1 Starting with 1.47, changes marked with SYSLINUX, PXELINUX, ISOLINUX
2 or EXTLINUX apply to that specific program only; other changes apply
6 * txt/: A new AsciiDoc documentation set (work-in-progress)
8 * core: Fix a bug in the realloc() implementation that caused
9 machines to appear to run out of free memory.
10 * ldlinux: Fix multiple buffer overflows in cmdline parsing
11 code that resulted in files failing to run and cmdlines
13 * core: Fix debug build by tagging __bad_SEG() with __export.
14 * com32: Restrict library filenames to 8.3 format.
15 * EXTLINUX: Fix installation and subdirectory patching.
16 * ISOLINUX: Fix booting isohybrid images that are over 32K.
17 * com32: Strip modules to reduce their size.
18 * XFS: Implement directory block cache and fix
19 shortform-directory lookup (Paulo Alcantara).
22 * com32: Switched from the COM32 object format to ELF as it is
23 a much more powerful format that allows undefined symbols to
24 be resolved at runtime and dynamic loading of module
25 dependencies, which means modules now become shared object
26 files instead of statically linked binaries - reducing both
27 disk space and runtime memory consumption.
28 * core: Split non-core functionality into ldlinux.c32, which
29 is an ELF module loaded by the core that contains everything
30 the core doesn't require to boot the system, e.g. config
31 parser, command-line interface, etc.
32 * Replaced __intcall() calls with direct function calls now
33 that we can resolve undefined symbols at runtime, thanks to
34 the ELF object support. Now that we no longer need to go
35 through the 16-bit interrupt mechanism we can make full use
36 of the 32-bit execution environment. This change required
37 reimplementing lots of the 16-bit assembly code from core/
39 * com32: __com32.cs_bounce is gone now we always run in a
40 32-bit environment once we execute ldlinux.c32.
41 * ldlinux: A new "PATH" directive was added to the ldlinux.c32
42 config parser that specifies a colon-separated list of
43 directories to search when attempting to load modules.
44 * ALL: Delete all references to/code for 16-bit COMBOOT files.
45 COMBOOT files (.cbt and .com) are no longer supported under
49 * Support for NTFS, by Paulo Alcantara.
50 * EXTLINUX: more robust device detection, allow user to override.
51 * kontron_wdt.c32: Add a new module to enable the hardware
52 watchdog of some Kontron boards. It allows enabling the watchdog
53 and then booting a given image.
54 * HDT updated, and now can display images regarding some detection
55 steps. Add postexec command to run a particular entry after
56 HDT's execution, add silent option and various fixes.
57 * ifcpu.c32: Detect hypervisor presence.
58 * lua.c32: Add dhcp support and support for native Syslinux
59 functions syslinux_config(), syslinux_ipappend_strings() and
61 * isohybrid: Workaround for various EFI systems.
62 * pxechn.c32, a PXE NBP chainloader. More versatile alternative
63 to pxechain.com and resolves the PXELINUX -> WDS issue with
64 Microsoft Windows Server 2008R2 (Gene Cumm).
65 * btrfs: Fix booting off of a subvolume.
66 * com32: Add device tree support.
67 * SYSLINUX: Fix relative paths for VFAT. The CONFIG and APPEND
68 directives now support entirely relative paths.
71 * HDT updated, and now supports uploading data to a TFTP
73 * ISOLINUX: remove the .img file support; it has been broken
74 on virtually all systems since the beginning, and has been
75 totally broken since 4.00 at least. Use MEMDISK instead.
76 * chain.c32: Support chaining ReactOS' FreeLdr (Shao Miller)
77 * isohybrid: -m option to add support for Mac EFI booting.
78 * ifmemdsk.c32: Choose boot option based on presence of
80 * Remove bogus distributed mk-lba-img binary.
81 * The Syslinux project has a new, cool logo by Abi
82 "ixxvil" Rasheed (doc/logo/*).
85 * PXELINUX: Fix handling of unqualified DNS names.
86 * PXELINUX: Fix timer bug when PXELINUX might be unloaded
88 * core/writedec.inc: Fix duplicate declaration and overflow
91 * sample directory: Fix Makefile include (Gene Cumm).
92 * ver.com: New universal DOS/COMBOOT application to display
93 version information (includes DRMK) (Gene Cumm).
94 * rosh.c32: updated; Using getopt() for internal commands to aid
95 parsing options; Fix bugs in ls; add warm reboot and echo
97 * com32: fix a file descriptor leak.
98 * gfxboot.c32: handle TEXT..ENDTEXT; error out on no LABELs
99 found (Sebastian Herbszt).
100 * Fix booting on non-partitioned devices.
101 * MBR, isohybrid: Workaround for a BIOS issue on Acer
102 Travelmate and possibly other machines.
103 * COM32: Adding ACPI parsing libary
104 * HDT: Release 0.4.1 to support ACPI parsing,
105 improved mutli-core/cpu reporting
106 * LUA: Updating to 5.1.4-2
107 * SYSLINUX: core/diskstart.inc: Reset DS after checksum in case
108 it isn't 0 (Gene Cumm).
109 * win64: Script update for additional mingw compiler names
111 * diag: New directory for diagnostic-related tools. Add a
112 handoff MBR/VBR and geometry display images (Gene Cumm).
113 * MEMDISK: use "mem=" parameter to mark available memory above
114 this point as reserved (core already does alignment) (Gene Cumm).
115 * MEMDISK: Additional disk probe checks and debug output
116 (Shao Miller, Gene Cumm).
117 * gpxe: add gpxelinuxk.0, based off of undionly.kpxe + new
119 * isohybrid: install the isohdpfx*.bin/isohdppx*.bin files to
120 make isohybrid images in one step with GNU xorriso.
121 * PXELINUX: disable a hack that would make localboot work on
122 some machines, but break just about as many. Some machines
123 which worked with "localboot 0" in previous versions may
124 need "localboot -1" in this one. If you have a machine
125 which requires "localboot -1", a copy of the dmidecode
126 or sysdump output would be appreciated.
127 * Include a set of diagnostics by Gene Cumm.
128 * Fixes for gcc 4.6 and binutils 2.21.51.
129 * chain.c32: Allow "uuid" as a synonym to "guid".
130 * Handle directory names starting with .. for vfat and
132 * New MENU HIDDENKEY command to provide a one-keystroke way to
133 activate a boot option from a hidden menu intro screen.
136 * Don't hang if no configuration file is found.
137 * Better support for booting from MBRs which don't pass
138 handover information.
139 * EXTLINUX: Try to be smarter about finding the partition
141 * chain.c32: support chainloading Dell Real Mode Kernel (Gene
143 * chain.c32: fix booting in CHS mode.
144 * rosh.c32 updated (Gene Cumm).
145 * Fix the -s option to the syslinux/extlinux installer (Arwin
147 * isohybrid: fix padding of large images (PJ Pandit).
150 * SYSLINUX: correctly handle the case where the -d option is
151 specified with a non-absolute path, i.e. "syslinux -d
152 syslinux" instead of "syslinux -d /syslinux".
153 * ISOLINUX: recognize the directory names /boot/syslinux and
154 /syslinux, and the filename syslinux.cfg in addition to the
155 isolinux-specific names. Thus, "syslinux.cfg" is now a
156 generic name, whereas "isolinux.cfg" or "extlinux.conf" is
157 specific to different derivative.
158 * chain.c32: support setting alternate config filename for
159 stage2 of GRUB Legacy (Gert Hulselmans).
160 * whichsys.c32: execute specific command, based on Syslinux
161 bootloader variant (Gert Hulselmans).
162 * lua.c32: a lot of new bindings added to the "syslinux"
163 namespace: VESA, PCI, DMI, kernel loading (Marcel Ritter).
164 * btrfs: print a comprehensive error message if compressed or
165 encrypted files are encountered (neither is currently
167 * SYSLINUX: mtools installer: honor TMPDIR, error out on disk
169 * Handle fallbacks from EDD to CHS, to deal with systems which
170 announce EDD support but don't actually have it.
171 * SYSLINUX: the mtools, DOS and win32 installers now use the new
172 command line options.
173 * PXELINUX: fix the use of IP addresses in TFTP :: or tftp://
175 * SYSLINUX: experimental Win64 installer (syslinux64.exe).
178 * ISOLINUX: fix initialization on systems which don't zero
180 * SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX: fix handing of disk read retries in
182 * ISOLINUX: change the initialization sequence to avoid
183 problems with certain (old) BIOSes. Special thanks to
184 Helmut Hullen for invaluable debugging support.
185 * ifplop.c32: new module which detects if the PLoP Boot Loader
186 already has booted a CDROM or USB drive (Gert Hulselmans).
187 * Correct a severe memory overwrite bug, triggered primarily
188 when selecting a very long command line in the menu system.
