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 * Workaround for a VESA BIOS which tries to make DOS system
8 * Simple menu: fix navigation around disabled entries
9 (or at least try to...)
10 * EXTLINUX: proper error message when confused about mount
12 * MEMDISK: be smarter about incompletely disabled floppies in
13 the BIOS and about being the only BIOS.
14 * Optionally allow initrd to be specified on a separate line
15 rather than as part of the "append" line. This is not
16 recommended, but apparently makes life easier for some
18 * SYSLINUX: if no config file is present, set the current
19 directory to the root directory (Sebastian Herbszt.)
20 * chain.c32: option "hide" to support hiding and unhiding of
21 primary partitions on the boot drive with DOS, Win, or OS/2
22 partition types (01, 04, 06, 07, 0b, 0c, 0e).
23 * Unbreak the KBDMAP command (broken in 3.70).
24 * EXTLINUX: fix the handling of the ADV when using CBIOS.
25 * ifcpu64.c32: simple COM32 module to select a 32- or 64-bit
26 kernel (and optionally 32-bit kernels with or without PAE.)
27 Eventually we want a scripting language for this
29 * Fix parsing of the SERIAL command without a baud rate specified.
32 * PXELINUX: Support enhanced capabilities when running on top
33 of gPXE (http://www.etherboot.org/). In particular, support
34 URL-style syntax for filenames, and any protocol that gPXE
35 supports (except, currently, iSCSI and AoE.) This feature
36 is currently highly experimental.
37 * Substantial infrastructure changes to support files whose
38 length aren't known at open time (typically network
39 connections.) Please note that the semantics of some of the
40 comboot APIs have changed slightly; please see doc/comboot.txt.
41 * PXELINUX: We no longer require a TFTP server which supports
42 the tsize option for all transfers.
43 * PXELINUX: Integrate with the gPXE source base; unified image
44 now included as "gpxelinux.0".
45 * The source tree has been restructured; files that were
46 previously in the root have moved into the core, dos, gpxe,
47 and utils directories.
48 * "make install", "make netinstall", and "make extbootinstall"
49 have been updated massively. "make install-all" now installs
51 * Change default dir for auxiliary files from
52 /usr/lib/syslinux to /usr/share/syslinux.
53 * SYSLINUX: VFAT long filename support.
54 * MEMDISK: Any image less than 4096K (4 MB) is treated as a
55 floppy disk. The geometry-guessing code will recognize all
56 common extended formats, but it is still possible some very
57 exotic formats need geometry specification. Large floppies
58 and very small harddisks still need explicit specification.
59 * chain.c32: option "swap" to support swapping of BIOS drive
60 numbers. This is necessary to boot certain operating systems
61 (DOS, Windows) from a secondary drive.
62 * chain.c32: option "file=" to support loading a boot file from
63 the SYSLINUX filesystem instead of loading the boot sector
65 * chain.c32: option "seg=" to control the load location.
66 * chain.c32: option "ntldr=" as a shorthand for "seg=0x2000
67 file="; use this to load one of WinNT's loaders:
69 chain.c32 hd0 1 ntldr=/MiniNT/setupldr.bin
71 Note that the file needs to be in the SYSLINUX filesystem.
72 * chain.32: options "freedos=" and "msdos="/"pcdos=" as
73 shorthands for "seg=0x60 file=" and "seg=0x70 file="
74 respectively; use this to load FreeDOS's kernel.sys, MS-DOS's
75 io.sys or PC-DOS's ibmbio.sys.
76 * Change to the A20 algorithm which *MIGHT* help systems that
77 have systems which freeze when Syslinux is used with USB
78 keyboards. Note that this has been hard do verify, so I
79 would greatly appreciate feedback on it.
80 * Complex menu system: unbreak menus which has unnamed
81 submenus, like complex.c.
82 * Fix newline on the serial port for some com32 modules.
83 * chain.c32: support "boot" as the drive specification,
84 indicating the drive from which it was booted
85 (for syslinux/extlinux).
86 * SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX: support "localboot" with the same feature
88 * Add an experimental MBR for GPT partition tables.
89 * Use $(CC) when determining compile flags.
90 * chain.c32: fix booting from logical partitions (Sergey
94 * Fix errors in the PCI and DMI detection modules (Erwan Velu,
96 * Fix host dependencies and other issues in the build system.
97 * PXELINUX: Allow class E addresses as unicast.
98 * sdi.c32: module to load Microsoft System Deployment Images.
99 For additional information, please see:
100 http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms838543.aspx
101 * EXTLINUX: Correct reading directories with deleted entries.
102 * Shuffle library: correct the handling of certain geometries
103 (an upward move with source material blocking the move); as
104 required by sdi.c32 but theoretically possible for other
106 * Add "make netinstall" to install /tftpboot.
107 * Fix some documentation files that didn't get moved/renamed.
110 * Clean up garbage after "aborted." message.
111 * Clean up memdump.com filenames.
112 * Support SHA256 and SHA512 encrypted passwords.
113 * The shuffle library now can generate chained descriptors,
114 thus allowing pretty much arbitrarily complex memory maps.
115 * Handle command lines up to 2047 characters, the current
117 * vesamenu: support systems without linear framebuffer support
118 (sigh, what is this, 1993?) and 15-bit RGB modes.
119 * Move the label storage (for the command-line interface) to
120 high memory, removing the size limit and freeing up 64K of
122 * Get rid of 4096-entry limit in the simple menu system.
123 * New hierarchial submenu support: see MENU BEGIN, MENU END,
124 MENU GOTO in doc/menu.txt.
125 * MENU QUIT allows creating a menu entry for returning to the
127 * ISOLINUX: Work around bug in certain Adaptec BIOSes,
128 patch by Bruce Robson.
129 * pngtopnm dependency removed from samples/ directory.
130 * Text documentation files (in doc/) renamed *.doc -> *.txt.
