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1 Starting with 1.47, changes marked with SYSLINUX, PXELINUX, ISOLINUX
2 or EXTLINUX apply to that specific program only; other changes apply
3 to all derivatives.
5 Changes in 3.86:
6 * chain.c32: fix chainloading the MBR of a hard disk (broken
7 in 3.85).
8 * mboot.c32: report the boot loader name in the information
9 structure.
10 * com32: set argv[0] in a com32 module.
11 * core: add a workaround for a bug in Xen HVM older than
12 version 3.3: disable halt on those platforms.
13 * Fix problems where certain operations in com32 modules would
14 cause the core to believe the system was idle.
15 * MEMDISK: fix MBR detection when used with a DOSEMU header or
16 an offset.
17 * MEMDISK: generate the mBFT checksum correctly.
19 Changes in 3.85:
20 * gPXELINUX: updated to gPXE 1.0.0. gPXELINUX can now do NBP
21 chainloading, and does not require a second DHCP.
22 * vesamenu.c32: unbreak the default "grey hole" background.
23 * We no longer have a built-in default of "linux auto".
24 Instead, if no DEFAULT or UI statement is found, or the
25 configuration file is missing entirely, we drop to the boot:
26 prompt with an error message (if NOESCAPE is set, we stop
27 with a "boot failed" message; this is also the case for
28 PXELINUX if the configuration file is not found.)
29 * chain.c32: support chainloading Grub4DOS; patch by Gert
30 Hulselmans.
31 * New tool: sysdump.c32, can be used to produce system
32 information for debugging via tftp or ymodem (serial port).
33 * "vga=current" on the Linux command line is now supported.
34 * chain.c32: support for Windows Recovery Console, via the
35 "cmldr=" option.
36 * chain.c32: should now support loading NTLDR from different
37 type media than loaded from.
38 * chain.c32: support chainloading to a FAT/NTFS partition with
39 invalid "hidden sectors" via the "sethidden" option.
40 * memdisk: fix the mBFT ACPI table.
41 * vesamenu.c32: if the image is smaller than the screen, tile
42 it across the whole screen.
43 * mkdiskimage: -s option for producing a sparse image.
44 * vesamenu.c32: support arbitrary resolution setting (beyond
45 BIOS support) on some Intel-based video chipsets. This code
46 is a modified version of the "915resolution" tool by
47 Steve Tomljenovic; your mileage might vary.
49 Changes in 3.84:
50 * SYSLINUX: make the DOS installer work for MS-DOS 7.x/8.x
51 (Win9x/ME) again.
52 * HDT: updated to version 0.3.6 (numerous changes.)
53 * mboot.c32: now supports video mode setting if requested by
54 the image.
55 * MEMDISK: Fix floppy images of PC-DOS.
56 * MEMDISK: Add support for emulation of CD-ROM images; patch
57 by Shao Miller.
58 * MEMDISK: Comply with the Win9x "safe hook" standard,
59 allowing a protected-mode driver.
60 * MEMDISK: New "mBFT" ACPI table, by analogy with the iSCSI
61 iBFT table. This allows detection from a protected-mode
62 operating system without EDD support.
63 * 32-bit version of the gfxboot loader (gfxboot.c32), so far
64 experimental. This will replace gfxboot.com in the future.
65 * vesamenu.c32: new MENU RESOLUTION directive to set a screen
66 resolution other than 640x480.
67 * chain.c32: add support for loading isolinux.bin.
68 * chain.c32: make sure to always return to text mode.
69 * eltorito.sys: DOS driver for generic CD-ROMs; by Gary Tong
70 and Bart Lagerweij.
72 Changes in 3.83:
73 * PXELINUX: clear memory before handing over to a chainloaded
74 NBP. This may help avoid a bug in Windows RIS.
75 * PXELINUX: fix localboot after NBP chainloading on certain
76 BIOSes (including ASUS A8N-E, but possibly others.)
77 * chain.c32: support chainloaded bootloaders on ISOLINUX.
78 * PXELINUX: allow filenames up to 251 characters.
79 * MEMDISK: fix problems booting from USB on Thinkpads, and
80 possibly other machines or hardware combinations.
81 * isohybrid: fix the -id option.
82 * HDT: updated to version 0.3.4.
83 * MEMDISK: the stack size is now configurable, with the stack=
84 option.
85 * Simple menu: fix Ctrl-W (word erase) in command-line edit.
86 * Simple menu: fix crash on some platforms.
87 * Gfxboot: fixes to the configuration file parsing.
88 * PXELINUX: add a tool to override specific DHCP options via
89 values hardcoded in the pxelinux.0 file. These hardcoded
90 values can be either "before DHCP" (defaults if DHCP do not
91 provide values), or "after DHCP" (overrides DHCP). The tool
92 pxelinux-options can be used to set these options. This
93 feature does not apply to gpxelinux.0; when used with gPXE
94 this is better handled by modifying the embedded script.
96 Changes in 3.82:
97 * isohybrid: fix the -partok logic for loading from a partition.
98 * ISOLINUX: deal with systems which return from INT 13h with
99 interrupts disabled.
100 * Do not invoke the idle handler during large file loads.
101 * Simple menu: make ONTIMEOUT work with MENU HIDDEN.
102 * PXELINUX: handle TFTP servers which have extra NULs at the
103 end of an OACK packet.
105 Changes in 3.81:
106 * Shuffler: fix bug in real-mode entry. This affected a
107 number of modules, probably in relatively unimportant ways,
108 but it completely broke linux.c32.
109 * Improved performance.
110 * Attempt to halt the processor while idle. This can cause
111 bad reponsiveness when using a serial console especially for
112 automated input; if that ends up being a problem, use the
113 new "NOHALT 1" configuration command.
114 * linux.c32 now suppresses all messages if the "quiet" flag is
115 specified.
116 * isohybrid: add a variety of options, and a help message.
117 * ISOLINUX: fix booting in hybrid mode when CBIOS is used.
118 This unfortunately means that the isohybrid handoff protocol
119 has changed, so the isohybrid utility must version-match
120 isolinux.bin.
121 * Drop support for ACPI 3 extended memory flags.
122 * Menu system: don't set the autocr flag on the serial
123 console.
124 * altmbr: fix handling of logical partitions.
125 * altmbr: cap at 439 bytes so the partition select byte isn't
126 part of the file.
128 Changes in 3.80:
129 * New shuffler mechanism and API.
130 * Rewritten mboot.c32 module.
131 * The syslinux_boot_linux() function has been simplified.
132 * Don't hang trying to boot a "menu quit" label from the CLI.
133 * Fix problem with boot-once "sticking" on some BIOSes.
134 * isohybrid: fix problem with images over 2 GB in size.
135 * APM poweroff module (poweroff.com) by Sebastian Herbszt.
136 * ISOLINUX: fix the handling of large directories. Bug found
137 and fixed by Steffen Winterfeldt.
139 Changes in 3.75:
140 * PXELINUX: fix the "keeppxe" option, which was broken in
141 3.74.
142 * MEMDISK: correct the extraction of geometry information from
143 the MBR of a hard disk image, again broken in 3.74.
144 * extlinux(1) man page from Brian Pellin.
145 * Simple menu: MENU SAVE is now controllable on a menu-by-menu
146 or entry-by-entry basis.
147 * gPXELINUX: fix interrupt-disabling bug.
148 * HDT: fix lockup on machines with certain PCI configurations.
150 Changes in 3.74:
151 * New UI directive, which allows a more natural way to specify
152 a menu system (or not.) With the UI directive specifying
153 the menu system, the DEFAULT directive can be used to select
154 the default entry inside the menus.
155 * kbdmap.c32: new module to load a new keyboard map
156 dynamically.
157 * isohybrid: workaround bug in some versions of binutils.
158 * Fix issue with the placement of the initrd on some machines.
159 * ifcpu64: fix handling of less than three arguments.
160 * Fix bug in the shuffle library when dealing with a very
161 large number of fragments.
