1 Starting with 1.47, changes marked with SYSLINUX, PXELINUX, ISOLINUX
2 or EXTLINUX apply to that specific program only; other changes apply
6 * Add support for booting from EFI.
9 * txt/: A new AsciiDoc documentation set (work-in-progress)
11 * core: Fix a bug in the realloc() implementation that caused
12 machines to appear to run out of free memory.
13 * ldlinux: Fix multiple buffer overflows in cmdline parsing
14 code that resulted in files failing to run and cmdlines
16 * core: Fix debug build by tagging __bad_SEG() with __export.
17 * com32: Restrict library filenames to 8.3 format.
18 * EXTLINUX: Fix installation and subdirectory patching.
19 * ISOLINUX: Fix booting isohybrid images that are over 32K.
20 * com32: Strip modules to reduce their size.
21 * XFS: Implement directory block cache and fix
22 shortform-directory lookup (Paulo Alcantara).
25 * com32: Switched from the COM32 object format to ELF as it is
26 a much more powerful format that allows undefined symbols to
27 be resolved at runtime and dynamic loading of module
28 dependencies, which means modules now become shared object
29 files instead of statically linked binaries - reducing both
30 disk space and runtime memory consumption.
31 * core: Split non-core functionality into ldlinux.c32, which
32 is an ELF module loaded by the core that contains everything
33 the core doesn't require to boot the system, e.g. config
34 parser, command-line interface, etc.
35 * Replaced __intcall() calls with direct function calls now
36 that we can resolve undefined symbols at runtime, thanks to
37 the ELF object support. Now that we no longer need to go
38 through the 16-bit interrupt mechanism we can make full use
39 of the 32-bit execution environment. This change required
40 reimplementing lots of the 16-bit assembly code from core/
42 * com32: __com32.cs_bounce is gone now we always run in a
43 32-bit environment once we execute ldlinux.c32.
44 * ldlinux: A new "PATH" directive was added to the ldlinux.c32
45 config parser that specifies a colon-separated list of
46 directories to search when attempting to load modules.
47 * ALL: Delete all references to/code for 16-bit COMBOOT files.
48 COMBOOT files (.cbt and .com) are no longer supported under
52 * Support for NTFS, by Paulo Alcantara.
53 * EXTLINUX: more robust device detection, allow user to override.
54 * kontron_wdt.c32: Add a new module to enable the hardware
55 watchdog of some Kontron boards. It allows enabling the watchdog
56 and then booting a given image.
57 * HDT updated, and now can display images regarding some detection
58 steps. Add postexec command to run a particular entry after
59 HDT's execution, add silent option and various fixes.
60 * ifcpu.c32: Detect hypervisor presence.
61 * lua.c32: Add dhcp support and support for native Syslinux
62 functions syslinux_config(), syslinux_ipappend_strings() and
64 * isohybrid: Workaround for various EFI systems.
65 * pxechn.c32, a PXE NBP chainloader. More versatile alternative
66 to pxechain.com and resolves the PXELINUX -> WDS issue with
67 Microsoft Windows Server 2008R2 (Gene Cumm).
68 * btrfs: Fix booting off of a subvolume.
69 * com32: Add device tree support.
70 * SYSLINUX: Fix relative paths for VFAT. The CONFIG and APPEND
71 directives now support entirely relative paths.
74 * HDT updated, and now supports uploading data to a TFTP
76 * ISOLINUX: remove the .img file support; it has been broken
77 on virtually all systems since the beginning, and has been
78 totally broken since 4.00 at least. Use MEMDISK instead.
79 * chain.c32: Support chaining ReactOS' FreeLdr (Shao Miller)
80 * isohybrid: -m option to add support for Mac EFI booting.
81 * ifmemdsk.c32: Choose boot option based on presence of
83 * Remove bogus distributed mk-lba-img binary.
84 * The Syslinux project has a new, cool logo by Abi
85 "ixxvil" Rasheed (doc/logo/*).
88 * PXELINUX: Fix handling of unqualified DNS names.
89 * PXELINUX: Fix timer bug when PXELINUX might be unloaded
91 * core/writedec.inc: Fix duplicate declaration and overflow
94 * sample directory: Fix Makefile include (Gene Cumm).
95 * ver.com: New universal DOS/COMBOOT application to display
96 version information (includes DRMK) (Gene Cumm).
97 * rosh.c32: updated; Using getopt() for internal commands to aid
98 parsing options; Fix bugs in ls; add warm reboot and echo
100 * com32: fix a file descriptor leak.
101 * gfxboot.c32: handle TEXT..ENDTEXT; error out on no LABELs
102 found (Sebastian Herbszt).
103 * Fix booting on non-partitioned devices.
104 * MBR, isohybrid: Workaround for a BIOS issue on Acer
105 Travelmate and possibly other machines.
106 * COM32: Adding ACPI parsing libary
107 * HDT: Release 0.4.1 to support ACPI parsing,
108 improved mutli-core/cpu reporting
109 * LUA: Updating to 5.1.4-2
110 * SYSLINUX: core/diskstart.inc: Reset DS after checksum in case
111 it isn't 0 (Gene Cumm).
112 * win64: Script update for additional mingw compiler names
114 * diag: New directory for diagnostic-related tools. Add a
115 handoff MBR/VBR and geometry display images (Gene Cumm).
116 * MEMDISK: use "mem=" parameter to mark available memory above
117 this point as reserved (core already does alignment) (Gene Cumm).
118 * MEMDISK: Additional disk probe checks and debug output
119 (Shao Miller, Gene Cumm).
120 * gpxe: add gpxelinuxk.0, based off of undionly.kpxe + new
122 * isohybrid: install the isohdpfx*.bin/isohdppx*.bin files to
123 make isohybrid images in one step with GNU xorriso.
124 * PXELINUX: disable a hack that would make localboot work on
125 some machines, but break just about as many. Some machines
126 which worked with "localboot 0" in previous versions may
127 need "localboot -1" in this one. If you have a machine
128 which requires "localboot -1", a copy of the dmidecode
129 or sysdump output would be appreciated.
130 * Include a set of diagnostics by Gene Cumm.
131 * Fixes for gcc 4.6 and binutils 2.21.51.
132 * chain.c32: Allow "uuid" as a synonym to "guid".
133 * Handle directory names starting with .. for vfat and
135 * New MENU HIDDENKEY command to provide a one-keystroke way to
136 activate a boot option from a hidden menu intro screen.
139 * Don't hang if no configuration file is found.
140 * Better support for booting from MBRs which don't pass
141 handover information.
142 * EXTLINUX: Try to be smarter about finding the partition
144 * chain.c32: support chainloading Dell Real Mode Kernel (Gene
146 * chain.c32: fix booting in CHS mode.
147 * rosh.c32 updated (Gene Cumm).
148 * Fix the -s option to the syslinux/extlinux installer (Arwin
150 * isohybrid: fix padding of large images (PJ Pandit).
153 * SYSLINUX: correctly handle the case where the -d option is
154 specified with a non-absolute path, i.e. "syslinux -d
155 syslinux" instead of "syslinux -d /syslinux".
156 * ISOLINUX: recognize the directory names /boot/syslinux and
157 /syslinux, and the filename syslinux.cfg in addition to the
158 isolinux-specific names. Thus, "syslinux.cfg" is now a
159 generic name, whereas "isolinux.cfg" or "extlinux.conf" is
160 specific to different derivative.
161 * chain.c32: support setting alternate config filename for
162 stage2 of GRUB Legacy (Gert Hulselmans).
163 * whichsys.c32: execute specific command, based on Syslinux
164 bootloader variant (Gert Hulselmans).
165 * lua.c32: a lot of new bindings added to the "syslinux"
166 namespace: VESA, PCI, DMI, kernel loading (Marcel Ritter).
167 * btrfs: print a comprehensive error message if compressed or
168 encrypted files are encountered (neither is currently
170 * SYSLINUX: mtools installer: honor TMPDIR, error out on disk
172 * Handle fallbacks from EDD to CHS, to deal with systems which
173 announce EDD support but don't actually have it.
174 * SYSLINUX: the mtools, DOS and win32 installers now use the new
175 command line options.
176 * PXELINUX: fix the use of IP addresses in TFTP :: or tftp://
178 * SYSLINUX: experimental Win64 installer (syslinux64.exe).
181 * ISOLINUX: fix initialization on systems which don't zero
183 * SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX: fix handing of disk read retries in
185 * ISOLINUX: change the initialization sequence to avoid
186 problems with certain (old) BIOSes. Special thanks to
187 Helmut Hullen for invaluable debugging support.
188 * ifplop.c32: new module which detects if the PLoP Boot Loader
189 already has booted a CDROM or USB drive (Gert Hulselmans).
