1 Starting with 1.47, changes marked with SYSLINUX, PXELINUX, ISOLINUX
2 or EXTLINUX apply to that specific program only; other changes apply
6 * Dynamic debug support: Add new module, debug.c32, that allows
7 debug code to be dynamically enabled and disabled at runtime.
10 * PXELINUX: An entirely new network implementation based on
11 the lwIP embedded TCP/IP stack. As a result, plain PXELINUX
12 can now support HTTP and FTP without gPXE/iPXE. ls/readdir
13 functionality is supported over HTTP with an indexing
14 webserver, or over FTP with most common FTP servers. For the
15 new network stack use lpxelinux.0. For the legacy stack use
17 * Rename the "ipappend" option to "sysappend" ("ipappend" is
18 still accepted as an alias) and make it available for all
19 derivatives. Add additional strings derived from the system
20 DMI/SMBIOS information if available.
21 * "sysappend" strings are also sent as http cookies, with the
22 prefix _Syslinux_ added, on all http transfers. This can be
23 overridden with the SENDCOOKIES configuration file command.
24 * poweroff.c32: A new module to power off a system via APM. It
25 replaces the poweroff COMBOOT module (Sebastian Herbszt).
26 * PXELINUX: Fix booting with DHCP options 209 and 210 which was
28 * Handle loading kernel images with no protected mode code. A
29 legitimate kernel image can consist solely of real-mode code.
30 The support for booting such images was broken in 5.00 (Josh Triplett).
31 * Fix a regression in the .psf font file loader introduced
35 * txt/: A new AsciiDoc documentation set (work-in-progress)
37 * core: Fix a bug in the realloc() implementation that caused
38 machines to appear to run out of free memory.
39 * ldlinux: Fix multiple buffer overflows in cmdline parsing
40 code that resulted in files failing to run and cmdlines
42 * core: Fix debug build by tagging __bad_SEG() with __export.
43 * com32: Restrict library filenames to 8.3 format.
44 * EXTLINUX: Fix installation and subdirectory patching.
45 * ISOLINUX: Fix booting isohybrid images that are over 32K.
46 * com32: Strip modules to reduce their size.
47 * XFS: Implement directory block cache and fix
48 shortform-directory lookup (Paulo Alcantara).
51 * com32: Switched from the COM32 object format to ELF as it is
52 a much more powerful format that allows undefined symbols to
53 be resolved at runtime and dynamic loading of module
54 dependencies, which means modules now become shared object
55 files instead of statically linked binaries - reducing both
56 disk space and runtime memory consumption.
57 * core: Split non-core functionality into ldlinux.c32, which
58 is an ELF module loaded by the core that contains everything
59 the core doesn't require to boot the system, e.g. config
60 parser, command-line interface, etc.
61 * Replaced __intcall() calls with direct function calls now
62 that we can resolve undefined symbols at runtime, thanks to
63 the ELF object support. Now that we no longer need to go
64 through the 16-bit interrupt mechanism we can make full use
65 of the 32-bit execution environment. This change required
66 reimplementing lots of the 16-bit assembly code from core/
68 * com32: __com32.cs_bounce is gone now we always run in a
69 32-bit environment once we execute ldlinux.c32.
70 * ldlinux: A new "PATH" directive was added to the ldlinux.c32
71 config parser that specifies a colon-separated list of
72 directories to search when attempting to load modules.
73 * ALL: Delete all references to/code for 16-bit COMBOOT files.
74 COMBOOT files (.cbt and .com) are no longer supported under
78 * Support for NTFS, by Paulo Alcantara.
79 * EXTLINUX: more robust device detection, allow user to override.
80 * kontron_wdt.c32: Add a new module to enable the hardware
81 watchdog of some Kontron boards. It allows enabling the watchdog
82 and then booting a given image.
83 * HDT updated, and now can display images regarding some detection
84 steps. Add postexec command to run a particular entry after
85 HDT's execution, add silent option and various fixes.
86 * ifcpu.c32: Detect hypervisor presence.
87 * lua.c32: Add dhcp support and support for native Syslinux
88 functions syslinux_config(), syslinux_ipappend_strings() and
90 * isohybrid: Workaround for various EFI systems.
91 * pxechn.c32, a PXE NBP chainloader. More versatile alternative
92 to pxechain.com and resolves the PXELINUX -> WDS issue with
93 Microsoft Windows Server 2008R2 (Gene Cumm).
94 * btrfs: Fix booting off of a subvolume.
95 * com32: Add device tree support.
96 * SYSLINUX: Fix relative paths for VFAT. The CONFIG and APPEND
97 directives now support entirely relative paths.
100 * HDT updated, and now supports uploading data to a TFTP
102 * ISOLINUX: remove the .img file support; it has been broken
103 on virtually all systems since the beginning, and has been
104 totally broken since 4.00 at least. Use MEMDISK instead.
105 * chain.c32: Support chaining ReactOS' FreeLdr (Shao Miller)
106 * isohybrid: -m option to add support for Mac EFI booting.
107 * ifmemdsk.c32: Choose boot option based on presence of
109 * Remove bogus distributed mk-lba-img binary.
110 * The Syslinux project has a new, cool logo by Abi
111 "ixxvil" Rasheed (doc/logo/*).
114 * PXELINUX: Fix handling of unqualified DNS names.
115 * PXELINUX: Fix timer bug when PXELINUX might be unloaded
117 * core/writedec.inc: Fix duplicate declaration and overflow
120 * sample directory: Fix Makefile include (Gene Cumm).
121 * ver.com: New universal DOS/COMBOOT application to display
122 version information (includes DRMK) (Gene Cumm).
123 * rosh.c32: updated; Using getopt() for internal commands to aid
124 parsing options; Fix bugs in ls; add warm reboot and echo
126 * com32: fix a file descriptor leak.
127 * gfxboot.c32: handle TEXT..ENDTEXT; error out on no LABELs
128 found (Sebastian Herbszt).
129 * Fix booting on non-partitioned devices.
130 * MBR, isohybrid: Workaround for a BIOS issue on Acer
131 Travelmate and possibly other machines.
132 * COM32: Adding ACPI parsing libary
133 * HDT: Release 0.4.1 to support ACPI parsing,
134 improved mutli-core/cpu reporting
135 * LUA: Updating to 5.1.4-2
136 * SYSLINUX: core/diskstart.inc: Reset DS after checksum in case
137 it isn't 0 (Gene Cumm).
138 * win64: Script update for additional mingw compiler names
140 * diag: New directory for diagnostic-related tools. Add a
141 handoff MBR/VBR and geometry display images (Gene Cumm).
142 * MEMDISK: use "mem=" parameter to mark available memory above
143 this point as reserved (core already does alignment) (Gene Cumm).
144 * MEMDISK: Additional disk probe checks and debug output
145 (Shao Miller, Gene Cumm).
146 * gpxe: add gpxelinuxk.0, based off of undionly.kpxe + new
148 * isohybrid: install the isohdpfx*.bin/isohdppx*.bin files to
149 make isohybrid images in one step with GNU xorriso.
150 * PXELINUX: disable a hack that would make localboot work on
151 some machines, but break just about as many. Some machines
152 which worked with "localboot 0" in previous versions may
153 need "localboot -1" in this one. If you have a machine
154 which requires "localboot -1", a copy of the dmidecode
155 or sysdump output would be appreciated.
156 * Include a set of diagnostics by Gene Cumm.
157 * Fixes for gcc 4.6 and binutils 2.21.51.
158 * chain.c32: Allow "uuid" as a synonym to "guid".
159 * Handle directory names starting with .. for vfat and
161 * New MENU HIDDENKEY command to provide a one-keystroke way to
162 activate a boot option from a hidden menu intro screen.
165 * Don't hang if no configuration file is found.
166 * Better support for booting from MBRs which don't pass
167 handover information.
168 * EXTLINUX: Try to be smarter about finding the partition
170 * chain.c32: support chainloading Dell Real Mode Kernel (Gene
172 * chain.c32: fix booting in CHS mode.
173 * rosh.c32 updated (Gene Cumm).
174 * Fix the -s option to the syslinux/extlinux installer (Arwin
176 * isohybrid: fix padding of large images (PJ Pandit).
179 * SYSLINUX: correctly handle the case where the -d option is
180 specified with a non-absolute path, i.e. "syslinux -d
181 syslinux" instead of "syslinux -d /syslinux".
182 * ISOLINUX: recognize the directory names /boot/syslinux and
183 /syslinux, and the filename syslinux.cfg in addition to the
184 isolinux-specific names. Thus, "syslinux.cfg" is now a
185 generic name, whereas "isolinux.cfg" or "extlinux.conf" is
186 specific to different derivative.
187 * chain.c32: support setting alternate config filename for
188 stage2 of GRUB Legacy (Gert Hulselmans).
189 * whichsys.c32: execute specific command, based on Syslinux
190 bootloader variant (Gert Hulselmans).
