| blob | cb4ae0960aa7173a9fc503c692a86b60a29a746f |
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 3.20:
6 * EXTLINUX: New options --install (-i) and --update (-U), to
7 make it clear if a boot loader should be installed or
8 updated. For now, defaults to --install for compatibility;
9 a future version will require one of these options.
10 * New library functions to load and place files in memory.
12 Changes in 3.11:
13 * MEMDISK: Fix bug by which accessing the real floppy disk
14 as B: in MS-DOS was broken.
15 * Simple menu system: allow tweaking of the screen layout.
16 * Simple menu system: better command-line editing, correctly
17 handle command lines above 256 characters.
18 * PXELINUX: revert memory allocation change that caused
19 problems on some network cards.
20 * MEMDISK: Try work around a bug on some BIOSes when no
21 physical floppy disk is present in the system.
22 * Enable the 16550A FIFOs, if present, when doing serial
23 console.
24 * New "totaltimeout" command establishes a timeout without
25 regard for any user input.
26 * Simple menu system: timeout behaviour now more in line with
27 user expectations.
28 * Simple menu system: "ontimeout" should now work correctly.
30 Changes in 3.10:
31 * gcc 4.0.1 compilation fixes.
32 * Add support for querying the PCI BIOS in libcom32
33 (used by ethersel et al.)
34 * Fix PCI handing (ethersel etc) on several old chipsets (and
35 VMWare.)
36 * Try to deal with systems with broken EBIOS.
37 * New API call to do "localboot".
38 * New API call to query features.
39 * New API call to run kernel image, a lower-level call than
40 "run command". See comboot.doc.
41 * Fix for bug in EBIOS code discovered by Arwin Vosselman.
42 * NOESCAPE security fix.
43 * Comments are now recognized even without a space following #.
44 * Fix incorrect handling of mixes of entries with and without
45 MENU PASSWD.
46 * The idle API call now harmlessly returns failure if it is a
47 no-op. That way the caller can decide whether or not to
48 bother invoking it again.
49 * Temporarily disable the idle API call on PXELINUX, due to
50 some platforms on which the idle API call seems to hang; this
51 problem has not yet been debugged.
52 * MEMDISK: the handling of DOSEMU-headered images was broken;
53 fix it.
54 * EXTLINUX: symlinks are now supported.
55 * Simple menu system: N and P now work correctly as hotkeys.
56 * MEMDISK: more BIOS bug workarounds.
58 Changes in 3.09:
59 * gcc4 compilation fix.
60 * <BEL> (Ctrl-G) in message files now causes a beep.
61 * Reduce the command line to 511 characters; 1023 caused
62 memory overflows.
64 Changes in 3.08:
65 * SYSLINUX: Fix performance regression (-s mode always
66 enabled.)
67 * Add API function for idle loop.
68 * libutil: Add do_idle() function for idle loop, make
69 get_key() use it.
70 * libutil: Add SHA-1 and base64 functions.
71 * Simple menu system: add password support.
72 * EXTLINUX: Sparse files now handled correctly.
73 * EXTLINUX: Large directories now handled correctly.
74 * ALL: At the prompt, Ctrl-X now forces text mode.
75 * Fix configuration file parsing error, that could cause
76 hangs.
77 * Rewritten advanced menuing system from Murali Ganapathy.
78 * MEMDISK: New "bigraw" mode to work around certain broken
79 BIOS flash programs.
80 * COM32 module to boot Multiboot systems, including Xen. See
81 com32/modules/mboot.doc.
82 * Max command line changed to 1023 characters. Note that the
83 kernel proper still can only handle 255 characters without
84 patching, and COM16 binaries can only handle 125 characters.
86 Changes in 3.07:
87 * Fix chainloading (chain.c32).
88 * Fix zlib build problem.
89 * Use a private copy of <linux/ext2_fs.h>.
91 Changes in 3.06:
92 * Fix typo that caused the ramdisk to load in the wrong place.
94 Changes in 3.05:
95 * New API function "shuffle and boot"; allows COM32 modules to
96 load or construct (almost) arbitrarily complex objects,
97 e.g. a kernel and its initrd/initramfs in pieces, and have
98 the API core reorganize memory for booting. (A library API
99 for this function will be introduced in a later version.)
100 * The initrd= option now supports multiple filenames separated
101 by commas. This is mostly useful for initramfs, which can
102 be composed of multiple separate cpio or cpio.gz archives.
103 (Note: all files except the last one are zero-padded to a 4K
104 page boundary. This should not affect initramfs.)
105 * EXTLINUX: Fix API function 000Ah (get derivative-specific
106 info).
