| blob | 375e0c5d9fb44188738e2f28d5ac943a71051101 |
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 3.70:
6 * PXELINUX: Support enhanced capabilities when running on top
7 of gPXE (http://www.etherboot.org/). In particular, support
8 URL-style syntax for filenames, and any protocol that gPXE
9 supports (except, currently, iSCSI and AoE.) This feature
10 is currently highly experimental.
11 * Substantial infrastructure changes to support files whose
12 length aren't known at open time (typically network
13 connections.) Please note that the semantics of some of the
14 comboot APIs have changed slightly; please see doc/comboot.doc.
15 * PXELINUX: We no longer require a TFTP server which supports
16 the tsize option for all transfers.
17 * PXELINUX: EXTREMELY EXPERIMENTAL: Support running on top of
18 the gPXE "PXEXT" PXE API extensions included with gPXE
19 0.9.4(?) or higher. This allows booting over other
20 protocols than TFTP.
21 * PXELINUX: Integrate with the gPXE source base; unified image
22 now included as "gpxelinux.0".
24 Changes in 3.64:
25 * SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX: support "localboot" with the same feature
26 set as ISOLINUX.
27 * Add an experimental MBR for GPT partition tables.
28 * Use $(CC) when determining compile flags.
29 * chain.c32: fix booting from logical partitions (Sergey
30 Vlasov.)
32 Changes in 3.63:
33 * Fix errors in the PCI and DMI detection modules (Erwan Velu,
34 Sebastian Herbszt).
35 * Fix host dependencies and other issues in the build system.
36 * PXELINUX: Allow class E addresses as unicast.
37 * sdi.c32: module to load Microsoft System Deployment Images.
38 For additional information, please see:
39 http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms838543.aspx
40 * EXTLINUX: Correct reading directories with deleted entries.
41 * Shuffle library: correct the handling of certain geometries
42 (an upward move with source material blocking the move); as
43 required by sdi.c32 but theoretically possible for other
44 formats as well.
45 * Add "make netinstall" to install /tftpboot.
46 * Fix some documentation files that didn't get moved/renamed.
48 Changes in 3.62:
49 * Clean up garbage after "aborted." message.
50 * Clean up memdump.com filenames.
51 * Support SHA256 and SHA512 encrypted passwords.
52 * The shuffle library now can generate chained descriptors,
53 thus allowing pretty much arbitrarily complex memory maps.
54 * Handle command lines up to 2047 characters, the current
55 Linux kernel limit.
56 * vesamenu: support systems without linear framebuffer support
57 (sigh, what is this, 1993?) and 15-bit RGB modes.
58 * Move the label storage (for the command-line interface) to
59 high memory, removing the size limit and freeing up 64K of
60 low memory.
61 * Get rid of 4096-entry limit in the simple menu system.
62 * New hierarchial submenu support: see MENU BEGIN, MENU END,
63 MENU GOTO in doc/menu.txt.
64 * MENU QUIT allows creating a menu entry for returning to the
65 command line.
66 * ISOLINUX: Work around bug in certain Adaptec BIOSes,
67 patch by Bruce Robson.
68 * pngtopnm dependency removed from samples/ directory.
69 * Text documentation files (in doc/) renamed *.doc -> *.txt.
71 Changes in 3.61:
72 * EXTLINUX: fix crash when accessing an empty file.
73 * elf.c32: If a PHDR segment is present, load it.
74 * Fix SHA-1 and MD5 passwords.
75 * ISOLINUX: fix booting when mastered without
76 mkisofs -boot-info-table (broken since 3.50, sigh...)
77 * Handle BIOSes which emit multiple contiguous valid
78 memory regions in the e820 map.
80 Changes in 3.60:
81 * Support for "auxilliary data vector", a small amount of
82 writable storage. Currently only supported for EXTLINUX,
83 but the infrastructure is there for the other derivatives,
84 assuming a suitable storage location can be found.
85 * EXTLINUX: boot-once support (--once, --clear-once, and
86 --reset-adv).
87 * A command is now required to the EXTLINUX installer, i.e. at
88 least one of --install, --update, --once, --clear-once, or
89 --reset-adv.
91 Changes in 3.55:
92 * PXELINUX: as per RFC 5071, PXELINUX no longer requires the
93 use of the magic cookie option (208) for unencapsulated
94 options. Currently it does not require it for
95 vendor-encapsulated options (vendor-option-space) either,
96 but that MAY be reverted in the future if it causes
97 problems.
98 * Documentation text files moved to a common "doc" directory;
99 man pages from the Debian project added to the "man"
100 directory.
101 * Correct bug with self-overlapping memory areas when using
102 the shuffle interface.
104 Changes in 3.54:
105 * Add "menu separator", "menu indent", "menu disabled"
106 (see README.menu).
107 * vesamenu: fix handing of VESA modes with noncontiguous
108 memory buffers. In particular, Qemu/KVM sets up such a mode
109 when Cirrus Logic emulation is enabled (which is the
110 default.)
111 * Support for calling real mode functions using far calls,
112 with argument on the stack. This was implemented to support
113 the BIOS BBS specification, but subsequent experiments show
114 that the at least one of the most common BIOS cores, Award,
115 passes the presence check but doesn't actually implement the
116 functionality.
118 Changes in 3.53:
119 * Fix bugs related to the $PnP BIOS functionality on some
120 platforms.
121 * PXELINUX: Fix the "naked" version of :: (suppress prefix.)
122 * elf.c32: better error messages.
123 * Faster operation under Intel VT virtualization.
124 * PXELINUX: Fix DHCP bootfile option.
125 * mkdiskimage: Support more than 1024 cylinders.
126 * (Hopefully) fix installer on non-x86 platforms.
127 * Fix shuffle_and_boot_rm, used by linux.c32.
128 * Fix shuffle_and_boot_pm on 386/486.
129 * ISOLINUX (at least): fix bss memory overwrite hang.
130 * MBR: Fix booting from logical partitions.
131 * Code cleanups.
133 Changes in 3.52:
134 * Handle capitalized F-key commands in the menu system.
