| blob | 95c41113c87ef0825098df985e44a676060928df |
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 3.30:
6 * libcom32 extended to support graphics mode and graphical console.
7 * vesamenu.c32, new graphical version of the Simple
8 Menu System, see README.menu.
10 Changes in 3.20:
11 * EXTLINUX: New options --install (-i) and --update (-U), to
12 make it clear if a boot loader should be installed or
13 updated. For now, defaults to --install for compatibility;
14 a future version will require one of these options.
15 * New library functions to load and place files in memory.
16 * mboot.c32 bug fixes.
17 * Remove 8 MB kernel size restriction.
18 * Add "klibc" target for building unix/syslinux and
19 extlinux/extlinux with klcc (klibc-1.4.27 or later.)
20 * PXELINUX: Fail (and eventually reboot) if no configuration
21 file was found.
22 * COM32 module by Erwan Velu to make decisions based on DMI
23 info.
24 * Fix issue where going back and forth between menus a lot
25 would cause a hang.
26 * ISOLINUX: Fix bug which made "cd boot sectors" not work.
28 Changes in 3.11:
29 * MEMDISK: Fix bug by which accessing the real floppy disk
30 as B: in MS-DOS was broken.
31 * Simple menu system: allow tweaking of the screen layout.
32 * Simple menu system: better command-line editing, correctly
33 handle command lines above 256 characters.
34 * PXELINUX: revert memory allocation change that caused
35 problems on some network cards.
36 * MEMDISK: Try work around a bug on some BIOSes when no
37 physical floppy disk is present in the system.
38 * Enable the 16550A FIFOs, if present, when doing serial
39 console.
40 * New "totaltimeout" command establishes a timeout without
41 regard for any user input.
42 * Simple menu system: timeout behaviour now more in line with
43 user expectations.
44 * Simple menu system: "ontimeout" should now work correctly.
46 Changes in 3.10:
47 * gcc 4.0.1 compilation fixes.
48 * Add support for querying the PCI BIOS in libcom32
49 (used by ethersel et al.)
50 * Fix PCI handing (ethersel etc) on several old chipsets (and
51 VMWare.)
52 * Try to deal with systems with broken EBIOS.
53 * New API call to do "localboot".
54 * New API call to query features.
55 * New API call to run kernel image, a lower-level call than
56 "run command". See comboot.doc.
57 * Fix for bug in EBIOS code discovered by Arwin Vosselman.
58 * NOESCAPE security fix.
59 * Comments are now recognized even without a space following #.
60 * Fix incorrect handling of mixes of entries with and without
61 MENU PASSWD.
62 * The idle API call now harmlessly returns failure if it is a
63 no-op. That way the caller can decide whether or not to
64 bother invoking it again.
65 * Temporarily disable the idle API call on PXELINUX, due to
66 some platforms on which the idle API call seems to hang; this
67 problem has not yet been debugged.
68 * MEMDISK: the handling of DOSEMU-headered images was broken;
69 fix it.
70 * EXTLINUX: symlinks are now supported.
71 * Simple menu system: N and P now work correctly as hotkeys.
72 * MEMDISK: more BIOS bug workarounds.
74 Changes in 3.09:
75 * gcc4 compilation fix.
76 * <BEL> (Ctrl-G) in message files now causes a beep.
77 * Reduce the command line to 511 characters; 1023 caused
78 memory overflows.
80 Changes in 3.08:
81 * SYSLINUX: Fix performance regression (-s mode always
82 enabled.)
83 * Add API function for idle loop.
84 * libutil: Add do_idle() function for idle loop, make
85 get_key() use it.
86 * libutil: Add SHA-1 and base64 functions.
87 * Simple menu system: add password support.
88 * EXTLINUX: Sparse files now handled correctly.
89 * EXTLINUX: Large directories now handled correctly.
90 * ALL: At the prompt, Ctrl-X now forces text mode.
91 * Fix configuration file parsing error, that could cause
92 hangs.
93 * Rewritten advanced menuing system from Murali Ganapathy.
94 * MEMDISK: New "bigraw" mode to work around certain broken
95 BIOS flash programs.
96 * COM32 module to boot Multiboot systems, including Xen. See
97 com32/modules/mboot.doc.
98 * Max command line changed to 1023 characters. Note that the
99 kernel proper still can only handle 255 characters without
100 patching, and COM16 binaries can only handle 125 characters.
102 Changes in 3.07:
103 * Fix chainloading (chain.c32).
104 * Fix zlib build problem.
105 * Use a private copy of <linux/ext2_fs.h>.
107 Changes in 3.06:
108 * Fix typo that caused the ramdisk to load in the wrong place.