190 * Correct a severe memory overwrite bug, triggered primarily
191 when selecting a very long command line in the menu system.
192 * lua.c32: Lua script interpreter, currently experimental
193 (Alexey Zaytsev, Marcel Ritter, Geert Stappers).
194 * PXELINUX: new option IPAPPEND 4 to append the system UUID to
195 the kernel command line.
196 * PXELINUX: display BOOTIF and SYSUUID at startup time, and
197 when Ctrl-N is pressed on the command line.
200 * Major code base changes; all filesystem rewritten in C.
201 This work was done primarily by Liu Aleaxander (Yuanhan Liu).
202 * EXTLINUX: btrfs and ext4 support. btrfs support was done by
204 * EXTLINUX is no longer a separate derivative; extlinux and
205 syslinux both install the same loader (ldlinux.sys); for the
206 Linux-based installers the extlinux binary is used for a
207 mounted filesystem; the syslinux binary for an unmounted
209 * When loading a new configuration file with the CONFIG
210 command, one can now also specify a new current directory
211 with an APPEND statement.
212 * Full ADV support for Syslinux, to boot-once and MENU SAVE
214 * Full support of GPT-partitioned disks, including disks
215 and/or parititions larger than 2 TiB (if supported by BIOS.)
216 * The GPT handover protocol adjusted to the current T13
217 committee draft; see doc/gpt.txt.
218 * HDT: code cleanup, small bugfixes
219 * The "linux" syslinux installer (syslinux-nomtools) now has a
220 command-line syntax closer to the extlinux installer. The
221 mtools, dos and win32 installers will get this new syntax
222 eventually, but it is not implemented yet.
223 * chain.c32: support booting GPT partitions by index, GUID, label.
224 * chain.c32: support booting the Syslinux partition with "fs".
225 * chain.c32: implement gpt.txt hand-over protocol.
226 * chain.c32: support for chainloading Grub stage 2.
227 * PXELINUX: TFTP URL syntax (tftp://) supported even when not
228 running gPXE/gpxelinux.
229 * New ls.c32 module to display the contents of the disk from
230 the command line, and pwd.c32 to display the current
232 * rosh.c32 (read only shell) updated and hopefully usable.
233 * PXELINUX: Support "localboot -1", just like the other
235 * gfxboot.com removed in favor of gfxboot.c32.
236 * New MENU HELP statement to display fullscreen help text as a
237 result of a menu selection.
238 * memdiskfind utility that can be used with the phram driver
239 in the Linux kernel to mount a memdisk.
240 * ifcpu.c32: Adding usage when no parameters are given,
242 * ifcpu.c32, ifcpu64.c32: handle more than one argument per
244 * isohybrid: C version which does not require Perl.
245 * New command MENU IMMEDIATE to permit hotkeys to activate
246 immediately without needing Enter.
247 * mdiskchk.com supports a --no-sequential (or -n) option to
248 suppress the classic all-drive-probing heuristic. Useful
249 on BIOSes who crash/hang when certain drive numbers are
251 * ElTorito.Sys DOS driver now scans drive numbers upwards
252 instead of downwards, in order to avoid a fairly common
253 bug on some BIOSes where probing drive 0xFF causes a
255 * NASM 2.03 or later required to build. 2.07 or later
259 * chain.c32: fix chainloading the MBR of a hard disk (broken
261 * mboot.c32: report the boot loader name in the information
263 * com32: set argv[0] in a com32 module.
264 * core: add a workaround for a bug in Xen HVM older than
265 version 3.3: disable halt on those platforms.
266 * Fix problems where certain operations in com32 modules would
267 cause the core to believe the system was idle.
268 * MEMDISK: fix MBR detection when used with a DOSEMU header or
270 * MEMDISK: generate the mBFT checksum correctly.
273 * gPXELINUX: updated to gPXE 1.0.0. gPXELINUX can now do NBP
274 chainloading, and does not require a second DHCP.
275 * vesamenu.c32: unbreak the default "grey hole" background.
276 * We no longer have a built-in default of "linux auto".
277 Instead, if no DEFAULT or UI statement is found, or the
278 configuration file is missing entirely, we drop to the boot:
279 prompt with an error message (if NOESCAPE is set, we stop
280 with a "boot failed" message; this is also the case for
281 PXELINUX if the configuration file is not found.)
282 * chain.c32: support chainloading Grub4DOS; patch by Gert
284 * New tool: sysdump.c32, can be used to produce system
285 information for debugging via tftp or ymodem (serial port).
286 * "vga=current" on the Linux command line is now supported.
287 * chain.c32: support for Windows Recovery Console, via the
289 * chain.c32: should now support loading NTLDR from different
290 type media than loaded from.
291 * chain.c32: support chainloading to a FAT/NTFS partition with
292 invalid "hidden sectors" via the "sethidden" option.
293 * memdisk: fix the mBFT ACPI table.
294 * vesamenu.c32: if the image is smaller than the screen, tile
295 it across the whole screen.
296 * mkdiskimage: -s option for producing a sparse image.
297 * vesamenu.c32: support arbitrary resolution setting (beyond
298 BIOS support) on some Intel-based video chipsets. This code
299 is a modified version of the "915resolution" tool by
300 Steve Tomljenovic; your mileage might vary.
303 * SYSLINUX: make the DOS installer work for MS-DOS 7.x/8.x
305 * HDT: updated to version 0.3.6 (numerous changes.)
306 * mboot.c32: now supports video mode setting if requested by
308 * MEMDISK: Fix floppy images of PC-DOS.
309 * MEMDISK: Add support for emulation of CD-ROM images; patch
311 * MEMDISK: Comply with the Win9x "safe hook" standard,
312 allowing a protected-mode driver.
313 * MEMDISK: New "mBFT" ACPI table, by analogy with the iSCSI
314 iBFT table. This allows detection from a protected-mode
315 operating system without EDD support.
316 * 32-bit version of the gfxboot loader (gfxboot.c32), so far
317 experimental. This will replace gfxboot.com in the future.
318 * vesamenu.c32: new MENU RESOLUTION directive to set a screen
319 resolution other than 640x480.
320 * chain.c32: add support for loading isolinux.bin.
321 * chain.c32: make sure to always return to text mode.
322 * eltorito.sys: DOS driver for generic CD-ROMs; by Gary Tong
326 * PXELINUX: clear memory before handing over to a chainloaded
327 NBP. This may help avoid a bug in Windows RIS.
328 * PXELINUX: fix localboot after NBP chainloading on certain
329 BIOSes (including ASUS A8N-E, but possibly others.)
330 * chain.c32: support chainloaded bootloaders on ISOLINUX.
331 * PXELINUX: allow filenames up to 251 characters.
332 * MEMDISK: fix problems booting from USB on Thinkpads, and
333 possibly other machines or hardware combinations.
334 * isohybrid: fix the -id option.
335 * HDT: updated to version 0.3.4.
336 * MEMDISK: the stack size is now configurable, with the stack=
338 * Simple menu: fix Ctrl-W (word erase) in command-line edit.
339 * Simple menu: fix crash on some platforms.
340 * Gfxboot: fixes to the configuration file parsing.
341 * PXELINUX: add a tool to override specific DHCP options via
342 values hardcoded in the pxelinux.0 file. These hardcoded
343 values can be either "before DHCP" (defaults if DHCP do not
344 provide values), or "after DHCP" (overrides DHCP). The tool
345 pxelinux-options can be used to set these options. This
346 feature does not apply to gpxelinux.0; when used with gPXE
347 this is better handled by modifying the embedded script.
350 * isohybrid: fix the -partok logic for loading from a partition.
351 * ISOLINUX: deal with systems which return from INT 13h with
353 * Do not invoke the idle handler during large file loads.
354 * Simple menu: make ONTIMEOUT work with MENU HIDDEN.
355 * PXELINUX: handle TFTP servers which have extra NULs at the
356 end of an OACK packet.
359 * Shuffler: fix bug in real-mode entry. This affected a
360 number of modules, probably in relatively unimportant ways,
361 but it completely broke linux.c32.
362 * Improved performance.
363 * Attempt to halt the processor while idle. This can cause
364 bad reponsiveness when using a serial console especially for
365 automated input; if that ends up being a problem, use the
366 new "NOHALT 1" configuration command.
367 * linux.c32 now suppresses all messages if the "quiet" flag is
369 * isohybrid: add a variety of options, and a help message.
370 * ISOLINUX: fix booting in hybrid mode when CBIOS is used.
371 This unfortunately means that the isohybrid handoff protocol
372 has changed, so the isohybrid utility must version-match
374 * Drop support for ACPI 3 extended memory flags.
375 * Menu system: don't set the autocr flag on the serial
377 * altmbr: fix handling of logical partitions.
