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1 0.7.6 (11/??/2013):
2 -------------------
3
4 - Added --ownhfs {target} option to install.sh. This option causes rEFInd
5 to install to an HFS+ partition in a way that's more consistent with the
6 way the Mac's native boot loader is installed. Note that you should NOT
7 install to an already-bootable partition with this option, since it will
8 overwrite the existing boot loader, which would render OS X unbootable.
9
10 0.7.5 (11/10/2013):
11 -------------------
12
13 - Fixed bug that caused unbootable exFAT partitions to show up as
14 bootable on Macs with BIOS/CSM/legacy boot options enabled.
15
16 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused installs to the ESP on recent
17 versions of OS X to fail.
18
19 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to hang on some Macs when multiple EFI
20 drivers were present.
21
22 - Fixed bug that caused clear to default gray screen when launching OSes
23 with 'use_graphics_for' enabled, even when the rEFInd background is not
24 gray. Now rEFInd clears to the same background color used in its menu.
25 When launching OS X, though, the OS X boot loader will itself clear to
26 gray a second or so later; and when launching Linux, it will clear to
27 black a second or so later.
28
29 0.7.4.1 (8/25/2013):
30 --------------------
31
32 - My initial 0.7.4 release broke legacy-boot ability on Macs, so I quickly
33 released this version using the original 0.7.4 filenames to fix the
34 problem.
35
36 0.7.4 (8/25/2013):
37 ------------------
38
39 - Fixed options passing to loader to include loader's filename as the first
40 option. This omission had no effect on most boot loaders, but caused
41 VMware's mboot64.efi to fail.
42
43 - Added support for memtest86 as second-row option. Program must be
44 stored in EFI/tools, EFI/tools/memtest, EFI/tools/memtest86, EFI/memtest,
45 or EFI/memtest86; and must use the name memtest86.efi, memtest86_x64.efi,
46 memtest86x64.efi, or bootx64.efi (changing "x64" to "ia32" on IA-32
47 systems). The memtest86 program is scanned for when the "showtools"
48 option includes the "memtest" or "memtest86" token, which it does by
49 default.
50
51 - Added space to end of "Boot %s from %s" string; enables adding a space
52 to the end of the "default_selection" item (in quotes) to set a default
53 that matches a volume name that's identical to another one except for
54 extra characters at the end of the non-wanted volume's name.
55
56 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to hang when launching boot loaders
57 under some conditions. (Launching from Firewire drives on Macs is the
58 known case, but there may be others.)
59
60 0.7.3 (8/7/2013):
61 -----------------
62
63 - Fixed bug that caused missing media-type badges on BIOS-mode boot
64 loaders on Macs.
65
66 - Fixed bug that caused failure when launching BIOS-mode OSes on Macs.
67
68 0.7.2 (8/6/2013):
69 -----------------
70
71 - Fixed bug that caused display glitches in the final entry on the first
72 row of icons if the second row of icons was empty.
73
74 - Fixed bug that could cause incorrect scanning or even a rEFInd crash when
75 using volume specification in also_scan_dirs token.
76
77 - Added protection against loading invalid drivers and other EFI programs.
78 (Some EFIs crash when attempting to load such drivers and programs.)
79
80 - Added PreLoader.efi and shim-fedora.efi to default dont_scan_files list;
81 it's now "shim.efi, shim-fedora.efi, PreLoader.efi, TextMode.efi,
82 ebounce.efi, GraphicsConsole.efi, MokManager.efi, HashTool.efi,
83 HashTool-signed.efi".
84
85 - Added icon for Funtoo Linux.
86
87 - Fixed reading of volume badges from user-specified icons directory, which
88 was broken.
89
90 - Fixed handling of /.VolumeBadge.icns (or /.VolumeBadge.png) files, which
91 was broken.
92
93 0.7.1 (7/8/2013):
94 -----------------
95
96 - Fixed build problem with recent development versions of EDK2.
97
98 - Added scan for Boot Repair's backup of the Windows boot loader
99 (bkpbootmgfw.efi). If found, give separate entries for it and for
100 bootmgfw.efi, each with its own descriptive text label.
101
102 - Fixed also_scan_dirs; used to have bug that caused it to ignore
103 volume specification, if present.
104
105 - Fixed bug in driver cache that caused Btrfs driver to hang sometimes.
106
107 0.7.0 (6/27/2013):
108 ------------------
109
110 - Added Btrfs signature to rEFInd, so that it can identify the filesystem
111 type for volumes that lack labels.
112
113 - Changed some critical filesystem driver pointers from 32-bit to 64-bit.
114 This *SHOULD* enable use of over-2TiB filesystems (for those filesystems
115 that support such large volumes). This capability is largely untested,
116 though.
117
118 - Added a cache to the filesystem driver core, and therefore to all the
119 filesystem drivers. This cache greatly improves performance in
120 VirtualBox, and offers modest performance improvements on a few "real"
121 computers. The most dramatic improvement is on ext2/3fs under VirtualBox:
122 Loading a kernel and initrd used to take ~200 seconds on my system, but
123 now takes ~3 seconds! On most "real" hardware, the improvement is much
124 less dramatic -- an improvement of a second or less, presumably because
125 of cacheing within the EFI or on the hard disk itself.
126
127 - Filter boot loaders based on a test of their validity; keeps out Linux
128 kernels without EFI stub loader code, loaders for the wrong architecture,
129 non-EFI loaders, etc.
130
131 - New Btrfs driver, contributed by Samuel Liao based on GRUB 2.00 Btrfs
132 code.
133
134 0.6.12 (6/18/2013):
135 -------------------
136
137 - Changed the 64-bit EFI shell included in the CD-R and USB flash drive
138 images to a version 2 shell that should support the "bcfg" command.
139
140 - Added support for PreBootloader to refind.spec's built-in installation
141 script.