189 * lua.c32: Lua script interpreter, currently experimental
190 (Alexey Zaytsev, Marcel Ritter, Geert Stappers).
191 * PXELINUX: new option IPAPPEND 4 to append the system UUID to
192 the kernel command line.
193 * PXELINUX: display BOOTIF and SYSUUID at startup time, and
194 when Ctrl-N is pressed on the command line.
197 * Major code base changes; all filesystem rewritten in C.
198 This work was done primarily by Liu Aleaxander (Yuanhan Liu).
199 * EXTLINUX: btrfs and ext4 support. btrfs support was done by
201 * EXTLINUX is no longer a separate derivative; extlinux and
202 syslinux both install the same loader (ldlinux.sys); for the
203 Linux-based installers the extlinux binary is used for a
204 mounted filesystem; the syslinux binary for an unmounted
206 * When loading a new configuration file with the CONFIG
207 command, one can now also specify a new current directory
208 with an APPEND statement.
209 * Full ADV support for Syslinux, to boot-once and MENU SAVE
211 * Full support of GPT-partitioned disks, including disks
212 and/or parititions larger than 2 TiB (if supported by BIOS.)
213 * The GPT handover protocol adjusted to the current T13
214 committee draft; see doc/gpt.txt.
215 * HDT: code cleanup, small bugfixes
216 * The "linux" syslinux installer (syslinux-nomtools) now has a
217 command-line syntax closer to the extlinux installer. The
218 mtools, dos and win32 installers will get this new syntax
219 eventually, but it is not implemented yet.
220 * chain.c32: support booting GPT partitions by index, GUID, label.
221 * chain.c32: support booting the Syslinux partition with "fs".
222 * chain.c32: implement gpt.txt hand-over protocol.
223 * chain.c32: support for chainloading Grub stage 2.
224 * PXELINUX: TFTP URL syntax (tftp://) supported even when not
225 running gPXE/gpxelinux.
226 * New ls.c32 module to display the contents of the disk from
227 the command line, and pwd.c32 to display the current
229 * rosh.c32 (read only shell) updated and hopefully usable.
230 * PXELINUX: Support "localboot -1", just like the other
232 * gfxboot.com removed in favor of gfxboot.c32.
233 * New MENU HELP statement to display fullscreen help text as a
234 result of a menu selection.
235 * memdiskfind utility that can be used with the phram driver
236 in the Linux kernel to mount a memdisk.
237 * ifcpu.c32: Adding usage when no parameters are given,
239 * ifcpu.c32, ifcpu64.c32: handle more than one argument per
241 * isohybrid: C version which does not require Perl.
242 * New command MENU IMMEDIATE to permit hotkeys to activate
243 immediately without needing Enter.
244 * mdiskchk.com supports a --no-sequential (or -n) option to
245 suppress the classic all-drive-probing heuristic. Useful
246 on BIOSes who crash/hang when certain drive numbers are
248 * ElTorito.Sys DOS driver now scans drive numbers upwards
249 instead of downwards, in order to avoid a fairly common
250 bug on some BIOSes where probing drive 0xFF causes a
252 * NASM 2.03 or later required to build. 2.07 or later
256 * chain.c32: fix chainloading the MBR of a hard disk (broken
258 * mboot.c32: report the boot loader name in the information
260 * com32: set argv[0] in a com32 module.
261 * core: add a workaround for a bug in Xen HVM older than
262 version 3.3: disable halt on those platforms.
263 * Fix problems where certain operations in com32 modules would
264 cause the core to believe the system was idle.
265 * MEMDISK: fix MBR detection when used with a DOSEMU header or
267 * MEMDISK: generate the mBFT checksum correctly.
270 * gPXELINUX: updated to gPXE 1.0.0. gPXELINUX can now do NBP
271 chainloading, and does not require a second DHCP.
272 * vesamenu.c32: unbreak the default "grey hole" background.
273 * We no longer have a built-in default of "linux auto".
274 Instead, if no DEFAULT or UI statement is found, or the
275 configuration file is missing entirely, we drop to the boot:
276 prompt with an error message (if NOESCAPE is set, we stop
277 with a "boot failed" message; this is also the case for
278 PXELINUX if the configuration file is not found.)
279 * chain.c32: support chainloading Grub4DOS; patch by Gert
281 * New tool: sysdump.c32, can be used to produce system
282 information for debugging via tftp or ymodem (serial port).
283 * "vga=current" on the Linux command line is now supported.
284 * chain.c32: support for Windows Recovery Console, via the
286 * chain.c32: should now support loading NTLDR from different
287 type media than loaded from.
288 * chain.c32: support chainloading to a FAT/NTFS partition with
289 invalid "hidden sectors" via the "sethidden" option.
290 * memdisk: fix the mBFT ACPI table.
291 * vesamenu.c32: if the image is smaller than the screen, tile
292 it across the whole screen.
293 * mkdiskimage: -s option for producing a sparse image.
294 * vesamenu.c32: support arbitrary resolution setting (beyond
295 BIOS support) on some Intel-based video chipsets. This code
296 is a modified version of the "915resolution" tool by
297 Steve Tomljenovic; your mileage might vary.
300 * SYSLINUX: make the DOS installer work for MS-DOS 7.x/8.x
302 * HDT: updated to version 0.3.6 (numerous changes.)
303 * mboot.c32: now supports video mode setting if requested by
305 * MEMDISK: Fix floppy images of PC-DOS.
306 * MEMDISK: Add support for emulation of CD-ROM images; patch
308 * MEMDISK: Comply with the Win9x "safe hook" standard,
309 allowing a protected-mode driver.
310 * MEMDISK: New "mBFT" ACPI table, by analogy with the iSCSI
311 iBFT table. This allows detection from a protected-mode
312 operating system without EDD support.
313 * 32-bit version of the gfxboot loader (gfxboot.c32), so far
314 experimental. This will replace gfxboot.com in the future.
315 * vesamenu.c32: new MENU RESOLUTION directive to set a screen
316 resolution other than 640x480.
317 * chain.c32: add support for loading isolinux.bin.
318 * chain.c32: make sure to always return to text mode.
319 * eltorito.sys: DOS driver for generic CD-ROMs; by Gary Tong
323 * PXELINUX: clear memory before handing over to a chainloaded
324 NBP. This may help avoid a bug in Windows RIS.
325 * PXELINUX: fix localboot after NBP chainloading on certain
326 BIOSes (including ASUS A8N-E, but possibly others.)
327 * chain.c32: support chainloaded bootloaders on ISOLINUX.
328 * PXELINUX: allow filenames up to 251 characters.
329 * MEMDISK: fix problems booting from USB on Thinkpads, and
330 possibly other machines or hardware combinations.
331 * isohybrid: fix the -id option.
332 * HDT: updated to version 0.3.4.
333 * MEMDISK: the stack size is now configurable, with the stack=
335 * Simple menu: fix Ctrl-W (word erase) in command-line edit.
336 * Simple menu: fix crash on some platforms.
337 * Gfxboot: fixes to the configuration file parsing.
338 * PXELINUX: add a tool to override specific DHCP options via
339 values hardcoded in the pxelinux.0 file. These hardcoded
340 values can be either "before DHCP" (defaults if DHCP do not
341 provide values), or "after DHCP" (overrides DHCP). The tool
342 pxelinux-options can be used to set these options. This
343 feature does not apply to gpxelinux.0; when used with gPXE
344 this is better handled by modifying the embedded script.
347 * isohybrid: fix the -partok logic for loading from a partition.
348 * ISOLINUX: deal with systems which return from INT 13h with
350 * Do not invoke the idle handler during large file loads.
351 * Simple menu: make ONTIMEOUT work with MENU HIDDEN.
352 * PXELINUX: handle TFTP servers which have extra NULs at the
353 end of an OACK packet.
356 * Shuffler: fix bug in real-mode entry. This affected a
357 number of modules, probably in relatively unimportant ways,
358 but it completely broke linux.c32.
359 * Improved performance.
360 * Attempt to halt the processor while idle. This can cause
361 bad reponsiveness when using a serial console especially for
362 automated input; if that ends up being a problem, use the
363 new "NOHALT 1" configuration command.
364 * linux.c32 now suppresses all messages if the "quiet" flag is
366 * isohybrid: add a variety of options, and a help message.
367 * ISOLINUX: fix booting in hybrid mode when CBIOS is used.
368 This unfortunately means that the isohybrid handoff protocol
369 has changed, so the isohybrid utility must version-match
371 * Drop support for ACPI 3 extended memory flags.
372 * Menu system: don't set the autocr flag on the serial
374 * altmbr: fix handling of logical partitions.
375 * altmbr: cap at 439 bytes so the partition select byte isn't
379 * New shuffler mechanism and API.