110 Changes in 3.05:
111 * New API function "shuffle and boot"; allows COM32 modules to
112 load or construct (almost) arbitrarily complex objects,
113 e.g. a kernel and its initrd/initramfs in pieces, and have
114 the API core reorganize memory for booting. (A library API
115 for this function will be introduced in a later version.)
116 * The initrd= option now supports multiple filenames separated
117 by commas. This is mostly useful for initramfs, which can
118 be composed of multiple separate cpio or cpio.gz archives.
119 (Note: all files except the last one are zero-padded to a 4K
120 page boundary. This should not affect initramfs.)
121 * EXTLINUX: Fix API function 000Ah (get derivative-specific
122 info).
123 * libcom32/ethersel: Support PCI Config Mechanism #2 on
124 machines still infested with that hideous old hack.
125 * SYSLINUX: Fix directory-parsing bug.
127 Changes in 3.02:
128 * SYSLINUX: The "unix" installer now sets the MS-DOS
129 attributes (hidden, system, readonly.)
130 * COM32 library: build the .lnx (test modules for running
131 under Linux) as architecture native modules, in case
132 i386 devel libraries aren't installed.
133 * EXTLINUX: Hack for systems which don't have BLKGETSIZE64
134 defined in the standard header files.
135 * Simple menu system: minor aestetic improvements, and try to
136 work better over a serial console (speed, and readability on
137 monochrome terminal emulators.)
138 * New CONSOLE directive to control output on the video console
139 (useful for dealing with some broken serial-forwarding
140 BIOSes.)
141 * New com32 module "ethersel" for searching for an Ethernet
142 card and selecting the proper version of Etherboot.
143 * EXTLINUX: Allow the user to override the detected geometry.
144 Add help.
146 Changes in 3.01:
147 * EXTLINUX, SYSLINUX: Fix compile errors on some systems.
148 * EXTLINUX: Default to zipdrive geometry (64 heads, 32
149 sectors) if no other geometry can be detected.
151 Changes in 3.00:
152 * SYSLINUX: Support FAT32 and EDD. As an unfortunate
153 consequence, LDLINUX.SYS is no longer an ordinary file; it
154 is block-mapped at install time, which means it can only be
155 written using the syslinux installers.
156 * SYSLINUX: Reorganize the source code for the installers;
157 each one of the installers (dos, win32, unix, mtools) is now
158 built in its own subdirectory. In particular, "mtools" is
159 the unprivileged installer which uses mtools; "unix" is the
160 privileged installer which uses system calls.
161 * SYSLINUX: Completely rewritten DOS installer in C.
162 * ALL: "label" statement information is now stored in a
163 compressed format, which means that a lot more labels are
164 permitted (500-1000 in a typical configuration, but depends
165 on the complexity.)
166 * EXTLINUX: New derivative, which boots from an ext2/ext3
167 filesystem.
168 * SYSLINUX: The DOS and Win32 installers can now optionally
169 write the boot sector to a file instead of the real boot
170 sector. This is not supported in the Linux installers,
171 however.
172 * ALL: New NOESCAPE command, disables the "hold down the Shift
173 key to display the prompt" behaviour.
174 * New simple menu system, as an alternative to the advanced
175 menu system already present. See README.menu for details.
176 * PXELINUX: Filenames can now be prefixed with an IP address
177 or DNS name plus :: (e.g. 192.0.2.1::filename or
178 server.domain.com::filename), which downloads a file from an
179 alternate TFTP server, or just a :: (e.g. ::filename), which
180 suppresses the common pathname prefix. See pxelinux.doc.
181 * SYSLINUX: Add an -m option to the DOS and Win32 installers
182 to write an MBR and -a to mark the partition SYSLINUX is
183 being installed on active.
184 * MEMDISK: Give a way to query the boot loader type while
185 running MEMDISK; see memdisk/memdisk.doc and
186 sample/mdiskchk.c.
187 * mkdiskimage: substantially improved mkdiskimage which, among
188 other things, can now be used to initialize USB keys as
189 zipdrives; see README.usbkey for more information.
191 Changes in 2.13:
192 * MEMDISK: Fix command-line parsing "brown paper bag" class
193 bug.
194 * MEMDISK: Add "raw" mode to support the DOS boot disk from
195 WinME/XP, which seems to deliberately crash the system
196 when someone uses the "INT 15h mover" highmem API.
197 * Make "make install" do something sane for the com32
198 development environment.
199 * In the spec file, create a separate -devel RPM for the com32
200 development environment.
202 Changes in 2.12:
203 * Simple C library, based on klibc, for writing COM32
204 programs.
205 * Fix the handling of file length in loading of COM32
206 programs.