133 * EXTLINUX: fix crash when accessing an empty file.
134 * elf.c32: If a PHDR segment is present, load it.
135 * Fix SHA-1 and MD5 passwords.
136 * ISOLINUX: fix booting when mastered without
137 mkisofs -boot-info-table (broken since 3.50, sigh...)
138 * Handle BIOSes which emit multiple contiguous valid
139 memory regions in the e820 map.
142 * Support for "auxilliary data vector", a small amount of
143 writable storage. Currently only supported for EXTLINUX,
144 but the infrastructure is there for the other derivatives,
145 assuming a suitable storage location can be found.
146 * EXTLINUX: boot-once support (--once, --clear-once, and
148 * A command is now required to the EXTLINUX installer, i.e. at
149 least one of --install, --update, --once, --clear-once, or
153 * PXELINUX: as per RFC 5071, PXELINUX no longer requires the
154 use of the magic cookie option (208) for unencapsulated
155 options. Currently it does not require it for
156 vendor-encapsulated options (vendor-option-space) either,
157 but that MAY be reverted in the future if it causes
159 * Documentation text files moved to a common "doc" directory;
160 man pages from the Debian project added to the "man"
162 * Correct bug with self-overlapping memory areas when using
163 the shuffle interface.
166 * Add "menu separator", "menu indent", "menu disabled"
168 * vesamenu: fix handing of VESA modes with noncontiguous
169 memory buffers. In particular, Qemu/KVM sets up such a mode
170 when Cirrus Logic emulation is enabled (which is the
172 * Support for calling real mode functions using far calls,
173 with argument on the stack. This was implemented to support
174 the BIOS BBS specification, but subsequent experiments show
175 that the at least one of the most common BIOS cores, Award,
176 passes the presence check but doesn't actually implement the
180 * Fix bugs related to the $PnP BIOS functionality on some
182 * PXELINUX: Fix the "naked" version of :: (suppress prefix.)
183 * elf.c32: better error messages.
184 * Faster operation under Intel VT virtualization.
185 * PXELINUX: Fix DHCP bootfile option.
186 * mkdiskimage: Support more than 1024 cylinders.
187 * (Hopefully) fix installer on non-x86 platforms.
188 * Fix shuffle_and_boot_rm, used by linux.c32.
189 * Fix shuffle_and_boot_pm on 386/486.
190 * ISOLINUX (at least): fix bss memory overwrite hang.
191 * MBR: Fix booting from logical partitions.
195 * Handle capitalized F-key commands in the menu system.
196 * Fix padding error when loading multiple ramdisks.
197 * Workaround for VMware crashing when trying to print a
198 message during early kernel boot (does not seem to work,
200 * chain.c32: add the ability to search for a specific MBR
201 signature at runtime.
202 * Fall back to the server identity option if the siaddr field
203 in the DHCP header isn't set. This seems to match the
204 behaviour of most PXE stacks.
205 * mkdiskimage: give the generated disk image an MBR signature.
206 * MEMDISK: Fix failures on some BIOSes.
207 * Simple menu system: new "MENU HIDDEN" option to not display
208 the menu unless the user presses a key.
209 * Simple menu system: support MD5-encrypted passwords (modern
210 Unix standard style, with "$1$" prefixes.)
211 * pcitest.c32: now functions as a full "lspci". Thanks to
212 Erwan Velu for this work.
213 * MEMDISK: Make EDD actually work.
214 * ISOLINUX: Fix for certain broken CD-ROM BIOSes which
215 randomly corrupted register FS.
216 * Simple menu system: fix memory overwrite bug that caused
217 some systems to lock up or behave weirdly.
218 * Fix building on 64-bit systems without a 32-bit libc installed.
221 * EXTLINUX: Fix failure to find the configuration file.
224 * New keywords allow the type of file to be specified in the
226 * It is now supported to load a different configuration file
227 with the CONFIG keyword.
228 * Fix API call 0x0019 (Read Disk.)
229 * MENU AUTOBOOT, MENU TABMSG, MENU PASSPROMPT allows
230 internationalization of menu messages.
231 * A new feature, TEXT HELP, allows the administrator to set
232 a multi-line help message for individual selections.
233 * Fix API call 0x0012 (Cleanup, shuffle and boot.)
234 * New API call "Cleanup, shuffle and boot to flat protected mode"
235 * New API call "Cleanup, shuffle and boot to real mode",
236 similar to API call 0x0012 but allows arbitrary register setting.
237 * Introduce a library interface for loading arbitrary binary
238 formats with relatively easily understood code. See
239 the elf.c32 module for an example on how to use it.
240 * New module "elf.c32", to load a protected-mode ELF kernel.
241 * MBR (old and new): Fix bug in CHS mode when LBA >
243 * vesamenu: fix decoding of palettized PNG images.
244 * Update the Linux kernel boot protocol.
245 * PXELINUX: Press Ctrl-N at the boot prompt to read out the
247 * Instead of the (non-existent) MAC, use the client identifier
248 for networks like Infiniband and Firewire/1394.
249 * Add a new INCLUDE command to the core syslinux parser.
250 * Allow binding help text to F11 and F12.
251 * F-key help now available in the simple menu system.
252 * Disabled the polling for ARP during idle. It is simply too
253 slow on some (broken!) PXE stacks.
254 * PXELINUX: also try to fetch the config file based on UUID.
255 * SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX: New RAID mode (-r) which calls the BIOS
256 to load the next device (typically the next drive) on boot
260 * MEMDISK: Disable EDD by default on floppy disks. EDD can be
261 enabled with the "edd" option and disabled with "noedd".
262 This (hopefully) should make Ghost work again.
263 * SYSLINUX: "unix" installer now uses Linux ioctls instead of
265 * New MBR which can boot from logical partitions.