380 * Rewritten mboot.c32 module.
381 * The syslinux_boot_linux() function has been simplified.
382 * Don't hang trying to boot a "menu quit" label from the CLI.
383 * Fix problem with boot-once "sticking" on some BIOSes.
384 * isohybrid: fix problem with images over 2 GB in size.
385 * APM poweroff module (poweroff.com) by Sebastian Herbszt.
386 * ISOLINUX: fix the handling of large directories. Bug found
387 and fixed by Steffen Winterfeldt.
390 * PXELINUX: fix the "keeppxe" option, which was broken in
392 * MEMDISK: correct the extraction of geometry information from
393 the MBR of a hard disk image, again broken in 3.74.
394 * extlinux(1) man page from Brian Pellin.
395 * Simple menu: MENU SAVE is now controllable on a menu-by-menu
396 or entry-by-entry basis.
397 * gPXELINUX: fix interrupt-disabling bug.
398 * HDT: fix lockup on machines with certain PCI configurations.
401 * New UI directive, which allows a more natural way to specify
402 a menu system (or not.) With the UI directive specifying
403 the menu system, the DEFAULT directive can be used to select
404 the default entry inside the menus.
405 * kbdmap.c32: new module to load a new keyboard map
407 * isohybrid: workaround bug in some versions of binutils.
408 * Fix issue with the placement of the initrd on some machines.
409 * ifcpu64: fix handling of less than three arguments.
410 * Fix bug in the shuffle library when dealing with a very
411 large number of fragments.
412 * Documentation fixes by Vicente Jimenez Aguilar.
413 * gPXE updated to version 0.9.7.
414 * hdt.c32: Hardware Detection Tool, an interactive hardware
415 analyzer module by Erwan Velu.
416 * MEMDISK: enable automatic determination of the disk geometry
417 for a large floppy disk image if (and only if) it is
418 formatted with a FAT filesystem.
419 * SYSLINUX: fix the handling of .bss files on FAT12/16.
420 * Suppress the Loading ... message if "quiet" is specified on
421 the kernel command line.
422 * Fix the use of "CONSOLE 0" with menu.c32.
423 * Allow COM32 modules to be aware of all memory even in the
424 presence of a memory hole. The "linux.c32" module can be
425 used to load a kernel (or memdisk) plus large initrd on
427 * MBR: produce alternate MBR variants which force the drive
428 number to hd0 (_f variants), or force the drive number to
429 hd0 if the Ctrl key is pressed (_c variants.) Furthermore,
430 add an MBR variant (altmbr*.bin) which ignores the active
431 flag and instead boots the partition number specified in the
432 byte at offset 439 decimal.
433 * Add IPAPPEND strings to com32 modules, especially needed for
435 * New MENU SAVE directive which saves the latest menu
436 selection until the next boot. Currently only implemented for
438 * gfxboot.com: *experimental* interface module to Steffen
439 Winterfeldt's "gfxboot" graphical front end
440 (http://gfxboot.sourceforge.net/). Module by Sebastian Herbszt.
443 * Upgrade gPXE to release version 0.9.5.
444 * Fix a number of build errors on various platforms.
445 * Handle systems with E820 "extended attributes" per ACPI 3.
446 Someone "cleverly" decided to change the E820 spec in a
447 backwards-incompatible manner!
448 * MEMDISK: default to "safeint".
449 * Adopt the moniker "The Syslinux Project", standard proper
450 noun capitalization, to refer to the project as a whole.
451 Thus, reserve the all-caps "SYSLINUX" to refer to the FAT
453 * mboot.c32: add "-solaris" option to pass DHCP information to
454 the Solaris kernel; required for automatic Solaris boot
455 without using Solaris' pxeboot program.
456 * config.c32: trivial COM32 module to restart Syslinux with
457 another configuration file from the command line (equivalent
458 to the CONFIG command in the configuratin file.)
461 * Include the pxechain.com module from Jeffery Hutzelman at
462 Carnegie Mellon University. This allows chaining another
463 PXE boot program while changing the DHCP packet passed to
465 * Reorganize the Makefile system.
466 * Major PCI core cleanups and other source cleanup.
468 * Try to avoid memory-snooping attacks on passwords. Note
469 that if someone has root on the box, they generally don't
470 need to compromise the boot loader...
471 * ISOLINUX: fix crash when given a zero-length file.
472 * sdi.c32: support gzipped SDI images.
473 * ISOLINUX: support generating images which can be either
474 a CD-ROM or a hard disk (USB disk, etc.) See
475 doc/isolinux.txt for more information.
476 * Remote gdb support for COM32 modules; patch from Stefan
478 * Support beeps in F-key help in the simple menu system.
479 * Tab display of labels, based on a patch from Sebastian
480 Herbszt. Can be disabled with the NOCOMPLETE configuration
482 * "menu default" can now be specified after "menu begin", to
483 indicate that a specific submenu should be the default entry.
486 * Workaround for a VESA BIOS which tries to make DOS system
488 * Simple menu: fix navigation around disabled entries
489 (or at least try to...)
490 * EXTLINUX: proper error message when confused about mount
492 * MEMDISK: be smarter about incompletely disabled floppies in
493 the BIOS and about being the only floppy.
494 * Optionally allow initrd to be specified on a separate line
495 rather than as part of the "append" line. This is not
496 recommended, but apparently makes life easier for some
498 * SYSLINUX: if no config file is present, set the current
499 directory to the root directory (Sebastian Herbszt).
500 * chain.c32: option "hide" to support hiding and unhiding of
501 primary partitions on the boot drive with DOS, Win, or OS/2
502 partition types (01, 04, 06, 07, 0b, 0c, 0e).
503 * Unbreak the KBDMAP command (broken in 3.70).
504 * EXTLINUX: fix the handling of the ADV when using CBIOS.
505 * ifcpu64.c32: simple COM32 module to select a 32- or 64-bit
506 kernel (and optionally 32-bit kernels with or without PAE.)
507 Eventually we want a scripting language for this
508 kind of stuff; a Lua module is under development.
509 * Fix parsing of the SERIAL command without a baud rate
511 * chain.c32: error out when try to boot an unbootable
513 * SYSLINUX: when building the Win32 installer, search for
514 MinGW under a large number of possible names.
517 * PXELINUX: Support enhanced capabilities when running on top
518 of gPXE (http://www.etherboot.org/). In particular, support
519 URL-style syntax for filenames, and any protocol that gPXE
520 supports (except, currently, iSCSI and AoE.) This feature
521 is currently highly experimental.
522 * Substantial infrastructure changes to support files whose
523 length aren't known at open time (typically network
524 connections.) Please note that the semantics of some of the
525 comboot APIs have changed slightly; please see doc/comboot.txt.
526 * PXELINUX: We no longer require a TFTP server which supports
527 the tsize option for all transfers.
528 * PXELINUX: Integrate with the gPXE source base; unified image
529 now included as "gpxelinux.0".
530 * The source tree has been restructured; files that were
531 previously in the root have moved into the core, dos, gpxe,
532 and utils directories.
533 * "make install", "make netinstall", and "make extbootinstall"
534 have been updated massively. "make install-all" now installs
536 * Change default dir for auxiliary files from
537 /usr/lib/syslinux to /usr/share/syslinux.
538 * SYSLINUX: VFAT long filename support.
539 * MEMDISK: Any image less than 4096K (4 MB) is treated as a
540 floppy disk. The geometry-guessing code will recognize all
541 common extended formats, but it is still possible some very
542 exotic formats need geometry specification. Large floppies
543 and very small harddisks still need explicit specification.
544 * chain.c32: option "swap" to support swapping of BIOS drive
545 numbers. This is necessary to boot certain operating systems
546 (DOS, Windows) from a secondary drive.
547 * chain.c32: option "file=" to support loading a boot file from
548 the SYSLINUX filesystem instead of loading the boot sector
550 * chain.c32: option "seg=" to control the load location.
551 * chain.c32: option "ntldr=" as a shorthand for "seg=0x2000
552 file="; use this to load one of WinNT's loaders:
554 chain.c32 hd0 1 ntldr=/MiniNT/setupldr.bin
556 Note that the file needs to be in the SYSLINUX filesystem.
557 * chain.32: options "freedos=" and "msdos="/"pcdos=" as
558 shorthands for "seg=0x60 file=" and "seg=0x70 file="
559 respectively; use this to load FreeDOS's kernel.sys, MS-DOS's
560 io.sys or PC-DOS's ibmbio.sys.
561 * Change to the A20 algorithm which *MIGHT* help systems that
562 have systems which freeze when Syslinux is used with USB
563 keyboards. Note that this has been hard do verify, so I
564 would greatly appreciate feedback on it.
