4 - The use_graphics_for, also_scan_dirs, dont_scan_dirs, dont_scan_files,
5 and scan_driver_dirs tokens in refind.conf now support "+" as the first
6 option, which causes the remaining options to be added to the default
7 value rather than replacing that value. (This has no practical effect for
8 scan_driver_dirs, though, since it has a null default value.)
10 - Added support for specifying the configuration file at program launch,
11 via the "-c" parameter, as in "refind_x64.efi -c foo.conf" to use the
12 foo.conf file as the main configuration file.
14 - Scans of ext2/3/4fs and ReiserFS partitions now omit partitions with
15 duplicate filesystem UUIDs. These are likely parts of RAID arrays and so
16 would have the same boot loaders or kernels as the first one with a given
19 - Added feature in install.sh: Script now tries to locate and mount an ESP
20 in Linux, if it's currently unmounted.
22 - Fixed bug in mkrlconf.sh and install.sh that caused a stray line break
23 and PARTUUID= specification to appear in generated refind_linux.conf file
24 under some circumstances.
29 - Added support for multiple "default_selection" targets. These MUST be
30 comma-separated AND enclosed in quotes, as in:
31 default_selection "fred,ginger"
32 This example will launch "fred" by default if it's available; and if
33 it's not, rEFInd will attempt to launch "ginger" as the default.
35 - Added support for time-sensitive "default_selection" setting. This token
36 may now have either one or three options. If one, it's interpreted as it
37 has been in the past, as setting a default that's independent of times.
38 If you follow this default by two times, however, those are interpreted
39 as the start and end times (in 24-hour format) for a default setting. For
40 instance, "default_selection foo 8:00 17:00" causes foo to be the default
41 from 8:00 (AM) to 17:00 (aka 5:00 PM). You can include multiple
42 "default_selection" lines to set different defaults for a variety of
43 times. If they're in conflict, the last one takes precedence. Note that
44 times are hardware clock's native value, which may be local time or UTC,
45 depending on your computer.
47 - Added support for a blank-screen startup: Set "screensaver -1" and the
48 screen saver will be initialized when rEFInd starts. If you set a low
49 "timeout" value, the result will be a boot straight to the default OS
50 unless you hit a key soon after rEFInd starts. Once you hit a key, the
51 screensaver will be disabled.
53 - Added --ownhfs {target} option to install.sh. This option causes rEFInd
54 to install to an HFS+ partition in a way that's more consistent with the
55 way the Mac's native boot loader is installed. Note that you should NOT
56 install to an already-bootable partition with this option, since it will
57 overwrite the existing boot loader, which would render OS X unbootable.
62 - Fixed bug that caused unbootable exFAT partitions to show up as
63 bootable on Macs with BIOS/CSM/legacy boot options enabled.
65 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused installs to the ESP on recent
66 versions of OS X to fail.
68 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to hang on some Macs when multiple EFI
71 - Fixed bug that caused clear to default gray screen when launching OSes
72 with 'use_graphics_for' enabled, even when the rEFInd background is not
73 gray. Now rEFInd clears to the same background color used in its menu.
74 When launching OS X, though, the OS X boot loader will itself clear to
75 gray a second or so later; and when launching Linux, it will clear to
76 black a second or so later.
81 - My initial 0.7.4 release broke legacy-boot ability on Macs, so I quickly
82 released this version using the original 0.7.4 filenames to fix the
88 - Fixed options passing to loader to include loader's filename as the first
89 option. This omission had no effect on most boot loaders, but caused
90 VMware's mboot64.efi to fail.
92 - Added support for memtest86 as second-row option. Program must be
93 stored in EFI/tools, EFI/tools/memtest, EFI/tools/memtest86, EFI/memtest,
94 or EFI/memtest86; and must use the name memtest86.efi, memtest86_x64.efi,
95 memtest86x64.efi, or bootx64.efi (changing "x64" to "ia32" on IA-32
96 systems). The memtest86 program is scanned for when the "showtools"
97 option includes the "memtest" or "memtest86" token, which it does by
100 - Added space to end of "Boot %s from %s" string; enables adding a space
101 to the end of the "default_selection" item (in quotes) to set a default
102 that matches a volume name that's identical to another one except for
103 extra characters at the end of the non-wanted volume's name.
105 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to hang when launching boot loaders
106 under some conditions. (Launching from Firewire drives on Macs is the
107 known case, but there may be others.)
112 - Fixed bug that caused missing media-type badges on BIOS-mode boot
115 - Fixed bug that caused failure when launching BIOS-mode OSes on Macs.
120 - Fixed bug that caused display glitches in the final entry on the first
121 row of icons if the second row of icons was empty.
123 - Fixed bug that could cause incorrect scanning or even a rEFInd crash when
124 using volume specification in also_scan_dirs token.
126 - Added protection against loading invalid drivers and other EFI programs.
127 (Some EFIs crash when attempting to load such drivers and programs.)
129 - Added PreLoader.efi and shim-fedora.efi to default dont_scan_files list;
130 it's now "shim.efi, shim-fedora.efi, PreLoader.efi, TextMode.efi,
131 ebounce.efi, GraphicsConsole.efi, MokManager.efi, HashTool.efi,
132 HashTool-signed.efi".
134 - Added icon for Funtoo Linux.
136 - Fixed reading of volume badges from user-specified icons directory, which
139 - Fixed handling of /.VolumeBadge.icns (or /.VolumeBadge.png) files, which
145 - Fixed build problem with recent development versions of EDK2.
