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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".
23 * The source tree has been restructured; files that were
24 previously in the root have moved into the core, dos, gpxe,
25 and utils directories.
26 * "make install", "make netinstall", and "make extbootinstall"
27 have been updated massively. "make install-all" now installs
28 all three.
29 * Change default dir for auxiliary files from
30 /usr/lib/syslinux to /usr/share/syslinux.
31 * SYSLINUX: VFAT long filename support.
33 Changes in 3.64:
34 * SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX: support "localboot" with the same feature
35 set as ISOLINUX.
36 * Add an experimental MBR for GPT partition tables.
37 * Use $(CC) when determining compile flags.
38 * chain.c32: fix booting from logical partitions (Sergey
39 Vlasov.)
41 Changes in 3.63:
42 * Fix errors in the PCI and DMI detection modules (Erwan Velu,
43 Sebastian Herbszt).
44 * Fix host dependencies and other issues in the build system.
45 * PXELINUX: Allow class E addresses as unicast.
46 * sdi.c32: module to load Microsoft System Deployment Images.
47 For additional information, please see:
48 http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms838543.aspx
49 * EXTLINUX: Correct reading directories with deleted entries.
50 * Shuffle library: correct the handling of certain geometries
51 (an upward move with source material blocking the move); as
52 required by sdi.c32 but theoretically possible for other
53 formats as well.
54 * Add "make netinstall" to install /tftpboot.
55 * Fix some documentation files that didn't get moved/renamed.
57 Changes in 3.62:
58 * Clean up garbage after "aborted." message.
59 * Clean up memdump.com filenames.
60 * Support SHA256 and SHA512 encrypted passwords.
61 * The shuffle library now can generate chained descriptors,
62 thus allowing pretty much arbitrarily complex memory maps.
63 * Handle command lines up to 2047 characters, the current
64 Linux kernel limit.
65 * vesamenu: support systems without linear framebuffer support
66 (sigh, what is this, 1993?) and 15-bit RGB modes.
67 * Move the label storage (for the command-line interface) to
68 high memory, removing the size limit and freeing up 64K of
69 low memory.
70 * Get rid of 4096-entry limit in the simple menu system.
71 * New hierarchial submenu support: see MENU BEGIN, MENU END,
72 MENU GOTO in doc/menu.txt.
73 * MENU QUIT allows creating a menu entry for returning to the
74 command line.
75 * ISOLINUX: Work around bug in certain Adaptec BIOSes,
76 patch by Bruce Robson.
77 * pngtopnm dependency removed from samples/ directory.
78 * Text documentation files (in doc/) renamed *.doc -> *.txt.
80 Changes in 3.61:
81 * EXTLINUX: fix crash when accessing an empty file.
82 * elf.c32: If a PHDR segment is present, load it.
83 * Fix SHA-1 and MD5 passwords.
84 * ISOLINUX: fix booting when mastered without
85 mkisofs -boot-info-table (broken since 3.50, sigh...)
86 * Handle BIOSes which emit multiple contiguous valid
87 memory regions in the e820 map.
89 Changes in 3.60:
90 * Support for "auxilliary data vector", a small amount of
91 writable storage. Currently only supported for EXTLINUX,
92 but the infrastructure is there for the other derivatives,
93 assuming a suitable storage location can be found.
94 * EXTLINUX: boot-once support (--once, --clear-once, and
95 --reset-adv).
96 * A command is now required to the EXTLINUX installer, i.e. at
97 least one of --install, --update, --once, --clear-once, or
98 --reset-adv.
100 Changes in 3.55:
101 * PXELINUX: as per RFC 5071, PXELINUX no longer requires the
102 use of the magic cookie option (208) for unencapsulated
103 options. Currently it does not require it for
104 vendor-encapsulated options (vendor-option-space) either,
105 but that MAY be reverted in the future if it causes
106 problems.
107 * Documentation text files moved to a common "doc" directory;
108 man pages from the Debian project added to the "man"
109 directory.
110 * Correct bug with self-overlapping memory areas when using
111 the shuffle interface.
113 Changes in 3.54:
114 * Add "menu separator", "menu indent", "menu disabled"
115 (see README.menu).
116 * vesamenu: fix handing of VESA modes with noncontiguous
117 memory buffers. In particular, Qemu/KVM sets up such a mode
118 when Cirrus Logic emulation is enabled (which is the
119 default.)
120 * Support for calling real mode functions using far calls,
121 with argument on the stack. This was implemented to support
122 the BIOS BBS specification, but subsequent experiments show
123 that the at least one of the most common BIOS cores, Award,
124 passes the presence check but doesn't actually implement the
125 functionality.
127 Changes in 3.53:
128 * Fix bugs related to the $PnP BIOS functionality on some
129 platforms.
130 * PXELINUX: Fix the "naked" version of :: (suppress prefix.)
131 * elf.c32: better error messages.
132 * Faster operation under Intel VT virtualization.
133 * PXELINUX: Fix DHCP bootfile option.
134 * mkdiskimage: Support more than 1024 cylinders.
135 * (Hopefully) fix installer on non-x86 platforms.
136 * Fix shuffle_and_boot_rm, used by linux.c32.
137 * Fix shuffle_and_boot_pm on 386/486.
138 * ISOLINUX (at least): fix bss memory overwrite hang.
139 * MBR: Fix booting from logical partitions.
140 * Code cleanups.
142 Changes in 3.52:
143 * Handle capitalized F-key commands in the menu system.
144 * Fix padding error when loading multiple ramdisks.
145 * Workaround for VMware crashing when trying to print a
146 message during early kernel boot (does not seem to work,
147 consider deleting.)
148 * chain.c32: add the ability to search for a specific MBR
149 signature at runtime.
150 * Fall back to the server identity option if the siaddr field
151 in the DHCP header isn't set. This seems to match the
152 behaviour of most PXE stacks.
153 * mkdiskimage: give the generated disk image an MBR signature.
154 * MEMDISK: Fix failures on some BIOSes.