565 * Complex menu system: unbreak menus which has unnamed
566 submenus, like complex.c.
567 * Fix newline on the serial port for some com32 modules.
568 * chain.c32: support "boot" as the drive specification,
569 indicating the drive from which it was booted
570 (for syslinux/extlinux).
571 * SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX: support "localboot" with the same feature
573 * Add an experimental MBR for GPT partition tables.
574 * Use $(CC) when determining compile flags.
575 * chain.c32: fix booting from logical partitions (Sergey
579 * Fix errors in the PCI and DMI detection modules (Erwan Velu,
581 * Fix host dependencies and other issues in the build system.
582 * PXELINUX: Allow class E addresses as unicast.
583 * sdi.c32: module to load Microsoft System Deployment Images.
584 For additional information, please see:
585 http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms838543.aspx
586 * EXTLINUX: Correct reading directories with deleted entries.
587 * Shuffle library: correct the handling of certain geometries
588 (an upward move with source material blocking the move); as
589 required by sdi.c32 but theoretically possible for other
591 * Add "make netinstall" to install /tftpboot.
592 * Fix some documentation files that didn't get moved/renamed.
595 * Clean up garbage after "aborted." message.
596 * Clean up memdump.com filenames.
597 * Support SHA256 and SHA512 encrypted passwords.
598 * The shuffle library now can generate chained descriptors,
599 thus allowing pretty much arbitrarily complex memory maps.
600 * Handle command lines up to 2047 characters, the current
602 * vesamenu: support systems without linear framebuffer support
603 (sigh, what is this, 1993?) and 15-bit RGB modes.
604 * Move the label storage (for the command-line interface) to
605 high memory, removing the size limit and freeing up 64K of
607 * Get rid of 4096-entry limit in the simple menu system.
608 * New hierarchial submenu support: see MENU BEGIN, MENU END,
609 MENU GOTO in doc/menu.txt.
610 * MENU QUIT allows creating a menu entry for returning to the
612 * ISOLINUX: Work around bug in certain Adaptec BIOSes,
613 patch by Bruce Robson.
614 * pngtopnm dependency removed from samples/ directory.
615 * Text documentation files (in doc/) renamed *.doc -> *.txt.
618 * EXTLINUX: fix crash when accessing an empty file.
619 * elf.c32: If a PHDR segment is present, load it.
620 * Fix SHA-1 and MD5 passwords.
621 * ISOLINUX: fix booting when mastered without
622 mkisofs -boot-info-table (broken since 3.50, sigh...)
623 * Handle BIOSes which emit multiple contiguous valid
624 memory regions in the e820 map.
627 * Support for "auxilliary data vector", a small amount of
628 writable storage. Currently only supported for EXTLINUX,
629 but the infrastructure is there for the other derivatives,
630 assuming a suitable storage location can be found.
631 * EXTLINUX: boot-once support (--once, --clear-once, and
633 * A command is now required to the EXTLINUX installer, i.e. at
634 least one of --install, --update, --once, --clear-once, or
638 * PXELINUX: as per RFC 5071, PXELINUX no longer requires the
639 use of the magic cookie option (208) for unencapsulated
640 options. Currently it does not require it for
641 vendor-encapsulated options (vendor-option-space) either,
642 but that MAY be reverted in the future if it causes
644 * Documentation text files moved to a common "doc" directory;
645 man pages from the Debian project added to the "man"
647 * Correct bug with self-overlapping memory areas when using
648 the shuffle interface.
651 * Add "menu separator", "menu indent", "menu disabled"
653 * vesamenu: fix handing of VESA modes with noncontiguous
654 memory buffers. In particular, Qemu/KVM sets up such a mode
655 when Cirrus Logic emulation is enabled (which is the
657 * Support for calling real mode functions using far calls,
658 with argument on the stack. This was implemented to support
659 the BIOS BBS specification, but subsequent experiments show
660 that the at least one of the most common BIOS cores, Award,
661 passes the presence check but doesn't actually implement the
665 * Fix bugs related to the $PnP BIOS functionality on some
667 * PXELINUX: Fix the "naked" version of :: (suppress prefix.)
668 * elf.c32: better error messages.
669 * Faster operation under Intel VT virtualization.
670 * PXELINUX: Fix DHCP bootfile option.
671 * mkdiskimage: Support more than 1024 cylinders.
672 * (Hopefully) fix installer on non-x86 platforms.
673 * Fix shuffle_and_boot_rm, used by linux.c32.
674 * Fix shuffle_and_boot_pm on 386/486.
675 * ISOLINUX (at least): fix bss memory overwrite hang.
676 * MBR: Fix booting from logical partitions.
680 * Handle capitalized F-key commands in the menu system.
681 * Fix padding error when loading multiple ramdisks.
682 * Workaround for VMware crashing when trying to print a
683 message during early kernel boot (does not seem to work,
685 * chain.c32: add the ability to search for a specific MBR
686 signature at runtime.
687 * Fall back to the server identity option if the siaddr field
688 in the DHCP header isn't set. This seems to match the
689 behaviour of most PXE stacks.
690 * mkdiskimage: give the generated disk image an MBR signature.
691 * MEMDISK: Fix failures on some BIOSes.
692 * Simple menu system: new "MENU HIDDEN" option to not display
693 the menu unless the user presses a key.
694 * Simple menu system: support MD5-encrypted passwords (modern
695 Unix standard style, with "$1$" prefixes.)
696 * pcitest.c32: now functions as a full "lspci". Thanks to
697 Erwan Velu for this work.
698 * MEMDISK: Make EDD actually work.
699 * ISOLINUX: Fix for certain broken CD-ROM BIOSes which
700 randomly corrupted register FS.
701 * Simple menu system: fix memory overwrite bug that caused
702 some systems to lock up or behave weirdly.
703 * Fix building on 64-bit systems without a 32-bit libc installed.
706 * EXTLINUX: Fix failure to find the configuration file.
709 * New keywords allow the type of file to be specified in the
711 * It is now supported to load a different configuration file
712 with the CONFIG keyword.
713 * Fix API call 0x0019 (Read Disk.)
714 * MENU AUTOBOOT, MENU TABMSG, MENU PASSPROMPT allows
715 internationalization of menu messages.
716 * A new feature, TEXT HELP, allows the administrator to set
717 a multi-line help message for individual selections.
718 * Fix API call 0x0012 (Cleanup, shuffle and boot.)
719 * New API call "Cleanup, shuffle and boot to flat protected mode"
720 * New API call "Cleanup, shuffle and boot to real mode",
721 similar to API call 0x0012 but allows arbitrary register setting.
722 * Introduce a library interface for loading arbitrary binary
723 formats with relatively easily understood code. See
724 the elf.c32 module for an example on how to use it.
725 * New module "elf.c32", to load a protected-mode ELF kernel.
726 * MBR (old and new): Fix bug in CHS mode when LBA >
728 * vesamenu: fix decoding of palettized PNG images.
729 * Update the Linux kernel boot protocol.
730 * PXELINUX: Press Ctrl-N at the boot prompt to read out the
732 * Instead of the (non-existent) MAC, use the client identifier
733 for networks like Infiniband and Firewire/1394.
734 * Add a new INCLUDE command to the core syslinux parser.
735 * Allow binding help text to F11 and F12.
736 * F-key help now available in the simple menu system.
737 * Disabled the polling for ARP during idle. It is simply too
738 slow on some (broken!) PXE stacks.
739 * PXELINUX: also try to fetch the config file based on UUID.
740 * SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX: New RAID mode (-r) which calls the BIOS
741 to load the next device (typically the next drive) on boot
745 * MEMDISK: Disable EDD by default on floppy disks. EDD can be
746 enabled with the "edd" option and disabled with "noedd".
747 This (hopefully) should make Ghost work again.
748 * SYSLINUX: "unix" installer now uses Linux ioctls instead of
750 * New MBR which can boot from logical partitions.
751 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in detecting special extensions which was
752 introduced in 3.35 :(
753 * PXELINUX: Unbreak chainbooting FreeBSD (and possibly others.)
756 * MEMDISK: New "safeint" mode.
757 * MEMDISK: Be more compliant with the PnP BIOS spec.
758 * MEMDISK: Turn on EDD support by default.
759 * MEMDISK: Try to work on some machines on which it would not
760 work when there was no floppy drive in the system.
761 * Simple menu system: fix serial console support (broken in
763 * SYSLINUX: Support subdirectories. Like ISOLINUX, the
764 "current directory" is the directory in which syslinux.cfg
765 is found; this is searched for in the sequence
766 /boot/syslinux, /syslinux, /. As a side benefit, label names
767 like "linux-2.6.18" and "linux-2.6.19" are now supported.
769 To install ldlinux.sys in a subdirectory, pass the -d
770 directory option to the SYSLINUX installer.