107 * libcom32/ethersel: Support PCI Config Mechanism #2 on
108 machines still infested with that hideous old hack.
109 * SYSLINUX: Fix directory-parsing bug.
111 Changes in 3.02:
112 * SYSLINUX: The "unix" installer now sets the MS-DOS
113 attributes (hidden, system, readonly.)
114 * COM32 library: build the .lnx (test modules for running
115 under Linux) as architecture native modules, in case
116 i386 devel libraries aren't installed.
117 * EXTLINUX: Hack for systems which don't have BLKGETSIZE64
118 defined in the standard header files.
119 * Simple menu system: minor aestetic improvements, and try to
120 work better over a serial console (speed, and readability on
121 monochrome terminal emulators.)
122 * New CONSOLE directive to control output on the video console
123 (useful for dealing with some broken serial-forwarding
124 BIOSes.)
125 * New com32 module "ethersel" for searching for an Ethernet
126 card and selecting the proper version of Etherboot.
127 * EXTLINUX: Allow the user to override the detected geometry.
128 Add help.
130 Changes in 3.01:
131 * EXTLINUX, SYSLINUX: Fix compile errors on some systems.
132 * EXTLINUX: Default to zipdrive geometry (64 heads, 32
133 sectors) if no other geometry can be detected.
135 Changes in 3.00:
136 * SYSLINUX: Support FAT32 and EDD. As an unfortunate
137 consequence, LDLINUX.SYS is no longer an ordinary file; it
138 is block-mapped at install time, which means it can only be
139 written using the syslinux installers.
140 * SYSLINUX: Reorganize the source code for the installers;
141 each one of the installers (dos, win32, unix, mtools) is now
142 built in its own subdirectory. In particular, "mtools" is
143 the unprivileged installer which uses mtools; "unix" is the
144 privileged installer which uses system calls.
145 * SYSLINUX: Completely rewritten DOS installer in C.
146 * ALL: "label" statement information is now stored in a
147 compressed format, which means that a lot more labels are
148 permitted (500-1000 in a typical configuration, but depends
149 on the complexity.)
150 * EXTLINUX: New derivative, which boots from an ext2/ext3
151 filesystem.
152 * SYSLINUX: The DOS and Win32 installers can now optionally
153 write the boot sector to a file instead of the real boot
154 sector. This is not supported in the Linux installers,
155 however.
156 * ALL: New NOESCAPE command, disables the "hold down the Shift
157 key to display the prompt" behaviour.
158 * New simple menu system, as an alternative to the advanced
159 menu system already present. See README.menu for details.
160 * PXELINUX: Filenames can now be prefixed with an IP address
161 or DNS name plus :: (e.g. 192.0.2.1::filename or
162 server.domain.com::filename), which downloads a file from an
163 alternate TFTP server, or just a :: (e.g. ::filename), which
164 suppresses the common pathname prefix. See pxelinux.doc.
165 * SYSLINUX: Add an -m option to the DOS and Win32 installers
166 to write an MBR and -a to mark the partition SYSLINUX is
167 being installed on active.
168 * MEMDISK: Give a way to query the boot loader type while
169 running MEMDISK; see memdisk/memdisk.doc and
170 sample/mdiskchk.c.
171 * mkdiskimage: substantially improved mkdiskimage which, among
172 other things, can now be used to initialize USB keys as
173 zipdrives; see README.usbkey for more information.
175 Changes in 2.13:
176 * MEMDISK: Fix command-line parsing "brown paper bag" class
177 bug.
178 * MEMDISK: Add "raw" mode to support the DOS boot disk from
179 WinME/XP, which seems to deliberately crash the system
180 when someone uses the "INT 15h mover" highmem API.
181 * Make "make install" do something sane for the com32
182 development environment.
183 * In the spec file, create a separate -devel RPM for the com32
184 development environment.
186 Changes in 2.12:
187 * Simple C library, based on klibc, for writing COM32
188 programs.
189 * Fix the handling of file length in loading of COM32
190 programs.
191 * MEMDISK: Work around a linker bug by rearranging the code to
192 not use the linker for the 16-bit code.
193 * SYSLINUX: If we're building on a machine without a Win32
194 (mingw) compiler, just skip building syslinux.exe.
195 * ISOLINUX: Support non-mkisofs mastering programs, at least
196 as long as the image is single-session. For best results,
197 ISOLINUX should be the only boot loader installed.
198 * MEMDISK: Allow the user to specify that the simulated disk
199 should be write-protected.
201 Changes in 2.11:
202 * ALL: Add an API call to get the configuration file name.