135 * Fix padding error when loading multiple ramdisks.
136 * Workaround for VMware crashing when trying to print a
137 message during early kernel boot (does not seem to work,
138 consider deleting.)
139 * chain.c32: add the ability to search for a specific MBR
140 signature at runtime.
141 * Fall back to the server identity option if the siaddr field
142 in the DHCP header isn't set. This seems to match the
143 behaviour of most PXE stacks.
144 * mkdiskimage: give the generated disk image an MBR signature.
145 * MEMDISK: Fix failures on some BIOSes.
146 * Simple menu system: new "MENU HIDDEN" option to not display
147 the menu unless the user presses a key.
148 * Simple menu system: support MD5-encrypted passwords (modern
149 Unix standard style, with "$1$" prefixes.)
150 * pcitest.c32: now functions as a full "lspci". Thanks to
151 Erwan Velu for this work.
152 * MEMDISK: Make EDD actually work.
153 * ISOLINUX: Fix for certain broken CD-ROM BIOSes which
154 randomly corrupted register FS.
155 * Simple menu system: fix memory overwrite bug that caused
156 some systems to lock up or behave weirdly.
157 * Fix building on 64-bit systems without a 32-bit libc installed.
159 Changes in 3.51:
160 * EXTLINUX: Fix failure to find the configuration file.
162 Changes in 3.50:
163 * New keywords allow the type of file to be specified in the
164 configuration file.
165 * It is now supported to load a different configuration file
166 with the CONFIG keyword.
167 * Fix API call 0x0019 (Read Disk.)
168 * MENU AUTOBOOT, MENU TABMSG, MENU PASSPROMPT allows
169 internationalization of menu messages.
170 * A new feature, TEXT HELP, allows the administrator to set
171 a multi-line help message for individual selections.
172 * Fix API call 0x0012 (Cleanup, shuffle and boot.)
173 * New API call "Cleanup, shuffle and boot to flat protected mode"
174 * New API call "Cleanup, shuffle and boot to real mode",
175 similar to API call 0x0012 but allows arbitrary register setting.
176 * Introduce a library interface for loading arbitrary binary
177 formats with relatively easily understood code. See
178 the elf.c32 module for an example on how to use it.
179 * New module "elf.c32", to load a protected-mode ELF kernel.
180 * MBR (old and new): Fix bug in CHS mode when LBA >
181 65535*sectors.
182 * vesamenu: fix decoding of palettized PNG images.
183 * Update the Linux kernel boot protocol.
184 * PXELINUX: Press Ctrl-N at the boot prompt to read out the
185 network info.
186 * Instead of the (non-existent) MAC, use the client identifier
187 for networks like Infiniband and Firewire/1394.
188 * Add a new INCLUDE command to the core syslinux parser.
189 * Allow binding help text to F11 and F12.
190 * F-key help now available in the simple menu system.
191 * Disabled the polling for ARP during idle. It is simply too
192 slow on some (broken!) PXE stacks.
193 * PXELINUX: also try to fetch the config file based on UUID.
194 * SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX: New RAID mode (-r) which calls the BIOS
195 to load the next device (typically the next drive) on boot
196 failure.
198 Changes in 3.36:
199 * MEMDISK: Disable EDD by default on floppy disks. EDD can be
200 enabled with the "edd" option and disabled with "noedd".
201 This (hopefully) should make Ghost work again.
202 * SYSLINUX: "unix" installer now uses Linux ioctls instead of
203 using libfat.
204 * New MBR which can boot from logical partitions.
205 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in detecting special extensions which was
206 introduced in 3.35 :(
207 * PXELINUX: Unbreak chainbooting FreeBSD (and possibly others.)
209 Changes in 3.35:
210 * MEMDISK: New "safeint" mode.
211 * MEMDISK: Be more compliant with the PnP BIOS spec.
212 * MEMDISK: Turn on EDD support by default.
213 * MEMDISK: Try to work on some machines on which it would not
214 work when there was no floppy drive in the system.
215 * Simple menu system: fix serial console support (broken in
216 3.30).
217 * SYSLINUX: Support subdirectories. Like ISOLINUX, the
218 "current directory" is the directory in which syslinux.cfg
219 is found; this is searched for in the sequence
220 /boot/syslinux, /syslinux, /. As a side benefit, label names
221 like "linux-2.6.18" and "linux-2.6.19" are now supported.
223 To install ldlinux.sys in a subdirectory, pass the -d
224 directory option to the SYSLINUX installer.
226 This work was sponsored by slax.org (thanks, Tomas!)
227 * New API call: read disk.
228 * Invoke ONERROR on initrd load failure.
230 Changes in 3.31:
231 * The simple menu system (menu.c32 and vesamenu.c32) now
232 support loading more than one configuration file at a time,
233 using MENU INCLUDE or by specifying multiple filenames.
234 * The MENU COLOR statement can now control the shadowing mode.
236 Changes in 3.30:
237 * libcom32 extended to support graphics mode and graphical console.
238 * vesamenu.c32, new graphical version of the Simple
239 Menu System, see README.menu.
240 * New com32 modules by Erwan Velu do selection based on CPUID
241 or PCI devices present.
242 * RPM spec: add syslinux-tftpboot module; move syslinux by
243 default to the /usr/share/syslinux directory.
244 * RPM spec: extlinux is now a separate package.
246 Changes in 3.20:
247 * EXTLINUX: New options --install (-i) and --update (-U), to
248 make it clear if a boot loader should be installed or
249 updated. For now, defaults to --install for compatibility;
250 a future version will require one of these options.
251 * New library functions to load and place files in memory.
252 * mboot.c32 bug fixes.
253 * Remove 8 MB kernel size restriction.
254 * Add "klibc" target for building unix/syslinux and
255 extlinux/extlinux with klcc (klibc-1.4.27 or later.)
256 * PXELINUX: Fail (and eventually reboot) if no configuration
257 file was found.
258 * COM32 module by Erwan Velu to make decisions based on DMI
259 info.
260 * Fix issue where going back and forth between menus a lot
261 would cause a hang.
