1 Starting with 1.47, changes marked with SYSLINUX/PXELINUX/ISOLINUX
2 apply to that specific program only; other changes apply to all of
6 * Include the pxechain.com module from Jeffery Hutzelman at
7 Carnegie Mellon University. This allows chaining another
8 PXE boot program while changing the DHCP packet passed to
10 * Reorganize the Makefile system.
11 * Major PCI core cleanups and other source cleanup.
13 * Try to avoid memory-snooping attacks on passwords. Note
14 that if someone has root on the box, they generally don't
15 need to compromise the boot loader...
16 * ISOLINUX: fix crash when given a zero-length file.
17 * sdi.c32: support gzipped SDI images.
18 * ISOLINUX: support generating images which can be either
19 a CD-ROM or a hard disk (USB disk, etc.) See
20 doc/isolinux.txt for more information.
21 * Remote gdb support for COM32 modules; patch from Stefan
25 * Workaround for a VESA BIOS which tries to make DOS system
27 * Simple menu: fix navigation around disabled entries
28 (or at least try to...)
29 * EXTLINUX: proper error message when confused about mount
31 * MEMDISK: be smarter about incompletely disabled floppies in
32 the BIOS and about being the only BIOS.
33 * Optionally allow initrd to be specified on a separate line
34 rather than as part of the "append" line. This is not
35 recommended, but apparently makes life easier for some
37 * SYSLINUX: if no config file is present, set the current
38 directory to the root directory (Sebastian Herbszt.)
39 * chain.c32: option "hide" to support hiding and unhiding of
40 primary partitions on the boot drive with DOS, Win, or OS/2
41 partition types (01, 04, 06, 07, 0b, 0c, 0e).
42 * Unbreak the KBDMAP command (broken in 3.70).
43 * EXTLINUX: fix the handling of the ADV when using CBIOS.
44 * ifcpu64.c32: simple COM32 module to select a 32- or 64-bit
45 kernel (and optionally 32-bit kernels with or without PAE.)
46 Eventually we want a scripting language for this
47 kind of stuff; a Lua module is under development.
48 * Fix parsing of the SERIAL command without a baud rate
50 * chain.c32: error out when try to boot an unbootable
52 * SYSLINUX: when building the Win32 installer, search for
53 MinGW under a large number of possible names.
56 * PXELINUX: Support enhanced capabilities when running on top
57 of gPXE (http://www.etherboot.org/). In particular, support
58 URL-style syntax for filenames, and any protocol that gPXE
59 supports (except, currently, iSCSI and AoE.) This feature
60 is currently highly experimental.
61 * Substantial infrastructure changes to support files whose
62 length aren't known at open time (typically network
63 connections.) Please note that the semantics of some of the
64 comboot APIs have changed slightly; please see doc/comboot.txt.
65 * PXELINUX: We no longer require a TFTP server which supports
66 the tsize option for all transfers.
67 * PXELINUX: Integrate with the gPXE source base; unified image
68 now included as "gpxelinux.0".
69 * The source tree has been restructured; files that were
70 previously in the root have moved into the core, dos, gpxe,
71 and utils directories.
72 * "make install", "make netinstall", and "make extbootinstall"
73 have been updated massively. "make install-all" now installs
75 * Change default dir for auxiliary files from
76 /usr/lib/syslinux to /usr/share/syslinux.
77 * SYSLINUX: VFAT long filename support.
78 * MEMDISK: Any image less than 4096K (4 MB) is treated as a
79 floppy disk. The geometry-guessing code will recognize all
80 common extended formats, but it is still possible some very
81 exotic formats need geometry specification. Large floppies
82 and very small harddisks still need explicit specification.
83 * chain.c32: option "swap" to support swapping of BIOS drive
84 numbers. This is necessary to boot certain operating systems
85 (DOS, Windows) from a secondary drive.
86 * chain.c32: option "file=" to support loading a boot file from
87 the SYSLINUX filesystem instead of loading the boot sector
89 * chain.c32: option "seg=" to control the load location.
90 * chain.c32: option "ntldr=" as a shorthand for "seg=0x2000
91 file="; use this to load one of WinNT's loaders:
93 chain.c32 hd0 1 ntldr=/MiniNT/setupldr.bin
95 Note that the file needs to be in the SYSLINUX filesystem.
96 * chain.32: options "freedos=" and "msdos="/"pcdos=" as
97 shorthands for "seg=0x60 file=" and "seg=0x70 file="
98 respectively; use this to load FreeDOS's kernel.sys, MS-DOS's
99 io.sys or PC-DOS's ibmbio.sys.
100 * Change to the A20 algorithm which *MIGHT* help systems that
101 have systems which freeze when Syslinux is used with USB
102 keyboards. Note that this has been hard do verify, so I
103 would greatly appreciate feedback on it.
104 * Complex menu system: unbreak menus which has unnamed
105 submenus, like complex.c.
106 * Fix newline on the serial port for some com32 modules.
107 * chain.c32: support "boot" as the drive specification,
108 indicating the drive from which it was booted
109 (for syslinux/extlinux).
110 * SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX: support "localboot" with the same feature
112 * Add an experimental MBR for GPT partition tables.
113 * Use $(CC) when determining compile flags.
114 * chain.c32: fix booting from logical partitions (Sergey
118 * Fix errors in the PCI and DMI detection modules (Erwan Velu,
120 * Fix host dependencies and other issues in the build system.
121 * PXELINUX: Allow class E addresses as unicast.
122 * sdi.c32: module to load Microsoft System Deployment Images.
123 For additional information, please see:
124 http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms838543.aspx
125 * EXTLINUX: Correct reading directories with deleted entries.
126 * Shuffle library: correct the handling of certain geometries
127 (an upward move with source material blocking the move); as
128 required by sdi.c32 but theoretically possible for other
130 * Add "make netinstall" to install /tftpboot.
131 * Fix some documentation files that didn't get moved/renamed.
134 * Clean up garbage after "aborted." message.