203 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in 2.10 that prevented it from working
204 correctly for a lot of people.
205 * SYSLINUX: In the installer, make mtools a bit less fussy.
206 * Make the menu system compile with newer gcc's.
208 Changes in 2.10:
209 * MEMDISK: Handle images compressed with zip as well as with
210 gzip. Some Windows-based image tools apparently generate
211 these kinds of images by default. Patch by Patrick
212 LoPresti.
213 * Major menu improvement from Murali Ganapathy.
214 * ISOLINUX: Wonderfully sick and brilliant workaround for
215 severe bugs in certain Award BIOSes; from Knut Petersen.
216 * SYSLINUX: Fix for the nomtools installed, from Frederic
217 Pasteleurs.
218 * PXELINUX: Fix handling of IP numbers in the ranges
219 100-109 and 200-209.
220 * ALL: New option "allowoptions" (defaults to 1), which
221 controls if options are allowed on the command line or not.
222 * SYSLINUX: Support building under klibc (see the klibc
223 distribution for details.)
225 Changes in 2.09:
226 * SYSLINUX: Remove residual setuid crap from
227 syslinux-nomtools.
228 * Handle video pages correctly when using the API functions.
229 * Handle compiling on an x86-64 platform correctly.
230 * Menu system from Murali Krishnan Ganapathy; see the menu
231 directory for information.
232 * COMBOOT: Allow COMBOOT programs to change screen text mode.
233 * COMBOOT: Correct the documentation of how to detect
234 SYSLINUX from COMBOOT!!!!
235 * COMBOOT: Fix "get key without echo" API function.
236 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug that affected the API open function.
237 * ALL: Improve the E820 memory parser, to work around some
238 buggy BIOSes.
240 Changes in 2.08:
241 * Add new configuration command "ontimeout" to allow timeout
242 to have a different action than just pressing Enter.
243 * Add new configuration command "onerror" to allow a custom
244 command to be executed in case the kernel image is not found.
245 * Fix bugs in the COMBOOT/COM32 command-line parsing. APPEND
246 now works with COMBOOT/COM32 images.
247 * PXELINUX: Poll for ARP requests while sitting at the
248 prompt. This makes some boot servers a lot less unhappy.
249 * PXELINUX: Actually free sockets when we get a failure
250 (including file not found.) This bug would cause us to run
251 out of sockets and thus "go deaf" after a while.
252 * MEMDISK: Add an API to query for the existence of MEMDISK.
253 * SYSLINUX: Fix loading boot sectors (.bs/.bss) from floppy
254 disk.
255 * .c32 is now one of the extensions searched for
256 automatically.
257 * PXELINUX: RFBG.exe seems to randomly overwrite memory
258 location 0x5700. Thus, don't use it!
259 * PXELINUX: Change pathname length max from 63 to 127; change
260 max vkernels from 128 to 64.
261 * Support Ctrl-U -> kill entire command line input.
262 * The "samples" directory contains a (barely at all tested)
263 chain loading example, chain.c32, which may be used to
264 chainload local floppy disks and hard disks. Use with
265 "chain fdN" or "chain hdN [partition]"; N = 0 for the first
266 drive of each type.
268 Changes in 2.07:
269 * MEMDISK: Workaround for BIOSes which go into a snit when
270 they get a RESET command for the floppy system when there is
271 no floppy in the system.
272 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend 2", which passes the hardware
273 address of the boot interface to the kernel as a
274 command-line option.
275 * mkdiskimage: fix the generation of the end limit.
276 * PXELINUX: Fix multiple bugs in chainloading of other NBPs.
277 * MEMDISK: Fix bug that would occationally cause "ran out of
278 input data" when using compressed disk images.
279 * SYSLINUX: Updates for the win32 installer (from Lars Munch.)
280 * PXELINUX: PXELINUX-specific options are now recognized both
281 in a vendor-option-space (a.k.a. type 43 encapsulated) as
282 well as in a site-option-space (unencapsulated.)
283 * COM32: Don't crash when DS != 0.
284 * COMBOOT/COM32: Make file reading work correctly. Thanks to
285 Phung Chi Kien for submitting a test program.
287 Changes in 2.06:
288 * ALL: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
289 boot failure, depending on the length of the kernel.
290 * ISOLINUX: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
291 boot failure, depending on the length of directories.
292 * SYSLINUX: Win32 installer now flushes buffers.
293 * ppmtolss16: Be fully compliant with the PNM spec;
294 actually process comments in the header and odd
295 alignments of the various parameters, as well as
296 "plain" (not raw) files and PBM and PGM files.