162 * Documentation fixes by Vicente Jimenez Aguilar.
163 * gPXE updated to version 0.9.7.
164 * hdt.c32: Hardware Detection Tool, an interactive hardware
165 analyzer module by Erwan Velu.
166 * MEMDISK: enable automatic determination of the disk geometry
167 for a large floppy disk image if (and only if) it is
168 formatted with a FAT filesystem.
169 * SYSLINUX: fix the handling of .bss files on FAT12/16.
170 * Suppress the Loading ... message if "quiet" is specified on
171 the kernel command line.
172 * Fix the use of "CONSOLE 0" with menu.c32.
173 * Allow COM32 modules to be aware of all memory even in the
174 presence of a memory hole. The "linux.c32" module can be
175 used to load a kernel (or memdisk) plus large initrd on
176 such a system.
177 * MBR: produce alternate MBR variants which force the drive
178 number to hd0 (_f variants), or force the drive number to
179 hd0 if the Ctrl key is pressed (_c variants.) Furthermore,
180 add an MBR variant (altmbr*.bin) which ignores the active
181 flag and instead boots the partition number specified in the
182 byte at offset 439 decimal.
183 * Add IPAPPEND strings to com32 modules, especially needed for
184 linux.c32.
185 * New MENU SAVE directive which saves the latest menu
186 selection until the next boot. Currently only implemented for
187 EXTLINUX.
188 * gfxboot.com: *experimental* interface module to Steffen
189 Winterfeldt's "gfxboot" graphical front end
190 (http://gfxboot.sourceforge.net/). Module by Sebastian Herbszt.
192 Changes in 3.73:
193 * Upgrade gPXE to release version 0.9.5.
194 * Fix a number of build errors on various platforms.
195 * Handle systems with E820 "extended attributes" per ACPI 3.
196 Someone "cleverly" decided to change the E820 spec in a
197 backwards-incompatible manner!
198 * MEMDISK: default to "safeint".
199 * Adopt the moniker "The Syslinux Project", standard proper
200 noun capitalization, to refer to the project as a whole.
201 Thus, reserve the all-caps "SYSLINUX" to refer to the FAT
202 loader.
203 * mboot.c32: add "-solaris" option to pass DHCP information to
204 the Solaris kernel; required for automatic Solaris boot
205 without using Solaris' pxeboot program.
206 * config.c32: trivial COM32 module to restart Syslinux with
207 another configuration file from the command line (equivalent
208 to the CONFIG command in the configuratin file.)
210 Changes in 3.72:
211 * Include the pxechain.com module from Jeffery Hutzelman at
212 Carnegie Mellon University. This allows chaining another
213 PXE boot program while changing the DHCP packet passed to
214 it.
215 * Reorganize the Makefile system.
216 * Major PCI core cleanups and other source cleanup.
217 * gPXE code updated.
218 * Try to avoid memory-snooping attacks on passwords. Note
219 that if someone has root on the box, they generally don't
220 need to compromise the boot loader...
221 * ISOLINUX: fix crash when given a zero-length file.
222 * sdi.c32: support gzipped SDI images.
223 * ISOLINUX: support generating images which can be either
224 a CD-ROM or a hard disk (USB disk, etc.) See
225 doc/isolinux.txt for more information.
226 * Remote gdb support for COM32 modules; patch from Stefan
227 Hajnoczi.
228 * Support beeps in F-key help in the simple menu system.
229 * Tab display of labels, based on a patch from Sebastian
230 Herbszt. Can be disabled with the NOCOMPLETE configuration
231 command.
232 * "menu default" can now be specified after "menu begin", to
233 indicate that a specific submenu should be the default entry.
235 Changes in 3.71:
236 * Workaround for a VESA BIOS which tries to make DOS system
237 calls(!!)
238 * Simple menu: fix navigation around disabled entries
239 (or at least try to...)
240 * EXTLINUX: proper error message when confused about mount
241 point.
242 * MEMDISK: be smarter about incompletely disabled floppies in
243 the BIOS and about being the only floppy.
244 * Optionally allow initrd to be specified on a separate line
245 rather than as part of the "append" line. This is not
246 recommended, but apparently makes life easier for some
247 tools.
248 * SYSLINUX: if no config file is present, set the current
249 directory to the root directory (Sebastian Herbszt).
250 * chain.c32: option "hide" to support hiding and unhiding of
251 primary partitions on the boot drive with DOS, Win, or OS/2
252 partition types (01, 04, 06, 07, 0b, 0c, 0e).
253 * Unbreak the KBDMAP command (broken in 3.70).
254 * EXTLINUX: fix the handling of the ADV when using CBIOS.
255 * ifcpu64.c32: simple COM32 module to select a 32- or 64-bit
256 kernel (and optionally 32-bit kernels with or without PAE.)
257 Eventually we want a scripting language for this
258 kind of stuff; a Lua module is under development.
259 * Fix parsing of the SERIAL command without a baud rate
260 specified.
261 * chain.c32: error out when try to boot an unbootable
262 partition.
263 * SYSLINUX: when building the Win32 installer, search for
264 MinGW under a large number of possible names.
266 Changes in 3.70:
267 * PXELINUX: Support enhanced capabilities when running on top
268 of gPXE (http://www.etherboot.org/). In particular, support
269 URL-style syntax for filenames, and any protocol that gPXE
270 supports (except, currently, iSCSI and AoE.) This feature
271 is currently highly experimental.
272 * Substantial infrastructure changes to support files whose
273 length aren't known at open time (typically network
274 connections.) Please note that the semantics of some of the
275 comboot APIs have changed slightly; please see doc/comboot.txt.
276 * PXELINUX: We no longer require a TFTP server which supports
277 the tsize option for all transfers.
278 * PXELINUX: Integrate with the gPXE source base; unified image
279 now included as "gpxelinux.0".
280 * The source tree has been restructured; files that were
281 previously in the root have moved into the core, dos, gpxe,
282 and utils directories.
283 * "make install", "make netinstall", and "make extbootinstall"
284 have been updated massively. "make install-all" now installs
285 all three.
286 * Change default dir for auxiliary files from
287 /usr/lib/syslinux to /usr/share/syslinux.
288 * SYSLINUX: VFAT long filename support.
289 * MEMDISK: Any image less than 4096K (4 MB) is treated as a
290 floppy disk. The geometry-guessing code will recognize all
291 common extended formats, but it is still possible some very
292 exotic formats need geometry specification. Large floppies
293 and very small harddisks still need explicit specification.
294 * chain.c32: option "swap" to support swapping of BIOS drive
295 numbers. This is necessary to boot certain operating systems
296 (DOS, Windows) from a secondary drive.
297 * chain.c32: option "file=" to support loading a boot file from
298 the SYSLINUX filesystem instead of loading the boot sector
299 from the drive.
300 * chain.c32: option "seg=" to control the load location.
301 * chain.c32: option "ntldr=" as a shorthand for "seg=0x2000
302 file="; use this to load one of WinNT's loaders:
304 chain.c32 hd0 1 ntldr=/MiniNT/setupldr.bin
306 Note that the file needs to be in the SYSLINUX filesystem.
307 * chain.32: options "freedos=" and "msdos="/"pcdos=" as
308 shorthands for "seg=0x60 file=" and "seg=0x70 file="
309 respectively; use this to load FreeDOS's kernel.sys, MS-DOS's
310 io.sys or PC-DOS's ibmbio.sys.
311 * Change to the A20 algorithm which *MIGHT* help systems that
312 have systems which freeze when Syslinux is used with USB
313 keyboards. Note that this has been hard do verify, so I
314 would greatly appreciate feedback on it.
315 * Complex menu system: unbreak menus which has unnamed
316 submenus, like complex.c.
317 * Fix newline on the serial port for some com32 modules.
318 * chain.c32: support "boot" as the drive specification,
319 indicating the drive from which it was booted
320 (for syslinux/extlinux).
