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 * MEMDISK: Disable EDD by default on floppy disks. EDD can be
7 enabled with the "edd" option and disabled with "noedd".
8 This (hopefully) should make Ghost work again.
9 * SYSLINUX: "unix" installer now uses Linux ioctls instead of
11 * New MBR which can boot from logical partitions.
14 * MEMDISK: New "safeint" mode.
15 * MEMDISK: Be more compliant with the PnP BIOS spec.
16 * MEMDISK: Turn on EDD support by default.
17 * MEMDISK: Try to work on some machines on which it would not
18 work when there was no floppy drive in the system.
19 * Simple menu system: fix serial console support (broken in
21 * SYSLINUX: Support subdirectories. Like ISOLINUX, the
22 "current directory" is the directory in which syslinux.cfg
23 is found; this is searched for in the sequence
24 /boot/syslinux, /syslinux, /. As a side benefit, label names
25 like "linux-2.6.18" and "linux-2.6.19" are now supported.
27 To install ldlinux.sys in a subdirectory, pass the -d
28 directory option to the SYSLINUX installer.
30 This work was sponsored by slax.org (thanks, Tomas!)
31 * New API call: read disk.
32 * Invoke ONERROR on initrd load failure.
35 * The simple menu system (menu.c32 and vesamenu.c32) now
36 support loading more than one configuration file at a time,
37 using MENU INCLUDE or by specifying multiple filenames.
38 * The MENU COLOR statement can now control the shadowing mode.
41 * libcom32 extended to support graphics mode and graphical console.
42 * vesamenu.c32, new graphical version of the Simple
43 Menu System, see README.menu.
44 * New com32 modules by Erwan Velu do selection based on CPUID
45 or PCI devices present.
46 * RPM spec: add syslinux-tftpboot module; move syslinux by
47 default to the /usr/share/syslinux directory.
48 * RPM spec: extlinux is now a separate package.
51 * EXTLINUX: New options --install (-i) and --update (-U), to
52 make it clear if a boot loader should be installed or
53 updated. For now, defaults to --install for compatibility;
54 a future version will require one of these options.
55 * New library functions to load and place files in memory.
56 * mboot.c32 bug fixes.
57 * Remove 8 MB kernel size restriction.
58 * Add "klibc" target for building unix/syslinux and
59 extlinux/extlinux with klcc (klibc-1.4.27 or later.)
60 * PXELINUX: Fail (and eventually reboot) if no configuration
62 * COM32 module by Erwan Velu to make decisions based on DMI
64 * Fix issue where going back and forth between menus a lot
66 * ISOLINUX: Fix bug which made "cd boot sectors" not work.
69 * MEMDISK: Fix bug by which accessing the real floppy disk
70 as B: in MS-DOS was broken.
71 * Simple menu system: allow tweaking of the screen layout.
72 * Simple menu system: better command-line editing, correctly
73 handle command lines above 256 characters.
74 * PXELINUX: revert memory allocation change that caused
75 problems on some network cards.
76 * MEMDISK: Try work around a bug on some BIOSes when no
77 physical floppy disk is present in the system.
78 * Enable the 16550A FIFOs, if present, when doing serial
80 * New "totaltimeout" command establishes a timeout without
81 regard for any user input.
82 * Simple menu system: timeout behaviour now more in line with
84 * Simple menu system: "ontimeout" should now work correctly.
87 * gcc 4.0.1 compilation fixes.
88 * Add support for querying the PCI BIOS in libcom32
89 (used by ethersel et al.)
90 * Fix PCI handing (ethersel etc) on several old chipsets (and
92 * Try to deal with systems with broken EBIOS.
93 * New API call to do "localboot".
94 * New API call to query features.
95 * New API call to run kernel image, a lower-level call than
96 "run command". See comboot.doc.
97 * Fix for bug in EBIOS code discovered by Arwin Vosselman.
98 * NOESCAPE security fix.
99 * Comments are now recognized even without a space following #.
100 * Fix incorrect handling of mixes of entries with and without
102 * The idle API call now harmlessly returns failure if it is a
103 no-op. That way the caller can decide whether or not to
104 bother invoking it again.
105 * Temporarily disable the idle API call on PXELINUX, due to
106 some platforms on which the idle API call seems to hang; this
107 problem has not yet been debugged.
108 * MEMDISK: the handling of DOSEMU-headered images was broken;
110 * EXTLINUX: symlinks are now supported.