297 * PXELINUX: Lower the default MTU to 1472 in order to deal
298 with systems with slightly nonstandard MTUs, and PXE
299 stacks which don't defragment correctly. Unfortunately this
300 is very hard to test dynamically.
302 Changes in 2.05:
303 * PXELINUX: Add a default query based on the hardware address
304 of the boot device. This is in lower case hexadecimal form
305 separated by dashes and including the hardware type, for
306 example, the Ethernet (type 1) address 88:99:AA:BB:CC:DD
307 would query the file pxelinux.cfg/01-88-99-aa-bb-cc-dd.
308 * PXELINUX: Fix bug involving non-IP-based config file names.
309 * SYSLINUX: New installer for WinNT-based systems, from Lars
310 Munch.
311 * MEMDISK: Fix handling of memory region overlap when
312 decompressing. Thanks to Mikhail Kupchik for identifying
313 the problem.
315 Changes in 2.04:
316 * ALL: Reclaim even more low memory by observing that
317 comboot_seg == real_mode_seg is perfectly fine, and by the
318 fact that the 1000h segment managed to get unused in all
319 derivatives...
320 * PXELINUX: Attempt to negotiate full Ethernet-sized blocks
321 (1468 bytes) using the blksize option.
322 * SYSLINUX: Resurrect the old no-mtools version of the
323 installer, although as a root-only tool. Some distributors
324 have indicated that they need a small standalone installer.
325 * MEMDISK: Fix a memory offset computation error when
326 installing compressed disks which generally would cause
327 1 MB of memory to be wasted.
328 * MEMDISK: Fix installing the E820 memory map. Calling
329 INT 15h AX=0E820h with MEMDISK 2.03 loaded would give a
330 completely corrupt memory map.
331 * SYSLINUX: Make libsyslinux a dynamic library, so that it can
332 be updated separately from client programs. The whole idea,
333 after all, is to enable alternate programs to become
334 syslinux installers.
335 * Include an rpm spec file in the distribution, so rpmbuild
336 -ta works.
338 Changes in 2.03:
339 * Actually support comment lines in the configuration file.
340 * PXELINUX: Try to resolve some problems with stack switches.
341 * PXELINUX: Handle PXE stacks with broken routing.
342 With these workarounds, the remote install PXE boot floppy
343 (rbfg.exe) from Argon Technologies should work correctly.
344 * Fix problems with Perl scripts in UTF-8 locales.
345 * You probably need NASM 0.98.34 or later to compile this
346 version. 0.98.36 is recommended.
347 * MEMDISK: Now supports gzip compressed images.
349 Changes in 2.02:
350 * SYSLINUX: Security flaws have been found in the SYSLINUX
351 installer when running setuid root. Rewrite the SYSLINUX
352 installer so it uses mtools instead. It therefore now
353 requires mtools (specifically mcopy and mattrib) to exist on
354 your system, but it will not require root privileges and
355 SHOULD NOT be setuid.
357 Changes in 2.01:
358 * MEMDISK: Fix memory sizing bug when the ramdisk crosses the
359 16 MB boundary.
360 * MEMDISK: Add a "pause" option to stop immediately before
361 booting, to read off the messages.
362 * MEMDISK: Support disk images with DOSEMU headers.
363 * Update the mkdiskimage script to handle newer mtools
364 versions, and be able to generate disk images with DOSEMU
365 headers (controlled by the -d option).
366 * Fix the COM32 sample program.
367 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix some COMBOOT API calls.
368 * PXELINUX: Doc fix.
369 * Build SYSLINUX into a small library for encapsulation into
370 other programs (however, please keep in mind this is a GPL'd
371 library.)
372 * SYSLINUX: Make installer work with "owner" in /etc/fstab.
373 * SYSLINUX: Fix issue with working on nonpartitioned hard disk
374 devices. THIS CONFIGURATION IS NOT RECOMMENDED.
376 Changes in 2.00:
377 * ALL: Add support for "COM32" (32-bit COMBOOT) images.
378 * ALL: Add an API for COMBOOT/COM32 images. See comboot.doc
379 for details. There is a C development environment for
380 COM32 being created; it should be ready at some point in
381 the future.
382 * Fix mbr.asm so that it actually works.
383 * SYSLINUX: The syslinux installer *SHOULD* now be safe to
384 run setuid root.
385 * PXELINUX: Fix bug where PXELINUX would override random
386 chunks of the UNDI code segment! Thanks to Kevin Tran for
387 finding this bug.
388 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug related to slashes in pathnames.
