Version 0.7.4 release

[refind] / NEWS.txt

0.7.4 (8/25/2013):
------------------

- Fixed options passing to loader to include loader's filename as the first
  option. This omission had no effect on most boot loaders, but caused
  VMware's mboot64.efi to fail.

- Added support for memtest86 as second-row option. Program must be
  stored in EFI/tools, EFI/tools/memtest, EFI/tools/memtest86, EFI/memtest,
  or EFI/memtest86; and must use the name memtest86.efi, memtest86_x64.efi,
  memtest86x64.efi, or bootx64.efi (changing "x64" to "ia32" on IA-32
  systems). The memtest86 program is scanned for when the "showtools"
  option includes the "memtest" or "memtest86" token, which it does by
  default.

- Added space to end of "Boot %s from %s" string; enables adding a space
  to the end of the "default_selection" item (in quotes) to set a default
  that matches a volume name that's identical to another one except for
  extra characters at the end of the non-wanted volume's name.

- Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to hang when launching boot loaders
  under some conditions. (Launching from Firewire drives on Macs is the
  known case, but there may be others.)

0.7.3 (8/7/2013):
-----------------

- Fixed bug that caused missing media-type badges on BIOS-mode boot
  loaders on Macs.

- Fixed bug that caused failure when launching BIOS-mode OSes on Macs.

0.7.2 (8/6/2013):
-----------------

- Fixed bug that caused display glitches in the final entry on the first
  row of icons if the second row of icons was empty.

- Fixed bug that could cause incorrect scanning or even a rEFInd crash when
  using volume specification in also_scan_dirs token.

- Added protection against loading invalid drivers and other EFI programs.
  (Some EFIs crash when attempting to load such drivers and programs.)

- Added PreLoader.efi and shim-fedora.efi to default dont_scan_files list;
  it's now "shim.efi, shim-fedora.efi, PreLoader.efi, TextMode.efi,
  ebounce.efi, GraphicsConsole.efi, MokManager.efi, HashTool.efi,
  HashTool-signed.efi".

- Added icon for Funtoo Linux.

- Fixed reading of volume badges from user-specified icons directory, which
  was broken.

- Fixed handling of /.VolumeBadge.icns (or /.VolumeBadge.png) files, which
  was broken.

0.7.1 (7/8/2013):
-----------------

- Fixed build problem with recent development versions of EDK2.

- Added scan for Boot Repair's backup of the Windows boot loader
  (bkpbootmgfw.efi). If found, give separate entries for it and for
  bootmgfw.efi, each with its own descriptive text label.

- Fixed also_scan_dirs; used to have bug that caused it to ignore
  volume specification, if present.

- Fixed bug in driver cache that caused Btrfs driver to hang sometimes.

0.7.0 (6/27/2013):
------------------

- Added Btrfs signature to rEFInd, so that it can identify the filesystem
  type for volumes that lack labels.

- Changed some critical filesystem driver pointers from 32-bit to 64-bit.
  This *SHOULD* enable use of over-2TiB filesystems (for those filesystems
  that support such large volumes). This capability is largely untested,
  though.

- Added a cache to the filesystem driver core, and therefore to all the
  filesystem drivers. This cache greatly improves performance in
  VirtualBox, and offers modest performance improvements on a few "real"
  computers. The most dramatic improvement is on ext2/3fs under VirtualBox:
  Loading a kernel and initrd used to take ~200 seconds on my system, but
  now takes ~3 seconds! On most "real" hardware, the improvement is much
  less dramatic -- an improvement of a second or less, presumably because
  of cacheing within the EFI or on the hard disk itself.

- Filter boot loaders based on a test of their validity; keeps out Linux
  kernels without EFI stub loader code, loaders for the wrong architecture,
  non-EFI loaders, etc.

- New Btrfs driver, contributed by Samuel Liao based on GRUB 2.00 Btrfs
  code.

0.6.12 (6/18/2013):
-------------------

- Changed the 64-bit EFI shell included in the CD-R and USB flash drive
  images to a version 2 shell that should support the "bcfg" command.

- Added support for PreBootloader to refind.spec's built-in installation
  script.

- Added support for the Linux Foundation's PreLoader to install.sh. It's
  treated just like shim, including using the --shim option (or, now,
  --preloader); but it searches for and copies HashTool.efi rather than
  MokManager.efi, and filenames are adjusted appropriately.

- Added code to determine Linux root filesystem from /etc/fstab file, if
  it's on the same partition as the kernel and if the refind_linux.conf
  file is not available. This enables rEFInd to boot Linux without any
  rEFInd-specific configuration files on some (but not all) systems.

0.6.11 (5/13/2013):
-------------------

- New feature: rEFInd now ignores symbolic links to files on filesystems
  that support them. This prevents the "vmlinuz" symbolic link that some
  distributions create in the root directory from appearing in the loader
  list. Note that this does NOT affect symbolic links to directories.

- Added icons for Lubuntu and Kubuntu.

- Improved the install.sh script so that it does a better job dealing with
  directory names that contain spaces.

- rEFInd now tries to guess the Linux distribution type based on the kernel
  filename (Fedora and RHEL only) or the "ID" or "NAME" variables in
  /etc/os-release on the kernel's partition. None of these is guaranteed to
  work. A fallback of the Tux penguin icon remains in place in case rEFInd
  can't find anything substantive enough for a guess.