191 * lua.c32: a lot of new bindings added to the "syslinux"
192 namespace: VESA, PCI, DMI, kernel loading (Marcel Ritter).
193 * btrfs: print a comprehensive error message if compressed or
194 encrypted files are encountered (neither is currently
196 * SYSLINUX: mtools installer: honor TMPDIR, error out on disk
198 * Handle fallbacks from EDD to CHS, to deal with systems which
199 announce EDD support but don't actually have it.
200 * SYSLINUX: the mtools, DOS and win32 installers now use the new
201 command line options.
202 * PXELINUX: fix the use of IP addresses in TFTP :: or tftp://
204 * SYSLINUX: experimental Win64 installer (syslinux64.exe).
207 * ISOLINUX: fix initialization on systems which don't zero
209 * SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX: fix handing of disk read retries in
211 * ISOLINUX: change the initialization sequence to avoid
212 problems with certain (old) BIOSes. Special thanks to
213 Helmut Hullen for invaluable debugging support.
214 * ifplop.c32: new module which detects if the PLoP Boot Loader
215 already has booted a CDROM or USB drive (Gert Hulselmans).
216 * Correct a severe memory overwrite bug, triggered primarily
217 when selecting a very long command line in the menu system.
218 * lua.c32: Lua script interpreter, currently experimental
219 (Alexey Zaytsev, Marcel Ritter, Geert Stappers).
220 * PXELINUX: new option IPAPPEND 4 to append the system UUID to
221 the kernel command line.
222 * PXELINUX: display BOOTIF and SYSUUID at startup time, and
223 when Ctrl-N is pressed on the command line.
226 * Major code base changes; all filesystem rewritten in C.
227 This work was done primarily by Liu Aleaxander (Yuanhan Liu).
228 * EXTLINUX: btrfs and ext4 support. btrfs support was done by
230 * EXTLINUX is no longer a separate derivative; extlinux and
231 syslinux both install the same loader (ldlinux.sys); for the
232 Linux-based installers the extlinux binary is used for a
233 mounted filesystem; the syslinux binary for an unmounted
235 * When loading a new configuration file with the CONFIG
236 command, one can now also specify a new current directory
237 with an APPEND statement.
238 * Full ADV support for Syslinux, to boot-once and MENU SAVE
240 * Full support of GPT-partitioned disks, including disks
241 and/or parititions larger than 2 TiB (if supported by BIOS.)
242 * The GPT handover protocol adjusted to the current T13
243 committee draft; see doc/gpt.txt.
244 * HDT: code cleanup, small bugfixes
245 * The "linux" syslinux installer (syslinux-nomtools) now has a
246 command-line syntax closer to the extlinux installer. The
247 mtools, dos and win32 installers will get this new syntax
248 eventually, but it is not implemented yet.
249 * chain.c32: support booting GPT partitions by index, GUID, label.
250 * chain.c32: support booting the Syslinux partition with "fs".
251 * chain.c32: implement gpt.txt hand-over protocol.
252 * chain.c32: support for chainloading Grub stage 2.
253 * PXELINUX: TFTP URL syntax (tftp://) supported even when not
254 running gPXE/gpxelinux.
255 * New ls.c32 module to display the contents of the disk from
256 the command line, and pwd.c32 to display the current
258 * rosh.c32 (read only shell) updated and hopefully usable.
259 * PXELINUX: Support "localboot -1", just like the other
261 * gfxboot.com removed in favor of gfxboot.c32.
262 * New MENU HELP statement to display fullscreen help text as a
263 result of a menu selection.
264 * memdiskfind utility that can be used with the phram driver
265 in the Linux kernel to mount a memdisk.
266 * ifcpu.c32: Adding usage when no parameters are given,
268 * ifcpu.c32, ifcpu64.c32: handle more than one argument per
270 * isohybrid: C version which does not require Perl.
271 * New command MENU IMMEDIATE to permit hotkeys to activate
272 immediately without needing Enter.
273 * mdiskchk.com supports a --no-sequential (or -n) option to
274 suppress the classic all-drive-probing heuristic. Useful
275 on BIOSes who crash/hang when certain drive numbers are
277 * ElTorito.Sys DOS driver now scans drive numbers upwards
278 instead of downwards, in order to avoid a fairly common
279 bug on some BIOSes where probing drive 0xFF causes a
281 * NASM 2.03 or later required to build. 2.07 or later
285 * chain.c32: fix chainloading the MBR of a hard disk (broken
287 * mboot.c32: report the boot loader name in the information
289 * com32: set argv[0] in a com32 module.
290 * core: add a workaround for a bug in Xen HVM older than
291 version 3.3: disable halt on those platforms.
292 * Fix problems where certain operations in com32 modules would
293 cause the core to believe the system was idle.
294 * MEMDISK: fix MBR detection when used with a DOSEMU header or
296 * MEMDISK: generate the mBFT checksum correctly.
299 * gPXELINUX: updated to gPXE 1.0.0. gPXELINUX can now do NBP
300 chainloading, and does not require a second DHCP.
301 * vesamenu.c32: unbreak the default "grey hole" background.
302 * We no longer have a built-in default of "linux auto".
303 Instead, if no DEFAULT or UI statement is found, or the
304 configuration file is missing entirely, we drop to the boot:
305 prompt with an error message (if NOESCAPE is set, we stop
306 with a "boot failed" message; this is also the case for
307 PXELINUX if the configuration file is not found.)
308 * chain.c32: support chainloading Grub4DOS; patch by Gert
310 * New tool: sysdump.c32, can be used to produce system
311 information for debugging via tftp or ymodem (serial port).
312 * "vga=current" on the Linux command line is now supported.
313 * chain.c32: support for Windows Recovery Console, via the
315 * chain.c32: should now support loading NTLDR from different
316 type media than loaded from.
317 * chain.c32: support chainloading to a FAT/NTFS partition with
318 invalid "hidden sectors" via the "sethidden" option.
319 * memdisk: fix the mBFT ACPI table.
320 * vesamenu.c32: if the image is smaller than the screen, tile
321 it across the whole screen.
322 * mkdiskimage: -s option for producing a sparse image.
323 * vesamenu.c32: support arbitrary resolution setting (beyond
324 BIOS support) on some Intel-based video chipsets. This code
325 is a modified version of the "915resolution" tool by
326 Steve Tomljenovic; your mileage might vary.
329 * SYSLINUX: make the DOS installer work for MS-DOS 7.x/8.x
331 * HDT: updated to version 0.3.6 (numerous changes.)
332 * mboot.c32: now supports video mode setting if requested by
334 * MEMDISK: Fix floppy images of PC-DOS.
335 * MEMDISK: Add support for emulation of CD-ROM images; patch
337 * MEMDISK: Comply with the Win9x "safe hook" standard,
338 allowing a protected-mode driver.
339 * MEMDISK: New "mBFT" ACPI table, by analogy with the iSCSI
340 iBFT table. This allows detection from a protected-mode
341 operating system without EDD support.
342 * 32-bit version of the gfxboot loader (gfxboot.c32), so far
343 experimental. This will replace gfxboot.com in the future.
344 * vesamenu.c32: new MENU RESOLUTION directive to set a screen
345 resolution other than 640x480.
346 * chain.c32: add support for loading isolinux.bin.
347 * chain.c32: make sure to always return to text mode.
348 * eltorito.sys: DOS driver for generic CD-ROMs; by Gary Tong
352 * PXELINUX: clear memory before handing over to a chainloaded
353 NBP. This may help avoid a bug in Windows RIS.
354 * PXELINUX: fix localboot after NBP chainloading on certain
355 BIOSes (including ASUS A8N-E, but possibly others.)
356 * chain.c32: support chainloaded bootloaders on ISOLINUX.
357 * PXELINUX: allow filenames up to 251 characters.
358 * MEMDISK: fix problems booting from USB on Thinkpads, and
359 possibly other machines or hardware combinations.
360 * isohybrid: fix the -id option.
361 * HDT: updated to version 0.3.4.
362 * MEMDISK: the stack size is now configurable, with the stack=
364 * Simple menu: fix Ctrl-W (word erase) in command-line edit.
365 * Simple menu: fix crash on some platforms.
366 * Gfxboot: fixes to the configuration file parsing.
367 * PXELINUX: add a tool to override specific DHCP options via
368 values hardcoded in the pxelinux.0 file. These hardcoded
369 values can be either "before DHCP" (defaults if DHCP do not
370 provide values), or "after DHCP" (overrides DHCP). The tool
371 pxelinux-options can be used to set these options. This
372 feature does not apply to gpxelinux.0; when used with gPXE
373 this is better handled by modifying the embedded script.
376 * isohybrid: fix the -partok logic for loading from a partition.
377 * ISOLINUX: deal with systems which return from INT 13h with
379 * Do not invoke the idle handler during large file loads.
380 * Simple menu: make ONTIMEOUT work with MENU HIDDEN.