142
143 - Added support for the Linux Foundation's PreLoader to install.sh. It's
144 treated just like shim, including using the --shim option (or, now,
145 --preloader); but it searches for and copies HashTool.efi rather than
146 MokManager.efi, and filenames are adjusted appropriately.
147
148 - Added code to determine Linux root filesystem from /etc/fstab file, if
149 it's on the same partition as the kernel and if the refind_linux.conf
150 file is not available. This enables rEFInd to boot Linux without any
151 rEFInd-specific configuration files on some (but not all) systems.
152
153 0.6.11 (5/13/2013):
154 -------------------
155
156 - New feature: rEFInd now ignores symbolic links to files on filesystems
157 that support them. This prevents the "vmlinuz" symbolic link that some
158 distributions create in the root directory from appearing in the loader
159 list. Note that this does NOT affect symbolic links to directories.
160
161 - Added icons for Lubuntu and Kubuntu.
162
163 - Improved the install.sh script so that it does a better job dealing with
164 directory names that contain spaces.
165
166 - rEFInd now tries to guess the Linux distribution type based on the kernel
167 filename (Fedora and RHEL only) or the "ID" or "NAME" variables in
168 /etc/os-release on the kernel's partition. None of these is guaranteed to
169 work. A fallback of the Tux penguin icon remains in place in case rEFInd
170 can't find anything substantive enough for a guess.
171
172 - Added "EFI\opensuse" to the locations searched for MOK utilities, since
173 OpenSUSE now uses that name.
174
175 - Renamed "Reboot to Firmware User Interface" to "Reboot to Computer Setup
176 Utility" in menu.
177
178 - Fixed bug in gptsync that caused it to hang if the disk had too few GPT
179 partitions to fill the MBR.
180
181 0.6.10 (5/5/2013):
182 ------------------
183
184 - Added support for "screensaver" token. If set to a positive integer, this
185 causes the screen to blank after the specified number of seconds of
186 inactivity. Pressing most keys (unfortunately NOT including Shift, Alt,
187 or Ctrl) will restore the display and restart the screen saver timeout.
188
189 - Added icon for ChromeOS (os_chrome.icns in the icons subdirectory).
190 ChromeBooks reportedly boots using the fallback filename, but if a user
191 wants to install rEFInd on a ChromeBook, renaming the original EFI/BOOT
192 directory to EFI/chrome and then installing rEFInd in the fallback
193 filename will bring up this new icon for ChromeOS.
194
195 - Added new option to reboot the computer into the firmware's user
196 interface. This option is active by default, or can be set via the
197 "firmware" option to the "showtools" token in refind.conf. It works
198 on only some computers, though; older computers lack this feature, and
199 when rEFInd is told to use this feature on such computers, the directive
200 is quietly ignored.
201
202 - Upgraded LodePNG library from version 20121216 to 20130415 and
203 restructured rEFInd-specific modifications to simplify future upgrades.
204
205 - Replaced hexadecimal error code with description if an error is
206 encountered when saving a screen shot.
207
208 - Enable multiple screen shots: Rather than naming all screen shots
209 "screenshot.bmp", the name is now "screenshot_###.bmp", where "###" is a
210 sequence number, starting with "001".
211
212 0.6.9 (4/25/2013):
213 ------------------
214
215 - Modified default banner to include the new rEFInd icon, provided by Erik
216 Kemperman.
217
218 - Worked around a suspected firmware bug that caused rEFInd 0.6.6 to 0.6.8
219 to hang at startup on some systems (DUET and some Macs).
220
221 - Modified rEFInd to search for gptsync under the names gptsync.efi and
222 gptsync_{arch}.efi, where {arch} is ia32 or x64. (Previous versions
223 searched only for gptsync.efi.)
224
225 - Added gptsync program from rEFIt project, but with some changes to
226 improve flexibility and make it less likely that UEFI users will
227 accidentally trash their systems.
228
229 - Changed timeout code so that the timeout continues if the keyboard is
230 disconnected. This can help in booting a headless server or a system with
231 a bluetooth or other keyboard that's not recognized by the EFI.
232
233 0.6.8 (3/18/2013):
234 ------------------
235
236 - Added workaround for presumed EFI bug that was causing "Invalid
237 Parameter" errors when scanning for boot loaders on some computers.
238
239 - Added search for an EFI shell called shell.efi in the root directory
240 (previously this name was only accepted in EFI\tools).
241
242 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused it to fail on some systems (Fedora
243 18, for instance) because of a problem identifying the ESP.
244
245 - Fixed bug that caused icons named after boot loaders to not be used.
246
247 0.6.7 (2/3/2013):
248 -----------------
249
250 - Added a more explicit error message summarizing options when a launch of
251 a program results in a Secure Boot failure.
252
253 - Changed MOK tool detection to scan all volumes, not just the rEFInd
254 home volume. This is desirable because the Linux Foundation's HashTool
255 can only scan its own volume, making it desirable to place copies of this
256 program on every volume that holds EFI boot loader binaries.
257
258 - Added support for launching the Linux Foundation HashTool as a means of
259 managing MOKs (or MOK hashes, at any rate).
260
261 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to present an entry for itself as a
262 Microsoft OS if it was launched as EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi.
263
264 - Fixed bug that caused dont_scan_volumes option to be added to
265 also_scan_dirs list.
266
267 - Fixed dont_scan_volumes so that it works with OS X boot loaders.
268
269 - Fixed broken mixing of PNG and ICNS icons when using a user-specified
270 icons directory -- previously, an ICNS file in the default directory
271 would override a PNG file in the user-specified directory.
272
273 0.6.6 (1/26/2013):
274 ------------------
275
276 - rEFInd now ignores the fallback boot loader (EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi or
277 EFI/BOOT/bootia32.efi) if it's identical to another boot loader on
278 the same volume. This is intended to help unclutter the display on
279 systems that run Windows, since Windows tends to duplicate its own boot
280 loader under the fallback name.