111 * Simple menu system: N and P now work correctly as hotkeys.
112 * MEMDISK: more BIOS bug workarounds.
115 * gcc4 compilation fix.
116 * <BEL> (Ctrl-G) in message files now causes a beep.
117 * Reduce the command line to 511 characters; 1023 caused
121 * SYSLINUX: Fix performance regression (-s mode always
123 * Add API function for idle loop.
124 * libutil: Add do_idle() function for idle loop, make
126 * libutil: Add SHA-1 and base64 functions.
127 * Simple menu system: add password support.
128 * EXTLINUX: Sparse files now handled correctly.
129 * EXTLINUX: Large directories now handled correctly.
130 * ALL: At the prompt, Ctrl-X now forces text mode.
131 * Fix configuration file parsing error, that could cause
133 * Rewritten advanced menuing system from Murali Ganapathy.
134 * MEMDISK: New "bigraw" mode to work around certain broken
136 * COM32 module to boot Multiboot systems, including Xen. See
137 com32/modules/mboot.doc.
138 * Max command line changed to 1023 characters. Note that the
139 kernel proper still can only handle 255 characters without
140 patching, and COM16 binaries can only handle 125 characters.
143 * Fix chainloading (chain.c32).
144 * Fix zlib build problem.
145 * Use a private copy of <linux/ext2_fs.h>.
148 * Fix typo that caused the ramdisk to load in the wrong place.
151 * New API function "shuffle and boot"; allows COM32 modules to
152 load or construct (almost) arbitrarily complex objects,
153 e.g. a kernel and its initrd/initramfs in pieces, and have
154 the API core reorganize memory for booting. (A library API
155 for this function will be introduced in a later version.)
156 * The initrd= option now supports multiple filenames separated
157 by commas. This is mostly useful for initramfs, which can
158 be composed of multiple separate cpio or cpio.gz archives.
159 (Note: all files except the last one are zero-padded to a 4K
160 page boundary. This should not affect initramfs.)
161 * EXTLINUX: Fix API function 000Ah (get derivative-specific
163 * libcom32/ethersel: Support PCI Config Mechanism #2 on
164 machines still infested with that hideous old hack.
165 * SYSLINUX: Fix directory-parsing bug.
168 * SYSLINUX: The "unix" installer now sets the MS-DOS
169 attributes (hidden, system, readonly.)
170 * COM32 library: build the .lnx (test modules for running
171 under Linux) as architecture native modules, in case
172 i386 devel libraries aren't installed.
173 * EXTLINUX: Hack for systems which don't have BLKGETSIZE64
174 defined in the standard header files.
175 * Simple menu system: minor aestetic improvements, and try to
176 work better over a serial console (speed, and readability on
177 monochrome terminal emulators.)
178 * New CONSOLE directive to control output on the video console
179 (useful for dealing with some broken serial-forwarding
181 * New com32 module "ethersel" for searching for an Ethernet
182 card and selecting the proper version of Etherboot.
183 * EXTLINUX: Allow the user to override the detected geometry.
187 * EXTLINUX, SYSLINUX: Fix compile errors on some systems.
188 * EXTLINUX: Default to zipdrive geometry (64 heads, 32
189 sectors) if no other geometry can be detected.
192 * SYSLINUX: Support FAT32 and EDD. As an unfortunate
193 consequence, LDLINUX.SYS is no longer an ordinary file; it
194 is block-mapped at install time, which means it can only be
195 written using the syslinux installers.
196 * SYSLINUX: Reorganize the source code for the installers;
197 each one of the installers (dos, win32, unix, mtools) is now
198 built in its own subdirectory. In particular, "mtools" is
199 the unprivileged installer which uses mtools; "unix" is the
200 privileged installer which uses system calls.
201 * SYSLINUX: Completely rewritten DOS installer in C.
202 * ALL: "label" statement information is now stored in a
203 compressed format, which means that a lot more labels are
204 permitted (500-1000 in a typical configuration, but depends
206 * EXTLINUX: New derivative, which boots from an ext2/ext3
208 * SYSLINUX: The DOS and Win32 installers can now optionally
209 write the boot sector to a file instead of the real boot
210 sector. This is not supported in the Linux installers,
212 * ALL: New NOESCAPE command, disables the "hold down the Shift
213 key to display the prompt" behaviour.
214 * New simple menu system, as an alternative to the advanced
215 menu system already present. See README.menu for details.