262 * ISOLINUX: Fix bug which made "cd boot sectors" not work.
264 Changes in 3.11:
265 * MEMDISK: Fix bug by which accessing the real floppy disk
266 as B: in MS-DOS was broken.
267 * Simple menu system: allow tweaking of the screen layout.
268 * Simple menu system: better command-line editing, correctly
269 handle command lines above 256 characters.
270 * PXELINUX: revert memory allocation change that caused
271 problems on some network cards.
272 * MEMDISK: Try work around a bug on some BIOSes when no
273 physical floppy disk is present in the system.
274 * Enable the 16550A FIFOs, if present, when doing serial
275 console.
276 * New "totaltimeout" command establishes a timeout without
277 regard for any user input.
278 * Simple menu system: timeout behaviour now more in line with
279 user expectations.
280 * Simple menu system: "ontimeout" should now work correctly.
282 Changes in 3.10:
283 * gcc 4.0.1 compilation fixes.
284 * Add support for querying the PCI BIOS in libcom32
285 (used by ethersel et al.)
286 * Fix PCI handing (ethersel etc) on several old chipsets (and
287 VMWare.)
288 * Try to deal with systems with broken EBIOS.
289 * New API call to do "localboot".
290 * New API call to query features.
291 * New API call to run kernel image, a lower-level call than
292 "run command". See comboot.doc.
293 * Fix for bug in EBIOS code discovered by Arwin Vosselman.
294 * NOESCAPE security fix.
295 * Comments are now recognized even without a space following #.
296 * Fix incorrect handling of mixes of entries with and without
297 MENU PASSWD.
298 * The idle API call now harmlessly returns failure if it is a
299 no-op. That way the caller can decide whether or not to
300 bother invoking it again.
301 * Temporarily disable the idle API call on PXELINUX, due to
302 some platforms on which the idle API call seems to hang; this
303 problem has not yet been debugged.
304 * MEMDISK: the handling of DOSEMU-headered images was broken;
305 fix it.
306 * EXTLINUX: symlinks are now supported.
307 * Simple menu system: N and P now work correctly as hotkeys.
308 * MEMDISK: more BIOS bug workarounds.
310 Changes in 3.09:
311 * gcc4 compilation fix.
312 * <BEL> (Ctrl-G) in message files now causes a beep.
313 * Reduce the command line to 511 characters; 1023 caused
314 memory overflows.
316 Changes in 3.08:
317 * SYSLINUX: Fix performance regression (-s mode always
318 enabled.)
319 * Add API function for idle loop.
320 * libutil: Add do_idle() function for idle loop, make
321 get_key() use it.
322 * libutil: Add SHA-1 and base64 functions.
323 * Simple menu system: add password support.
324 * EXTLINUX: Sparse files now handled correctly.
325 * EXTLINUX: Large directories now handled correctly.
326 * ALL: At the prompt, Ctrl-X now forces text mode.
327 * Fix configuration file parsing error, that could cause
328 hangs.
329 * Rewritten advanced menuing system from Murali Ganapathy.
330 * MEMDISK: New "bigraw" mode to work around certain broken
331 BIOS flash programs.
332 * COM32 module to boot Multiboot systems, including Xen. See
333 com32/modules/mboot.doc.
334 * Max command line changed to 1023 characters. Note that the
335 kernel proper still can only handle 255 characters without
336 patching, and COM16 binaries can only handle 125 characters.
338 Changes in 3.07:
339 * Fix chainloading (chain.c32).
340 * Fix zlib build problem.
341 * Use a private copy of <linux/ext2_fs.h>.
343 Changes in 3.06:
344 * Fix typo that caused the ramdisk to load in the wrong place.
346 Changes in 3.05:
347 * New API function "shuffle and boot"; allows COM32 modules to
348 load or construct (almost) arbitrarily complex objects,
349 e.g. a kernel and its initrd/initramfs in pieces, and have
350 the API core reorganize memory for booting. (A library API
351 for this function will be introduced in a later version.)
352 * The initrd= option now supports multiple filenames separated
353 by commas. This is mostly useful for initramfs, which can
354 be composed of multiple separate cpio or cpio.gz archives.
355 (Note: all files except the last one are zero-padded to a 4K
356 page boundary. This should not affect initramfs.)
357 * EXTLINUX: Fix API function 000Ah (get derivative-specific
358 info).
359 * libcom32/ethersel: Support PCI Config Mechanism #2 on
360 machines still infested with that hideous old hack.
361 * SYSLINUX: Fix directory-parsing bug.
363 Changes in 3.02:
364 * SYSLINUX: The "unix" installer now sets the MS-DOS
365 attributes (hidden, system, readonly.)
366 * COM32 library: build the .lnx (test modules for running
367 under Linux) as architecture native modules, in case
368 i386 devel libraries aren't installed.
369 * EXTLINUX: Hack for systems which don't have BLKGETSIZE64
370 defined in the standard header files.
371 * Simple menu system: minor aestetic improvements, and try to
372 work better over a serial console (speed, and readability on
373 monochrome terminal emulators.)
374 * New CONSOLE directive to control output on the video console
375 (useful for dealing with some broken serial-forwarding
376 BIOSes.)
377 * New com32 module "ethersel" for searching for an Ethernet
378 card and selecting the proper version of Etherboot.
379 * EXTLINUX: Allow the user to override the detected geometry.
380 Add help.
382 Changes in 3.01:
383 * EXTLINUX, SYSLINUX: Fix compile errors on some systems.
384 * EXTLINUX: Default to zipdrive geometry (64 heads, 32
385 sectors) if no other geometry can be detected.
387 Changes in 3.00:
388 * SYSLINUX: Support FAT32 and EDD. As an unfortunate
389 consequence, LDLINUX.SYS is no longer an ordinary file; it
390 is block-mapped at install time, which means it can only be
391 written using the syslinux installers.
392 * SYSLINUX: Reorganize the source code for the installers;
393 each one of the installers (dos, win32, unix, mtools) is now
394 built in its own subdirectory. In particular, "mtools" is
395 the unprivileged installer which uses mtools; "unix" is the
396 privileged installer which uses system calls.