135 * Clean up memdump.com filenames.
136 * Support SHA256 and SHA512 encrypted passwords.
137 * The shuffle library now can generate chained descriptors,
138 thus allowing pretty much arbitrarily complex memory maps.
139 * Handle command lines up to 2047 characters, the current
141 * vesamenu: support systems without linear framebuffer support
142 (sigh, what is this, 1993?) and 15-bit RGB modes.
143 * Move the label storage (for the command-line interface) to
144 high memory, removing the size limit and freeing up 64K of
146 * Get rid of 4096-entry limit in the simple menu system.
147 * New hierarchial submenu support: see MENU BEGIN, MENU END,
148 MENU GOTO in doc/menu.txt.
149 * MENU QUIT allows creating a menu entry for returning to the
151 * ISOLINUX: Work around bug in certain Adaptec BIOSes,
152 patch by Bruce Robson.
153 * pngtopnm dependency removed from samples/ directory.
154 * Text documentation files (in doc/) renamed *.doc -> *.txt.
157 * EXTLINUX: fix crash when accessing an empty file.
158 * elf.c32: If a PHDR segment is present, load it.
159 * Fix SHA-1 and MD5 passwords.
160 * ISOLINUX: fix booting when mastered without
161 mkisofs -boot-info-table (broken since 3.50, sigh...)
162 * Handle BIOSes which emit multiple contiguous valid
163 memory regions in the e820 map.
166 * Support for "auxilliary data vector", a small amount of
167 writable storage. Currently only supported for EXTLINUX,
168 but the infrastructure is there for the other derivatives,
169 assuming a suitable storage location can be found.
170 * EXTLINUX: boot-once support (--once, --clear-once, and
172 * A command is now required to the EXTLINUX installer, i.e. at
173 least one of --install, --update, --once, --clear-once, or
177 * PXELINUX: as per RFC 5071, PXELINUX no longer requires the
178 use of the magic cookie option (208) for unencapsulated
179 options. Currently it does not require it for
180 vendor-encapsulated options (vendor-option-space) either,
181 but that MAY be reverted in the future if it causes
183 * Documentation text files moved to a common "doc" directory;
184 man pages from the Debian project added to the "man"
186 * Correct bug with self-overlapping memory areas when using
187 the shuffle interface.
190 * Add "menu separator", "menu indent", "menu disabled"
192 * vesamenu: fix handing of VESA modes with noncontiguous
193 memory buffers. In particular, Qemu/KVM sets up such a mode
194 when Cirrus Logic emulation is enabled (which is the
196 * Support for calling real mode functions using far calls,
197 with argument on the stack. This was implemented to support
198 the BIOS BBS specification, but subsequent experiments show
199 that the at least one of the most common BIOS cores, Award,
200 passes the presence check but doesn't actually implement the
204 * Fix bugs related to the $PnP BIOS functionality on some
206 * PXELINUX: Fix the "naked" version of :: (suppress prefix.)
207 * elf.c32: better error messages.
208 * Faster operation under Intel VT virtualization.
209 * PXELINUX: Fix DHCP bootfile option.
210 * mkdiskimage: Support more than 1024 cylinders.
211 * (Hopefully) fix installer on non-x86 platforms.
212 * Fix shuffle_and_boot_rm, used by linux.c32.
213 * Fix shuffle_and_boot_pm on 386/486.
214 * ISOLINUX (at least): fix bss memory overwrite hang.
215 * MBR: Fix booting from logical partitions.
219 * Handle capitalized F-key commands in the menu system.
220 * Fix padding error when loading multiple ramdisks.
221 * Workaround for VMware crashing when trying to print a
222 message during early kernel boot (does not seem to work,
224 * chain.c32: add the ability to search for a specific MBR
225 signature at runtime.
226 * Fall back to the server identity option if the siaddr field
227 in the DHCP header isn't set. This seems to match the
228 behaviour of most PXE stacks.
229 * mkdiskimage: give the generated disk image an MBR signature.
230 * MEMDISK: Fix failures on some BIOSes.
231 * Simple menu system: new "MENU HIDDEN" option to not display
232 the menu unless the user presses a key.
233 * Simple menu system: support MD5-encrypted passwords (modern
234 Unix standard style, with "$1$" prefixes.)
235 * pcitest.c32: now functions as a full "lspci". Thanks to
236 Erwan Velu for this work.
237 * MEMDISK: Make EDD actually work.
238 * ISOLINUX: Fix for certain broken CD-ROM BIOSes which
239 randomly corrupted register FS.
240 * Simple menu system: fix memory overwrite bug that caused
241 some systems to lock up or behave weirdly.
242 * Fix building on 64-bit systems without a 32-bit libc installed.
245 * EXTLINUX: Fix failure to find the configuration file.
248 * New keywords allow the type of file to be specified in the
250 * It is now supported to load a different configuration file
251 with the CONFIG keyword.
252 * Fix API call 0x0019 (Read Disk.)
253 * MENU AUTOBOOT, MENU TABMSG, MENU PASSPROMPT allows
254 internationalization of menu messages.
255 * A new feature, TEXT HELP, allows the administrator to set
256 a multi-line help message for individual selections.
257 * Fix API call 0x0012 (Cleanup, shuffle and boot.)
258 * New API call "Cleanup, shuffle and boot to flat protected mode"
259 * New API call "Cleanup, shuffle and boot to real mode",
260 similar to API call 0x0012 but allows arbitrary register setting.
261 * Introduce a library interface for loading arbitrary binary
262 formats with relatively easily understood code. See
263 the elf.c32 module for an example on how to use it.
264 * New module "elf.c32", to load a protected-mode ELF kernel.
265 * MBR (old and new): Fix bug in CHS mode when LBA >
267 * vesamenu: fix decoding of palettized PNG images.
268 * Update the Linux kernel boot protocol.
269 * PXELINUX: Press Ctrl-N at the boot prompt to read out the
271 * Instead of the (non-existent) MAC, use the client identifier
272 for networks like Infiniband and Firewire/1394.