266 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in detecting special extensions which was
267 introduced in 3.35 :(
268 * PXELINUX: Unbreak chainbooting FreeBSD (and possibly others.)
271 * MEMDISK: New "safeint" mode.
272 * MEMDISK: Be more compliant with the PnP BIOS spec.
273 * MEMDISK: Turn on EDD support by default.
274 * MEMDISK: Try to work on some machines on which it would not
275 work when there was no floppy drive in the system.
276 * Simple menu system: fix serial console support (broken in
278 * SYSLINUX: Support subdirectories. Like ISOLINUX, the
279 "current directory" is the directory in which syslinux.cfg
280 is found; this is searched for in the sequence
281 /boot/syslinux, /syslinux, /. As a side benefit, label names
282 like "linux-2.6.18" and "linux-2.6.19" are now supported.
284 To install ldlinux.sys in a subdirectory, pass the -d
285 directory option to the SYSLINUX installer.
287 This work was sponsored by slax.org (thanks, Tomas!)
288 * New API call: read disk.
289 * Invoke ONERROR on initrd load failure.
292 * The simple menu system (menu.c32 and vesamenu.c32) now
293 support loading more than one configuration file at a time,
294 using MENU INCLUDE or by specifying multiple filenames.
295 * The MENU COLOR statement can now control the shadowing mode.
298 * libcom32 extended to support graphics mode and graphical console.
299 * vesamenu.c32, new graphical version of the Simple
300 Menu System, see README.menu.
301 * New com32 modules by Erwan Velu do selection based on CPUID
302 or PCI devices present.
303 * RPM spec: add syslinux-tftpboot module; move syslinux by
304 default to the /usr/share/syslinux directory.
305 * RPM spec: extlinux is now a separate package.
308 * EXTLINUX: New options --install (-i) and --update (-U), to
309 make it clear if a boot loader should be installed or
310 updated. For now, defaults to --install for compatibility;
311 a future version will require one of these options.
312 * New library functions to load and place files in memory.
313 * mboot.c32 bug fixes.
314 * Remove 8 MB kernel size restriction.
315 * Add "klibc" target for building unix/syslinux and
316 extlinux/extlinux with klcc (klibc-1.4.27 or later.)
317 * PXELINUX: Fail (and eventually reboot) if no configuration
319 * COM32 module by Erwan Velu to make decisions based on DMI
321 * Fix issue where going back and forth between menus a lot
323 * ISOLINUX: Fix bug which made "cd boot sectors" not work.
326 * MEMDISK: Fix bug by which accessing the real floppy disk
327 as B: in MS-DOS was broken.
328 * Simple menu system: allow tweaking of the screen layout.
329 * Simple menu system: better command-line editing, correctly
330 handle command lines above 256 characters.
331 * PXELINUX: revert memory allocation change that caused
332 problems on some network cards.
333 * MEMDISK: Try work around a bug on some BIOSes when no
334 physical floppy disk is present in the system.
335 * Enable the 16550A FIFOs, if present, when doing serial
337 * New "totaltimeout" command establishes a timeout without
338 regard for any user input.
339 * Simple menu system: timeout behaviour now more in line with
341 * Simple menu system: "ontimeout" should now work correctly.
344 * gcc 4.0.1 compilation fixes.
345 * Add support for querying the PCI BIOS in libcom32
346 (used by ethersel et al.)
347 * Fix PCI handing (ethersel etc) on several old chipsets (and
349 * Try to deal with systems with broken EBIOS.
350 * New API call to do "localboot".
351 * New API call to query features.
352 * New API call to run kernel image, a lower-level call than
353 "run command". See comboot.doc.
354 * Fix for bug in EBIOS code discovered by Arwin Vosselman.
355 * NOESCAPE security fix.
356 * Comments are now recognized even without a space following #.
357 * Fix incorrect handling of mixes of entries with and without
359 * The idle API call now harmlessly returns failure if it is a
360 no-op. That way the caller can decide whether or not to
361 bother invoking it again.
362 * Temporarily disable the idle API call on PXELINUX, due to
363 some platforms on which the idle API call seems to hang; this
364 problem has not yet been debugged.
365 * MEMDISK: the handling of DOSEMU-headered images was broken;
367 * EXTLINUX: symlinks are now supported.
368 * Simple menu system: N and P now work correctly as hotkeys.
369 * MEMDISK: more BIOS bug workarounds.
372 * gcc4 compilation fix.
373 * <BEL> (Ctrl-G) in message files now causes a beep.
374 * Reduce the command line to 511 characters; 1023 caused
378 * SYSLINUX: Fix performance regression (-s mode always
380 * Add API function for idle loop.
381 * libutil: Add do_idle() function for idle loop, make
383 * libutil: Add SHA-1 and base64 functions.
384 * Simple menu system: add password support.
385 * EXTLINUX: Sparse files now handled correctly.
386 * EXTLINUX: Large directories now handled correctly.
387 * ALL: At the prompt, Ctrl-X now forces text mode.
388 * Fix configuration file parsing error, that could cause
390 * Rewritten advanced menuing system from Murali Ganapathy.
391 * MEMDISK: New "bigraw" mode to work around certain broken
393 * COM32 module to boot Multiboot systems, including Xen. See
394 com32/modules/mboot.doc.
395 * Max command line changed to 1023 characters. Note that the
396 kernel proper still can only handle 255 characters without
397 patching, and COM16 binaries can only handle 125 characters.
400 * Fix chainloading (chain.c32).
401 * Fix zlib build problem.
402 * Use a private copy of <linux/ext2_fs.h>.
405 * Fix typo that caused the ramdisk to load in the wrong place.
408 * New API function "shuffle and boot"; allows COM32 modules to
409 load or construct (almost) arbitrarily complex objects,
410 e.g. a kernel and its initrd/initramfs in pieces, and have
411 the API core reorganize memory for booting. (A library API
412 for this function will be introduced in a later version.)
