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: Workaround for BIOSes which go into a snit when
7 they get a RESET command for the floppy system when there is
8 no floppy in the system.
9 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend 2", which passes the hardware
10 address of the boot interface to the kernel as a
12 * mkdiskimage: fix the generation of the end limit.
13 * PXELINUX: Fix multiple bugs in chainloading of other NBPs.
14 * MEMDISK: Fix bug that would occationally cause "ran out of
15 input data" when using compressed disk images.
16 * SYSLINUX: Updates for the win32 installer (from Lars Munch.)
17 * PXELINUX: PXELINUX-specific options are now recognized both
18 in a vendor-option-space (a.k.a. type 43 encapsulated) as
19 well as in a site-option-space (unencapsulated.)
20 * COM32: Don't crash when DS != 0.
21 * COMBOOT/COM32: Make file reading work correctly. Thanks to
22 Phung Chi Kien for submitting a test program.
25 * ALL: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
26 boot failure, depending on the length of the kernel.
27 * ISOLINUX: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
28 boot failure, depending on the length of directories.
29 * SYSLINUX: Win32 installer now flushes buffers.
30 * ppmtolss16: Be fully compliant with the PNM spec;
31 actually process comments in the header and odd
32 alignments of the various parameters, as well as
33 "plain" (not raw) files and PBM and PGM files.
34 * PXELINUX: Lower the default MTU to 1472 in order to deal
35 with systems with slightly nonstandard MTUs, and PXE
36 stacks which don't defragment correctly. Unfortunately this
37 is very hard to test dynamically.
40 * PXELINUX: Add a default query based on the hardware address
41 of the boot device. This is in lower case hexadecimal form
42 separated by dashes and including the hardware type, for
43 example, the Ethernet (type 1) address 88:99:AA:BB:CC:DD
44 would query the file pxelinux.cfg/01-88-99-aa-bb-cc-dd.
45 * PXELINUX: Fix bug involving non-IP-based config file names.
46 * SYSLINUX: New installer for WinNT-based systems, from Lars
48 * MEMDISK: Fix handling of memory region overlap when
49 decompressing. Thanks to Mikhail Kupchik for identifying
53 * ALL: Reclaim even more low memory by observing that
54 comboot_seg == real_mode_seg is perfectly fine, and by the
55 fact that the 1000h segment managed to get unused in all
57 * PXELINUX: Attempt to negotiate full Ethernet-sized blocks
58 (1468 bytes) using the blksize option.
59 * SYSLINUX: Resurrect the old no-mtools version of the
60 installer, although as a root-only tool. Some distributors
61 have indicated that they need a small standalone installer.
62 * MEMDISK: Fix a memory offset computation error when
63 installing compressed disks which generally would cause
64 1 MB of memory to be wasted.
65 * MEMDISK: Fix installing the E820 memory map. Calling
66 INT 15h AX=0E820h with MEMDISK 2.03 loaded would give a
67 completely corrupt memory map.
68 * SYSLINUX: Make libsyslinux a dynamic library, so that it can
69 be updated separately from client programs. The whole idea,
70 after all, is to enable alternate programs to become
72 * Include an rpm spec file in the distribution, so rpmbuild
76 * Actually support comment lines in the configuration file.
77 * PXELINUX: Try to resolve some problems with stack switches.
78 * PXELINUX: Handle PXE stacks with broken routing.
79 With these workarounds, the remote install PXE boot floppy
80 (rbfg.exe) from Argon Technologies should work correctly.
81 * Fix problems with Perl scripts in UTF-8 locales.
82 * You probably need NASM 0.98.34 or later to compile this
83 version. 0.98.36 is recommended.
84 * MEMDISK: Now supports gzip compressed images.
87 * SYSLINUX: Security flaws have been found in the SYSLINUX
88 installer when running setuid root. Rewrite the SYSLINUX
89 installer so it uses mtools instead. It therefore now
90 requires mtools (specifically mcopy and mattrib) to exist on
91 your system, but it will not require root privileges and
95 * MEMDISK: Fix memory sizing bug when the ramdisk crosses the
97 * MEMDISK: Add a "pause" option to stop immediately before
98 booting, to read off the messages.
99 * MEMDISK: Support disk images with DOSEMU headers.