772 This work was sponsored by slax.org (thanks, Tomas!)
773 * New API call: read disk.
774 * Invoke ONERROR on initrd load failure.
777 * The simple menu system (menu.c32 and vesamenu.c32) now
778 support loading more than one configuration file at a time,
779 using MENU INCLUDE or by specifying multiple filenames.
780 * The MENU COLOR statement can now control the shadowing mode.
783 * libcom32 extended to support graphics mode and graphical console.
784 * vesamenu.c32, new graphical version of the Simple
785 Menu System, see README.menu.
786 * New com32 modules by Erwan Velu do selection based on CPUID
787 or PCI devices present.
788 * RPM spec: add syslinux-tftpboot module; move syslinux by
789 default to the /usr/share/syslinux directory.
790 * RPM spec: extlinux is now a separate package.
793 * EXTLINUX: New options --install (-i) and --update (-U), to
794 make it clear if a boot loader should be installed or
795 updated. For now, defaults to --install for compatibility;
796 a future version will require one of these options.
797 * New library functions to load and place files in memory.
798 * mboot.c32 bug fixes.
799 * Remove 8 MB kernel size restriction.
800 * Add "klibc" target for building unix/syslinux and
801 extlinux/extlinux with klcc (klibc-1.4.27 or later.)
802 * PXELINUX: Fail (and eventually reboot) if no configuration
804 * COM32 module by Erwan Velu to make decisions based on DMI
806 * Fix issue where going back and forth between menus a lot
808 * ISOLINUX: Fix bug which made "cd boot sectors" not work.
811 * MEMDISK: Fix bug by which accessing the real floppy disk
812 as B: in MS-DOS was broken.
813 * Simple menu system: allow tweaking of the screen layout.
814 * Simple menu system: better command-line editing, correctly
815 handle command lines above 256 characters.
816 * PXELINUX: revert memory allocation change that caused
817 problems on some network cards.
818 * MEMDISK: Try work around a bug on some BIOSes when no
819 physical floppy disk is present in the system.
820 * Enable the 16550A FIFOs, if present, when doing serial
822 * New "totaltimeout" command establishes a timeout without
823 regard for any user input.
824 * Simple menu system: timeout behaviour now more in line with
826 * Simple menu system: "ontimeout" should now work correctly.
829 * gcc 4.0.1 compilation fixes.
830 * Add support for querying the PCI BIOS in libcom32
831 (used by ethersel et al.)
832 * Fix PCI handing (ethersel etc) on several old chipsets (and
834 * Try to deal with systems with broken EBIOS.
835 * New API call to do "localboot".
836 * New API call to query features.
837 * New API call to run kernel image, a lower-level call than
838 "run command". See comboot.doc.
839 * Fix for bug in EBIOS code discovered by Arwin Vosselman.
840 * NOESCAPE security fix.
841 * Comments are now recognized even without a space following #.
842 * Fix incorrect handling of mixes of entries with and without
844 * The idle API call now harmlessly returns failure if it is a
845 no-op. That way the caller can decide whether or not to
846 bother invoking it again.
847 * Temporarily disable the idle API call on PXELINUX, due to
848 some platforms on which the idle API call seems to hang; this
849 problem has not yet been debugged.
850 * MEMDISK: the handling of DOSEMU-headered images was broken;
852 * EXTLINUX: symlinks are now supported.
853 * Simple menu system: N and P now work correctly as hotkeys.
854 * MEMDISK: more BIOS bug workarounds.
857 * gcc4 compilation fix.
858 * <BEL> (Ctrl-G) in message files now causes a beep.
859 * Reduce the command line to 511 characters; 1023 caused
863 * SYSLINUX: Fix performance regression (-s mode always
865 * Add API function for idle loop.
866 * libutil: Add do_idle() function for idle loop, make
868 * libutil: Add SHA-1 and base64 functions.
869 * Simple menu system: add password support.
870 * EXTLINUX: Sparse files now handled correctly.
871 * EXTLINUX: Large directories now handled correctly.
872 * ALL: At the prompt, Ctrl-X now forces text mode.
873 * Fix configuration file parsing error, that could cause
875 * Rewritten advanced menuing system from Murali Ganapathy.
876 * MEMDISK: New "bigraw" mode to work around certain broken
878 * COM32 module to boot Multiboot systems, including Xen. See
879 com32/modules/mboot.doc.
880 * Max command line changed to 1023 characters. Note that the
881 kernel proper still can only handle 255 characters without
882 patching, and COM16 binaries can only handle 125 characters.
885 * Fix chainloading (chain.c32).
886 * Fix zlib build problem.
887 * Use a private copy of <linux/ext2_fs.h>.
890 * Fix typo that caused the ramdisk to load in the wrong place.
893 * New API function "shuffle and boot"; allows COM32 modules to
894 load or construct (almost) arbitrarily complex objects,
895 e.g. a kernel and its initrd/initramfs in pieces, and have
896 the API core reorganize memory for booting. (A library API
897 for this function will be introduced in a later version.)
898 * The initrd= option now supports multiple filenames separated
899 by commas. This is mostly useful for initramfs, which can
900 be composed of multiple separate cpio or cpio.gz archives.
901 (Note: all files except the last one are zero-padded to a 4K
902 page boundary. This should not affect initramfs.)
903 * EXTLINUX: Fix API function 000Ah (get derivative-specific
905 * libcom32/ethersel: Support PCI Config Mechanism #2 on
906 machines still infested with that hideous old hack.
907 * SYSLINUX: Fix directory-parsing bug.
910 * SYSLINUX: The "unix" installer now sets the MS-DOS
911 attributes (hidden, system, readonly.)
912 * COM32 library: build the .lnx (test modules for running
913 under Linux) as architecture native modules, in case
914 i386 devel libraries aren't installed.
915 * EXTLINUX: Hack for systems which don't have BLKGETSIZE64
916 defined in the standard header files.
917 * Simple menu system: minor aestetic improvements, and try to
918 work better over a serial console (speed, and readability on
919 monochrome terminal emulators.)
920 * New CONSOLE directive to control output on the video console
921 (useful for dealing with some broken serial-forwarding
923 * New com32 module "ethersel" for searching for an Ethernet
924 card and selecting the proper version of Etherboot.
925 * EXTLINUX: Allow the user to override the detected geometry.
929 * EXTLINUX, SYSLINUX: Fix compile errors on some systems.
930 * EXTLINUX: Default to zipdrive geometry (64 heads, 32
931 sectors) if no other geometry can be detected.
934 * SYSLINUX: Support FAT32 and EDD. As an unfortunate
935 consequence, LDLINUX.SYS is no longer an ordinary file; it
936 is block-mapped at install time, which means it can only be
937 written using the syslinux installers.
938 * SYSLINUX: Reorganize the source code for the installers;
939 each one of the installers (dos, win32, unix, mtools) is now
940 built in its own subdirectory. In particular, "mtools" is
941 the unprivileged installer which uses mtools; "unix" is the
942 privileged installer which uses system calls.
943 * SYSLINUX: Completely rewritten DOS installer in C.
944 * ALL: "label" statement information is now stored in a
945 compressed format, which means that a lot more labels are
946 permitted (500-1000 in a typical configuration, but depends
948 * EXTLINUX: New derivative, which boots from an ext2/ext3
950 * SYSLINUX: The DOS and Win32 installers can now optionally
951 write the boot sector to a file instead of the real boot
952 sector. This is not supported in the Linux installers,
954 * ALL: New NOESCAPE command, disables the "hold down the Shift
955 key to display the prompt" behaviour.
956 * New simple menu system, as an alternative to the advanced
957 menu system already present. See README.menu for details.
958 * PXELINUX: Filenames can now be prefixed with an IP address
959 or DNS name plus :: (e.g. 192.0.2.1::filename or
960 server.domain.com::filename), which downloads a file from an
961 alternate TFTP server, or just a :: (e.g. ::filename), which
962 suppresses the common pathname prefix. See pxelinux.doc.
963 * SYSLINUX: Add an -m option to the DOS and Win32 installers
964 to write an MBR and -a to mark the partition SYSLINUX is
965 being installed on active.
966 * MEMDISK: Give a way to query the boot loader type while
967 running MEMDISK; see memdisk/memdisk.doc and
969 * mkdiskimage: substantially improved mkdiskimage which, among
970 other things, can now be used to initialize USB keys as
971 zipdrives; see README.usbkey for more information.
974 * MEMDISK: Fix command-line parsing "brown paper bag" class
976 * MEMDISK: Add "raw" mode to support the DOS boot disk from
977 WinME/XP, which seems to deliberately crash the system
978 when someone uses the "INT 15h mover" highmem API.
979 * Make "make install" do something sane for the com32
980 development environment.