413 * The initrd= option now supports multiple filenames separated
414 by commas. This is mostly useful for initramfs, which can
415 be composed of multiple separate cpio or cpio.gz archives.
416 (Note: all files except the last one are zero-padded to a 4K
417 page boundary. This should not affect initramfs.)
418 * EXTLINUX: Fix API function 000Ah (get derivative-specific
420 * libcom32/ethersel: Support PCI Config Mechanism #2 on
421 machines still infested with that hideous old hack.
422 * SYSLINUX: Fix directory-parsing bug.
425 * SYSLINUX: The "unix" installer now sets the MS-DOS
426 attributes (hidden, system, readonly.)
427 * COM32 library: build the .lnx (test modules for running
428 under Linux) as architecture native modules, in case
429 i386 devel libraries aren't installed.
430 * EXTLINUX: Hack for systems which don't have BLKGETSIZE64
431 defined in the standard header files.
432 * Simple menu system: minor aestetic improvements, and try to
433 work better over a serial console (speed, and readability on
434 monochrome terminal emulators.)
435 * New CONSOLE directive to control output on the video console
436 (useful for dealing with some broken serial-forwarding
438 * New com32 module "ethersel" for searching for an Ethernet
439 card and selecting the proper version of Etherboot.
440 * EXTLINUX: Allow the user to override the detected geometry.
444 * EXTLINUX, SYSLINUX: Fix compile errors on some systems.
445 * EXTLINUX: Default to zipdrive geometry (64 heads, 32
446 sectors) if no other geometry can be detected.
449 * SYSLINUX: Support FAT32 and EDD. As an unfortunate
450 consequence, LDLINUX.SYS is no longer an ordinary file; it
451 is block-mapped at install time, which means it can only be
452 written using the syslinux installers.
453 * SYSLINUX: Reorganize the source code for the installers;
454 each one of the installers (dos, win32, unix, mtools) is now
455 built in its own subdirectory. In particular, "mtools" is
456 the unprivileged installer which uses mtools; "unix" is the
457 privileged installer which uses system calls.
458 * SYSLINUX: Completely rewritten DOS installer in C.
459 * ALL: "label" statement information is now stored in a
460 compressed format, which means that a lot more labels are
461 permitted (500-1000 in a typical configuration, but depends
463 * EXTLINUX: New derivative, which boots from an ext2/ext3
465 * SYSLINUX: The DOS and Win32 installers can now optionally
466 write the boot sector to a file instead of the real boot
467 sector. This is not supported in the Linux installers,
469 * ALL: New NOESCAPE command, disables the "hold down the Shift
470 key to display the prompt" behaviour.
471 * New simple menu system, as an alternative to the advanced
472 menu system already present. See README.menu for details.
473 * PXELINUX: Filenames can now be prefixed with an IP address
474 or DNS name plus :: (e.g. 192.0.2.1::filename or
475 server.domain.com::filename), which downloads a file from an
476 alternate TFTP server, or just a :: (e.g. ::filename), which
477 suppresses the common pathname prefix. See pxelinux.doc.
478 * SYSLINUX: Add an -m option to the DOS and Win32 installers
479 to write an MBR and -a to mark the partition SYSLINUX is
480 being installed on active.
481 * MEMDISK: Give a way to query the boot loader type while
482 running MEMDISK; see memdisk/memdisk.doc and
484 * mkdiskimage: substantially improved mkdiskimage which, among
485 other things, can now be used to initialize USB keys as
486 zipdrives; see README.usbkey for more information.
489 * MEMDISK: Fix command-line parsing "brown paper bag" class
491 * MEMDISK: Add "raw" mode to support the DOS boot disk from
492 WinME/XP, which seems to deliberately crash the system
493 when someone uses the "INT 15h mover" highmem API.
494 * Make "make install" do something sane for the com32
495 development environment.
496 * In the spec file, create a separate -devel RPM for the com32
497 development environment.
500 * Simple C library, based on klibc, for writing COM32
502 * Fix the handling of file length in loading of COM32
504 * MEMDISK: Work around a linker bug by rearranging the code to
505 not use the linker for the 16-bit code.
506 * SYSLINUX: If we're building on a machine without a Win32
507 (mingw) compiler, just skip building syslinux.exe.
508 * ISOLINUX: Support non-mkisofs mastering programs, at least
509 as long as the image is single-session. For best results,
510 ISOLINUX should be the only boot loader installed.
511 * MEMDISK: Allow the user to specify that the simulated disk
512 should be write-protected.
515 * ALL: Add an API call to get the configuration file name.
516 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in 2.10 that prevented it from working
517 correctly for a lot of people.
518 * SYSLINUX: In the installer, make mtools a bit less fussy.
519 * Make the menu system compile with newer gcc's.
522 * MEMDISK: Handle images compressed with zip as well as with
523 gzip. Some Windows-based image tools apparently generate
524 these kinds of images by default. Patch by Patrick
526 * Major menu improvement from Murali Ganapathy.
527 * ISOLINUX: Wonderfully sick and brilliant workaround for
528 severe bugs in certain Award BIOSes; from Knut Petersen.
529 * SYSLINUX: Fix for the nomtools installed, from Frederic
531 * PXELINUX: Fix handling of IP numbers in the ranges
533 * ALL: New option "allowoptions" (defaults to 1), which
534 controls if options are allowed on the command line or not.
535 * SYSLINUX: Support building under klibc (see the klibc
536 distribution for details.)
539 * SYSLINUX: Remove residual setuid crap from
541 * Handle video pages correctly when using the API functions.
542 * Handle compiling on an x86-64 platform correctly.
543 * Menu system from Murali Krishnan Ganapathy; see the menu
544 directory for information.
545 * COMBOOT: Allow COMBOOT programs to change screen text mode.