397 * SYSLINUX: Completely rewritten DOS installer in C.
398 * ALL: "label" statement information is now stored in a
399 compressed format, which means that a lot more labels are
400 permitted (500-1000 in a typical configuration, but depends
401 on the complexity.)
402 * EXTLINUX: New derivative, which boots from an ext2/ext3
403 filesystem.
404 * SYSLINUX: The DOS and Win32 installers can now optionally
405 write the boot sector to a file instead of the real boot
406 sector. This is not supported in the Linux installers,
407 however.
408 * ALL: New NOESCAPE command, disables the "hold down the Shift
409 key to display the prompt" behaviour.
410 * New simple menu system, as an alternative to the advanced
411 menu system already present. See README.menu for details.
412 * PXELINUX: Filenames can now be prefixed with an IP address
413 or DNS name plus :: (e.g. 192.0.2.1::filename or
414 server.domain.com::filename), which downloads a file from an
415 alternate TFTP server, or just a :: (e.g. ::filename), which
416 suppresses the common pathname prefix. See pxelinux.doc.
417 * SYSLINUX: Add an -m option to the DOS and Win32 installers
418 to write an MBR and -a to mark the partition SYSLINUX is
419 being installed on active.
420 * MEMDISK: Give a way to query the boot loader type while
421 running MEMDISK; see memdisk/memdisk.doc and
422 sample/mdiskchk.c.
423 * mkdiskimage: substantially improved mkdiskimage which, among
424 other things, can now be used to initialize USB keys as
425 zipdrives; see README.usbkey for more information.
427 Changes in 2.13:
428 * MEMDISK: Fix command-line parsing "brown paper bag" class
429 bug.
430 * MEMDISK: Add "raw" mode to support the DOS boot disk from
431 WinME/XP, which seems to deliberately crash the system
432 when someone uses the "INT 15h mover" highmem API.
433 * Make "make install" do something sane for the com32
434 development environment.
435 * In the spec file, create a separate -devel RPM for the com32
436 development environment.
438 Changes in 2.12:
439 * Simple C library, based on klibc, for writing COM32
440 programs.
441 * Fix the handling of file length in loading of COM32
442 programs.
443 * MEMDISK: Work around a linker bug by rearranging the code to
444 not use the linker for the 16-bit code.
445 * SYSLINUX: If we're building on a machine without a Win32
446 (mingw) compiler, just skip building syslinux.exe.
447 * ISOLINUX: Support non-mkisofs mastering programs, at least
448 as long as the image is single-session. For best results,
449 ISOLINUX should be the only boot loader installed.
450 * MEMDISK: Allow the user to specify that the simulated disk
451 should be write-protected.
453 Changes in 2.11:
454 * ALL: Add an API call to get the configuration file name.
455 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in 2.10 that prevented it from working
456 correctly for a lot of people.
457 * SYSLINUX: In the installer, make mtools a bit less fussy.
458 * Make the menu system compile with newer gcc's.
460 Changes in 2.10:
461 * MEMDISK: Handle images compressed with zip as well as with
462 gzip. Some Windows-based image tools apparently generate
463 these kinds of images by default. Patch by Patrick
464 LoPresti.
465 * Major menu improvement from Murali Ganapathy.
466 * ISOLINUX: Wonderfully sick and brilliant workaround for
467 severe bugs in certain Award BIOSes; from Knut Petersen.
468 * SYSLINUX: Fix for the nomtools installed, from Frederic
469 Pasteleurs.
470 * PXELINUX: Fix handling of IP numbers in the ranges
471 100-109 and 200-209.
472 * ALL: New option "allowoptions" (defaults to 1), which
473 controls if options are allowed on the command line or not.
474 * SYSLINUX: Support building under klibc (see the klibc
475 distribution for details.)
477 Changes in 2.09:
478 * SYSLINUX: Remove residual setuid crap from
479 syslinux-nomtools.
480 * Handle video pages correctly when using the API functions.
481 * Handle compiling on an x86-64 platform correctly.
482 * Menu system from Murali Krishnan Ganapathy; see the menu
483 directory for information.
484 * COMBOOT: Allow COMBOOT programs to change screen text mode.
485 * COMBOOT: Correct the documentation of how to detect
486 SYSLINUX from COMBOOT!!!!
487 * COMBOOT: Fix "get key without echo" API function.
488 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug that affected the API open function.
489 * ALL: Improve the E820 memory parser, to work around some
490 buggy BIOSes.
492 Changes in 2.08:
493 * Add new configuration command "ontimeout" to allow timeout
494 to have a different action than just pressing Enter.
495 * Add new configuration command "onerror" to allow a custom
496 command to be executed in case the kernel image is not found.
497 * Fix bugs in the COMBOOT/COM32 command-line parsing. APPEND
498 now works with COMBOOT/COM32 images.
499 * PXELINUX: Poll for ARP requests while sitting at the
500 prompt. This makes some boot servers a lot less unhappy.
501 * PXELINUX: Actually free sockets when we get a failure
502 (including file not found.) This bug would cause us to run
503 out of sockets and thus "go deaf" after a while.
504 * MEMDISK: Add an API to query for the existence of MEMDISK.
505 * SYSLINUX: Fix loading boot sectors (.bs/.bss) from floppy
506 disk.
507 * .c32 is now one of the extensions searched for
508 automatically.
509 * PXELINUX: RFBG.exe seems to randomly overwrite memory
510 location 0x5700. Thus, don't use it!
511 * PXELINUX: Change pathname length max from 63 to 127; change
512 max vkernels from 128 to 64.
513 * Support Ctrl-U -> kill entire command line input.
514 * The "samples" directory contains a (barely at all tested)
515 chain loading example, chain.c32, which may be used to
516 chainload local floppy disks and hard disks. Use with
517 "chain fdN" or "chain hdN [partition]"; N = 0 for the first
518 drive of each type.