207 * MEMDISK: Work around a linker bug by rearranging the code to
208 not use the linker for the 16-bit code.
209 * SYSLINUX: If we're building on a machine without a Win32
210 (mingw) compiler, just skip building syslinux.exe.
211 * ISOLINUX: Support non-mkisofs mastering programs, at least
212 as long as the image is single-session. For best results,
213 ISOLINUX should be the only boot loader installed.
214 * MEMDISK: Allow the user to specify that the simulated disk
215 should be write-protected.
217 Changes in 2.11:
218 * ALL: Add an API call to get the configuration file name.
219 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in 2.10 that prevented it from working
220 correctly for a lot of people.
221 * SYSLINUX: In the installer, make mtools a bit less fussy.
222 * Make the menu system compile with newer gcc's.
224 Changes in 2.10:
225 * MEMDISK: Handle images compressed with zip as well as with
226 gzip. Some Windows-based image tools apparently generate
227 these kinds of images by default. Patch by Patrick
228 LoPresti.
229 * Major menu improvement from Murali Ganapathy.
230 * ISOLINUX: Wonderfully sick and brilliant workaround for
231 severe bugs in certain Award BIOSes; from Knut Petersen.
232 * SYSLINUX: Fix for the nomtools installed, from Frederic
233 Pasteleurs.
234 * PXELINUX: Fix handling of IP numbers in the ranges
235 100-109 and 200-209.
236 * ALL: New option "allowoptions" (defaults to 1), which
237 controls if options are allowed on the command line or not.
238 * SYSLINUX: Support building under klibc (see the klibc
239 distribution for details.)
241 Changes in 2.09:
242 * SYSLINUX: Remove residual setuid crap from
243 syslinux-nomtools.
244 * Handle video pages correctly when using the API functions.
245 * Handle compiling on an x86-64 platform correctly.
246 * Menu system from Murali Krishnan Ganapathy; see the menu
247 directory for information.
248 * COMBOOT: Allow COMBOOT programs to change screen text mode.
249 * COMBOOT: Correct the documentation of how to detect
250 SYSLINUX from COMBOOT!!!!
251 * COMBOOT: Fix "get key without echo" API function.
252 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug that affected the API open function.
253 * ALL: Improve the E820 memory parser, to work around some
254 buggy BIOSes.
256 Changes in 2.08:
257 * Add new configuration command "ontimeout" to allow timeout
258 to have a different action than just pressing Enter.
259 * Add new configuration command "onerror" to allow a custom
260 command to be executed in case the kernel image is not found.
261 * Fix bugs in the COMBOOT/COM32 command-line parsing. APPEND
262 now works with COMBOOT/COM32 images.
263 * PXELINUX: Poll for ARP requests while sitting at the
264 prompt. This makes some boot servers a lot less unhappy.
265 * PXELINUX: Actually free sockets when we get a failure
266 (including file not found.) This bug would cause us to run
267 out of sockets and thus "go deaf" after a while.
268 * MEMDISK: Add an API to query for the existence of MEMDISK.
269 * SYSLINUX: Fix loading boot sectors (.bs/.bss) from floppy
270 disk.
271 * .c32 is now one of the extensions searched for
272 automatically.
273 * PXELINUX: RFBG.exe seems to randomly overwrite memory
274 location 0x5700. Thus, don't use it!
275 * PXELINUX: Change pathname length max from 63 to 127; change
276 max vkernels from 128 to 64.
277 * Support Ctrl-U -> kill entire command line input.
278 * The "samples" directory contains a (barely at all tested)
279 chain loading example, chain.c32, which may be used to
280 chainload local floppy disks and hard disks. Use with
281 "chain fdN" or "chain hdN [partition]"; N = 0 for the first
282 drive of each type.
284 Changes in 2.07:
285 * MEMDISK: Workaround for BIOSes which go into a snit when
286 they get a RESET command for the floppy system when there is
287 no floppy in the system.
288 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend 2", which passes the hardware
289 address of the boot interface to the kernel as a
290 command-line option.
291 * mkdiskimage: fix the generation of the end limit.
292 * PXELINUX: Fix multiple bugs in chainloading of other NBPs.
293 * MEMDISK: Fix bug that would occationally cause "ran out of
294 input data" when using compressed disk images.
295 * SYSLINUX: Updates for the win32 installer (from Lars Munch.)
296 * PXELINUX: PXELINUX-specific options are now recognized both
297 in a vendor-option-space (a.k.a. type 43 encapsulated) as
298 well as in a site-option-space (unencapsulated.)
299 * COM32: Don't crash when DS != 0.
