3 * New/improved filesystem and disk support:
5 * Experimental 64-bit ext2 support.
6 * Various fixes for non-512-byte sector devices.
7 * New `proc' filesystem framework, used by LUKS disks.
8 * Fix DM-RAID partition handling.
9 * New `nativedisk' command to switch from firmware to native disk drivers.
11 * DragonFly BSD labels.
13 * Handle partitioned LVM properly.
14 * Use LVM UUIDs whenever possible.
16 * New `progress' module that shows progress information while reading
18 * ZFS features support.
21 * New/improved terminal and video support:
22 * Monochrome text (matching `hercules' in GRUB Legacy).
23 * Morse code output using system speaker.
24 * `spkmodem' output (simple data protocol using system speaker).
25 * Handle Japanese special keys.
26 * coreboot framebuffer.
28 * Native vt100 handling for grub-emu, replacing the use of the curses
30 * New gfxmenu options for terminal window positioning, theme background
31 image handling, and scrollbar padding, plus `item_pixmap_style' and
33 * Support several more image types (paletted and greyscale).
35 * Boot protocol improvements:
36 * Support Apple FAT binaries on non-Apple platforms.
37 * Improve FreeDOS direct loading support compatibility.
38 * Enable `linux16' on all x86 platforms, not just BIOS.
39 * New TrueCrypt ISO loader.
40 * multiboot2 boot-services EFI specification.
41 * multiboot2 EFI memory map specification.
42 * multiboot2 full-file specfication.
44 * New/improved network support:
45 * New variables `net_default_*' containing properties of the default
47 * Autoload `http' and `tftp' modules if necessary.
48 * Improve TFTP robustness.
49 * Parse `nd' disk names in GRUB Legacy configuration files.
50 * Issue separate DNS queries for IPv4 and IPv6.
52 * Coreboot improvements:
53 * CBFS support both in on-disk images (loopback) and flash.
54 * Ability to launch another payload from flash or disk
55 * Coreboot framebuffer
56 * CBMEMC support (both logging and inspecting logs)
57 * Command for inspecting coreboot timestamps (`coreboot_boottime').
58 * Command for inspecting coreboot tables (`lscoreboot').
59 * New target default_payload.elf.
60 * Increased maximal core size.
62 * New/improved platform support:
63 * New `efifwsetup' and `lsefi' commands on EFI platforms.
64 * New `cmosdump' and `cmosset' commands on platforms with CMOS support.
65 * New command `pcidump' for PCI platforms.
66 * Improve opcode parsing in ACPI halt implementation.
67 * Use the TSC as a possible time source on i386-ieee1275.
68 * Merge PowerPC grub-mkrescue implementation with the common one.
69 * Support grub-mkrescue on i386-ieee1275, sparc64, bootinfo machines such
70 as pSeries, and mips-arc.
71 * Make grub-mkrescue better support Apple Intel Macs on CD.
72 * Enable GRUB Legacy configuration file parsing on EFI.
73 * Support halt for Loongson 2E.
74 * ARM U-Boot and EFI ports.
75 * Reorganise platform-dependent code in utilities to avoid #ifdef mess.
76 * AROS and Haiku support for userspace utilities.
78 * Fix EFI stack alignment.
80 * On Linux, read partition start offsets from sysfs if possible.
81 * New grub-macbless utility, and better integration with Mac firmware in
83 * Support Yeeloong 3A.
84 * Add `cpuid --pae' option to detect Physical Address Extension on x86.
85 * Support for USB debug dongles.
86 * Support for *-emu on all platforms (previously only i386/x86_64 worked).
87 * Support *-emu on Windows.
88 * New platform `none' which builds only user level utilities. This is now
89 default if target CPU is not supported.
92 * Add optional facility to enforce that all files read by the core image
93 from disk have a valid detached digital signature.
96 * Avoid costly division operations in many places.
97 * New boot time analysis framework (`./configure --enable-boot-time').
98 * Initialise USB ports in parallel.
99 * New `testspeed' command to test file read speed.
100 * Speed-up gfxterm by storing intermediate results in more compact format.
101 * Lazy LVM/mdraid scan.