273 * Add a new INCLUDE command to the core syslinux parser.
274 * Allow binding help text to F11 and F12.
275 * F-key help now available in the simple menu system.
276 * Disabled the polling for ARP during idle. It is simply too
277 slow on some (broken!) PXE stacks.
278 * PXELINUX: also try to fetch the config file based on UUID.
279 * SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX: New RAID mode (-r) which calls the BIOS
280 to load the next device (typically the next drive) on boot
284 * MEMDISK: Disable EDD by default on floppy disks. EDD can be
285 enabled with the "edd" option and disabled with "noedd".
286 This (hopefully) should make Ghost work again.
287 * SYSLINUX: "unix" installer now uses Linux ioctls instead of
289 * New MBR which can boot from logical partitions.
290 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in detecting special extensions which was
291 introduced in 3.35 :(
292 * PXELINUX: Unbreak chainbooting FreeBSD (and possibly others.)
295 * MEMDISK: New "safeint" mode.
296 * MEMDISK: Be more compliant with the PnP BIOS spec.
297 * MEMDISK: Turn on EDD support by default.
298 * MEMDISK: Try to work on some machines on which it would not
299 work when there was no floppy drive in the system.
300 * Simple menu system: fix serial console support (broken in
302 * SYSLINUX: Support subdirectories. Like ISOLINUX, the
303 "current directory" is the directory in which syslinux.cfg
304 is found; this is searched for in the sequence
305 /boot/syslinux, /syslinux, /. As a side benefit, label names
306 like "linux-2.6.18" and "linux-2.6.19" are now supported.
308 To install ldlinux.sys in a subdirectory, pass the -d
309 directory option to the SYSLINUX installer.
311 This work was sponsored by slax.org (thanks, Tomas!)
312 * New API call: read disk.
313 * Invoke ONERROR on initrd load failure.
316 * The simple menu system (menu.c32 and vesamenu.c32) now
317 support loading more than one configuration file at a time,
318 using MENU INCLUDE or by specifying multiple filenames.
319 * The MENU COLOR statement can now control the shadowing mode.
322 * libcom32 extended to support graphics mode and graphical console.
323 * vesamenu.c32, new graphical version of the Simple
324 Menu System, see README.menu.
325 * New com32 modules by Erwan Velu do selection based on CPUID
326 or PCI devices present.
327 * RPM spec: add syslinux-tftpboot module; move syslinux by
328 default to the /usr/share/syslinux directory.
329 * RPM spec: extlinux is now a separate package.
332 * EXTLINUX: New options --install (-i) and --update (-U), to
333 make it clear if a boot loader should be installed or
334 updated. For now, defaults to --install for compatibility;
335 a future version will require one of these options.
336 * New library functions to load and place files in memory.
337 * mboot.c32 bug fixes.
338 * Remove 8 MB kernel size restriction.
339 * Add "klibc" target for building unix/syslinux and
340 extlinux/extlinux with klcc (klibc-1.4.27 or later.)
341 * PXELINUX: Fail (and eventually reboot) if no configuration
343 * COM32 module by Erwan Velu to make decisions based on DMI
345 * Fix issue where going back and forth between menus a lot
347 * ISOLINUX: Fix bug which made "cd boot sectors" not work.
350 * MEMDISK: Fix bug by which accessing the real floppy disk
351 as B: in MS-DOS was broken.
352 * Simple menu system: allow tweaking of the screen layout.
353 * Simple menu system: better command-line editing, correctly
354 handle command lines above 256 characters.
355 * PXELINUX: revert memory allocation change that caused
356 problems on some network cards.
357 * MEMDISK: Try work around a bug on some BIOSes when no
358 physical floppy disk is present in the system.
359 * Enable the 16550A FIFOs, if present, when doing serial
361 * New "totaltimeout" command establishes a timeout without
362 regard for any user input.
363 * Simple menu system: timeout behaviour now more in line with
365 * Simple menu system: "ontimeout" should now work correctly.
368 * gcc 4.0.1 compilation fixes.
369 * Add support for querying the PCI BIOS in libcom32
370 (used by ethersel et al.)
371 * Fix PCI handing (ethersel etc) on several old chipsets (and
373 * Try to deal with systems with broken EBIOS.
374 * New API call to do "localboot".
375 * New API call to query features.
376 * New API call to run kernel image, a lower-level call than
377 "run command". See comboot.doc.
378 * Fix for bug in EBIOS code discovered by Arwin Vosselman.
379 * NOESCAPE security fix.
380 * Comments are now recognized even without a space following #.
381 * Fix incorrect handling of mixes of entries with and without
383 * The idle API call now harmlessly returns failure if it is a
384 no-op. That way the caller can decide whether or not to
385 bother invoking it again.
386 * Temporarily disable the idle API call on PXELINUX, due to
387 some platforms on which the idle API call seems to hang; this
388 problem has not yet been debugged.
389 * MEMDISK: the handling of DOSEMU-headered images was broken;
391 * EXTLINUX: symlinks are now supported.
392 * Simple menu system: N and P now work correctly as hotkeys.
393 * MEMDISK: more BIOS bug workarounds.
396 * gcc4 compilation fix.
397 * <BEL> (Ctrl-G) in message files now causes a beep.
398 * Reduce the command line to 511 characters; 1023 caused
402 * SYSLINUX: Fix performance regression (-s mode always
404 * Add API function for idle loop.
405 * libutil: Add do_idle() function for idle loop, make
407 * libutil: Add SHA-1 and base64 functions.
408 * Simple menu system: add password support.
409 * EXTLINUX: Sparse files now handled correctly.
410 * EXTLINUX: Large directories now handled correctly.
411 * ALL: At the prompt, Ctrl-X now forces text mode.
412 * Fix configuration file parsing error, that could cause
414 * Rewritten advanced menuing system from Murali Ganapathy.
415 * MEMDISK: New "bigraw" mode to work around certain broken
417 * COM32 module to boot Multiboot systems, including Xen. See
418 com32/modules/mboot.doc.
