| blob | c683b32abfba311c606d8c4a0f00d30387506996 |
1 Starting with 1.47, changes marked with SYSLINUX/PXELINUX/ISOLINUX
2 apply to that specific program only; other changes apply to all of
3 them.
5 Changes in 3.50:
6 * New keywords allow the type of file to be specified in the
7 configuration file.
8 * It is now supported to load a different configuration file
9 with the CONFIG keyword.
10 * Fix API call 0x0019 (Read Disk.)
11 * MENU AUTOBOOT, MENU TABMSG, MENU PASSPROMPT allows
12 internationalization of menu messages.
13 * A new feature, TEXT HELP, allows the administrator to set
14 a multi-line help message for individual selections.
15 * Fix API call 0x0012 (Cleanup, shuffle and boot.)
16 * New API call "Cleanup, shuffle and boot to flat protected mode"
17 * New API call "Cleanup, shuffle and boot to real mode",
18 similar to API call 0x0012 but allows arbitrary register setting.
19 * Introduce a library interface for loading arbitrary binary
20 formats with relatively easily understood code. See
21 the elf.c32 module for an example on how to use it.
22 * New module "elf.c32", to load a protected-mode ELF kernel.
23 * MBR (old and new): Fix bug in CHS mode when LBA >
24 65535*sectors.
25 * vesamenu: fix decoding of palettized PNG images.
27 Changes in 3.36:
28 * MEMDISK: Disable EDD by default on floppy disks. EDD can be
29 enabled with the "edd" option and disabled with "noedd".
30 This (hopefully) should make Ghost work again.
31 * SYSLINUX: "unix" installer now uses Linux ioctls instead of
32 using libfat.
33 * New MBR which can boot from logical partitions.
34 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in detecting special extensions which was
35 introduced in 3.35 :(
36 * PXELINUX: Unbreak chainbooting FreeBSD (and possibly others.)
38 Changes in 3.35:
39 * MEMDISK: New "safeint" mode.
40 * MEMDISK: Be more compliant with the PnP BIOS spec.
41 * MEMDISK: Turn on EDD support by default.
42 * MEMDISK: Try to work on some machines on which it would not
43 work when there was no floppy drive in the system.
44 * Simple menu system: fix serial console support (broken in
45 3.30).
46 * SYSLINUX: Support subdirectories. Like ISOLINUX, the
47 "current directory" is the directory in which syslinux.cfg
48 is found; this is searched for in the sequence
49 /boot/syslinux, /syslinux, /. As a side benefit, label names
50 like "linux-2.6.18" and "linux-2.6.19" are now supported.
52 To install ldlinux.sys in a subdirectory, pass the -d
53 directory option to the SYSLINUX installer.
55 This work was sponsored by slax.org (thanks, Tomas!)
56 * New API call: read disk.
57 * Invoke ONERROR on initrd load failure.
59 Changes in 3.31:
60 * The simple menu system (menu.c32 and vesamenu.c32) now
61 support loading more than one configuration file at a time,
62 using MENU INCLUDE or by specifying multiple filenames.
63 * The MENU COLOR statement can now control the shadowing mode.
65 Changes in 3.30:
66 * libcom32 extended to support graphics mode and graphical console.
67 * vesamenu.c32, new graphical version of the Simple
68 Menu System, see README.menu.
69 * New com32 modules by Erwan Velu do selection based on CPUID
70 or PCI devices present.
71 * RPM spec: add syslinux-tftpboot module; move syslinux by
72 default to the /usr/share/syslinux directory.
73 * RPM spec: extlinux is now a separate package.
75 Changes in 3.20:
76 * EXTLINUX: New options --install (-i) and --update (-U), to
77 make it clear if a boot loader should be installed or
78 updated. For now, defaults to --install for compatibility;
79 a future version will require one of these options.
80 * New library functions to load and place files in memory.
81 * mboot.c32 bug fixes.
82 * Remove 8 MB kernel size restriction.
83 * Add "klibc" target for building unix/syslinux and
84 extlinux/extlinux with klcc (klibc-1.4.27 or later.)
85 * PXELINUX: Fail (and eventually reboot) if no configuration
86 file was found.
87 * COM32 module by Erwan Velu to make decisions based on DMI
88 info.
89 * Fix issue where going back and forth between menus a lot
90 would cause a hang.
91 * ISOLINUX: Fix bug which made "cd boot sectors" not work.
93 Changes in 3.11:
94 * MEMDISK: Fix bug by which accessing the real floppy disk
95 as B: in MS-DOS was broken.
96 * Simple menu system: allow tweaking of the screen layout.
97 * Simple menu system: better command-line editing, correctly
98 handle command lines above 256 characters.
99 * PXELINUX: revert memory allocation change that caused
100 problems on some network cards.
101 * MEMDISK: Try work around a bug on some BIOSes when no
102 physical floppy disk is present in the system.
103 * Enable the 16550A FIFOs, if present, when doing serial
104 console.
105 * New "totaltimeout" command establishes a timeout without
106 regard for any user input.
107 * Simple menu system: timeout behaviour now more in line with
108 user expectations.