281
282 - Added new "font" token to refind.conf, which enables specifying a font in
283 the form of a PNG file. This file must contain monospace glyphs for the
284 95 characters from ASCII 32 to 126 (space through tilde), inclusive, plus
285 a glyph to be displayed for characters outside of this range, for a total
286 of 96 glyphs.
287
288 - Replaced the old font (inherited from rEFInd) with an anti-aliased
289 version of Luxi Mono Regular 14 point.
290
291 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to ignore manual boot stanzas in files
292 included via the "include" token in refind.conf.
293
294 - Fixed bug that caused ASSERT error on some systems (and conceivably a
295 crash on startup on some) when default_selection line in refind.conf was
296 commented out or empty.
297
298 - Fixed bug that caused "Binary is whitelisted" message to persist on
299 screen after loading MOK-signed drivers in Secure Boot mode.
300
301 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to ignore the "icon" token in refind.conf
302 manual boot stanzas.
303
304 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused the script to fail to update
305 drivers when rEFInd was installed in EFI/BOOT/.
306
307 0.6.5 (1/16/2013):
308 ------------------
309
310 - Improved text color support: rEFInd now uses black text against light
311 backgrounds and white text against dark backgrounds.
312
313 - Added support for PNGs as banners, icons, and selectors.
314
315 - Added icon for ALT Linux.
316
317 - Added "safemode" option to "hideui" token, to hide option to boot into
318 safe mode for OS X ("-v -x" option to boot.efi).
319
320 - Added icon for Haiku (os_haiku.icns).
321
322 - Enable transparency of icons & main-menu text when the banner icon is
323 sized to cover these areas.
324
325 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to crash if fed a banner image that's
326 too big. Note that "too big" can be substantially smaller than the screen
327 resolution!
328
329 0.6.4 (1/8/2013):
330 -----------------
331
332 - Revised install.sh to copy ext2fs driver, rather than ext4fs driver, for
333 ext2/3 filesystems. This can help keep non-functional entries from links
334 from /vmlinuz to /boot/vmlinuz out of the menu if the system uses ext4fs
335 on root and ext2fs or ext3fs on /boot.
336
337 - Fixed a couple of memory management bugs that cause rEFInd to hang at
338 startup on some systems.
339
340 0.6.3 (1/6/2013):
341 -----------------
342
343 - Added the ability to specify a volume name or number in the
344 "dont_scan_dirs" and "also_scan_dirs" tokens.
345
346 - Fixed a bug that caused removable EFI media to not appear in scan lists
347 if rEFInd was installed as EFI/BOOT/boot{arch}.efi on a hard disk.
348
349 - Modified ISO-9660 driver so that it can handle discs with other than
350 2048-byte sectors. This makes it useful for reading "hybrid ISO" images
351 burned to USB flash disks.
352
353 - New mvrefind.sh script to move a rEFInd installation between a standard
354 location (typically EFI/refind) and one of the fallback locations
355 (EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot). It can also do more exotic locations.
356
357 - The install.sh script now installs to EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi or
358 EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi if it's run in BIOS mode. This is
359 intended to give some chance of producing a bootable installation should
360 a user accidentally install Linux in EFI mode and then install rEFInd
361 from that installation.
362
363 - The install.sh script now tries to find an existing rEFInd installation
364 and upgrade it, even if it's in EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot rather
365 than in EFI/refind.
366
367 - New "--yes" option to install.sh to help with unattended or automated
368 installations (as from an RPM or Debian package).
369
370 0.6.2 (12/30/2012):
371 -------------------
372
373 - Inclusion of a sample refind.spec file for the benefit of RPM
374 distribution maintainers who might want to include rEFInd. It's a bit
375 rough, but it gets you a good chunk of the way there....
376
377 - The EFI filesystem drivers can now be built with the GNU-EFI toolkit as
378 well as with the TianoCore EDK2. See the BUILDING.txt file for details on
379 how to build them with either toolkit. This improvement doesn't affect
380 users of my binary packages, but it should make it easier for Linux
381 distributions to adopt rEFInd into their package systems.
382
383 - Tweaked refind.inf file for better build results using "native" TianoCore
384 EDK2 build process (vs. the Makefile-based build process that I use under
385 Linux). This won't affect those who use my binary builds or build under
386 Linux with the "make" command.
387
388 - Fixed bug that prevented Secure Boot launches from working when rEFInd
389 was built with GNU-EFI rather than the TianoCore EDK2.
390
391 - Substantial reworking of Secure Boot code, based on James Bottomley's
392 PreLoader program. This new code eliminates the limitation of launching
393 just one driver in Secure Boot mode and is likely to be more reliable
394 with future or obscure boot loaders. It should also work with non-x86-64
395 systems, although this relies on a platform-specific shim program, which
396 to date exists only for x86-64. The basic features are the same as before
397 -- rEFInd relies on shim for authentication functions and will launch
398 programs that are signed by Secure Boot keys, shim keys, or MOKs.
399
400 - Altered default for "textmode" option (when it's commented out) to not
401 adjust the text mode at all. (Prior versions set it to mode 0 by
402 default.)
403
404 0.6.1 (12/21/2012):
405 -------------------
406
407 - Added "--root" option to install.sh, to enable installation of rEFInd
408 to something other than the currently-running OS. This is intended for
409 use on emergency discs.
410
411 - Thanks to Stefan Agner, the ext4fs driver now supports the "meta_bg"
412 filesystem feature, which distributes metadata throughout the disk. This
413 feature isn't used by default, but can be set at filesystem creation time
414 by passing the "-O meta_bg,^resize_inode" option to mke2fs. (Using
415 "^resize_inode" is necessary because meta_bg is incompatible with
416 resize_inode, which IS used by default.) This feature can be used on
417 ext3fs and ext2fs as well as on ext4fs, so the ext4fs driver can now
418 handle some ext3fs and ext2fs partitions that the ext2fs driver can't
419 handle.