321 * SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX: support "localboot" with the same feature
322 set as ISOLINUX.
323 * Add an experimental MBR for GPT partition tables.
324 * Use $(CC) when determining compile flags.
325 * chain.c32: fix booting from logical partitions (Sergey
326 Vlasov.)
328 Changes in 3.63:
329 * Fix errors in the PCI and DMI detection modules (Erwan Velu,
330 Sebastian Herbszt).
331 * Fix host dependencies and other issues in the build system.
332 * PXELINUX: Allow class E addresses as unicast.
333 * sdi.c32: module to load Microsoft System Deployment Images.
334 For additional information, please see:
335 http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms838543.aspx
336 * EXTLINUX: Correct reading directories with deleted entries.
337 * Shuffle library: correct the handling of certain geometries
338 (an upward move with source material blocking the move); as
339 required by sdi.c32 but theoretically possible for other
340 formats as well.
341 * Add "make netinstall" to install /tftpboot.
342 * Fix some documentation files that didn't get moved/renamed.
344 Changes in 3.62:
345 * Clean up garbage after "aborted." message.
346 * Clean up memdump.com filenames.
347 * Support SHA256 and SHA512 encrypted passwords.
348 * The shuffle library now can generate chained descriptors,
349 thus allowing pretty much arbitrarily complex memory maps.
350 * Handle command lines up to 2047 characters, the current
351 Linux kernel limit.
352 * vesamenu: support systems without linear framebuffer support
353 (sigh, what is this, 1993?) and 15-bit RGB modes.
354 * Move the label storage (for the command-line interface) to
355 high memory, removing the size limit and freeing up 64K of
356 low memory.
357 * Get rid of 4096-entry limit in the simple menu system.
358 * New hierarchial submenu support: see MENU BEGIN, MENU END,
359 MENU GOTO in doc/menu.txt.
360 * MENU QUIT allows creating a menu entry for returning to the
361 command line.
362 * ISOLINUX: Work around bug in certain Adaptec BIOSes,
363 patch by Bruce Robson.
364 * pngtopnm dependency removed from samples/ directory.
365 * Text documentation files (in doc/) renamed *.doc -> *.txt.
367 Changes in 3.61:
368 * EXTLINUX: fix crash when accessing an empty file.
369 * elf.c32: If a PHDR segment is present, load it.
370 * Fix SHA-1 and MD5 passwords.
371 * ISOLINUX: fix booting when mastered without
372 mkisofs -boot-info-table (broken since 3.50, sigh...)
373 * Handle BIOSes which emit multiple contiguous valid
374 memory regions in the e820 map.
376 Changes in 3.60:
377 * Support for "auxilliary data vector", a small amount of
378 writable storage. Currently only supported for EXTLINUX,
379 but the infrastructure is there for the other derivatives,
380 assuming a suitable storage location can be found.
381 * EXTLINUX: boot-once support (--once, --clear-once, and
382 --reset-adv).
383 * A command is now required to the EXTLINUX installer, i.e. at
384 least one of --install, --update, --once, --clear-once, or
385 --reset-adv.
387 Changes in 3.55:
388 * PXELINUX: as per RFC 5071, PXELINUX no longer requires the
389 use of the magic cookie option (208) for unencapsulated
390 options. Currently it does not require it for
391 vendor-encapsulated options (vendor-option-space) either,
392 but that MAY be reverted in the future if it causes
393 problems.
394 * Documentation text files moved to a common "doc" directory;
395 man pages from the Debian project added to the "man"
396 directory.
397 * Correct bug with self-overlapping memory areas when using
398 the shuffle interface.
400 Changes in 3.54:
401 * Add "menu separator", "menu indent", "menu disabled"
402 (see README.menu).
403 * vesamenu: fix handing of VESA modes with noncontiguous
404 memory buffers. In particular, Qemu/KVM sets up such a mode
405 when Cirrus Logic emulation is enabled (which is the
406 default.)
407 * Support for calling real mode functions using far calls,
408 with argument on the stack. This was implemented to support
409 the BIOS BBS specification, but subsequent experiments show
410 that the at least one of the most common BIOS cores, Award,
411 passes the presence check but doesn't actually implement the
412 functionality.
414 Changes in 3.53:
415 * Fix bugs related to the $PnP BIOS functionality on some
416 platforms.
417 * PXELINUX: Fix the "naked" version of :: (suppress prefix.)
418 * elf.c32: better error messages.
419 * Faster operation under Intel VT virtualization.
420 * PXELINUX: Fix DHCP bootfile option.
421 * mkdiskimage: Support more than 1024 cylinders.
422 * (Hopefully) fix installer on non-x86 platforms.
423 * Fix shuffle_and_boot_rm, used by linux.c32.
424 * Fix shuffle_and_boot_pm on 386/486.
425 * ISOLINUX (at least): fix bss memory overwrite hang.
426 * MBR: Fix booting from logical partitions.
427 * Code cleanups.
429 Changes in 3.52:
430 * Handle capitalized F-key commands in the menu system.
431 * Fix padding error when loading multiple ramdisks.
432 * Workaround for VMware crashing when trying to print a
433 message during early kernel boot (does not seem to work,
434 consider deleting.)
435 * chain.c32: add the ability to search for a specific MBR
436 signature at runtime.
437 * Fall back to the server identity option if the siaddr field
438 in the DHCP header isn't set. This seems to match the
439 behaviour of most PXE stacks.
440 * mkdiskimage: give the generated disk image an MBR signature.
441 * MEMDISK: Fix failures on some BIOSes.
442 * Simple menu system: new "MENU HIDDEN" option to not display
443 the menu unless the user presses a key.
444 * Simple menu system: support MD5-encrypted passwords (modern
445 Unix standard style, with "$1$" prefixes.)
446 * pcitest.c32: now functions as a full "lspci". Thanks to
447 Erwan Velu for this work.
448 * MEMDISK: Make EDD actually work.
449 * ISOLINUX: Fix for certain broken CD-ROM BIOSes which
450 randomly corrupted register FS.
451 * Simple menu system: fix memory overwrite bug that caused
452 some systems to lock up or behave weirdly.
453 * Fix building on 64-bit systems without a 32-bit libc installed.
455 Changes in 3.51:
456 * EXTLINUX: Fix failure to find the configuration file.
458 Changes in 3.50:
459 * New keywords allow the type of file to be specified in the
460 configuration file.
461 * It is now supported to load a different configuration file
462 with the CONFIG keyword.
463 * Fix API call 0x0019 (Read Disk.)
464 * MENU AUTOBOOT, MENU TABMSG, MENU PASSPROMPT allows
465 internationalization of menu messages.
466 * A new feature, TEXT HELP, allows the administrator to set
467 a multi-line help message for individual selections.
468 * Fix API call 0x0012 (Cleanup, shuffle and boot.)
469 * New API call "Cleanup, shuffle and boot to flat protected mode"
470 * New API call "Cleanup, shuffle and boot to real mode",
471 similar to API call 0x0012 but allows arbitrary register setting.
472 * Introduce a library interface for loading arbitrary binary
473 formats with relatively easily understood code. See
474 the elf.c32 module for an example on how to use it.
475 * New module "elf.c32", to load a protected-mode ELF kernel.
476 * MBR (old and new): Fix bug in CHS mode when LBA >
477 65535*sectors.
478 * vesamenu: fix decoding of palettized PNG images.
479 * Update the Linux kernel boot protocol.
480 * PXELINUX: Press Ctrl-N at the boot prompt to read out the
481 network info.
482 * Instead of the (non-existent) MAC, use the client identifier
483 for networks like Infiniband and Firewire/1394.
484 * Add a new INCLUDE command to the core syslinux parser.
485 * Allow binding help text to F11 and F12.
486 * F-key help now available in the simple menu system.
487 * Disabled the polling for ARP during idle. It is simply too
488 slow on some (broken!) PXE stacks.
489 * PXELINUX: also try to fetch the config file based on UUID.