109 * Simple menu system: "ontimeout" should now work correctly.
111 Changes in 3.10:
112 * gcc 4.0.1 compilation fixes.
113 * Add support for querying the PCI BIOS in libcom32
114 (used by ethersel et al.)
115 * Fix PCI handing (ethersel etc) on several old chipsets (and
116 VMWare.)
117 * Try to deal with systems with broken EBIOS.
118 * New API call to do "localboot".
119 * New API call to query features.
120 * New API call to run kernel image, a lower-level call than
121 "run command". See comboot.doc.
122 * Fix for bug in EBIOS code discovered by Arwin Vosselman.
123 * NOESCAPE security fix.
124 * Comments are now recognized even without a space following #.
125 * Fix incorrect handling of mixes of entries with and without
126 MENU PASSWD.
127 * The idle API call now harmlessly returns failure if it is a
128 no-op. That way the caller can decide whether or not to
129 bother invoking it again.
130 * Temporarily disable the idle API call on PXELINUX, due to
131 some platforms on which the idle API call seems to hang; this
132 problem has not yet been debugged.
133 * MEMDISK: the handling of DOSEMU-headered images was broken;
134 fix it.
135 * EXTLINUX: symlinks are now supported.
136 * Simple menu system: N and P now work correctly as hotkeys.
137 * MEMDISK: more BIOS bug workarounds.
139 Changes in 3.09:
140 * gcc4 compilation fix.
141 * <BEL> (Ctrl-G) in message files now causes a beep.
142 * Reduce the command line to 511 characters; 1023 caused
143 memory overflows.
145 Changes in 3.08:
146 * SYSLINUX: Fix performance regression (-s mode always
147 enabled.)
148 * Add API function for idle loop.
149 * libutil: Add do_idle() function for idle loop, make
150 get_key() use it.
151 * libutil: Add SHA-1 and base64 functions.
152 * Simple menu system: add password support.
153 * EXTLINUX: Sparse files now handled correctly.
154 * EXTLINUX: Large directories now handled correctly.
155 * ALL: At the prompt, Ctrl-X now forces text mode.
156 * Fix configuration file parsing error, that could cause
157 hangs.
158 * Rewritten advanced menuing system from Murali Ganapathy.
159 * MEMDISK: New "bigraw" mode to work around certain broken
160 BIOS flash programs.
161 * COM32 module to boot Multiboot systems, including Xen. See
162 com32/modules/mboot.doc.
163 * Max command line changed to 1023 characters. Note that the
164 kernel proper still can only handle 255 characters without
165 patching, and COM16 binaries can only handle 125 characters.
167 Changes in 3.07:
168 * Fix chainloading (chain.c32).
169 * Fix zlib build problem.
170 * Use a private copy of <linux/ext2_fs.h>.
172 Changes in 3.06:
173 * Fix typo that caused the ramdisk to load in the wrong place.
175 Changes in 3.05:
176 * New API function "shuffle and boot"; allows COM32 modules to
177 load or construct (almost) arbitrarily complex objects,
178 e.g. a kernel and its initrd/initramfs in pieces, and have
179 the API core reorganize memory for booting. (A library API
180 for this function will be introduced in a later version.)
181 * The initrd= option now supports multiple filenames separated
182 by commas. This is mostly useful for initramfs, which can
183 be composed of multiple separate cpio or cpio.gz archives.
184 (Note: all files except the last one are zero-padded to a 4K
185 page boundary. This should not affect initramfs.)
186 * EXTLINUX: Fix API function 000Ah (get derivative-specific
187 info).
188 * libcom32/ethersel: Support PCI Config Mechanism #2 on
189 machines still infested with that hideous old hack.
190 * SYSLINUX: Fix directory-parsing bug.
192 Changes in 3.02:
193 * SYSLINUX: The "unix" installer now sets the MS-DOS
194 attributes (hidden, system, readonly.)
195 * COM32 library: build the .lnx (test modules for running
196 under Linux) as architecture native modules, in case
197 i386 devel libraries aren't installed.
198 * EXTLINUX: Hack for systems which don't have BLKGETSIZE64
199 defined in the standard header files.
200 * Simple menu system: minor aestetic improvements, and try to
201 work better over a serial console (speed, and readability on
202 monochrome terminal emulators.)
203 * New CONSOLE directive to control output on the video console
204 (useful for dealing with some broken serial-forwarding
205 BIOSes.)
206 * New com32 module "ethersel" for searching for an Ethernet
207 card and selecting the proper version of Etherboot.
208 * EXTLINUX: Allow the user to override the detected geometry.
209 Add help.
211 Changes in 3.01:
212 * EXTLINUX, SYSLINUX: Fix compile errors on some systems.
213 * EXTLINUX: Default to zipdrive geometry (64 heads, 32
214 sectors) if no other geometry can be detected.
216 Changes in 3.00:
217 * SYSLINUX: Support FAT32 and EDD. As an unfortunate
218 consequence, LDLINUX.SYS is no longer an ordinary file; it
219 is block-mapped at install time, which means it can only be
220 written using the syslinux installers.