147 - Added scan for Boot Repair's backup of the Windows boot loader
148 (bkpbootmgfw.efi). If found, give separate entries for it and for
149 bootmgfw.efi, each with its own descriptive text label.
151 - Fixed also_scan_dirs; used to have bug that caused it to ignore
152 volume specification, if present.
154 - Fixed bug in driver cache that caused Btrfs driver to hang sometimes.
159 - Added Btrfs signature to rEFInd, so that it can identify the filesystem
160 type for volumes that lack labels.
162 - Changed some critical filesystem driver pointers from 32-bit to 64-bit.
163 This *SHOULD* enable use of over-2TiB filesystems (for those filesystems
164 that support such large volumes). This capability is largely untested,
167 - Added a cache to the filesystem driver core, and therefore to all the
168 filesystem drivers. This cache greatly improves performance in
169 VirtualBox, and offers modest performance improvements on a few "real"
170 computers. The most dramatic improvement is on ext2/3fs under VirtualBox:
171 Loading a kernel and initrd used to take ~200 seconds on my system, but
172 now takes ~3 seconds! On most "real" hardware, the improvement is much
173 less dramatic -- an improvement of a second or less, presumably because
174 of cacheing within the EFI or on the hard disk itself.
176 - Filter boot loaders based on a test of their validity; keeps out Linux
177 kernels without EFI stub loader code, loaders for the wrong architecture,
178 non-EFI loaders, etc.
180 - New Btrfs driver, contributed by Samuel Liao based on GRUB 2.00 Btrfs
186 - Changed the 64-bit EFI shell included in the CD-R and USB flash drive
187 images to a version 2 shell that should support the "bcfg" command.
189 - Added support for PreBootloader to refind.spec's built-in installation
192 - Added support for the Linux Foundation's PreLoader to install.sh. It's
193 treated just like shim, including using the --shim option (or, now,
194 --preloader); but it searches for and copies HashTool.efi rather than
195 MokManager.efi, and filenames are adjusted appropriately.
197 - Added code to determine Linux root filesystem from /etc/fstab file, if
198 it's on the same partition as the kernel and if the refind_linux.conf
199 file is not available. This enables rEFInd to boot Linux without any
200 rEFInd-specific configuration files on some (but not all) systems.
205 - New feature: rEFInd now ignores symbolic links to files on filesystems
206 that support them. This prevents the "vmlinuz" symbolic link that some
207 distributions create in the root directory from appearing in the loader
208 list. Note that this does NOT affect symbolic links to directories.
210 - Added icons for Lubuntu and Kubuntu.
212 - Improved the install.sh script so that it does a better job dealing with
213 directory names that contain spaces.
215 - rEFInd now tries to guess the Linux distribution type based on the kernel
216 filename (Fedora and RHEL only) or the "ID" or "NAME" variables in
217 /etc/os-release on the kernel's partition. None of these is guaranteed to
218 work. A fallback of the Tux penguin icon remains in place in case rEFInd
219 can't find anything substantive enough for a guess.
221 - Added "EFI\opensuse" to the locations searched for MOK utilities, since
222 OpenSUSE now uses that name.
224 - Renamed "Reboot to Firmware User Interface" to "Reboot to Computer Setup
227 - Fixed bug in gptsync that caused it to hang if the disk had too few GPT
228 partitions to fill the MBR.
233 - Added support for "screensaver" token. If set to a positive integer, this
234 causes the screen to blank after the specified number of seconds of
235 inactivity. Pressing most keys (unfortunately NOT including Shift, Alt,
236 or Ctrl) will restore the display and restart the screen saver timeout.
238 - Added icon for ChromeOS (os_chrome.icns in the icons subdirectory).
239 ChromeBooks reportedly boots using the fallback filename, but if a user
240 wants to install rEFInd on a ChromeBook, renaming the original EFI/BOOT
241 directory to EFI/chrome and then installing rEFInd in the fallback
242 filename will bring up this new icon for ChromeOS.
244 - Added new option to reboot the computer into the firmware's user
245 interface. This option is active by default, or can be set via the
246 "firmware" option to the "showtools" token in refind.conf. It works
247 on only some computers, though; older computers lack this feature, and
248 when rEFInd is told to use this feature on such computers, the directive
251 - Upgraded LodePNG library from version 20121216 to 20130415 and
252 restructured rEFInd-specific modifications to simplify future upgrades.
254 - Replaced hexadecimal error code with description if an error is
255 encountered when saving a screen shot.
257 - Enable multiple screen shots: Rather than naming all screen shots
258 "screenshot.bmp", the name is now "screenshot_###.bmp", where "###" is a
259 sequence number, starting with "001".
264 - Modified default banner to include the new rEFInd icon, provided by Erik
267 - Worked around a suspected firmware bug that caused rEFInd 0.6.6 to 0.6.8
268 to hang at startup on some systems (DUET and some Macs).
270 - Modified rEFInd to search for gptsync under the names gptsync.efi and
271 gptsync_{arch}.efi, where {arch} is ia32 or x64. (Previous versions
272 searched only for gptsync.efi.)
274 - Added gptsync program from rEFIt project, but with some changes to
275 improve flexibility and make it less likely that UEFI users will
276 accidentally trash their systems.
278 - Changed timeout code so that the timeout continues if the keyboard is
279 disconnected. This can help in booting a headless server or a system with
280 a bluetooth or other keyboard that's not recognized by the EFI.
285 - Added workaround for presumed EFI bug that was causing "Invalid
286 Parameter" errors when scanning for boot loaders on some computers.
288 - Added search for an EFI shell called shell.efi in the root directory
289 (previously this name was only accepted in EFI\tools).