- Added "EFI\opensuse" to the locations searched for MOK utilities, since
  OpenSUSE now uses that name.

- Renamed "Reboot to Firmware User Interface" to "Reboot to Computer Setup
  Utility" in menu.

- Fixed bug in gptsync that caused it to hang if the disk had too few GPT
  partitions to fill the MBR.

0.6.10 (5/5/2013):
------------------

- Added support for "screensaver" token. If set to a positive integer, this
  causes the screen to blank after the specified number of seconds of
  inactivity. Pressing most keys (unfortunately NOT including Shift, Alt,
  or Ctrl) will restore the display and restart the screen saver timeout.

- Added icon for ChromeOS (os_chrome.icns in the icons subdirectory).
  ChromeBooks reportedly boots using the fallback filename, but if a user
  wants to install rEFInd on a ChromeBook, renaming the original EFI/BOOT
  directory to EFI/chrome and then installing rEFInd in the fallback
  filename will bring up this new icon for ChromeOS.

- Added new option to reboot the computer into the firmware's user
  interface. This option is active by default, or can be set via the
  "firmware" option to the "showtools" token in refind.conf. It works
  on only some computers, though; older computers lack this feature, and
  when rEFInd is told to use this feature on such computers, the directive
  is quietly ignored.

- Upgraded LodePNG library from version 20121216 to 20130415 and
  restructured rEFInd-specific modifications to simplify future upgrades.

- Replaced hexadecimal error code with description if an error is
  encountered when saving a screen shot.

- Enable multiple screen shots: Rather than naming all screen shots
  "screenshot.bmp", the name is now "screenshot_###.bmp", where "###" is a
  sequence number, starting with "001".

0.6.9 (4/25/2013):
------------------

- Modified default banner to include the new rEFInd icon, provided by Erik
  Kemperman.

- Worked around a suspected firmware bug that caused rEFInd 0.6.6 to 0.6.8
  to hang at startup on some systems (DUET and some Macs).

- Modified rEFInd to search for gptsync under the names gptsync.efi and
  gptsync_{arch}.efi, where {arch} is ia32 or x64. (Previous versions
  searched only for gptsync.efi.)

- Added gptsync program from rEFIt project, but with some changes to
  improve flexibility and make it less likely that UEFI users will
  accidentally trash their systems.

- Changed timeout code so that the timeout continues if the keyboard is
  disconnected. This can help in booting a headless server or a system with
  a bluetooth or other keyboard that's not recognized by the EFI.

0.6.8 (3/18/2013):
------------------

- Added workaround for presumed EFI bug that was causing "Invalid
  Parameter" errors when scanning for boot loaders on some computers.

- Added search for an EFI shell called shell.efi in the root directory
  (previously this name was only accepted in EFI\tools).

- Fixed bug in install.sh that caused it to fail on some systems (Fedora
  18, for instance) because of a problem identifying the ESP.

- Fixed bug that caused icons named after boot loaders to not be used.

0.6.7 (2/3/2013):
-----------------

- Added a more explicit error message summarizing options when a launch of
  a program results in a Secure Boot failure.

- Changed MOK tool detection to scan all volumes, not just the rEFInd
  home volume. This is desirable because the Linux Foundation's HashTool
  can only scan its own volume, making it desirable to place copies of this
  program on every volume that holds EFI boot loader binaries.

- Added support for launching the Linux Foundation HashTool as a means of
  managing MOKs (or MOK hashes, at any rate).

- Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to present an entry for itself as a
  Microsoft OS if it was launched as EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi.

- Fixed bug that caused dont_scan_volumes option to be added to
  also_scan_dirs list.

- Fixed dont_scan_volumes so that it works with OS X boot loaders.

- Fixed broken mixing of PNG and ICNS icons when using a user-specified
  icons directory -- previously, an ICNS file in the default directory
  would override a PNG file in the user-specified directory.

0.6.6 (1/26/2013):
------------------

- rEFInd now ignores the fallback boot loader (EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi or
  EFI/BOOT/bootia32.efi) if it's identical to another boot loader on
  the same volume. This is intended to help unclutter the display on
  systems that run Windows, since Windows tends to duplicate its own boot
  loader under the fallback name.

- Added new "font" token to refind.conf, which enables specifying a font in
  the form of a PNG file. This file must contain monospace glyphs for the
  95 characters from ASCII 32 to 126 (space through tilde), inclusive, plus
  a glyph to be displayed for characters outside of this range, for a total
  of 96 glyphs.

- Replaced the old font (inherited from rEFInd) with an anti-aliased
  version of Luxi Mono Regular 14 point.

- Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to ignore manual boot stanzas in files
  included via the "include" token in refind.conf.

- Fixed bug that caused ASSERT error on some systems (and conceivably a
  crash on startup on some) when default_selection line in refind.conf was
  commented out or empty.

- Fixed bug that caused "Binary is whitelisted" message to persist on
  screen after loading MOK-signed drivers in Secure Boot mode.

- Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to ignore the "icon" token in refind.conf
  manual boot stanzas.