155 * Simple menu system: new "MENU HIDDEN" option to not display
156 the menu unless the user presses a key.
157 * Simple menu system: support MD5-encrypted passwords (modern
158 Unix standard style, with "$1$" prefixes.)
159 * pcitest.c32: now functions as a full "lspci". Thanks to
160 Erwan Velu for this work.
161 * MEMDISK: Make EDD actually work.
162 * ISOLINUX: Fix for certain broken CD-ROM BIOSes which
163 randomly corrupted register FS.
164 * Simple menu system: fix memory overwrite bug that caused
165 some systems to lock up or behave weirdly.
166 * Fix building on 64-bit systems without a 32-bit libc installed.
168 Changes in 3.51:
169 * EXTLINUX: Fix failure to find the configuration file.
171 Changes in 3.50:
172 * New keywords allow the type of file to be specified in the
173 configuration file.
174 * It is now supported to load a different configuration file
175 with the CONFIG keyword.
176 * Fix API call 0x0019 (Read Disk.)
177 * MENU AUTOBOOT, MENU TABMSG, MENU PASSPROMPT allows
178 internationalization of menu messages.
179 * A new feature, TEXT HELP, allows the administrator to set
180 a multi-line help message for individual selections.
181 * Fix API call 0x0012 (Cleanup, shuffle and boot.)
182 * New API call "Cleanup, shuffle and boot to flat protected mode"
183 * New API call "Cleanup, shuffle and boot to real mode",
184 similar to API call 0x0012 but allows arbitrary register setting.
185 * Introduce a library interface for loading arbitrary binary
186 formats with relatively easily understood code. See
187 the elf.c32 module for an example on how to use it.
188 * New module "elf.c32", to load a protected-mode ELF kernel.
189 * MBR (old and new): Fix bug in CHS mode when LBA >
190 65535*sectors.
191 * vesamenu: fix decoding of palettized PNG images.
192 * Update the Linux kernel boot protocol.
193 * PXELINUX: Press Ctrl-N at the boot prompt to read out the
194 network info.
195 * Instead of the (non-existent) MAC, use the client identifier
196 for networks like Infiniband and Firewire/1394.
197 * Add a new INCLUDE command to the core syslinux parser.
198 * Allow binding help text to F11 and F12.
199 * F-key help now available in the simple menu system.
200 * Disabled the polling for ARP during idle. It is simply too
201 slow on some (broken!) PXE stacks.
202 * PXELINUX: also try to fetch the config file based on UUID.
203 * SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX: New RAID mode (-r) which calls the BIOS
204 to load the next device (typically the next drive) on boot
205 failure.
207 Changes in 3.36:
208 * MEMDISK: Disable EDD by default on floppy disks. EDD can be
209 enabled with the "edd" option and disabled with "noedd".
210 This (hopefully) should make Ghost work again.
211 * SYSLINUX: "unix" installer now uses Linux ioctls instead of
212 using libfat.
213 * New MBR which can boot from logical partitions.
214 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in detecting special extensions which was
215 introduced in 3.35 :(
216 * PXELINUX: Unbreak chainbooting FreeBSD (and possibly others.)
218 Changes in 3.35:
219 * MEMDISK: New "safeint" mode.
220 * MEMDISK: Be more compliant with the PnP BIOS spec.
221 * MEMDISK: Turn on EDD support by default.
222 * MEMDISK: Try to work on some machines on which it would not
223 work when there was no floppy drive in the system.
224 * Simple menu system: fix serial console support (broken in
225 3.30).
226 * SYSLINUX: Support subdirectories. Like ISOLINUX, the
227 "current directory" is the directory in which syslinux.cfg
228 is found; this is searched for in the sequence
229 /boot/syslinux, /syslinux, /. As a side benefit, label names
230 like "linux-2.6.18" and "linux-2.6.19" are now supported.
232 To install ldlinux.sys in a subdirectory, pass the -d
233 directory option to the SYSLINUX installer.
235 This work was sponsored by slax.org (thanks, Tomas!)
236 * New API call: read disk.
237 * Invoke ONERROR on initrd load failure.
239 Changes in 3.31:
240 * The simple menu system (menu.c32 and vesamenu.c32) now
241 support loading more than one configuration file at a time,
242 using MENU INCLUDE or by specifying multiple filenames.
243 * The MENU COLOR statement can now control the shadowing mode.
245 Changes in 3.30:
246 * libcom32 extended to support graphics mode and graphical console.
247 * vesamenu.c32, new graphical version of the Simple
248 Menu System, see README.menu.
249 * New com32 modules by Erwan Velu do selection based on CPUID
250 or PCI devices present.
251 * RPM spec: add syslinux-tftpboot module; move syslinux by
252 default to the /usr/share/syslinux directory.
253 * RPM spec: extlinux is now a separate package.
255 Changes in 3.20:
256 * EXTLINUX: New options --install (-i) and --update (-U), to
257 make it clear if a boot loader should be installed or
258 updated. For now, defaults to --install for compatibility;
259 a future version will require one of these options.
260 * New library functions to load and place files in memory.
261 * mboot.c32 bug fixes.
262 * Remove 8 MB kernel size restriction.
263 * Add "klibc" target for building unix/syslinux and
264 extlinux/extlinux with klcc (klibc-1.4.27 or later.)
265 * PXELINUX: Fail (and eventually reboot) if no configuration
266 file was found.
267 * COM32 module by Erwan Velu to make decisions based on DMI
268 info.
269 * Fix issue where going back and forth between menus a lot
270 would cause a hang.
271 * ISOLINUX: Fix bug which made "cd boot sectors" not work.
273 Changes in 3.11:
274 * MEMDISK: Fix bug by which accessing the real floppy disk
275 as B: in MS-DOS was broken.
276 * Simple menu system: allow tweaking of the screen layout.
277 * Simple menu system: better command-line editing, correctly
278 handle command lines above 256 characters.
279 * PXELINUX: revert memory allocation change that caused
280 problems on some network cards.