420
421 - Fixed some screen resolution-setting bugs.
422
423 - Added the "words" that make up a filesystem's label (delimited by spaces,
424 dashes, or underscores) to the list of bases used to search for OS icons.
425 For instance, if the filesystem's label is "Arch", rEFInd searches for
426 os_Arch.icns; if it's "Fedora 17", it searches for os_Fedora.icns and
427 os_17.icns; and if it's "NEW_GENTOO", it searches for os_NEW.icns and
428 os_GENTOO.icns.
429
430 - Refined hints displays to be more context-sensitive, particularly in text
431 mode.
432
433 - Instead of displaying a blank filesystem label when a filesystem has
434 none, rEFInd now displays the size and/or type of the filesystem, as in
435 "boot EFI\foo\bar.efi from 200 MiB ext3 volume" rather than "boot
436 EFI\foo\bar.efi from".
437
438 - Fixed a bug that caused the screen to clear after displaying an error
439 message but before displaying the "Hit any key to continue" message when
440 a boot loader launch failed.
441
442 0.6.0 (12/16/2012):
443 -------------------
444
445 - Fixed a memory allocation bug that could cause a program crash when
446 specifying certain values with the "also_scan_dirs", "dont_scan_volumes",
447 "dont_scan_dirs", "dont_scan_files", and "scan_driver_dirs" refind.conf
448 options.
449
450 - Modified Linux kernel initrd-finding code so that if an initrd is
451 specified in refind_linux.conf, rEFInd will not add any initrd it finds.
452 This enables an override of the default initrd, and is likely to be
453 particularly helpful to Arch Linux users.
454
455 - Added ext4fs driver!
456
457 - Made "boot" the default value for "also_scan_dirs".
458
459 - Added identifying screen header to line editor.
460
461 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd's display to be mis-sized upon return
462 from a program that set the resolution itself.
463
464 - Adjusted "resolution" refind.conf parameter so that it can accept EITHER
465 a resolution as width and height OR a single digit as a UEFI mode number
466 (which is system-specific). This is done because some systems present the
467 same mode twice in their mode lists, perhaps varying in refresh rate,
468 monitor output, or some other salient characteristics; specifying the
469 mode number enables selecting the higher-numbered mode, whereas using
470 horizontal and vertical resolution values selects the lowest-numbered
471 mode.
472
473 - Added "textmode" refind.conf parameter to set the text mode used in
474 text-only displays, and for the line editor and boot-time handoff
475 display even in graphics mode.
476
477 - Fixed bug that caused tools (shell, etc.) to launch when they were
478 highlighted and F2 or Insert was pressed.
479
480 - Added "editor" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf, which
481 disables the boot options editor.
482
483 - Added hints text to rEFInd main menu and sub-menus. This can be disabled
484 by setting the new "hints" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf.
485
486 - Added "boot with minimal options" entry to refind_linux.conf file
487 generated by install.sh. This entry boots without the options extracted
488 from the /etc/default/grub file.
489
490 - Added keys subdirectory to main distribution, to hold public Secure
491 Boot/shim keys from known sources.
492
493 - Changed install.sh --drivers option to --alldrivers, added new
494 --nodrivers option, and made the default on Linux to install the one
495 driver that's used on /boot (or the root filesystem if /boot isn't a
496 separate partition). Of course, this won't install a non-existent driver,
497 and it also won't work properly if run from an emergency disk unless you
498 mount a separate /boot partition at that location.
499
500 - Fixed bug in install.sh that prevented creation of refind_linux.conf file
501 on Linux systems.
502
503 0.5.1.1 (12/12/2012):
504 ---------------------
505
506 - Fixed bug in install.sh that prevented it from working on OS X.
507
508 0.5.1 (12/11/2012):
509 -------------------
510
511 - Added support for "0" options to "textonly" and "scan_all_linux_kernels"
512 to reverse the usual meaning of these tokens. This is useful for
513 including these options in a secondary configuration file called with the
514 new "include" token to override a setting set in the main file.
515
516 - Added "include" token for refind.conf, to enable including a secondary
517 configuration file from a primary one.
518
519 - Modified install.sh so that it creates a simple refind_linux.conf file in
520 /boot, if that file doesn't already exist and if install.sh is run from
521 Linux. If that directory happens to be on a FAT, HFS+, ext2fs, ext3fs, or
522 ReiserFS volume, and if the necessary drivers are installed, the result
523 is that rEFInd will detect the Linux installation with no further
524 configuration on many systems. (Some may still require tweaking of kernel
525 options, though; for instance, adding "dolvm" on Gentoo systems that use
526 LVM.)
527
528 - Added --shim and --localkeys options to install.sh to help simplify setup
529 on systems with Secure Boot active.
530
531 - Fixed (maybe) bug that caused resolution options to not be displayed on
532 recent Macs with GOP graphics when specifying an invalid resolution in
533 refind.conf.
534
535 - Fixed bug that caused some programs (EFI shells, in particular) to hang
536 when launching on some systems (DUET, in particular).
537
538 - Implemented a fix to enable ELILO to launch with Secure Boot active.
539 This fix might help with some other boot loaders in Secure Boot mode,
540 too, but I don't know of any specifics.
541
542 0.5.0 (12/6/2012):
543 ------------------
544
545 - Added the ability to include quote marks ('"') in refind.conf and
546 refind_linux.conf tokens by doubling them up, as in:
547 "ro root=/dev/sda4 some_value=""this is it"""
548 This example results in the following string being passed as an
549 option:
550 ro root=/dev/sda4 some_value="this is it"
551
552 - Changed refind.conf-sample to uncomment the scan_all_linux_kernels
553 option by default. If this option is deleted or commented out, the
554 program default remains to not scan all Linux kernels; but with
555 increasing numbers of distributions shipping with kernels that include
556 EFI stub loader support, setting the configuration file default to scan
557 for them makes sense.