- Fixed bug in install.sh that caused the script to fail to update
  drivers when rEFInd was installed in EFI/BOOT/.

0.6.5 (1/16/2013):
------------------

- Improved text color support: rEFInd now uses black text against light
  backgrounds and white text against dark backgrounds.

- Added support for PNGs as banners, icons, and selectors.

- Added icon for ALT Linux.

- Added "safemode" option to "hideui" token, to hide option to boot into
  safe mode for OS X ("-v -x" option to boot.efi).

- Added icon for Haiku (os_haiku.icns).

- Enable transparency of icons & main-menu text when the banner icon is
  sized to cover these areas.

- Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to crash if fed a banner image that's
  too big. Note that "too big" can be substantially smaller than the screen
  resolution!

0.6.4 (1/8/2013):
-----------------

- Revised install.sh to copy ext2fs driver, rather than ext4fs driver, for
  ext2/3 filesystems. This can help keep non-functional entries from links
  from /vmlinuz to /boot/vmlinuz out of the menu if the system uses ext4fs
  on root and ext2fs or ext3fs on /boot.

- Fixed a couple of memory management bugs that cause rEFInd to hang at
  startup on some systems.

0.6.3 (1/6/2013):
-----------------

- Added the ability to specify a volume name or number in the
  "dont_scan_dirs" and "also_scan_dirs" tokens.

- Fixed a bug that caused removable EFI media to not appear in scan lists
  if rEFInd was installed as EFI/BOOT/boot{arch}.efi on a hard disk.

- Modified ISO-9660 driver so that it can handle discs with other than
  2048-byte sectors. This makes it useful for reading "hybrid ISO" images
  burned to USB flash disks.

- New mvrefind.sh script to move a rEFInd installation between a standard
  location (typically EFI/refind) and one of the fallback locations
  (EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot). It can also do more exotic locations.

- The install.sh script now installs to EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi or
  EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi if it's run in BIOS mode. This is
  intended to give some chance of producing a bootable installation should
  a user accidentally install Linux in EFI mode and then install rEFInd
  from that installation.

- The install.sh script now tries to find an existing rEFInd installation
  and upgrade it, even if it's in EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot rather
  than in EFI/refind.

- New "--yes" option to install.sh to help with unattended or automated
  installations (as from an RPM or Debian package).

0.6.2 (12/30/2012):
-------------------

- Inclusion of a sample refind.spec file for the benefit of RPM
  distribution maintainers who might want to include rEFInd. It's a bit
  rough, but it gets you a good chunk of the way there....

- The EFI filesystem drivers can now be built with the GNU-EFI toolkit as
  well as with the TianoCore EDK2. See the BUILDING.txt file for details on
  how to build them with either toolkit. This improvement doesn't affect
  users of my binary packages, but it should make it easier for Linux
  distributions to adopt rEFInd into their package systems.

- Tweaked refind.inf file for better build results using "native" TianoCore
  EDK2 build process (vs. the Makefile-based build process that I use under
  Linux). This won't affect those who use my binary builds or build under
  Linux with the "make" command.

- Fixed bug that prevented Secure Boot launches from working when rEFInd
  was built with GNU-EFI rather than the TianoCore EDK2.

- Substantial reworking of Secure Boot code, based on James Bottomley's
  PreLoader program. This new code eliminates the limitation of launching
  just one driver in Secure Boot mode and is likely to be more reliable
  with future or obscure boot loaders. It should also work with non-x86-64
  systems, although this relies on a platform-specific shim program, which
  to date exists only for x86-64. The basic features are the same as before
  -- rEFInd relies on shim for authentication functions and will launch
  programs that are signed by Secure Boot keys, shim keys, or MOKs.

- Altered default for "textmode" option (when it's commented out) to not
  adjust the text mode at all. (Prior versions set it to mode 0 by
  default.)

0.6.1 (12/21/2012):
-------------------

- Added "--root" option to install.sh, to enable installation of rEFInd
  to something other than the currently-running OS. This is intended for
  use on emergency discs.

- Thanks to Stefan Agner, the ext4fs driver now supports the "meta_bg"
  filesystem feature, which distributes metadata throughout the disk. This
  feature isn't used by default, but can be set at filesystem creation time
  by passing the "-O meta_bg,^resize_inode" option to mke2fs. (Using
  "^resize_inode" is necessary because meta_bg is incompatible with
  resize_inode, which IS used by default.) This feature can be used on
  ext3fs and ext2fs as well as on ext4fs, so the ext4fs driver can now
  handle some ext3fs and ext2fs partitions that the ext2fs driver can't
  handle.

- Fixed some screen resolution-setting bugs.

- Added the "words" that make up a filesystem's label (delimited by spaces,
  dashes, or underscores) to the list of bases used to search for OS icons.
  For instance, if the filesystem's label is "Arch", rEFInd searches for
  os_Arch.icns; if it's "Fedora 17", it searches for os_Fedora.icns and
  os_17.icns; and if it's "NEW_GENTOO", it searches for os_NEW.icns and
  os_GENTOO.icns.

- Refined hints displays to be more context-sensitive, particularly in text
  mode.