378 * altmbr: cap at 439 bytes so the partition select byte isn't
382 * New shuffler mechanism and API.
383 * Rewritten mboot.c32 module.
384 * The syslinux_boot_linux() function has been simplified.
385 * Don't hang trying to boot a "menu quit" label from the CLI.
386 * Fix problem with boot-once "sticking" on some BIOSes.
387 * isohybrid: fix problem with images over 2 GB in size.
388 * APM poweroff module (poweroff.com) by Sebastian Herbszt.
389 * ISOLINUX: fix the handling of large directories. Bug found
390 and fixed by Steffen Winterfeldt.
393 * PXELINUX: fix the "keeppxe" option, which was broken in
395 * MEMDISK: correct the extraction of geometry information from
396 the MBR of a hard disk image, again broken in 3.74.
397 * extlinux(1) man page from Brian Pellin.
398 * Simple menu: MENU SAVE is now controllable on a menu-by-menu
399 or entry-by-entry basis.
400 * gPXELINUX: fix interrupt-disabling bug.
401 * HDT: fix lockup on machines with certain PCI configurations.
404 * New UI directive, which allows a more natural way to specify
405 a menu system (or not.) With the UI directive specifying
406 the menu system, the DEFAULT directive can be used to select
407 the default entry inside the menus.
408 * kbdmap.c32: new module to load a new keyboard map
410 * isohybrid: workaround bug in some versions of binutils.
411 * Fix issue with the placement of the initrd on some machines.
412 * ifcpu64: fix handling of less than three arguments.
413 * Fix bug in the shuffle library when dealing with a very
414 large number of fragments.
415 * Documentation fixes by Vicente Jimenez Aguilar.
416 * gPXE updated to version 0.9.7.
417 * hdt.c32: Hardware Detection Tool, an interactive hardware
418 analyzer module by Erwan Velu.
419 * MEMDISK: enable automatic determination of the disk geometry
420 for a large floppy disk image if (and only if) it is
421 formatted with a FAT filesystem.
422 * SYSLINUX: fix the handling of .bss files on FAT12/16.
423 * Suppress the Loading ... message if "quiet" is specified on
424 the kernel command line.
425 * Fix the use of "CONSOLE 0" with menu.c32.
426 * Allow COM32 modules to be aware of all memory even in the
427 presence of a memory hole. The "linux.c32" module can be
428 used to load a kernel (or memdisk) plus large initrd on
430 * MBR: produce alternate MBR variants which force the drive
431 number to hd0 (_f variants), or force the drive number to
432 hd0 if the Ctrl key is pressed (_c variants.) Furthermore,
433 add an MBR variant (altmbr*.bin) which ignores the active
434 flag and instead boots the partition number specified in the
435 byte at offset 439 decimal.
436 * Add IPAPPEND strings to com32 modules, especially needed for
438 * New MENU SAVE directive which saves the latest menu
439 selection until the next boot. Currently only implemented for
441 * gfxboot.com: *experimental* interface module to Steffen
442 Winterfeldt's "gfxboot" graphical front end
443 (http://gfxboot.sourceforge.net/). Module by Sebastian Herbszt.
446 * Upgrade gPXE to release version 0.9.5.
447 * Fix a number of build errors on various platforms.
448 * Handle systems with E820 "extended attributes" per ACPI 3.
449 Someone "cleverly" decided to change the E820 spec in a
450 backwards-incompatible manner!
451 * MEMDISK: default to "safeint".
452 * Adopt the moniker "The Syslinux Project", standard proper
453 noun capitalization, to refer to the project as a whole.
454 Thus, reserve the all-caps "SYSLINUX" to refer to the FAT
456 * mboot.c32: add "-solaris" option to pass DHCP information to
457 the Solaris kernel; required for automatic Solaris boot
458 without using Solaris' pxeboot program.
459 * config.c32: trivial COM32 module to restart Syslinux with
460 another configuration file from the command line (equivalent
461 to the CONFIG command in the configuratin file.)
464 * Include the pxechain.com module from Jeffery Hutzelman at
465 Carnegie Mellon University. This allows chaining another
466 PXE boot program while changing the DHCP packet passed to
468 * Reorganize the Makefile system.
469 * Major PCI core cleanups and other source cleanup.
471 * Try to avoid memory-snooping attacks on passwords. Note
472 that if someone has root on the box, they generally don't
473 need to compromise the boot loader...
474 * ISOLINUX: fix crash when given a zero-length file.
475 * sdi.c32: support gzipped SDI images.
476 * ISOLINUX: support generating images which can be either
477 a CD-ROM or a hard disk (USB disk, etc.) See
478 doc/isolinux.txt for more information.
479 * Remote gdb support for COM32 modules; patch from Stefan
481 * Support beeps in F-key help in the simple menu system.
482 * Tab display of labels, based on a patch from Sebastian
483 Herbszt. Can be disabled with the NOCOMPLETE configuration
485 * "menu default" can now be specified after "menu begin", to
486 indicate that a specific submenu should be the default entry.
489 * Workaround for a VESA BIOS which tries to make DOS system
491 * Simple menu: fix navigation around disabled entries
492 (or at least try to...)
493 * EXTLINUX: proper error message when confused about mount
495 * MEMDISK: be smarter about incompletely disabled floppies in
496 the BIOS and about being the only floppy.
497 * Optionally allow initrd to be specified on a separate line
498 rather than as part of the "append" line. This is not
499 recommended, but apparently makes life easier for some
501 * SYSLINUX: if no config file is present, set the current
502 directory to the root directory (Sebastian Herbszt).
503 * chain.c32: option "hide" to support hiding and unhiding of
504 primary partitions on the boot drive with DOS, Win, or OS/2
505 partition types (01, 04, 06, 07, 0b, 0c, 0e).
506 * Unbreak the KBDMAP command (broken in 3.70).
507 * EXTLINUX: fix the handling of the ADV when using CBIOS.
508 * ifcpu64.c32: simple COM32 module to select a 32- or 64-bit
509 kernel (and optionally 32-bit kernels with or without PAE.)
510 Eventually we want a scripting language for this
511 kind of stuff; a Lua module is under development.
512 * Fix parsing of the SERIAL command without a baud rate
514 * chain.c32: error out when try to boot an unbootable
516 * SYSLINUX: when building the Win32 installer, search for
517 MinGW under a large number of possible names.
520 * PXELINUX: Support enhanced capabilities when running on top
521 of gPXE (http://www.etherboot.org/). In particular, support
522 URL-style syntax for filenames, and any protocol that gPXE
523 supports (except, currently, iSCSI and AoE.) This feature
524 is currently highly experimental.
525 * Substantial infrastructure changes to support files whose
526 length aren't known at open time (typically network
527 connections.) Please note that the semantics of some of the
528 comboot APIs have changed slightly; please see doc/comboot.txt.
529 * PXELINUX: We no longer require a TFTP server which supports
530 the tsize option for all transfers.
531 * PXELINUX: Integrate with the gPXE source base; unified image
532 now included as "gpxelinux.0".
533 * The source tree has been restructured; files that were
534 previously in the root have moved into the core, dos, gpxe,
535 and utils directories.
536 * "make install", "make netinstall", and "make extbootinstall"
537 have been updated massively. "make install-all" now installs
539 * Change default dir for auxiliary files from
540 /usr/lib/syslinux to /usr/share/syslinux.
541 * SYSLINUX: VFAT long filename support.
542 * MEMDISK: Any image less than 4096K (4 MB) is treated as a
543 floppy disk. The geometry-guessing code will recognize all
544 common extended formats, but it is still possible some very
545 exotic formats need geometry specification. Large floppies
546 and very small harddisks still need explicit specification.
547 * chain.c32: option "swap" to support swapping of BIOS drive
548 numbers. This is necessary to boot certain operating systems
549 (DOS, Windows) from a secondary drive.
550 * chain.c32: option "file=" to support loading a boot file from
551 the SYSLINUX filesystem instead of loading the boot sector
553 * chain.c32: option "seg=" to control the load location.
554 * chain.c32: option "ntldr=" as a shorthand for "seg=0x2000
555 file="; use this to load one of WinNT's loaders:
557 chain.c32 hd0 1 ntldr=/MiniNT/setupldr.bin
559 Note that the file needs to be in the SYSLINUX filesystem.
560 * chain.32: options "freedos=" and "msdos="/"pcdos=" as
561 shorthands for "seg=0x60 file=" and "seg=0x70 file="
562 respectively; use this to load FreeDOS's kernel.sys, MS-DOS's
563 io.sys or PC-DOS's ibmbio.sys.
564 * Change to the A20 algorithm which *MIGHT* help systems that
565 have systems which freeze when Syslinux is used with USB
566 keyboards. Note that this has been hard do verify, so I
567 would greatly appreciate feedback on it.