381 * PXELINUX: handle TFTP servers which have extra NULs at the
382 end of an OACK packet.
385 * Shuffler: fix bug in real-mode entry. This affected a
386 number of modules, probably in relatively unimportant ways,
387 but it completely broke linux.c32.
388 * Improved performance.
389 * Attempt to halt the processor while idle. This can cause
390 bad reponsiveness when using a serial console especially for
391 automated input; if that ends up being a problem, use the
392 new "NOHALT 1" configuration command.
393 * linux.c32 now suppresses all messages if the "quiet" flag is
395 * isohybrid: add a variety of options, and a help message.
396 * ISOLINUX: fix booting in hybrid mode when CBIOS is used.
397 This unfortunately means that the isohybrid handoff protocol
398 has changed, so the isohybrid utility must version-match
400 * Drop support for ACPI 3 extended memory flags.
401 * Menu system: don't set the autocr flag on the serial
403 * altmbr: fix handling of logical partitions.
404 * altmbr: cap at 439 bytes so the partition select byte isn't
408 * New shuffler mechanism and API.
409 * Rewritten mboot.c32 module.
410 * The syslinux_boot_linux() function has been simplified.
411 * Don't hang trying to boot a "menu quit" label from the CLI.
412 * Fix problem with boot-once "sticking" on some BIOSes.
413 * isohybrid: fix problem with images over 2 GB in size.
414 * APM poweroff module (poweroff.com) by Sebastian Herbszt.
415 * ISOLINUX: fix the handling of large directories. Bug found
416 and fixed by Steffen Winterfeldt.
419 * PXELINUX: fix the "keeppxe" option, which was broken in
421 * MEMDISK: correct the extraction of geometry information from
422 the MBR of a hard disk image, again broken in 3.74.
423 * extlinux(1) man page from Brian Pellin.
424 * Simple menu: MENU SAVE is now controllable on a menu-by-menu
425 or entry-by-entry basis.
426 * gPXELINUX: fix interrupt-disabling bug.
427 * HDT: fix lockup on machines with certain PCI configurations.
430 * New UI directive, which allows a more natural way to specify
431 a menu system (or not.) With the UI directive specifying
432 the menu system, the DEFAULT directive can be used to select
433 the default entry inside the menus.
434 * kbdmap.c32: new module to load a new keyboard map
436 * isohybrid: workaround bug in some versions of binutils.
437 * Fix issue with the placement of the initrd on some machines.
438 * ifcpu64: fix handling of less than three arguments.
439 * Fix bug in the shuffle library when dealing with a very
440 large number of fragments.
441 * Documentation fixes by Vicente Jimenez Aguilar.
442 * gPXE updated to version 0.9.7.
443 * hdt.c32: Hardware Detection Tool, an interactive hardware
444 analyzer module by Erwan Velu.
445 * MEMDISK: enable automatic determination of the disk geometry
446 for a large floppy disk image if (and only if) it is
447 formatted with a FAT filesystem.
448 * SYSLINUX: fix the handling of .bss files on FAT12/16.
449 * Suppress the Loading ... message if "quiet" is specified on
450 the kernel command line.
451 * Fix the use of "CONSOLE 0" with menu.c32.
452 * Allow COM32 modules to be aware of all memory even in the
453 presence of a memory hole. The "linux.c32" module can be
454 used to load a kernel (or memdisk) plus large initrd on
456 * MBR: produce alternate MBR variants which force the drive
457 number to hd0 (_f variants), or force the drive number to
458 hd0 if the Ctrl key is pressed (_c variants.) Furthermore,
459 add an MBR variant (altmbr*.bin) which ignores the active
460 flag and instead boots the partition number specified in the
461 byte at offset 439 decimal.
462 * Add IPAPPEND strings to com32 modules, especially needed for
464 * New MENU SAVE directive which saves the latest menu
465 selection until the next boot. Currently only implemented for
467 * gfxboot.com: *experimental* interface module to Steffen
468 Winterfeldt's "gfxboot" graphical front end
469 (http://gfxboot.sourceforge.net/). Module by Sebastian Herbszt.
472 * Upgrade gPXE to release version 0.9.5.
473 * Fix a number of build errors on various platforms.
474 * Handle systems with E820 "extended attributes" per ACPI 3.
475 Someone "cleverly" decided to change the E820 spec in a
476 backwards-incompatible manner!
477 * MEMDISK: default to "safeint".
478 * Adopt the moniker "The Syslinux Project", standard proper
479 noun capitalization, to refer to the project as a whole.
480 Thus, reserve the all-caps "SYSLINUX" to refer to the FAT
482 * mboot.c32: add "-solaris" option to pass DHCP information to
483 the Solaris kernel; required for automatic Solaris boot
484 without using Solaris' pxeboot program.
485 * config.c32: trivial COM32 module to restart Syslinux with
486 another configuration file from the command line (equivalent
487 to the CONFIG command in the configuratin file.)
490 * Include the pxechain.com module from Jeffery Hutzelman at
491 Carnegie Mellon University. This allows chaining another
492 PXE boot program while changing the DHCP packet passed to
494 * Reorganize the Makefile system.
495 * Major PCI core cleanups and other source cleanup.
497 * Try to avoid memory-snooping attacks on passwords. Note
498 that if someone has root on the box, they generally don't
499 need to compromise the boot loader...
500 * ISOLINUX: fix crash when given a zero-length file.
501 * sdi.c32: support gzipped SDI images.
502 * ISOLINUX: support generating images which can be either
503 a CD-ROM or a hard disk (USB disk, etc.) See
504 doc/isolinux.txt for more information.
505 * Remote gdb support for COM32 modules; patch from Stefan
507 * Support beeps in F-key help in the simple menu system.
508 * Tab display of labels, based on a patch from Sebastian
509 Herbszt. Can be disabled with the NOCOMPLETE configuration
511 * "menu default" can now be specified after "menu begin", to
512 indicate that a specific submenu should be the default entry.
515 * Workaround for a VESA BIOS which tries to make DOS system
517 * Simple menu: fix navigation around disabled entries
518 (or at least try to...)
519 * EXTLINUX: proper error message when confused about mount
521 * MEMDISK: be smarter about incompletely disabled floppies in
522 the BIOS and about being the only floppy.
523 * Optionally allow initrd to be specified on a separate line
524 rather than as part of the "append" line. This is not
525 recommended, but apparently makes life easier for some
527 * SYSLINUX: if no config file is present, set the current
528 directory to the root directory (Sebastian Herbszt).
529 * chain.c32: option "hide" to support hiding and unhiding of
530 primary partitions on the boot drive with DOS, Win, or OS/2
531 partition types (01, 04, 06, 07, 0b, 0c, 0e).
532 * Unbreak the KBDMAP command (broken in 3.70).
533 * EXTLINUX: fix the handling of the ADV when using CBIOS.
534 * ifcpu64.c32: simple COM32 module to select a 32- or 64-bit
535 kernel (and optionally 32-bit kernels with or without PAE.)
536 Eventually we want a scripting language for this
537 kind of stuff; a Lua module is under development.
538 * Fix parsing of the SERIAL command without a baud rate
540 * chain.c32: error out when try to boot an unbootable
542 * SYSLINUX: when building the Win32 installer, search for
543 MinGW under a large number of possible names.
546 * PXELINUX: Support enhanced capabilities when running on top
547 of gPXE (http://www.etherboot.org/). In particular, support
548 URL-style syntax for filenames, and any protocol that gPXE
549 supports (except, currently, iSCSI and AoE.) This feature
550 is currently highly experimental.
551 * Substantial infrastructure changes to support files whose
552 length aren't known at open time (typically network
553 connections.) Please note that the semantics of some of the
554 comboot APIs have changed slightly; please see doc/comboot.txt.
555 * PXELINUX: We no longer require a TFTP server which supports
556 the tsize option for all transfers.
557 * PXELINUX: Integrate with the gPXE source base; unified image
558 now included as "gpxelinux.0".
559 * The source tree has been restructured; files that were
560 previously in the root have moved into the core, dos, gpxe,
561 and utils directories.
562 * "make install", "make netinstall", and "make extbootinstall"
563 have been updated massively. "make install-all" now installs
565 * Change default dir for auxiliary files from
566 /usr/lib/syslinux to /usr/share/syslinux.
567 * SYSLINUX: VFAT long filename support.
568 * MEMDISK: Any image less than 4096K (4 MB) is treated as a
569 floppy disk. The geometry-guessing code will recognize all
570 common extended formats, but it is still possible some very
571 exotic formats need geometry specification. Large floppies
572 and very small harddisks still need explicit specification.
573 * chain.c32: option "swap" to support swapping of BIOS drive
574 numbers. This is necessary to boot certain operating systems
575 (DOS, Windows) from a secondary drive.
576 * chain.c32: option "file=" to support loading a boot file from
577 the SYSLINUX filesystem instead of loading the boot sector
579 * chain.c32: option "seg=" to control the load location.