490 * SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX: New RAID mode (-r) which calls the BIOS
491 to load the next device (typically the next drive) on boot
492 failure.
494 Changes in 3.36:
495 * MEMDISK: Disable EDD by default on floppy disks. EDD can be
496 enabled with the "edd" option and disabled with "noedd".
497 This (hopefully) should make Ghost work again.
498 * SYSLINUX: "unix" installer now uses Linux ioctls instead of
499 using libfat.
500 * New MBR which can boot from logical partitions.
501 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in detecting special extensions which was
502 introduced in 3.35 :(
503 * PXELINUX: Unbreak chainbooting FreeBSD (and possibly others.)
505 Changes in 3.35:
506 * MEMDISK: New "safeint" mode.
507 * MEMDISK: Be more compliant with the PnP BIOS spec.
508 * MEMDISK: Turn on EDD support by default.
509 * MEMDISK: Try to work on some machines on which it would not
510 work when there was no floppy drive in the system.
511 * Simple menu system: fix serial console support (broken in
512 3.30).
513 * SYSLINUX: Support subdirectories. Like ISOLINUX, the
514 "current directory" is the directory in which syslinux.cfg
515 is found; this is searched for in the sequence
516 /boot/syslinux, /syslinux, /. As a side benefit, label names
517 like "linux-2.6.18" and "linux-2.6.19" are now supported.
519 To install ldlinux.sys in a subdirectory, pass the -d
520 directory option to the SYSLINUX installer.
522 This work was sponsored by slax.org (thanks, Tomas!)
523 * New API call: read disk.
524 * Invoke ONERROR on initrd load failure.
526 Changes in 3.31:
527 * The simple menu system (menu.c32 and vesamenu.c32) now
528 support loading more than one configuration file at a time,
529 using MENU INCLUDE or by specifying multiple filenames.
530 * The MENU COLOR statement can now control the shadowing mode.
532 Changes in 3.30:
533 * libcom32 extended to support graphics mode and graphical console.
534 * vesamenu.c32, new graphical version of the Simple
535 Menu System, see README.menu.
536 * New com32 modules by Erwan Velu do selection based on CPUID
537 or PCI devices present.
538 * RPM spec: add syslinux-tftpboot module; move syslinux by
539 default to the /usr/share/syslinux directory.
540 * RPM spec: extlinux is now a separate package.
542 Changes in 3.20:
543 * EXTLINUX: New options --install (-i) and --update (-U), to
544 make it clear if a boot loader should be installed or
545 updated. For now, defaults to --install for compatibility;
546 a future version will require one of these options.
547 * New library functions to load and place files in memory.
548 * mboot.c32 bug fixes.
549 * Remove 8 MB kernel size restriction.
550 * Add "klibc" target for building unix/syslinux and
551 extlinux/extlinux with klcc (klibc-1.4.27 or later.)
552 * PXELINUX: Fail (and eventually reboot) if no configuration
553 file was found.
554 * COM32 module by Erwan Velu to make decisions based on DMI
555 info.
556 * Fix issue where going back and forth between menus a lot
557 would cause a hang.
558 * ISOLINUX: Fix bug which made "cd boot sectors" not work.
560 Changes in 3.11:
561 * MEMDISK: Fix bug by which accessing the real floppy disk
562 as B: in MS-DOS was broken.
563 * Simple menu system: allow tweaking of the screen layout.
564 * Simple menu system: better command-line editing, correctly
565 handle command lines above 256 characters.
566 * PXELINUX: revert memory allocation change that caused
567 problems on some network cards.
568 * MEMDISK: Try work around a bug on some BIOSes when no
569 physical floppy disk is present in the system.
570 * Enable the 16550A FIFOs, if present, when doing serial
571 console.
572 * New "totaltimeout" command establishes a timeout without
573 regard for any user input.
574 * Simple menu system: timeout behaviour now more in line with
575 user expectations.
576 * Simple menu system: "ontimeout" should now work correctly.
578 Changes in 3.10:
579 * gcc 4.0.1 compilation fixes.
580 * Add support for querying the PCI BIOS in libcom32
581 (used by ethersel et al.)
582 * Fix PCI handing (ethersel etc) on several old chipsets (and
583 VMWare.)
584 * Try to deal with systems with broken EBIOS.
585 * New API call to do "localboot".
586 * New API call to query features.
587 * New API call to run kernel image, a lower-level call than
588 "run command". See comboot.doc.
589 * Fix for bug in EBIOS code discovered by Arwin Vosselman.
590 * NOESCAPE security fix.
591 * Comments are now recognized even without a space following #.
592 * Fix incorrect handling of mixes of entries with and without
593 MENU PASSWD.
594 * The idle API call now harmlessly returns failure if it is a
595 no-op. That way the caller can decide whether or not to
596 bother invoking it again.
597 * Temporarily disable the idle API call on PXELINUX, due to
598 some platforms on which the idle API call seems to hang; this
599 problem has not yet been debugged.
600 * MEMDISK: the handling of DOSEMU-headered images was broken;
601 fix it.
602 * EXTLINUX: symlinks are now supported.
603 * Simple menu system: N and P now work correctly as hotkeys.
604 * MEMDISK: more BIOS bug workarounds.
606 Changes in 3.09:
607 * gcc4 compilation fix.
608 * <BEL> (Ctrl-G) in message files now causes a beep.
609 * Reduce the command line to 511 characters; 1023 caused
610 memory overflows.
612 Changes in 3.08:
613 * SYSLINUX: Fix performance regression (-s mode always
614 enabled.)
615 * Add API function for idle loop.
616 * libutil: Add do_idle() function for idle loop, make
617 get_key() use it.
618 * libutil: Add SHA-1 and base64 functions.
619 * Simple menu system: add password support.
620 * EXTLINUX: Sparse files now handled correctly.
621 * EXTLINUX: Large directories now handled correctly.
622 * ALL: At the prompt, Ctrl-X now forces text mode.
623 * Fix configuration file parsing error, that could cause
624 hangs.
625 * Rewritten advanced menuing system from Murali Ganapathy.
626 * MEMDISK: New "bigraw" mode to work around certain broken
627 BIOS flash programs.
628 * COM32 module to boot Multiboot systems, including Xen. See
629 com32/modules/mboot.doc.
630 * Max command line changed to 1023 characters. Note that the
631 kernel proper still can only handle 255 characters without
632 patching, and COM16 binaries can only handle 125 characters.
634 Changes in 3.07:
635 * Fix chainloading (chain.c32).
636 * Fix zlib build problem.
637 * Use a private copy of <linux/ext2_fs.h>.
639 Changes in 3.06:
640 * Fix typo that caused the ramdisk to load in the wrong place.
642 Changes in 3.05:
643 * New API function "shuffle and boot"; allows COM32 modules to
644 load or construct (almost) arbitrarily complex objects,
645 e.g. a kernel and its initrd/initramfs in pieces, and have
646 the API core reorganize memory for booting. (A library API
647 for this function will be introduced in a later version.)
648 * The initrd= option now supports multiple filenames separated
649 by commas. This is mostly useful for initramfs, which can
650 be composed of multiple separate cpio or cpio.gz archives.
651 (Note: all files except the last one are zero-padded to a 4K
652 page boundary. This should not affect initramfs.)
653 * EXTLINUX: Fix API function 000Ah (get derivative-specific
654 info).
655 * libcom32/ethersel: Support PCI Config Mechanism #2 on
656 machines still infested with that hideous old hack.
657 * SYSLINUX: Fix directory-parsing bug.
659 Changes in 3.02:
660 * SYSLINUX: The "unix" installer now sets the MS-DOS
661 attributes (hidden, system, readonly.)
662 * COM32 library: build the .lnx (test modules for running
663 under Linux) as architecture native modules, in case
664 i386 devel libraries aren't installed.
665 * EXTLINUX: Hack for systems which don't have BLKGETSIZE64
666 defined in the standard header files.