291 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused it to fail on some systems (Fedora
292 18, for instance) because of a problem identifying the ESP.
294 - Fixed bug that caused icons named after boot loaders to not be used.
299 - Added a more explicit error message summarizing options when a launch of
300 a program results in a Secure Boot failure.
302 - Changed MOK tool detection to scan all volumes, not just the rEFInd
303 home volume. This is desirable because the Linux Foundation's HashTool
304 can only scan its own volume, making it desirable to place copies of this
305 program on every volume that holds EFI boot loader binaries.
307 - Added support for launching the Linux Foundation HashTool as a means of
308 managing MOKs (or MOK hashes, at any rate).
310 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to present an entry for itself as a
311 Microsoft OS if it was launched as EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi.
313 - Fixed bug that caused dont_scan_volumes option to be added to
316 - Fixed dont_scan_volumes so that it works with OS X boot loaders.
318 - Fixed broken mixing of PNG and ICNS icons when using a user-specified
319 icons directory -- previously, an ICNS file in the default directory
320 would override a PNG file in the user-specified directory.
325 - rEFInd now ignores the fallback boot loader (EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi or
326 EFI/BOOT/bootia32.efi) if it's identical to another boot loader on
327 the same volume. This is intended to help unclutter the display on
328 systems that run Windows, since Windows tends to duplicate its own boot
329 loader under the fallback name.
331 - Added new "font" token to refind.conf, which enables specifying a font in
332 the form of a PNG file. This file must contain monospace glyphs for the
333 95 characters from ASCII 32 to 126 (space through tilde), inclusive, plus
334 a glyph to be displayed for characters outside of this range, for a total
337 - Replaced the old font (inherited from rEFInd) with an anti-aliased
338 version of Luxi Mono Regular 14 point.
340 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to ignore manual boot stanzas in files
341 included via the "include" token in refind.conf.
343 - Fixed bug that caused ASSERT error on some systems (and conceivably a
344 crash on startup on some) when default_selection line in refind.conf was
345 commented out or empty.
347 - Fixed bug that caused "Binary is whitelisted" message to persist on
348 screen after loading MOK-signed drivers in Secure Boot mode.
350 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to ignore the "icon" token in refind.conf
353 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused the script to fail to update
354 drivers when rEFInd was installed in EFI/BOOT/.
359 - Improved text color support: rEFInd now uses black text against light
360 backgrounds and white text against dark backgrounds.
362 - Added support for PNGs as banners, icons, and selectors.
364 - Added icon for ALT Linux.
366 - Added "safemode" option to "hideui" token, to hide option to boot into
367 safe mode for OS X ("-v -x" option to boot.efi).
369 - Added icon for Haiku (os_haiku.icns).
371 - Enable transparency of icons & main-menu text when the banner icon is
372 sized to cover these areas.
374 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to crash if fed a banner image that's
375 too big. Note that "too big" can be substantially smaller than the screen
381 - Revised install.sh to copy ext2fs driver, rather than ext4fs driver, for
382 ext2/3 filesystems. This can help keep non-functional entries from links
383 from /vmlinuz to /boot/vmlinuz out of the menu if the system uses ext4fs
384 on root and ext2fs or ext3fs on /boot.
386 - Fixed a couple of memory management bugs that cause rEFInd to hang at
387 startup on some systems.
392 - Added the ability to specify a volume name or number in the
393 "dont_scan_dirs" and "also_scan_dirs" tokens.
395 - Fixed a bug that caused removable EFI media to not appear in scan lists
396 if rEFInd was installed as EFI/BOOT/boot{arch}.efi on a hard disk.
398 - Modified ISO-9660 driver so that it can handle discs with other than
399 2048-byte sectors. This makes it useful for reading "hybrid ISO" images
400 burned to USB flash disks.
402 - New mvrefind.sh script to move a rEFInd installation between a standard
403 location (typically EFI/refind) and one of the fallback locations
404 (EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot). It can also do more exotic locations.
406 - The install.sh script now installs to EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi or
407 EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi if it's run in BIOS mode. This is
408 intended to give some chance of producing a bootable installation should
409 a user accidentally install Linux in EFI mode and then install rEFInd
410 from that installation.
412 - The install.sh script now tries to find an existing rEFInd installation
413 and upgrade it, even if it's in EFI/BOOT or EFI/Microsoft/Boot rather
416 - New "--yes" option to install.sh to help with unattended or automated
417 installations (as from an RPM or Debian package).
422 - Inclusion of a sample refind.spec file for the benefit of RPM
423 distribution maintainers who might want to include rEFInd. It's a bit
424 rough, but it gets you a good chunk of the way there....
426 - The EFI filesystem drivers can now be built with the GNU-EFI toolkit as
427 well as with the TianoCore EDK2. See the BUILDING.txt file for details on
428 how to build them with either toolkit. This improvement doesn't affect
429 users of my binary packages, but it should make it easier for Linux
430 distributions to adopt rEFInd into their package systems.
432 - Tweaked refind.inf file for better build results using "native" TianoCore
433 EDK2 build process (vs. the Makefile-based build process that I use under
434 Linux). This won't affect those who use my binary builds or build under
435 Linux with the "make" command.
437 - Fixed bug that prevented Secure Boot launches from working when rEFInd
438 was built with GNU-EFI rather than the TianoCore EDK2.