300 * COMBOOT/COM32: Make file reading work correctly. Thanks to
301 Phung Chi Kien for submitting a test program.
303 Changes in 2.06:
304 * ALL: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
305 boot failure, depending on the length of the kernel.
306 * ISOLINUX: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
307 boot failure, depending on the length of directories.
308 * SYSLINUX: Win32 installer now flushes buffers.
309 * ppmtolss16: Be fully compliant with the PNM spec;
310 actually process comments in the header and odd
311 alignments of the various parameters, as well as
312 "plain" (not raw) files and PBM and PGM files.
313 * PXELINUX: Lower the default MTU to 1472 in order to deal
314 with systems with slightly nonstandard MTUs, and PXE
315 stacks which don't defragment correctly. Unfortunately this
316 is very hard to test dynamically.
318 Changes in 2.05:
319 * PXELINUX: Add a default query based on the hardware address
320 of the boot device. This is in lower case hexadecimal form
321 separated by dashes and including the hardware type, for
322 example, the Ethernet (type 1) address 88:99:AA:BB:CC:DD
323 would query the file pxelinux.cfg/01-88-99-aa-bb-cc-dd.
324 * PXELINUX: Fix bug involving non-IP-based config file names.
325 * SYSLINUX: New installer for WinNT-based systems, from Lars
326 Munch.
327 * MEMDISK: Fix handling of memory region overlap when
328 decompressing. Thanks to Mikhail Kupchik for identifying
329 the problem.
331 Changes in 2.04:
332 * ALL: Reclaim even more low memory by observing that
333 comboot_seg == real_mode_seg is perfectly fine, and by the
334 fact that the 1000h segment managed to get unused in all
335 derivatives...
336 * PXELINUX: Attempt to negotiate full Ethernet-sized blocks
337 (1468 bytes) using the blksize option.
338 * SYSLINUX: Resurrect the old no-mtools version of the
339 installer, although as a root-only tool. Some distributors
340 have indicated that they need a small standalone installer.
341 * MEMDISK: Fix a memory offset computation error when
342 installing compressed disks which generally would cause
343 1 MB of memory to be wasted.
344 * MEMDISK: Fix installing the E820 memory map. Calling
345 INT 15h AX=0E820h with MEMDISK 2.03 loaded would give a
346 completely corrupt memory map.
347 * SYSLINUX: Make libsyslinux a dynamic library, so that it can
348 be updated separately from client programs. The whole idea,
349 after all, is to enable alternate programs to become
350 syslinux installers.
351 * Include an rpm spec file in the distribution, so rpmbuild
352 -ta works.
354 Changes in 2.03:
355 * Actually support comment lines in the configuration file.
356 * PXELINUX: Try to resolve some problems with stack switches.
357 * PXELINUX: Handle PXE stacks with broken routing.
358 With these workarounds, the remote install PXE boot floppy
359 (rbfg.exe) from Argon Technologies should work correctly.
360 * Fix problems with Perl scripts in UTF-8 locales.
361 * You probably need NASM 0.98.34 or later to compile this
362 version. 0.98.36 is recommended.
363 * MEMDISK: Now supports gzip compressed images.
365 Changes in 2.02:
366 * SYSLINUX: Security flaws have been found in the SYSLINUX
367 installer when running setuid root. Rewrite the SYSLINUX
368 installer so it uses mtools instead. It therefore now
369 requires mtools (specifically mcopy and mattrib) to exist on
370 your system, but it will not require root privileges and
371 SHOULD NOT be setuid.
373 Changes in 2.01:
374 * MEMDISK: Fix memory sizing bug when the ramdisk crosses the
375 16 MB boundary.
376 * MEMDISK: Add a "pause" option to stop immediately before
377 booting, to read off the messages.
378 * MEMDISK: Support disk images with DOSEMU headers.
379 * Update the mkdiskimage script to handle newer mtools
380 versions, and be able to generate disk images with DOSEMU
381 headers (controlled by the -d option).
382 * Fix the COM32 sample program.
383 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix some COMBOOT API calls.
384 * PXELINUX: Doc fix.
385 * Build SYSLINUX into a small library for encapsulation into
386 other programs (however, please keep in mind this is a GPL'd
387 library.)
388 * SYSLINUX: Make installer work with "owner" in /etc/fstab.
389 * SYSLINUX: Fix issue with working on nonpartitioned hard disk
390 devices. THIS CONFIGURATION IS NOT RECOMMENDED.
392 Changes in 2.00:
393 * ALL: Add support for "COM32" (32-bit COMBOOT) images.
394 * ALL: Add an API for COMBOOT/COM32 images. See comboot.doc
395 for details. There is a C development environment for
396 COM32 being created; it should be ready at some point in
397 the future.