- Instead of displaying a blank filesystem label when a filesystem has
  none, rEFInd now displays the size and/or type of the filesystem, as in
  "boot EFI\foo\bar.efi from 200 MiB ext3 volume" rather than "boot
  EFI\foo\bar.efi from".

- Fixed a bug that caused the screen to clear after displaying an error
  message but before displaying the "Hit any key to continue" message when
  a boot loader launch failed.

0.6.0 (12/16/2012):
-------------------

- Fixed a memory allocation bug that could cause a program crash when
  specifying certain values with the "also_scan_dirs", "dont_scan_volumes",
  "dont_scan_dirs", "dont_scan_files", and "scan_driver_dirs" refind.conf
  options.

- Modified Linux kernel initrd-finding code so that if an initrd is
  specified in refind_linux.conf, rEFInd will not add any initrd it finds.
  This enables an override of the default initrd, and is likely to be
  particularly helpful to Arch Linux users.

- Added ext4fs driver!

- Made "boot" the default value for "also_scan_dirs".

- Added identifying screen header to line editor.

- Fixed bug that caused rEFInd's display to be mis-sized upon return
  from a program that set the resolution itself.

- Adjusted "resolution" refind.conf parameter so that it can accept EITHER
  a resolution as width and height OR a single digit as a UEFI mode number
  (which is system-specific). This is done because some systems present the
  same mode twice in their mode lists, perhaps varying in refresh rate,
  monitor output, or some other salient characteristics; specifying the
  mode number enables selecting the higher-numbered mode, whereas using
  horizontal and vertical resolution values selects the lowest-numbered
  mode.

- Added "textmode" refind.conf parameter to set the text mode used in
  text-only displays, and for the line editor and boot-time handoff
  display even in graphics mode.

- Fixed bug that caused tools (shell, etc.) to launch when they were
  highlighted and F2 or Insert was pressed.

- Added "editor" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf, which
  disables the boot options editor.

- Added hints text to rEFInd main menu and sub-menus. This can be disabled
  by setting the new "hints" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf.

- Added "boot with minimal options" entry to refind_linux.conf file
  generated by install.sh. This entry boots without the options extracted
  from the /etc/default/grub file.

- Added keys subdirectory to main distribution, to hold public Secure
  Boot/shim keys from known sources.

- Changed install.sh --drivers option to --alldrivers, added new
  --nodrivers option, and made the default on Linux to install the one
  driver that's used on /boot (or the root filesystem if /boot isn't a
  separate partition). Of course, this won't install a non-existent driver,
  and it also won't work properly if run from an emergency disk unless you
  mount a separate /boot partition at that location.

- Fixed bug in install.sh that prevented creation of refind_linux.conf file
  on Linux systems.

0.5.1.1 (12/12/2012):
---------------------

- Fixed bug in install.sh that prevented it from working on OS X.

0.5.1 (12/11/2012):
-------------------

- Added support for "0" options to "textonly" and "scan_all_linux_kernels"
  to reverse the usual meaning of these tokens. This is useful for
  including these options in a secondary configuration file called with the
  new "include" token to override a setting set in the main file.

- Added "include" token for refind.conf, to enable including a secondary
  configuration file from a primary one.

- Modified install.sh so that it creates a simple refind_linux.conf file in
  /boot, if that file doesn't already exist and if install.sh is run from
  Linux. If that directory happens to be on a FAT, HFS+, ext2fs, ext3fs, or
  ReiserFS volume, and if the necessary drivers are installed, the result
  is that rEFInd will detect the Linux installation with no further
  configuration on many systems. (Some may still require tweaking of kernel
  options, though; for instance, adding "dolvm" on Gentoo systems that use
  LVM.)

- Added --shim and --localkeys options to install.sh to help simplify setup
  on systems with Secure Boot active.

- Fixed (maybe) bug that caused resolution options to not be displayed on
  recent Macs with GOP graphics when specifying an invalid resolution in
  refind.conf.

- Fixed bug that caused some programs (EFI shells, in particular) to hang
  when launching on some systems (DUET, in particular).

- Implemented a fix to enable ELILO to launch with Secure Boot active.
  This fix might help with some other boot loaders in Secure Boot mode,
  too, but I don't know of any specifics.

0.5.0 (12/6/2012):
------------------

- Added the ability to include quote marks ('"') in refind.conf and
  refind_linux.conf tokens by doubling them up, as in:
  "ro root=/dev/sda4 some_value=""this is it"""
  This example results in the following string being passed as an
  option:
  ro root=/dev/sda4 some_value="this is it"

- Changed refind.conf-sample to uncomment the scan_all_linux_kernels
  option by default. If this option is deleted or commented out, the
  program default remains to not scan all Linux kernels; but with
  increasing numbers of distributions shipping with kernels that include
  EFI stub loader support, setting the configuration file default to scan
  for them makes sense.

- Modified the "resolution" token so that it affects text mode as well
  as graphics mode. On my systems, though, the actual text area is still
  restricted to an 80x25 area. (This seems to be a firmware limitation; my
  EFI shells are also so limited.)

- Fixed a bug that caused the options line editor to blank out lines that
  were not actually edited.