440 - Substantial reworking of Secure Boot code, based on James Bottomley's
441 PreLoader program. This new code eliminates the limitation of launching
442 just one driver in Secure Boot mode and is likely to be more reliable
443 with future or obscure boot loaders. It should also work with non-x86-64
444 systems, although this relies on a platform-specific shim program, which
445 to date exists only for x86-64. The basic features are the same as before
446 -- rEFInd relies on shim for authentication functions and will launch
447 programs that are signed by Secure Boot keys, shim keys, or MOKs.
449 - Altered default for "textmode" option (when it's commented out) to not
450 adjust the text mode at all. (Prior versions set it to mode 0 by
456 - Added "--root" option to install.sh, to enable installation of rEFInd
457 to something other than the currently-running OS. This is intended for
458 use on emergency discs.
460 - Thanks to Stefan Agner, the ext4fs driver now supports the "meta_bg"
461 filesystem feature, which distributes metadata throughout the disk. This
462 feature isn't used by default, but can be set at filesystem creation time
463 by passing the "-O meta_bg,^resize_inode" option to mke2fs. (Using
464 "^resize_inode" is necessary because meta_bg is incompatible with
465 resize_inode, which IS used by default.) This feature can be used on
466 ext3fs and ext2fs as well as on ext4fs, so the ext4fs driver can now
467 handle some ext3fs and ext2fs partitions that the ext2fs driver can't
470 - Fixed some screen resolution-setting bugs.
472 - Added the "words" that make up a filesystem's label (delimited by spaces,
473 dashes, or underscores) to the list of bases used to search for OS icons.
474 For instance, if the filesystem's label is "Arch", rEFInd searches for
475 os_Arch.icns; if it's "Fedora 17", it searches for os_Fedora.icns and
476 os_17.icns; and if it's "NEW_GENTOO", it searches for os_NEW.icns and
479 - Refined hints displays to be more context-sensitive, particularly in text
482 - Instead of displaying a blank filesystem label when a filesystem has
483 none, rEFInd now displays the size and/or type of the filesystem, as in
484 "boot EFI\foo\bar.efi from 200 MiB ext3 volume" rather than "boot
485 EFI\foo\bar.efi from".
487 - Fixed a bug that caused the screen to clear after displaying an error
488 message but before displaying the "Hit any key to continue" message when
489 a boot loader launch failed.
494 - Fixed a memory allocation bug that could cause a program crash when
495 specifying certain values with the "also_scan_dirs", "dont_scan_volumes",
496 "dont_scan_dirs", "dont_scan_files", and "scan_driver_dirs" refind.conf
499 - Modified Linux kernel initrd-finding code so that if an initrd is
500 specified in refind_linux.conf, rEFInd will not add any initrd it finds.
501 This enables an override of the default initrd, and is likely to be
502 particularly helpful to Arch Linux users.
504 - Added ext4fs driver!
506 - Made "boot" the default value for "also_scan_dirs".
508 - Added identifying screen header to line editor.
510 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd's display to be mis-sized upon return
511 from a program that set the resolution itself.
513 - Adjusted "resolution" refind.conf parameter so that it can accept EITHER
514 a resolution as width and height OR a single digit as a UEFI mode number
515 (which is system-specific). This is done because some systems present the
516 same mode twice in their mode lists, perhaps varying in refresh rate,
517 monitor output, or some other salient characteristics; specifying the
518 mode number enables selecting the higher-numbered mode, whereas using
519 horizontal and vertical resolution values selects the lowest-numbered
522 - Added "textmode" refind.conf parameter to set the text mode used in
523 text-only displays, and for the line editor and boot-time handoff
524 display even in graphics mode.
526 - Fixed bug that caused tools (shell, etc.) to launch when they were
527 highlighted and F2 or Insert was pressed.
529 - Added "editor" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf, which
530 disables the boot options editor.
532 - Added hints text to rEFInd main menu and sub-menus. This can be disabled
533 by setting the new "hints" option to the "hideui" token in refind.conf.
535 - Added "boot with minimal options" entry to refind_linux.conf file
536 generated by install.sh. This entry boots without the options extracted
537 from the /etc/default/grub file.
539 - Added keys subdirectory to main distribution, to hold public Secure
540 Boot/shim keys from known sources.
542 - Changed install.sh --drivers option to --alldrivers, added new
543 --nodrivers option, and made the default on Linux to install the one
544 driver that's used on /boot (or the root filesystem if /boot isn't a
545 separate partition). Of course, this won't install a non-existent driver,
546 and it also won't work properly if run from an emergency disk unless you
547 mount a separate /boot partition at that location.
549 - Fixed bug in install.sh that prevented creation of refind_linux.conf file
552 0.5.1.1 (12/12/2012):
553 ---------------------
555 - Fixed bug in install.sh that prevented it from working on OS X.
560 - Added support for "0" options to "textonly" and "scan_all_linux_kernels"
561 to reverse the usual meaning of these tokens. This is useful for
562 including these options in a secondary configuration file called with the
563 new "include" token to override a setting set in the main file.
565 - Added "include" token for refind.conf, to enable including a secondary
566 configuration file from a primary one.
568 - Modified install.sh so that it creates a simple refind_linux.conf file in
569 /boot, if that file doesn't already exist and if install.sh is run from
570 Linux. If that directory happens to be on a FAT, HFS+, ext2fs, ext3fs, or
571 ReiserFS volume, and if the necessary drivers are installed, the result
572 is that rEFInd will detect the Linux installation with no further
573 configuration on many systems. (Some may still require tweaking of kernel
574 options, though; for instance, adding "dolvm" on Gentoo systems that use
577 - Added --shim and --localkeys options to install.sh to help simplify setup
578 on systems with Secure Boot active.