981 * In the spec file, create a separate -devel RPM for the com32
982 development environment.
985 * Simple C library, based on klibc, for writing COM32
987 * Fix the handling of file length in loading of COM32
989 * MEMDISK: Work around a linker bug by rearranging the code to
990 not use the linker for the 16-bit code.
991 * SYSLINUX: If we're building on a machine without a Win32
992 (mingw) compiler, just skip building syslinux.exe.
993 * ISOLINUX: Support non-mkisofs mastering programs, at least
994 as long as the image is single-session. For best results,
995 ISOLINUX should be the only boot loader installed.
996 * MEMDISK: Allow the user to specify that the simulated disk
997 should be write-protected.
1000 * ALL: Add an API call to get the configuration file name.
1001 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in 2.10 that prevented it from working
1002 correctly for a lot of people.
1003 * SYSLINUX: In the installer, make mtools a bit less fussy.
1004 * Make the menu system compile with newer gcc's.
1007 * MEMDISK: Handle images compressed with zip as well as with
1008 gzip. Some Windows-based image tools apparently generate
1009 these kinds of images by default. Patch by Patrick
1011 * Major menu improvement from Murali Ganapathy.
1012 * ISOLINUX: Wonderfully sick and brilliant workaround for
1013 severe bugs in certain Award BIOSes; from Knut Petersen.
1014 * SYSLINUX: Fix for the nomtools installed, from Frederic
1016 * PXELINUX: Fix handling of IP numbers in the ranges
1017 100-109 and 200-209.
1018 * ALL: New option "allowoptions" (defaults to 1), which
1019 controls if options are allowed on the command line or not.
1020 * SYSLINUX: Support building under klibc (see the klibc
1021 distribution for details.)
1024 * SYSLINUX: Remove residual setuid crap from
1026 * Handle video pages correctly when using the API functions.
1027 * Handle compiling on an x86-64 platform correctly.
1028 * Menu system from Murali Krishnan Ganapathy; see the menu
1029 directory for information.
1030 * COMBOOT: Allow COMBOOT programs to change screen text mode.
1031 * COMBOOT: Correct the documentation of how to detect
1032 SYSLINUX from COMBOOT!!!!
1033 * COMBOOT: Fix "get key without echo" API function.
1034 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug that affected the API open function.
1035 * ALL: Improve the E820 memory parser, to work around some
1039 * Add new configuration command "ontimeout" to allow timeout
1040 to have a different action than just pressing Enter.
1041 * Add new configuration command "onerror" to allow a custom
1042 command to be executed in case the kernel image is not found.
1043 * Fix bugs in the COMBOOT/COM32 command-line parsing. APPEND
1044 now works with COMBOOT/COM32 images.
1045 * PXELINUX: Poll for ARP requests while sitting at the
1046 prompt. This makes some boot servers a lot less unhappy.
1047 * PXELINUX: Actually free sockets when we get a failure
1048 (including file not found.) This bug would cause us to run
1049 out of sockets and thus "go deaf" after a while.
1050 * MEMDISK: Add an API to query for the existence of MEMDISK.
1051 * SYSLINUX: Fix loading boot sectors (.bs/.bss) from floppy
1053 * .c32 is now one of the extensions searched for
1055 * PXELINUX: RFBG.exe seems to randomly overwrite memory
1056 location 0x5700. Thus, don't use it!
1057 * PXELINUX: Change pathname length max from 63 to 127; change
1058 max vkernels from 128 to 64.
1059 * Support Ctrl-U -> kill entire command line input.
1060 * The "samples" directory contains a (barely at all tested)
1061 chain loading example, chain.c32, which may be used to
1062 chainload local floppy disks and hard disks. Use with
1063 "chain fdN" or "chain hdN [partition]"; N = 0 for the first
1067 * MEMDISK: Workaround for BIOSes which go into a snit when
1068 they get a RESET command for the floppy system when there is
1069 no floppy in the system.
1070 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend 2", which passes the hardware
1071 address of the boot interface to the kernel as a
1072 command-line option.
1073 * mkdiskimage: fix the generation of the end limit.
1074 * PXELINUX: Fix multiple bugs in chainloading of other NBPs.
1075 * MEMDISK: Fix bug that would occationally cause "ran out of
1076 input data" when using compressed disk images.
1077 * SYSLINUX: Updates for the win32 installer (from Lars Munch.)
1078 * PXELINUX: PXELINUX-specific options are now recognized both
1079 in a vendor-option-space (a.k.a. type 43 encapsulated) as
1080 well as in a site-option-space (unencapsulated.)
1081 * COM32: Don't crash when DS != 0.
1082 * COMBOOT/COM32: Make file reading work correctly. Thanks to
1083 Phung Chi Kien for submitting a test program.
1086 * ALL: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
1087 boot failure, depending on the length of the kernel.
1088 * ISOLINUX: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
1089 boot failure, depending on the length of directories.
1090 * SYSLINUX: Win32 installer now flushes buffers.
1091 * ppmtolss16: Be fully compliant with the PNM spec;
1092 actually process comments in the header and odd
1093 alignments of the various parameters, as well as
1094 "plain" (not raw) files and PBM and PGM files.
1095 * PXELINUX: Lower the default MTU to 1472 in order to deal
1096 with systems with slightly nonstandard MTUs, and PXE
1097 stacks which don't defragment correctly. Unfortunately this
1098 is very hard to test dynamically.
1101 * PXELINUX: Add a default query based on the hardware address
1102 of the boot device. This is in lower case hexadecimal form
1103 separated by dashes and including the hardware type, for
1104 example, the Ethernet (type 1) address 88:99:AA:BB:CC:DD
1105 would query the file pxelinux.cfg/01-88-99-aa-bb-cc-dd.
1106 * PXELINUX: Fix bug involving non-IP-based config file names.
1107 * SYSLINUX: New installer for WinNT-based systems, from Lars
1109 * MEMDISK: Fix handling of memory region overlap when
1110 decompressing. Thanks to Mikhail Kupchik for identifying
1114 * ALL: Reclaim even more low memory by observing that
1115 comboot_seg == real_mode_seg is perfectly fine, and by the
1116 fact that the 1000h segment managed to get unused in all
1118 * PXELINUX: Attempt to negotiate full Ethernet-sized blocks
1119 (1468 bytes) using the blksize option.
1120 * SYSLINUX: Resurrect the old no-mtools version of the
1121 installer, although as a root-only tool. Some distributors
1122 have indicated that they need a small standalone installer.
1123 * MEMDISK: Fix a memory offset computation error when
1124 installing compressed disks which generally would cause
1125 1 MB of memory to be wasted.
1126 * MEMDISK: Fix installing the E820 memory map. Calling
1127 INT 15h AX=0E820h with MEMDISK 2.03 loaded would give a
1128 completely corrupt memory map.
1129 * SYSLINUX: Make libsyslinux a dynamic library, so that it can
1130 be updated separately from client programs. The whole idea,
1131 after all, is to enable alternate programs to become
1132 syslinux installers.
1133 * Include an rpm spec file in the distribution, so rpmbuild
1137 * Actually support comment lines in the configuration file.
1138 * PXELINUX: Try to resolve some problems with stack switches.
1139 * PXELINUX: Handle PXE stacks with broken routing.
1140 With these workarounds, the remote install PXE boot floppy
1141 (rbfg.exe) from Argon Technologies should work correctly.
1142 * Fix problems with Perl scripts in UTF-8 locales.
1143 * You probably need NASM 0.98.34 or later to compile this
1144 version. 0.98.36 is recommended.
1145 * MEMDISK: Now supports gzip compressed images.
1148 * SYSLINUX: Security flaws have been found in the SYSLINUX
1149 installer when running setuid root. Rewrite the SYSLINUX
1150 installer so it uses mtools instead. It therefore now
1151 requires mtools (specifically mcopy and mattrib) to exist on
1152 your system, but it will not require root privileges and
1153 SHOULD NOT be setuid.
1156 * MEMDISK: Fix memory sizing bug when the ramdisk crosses the
1158 * MEMDISK: Add a "pause" option to stop immediately before
1159 booting, to read off the messages.
1160 * MEMDISK: Support disk images with DOSEMU headers.
1161 * Update the mkdiskimage script to handle newer mtools
1162 versions, and be able to generate disk images with DOSEMU
1163 headers (controlled by the -d option).
1164 * Fix the COM32 sample program.
1165 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix some COMBOOT API calls.
1166 * PXELINUX: Doc fix.
1167 * Build SYSLINUX into a small library for encapsulation into
1168 other programs (however, please keep in mind this is a GPL'd
1170 * SYSLINUX: Make installer work with "owner" in /etc/fstab.