- Added support for using Matthew Garrett's Shim program and its Machine
  Owner Keys (MOKs) to extend Secure Boot capabilities. If rEFInd is
  launched from Shim on a computer with Secure Boot active, rEFInd will
  launch programs signed with either a standard UEFI Secure Boot key or a
  MOK. For the moment, this feature works only on x86-64 systems.

- Added new "dont_scan_files" (aka "don't_scan_files") token for
  refind.conf. The effect is similar to dont_scan_dirs, but it creates a
  blacklist of filenames within directories rather than directory names.
  I'm initially using it to place shim.efi and MokManager.efi in the
  blacklist to keep these programs out of the OS list. (MokManager.efi is
  scanned separately as a tool; see below.) I've moved checks for
  ebounce.efi, GraphicsConsole.efi, and TextMode.efi to this list. (These
  three had previously been blacklisted by hard-coding in ScanLoaderDir().)

- Added the directory from which rEFInd launched to dont_scan_dirs. This
  works around a bug in which rEFInd would show itself as a bogus Windows
  entry if it's installed as EFI/Microsoft/boot/bootmgfw.efi.

- Added support for launching MokManager.efi for managing the Machine Owner
  Keys (MOKs) maintained by the shim boot loader developed by Fedora and
  SUSE. This program is scanned and presented as a second-row tool.

- Added support for Apple's Recovery HD partition: If it's detected, a new
  icon appears on the second row. This icon can be removed by explicitly
  setting the "showtools" option in refind.conf and excluding the
  "apple_recovery" option from that line.

- Fixed bug that caused text-mode ("textonly" refind.conf option enabled)
  menu entries to be right-aligned rather than left-aligned when rEFInd was
  compiled with the TianoCore EDK2.

- Added "--usedefault {devicename}" and "--drivers" options to the
  install.sh script and changed the "esp" option to "--esp". 

0.4.7 (11/6/2012):
------------------

- Added an icon for gummiboot.

- Added a boot option editor: Pressing the Insert or F2 key from a boot
  tag's options menu opens a simple text-mode line editor on which the boot
  options may be edited for a one-time boot with altered options.

- Modified the "scan_delay" feature to delay and then perform a re-scan,
  which may work better than the first attempt at this feature (which I'm
  told isn't working as planned).

- Modified rEFInd to add a space after the command-line options only when
  launching Mac OS X. On some early Macs, the extra space (which had been
  present by default, as a carryover from rEFIt) causes problems when
  booting Linux kernels from FAT partitions.

0.4.6 (10/6/2012):
------------------

- Fixed some minor memory management issues.

- Added new "scan_delay" feature to impose a delay before scanning
  for disks.

- Changed default "scanfor" option from internal-external-optical to either
  internal-external-optical-manual (for non-Macs) or
  internal-hdbios-external-biosexternal-optical-cd-manual (for Macs). I've
  done this for two reasons:
  - Many Mac users have been confused by the fact that rEFInd needs
    reconfiguration to detect Windows (or Linux installed in BIOS mode),
    since rEFIt scans BIOS devices by default. Adding the BIOS options as
    default for them should help them.
  - Adding the "manual" option enables users to simply add manual boot
    stanzas and have them work, which is more intuitive. Adding the
    "manual" option will have no effect unless manual stanzas are created
    or uncommented, so this part of the change won't affect users' working
    default configurations.

- Added new legacy (BIOS) boot support for UEFI-based PCs.

0.4.5 (8/12/2012):
------------------

- Fixed bug that caused a failure to boot BIOS-based OSes on Macs.

- Fixed bug in install.sh that caused it to fail to detect rEFItBlesser.

0.4.4 (6/23/2012):
------------------

- Fixed bug that caused filesystem labels to be corrupted by rEFInd on
  32-bit systems.

- Fixed bug that caused filesystem labels to be truncated in the drivers
  on 32-bit systems.

- Fixed bug in use_graphics_for option parsing that caused most options
  to set graphics mode for OS X and/or Linux but not other boot
  loaders/OSes.

- Tweaked install script to better isolate the ESP under OS X.

0.4.3 (6/21/2012):
------------------

- rEFInd now supports compilation using the TianoCore UDK2010/EDK2
  development kit in addition to GNU-EFI.

- Added new "use_graphics_for" option to control which OSes to boot in
  graphics mode. (This effect lasts for a fraction of a second on most
  systems, since the boot loader that rEFInd launches is likely to set
  graphics or text mode itself.)

- Graphics-mode booting now clears the screen to the current rEFInd
  background color (rather than black) and does NOT display boot messages.
  The intent is for a smoother transition when booting OS X, or perhaps
  other OSes that don't display boot loader messages. In practice, this
  effect will be tiny for many OSes, since the boot loader generally clears
  the screen within a fraction of a second of being launched; but the
  "flicker" of a rEFInd message in that time can sometimes be distracting.

- Filesystem drivers now work on EFI 1.x systems, such as Macs.

- Removed "linux.conf" as a valid alternative name for "refind_linux.conf"
  for holding Linux kernel options. The kernel developers plan to use
  "linux.conf" themselves.

0.4.2 (6/3/2012):
-----------------

- Added a message to install.sh when run on Macs to remind users to update
  the "scanfor" line in refind.conf if they need to boot BIOS-based OSes
  via rEFInd.