580 - Fixed (maybe) bug that caused resolution options to not be displayed on
581 recent Macs with GOP graphics when specifying an invalid resolution in
584 - Fixed bug that caused some programs (EFI shells, in particular) to hang
585 when launching on some systems (DUET, in particular).
587 - Implemented a fix to enable ELILO to launch with Secure Boot active.
588 This fix might help with some other boot loaders in Secure Boot mode,
589 too, but I don't know of any specifics.
594 - Added the ability to include quote marks ('"') in refind.conf and
595 refind_linux.conf tokens by doubling them up, as in:
596 "ro root=/dev/sda4 some_value=""this is it"""
597 This example results in the following string being passed as an
599 ro root=/dev/sda4 some_value="this is it"
601 - Changed refind.conf-sample to uncomment the scan_all_linux_kernels
602 option by default. If this option is deleted or commented out, the
603 program default remains to not scan all Linux kernels; but with
604 increasing numbers of distributions shipping with kernels that include
605 EFI stub loader support, setting the configuration file default to scan
606 for them makes sense.
608 - Modified the "resolution" token so that it affects text mode as well
609 as graphics mode. On my systems, though, the actual text area is still
610 restricted to an 80x25 area. (This seems to be a firmware limitation; my
611 EFI shells are also so limited.)
613 - Fixed a bug that caused the options line editor to blank out lines that
614 were not actually edited.
616 - Added support for using Matthew Garrett's Shim program and its Machine
617 Owner Keys (MOKs) to extend Secure Boot capabilities. If rEFInd is
618 launched from Shim on a computer with Secure Boot active, rEFInd will
619 launch programs signed with either a standard UEFI Secure Boot key or a
620 MOK. For the moment, this feature works only on x86-64 systems.
622 - Added new "dont_scan_files" (aka "don't_scan_files") token for
623 refind.conf. The effect is similar to dont_scan_dirs, but it creates a
624 blacklist of filenames within directories rather than directory names.
625 I'm initially using it to place shim.efi and MokManager.efi in the
626 blacklist to keep these programs out of the OS list. (MokManager.efi is
627 scanned separately as a tool; see below.) I've moved checks for
628 ebounce.efi, GraphicsConsole.efi, and TextMode.efi to this list. (These
629 three had previously been blacklisted by hard-coding in ScanLoaderDir().)
631 - Added the directory from which rEFInd launched to dont_scan_dirs. This
632 works around a bug in which rEFInd would show itself as a bogus Windows
633 entry if it's installed as EFI/Microsoft/boot/bootmgfw.efi.
635 - Added support for launching MokManager.efi for managing the Machine Owner
636 Keys (MOKs) maintained by the shim boot loader developed by Fedora and
637 SUSE. This program is scanned and presented as a second-row tool.
639 - Added support for Apple's Recovery HD partition: If it's detected, a new
640 icon appears on the second row. This icon can be removed by explicitly
641 setting the "showtools" option in refind.conf and excluding the
642 "apple_recovery" option from that line.
644 - Fixed bug that caused text-mode ("textonly" refind.conf option enabled)
645 menu entries to be right-aligned rather than left-aligned when rEFInd was
646 compiled with the TianoCore EDK2.
648 - Added "--usedefault {devicename}" and "--drivers" options to the
649 install.sh script and changed the "esp" option to "--esp".
654 - Added an icon for gummiboot.
656 - Added a boot option editor: Pressing the Insert or F2 key from a boot
657 tag's options menu opens a simple text-mode line editor on which the boot
658 options may be edited for a one-time boot with altered options.
660 - Modified the "scan_delay" feature to delay and then perform a re-scan,
661 which may work better than the first attempt at this feature (which I'm
662 told isn't working as planned).
664 - Modified rEFInd to add a space after the command-line options only when
665 launching Mac OS X. On some early Macs, the extra space (which had been
666 present by default, as a carryover from rEFIt) causes problems when
667 booting Linux kernels from FAT partitions.
672 - Fixed some minor memory management issues.
674 - Added new "scan_delay" feature to impose a delay before scanning
677 - Changed default "scanfor" option from internal-external-optical to either
678 internal-external-optical-manual (for non-Macs) or
679 internal-hdbios-external-biosexternal-optical-cd-manual (for Macs). I've
680 done this for two reasons:
681 - Many Mac users have been confused by the fact that rEFInd needs
682 reconfiguration to detect Windows (or Linux installed in BIOS mode),
683 since rEFIt scans BIOS devices by default. Adding the BIOS options as
684 default for them should help them.
685 - Adding the "manual" option enables users to simply add manual boot
686 stanzas and have them work, which is more intuitive. Adding the
687 "manual" option will have no effect unless manual stanzas are created
688 or uncommented, so this part of the change won't affect users' working
689 default configurations.
691 - Added new legacy (BIOS) boot support for UEFI-based PCs.
696 - Fixed bug that caused a failure to boot BIOS-based OSes on Macs.
698 - Fixed bug in install.sh that caused it to fail to detect rEFItBlesser.
703 - Fixed bug that caused filesystem labels to be corrupted by rEFInd on
706 - Fixed bug that caused filesystem labels to be truncated in the drivers
709 - Fixed bug in use_graphics_for option parsing that caused most options
710 to set graphics mode for OS X and/or Linux but not other boot
713 - Tweaked install script to better isolate the ESP under OS X.
718 - rEFInd now supports compilation using the TianoCore UDK2010/EDK2
719 development kit in addition to GNU-EFI.
721 - Added new "use_graphics_for" option to control which OSes to boot in
722 graphics mode. (This effect lasts for a fraction of a second on most
723 systems, since the boot loader that rEFInd launches is likely to set
724 graphics or text mode itself.)