281 * MEMDISK: Try work around a bug on some BIOSes when no
282 physical floppy disk is present in the system.
283 * Enable the 16550A FIFOs, if present, when doing serial
284 console.
285 * New "totaltimeout" command establishes a timeout without
286 regard for any user input.
287 * Simple menu system: timeout behaviour now more in line with
288 user expectations.
289 * Simple menu system: "ontimeout" should now work correctly.
291 Changes in 3.10:
292 * gcc 4.0.1 compilation fixes.
293 * Add support for querying the PCI BIOS in libcom32
294 (used by ethersel et al.)
295 * Fix PCI handing (ethersel etc) on several old chipsets (and
296 VMWare.)
297 * Try to deal with systems with broken EBIOS.
298 * New API call to do "localboot".
299 * New API call to query features.
300 * New API call to run kernel image, a lower-level call than
301 "run command". See comboot.doc.
302 * Fix for bug in EBIOS code discovered by Arwin Vosselman.
303 * NOESCAPE security fix.
304 * Comments are now recognized even without a space following #.
305 * Fix incorrect handling of mixes of entries with and without
306 MENU PASSWD.
307 * The idle API call now harmlessly returns failure if it is a
308 no-op. That way the caller can decide whether or not to
309 bother invoking it again.
310 * Temporarily disable the idle API call on PXELINUX, due to
311 some platforms on which the idle API call seems to hang; this
312 problem has not yet been debugged.
313 * MEMDISK: the handling of DOSEMU-headered images was broken;
314 fix it.
315 * EXTLINUX: symlinks are now supported.
316 * Simple menu system: N and P now work correctly as hotkeys.
317 * MEMDISK: more BIOS bug workarounds.
319 Changes in 3.09:
320 * gcc4 compilation fix.
321 * <BEL> (Ctrl-G) in message files now causes a beep.
322 * Reduce the command line to 511 characters; 1023 caused
323 memory overflows.
325 Changes in 3.08:
326 * SYSLINUX: Fix performance regression (-s mode always
327 enabled.)
328 * Add API function for idle loop.
329 * libutil: Add do_idle() function for idle loop, make
330 get_key() use it.
331 * libutil: Add SHA-1 and base64 functions.
332 * Simple menu system: add password support.
333 * EXTLINUX: Sparse files now handled correctly.
334 * EXTLINUX: Large directories now handled correctly.
335 * ALL: At the prompt, Ctrl-X now forces text mode.
336 * Fix configuration file parsing error, that could cause
337 hangs.
338 * Rewritten advanced menuing system from Murali Ganapathy.
339 * MEMDISK: New "bigraw" mode to work around certain broken
340 BIOS flash programs.
341 * COM32 module to boot Multiboot systems, including Xen. See
342 com32/modules/mboot.doc.
343 * Max command line changed to 1023 characters. Note that the
344 kernel proper still can only handle 255 characters without
345 patching, and COM16 binaries can only handle 125 characters.
347 Changes in 3.07:
348 * Fix chainloading (chain.c32).
349 * Fix zlib build problem.
350 * Use a private copy of <linux/ext2_fs.h>.
352 Changes in 3.06:
353 * Fix typo that caused the ramdisk to load in the wrong place.
355 Changes in 3.05:
356 * New API function "shuffle and boot"; allows COM32 modules to
357 load or construct (almost) arbitrarily complex objects,
358 e.g. a kernel and its initrd/initramfs in pieces, and have
359 the API core reorganize memory for booting. (A library API
360 for this function will be introduced in a later version.)
361 * The initrd= option now supports multiple filenames separated
362 by commas. This is mostly useful for initramfs, which can
363 be composed of multiple separate cpio or cpio.gz archives.
364 (Note: all files except the last one are zero-padded to a 4K
365 page boundary. This should not affect initramfs.)
366 * EXTLINUX: Fix API function 000Ah (get derivative-specific
367 info).
368 * libcom32/ethersel: Support PCI Config Mechanism #2 on
369 machines still infested with that hideous old hack.
370 * SYSLINUX: Fix directory-parsing bug.
372 Changes in 3.02:
373 * SYSLINUX: The "unix" installer now sets the MS-DOS
374 attributes (hidden, system, readonly.)
375 * COM32 library: build the .lnx (test modules for running
376 under Linux) as architecture native modules, in case
377 i386 devel libraries aren't installed.
378 * EXTLINUX: Hack for systems which don't have BLKGETSIZE64
379 defined in the standard header files.
380 * Simple menu system: minor aestetic improvements, and try to
381 work better over a serial console (speed, and readability on
382 monochrome terminal emulators.)
383 * New CONSOLE directive to control output on the video console
384 (useful for dealing with some broken serial-forwarding
385 BIOSes.)
386 * New com32 module "ethersel" for searching for an Ethernet
387 card and selecting the proper version of Etherboot.
388 * EXTLINUX: Allow the user to override the detected geometry.
389 Add help.
391 Changes in 3.01:
392 * EXTLINUX, SYSLINUX: Fix compile errors on some systems.
393 * EXTLINUX: Default to zipdrive geometry (64 heads, 32
394 sectors) if no other geometry can be detected.
396 Changes in 3.00:
397 * SYSLINUX: Support FAT32 and EDD. As an unfortunate
398 consequence, LDLINUX.SYS is no longer an ordinary file; it
399 is block-mapped at install time, which means it can only be
400 written using the syslinux installers.
401 * SYSLINUX: Reorganize the source code for the installers;
402 each one of the installers (dos, win32, unix, mtools) is now
403 built in its own subdirectory. In particular, "mtools" is
404 the unprivileged installer which uses mtools; "unix" is the
405 privileged installer which uses system calls.
406 * SYSLINUX: Completely rewritten DOS installer in C.
407 * ALL: "label" statement information is now stored in a
408 compressed format, which means that a lot more labels are
409 permitted (500-1000 in a typical configuration, but depends
410 on the complexity.)