216 * PXELINUX: Filenames can now be prefixed with an IP address
217 or DNS name plus :: (e.g. 192.0.2.1::filename or
218 server.domain.com::filename), which downloads a file from an
219 alternate TFTP server, or just a :: (e.g. ::filename), which
220 suppresses the common pathname prefix. See pxelinux.doc.
221 * SYSLINUX: Add an -m option to the DOS and Win32 installers
222 to write an MBR and -a to mark the partition SYSLINUX is
223 being installed on active.
224 * MEMDISK: Give a way to query the boot loader type while
225 running MEMDISK; see memdisk/memdisk.doc and
227 * mkdiskimage: substantially improved mkdiskimage which, among
228 other things, can now be used to initialize USB keys as
229 zipdrives; see README.usbkey for more information.
232 * MEMDISK: Fix command-line parsing "brown paper bag" class
234 * MEMDISK: Add "raw" mode to support the DOS boot disk from
235 WinME/XP, which seems to deliberately crash the system
236 when someone uses the "INT 15h mover" highmem API.
237 * Make "make install" do something sane for the com32
238 development environment.
239 * In the spec file, create a separate -devel RPM for the com32
240 development environment.
243 * Simple C library, based on klibc, for writing COM32
245 * Fix the handling of file length in loading of COM32
247 * MEMDISK: Work around a linker bug by rearranging the code to
248 not use the linker for the 16-bit code.
249 * SYSLINUX: If we're building on a machine without a Win32
250 (mingw) compiler, just skip building syslinux.exe.
251 * ISOLINUX: Support non-mkisofs mastering programs, at least
252 as long as the image is single-session. For best results,
253 ISOLINUX should be the only boot loader installed.
254 * MEMDISK: Allow the user to specify that the simulated disk
255 should be write-protected.
258 * ALL: Add an API call to get the configuration file name.
259 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in 2.10 that prevented it from working
260 correctly for a lot of people.
261 * SYSLINUX: In the installer, make mtools a bit less fussy.
262 * Make the menu system compile with newer gcc's.
265 * MEMDISK: Handle images compressed with zip as well as with
266 gzip. Some Windows-based image tools apparently generate
267 these kinds of images by default. Patch by Patrick
269 * Major menu improvement from Murali Ganapathy.
270 * ISOLINUX: Wonderfully sick and brilliant workaround for
271 severe bugs in certain Award BIOSes; from Knut Petersen.
272 * SYSLINUX: Fix for the nomtools installed, from Frederic
274 * PXELINUX: Fix handling of IP numbers in the ranges
276 * ALL: New option "allowoptions" (defaults to 1), which
277 controls if options are allowed on the command line or not.
278 * SYSLINUX: Support building under klibc (see the klibc
279 distribution for details.)
282 * SYSLINUX: Remove residual setuid crap from
284 * Handle video pages correctly when using the API functions.
285 * Handle compiling on an x86-64 platform correctly.
286 * Menu system from Murali Krishnan Ganapathy; see the menu
287 directory for information.
288 * COMBOOT: Allow COMBOOT programs to change screen text mode.
289 * COMBOOT: Correct the documentation of how to detect
290 SYSLINUX from COMBOOT!!!!
291 * COMBOOT: Fix "get key without echo" API function.
292 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug that affected the API open function.
293 * ALL: Improve the E820 memory parser, to work around some
297 * Add new configuration command "ontimeout" to allow timeout
298 to have a different action than just pressing Enter.
299 * Add new configuration command "onerror" to allow a custom
300 command to be executed in case the kernel image is not found.
301 * Fix bugs in the COMBOOT/COM32 command-line parsing. APPEND
302 now works with COMBOOT/COM32 images.
303 * PXELINUX: Poll for ARP requests while sitting at the
304 prompt. This makes some boot servers a lot less unhappy.
305 * PXELINUX: Actually free sockets when we get a failure
306 (including file not found.) This bug would cause us to run
307 out of sockets and thus "go deaf" after a while.
308 * MEMDISK: Add an API to query for the existence of MEMDISK.
309 * SYSLINUX: Fix loading boot sectors (.bs/.bss) from floppy
311 * .c32 is now one of the extensions searched for
313 * PXELINUX: RFBG.exe seems to randomly overwrite memory
314 location 0x5700. Thus, don't use it!
315 * PXELINUX: Change pathname length max from 63 to 127; change
316 max vkernels from 128 to 64.