546 * COMBOOT: Correct the documentation of how to detect
547 SYSLINUX from COMBOOT!!!!
548 * COMBOOT: Fix "get key without echo" API function.
549 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug that affected the API open function.
550 * ALL: Improve the E820 memory parser, to work around some
554 * Add new configuration command "ontimeout" to allow timeout
555 to have a different action than just pressing Enter.
556 * Add new configuration command "onerror" to allow a custom
557 command to be executed in case the kernel image is not found.
558 * Fix bugs in the COMBOOT/COM32 command-line parsing. APPEND
559 now works with COMBOOT/COM32 images.
560 * PXELINUX: Poll for ARP requests while sitting at the
561 prompt. This makes some boot servers a lot less unhappy.
562 * PXELINUX: Actually free sockets when we get a failure
563 (including file not found.) This bug would cause us to run
564 out of sockets and thus "go deaf" after a while.
565 * MEMDISK: Add an API to query for the existence of MEMDISK.
566 * SYSLINUX: Fix loading boot sectors (.bs/.bss) from floppy
568 * .c32 is now one of the extensions searched for
570 * PXELINUX: RFBG.exe seems to randomly overwrite memory
571 location 0x5700. Thus, don't use it!
572 * PXELINUX: Change pathname length max from 63 to 127; change
573 max vkernels from 128 to 64.
574 * Support Ctrl-U -> kill entire command line input.
575 * The "samples" directory contains a (barely at all tested)
576 chain loading example, chain.c32, which may be used to
577 chainload local floppy disks and hard disks. Use with
578 "chain fdN" or "chain hdN [partition]"; N = 0 for the first
582 * MEMDISK: Workaround for BIOSes which go into a snit when
583 they get a RESET command for the floppy system when there is
584 no floppy in the system.
585 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend 2", which passes the hardware
586 address of the boot interface to the kernel as a
588 * mkdiskimage: fix the generation of the end limit.
589 * PXELINUX: Fix multiple bugs in chainloading of other NBPs.
590 * MEMDISK: Fix bug that would occationally cause "ran out of
591 input data" when using compressed disk images.
592 * SYSLINUX: Updates for the win32 installer (from Lars Munch.)
593 * PXELINUX: PXELINUX-specific options are now recognized both
594 in a vendor-option-space (a.k.a. type 43 encapsulated) as
595 well as in a site-option-space (unencapsulated.)
596 * COM32: Don't crash when DS != 0.
597 * COMBOOT/COM32: Make file reading work correctly. Thanks to
598 Phung Chi Kien for submitting a test program.
601 * ALL: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
602 boot failure, depending on the length of the kernel.
603 * ISOLINUX: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
604 boot failure, depending on the length of directories.
605 * SYSLINUX: Win32 installer now flushes buffers.
606 * ppmtolss16: Be fully compliant with the PNM spec;
607 actually process comments in the header and odd
608 alignments of the various parameters, as well as
609 "plain" (not raw) files and PBM and PGM files.
610 * PXELINUX: Lower the default MTU to 1472 in order to deal
611 with systems with slightly nonstandard MTUs, and PXE
612 stacks which don't defragment correctly. Unfortunately this
613 is very hard to test dynamically.
616 * PXELINUX: Add a default query based on the hardware address
617 of the boot device. This is in lower case hexadecimal form
618 separated by dashes and including the hardware type, for
619 example, the Ethernet (type 1) address 88:99:AA:BB:CC:DD
620 would query the file pxelinux.cfg/01-88-99-aa-bb-cc-dd.
621 * PXELINUX: Fix bug involving non-IP-based config file names.
622 * SYSLINUX: New installer for WinNT-based systems, from Lars
624 * MEMDISK: Fix handling of memory region overlap when
625 decompressing. Thanks to Mikhail Kupchik for identifying
629 * ALL: Reclaim even more low memory by observing that
630 comboot_seg == real_mode_seg is perfectly fine, and by the
631 fact that the 1000h segment managed to get unused in all
633 * PXELINUX: Attempt to negotiate full Ethernet-sized blocks
634 (1468 bytes) using the blksize option.
635 * SYSLINUX: Resurrect the old no-mtools version of the
636 installer, although as a root-only tool. Some distributors
637 have indicated that they need a small standalone installer.
638 * MEMDISK: Fix a memory offset computation error when
639 installing compressed disks which generally would cause
640 1 MB of memory to be wasted.
641 * MEMDISK: Fix installing the E820 memory map. Calling
642 INT 15h AX=0E820h with MEMDISK 2.03 loaded would give a
643 completely corrupt memory map.
644 * SYSLINUX: Make libsyslinux a dynamic library, so that it can
645 be updated separately from client programs. The whole idea,
646 after all, is to enable alternate programs to become
648 * Include an rpm spec file in the distribution, so rpmbuild
652 * Actually support comment lines in the configuration file.
653 * PXELINUX: Try to resolve some problems with stack switches.
654 * PXELINUX: Handle PXE stacks with broken routing.
655 With these workarounds, the remote install PXE boot floppy
656 (rbfg.exe) from Argon Technologies should work correctly.
657 * Fix problems with Perl scripts in UTF-8 locales.
658 * You probably need NASM 0.98.34 or later to compile this
659 version. 0.98.36 is recommended.
660 * MEMDISK: Now supports gzip compressed images.
663 * SYSLINUX: Security flaws have been found in the SYSLINUX
664 installer when running setuid root. Rewrite the SYSLINUX
665 installer so it uses mtools instead. It therefore now
666 requires mtools (specifically mcopy and mattrib) to exist on
667 your system, but it will not require root privileges and
668 SHOULD NOT be setuid.
671 * MEMDISK: Fix memory sizing bug when the ramdisk crosses the
673 * MEMDISK: Add a "pause" option to stop immediately before
674 booting, to read off the messages.
675 * MEMDISK: Support disk images with DOSEMU headers.