398 * Fix mbr.asm so that it actually works.
399 * SYSLINUX: The syslinux installer *SHOULD* now be safe to
400 run setuid root.
401 * PXELINUX: Fix bug where PXELINUX would override random
402 chunks of the UNDI code segment! Thanks to Kevin Tran for
403 finding this bug.
404 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug related to slashes in pathnames.
405 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug in handling initrds over 128 MB.
406 * ALL: Make the <Ctrl-V> key print out the version; this is
407 to help debugging.
408 * Add a small script, mkdiskimage, to create a DOS-formatted
409 hard disk image using mtools. This may be useful in
410 conjunction with MEMDISK.
411 * ISOLINUX: Search for a /boot/isolinux directory as well as
412 /isolinux.
413 * ALL: Fix a bug related to very long configuration files.
414 * PXELINUX: Work around a NASM bug which would result in no
415 delay before reset if an error occurs.
417 Changes in 1.76:
418 * ISOLINUX: Remove code no longer used which caused hangs on
419 some Toshiba laptops.
421 Changes in 1.75:
422 * ALL: NASM 0.98.32 or later is now required to build
423 SYSLINUX from sources.
424 * SYSLINUX: put back in the workaround for the BIOS floppy
425 table. This seems to be a requirement for "extended" floppy
426 formats to work correctly.
427 * SYSLINUX: No longer warn if one is trying to boot on a 286
428 or older. The above BIOS workaround no longer fits if the
429 requirement to use only 8086-compatible code in the early
430 boot is maintained. It made sense in 1994, but in 2002 a
431 286 or older is a museum object.
432 * SYSLINUX: Use a downright bizarre, stateful algorithm to try
433 to guess the maximum transfer size. I am *hoping* this will
434 cut down on the number of systems for which -s is required
435 to work at any acceptable speed.
436 * ISOLINUX: Add a few more workarounds for various broken El
437 Torito BIOSes.
438 * Make sure .depend files aren't accidentally packed...
439 * ALL: Fix bugs in the extension-detect code; this caused
440 files like COMBOOT images and CD boot sectors to be
441 mis-identified as Linux kernels and rejected.
442 * ALL: Fix the return from COMBOOT.
443 * ALL: Do some of the early groundwork for supporting DOS
444 system calls in COMBOOT.
445 * Get rid of unnecessary "near" directives, making the code
446 bigger.
447 * PXELINUX: Put the PXE stack back in the init state before
448 invoking a chain-loaded NBP.
449 * PXELINUX: Actually found the combination of calls that
450 allows some (most?) PXE 2+ stacks to be unloaded from memory
451 properly.
452 * PXELINUX: Add "keeppxe" command-line option to disable
453 the standard unloading of the PXE stack.
455 Changes in 1.74:
456 * SYSLINUX: fix bug that would cause valid kernel images to be
457 labelled "invalid".
459 Changes in 1.73:
460 * Work on removing gratuitous differences between modules.
461 * Break up the source in common and module-specific files.
462 * PXELINUX: Allow chaining of other PXE NBPs.
463 * ISOLINUX: Allow loading "CD-ROM boot sectors".
464 * ALL: generalize the definition of a boot sector/NBP.
466 Changes in 1.72:
467 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix bugs in the new core code.
469 Changes in 1.71:
470 * Fix a "brown paper bag" class bug in the new core code.
472 Changes in 1.70:
473 * Major code restructuring.
474 * Relax the conventional memory limits somewhat.
475 * MEMDISK: Set up the "version number string" pointer in the
476 header correctly.
477 * SYSLINUX: Fix, again, "the bug that won't die": the use of
478 the offset parameter with the SYSLINUX installer.
479 * SYSLINUX: Fix possible superblock corruption problem in the
480 SYSLINUX installer.
482 Changes in 1.67:
483 * Handle bug in the location of initrd.
485 Changes in 1.66:
486 * MEMDISK: Make compile with newer versions of gcc.
488 Changes in 1.65:
489 * ISOLINUX: Support booting disk image files (to boot DOS or
490 other non-Linux operating systems), *IF* the BIOS works
491 correctly; unfortunately many BIOSes apparently don't.
492 * Support Linux boot protocol version 2.03 (explicitly
493 specify the initrd address limit.)
494 * Handle small "pseudo-kernels"; images that use the Linux
495 kernel boot protocols but are less than 64K in size.
496 * MEMDISK: New subsystem; this is a driver which allows
497 legacy OSes to boot using an in-memory simulated disk.
498 See memdisk/memdisk.doc for more info.
499 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Correctly handle files larger than 65535
500 blocks (32 MB for PXELINUX, 128 MB for ISOLINUX.)
