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