- Modified install.sh script to be smarter about running efibootmgr on
  Linux. It now uses the whole path to the rEFInd binary as a key to
  determine whether an existing entry exists, rather than just the filename
  portion. If an entry exists and is the first entry in the boot order, the
  script does nothing to the NVRAM entries. If such an entry exists but is
  not the default, the script deletes that entry and creates a new one
  (implicitly making it the first in the boot order). If such an entry does
  not exist, the script creates a new one (again, making it the first in
  the boot order).

- Added "dont_scan_dirs" configuration file option, which adds directories
  to a "blacklist" of directories that are NOT scanned for boot loaders.

0.4.1 (5/25/2012):
------------------

- Added "scanning for new boot loaders" message to the re-scan function
  (hitting Esc at the main menu). It usually flashes up too quickly to
  be of importance, but if the scan function takes a while because of
  access to a CD that must be spun up, it should make it clear that the
  system hasn't hung.

- Modified install.sh script to detect rEFItBlesser on Macs, and if
  present, to ask the user if it should be removed.

- Cleaned up the Make.common file for the filesystem drivers.

- Changed HFS+ driver to return volume label of "HFS+ volume" rather than
  an empty label. (The driver doesn't currently read the real volume
  label.)

- Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to appear in its own menu after
  running a shell and then re-scanning for boot loaders.

0.4.0 (5/20/2012):
------------------

- Inclusion of drivers for ISO-9660, HFS+, ReiserFS, and ext2fs. Most of
  these drivers originated with rEFIt, although the HFS+ driver seems to
  have come from Oracle's VirtualBox, with some files from Apple. I hadn't
  included these drivers previously because the build process proved
  challenging. As it is, they don't work on my Mac Mini, I suspect because
  the build process with the UDK2010 development kit may not work with the
  EFI 1.x that Apple uses.

- Addition of support for drivers in the "drivers_{arch}" subdirectory of
  the main rEFInd binary directory (e.g., "drivers_x64" or "drivers_ia32").
  Drivers may continue to be placed in the "drivers" subdirectory.

- Added new feature to eject CDs (and other removable media): Press F12 to
  eject all such media. This function works only on some Macs, though (it
  relies on an Apple-specific EFI extension, and this extension isn't even
  implemented on all Macs, much less on UEFI-based PCs).

- Fixed a problem that could cause GRUB 2 to fail to read its configuration
  file when launched from rEFInd.

0.3.5 (5/15/2012):
------------------

- Removed the GRUB 2 detection "reciped" added with 0.3.2, since I've
  received reports that it's not working as intended.

- Added re-scan feature: Press the Esc key to have rEFInd re-read its 
  configuration file, tell the EFI to scan for new filesystems, and re-scan
  those filesystems for boot loaders. The main purpose is to enable
  scanning a new removable medium that you insert after launching rEFInd;
  however, it can also be used to immediately implement changes to the
  configuration file or new drivers you load from an EFI shell.

- Fixed a bug that could cause the scroll-right arrow to be replaced by the
  scroll-left arrow under some circumstances.

0.3.4 (5/9/2012):
-----------------

- Added new configuration file option: "icons_dir", which sets the name
  of the subdirectory in which icons are found. See the documentation or
  sample configuration file for a full description.

- Modified Makefile to generate rEFInd binary that includes architecture
  code -- refind_ia32.efi or refind_x64.efi, rather than the generic
  refind.efi. This is done mainly to help the install.sh script. The
  program can be named anything you like on the disk. (The generic name
  refind.efi is used on unknown architectures.)

- Improved install.sh script: Fixed bug on OS X 10.7 and enable it to be
  used after building from source code (or via new "make install" Makefile
  target).

- Improved screen redraws to produce less flicker when moving among the
  second-row tags or to the last tag on the first row.

0.3.3 (5/6/2012):
-----------------

- Improved menu navigation:
  - In graphics mode, left & right arrow keys move left & right, while up &
    down arrows move between rows.
  - Page Up and Page Down now move through chunks of visible tags (in both
    text & graphics modes), jumping from one row to another only when at
    the edge of the row. In text mode, the "rows" are broken down as in
    graphics mode, but they aren't visibly distinguished on the screen.

- Improved text-mode use: rEFInd now displays the proper number of entries
  when first started in text mode and scrolling is done sensibly when too
  many entries exist to fit on the screen.

0.3.2 (5/4/2012):
-----------------

- Added the install.sh script to install rEFInd on Linux and Mac OS X
  systems. This script must be run as root (or via sudo). It requires
  no options, but on Mac OS X, passing it the "esp" option causes it
  to install rEFInd on the computer's ESP rather than the default of the
  currently OS X boot partition. (Under Linux, the default is to install to
  the ESP.) Note that there may be some unusual cases in which this script
  will fail to work.

- Does a better job of clearing the screen when launching OSes in text
  mode.

- Added detection "recipe" for GRUB 2's BIOS Boot Partition.

- Fixed bogus detection of ESPs created by Linux's mkdosfs utility or
  Windows as  bootable partitions when "scanfor" includes BIOS scanning
  options.


0.3.1 (4/27/2012):
------------------

- Fixed bug that caused spurious "Unsupported while scanning the root
  directory" messages under some conitions on Macs.