568 * Complex menu system: unbreak menus which has unnamed
569 submenus, like complex.c.
570 * Fix newline on the serial port for some com32 modules.
571 * chain.c32: support "boot" as the drive specification,
572 indicating the drive from which it was booted
573 (for syslinux/extlinux).
574 * SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX: support "localboot" with the same feature
576 * Add an experimental MBR for GPT partition tables.
577 * Use $(CC) when determining compile flags.
578 * chain.c32: fix booting from logical partitions (Sergey
582 * Fix errors in the PCI and DMI detection modules (Erwan Velu,
584 * Fix host dependencies and other issues in the build system.
585 * PXELINUX: Allow class E addresses as unicast.
586 * sdi.c32: module to load Microsoft System Deployment Images.
587 For additional information, please see:
588 http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms838543.aspx
589 * EXTLINUX: Correct reading directories with deleted entries.
590 * Shuffle library: correct the handling of certain geometries
591 (an upward move with source material blocking the move); as
592 required by sdi.c32 but theoretically possible for other
594 * Add "make netinstall" to install /tftpboot.
595 * Fix some documentation files that didn't get moved/renamed.
598 * Clean up garbage after "aborted." message.
599 * Clean up memdump.com filenames.
600 * Support SHA256 and SHA512 encrypted passwords.
601 * The shuffle library now can generate chained descriptors,
602 thus allowing pretty much arbitrarily complex memory maps.
603 * Handle command lines up to 2047 characters, the current
605 * vesamenu: support systems without linear framebuffer support
606 (sigh, what is this, 1993?) and 15-bit RGB modes.
607 * Move the label storage (for the command-line interface) to
608 high memory, removing the size limit and freeing up 64K of
610 * Get rid of 4096-entry limit in the simple menu system.
611 * New hierarchial submenu support: see MENU BEGIN, MENU END,
612 MENU GOTO in doc/menu.txt.
613 * MENU QUIT allows creating a menu entry for returning to the
615 * ISOLINUX: Work around bug in certain Adaptec BIOSes,
616 patch by Bruce Robson.
617 * pngtopnm dependency removed from samples/ directory.
618 * Text documentation files (in doc/) renamed *.doc -> *.txt.
621 * EXTLINUX: fix crash when accessing an empty file.
622 * elf.c32: If a PHDR segment is present, load it.
623 * Fix SHA-1 and MD5 passwords.
624 * ISOLINUX: fix booting when mastered without
625 mkisofs -boot-info-table (broken since 3.50, sigh...)
626 * Handle BIOSes which emit multiple contiguous valid
627 memory regions in the e820 map.
630 * Support for "auxilliary data vector", a small amount of
631 writable storage. Currently only supported for EXTLINUX,
632 but the infrastructure is there for the other derivatives,
633 assuming a suitable storage location can be found.
634 * EXTLINUX: boot-once support (--once, --clear-once, and
636 * A command is now required to the EXTLINUX installer, i.e. at
637 least one of --install, --update, --once, --clear-once, or
641 * PXELINUX: as per RFC 5071, PXELINUX no longer requires the
642 use of the magic cookie option (208) for unencapsulated
643 options. Currently it does not require it for
644 vendor-encapsulated options (vendor-option-space) either,
645 but that MAY be reverted in the future if it causes
647 * Documentation text files moved to a common "doc" directory;
648 man pages from the Debian project added to the "man"
650 * Correct bug with self-overlapping memory areas when using
651 the shuffle interface.
654 * Add "menu separator", "menu indent", "menu disabled"
656 * vesamenu: fix handing of VESA modes with noncontiguous
657 memory buffers. In particular, Qemu/KVM sets up such a mode
658 when Cirrus Logic emulation is enabled (which is the
660 * Support for calling real mode functions using far calls,
661 with argument on the stack. This was implemented to support
662 the BIOS BBS specification, but subsequent experiments show
663 that the at least one of the most common BIOS cores, Award,
664 passes the presence check but doesn't actually implement the
668 * Fix bugs related to the $PnP BIOS functionality on some
670 * PXELINUX: Fix the "naked" version of :: (suppress prefix.)
671 * elf.c32: better error messages.
672 * Faster operation under Intel VT virtualization.
673 * PXELINUX: Fix DHCP bootfile option.
674 * mkdiskimage: Support more than 1024 cylinders.
675 * (Hopefully) fix installer on non-x86 platforms.
676 * Fix shuffle_and_boot_rm, used by linux.c32.
677 * Fix shuffle_and_boot_pm on 386/486.
678 * ISOLINUX (at least): fix bss memory overwrite hang.
679 * MBR: Fix booting from logical partitions.
683 * Handle capitalized F-key commands in the menu system.
684 * Fix padding error when loading multiple ramdisks.
685 * Workaround for VMware crashing when trying to print a
686 message during early kernel boot (does not seem to work,
688 * chain.c32: add the ability to search for a specific MBR
689 signature at runtime.
690 * Fall back to the server identity option if the siaddr field
691 in the DHCP header isn't set. This seems to match the
692 behaviour of most PXE stacks.
693 * mkdiskimage: give the generated disk image an MBR signature.
694 * MEMDISK: Fix failures on some BIOSes.
695 * Simple menu system: new "MENU HIDDEN" option to not display
696 the menu unless the user presses a key.
697 * Simple menu system: support MD5-encrypted passwords (modern
698 Unix standard style, with "$1$" prefixes.)
699 * pcitest.c32: now functions as a full "lspci". Thanks to
700 Erwan Velu for this work.
701 * MEMDISK: Make EDD actually work.
702 * ISOLINUX: Fix for certain broken CD-ROM BIOSes which
703 randomly corrupted register FS.
704 * Simple menu system: fix memory overwrite bug that caused
705 some systems to lock up or behave weirdly.
706 * Fix building on 64-bit systems without a 32-bit libc installed.
709 * EXTLINUX: Fix failure to find the configuration file.
712 * New keywords allow the type of file to be specified in the
714 * It is now supported to load a different configuration file
715 with the CONFIG keyword.
716 * Fix API call 0x0019 (Read Disk.)
717 * MENU AUTOBOOT, MENU TABMSG, MENU PASSPROMPT allows
718 internationalization of menu messages.
719 * A new feature, TEXT HELP, allows the administrator to set
720 a multi-line help message for individual selections.
721 * Fix API call 0x0012 (Cleanup, shuffle and boot.)
722 * New API call "Cleanup, shuffle and boot to flat protected mode"
723 * New API call "Cleanup, shuffle and boot to real mode",
724 similar to API call 0x0012 but allows arbitrary register setting.
725 * Introduce a library interface for loading arbitrary binary
726 formats with relatively easily understood code. See
727 the elf.c32 module for an example on how to use it.
728 * New module "elf.c32", to load a protected-mode ELF kernel.
729 * MBR (old and new): Fix bug in CHS mode when LBA >
731 * vesamenu: fix decoding of palettized PNG images.
732 * Update the Linux kernel boot protocol.
733 * PXELINUX: Press Ctrl-N at the boot prompt to read out the
735 * Instead of the (non-existent) MAC, use the client identifier
736 for networks like Infiniband and Firewire/1394.
737 * Add a new INCLUDE command to the core syslinux parser.
738 * Allow binding help text to F11 and F12.
739 * F-key help now available in the simple menu system.
740 * Disabled the polling for ARP during idle. It is simply too
741 slow on some (broken!) PXE stacks.
742 * PXELINUX: also try to fetch the config file based on UUID.
743 * SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX: New RAID mode (-r) which calls the BIOS
744 to load the next device (typically the next drive) on boot
748 * MEMDISK: Disable EDD by default on floppy disks. EDD can be
749 enabled with the "edd" option and disabled with "noedd".
750 This (hopefully) should make Ghost work again.
751 * SYSLINUX: "unix" installer now uses Linux ioctls instead of
753 * New MBR which can boot from logical partitions.
754 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in detecting special extensions which was
755 introduced in 3.35 :(
756 * PXELINUX: Unbreak chainbooting FreeBSD (and possibly others.)
759 * MEMDISK: New "safeint" mode.
760 * MEMDISK: Be more compliant with the PnP BIOS spec.
761 * MEMDISK: Turn on EDD support by default.
762 * MEMDISK: Try to work on some machines on which it would not
763 work when there was no floppy drive in the system.
764 * Simple menu system: fix serial console support (broken in
766 * SYSLINUX: Support subdirectories. Like ISOLINUX, the
767 "current directory" is the directory in which syslinux.cfg
768 is found; this is searched for in the sequence
769 /boot/syslinux, /syslinux, /. As a side benefit, label names
770 like "linux-2.6.18" and "linux-2.6.19" are now supported.
