support for drivers in the "drivers_{arch}" subdirectory of
1144 the main rEFInd binary directory (e.g., "drivers_x64" or "drivers_ia32").
1145 Drivers may continue to be placed in the "drivers" subdirectory.
1146
1147 - Added new feature to eject CDs (and other removable media): Press F12 to
1148 eject all such media. This function works only on some Macs, though (it
1149 relies on an Apple-specific EFI extension, and this extension isn't even
1150 implemented on all Macs, much less on UEFI-based PCs).
1151
1152 - Fixed a problem that could cause GRUB 2 to fail to read its configuration
1153 file when launched from rEFInd.
1154
1155 0.3.5 (5/15/2012):
1156 ------------------
1157
1158 - Removed the GRUB 2 detection "reciped" added with 0.3.2, since I've
1159 received reports that it's not working as intended.
1160
1161 - Added re-scan feature: Press the Esc key to have rEFInd re-read its
1162 configuration file, tell the EFI to scan for new filesystems, and re-scan
1163 those filesystems for boot loaders. The main purpose is to enable
1164 scanning a new removable medium that you insert after launching rEFInd;
1165 however, it can also be used to immediately implement changes to the
1166 configuration file or new drivers you load from an EFI shell.
1167
1168 - Fixed a bug that could cause the scroll-right arrow to be replaced by the
1169 scroll-left arrow under some circumstances.
1170
1171 0.3.4 (5/9/2012):
1172 -----------------
1173
1174 - Added new configuration file option: "icons_dir", which sets the name
1175 of the subdirectory in which icons are found. See the documentation or
1176 sample configuration file for a full description.
1177
1178 - Modified Makefile to generate rEFInd binary that includes architecture
1179 code -- refind_ia32.efi or refind_x64.efi, rather than the generic
1180 refind.efi. This is done mainly to help the install.sh script. The
1181 program can be named anything you like on the disk. (The generic name
1182 refind.efi is used on unknown architectures.)
1183
1184 - Improved install.sh script: Fixed bug on OS X 10.7 and enable it to be
1185 used after building from source code (or via new "make install" Makefile
1186 target).
1187
1188 - Improved screen redraws to produce less flicker when moving among the
1189 second-row tags or to the last tag on the first row.
1190
1191 0.3.3 (5/6/2012):
1192 -----------------
1193
1194 - Improved menu navigation:
1195 - In graphics mode, left & right arrow keys move left & right, while up &
1196 down arrows move between rows.
1197 - Page Up and Page Down now move through chunks of visible tags (in both
1198 text & graphics modes), jumping from one row to another only when at
1199 the edge of the row. In text mode, the "rows" are broken down as in
1200 graphics mode, but they aren't visibly distinguished on the screen.
1201
1202 - Improved text-mode use: rEFInd now displays the proper number of entries
1203 when first started in text mode and scrolling is done sensibly when too
1204 many entries exist to fit on the screen.
1205
1206 0.3.2 (5/4/2012):
1207 -----------------
1208
1209 - Added the install.sh script to install rEFInd on Linux and Mac OS X
1210 systems. This script must be run as root (or via sudo). It requires
1211 no options, but on Mac OS X, passing it the "esp" option causes it
1212 to install rEFInd on the computer's ESP rather than the default of the
1213 currently OS X boot partition. (Under Linux, the default is to install to
1214 the ESP.) Note that there may be some unusual cases in which this script
1215 will fail to work.
1216
1217 - Does a better job of clearing the screen when launching OSes in text
1218 mode.
1219
1220 - Added detection "recipe" for GRUB 2's BIOS Boot Partition.
1221
1222 - Fixed bogus detection of ESPs created by Linux's mkdosfs utility or
1223 Windows as bootable partitions when "scanfor" includes BIOS scanning
1224 options.
1225
1226
1227 0.3.1 (4/27/2012):
1228 ------------------
1229
1230 - Fixed bug that caused spurious "Unsupported while scanning the root
1231 directory" messages under some conitions on Macs.