- Modified loader scanning code to sort boot loader entries within a
  directory by modification time, so that the most recently-modified loader
  is first among those in a given directory. Thus, if you specify a
  directory name (or volume name, for loaders stored in the root directory
  of a volume) as the default_selection, the most recent of those loaders
  will be the default. This is intended to help with Linux kernel
  maintenance when using the EFI stub loader; set up this way, the most
  recent kernel copied to your kernel directory will be the default,
  obviating the need to adjust the refind.conf file when adding a new
  kernel. If you want to change the default among those in the default
  directory, you can use "touch" to adjust the modification timestamp.

- Tweaked code to find loader-specific .icns file so that it finds files
  for Linux kernels without .efi extensions. In this case, files should be
  named the same as the kernels they match, but with .icns extensions. For
  instance, bzImage-3.3.2 should have an icon called bzImage-3.3.2.icns.
  (The old code would have looked for an icon called bzImage-3.3.icns.)

- Eliminated bogus OS loader tags for filenames that end in ".icns" when
  the scan_all_linux_kernels option is set.

0.3.0 (4/22/2012):
------------------

- I'm officially upgrading this project's status from "alpha" to "beta" and
  giving it a bump from 0.2.x to 0.3.0. This doesn't reflect any major
  milestone with this version; rather, it reflects my sense that rEFInd has
  been "out there" for a while, and although I've gotten bug reports,
  they've been minor and/or have been fixed. The program still has known
  bugs, but my impression is that it is, overall, usable by ordinary users.

- Added "resolution" option to refind.conf, which enables setting the video
  resolution. To use it, pass two numeric values, as in "resolution 1024
  768" to use a 1024x768 video mode. Note that not all modes are supported.
  If you specify a non-supported video mode on a UEFI system, a message
  appears listing the supported video modes and you must then press a key
  to continue, using the default video mode (usually 800x600).
  Unfortunately, I don't know the calls to get a list of supported video
  modes on older EFI 1.x systems (including Macs), so on Macs setting an
  incorrect video mode silently fails (you keep using the default mode).
  This makes changing your video mode a hit-or-miss proposition on Macs.
  CAUTION: It's possible to set a legal video mode that your monitor can't
  handle, in which case you'll get a blank display until you boot an OS
  that resets the video mode.

- Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused rEFInd to crash when returning from an
  EFI shell or other programs on Macs, particularly when rEFInd used
  graphical mode. I'm not 100% sure this bug is squashed because I still
  don't understand the cause and I only have one Mac for testing. See
  comments in the ReinitRefitLib() function in refit/lib.c for more
  details.

- Added new refind.conf option: scan_all_linux_kernels, which causes Linux
  kernels that lack ".efi" extensions to be included in scans for EFI boot
  loaders. This may help integration with Linux distributions that don't
  give their kernels such names by default. Beware, though: It can detect
  unwanted files, such as older non-stub-loader kernels or .icns files used
  to give kernels with .efi extensions custom icons.

- Improved EFI boot loader detection on boards with Gigabyte's Hybrid EFI,
  and perhaps other EFIs with a buggy StriCmp() function. Files with both
  ".efi" and ".EFI" extensions should now be detected as boot loaders.

- Fixed a bug that caused rEFInd to fail to scan for drivers if the
  filesystem driver didn't set a volume name (that is, if the relevant
  field was set to NULL rather than even an empty string). In such
  situations, rEFInd now reports the volume name as "Unknown".

0.2.7 (4/19/2012):
------------------

- After much trial and tribulation, I've overcome a GNU-EFI limitation and
  enabled rEFInd to load EFI drivers. This feature was present in the
  original build of rEFIt but was removed in the versions that could
  compile under Linux, but now it's back -- and still being compiled under
  Linux! To use it, you should place your drivers in a convenient directory
  on the ESP (or whatever partition you use to launch rEFInd) and add a
  "scan_driver_dirs" entry to refind.conf to tell rEFInd where to look. (As
  always, you should specify the driver directory relative to the root of
  the filesystem.) Note that you can't launch drivers from another
  filesystem; they must be on the same volume that holds rEFInd. Those who
  compile from source code should note that implementing this feature
  necessitated using a more recent version of the GNU-EFI library. I'm
  currently using version 3.0p, and version 3.0i does NOT work. I don't
  know where the change occurred, but you may need to upgrade your GNU-EFI
  installation.

- Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to show up in its own menu sometimes.

- Added new refind.conf token: also_scan_dirs. When scanning volumes for
  EFI boot loaders, rEFInd always scans the root directory and every
  subdirectory of the /EFI directory, but it doesn't recurse into these
  directories. The also_scan_dirs token adds more directories to the scan
  list. It defaults to "elilo,boot", but you can set it to any directory or
  directories you like.

0.2.6 (4/14/2012):
------------------

- Added "volume" keyword to configuration file's stanza options. This
  option changes the volume from which subsequent files (specified by
  "loader" and "icon") are loaded. You pass "volume" the name/label of the
  FILESYSTEM you want to use (not the GPT partition name), or a number
  followed by a colon (e.g., "1:"). The former should reliably identify a
  filesystem, assuming the name is unique. The latter assigns numbers based
  on the order in which they're scanned, which may not be as reliable but
  should work when a volume is unnamed.