221 * SYSLINUX: Reorganize the source code for the installers;
222 each one of the installers (dos, win32, unix, mtools) is now
223 built in its own subdirectory. In particular, "mtools" is
224 the unprivileged installer which uses mtools; "unix" is the
225 privileged installer which uses system calls.
226 * SYSLINUX: Completely rewritten DOS installer in C.
227 * ALL: "label" statement information is now stored in a
228 compressed format, which means that a lot more labels are
229 permitted (500-1000 in a typical configuration, but depends
230 on the complexity.)
231 * EXTLINUX: New derivative, which boots from an ext2/ext3
232 filesystem.
233 * SYSLINUX: The DOS and Win32 installers can now optionally
234 write the boot sector to a file instead of the real boot
235 sector. This is not supported in the Linux installers,
236 however.
237 * ALL: New NOESCAPE command, disables the "hold down the Shift
238 key to display the prompt" behaviour.
239 * New simple menu system, as an alternative to the advanced
240 menu system already present. See README.menu for details.
241 * PXELINUX: Filenames can now be prefixed with an IP address
242 or DNS name plus :: (e.g. 192.0.2.1::filename or
243 server.domain.com::filename), which downloads a file from an
244 alternate TFTP server, or just a :: (e.g. ::filename), which
245 suppresses the common pathname prefix. See pxelinux.doc.
246 * SYSLINUX: Add an -m option to the DOS and Win32 installers
247 to write an MBR and -a to mark the partition SYSLINUX is
248 being installed on active.
249 * MEMDISK: Give a way to query the boot loader type while
250 running MEMDISK; see memdisk/memdisk.doc and
251 sample/mdiskchk.c.
252 * mkdiskimage: substantially improved mkdiskimage which, among
253 other things, can now be used to initialize USB keys as
254 zipdrives; see README.usbkey for more information.
256 Changes in 2.13:
257 * MEMDISK: Fix command-line parsing "brown paper bag" class
258 bug.
259 * MEMDISK: Add "raw" mode to support the DOS boot disk from
260 WinME/XP, which seems to deliberately crash the system
261 when someone uses the "INT 15h mover" highmem API.
262 * Make "make install" do something sane for the com32
263 development environment.
264 * In the spec file, create a separate -devel RPM for the com32
265 development environment.
267 Changes in 2.12:
268 * Simple C library, based on klibc, for writing COM32
269 programs.
270 * Fix the handling of file length in loading of COM32
271 programs.
272 * MEMDISK: Work around a linker bug by rearranging the code to
273 not use the linker for the 16-bit code.
274 * SYSLINUX: If we're building on a machine without a Win32
275 (mingw) compiler, just skip building syslinux.exe.
276 * ISOLINUX: Support non-mkisofs mastering programs, at least
277 as long as the image is single-session. For best results,
278 ISOLINUX should be the only boot loader installed.
279 * MEMDISK: Allow the user to specify that the simulated disk
280 should be write-protected.
282 Changes in 2.11:
283 * ALL: Add an API call to get the configuration file name.
284 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in 2.10 that prevented it from working
285 correctly for a lot of people.
286 * SYSLINUX: In the installer, make mtools a bit less fussy.
287 * Make the menu system compile with newer gcc's.
289 Changes in 2.10:
290 * MEMDISK: Handle images compressed with zip as well as with
291 gzip. Some Windows-based image tools apparently generate
292 these kinds of images by default. Patch by Patrick
293 LoPresti.
294 * Major menu improvement from Murali Ganapathy.
295 * ISOLINUX: Wonderfully sick and brilliant workaround for
296 severe bugs in certain Award BIOSes; from Knut Petersen.
297 * SYSLINUX: Fix for the nomtools installed, from Frederic
298 Pasteleurs.
299 * PXELINUX: Fix handling of IP numbers in the ranges
300 100-109 and 200-209.
301 * ALL: New option "allowoptions" (defaults to 1), which
302 controls if options are allowed on the command line or not.
303 * SYSLINUX: Support building under klibc (see the klibc
304 distribution for details.)
306 Changes in 2.09:
307 * SYSLINUX: Remove residual setuid crap from
308 syslinux-nomtools.
309 * Handle video pages correctly when using the API functions.
310 * Handle compiling on an x86-64 platform correctly.
311 * Menu system from Murali Krishnan Ganapathy; see the menu
312 directory for information.
313 * COMBOOT: Allow COMBOOT programs to change screen text mode.
314 * COMBOOT: Correct the documentation of how to detect
315 SYSLINUX from COMBOOT!!!!
316 * COMBOOT: Fix "get key without echo" API function.
317 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug that affected the API open function.
318 * ALL: Improve the E820 memory parser, to work around some
319 buggy BIOSes.
321 Changes in 2.08:
322 * Add new configuration command "ontimeout" to allow timeout
323 to have a different action than just pressing Enter.
324 * Add new configuration command "onerror" to allow a custom
325 command to be executed in case the kernel image is not found.