772 To install ldlinux.sys in a subdirectory, pass the -d
773 directory option to the SYSLINUX installer.
775 This work was sponsored by slax.org (thanks, Tomas!)
776 * New API call: read disk.
777 * Invoke ONERROR on initrd load failure.
780 * The simple menu system (menu.c32 and vesamenu.c32) now
781 support loading more than one configuration file at a time,
782 using MENU INCLUDE or by specifying multiple filenames.
783 * The MENU COLOR statement can now control the shadowing mode.
786 * libcom32 extended to support graphics mode and graphical console.
787 * vesamenu.c32, new graphical version of the Simple
788 Menu System, see README.menu.
789 * New com32 modules by Erwan Velu do selection based on CPUID
790 or PCI devices present.
791 * RPM spec: add syslinux-tftpboot module; move syslinux by
792 default to the /usr/share/syslinux directory.
793 * RPM spec: extlinux is now a separate package.
796 * EXTLINUX: New options --install (-i) and --update (-U), to
797 make it clear if a boot loader should be installed or
798 updated. For now, defaults to --install for compatibility;
799 a future version will require one of these options.
800 * New library functions to load and place files in memory.
801 * mboot.c32 bug fixes.
802 * Remove 8 MB kernel size restriction.
803 * Add "klibc" target for building unix/syslinux and
804 extlinux/extlinux with klcc (klibc-1.4.27 or later.)
805 * PXELINUX: Fail (and eventually reboot) if no configuration
807 * COM32 module by Erwan Velu to make decisions based on DMI
809 * Fix issue where going back and forth between menus a lot
811 * ISOLINUX: Fix bug which made "cd boot sectors" not work.
814 * MEMDISK: Fix bug by which accessing the real floppy disk
815 as B: in MS-DOS was broken.
816 * Simple menu system: allow tweaking of the screen layout.
817 * Simple menu system: better command-line editing, correctly
818 handle command lines above 256 characters.
819 * PXELINUX: revert memory allocation change that caused
820 problems on some network cards.
821 * MEMDISK: Try work around a bug on some BIOSes when no
822 physical floppy disk is present in the system.
823 * Enable the 16550A FIFOs, if present, when doing serial
825 * New "totaltimeout" command establishes a timeout without
826 regard for any user input.
827 * Simple menu system: timeout behaviour now more in line with
829 * Simple menu system: "ontimeout" should now work correctly.
832 * gcc 4.0.1 compilation fixes.
833 * Add support for querying the PCI BIOS in libcom32
834 (used by ethersel et al.)
835 * Fix PCI handing (ethersel etc) on several old chipsets (and
837 * Try to deal with systems with broken EBIOS.
838 * New API call to do "localboot".
839 * New API call to query features.
840 * New API call to run kernel image, a lower-level call than
841 "run command". See comboot.doc.
842 * Fix for bug in EBIOS code discovered by Arwin Vosselman.
843 * NOESCAPE security fix.
844 * Comments are now recognized even without a space following #.
845 * Fix incorrect handling of mixes of entries with and without
847 * The idle API call now harmlessly returns failure if it is a
848 no-op. That way the caller can decide whether or not to
849 bother invoking it again.
850 * Temporarily disable the idle API call on PXELINUX, due to
851 some platforms on which the idle API call seems to hang; this
852 problem has not yet been debugged.
853 * MEMDISK: the handling of DOSEMU-headered images was broken;
855 * EXTLINUX: symlinks are now supported.
856 * Simple menu system: N and P now work correctly as hotkeys.
857 * MEMDISK: more BIOS bug workarounds.
860 * gcc4 compilation fix.
861 * <BEL> (Ctrl-G) in message files now causes a beep.
862 * Reduce the command line to 511 characters; 1023 caused
866 * SYSLINUX: Fix performance regression (-s mode always
868 * Add API function for idle loop.
869 * libutil: Add do_idle() function for idle loop, make
871 * libutil: Add SHA-1 and base64 functions.
872 * Simple menu system: add password support.
873 * EXTLINUX: Sparse files now handled correctly.
874 * EXTLINUX: Large directories now handled correctly.
875 * ALL: At the prompt, Ctrl-X now forces text mode.
876 * Fix configuration file parsing error, that could cause
878 * Rewritten advanced menuing system from Murali Ganapathy.
879 * MEMDISK: New "bigraw" mode to work around certain broken
881 * COM32 module to boot Multiboot systems, including Xen. See
882 com32/modules/mboot.doc.
883 * Max command line changed to 1023 characters. Note that the
884 kernel proper still can only handle 255 characters without
885 patching, and COM16 binaries can only handle 125 characters.
888 * Fix chainloading (chain.c32).
889 * Fix zlib build problem.
890 * Use a private copy of <linux/ext2_fs.h>.
893 * Fix typo that caused the ramdisk to load in the wrong place.
896 * New API function "shuffle and boot"; allows COM32 modules to
897 load or construct (almost) arbitrarily complex objects,
898 e.g. a kernel and its initrd/initramfs in pieces, and have
899 the API core reorganize memory for booting. (A library API
900 for this function will be introduced in a later version.)
901 * The initrd= option now supports multiple filenames separated
902 by commas. This is mostly useful for initramfs, which can
903 be composed of multiple separate cpio or cpio.gz archives.
904 (Note: all files except the last one are zero-padded to a 4K
905 page boundary. This should not affect initramfs.)
906 * EXTLINUX: Fix API function 000Ah (get derivative-specific
908 * libcom32/ethersel: Support PCI Config Mechanism #2 on
909 machines still infested with that hideous old hack.
910 * SYSLINUX: Fix directory-parsing bug.
913 * SYSLINUX: The "unix" installer now sets the MS-DOS
914 attributes (hidden, system, readonly.)
915 * COM32 library: build the .lnx (test modules for running
916 under Linux) as architecture native modules, in case
917 i386 devel libraries aren't installed.
918 * EXTLINUX: Hack for systems which don't have BLKGETSIZE64
919 defined in the standard header files.
920 * Simple menu system: minor aestetic improvements, and try to
921 work better over a serial console (speed, and readability on
922 monochrome terminal emulators.)
923 * New CONSOLE directive to control output on the video console
924 (useful for dealing with some broken serial-forwarding
926 * New com32 module "ethersel" for searching for an Ethernet
927 card and selecting the proper version of Etherboot.
928 * EXTLINUX: Allow the user to override the detected geometry.
932 * EXTLINUX, SYSLINUX: Fix compile errors on some systems.
933 * EXTLINUX: Default to zipdrive geometry (64 heads, 32
934 sectors) if no other geometry can be detected.
937 * SYSLINUX: Support FAT32 and EDD. As an unfortunate
938 consequence, LDLINUX.SYS is no longer an ordinary file; it
939 is block-mapped at install time, which means it can only be
940 written using the syslinux installers.
941 * SYSLINUX: Reorganize the source code for the installers;
942 each one of the installers (dos, win32, unix, mtools) is now
943 built in its own subdirectory. In particular, "mtools" is
944 the unprivileged installer which uses mtools; "unix" is the
945 privileged installer which uses system calls.
946 * SYSLINUX: Completely rewritten DOS installer in C.
947 * ALL: "label" statement information is now stored in a
948 compressed format, which means that a lot more labels are
949 permitted (500-1000 in a typical configuration, but depends
951 * EXTLINUX: New derivative, which boots from an ext2/ext3
953 * SYSLINUX: The DOS and Win32 installers can now optionally
954 write the boot sector to a file instead of the real boot
955 sector. This is not supported in the Linux installers,
957 * ALL: New NOESCAPE command, disables the "hold down the Shift
958 key to display the prompt" behaviour.
959 * New simple menu system, as an alternative to the advanced
960 menu system already present. See README.menu for details.
961 * PXELINUX: Filenames can now be prefixed with an IP address
962 or DNS name plus :: (e.g. 192.0.2.1::filename or
963 server.domain.com::filename), which downloads a file from an
964 alternate TFTP server, or just a :: (e.g. ::filename), which
965 suppresses the common pathname prefix. See pxelinux.doc.
966 * SYSLINUX: Add an -m option to the DOS and Win32 installers
967 to write an MBR and -a to mark the partition SYSLINUX is
968 being installed on active.
969 * MEMDISK: Give a way to query the boot loader type while
970 running MEMDISK; see memdisk/memdisk.doc and
972 * mkdiskimage: substantially improved mkdiskimage which, among
973 other things, can now be used to initialize USB keys as
974 zipdrives; see README.usbkey for more information.
977 * MEMDISK: Fix command-line parsing "brown paper bag" class
979 * MEMDISK: Add "raw" mode to support the DOS boot disk from
980 WinME/XP, which seems to deliberately crash the system
981 when someone uses the "INT 15h mover" highmem API.