676 * Update the mkdiskimage script to handle newer mtools
677 versions, and be able to generate disk images with DOSEMU
678 headers (controlled by the -d option).
679 * Fix the COM32 sample program.
680 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix some COMBOOT API calls.
682 * Build SYSLINUX into a small library for encapsulation into
683 other programs (however, please keep in mind this is a GPL'd
685 * SYSLINUX: Make installer work with "owner" in /etc/fstab.
686 * SYSLINUX: Fix issue with working on nonpartitioned hard disk
687 devices. THIS CONFIGURATION IS NOT RECOMMENDED.
690 * ALL: Add support for "COM32" (32-bit COMBOOT) images.
691 * ALL: Add an API for COMBOOT/COM32 images. See comboot.doc
692 for details. There is a C development environment for
693 COM32 being created; it should be ready at some point in
695 * Fix mbr.asm so that it actually works.
696 * SYSLINUX: The syslinux installer *SHOULD* now be safe to
698 * PXELINUX: Fix bug where PXELINUX would override random
699 chunks of the UNDI code segment! Thanks to Kevin Tran for
701 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug related to slashes in pathnames.
702 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug in handling initrds over 128 MB.
703 * ALL: Make the <Ctrl-V> key print out the version; this is
705 * Add a small script, mkdiskimage, to create a DOS-formatted
706 hard disk image using mtools. This may be useful in
707 conjunction with MEMDISK.
708 * ISOLINUX: Search for a /boot/isolinux directory as well as
710 * ALL: Fix a bug related to very long configuration files.
711 * PXELINUX: Work around a NASM bug which would result in no
712 delay before reset if an error occurs.
715 * ISOLINUX: Remove code no longer used which caused hangs on
716 some Toshiba laptops.
719 * ALL: NASM 0.98.32 or later is now required to build
720 SYSLINUX from sources.
721 * SYSLINUX: put back in the workaround for the BIOS floppy
722 table. This seems to be a requirement for "extended" floppy
723 formats to work correctly.
724 * SYSLINUX: No longer warn if one is trying to boot on a 286
725 or older. The above BIOS workaround no longer fits if the
726 requirement to use only 8086-compatible code in the early
727 boot is maintained. It made sense in 1994, but in 2002 a
728 286 or older is a museum object.
729 * SYSLINUX: Use a downright bizarre, stateful algorithm to try
730 to guess the maximum transfer size. I am *hoping* this will
731 cut down on the number of systems for which -s is required
732 to work at any acceptable speed.
733 * ISOLINUX: Add a few more workarounds for various broken El
735 * Make sure .depend files aren't accidentally packed...
736 * ALL: Fix bugs in the extension-detect code; this caused
737 files like COMBOOT images and CD boot sectors to be
738 mis-identified as Linux kernels and rejected.
739 * ALL: Fix the return from COMBOOT.
740 * ALL: Do some of the early groundwork for supporting DOS
741 system calls in COMBOOT.
742 * Get rid of unnecessary "near" directives, making the code
744 * PXELINUX: Put the PXE stack back in the init state before
745 invoking a chain-loaded NBP.
746 * PXELINUX: Actually found the combination of calls that
747 allows some (most?) PXE 2+ stacks to be unloaded from memory
749 * PXELINUX: Add "keeppxe" command-line option to disable
750 the standard unloading of the PXE stack.
753 * SYSLINUX: fix bug that would cause valid kernel images to be
757 * Work on removing gratuitous differences between modules.
758 * Break up the source in common and module-specific files.
759 * PXELINUX: Allow chaining of other PXE NBPs.
760 * ISOLINUX: Allow loading "CD-ROM boot sectors".
761 * ALL: generalize the definition of a boot sector/NBP.
764 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix bugs in the new core code.
767 * Fix a "brown paper bag" class bug in the new core code.
770 * Major code restructuring.
771 * Relax the conventional memory limits somewhat.
772 * MEMDISK: Set up the "version number string" pointer in the
774 * SYSLINUX: Fix, again, "the bug that won't die": the use of
775 the offset parameter with the SYSLINUX installer.
776 * SYSLINUX: Fix possible superblock corruption problem in the
780 * Handle bug in the location of initrd.
783 * MEMDISK: Make compile with newer versions of gcc.
786 * ISOLINUX: Support booting disk image files (to boot DOS or
787 other non-Linux operating systems), *IF* the BIOS works
788 correctly; unfortunately many BIOSes apparently don't.
789 * Support Linux boot protocol version 2.03 (explicitly
790 specify the initrd address limit.)
791 * Handle small "pseudo-kernels"; images that use the Linux
792 kernel boot protocols but are less than 64K in size.
793 * MEMDISK: New subsystem; this is a driver which allows
794 legacy OSes to boot using an in-memory simulated disk.
795 See memdisk/memdisk.doc for more info.
796 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Correctly handle files larger than 65535
797 blocks (32 MB for PXELINUX, 128 MB for ISOLINUX.)
798 * PXELINUX: Make a best-effort attempt at freeing all memory
799 claimed. From the looks of it, it will fail on most PXE
803 * Limited support for hardware flow control when using a
805 * Support specifying the serial port I/O address explicitly.
806 * Make DOS installer hopefully behave more nicely when used on
807 recent Windows versions.
808 * Fix returning to text mode when a font has been specified.
809 * Attempt to detect missing serial port hardware and disable
810 the serial port if there is nothing there.
813 * Make the ppmtolss16 program handle color conversion more
815 * Clean up "make install" target, honour INSTALLROOT if it
817 * SYSLINUX: Fix stack-smash bug identified by Steffen
819 * Hopefully fix return-to-text-mode on some graphics cards.
820 * ISOLINUX: Bug workaround for Award BIOS 4.51, and perhaps
821 other buggy BIOSes as well.