411 * EXTLINUX: New derivative, which boots from an ext2/ext3
412 filesystem.
413 * SYSLINUX: The DOS and Win32 installers can now optionally
414 write the boot sector to a file instead of the real boot
415 sector. This is not supported in the Linux installers,
416 however.
417 * ALL: New NOESCAPE command, disables the "hold down the Shift
418 key to display the prompt" behaviour.
419 * New simple menu system, as an alternative to the advanced
420 menu system already present. See README.menu for details.
421 * PXELINUX: Filenames can now be prefixed with an IP address
422 or DNS name plus :: (e.g. 192.0.2.1::filename or
423 server.domain.com::filename), which downloads a file from an
424 alternate TFTP server, or just a :: (e.g. ::filename), which
425 suppresses the common pathname prefix. See pxelinux.doc.
426 * SYSLINUX: Add an -m option to the DOS and Win32 installers
427 to write an MBR and -a to mark the partition SYSLINUX is
428 being installed on active.
429 * MEMDISK: Give a way to query the boot loader type while
430 running MEMDISK; see memdisk/memdisk.doc and
431 sample/mdiskchk.c.
432 * mkdiskimage: substantially improved mkdiskimage which, among
433 other things, can now be used to initialize USB keys as
434 zipdrives; see README.usbkey for more information.
436 Changes in 2.13:
437 * MEMDISK: Fix command-line parsing "brown paper bag" class
438 bug.
439 * MEMDISK: Add "raw" mode to support the DOS boot disk from
440 WinME/XP, which seems to deliberately crash the system
441 when someone uses the "INT 15h mover" highmem API.
442 * Make "make install" do something sane for the com32
443 development environment.
444 * In the spec file, create a separate -devel RPM for the com32
445 development environment.
447 Changes in 2.12:
448 * Simple C library, based on klibc, for writing COM32
449 programs.
450 * Fix the handling of file length in loading of COM32
451 programs.
452 * MEMDISK: Work around a linker bug by rearranging the code to
453 not use the linker for the 16-bit code.
454 * SYSLINUX: If we're building on a machine without a Win32
455 (mingw) compiler, just skip building syslinux.exe.
456 * ISOLINUX: Support non-mkisofs mastering programs, at least
457 as long as the image is single-session. For best results,
458 ISOLINUX should be the only boot loader installed.
459 * MEMDISK: Allow the user to specify that the simulated disk
460 should be write-protected.
462 Changes in 2.11:
463 * ALL: Add an API call to get the configuration file name.
464 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in 2.10 that prevented it from working
465 correctly for a lot of people.
466 * SYSLINUX: In the installer, make mtools a bit less fussy.
467 * Make the menu system compile with newer gcc's.
469 Changes in 2.10:
470 * MEMDISK: Handle images compressed with zip as well as with
471 gzip. Some Windows-based image tools apparently generate
472 these kinds of images by default. Patch by Patrick
473 LoPresti.
474 * Major menu improvement from Murali Ganapathy.
475 * ISOLINUX: Wonderfully sick and brilliant workaround for
476 severe bugs in certain Award BIOSes; from Knut Petersen.
477 * SYSLINUX: Fix for the nomtools installed, from Frederic
478 Pasteleurs.
479 * PXELINUX: Fix handling of IP numbers in the ranges
480 100-109 and 200-209.
481 * ALL: New option "allowoptions" (defaults to 1), which
482 controls if options are allowed on the command line or not.
483 * SYSLINUX: Support building under klibc (see the klibc
484 distribution for details.)
486 Changes in 2.09:
487 * SYSLINUX: Remove residual setuid crap from
488 syslinux-nomtools.
489 * Handle video pages correctly when using the API functions.
490 * Handle compiling on an x86-64 platform correctly.
491 * Menu system from Murali Krishnan Ganapathy; see the menu
492 directory for information.
493 * COMBOOT: Allow COMBOOT programs to change screen text mode.
494 * COMBOOT: Correct the documentation of how to detect
495 SYSLINUX from COMBOOT!!!!
496 * COMBOOT: Fix "get key without echo" API function.
497 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug that affected the API open function.
498 * ALL: Improve the E820 memory parser, to work around some
499 buggy BIOSes.
501 Changes in 2.08:
502 * Add new configuration command "ontimeout" to allow timeout
503 to have a different action than just pressing Enter.
504 * Add new configuration command "onerror" to allow a custom
505 command to be executed in case the kernel image is not found.
506 * Fix bugs in the COMBOOT/COM32 command-line parsing. APPEND
507 now works with COMBOOT/COM32 images.
508 * PXELINUX: Poll for ARP requests while sitting at the
509 prompt. This makes some boot servers a lot less unhappy.
510 * PXELINUX: Actually free sockets when we get a failure
511 (including file not found.) This bug would cause us to run
512 out of sockets and thus "go deaf" after a while.
513 * MEMDISK: Add an API to query for the existence of MEMDISK.
514 * SYSLINUX: Fix loading boot sectors (.bs/.bss) from floppy
515 disk.
516 * .c32 is now one of the extensions searched for
517 automatically.
518 * PXELINUX: RFBG.exe seems to randomly overwrite memory
519 location 0x5700. Thus, don't use it!
520 * PXELINUX: Change pathname length max from 63 to 127; change
521 max vkernels from 128 to 64.
522 * Support Ctrl-U -> kill entire command line input.
523 * The "samples" directory contains a (barely at all tested)
524 chain loading example, chain.c32, which may be used to
525 chainload local floppy disks and hard disks. Use with
526 "chain fdN" or "chain hdN [partition]"; N = 0 for the first
527 drive of each type.
529 Changes in 2.07:
530 * MEMDISK: Workaround for BIOSes which go into a snit when
531 they get a RESET command for the floppy system when there is
532 no floppy in the system.
533 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend 2", which passes the hardware
534 address of the boot interface to the kernel as a
535 command-line option.
536 * mkdiskimage: fix the generation of the end limit.