419 * Max command line changed to 1023 characters. Note that the
420 kernel proper still can only handle 255 characters without
421 patching, and COM16 binaries can only handle 125 characters.
424 * Fix chainloading (chain.c32).
425 * Fix zlib build problem.
426 * Use a private copy of <linux/ext2_fs.h>.
429 * Fix typo that caused the ramdisk to load in the wrong place.
432 * New API function "shuffle and boot"; allows COM32 modules to
433 load or construct (almost) arbitrarily complex objects,
434 e.g. a kernel and its initrd/initramfs in pieces, and have
435 the API core reorganize memory for booting. (A library API
436 for this function will be introduced in a later version.)
437 * The initrd= option now supports multiple filenames separated
438 by commas. This is mostly useful for initramfs, which can
439 be composed of multiple separate cpio or cpio.gz archives.
440 (Note: all files except the last one are zero-padded to a 4K
441 page boundary. This should not affect initramfs.)
442 * EXTLINUX: Fix API function 000Ah (get derivative-specific
444 * libcom32/ethersel: Support PCI Config Mechanism #2 on
445 machines still infested with that hideous old hack.
446 * SYSLINUX: Fix directory-parsing bug.
449 * SYSLINUX: The "unix" installer now sets the MS-DOS
450 attributes (hidden, system, readonly.)
451 * COM32 library: build the .lnx (test modules for running
452 under Linux) as architecture native modules, in case
453 i386 devel libraries aren't installed.
454 * EXTLINUX: Hack for systems which don't have BLKGETSIZE64
455 defined in the standard header files.
456 * Simple menu system: minor aestetic improvements, and try to
457 work better over a serial console (speed, and readability on
458 monochrome terminal emulators.)
459 * New CONSOLE directive to control output on the video console
460 (useful for dealing with some broken serial-forwarding
462 * New com32 module "ethersel" for searching for an Ethernet
463 card and selecting the proper version of Etherboot.
464 * EXTLINUX: Allow the user to override the detected geometry.
468 * EXTLINUX, SYSLINUX: Fix compile errors on some systems.
469 * EXTLINUX: Default to zipdrive geometry (64 heads, 32
470 sectors) if no other geometry can be detected.
473 * SYSLINUX: Support FAT32 and EDD. As an unfortunate
474 consequence, LDLINUX.SYS is no longer an ordinary file; it
475 is block-mapped at install time, which means it can only be
476 written using the syslinux installers.
477 * SYSLINUX: Reorganize the source code for the installers;
478 each one of the installers (dos, win32, unix, mtools) is now
479 built in its own subdirectory. In particular, "mtools" is
480 the unprivileged installer which uses mtools; "unix" is the
481 privileged installer which uses system calls.
482 * SYSLINUX: Completely rewritten DOS installer in C.
483 * ALL: "label" statement information is now stored in a
484 compressed format, which means that a lot more labels are
485 permitted (500-1000 in a typical configuration, but depends
487 * EXTLINUX: New derivative, which boots from an ext2/ext3
489 * SYSLINUX: The DOS and Win32 installers can now optionally
490 write the boot sector to a file instead of the real boot
491 sector. This is not supported in the Linux installers,
493 * ALL: New NOESCAPE command, disables the "hold down the Shift
494 key to display the prompt" behaviour.
495 * New simple menu system, as an alternative to the advanced
496 menu system already present. See README.menu for details.
497 * PXELINUX: Filenames can now be prefixed with an IP address
498 or DNS name plus :: (e.g. 192.0.2.1::filename or
499 server.domain.com::filename), which downloads a file from an
500 alternate TFTP server, or just a :: (e.g. ::filename), which
501 suppresses the common pathname prefix. See pxelinux.doc.
502 * SYSLINUX: Add an -m option to the DOS and Win32 installers
503 to write an MBR and -a to mark the partition SYSLINUX is
504 being installed on active.
505 * MEMDISK: Give a way to query the boot loader type while
506 running MEMDISK; see memdisk/memdisk.doc and
508 * mkdiskimage: substantially improved mkdiskimage which, among
509 other things, can now be used to initialize USB keys as
510 zipdrives; see README.usbkey for more information.
513 * MEMDISK: Fix command-line parsing "brown paper bag" class
515 * MEMDISK: Add "raw" mode to support the DOS boot disk from
516 WinME/XP, which seems to deliberately crash the system
517 when someone uses the "INT 15h mover" highmem API.
518 * Make "make install" do something sane for the com32
519 development environment.
520 * In the spec file, create a separate -devel RPM for the com32
521 development environment.
524 * Simple C library, based on klibc, for writing COM32
526 * Fix the handling of file length in loading of COM32
528 * MEMDISK: Work around a linker bug by rearranging the code to
529 not use the linker for the 16-bit code.
530 * SYSLINUX: If we're building on a machine without a Win32
531 (mingw) compiler, just skip building syslinux.exe.
532 * ISOLINUX: Support non-mkisofs mastering programs, at least
533 as long as the image is single-session. For best results,
534 ISOLINUX should be the only boot loader installed.
535 * MEMDISK: Allow the user to specify that the simulated disk
536 should be write-protected.
539 * ALL: Add an API call to get the configuration file name.
540 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in 2.10 that prevented it from working
541 correctly for a lot of people.
542 * SYSLINUX: In the installer, make mtools a bit less fussy.
543 * Make the menu system compile with newer gcc's.
546 * MEMDISK: Handle images compressed with zip as well as with
547 gzip. Some Windows-based image tools apparently generate
548 these kinds of images by default. Patch by Patrick
550 * Major menu improvement from Murali Ganapathy.
551 * ISOLINUX: Wonderfully sick and brilliant workaround for
552 severe bugs in certain Award BIOSes; from Knut Petersen.
553 * SYSLINUX: Fix for the nomtools installed, from Frederic
555 * PXELINUX: Fix handling of IP numbers in the ranges
557 * ALL: New option "allowoptions" (defaults to 1), which
558 controls if options are allowed on the command line or not.