501 * PXELINUX: Make a best-effort attempt at freeing all memory
502 claimed. From the looks of it, it will fail on most PXE
503 stacks.
505 Changes in 1.64:
506 * Limited support for hardware flow control when using a
507 serial port console.
508 * Support specifying the serial port I/O address explicitly.
509 * Make DOS installer hopefully behave more nicely when used on
510 recent Windows versions.
511 * Fix returning to text mode when a font has been specified.
512 * Attempt to detect missing serial port hardware and disable
513 the serial port if there is nothing there.
515 Changes in 1.63:
516 * Make the ppmtolss16 program handle color conversion more
517 correctly.
518 * Clean up "make install" target, honour INSTALLROOT if it
519 exists.
520 * SYSLINUX: Fix stack-smash bug identified by Steffen
521 Winterfeldt.
522 * Hopefully fix return-to-text-mode on some graphics cards.
523 * ISOLINUX: Bug workaround for Award BIOS 4.51, and perhaps
524 other buggy BIOSes as well.
526 Changes in 1.62:
527 * PXELINUX: Allow the DHCP server to override the
528 configuration file name and pathname prefix, using
529 "site-specific" DHCP options.
530 * PXELINUX: Documentation fixes.
531 * PXELINUX: Fix the "ipappend" option; the last two values
532 were reversed vs. what the kernel expected.
533 * Introduce a way to return to text mode once we are already
534 in graphics mode. This may be useful for F-key help
535 screens.
536 * Fix several bugs in the way return to text mode was handled.
538 Changes in 1.61:
539 * ISOLINUX: Support full pathname searches. Max length for a
540 pathname is 255 characters. As a result, only 64 "label"
541 statements are supported in ISOLINUX.
542 * PXELINUX: Max filename length extended to 63 characters.
544 Changes in 1.60:
545 * Add support for graphical splash screens.
546 * Add mode control characters, which allows you to control
547 message display output depending on output mode (text,
548 graphics, or serial port.)
549 * ISOLINUX: New program, which boots Linux from a CD-ROM
550 without using floppy emulation mode. See isolinux.doc for
551 more details.
552 * PXELINUX: Don't search for boot sector file types, since
553 they don't work anyway.
554 * SYSLINUX: Document the LOCK command for Win9x, and the error
555 dialog box for WinNT/2K.
557 Changes in 1.54:
558 * PXELINUX: Fix code for finding !PXE from PXENV+. This was
559 due to a spec bug; match the most recent spec since that
560 seems to be what implementations actually do.
561 * SYSLINUX: Add some smarts to the boot sector, which
562 hopefully should reduce the number of systems which require
563 stupid mode ("syslinux -s").
564 * PXELINUX: Document further some of the pathologies with old
565 PXE stacks.
566 * When specifying a "default" command line, no longer
567 automatically appent "auto". See the "DEFAULT" command in
568 syslinux.doc for more information.
569 * PXELINUX: Clean up the allocation of local socket numbers.
571 Changes in 1.53:
572 * PXELINUX: Rename pxelinux.bin to pxelinux.0, to match what
573 most PXE servers seem to expect.
574 * PXELINUX: Update the DHCP/boot server setup documentation.
575 * PXELINUX: Support new "localboot" option for "label"
576 sections.
577 * PXELINUX: More robust parsing of DHCP/boot server packets.
578 * PXELINUX: Include a small utility program "gethostip" to
579 compute hexadecimal IP addresses.
581 Changes in 1.52:
582 * PXELINUX: Fix bugs introduced by new A20 code. (SYSLINUX
583 has also been changed for code consistency reasons, but I'm
584 pretty sure the changes are don't care on SYSLINUX.)
585 * Documentation updates.
586 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend" option to generate an ip= option to
587 the kernel.
589 Changes in 1.51:
590 * PXELINUX: Not all PXE stacks fill in the IP address for a
591 type 3 cached info query. Use a type 2 cached info query
592 for this information (only.)
593 * Yet another attempt at A20 coding. Now support BIOS call
594 15:2401 as well, and handle machines which always have A20
595 on separately.
596 * Support memory detection using INT 15h, AX=0E820h. BIOS
597 manufacturers have apparently gotten sloppy about keeping
598 INT 15h, AX=0E801h working properly.
599 * Don't issue <CR><LF> onto the serial port when we're doing
600 screen wraparound.
602 Changes in 1.50:
603 * Yet another A20-code update. It seems some "legacy-free"
604 machines and embedded gear simply don't have a KBC to talk
605 to, and that waiting for one will wait forever. Sigh.