537 * PXELINUX: Fix multiple bugs in chainloading of other NBPs.
538 * MEMDISK: Fix bug that would occationally cause "ran out of
539 input data" when using compressed disk images.
540 * SYSLINUX: Updates for the win32 installer (from Lars Munch.)
541 * PXELINUX: PXELINUX-specific options are now recognized both
542 in a vendor-option-space (a.k.a. type 43 encapsulated) as
543 well as in a site-option-space (unencapsulated.)
544 * COM32: Don't crash when DS != 0.
545 * COMBOOT/COM32: Make file reading work correctly. Thanks to
546 Phung Chi Kien for submitting a test program.
548 Changes in 2.06:
549 * ALL: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
550 boot failure, depending on the length of the kernel.
551 * ISOLINUX: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
552 boot failure, depending on the length of directories.
553 * SYSLINUX: Win32 installer now flushes buffers.
554 * ppmtolss16: Be fully compliant with the PNM spec;
555 actually process comments in the header and odd
556 alignments of the various parameters, as well as
557 "plain" (not raw) files and PBM and PGM files.
558 * PXELINUX: Lower the default MTU to 1472 in order to deal
559 with systems with slightly nonstandard MTUs, and PXE
560 stacks which don't defragment correctly. Unfortunately this
561 is very hard to test dynamically.
563 Changes in 2.05:
564 * PXELINUX: Add a default query based on the hardware address
565 of the boot device. This is in lower case hexadecimal form
566 separated by dashes and including the hardware type, for
567 example, the Ethernet (type 1) address 88:99:AA:BB:CC:DD
568 would query the file pxelinux.cfg/01-88-99-aa-bb-cc-dd.
569 * PXELINUX: Fix bug involving non-IP-based config file names.
570 * SYSLINUX: New installer for WinNT-based systems, from Lars
571 Munch.
572 * MEMDISK: Fix handling of memory region overlap when
573 decompressing. Thanks to Mikhail Kupchik for identifying
574 the problem.
576 Changes in 2.04:
577 * ALL: Reclaim even more low memory by observing that
578 comboot_seg == real_mode_seg is perfectly fine, and by the
579 fact that the 1000h segment managed to get unused in all
580 derivatives...
581 * PXELINUX: Attempt to negotiate full Ethernet-sized blocks
582 (1468 bytes) using the blksize option.
583 * SYSLINUX: Resurrect the old no-mtools version of the
584 installer, although as a root-only tool. Some distributors
585 have indicated that they need a small standalone installer.
586 * MEMDISK: Fix a memory offset computation error when
587 installing compressed disks which generally would cause
588 1 MB of memory to be wasted.
589 * MEMDISK: Fix installing the E820 memory map. Calling
590 INT 15h AX=0E820h with MEMDISK 2.03 loaded would give a
591 completely corrupt memory map.
592 * SYSLINUX: Make libsyslinux a dynamic library, so that it can
593 be updated separately from client programs. The whole idea,
594 after all, is to enable alternate programs to become
595 syslinux installers.
596 * Include an rpm spec file in the distribution, so rpmbuild
597 -ta works.
599 Changes in 2.03:
600 * Actually support comment lines in the configuration file.
601 * PXELINUX: Try to resolve some problems with stack switches.
602 * PXELINUX: Handle PXE stacks with broken routing.
603 With these workarounds, the remote install PXE boot floppy
604 (rbfg.exe) from Argon Technologies should work correctly.
605 * Fix problems with Perl scripts in UTF-8 locales.
606 * You probably need NASM 0.98.34 or later to compile this
607 version. 0.98.36 is recommended.
608 * MEMDISK: Now supports gzip compressed images.
610 Changes in 2.02:
611 * SYSLINUX: Security flaws have been found in the SYSLINUX
612 installer when running setuid root. Rewrite the SYSLINUX
613 installer so it uses mtools instead. It therefore now
614 requires mtools (specifically mcopy and mattrib) to exist on
615 your system, but it will not require root privileges and
616 SHOULD NOT be setuid.
618 Changes in 2.01:
619 * MEMDISK: Fix memory sizing bug when the ramdisk crosses the
620 16 MB boundary.
621 * MEMDISK: Add a "pause" option to stop immediately before
622 booting, to read off the messages.
623 * MEMDISK: Support disk images with DOSEMU headers.
624 * Update the mkdiskimage script to handle newer mtools
625 versions, and be able to generate disk images with DOSEMU
626 headers (controlled by the -d option).
627 * Fix the COM32 sample program.
628 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix some COMBOOT API calls.
629 * PXELINUX: Doc fix.
630 * Build SYSLINUX into a small library for encapsulation into
631 other programs (however, please keep in mind this is a GPL'd
632 library.)
633 * SYSLINUX: Make installer work with "owner" in /etc/fstab.
634 * SYSLINUX: Fix issue with working on nonpartitioned hard disk
635 devices. THIS CONFIGURATION IS NOT RECOMMENDED.
637 Changes in 2.00:
638 * ALL: Add support for "COM32" (32-bit COMBOOT) images.
639 * ALL: Add an API for COMBOOT/COM32 images. See comboot.doc
640 for details. There is a C development environment for
641 COM32 being created; it should be ready at some point in
642 the future.
643 * Fix mbr.asm so that it actually works.
644 * SYSLINUX: The syslinux installer *SHOULD* now be safe to
645 run setuid root.
646 * PXELINUX: Fix bug where PXELINUX would override random
647 chunks of the UNDI code segment! Thanks to Kevin Tran for
648 finding this bug.
649 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug related to slashes in pathnames.
650 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug in handling initrds over 128 MB.
651 * ALL: Make the <Ctrl-V> key print out the version; this is
652 to help debugging.
653 * Add a small script, mkdiskimage, to create a DOS-formatted
654 hard disk image using mtools. This may be useful in
655 conjunction with MEMDISK.
656 * ISOLINUX: Search for a /boot/isolinux directory as well as
657 /isolinux.
658 * ALL: Fix a bug related to very long configuration files.