559 * SYSLINUX: Support building under klibc (see the klibc
560 distribution for details.)
563 * SYSLINUX: Remove residual setuid crap from
565 * Handle video pages correctly when using the API functions.
566 * Handle compiling on an x86-64 platform correctly.
567 * Menu system from Murali Krishnan Ganapathy; see the menu
568 directory for information.
569 * COMBOOT: Allow COMBOOT programs to change screen text mode.
570 * COMBOOT: Correct the documentation of how to detect
571 SYSLINUX from COMBOOT!!!!
572 * COMBOOT: Fix "get key without echo" API function.
573 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug that affected the API open function.
574 * ALL: Improve the E820 memory parser, to work around some
578 * Add new configuration command "ontimeout" to allow timeout
579 to have a different action than just pressing Enter.
580 * Add new configuration command "onerror" to allow a custom
581 command to be executed in case the kernel image is not found.
582 * Fix bugs in the COMBOOT/COM32 command-line parsing. APPEND
583 now works with COMBOOT/COM32 images.
584 * PXELINUX: Poll for ARP requests while sitting at the
585 prompt. This makes some boot servers a lot less unhappy.
586 * PXELINUX: Actually free sockets when we get a failure
587 (including file not found.) This bug would cause us to run
588 out of sockets and thus "go deaf" after a while.
589 * MEMDISK: Add an API to query for the existence of MEMDISK.
590 * SYSLINUX: Fix loading boot sectors (.bs/.bss) from floppy
592 * .c32 is now one of the extensions searched for
594 * PXELINUX: RFBG.exe seems to randomly overwrite memory
595 location 0x5700. Thus, don't use it!
596 * PXELINUX: Change pathname length max from 63 to 127; change
597 max vkernels from 128 to 64.
598 * Support Ctrl-U -> kill entire command line input.
599 * The "samples" directory contains a (barely at all tested)
600 chain loading example, chain.c32, which may be used to
601 chainload local floppy disks and hard disks. Use with
602 "chain fdN" or "chain hdN [partition]"; N = 0 for the first
606 * MEMDISK: Workaround for BIOSes which go into a snit when
607 they get a RESET command for the floppy system when there is
608 no floppy in the system.
609 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend 2", which passes the hardware
610 address of the boot interface to the kernel as a
612 * mkdiskimage: fix the generation of the end limit.
613 * PXELINUX: Fix multiple bugs in chainloading of other NBPs.
614 * MEMDISK: Fix bug that would occationally cause "ran out of
615 input data" when using compressed disk images.
616 * SYSLINUX: Updates for the win32 installer (from Lars Munch.)
617 * PXELINUX: PXELINUX-specific options are now recognized both
618 in a vendor-option-space (a.k.a. type 43 encapsulated) as
619 well as in a site-option-space (unencapsulated.)
620 * COM32: Don't crash when DS != 0.
621 * COMBOOT/COM32: Make file reading work correctly. Thanks to
622 Phung Chi Kien for submitting a test program.
625 * ALL: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
626 boot failure, depending on the length of the kernel.
627 * ISOLINUX: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
628 boot failure, depending on the length of directories.
629 * SYSLINUX: Win32 installer now flushes buffers.
630 * ppmtolss16: Be fully compliant with the PNM spec;
631 actually process comments in the header and odd
632 alignments of the various parameters, as well as
633 "plain" (not raw) files and PBM and PGM files.
634 * PXELINUX: Lower the default MTU to 1472 in order to deal
635 with systems with slightly nonstandard MTUs, and PXE
636 stacks which don't defragment correctly. Unfortunately this
637 is very hard to test dynamically.
640 * PXELINUX: Add a default query based on the hardware address
641 of the boot device. This is in lower case hexadecimal form
642 separated by dashes and including the hardware type, for
643 example, the Ethernet (type 1) address 88:99:AA:BB:CC:DD
644 would query the file pxelinux.cfg/01-88-99-aa-bb-cc-dd.
645 * PXELINUX: Fix bug involving non-IP-based config file names.
646 * SYSLINUX: New installer for WinNT-based systems, from Lars
648 * MEMDISK: Fix handling of memory region overlap when
649 decompressing. Thanks to Mikhail Kupchik for identifying
653 * ALL: Reclaim even more low memory by observing that
654 comboot_seg == real_mode_seg is perfectly fine, and by the
655 fact that the 1000h segment managed to get unused in all
657 * PXELINUX: Attempt to negotiate full Ethernet-sized blocks
658 (1468 bytes) using the blksize option.
659 * SYSLINUX: Resurrect the old no-mtools version of the
660 installer, although as a root-only tool. Some distributors
661 have indicated that they need a small standalone installer.
662 * MEMDISK: Fix a memory offset computation error when
663 installing compressed disks which generally would cause
664 1 MB of memory to be wasted.
665 * MEMDISK: Fix installing the E820 memory map. Calling
666 INT 15h AX=0E820h with MEMDISK 2.03 loaded would give a
667 completely corrupt memory map.
668 * SYSLINUX: Make libsyslinux a dynamic library, so that it can
669 be updated separately from client programs. The whole idea,
670 after all, is to enable alternate programs to become
672 * Include an rpm spec file in the distribution, so rpmbuild
676 * Actually support comment lines in the configuration file.
677 * PXELINUX: Try to resolve some problems with stack switches.
678 * PXELINUX: Handle PXE stacks with broken routing.
679 With these workarounds, the remote install PXE boot floppy
680 (rbfg.exe) from Argon Technologies should work correctly.
681 * Fix problems with Perl scripts in UTF-8 locales.
682 * You probably need NASM 0.98.34 or later to compile this
683 version. 0.98.36 is recommended.
684 * MEMDISK: Now supports gzip compressed images.