607 Changes in 1.49:
608 * SYSLINUX: Implement a hack for BIOS drivers which hog significant
609 chunks of low memory during boot. (Note: PXELINUX already
610 had this modification. SYSLINUX does still require that the
611 low 512K is available; PXELINUX requires 384K. Machines
612 with a physical memory hole in the low 640K cannot boot
613 Linux no matter what.) Depending what the reason is for the
614 memory hole, a new kernel (2.4.0-test3-pre3 or later) may be
615 required.
616 * SYSLINUX: Default installer binary now compiled against
617 glibc 2.1. If this is inappropriate for your system and you
618 still want to use the offical version of SYSLINUX, please
619 follow the instructions in "distrib.doc" to rebuild the
620 installer.
621 * SYSLINUX: Linux installer program now supports -o <offset>
622 option which does a loopback mount with the
623 -o loop,offset=<> option. Useful to run SYSLINUX on an
624 individual partition of a whole-harddisk image.
625 * Include the source code to a Master Boot Record (MBR)
626 functionally equivalent to the one installed DOS except it
627 includes EBIOS support, and should be resistant to geometry
628 changes. The MBR code is public domain.
629 * PXELINUX: Fix "double p" bug: if the tftp prefix was null,
630 all filenames would get a "p" preprended, e.g.
631 "ppxelinux.cfg" and "pvmlinux".
633 Changes in 1.48:
634 * PXELINUX: Workaround for PXE ROMs based on the Intel PXE PDK
635 3.0 build 071 and earlier: missing !PXE structure pointer.
636 * PXELINUX: Handle larger BOOTP/DHCP packages.
637 * PXELINUX: The command line passing was broken; fix.
638 * PXELINUX: Make COMBOOT images work.
639 * PXELINUX: Documentation on how to make booting work using
640 the PDK 3.0-derived clients, which aren't so generous as to
641 allow booting with only "PXEClient" specified.
643 Changes in 1.47:
644 * PXELINUX: RFC 1123 states that a TFTP implementation MUST
645 use adaptive timeout, "at least an exponential backoff of
646 retransmission timeout is necessary." Implement a very
647 simple exponential backoff for retransmits.
648 * PXELINUX: Updated documentation, including pointer to new
649 TFTP server.
650 * PXELINUX: When sending ERROR due to bad OACK, use the proper
651 destination port number (why are TFTP port numbers so odd?)
652 * PXELINUX: If the boot dies in the middle somewhere,
653 eventually give up and reset the machine (unattended
654 operation.)
656 Changes in 1.46:
657 * New program PXELINUX to do network booting using a
658 PXE-compliant (Pre-Execution Environment) network booting
659 PROM. See pxelinux.doc for details.
661 Changes in 1.45:
662 * Serial console support. See syslinux.doc for details.
664 Changes in 1.44:
665 * Change HIGHMEM_MAX to 38000000h to (hopefully) avoid the
666 kernel stepping on it; 3f000000h was apparently a higher
667 limit than the kernel used!
669 Changes in 1.43:
670 * Add sys2ansi.pl script to display the contents of a
671 colorized SYSLINUX file.
672 * Changed the io_delay once again, after a report that the
673 old delay port causes hangs on some systems.
675 Changes in 1.42:
676 * Frob the "fast A20 gate" port as well as the keyboard
677 controller; will this help systems with problems?
678 * Be even more paranoid about A20, unfortunately even this
679 seems to be not paranoid enough... what I don't understand
680 is that if there is hardware out there *this broken*, how
681 can it run Linux at all? Report an error message rather
682 than hang forever if A20 is stuck.
683 * Include some intermediate files in the distribution, plus
684 provide a "make installer" target for distributors to relink
685 the install programs only. I would prefer the syslinux boot
686 loader proper to be "binary clean" for debuggablity -- use
687 "make clean ; make installer" to rebuild the installers only.
689 Changes in 1.41:
690 * Don't get confused by directories, volume labels, or VFAT
691 long names.
692 * Use INT 15h, AX=0E801h to query memory size before trying
693 INT 15h, AH=88h. This not only provides more headroom
694 between the kernel and the initrd on large-memory machines,
695 but it appears some recent BIOSes actually have started
696 returning garbage for the AH=88h (older) call.
697 * Trust high memory beyond the 15 MB mark if the user has
698 specified it, or if obtained with INT 15h, AH=0E801h (with
699 no memory holes above 1 MB.)
701 Changes in 1.40:
702 * Increase A20M delay and put in a test to avoid problems on
703 certain IBM Thinkpads (thanks to Donnie Barnes of RedHat
704 for vital info on this one.)
705 * Support COMBOOT style boot command images.
706 * Support chain loading (foreign operating systems, e.g. DOS).