317 * Support Ctrl-U -> kill entire command line input.
318 * The "samples" directory contains a (barely at all tested)
319 chain loading example, chain.c32, which may be used to
320 chainload local floppy disks and hard disks. Use with
321 "chain fdN" or "chain hdN [partition]"; N = 0 for the first
325 * MEMDISK: Workaround for BIOSes which go into a snit when
326 they get a RESET command for the floppy system when there is
327 no floppy in the system.
328 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend 2", which passes the hardware
329 address of the boot interface to the kernel as a
331 * mkdiskimage: fix the generation of the end limit.
332 * PXELINUX: Fix multiple bugs in chainloading of other NBPs.
333 * MEMDISK: Fix bug that would occationally cause "ran out of
334 input data" when using compressed disk images.
335 * SYSLINUX: Updates for the win32 installer (from Lars Munch.)
336 * PXELINUX: PXELINUX-specific options are now recognized both
337 in a vendor-option-space (a.k.a. type 43 encapsulated) as
338 well as in a site-option-space (unencapsulated.)
339 * COM32: Don't crash when DS != 0.
340 * COMBOOT/COM32: Make file reading work correctly. Thanks to
341 Phung Chi Kien for submitting a test program.
344 * ALL: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
345 boot failure, depending on the length of the kernel.
346 * ISOLINUX: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
347 boot failure, depending on the length of directories.
348 * SYSLINUX: Win32 installer now flushes buffers.
349 * ppmtolss16: Be fully compliant with the PNM spec;
350 actually process comments in the header and odd
351 alignments of the various parameters, as well as
352 "plain" (not raw) files and PBM and PGM files.
353 * PXELINUX: Lower the default MTU to 1472 in order to deal
354 with systems with slightly nonstandard MTUs, and PXE
355 stacks which don't defragment correctly. Unfortunately this
356 is very hard to test dynamically.
359 * PXELINUX: Add a default query based on the hardware address
360 of the boot device. This is in lower case hexadecimal form
361 separated by dashes and including the hardware type, for
362 example, the Ethernet (type 1) address 88:99:AA:BB:CC:DD
363 would query the file pxelinux.cfg/01-88-99-aa-bb-cc-dd.
364 * PXELINUX: Fix bug involving non-IP-based config file names.
365 * SYSLINUX: New installer for WinNT-based systems, from Lars
367 * MEMDISK: Fix handling of memory region overlap when
368 decompressing. Thanks to Mikhail Kupchik for identifying
372 * ALL: Reclaim even more low memory by observing that
373 comboot_seg == real_mode_seg is perfectly fine, and by the
374 fact that the 1000h segment managed to get unused in all
376 * PXELINUX: Attempt to negotiate full Ethernet-sized blocks
377 (1468 bytes) using the blksize option.
378 * SYSLINUX: Resurrect the old no-mtools version of the
379 installer, although as a root-only tool. Some distributors
380 have indicated that they need a small standalone installer.
381 * MEMDISK: Fix a memory offset computation error when
382 installing compressed disks which generally would cause
383 1 MB of memory to be wasted.
384 * MEMDISK: Fix installing the E820 memory map. Calling
385 INT 15h AX=0E820h with MEMDISK 2.03 loaded would give a
386 completely corrupt memory map.
387 * SYSLINUX: Make libsyslinux a dynamic library, so that it can
388 be updated separately from client programs. The whole idea,
389 after all, is to enable alternate programs to become
391 * Include an rpm spec file in the distribution, so rpmbuild
395 * Actually support comment lines in the configuration file.
396 * PXELINUX: Try to resolve some problems with stack switches.
397 * PXELINUX: Handle PXE stacks with broken routing.
398 With these workarounds, the remote install PXE boot floppy
399 (rbfg.exe) from Argon Technologies should work correctly.
400 * Fix problems with Perl scripts in UTF-8 locales.
401 * You probably need NASM 0.98.34 or later to compile this
402 version. 0.98.36 is recommended.
403 * MEMDISK: Now supports gzip compressed images.
406 * SYSLINUX: Security flaws have been found in the SYSLINUX
407 installer when running setuid root. Rewrite the SYSLINUX
408 installer so it uses mtools instead. It therefore now
409 requires mtools (specifically mcopy and mattrib) to exist on
410 your system, but it will not require root privileges and
411 SHOULD NOT be setuid.
414 * MEMDISK: Fix memory sizing bug when the ramdisk crosses the
416 * MEMDISK: Add a "pause" option to stop immediately before
417 booting, to read off the messages.