687 * SYSLINUX: Security flaws have been found in the SYSLINUX
688 installer when running setuid root. Rewrite the SYSLINUX
689 installer so it uses mtools instead. It therefore now
690 requires mtools (specifically mcopy and mattrib) to exist on
691 your system, but it will not require root privileges and
692 SHOULD NOT be setuid.
695 * MEMDISK: Fix memory sizing bug when the ramdisk crosses the
697 * MEMDISK: Add a "pause" option to stop immediately before
698 booting, to read off the messages.
699 * MEMDISK: Support disk images with DOSEMU headers.
700 * Update the mkdiskimage script to handle newer mtools
701 versions, and be able to generate disk images with DOSEMU
702 headers (controlled by the -d option).
703 * Fix the COM32 sample program.
704 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix some COMBOOT API calls.
706 * Build SYSLINUX into a small library for encapsulation into
707 other programs (however, please keep in mind this is a GPL'd
709 * SYSLINUX: Make installer work with "owner" in /etc/fstab.
710 * SYSLINUX: Fix issue with working on nonpartitioned hard disk
711 devices. THIS CONFIGURATION IS NOT RECOMMENDED.
714 * ALL: Add support for "COM32" (32-bit COMBOOT) images.
715 * ALL: Add an API for COMBOOT/COM32 images. See comboot.doc
716 for details. There is a C development environment for
717 COM32 being created; it should be ready at some point in
719 * Fix mbr.asm so that it actually works.
720 * SYSLINUX: The syslinux installer *SHOULD* now be safe to
722 * PXELINUX: Fix bug where PXELINUX would override random
723 chunks of the UNDI code segment! Thanks to Kevin Tran for
725 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug related to slashes in pathnames.
726 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug in handling initrds over 128 MB.
727 * ALL: Make the <Ctrl-V> key print out the version; this is
729 * Add a small script, mkdiskimage, to create a DOS-formatted
730 hard disk image using mtools. This may be useful in
731 conjunction with MEMDISK.
732 * ISOLINUX: Search for a /boot/isolinux directory as well as
734 * ALL: Fix a bug related to very long configuration files.
735 * PXELINUX: Work around a NASM bug which would result in no
736 delay before reset if an error occurs.
739 * ISOLINUX: Remove code no longer used which caused hangs on
740 some Toshiba laptops.
743 * ALL: NASM 0.98.32 or later is now required to build
744 SYSLINUX from sources.
745 * SYSLINUX: put back in the workaround for the BIOS floppy
746 table. This seems to be a requirement for "extended" floppy
747 formats to work correctly.
748 * SYSLINUX: No longer warn if one is trying to boot on a 286
749 or older. The above BIOS workaround no longer fits if the
750 requirement to use only 8086-compatible code in the early
751 boot is maintained. It made sense in 1994, but in 2002 a
752 286 or older is a museum object.
753 * SYSLINUX: Use a downright bizarre, stateful algorithm to try
754 to guess the maximum transfer size. I am *hoping* this will
755 cut down on the number of systems for which -s is required
756 to work at any acceptable speed.
757 * ISOLINUX: Add a few more workarounds for various broken El
759 * Make sure .depend files aren't accidentally packed...
760 * ALL: Fix bugs in the extension-detect code; this caused
761 files like COMBOOT images and CD boot sectors to be
762 mis-identified as Linux kernels and rejected.
763 * ALL: Fix the return from COMBOOT.
764 * ALL: Do some of the early groundwork for supporting DOS
765 system calls in COMBOOT.
766 * Get rid of unnecessary "near" directives, making the code
768 * PXELINUX: Put the PXE stack back in the init state before
769 invoking a chain-loaded NBP.
770 * PXELINUX: Actually found the combination of calls that
771 allows some (most?) PXE 2+ stacks to be unloaded from memory
773 * PXELINUX: Add "keeppxe" command-line option to disable
774 the standard unloading of the PXE stack.
777 * SYSLINUX: fix bug that would cause valid kernel images to be
781 * Work on removing gratuitous differences between modules.
782 * Break up the source in common and module-specific files.
783 * PXELINUX: Allow chaining of other PXE NBPs.
784 * ISOLINUX: Allow loading "CD-ROM boot sectors".
785 * ALL: generalize the definition of a boot sector/NBP.
788 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix bugs in the new core code.
791 * Fix a "brown paper bag" class bug in the new core code.
794 * Major code restructuring.
795 * Relax the conventional memory limits somewhat.
796 * MEMDISK: Set up the "version number string" pointer in the
798 * SYSLINUX: Fix, again, "the bug that won't die": the use of
799 the offset parameter with the SYSLINUX installer.
800 * SYSLINUX: Fix possible superblock corruption problem in the
804 * Handle bug in the location of initrd.
807 * MEMDISK: Make compile with newer versions of gcc.
810 * ISOLINUX: Support booting disk image files (to boot DOS or
811 other non-Linux operating systems), *IF* the BIOS works
812 correctly; unfortunately many BIOSes apparently don't.
813 * Support Linux boot protocol version 2.03 (explicitly
814 specify the initrd address limit.)
815 * Handle small "pseudo-kernels"; images that use the Linux
816 kernel boot protocols but are less than 64K in size.
817 * MEMDISK: New subsystem; this is a driver which allows
818 legacy OSes to boot using an in-memory simulated disk.
819 See memdisk/memdisk.doc for more info.
820 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Correctly handle files larger than 65535
821 blocks (32 MB for PXELINUX, 128 MB for ISOLINUX.)
822 * PXELINUX: Make a best-effort attempt at freeing all memory
823 claimed. From the looks of it, it will fail on most PXE
827 * Limited support for hardware flow control when using a
829 * Support specifying the serial port I/O address explicitly.
830 * Make DOS installer hopefully behave more nicely when used on
831 recent Windows versions.
832 * Fix returning to text mode when a font has been specified.
833 * Attempt to detect missing serial port hardware and disable
834 the serial port if there is nothing there.
837 * Make the ppmtolss16 program handle color conversion more
839 * Clean up "make install" target, honour INSTALLROOT if it
841 * SYSLINUX: Fix stack-smash bug identified by Steffen
843 * Hopefully fix return-to-text-mode on some graphics cards.