- Fixed bug in 0.2.5 that caused failure of Linux initial RAM disk
  mapping on some (but not all) systems. Affected computers include at
  least some Intel motherboards, maybe others.

0.2.5 (4/9/2012):
-----------------

- Fixed bug that caused an inability to associate initial RAM disks with
  Linux kernels stored in a volume's root directory.

- Volume badges (that override default badges) are now stored in
  .VolumeBadge.icns. Although undocumented, rEFInd formerly loaded custom
  volume badges from .VolumeIcon.icns. This carryover from rEFIt was a
  confusing name, given the next (new) feature, so I've changed and
  documented the name....

- Added ability to set a default icon for a loader stored in the root
  directory of a volume: The icon is stored in .VolumeIcon.icns. This icon
  is also used for Mac OS X volumes booted from the standard location.

- Fixed bug that caused icons to drop back to generic icons when rEFInd
  was launched in certain ways (such as from an EFI shell in rEFInd's
  directory) on certain systems.

- Fixed bug that caused "unknown disable flag" to be shown (very briefly)
  instead of "unknown hideui flag" when an improper hideui flag was set.

0.2.4 (4/5/2012):
-----------------

- Created new refind.conf entry: "showtools". This entry takes options of
  "shell", "gptsync", "about", "exit", "reboot", and "shutdown". This
  option is in some respects an affirmative version of portions of the old
  "disable" and "hideui" options; however, it enables users to specify the
  order in which these options appear on the screen. Also, the "exit"
  option is new; it terminates the program. The effect is usually to return
  to whatever tool launched it or to launch a default OS; however, this is
  somewhat unpredictable. The default therefore omits the "exit" option, as
  well as "gptsync", which has always been dangerous (but necessary on most
  MacOS/Windows dual-boot setups on Macs). As part of this reconfiguration,
  I've eliminated the "rescue Linux" option, which always seemed pointless
  to me.

- Folded "disable" and "hideui" refind.conf entries into one ("disable"),
  and reduced the number of options to six: "banner", "label",
  "singleuser", "hwtest", "arrows", and "all". ("arrows" is new and
  disables the scroll arrows when a system has too many tags to display
  simultaneously.)

- Added max_tags option to the refind.conf file, enabling users to reduce
  the maximum number of OS loader tags that can be displayed at once.

- Updated rEFIt icon, based on the 128x128 volume label from the rEFIt CD
  image.

- Added x86 and x86-64 EFI shells to the CD image version of the binary,
  but NOT to the binary zip file. The logic is that the CD image is more
  likely to be used directly as an emergency disc and so may need this
  feature, even though the source isn't part of the rEFInd project. (The
  source is readily available from the TianoCore project.)

- EFI shells may now be stored at /shellx64.efi for x86-64 systems or at
  /shellia32.efi for x86 systems. The /EFI/tools/shell.efi name is also
  recognized; however, if both files are present, two EFI shell icons will
  appear on the main menu. The /efi/{refind-path/apps/shell.efi filename,
  which was never officially documented but worked as a carryover from
  rEFIt, is no longer valid.

0.2.3 (3/26/2012):
------------------

- Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused hangs when launching a second program
  after returning from a first. There are some weird system-to-system
  differences, though, and this fix causes (apparently harmless) error
  messages about "(re)opening our installation volume" on at least one
  system (a 32-bit Mac Mini). I'm committing this change because, imperfect
  though it is, it's preferable to the earlier version, at least on my
  small sample of computers.

- Because of news that the Linux kernel developers are planning to use the
  filename linux.conf to hold Linux kernel configuration data for EFI
  booting, I'm transitioning rEFInd away from that name and to
  refind_linux.conf to avoid a conflict. This version can use either name,
  with refind_linux.conf taking precedence if both are present.

- Added logo for Arch Linux.

0.2.2 (3/23/2012):
------------------

- Fixed bug that caused program failure when Linux kernels with EFI stub
  support were detected with no associated version numbers. rEFInd now
  permits automatic linking of *ONE* versionless kernel to *ONE*
  versionless initrd file.

- Fixed bug that caused program hangs when a boot loader filename or label
  was too long. Such names are now properly truncated and program execution
  continues.

- Fixed bug that caused no text to appear in submenus on UEFI systems with
  small screens (800x600). NOTE: Problem still occurs on screens smaller
  than this, but such systems are very rare.

0.2.1 (3/19/2012):
------------------

- Added ability to set a "default_selection" that's a title or a substring
  of one -- the name given to a stanza in a "menuentry" or the boot
  loader's filename, in most cases, although "Mac OS X", "Windows XP
  (XoM)", and "Microsoft EFI boot" are also titles.

- Added support for semi-automatic scans of Linux kernels with EFI stub
  loader support. The program auto-detects matching initial RAM disk files
  and loads additional options from the "linux.conf" file in the same
  directory as the kernel.

- Added support for "submenuentry" keyword and associated sub-stanza
  entries in refind.conf file.

- Renamed icons/os_mint.icns to icons/os_linuxmint.icns to match the
  filename Linux Mint ACTUALLY uses for its ESP boot loader directory.


0.2.0 (3/14/2012):
------------------

- Initial public release