326 * Fix bugs in the COMBOOT/COM32 command-line parsing. APPEND
327 now works with COMBOOT/COM32 images.
328 * PXELINUX: Poll for ARP requests while sitting at the
329 prompt. This makes some boot servers a lot less unhappy.
330 * PXELINUX: Actually free sockets when we get a failure
331 (including file not found.) This bug would cause us to run
332 out of sockets and thus "go deaf" after a while.
333 * MEMDISK: Add an API to query for the existence of MEMDISK.
334 * SYSLINUX: Fix loading boot sectors (.bs/.bss) from floppy
335 disk.
336 * .c32 is now one of the extensions searched for
337 automatically.
338 * PXELINUX: RFBG.exe seems to randomly overwrite memory
339 location 0x5700. Thus, don't use it!
340 * PXELINUX: Change pathname length max from 63 to 127; change
341 max vkernels from 128 to 64.
342 * Support Ctrl-U -> kill entire command line input.
343 * The "samples" directory contains a (barely at all tested)
344 chain loading example, chain.c32, which may be used to
345 chainload local floppy disks and hard disks. Use with
346 "chain fdN" or "chain hdN [partition]"; N = 0 for the first
347 drive of each type.
349 Changes in 2.07:
350 * MEMDISK: Workaround for BIOSes which go into a snit when
351 they get a RESET command for the floppy system when there is
352 no floppy in the system.
353 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend 2", which passes the hardware
354 address of the boot interface to the kernel as a
355 command-line option.
356 * mkdiskimage: fix the generation of the end limit.
357 * PXELINUX: Fix multiple bugs in chainloading of other NBPs.
358 * MEMDISK: Fix bug that would occationally cause "ran out of
359 input data" when using compressed disk images.
360 * SYSLINUX: Updates for the win32 installer (from Lars Munch.)
361 * PXELINUX: PXELINUX-specific options are now recognized both
362 in a vendor-option-space (a.k.a. type 43 encapsulated) as
363 well as in a site-option-space (unencapsulated.)
364 * COM32: Don't crash when DS != 0.
365 * COMBOOT/COM32: Make file reading work correctly. Thanks to
366 Phung Chi Kien for submitting a test program.
368 Changes in 2.06:
369 * ALL: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
370 boot failure, depending on the length of the kernel.
371 * ISOLINUX: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
372 boot failure, depending on the length of directories.
373 * SYSLINUX: Win32 installer now flushes buffers.
374 * ppmtolss16: Be fully compliant with the PNM spec;
375 actually process comments in the header and odd
376 alignments of the various parameters, as well as
377 "plain" (not raw) files and PBM and PGM files.
378 * PXELINUX: Lower the default MTU to 1472 in order to deal
379 with systems with slightly nonstandard MTUs, and PXE
380 stacks which don't defragment correctly. Unfortunately this
381 is very hard to test dynamically.
383 Changes in 2.05:
384 * PXELINUX: Add a default query based on the hardware address
385 of the boot device. This is in lower case hexadecimal form
386 separated by dashes and including the hardware type, for
387 example, the Ethernet (type 1) address 88:99:AA:BB:CC:DD
388 would query the file pxelinux.cfg/01-88-99-aa-bb-cc-dd.
389 * PXELINUX: Fix bug involving non-IP-based config file names.
390 * SYSLINUX: New installer for WinNT-based systems, from Lars
391 Munch.
392 * MEMDISK: Fix handling of memory region overlap when
393 decompressing. Thanks to Mikhail Kupchik for identifying
394 the problem.
396 Changes in 2.04:
397 * ALL: Reclaim even more low memory by observing that
398 comboot_seg == real_mode_seg is perfectly fine, and by the
399 fact that the 1000h segment managed to get unused in all
400 derivatives...
401 * PXELINUX: Attempt to negotiate full Ethernet-sized blocks
402 (1468 bytes) using the blksize option.
403 * SYSLINUX: Resurrect the old no-mtools version of the
404 installer, although as a root-only tool. Some distributors
405 have indicated that they need a small standalone installer.
406 * MEMDISK: Fix a memory offset computation error when
407 installing compressed disks which generally would cause
408 1 MB of memory to be wasted.
409 * MEMDISK: Fix installing the E820 memory map. Calling
410 INT 15h AX=0E820h with MEMDISK 2.03 loaded would give a
411 completely corrupt memory map.
412 * SYSLINUX: Make libsyslinux a dynamic library, so that it can
413 be updated separately from client programs. The whole idea,
414 after all, is to enable alternate programs to become
415 syslinux installers.
416 * Include an rpm spec file in the distribution, so rpmbuild
417 -ta works.
419 Changes in 2.03:
420 * Actually support comment lines in the configuration file.
421 * PXELINUX: Try to resolve some problems with stack switches.
422 * PXELINUX: Handle PXE stacks with broken routing.
423 With these workarounds, the remote install PXE boot floppy
424 (rbfg.exe) from Argon Technologies should work correctly.
425 * Fix problems with Perl scripts in UTF-8 locales.
426 * You probably need NASM 0.98.34 or later to compile this
427 version. 0.98.36 is recommended.