844 * ISOLINUX: Bug workaround for Award BIOS 4.51, and perhaps
845 other buggy BIOSes as well.
848 * PXELINUX: Allow the DHCP server to override the
849 configuration file name and pathname prefix, using
850 "site-specific" DHCP options.
851 * PXELINUX: Documentation fixes.
852 * PXELINUX: Fix the "ipappend" option; the last two values
853 were reversed vs. what the kernel expected.
854 * Introduce a way to return to text mode once we are already
855 in graphics mode. This may be useful for F-key help
857 * Fix several bugs in the way return to text mode was handled.
860 * ISOLINUX: Support full pathname searches. Max length for a
861 pathname is 255 characters. As a result, only 64 "label"
862 statements are supported in ISOLINUX.
863 * PXELINUX: Max filename length extended to 63 characters.
866 * Add support for graphical splash screens.
867 * Add mode control characters, which allows you to control
868 message display output depending on output mode (text,
869 graphics, or serial port.)
870 * ISOLINUX: New program, which boots Linux from a CD-ROM
871 without using floppy emulation mode. See isolinux.doc for
873 * PXELINUX: Don't search for boot sector file types, since
874 they don't work anyway.
875 * SYSLINUX: Document the LOCK command for Win9x, and the error
876 dialog box for WinNT/2K.
879 * PXELINUX: Fix code for finding !PXE from PXENV+. This was
880 due to a spec bug; match the most recent spec since that
881 seems to be what implementations actually do.
882 * SYSLINUX: Add some smarts to the boot sector, which
883 hopefully should reduce the number of systems which require
884 stupid mode ("syslinux -s").
885 * PXELINUX: Document further some of the pathologies with old
887 * When specifying a "default" command line, no longer
888 automatically appent "auto". See the "DEFAULT" command in
889 syslinux.doc for more information.
890 * PXELINUX: Clean up the allocation of local socket numbers.
893 * PXELINUX: Rename pxelinux.bin to pxelinux.0, to match what
894 most PXE servers seem to expect.
895 * PXELINUX: Update the DHCP/boot server setup documentation.
896 * PXELINUX: Support new "localboot" option for "label"
898 * PXELINUX: More robust parsing of DHCP/boot server packets.
899 * PXELINUX: Include a small utility program "gethostip" to
900 compute hexadecimal IP addresses.
903 * PXELINUX: Fix bugs introduced by new A20 code. (SYSLINUX
904 has also been changed for code consistency reasons, but I'm
905 pretty sure the changes are don't care on SYSLINUX.)
906 * Documentation updates.
907 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend" option to generate an ip= option to
911 * PXELINUX: Not all PXE stacks fill in the IP address for a
912 type 3 cached info query. Use a type 2 cached info query
913 for this information (only.)
914 * Yet another attempt at A20 coding. Now support BIOS call
915 15:2401 as well, and handle machines which always have A20
917 * Support memory detection using INT 15h, AX=0E820h. BIOS
918 manufacturers have apparently gotten sloppy about keeping
919 INT 15h, AX=0E801h working properly.
920 * Don't issue <CR><LF> onto the serial port when we're doing
924 * Yet another A20-code update. It seems some "legacy-free"
925 machines and embedded gear simply don't have a KBC to talk
926 to, and that waiting for one will wait forever. Sigh.
929 * SYSLINUX: Implement a hack for BIOS drivers which hog significant
930 chunks of low memory during boot. (Note: PXELINUX already
931 had this modification. SYSLINUX does still require that the
932 low 512K is available; PXELINUX requires 384K. Machines
933 with a physical memory hole in the low 640K cannot boot
934 Linux no matter what.) Depending what the reason is for the
935 memory hole, a new kernel (2.4.0-test3-pre3 or later) may be
937 * SYSLINUX: Default installer binary now compiled against
938 glibc 2.1. If this is inappropriate for your system and you
939 still want to use the offical version of SYSLINUX, please
940 follow the instructions in "distrib.doc" to rebuild the
942 * SYSLINUX: Linux installer program now supports -o <offset>
943 option which does a loopback mount with the
944 -o loop,offset=<> option. Useful to run SYSLINUX on an
945 individual partition of a whole-harddisk image.
946 * Include the source code to a Master Boot Record (MBR)
947 functionally equivalent to the one installed DOS except it
948 includes EBIOS support, and should be resistant to geometry
949 changes. The MBR code is public domain.
950 * PXELINUX: Fix "double p" bug: if the tftp prefix was null,
951 all filenames would get a "p" preprended, e.g.
952 "ppxelinux.cfg" and "pvmlinux".
955 * PXELINUX: Workaround for PXE ROMs based on the Intel PXE PDK
956 3.0 build 071 and earlier: missing !PXE structure pointer.
957 * PXELINUX: Handle larger BOOTP/DHCP packages.
958 * PXELINUX: The command line passing was broken; fix.
959 * PXELINUX: Make COMBOOT images work.
960 * PXELINUX: Documentation on how to make booting work using
961 the PDK 3.0-derived clients, which aren't so generous as to
962 allow booting with only "PXEClient" specified.
965 * PXELINUX: RFC 1123 states that a TFTP implementation MUST
966 use adaptive timeout, "at least an exponential backoff of
967 retransmission timeout is necessary." Implement a very
968 simple exponential backoff for retransmits.
969 * PXELINUX: Updated documentation, including pointer to new
971 * PXELINUX: When sending ERROR due to bad OACK, use the proper
972 destination port number (why are TFTP port numbers so odd?)
973 * PXELINUX: If the boot dies in the middle somewhere,
974 eventually give up and reset the machine (unattended
978 * New program PXELINUX to do network booting using a
979 PXE-compliant (Pre-Execution Environment) network booting
980 PROM. See pxelinux.doc for details.
983 * Serial console support. See syslinux.doc for details.
986 * Change HIGHMEM_MAX to 38000000h to (hopefully) avoid the
987 kernel stepping on it; 3f000000h was apparently a higher
988 limit than the kernel used!