105 * New `eval' and `tr' commands.
106 * grub-script-check fails on scripts containing no commands.
108 * Installation and other utility improvements:
109 * Add option to compress files on installation or image creation.
110 * Using grub-reboot no longer requires setting `GRUB_DEFAULT=saved'.
111 * Support probing EFI System Partition (requires os-prober >= 1.58).
112 * Fix inconsistent use of `GRUB_CRYPTODISK_ENABLE' and
113 `GRUB_ENABLE_CRYPTODISK'; the latter is now used consistently.
114 * grub-mount handles symbolic links to directories.
115 * Support disabling submenus with `GRUB_DISABLE_SUBMENU' configuration key
117 * grub-install, grub-mknetdir, grub-mkrescue, and grub-mkstandalone
118 rewritten in C. They should now work in supported non-Unix-like
120 * Native mingw support.
121 * Ability to install on EFI under windows.
122 * Reorganise timeout handling using new `timeout_style' environment
123 variable and `GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE' configuration key for grub-mkconfig.
124 Menu hotkeys pressed during a hidden timeout now boot the corresponding
125 menu entry immediately.
126 * New `file' command and grub-file utility to check file types.
127 * New syslinux configuration file parser.
130 * Remove all uses of nested functions; GRUB no longer requires an
132 * Fix documentation build with Texinfo >= 5.1.
133 * More robust and documented cross-compiling support.
134 * Partial clang support for some platforms (experimental).
135 * Partial mingw64 x86_64-efi compile support (highly experimental).
136 * Partial mingw32 i386-* (other than already present i386-pc)
137 compile support (highly experimental).
138 * Support for grub-mkpasswd on Windows.
139 * Eliminate the use of AutoGen. This allowed some performance
140 improvements to the build system.
141 * Remove variable length arrays.
142 * OpenBSD compile and tools support (NetBSD and FreeBSD were already supported).
143 * Fix build with FreeType >= 2.5.1.
144 * Make gentpl.py compatible with Python 3. It now requires at least
146 * modinfo.sh contains build information now.
147 * Added many new tests to improve robustness.
149 * Revision control moved to git.
154 * Official theme for gfxmenu (starfield)
155 * Menu is organised with submenus.
156 * Better default video mode selection using EDID.
160 * Fuloong2F support (including GRUB as firmware)
161 * Fuloong2E support (except GRUB as firmware)
162 * ARCS (SGI machines) port.
165 * grub-mount to mount filesystems using GRUB FS drivers and FUSE.
167 * Changed security default so entries are locked by default if any superuser is
176 * Network stack for BIOS, IEEE1275, EMU and EFI, including TFTP, HTTP and DNS.
178 * New filesystem, filters and disks formats:
180 * Plan9 partition map.
186 * Big-endian minixfs.
189 * Support non-512B disk blocks.
190 * LUKS and GELI support.
191 * LDM read support (no install yet).
194 * Improved filesystem and disks formats support:
195 * HFS+ label support.
196 * Improved reiserfs support.
197 * multidevice, mirrored and raidz(2,3) ZFS support.
198 * RAID LVM (internal RAIDing) support.
199 * ZFS crypto support.
200 * ZLE, LZ4 and GZIP on ZFS support.
201 * Support ZFS up to 33.
202 * HFS string is now treated like mac-roman and not UTF-8
204 * Improved AFFS and SFS support.
205 * LZO-compressed btrfs support.
206 * cpio and tar symlinks support.
207 * Better FS detection to reduce false positives.
209 * New boot protocols:
210 * Ability to load another coreboot payload when on coreboot.
213 * Ntldr/bootmgr (to load Windows bootloader).
214 * chainloader --bpb support to patch FAT or NTFS BPB in memory to correct
215 wrong partition offset.
216 * PXE chainloading support.
217 * Darwin 11 (Mac OS X Lion) protocol support.
219 * Boot protocol improvements:
220 * Multiple initrd support.
221 * Basic illumos and xnu autoconfig.
223 * Testing and debugging:
224 * New grub-fstest commands: cat, zfsinfo, testload xnu_uuid
225 * grub-fstest recursive directory compare for quickly checking that
226 a directory is read correctly.