520 Changes in 2.07:
521 * MEMDISK: Workaround for BIOSes which go into a snit when
522 they get a RESET command for the floppy system when there is
523 no floppy in the system.
524 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend 2", which passes the hardware
525 address of the boot interface to the kernel as a
526 command-line option.
527 * mkdiskimage: fix the generation of the end limit.
528 * PXELINUX: Fix multiple bugs in chainloading of other NBPs.
529 * MEMDISK: Fix bug that would occationally cause "ran out of
530 input data" when using compressed disk images.
531 * SYSLINUX: Updates for the win32 installer (from Lars Munch.)
532 * PXELINUX: PXELINUX-specific options are now recognized both
533 in a vendor-option-space (a.k.a. type 43 encapsulated) as
534 well as in a site-option-space (unencapsulated.)
535 * COM32: Don't crash when DS != 0.
536 * COMBOOT/COM32: Make file reading work correctly. Thanks to
537 Phung Chi Kien for submitting a test program.
539 Changes in 2.06:
540 * ALL: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
541 boot failure, depending on the length of the kernel.
542 * ISOLINUX: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
543 boot failure, depending on the length of directories.
544 * SYSLINUX: Win32 installer now flushes buffers.
545 * ppmtolss16: Be fully compliant with the PNM spec;
546 actually process comments in the header and odd
547 alignments of the various parameters, as well as
548 "plain" (not raw) files and PBM and PGM files.
549 * PXELINUX: Lower the default MTU to 1472 in order to deal
550 with systems with slightly nonstandard MTUs, and PXE
551 stacks which don't defragment correctly. Unfortunately this
552 is very hard to test dynamically.
554 Changes in 2.05:
555 * PXELINUX: Add a default query based on the hardware address
556 of the boot device. This is in lower case hexadecimal form
557 separated by dashes and including the hardware type, for
558 example, the Ethernet (type 1) address 88:99:AA:BB:CC:DD
559 would query the file pxelinux.cfg/01-88-99-aa-bb-cc-dd.
560 * PXELINUX: Fix bug involving non-IP-based config file names.
561 * SYSLINUX: New installer for WinNT-based systems, from Lars
562 Munch.
563 * MEMDISK: Fix handling of memory region overlap when
564 decompressing. Thanks to Mikhail Kupchik for identifying
565 the problem.
567 Changes in 2.04:
568 * ALL: Reclaim even more low memory by observing that
569 comboot_seg == real_mode_seg is perfectly fine, and by the
570 fact that the 1000h segment managed to get unused in all
571 derivatives...
572 * PXELINUX: Attempt to negotiate full Ethernet-sized blocks
573 (1468 bytes) using the blksize option.
574 * SYSLINUX: Resurrect the old no-mtools version of the
575 installer, although as a root-only tool. Some distributors
576 have indicated that they need a small standalone installer.
577 * MEMDISK: Fix a memory offset computation error when
578 installing compressed disks which generally would cause
579 1 MB of memory to be wasted.
580 * MEMDISK: Fix installing the E820 memory map. Calling
581 INT 15h AX=0E820h with MEMDISK 2.03 loaded would give a
582 completely corrupt memory map.
583 * SYSLINUX: Make libsyslinux a dynamic library, so that it can
584 be updated separately from client programs. The whole idea,
585 after all, is to enable alternate programs to become
586 syslinux installers.
587 * Include an rpm spec file in the distribution, so rpmbuild
588 -ta works.
590 Changes in 2.03:
591 * Actually support comment lines in the configuration file.
592 * PXELINUX: Try to resolve some problems with stack switches.
593 * PXELINUX: Handle PXE stacks with broken routing.
594 With these workarounds, the remote install PXE boot floppy
595 (rbfg.exe) from Argon Technologies should work correctly.
596 * Fix problems with Perl scripts in UTF-8 locales.
597 * You probably need NASM 0.98.34 or later to compile this
598 version. 0.98.36 is recommended.
599 * MEMDISK: Now supports gzip compressed images.
601 Changes in 2.02:
602 * SYSLINUX: Security flaws have been found in the SYSLINUX
603 installer when running setuid root. Rewrite the SYSLINUX
604 installer so it uses mtools instead. It therefore now
605 requires mtools (specifically mcopy and mattrib) to exist on
606 your system, but it will not require root privileges and
607 SHOULD NOT be setuid.
609 Changes in 2.01:
610 * MEMDISK: Fix memory sizing bug when the ramdisk crosses the
611 16 MB boundary.
612 * MEMDISK: Add a "pause" option to stop immediately before
613 booting, to read off the messages.
614 * MEMDISK: Support disk images with DOSEMU headers.
615 * Update the mkdiskimage script to handle newer mtools
616 versions, and be able to generate disk images with DOSEMU
617 headers (controlled by the -d option).
618 * Fix the COM32 sample program.
619 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix some COMBOOT API calls.
620 * PXELINUX: Doc fix.
621 * Build SYSLINUX into a small library for encapsulation into
622 other programs (however, please keep in mind this is a GPL'd
623 library.)
624 * SYSLINUX: Make installer work with "owner" in /etc/fstab.
625 * SYSLINUX: Fix issue with working on nonpartitioned hard disk
626 devices. THIS CONFIGURATION IS NOT RECOMMENDED.
628 Changes in 2.00:
629 * ALL: Add support for "COM32" (32-bit COMBOOT) images.
630 * ALL: Add an API for COMBOOT/COM32 images. See comboot.doc
631 for details. There is a C development environment for
632 COM32 being created; it should be ready at some point in
633 the future.
634 * Fix mbr.asm so that it actually works.
635 * SYSLINUX: The syslinux installer *SHOULD* now be safe to
636 run setuid root.
637 * PXELINUX: Fix bug where PXELINUX would override random
638 chunks of the UNDI code segment! Thanks to Kevin Tran for
639 finding this bug.
640 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug related to slashes in pathnames.
641 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug in handling initrds over 128 MB.
642 * ALL: Make the <Ctrl-V> key print out the version; this is
643 to help debugging.