558
559 - Modified the "resolution" token so that it affects text mode as well
560 as graphics mode. On my systems, though, the actual text area is still
561 restricted to an 80x25 area. (This seems to be a firmware limitation; my
562 EFI shells are also so limited.)
563
564 - Fixed a bug that caused the options line editor to blank out lines that
565 were not actually edited.
566
567 - Added support for using Matthew Garrett's Shim program and its Machine
568 Owner Keys (MOKs) to extend Secure Boot capabilities. If rEFInd is
569 launched from Shim on a computer with Secure Boot active, rEFInd will
570 launch programs signed with either a standard UEFI Secure Boot key or a
571 MOK. For the moment, this feature works only on x86-64 systems.
572
573 - Added new "dont_scan_files" (aka "don't_scan_files") token for
574 refind.conf. The effect is similar to dont_scan_dirs, but it creates a
575 blacklist of filenames within directories rather than directory names.
576 I'm initially using it to place shim.efi and MokManager.efi in the
577 blacklist to keep these programs out of the OS list. (MokManager.efi is
578 scanned separately as a tool; see below.) I've moved checks for
579 ebounce.efi, GraphicsConsole.efi, and TextMode.efi to this list. (These
580 three had previously been blacklisted by hard-coding in ScanLoaderDir().)
581
582 - Added the directory from which rEFInd launched to dont_scan_dirs. This
583 works around a bug in which rEFInd would show itself as a bogus Windows
584 entry if it's installed as EFI/Microsoft/boot/bootmgfw.efi.
585
586 - Added support for launching MokManager.efi for managing the Machine Owner
587 Keys (MOKs) maintained by the shim boot loader developed by Fedora and
588 SUSE. This program is scanned and presented as a second-row tool.
589
590 - Added support for Apple's Recovery HD partition: If it's detected, a new
591 icon appears on the second row. This icon can be removed by explicitly
592 setting the "showtools" option in refind.conf and excluding the
593 "apple_recovery" option from that line.
594
595 - Fixed bug that caused text-mode ("textonly" refind.conf option enabled)
596 menu entries to be right-aligned rather than left-aligned when rEFInd was
597 compiled with the TianoCore EDK2.
598
599 - Added "--usedefault {devicename}" and "--drivers" options to the
600 install.sh script and changed the "esp" option to "--esp".
601
602 0.4.7 (11/6/2012):
603 ------------------
604
605 - Added an icon for gummiboot.
606
607 - Added a boot option editor: Pressing the Insert or F2 key from a boot
608 tag's options menu opens a simple text-mode line editor on which the boot
609 options may be edited for a one-time boot with altered options.
610
611 - Modified the "scan_delay" feature to delay and then perform a re-scan,
612 which may work better than the first attempt at this feature (which I'm
613 told isn't working as planned).
614
615 - Modified rEFInd to add a space after the command-line options only when
616 launching Mac OS X. On some early Macs, the extra space (which had been
617 present by default, as a carryover from rEFIt) causes problems when
618 booting Linux kernels from FAT partitions.
619
620 0.4.6 (10/6/2012):
621 ------------------
622
623 - Fixed some minor memory management issues.
624
625 - Added new "scan_delay" feature to impose a delay before scanning
626 for disks.
627
628 - Changed default "scanfor" option from internal-external-optical to either
629 internal-external-optical-manual (for non-Macs) or
630 internal-hdbios-external-biosexternal-optical-cd-manual (for Macs). I've
631 done this for two reasons:
632 - Many Mac users have been confused by the fact that rEFInd needs
633 reconfiguration to detect Windows (or Linux installed in BIOS mode),
634 since rEFIt scans BIOS devices by default. Adding the BIOS options as
635 default for them should help them.
636 - Adding the "manual" option enables users to simply add manual boot
637 stanzas and have them work, which is more intuitive. Adding the
638 "manual" option will have no effect unless manual stanzas are created
639 or uncommented, so this part of the change won't affect users' working
640 default configurations.
641
642 - Added new legacy (BIOS) boot support for UEFI-based PCs.
643
644 0.4.5 (8/12/2012):
645 ------------------
646
647 - Fixed bug that caused a failure to boot BIOS-based OSes on Macs.
648
649 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused it to fail to detect rEFItBlesser.
650
651 0.4.4 (6/23/2012):
652 ------------------
653
654 - Fixed bug that caused filesystem labels to be corrupted by rEFInd on
655 32-bit systems.
656
657 - Fixed bug that caused filesystem labels to be truncated in the drivers
658 on 32-bit systems.
659
660 - Fixed bug in use_graphics_for option parsing that caused most options
661 to set graphics mode for OS X and/or Linux but not other boot
662 loaders/OSes.
663
664 - Tweaked install script to better isolate the ESP under OS X.
665
666 0.4.3 (6/21/2012):
667 ------------------
668
669 - rEFInd now supports compilation using the TianoCore UDK2010/EDK2
670 development kit in addition to GNU-EFI.
671
672 - Added new "use_graphics_for" option to control which OSes to boot in
673 graphics mode. (This effect lasts for a fraction of a second on most
674 systems, since the boot loader that rEFInd launches is likely to set
675 graphics or text mode itself.)
676
677 - Graphics-mode booting now clears the screen to the current rEFInd
678 background color (rather than black) and does NOT display boot messages.
679 The intent is for a smoother transition when booting OS X, or perhaps
680 other OSes that don't display boot loader messages. In practice, this
681 effect will be tiny for many OSes, since the boot loader generally clears
682 the screen within a fraction of a second of being launched; but the
683 "flicker" of a rEFInd message in that time can sometimes be distracting.
684
685 - Filesystem drivers now work on EFI 1.x systems, such as Macs.