1232
1233 - Modified loader scanning code to sort boot loader entries within a
1234 directory by modification time, so that the most recently-modified loader
1235 is first among those in a given directory. Thus, if you specify a
1236 directory name (or volume name, for loaders stored in the root directory
1237 of a volume) as the default_selection, the most recent of those loaders
1238 will be the default. This is intended to help with Linux kernel
1239 maintenance when using the EFI stub loader; set up this way, the most
1240 recent kernel copied to your kernel directory will be the default,
1241 obviating the need to adjust the refind.conf file when adding a new
1242 kernel. If you want to change the default among those in the default
1243 directory, you can use "touch" to adjust the modification timestamp.
1244
1245 - Tweaked code to find loader-specific .icns file so that it finds files
1246 for Linux kernels without .efi extensions. In this case, files should be
1247 named the same as the kernels they match, but with .icns extensions. For
1248 instance, bzImage-3.3.2 should have an icon called bzImage-3.3.2.icns.
1249 (The old code would have looked for an icon called bzImage-3.3.icns.)
1250
1251 - Eliminated bogus OS loader tags for filenames that end in ".icns" when
1252 the scan_all_linux_kernels option is set.
1253
1254 0.3.0 (4/22/2012):
1255 ------------------
1256
1257 - I'm officially upgrading this project's status from "alpha" to "beta" and
1258 giving it a bump from 0.2.x to 0.3.0. This doesn't reflect any major
1259 milestone with this version; rather, it reflects my sense that rEFInd has
1260 been "out there" for a while, and although I've gotten bug reports,
1261 they've been minor and/or have been fixed. The program still has known
1262 bugs, but my impression is that it is, overall, usable by ordinary users.
1263
1264 - Added "resolution" option to refind.conf, which enables setting the video
1265 resolution. To use it, pass two numeric values, as in "resolution 1024
1266 768" to use a 1024x768 video mode. Note that not all modes are supported.
1267 If you specify a non-supported video mode on a UEFI system, a message
1268 appears listing the supported video modes and you must then press a key
1269 to continue, using the default video mode (usually 800x600).
1270 Unfortunately, I don't know the calls to get a list of supported video
1271 modes on older EFI 1.x systems (including Macs), so on Macs setting an
1272 incorrect video mode silently fails (you keep using the default mode).
1273 This makes changing your video mode a hit-or-miss proposition on Macs.
1274 CAUTION: It's possible to set a legal video mode that your monitor can't
1275 handle, in which case you'll get a blank display until you boot an OS
1276 that resets the video mode.
1277
1278 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused rEFInd to crash when returning from an
1279 EFI shell or other programs on Macs, particularly when rEFInd used
1280 graphical mode. I'm not 100% sure this bug is squashed because I still
1281 don't understand the cause and I only have one Mac for testing. See
1282 comments in the ReinitRefitLib() function in refit/lib.c for more
1283 details.
1284
1285 - Added new refind.conf option: scan_all_linux_kernels, which causes Linux
1286 kernels that lack ".efi" extensions to be included in scans for EFI boot
1287 loaders. This may help integration with Linux distributions that don't
1288 give their kernels such names by default. Beware, though: It can detect
1289 unwanted files, such as older non-stub-loader kernels or .icns files used
1290 to give kernels with .efi extensions custom icons.
1291
1292 - Improved EFI boot loader detection on boards with Gigabyte's Hybrid EFI,
1293 and perhaps other EFIs with a buggy StriCmp() function. Files with both
1294 ".efi" and ".EFI" extensions should now be detected as boot loaders.
1295
1296 - Fixed a bug that caused rEFInd to fail to scan for drivers if the
1297 filesystem driver didn't set a volume name (that is, if the relevant
1298 field was set to NULL rather than even an empty string). In such
1299 situations, rEFInd now reports the volume name as "Unknown".