726 - Graphics-mode booting now clears the screen to the current rEFInd
727 background color (rather than black) and does NOT display boot messages.
728 The intent is for a smoother transition when booting OS X, or perhaps
729 other OSes that don't display boot loader messages. In practice, this
730 effect will be tiny for many OSes, since the boot loader generally clears
731 the screen within a fraction of a second of being launched; but the
732 "flicker" of a rEFInd message in that time can sometimes be distracting.
734 - Filesystem drivers now work on EFI 1.x systems, such as Macs.
736 - Removed "linux.conf" as a valid alternative name for "refind_linux.conf"
737 for holding Linux kernel options. The kernel developers plan to use
738 "linux.conf" themselves.
743 - Added a message to install.sh when run on Macs to remind users to update
744 the "scanfor" line in refind.conf if they need to boot BIOS-based OSes
747 - Modified install.sh script to be smarter about running efibootmgr on
748 Linux. It now uses the whole path to the rEFInd binary as a key to
749 determine whether an existing entry exists, rather than just the filename
750 portion. If an entry exists and is the first entry in the boot order, the
751 script does nothing to the NVRAM entries. If such an entry exists but is
752 not the default, the script deletes that entry and creates a new one
753 (implicitly making it the first in the boot order). If such an entry does
754 not exist, the script creates a new one (again, making it the first in
757 - Added "dont_scan_dirs" configuration file option, which adds directories
758 to a "blacklist" of directories that are NOT scanned for boot loaders.
763 - Added "scanning for new boot loaders" message to the re-scan function
764 (hitting Esc at the main menu). It usually flashes up too quickly to
765 be of importance, but if the scan function takes a while because of
766 access to a CD that must be spun up, it should make it clear that the
769 - Modified install.sh script to detect rEFItBlesser on Macs, and if
770 present, to ask the user if it should be removed.
772 - Cleaned up the Make.common file for the filesystem drivers.
774 - Changed HFS+ driver to return volume label of "HFS+ volume" rather than
775 an empty label. (The driver doesn't currently read the real volume
778 - Fixed bug that could cause rEFInd to appear in its own menu after
779 running a shell and then re-scanning for boot loaders.
784 - Inclusion of drivers for ISO-9660, HFS+, ReiserFS, and ext2fs. Most of
785 these drivers originated with rEFIt, although the HFS+ driver seems to
786 have come from Oracle's VirtualBox, with some files from Apple. I hadn't
787 included these drivers previously because the build process proved
788 challenging. As it is, they don't work on my Mac Mini, I suspect because
789 the build process with the UDK2010 development kit may not work with the
790 EFI 1.x that Apple uses.
792 - Addition of support for drivers in the "drivers_{arch}" subdirectory of
793 the main rEFInd binary directory (e.g., "drivers_x64" or "drivers_ia32").
794 Drivers may continue to be placed in the "drivers" subdirectory.
796 - Added new feature to eject CDs (and other removable media): Press F12 to
797 eject all such media. This function works only on some Macs, though (it
798 relies on an Apple-specific EFI extension, and this extension isn't even
799 implemented on all Macs, much less on UEFI-based PCs).
801 - Fixed a problem that could cause GRUB 2 to fail to read its configuration
802 file when launched from rEFInd.
807 - Removed the GRUB 2 detection "reciped" added with 0.3.2, since I've
808 received reports that it's not working as intended.
810 - Added re-scan feature: Press the Esc key to have rEFInd re-read its
811 configuration file, tell the EFI to scan for new filesystems, and re-scan
812 those filesystems for boot loaders. The main purpose is to enable
813 scanning a new removable medium that you insert after launching rEFInd;
814 however, it can also be used to immediately implement changes to the
815 configuration file or new drivers you load from an EFI shell.
817 - Fixed a bug that could cause the scroll-right arrow to be replaced by the
818 scroll-left arrow under some circumstances.
823 - Added new configuration file option: "icons_dir", which sets the name
824 of the subdirectory in which icons are found. See the documentation or
825 sample configuration file for a full description.
827 - Modified Makefile to generate rEFInd binary that includes architecture
828 code -- refind_ia32.efi or refind_x64.efi, rather than the generic
829 refind.efi. This is done mainly to help the install.sh script. The
830 program can be named anything you like on the disk. (The generic name
831 refind.efi is used on unknown architectures.)
833 - Improved install.sh script: Fixed bug on OS X 10.7 and enable it to be
834 used after building from source code (or via new "make install" Makefile
837 - Improved screen redraws to produce less flicker when moving among the
838 second-row tags or to the last tag on the first row.
843 - Improved menu navigation:
844 - In graphics mode, left & right arrow keys move left & right, while up &
845 down arrows move between rows.
846 - Page Up and Page Down now move through chunks of visible tags (in both
847 text & graphics modes), jumping from one row to another only when at
848 the edge of the row. In text mode, the "rows" are broken down as in
849 graphics mode, but they aren't visibly distinguished on the screen.
851 - Improved text-mode use: rEFInd now displays the proper number of entries
852 when first started in text mode and scrolling is done sensibly when too
853 many entries exist to fit on the screen.
858 - Added the install.sh script to install rEFInd on Linux and Mac OS X
859 systems. This script must be run as root (or via sudo). It requires
860 no options, but on Mac OS X, passing it the "esp" option causes it
861 to install rEFInd on the computer's ESP rather than the default of the
862 currently OS X boot partition. (Under Linux, the default is to install to
863 the ESP.) Note that there may be some unusual cases in which this script
866 - Does a better job of clearing the screen when launching OSes in text
869 - Added detection "recipe" for GRUB 2's BIOS Boot Partition.