227 * Backtace on crash (if gdb module is loaded, x86 only)
228 * Disk cache statistics gathering.
229 * GDB stub and GDB support script.
230 * "make check" and "make bootcheck" expanded to almost all platforms
231 (except i386-ieee1275, mips-arc, sparc64-ieee1275, ia64-efi and emu)
232 * New `time' command.
235 * Lazy scanning to avoid accessing devices which aren't really used.
236 This avoids boot delay due to slow device scanning.
237 * Use CPU cache when accessing video memory.
238 * Search hints to first try the most likely device when searching for a
239 device with given UUID. This avoids slow scanning in most cases.
241 * Internationalisation:
242 * Updated to Unicode 6.0.
243 * $"..." syntax for translation in grub scripting language. This allows easy
244 translation of grub.cfg at runtime.
245 * Translations to many languages included in official distribution.
248 * $grub_cpu and $grub_platform variables for conditioning grub.cfg on platform
250 * $feature_* variables to condition scripts on available features.
251 * Use of ids to identify menu entries.
252 * all_video module which is empty but depends on all video modules thus
253 allowing easy loading of all of them.
256 * grub-mknetdir script for easy creation of netbootable GRUB directory.
257 * Itanium and mips support in grub-mkrescue.
258 * grub-install support for all platforms except emu.
259 * PreP partition install support.
260 * No files conflict between flavours (except grub-mkrescue for ppc). This
261 allows easy install of GRUB for several platforms.
262 * grub-mkstandalone script for easy creating of image including all modules
263 for platforms with generous limit on image size.
264 * program-transform-name now functions according to usual conventions.
265 Use --grubdir and --bootdir to get old behaviour.
267 * ADLER32 and CRC64 support (for XZ and hashsum).
269 * ofconsole renamed to console
271 * Experimental support for compiling with Apple toolchain.
273 * grub-mkdevicemap removed. Now all devices are detected on invocation of
278 * Keyboard layouts support.
280 * New `lsapm' command (i386-pc only).
282 * Parser for GRUB Legacy configuration files.
284 * Support RAID on virtio devices.
286 * Remove deprecated `root' command.
288 * New `euro.pf2' font which supports most European languages.
290 * Avoid opening the same device twice on Open Firmware platforms.
292 * Extend `vbeinfo' and `vbetest' commands to non-VBE graphics, as
293 `videoinfo' and `videotest'.
295 * New `lsefisystab', `lssal', and `lsefimmap' commands on EFI platforms.
297 * Support explicit user claim that a device is BIOS-visible. Devices
298 listed in device.map will be assumed to be readable using only BIOS
299 facilities, rather than anything more complex such as LVM or RAID.
301 * New bash-completion script for GRUB utilities.
303 * Use ACPI to shut down if possible.
305 * New `lsacpi' command.
309 * New `--boot-directory' option to `grub-install', `grub-reboot', and
310 `grub-set-default', with clearer semantics than the previous
311 `--root-directory' option.
313 * Rename CD-ROM device to "cd" on BIOS platforms.
315 * Transparent decompression filters.
317 * Simpler PXE image generation. New `grub-mknetdir' utility to generate
318 netboot directory trees.
320 * New relocator. Allows for more kernel support and more
321 straightforward loader writing.
323 * Handle USB pendrives exposed as floppies.
325 * New Automake-based build system.
327 * Add `sendkey' command (i386-pc only).
331 * Support 1.x versions of mdadm metadata.
333 * Fix corruption when reading Reiserfs directory entries.
335 * Bidirectional text and diacritics support.
337 * Skip LVM snapshots.
339 * MIPS Yeeloong firmware port.
341 * Change grub-mkdevicemap to emit /dev/disk/by-id/ names where possible
344 * Add `grub-mkconfig' support for Xen with Linux.
346 * Add `grub-mkconfig' support for initrd images on Fedora 13.
348 * Support >3GiB and <16MiB RAM in i386-qemu.
350 * Add support for Cirrus 5446 and Bochs video cards.
352 * Load more appropriate video drivers automatically in `grub-mkconfig'.
354 * USB improvements, including hotplugging/hotunplugging, hub support,
355 and USB serial support.