418 * MEMDISK: Support disk images with DOSEMU headers.
419 * Update the mkdiskimage script to handle newer mtools
420 versions, and be able to generate disk images with DOSEMU
421 headers (controlled by the -d option).
422 * Fix the COM32 sample program.
423 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix some COMBOOT API calls.
425 * Build SYSLINUX into a small library for encapsulation into
426 other programs (however, please keep in mind this is a GPL'd
428 * SYSLINUX: Make installer work with "owner" in /etc/fstab.
429 * SYSLINUX: Fix issue with working on nonpartitioned hard disk
430 devices. THIS CONFIGURATION IS NOT RECOMMENDED.
433 * ALL: Add support for "COM32" (32-bit COMBOOT) images.
434 * ALL: Add an API for COMBOOT/COM32 images. See comboot.doc
435 for details. There is a C development environment for
436 COM32 being created; it should be ready at some point in
438 * Fix mbr.asm so that it actually works.
439 * SYSLINUX: The syslinux installer *SHOULD* now be safe to
441 * PXELINUX: Fix bug where PXELINUX would override random
442 chunks of the UNDI code segment! Thanks to Kevin Tran for
444 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug related to slashes in pathnames.
445 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug in handling initrds over 128 MB.
446 * ALL: Make the <Ctrl-V> key print out the version; this is
448 * Add a small script, mkdiskimage, to create a DOS-formatted
449 hard disk image using mtools. This may be useful in
450 conjunction with MEMDISK.
451 * ISOLINUX: Search for a /boot/isolinux directory as well as
453 * ALL: Fix a bug related to very long configuration files.
454 * PXELINUX: Work around a NASM bug which would result in no
455 delay before reset if an error occurs.
458 * ISOLINUX: Remove code no longer used which caused hangs on
459 some Toshiba laptops.
462 * ALL: NASM 0.98.32 or later is now required to build
463 SYSLINUX from sources.
464 * SYSLINUX: put back in the workaround for the BIOS floppy
465 table. This seems to be a requirement for "extended" floppy
466 formats to work correctly.
467 * SYSLINUX: No longer warn if one is trying to boot on a 286
468 or older. The above BIOS workaround no longer fits if the
469 requirement to use only 8086-compatible code in the early
470 boot is maintained. It made sense in 1994, but in 2002 a
471 286 or older is a museum object.
472 * SYSLINUX: Use a downright bizarre, stateful algorithm to try
473 to guess the maximum transfer size. I am *hoping* this will
474 cut down on the number of systems for which -s is required
475 to work at any acceptable speed.
476 * ISOLINUX: Add a few more workarounds for various broken El
478 * Make sure .depend files aren't accidentally packed...
479 * ALL: Fix bugs in the extension-detect code; this caused
480 files like COMBOOT images and CD boot sectors to be
481 mis-identified as Linux kernels and rejected.
482 * ALL: Fix the return from COMBOOT.
483 * ALL: Do some of the early groundwork for supporting DOS
484 system calls in COMBOOT.
485 * Get rid of unnecessary "near" directives, making the code
487 * PXELINUX: Put the PXE stack back in the init state before
488 invoking a chain-loaded NBP.
489 * PXELINUX: Actually found the combination of calls that
490 allows some (most?) PXE 2+ stacks to be unloaded from memory
492 * PXELINUX: Add "keeppxe" command-line option to disable
493 the standard unloading of the PXE stack.
496 * SYSLINUX: fix bug that would cause valid kernel images to be
500 * Work on removing gratuitous differences between modules.
501 * Break up the source in common and module-specific files.
502 * PXELINUX: Allow chaining of other PXE NBPs.
503 * ISOLINUX: Allow loading "CD-ROM boot sectors".
504 * ALL: generalize the definition of a boot sector/NBP.
507 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix bugs in the new core code.
510 * Fix a "brown paper bag" class bug in the new core code.
513 * Major code restructuring.
514 * Relax the conventional memory limits somewhat.
515 * MEMDISK: Set up the "version number string" pointer in the
517 * SYSLINUX: Fix, again, "the bug that won't die": the use of
518 the offset parameter with the SYSLINUX installer.
519 * SYSLINUX: Fix possible superblock corruption problem in the
523 * Handle bug in the location of initrd.