667 * Simple menu system: minor aestetic improvements, and try to
668 work better over a serial console (speed, and readability on
669 monochrome terminal emulators.)
670 * New CONSOLE directive to control output on the video console
671 (useful for dealing with some broken serial-forwarding
672 BIOSes.)
673 * New com32 module "ethersel" for searching for an Ethernet
674 card and selecting the proper version of Etherboot.
675 * EXTLINUX: Allow the user to override the detected geometry.
676 Add help.
678 Changes in 3.01:
679 * EXTLINUX, SYSLINUX: Fix compile errors on some systems.
680 * EXTLINUX: Default to zipdrive geometry (64 heads, 32
681 sectors) if no other geometry can be detected.
683 Changes in 3.00:
684 * SYSLINUX: Support FAT32 and EDD. As an unfortunate
685 consequence, LDLINUX.SYS is no longer an ordinary file; it
686 is block-mapped at install time, which means it can only be
687 written using the syslinux installers.
688 * SYSLINUX: Reorganize the source code for the installers;
689 each one of the installers (dos, win32, unix, mtools) is now
690 built in its own subdirectory. In particular, "mtools" is
691 the unprivileged installer which uses mtools; "unix" is the
692 privileged installer which uses system calls.
693 * SYSLINUX: Completely rewritten DOS installer in C.
694 * ALL: "label" statement information is now stored in a
695 compressed format, which means that a lot more labels are
696 permitted (500-1000 in a typical configuration, but depends
697 on the complexity.)
698 * EXTLINUX: New derivative, which boots from an ext2/ext3
699 filesystem.
700 * SYSLINUX: The DOS and Win32 installers can now optionally
701 write the boot sector to a file instead of the real boot
702 sector. This is not supported in the Linux installers,
703 however.
704 * ALL: New NOESCAPE command, disables the "hold down the Shift
705 key to display the prompt" behaviour.
706 * New simple menu system, as an alternative to the advanced
707 menu system already present. See README.menu for details.
708 * PXELINUX: Filenames can now be prefixed with an IP address
709 or DNS name plus :: (e.g. 192.0.2.1::filename or
710 server.domain.com::filename), which downloads a file from an
711 alternate TFTP server, or just a :: (e.g. ::filename), which
712 suppresses the common pathname prefix. See pxelinux.doc.
713 * SYSLINUX: Add an -m option to the DOS and Win32 installers
714 to write an MBR and -a to mark the partition SYSLINUX is
715 being installed on active.
716 * MEMDISK: Give a way to query the boot loader type while
717 running MEMDISK; see memdisk/memdisk.doc and
718 sample/mdiskchk.c.
719 * mkdiskimage: substantially improved mkdiskimage which, among
720 other things, can now be used to initialize USB keys as
721 zipdrives; see README.usbkey for more information.
723 Changes in 2.13:
724 * MEMDISK: Fix command-line parsing "brown paper bag" class
725 bug.
726 * MEMDISK: Add "raw" mode to support the DOS boot disk from
727 WinME/XP, which seems to deliberately crash the system
728 when someone uses the "INT 15h mover" highmem API.
729 * Make "make install" do something sane for the com32
730 development environment.
731 * In the spec file, create a separate -devel RPM for the com32
732 development environment.
734 Changes in 2.12:
735 * Simple C library, based on klibc, for writing COM32
736 programs.
737 * Fix the handling of file length in loading of COM32
738 programs.
739 * MEMDISK: Work around a linker bug by rearranging the code to
740 not use the linker for the 16-bit code.
741 * SYSLINUX: If we're building on a machine without a Win32
742 (mingw) compiler, just skip building syslinux.exe.
743 * ISOLINUX: Support non-mkisofs mastering programs, at least
744 as long as the image is single-session. For best results,
745 ISOLINUX should be the only boot loader installed.
746 * MEMDISK: Allow the user to specify that the simulated disk
747 should be write-protected.
749 Changes in 2.11:
750 * ALL: Add an API call to get the configuration file name.
751 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in 2.10 that prevented it from working
752 correctly for a lot of people.
753 * SYSLINUX: In the installer, make mtools a bit less fussy.
754 * Make the menu system compile with newer gcc's.
756 Changes in 2.10:
757 * MEMDISK: Handle images compressed with zip as well as with
758 gzip. Some Windows-based image tools apparently generate
759 these kinds of images by default. Patch by Patrick
760 LoPresti.
761 * Major menu improvement from Murali Ganapathy.
762 * ISOLINUX: Wonderfully sick and brilliant workaround for
763 severe bugs in certain Award BIOSes; from Knut Petersen.
764 * SYSLINUX: Fix for the nomtools installed, from Frederic
765 Pasteleurs.
766 * PXELINUX: Fix handling of IP numbers in the ranges
767 100-109 and 200-209.
768 * ALL: New option "allowoptions" (defaults to 1), which
769 controls if options are allowed on the command line or not.
770 * SYSLINUX: Support building under klibc (see the klibc
771 distribution for details.)
773 Changes in 2.09:
774 * SYSLINUX: Remove residual setuid crap from
775 syslinux-nomtools.
776 * Handle video pages correctly when using the API functions.
777 * Handle compiling on an x86-64 platform correctly.
778 * Menu system from Murali Krishnan Ganapathy; see the menu
779 directory for information.
780 * COMBOOT: Allow COMBOOT programs to change screen text mode.
781 * COMBOOT: Correct the documentation of how to detect
782 SYSLINUX from COMBOOT!!!!
783 * COMBOOT: Fix "get key without echo" API function.
784 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug that affected the API open function.
785 * ALL: Improve the E820 memory parser, to work around some
786 buggy BIOSes.
788 Changes in 2.08:
789 * Add new configuration command "ontimeout" to allow timeout
790 to have a different action than just pressing Enter.
791 * Add new configuration command "onerror" to allow a custom
792 command to be executed in case the kernel image is not found.
793 * Fix bugs in the COMBOOT/COM32 command-line parsing. APPEND
794 now works with COMBOOT/COM32 images.
795 * PXELINUX: Poll for ARP requests while sitting at the
796 prompt. This makes some boot servers a lot less unhappy.
797 * PXELINUX: Actually free sockets when we get a failure
798 (including file not found.) This bug would cause us to run
799 out of sockets and thus "go deaf" after a while.
800 * MEMDISK: Add an API to query for the existence of MEMDISK.
801 * SYSLINUX: Fix loading boot sectors (.bs/.bss) from floppy
802 disk.
803 * .c32 is now one of the extensions searched for
804 automatically.
805 * PXELINUX: RFBG.exe seems to randomly overwrite memory
806 location 0x5700. Thus, don't use it!
807 * PXELINUX: Change pathname length max from 63 to 127; change
808 max vkernels from 128 to 64.
809 * Support Ctrl-U -> kill entire command line input.
810 * The "samples" directory contains a (barely at all tested)
811 chain loading example, chain.c32, which may be used to
812 chainload local floppy disks and hard disks. Use with
813 "chain fdN" or "chain hdN [partition]"; N = 0 for the first
814 drive of each type.
816 Changes in 2.07:
817 * MEMDISK: Workaround for BIOSes which go into a snit when
818 they get a RESET command for the floppy system when there is
819 no floppy in the system.
820 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend 2", which passes the hardware
821 address of the boot interface to the kernel as a
822 command-line option.
823 * mkdiskimage: fix the generation of the end limit.
824 * PXELINUX: Fix multiple bugs in chainloading of other NBPs.
825 * MEMDISK: Fix bug that would occationally cause "ran out of
826 input data" when using compressed disk images.
827 * SYSLINUX: Updates for the win32 installer (from Lars Munch.)
828 * PXELINUX: PXELINUX-specific options are now recognized both
829 in a vendor-option-space (a.k.a. type 43 encapsulated) as
830 well as in a site-option-space (unencapsulated.)
831 * COM32: Don't crash when DS != 0.