428 * MEMDISK: Now supports gzip compressed images.
430 Changes in 2.02:
431 * SYSLINUX: Security flaws have been found in the SYSLINUX
432 installer when running setuid root. Rewrite the SYSLINUX
433 installer so it uses mtools instead. It therefore now
434 requires mtools (specifically mcopy and mattrib) to exist on
435 your system, but it will not require root privileges and
436 SHOULD NOT be setuid.
438 Changes in 2.01:
439 * MEMDISK: Fix memory sizing bug when the ramdisk crosses the
440 16 MB boundary.
441 * MEMDISK: Add a "pause" option to stop immediately before
442 booting, to read off the messages.
443 * MEMDISK: Support disk images with DOSEMU headers.
444 * Update the mkdiskimage script to handle newer mtools
445 versions, and be able to generate disk images with DOSEMU
446 headers (controlled by the -d option).
447 * Fix the COM32 sample program.
448 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix some COMBOOT API calls.
449 * PXELINUX: Doc fix.
450 * Build SYSLINUX into a small library for encapsulation into
451 other programs (however, please keep in mind this is a GPL'd
452 library.)
453 * SYSLINUX: Make installer work with "owner" in /etc/fstab.
454 * SYSLINUX: Fix issue with working on nonpartitioned hard disk
455 devices. THIS CONFIGURATION IS NOT RECOMMENDED.
457 Changes in 2.00:
458 * ALL: Add support for "COM32" (32-bit COMBOOT) images.
459 * ALL: Add an API for COMBOOT/COM32 images. See comboot.doc
460 for details. There is a C development environment for
461 COM32 being created; it should be ready at some point in
462 the future.
463 * Fix mbr.asm so that it actually works.
464 * SYSLINUX: The syslinux installer *SHOULD* now be safe to
465 run setuid root.
466 * PXELINUX: Fix bug where PXELINUX would override random
467 chunks of the UNDI code segment! Thanks to Kevin Tran for
468 finding this bug.
469 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug related to slashes in pathnames.
470 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug in handling initrds over 128 MB.
471 * ALL: Make the <Ctrl-V> key print out the version; this is
472 to help debugging.
473 * Add a small script, mkdiskimage, to create a DOS-formatted
474 hard disk image using mtools. This may be useful in
475 conjunction with MEMDISK.
476 * ISOLINUX: Search for a /boot/isolinux directory as well as
477 /isolinux.
478 * ALL: Fix a bug related to very long configuration files.
479 * PXELINUX: Work around a NASM bug which would result in no
480 delay before reset if an error occurs.
482 Changes in 1.76:
483 * ISOLINUX: Remove code no longer used which caused hangs on
484 some Toshiba laptops.
486 Changes in 1.75:
487 * ALL: NASM 0.98.32 or later is now required to build
488 SYSLINUX from sources.
489 * SYSLINUX: put back in the workaround for the BIOS floppy
490 table. This seems to be a requirement for "extended" floppy
491 formats to work correctly.
492 * SYSLINUX: No longer warn if one is trying to boot on a 286
493 or older. The above BIOS workaround no longer fits if the
494 requirement to use only 8086-compatible code in the early
495 boot is maintained. It made sense in 1994, but in 2002 a
496 286 or older is a museum object.
497 * SYSLINUX: Use a downright bizarre, stateful algorithm to try
498 to guess the maximum transfer size. I am *hoping* this will
499 cut down on the number of systems for which -s is required
500 to work at any acceptable speed.
501 * ISOLINUX: Add a few more workarounds for various broken El
502 Torito BIOSes.
503 * Make sure .depend files aren't accidentally packed...
504 * ALL: Fix bugs in the extension-detect code; this caused
505 files like COMBOOT images and CD boot sectors to be
506 mis-identified as Linux kernels and rejected.
507 * ALL: Fix the return from COMBOOT.
508 * ALL: Do some of the early groundwork for supporting DOS
509 system calls in COMBOOT.
510 * Get rid of unnecessary "near" directives, making the code
511 bigger.
512 * PXELINUX: Put the PXE stack back in the init state before
513 invoking a chain-loaded NBP.
514 * PXELINUX: Actually found the combination of calls that
515 allows some (most?) PXE 2+ stacks to be unloaded from memory
516 properly.
517 * PXELINUX: Add "keeppxe" command-line option to disable
518 the standard unloading of the PXE stack.
520 Changes in 1.74:
521 * SYSLINUX: fix bug that would cause valid kernel images to be
522 labelled "invalid".
524 Changes in 1.73:
525 * Work on removing gratuitous differences between modules.
526 * Break up the source in common and module-specific files.
527 * PXELINUX: Allow chaining of other PXE NBPs.
528 * ISOLINUX: Allow loading "CD-ROM boot sectors".
529 * ALL: generalize the definition of a boot sector/NBP.
531 Changes in 1.72:
532 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix bugs in the new core code.
534 Changes in 1.71:
535 * Fix a "brown paper bag" class bug in the new core code.
537 Changes in 1.70:
538 * Major code restructuring.