580 * chain.c32: option "ntldr=" as a shorthand for "seg=0x2000
581 file="; use this to load one of WinNT's loaders:
583 chain.c32 hd0 1 ntldr=/MiniNT/setupldr.bin
585 Note that the file needs to be in the SYSLINUX filesystem.
586 * chain.32: options "freedos=" and "msdos="/"pcdos=" as
587 shorthands for "seg=0x60 file=" and "seg=0x70 file="
588 respectively; use this to load FreeDOS's kernel.sys, MS-DOS's
589 io.sys or PC-DOS's ibmbio.sys.
590 * Change to the A20 algorithm which *MIGHT* help systems that
591 have systems which freeze when Syslinux is used with USB
592 keyboards. Note that this has been hard do verify, so I
593 would greatly appreciate feedback on it.
594 * Complex menu system: unbreak menus which has unnamed
595 submenus, like complex.c.
596 * Fix newline on the serial port for some com32 modules.
597 * chain.c32: support "boot" as the drive specification,
598 indicating the drive from which it was booted
599 (for syslinux/extlinux).
600 * SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX: support "localboot" with the same feature
602 * Add an experimental MBR for GPT partition tables.
603 * Use $(CC) when determining compile flags.
604 * chain.c32: fix booting from logical partitions (Sergey
608 * Fix errors in the PCI and DMI detection modules (Erwan Velu,
610 * Fix host dependencies and other issues in the build system.
611 * PXELINUX: Allow class E addresses as unicast.
612 * sdi.c32: module to load Microsoft System Deployment Images.
613 For additional information, please see:
614 http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms838543.aspx
615 * EXTLINUX: Correct reading directories with deleted entries.
616 * Shuffle library: correct the handling of certain geometries
617 (an upward move with source material blocking the move); as
618 required by sdi.c32 but theoretically possible for other
620 * Add "make netinstall" to install /tftpboot.
621 * Fix some documentation files that didn't get moved/renamed.
624 * Clean up garbage after "aborted." message.
625 * Clean up memdump.com filenames.
626 * Support SHA256 and SHA512 encrypted passwords.
627 * The shuffle library now can generate chained descriptors,
628 thus allowing pretty much arbitrarily complex memory maps.
629 * Handle command lines up to 2047 characters, the current
631 * vesamenu: support systems without linear framebuffer support
632 (sigh, what is this, 1993?) and 15-bit RGB modes.
633 * Move the label storage (for the command-line interface) to
634 high memory, removing the size limit and freeing up 64K of
636 * Get rid of 4096-entry limit in the simple menu system.
637 * New hierarchial submenu support: see MENU BEGIN, MENU END,
638 MENU GOTO in doc/menu.txt.
639 * MENU QUIT allows creating a menu entry for returning to the
641 * ISOLINUX: Work around bug in certain Adaptec BIOSes,
642 patch by Bruce Robson.
643 * pngtopnm dependency removed from samples/ directory.
644 * Text documentation files (in doc/) renamed *.doc -> *.txt.
647 * EXTLINUX: fix crash when accessing an empty file.
648 * elf.c32: If a PHDR segment is present, load it.
649 * Fix SHA-1 and MD5 passwords.
650 * ISOLINUX: fix booting when mastered without
651 mkisofs -boot-info-table (broken since 3.50, sigh...)
652 * Handle BIOSes which emit multiple contiguous valid
653 memory regions in the e820 map.
656 * Support for "auxilliary data vector", a small amount of
657 writable storage. Currently only supported for EXTLINUX,
658 but the infrastructure is there for the other derivatives,
659 assuming a suitable storage location can be found.
660 * EXTLINUX: boot-once support (--once, --clear-once, and
662 * A command is now required to the EXTLINUX installer, i.e. at
663 least one of --install, --update, --once, --clear-once, or
667 * PXELINUX: as per RFC 5071, PXELINUX no longer requires the
668 use of the magic cookie option (208) for unencapsulated
669 options. Currently it does not require it for
670 vendor-encapsulated options (vendor-option-space) either,
671 but that MAY be reverted in the future if it causes
673 * Documentation text files moved to a common "doc" directory;
674 man pages from the Debian project added to the "man"
676 * Correct bug with self-overlapping memory areas when using
677 the shuffle interface.
680 * Add "menu separator", "menu indent", "menu disabled"
682 * vesamenu: fix handing of VESA modes with noncontiguous
683 memory buffers. In particular, Qemu/KVM sets up such a mode
684 when Cirrus Logic emulation is enabled (which is the
686 * Support for calling real mode functions using far calls,
687 with argument on the stack. This was implemented to support
688 the BIOS BBS specification, but subsequent experiments show
689 that the at least one of the most common BIOS cores, Award,
690 passes the presence check but doesn't actually implement the
694 * Fix bugs related to the $PnP BIOS functionality on some
696 * PXELINUX: Fix the "naked" version of :: (suppress prefix.)
697 * elf.c32: better error messages.
698 * Faster operation under Intel VT virtualization.
699 * PXELINUX: Fix DHCP bootfile option.
700 * mkdiskimage: Support more than 1024 cylinders.
701 * (Hopefully) fix installer on non-x86 platforms.
702 * Fix shuffle_and_boot_rm, used by linux.c32.
703 * Fix shuffle_and_boot_pm on 386/486.
704 * ISOLINUX (at least): fix bss memory overwrite hang.
705 * MBR: Fix booting from logical partitions.
709 * Handle capitalized F-key commands in the menu system.
710 * Fix padding error when loading multiple ramdisks.
711 * Workaround for VMware crashing when trying to print a
712 message during early kernel boot (does not seem to work,
714 * chain.c32: add the ability to search for a specific MBR
715 signature at runtime.
716 * Fall back to the server identity option if the siaddr field
717 in the DHCP header isn't set. This seems to match the
718 behaviour of most PXE stacks.
719 * mkdiskimage: give the generated disk image an MBR signature.
720 * MEMDISK: Fix failures on some BIOSes.
721 * Simple menu system: new "MENU HIDDEN" option to not display
722 the menu unless the user presses a key.
723 * Simple menu system: support MD5-encrypted passwords (modern
724 Unix standard style, with "$1$" prefixes.)
725 * pcitest.c32: now functions as a full "lspci". Thanks to
726 Erwan Velu for this work.
727 * MEMDISK: Make EDD actually work.
728 * ISOLINUX: Fix for certain broken CD-ROM BIOSes which
729 randomly corrupted register FS.
730 * Simple menu system: fix memory overwrite bug that caused
731 some systems to lock up or behave weirdly.
732 * Fix building on 64-bit systems without a 32-bit libc installed.
735 * EXTLINUX: Fix failure to find the configuration file.
738 * New keywords allow the type of file to be specified in the
740 * It is now supported to load a different configuration file
741 with the CONFIG keyword.
742 * Fix API call 0x0019 (Read Disk.)
743 * MENU AUTOBOOT, MENU TABMSG, MENU PASSPROMPT allows
744 internationalization of menu messages.
745 * A new feature, TEXT HELP, allows the administrator to set
746 a multi-line help message for individual selections.
747 * Fix API call 0x0012 (Cleanup, shuffle and boot.)
748 * New API call "Cleanup, shuffle and boot to flat protected mode"
749 * New API call "Cleanup, shuffle and boot to real mode",
750 similar to API call 0x0012 but allows arbitrary register setting.
751 * Introduce a library interface for loading arbitrary binary
752 formats with relatively easily understood code. See
753 the elf.c32 module for an example on how to use it.
754 * New module "elf.c32", to load a protected-mode ELF kernel.
755 * MBR (old and new): Fix bug in CHS mode when LBA >
757 * vesamenu: fix decoding of palettized PNG images.
758 * Update the Linux kernel boot protocol.
759 * PXELINUX: Press Ctrl-N at the boot prompt to read out the
761 * Instead of the (non-existent) MAC, use the client identifier
762 for networks like Infiniband and Firewire/1394.
763 * Add a new INCLUDE command to the core syslinux parser.
764 * Allow binding help text to F11 and F12.
765 * F-key help now available in the simple menu system.
766 * Disabled the polling for ARP during idle. It is simply too
767 slow on some (broken!) PXE stacks.
768 * PXELINUX: also try to fetch the config file based on UUID.
769 * SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX: New RAID mode (-r) which calls the BIOS
770 to load the next device (typically the next drive) on boot
774 * MEMDISK: Disable EDD by default on floppy disks. EDD can be
775 enabled with the "edd" option and disabled with "noedd".
776 This (hopefully) should make Ghost work again.
777 * SYSLINUX: "unix" installer now uses Linux ioctls instead of
779 * New MBR which can boot from logical partitions.
780 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in detecting special extensions which was
781 introduced in 3.35 :(
782 * PXELINUX: Unbreak chainbooting FreeBSD (and possibly others.)
785 * MEMDISK: New "safeint" mode.