1171 * SYSLINUX: Fix issue with working on nonpartitioned hard disk
1172 devices. THIS CONFIGURATION IS NOT RECOMMENDED.
1175 * ALL: Add support for "COM32" (32-bit COMBOOT) images.
1176 * ALL: Add an API for COMBOOT/COM32 images. See comboot.doc
1177 for details. There is a C development environment for
1178 COM32 being created; it should be ready at some point in
1180 * Fix mbr.asm so that it actually works.
1181 * SYSLINUX: The syslinux installer *SHOULD* now be safe to
1183 * PXELINUX: Fix bug where PXELINUX would override random
1184 chunks of the UNDI code segment! Thanks to Kevin Tran for
1186 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug related to slashes in pathnames.
1187 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug in handling initrds over 128 MB.
1188 * ALL: Make the <Ctrl-V> key print out the version; this is
1190 * Add a small script, mkdiskimage, to create a DOS-formatted
1191 hard disk image using mtools. This may be useful in
1192 conjunction with MEMDISK.
1193 * ISOLINUX: Search for a /boot/isolinux directory as well as
1195 * ALL: Fix a bug related to very long configuration files.
1196 * PXELINUX: Work around a NASM bug which would result in no
1197 delay before reset if an error occurs.
1200 * ISOLINUX: Remove code no longer used which caused hangs on
1201 some Toshiba laptops.
1204 * ALL: NASM 0.98.32 or later is now required to build
1205 SYSLINUX from sources.
1206 * SYSLINUX: put back in the workaround for the BIOS floppy
1207 table. This seems to be a requirement for "extended" floppy
1208 formats to work correctly.
1209 * SYSLINUX: No longer warn if one is trying to boot on a 286
1210 or older. The above BIOS workaround no longer fits if the
1211 requirement to use only 8086-compatible code in the early
1212 boot is maintained. It made sense in 1994, but in 2002 a
1213 286 or older is a museum object.
1214 * SYSLINUX: Use a downright bizarre, stateful algorithm to try
1215 to guess the maximum transfer size. I am *hoping* this will
1216 cut down on the number of systems for which -s is required
1217 to work at any acceptable speed.
1218 * ISOLINUX: Add a few more workarounds for various broken El
1220 * Make sure .depend files aren't accidentally packed...
1221 * ALL: Fix bugs in the extension-detect code; this caused
1222 files like COMBOOT images and CD boot sectors to be
1223 mis-identified as Linux kernels and rejected.
1224 * ALL: Fix the return from COMBOOT.
1225 * ALL: Do some of the early groundwork for supporting DOS
1226 system calls in COMBOOT.
1227 * Get rid of unnecessary "near" directives, making the code
1229 * PXELINUX: Put the PXE stack back in the init state before
1230 invoking a chain-loaded NBP.
1231 * PXELINUX: Actually found the combination of calls that
1232 allows some (most?) PXE 2+ stacks to be unloaded from memory
1234 * PXELINUX: Add "keeppxe" command-line option to disable
1235 the standard unloading of the PXE stack.
1238 * SYSLINUX: fix bug that would cause valid kernel images to be
1242 * Work on removing gratuitous differences between modules.
1243 * Break up the source in common and module-specific files.
1244 * PXELINUX: Allow chaining of other PXE NBPs.
1245 * ISOLINUX: Allow loading "CD-ROM boot sectors".
1246 * ALL: generalize the definition of a boot sector/NBP.
1249 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix bugs in the new core code.
1252 * Fix a "brown paper bag" class bug in the new core code.
1255 * Major code restructuring.
1256 * Relax the conventional memory limits somewhat.
1257 * MEMDISK: Set up the "version number string" pointer in the
1259 * SYSLINUX: Fix, again, "the bug that won't die": the use of
1260 the offset parameter with the SYSLINUX installer.
1261 * SYSLINUX: Fix possible superblock corruption problem in the
1265 * Handle bug in the location of initrd.
1268 * MEMDISK: Make compile with newer versions of gcc.
1271 * ISOLINUX: Support booting disk image files (to boot DOS or
1272 other non-Linux operating systems), *IF* the BIOS works
1273 correctly; unfortunately many BIOSes apparently don't.
1274 * Support Linux boot protocol version 2.03 (explicitly
1275 specify the initrd address limit.)
1276 * Handle small "pseudo-kernels"; images that use the Linux
1277 kernel boot protocols but are less than 64K in size.
1278 * MEMDISK: New subsystem; this is a driver which allows
1279 legacy OSes to boot using an in-memory simulated disk.
1280 See memdisk/memdisk.doc for more info.
1281 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Correctly handle files larger than 65535
1282 blocks (32 MB for PXELINUX, 128 MB for ISOLINUX.)
1283 * PXELINUX: Make a best-effort attempt at freeing all memory
1284 claimed. From the looks of it, it will fail on most PXE
1288 * Limited support for hardware flow control when using a
1289 serial port console.
1290 * Support specifying the serial port I/O address explicitly.
1291 * Make DOS installer hopefully behave more nicely when used on
1292 recent Windows versions.
1293 * Fix returning to text mode when a font has been specified.
1294 * Attempt to detect missing serial port hardware and disable
1295 the serial port if there is nothing there.
1298 * Make the ppmtolss16 program handle color conversion more
1300 * Clean up "make install" target, honour INSTALLROOT if it
1302 * SYSLINUX: Fix stack-smash bug identified by Steffen
1304 * Hopefully fix return-to-text-mode on some graphics cards.
1305 * ISOLINUX: Bug workaround for Award BIOS 4.51, and perhaps
1306 other buggy BIOSes as well.
1309 * PXELINUX: Allow the DHCP server to override the
1310 configuration file name and pathname prefix, using
1311 "site-specific" DHCP options.
1312 * PXELINUX: Documentation fixes.
1313 * PXELINUX: Fix the "ipappend" option; the last two values
1314 were reversed vs. what the kernel expected.
1315 * Introduce a way to return to text mode once we are already
1316 in graphics mode. This may be useful for F-key help
1318 * Fix several bugs in the way return to text mode was handled.
1321 * ISOLINUX: Support full pathname searches. Max length for a
1322 pathname is 255 characters. As a result, only 64 "label"
1323 statements are supported in ISOLINUX.
1324 * PXELINUX: Max filename length extended to 63 characters.
1327 * Add support for graphical splash screens.
1328 * Add mode control characters, which allows you to control
1329 message display output depending on output mode (text,
1330 graphics, or serial port.)
1331 * ISOLINUX: New program, which boots Linux from a CD-ROM
1332 without using floppy emulation mode. See isolinux.doc for
1334 * PXELINUX: Don't search for boot sector file types, since
1335 they don't work anyway.
1336 * SYSLINUX: Document the LOCK command for Win9x, and the error
1337 dialog box for WinNT/2K.
1340 * PXELINUX: Fix code for finding !PXE from PXENV+. This was
1341 due to a spec bug; match the most recent spec since that
1342 seems to be what implementations actually do.
1343 * SYSLINUX: Add some smarts to the boot sector, which
1344 hopefully should reduce the number of systems which require
1345 stupid mode ("syslinux -s").
1346 * PXELINUX: Document further some of the pathologies with old
1348 * When specifying a "default" command line, no longer
1349 automatically appent "auto". See the "DEFAULT" command in
1350 syslinux.doc for more information.
1351 * PXELINUX: Clean up the allocation of local socket numbers.
1354 * PXELINUX: Rename pxelinux.bin to pxelinux.0, to match what
1355 most PXE servers seem to expect.
1356 * PXELINUX: Update the DHCP/boot server setup documentation.
1357 * PXELINUX: Support new "localboot" option for "label"
1359 * PXELINUX: More robust parsing of DHCP/boot server packets.
1360 * PXELINUX: Include a small utility program "gethostip" to
1361 compute hexadecimal IP addresses.
1364 * PXELINUX: Fix bugs introduced by new A20 code. (SYSLINUX
1365 has also been changed for code consistency reasons, but I'm
1366 pretty sure the changes are don't care on SYSLINUX.)
1367 * Documentation updates.
1368 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend" option to generate an ip= option to
1372 * PXELINUX: Not all PXE stacks fill in the IP address for a
1373 type 3 cached info query. Use a type 2 cached info query
1374 for this information (only.)
1375 * Yet another attempt at A20 coding. Now support BIOS call
1376 15:2401 as well, and handle machines which always have A20
1378 * Support memory detection using INT 15h, AX=0E820h. BIOS
1379 manufacturers have apparently gotten sloppy about keeping
1380 INT 15h, AX=0E801h working properly.
1381 * Don't issue <CR><LF> onto the serial port when we're doing
1385 * Yet another A20-code update. It seems some "legacy-free"
1386 machines and embedded gear simply don't have a KBC to talk
1387 to, and that waiting for one will wait forever. Sigh.