539 * Relax the conventional memory limits somewhat.
540 * MEMDISK: Set up the "version number string" pointer in the
541 header correctly.
542 * SYSLINUX: Fix, again, "the bug that won't die": the use of
543 the offset parameter with the SYSLINUX installer.
544 * SYSLINUX: Fix possible superblock corruption problem in the
545 SYSLINUX installer.
547 Changes in 1.67:
548 * Handle bug in the location of initrd.
550 Changes in 1.66:
551 * MEMDISK: Make compile with newer versions of gcc.
553 Changes in 1.65:
554 * ISOLINUX: Support booting disk image files (to boot DOS or
555 other non-Linux operating systems), *IF* the BIOS works
556 correctly; unfortunately many BIOSes apparently don't.
557 * Support Linux boot protocol version 2.03 (explicitly
558 specify the initrd address limit.)
559 * Handle small "pseudo-kernels"; images that use the Linux
560 kernel boot protocols but are less than 64K in size.
561 * MEMDISK: New subsystem; this is a driver which allows
562 legacy OSes to boot using an in-memory simulated disk.
563 See memdisk/memdisk.doc for more info.
564 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Correctly handle files larger than 65535
565 blocks (32 MB for PXELINUX, 128 MB for ISOLINUX.)
566 * PXELINUX: Make a best-effort attempt at freeing all memory
567 claimed. From the looks of it, it will fail on most PXE
568 stacks.
570 Changes in 1.64:
571 * Limited support for hardware flow control when using a
572 serial port console.
573 * Support specifying the serial port I/O address explicitly.
574 * Make DOS installer hopefully behave more nicely when used on
575 recent Windows versions.
576 * Fix returning to text mode when a font has been specified.
577 * Attempt to detect missing serial port hardware and disable
578 the serial port if there is nothing there.
580 Changes in 1.63:
581 * Make the ppmtolss16 program handle color conversion more
582 correctly.
583 * Clean up "make install" target, honour INSTALLROOT if it
584 exists.
585 * SYSLINUX: Fix stack-smash bug identified by Steffen
586 Winterfeldt.
587 * Hopefully fix return-to-text-mode on some graphics cards.
588 * ISOLINUX: Bug workaround for Award BIOS 4.51, and perhaps
589 other buggy BIOSes as well.
591 Changes in 1.62:
592 * PXELINUX: Allow the DHCP server to override the
593 configuration file name and pathname prefix, using
594 "site-specific" DHCP options.
595 * PXELINUX: Documentation fixes.
596 * PXELINUX: Fix the "ipappend" option; the last two values
597 were reversed vs. what the kernel expected.
598 * Introduce a way to return to text mode once we are already
599 in graphics mode. This may be useful for F-key help
600 screens.
601 * Fix several bugs in the way return to text mode was handled.
603 Changes in 1.61:
604 * ISOLINUX: Support full pathname searches. Max length for a
605 pathname is 255 characters. As a result, only 64 "label"
606 statements are supported in ISOLINUX.
607 * PXELINUX: Max filename length extended to 63 characters.
609 Changes in 1.60:
610 * Add support for graphical splash screens.
611 * Add mode control characters, which allows you to control
612 message display output depending on output mode (text,
613 graphics, or serial port.)
614 * ISOLINUX: New program, which boots Linux from a CD-ROM
615 without using floppy emulation mode. See isolinux.doc for
616 more details.
617 * PXELINUX: Don't search for boot sector file types, since
618 they don't work anyway.
619 * SYSLINUX: Document the LOCK command for Win9x, and the error
620 dialog box for WinNT/2K.
622 Changes in 1.54:
623 * PXELINUX: Fix code for finding !PXE from PXENV+. This was
624 due to a spec bug; match the most recent spec since that
625 seems to be what implementations actually do.
626 * SYSLINUX: Add some smarts to the boot sector, which
627 hopefully should reduce the number of systems which require
628 stupid mode ("syslinux -s").
629 * PXELINUX: Document further some of the pathologies with old
630 PXE stacks.
631 * When specifying a "default" command line, no longer
632 automatically appent "auto". See the "DEFAULT" command in
633 syslinux.doc for more information.
634 * PXELINUX: Clean up the allocation of local socket numbers.
636 Changes in 1.53:
637 * PXELINUX: Rename pxelinux.bin to pxelinux.0, to match what
638 most PXE servers seem to expect.
639 * PXELINUX: Update the DHCP/boot server setup documentation.
640 * PXELINUX: Support new "localboot" option for "label"
641 sections.
642 * PXELINUX: More robust parsing of DHCP/boot server packets.
643 * PXELINUX: Include a small utility program "gethostip" to
644 compute hexadecimal IP addresses.
646 Changes in 1.52:
647 * PXELINUX: Fix bugs introduced by new A20 code. (SYSLINUX
648 has also been changed for code consistency reasons, but I'm
649 pretty sure the changes are don't care on SYSLINUX.)
650 * Documentation updates.
651 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend" option to generate an ip= option to
652 the kernel.