991 * Add sys2ansi.pl script to display the contents of a
992 colorized SYSLINUX file.
993 * Changed the io_delay once again, after a report that the
994 old delay port causes hangs on some systems.
997 * Frob the "fast A20 gate" port as well as the keyboard
998 controller; will this help systems with problems?
999 * Be even more paranoid about A20, unfortunately even this
1000 seems to be not paranoid enough... what I don't understand
1001 is that if there is hardware out there *this broken*, how
1002 can it run Linux at all? Report an error message rather
1003 than hang forever if A20 is stuck.
1004 * Include some intermediate files in the distribution, plus
1005 provide a "make installer" target for distributors to relink
1006 the install programs only. I would prefer the syslinux boot
1007 loader proper to be "binary clean" for debuggablity -- use
1008 "make clean ; make installer" to rebuild the installers only.
1011 * Don't get confused by directories, volume labels, or VFAT
1013 * Use INT 15h, AX=0E801h to query memory size before trying
1014 INT 15h, AH=88h. This not only provides more headroom
1015 between the kernel and the initrd on large-memory machines,
1016 but it appears some recent BIOSes actually have started
1017 returning garbage for the AH=88h (older) call.
1018 * Trust high memory beyond the 15 MB mark if the user has
1019 specified it, or if obtained with INT 15h, AH=0E801h (with
1020 no memory holes above 1 MB.)
1023 * Increase A20M delay and put in a test to avoid problems on
1024 certain IBM Thinkpads (thanks to Donnie Barnes of RedHat
1025 for vital info on this one.)
1026 * Support COMBOOT style boot command images.
1027 * Support chain loading (foreign operating systems, e.g. DOS).
1028 * Include a new "copybs" DOS utility to copy a boot sector to
1029 a file (under Linux, use "dd".)
1030 * Fix the DOS installer to work for disks over 32 MB.
1031 * SYSLINUX should now handle disks with more than 65536 tracks.
1034 * Fix a bug that caused "label" statements in syslinux.cfg to
1035 not be handled properly.
1036 * Updated the documentation. Among other things, we now allow
1037 up to 128 "label" statements.
1040 * Fix for booting old (pre-initrd) kernels.
1041 * It seems at least some versions of OS/2 doesn't set up all
1042 the fields in the superblock correctly. Account for that.
1043 * Fix bug that caused boot failure when using the mem= option.
1046 * Loading from partitions now should work properly. (Actually
1047 tested, this time. You should even be able to dd a floppy
1048 to a partition and boot from it.)
1049 * Removed large workaround code for an alleged ancient BIOS
1050 bug I have never actually seen. The -s option should work
1051 on those machines, anyway.
1052 * Support for simple keyboard remappings, same as used by
1053 LILO (once again to support localization.) The program
1054 keytab-lilo.pl from the LILO distribution included to
1056 * Added a "safe, slow and stupid" (-s) option to the
1057 installers. This option will lobotomize the boot sector to
1058 hopefully work on even very buggy BIOSes.
1061 * Ability to load a VGA font on bootup (for localized Linux
1065 * Bug fix in the Linux installer.
1066 * Added a workaround for a bug in certain AMI/Intel BIOSes
1067 when booting from CD-ROM.
1068 * Documentation changes.
1071 * FAT16 filesystems are now supported.
1074 * Now compiles under Linux, using NASM, rather than using
1075 Turbo Assembler under DOS. See http://www.cryogen.com/Nasm
1076 for information about NASM.
1077 * Linux-hosted SYSLINUX installer, as well as a
1078 rewritten DOS installer (now is written in assembler, so we
1079 don't need Turbo C.)
1082 * Added support for loading bzImage and initrd loading, and made
1083 SYSLINUX new-setup-code aware (SYSLINUX 1.30 id=0x31).
1084 * Added LILO-style kernel labels; see the LABEL and IMPLICIT
1085 keywords in README file.
1086 * Added support for colorization of intro and help screens.
1087 * The vga= option is now handled correctly.
1088 * Massive rewrite of large chunks of the code in order to
1089 support the first two new features.
1092 * Added simple online help at the "boot:" prompt.
1093 * Removed 2880K image as I no longer have access to such a
1094 floppy drive. (Donations accepted!!)
1095 * Decided to distribute the source in a subdirectory rather
1096 than in a nested zipfile.
1099 * Removed a sanity check which would cause booting to fail on
1100 Phoenix BIOS version 4.03. Apparently this BIOS is buggy.
1103 * Added configuration file SYSLINUX.CFG. This file contains all
1104 configurable options, and can be edited from any OS which can
1105 access an MS-DOS filesystem; there is no longer a need to run
1106 SYSLINUX.EXE except to write the boot sector.
1107 * Default command line now given by "default" line in config
1109 * LINUXMSG.TXT and BOOTMSG.TXT hard-coded file names replaced by
1110 "display" and "prompt" lines in config file.
1111 * LILO-style option appending now supported ("append" line in
1113 * Prompt timeout is now supported ("timeout" line in config
1114 file). The timeout is cancelled when anything is typed on the
1116 * Pressing <ESC> or <Ctrl-C> at the Loading... stage now aborts
1117 the kernel loading in progress and returns the user to the
1119 * The installer now automatically sets the READONLY flag on
1121 * Added 2880K disk image.
1124 * Fixed bug that would prevent booting from double-density
1125 floppies and other DOS filesystems with multiple sectors per
1127 * Added 720K disk image.
1128 * Changed default kernel name on disk images to LINUX.
1131 * Fixed bug that would garble the command line on recent kernels
1132 with more than 4 sectors of setup code (this wasn't really a
1133 *bug*; rather, a kernel change broke the code. Unfortunately
1134 the Linux boot interface is still sorely undocumented).
1135 * Added BOOTMSG.TXT file support (message file which does not
1136 force display of the boot prompt).
1139 * Fixed bug on some (most?) 386 BIOSes would require two boot