871 - Fixed bogus detection of ESPs created by Linux's mkdosfs utility or
872 Windows as bootable partitions when "scanfor" includes BIOS scanning
879 - Fixed bug that caused spurious "Unsupported while scanning the root
880 directory" messages under some conitions on Macs.
882 - Modified loader scanning code to sort boot loader entries within a
883 directory by modification time, so that the most recently-modified loader
884 is first among those in a given directory. Thus, if you specify a
885 directory name (or volume name, for loaders stored in the root directory
886 of a volume) as the default_selection, the most recent of those loaders
887 will be the default. This is intended to help with Linux kernel
888 maintenance when using the EFI stub loader; set up this way, the most
889 recent kernel copied to your kernel directory will be the default,
890 obviating the need to adjust the refind.conf file when adding a new
891 kernel. If you want to change the default among those in the default
892 directory, you can use "touch" to adjust the modification timestamp.
894 - Tweaked code to find loader-specific .icns file so that it finds files
895 for Linux kernels without .efi extensions. In this case, files should be
896 named the same as the kernels they match, but with .icns extensions. For
897 instance, bzImage-3.3.2 should have an icon called bzImage-3.3.2.icns.
898 (The old code would have looked for an icon called bzImage-3.3.icns.)
900 - Eliminated bogus OS loader tags for filenames that end in ".icns" when
901 the scan_all_linux_kernels option is set.
906 - I'm officially upgrading this project's status from "alpha" to "beta" and
907 giving it a bump from 0.2.x to 0.3.0. This doesn't reflect any major
908 milestone with this version; rather, it reflects my sense that rEFInd has
909 been "out there" for a while, and although I've gotten bug reports,
910 they've been minor and/or have been fixed. The program still has known
911 bugs, but my impression is that it is, overall, usable by ordinary users.
913 - Added "resolution" option to refind.conf, which enables setting the video
914 resolution. To use it, pass two numeric values, as in "resolution 1024
915 768" to use a 1024x768 video mode. Note that not all modes are supported.
916 If you specify a non-supported video mode on a UEFI system, a message
917 appears listing the supported video modes and you must then press a key
918 to continue, using the default video mode (usually 800x600).
919 Unfortunately, I don't know the calls to get a list of supported video
920 modes on older EFI 1.x systems (including Macs), so on Macs setting an
921 incorrect video mode silently fails (you keep using the default mode).
922 This makes changing your video mode a hit-or-miss proposition on Macs.
923 CAUTION: It's possible to set a legal video mode that your monitor can't
924 handle, in which case you'll get a blank display until you boot an OS
925 that resets the video mode.
927 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused rEFInd to crash when returning from an
928 EFI shell or other programs on Macs, particularly when rEFInd used
929 graphical mode. I'm not 100% sure this bug is squashed because I still
930 don't understand the cause and I only have one Mac for testing. See
931 comments in the ReinitRefitLib() function in refit/lib.c for more
934 - Added new refind.conf option: scan_all_linux_kernels, which causes Linux
935 kernels that lack ".efi" extensions to be included in scans for EFI boot
936 loaders. This may help integration with Linux distributions that don't
937 give their kernels such names by default. Beware, though: It can detect
938 unwanted files, such as older non-stub-loader kernels or .icns files used
939 to give kernels with .efi extensions custom icons.
941 - Improved EFI boot loader detection on boards with Gigabyte's Hybrid EFI,
942 and perhaps other EFIs with a buggy StriCmp() function. Files with both
943 ".efi" and ".EFI" extensions should now be detected as boot loaders.
945 - Fixed a bug that caused rEFInd to fail to scan for drivers if the
946 filesystem driver didn't set a volume name (that is, if the relevant
947 field was set to NULL rather than even an empty string). In such
948 situations, rEFInd now reports the volume name as "Unknown".
953 - After much trial and tribulation, I've overcome a GNU-EFI limitation and
954 enabled rEFInd to load EFI drivers. This feature was present in the
955 original build of rEFIt but was removed in the versions that could
956 compile under Linux, but now it's back -- and still being compiled under
957 Linux! To use it, you should place your drivers in a convenient directory
958 on the ESP (or whatever partition you use to launch rEFInd) and add a
959 "scan_driver_dirs" entry to refind.conf to tell rEFInd where to look. (As
960 always, you should specify the driver directory relative to the root of
961 the filesystem.) Note that you can't launch drivers from another
962 filesystem; they must be on the same volume that holds rEFInd. Those who
963 compile from source code should note that implementing this feature
964 necessitated using a more recent version of the GNU-EFI library. I'm
965 currently using version 3.0p, and version 3.0i does NOT work. I don't
966 know where the change occurred, but you may need to upgrade your GNU-EFI
969 - Fixed bug that caused rEFInd to show up in its own menu sometimes.
971 - Added new refind.conf token: also_scan_dirs. When scanning volumes for
972 EFI boot loaders, rEFInd always scans the root directory and every
973 subdirectory of the /EFI directory, but it doesn't recurse into these
974 directories. The also_scan_dirs token adds more directories to the scan
975 list. It defaults to "elilo,boot", but you can set it to any directory or
976 directories you like.