357 * AMD Geode CS5536 support.
359 * Extensive updates to the Texinfo documentation.
361 * Handle symbolic links under /dev/mapper on GNU/Linux.
363 * Handle installation across multiple partition table types.
365 * Add `cmostest' command (i386/x86_64 only).
367 * Add support for DM-RAID disk devices on GNU/Linux.
369 * Remove `grub-mkisofs'. `grub-mkrescue' now uses GNU xorriso to build
372 * `grub-mkrescue' support for EFI, coreboot, and QEMU platforms.
374 * Unify `grub-mkimage', `grub-setup', and `grub-install' source code
377 * Fix VGA (as opposed to VBE) video driver, formerly a terminal driver.
379 * Add menu hotkey support.
381 * Add support for the nilfs2 filesystem.
383 * `grub-probe' and `grub-mkconfig' support for NetBSD.
385 * Support setting a background image in `grub-mkconfig'.
387 * Support multiple terminals in `grub-mkconfig'.
391 * MIPS multiboot2 support.
393 * Multiboot2 tag support.
395 * sunpc partition table support.
397 * Add a number of new language features to GRUB script: `for', `while',
398 `until', `elif', function parameters, `break', `continue', `shift',
399 multi-line quoted strings, positional parameters with `setparams',
400 `return', filename wildcard expansion, and `!'.
402 * Support nested partition tables. GRUB now prefers to name partitions
403 in the form `(hd0,msdos1,bsd1)' rather than `(hd0,1,a)'.
405 * Speed up consecutive hostdisk operations on the same device.
407 * Compile parts of `grub-emu' as modules.
409 New in 1.98 - 2010-03-06:
411 * Multiboot on EFI support.
413 * Graphical menu support.
417 * Saved default menu entry support, with new utilities `grub-reboot' and
420 * Unit testing framework.
422 * Support for multiple terminals.
424 * Encrypted password support, with a new utility `grub-mkpasswd-pbkdf2'.
426 * `grub-mkfloppy' removed; use `grub-mkrescue' to create floppy images.
428 * Add grub-probe support for GNU/Hurd.
430 * Add support for gettext.
434 * Add support for loading XNU (MacOS X kernel).
436 * ACPI override support.
438 * Integrated gptsync.
440 * Password protection support.
442 * Partition manipulation tool.
444 * Add `keystatus' command.
446 * Unicode fonts are now used by default.
448 * Add `hdparm' command.
450 * Add support for getting the current date and time from CMOS as variables.
452 * Add `drivemap' command.
454 * Add support for RAID levels 4,6 and 10.
456 * update-grub is replaced by grub-mkconfig.
458 * When booting from PXE, PXE can be used to load files.
460 * High resolution timer support.
462 * Image loaders now support IO buffering.
466 * Add Cygwin support.
468 * Add x86_64 EFI support.
470 * Use LZMA compression instead of LZO.
472 * Support for saving the environment from and loading the environment
475 * Allow the UUID to be used as device name.
477 * The `search' command can use UUIDs now.
479 * Add support for IEEE 1275 on i386.
481 * Create partmap.lst and use it to automatically load partition map
484 * grub-mkconfig supports os-prober to add operating systems to the
487 * The ATA driver supports devices bigger than 2 TiB.
489 * Add support for the UDF, AFS and EXT4 filesystems.
491 * The ISO9660 filesystem supports the Joliet extension
493 * Add support for loading kernels of FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD.
495 * Add new command `sleep'.
497 * Support for direct access to AT keyboards.
499 * New utility `grub-fstest'.
501 New in 1.96 - 2008-02-03:
503 * The license term is changed to GNU General Public License Version 3.
505 * grub-emu is made optional. Now you have to use
506 `--enable-grub-emu' to enable it.
508 * Add Multiboot2 support.
510 * grub-emu can access the host filesystem now.
512 * Add support for the NTFS, cpio/tar and Reiserfs filesystems.
514 * Add support for ATA/ATAPI.
516 * Add update-grub script to generate grub.cfg.
518 * Add grub-mkrescue script to generate floppy or ElTorito images
521 * Add support for background images in gfxterm (background_image command).