786 * MEMDISK: Be more compliant with the PnP BIOS spec.
787 * MEMDISK: Turn on EDD support by default.
788 * MEMDISK: Try to work on some machines on which it would not
789 work when there was no floppy drive in the system.
790 * Simple menu system: fix serial console support (broken in
792 * SYSLINUX: Support subdirectories. Like ISOLINUX, the
793 "current directory" is the directory in which syslinux.cfg
794 is found; this is searched for in the sequence
795 /boot/syslinux, /syslinux, /. As a side benefit, label names
796 like "linux-2.6.18" and "linux-2.6.19" are now supported.
798 To install ldlinux.sys in a subdirectory, pass the -d
799 directory option to the SYSLINUX installer.
801 This work was sponsored by slax.org (thanks, Tomas!)
802 * New API call: read disk.
803 * Invoke ONERROR on initrd load failure.
806 * The simple menu system (menu.c32 and vesamenu.c32) now
807 support loading more than one configuration file at a time,
808 using MENU INCLUDE or by specifying multiple filenames.
809 * The MENU COLOR statement can now control the shadowing mode.
812 * libcom32 extended to support graphics mode and graphical console.
813 * vesamenu.c32, new graphical version of the Simple
814 Menu System, see README.menu.
815 * New com32 modules by Erwan Velu do selection based on CPUID
816 or PCI devices present.
817 * RPM spec: add syslinux-tftpboot module; move syslinux by
818 default to the /usr/share/syslinux directory.
819 * RPM spec: extlinux is now a separate package.
822 * EXTLINUX: New options --install (-i) and --update (-U), to
823 make it clear if a boot loader should be installed or
824 updated. For now, defaults to --install for compatibility;
825 a future version will require one of these options.
826 * New library functions to load and place files in memory.
827 * mboot.c32 bug fixes.
828 * Remove 8 MB kernel size restriction.
829 * Add "klibc" target for building unix/syslinux and
830 extlinux/extlinux with klcc (klibc-1.4.27 or later.)
831 * PXELINUX: Fail (and eventually reboot) if no configuration
833 * COM32 module by Erwan Velu to make decisions based on DMI
835 * Fix issue where going back and forth between menus a lot
837 * ISOLINUX: Fix bug which made "cd boot sectors" not work.
840 * MEMDISK: Fix bug by which accessing the real floppy disk
841 as B: in MS-DOS was broken.
842 * Simple menu system: allow tweaking of the screen layout.
843 * Simple menu system: better command-line editing, correctly
844 handle command lines above 256 characters.
845 * PXELINUX: revert memory allocation change that caused
846 problems on some network cards.
847 * MEMDISK: Try work around a bug on some BIOSes when no
848 physical floppy disk is present in the system.
849 * Enable the 16550A FIFOs, if present, when doing serial
851 * New "totaltimeout" command establishes a timeout without
852 regard for any user input.
853 * Simple menu system: timeout behaviour now more in line with
855 * Simple menu system: "ontimeout" should now work correctly.
858 * gcc 4.0.1 compilation fixes.
859 * Add support for querying the PCI BIOS in libcom32
860 (used by ethersel et al.)
861 * Fix PCI handing (ethersel etc) on several old chipsets (and
863 * Try to deal with systems with broken EBIOS.
864 * New API call to do "localboot".
865 * New API call to query features.
866 * New API call to run kernel image, a lower-level call than
867 "run command". See comboot.doc.
868 * Fix for bug in EBIOS code discovered by Arwin Vosselman.
869 * NOESCAPE security fix.
870 * Comments are now recognized even without a space following #.
871 * Fix incorrect handling of mixes of entries with and without
873 * The idle API call now harmlessly returns failure if it is a
874 no-op. That way the caller can decide whether or not to
875 bother invoking it again.
876 * Temporarily disable the idle API call on PXELINUX, due to
877 some platforms on which the idle API call seems to hang; this
878 problem has not yet been debugged.
879 * MEMDISK: the handling of DOSEMU-headered images was broken;
881 * EXTLINUX: symlinks are now supported.
882 * Simple menu system: N and P now work correctly as hotkeys.
883 * MEMDISK: more BIOS bug workarounds.
886 * gcc4 compilation fix.
887 * <BEL> (Ctrl-G) in message files now causes a beep.
888 * Reduce the command line to 511 characters; 1023 caused
892 * SYSLINUX: Fix performance regression (-s mode always
894 * Add API function for idle loop.
895 * libutil: Add do_idle() function for idle loop, make
897 * libutil: Add SHA-1 and base64 functions.
898 * Simple menu system: add password support.
899 * EXTLINUX: Sparse files now handled correctly.
900 * EXTLINUX: Large directories now handled correctly.
901 * ALL: At the prompt, Ctrl-X now forces text mode.
902 * Fix configuration file parsing error, that could cause
904 * Rewritten advanced menuing system from Murali Ganapathy.
905 * MEMDISK: New "bigraw" mode to work around certain broken
907 * COM32 module to boot Multiboot systems, including Xen. See
908 com32/modules/mboot.doc.
909 * Max command line changed to 1023 characters. Note that the
910 kernel proper still can only handle 255 characters without
911 patching, and COM16 binaries can only handle 125 characters.
914 * Fix chainloading (chain.c32).
915 * Fix zlib build problem.
916 * Use a private copy of <linux/ext2_fs.h>.
919 * Fix typo that caused the ramdisk to load in the wrong place.
922 * New API function "shuffle and boot"; allows COM32 modules to
923 load or construct (almost) arbitrarily complex objects,
924 e.g. a kernel and its initrd/initramfs in pieces, and have
925 the API core reorganize memory for booting. (A library API
926 for this function will be introduced in a later version.)
927 * The initrd= option now supports multiple filenames separated
928 by commas. This is mostly useful for initramfs, which can
929 be composed of multiple separate cpio or cpio.gz archives.
930 (Note: all files except the last one are zero-padded to a 4K
931 page boundary. This should not affect initramfs.)
932 * EXTLINUX: Fix API function 000Ah (get derivative-specific
934 * libcom32/ethersel: Support PCI Config Mechanism #2 on
935 machines still infested with that hideous old hack.
936 * SYSLINUX: Fix directory-parsing bug.
939 * SYSLINUX: The "unix" installer now sets the MS-DOS
940 attributes (hidden, system, readonly.)
941 * COM32 library: build the .lnx (test modules for running
942 under Linux) as architecture native modules, in case
943 i386 devel libraries aren't installed.
944 * EXTLINUX: Hack for systems which don't have BLKGETSIZE64
945 defined in the standard header files.
946 * Simple menu system: minor aestetic improvements, and try to
947 work better over a serial console (speed, and readability on
948 monochrome terminal emulators.)
949 * New CONSOLE directive to control output on the video console
950 (useful for dealing with some broken serial-forwarding
952 * New com32 module "ethersel" for searching for an Ethernet
953 card and selecting the proper version of Etherboot.
954 * EXTLINUX: Allow the user to override the detected geometry.
958 * EXTLINUX, SYSLINUX: Fix compile errors on some systems.
959 * EXTLINUX: Default to zipdrive geometry (64 heads, 32
960 sectors) if no other geometry can be detected.
963 * SYSLINUX: Support FAT32 and EDD. As an unfortunate
964 consequence, LDLINUX.SYS is no longer an ordinary file; it
965 is block-mapped at install time, which means it can only be
966 written using the syslinux installers.
967 * SYSLINUX: Reorganize the source code for the installers;
968 each one of the installers (dos, win32, unix, mtools) is now
969 built in its own subdirectory. In particular, "mtools" is
970 the unprivileged installer which uses mtools; "unix" is the
971 privileged installer which uses system calls.
972 * SYSLINUX: Completely rewritten DOS installer in C.
973 * ALL: "label" statement information is now stored in a
974 compressed format, which means that a lot more labels are
975 permitted (500-1000 in a typical configuration, but depends
977 * EXTLINUX: New derivative, which boots from an ext2/ext3
979 * SYSLINUX: The DOS and Win32 installers can now optionally
980 write the boot sector to a file instead of the real boot
981 sector. This is not supported in the Linux installers,
983 * ALL: New NOESCAPE command, disables the "hold down the Shift
984 key to display the prompt" behaviour.
985 * New simple menu system, as an alternative to the advanced
986 menu system already present. See README.menu for details.
987 * PXELINUX: Filenames can now be prefixed with an IP address
988 or DNS name plus :: (e.g. 192.0.2.1::filename or
989 server.domain.com::filename), which downloads a file from an
990 alternate TFTP server, or just a :: (e.g. ::filename), which
991 suppresses the common pathname prefix. See pxelinux.doc.
992 * SYSLINUX: Add an -m option to the DOS and Win32 installers
993 to write an MBR and -a to mark the partition SYSLINUX is
994 being installed on active.