981 - Added "volume" keyword to configuration file's stanza options. This
982 option changes the volume from which subsequent files (specified by
983 "loader" and "icon") are loaded. You pass "volume" the name/label of the
984 FILESYSTEM you want to use (not the GPT partition name), or a number
985 followed by a colon (e.g., "1:"). The former should reliably identify a
986 filesystem, assuming the name is unique. The latter assigns numbers based
987 on the order in which they're scanned, which may not be as reliable but
988 should work when a volume is unnamed.
990 - Fixed bug in 0.2.5 that caused failure of Linux initial RAM disk
991 mapping on some (but not all) systems. Affected computers include at
992 least some Intel motherboards, maybe others.
997 - Fixed bug that caused an inability to associate initial RAM disks with
998 Linux kernels stored in a volume's root directory.
1000 - Volume badges (that override default badges) are now stored in
1001 .VolumeBadge.icns. Although undocumented, rEFInd formerly loaded custom
1002 volume badges from .VolumeIcon.icns. This carryover from rEFIt was a
1003 confusing name, given the next (new) feature, so I've changed and
1004 documented the name....
1006 - Added ability to set a default icon for a loader stored in the root
1007 directory of a volume: The icon is stored in .VolumeIcon.icns. This icon
1008 is also used for Mac OS X volumes booted from the standard location.
1010 - Fixed bug that caused icons to drop back to generic icons when rEFInd
1011 was launched in certain ways (such as from an EFI shell in rEFInd's
1012 directory) on certain systems.
1014 - Fixed bug that caused "unknown disable flag" to be shown (very briefly)
1015 instead of "unknown hideui flag" when an improper hideui flag was set.
1020 - Created new refind.conf entry: "showtools". This entry takes options of
1021 "shell", "gptsync", "about", "exit", "reboot", and "shutdown". This
1022 option is in some respects an affirmative version of portions of the old
1023 "disable" and "hideui" options; however, it enables users to specify the
1024 order in which these options appear on the screen. Also, the "exit"
1025 option is new; it terminates the program. The effect is usually to return
1026 to whatever tool launched it or to launch a default OS; however, this is
1027 somewhat unpredictable. The default therefore omits the "exit" option, as
1028 well as "gptsync", which has always been dangerous (but necessary on most
1029 MacOS/Windows dual-boot setups on Macs). As part of this reconfiguration,
1030 I've eliminated the "rescue Linux" option, which always seemed pointless
1033 - Folded "disable" and "hideui" refind.conf entries into one ("disable"),
1034 and reduced the number of options to six: "banner", "label",
1035 "singleuser", "hwtest", "arrows", and "all". ("arrows" is new and
1036 disables the scroll arrows when a system has too many tags to display
1039 - Added max_tags option to the refind.conf file, enabling users to reduce
1040 the maximum number of OS loader tags that can be displayed at once.
1042 - Updated rEFIt icon, based on the 128x128 volume label from the rEFIt CD
1045 - Added x86 and x86-64 EFI shells to the CD image version of the binary,
1046 but NOT to the binary zip file. The logic is that the CD image is more
1047 likely to be used directly as an emergency disc and so may need this
1048 feature, even though the source isn't part of the rEFInd project. (The
1049 source is readily available from the TianoCore project.)
1051 - EFI shells may now be stored at /shellx64.efi for x86-64 systems or at
1052 /shellia32.efi for x86 systems. The /EFI/tools/shell.efi name is also
1053 recognized; however, if both files are present, two EFI shell icons will
1054 appear on the main menu. The /efi/{refind-path/apps/shell.efi filename,
1055 which was never officially documented but worked as a carryover from
1056 rEFIt, is no longer valid.
1061 - Fixed (maybe) a bug that caused hangs when launching a second program
1062 after returning from a first. There are some weird system-to-system
1063 differences, though, and this fix causes (apparently harmless) error
1064 messages about "(re)opening our installation volume" on at least one
1065 system (a 32-bit Mac Mini). I'm committing this change because, imperfect
1066 though it is, it's preferable to the earlier version, at least on my
1067 small sample of computers.
1069 - Because of news that the Linux kernel developers are planning to use the
1070 filename linux.conf to hold Linux kernel configuration data for EFI
1071 booting, I'm transitioning rEFInd away from that name and to
1072 refind_linux.conf to avoid a conflict. This version can use either name,
1073 with refind_linux.conf taking precedence if both are present.
1075 - Added logo for Arch Linux.
1080 - Fixed bug that caused program failure when Linux kernels with EFI stub
1081 support were detected with no associated version numbers. rEFInd now
1082 permits automatic linking of *ONE* versionless kernel to *ONE*
1083 versionless initrd file.
1085 - Fixed bug that caused program hangs when a boot loader filename or label
1086 was too long. Such names are now properly truncated and program execution
1089 - Fixed bug that caused no text to appear in submenus on UEFI systems with
1090 small screens (800x600). NOTE: Problem still occurs on screens smaller
1091 than this, but such systems are very rare.
1096 - Added ability to set a "default_selection" that's a title or a substring
1097 of one -- the name given to a stanza in a "menuentry" or the boot
1098 loader's filename, in most cases, although "Mac OS X", "Windows XP
1099 (XoM)", and "Microsoft EFI boot" are also titles.
1101 - Added support for semi-automatic scans of Linux kernels with EFI stub
1102 loader support. The program auto-detects matching initial RAM disk files
1103 and loads additional options from the "linux.conf" file in the same
1104 directory as the kernel.
1106 - Added support for "submenuentry" keyword and associated sub-stanza
1107 entries in refind.conf file.
1109 - Renamed icons/os_mint.icns to icons/os_linuxmint.icns to match the
1110 filename Linux Mint ACTUALLY uses for its ESP boot loader directory.
1116 - Initial public release