654 Changes in 1.51:
655 * PXELINUX: Not all PXE stacks fill in the IP address for a
656 type 3 cached info query. Use a type 2 cached info query
657 for this information (only.)
658 * Yet another attempt at A20 coding. Now support BIOS call
659 15:2401 as well, and handle machines which always have A20
660 on separately.
661 * Support memory detection using INT 15h, AX=0E820h. BIOS
662 manufacturers have apparently gotten sloppy about keeping
663 INT 15h, AX=0E801h working properly.
664 * Don't issue <CR><LF> onto the serial port when we're doing
665 screen wraparound.
667 Changes in 1.50:
668 * Yet another A20-code update. It seems some "legacy-free"
669 machines and embedded gear simply don't have a KBC to talk
670 to, and that waiting for one will wait forever. Sigh.
672 Changes in 1.49:
673 * SYSLINUX: Implement a hack for BIOS drivers which hog significant
674 chunks of low memory during boot. (Note: PXELINUX already
675 had this modification. SYSLINUX does still require that the
676 low 512K is available; PXELINUX requires 384K. Machines
677 with a physical memory hole in the low 640K cannot boot
678 Linux no matter what.) Depending what the reason is for the
679 memory hole, a new kernel (2.4.0-test3-pre3 or later) may be
680 required.
681 * SYSLINUX: Default installer binary now compiled against
682 glibc 2.1. If this is inappropriate for your system and you
683 still want to use the offical version of SYSLINUX, please
684 follow the instructions in "distrib.doc" to rebuild the
685 installer.
686 * SYSLINUX: Linux installer program now supports -o <offset>
687 option which does a loopback mount with the
688 -o loop,offset=<> option. Useful to run SYSLINUX on an
689 individual partition of a whole-harddisk image.
690 * Include the source code to a Master Boot Record (MBR)
691 functionally equivalent to the one installed DOS except it
692 includes EBIOS support, and should be resistant to geometry
693 changes. The MBR code is public domain.
694 * PXELINUX: Fix "double p" bug: if the tftp prefix was null,
695 all filenames would get a "p" preprended, e.g.
696 "ppxelinux.cfg" and "pvmlinux".
698 Changes in 1.48:
699 * PXELINUX: Workaround for PXE ROMs based on the Intel PXE PDK
700 3.0 build 071 and earlier: missing !PXE structure pointer.
701 * PXELINUX: Handle larger BOOTP/DHCP packages.
702 * PXELINUX: The command line passing was broken; fix.
703 * PXELINUX: Make COMBOOT images work.
704 * PXELINUX: Documentation on how to make booting work using
705 the PDK 3.0-derived clients, which aren't so generous as to
706 allow booting with only "PXEClient" specified.
708 Changes in 1.47:
709 * PXELINUX: RFC 1123 states that a TFTP implementation MUST
710 use adaptive timeout, "at least an exponential backoff of
711 retransmission timeout is necessary." Implement a very
712 simple exponential backoff for retransmits.
713 * PXELINUX: Updated documentation, including pointer to new
714 TFTP server.
715 * PXELINUX: When sending ERROR due to bad OACK, use the proper
716 destination port number (why are TFTP port numbers so odd?)
717 * PXELINUX: If the boot dies in the middle somewhere,
718 eventually give up and reset the machine (unattended
719 operation.)
721 Changes in 1.46:
722 * New program PXELINUX to do network booting using a
723 PXE-compliant (Pre-Execution Environment) network booting
724 PROM. See pxelinux.doc for details.
726 Changes in 1.45:
727 * Serial console support. See syslinux.doc for details.
729 Changes in 1.44:
730 * Change HIGHMEM_MAX to 38000000h to (hopefully) avoid the
731 kernel stepping on it; 3f000000h was apparently a higher
732 limit than the kernel used!
734 Changes in 1.43:
735 * Add sys2ansi.pl script to display the contents of a
736 colorized SYSLINUX file.
737 * Changed the io_delay once again, after a report that the
738 old delay port causes hangs on some systems.
740 Changes in 1.42:
741 * Frob the "fast A20 gate" port as well as the keyboard
742 controller; will this help systems with problems?
743 * Be even more paranoid about A20, unfortunately even this
744 seems to be not paranoid enough... what I don't understand
745 is that if there is hardware out there *this broken*, how
746 can it run Linux at all? Report an error message rather
747 than hang forever if A20 is stuck.
748 * Include some intermediate files in the distribution, plus
749 provide a "make installer" target for distributors to relink
750 the install programs only. I would prefer the syslinux boot
751 loader proper to be "binary clean" for debuggablity -- use
752 "make clean ; make installer" to rebuild the installers only.
754 Changes in 1.41:
755 * Don't get confused by directories, volume labels, or VFAT
756 long names.
757 * Use INT 15h, AX=0E801h to query memory size before trying
758 INT 15h, AH=88h. This not only provides more headroom
759 between the kernel and the initrd on large-memory machines,
760 but it appears some recent BIOSes actually have started
761 returning garbage for the AH=88h (older) call.
762 * Trust high memory beyond the 15 MB mark if the user has
763 specified it, or if obtained with INT 15h, AH=0E801h (with
764 no memory holes above 1 MB.)