389 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug in handling initrds over 128 MB.
390 * ALL: Make the <Ctrl-V> key print out the version; this is
391 to help debugging.
392 * Add a small script, mkdiskimage, to create a DOS-formatted
393 hard disk image using mtools. This may be useful in
394 conjunction with MEMDISK.
395 * ISOLINUX: Search for a /boot/isolinux directory as well as
396 /isolinux.
397 * ALL: Fix a bug related to very long configuration files.
398 * PXELINUX: Work around a NASM bug which would result in no
399 delay before reset if an error occurs.
401 Changes in 1.76:
402 * ISOLINUX: Remove code no longer used which caused hangs on
403 some Toshiba laptops.
405 Changes in 1.75:
406 * ALL: NASM 0.98.32 or later is now required to build
407 SYSLINUX from sources.
408 * SYSLINUX: put back in the workaround for the BIOS floppy
409 table. This seems to be a requirement for "extended" floppy
410 formats to work correctly.
411 * SYSLINUX: No longer warn if one is trying to boot on a 286
412 or older. The above BIOS workaround no longer fits if the
413 requirement to use only 8086-compatible code in the early
414 boot is maintained. It made sense in 1994, but in 2002 a
415 286 or older is a museum object.
416 * SYSLINUX: Use a downright bizarre, stateful algorithm to try
417 to guess the maximum transfer size. I am *hoping* this will
418 cut down on the number of systems for which -s is required
419 to work at any acceptable speed.
420 * ISOLINUX: Add a few more workarounds for various broken El
421 Torito BIOSes.
422 * Make sure .depend files aren't accidentally packed...
423 * ALL: Fix bugs in the extension-detect code; this caused
424 files like COMBOOT images and CD boot sectors to be
425 mis-identified as Linux kernels and rejected.
426 * ALL: Fix the return from COMBOOT.
427 * ALL: Do some of the early groundwork for supporting DOS
428 system calls in COMBOOT.
429 * Get rid of unnecessary "near" directives, making the code
430 bigger.
431 * PXELINUX: Put the PXE stack back in the init state before
432 invoking a chain-loaded NBP.
433 * PXELINUX: Actually found the combination of calls that
434 allows some (most?) PXE 2+ stacks to be unloaded from memory
435 properly.
436 * PXELINUX: Add "keeppxe" command-line option to disable
437 the standard unloading of the PXE stack.
439 Changes in 1.74:
440 * SYSLINUX: fix bug that would cause valid kernel images to be
441 labelled "invalid".
443 Changes in 1.73:
444 * Work on removing gratuitous differences between modules.
445 * Break up the source in common and module-specific files.
446 * PXELINUX: Allow chaining of other PXE NBPs.
447 * ISOLINUX: Allow loading "CD-ROM boot sectors".
448 * ALL: generalize the definition of a boot sector/NBP.
450 Changes in 1.72:
451 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix bugs in the new core code.
453 Changes in 1.71:
454 * Fix a "brown paper bag" class bug in the new core code.
456 Changes in 1.70:
457 * Major code restructuring.
458 * Relax the conventional memory limits somewhat.
459 * MEMDISK: Set up the "version number string" pointer in the
460 header correctly.
461 * SYSLINUX: Fix, again, "the bug that won't die": the use of
462 the offset parameter with the SYSLINUX installer.
463 * SYSLINUX: Fix possible superblock corruption problem in the
464 SYSLINUX installer.
466 Changes in 1.67:
467 * Handle bug in the location of initrd.
469 Changes in 1.66:
470 * MEMDISK: Make compile with newer versions of gcc.
472 Changes in 1.65:
473 * ISOLINUX: Support booting disk image files (to boot DOS or
474 other non-Linux operating systems), *IF* the BIOS works
475 correctly; unfortunately many BIOSes apparently don't.
476 * Support Linux boot protocol version 2.03 (explicitly
477 specify the initrd address limit.)
478 * Handle small "pseudo-kernels"; images that use the Linux
479 kernel boot protocols but are less than 64K in size.
480 * MEMDISK: New subsystem; this is a driver which allows
481 legacy OSes to boot using an in-memory simulated disk.
482 See memdisk/memdisk.doc for more info.
483 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Correctly handle files larger than 65535
484 blocks (32 MB for PXELINUX, 128 MB for ISOLINUX.)
485 * PXELINUX: Make a best-effort attempt at freeing all memory
486 claimed. From the looks of it, it will fail on most PXE
487 stacks.
489 Changes in 1.64:
490 * Limited support for hardware flow control when using a
491 serial port console.