824 * PXELINUX: Allow the DHCP server to override the
825 configuration file name and pathname prefix, using
826 "site-specific" DHCP options.
827 * PXELINUX: Documentation fixes.
828 * PXELINUX: Fix the "ipappend" option; the last two values
829 were reversed vs. what the kernel expected.
830 * Introduce a way to return to text mode once we are already
831 in graphics mode. This may be useful for F-key help
833 * Fix several bugs in the way return to text mode was handled.
836 * ISOLINUX: Support full pathname searches. Max length for a
837 pathname is 255 characters. As a result, only 64 "label"
838 statements are supported in ISOLINUX.
839 * PXELINUX: Max filename length extended to 63 characters.
842 * Add support for graphical splash screens.
843 * Add mode control characters, which allows you to control
844 message display output depending on output mode (text,
845 graphics, or serial port.)
846 * ISOLINUX: New program, which boots Linux from a CD-ROM
847 without using floppy emulation mode. See isolinux.doc for
849 * PXELINUX: Don't search for boot sector file types, since
850 they don't work anyway.
851 * SYSLINUX: Document the LOCK command for Win9x, and the error
852 dialog box for WinNT/2K.
855 * PXELINUX: Fix code for finding !PXE from PXENV+. This was
856 due to a spec bug; match the most recent spec since that
857 seems to be what implementations actually do.
858 * SYSLINUX: Add some smarts to the boot sector, which
859 hopefully should reduce the number of systems which require
860 stupid mode ("syslinux -s").
861 * PXELINUX: Document further some of the pathologies with old
863 * When specifying a "default" command line, no longer
864 automatically appent "auto". See the "DEFAULT" command in
865 syslinux.doc for more information.
866 * PXELINUX: Clean up the allocation of local socket numbers.
869 * PXELINUX: Rename pxelinux.bin to pxelinux.0, to match what
870 most PXE servers seem to expect.
871 * PXELINUX: Update the DHCP/boot server setup documentation.
872 * PXELINUX: Support new "localboot" option for "label"
874 * PXELINUX: More robust parsing of DHCP/boot server packets.
875 * PXELINUX: Include a small utility program "gethostip" to
876 compute hexadecimal IP addresses.
879 * PXELINUX: Fix bugs introduced by new A20 code. (SYSLINUX
880 has also been changed for code consistency reasons, but I'm
881 pretty sure the changes are don't care on SYSLINUX.)
882 * Documentation updates.
883 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend" option to generate an ip= option to
887 * PXELINUX: Not all PXE stacks fill in the IP address for a
888 type 3 cached info query. Use a type 2 cached info query
889 for this information (only.)
890 * Yet another attempt at A20 coding. Now support BIOS call
891 15:2401 as well, and handle machines which always have A20
893 * Support memory detection using INT 15h, AX=0E820h. BIOS
894 manufacturers have apparently gotten sloppy about keeping
895 INT 15h, AX=0E801h working properly.
896 * Don't issue <CR><LF> onto the serial port when we're doing
900 * Yet another A20-code update. It seems some "legacy-free"
901 machines and embedded gear simply don't have a KBC to talk
902 to, and that waiting for one will wait forever. Sigh.
905 * SYSLINUX: Implement a hack for BIOS drivers which hog significant
906 chunks of low memory during boot. (Note: PXELINUX already
907 had this modification. SYSLINUX does still require that the
908 low 512K is available; PXELINUX requires 384K. Machines
909 with a physical memory hole in the low 640K cannot boot
910 Linux no matter what.) Depending what the reason is for the
911 memory hole, a new kernel (2.4.0-test3-pre3 or later) may be
913 * SYSLINUX: Default installer binary now compiled against
914 glibc 2.1. If this is inappropriate for your system and you
915 still want to use the offical version of SYSLINUX, please
916 follow the instructions in "distrib.doc" to rebuild the
918 * SYSLINUX: Linux installer program now supports -o <offset>
919 option which does a loopback mount with the
920 -o loop,offset=<> option. Useful to run SYSLINUX on an
921 individual partition of a whole-harddisk image.
922 * Include the source code to a Master Boot Record (MBR)
923 functionally equivalent to the one installed DOS except it
924 includes EBIOS support, and should be resistant to geometry
925 changes. The MBR code is public domain.
926 * PXELINUX: Fix "double p" bug: if the tftp prefix was null,
927 all filenames would get a "p" preprended, e.g.
928 "ppxelinux.cfg" and "pvmlinux".
931 * PXELINUX: Workaround for PXE ROMs based on the Intel PXE PDK
932 3.0 build 071 and earlier: missing !PXE structure pointer.
933 * PXELINUX: Handle larger BOOTP/DHCP packages.
934 * PXELINUX: The command line passing was broken; fix.
935 * PXELINUX: Make COMBOOT images work.
936 * PXELINUX: Documentation on how to make booting work using
937 the PDK 3.0-derived clients, which aren't so generous as to
938 allow booting with only "PXEClient" specified.
941 * PXELINUX: RFC 1123 states that a TFTP implementation MUST
942 use adaptive timeout, "at least an exponential backoff of
943 retransmission timeout is necessary." Implement a very
944 simple exponential backoff for retransmits.
945 * PXELINUX: Updated documentation, including pointer to new
947 * PXELINUX: When sending ERROR due to bad OACK, use the proper
948 destination port number (why are TFTP port numbers so odd?)
949 * PXELINUX: If the boot dies in the middle somewhere,
950 eventually give up and reset the machine (unattended
954 * New program PXELINUX to do network booting using a
955 PXE-compliant (Pre-Execution Environment) network booting
956 PROM. See pxelinux.doc for details.
959 * Serial console support. See syslinux.doc for details.
962 * Change HIGHMEM_MAX to 38000000h to (hopefully) avoid the
963 kernel stepping on it; 3f000000h was apparently a higher
964 limit than the kernel used!