526 * MEMDISK: Make compile with newer versions of gcc.
529 * ISOLINUX: Support booting disk image files (to boot DOS or
530 other non-Linux operating systems), *IF* the BIOS works
531 correctly; unfortunately many BIOSes apparently don't.
532 * Support Linux boot protocol version 2.03 (explicitly
533 specify the initrd address limit.)
534 * Handle small "pseudo-kernels"; images that use the Linux
535 kernel boot protocols but are less than 64K in size.
536 * MEMDISK: New subsystem; this is a driver which allows
537 legacy OSes to boot using an in-memory simulated disk.
538 See memdisk/memdisk.doc for more info.
539 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Correctly handle files larger than 65535
540 blocks (32 MB for PXELINUX, 128 MB for ISOLINUX.)
541 * PXELINUX: Make a best-effort attempt at freeing all memory
542 claimed. From the looks of it, it will fail on most PXE
546 * Limited support for hardware flow control when using a
548 * Support specifying the serial port I/O address explicitly.
549 * Make DOS installer hopefully behave more nicely when used on
550 recent Windows versions.
551 * Fix returning to text mode when a font has been specified.
552 * Attempt to detect missing serial port hardware and disable
553 the serial port if there is nothing there.
556 * Make the ppmtolss16 program handle color conversion more
558 * Clean up "make install" target, honour INSTALLROOT if it
560 * SYSLINUX: Fix stack-smash bug identified by Steffen
562 * Hopefully fix return-to-text-mode on some graphics cards.
563 * ISOLINUX: Bug workaround for Award BIOS 4.51, and perhaps
564 other buggy BIOSes as well.
567 * PXELINUX: Allow the DHCP server to override the
568 configuration file name and pathname prefix, using
569 "site-specific" DHCP options.
570 * PXELINUX: Documentation fixes.
571 * PXELINUX: Fix the "ipappend" option; the last two values
572 were reversed vs. what the kernel expected.
573 * Introduce a way to return to text mode once we are already
574 in graphics mode. This may be useful for F-key help
576 * Fix several bugs in the way return to text mode was handled.
579 * ISOLINUX: Support full pathname searches. Max length for a
580 pathname is 255 characters. As a result, only 64 "label"
581 statements are supported in ISOLINUX.
582 * PXELINUX: Max filename length extended to 63 characters.
585 * Add support for graphical splash screens.
586 * Add mode control characters, which allows you to control
587 message display output depending on output mode (text,
588 graphics, or serial port.)
589 * ISOLINUX: New program, which boots Linux from a CD-ROM
590 without using floppy emulation mode. See isolinux.doc for
592 * PXELINUX: Don't search for boot sector file types, since
593 they don't work anyway.
594 * SYSLINUX: Document the LOCK command for Win9x, and the error
595 dialog box for WinNT/2K.
598 * PXELINUX: Fix code for finding !PXE from PXENV+. This was
599 due to a spec bug; match the most recent spec since that
600 seems to be what implementations actually do.
601 * SYSLINUX: Add some smarts to the boot sector, which
602 hopefully should reduce the number of systems which require
603 stupid mode ("syslinux -s").
604 * PXELINUX: Document further some of the pathologies with old
606 * When specifying a "default" command line, no longer
607 automatically appent "auto". See the "DEFAULT" command in
608 syslinux.doc for more information.
609 * PXELINUX: Clean up the allocation of local socket numbers.
612 * PXELINUX: Rename pxelinux.bin to pxelinux.0, to match what
613 most PXE servers seem to expect.
614 * PXELINUX: Update the DHCP/boot server setup documentation.
615 * PXELINUX: Support new "localboot" option for "label"
617 * PXELINUX: More robust parsing of DHCP/boot server packets.
618 * PXELINUX: Include a small utility program "gethostip" to
619 compute hexadecimal IP addresses.
622 * PXELINUX: Fix bugs introduced by new A20 code. (SYSLINUX
623 has also been changed for code consistency reasons, but I'm
624 pretty sure the changes are don't care on SYSLINUX.)
625 * Documentation updates.
626 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend" option to generate an ip= option to
630 * PXELINUX: Not all PXE stacks fill in the IP address for a
631 type 3 cached info query. Use a type 2 cached info query
632 for this information (only.)