995 * MEMDISK: Give a way to query the boot loader type while
996 running MEMDISK; see memdisk/memdisk.doc and
998 * mkdiskimage: substantially improved mkdiskimage which, among
999 other things, can now be used to initialize USB keys as
1000 zipdrives; see README.usbkey for more information.
1003 * MEMDISK: Fix command-line parsing "brown paper bag" class
1005 * MEMDISK: Add "raw" mode to support the DOS boot disk from
1006 WinME/XP, which seems to deliberately crash the system
1007 when someone uses the "INT 15h mover" highmem API.
1008 * Make "make install" do something sane for the com32
1009 development environment.
1010 * In the spec file, create a separate -devel RPM for the com32
1011 development environment.
1014 * Simple C library, based on klibc, for writing COM32
1016 * Fix the handling of file length in loading of COM32
1018 * MEMDISK: Work around a linker bug by rearranging the code to
1019 not use the linker for the 16-bit code.
1020 * SYSLINUX: If we're building on a machine without a Win32
1021 (mingw) compiler, just skip building syslinux.exe.
1022 * ISOLINUX: Support non-mkisofs mastering programs, at least
1023 as long as the image is single-session. For best results,
1024 ISOLINUX should be the only boot loader installed.
1025 * MEMDISK: Allow the user to specify that the simulated disk
1026 should be write-protected.
1029 * ALL: Add an API call to get the configuration file name.
1030 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in 2.10 that prevented it from working
1031 correctly for a lot of people.
1032 * SYSLINUX: In the installer, make mtools a bit less fussy.
1033 * Make the menu system compile with newer gcc's.
1036 * MEMDISK: Handle images compressed with zip as well as with
1037 gzip. Some Windows-based image tools apparently generate
1038 these kinds of images by default. Patch by Patrick
1040 * Major menu improvement from Murali Ganapathy.
1041 * ISOLINUX: Wonderfully sick and brilliant workaround for
1042 severe bugs in certain Award BIOSes; from Knut Petersen.
1043 * SYSLINUX: Fix for the nomtools installed, from Frederic
1045 * PXELINUX: Fix handling of IP numbers in the ranges
1046 100-109 and 200-209.
1047 * ALL: New option "allowoptions" (defaults to 1), which
1048 controls if options are allowed on the command line or not.
1049 * SYSLINUX: Support building under klibc (see the klibc
1050 distribution for details.)
1053 * SYSLINUX: Remove residual setuid crap from
1055 * Handle video pages correctly when using the API functions.
1056 * Handle compiling on an x86-64 platform correctly.
1057 * Menu system from Murali Krishnan Ganapathy; see the menu
1058 directory for information.
1059 * COMBOOT: Allow COMBOOT programs to change screen text mode.
1060 * COMBOOT: Correct the documentation of how to detect
1061 SYSLINUX from COMBOOT!!!!
1062 * COMBOOT: Fix "get key without echo" API function.
1063 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug that affected the API open function.
1064 * ALL: Improve the E820 memory parser, to work around some
1068 * Add new configuration command "ontimeout" to allow timeout
1069 to have a different action than just pressing Enter.
1070 * Add new configuration command "onerror" to allow a custom
1071 command to be executed in case the kernel image is not found.
1072 * Fix bugs in the COMBOOT/COM32 command-line parsing. APPEND
1073 now works with COMBOOT/COM32 images.
1074 * PXELINUX: Poll for ARP requests while sitting at the
1075 prompt. This makes some boot servers a lot less unhappy.
1076 * PXELINUX: Actually free sockets when we get a failure
1077 (including file not found.) This bug would cause us to run
1078 out of sockets and thus "go deaf" after a while.
1079 * MEMDISK: Add an API to query for the existence of MEMDISK.
1080 * SYSLINUX: Fix loading boot sectors (.bs/.bss) from floppy
1082 * .c32 is now one of the extensions searched for
1084 * PXELINUX: RFBG.exe seems to randomly overwrite memory
1085 location 0x5700. Thus, don't use it!
1086 * PXELINUX: Change pathname length max from 63 to 127; change
1087 max vkernels from 128 to 64.
1088 * Support Ctrl-U -> kill entire command line input.
1089 * The "samples" directory contains a (barely at all tested)
1090 chain loading example, chain.c32, which may be used to
1091 chainload local floppy disks and hard disks. Use with
1092 "chain fdN" or "chain hdN [partition]"; N = 0 for the first
1096 * MEMDISK: Workaround for BIOSes which go into a snit when
1097 they get a RESET command for the floppy system when there is
1098 no floppy in the system.
1099 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend 2", which passes the hardware
1100 address of the boot interface to the kernel as a
1101 command-line option.
1102 * mkdiskimage: fix the generation of the end limit.
1103 * PXELINUX: Fix multiple bugs in chainloading of other NBPs.
1104 * MEMDISK: Fix bug that would occationally cause "ran out of
1105 input data" when using compressed disk images.
1106 * SYSLINUX: Updates for the win32 installer (from Lars Munch.)
1107 * PXELINUX: PXELINUX-specific options are now recognized both
1108 in a vendor-option-space (a.k.a. type 43 encapsulated) as
1109 well as in a site-option-space (unencapsulated.)
1110 * COM32: Don't crash when DS != 0.
1111 * COMBOOT/COM32: Make file reading work correctly. Thanks to
1112 Phung Chi Kien for submitting a test program.
1115 * ALL: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
1116 boot failure, depending on the length of the kernel.
1117 * ISOLINUX: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
1118 boot failure, depending on the length of directories.
1119 * SYSLINUX: Win32 installer now flushes buffers.
1120 * ppmtolss16: Be fully compliant with the PNM spec;
1121 actually process comments in the header and odd
1122 alignments of the various parameters, as well as
1123 "plain" (not raw) files and PBM and PGM files.
1124 * PXELINUX: Lower the default MTU to 1472 in order to deal
1125 with systems with slightly nonstandard MTUs, and PXE
1126 stacks which don't defragment correctly. Unfortunately this
1127 is very hard to test dynamically.
1130 * PXELINUX: Add a default query based on the hardware address
1131 of the boot device. This is in lower case hexadecimal form
1132 separated by dashes and including the hardware type, for
1133 example, the Ethernet (type 1) address 88:99:AA:BB:CC:DD
1134 would query the file pxelinux.cfg/01-88-99-aa-bb-cc-dd.
1135 * PXELINUX: Fix bug involving non-IP-based config file names.
1136 * SYSLINUX: New installer for WinNT-based systems, from Lars
1138 * MEMDISK: Fix handling of memory region overlap when
1139 decompressing. Thanks to Mikhail Kupchik for identifying
1143 * ALL: Reclaim even more low memory by observing that
1144 comboot_seg == real_mode_seg is perfectly fine, and by the
1145 fact that the 1000h segment managed to get unused in all
1147 * PXELINUX: Attempt to negotiate full Ethernet-sized blocks
1148 (1468 bytes) using the blksize option.
1149 * SYSLINUX: Resurrect the old no-mtools version of the
1150 installer, although as a root-only tool. Some distributors
1151 have indicated that they need a small standalone installer.
1152 * MEMDISK: Fix a memory offset computation error when
1153 installing compressed disks which generally would cause
1154 1 MB of memory to be wasted.
1155 * MEMDISK: Fix installing the E820 memory map. Calling
1156 INT 15h AX=0E820h with MEMDISK 2.03 loaded would give a
1157 completely corrupt memory map.
1158 * SYSLINUX: Make libsyslinux a dynamic library, so that it can
1159 be updated separately from client programs. The whole idea,
1160 after all, is to enable alternate programs to become
1161 syslinux installers.
1162 * Include an rpm spec file in the distribution, so rpmbuild
1166 * Actually support comment lines in the configuration file.
1167 * PXELINUX: Try to resolve some problems with stack switches.
1168 * PXELINUX: Handle PXE stacks with broken routing.
1169 With these workarounds, the remote install PXE boot floppy
1170 (rbfg.exe) from Argon Technologies should work correctly.
1171 * Fix problems with Perl scripts in UTF-8 locales.
1172 * You probably need NASM 0.98.34 or later to compile this
1173 version. 0.98.36 is recommended.
1174 * MEMDISK: Now supports gzip compressed images.
1177 * SYSLINUX: Security flaws have been found in the SYSLINUX
1178 installer when running setuid root. Rewrite the SYSLINUX
1179 installer so it uses mtools instead. It therefore now
1180 requires mtools (specifically mcopy and mattrib) to exist on
1181 your system, but it will not require root privileges and
1182 SHOULD NOT be setuid.
1185 * MEMDISK: Fix memory sizing bug when the ramdisk crosses the
1187 * MEMDISK: Add a "pause" option to stop immediately before
1188 booting, to read off the messages.
1189 * MEMDISK: Support disk images with DOSEMU headers.
1190 * Update the mkdiskimage script to handle newer mtools
1191 versions, and be able to generate disk images with DOSEMU
1192 headers (controlled by the -d option).
1193 * Fix the COM32 sample program.