1300
1301 0.2.7 (4/19/2012):
1302 ------------------
1303
1304 - After much trial and tribulation, I've overcome a GNU-EFI limitation and
1305 enabled rEFInd to load EFI drivers. This feature was present in the
1306 original build of rEFIt but was removed in the versions that could
1307 compile under Linux, but now it's back -- and still being compiled under
1308 Linux! To use it, you should place your drivers in a convenient directory
1309 on the ESP (or whatever partition you use to launch rEFInd) and add a
1310 "scan_driver_dirs" entry to refind.conf to tell rEFInd where to look. (As
1311 always, you should specify the driver directory relative to the root of
1312 the filesystem.) Note that you can't launch drivers from another
1313 filesystem; they must be on the same volume that holds rEFInd. Those who
1314 compile from source code should note that implementing this feature
1315 necessitated using a more recent version of the GNU-EFI library. I'm
1316 currently using version 3.0p, and version 3.0i does NOT work. I don't
1317 know where the change occurred, but you may need to upgrade your GNU-EFI
1318 installation.
1319
1320 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to show up in its own menu sometimes.
1321
1322 - Added new refind.conf token: also_scan_dirs. When scanning volumes for
1323 EFI boot loaders, rEFInd always scans the root directory and every
1324 subdirectory of the /EFI directory, but it doesn't recurse into these
1325 directories. The also_scan_dirs token adds more directories to the scan
1326 list. It defaults to "elilo,boot", but you can set it to any directory or
1327 directories you like.
1328
1329 0.2.6 (4/14/2012):
1330 ------------------
1331
1332 - Added "volume" keyword to configuration file's stanza options. This
1333 option changes the volume from which subsequent files (specified by
1334 "loader" and "icon") are loaded. You pass "volume" the name/label of the
1335 FILESYSTEM you want to use (not the GPT partition name), or a number
1336 followed by a colon (e.g., "1:"). The former should reliably identify a
1337 filesystem, assuming the name is unique. The latter assigns numbers based
1338 on the order in which they're scanned, which may not be as reliable but
1339 should work when a volume is unnamed.
1340
1341 - Fixed bug in 0.2.5 that caused failure of Linux initial RAM disk
1342 mapping on some (but not all) systems. Affected computers include at
1343 least some Intel motherboards, maybe others.
1344
1345 0.2.5 (4/9/2012):
1346 -----------------
1347
1348 - Fixed bug that caused an inability to associate initial RAM disks with
1349 Linux kernels stored in a volume's root directory.
1350
1351 - Volume badges (that override default badges) are now stored in
1352 .VolumeBadge.icns. Although undocumented, rEFInd formerly loaded custom
1353 volume badges from .VolumeIcon.icns. This carryover from rEFIt was a
1354 confusing name, given the next (new) feature, so I've changed and
1355 documented the name....
1356
1357 - Added ability to set a default icon for a loader stored in the root
1358 directory of a volume: The icon is stored in .VolumeIcon.icns. This icon
1359 is also used for Mac OS X volumes booted from the standard location.
1360
1361 - Fixed bug that caused icons to drop back to generic icons when rEFInd
1362 was launched in certain ways (such as from an EFI shell in rEFInd's
1363 directory) on certain systems.
1364
1365 - Fixed bug that caused "unknown disable flag" to be shown (very briefly)
1366 instead of "unknown hideui flag" when an improper hideui flag was set.
1367
1368 0.2.4 (4/5/2012):
1369 -----------------
1370
1371 - Created new refind.conf entry: "showtools". This entry takes options of
1372 "shell", "gptsync", "about", "exit", "reboot", and "shutdown". This
1373 option is in some respects an affirmative version of portions of the old
1374 "disable" and "hideui" options; however, it enables users to specify the
1375 order in which these options appear on the screen. Also, the "exit"
1376 option is new; it terminates the program. The effect is usually to return
1377 to whatever tool launched it or to launch a default OS; however, this is
1378 somewhat unpredictable. The default therefore omits the "exit" option, as
1379 well as "gptsync", which has always been dangerous (but necessary on most
1380 MacOS/Windows dual-boot setups on Macs). As part of this reconfiguration,
1381 I've eliminated the "rescue Linux" option, which always seemed pointless
1382 to me.