766 Changes in 1.40:
767 * Increase A20M delay and put in a test to avoid problems on
768 certain IBM Thinkpads (thanks to Donnie Barnes of RedHat
769 for vital info on this one.)
770 * Support COMBOOT style boot command images.
771 * Support chain loading (foreign operating systems, e.g. DOS).
772 * Include a new "copybs" DOS utility to copy a boot sector to
773 a file (under Linux, use "dd".)
774 * Fix the DOS installer to work for disks over 32 MB.
775 * SYSLINUX should now handle disks with more than 65536 tracks.
777 Changes in 1.37:
778 * Fix a bug that caused "label" statements in syslinux.cfg to
779 not be handled properly.
780 * Updated the documentation. Among other things, we now allow
781 up to 128 "label" statements.
783 Changes in 1.36:
784 * Fix for booting old (pre-initrd) kernels.
785 * It seems at least some versions of OS/2 doesn't set up all
786 the fields in the superblock correctly. Account for that.
787 * Fix bug that caused boot failure when using the mem= option.
789 Changes in 1.35:
790 * Loading from partitions now should work properly. (Actually
791 tested, this time. You should even be able to dd a floppy
792 to a partition and boot from it.)
793 * Removed large workaround code for an alleged ancient BIOS
794 bug I have never actually seen. The -s option should work
795 on those machines, anyway.
796 * Support for simple keyboard remappings, same as used by
797 LILO (once again to support localization.) The program
798 keytab-lilo.pl from the LILO distribution included to
799 generate such maps.
800 * Added a "safe, slow and stupid" (-s) option to the
801 installers. This option will lobotomize the boot sector to
802 hopefully work on even very buggy BIOSes.
804 Changes in 1.34:
805 * Ability to load a VGA font on bootup (for localized Linux
806 distributions.)
808 Changes in 1.33:
809 * Bug fix in the Linux installer.
810 * Added a workaround for a bug in certain AMI/Intel BIOSes
811 when booting from CD-ROM.
812 * Documentation changes.
814 Changes in 1.32:
815 * FAT16 filesystems are now supported.
817 Changes in 1.31:
818 * Now compiles under Linux, using NASM, rather than using
819 Turbo Assembler under DOS. See http://www.cryogen.com/Nasm
820 for information about NASM.
821 * Linux-hosted SYSLINUX installer, as well as a
822 rewritten DOS installer (now is written in assembler, so we
823 don't need Turbo C.)
825 Changes in 1.30:
826 * Added support for loading bzImage and initrd loading, and made
827 SYSLINUX new-setup-code aware (SYSLINUX 1.30 id=0x31).
828 * Added LILO-style kernel labels; see the LABEL and IMPLICIT
829 keywords in README file.
830 * Added support for colorization of intro and help screens.
831 * The vga= option is now handled correctly.
832 * Massive rewrite of large chunks of the code in order to
833 support the first two new features.
835 Changes in 1.20:
836 * Added simple online help at the "boot:" prompt.
837 * Removed 2880K image as I no longer have access to such a
838 floppy drive. (Donations accepted!!)
839 * Decided to distribute the source in a subdirectory rather
840 than in a nested zipfile.
842 Changes in 1.11:
843 * Removed a sanity check which would cause booting to fail on
844 Phoenix BIOS version 4.03. Apparently this BIOS is buggy.
846 Changes in 1.10:
847 * Added configuration file SYSLINUX.CFG. This file contains all
848 configurable options, and can be edited from any OS which can
849 access an MS-DOS filesystem; there is no longer a need to run
850 SYSLINUX.EXE except to write the boot sector.
851 * Default command line now given by "default" line in config
852 file.
853 * LINUXMSG.TXT and BOOTMSG.TXT hard-coded file names replaced by
854 "display" and "prompt" lines in config file.
855 * LILO-style option appending now supported ("append" line in
856 config file).
857 * Prompt timeout is now supported ("timeout" line in config
858 file). The timeout is cancelled when anything is typed on the
859 command line.
860 * Pressing <ESC> or <Ctrl-C> at the Loading... stage now aborts
861 the kernel loading in progress and returns the user to the
862 boot: prompt.
863 * The installer now automatically sets the READONLY flag on
864 LDLINUX.SYS.
865 * Added 2880K disk image.
867 Changes in 1.03:
868 * Fixed bug that would prevent booting from double-density
869 floppies and other DOS filesystems with multiple sectors per
870 cluster.
871 * Added 720K disk image.
872 * Changed default kernel name on disk images to LINUX.
874 Changes in 1.02:
875 * Fixed bug that would garble the command line on recent kernels
876 with more than 4 sectors of setup code (this wasn't really a
877 *bug*; rather, a kernel change broke the code. Unfortunately
878 the Linux boot interface is still sorely undocumented).
879 * Added BOOTMSG.TXT file support (message file which does not
880 force display of the boot prompt).
882 Changes in 1.01:
883 * Fixed bug on some (most?) 386 BIOSes would require two boot
884 attempts.