1194 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix some COMBOOT API calls.
1195 * PXELINUX: Doc fix.
1196 * Build SYSLINUX into a small library for encapsulation into
1197 other programs (however, please keep in mind this is a GPL'd
1199 * SYSLINUX: Make installer work with "owner" in /etc/fstab.
1200 * SYSLINUX: Fix issue with working on nonpartitioned hard disk
1201 devices. THIS CONFIGURATION IS NOT RECOMMENDED.
1204 * ALL: Add support for "COM32" (32-bit COMBOOT) images.
1205 * ALL: Add an API for COMBOOT/COM32 images. See comboot.doc
1206 for details. There is a C development environment for
1207 COM32 being created; it should be ready at some point in
1209 * Fix mbr.asm so that it actually works.
1210 * SYSLINUX: The syslinux installer *SHOULD* now be safe to
1212 * PXELINUX: Fix bug where PXELINUX would override random
1213 chunks of the UNDI code segment! Thanks to Kevin Tran for
1215 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug related to slashes in pathnames.
1216 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug in handling initrds over 128 MB.
1217 * ALL: Make the <Ctrl-V> key print out the version; this is
1219 * Add a small script, mkdiskimage, to create a DOS-formatted
1220 hard disk image using mtools. This may be useful in
1221 conjunction with MEMDISK.
1222 * ISOLINUX: Search for a /boot/isolinux directory as well as
1224 * ALL: Fix a bug related to very long configuration files.
1225 * PXELINUX: Work around a NASM bug which would result in no
1226 delay before reset if an error occurs.
1229 * ISOLINUX: Remove code no longer used which caused hangs on
1230 some Toshiba laptops.
1233 * ALL: NASM 0.98.32 or later is now required to build
1234 SYSLINUX from sources.
1235 * SYSLINUX: put back in the workaround for the BIOS floppy
1236 table. This seems to be a requirement for "extended" floppy
1237 formats to work correctly.
1238 * SYSLINUX: No longer warn if one is trying to boot on a 286
1239 or older. The above BIOS workaround no longer fits if the
1240 requirement to use only 8086-compatible code in the early
1241 boot is maintained. It made sense in 1994, but in 2002 a
1242 286 or older is a museum object.
1243 * SYSLINUX: Use a downright bizarre, stateful algorithm to try
1244 to guess the maximum transfer size. I am *hoping* this will
1245 cut down on the number of systems for which -s is required
1246 to work at any acceptable speed.
1247 * ISOLINUX: Add a few more workarounds for various broken El
1249 * Make sure .depend files aren't accidentally packed...
1250 * ALL: Fix bugs in the extension-detect code; this caused
1251 files like COMBOOT images and CD boot sectors to be
1252 mis-identified as Linux kernels and rejected.
1253 * ALL: Fix the return from COMBOOT.
1254 * ALL: Do some of the early groundwork for supporting DOS
1255 system calls in COMBOOT.
1256 * Get rid of unnecessary "near" directives, making the code
1258 * PXELINUX: Put the PXE stack back in the init state before
1259 invoking a chain-loaded NBP.
1260 * PXELINUX: Actually found the combination of calls that
1261 allows some (most?) PXE 2+ stacks to be unloaded from memory
1263 * PXELINUX: Add "keeppxe" command-line option to disable
1264 the standard unloading of the PXE stack.
1267 * SYSLINUX: fix bug that would cause valid kernel images to be
1271 * Work on removing gratuitous differences between modules.
1272 * Break up the source in common and module-specific files.
1273 * PXELINUX: Allow chaining of other PXE NBPs.
1274 * ISOLINUX: Allow loading "CD-ROM boot sectors".
1275 * ALL: generalize the definition of a boot sector/NBP.
1278 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix bugs in the new core code.
1281 * Fix a "brown paper bag" class bug in the new core code.
1284 * Major code restructuring.
1285 * Relax the conventional memory limits somewhat.
1286 * MEMDISK: Set up the "version number string" pointer in the
1288 * SYSLINUX: Fix, again, "the bug that won't die": the use of
1289 the offset parameter with the SYSLINUX installer.
1290 * SYSLINUX: Fix possible superblock corruption problem in the
1294 * Handle bug in the location of initrd.
1297 * MEMDISK: Make compile with newer versions of gcc.
1300 * ISOLINUX: Support booting disk image files (to boot DOS or
1301 other non-Linux operating systems), *IF* the BIOS works
1302 correctly; unfortunately many BIOSes apparently don't.
1303 * Support Linux boot protocol version 2.03 (explicitly
1304 specify the initrd address limit.)
1305 * Handle small "pseudo-kernels"; images that use the Linux
1306 kernel boot protocols but are less than 64K in size.
1307 * MEMDISK: New subsystem; this is a driver which allows
1308 legacy OSes to boot using an in-memory simulated disk.
1309 See memdisk/memdisk.doc for more info.
1310 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Correctly handle files larger than 65535
1311 blocks (32 MB for PXELINUX, 128 MB for ISOLINUX.)
1312 * PXELINUX: Make a best-effort attempt at freeing all memory
1313 claimed. From the looks of it, it will fail on most PXE
1317 * Limited support for hardware flow control when using a
1318 serial port console.
1319 * Support specifying the serial port I/O address explicitly.
1320 * Make DOS installer hopefully behave more nicely when used on
1321 recent Windows versions.
1322 * Fix returning to text mode when a font has been specified.
1323 * Attempt to detect missing serial port hardware and disable
1324 the serial port if there is nothing there.
1327 * Make the ppmtolss16 program handle color conversion more
1329 * Clean up "make install" target, honour INSTALLROOT if it
1331 * SYSLINUX: Fix stack-smash bug identified by Steffen
1333 * Hopefully fix return-to-text-mode on some graphics cards.
1334 * ISOLINUX: Bug workaround for Award BIOS 4.51, and perhaps
1335 other buggy BIOSes as well.
1338 * PXELINUX: Allow the DHCP server to override the
1339 configuration file name and pathname prefix, using
1340 "site-specific" DHCP options.
1341 * PXELINUX: Documentation fixes.
1342 * PXELINUX: Fix the "ipappend" option; the last two values
1343 were reversed vs. what the kernel expected.
1344 * Introduce a way to return to text mode once we are already
1345 in graphics mode. This may be useful for F-key help
1347 * Fix several bugs in the way return to text mode was handled.
1350 * ISOLINUX: Support full pathname searches. Max length for a
1351 pathname is 255 characters. As a result, only 64 "label"
1352 statements are supported in ISOLINUX.
1353 * PXELINUX: Max filename length extended to 63 characters.
1356 * Add support for graphical splash screens.
1357 * Add mode control characters, which allows you to control
1358 message display output depending on output mode (text,
1359 graphics, or serial port.)
1360 * ISOLINUX: New program, which boots Linux from a CD-ROM
1361 without using floppy emulation mode. See isolinux.doc for
1363 * PXELINUX: Don't search for boot sector file types, since
1364 they don't work anyway.
1365 * SYSLINUX: Document the LOCK command for Win9x, and the error
1366 dialog box for WinNT/2K.
1369 * PXELINUX: Fix code for finding !PXE from PXENV+. This was
1370 due to a spec bug; match the most recent spec since that
1371 seems to be what implementations actually do.
1372 * SYSLINUX: Add some smarts to the boot sector, which
1373 hopefully should reduce the number of systems which require
1374 stupid mode ("syslinux -s").
1375 * PXELINUX: Document further some of the pathologies with old
1377 * When specifying a "default" command line, no longer
1378 automatically appent "auto". See the "DEFAULT" command in
1379 syslinux.doc for more information.
1380 * PXELINUX: Clean up the allocation of local socket numbers.
1383 * PXELINUX: Rename pxelinux.bin to pxelinux.0, to match what
1384 most PXE servers seem to expect.
1385 * PXELINUX: Update the DHCP/boot server setup documentation.
1386 * PXELINUX: Support new "localboot" option for "label"
1388 * PXELINUX: More robust parsing of DHCP/boot server packets.
1389 * PXELINUX: Include a small utility program "gethostip" to
1390 compute hexadecimal IP addresses.
1393 * PXELINUX: Fix bugs introduced by new A20 code. (SYSLINUX
1394 has also been changed for code consistency reasons, but I'm
1395 pretty sure the changes are don't care on SYSLINUX.)
1396 * Documentation updates.
1397 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend" option to generate an ip= option to
1401 * PXELINUX: Not all PXE stacks fill in the IP address for a
1402 type 3 cached info query. Use a type 2 cached info query
1403 for this information (only.)
1404 * Yet another attempt at A20 coding. Now support BIOS call
1405 15:2401 as well, and handle machines which always have A20
1407 * Support memory detection using INT 15h, AX=0E820h. BIOS
1408 manufacturers have apparently gotten sloppy about keeping
1409 INT 15h, AX=0E801h working properly.
1410 * Don't issue <CR><LF> onto the serial port when we're doing
1414 * Yet another A20-code update. It seems some "legacy-free"
1415 machines and embedded gear simply don't have a KBC to talk
1416 to, and that waiting for one will wait forever. Sigh.