1383
1384 - Folded "disable" and "hideui" refind.conf entries into one ("disable"),
1385 and reduced the number of options to six: "banner", "label",
1386 "singleuser", "hwtest", "arrows", and "all". ("arrows" is new and
1387 disables the scroll arrows when a system has too many tags to display
1388 simultaneously.)
1389
1390 - Added max_tags option to the refind.conf file, enabling users to reduce
1391 the maximum number of OS loader tags that can be displayed at once.
1392
1393 - Updated rEFIt icon, based on the 128x128 volume label from the rEFIt CD
1394 image.
1395
1396 - Added x86 and x86-64 EFI shells to the CD image version of the binary,
1397 but NOT to the binary zip file. The logic is that the CD image is more
1398 likely to be used directly as an emergency disc and so may need this
1399 feature, even though the source isn't part of the rEFInd project. (The
1400 source is readily available from the TianoCore project.)
1401
1402 - EFI shells may now be stored at /shellx64.efi for x86-64 systems or at
1403 /shellia32.efi for x86 systems. The /EFI/tools/shell.efi name is also
1404 recognized; however, if both files are present, two EFI shell icons will
1405 appear on the main menu. The /efi/{refind-path/apps/shell.efi filename,
1406 which was never officially documented but worked as a carryover from
1407 rEFIt, is no longer valid.
1408
1409 0.2.3 (3/26/2012):
1410 ------------------
1411
1412 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused hangs when launching a second program
1413 after returning from a first. There are some weird system-to-system
1414 differences, though, and this fix causes (apparently harmless) error
1415 messages about "(re)opening our installation volume" on at least one
1416 system (a 32-bit Mac Mini). I'm committing this change because, imperfect
1417 though it is, it's preferable to the earlier version, at least on my
1418 small sample of computers.
1419
1420 - Because of news that the Linux kernel developers are planning to use the
1421 filename linux.conf to hold Linux kernel configuration data for EFI
1422 booting, I'm transitioning rEFInd away from that name and to
1423 refind_linux.conf to avoid a conflict. This version can use either name,
1424 with refind_linux.conf taking precedence if both are present.
1425
1426 - Added logo for Arch Linux.
1427
1428 0.2.2 (3/23/2012):
1429 ------------------
1430
1431 - Fixed bug that caused program failure when Linux kernels with EFI stub
1432 support were detected with no associated version numbers. rEFInd now
1433 permits automatic linking of *ONE* versionless kernel to *ONE*
1434 versionless initrd file.
1435
1436 - Fixed bug that caused program hangs when a boot loader filename or label
1437 was too long. Such names are now properly truncated and program execution
1438 continues.
1439
1440 - Fixed bug that caused no text to appear in submenus on UEFI systems with
1441 small screens (800x600). NOTE: Problem still occurs on screens smaller
1442 than this, but such systems are very rare.
1443
1444 0.2.1 (3/19/2012):
1445 ------------------
1446
1447 - Added ability to set a "default_selection" that's a title or a substring
1448 of one -- the name given to a stanza in a "menuentry" or the boot
1449 loader's filename, in most cases, although "Mac OS X", "Windows XP
1450 (XoM)", and "Microsoft EFI boot" are also titles.
1451
1452 - Added support for semi-automatic scans of Linux kernels with EFI stub
1453 loader support. The program auto-detects matching initial RAM disk files
1454 and loads additional options from the "linux.conf" file in the same
1455 directory as the kernel.
1456
1457 - Added support for "submenuentry" keyword and associated sub-stanza
1458 entries in refind.conf file.
1459
1460 - Renamed icons/os_mint.icns to icons/os_linuxmint.icns to match the
1461 filename Linux Mint ACTUALLY uses for its ESP boot loader directory.
1462
1463
1464 0.2.0 (3/14/2012):
1465 ------------------
1466
1467 - Initial public release