686
687 - Removed "linux.conf" as a valid alternative name for "refind_linux.conf"
688 for holding Linux kernel options. The kernel developers plan to use
689 "linux.conf" themselves.
690
691 0.4.2 (6/3/2012):
692 -----------------
693
694 - Added a message to install.sh when run on Macs to remind users to update
695 the "scanfor" line in refind.conf if they need to boot BIOS-based OSes
696 via rEFInd.
697
698 - Modified install.sh script to be smarter about running efibootmgr on
699 Linux. It now uses the whole path to the rEFInd binary as a key to
700 determine whether an existing entry exists, rather than just the filename
701 portion. If an entry exists and is the first entry in the boot order, the
702 script does nothing to the NVRAM entries. If such an entry exists but is
703 not the default, the script deletes that entry and creates a new one
704 (implicitly making it the first in the boot order). If such an entry does
705 not exist, the script creates a new one (again, making it the first in
706 the boot order).
707
708 - Added "dont_scan_dirs" configuration file option, which adds directories
709 to a "blacklist" of directories that are NOT scanned for boot loaders.
710
711 0.4.1 (5/25/2012):
712 ------------------
713
714 - Added "scanning for new boot loaders" message to the re-scan function
715 (hitting Esc at the main menu). It usually flashes up too quickly to
716 be of importance, but if the scan function takes a while because of
717 access to a CD that must be spun up, it should make it clear that the
718 system hasn't hung.
719
720 - Modified install.sh script to detect rEFItBlesser on Macs, and if
721 present, to ask the user if it should be removed.
722
723 - Cleaned up the Make.common file for the filesystem drivers.
724
725 - Changed HFS+ driver to return volume label of "HFS+ volume" rather than
726 an empty label. (The driver doesn't currently read the real volume
727 label.)
728
729 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to appear in its own menu after
730 running a shell and then re-scanning for boot loaders.
731
732 0.4.0 (5/20/2012):
733 ------------------
734
735 - Inclusion of drivers for ISO-9660, HFS+, ReiserFS, and ext2fs. Most of
736 these drivers originated with rEFIt, although the HFS+ driver seems to
737 have come from Oracle's VirtualBox, with some files from Apple. I hadn't
738 included these drivers previously because the build process proved
739 challenging. As it is, they don't work on my Mac Mini, I suspect because
740 the build process with the UDK2010 development kit may not work with the
741 EFI 1.x that Apple uses.
742
743 - Addition of support for drivers in the "drivers_{arch}" subdirectory of
744 the main rEFInd binary directory (e.g., "drivers_x64" or "drivers_ia32").
745 Drivers may continue to be placed in the "drivers" subdirectory.
746
747 - Added new feature to eject CDs (and other removable media): Press F12 to
748 eject all such media. This function works only on some Macs, though (it
749 relies on an Apple-specific EFI extension, and this extension isn't even
750 implemented on all Macs, much less on UEFI-based PCs).
751
752 - Fixed a problem that could cause GRUB 2 to fail to read its configuration
753 file when launched from rEFInd.
754
755 0.3.5 (5/15/2012):
756 ------------------
757
758 - Removed the GRUB 2 detection "reciped" added with 0.3.2, since I've
759 received reports that it's not working as intended.
760
761 - Added re-scan feature: Press the Esc key to have rEFInd re-read its
762 configuration file, tell the EFI to scan for new filesystems, and re-scan
763 those filesystems for boot loaders. The main purpose is to enable
764 scanning a new removable medium that you insert after launching rEFInd;
765 however, it can also be used to immediately implement changes to the
766 configuration file or new drivers you load from an EFI shell.
767
768 - Fixed a bug that could cause the scroll-right arrow to be replaced by the
769 scroll-left arrow under some circumstances.
770
771 0.3.4 (5/9/2012):
772 -----------------
773
774 - Added new configuration file option: "icons_dir", which sets the name
775 of the subdirectory in which icons are found. See the documentation or
776 sample configuration file for a full description.
777
778 - Modified Makefile to generate rEFInd binary that includes architecture
779 code -- refind_ia32.efi or refind_x64.efi, rather than the generic
780 refind.efi. This is done mainly to help the install.sh script. The
781 program can be named anything you like on the disk. (The generic name
782 refind.efi is used on unknown architectures.)
783
784 - Improved install.sh script: Fixed bug on OS X 10.7 and enable it to be
785 used after building from source code (or via new "make install" Makefile
786 target).
787
788 - Improved screen redraws to produce less flicker when moving among the
789 second-row tags or to the last tag on the first row.
790
791 0.3.3 (5/6/2012):
792 -----------------
793
794 - Improved menu navigation:
795 - In graphics mode, left & right arrow keys move left & right, while up &
796 down arrows move between rows.
797 - Page Up and Page Down now move through chunks of visible tags (in both
798 text & graphics modes), jumping from one row to another only when at
799 the edge of the row. In text mode, the "rows" are broken down as in
800 graphics mode, but they aren't visibly distinguished on the screen.
801
802 - Improved text-mode use: rEFInd now displays the proper number of entries
803 when first started in text mode and scrolling is done sensibly when too
804 many entries exist to fit on the screen.
805
806 0.3.2 (5/4/2012):
807 -----------------
808
809 - Added the install.sh script to install rEFInd on Linux and Mac OS X
810 systems. This script must be run as root (or via sudo). It requires
811 no options, but on Mac OS X, passing it the "esp" option causes it
812 to install rEFInd on the computer's ESP rather than the default of the
813 currently OS X boot partition. (Under Linux, the default is to install to
814 the ESP.) Note that there may be some unusual cases in which this script
815 will fail to work.
816
817 - Does a better job of clearing the screen when launching OSes in text
818 mode.
819
820 - Added detection "recipe" for GRUB 2's BIOS Boot Partition.