1390 * SYSLINUX: Implement a hack for BIOS drivers which hog significant
1391 chunks of low memory during boot. (Note: PXELINUX already
1392 had this modification. SYSLINUX does still require that the
1393 low 512K is available; PXELINUX requires 384K. Machines
1394 with a physical memory hole in the low 640K cannot boot
1395 Linux no matter what.) Depending what the reason is for the
1396 memory hole, a new kernel (2.4.0-test3-pre3 or later) may be
1398 * SYSLINUX: Default installer binary now compiled against
1399 glibc 2.1. If this is inappropriate for your system and you
1400 still want to use the offical version of SYSLINUX, please
1401 follow the instructions in "distrib.doc" to rebuild the
1403 * SYSLINUX: Linux installer program now supports -o <offset>
1404 option which does a loopback mount with the
1405 -o loop,offset=<> option. Useful to run SYSLINUX on an
1406 individual partition of a whole-harddisk image.
1407 * Include the source code to a Master Boot Record (MBR)
1408 functionally equivalent to the one installed DOS except it
1409 includes EBIOS support, and should be resistant to geometry
1410 changes. The MBR code is public domain.
1411 * PXELINUX: Fix "double p" bug: if the tftp prefix was null,
1412 all filenames would get a "p" preprended, e.g.
1413 "ppxelinux.cfg" and "pvmlinux".
1416 * PXELINUX: Workaround for PXE ROMs based on the Intel PXE PDK
1417 3.0 build 071 and earlier: missing !PXE structure pointer.
1418 * PXELINUX: Handle larger BOOTP/DHCP packages.
1419 * PXELINUX: The command line passing was broken; fix.
1420 * PXELINUX: Make COMBOOT images work.
1421 * PXELINUX: Documentation on how to make booting work using
1422 the PDK 3.0-derived clients, which aren't so generous as to
1423 allow booting with only "PXEClient" specified.
1426 * PXELINUX: RFC 1123 states that a TFTP implementation MUST
1427 use adaptive timeout, "at least an exponential backoff of
1428 retransmission timeout is necessary." Implement a very
1429 simple exponential backoff for retransmits.
1430 * PXELINUX: Updated documentation, including pointer to new
1432 * PXELINUX: When sending ERROR due to bad OACK, use the proper
1433 destination port number (why are TFTP port numbers so odd?)
1434 * PXELINUX: If the boot dies in the middle somewhere,
1435 eventually give up and reset the machine (unattended
1439 * New program PXELINUX to do network booting using a
1440 PXE-compliant (Pre-Execution Environment) network booting
1441 PROM. See pxelinux.doc for details.
1444 * Serial console support. See syslinux.doc for details.
1447 * Change HIGHMEM_MAX to 38000000h to (hopefully) avoid the
1448 kernel stepping on it; 3f000000h was apparently a higher
1449 limit than the kernel used!
1452 * Add sys2ansi.pl script to display the contents of a
1453 colorized SYSLINUX file.
1454 * Changed the io_delay once again, after a report that the
1455 old delay port causes hangs on some systems.
1458 * Frob the "fast A20 gate" port as well as the keyboard
1459 controller; will this help systems with problems?
1460 * Be even more paranoid about A20, unfortunately even this
1461 seems to be not paranoid enough... what I don't understand
1462 is that if there is hardware out there *this broken*, how
1463 can it run Linux at all? Report an error message rather
1464 than hang forever if A20 is stuck.
1465 * Include some intermediate files in the distribution, plus
1466 provide a "make installer" target for distributors to relink
1467 the install programs only. I would prefer the syslinux boot
1468 loader proper to be "binary clean" for debuggablity -- use
1469 "make clean ; make installer" to rebuild the installers only.
1472 * Don't get confused by directories, volume labels, or VFAT
1474 * Use INT 15h, AX=0E801h to query memory size before trying
1475 INT 15h, AH=88h. This not only provides more headroom
1476 between the kernel and the initrd on large-memory machines,
1477 but it appears some recent BIOSes actually have started
1478 returning garbage for the AH=88h (older) call.
1479 * Trust high memory beyond the 15 MB mark if the user has
1480 specified it, or if obtained with INT 15h, AH=0E801h (with
1481 no memory holes above 1 MB.)
1484 * Increase A20M delay and put in a test to avoid problems on
1485 certain IBM Thinkpads (thanks to Donnie Barnes of RedHat
1486 for vital info on this one.)
1487 * Support COMBOOT style boot command images.
1488 * Support chain loading (foreign operating systems, e.g. DOS).
1489 * Include a new "copybs" DOS utility to copy a boot sector to
1490 a file (under Linux, use "dd".)
1491 * Fix the DOS installer to work for disks over 32 MB.
1492 * SYSLINUX should now handle disks with more than 65536 tracks.
1495 * Fix a bug that caused "label" statements in syslinux.cfg to
1496 not be handled properly.
1497 * Updated the documentation. Among other things, we now allow
1498 up to 128 "label" statements.
1501 * Fix for booting old (pre-initrd) kernels.
1502 * It seems at least some versions of OS/2 doesn't set up all
1503 the fields in the superblock correctly. Account for that.
1504 * Fix bug that caused boot failure when using the mem= option.
1507 * Loading from partitions now should work properly. (Actually
1508 tested, this time. You should even be able to dd a floppy
1509 to a partition and boot from it.)
1510 * Removed large workaround code for an alleged ancient BIOS
1511 bug I have never actually seen. The -s option should work
1512 on those machines, anyway.
1513 * Support for simple keyboard remappings, same as used by
1514 LILO (once again to support localization.) The program
1515 keytab-lilo.pl from the LILO distribution included to
1517 * Added a "safe, slow and stupid" (-s) option to the
1518 installers. This option will lobotomize the boot sector to
1519 hopefully work on even very buggy BIOSes.
1522 * Ability to load a VGA font on bootup (for localized Linux
1526 * Bug fix in the Linux installer.
1527 * Added a workaround for a bug in certain AMI/Intel BIOSes
1528 when booting from CD-ROM.
1529 * Documentation changes.
1532 * FAT16 filesystems are now supported.
1535 * Now compiles under Linux, using NASM, rather than using
1536 Turbo Assembler under DOS. See http://www.cryogen.com/Nasm
1537 for information about NASM.
1538 * Linux-hosted SYSLINUX installer, as well as a
1539 rewritten DOS installer (now is written in assembler, so we
1540 don't need Turbo C.)
1543 * Added support for loading bzImage and initrd loading, and made
1544 SYSLINUX new-setup-code aware (SYSLINUX 1.30 id=0x31).
1545 * Added LILO-style kernel labels; see the LABEL and IMPLICIT
1546 keywords in README file.
1547 * Added support for colorization of intro and help screens.
1548 * The vga= option is now handled correctly.
1549 * Massive rewrite of large chunks of the code in order to
1550 support the first two new features.
1553 * Added simple online help at the "boot:" prompt.
1554 * Removed 2880K image as I no longer have access to such a
1555 floppy drive. (Donations accepted!!)
1556 * Decided to distribute the source in a subdirectory rather
1557 than in a nested zipfile.
1560 * Removed a sanity check which would cause booting to fail on
1561 Phoenix BIOS version 4.03. Apparently this BIOS is buggy.
1564 * Added configuration file SYSLINUX.CFG. This file contains all
1565 configurable options, and can be edited from any OS which can
1566 access an MS-DOS filesystem; there is no longer a need to run
1567 SYSLINUX.EXE except to write the boot sector.
1568 * Default command line now given by "default" line in config
1570 * LINUXMSG.TXT and BOOTMSG.TXT hard-coded file names replaced by
1571 "display" and "prompt" lines in config file.
1572 * LILO-style option appending now supported ("append" line in
1574 * Prompt timeout is now supported ("timeout" line in config
1575 file). The timeout is cancelled when anything is typed on the
1577 * Pressing <ESC> or <Ctrl-C> at the Loading... stage now aborts
1578 the kernel loading in progress and returns the user to the
1580 * The installer now automatically sets the READONLY flag on
1582 * Added 2880K disk image.
1585 * Fixed bug that would prevent booting from double-density
1586 floppies and other DOS filesystems with multiple sectors per
1588 * Added 720K disk image.
1589 * Changed default kernel name on disk images to LINUX.
1592 * Fixed bug that would garble the command line on recent kernels
1593 with more than 4 sectors of setup code (this wasn't really a
1594 *bug*; rather, a kernel change broke the code. Unfortunately
1595 the Linux boot interface is still sorely undocumented).
1596 * Added BOOTMSG.TXT file support (message file which does not
1597 force display of the boot prompt).
1600 * Fixed bug on some (most?) 386 BIOSes would require two boot