832 * COMBOOT/COM32: Make file reading work correctly. Thanks to
833 Phung Chi Kien for submitting a test program.
835 Changes in 2.06:
836 * ALL: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
837 boot failure, depending on the length of the kernel.
838 * ISOLINUX: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
839 boot failure, depending on the length of directories.
840 * SYSLINUX: Win32 installer now flushes buffers.
841 * ppmtolss16: Be fully compliant with the PNM spec;
842 actually process comments in the header and odd
843 alignments of the various parameters, as well as
844 "plain" (not raw) files and PBM and PGM files.
845 * PXELINUX: Lower the default MTU to 1472 in order to deal
846 with systems with slightly nonstandard MTUs, and PXE
847 stacks which don't defragment correctly. Unfortunately this
848 is very hard to test dynamically.
850 Changes in 2.05:
851 * PXELINUX: Add a default query based on the hardware address
852 of the boot device. This is in lower case hexadecimal form
853 separated by dashes and including the hardware type, for
854 example, the Ethernet (type 1) address 88:99:AA:BB:CC:DD
855 would query the file pxelinux.cfg/01-88-99-aa-bb-cc-dd.
856 * PXELINUX: Fix bug involving non-IP-based config file names.
857 * SYSLINUX: New installer for WinNT-based systems, from Lars
858 Munch.
859 * MEMDISK: Fix handling of memory region overlap when
860 decompressing. Thanks to Mikhail Kupchik for identifying
861 the problem.
863 Changes in 2.04:
864 * ALL: Reclaim even more low memory by observing that
865 comboot_seg == real_mode_seg is perfectly fine, and by the
866 fact that the 1000h segment managed to get unused in all
867 derivatives...
868 * PXELINUX: Attempt to negotiate full Ethernet-sized blocks
869 (1468 bytes) using the blksize option.
870 * SYSLINUX: Resurrect the old no-mtools version of the
871 installer, although as a root-only tool. Some distributors
872 have indicated that they need a small standalone installer.
873 * MEMDISK: Fix a memory offset computation error when
874 installing compressed disks which generally would cause
875 1 MB of memory to be wasted.
876 * MEMDISK: Fix installing the E820 memory map. Calling
877 INT 15h AX=0E820h with MEMDISK 2.03 loaded would give a
878 completely corrupt memory map.
879 * SYSLINUX: Make libsyslinux a dynamic library, so that it can
880 be updated separately from client programs. The whole idea,
881 after all, is to enable alternate programs to become
882 syslinux installers.
883 * Include an rpm spec file in the distribution, so rpmbuild
884 -ta works.
886 Changes in 2.03:
887 * Actually support comment lines in the configuration file.
888 * PXELINUX: Try to resolve some problems with stack switches.
889 * PXELINUX: Handle PXE stacks with broken routing.
890 With these workarounds, the remote install PXE boot floppy
891 (rbfg.exe) from Argon Technologies should work correctly.
892 * Fix problems with Perl scripts in UTF-8 locales.
893 * You probably need NASM 0.98.34 or later to compile this
894 version. 0.98.36 is recommended.
895 * MEMDISK: Now supports gzip compressed images.
897 Changes in 2.02:
898 * SYSLINUX: Security flaws have been found in the SYSLINUX
899 installer when running setuid root. Rewrite the SYSLINUX
900 installer so it uses mtools instead. It therefore now
901 requires mtools (specifically mcopy and mattrib) to exist on
902 your system, but it will not require root privileges and
903 SHOULD NOT be setuid.
905 Changes in 2.01:
906 * MEMDISK: Fix memory sizing bug when the ramdisk crosses the
907 16 MB boundary.
908 * MEMDISK: Add a "pause" option to stop immediately before
909 booting, to read off the messages.
910 * MEMDISK: Support disk images with DOSEMU headers.
911 * Update the mkdiskimage script to handle newer mtools
912 versions, and be able to generate disk images with DOSEMU
913 headers (controlled by the -d option).
914 * Fix the COM32 sample program.
915 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix some COMBOOT API calls.
916 * PXELINUX: Doc fix.
917 * Build SYSLINUX into a small library for encapsulation into
918 other programs (however, please keep in mind this is a GPL'd
919 library.)
920 * SYSLINUX: Make installer work with "owner" in /etc/fstab.
921 * SYSLINUX: Fix issue with working on nonpartitioned hard disk
922 devices. THIS CONFIGURATION IS NOT RECOMMENDED.
924 Changes in 2.00:
925 * ALL: Add support for "COM32" (32-bit COMBOOT) images.
926 * ALL: Add an API for COMBOOT/COM32 images. See comboot.doc
927 for details. There is a C development environment for
928 COM32 being created; it should be ready at some point in
929 the future.
930 * Fix mbr.asm so that it actually works.
931 * SYSLINUX: The syslinux installer *SHOULD* now be safe to
932 run setuid root.
933 * PXELINUX: Fix bug where PXELINUX would override random
934 chunks of the UNDI code segment! Thanks to Kevin Tran for
935 finding this bug.
936 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug related to slashes in pathnames.
937 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug in handling initrds over 128 MB.
938 * ALL: Make the <Ctrl-V> key print out the version; this is
939 to help debugging.
940 * Add a small script, mkdiskimage, to create a DOS-formatted
941 hard disk image using mtools. This may be useful in
942 conjunction with MEMDISK.
943 * ISOLINUX: Search for a /boot/isolinux directory as well as
944 /isolinux.
945 * ALL: Fix a bug related to very long configuration files.
946 * PXELINUX: Work around a NASM bug which would result in no
947 delay before reset if an error occurs.
949 Changes in 1.76:
950 * ISOLINUX: Remove code no longer used which caused hangs on
951 some Toshiba laptops.
953 Changes in 1.75:
954 * ALL: NASM 0.98.32 or later is now required to build
955 SYSLINUX from sources.
956 * SYSLINUX: put back in the workaround for the BIOS floppy
957 table. This seems to be a requirement for "extended" floppy
958 formats to work correctly.
959 * SYSLINUX: No longer warn if one is trying to boot on a 286
960 or older. The above BIOS workaround no longer fits if the
961 requirement to use only 8086-compatible code in the early
962 boot is maintained. It made sense in 1994, but in 2002 a
963 286 or older is a museum object.
964 * SYSLINUX: Use a downright bizarre, stateful algorithm to try
965 to guess the maximum transfer size. I am *hoping* this will
966 cut down on the number of systems for which -s is required
967 to work at any acceptable speed.
968 * ISOLINUX: Add a few more workarounds for various broken El
969 Torito BIOSes.
970 * Make sure .depend files aren't accidentally packed...
971 * ALL: Fix bugs in the extension-detect code; this caused
972 files like COMBOOT images and CD boot sectors to be
973 mis-identified as Linux kernels and rejected.
974 * ALL: Fix the return from COMBOOT.
975 * ALL: Do some of the early groundwork for supporting DOS
976 system calls in COMBOOT.
977 * Get rid of unnecessary "near" directives, making the code
978 bigger.
979 * PXELINUX: Put the PXE stack back in the init state before
980 invoking a chain-loaded NBP.
981 * PXELINUX: Actually found the combination of calls that
982 allows some (most?) PXE 2+ stacks to be unloaded from memory
983 properly.
984 * PXELINUX: Add "keeppxe" command-line option to disable
985 the standard unloading of the PXE stack.
987 Changes in 1.74:
988 * SYSLINUX: fix bug that would cause valid kernel images to be
989 labelled "invalid".
991 Changes in 1.73:
992 * Work on removing gratuitous differences between modules.
993 * Break up the source in common and module-specific files.
994 * PXELINUX: Allow chaining of other PXE NBPs.
995 * ISOLINUX: Allow loading "CD-ROM boot sectors".
996 * ALL: generalize the definition of a boot sector/NBP.
998 Changes in 1.72:
999 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix bugs in the new core code.
1001 Changes in 1.71:
1002 * Fix a "brown paper bag" class bug in the new core code.