644 * Add a small script, mkdiskimage, to create a DOS-formatted
645 hard disk image using mtools. This may be useful in
646 conjunction with MEMDISK.
647 * ISOLINUX: Search for a /boot/isolinux directory as well as
648 /isolinux.
649 * ALL: Fix a bug related to very long configuration files.
650 * PXELINUX: Work around a NASM bug which would result in no
651 delay before reset if an error occurs.
653 Changes in 1.76:
654 * ISOLINUX: Remove code no longer used which caused hangs on
655 some Toshiba laptops.
657 Changes in 1.75:
658 * ALL: NASM 0.98.32 or later is now required to build
659 SYSLINUX from sources.
660 * SYSLINUX: put back in the workaround for the BIOS floppy
661 table. This seems to be a requirement for "extended" floppy
662 formats to work correctly.
663 * SYSLINUX: No longer warn if one is trying to boot on a 286
664 or older. The above BIOS workaround no longer fits if the
665 requirement to use only 8086-compatible code in the early
666 boot is maintained. It made sense in 1994, but in 2002 a
667 286 or older is a museum object.
668 * SYSLINUX: Use a downright bizarre, stateful algorithm to try
669 to guess the maximum transfer size. I am *hoping* this will
670 cut down on the number of systems for which -s is required
671 to work at any acceptable speed.
672 * ISOLINUX: Add a few more workarounds for various broken El
673 Torito BIOSes.
674 * Make sure .depend files aren't accidentally packed...
675 * ALL: Fix bugs in the extension-detect code; this caused
676 files like COMBOOT images and CD boot sectors to be
677 mis-identified as Linux kernels and rejected.
678 * ALL: Fix the return from COMBOOT.
679 * ALL: Do some of the early groundwork for supporting DOS
680 system calls in COMBOOT.
681 * Get rid of unnecessary "near" directives, making the code
682 bigger.
683 * PXELINUX: Put the PXE stack back in the init state before
684 invoking a chain-loaded NBP.
685 * PXELINUX: Actually found the combination of calls that
686 allows some (most?) PXE 2+ stacks to be unloaded from memory
687 properly.
688 * PXELINUX: Add "keeppxe" command-line option to disable
689 the standard unloading of the PXE stack.
691 Changes in 1.74:
692 * SYSLINUX: fix bug that would cause valid kernel images to be
693 labelled "invalid".
695 Changes in 1.73:
696 * Work on removing gratuitous differences between modules.
697 * Break up the source in common and module-specific files.
698 * PXELINUX: Allow chaining of other PXE NBPs.
699 * ISOLINUX: Allow loading "CD-ROM boot sectors".
700 * ALL: generalize the definition of a boot sector/NBP.
702 Changes in 1.72:
703 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix bugs in the new core code.
705 Changes in 1.71:
706 * Fix a "brown paper bag" class bug in the new core code.
708 Changes in 1.70:
709 * Major code restructuring.
710 * Relax the conventional memory limits somewhat.
711 * MEMDISK: Set up the "version number string" pointer in the
712 header correctly.
713 * SYSLINUX: Fix, again, "the bug that won't die": the use of
714 the offset parameter with the SYSLINUX installer.
715 * SYSLINUX: Fix possible superblock corruption problem in the
716 SYSLINUX installer.
718 Changes in 1.67:
719 * Handle bug in the location of initrd.
721 Changes in 1.66:
722 * MEMDISK: Make compile with newer versions of gcc.
724 Changes in 1.65:
725 * ISOLINUX: Support booting disk image files (to boot DOS or
726 other non-Linux operating systems), *IF* the BIOS works
727 correctly; unfortunately many BIOSes apparently don't.
728 * Support Linux boot protocol version 2.03 (explicitly
729 specify the initrd address limit.)
730 * Handle small "pseudo-kernels"; images that use the Linux
731 kernel boot protocols but are less than 64K in size.
732 * MEMDISK: New subsystem; this is a driver which allows
733 legacy OSes to boot using an in-memory simulated disk.
734 See memdisk/memdisk.doc for more info.
735 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Correctly handle files larger than 65535
736 blocks (32 MB for PXELINUX, 128 MB for ISOLINUX.)
737 * PXELINUX: Make a best-effort attempt at freeing all memory
738 claimed. From the looks of it, it will fail on most PXE
739 stacks.
741 Changes in 1.64:
742 * Limited support for hardware flow control when using a
743 serial port console.
744 * Support specifying the serial port I/O address explicitly.
745 * Make DOS installer hopefully behave more nicely when used on
746 recent Windows versions.
747 * Fix returning to text mode when a font has been specified.
748 * Attempt to detect missing serial port hardware and disable
749 the serial port if there is nothing there.
751 Changes in 1.63:
752 * Make the ppmtolss16 program handle color conversion more
753 correctly.
754 * Clean up "make install" target, honour INSTALLROOT if it
755 exists.
756 * SYSLINUX: Fix stack-smash bug identified by Steffen
757 Winterfeldt.
758 * Hopefully fix return-to-text-mode on some graphics cards.
759 * ISOLINUX: Bug workaround for Award BIOS 4.51, and perhaps
760 other buggy BIOSes as well.
762 Changes in 1.62:
763 * PXELINUX: Allow the DHCP server to override the
764 configuration file name and pathname prefix, using
765 "site-specific" DHCP options.
766 * PXELINUX: Documentation fixes.
767 * PXELINUX: Fix the "ipappend" option; the last two values
768 were reversed vs. what the kernel expected.
769 * Introduce a way to return to text mode once we are already
770 in graphics mode. This may be useful for F-key help
771 screens.
772 * Fix several bugs in the way return to text mode was handled.
774 Changes in 1.61:
775 * ISOLINUX: Support full pathname searches. Max length for a
776 pathname is 255 characters. As a result, only 64 "label"
777 statements are supported in ISOLINUX.
778 * PXELINUX: Max filename length extended to 63 characters.
780 Changes in 1.60:
781 * Add support for graphical splash screens.
782 * Add mode control characters, which allows you to control
783 message display output depending on output mode (text,
784 graphics, or serial port.)