523 * Add support for detection of 64-bit support in CPU (cpuid command).
525 * GPT is now enabled in i386-pc target.
527 * Add grub-install for EFI.
529 * Ported to the following new platforms: Efika, coreboot (a.k.a. LinuxBIOS),
532 * Add support for colored menu (menu_color_normal and menu_color_highlight
535 * Fix support for loading Linux zImages (such as memtest86).
537 New in 1.95 - 2006-10-15:
539 * Number partitions from 1 instead of 0. For instance, the first
540 partition of "hd0" is now "hd0,1" but not "hd0,0".
542 * grub-probefs is renamed to grub-probe, and supports printing a
543 guessed OS device name and a GRUB drive name.
545 * RAID and LVM support is added.
549 * The disk API is changed to support 64-bit addressing.
551 * A TGA loader is added for the video API.
553 New in 1.94 - 2006-06-04:
555 * Fix several serious bugs in HFS+.
557 * Add experimental EFI support. Chainloading and Linux loading are
558 supported at the moment.
560 * Add a new command "blocklist" to show a block list.
562 * Use --with-platform to specify a boot environment. For now, efi,
563 ieee1275 and pc are supported.
565 * Use the filename "kernel.elf" instead of "grubof" on ieee1275.
567 * Install GRUB into pkglibdir instead of pkgdatadir.
569 * Support environmental variables. You can export variables by the
572 * Remove the commands "default" and "timeout". They are now variables.
574 * Add the commands "source" and "." to include a file.
576 * Implement experimental Video API and a new terminal "gfxterm" based
580 New in 1.93 - 2006-03-10:
582 * Add support for the HFS+ wrapper.
584 * Major improvements to scripting support.
586 * Menu entries are now scriptable.
589 New in 1.92 - 2005-12-25:
591 * Add support for GPT partition table format.
593 * Add a new command "play" to play an audio file on PC.
595 * Add support for Linux/ADFS partition table format.
597 * Add support for BASH-like scripting.
599 * Add support for Apple HFS+ filesystems.
602 New in 1.91 - 2005-10-15:
604 * Add support for LZO version 2.
606 * Support completion in the entry editor.
610 * New commands, "search", "vbetest" and "vbeinfo".
612 * The option BOOT_IMAGE is passed to Linux.
614 * Add support for automatic decompression for gzip.
616 * Add support for terminfo and serial.
618 * Add support for x86_64.
620 * GRUB itself is a Multiboot-compliant kernel.
622 * Add new filesystems: XFS, SFS, and AFFS.
625 New in 1.90 - 2005-08-07:
627 * Rename the project name PUPA to GRUB. Now this version is the
628 developmental version of GRUB officially.
630 * The GRUB emulator ``grub-emu'' is added.
632 * Add support for newworld Mac. This should work with other
633 PowerPC-based machines as well, if they use IEEE 1275
636 * Too many changes to describe. Look at ChangeLog for more details.
641 * Problems in cross-compiling PUPA are fixed.
643 * Use -mrtd and -mregparm=3 to reduce the generated code sizes. This
644 means that any missing prototypes could be fatal. Also, you must take
645 care when writing assembly code. See the comments at the beginning of
646 startup.S, for more details.
648 * New utility, ``pupa-setup''. This sets up PUPA to make it bootable
651 * New commands, "prefix", "insmod", "rmmod" and "lsmod" are added into
652 the rescue mode to manipulate PUPA modules.
654 * Linux support is added. Initrd is not support yet.
656 * Reduce the size of a core image significantly by compressing a large
657 part of the core image and decompressing itself at boot time. The
658 currently used algorithm is LZO (more precisely, LZO1X-999). So you
659 have to install LZO to build PUPA. See
660 <http://www.oberhumer.com/opensource/lzo/>, for more information.
663 New in 0.6 - 2002-12-27, Yoshinori K. Okuji:
665 * The chainloader and the FAT filesystem are modularized.
667 * The structure of the source tree is a bit changed.
669 * Support for building loadable modules is added.
671 * Some generic parts of pupa-mkimage are segregated.
673 * Some documentation files are added, according to the GNU Coding