633 * Yet another attempt at A20 coding. Now support BIOS call
634 15:2401 as well, and handle machines which always have A20
636 * Support memory detection using INT 15h, AX=0E820h. BIOS
637 manufacturers have apparently gotten sloppy about keeping
638 INT 15h, AX=0E801h working properly.
639 * Don't issue <CR><LF> onto the serial port when we're doing
643 * Yet another A20-code update. It seems some "legacy-free"
644 machines and embedded gear simply don't have a KBC to talk
645 to, and that waiting for one will wait forever. Sigh.
648 * SYSLINUX: Implement a hack for BIOS drivers which hog significant
649 chunks of low memory during boot. (Note: PXELINUX already
650 had this modification. SYSLINUX does still require that the
651 low 512K is available; PXELINUX requires 384K. Machines
652 with a physical memory hole in the low 640K cannot boot
653 Linux no matter what.) Depending what the reason is for the
654 memory hole, a new kernel (2.4.0-test3-pre3 or later) may be
656 * SYSLINUX: Default installer binary now compiled against
657 glibc 2.1. If this is inappropriate for your system and you
658 still want to use the offical version of SYSLINUX, please
659 follow the instructions in "distrib.doc" to rebuild the
661 * SYSLINUX: Linux installer program now supports -o <offset>
662 option which does a loopback mount with the
663 -o loop,offset=<> option. Useful to run SYSLINUX on an
664 individual partition of a whole-harddisk image.
665 * Include the source code to a Master Boot Record (MBR)
666 functionally equivalent to the one installed DOS except it
667 includes EBIOS support, and should be resistant to geometry
668 changes. The MBR code is public domain.
669 * PXELINUX: Fix "double p" bug: if the tftp prefix was null,
670 all filenames would get a "p" preprended, e.g.
671 "ppxelinux.cfg" and "pvmlinux".
674 * PXELINUX: Workaround for PXE ROMs based on the Intel PXE PDK
675 3.0 build 071 and earlier: missing !PXE structure pointer.
676 * PXELINUX: Handle larger BOOTP/DHCP packages.
677 * PXELINUX: The command line passing was broken; fix.
678 * PXELINUX: Make COMBOOT images work.
679 * PXELINUX: Documentation on how to make booting work using
680 the PDK 3.0-derived clients, which aren't so generous as to
681 allow booting with only "PXEClient" specified.
684 * PXELINUX: RFC 1123 states that a TFTP implementation MUST
685 use adaptive timeout, "at least an exponential backoff of
686 retransmission timeout is necessary." Implement a very
687 simple exponential backoff for retransmits.
688 * PXELINUX: Updated documentation, including pointer to new
690 * PXELINUX: When sending ERROR due to bad OACK, use the proper
691 destination port number (why are TFTP port numbers so odd?)
692 * PXELINUX: If the boot dies in the middle somewhere,
693 eventually give up and reset the machine (unattended
697 * New program PXELINUX to do network booting using a
698 PXE-compliant (Pre-Execution Environment) network booting
699 PROM. See pxelinux.doc for details.
702 * Serial console support. See syslinux.doc for details.
705 * Change HIGHMEM_MAX to 38000000h to (hopefully) avoid the
706 kernel stepping on it; 3f000000h was apparently a higher
707 limit than the kernel used!
710 * Add sys2ansi.pl script to display the contents of a
711 colorized SYSLINUX file.
712 * Changed the io_delay once again, after a report that the
713 old delay port causes hangs on some systems.
716 * Frob the "fast A20 gate" port as well as the keyboard
717 controller; will this help systems with problems?
718 * Be even more paranoid about A20, unfortunately even this
719 seems to be not paranoid enough... what I don't understand
720 is that if there is hardware out there *this broken*, how
721 can it run Linux at all? Report an error message rather
722 than hang forever if A20 is stuck.
723 * Include some intermediate files in the distribution, plus
724 provide a "make installer" target for distributors to relink
725 the install programs only. I would prefer the syslinux boot
726 loader proper to be "binary clean" for debuggablity -- use
727 "make clean ; make installer" to rebuild the installers only.
730 * Don't get confused by directories, volume labels, or VFAT
732 * Use INT 15h, AX=0E801h to query memory size before trying
733 INT 15h, AH=88h. This not only provides more headroom
734 between the kernel and the initrd on large-memory machines,
735 but it appears some recent BIOSes actually have started
736 returning garbage for the AH=88h (older) call.
737 * Trust high memory beyond the 15 MB mark if the user has
738 specified it, or if obtained with INT 15h, AH=0E801h (with
739 no memory holes above 1 MB.)