967 * Add sys2ansi.pl script to display the contents of a
968 colorized SYSLINUX file.
969 * Changed the io_delay once again, after a report that the
970 old delay port causes hangs on some systems.
973 * Frob the "fast A20 gate" port as well as the keyboard
974 controller; will this help systems with problems?
975 * Be even more paranoid about A20, unfortunately even this
976 seems to be not paranoid enough... what I don't understand
977 is that if there is hardware out there *this broken*, how
978 can it run Linux at all? Report an error message rather
979 than hang forever if A20 is stuck.
980 * Include some intermediate files in the distribution, plus
981 provide a "make installer" target for distributors to relink
982 the install programs only. I would prefer the syslinux boot
983 loader proper to be "binary clean" for debuggablity -- use
984 "make clean ; make installer" to rebuild the installers only.
987 * Don't get confused by directories, volume labels, or VFAT
989 * Use INT 15h, AX=0E801h to query memory size before trying
990 INT 15h, AH=88h. This not only provides more headroom
991 between the kernel and the initrd on large-memory machines,
992 but it appears some recent BIOSes actually have started
993 returning garbage for the AH=88h (older) call.
994 * Trust high memory beyond the 15 MB mark if the user has
995 specified it, or if obtained with INT 15h, AH=0E801h (with
996 no memory holes above 1 MB.)
999 * Increase A20M delay and put in a test to avoid problems on
1000 certain IBM Thinkpads (thanks to Donnie Barnes of RedHat
1001 for vital info on this one.)
1002 * Support COMBOOT style boot command images.
1003 * Support chain loading (foreign operating systems, e.g. DOS).
1004 * Include a new "copybs" DOS utility to copy a boot sector to
1005 a file (under Linux, use "dd".)
1006 * Fix the DOS installer to work for disks over 32 MB.
1007 * SYSLINUX should now handle disks with more than 65536 tracks.
1010 * Fix a bug that caused "label" statements in syslinux.cfg to
1011 not be handled properly.
1012 * Updated the documentation. Among other things, we now allow
1013 up to 128 "label" statements.
1016 * Fix for booting old (pre-initrd) kernels.
1017 * It seems at least some versions of OS/2 doesn't set up all
1018 the fields in the superblock correctly. Account for that.
1019 * Fix bug that caused boot failure when using the mem= option.
1022 * Loading from partitions now should work properly. (Actually
1023 tested, this time. You should even be able to dd a floppy
1024 to a partition and boot from it.)
1025 * Removed large workaround code for an alleged ancient BIOS
1026 bug I have never actually seen. The -s option should work
1027 on those machines, anyway.
1028 * Support for simple keyboard remappings, same as used by
1029 LILO (once again to support localization.) The program
1030 keytab-lilo.pl from the LILO distribution included to
1032 * Added a "safe, slow and stupid" (-s) option to the
1033 installers. This option will lobotomize the boot sector to
1034 hopefully work on even very buggy BIOSes.
1037 * Ability to load a VGA font on bootup (for localized Linux
1041 * Bug fix in the Linux installer.
1042 * Added a workaround for a bug in certain AMI/Intel BIOSes
1043 when booting from CD-ROM.
1044 * Documentation changes.
1047 * FAT16 filesystems are now supported.
1050 * Now compiles under Linux, using NASM, rather than using
1051 Turbo Assembler under DOS. See http://www.cryogen.com/Nasm
1052 for information about NASM.
1053 * Linux-hosted SYSLINUX installer, as well as a
1054 rewritten DOS installer (now is written in assembler, so we
1055 don't need Turbo C.)
1058 * Added support for loading bzImage and initrd loading, and made
1059 SYSLINUX new-setup-code aware (SYSLINUX 1.30 id=0x31).
1060 * Added LILO-style kernel labels; see the LABEL and IMPLICIT
1061 keywords in README file.
1062 * Added support for colorization of intro and help screens.
1063 * The vga= option is now handled correctly.
1064 * Massive rewrite of large chunks of the code in order to
1065 support the first two new features.
1068 * Added simple online help at the "boot:" prompt.
1069 * Removed 2880K image as I no longer have access to such a
1070 floppy drive. (Donations accepted!!)
1071 * Decided to distribute the source in a subdirectory rather
1072 than in a nested zipfile.
1075 * Removed a sanity check which would cause booting to fail on
1076 Phoenix BIOS version 4.03. Apparently this BIOS is buggy.
1079 * Added configuration file SYSLINUX.CFG. This file contains all
1080 configurable options, and can be edited from any OS which can
1081 access an MS-DOS filesystem; there is no longer a need to run
1082 SYSLINUX.EXE except to write the boot sector.
1083 * Default command line now given by "default" line in config
1085 * LINUXMSG.TXT and BOOTMSG.TXT hard-coded file names replaced by
1086 "display" and "prompt" lines in config file.
1087 * LILO-style option appending now supported ("append" line in
1089 * Prompt timeout is now supported ("timeout" line in config
1090 file). The timeout is cancelled when anything is typed on the
1092 * Pressing <ESC> or <Ctrl-C> at the Loading... stage now aborts
1093 the kernel loading in progress and returns the user to the
1095 * The installer now automatically sets the READONLY flag on
1097 * Added 2880K disk image.
1100 * Fixed bug that would prevent booting from double-density
1101 floppies and other DOS filesystems with multiple sectors per
1103 * Added 720K disk image.
1104 * Changed default kernel name on disk images to LINUX.
1107 * Fixed bug that would garble the command line on recent kernels
1108 with more than 4 sectors of setup code (this wasn't really a
1109 *bug*; rather, a kernel change broke the code. Unfortunately
1110 the Linux boot interface is still sorely undocumented).
1111 * Added BOOTMSG.TXT file support (message file which does not
1112 force display of the boot prompt).
1115 * Fixed bug on some (most?) 386 BIOSes would require two boot