659 * PXELINUX: Work around a NASM bug which would result in no
660 delay before reset if an error occurs.
662 Changes in 1.76:
663 * ISOLINUX: Remove code no longer used which caused hangs on
664 some Toshiba laptops.
666 Changes in 1.75:
667 * ALL: NASM 0.98.32 or later is now required to build
668 SYSLINUX from sources.
669 * SYSLINUX: put back in the workaround for the BIOS floppy
670 table. This seems to be a requirement for "extended" floppy
671 formats to work correctly.
672 * SYSLINUX: No longer warn if one is trying to boot on a 286
673 or older. The above BIOS workaround no longer fits if the
674 requirement to use only 8086-compatible code in the early
675 boot is maintained. It made sense in 1994, but in 2002 a
676 286 or older is a museum object.
677 * SYSLINUX: Use a downright bizarre, stateful algorithm to try
678 to guess the maximum transfer size. I am *hoping* this will
679 cut down on the number of systems for which -s is required
680 to work at any acceptable speed.
681 * ISOLINUX: Add a few more workarounds for various broken El
682 Torito BIOSes.
683 * Make sure .depend files aren't accidentally packed...
684 * ALL: Fix bugs in the extension-detect code; this caused
685 files like COMBOOT images and CD boot sectors to be
686 mis-identified as Linux kernels and rejected.
687 * ALL: Fix the return from COMBOOT.
688 * ALL: Do some of the early groundwork for supporting DOS
689 system calls in COMBOOT.
690 * Get rid of unnecessary "near" directives, making the code
691 bigger.
692 * PXELINUX: Put the PXE stack back in the init state before
693 invoking a chain-loaded NBP.
694 * PXELINUX: Actually found the combination of calls that
695 allows some (most?) PXE 2+ stacks to be unloaded from memory
696 properly.
697 * PXELINUX: Add "keeppxe" command-line option to disable
698 the standard unloading of the PXE stack.
700 Changes in 1.74:
701 * SYSLINUX: fix bug that would cause valid kernel images to be
702 labelled "invalid".
704 Changes in 1.73:
705 * Work on removing gratuitous differences between modules.
706 * Break up the source in common and module-specific files.
707 * PXELINUX: Allow chaining of other PXE NBPs.
708 * ISOLINUX: Allow loading "CD-ROM boot sectors".
709 * ALL: generalize the definition of a boot sector/NBP.
711 Changes in 1.72:
712 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix bugs in the new core code.
714 Changes in 1.71:
715 * Fix a "brown paper bag" class bug in the new core code.
717 Changes in 1.70:
718 * Major code restructuring.
719 * Relax the conventional memory limits somewhat.
720 * MEMDISK: Set up the "version number string" pointer in the
721 header correctly.
722 * SYSLINUX: Fix, again, "the bug that won't die": the use of
723 the offset parameter with the SYSLINUX installer.
724 * SYSLINUX: Fix possible superblock corruption problem in the
725 SYSLINUX installer.
727 Changes in 1.67:
728 * Handle bug in the location of initrd.
730 Changes in 1.66:
731 * MEMDISK: Make compile with newer versions of gcc.
733 Changes in 1.65:
734 * ISOLINUX: Support booting disk image files (to boot DOS or
735 other non-Linux operating systems), *IF* the BIOS works
736 correctly; unfortunately many BIOSes apparently don't.
737 * Support Linux boot protocol version 2.03 (explicitly
738 specify the initrd address limit.)
739 * Handle small "pseudo-kernels"; images that use the Linux
740 kernel boot protocols but are less than 64K in size.
741 * MEMDISK: New subsystem; this is a driver which allows
742 legacy OSes to boot using an in-memory simulated disk.
743 See memdisk/memdisk.doc for more info.
744 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Correctly handle files larger than 65535
745 blocks (32 MB for PXELINUX, 128 MB for ISOLINUX.)
746 * PXELINUX: Make a best-effort attempt at freeing all memory
747 claimed. From the looks of it, it will fail on most PXE
748 stacks.
750 Changes in 1.64:
751 * Limited support for hardware flow control when using a
752 serial port console.
753 * Support specifying the serial port I/O address explicitly.
754 * Make DOS installer hopefully behave more nicely when used on
755 recent Windows versions.
756 * Fix returning to text mode when a font has been specified.
757 * Attempt to detect missing serial port hardware and disable
758 the serial port if there is nothing there.
760 Changes in 1.63:
761 * Make the ppmtolss16 program handle color conversion more
762 correctly.
763 * Clean up "make install" target, honour INSTALLROOT if it
764 exists.
765 * SYSLINUX: Fix stack-smash bug identified by Steffen
766 Winterfeldt.
767 * Hopefully fix return-to-text-mode on some graphics cards.
768 * ISOLINUX: Bug workaround for Award BIOS 4.51, and perhaps
769 other buggy BIOSes as well.
771 Changes in 1.62:
772 * PXELINUX: Allow the DHCP server to override the
773 configuration file name and pathname prefix, using
774 "site-specific" DHCP options.
775 * PXELINUX: Documentation fixes.
776 * PXELINUX: Fix the "ipappend" option; the last two values
777 were reversed vs. what the kernel expected.
778 * Introduce a way to return to text mode once we are already
779 in graphics mode. This may be useful for F-key help
780 screens.
781 * Fix several bugs in the way return to text mode was handled.
783 Changes in 1.61:
784 * ISOLINUX: Support full pathname searches. Max length for a
785 pathname is 255 characters. As a result, only 64 "label"
786 statements are supported in ISOLINUX.
787 * PXELINUX: Max filename length extended to 63 characters.
789 Changes in 1.60:
790 * Add support for graphical splash screens.
791 * Add mode control characters, which allows you to control
792 message display output depending on output mode (text,
793 graphics, or serial port.)
794 * ISOLINUX: New program, which boots Linux from a CD-ROM
795 without using floppy emulation mode. See isolinux.doc for
796 more details.