707 * Include a new "copybs" DOS utility to copy a boot sector to
708 a file (under Linux, use "dd".)
709 * Fix the DOS installer to work for disks over 32 MB.
710 * SYSLINUX should now handle disks with more than 65536 tracks.
712 Changes in 1.37:
713 * Fix a bug that caused "label" statements in syslinux.cfg to
714 not be handled properly.
715 * Updated the documentation. Among other things, we now allow
716 up to 128 "label" statements.
718 Changes in 1.36:
719 * Fix for booting old (pre-initrd) kernels.
720 * It seems at least some versions of OS/2 doesn't set up all
721 the fields in the superblock correctly. Account for that.
722 * Fix bug that caused boot failure when using the mem= option.
724 Changes in 1.35:
725 * Loading from partitions now should work properly. (Actually
726 tested, this time. You should even be able to dd a floppy
727 to a partition and boot from it.)
728 * Removed large workaround code for an alleged ancient BIOS
729 bug I have never actually seen. The -s option should work
730 on those machines, anyway.
731 * Support for simple keyboard remappings, same as used by
732 LILO (once again to support localization.) The program
733 keytab-lilo.pl from the LILO distribution included to
734 generate such maps.
735 * Added a "safe, slow and stupid" (-s) option to the
736 installers. This option will lobotomize the boot sector to
737 hopefully work on even very buggy BIOSes.
739 Changes in 1.34:
740 * Ability to load a VGA font on bootup (for localized Linux
741 distributions.)
743 Changes in 1.33:
744 * Bug fix in the Linux installer.
745 * Added a workaround for a bug in certain AMI/Intel BIOSes
746 when booting from CD-ROM.
747 * Documentation changes.
749 Changes in 1.32:
750 * FAT16 filesystems are now supported.
752 Changes in 1.31:
753 * Now compiles under Linux, using NASM, rather than using
754 Turbo Assembler under DOS. See http://www.cryogen.com/Nasm
755 for information about NASM.
756 * Linux-hosted SYSLINUX installer, as well as a
757 rewritten DOS installer (now is written in assembler, so we
758 don't need Turbo C.)
760 Changes in 1.30:
761 * Added support for loading bzImage and initrd loading, and made
762 SYSLINUX new-setup-code aware (SYSLINUX 1.30 id=0x31).
763 * Added LILO-style kernel labels; see the LABEL and IMPLICIT
764 keywords in README file.
765 * Added support for colorization of intro and help screens.
766 * The vga= option is now handled correctly.
767 * Massive rewrite of large chunks of the code in order to
768 support the first two new features.
770 Changes in 1.20:
771 * Added simple online help at the "boot:" prompt.
772 * Removed 2880K image as I no longer have access to such a
773 floppy drive. (Donations accepted!!)
774 * Decided to distribute the source in a subdirectory rather
775 than in a nested zipfile.
777 Changes in 1.11:
778 * Removed a sanity check which would cause booting to fail on
779 Phoenix BIOS version 4.03. Apparently this BIOS is buggy.
781 Changes in 1.10:
782 * Added configuration file SYSLINUX.CFG. This file contains all
783 configurable options, and can be edited from any OS which can
784 access an MS-DOS filesystem; there is no longer a need to run
785 SYSLINUX.EXE except to write the boot sector.
786 * Default command line now given by "default" line in config
787 file.
788 * LINUXMSG.TXT and BOOTMSG.TXT hard-coded file names replaced by
789 "display" and "prompt" lines in config file.
790 * LILO-style option appending now supported ("append" line in
791 config file).
792 * Prompt timeout is now supported ("timeout" line in config
793 file). The timeout is cancelled when anything is typed on the
794 command line.
795 * Pressing <ESC> or <Ctrl-C> at the Loading... stage now aborts
796 the kernel loading in progress and returns the user to the
797 boot: prompt.
798 * The installer now automatically sets the READONLY flag on
799 LDLINUX.SYS.
800 * Added 2880K disk image.
802 Changes in 1.03:
803 * Fixed bug that would prevent booting from double-density
804 floppies and other DOS filesystems with multiple sectors per
805 cluster.
806 * Added 720K disk image.
807 * Changed default kernel name on disk images to LINUX.
809 Changes in 1.02:
810 * Fixed bug that would garble the command line on recent kernels
811 with more than 4 sectors of setup code (this wasn't really a
812 *bug*; rather, a kernel change broke the code. Unfortunately
813 the Linux boot interface is still sorely undocumented).
814 * Added BOOTMSG.TXT file support (message file which does not
815 force display of the boot prompt).
817 Changes in 1.01:
818 * Fixed bug on some (most?) 386 BIOSes would require two boot
819 attempts.