821
822 - Fixed bogus detection of ESPs created by Linux's mkdosfs utility or
823 Windows as bootable partitions when "scanfor" includes BIOS scanning
824 options.
825
826
827 0.3.1 (4/27/2012):
828 ------------------
829
830 - Fixed bug that caused spurious "Unsupported while scanning the root
831 directory" messages under some conitions on Macs.
832
833 - Modified loader scanning code to sort boot loader entries within a
834 directory by modification time, so that the most recently-modified loader
835 is first among those in a given directory. Thus, if you specify a
836 directory name (or volume name, for loaders stored in the root directory
837 of a volume) as the default_selection, the most recent of those loaders
838 will be the default. This is intended to help with Linux kernel
839 maintenance when using the EFI stub loader; set up this way, the most
840 recent kernel copied to your kernel directory will be the default,
841 obviating the need to adjust the refind.conf file when adding a new
842 kernel. If you want to change the default among those in the default
843 directory, you can use "touch" to adjust the modification timestamp.
844
845 - Tweaked code to find loader-specific .icns file so that it finds files
846 for Linux kernels without .efi extensions. In this case, files should be
847 named the same as the kernels they match, but with .icns extensions. For
848 instance, bzImage-3.3.2 should have an icon called bzImage-3.3.2.icns.
849 (The old code would have looked for an icon called bzImage-3.3.icns.)
850
851 - Eliminated bogus OS loader tags for filenames that end in ".icns" when
852 the scan_all_linux_kernels option is set.
853
854 0.3.0 (4/22/2012):
855 ------------------
856
857 - I'm officially upgrading this project's status from "alpha" to "beta" and
858 giving it a bump from 0.2.x to 0.3.0. This doesn't reflect any major
859 milestone with this version; rather, it reflects my sense that rEFInd has
860 been "out there" for a while, and although I've gotten bug reports,
861 they've been minor and/or have been fixed. The program still has known
862 bugs, but my impression is that it is, overall, usable by ordinary users.
863
864 - Added "resolution" option to refind.conf, which enables setting the video
865 resolution. To use it, pass two numeric values, as in "resolution 1024
866 768" to use a 1024x768 video mode. Note that not all modes are supported.
867 If you specify a non-supported video mode on a UEFI system, a message
868 appears listing the supported video modes and you must then press a key
869 to continue, using the default video mode (usually 800x600).
870 Unfortunately, I don't know the calls to get a list of supported video
871 modes on older EFI 1.x systems (including Macs), so on Macs setting an
872 incorrect video mode silently fails (you keep using the default mode).
873 This makes changing your video mode a hit-or-miss proposition on Macs.
874 CAUTION: It's possible to set a legal video mode that your monitor can't
875 handle, in which case you'll get a blank display until you boot an OS
876 that resets the video mode.
877
878 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused rEFInd to crash when returning from an
879 EFI shell or other programs on Macs, particularly when rEFInd used
880 graphical mode. I'm not 100% sure this bug is squashed because I still
881 don't understand the cause and I only have one Mac for testing. See
882 comments in the ReinitRefitLib() function in refit/lib.c for more
883 details.
884
885 - Added new refind.conf option: scan_all_linux_kernels, which causes Linux
886 kernels that lack ".efi" extensions to be included in scans for EFI boot
887 loaders. This may help integration with Linux distributions that don't
888 give their kernels such names by default. Beware, though: It can detect
889 unwanted files, such as older non-stub-loader kernels or .icns files used
890 to give kernels with .efi extensions custom icons.
891
892 - Improved EFI boot loader detection on boards with Gigabyte's Hybrid EFI,
893 and perhaps other EFIs with a buggy StriCmp() function. Files with both
894 ".efi" and ".EFI" extensions should now be detected as boot loaders.
895
896 - Fixed a bug that caused rEFInd to fail to scan for drivers if the
897 filesystem driver didn't set a volume name (that is, if the relevant
898 field was set to NULL rather than even an empty string). In such
899 situations, rEFInd now reports the volume name as "Unknown".
900
901 0.2.7 (4/19/2012):
902 ------------------
903
904 - After much trial and tribulation, I've overcome a GNU-EFI limitation and
905 enabled rEFInd to load EFI drivers. This feature was present in the
906 original build of rEFIt but was removed in the versions that could
907 compile under Linux, but now it's back -- and still being compiled under
908 Linux! To use it, you should place your drivers in a convenient directory
909 on the ESP (or whatever partition you use to launch rEFInd) and add a
910 "scan_driver_dirs" entry to refind.conf to tell rEFInd where to look. (As
911 always, you should specify the driver directory relative to the root of
912 the filesystem.) Note that you can't launch drivers from another
913 filesystem; they must be on the same volume that holds rEFInd. Those who
914 compile from source code should note that implementing this feature
915 necessitated using a more recent version of the GNU-EFI library. I'm
916 currently using version 3.0p, and version 3.0i does NOT work. I don't
917 know where the change occurred, but you may need to upgrade your GNU-EFI
918 installation.
919
920 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to show up in its own menu sometimes.
921
922 - Added new refind.conf token: also_scan_dirs. When scanning volumes for
923 EFI boot loaders, rEFInd always scans the root directory and every
924 subdirectory of the /EFI directory, but it doesn't recurse into these
925 directories. The also_scan_dirs token adds more directories to the scan
926 list. It defaults to "elilo,boot", but you can set it to any directory or
927 directories you like.
928
929 0.2.6 (4/14/2012):
930 ------------------
931
932 - Added "volume" keyword to configuration file's stanza options. This
933 option changes the volume from which subsequent files (specified by
934 "loader" and "icon") are loaded. You pass "volume" the name/label of the
935 FILESYSTEM you want to use (not the GPT partition name), or a number
936 followed by a colon (e.g., "1:"). The former should reliably identify a
937 filesystem, assuming the name is unique. The latter assigns numbers based
938 on the order in which they're scanned, which may not be as reliable but
939 should work when a volume is unnamed.