492 * Support specifying the serial port I/O address explicitly.
493 * Make DOS installer hopefully behave more nicely when used on
494 recent Windows versions.
495 * Fix returning to text mode when a font has been specified.
496 * Attempt to detect missing serial port hardware and disable
497 the serial port if there is nothing there.
499 Changes in 1.63:
500 * Make the ppmtolss16 program handle color conversion more
501 correctly.
502 * Clean up "make install" target, honour INSTALLROOT if it
503 exists.
504 * SYSLINUX: Fix stack-smash bug identified by Steffen
505 Winterfeldt.
506 * Hopefully fix return-to-text-mode on some graphics cards.
507 * ISOLINUX: Bug workaround for Award BIOS 4.51, and perhaps
508 other buggy BIOSes as well.
510 Changes in 1.62:
511 * PXELINUX: Allow the DHCP server to override the
512 configuration file name and pathname prefix, using
513 "site-specific" DHCP options.
514 * PXELINUX: Documentation fixes.
515 * PXELINUX: Fix the "ipappend" option; the last two values
516 were reversed vs. what the kernel expected.
517 * Introduce a way to return to text mode once we are already
518 in graphics mode. This may be useful for F-key help
519 screens.
520 * Fix several bugs in the way return to text mode was handled.
522 Changes in 1.61:
523 * ISOLINUX: Support full pathname searches. Max length for a
524 pathname is 255 characters. As a result, only 64 "label"
525 statements are supported in ISOLINUX.
526 * PXELINUX: Max filename length extended to 63 characters.
528 Changes in 1.60:
529 * Add support for graphical splash screens.
530 * Add mode control characters, which allows you to control
531 message display output depending on output mode (text,
532 graphics, or serial port.)
533 * ISOLINUX: New program, which boots Linux from a CD-ROM
534 without using floppy emulation mode. See isolinux.doc for
535 more details.
536 * PXELINUX: Don't search for boot sector file types, since
537 they don't work anyway.
538 * SYSLINUX: Document the LOCK command for Win9x, and the error
539 dialog box for WinNT/2K.
541 Changes in 1.54:
542 * PXELINUX: Fix code for finding !PXE from PXENV+. This was
543 due to a spec bug; match the most recent spec since that
544 seems to be what implementations actually do.
545 * SYSLINUX: Add some smarts to the boot sector, which
546 hopefully should reduce the number of systems which require
547 stupid mode ("syslinux -s").
548 * PXELINUX: Document further some of the pathologies with old
549 PXE stacks.
550 * When specifying a "default" command line, no longer
551 automatically appent "auto". See the "DEFAULT" command in
552 syslinux.doc for more information.
553 * PXELINUX: Clean up the allocation of local socket numbers.
555 Changes in 1.53:
556 * PXELINUX: Rename pxelinux.bin to pxelinux.0, to match what
557 most PXE servers seem to expect.
558 * PXELINUX: Update the DHCP/boot server setup documentation.
559 * PXELINUX: Support new "localboot" option for "label"
560 sections.
561 * PXELINUX: More robust parsing of DHCP/boot server packets.
562 * PXELINUX: Include a small utility program "gethostip" to
563 compute hexadecimal IP addresses.
565 Changes in 1.52:
566 * PXELINUX: Fix bugs introduced by new A20 code. (SYSLINUX
567 has also been changed for code consistency reasons, but I'm
568 pretty sure the changes are don't care on SYSLINUX.)
569 * Documentation updates.
570 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend" option to generate an ip= option to
571 the kernel.
573 Changes in 1.51:
574 * PXELINUX: Not all PXE stacks fill in the IP address for a
575 type 3 cached info query. Use a type 2 cached info query
576 for this information (only.)
577 * Yet another attempt at A20 coding. Now support BIOS call
578 15:2401 as well, and handle machines which always have A20
579 on separately.
580 * Support memory detection using INT 15h, AX=0E820h. BIOS
581 manufacturers have apparently gotten sloppy about keeping
582 INT 15h, AX=0E801h working properly.
583 * Don't issue <CR><LF> onto the serial port when we're doing
584 screen wraparound.
586 Changes in 1.50:
587 * Yet another A20-code update. It seems some "legacy-free"
588 machines and embedded gear simply don't have a KBC to talk
589 to, and that waiting for one will wait forever. Sigh.
591 Changes in 1.49:
592 * SYSLINUX: Implement a hack for BIOS drivers which hog significant
593 chunks of low memory during boot. (Note: PXELINUX already
594 had this modification. SYSLINUX does still require that the
595 low 512K is available; PXELINUX requires 384K. Machines
596 with a physical memory hole in the low 640K cannot boot
597 Linux no matter what.) Depending what the reason is for the
598 memory hole, a new kernel (2.4.0-test3-pre3 or later) may be
599 required.