797 * PXELINUX: Don't search for boot sector file types, since
798 they don't work anyway.
799 * SYSLINUX: Document the LOCK command for Win9x, and the error
800 dialog box for WinNT/2K.
802 Changes in 1.54:
803 * PXELINUX: Fix code for finding !PXE from PXENV+. This was
804 due to a spec bug; match the most recent spec since that
805 seems to be what implementations actually do.
806 * SYSLINUX: Add some smarts to the boot sector, which
807 hopefully should reduce the number of systems which require
808 stupid mode ("syslinux -s").
809 * PXELINUX: Document further some of the pathologies with old
810 PXE stacks.
811 * When specifying a "default" command line, no longer
812 automatically appent "auto". See the "DEFAULT" command in
813 syslinux.doc for more information.
814 * PXELINUX: Clean up the allocation of local socket numbers.
816 Changes in 1.53:
817 * PXELINUX: Rename pxelinux.bin to pxelinux.0, to match what
818 most PXE servers seem to expect.
819 * PXELINUX: Update the DHCP/boot server setup documentation.
820 * PXELINUX: Support new "localboot" option for "label"
821 sections.
822 * PXELINUX: More robust parsing of DHCP/boot server packets.
823 * PXELINUX: Include a small utility program "gethostip" to
824 compute hexadecimal IP addresses.
826 Changes in 1.52:
827 * PXELINUX: Fix bugs introduced by new A20 code. (SYSLINUX
828 has also been changed for code consistency reasons, but I'm
829 pretty sure the changes are don't care on SYSLINUX.)
830 * Documentation updates.
831 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend" option to generate an ip= option to
832 the kernel.
834 Changes in 1.51:
835 * PXELINUX: Not all PXE stacks fill in the IP address for a
836 type 3 cached info query. Use a type 2 cached info query
837 for this information (only.)
838 * Yet another attempt at A20 coding. Now support BIOS call
839 15:2401 as well, and handle machines which always have A20
840 on separately.
841 * Support memory detection using INT 15h, AX=0E820h. BIOS
842 manufacturers have apparently gotten sloppy about keeping
843 INT 15h, AX=0E801h working properly.
844 * Don't issue <CR><LF> onto the serial port when we're doing
845 screen wraparound.
847 Changes in 1.50:
848 * Yet another A20-code update. It seems some "legacy-free"
849 machines and embedded gear simply don't have a KBC to talk
850 to, and that waiting for one will wait forever. Sigh.
852 Changes in 1.49:
853 * SYSLINUX: Implement a hack for BIOS drivers which hog significant
854 chunks of low memory during boot. (Note: PXELINUX already
855 had this modification. SYSLINUX does still require that the
856 low 512K is available; PXELINUX requires 384K. Machines
857 with a physical memory hole in the low 640K cannot boot
858 Linux no matter what.) Depending what the reason is for the
859 memory hole, a new kernel (2.4.0-test3-pre3 or later) may be
860 required.
861 * SYSLINUX: Default installer binary now compiled against
862 glibc 2.1. If this is inappropriate for your system and you
863 still want to use the offical version of SYSLINUX, please
864 follow the instructions in "distrib.doc" to rebuild the
865 installer.
866 * SYSLINUX: Linux installer program now supports -o <offset>
867 option which does a loopback mount with the
868 -o loop,offset=<> option. Useful to run SYSLINUX on an
869 individual partition of a whole-harddisk image.
870 * Include the source code to a Master Boot Record (MBR)
871 functionally equivalent to the one installed DOS except it
872 includes EBIOS support, and should be resistant to geometry
873 changes. The MBR code is public domain.
874 * PXELINUX: Fix "double p" bug: if the tftp prefix was null,
875 all filenames would get a "p" preprended, e.g.
876 "ppxelinux.cfg" and "pvmlinux".
878 Changes in 1.48:
879 * PXELINUX: Workaround for PXE ROMs based on the Intel PXE PDK
880 3.0 build 071 and earlier: missing !PXE structure pointer.
881 * PXELINUX: Handle larger BOOTP/DHCP packages.
882 * PXELINUX: The command line passing was broken; fix.
883 * PXELINUX: Make COMBOOT images work.
884 * PXELINUX: Documentation on how to make booting work using
885 the PDK 3.0-derived clients, which aren't so generous as to
886 allow booting with only "PXEClient" specified.
888 Changes in 1.47:
889 * PXELINUX: RFC 1123 states that a TFTP implementation MUST
890 use adaptive timeout, "at least an exponential backoff of
891 retransmission timeout is necessary." Implement a very
892 simple exponential backoff for retransmits.
893 * PXELINUX: Updated documentation, including pointer to new
894 TFTP server.
895 * PXELINUX: When sending ERROR due to bad OACK, use the proper
896 destination port number (why are TFTP port numbers so odd?)
897 * PXELINUX: If the boot dies in the middle somewhere,
898 eventually give up and reset the machine (unattended
899 operation.)
901 Changes in 1.46:
902 * New program PXELINUX to do network booting using a
903 PXE-compliant (Pre-Execution Environment) network booting
904 PROM. See pxelinux.doc for details.
906 Changes in 1.45:
907 * Serial console support. See syslinux.doc for details.
909 Changes in 1.44:
910 * Change HIGHMEM_MAX to 38000000h to (hopefully) avoid the
911 kernel stepping on it; 3f000000h was apparently a higher
912 limit than the kernel used!
914 Changes in 1.43:
915 * Add sys2ansi.pl script to display the contents of a
916 colorized SYSLINUX file.
917 * Changed the io_delay once again, after a report that the
918 old delay port causes hangs on some systems.
920 Changes in 1.42:
921 * Frob the "fast A20 gate" port as well as the keyboard
922 controller; will this help systems with problems?
923 * Be even more paranoid about A20, unfortunately even this
924 seems to be not paranoid enough... what I don't understand
925 is that if there is hardware out there *this broken*, how
926 can it run Linux at all? Report an error message rather
927 than hang forever if A20 is stuck.