982 * Make "make install" do something sane for the com32
983 development environment.
984 * In the spec file, create a separate -devel RPM for the com32
985 development environment.
988 * Simple C library, based on klibc, for writing COM32
990 * Fix the handling of file length in loading of COM32
992 * MEMDISK: Work around a linker bug by rearranging the code to
993 not use the linker for the 16-bit code.
994 * SYSLINUX: If we're building on a machine without a Win32
995 (mingw) compiler, just skip building syslinux.exe.
996 * ISOLINUX: Support non-mkisofs mastering programs, at least
997 as long as the image is single-session. For best results,
998 ISOLINUX should be the only boot loader installed.
999 * MEMDISK: Allow the user to specify that the simulated disk
1000 should be write-protected.
1003 * ALL: Add an API call to get the configuration file name.
1004 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in 2.10 that prevented it from working
1005 correctly for a lot of people.
1006 * SYSLINUX: In the installer, make mtools a bit less fussy.
1007 * Make the menu system compile with newer gcc's.
1010 * MEMDISK: Handle images compressed with zip as well as with
1011 gzip. Some Windows-based image tools apparently generate
1012 these kinds of images by default. Patch by Patrick
1014 * Major menu improvement from Murali Ganapathy.
1015 * ISOLINUX: Wonderfully sick and brilliant workaround for
1016 severe bugs in certain Award BIOSes; from Knut Petersen.
1017 * SYSLINUX: Fix for the nomtools installed, from Frederic
1019 * PXELINUX: Fix handling of IP numbers in the ranges
1020 100-109 and 200-209.
1021 * ALL: New option "allowoptions" (defaults to 1), which
1022 controls if options are allowed on the command line or not.
1023 * SYSLINUX: Support building under klibc (see the klibc
1024 distribution for details.)
1027 * SYSLINUX: Remove residual setuid crap from
1029 * Handle video pages correctly when using the API functions.
1030 * Handle compiling on an x86-64 platform correctly.
1031 * Menu system from Murali Krishnan Ganapathy; see the menu
1032 directory for information.
1033 * COMBOOT: Allow COMBOOT programs to change screen text mode.
1034 * COMBOOT: Correct the documentation of how to detect
1035 SYSLINUX from COMBOOT!!!!
1036 * COMBOOT: Fix "get key without echo" API function.
1037 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug that affected the API open function.
1038 * ALL: Improve the E820 memory parser, to work around some
1042 * Add new configuration command "ontimeout" to allow timeout
1043 to have a different action than just pressing Enter.
1044 * Add new configuration command "onerror" to allow a custom
1045 command to be executed in case the kernel image is not found.
1046 * Fix bugs in the COMBOOT/COM32 command-line parsing. APPEND
1047 now works with COMBOOT/COM32 images.
1048 * PXELINUX: Poll for ARP requests while sitting at the
1049 prompt. This makes some boot servers a lot less unhappy.
1050 * PXELINUX: Actually free sockets when we get a failure
1051 (including file not found.) This bug would cause us to run
1052 out of sockets and thus "go deaf" after a while.
1053 * MEMDISK: Add an API to query for the existence of MEMDISK.
1054 * SYSLINUX: Fix loading boot sectors (.bs/.bss) from floppy
1056 * .c32 is now one of the extensions searched for
1058 * PXELINUX: RFBG.exe seems to randomly overwrite memory
1059 location 0x5700. Thus, don't use it!
1060 * PXELINUX: Change pathname length max from 63 to 127; change
1061 max vkernels from 128 to 64.
1062 * Support Ctrl-U -> kill entire command line input.
1063 * The "samples" directory contains a (barely at all tested)
1064 chain loading example, chain.c32, which may be used to
1065 chainload local floppy disks and hard disks. Use with
1066 "chain fdN" or "chain hdN [partition]"; N = 0 for the first
1070 * MEMDISK: Workaround for BIOSes which go into a snit when
1071 they get a RESET command for the floppy system when there is
1072 no floppy in the system.
1073 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend 2", which passes the hardware
1074 address of the boot interface to the kernel as a
1075 command-line option.
1076 * mkdiskimage: fix the generation of the end limit.
1077 * PXELINUX: Fix multiple bugs in chainloading of other NBPs.
1078 * MEMDISK: Fix bug that would occationally cause "ran out of
1079 input data" when using compressed disk images.
1080 * SYSLINUX: Updates for the win32 installer (from Lars Munch.)
1081 * PXELINUX: PXELINUX-specific options are now recognized both
1082 in a vendor-option-space (a.k.a. type 43 encapsulated) as
1083 well as in a site-option-space (unencapsulated.)
1084 * COM32: Don't crash when DS != 0.
1085 * COMBOOT/COM32: Make file reading work correctly. Thanks to
1086 Phung Chi Kien for submitting a test program.
1089 * ALL: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
1090 boot failure, depending on the length of the kernel.
1091 * ISOLINUX: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
1092 boot failure, depending on the length of directories.
1093 * SYSLINUX: Win32 installer now flushes buffers.
1094 * ppmtolss16: Be fully compliant with the PNM spec;
1095 actually process comments in the header and odd
1096 alignments of the various parameters, as well as
1097 "plain" (not raw) files and PBM and PGM files.
1098 * PXELINUX: Lower the default MTU to 1472 in order to deal
1099 with systems with slightly nonstandard MTUs, and PXE
1100 stacks which don't defragment correctly. Unfortunately this
1101 is very hard to test dynamically.
1104 * PXELINUX: Add a default query based on the hardware address
1105 of the boot device. This is in lower case hexadecimal form
1106 separated by dashes and including the hardware type, for
1107 example, the Ethernet (type 1) address 88:99:AA:BB:CC:DD
1108 would query the file pxelinux.cfg/01-88-99-aa-bb-cc-dd.
1109 * PXELINUX: Fix bug involving non-IP-based config file names.
1110 * SYSLINUX: New installer for WinNT-based systems, from Lars
1112 * MEMDISK: Fix handling of memory region overlap when
1113 decompressing. Thanks to Mikhail Kupchik for identifying
1117 * ALL: Reclaim even more low memory by observing that
1118 comboot_seg == real_mode_seg is perfectly fine, and by the
1119 fact that the 1000h segment managed to get unused in all
1121 * PXELINUX: Attempt to negotiate full Ethernet-sized blocks
1122 (1468 bytes) using the blksize option.
1123 * SYSLINUX: Resurrect the old no-mtools version of the
1124 installer, although as a root-only tool. Some distributors
1125 have indicated that they need a small standalone installer.
1126 * MEMDISK: Fix a memory offset computation error when
1127 installing compressed disks which generally would cause
1128 1 MB of memory to be wasted.
1129 * MEMDISK: Fix installing the E820 memory map. Calling
1130 INT 15h AX=0E820h with MEMDISK 2.03 loaded would give a
1131 completely corrupt memory map.
1132 * SYSLINUX: Make libsyslinux a dynamic library, so that it can
1133 be updated separately from client programs. The whole idea,
1134 after all, is to enable alternate programs to become
1135 syslinux installers.
1136 * Include an rpm spec file in the distribution, so rpmbuild
1140 * Actually support comment lines in the configuration file.
1141 * PXELINUX: Try to resolve some problems with stack switches.
1142 * PXELINUX: Handle PXE stacks with broken routing.
1143 With these workarounds, the remote install PXE boot floppy
1144 (rbfg.exe) from Argon Technologies should work correctly.
1145 * Fix problems with Perl scripts in UTF-8 locales.
1146 * You probably need NASM 0.98.34 or later to compile this
1147 version. 0.98.36 is recommended.
1148 * MEMDISK: Now supports gzip compressed images.
1151 * SYSLINUX: Security flaws have been found in the SYSLINUX
1152 installer when running setuid root. Rewrite the SYSLINUX
1153 installer so it uses mtools instead. It therefore now
1154 requires mtools (specifically mcopy and mattrib) to exist on
1155 your system, but it will not require root privileges and
1156 SHOULD NOT be setuid.
1159 * MEMDISK: Fix memory sizing bug when the ramdisk crosses the
1161 * MEMDISK: Add a "pause" option to stop immediately before
1162 booting, to read off the messages.
1163 * MEMDISK: Support disk images with DOSEMU headers.
1164 * Update the mkdiskimage script to handle newer mtools
1165 versions, and be able to generate disk images with DOSEMU
1166 headers (controlled by the -d option).
1167 * Fix the COM32 sample program.
1168 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix some COMBOOT API calls.
1169 * PXELINUX: Doc fix.
1170 * Build SYSLINUX into a small library for encapsulation into
1171 other programs (however, please keep in mind this is a GPL'd
1173 * SYSLINUX: Make installer work with "owner" in /etc/fstab.