742 * Increase A20M delay and put in a test to avoid problems on
743 certain IBM Thinkpads (thanks to Donnie Barnes of RedHat
744 for vital info on this one.)
745 * Support COMBOOT style boot command images.
746 * Support chain loading (foreign operating systems, e.g. DOS).
747 * Include a new "copybs" DOS utility to copy a boot sector to
748 a file (under Linux, use "dd".)
749 * Fix the DOS installer to work for disks over 32 MB.
750 * SYSLINUX should now handle disks with more than 65536 tracks.
753 * Fix a bug that caused "label" statements in syslinux.cfg to
754 not be handled properly.
755 * Updated the documentation. Among other things, we now allow
756 up to 128 "label" statements.
759 * Fix for booting old (pre-initrd) kernels.
760 * It seems at least some versions of OS/2 doesn't set up all
761 the fields in the superblock correctly. Account for that.
762 * Fix bug that caused boot failure when using the mem= option.
765 * Loading from partitions now should work properly. (Actually
766 tested, this time. You should even be able to dd a floppy
767 to a partition and boot from it.)
768 * Removed large workaround code for an alleged ancient BIOS
769 bug I have never actually seen. The -s option should work
770 on those machines, anyway.
771 * Support for simple keyboard remappings, same as used by
772 LILO (once again to support localization.) The program
773 keytab-lilo.pl from the LILO distribution included to
775 * Added a "safe, slow and stupid" (-s) option to the
776 installers. This option will lobotomize the boot sector to
777 hopefully work on even very buggy BIOSes.
780 * Ability to load a VGA font on bootup (for localized Linux
784 * Bug fix in the Linux installer.
785 * Added a workaround for a bug in certain AMI/Intel BIOSes
786 when booting from CD-ROM.
787 * Documentation changes.
790 * FAT16 filesystems are now supported.
793 * Now compiles under Linux, using NASM, rather than using
794 Turbo Assembler under DOS. See http://www.cryogen.com/Nasm
795 for information about NASM.
796 * Linux-hosted SYSLINUX installer, as well as a
797 rewritten DOS installer (now is written in assembler, so we
801 * Added support for loading bzImage and initrd loading, and made
802 SYSLINUX new-setup-code aware (SYSLINUX 1.30 id=0x31).
803 * Added LILO-style kernel labels; see the LABEL and IMPLICIT
804 keywords in README file.
805 * Added support for colorization of intro and help screens.
806 * The vga= option is now handled correctly.
807 * Massive rewrite of large chunks of the code in order to
808 support the first two new features.
811 * Added simple online help at the "boot:" prompt.
812 * Removed 2880K image as I no longer have access to such a
813 floppy drive. (Donations accepted!!)
814 * Decided to distribute the source in a subdirectory rather
815 than in a nested zipfile.
818 * Removed a sanity check which would cause booting to fail on
819 Phoenix BIOS version 4.03. Apparently this BIOS is buggy.
822 * Added configuration file SYSLINUX.CFG. This file contains all
823 configurable options, and can be edited from any OS which can
824 access an MS-DOS filesystem; there is no longer a need to run
825 SYSLINUX.EXE except to write the boot sector.
826 * Default command line now given by "default" line in config
828 * LINUXMSG.TXT and BOOTMSG.TXT hard-coded file names replaced by
829 "display" and "prompt" lines in config file.
830 * LILO-style option appending now supported ("append" line in
832 * Prompt timeout is now supported ("timeout" line in config
833 file). The timeout is cancelled when anything is typed on the
835 * Pressing <ESC> or <Ctrl-C> at the Loading... stage now aborts
836 the kernel loading in progress and returns the user to the
838 * The installer now automatically sets the READONLY flag on
840 * Added 2880K disk image.
843 * Fixed bug that would prevent booting from double-density
844 floppies and other DOS filesystems with multiple sectors per
846 * Added 720K disk image.
847 * Changed default kernel name on disk images to LINUX.
850 * Fixed bug that would garble the command line on recent kernels
851 with more than 4 sectors of setup code (this wasn't really a
852 *bug*; rather, a kernel change broke the code. Unfortunately
853 the Linux boot interface is still sorely undocumented).
854 * Added BOOTMSG.TXT file support (message file which does not
855 force display of the boot prompt).
858 * Fixed bug on some (most?) 386 BIOSes would require two boot
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