600 * SYSLINUX: Default installer binary now compiled against
601 glibc 2.1. If this is inappropriate for your system and you
602 still want to use the offical version of SYSLINUX, please
603 follow the instructions in "distrib.doc" to rebuild the
604 installer.
605 * SYSLINUX: Linux installer program now supports -o <offset>
606 option which does a loopback mount with the
607 -o loop,offset=<> option. Useful to run SYSLINUX on an
608 individual partition of a whole-harddisk image.
609 * Include the source code to a Master Boot Record (MBR)
610 functionally equivalent to the one installed DOS except it
611 includes EBIOS support, and should be resistant to geometry
612 changes. The MBR code is public domain.
613 * PXELINUX: Fix "double p" bug: if the tftp prefix was null,
614 all filenames would get a "p" preprended, e.g.
615 "ppxelinux.cfg" and "pvmlinux".
617 Changes in 1.48:
618 * PXELINUX: Workaround for PXE ROMs based on the Intel PXE PDK
619 3.0 build 071 and earlier: missing !PXE structure pointer.
620 * PXELINUX: Handle larger BOOTP/DHCP packages.
621 * PXELINUX: The command line passing was broken; fix.
622 * PXELINUX: Make COMBOOT images work.
623 * PXELINUX: Documentation on how to make booting work using
624 the PDK 3.0-derived clients, which aren't so generous as to
625 allow booting with only "PXEClient" specified.
627 Changes in 1.47:
628 * PXELINUX: RFC 1123 states that a TFTP implementation MUST
629 use adaptive timeout, "at least an exponential backoff of
630 retransmission timeout is necessary." Implement a very
631 simple exponential backoff for retransmits.
632 * PXELINUX: Updated documentation, including pointer to new
633 TFTP server.
634 * PXELINUX: When sending ERROR due to bad OACK, use the proper
635 destination port number (why are TFTP port numbers so odd?)
636 * PXELINUX: If the boot dies in the middle somewhere,
637 eventually give up and reset the machine (unattended
638 operation.)
640 Changes in 1.46:
641 * New program PXELINUX to do network booting using a
642 PXE-compliant (Pre-Execution Environment) network booting
643 PROM. See pxelinux.doc for details.
645 Changes in 1.45:
646 * Serial console support. See syslinux.doc for details.
648 Changes in 1.44:
649 * Change HIGHMEM_MAX to 38000000h to (hopefully) avoid the
650 kernel stepping on it; 3f000000h was apparently a higher
651 limit than the kernel used!
653 Changes in 1.43:
654 * Add sys2ansi.pl script to display the contents of a
655 colorized SYSLINUX file.
656 * Changed the io_delay once again, after a report that the
657 old delay port causes hangs on some systems.
659 Changes in 1.42:
660 * Frob the "fast A20 gate" port as well as the keyboard
661 controller; will this help systems with problems?
662 * Be even more paranoid about A20, unfortunately even this
663 seems to be not paranoid enough... what I don't understand
664 is that if there is hardware out there *this broken*, how
665 can it run Linux at all? Report an error message rather
666 than hang forever if A20 is stuck.
667 * Include some intermediate files in the distribution, plus
668 provide a "make installer" target for distributors to relink
669 the install programs only. I would prefer the syslinux boot
670 loader proper to be "binary clean" for debuggablity -- use
671 "make clean ; make installer" to rebuild the installers only.
673 Changes in 1.41:
674 * Don't get confused by directories, volume labels, or VFAT
675 long names.
676 * Use INT 15h, AX=0E801h to query memory size before trying
677 INT 15h, AH=88h. This not only provides more headroom
678 between the kernel and the initrd on large-memory machines,
679 but it appears some recent BIOSes actually have started
680 returning garbage for the AH=88h (older) call.
681 * Trust high memory beyond the 15 MB mark if the user has
682 specified it, or if obtained with INT 15h, AH=0E801h (with
683 no memory holes above 1 MB.)
685 Changes in 1.40:
686 * Increase A20M delay and put in a test to avoid problems on
687 certain IBM Thinkpads (thanks to Donnie Barnes of RedHat
688 for vital info on this one.)
689 * Support COMBOOT style boot command images.
690 * Support chain loading (foreign operating systems, e.g. DOS).
691 * Include a new "copybs" DOS utility to copy a boot sector to
692 a file (under Linux, use "dd".)