940
941 - Fixed bug in 0.2.5 that caused failure of Linux initial RAM disk
942 mapping on some (but not all) systems. Affected computers include at
943 least some Intel motherboards, maybe others.
944
945 0.2.5 (4/9/2012):
946 -----------------
947
948 - Fixed bug that caused an inability to associate initial RAM disks with
949 Linux kernels stored in a volume's root directory.
950
951 - Volume badges (that override default badges) are now stored in
952 .VolumeBadge.icns. Although undocumented, rEFInd formerly loaded custom
953 volume badges from .VolumeIcon.icns. This carryover from rEFIt was a
954 confusing name, given the next (new) feature, so I've changed and
955 documented the name....
956
957 - Added ability to set a default icon for a loader stored in the root
958 directory of a volume: The icon is stored in .VolumeIcon.icns. This icon
959 is also used for Mac OS X volumes booted from the standard location.
960
961 - Fixed bug that caused icons to drop back to generic icons when rEFInd
962 was launched in certain ways (such as from an EFI shell in rEFInd's
963 directory) on certain systems.
964
965 - Fixed bug that caused "unknown disable flag" to be shown (very briefly)
966 instead of "unknown hideui flag" when an improper hideui flag was set.
967
968 0.2.4 (4/5/2012):
969 -----------------
970
971 - Created new refind.conf entry: "showtools". This entry takes options of
972 "shell", "gptsync", "about", "exit", "reboot", and "shutdown". This
973 option is in some respects an affirmative version of portions of the old
974 "disable" and "hideui" options; however, it enables users to specify the
975 order in which these options appear on the screen. Also, the "exit"
976 option is new; it terminates the program. The effect is usually to return
977 to whatever tool launched it or to launch a default OS; however, this is
978 somewhat unpredictable. The default therefore omits the "exit" option, as
979 well as "gptsync", which has always been dangerous (but necessary on most
980 MacOS/Windows dual-boot setups on Macs). As part of this reconfiguration,
981 I've eliminated the "rescue Linux" option, which always seemed pointless
982 to me.
983
984 - Folded "disable" and "hideui" refind.conf entries into one ("disable"),
985 and reduced the number of options to six: "banner", "label",
986 "singleuser", "hwtest", "arrows", and "all". ("arrows" is new and
987 disables the scroll arrows when a system has too many tags to display
988 simultaneously.)
989
990 - Added max_tags option to the refind.conf file, enabling users to reduce
991 the maximum number of OS loader tags that can be displayed at once.
992
993 - Updated rEFIt icon, based on the 128x128 volume label from the rEFIt CD
994 image.
995
996 - Added x86 and x86-64 EFI shells to the CD image version of the binary,
997 but NOT to the binary zip file. The logic is that the CD image is more
998 likely to be used directly as an emergency disc and so may need this
999 feature, even though the source isn't part of the rEFInd project. (The
1000 source is readily available from the TianoCore project.)
1001
1002 - EFI shells may now be stored at /shellx64.efi for x86-64 systems or at
1003 /shellia32.efi for x86 systems. The /EFI/tools/shell.efi name is also
1004 recognized; however, if both files are present, two EFI shell icons will
1005 appear on the main menu. The /efi/{refind-path/apps/shell.efi filename,
1006 which was never officially documented but worked as a carryover from
1007 rEFIt, is no longer valid.
1008
1009 0.2.3 (3/26/2012):
1010 ------------------
1011
1012 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused hangs when launching a second program
1013 after returning from a first. There are some weird system-to-system
1014 differences, though, and this fix causes (apparently harmless) error
1015 messages about "(re)opening our installation volume" on at least one
1016 system (a 32-bit Mac Mini). I'm committing this change because, imperfect
1017 though it is, it's preferable to the earlier version, at least on my
1018 small sample of computers.
1019
1020 - Because of news that the Linux kernel developers are planning to use the
1021 filename linux.conf to hold Linux kernel configuration data for EFI
1022 booting, I'm transitioning rEFInd away from that name and to
1023 refind_linux.conf to avoid a conflict. This version can use either name,
1024 with refind_linux.conf taking precedence if both are present.
1025
1026 - Added logo for Arch Linux.
1027
1028 0.2.2 (3/23/2012):
1029 ------------------
1030
1031 - Fixed bug that caused program failure when Linux kernels with EFI stub
1032 support were detected with no associated version numbers. rEFInd now
1033 permits automatic linking of *ONE* versionless kernel to *ONE*
1034 versionless initrd file.
1035
1036 - Fixed bug that caused program hangs when a boot loader filename or label
1037 was too long. Such names are now properly truncated and program execution
1038 continues.
1039
1040 - Fixed bug that caused no text to appear in submenus on UEFI systems with
1041 small screens (800x600). NOTE: Problem still occurs on screens smaller
1042 than this, but such systems are very rare.
1043
1044 0.2.1 (3/19/2012):
1045 ------------------
1046
1047 - Added ability to set a "default_selection" that's a title or a substring
1048 of one -- the name given to a stanza in a "menuentry" or the boot
1049 loader's filename, in most cases, although "Mac OS X", "Windows XP
1050 (XoM)", and "Microsoft EFI boot" are also titles.
1051
1052 - Added support for semi-automatic scans of Linux kernels with EFI stub
1053 loader support. The program auto-detects matching initial RAM disk files
1054 and loads additional options from the "linux.conf" file in the same
1055 directory as the kernel.
1056
1057 - Added support for "submenuentry" keyword and associated sub-stanza
1058 entries in refind.conf file.
1059
1060 - Renamed icons/os_mint.icns to icons/os_linuxmint.icns to match the
1061 filename Linux Mint ACTUALLY uses for its ESP boot loader directory.
1062
1063
1064 0.2.0 (3/14/2012):
1065 ------------------
1066
1067 - Initial public release