785 * ISOLINUX: New program, which boots Linux from a CD-ROM
786 without using floppy emulation mode. See isolinux.doc for
787 more details.
788 * PXELINUX: Don't search for boot sector file types, since
789 they don't work anyway.
790 * SYSLINUX: Document the LOCK command for Win9x, and the error
791 dialog box for WinNT/2K.
793 Changes in 1.54:
794 * PXELINUX: Fix code for finding !PXE from PXENV+. This was
795 due to a spec bug; match the most recent spec since that
796 seems to be what implementations actually do.
797 * SYSLINUX: Add some smarts to the boot sector, which
798 hopefully should reduce the number of systems which require
799 stupid mode ("syslinux -s").
800 * PXELINUX: Document further some of the pathologies with old
801 PXE stacks.
802 * When specifying a "default" command line, no longer
803 automatically appent "auto". See the "DEFAULT" command in
804 syslinux.doc for more information.
805 * PXELINUX: Clean up the allocation of local socket numbers.
807 Changes in 1.53:
808 * PXELINUX: Rename pxelinux.bin to pxelinux.0, to match what
809 most PXE servers seem to expect.
810 * PXELINUX: Update the DHCP/boot server setup documentation.
811 * PXELINUX: Support new "localboot" option for "label"
812 sections.
813 * PXELINUX: More robust parsing of DHCP/boot server packets.
814 * PXELINUX: Include a small utility program "gethostip" to
815 compute hexadecimal IP addresses.
817 Changes in 1.52:
818 * PXELINUX: Fix bugs introduced by new A20 code. (SYSLINUX
819 has also been changed for code consistency reasons, but I'm
820 pretty sure the changes are don't care on SYSLINUX.)
821 * Documentation updates.
822 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend" option to generate an ip= option to
823 the kernel.
825 Changes in 1.51:
826 * PXELINUX: Not all PXE stacks fill in the IP address for a
827 type 3 cached info query. Use a type 2 cached info query
828 for this information (only.)
829 * Yet another attempt at A20 coding. Now support BIOS call
830 15:2401 as well, and handle machines which always have A20
831 on separately.
832 * Support memory detection using INT 15h, AX=0E820h. BIOS
833 manufacturers have apparently gotten sloppy about keeping
834 INT 15h, AX=0E801h working properly.
835 * Don't issue <CR><LF> onto the serial port when we're doing
836 screen wraparound.
838 Changes in 1.50:
839 * Yet another A20-code update. It seems some "legacy-free"
840 machines and embedded gear simply don't have a KBC to talk
841 to, and that waiting for one will wait forever. Sigh.
843 Changes in 1.49:
844 * SYSLINUX: Implement a hack for BIOS drivers which hog significant
845 chunks of low memory during boot. (Note: PXELINUX already
846 had this modification. SYSLINUX does still require that the
847 low 512K is available; PXELINUX requires 384K. Machines
848 with a physical memory hole in the low 640K cannot boot
849 Linux no matter what.) Depending what the reason is for the
850 memory hole, a new kernel (2.4.0-test3-pre3 or later) may be
851 required.
852 * SYSLINUX: Default installer binary now compiled against
853 glibc 2.1. If this is inappropriate for your system and you
854 still want to use the offical version of SYSLINUX, please
855 follow the instructions in "distrib.doc" to rebuild the
856 installer.
857 * SYSLINUX: Linux installer program now supports -o <offset>
858 option which does a loopback mount with the
859 -o loop,offset=<> option. Useful to run SYSLINUX on an
860 individual partition of a whole-harddisk image.
861 * Include the source code to a Master Boot Record (MBR)
862 functionally equivalent to the one installed DOS except it
863 includes EBIOS support, and should be resistant to geometry
864 changes. The MBR code is public domain.
865 * PXELINUX: Fix "double p" bug: if the tftp prefix was null,
866 all filenames would get a "p" preprended, e.g.
867 "ppxelinux.cfg" and "pvmlinux".
869 Changes in 1.48:
870 * PXELINUX: Workaround for PXE ROMs based on the Intel PXE PDK
871 3.0 build 071 and earlier: missing !PXE structure pointer.
872 * PXELINUX: Handle larger BOOTP/DHCP packages.
873 * PXELINUX: The command line passing was broken; fix.
874 * PXELINUX: Make COMBOOT images work.
875 * PXELINUX: Documentation on how to make booting work using
876 the PDK 3.0-derived clients, which aren't so generous as to
877 allow booting with only "PXEClient" specified.
879 Changes in 1.47:
880 * PXELINUX: RFC 1123 states that a TFTP implementation MUST
881 use adaptive timeout, "at least an exponential backoff of
882 retransmission timeout is necessary." Implement a very
883 simple exponential backoff for retransmits.
884 * PXELINUX: Updated documentation, including pointer to new
885 TFTP server.
886 * PXELINUX: When sending ERROR due to bad OACK, use the proper
887 destination port number (why are TFTP port numbers so odd?)
888 * PXELINUX: If the boot dies in the middle somewhere,
889 eventually give up and reset the machine (unattended
890 operation.)
892 Changes in 1.46:
893 * New program PXELINUX to do network booting using a
894 PXE-compliant (Pre-Execution Environment) network booting
895 PROM. See pxelinux.doc for details.
897 Changes in 1.45:
898 * Serial console support. See syslinux.doc for details.
900 Changes in 1.44:
901 * Change HIGHMEM_MAX to 38000000h to (hopefully) avoid the
902 kernel stepping on it; 3f000000h was apparently a higher
903 limit than the kernel used!
905 Changes in 1.43:
906 * Add sys2ansi.pl script to display the contents of a
907 colorized SYSLINUX file.
908 * Changed the io_delay once again, after a report that the
909 old delay port causes hangs on some systems.
911 Changes in 1.42:
912 * Frob the "fast A20 gate" port as well as the keyboard
913 controller; will this help systems with problems?
914 * Be even more paranoid about A20, unfortunately even this
915 seems to be not paranoid enough... what I don't understand
916 is that if there is hardware out there *this broken*, how
917 can it run Linux at all? Report an error message rather
918 than hang forever if A20 is stuck.