1004 Changes in 1.70:
1005 * Major code restructuring.
1006 * Relax the conventional memory limits somewhat.
1007 * MEMDISK: Set up the "version number string" pointer in the
1008 header correctly.
1009 * SYSLINUX: Fix, again, "the bug that won't die": the use of
1010 the offset parameter with the SYSLINUX installer.
1011 * SYSLINUX: Fix possible superblock corruption problem in the
1012 SYSLINUX installer.
1014 Changes in 1.67:
1015 * Handle bug in the location of initrd.
1017 Changes in 1.66:
1018 * MEMDISK: Make compile with newer versions of gcc.
1020 Changes in 1.65:
1021 * ISOLINUX: Support booting disk image files (to boot DOS or
1022 other non-Linux operating systems), *IF* the BIOS works
1023 correctly; unfortunately many BIOSes apparently don't.
1024 * Support Linux boot protocol version 2.03 (explicitly
1025 specify the initrd address limit.)
1026 * Handle small "pseudo-kernels"; images that use the Linux
1027 kernel boot protocols but are less than 64K in size.
1028 * MEMDISK: New subsystem; this is a driver which allows
1029 legacy OSes to boot using an in-memory simulated disk.
1030 See memdisk/memdisk.doc for more info.
1031 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Correctly handle files larger than 65535
1032 blocks (32 MB for PXELINUX, 128 MB for ISOLINUX.)
1033 * PXELINUX: Make a best-effort attempt at freeing all memory
1034 claimed. From the looks of it, it will fail on most PXE
1035 stacks.
1037 Changes in 1.64:
1038 * Limited support for hardware flow control when using a
1039 serial port console.
1040 * Support specifying the serial port I/O address explicitly.
1041 * Make DOS installer hopefully behave more nicely when used on
1042 recent Windows versions.
1043 * Fix returning to text mode when a font has been specified.
1044 * Attempt to detect missing serial port hardware and disable
1045 the serial port if there is nothing there.
1047 Changes in 1.63:
1048 * Make the ppmtolss16 program handle color conversion more
1049 correctly.
1050 * Clean up "make install" target, honour INSTALLROOT if it
1051 exists.
1052 * SYSLINUX: Fix stack-smash bug identified by Steffen
1053 Winterfeldt.
1054 * Hopefully fix return-to-text-mode on some graphics cards.
1055 * ISOLINUX: Bug workaround for Award BIOS 4.51, and perhaps
1056 other buggy BIOSes as well.
1058 Changes in 1.62:
1059 * PXELINUX: Allow the DHCP server to override the
1060 configuration file name and pathname prefix, using
1061 "site-specific" DHCP options.
1062 * PXELINUX: Documentation fixes.
1063 * PXELINUX: Fix the "ipappend" option; the last two values
1064 were reversed vs. what the kernel expected.
1065 * Introduce a way to return to text mode once we are already
1066 in graphics mode. This may be useful for F-key help
1067 screens.
1068 * Fix several bugs in the way return to text mode was handled.
1070 Changes in 1.61:
1071 * ISOLINUX: Support full pathname searches. Max length for a
1072 pathname is 255 characters. As a result, only 64 "label"
1073 statements are supported in ISOLINUX.
1074 * PXELINUX: Max filename length extended to 63 characters.
1076 Changes in 1.60:
1077 * Add support for graphical splash screens.
1078 * Add mode control characters, which allows you to control
1079 message display output depending on output mode (text,
1080 graphics, or serial port.)
1081 * ISOLINUX: New program, which boots Linux from a CD-ROM
1082 without using floppy emulation mode. See isolinux.doc for
1083 more details.
1084 * PXELINUX: Don't search for boot sector file types, since
1085 they don't work anyway.
1086 * SYSLINUX: Document the LOCK command for Win9x, and the error
1087 dialog box for WinNT/2K.
1089 Changes in 1.54:
1090 * PXELINUX: Fix code for finding !PXE from PXENV+. This was
1091 due to a spec bug; match the most recent spec since that
1092 seems to be what implementations actually do.
1093 * SYSLINUX: Add some smarts to the boot sector, which
1094 hopefully should reduce the number of systems which require
1095 stupid mode ("syslinux -s").
1096 * PXELINUX: Document further some of the pathologies with old
1097 PXE stacks.
1098 * When specifying a "default" command line, no longer
1099 automatically appent "auto". See the "DEFAULT" command in
1100 syslinux.doc for more information.
1101 * PXELINUX: Clean up the allocation of local socket numbers.
1103 Changes in 1.53:
1104 * PXELINUX: Rename pxelinux.bin to pxelinux.0, to match what
1105 most PXE servers seem to expect.
1106 * PXELINUX: Update the DHCP/boot server setup documentation.
1107 * PXELINUX: Support new "localboot" option for "label"
1108 sections.
1109 * PXELINUX: More robust parsing of DHCP/boot server packets.
1110 * PXELINUX: Include a small utility program "gethostip" to
1111 compute hexadecimal IP addresses.
1113 Changes in 1.52:
1114 * PXELINUX: Fix bugs introduced by new A20 code. (SYSLINUX
1115 has also been changed for code consistency reasons, but I'm
1116 pretty sure the changes are don't care on SYSLINUX.)
1117 * Documentation updates.
1118 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend" option to generate an ip= option to
1119 the kernel.
1121 Changes in 1.51:
1122 * PXELINUX: Not all PXE stacks fill in the IP address for a
1123 type 3 cached info query. Use a type 2 cached info query
1124 for this information (only.)
1125 * Yet another attempt at A20 coding. Now support BIOS call
1126 15:2401 as well, and handle machines which always have A20
1127 on separately.
1128 * Support memory detection using INT 15h, AX=0E820h. BIOS
1129 manufacturers have apparently gotten sloppy about keeping
1130 INT 15h, AX=0E801h working properly.
1131 * Don't issue <CR><LF> onto the serial port when we're doing
1132 screen wraparound.
1134 Changes in 1.50:
1135 * Yet another A20-code update. It seems some "legacy-free"
1136 machines and embedded gear simply don't have a KBC to talk
1137 to, and that waiting for one will wait forever. Sigh.
1139 Changes in 1.49:
1140 * SYSLINUX: Implement a hack for BIOS drivers which hog significant
1141 chunks of low memory during boot. (Note: PXELINUX already
1142 had this modification. SYSLINUX does still require that the
1143 low 512K is available; PXELINUX requires 384K. Machines
1144 with a physical memory hole in the low 640K cannot boot
1145 Linux no matter what.) Depending what the reason is for the
1146 memory hole, a new kernel (2.4.0-test3-pre3 or later) may be
1147 required.
1148 * SYSLINUX: Default installer binary now compiled against
1149 glibc 2.1. If this is inappropriate for your system and you
1150 still want to use the offical version of SYSLINUX, please
1151 follow the instructions in "distrib.doc" to rebuild the
1152 installer.
1153 * SYSLINUX: Linux installer program now supports -o <offset>
1154 option which does a loopback mount with the
1155 -o loop,offset=<> option. Useful to run SYSLINUX on an
1156 individual partition of a whole-harddisk image.
1157 * Include the source code to a Master Boot Record (MBR)
1158 functionally equivalent to the one installed DOS except it
1159 includes EBIOS support, and should be resistant to geometry
1160 changes. The MBR code is public domain.
1161 * PXELINUX: Fix "double p" bug: if the tftp prefix was null,
1162 all filenames would get a "p" preprended, e.g.
1163 "ppxelinux.cfg" and "pvmlinux".
1165 Changes in 1.48:
1166 * PXELINUX: Workaround for PXE ROMs based on the Intel PXE PDK
1167 3.0 build 071 and earlier: missing !PXE structure pointer.
1168 * PXELINUX: Handle larger BOOTP/DHCP packages.
1169 * PXELINUX: The command line passing was broken; fix.
1170 * PXELINUX: Make COMBOOT images work.