1174 * SYSLINUX: Fix issue with working on nonpartitioned hard disk
1175 devices. THIS CONFIGURATION IS NOT RECOMMENDED.
1178 * ALL: Add support for "COM32" (32-bit COMBOOT) images.
1179 * ALL: Add an API for COMBOOT/COM32 images. See comboot.doc
1180 for details. There is a C development environment for
1181 COM32 being created; it should be ready at some point in
1183 * Fix mbr.asm so that it actually works.
1184 * SYSLINUX: The syslinux installer *SHOULD* now be safe to
1186 * PXELINUX: Fix bug where PXELINUX would override random
1187 chunks of the UNDI code segment! Thanks to Kevin Tran for
1189 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug related to slashes in pathnames.
1190 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug in handling initrds over 128 MB.
1191 * ALL: Make the <Ctrl-V> key print out the version; this is
1193 * Add a small script, mkdiskimage, to create a DOS-formatted
1194 hard disk image using mtools. This may be useful in
1195 conjunction with MEMDISK.
1196 * ISOLINUX: Search for a /boot/isolinux directory as well as
1198 * ALL: Fix a bug related to very long configuration files.
1199 * PXELINUX: Work around a NASM bug which would result in no
1200 delay before reset if an error occurs.
1203 * ISOLINUX: Remove code no longer used which caused hangs on
1204 some Toshiba laptops.
1207 * ALL: NASM 0.98.32 or later is now required to build
1208 SYSLINUX from sources.
1209 * SYSLINUX: put back in the workaround for the BIOS floppy
1210 table. This seems to be a requirement for "extended" floppy
1211 formats to work correctly.
1212 * SYSLINUX: No longer warn if one is trying to boot on a 286
1213 or older. The above BIOS workaround no longer fits if the
1214 requirement to use only 8086-compatible code in the early
1215 boot is maintained. It made sense in 1994, but in 2002 a
1216 286 or older is a museum object.
1217 * SYSLINUX: Use a downright bizarre, stateful algorithm to try
1218 to guess the maximum transfer size. I am *hoping* this will
1219 cut down on the number of systems for which -s is required
1220 to work at any acceptable speed.
1221 * ISOLINUX: Add a few more workarounds for various broken El
1223 * Make sure .depend files aren't accidentally packed...
1224 * ALL: Fix bugs in the extension-detect code; this caused
1225 files like COMBOOT images and CD boot sectors to be
1226 mis-identified as Linux kernels and rejected.
1227 * ALL: Fix the return from COMBOOT.
1228 * ALL: Do some of the early groundwork for supporting DOS
1229 system calls in COMBOOT.
1230 * Get rid of unnecessary "near" directives, making the code
1232 * PXELINUX: Put the PXE stack back in the init state before
1233 invoking a chain-loaded NBP.
1234 * PXELINUX: Actually found the combination of calls that
1235 allows some (most?) PXE 2+ stacks to be unloaded from memory
1237 * PXELINUX: Add "keeppxe" command-line option to disable
1238 the standard unloading of the PXE stack.
1241 * SYSLINUX: fix bug that would cause valid kernel images to be
1245 * Work on removing gratuitous differences between modules.
1246 * Break up the source in common and module-specific files.
1247 * PXELINUX: Allow chaining of other PXE NBPs.
1248 * ISOLINUX: Allow loading "CD-ROM boot sectors".
1249 * ALL: generalize the definition of a boot sector/NBP.
1252 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix bugs in the new core code.
1255 * Fix a "brown paper bag" class bug in the new core code.
1258 * Major code restructuring.
1259 * Relax the conventional memory limits somewhat.
1260 * MEMDISK: Set up the "version number string" pointer in the
1262 * SYSLINUX: Fix, again, "the bug that won't die": the use of
1263 the offset parameter with the SYSLINUX installer.
1264 * SYSLINUX: Fix possible superblock corruption problem in the
1268 * Handle bug in the location of initrd.
1271 * MEMDISK: Make compile with newer versions of gcc.
1274 * ISOLINUX: Support booting disk image files (to boot DOS or
1275 other non-Linux operating systems), *IF* the BIOS works
1276 correctly; unfortunately many BIOSes apparently don't.
1277 * Support Linux boot protocol version 2.03 (explicitly
1278 specify the initrd address limit.)
1279 * Handle small "pseudo-kernels"; images that use the Linux
1280 kernel boot protocols but are less than 64K in size.
1281 * MEMDISK: New subsystem; this is a driver which allows
1282 legacy OSes to boot using an in-memory simulated disk.
1283 See memdisk/memdisk.doc for more info.
1284 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Correctly handle files larger than 65535
1285 blocks (32 MB for PXELINUX, 128 MB for ISOLINUX.)
1286 * PXELINUX: Make a best-effort attempt at freeing all memory
1287 claimed. From the looks of it, it will fail on most PXE
1291 * Limited support for hardware flow control when using a
1292 serial port console.
1293 * Support specifying the serial port I/O address explicitly.
1294 * Make DOS installer hopefully behave more nicely when used on
1295 recent Windows versions.
1296 * Fix returning to text mode when a font has been specified.
1297 * Attempt to detect missing serial port hardware and disable
1298 the serial port if there is nothing there.
1301 * Make the ppmtolss16 program handle color conversion more
1303 * Clean up "make install" target, honour INSTALLROOT if it
1305 * SYSLINUX: Fix stack-smash bug identified by Steffen
1307 * Hopefully fix return-to-text-mode on some graphics cards.
1308 * ISOLINUX: Bug workaround for Award BIOS 4.51, and perhaps
1309 other buggy BIOSes as well.
1312 * PXELINUX: Allow the DHCP server to override the
1313 configuration file name and pathname prefix, using
1314 "site-specific" DHCP options.
1315 * PXELINUX: Documentation fixes.
1316 * PXELINUX: Fix the "ipappend" option; the last two values
1317 were reversed vs. what the kernel expected.
1318 * Introduce a way to return to text mode once we are already
1319 in graphics mode. This may be useful for F-key help
1321 * Fix several bugs in the way return to text mode was handled.
1324 * ISOLINUX: Support full pathname searches. Max length for a
1325 pathname is 255 characters. As a result, only 64 "label"
1326 statements are supported in ISOLINUX.
1327 * PXELINUX: Max filename length extended to 63 characters.
1330 * Add support for graphical splash screens.
1331 * Add mode control characters, which allows you to control
1332 message display output depending on output mode (text,
1333 graphics, or serial port.)
1334 * ISOLINUX: New program, which boots Linux from a CD-ROM
1335 without using floppy emulation mode. See isolinux.doc for
1337 * PXELINUX: Don't search for boot sector file types, since
1338 they don't work anyway.
1339 * SYSLINUX: Document the LOCK command for Win9x, and the error
1340 dialog box for WinNT/2K.
1343 * PXELINUX: Fix code for finding !PXE from PXENV+. This was
1344 due to a spec bug; match the most recent spec since that
1345 seems to be what implementations actually do.
1346 * SYSLINUX: Add some smarts to the boot sector, which
1347 hopefully should reduce the number of systems which require
1348 stupid mode ("syslinux -s").
1349 * PXELINUX: Document further some of the pathologies with old
1351 * When specifying a "default" command line, no longer
1352 automatically appent "auto". See the "DEFAULT" command in
1353 syslinux.doc for more information.
1354 * PXELINUX: Clean up the allocation of local socket numbers.
1357 * PXELINUX: Rename pxelinux.bin to pxelinux.0, to match what
1358 most PXE servers seem to expect.
1359 * PXELINUX: Update the DHCP/boot server setup documentation.
1360 * PXELINUX: Support new "localboot" option for "label"
1362 * PXELINUX: More robust parsing of DHCP/boot server packets.
1363 * PXELINUX: Include a small utility program "gethostip" to
1364 compute hexadecimal IP addresses.
1367 * PXELINUX: Fix bugs introduced by new A20 code. (SYSLINUX
1368 has also been changed for code consistency reasons, but I'm
1369 pretty sure the changes are don't care on SYSLINUX.)
1370 * Documentation updates.
1371 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend" option to generate an ip= option to
1375 * PXELINUX: Not all PXE stacks fill in the IP address for a
1376 type 3 cached info query. Use a type 2 cached info query
1377 for this information (only.)
1378 * Yet another attempt at A20 coding. Now support BIOS call
1379 15:2401 as well, and handle machines which always have A20
1381 * Support memory detection using INT 15h, AX=0E820h. BIOS
1382 manufacturers have apparently gotten sloppy about keeping
1383 INT 15h, AX=0E801h working properly.
1384 * Don't issue <CR><LF> onto the serial port when we're doing
1388 * Yet another A20-code update. It seems some "legacy-free"
1389 machines and embedded gear simply don't have a KBC to talk
1390 to, and that waiting for one will wait forever. Sigh.