928 * Include some intermediate files in the distribution, plus
929 provide a "make installer" target for distributors to relink
930 the install programs only. I would prefer the syslinux boot
931 loader proper to be "binary clean" for debuggablity -- use
932 "make clean ; make installer" to rebuild the installers only.
934 Changes in 1.41:
935 * Don't get confused by directories, volume labels, or VFAT
936 long names.
937 * Use INT 15h, AX=0E801h to query memory size before trying
938 INT 15h, AH=88h. This not only provides more headroom
939 between the kernel and the initrd on large-memory machines,
940 but it appears some recent BIOSes actually have started
941 returning garbage for the AH=88h (older) call.
942 * Trust high memory beyond the 15 MB mark if the user has
943 specified it, or if obtained with INT 15h, AH=0E801h (with
944 no memory holes above 1 MB.)
946 Changes in 1.40:
947 * Increase A20M delay and put in a test to avoid problems on
948 certain IBM Thinkpads (thanks to Donnie Barnes of RedHat
949 for vital info on this one.)
950 * Support COMBOOT style boot command images.
951 * Support chain loading (foreign operating systems, e.g. DOS).
952 * Include a new "copybs" DOS utility to copy a boot sector to
953 a file (under Linux, use "dd".)
954 * Fix the DOS installer to work for disks over 32 MB.
955 * SYSLINUX should now handle disks with more than 65536 tracks.
957 Changes in 1.37:
958 * Fix a bug that caused "label" statements in syslinux.cfg to
959 not be handled properly.
960 * Updated the documentation. Among other things, we now allow
961 up to 128 "label" statements.
963 Changes in 1.36:
964 * Fix for booting old (pre-initrd) kernels.
965 * It seems at least some versions of OS/2 doesn't set up all
966 the fields in the superblock correctly. Account for that.
967 * Fix bug that caused boot failure when using the mem= option.
969 Changes in 1.35:
970 * Loading from partitions now should work properly. (Actually
971 tested, this time. You should even be able to dd a floppy
972 to a partition and boot from it.)
973 * Removed large workaround code for an alleged ancient BIOS
974 bug I have never actually seen. The -s option should work
975 on those machines, anyway.
976 * Support for simple keyboard remappings, same as used by
977 LILO (once again to support localization.) The program
978 keytab-lilo.pl from the LILO distribution included to
979 generate such maps.
980 * Added a "safe, slow and stupid" (-s) option to the
981 installers. This option will lobotomize the boot sector to
982 hopefully work on even very buggy BIOSes.
984 Changes in 1.34:
985 * Ability to load a VGA font on bootup (for localized Linux
986 distributions.)
988 Changes in 1.33:
989 * Bug fix in the Linux installer.
990 * Added a workaround for a bug in certain AMI/Intel BIOSes
991 when booting from CD-ROM.
992 * Documentation changes.
994 Changes in 1.32:
995 * FAT16 filesystems are now supported.
997 Changes in 1.31:
998 * Now compiles under Linux, using NASM, rather than using
999 Turbo Assembler under DOS. See http://www.cryogen.com/Nasm
1000 for information about NASM.
1001 * Linux-hosted SYSLINUX installer, as well as a
1002 rewritten DOS installer (now is written in assembler, so we
1003 don't need Turbo C.)
1005 Changes in 1.30:
1006 * Added support for loading bzImage and initrd loading, and made
1007 SYSLINUX new-setup-code aware (SYSLINUX 1.30 id=0x31).
1008 * Added LILO-style kernel labels; see the LABEL and IMPLICIT
1009 keywords in README file.
1010 * Added support for colorization of intro and help screens.
1011 * The vga= option is now handled correctly.
1012 * Massive rewrite of large chunks of the code in order to
1013 support the first two new features.
1015 Changes in 1.20:
1016 * Added simple online help at the "boot:" prompt.
1017 * Removed 2880K image as I no longer have access to such a
1018 floppy drive. (Donations accepted!!)
1019 * Decided to distribute the source in a subdirectory rather
1020 than in a nested zipfile.
1022 Changes in 1.11:
1023 * Removed a sanity check which would cause booting to fail on
1024 Phoenix BIOS version 4.03. Apparently this BIOS is buggy.
1026 Changes in 1.10:
1027 * Added configuration file SYSLINUX.CFG. This file contains all
1028 configurable options, and can be edited from any OS which can
1029 access an MS-DOS filesystem; there is no longer a need to run
1030 SYSLINUX.EXE except to write the boot sector.
1031 * Default command line now given by "default" line in config
1032 file.
1033 * LINUXMSG.TXT and BOOTMSG.TXT hard-coded file names replaced by
1034 "display" and "prompt" lines in config file.
1035 * LILO-style option appending now supported ("append" line in
1036 config file).
1037 * Prompt timeout is now supported ("timeout" line in config
1038 file). The timeout is cancelled when anything is typed on the
1039 command line.
1040 * Pressing <ESC> or <Ctrl-C> at the Loading... stage now aborts
1041 the kernel loading in progress and returns the user to the
1042 boot: prompt.
1043 * The installer now automatically sets the READONLY flag on
1044 LDLINUX.SYS.
1045 * Added 2880K disk image.
1047 Changes in 1.03:
1048 * Fixed bug that would prevent booting from double-density
1049 floppies and other DOS filesystems with multiple sectors per
1050 cluster.
1051 * Added 720K disk image.
1052 * Changed default kernel name on disk images to LINUX.
1054 Changes in 1.02:
1055 * Fixed bug that would garble the command line on recent kernels
1056 with more than 4 sectors of setup code (this wasn't really a
1057 *bug*; rather, a kernel change broke the code. Unfortunately
1058 the Linux boot interface is still sorely undocumented).
1059 * Added BOOTMSG.TXT file support (message file which does not
1060 force display of the boot prompt).
1062 Changes in 1.01:
1063 * Fixed bug on some (most?) 386 BIOSes would require two boot
1064 attempts.