1171 * PXELINUX: Documentation on how to make booting work using
1172 the PDK 3.0-derived clients, which aren't so generous as to
1173 allow booting with only "PXEClient" specified.
1175 Changes in 1.47:
1176 * PXELINUX: RFC 1123 states that a TFTP implementation MUST
1177 use adaptive timeout, "at least an exponential backoff of
1178 retransmission timeout is necessary." Implement a very
1179 simple exponential backoff for retransmits.
1180 * PXELINUX: Updated documentation, including pointer to new
1181 TFTP server.
1182 * PXELINUX: When sending ERROR due to bad OACK, use the proper
1183 destination port number (why are TFTP port numbers so odd?)
1184 * PXELINUX: If the boot dies in the middle somewhere,
1185 eventually give up and reset the machine (unattended
1186 operation.)
1188 Changes in 1.46:
1189 * New program PXELINUX to do network booting using a
1190 PXE-compliant (Pre-Execution Environment) network booting
1191 PROM. See pxelinux.doc for details.
1193 Changes in 1.45:
1194 * Serial console support. See syslinux.doc for details.
1196 Changes in 1.44:
1197 * Change HIGHMEM_MAX to 38000000h to (hopefully) avoid the
1198 kernel stepping on it; 3f000000h was apparently a higher
1199 limit than the kernel used!
1201 Changes in 1.43:
1202 * Add sys2ansi.pl script to display the contents of a
1203 colorized SYSLINUX file.
1204 * Changed the io_delay once again, after a report that the
1205 old delay port causes hangs on some systems.
1207 Changes in 1.42:
1208 * Frob the "fast A20 gate" port as well as the keyboard
1209 controller; will this help systems with problems?
1210 * Be even more paranoid about A20, unfortunately even this
1211 seems to be not paranoid enough... what I don't understand
1212 is that if there is hardware out there *this broken*, how
1213 can it run Linux at all? Report an error message rather
1214 than hang forever if A20 is stuck.
1215 * Include some intermediate files in the distribution, plus
1216 provide a "make installer" target for distributors to relink
1217 the install programs only. I would prefer the syslinux boot
1218 loader proper to be "binary clean" for debuggablity -- use
1219 "make clean ; make installer" to rebuild the installers only.
1221 Changes in 1.41:
1222 * Don't get confused by directories, volume labels, or VFAT
1223 long names.
1224 * Use INT 15h, AX=0E801h to query memory size before trying
1225 INT 15h, AH=88h. This not only provides more headroom
1226 between the kernel and the initrd on large-memory machines,
1227 but it appears some recent BIOSes actually have started
1228 returning garbage for the AH=88h (older) call.
1229 * Trust high memory beyond the 15 MB mark if the user has
1230 specified it, or if obtained with INT 15h, AH=0E801h (with
1231 no memory holes above 1 MB.)
1233 Changes in 1.40:
1234 * Increase A20M delay and put in a test to avoid problems on
1235 certain IBM Thinkpads (thanks to Donnie Barnes of RedHat
1236 for vital info on this one.)
1237 * Support COMBOOT style boot command images.
1238 * Support chain loading (foreign operating systems, e.g. DOS).
1239 * Include a new "copybs" DOS utility to copy a boot sector to
1240 a file (under Linux, use "dd".)
1241 * Fix the DOS installer to work for disks over 32 MB.
1242 * SYSLINUX should now handle disks with more than 65536 tracks.
1244 Changes in 1.37:
1245 * Fix a bug that caused "label" statements in syslinux.cfg to
1246 not be handled properly.
1247 * Updated the documentation. Among other things, we now allow
1248 up to 128 "label" statements.
1250 Changes in 1.36:
1251 * Fix for booting old (pre-initrd) kernels.
1252 * It seems at least some versions of OS/2 doesn't set up all
1253 the fields in the superblock correctly. Account for that.
1254 * Fix bug that caused boot failure when using the mem= option.
1256 Changes in 1.35:
1257 * Loading from partitions now should work properly. (Actually
1258 tested, this time. You should even be able to dd a floppy
1259 to a partition and boot from it.)
1260 * Removed large workaround code for an alleged ancient BIOS
1261 bug I have never actually seen. The -s option should work
1262 on those machines, anyway.
1263 * Support for simple keyboard remappings, same as used by
1264 LILO (once again to support localization.) The program
1265 keytab-lilo.pl from the LILO distribution included to
1266 generate such maps.
1267 * Added a "safe, slow and stupid" (-s) option to the
1268 installers. This option will lobotomize the boot sector to
1269 hopefully work on even very buggy BIOSes.
1271 Changes in 1.34:
1272 * Ability to load a VGA font on bootup (for localized Linux
1273 distributions.)
1275 Changes in 1.33:
1276 * Bug fix in the Linux installer.
1277 * Added a workaround for a bug in certain AMI/Intel BIOSes
1278 when booting from CD-ROM.
1279 * Documentation changes.
1281 Changes in 1.32:
1282 * FAT16 filesystems are now supported.
1284 Changes in 1.31:
1285 * Now compiles under Linux, using NASM, rather than using
1286 Turbo Assembler under DOS. See http://www.cryogen.com/Nasm
1287 for information about NASM.
1288 * Linux-hosted SYSLINUX installer, as well as a
1289 rewritten DOS installer (now is written in assembler, so we
1290 don't need Turbo C.)
1292 Changes in 1.30:
1293 * Added support for loading bzImage and initrd loading, and made
1294 SYSLINUX new-setup-code aware (SYSLINUX 1.30 id=0x31).
1295 * Added LILO-style kernel labels; see the LABEL and IMPLICIT
1296 keywords in README file.
1297 * Added support for colorization of intro and help screens.
1298 * The vga= option is now handled correctly.
1299 * Massive rewrite of large chunks of the code in order to
1300 support the first two new features.
1302 Changes in 1.20:
1303 * Added simple online help at the "boot:" prompt.
1304 * Removed 2880K image as I no longer have access to such a
1305 floppy drive. (Donations accepted!!)
1306 * Decided to distribute the source in a subdirectory rather
1307 than in a nested zipfile.
1309 Changes in 1.11:
1310 * Removed a sanity check which would cause booting to fail on
1311 Phoenix BIOS version 4.03. Apparently this BIOS is buggy.
1313 Changes in 1.10:
1314 * Added configuration file SYSLINUX.CFG. This file contains all
1315 configurable options, and can be edited from any OS which can
1316 access an MS-DOS filesystem; there is no longer a need to run
1317 SYSLINUX.EXE except to write the boot sector.
1318 * Default command line now given by "default" line in config
1319 file.
1320 * LINUXMSG.TXT and BOOTMSG.TXT hard-coded file names replaced by
1321 "display" and "prompt" lines in config file.
1322 * LILO-style option appending now supported ("append" line in
1323 config file).
1324 * Prompt timeout is now supported ("timeout" line in config
1325 file). The timeout is cancelled when anything is typed on the
1326 command line.
1327 * Pressing <ESC> or <Ctrl-C> at the Loading... stage now aborts
1328 the kernel loading in progress and returns the user to the
1329 boot: prompt.
1330 * The installer now automatically sets the READONLY flag on
1331 LDLINUX.SYS.
1332 * Added 2880K disk image.
1334 Changes in 1.03:
1335 * Fixed bug that would prevent booting from double-density
1336 floppies and other DOS filesystems with multiple sectors per
1337 cluster.
1338 * Added 720K disk image.
1339 * Changed default kernel name on disk images to LINUX.
1341 Changes in 1.02:
1342 * Fixed bug that would garble the command line on recent kernels
1343 with more than 4 sectors of setup code (this wasn't really a
1344 *bug*; rather, a kernel change broke the code. Unfortunately
1345 the Linux boot interface is still sorely undocumented).
1346 * Added BOOTMSG.TXT file support (message file which does not
1347 force display of the boot prompt).
1349 Changes in 1.01:
1350 * Fixed bug on some (most?) 386 BIOSes would require two boot
1351 attempts.