1419 * SYSLINUX: Implement a hack for BIOS drivers which hog significant
1420 chunks of low memory during boot. (Note: PXELINUX already
1421 had this modification. SYSLINUX does still require that the
1422 low 512K is available; PXELINUX requires 384K. Machines
1423 with a physical memory hole in the low 640K cannot boot
1424 Linux no matter what.) Depending what the reason is for the
1425 memory hole, a new kernel (2.4.0-test3-pre3 or later) may be
1427 * SYSLINUX: Default installer binary now compiled against
1428 glibc 2.1. If this is inappropriate for your system and you
1429 still want to use the offical version of SYSLINUX, please
1430 follow the instructions in "distrib.doc" to rebuild the
1432 * SYSLINUX: Linux installer program now supports -o <offset>
1433 option which does a loopback mount with the
1434 -o loop,offset=<> option. Useful to run SYSLINUX on an
1435 individual partition of a whole-harddisk image.
1436 * Include the source code to a Master Boot Record (MBR)
1437 functionally equivalent to the one installed DOS except it
1438 includes EBIOS support, and should be resistant to geometry
1439 changes. The MBR code is public domain.
1440 * PXELINUX: Fix "double p" bug: if the tftp prefix was null,
1441 all filenames would get a "p" preprended, e.g.
1442 "ppxelinux.cfg" and "pvmlinux".
1445 * PXELINUX: Workaround for PXE ROMs based on the Intel PXE PDK
1446 3.0 build 071 and earlier: missing !PXE structure pointer.
1447 * PXELINUX: Handle larger BOOTP/DHCP packages.
1448 * PXELINUX: The command line passing was broken; fix.
1449 * PXELINUX: Make COMBOOT images work.
1450 * PXELINUX: Documentation on how to make booting work using
1451 the PDK 3.0-derived clients, which aren't so generous as to
1452 allow booting with only "PXEClient" specified.
1455 * PXELINUX: RFC 1123 states that a TFTP implementation MUST
1456 use adaptive timeout, "at least an exponential backoff of
1457 retransmission timeout is necessary." Implement a very
1458 simple exponential backoff for retransmits.
1459 * PXELINUX: Updated documentation, including pointer to new
1461 * PXELINUX: When sending ERROR due to bad OACK, use the proper
1462 destination port number (why are TFTP port numbers so odd?)
1463 * PXELINUX: If the boot dies in the middle somewhere,
1464 eventually give up and reset the machine (unattended
1468 * New program PXELINUX to do network booting using a
1469 PXE-compliant (Pre-Execution Environment) network booting
1470 PROM. See pxelinux.doc for details.
1473 * Serial console support. See syslinux.doc for details.
1476 * Change HIGHMEM_MAX to 38000000h to (hopefully) avoid the
1477 kernel stepping on it; 3f000000h was apparently a higher
1478 limit than the kernel used!
1481 * Add sys2ansi.pl script to display the contents of a
1482 colorized SYSLINUX file.
1483 * Changed the io_delay once again, after a report that the
1484 old delay port causes hangs on some systems.
1487 * Frob the "fast A20 gate" port as well as the keyboard
1488 controller; will this help systems with problems?
1489 * Be even more paranoid about A20, unfortunately even this
1490 seems to be not paranoid enough... what I don't understand
1491 is that if there is hardware out there *this broken*, how
1492 can it run Linux at all? Report an error message rather
1493 than hang forever if A20 is stuck.
1494 * Include some intermediate files in the distribution, plus
1495 provide a "make installer" target for distributors to relink
1496 the install programs only. I would prefer the syslinux boot
1497 loader proper to be "binary clean" for debuggablity -- use
1498 "make clean ; make installer" to rebuild the installers only.
1501 * Don't get confused by directories, volume labels, or VFAT
1503 * Use INT 15h, AX=0E801h to query memory size before trying
1504 INT 15h, AH=88h. This not only provides more headroom
1505 between the kernel and the initrd on large-memory machines,
1506 but it appears some recent BIOSes actually have started
1507 returning garbage for the AH=88h (older) call.
1508 * Trust high memory beyond the 15 MB mark if the user has
1509 specified it, or if obtained with INT 15h, AH=0E801h (with
1510 no memory holes above 1 MB.)
1513 * Increase A20M delay and put in a test to avoid problems on
1514 certain IBM Thinkpads (thanks to Donnie Barnes of RedHat
1515 for vital info on this one.)
1516 * Support COMBOOT style boot command images.
1517 * Support chain loading (foreign operating systems, e.g. DOS).
1518 * Include a new "copybs" DOS utility to copy a boot sector to
1519 a file (under Linux, use "dd".)
1520 * Fix the DOS installer to work for disks over 32 MB.
1521 * SYSLINUX should now handle disks with more than 65536 tracks.
1524 * Fix a bug that caused "label" statements in syslinux.cfg to
1525 not be handled properly.
1526 * Updated the documentation. Among other things, we now allow
1527 up to 128 "label" statements.
1530 * Fix for booting old (pre-initrd) kernels.
1531 * It seems at least some versions of OS/2 doesn't set up all
1532 the fields in the superblock correctly. Account for that.
1533 * Fix bug that caused boot failure when using the mem= option.
1536 * Loading from partitions now should work properly. (Actually
1537 tested, this time. You should even be able to dd a floppy
1538 to a partition and boot from it.)
1539 * Removed large workaround code for an alleged ancient BIOS
1540 bug I have never actually seen. The -s option should work
1541 on those machines, anyway.
1542 * Support for simple keyboard remappings, same as used by
1543 LILO (once again to support localization.) The program
1544 keytab-lilo.pl from the LILO distribution included to
1546 * Added a "safe, slow and stupid" (-s) option to the
1547 installers. This option will lobotomize the boot sector to
1548 hopefully work on even very buggy BIOSes.
1551 * Ability to load a VGA font on bootup (for localized Linux
1555 * Bug fix in the Linux installer.
1556 * Added a workaround for a bug in certain AMI/Intel BIOSes
1557 when booting from CD-ROM.
1558 * Documentation changes.
1561 * FAT16 filesystems are now supported.
1564 * Now compiles under Linux, using NASM, rather than using
1565 Turbo Assembler under DOS. See http://www.cryogen.com/Nasm
1566 for information about NASM.
1567 * Linux-hosted SYSLINUX installer, as well as a
1568 rewritten DOS installer (now is written in assembler, so we
1569 don't need Turbo C.)
1572 * Added support for loading bzImage and initrd loading, and made
1573 SYSLINUX new-setup-code aware (SYSLINUX 1.30 id=0x31).
1574 * Added LILO-style kernel labels; see the LABEL and IMPLICIT
1575 keywords in README file.
1576 * Added support for colorization of intro and help screens.
1577 * The vga= option is now handled correctly.
1578 * Massive rewrite of large chunks of the code in order to
1579 support the first two new features.
1582 * Added simple online help at the "boot:" prompt.
1583 * Removed 2880K image as I no longer have access to such a
1584 floppy drive. (Donations accepted!!)
1585 * Decided to distribute the source in a subdirectory rather
1586 than in a nested zipfile.
1589 * Removed a sanity check which would cause booting to fail on
1590 Phoenix BIOS version 4.03. Apparently this BIOS is buggy.
1593 * Added configuration file SYSLINUX.CFG. This file contains all
1594 configurable options, and can be edited from any OS which can
1595 access an MS-DOS filesystem; there is no longer a need to run
1596 SYSLINUX.EXE except to write the boot sector.
1597 * Default command line now given by "default" line in config
1599 * LINUXMSG.TXT and BOOTMSG.TXT hard-coded file names replaced by
1600 "display" and "prompt" lines in config file.
1601 * LILO-style option appending now supported ("append" line in
1603 * Prompt timeout is now supported ("timeout" line in config
1604 file). The timeout is cancelled when anything is typed on the
1606 * Pressing <ESC> or <Ctrl-C> at the Loading... stage now aborts
1607 the kernel loading in progress and returns the user to the
1609 * The installer now automatically sets the READONLY flag on
1611 * Added 2880K disk image.
1614 * Fixed bug that would prevent booting from double-density
1615 floppies and other DOS filesystems with multiple sectors per
1617 * Added 720K disk image.
1618 * Changed default kernel name on disk images to LINUX.
1621 * Fixed bug that would garble the command line on recent kernels
1622 with more than 4 sectors of setup code (this wasn't really a
1623 *bug*; rather, a kernel change broke the code. Unfortunately
1624 the Linux boot interface is still sorely undocumented).
1625 * Added BOOTMSG.TXT file support (message file which does not
1626 force display of the boot prompt).
1629 * Fixed bug on some (most?) 386 BIOSes would require two boot