693 * Fix the DOS installer to work for disks over 32 MB.
694 * SYSLINUX should now handle disks with more than 65536 tracks.
696 Changes in 1.37:
697 * Fix a bug that caused "label" statements in syslinux.cfg to
698 not be handled properly.
699 * Updated the documentation. Among other things, we now allow
700 up to 128 "label" statements.
702 Changes in 1.36:
703 * Fix for booting old (pre-initrd) kernels.
704 * It seems at least some versions of OS/2 doesn't set up all
705 the fields in the superblock correctly. Account for that.
706 * Fix bug that caused boot failure when using the mem= option.
708 Changes in 1.35:
709 * Loading from partitions now should work properly. (Actually
710 tested, this time. You should even be able to dd a floppy
711 to a partition and boot from it.)
712 * Removed large workaround code for an alleged ancient BIOS
713 bug I have never actually seen. The -s option should work
714 on those machines, anyway.
715 * Support for simple keyboard remappings, same as used by
716 LILO (once again to support localization.) The program
717 keytab-lilo.pl from the LILO distribution included to
718 generate such maps.
719 * Added a "safe, slow and stupid" (-s) option to the
720 installers. This option will lobotomize the boot sector to
721 hopefully work on even very buggy BIOSes.
723 Changes in 1.34:
724 * Ability to load a VGA font on bootup (for localized Linux
725 distributions.)
727 Changes in 1.33:
728 * Bug fix in the Linux installer.
729 * Added a workaround for a bug in certain AMI/Intel BIOSes
730 when booting from CD-ROM.
731 * Documentation changes.
733 Changes in 1.32:
734 * FAT16 filesystems are now supported.
736 Changes in 1.31:
737 * Now compiles under Linux, using NASM, rather than using
738 Turbo Assembler under DOS. See http://www.cryogen.com/Nasm
739 for information about NASM.
740 * Linux-hosted SYSLINUX installer, as well as a
741 rewritten DOS installer (now is written in assembler, so we
742 don't need Turbo C.)
744 Changes in 1.30:
745 * Added support for loading bzImage and initrd loading, and made
746 SYSLINUX new-setup-code aware (SYSLINUX 1.30 id=0x31).
747 * Added LILO-style kernel labels; see the LABEL and IMPLICIT
748 keywords in README file.
749 * Added support for colorization of intro and help screens.
750 * The vga= option is now handled correctly.
751 * Massive rewrite of large chunks of the code in order to
752 support the first two new features.
754 Changes in 1.20:
755 * Added simple online help at the "boot:" prompt.
756 * Removed 2880K image as I no longer have access to such a
757 floppy drive. (Donations accepted!!)
758 * Decided to distribute the source in a subdirectory rather
759 than in a nested zipfile.
761 Changes in 1.11:
762 * Removed a sanity check which would cause booting to fail on
763 Phoenix BIOS version 4.03. Apparently this BIOS is buggy.
765 Changes in 1.10:
766 * Added configuration file SYSLINUX.CFG. This file contains all
767 configurable options, and can be edited from any OS which can
768 access an MS-DOS filesystem; there is no longer a need to run
769 SYSLINUX.EXE except to write the boot sector.
770 * Default command line now given by "default" line in config
771 file.
772 * LINUXMSG.TXT and BOOTMSG.TXT hard-coded file names replaced by
773 "display" and "prompt" lines in config file.
774 * LILO-style option appending now supported ("append" line in
775 config file).
776 * Prompt timeout is now supported ("timeout" line in config
777 file). The timeout is cancelled when anything is typed on the
778 command line.
779 * Pressing <ESC> or <Ctrl-C> at the Loading... stage now aborts
780 the kernel loading in progress and returns the user to the
781 boot: prompt.
782 * The installer now automatically sets the READONLY flag on
783 LDLINUX.SYS.
784 * Added 2880K disk image.
786 Changes in 1.03:
787 * Fixed bug that would prevent booting from double-density
788 floppies and other DOS filesystems with multiple sectors per
789 cluster.
790 * Added 720K disk image.
791 * Changed default kernel name on disk images to LINUX.
793 Changes in 1.02:
794 * Fixed bug that would garble the command line on recent kernels
795 with more than 4 sectors of setup code (this wasn't really a
796 *bug*; rather, a kernel change broke the code. Unfortunately
797 the Linux boot interface is still sorely undocumented).
798 * Added BOOTMSG.TXT file support (message file which does not
799 force display of the boot prompt).
801 Changes in 1.01:
802 * Fixed bug on some (most?) 386 BIOSes would require two boot
803 attempts.