919 * Include some intermediate files in the distribution, plus
920 provide a "make installer" target for distributors to relink
921 the install programs only. I would prefer the syslinux boot
922 loader proper to be "binary clean" for debuggablity -- use
923 "make clean ; make installer" to rebuild the installers only.
925 Changes in 1.41:
926 * Don't get confused by directories, volume labels, or VFAT
927 long names.
928 * Use INT 15h, AX=0E801h to query memory size before trying
929 INT 15h, AH=88h. This not only provides more headroom
930 between the kernel and the initrd on large-memory machines,
931 but it appears some recent BIOSes actually have started
932 returning garbage for the AH=88h (older) call.
933 * Trust high memory beyond the 15 MB mark if the user has
934 specified it, or if obtained with INT 15h, AH=0E801h (with
935 no memory holes above 1 MB.)
937 Changes in 1.40:
938 * Increase A20M delay and put in a test to avoid problems on
939 certain IBM Thinkpads (thanks to Donnie Barnes of RedHat
940 for vital info on this one.)
941 * Support COMBOOT style boot command images.
942 * Support chain loading (foreign operating systems, e.g. DOS).
943 * Include a new "copybs" DOS utility to copy a boot sector to
944 a file (under Linux, use "dd".)
945 * Fix the DOS installer to work for disks over 32 MB.
946 * SYSLINUX should now handle disks with more than 65536 tracks.
948 Changes in 1.37:
949 * Fix a bug that caused "label" statements in syslinux.cfg to
950 not be handled properly.
951 * Updated the documentation. Among other things, we now allow
952 up to 128 "label" statements.
954 Changes in 1.36:
955 * Fix for booting old (pre-initrd) kernels.
956 * It seems at least some versions of OS/2 doesn't set up all
957 the fields in the superblock correctly. Account for that.
958 * Fix bug that caused boot failure when using the mem= option.
960 Changes in 1.35:
961 * Loading from partitions now should work properly. (Actually
962 tested, this time. You should even be able to dd a floppy
963 to a partition and boot from it.)
964 * Removed large workaround code for an alleged ancient BIOS
965 bug I have never actually seen. The -s option should work
966 on those machines, anyway.
967 * Support for simple keyboard remappings, same as used by
968 LILO (once again to support localization.) The program
969 keytab-lilo.pl from the LILO distribution included to
970 generate such maps.
971 * Added a "safe, slow and stupid" (-s) option to the
972 installers. This option will lobotomize the boot sector to
973 hopefully work on even very buggy BIOSes.
975 Changes in 1.34:
976 * Ability to load a VGA font on bootup (for localized Linux
977 distributions.)
979 Changes in 1.33:
980 * Bug fix in the Linux installer.
981 * Added a workaround for a bug in certain AMI/Intel BIOSes
982 when booting from CD-ROM.
983 * Documentation changes.
985 Changes in 1.32:
986 * FAT16 filesystems are now supported.
988 Changes in 1.31:
989 * Now compiles under Linux, using NASM, rather than using
990 Turbo Assembler under DOS. See http://www.cryogen.com/Nasm
991 for information about NASM.
992 * Linux-hosted SYSLINUX installer, as well as a
993 rewritten DOS installer (now is written in assembler, so we
994 don't need Turbo C.)
996 Changes in 1.30:
997 * Added support for loading bzImage and initrd loading, and made
998 SYSLINUX new-setup-code aware (SYSLINUX 1.30 id=0x31).
999 * Added LILO-style kernel labels; see the LABEL and IMPLICIT
1000 keywords in README file.
1001 * Added support for colorization of intro and help screens.
1002 * The vga= option is now handled correctly.
1003 * Massive rewrite of large chunks of the code in order to
1004 support the first two new features.
1006 Changes in 1.20:
1007 * Added simple online help at the "boot:" prompt.
1008 * Removed 2880K image as I no longer have access to such a
1009 floppy drive. (Donations accepted!!)
1010 * Decided to distribute the source in a subdirectory rather
1011 than in a nested zipfile.
1013 Changes in 1.11:
1014 * Removed a sanity check which would cause booting to fail on
1015 Phoenix BIOS version 4.03. Apparently this BIOS is buggy.
1017 Changes in 1.10:
1018 * Added configuration file SYSLINUX.CFG. This file contains all
1019 configurable options, and can be edited from any OS which can
1020 access an MS-DOS filesystem; there is no longer a need to run
1021 SYSLINUX.EXE except to write the boot sector.
1022 * Default command line now given by "default" line in config
1023 file.
1024 * LINUXMSG.TXT and BOOTMSG.TXT hard-coded file names replaced by
1025 "display" and "prompt" lines in config file.
1026 * LILO-style option appending now supported ("append" line in
1027 config file).
1028 * Prompt timeout is now supported ("timeout" line in config
1029 file). The timeout is cancelled when anything is typed on the
1030 command line.
1031 * Pressing <ESC> or <Ctrl-C> at the Loading... stage now aborts
1032 the kernel loading in progress and returns the user to the
1033 boot: prompt.
1034 * The installer now automatically sets the READONLY flag on
1035 LDLINUX.SYS.
1036 * Added 2880K disk image.
1038 Changes in 1.03:
1039 * Fixed bug that would prevent booting from double-density
1040 floppies and other DOS filesystems with multiple sectors per
1041 cluster.
1042 * Added 720K disk image.
1043 * Changed default kernel name on disk images to LINUX.
1045 Changes in 1.02:
1046 * Fixed bug that would garble the command line on recent kernels
1047 with more than 4 sectors of setup code (this wasn't really a
1048 *bug*; rather, a kernel change broke the code. Unfortunately
1049 the Linux boot interface is still sorely undocumented).
1050 * Added BOOTMSG.TXT file support (message file which does not
1051 force display of the boot prompt).
1053 Changes in 1.01:
1054 * Fixed bug on some (most?) 386 BIOSes would require two boot
1055 attempts.