1393 * SYSLINUX: Implement a hack for BIOS drivers which hog significant
1394 chunks of low memory during boot. (Note: PXELINUX already
1395 had this modification. SYSLINUX does still require that the
1396 low 512K is available; PXELINUX requires 384K. Machines
1397 with a physical memory hole in the low 640K cannot boot
1398 Linux no matter what.) Depending what the reason is for the
1399 memory hole, a new kernel (2.4.0-test3-pre3 or later) may be
1401 * SYSLINUX: Default installer binary now compiled against
1402 glibc 2.1. If this is inappropriate for your system and you
1403 still want to use the offical version of SYSLINUX, please
1404 follow the instructions in "distrib.doc" to rebuild the
1406 * SYSLINUX: Linux installer program now supports -o <offset>
1407 option which does a loopback mount with the
1408 -o loop,offset=<> option. Useful to run SYSLINUX on an
1409 individual partition of a whole-harddisk image.
1410 * Include the source code to a Master Boot Record (MBR)
1411 functionally equivalent to the one installed DOS except it
1412 includes EBIOS support, and should be resistant to geometry
1413 changes. The MBR code is public domain.
1414 * PXELINUX: Fix "double p" bug: if the tftp prefix was null,
1415 all filenames would get a "p" preprended, e.g.
1416 "ppxelinux.cfg" and "pvmlinux".
1419 * PXELINUX: Workaround for PXE ROMs based on the Intel PXE PDK
1420 3.0 build 071 and earlier: missing !PXE structure pointer.
1421 * PXELINUX: Handle larger BOOTP/DHCP packages.
1422 * PXELINUX: The command line passing was broken; fix.
1423 * PXELINUX: Make COMBOOT images work.
1424 * PXELINUX: Documentation on how to make booting work using
1425 the PDK 3.0-derived clients, which aren't so generous as to
1426 allow booting with only "PXEClient" specified.
1429 * PXELINUX: RFC 1123 states that a TFTP implementation MUST
1430 use adaptive timeout, "at least an exponential backoff of
1431 retransmission timeout is necessary." Implement a very
1432 simple exponential backoff for retransmits.
1433 * PXELINUX: Updated documentation, including pointer to new
1435 * PXELINUX: When sending ERROR due to bad OACK, use the proper
1436 destination port number (why are TFTP port numbers so odd?)
1437 * PXELINUX: If the boot dies in the middle somewhere,
1438 eventually give up and reset the machine (unattended
1442 * New program PXELINUX to do network booting using a
1443 PXE-compliant (Pre-Execution Environment) network booting
1444 PROM. See pxelinux.doc for details.
1447 * Serial console support. See syslinux.doc for details.
1450 * Change HIGHMEM_MAX to 38000000h to (hopefully) avoid the
1451 kernel stepping on it; 3f000000h was apparently a higher
1452 limit than the kernel used!
1455 * Add sys2ansi.pl script to display the contents of a
1456 colorized SYSLINUX file.
1457 * Changed the io_delay once again, after a report that the
1458 old delay port causes hangs on some systems.
1461 * Frob the "fast A20 gate" port as well as the keyboard
1462 controller; will this help systems with problems?
1463 * Be even more paranoid about A20, unfortunately even this
1464 seems to be not paranoid enough... what I don't understand
1465 is that if there is hardware out there *this broken*, how
1466 can it run Linux at all? Report an error message rather
1467 than hang forever if A20 is stuck.
1468 * Include some intermediate files in the distribution, plus
1469 provide a "make installer" target for distributors to relink
1470 the install programs only. I would prefer the syslinux boot
1471 loader proper to be "binary clean" for debuggablity -- use
1472 "make clean ; make installer" to rebuild the installers only.
1475 * Don't get confused by directories, volume labels, or VFAT
1477 * Use INT 15h, AX=0E801h to query memory size before trying
1478 INT 15h, AH=88h. This not only provides more headroom
1479 between the kernel and the initrd on large-memory machines,
1480 but it appears some recent BIOSes actually have started
1481 returning garbage for the AH=88h (older) call.
1482 * Trust high memory beyond the 15 MB mark if the user has
1483 specified it, or if obtained with INT 15h, AH=0E801h (with
1484 no memory holes above 1 MB.)
1487 * Increase A20M delay and put in a test to avoid problems on
1488 certain IBM Thinkpads (thanks to Donnie Barnes of RedHat
1489 for vital info on this one.)
1490 * Support COMBOOT style boot command images.
1491 * Support chain loading (foreign operating systems, e.g. DOS).
1492 * Include a new "copybs" DOS utility to copy a boot sector to
1493 a file (under Linux, use "dd".)
1494 * Fix the DOS installer to work for disks over 32 MB.
1495 * SYSLINUX should now handle disks with more than 65536 tracks.
1498 * Fix a bug that caused "label" statements in syslinux.cfg to
1499 not be handled properly.
1500 * Updated the documentation. Among other things, we now allow
1501 up to 128 "label" statements.
1504 * Fix for booting old (pre-initrd) kernels.
1505 * It seems at least some versions of OS/2 doesn't set up all
1506 the fields in the superblock correctly. Account for that.
1507 * Fix bug that caused boot failure when using the mem= option.
1510 * Loading from partitions now should work properly. (Actually
1511 tested, this time. You should even be able to dd a floppy
1512 to a partition and boot from it.)
1513 * Removed large workaround code for an alleged ancient BIOS
1514 bug I have never actually seen. The -s option should work
1515 on those machines, anyway.
1516 * Support for simple keyboard remappings, same as used by
1517 LILO (once again to support localization.) The program
1518 keytab-lilo.pl from the LILO distribution included to
1520 * Added a "safe, slow and stupid" (-s) option to the
1521 installers. This option will lobotomize the boot sector to
1522 hopefully work on even very buggy BIOSes.
1525 * Ability to load a VGA font on bootup (for localized Linux
1529 * Bug fix in the Linux installer.
1530 * Added a workaround for a bug in certain AMI/Intel BIOSes
1531 when booting from CD-ROM.
1532 * Documentation changes.
1535 * FAT16 filesystems are now supported.
1538 * Now compiles under Linux, using NASM, rather than using
1539 Turbo Assembler under DOS. See http://www.cryogen.com/Nasm
1540 for information about NASM.
1541 * Linux-hosted SYSLINUX installer, as well as a
1542 rewritten DOS installer (now is written in assembler, so we
1543 don't need Turbo C.)
1546 * Added support for loading bzImage and initrd loading, and made
1547 SYSLINUX new-setup-code aware (SYSLINUX 1.30 id=0x31).
1548 * Added LILO-style kernel labels; see the LABEL and IMPLICIT
1549 keywords in README file.
1550 * Added support for colorization of intro and help screens.
1551 * The vga= option is now handled correctly.
1552 * Massive rewrite of large chunks of the code in order to
1553 support the first two new features.
1556 * Added simple online help at the "boot:" prompt.
1557 * Removed 2880K image as I no longer have access to such a
1558 floppy drive. (Donations accepted!!)
1559 * Decided to distribute the source in a subdirectory rather
1560 than in a nested zipfile.
1563 * Removed a sanity check which would cause booting to fail on
1564 Phoenix BIOS version 4.03. Apparently this BIOS is buggy.
1567 * Added configuration file SYSLINUX.CFG. This file contains all
1568 configurable options, and can be edited from any OS which can
1569 access an MS-DOS filesystem; there is no longer a need to run
1570 SYSLINUX.EXE except to write the boot sector.
1571 * Default command line now given by "default" line in config
1573 * LINUXMSG.TXT and BOOTMSG.TXT hard-coded file names replaced by
1574 "display" and "prompt" lines in config file.
1575 * LILO-style option appending now supported ("append" line in
1577 * Prompt timeout is now supported ("timeout" line in config
1578 file). The timeout is cancelled when anything is typed on the
1580 * Pressing <ESC> or <Ctrl-C> at the Loading... stage now aborts
1581 the kernel loading in progress and returns the user to the
1583 * The installer now automatically sets the READONLY flag on
1585 * Added 2880K disk image.
1588 * Fixed bug that would prevent booting from double-density
1589 floppies and other DOS filesystems with multiple sectors per
1591 * Added 720K disk image.
1592 * Changed default kernel name on disk images to LINUX.
1595 * Fixed bug that would garble the command line on recent kernels
1596 with more than 4 sectors of setup code (this wasn't really a
1597 *bug*; rather, a kernel change broke the code. Unfortunately
1598 the Linux boot interface is still sorely undocumented).
1599 * Added BOOTMSG.TXT file support (message file which does not
1600 force display of the boot prompt).
1603 * Fixed bug on some (most?) 386 BIOSes would require two boot