100 * Update the mkdiskimage script to handle newer mtools
101 versions, and be able to generate disk images with DOSEMU
102 headers (controlled by the -d option).
103 * Fix the COM32 sample program.
104 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix some COMBOOT API calls.
106 * Build SYSLINUX into a small library for encapsulation into
107 other programs (however, please keep in mind this is a GPL'd
109 * SYSLINUX: Make installer work with "owner" in /etc/fstab.
110 * SYSLINUX: Fix issue with working on nonpartitioned hard disk
111 devices. THIS CONFIGURATION IS NOT RECOMMENDED.
114 * ALL: Add support for "COM32" (32-bit COMBOOT) images.
115 * ALL: Add an API for COMBOOT/COM32 images. See comboot.doc
116 for details. There is a C development environment for
117 COM32 being created; it should be ready at some point in
119 * Fix mbr.asm so that it actually works.
120 * SYSLINUX: The syslinux installer *SHOULD* now be safe to
122 * PXELINUX: Fix bug where PXELINUX would override random
123 chunks of the UNDI code segment! Thanks to Kevin Tran for
125 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug related to slashes in pathnames.
126 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug in handling initrds over 128 MB.
127 * ALL: Make the <Ctrl-V> key print out the version; this is
129 * Add a small script, mkdiskimage, to create a DOS-formatted
130 hard disk image using mtools. This may be useful in
131 conjunction with MEMDISK.
132 * ISOLINUX: Search for a /boot/isolinux directory as well as
134 * ALL: Fix a bug related to very long configuration files.
135 * PXELINUX: Work around a NASM bug which would result in no
136 delay before reset if an error occurs.
139 * ISOLINUX: Remove code no longer used which caused hangs on
140 some Toshiba laptops.
143 * ALL: NASM 0.98.32 or later is now required to build
144 SYSLINUX from sources.
145 * SYSLINUX: put back in the workaround for the BIOS floppy
146 table. This seems to be a requirement for "extended" floppy
147 formats to work correctly.
148 * SYSLINUX: No longer warn if one is trying to boot on a 286
149 or older. The above BIOS workaround no longer fits if the
150 requirement to use only 8086-compatible code in the early
151 boot is maintained. It made sense in 1994, but in 2002 a
152 286 or older is a museum object.
153 * SYSLINUX: Use a downright bizarre, stateful algorithm to try
154 to guess the maximum transfer size. I am *hoping* this will
155 cut down on the number of systems for which -s is required
156 to work at any acceptable speed.
157 * ISOLINUX: Add a few more workarounds for various broken El
159 * Make sure .depend files aren't accidentally packed...
160 * ALL: Fix bugs in the extension-detect code; this caused
161 files like COMBOOT images and CD boot sectors to be
162 mis-identified as Linux kernels and rejected.
163 * ALL: Fix the return from COMBOOT.
164 * ALL: Do some of the early groundwork for supporting DOS
165 system calls in COMBOOT.
166 * Get rid of unnecessary "near" directives, making the code
168 * PXELINUX: Put the PXE stack back in the init state before
169 invoking a chain-loaded NBP.
170 * PXELINUX: Actually found the combination of calls that
171 allows some (most?) PXE 2+ stacks to be unloaded from memory
173 * PXELINUX: Add "keeppxe" command-line option to disable
174 the standard unloading of the PXE stack.
177 * SYSLINUX: fix bug that would cause valid kernel images to be
181 * Work on removing gratuitous differences between modules.
182 * Break up the source in common and module-specific files.
183 * PXELINUX: Allow chaining of other PXE NBPs.
184 * ISOLINUX: Allow loading "CD-ROM boot sectors".
185 * ALL: generalize the definition of a boot sector/NBP.
188 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix bugs in the new core code.
191 * Fix a "brown paper bag" class bug in the new core code.
194 * Major code restructuring.
195 * Relax the conventional memory limits somewhat.
196 * MEMDISK: Set up the "version number string" pointer in the
198 * SYSLINUX: Fix, again, "the bug that won't die": the use of
199 the offset parameter with the SYSLINUX installer.
200 * SYSLINUX: Fix possible superblock corruption problem in the
204 * Handle bug in the location of initrd.
207 * MEMDISK: Make compile with newer versions of gcc.
210 * ISOLINUX: Support booting disk image files (to boot DOS or
211 other non-Linux operating systems), *IF* the BIOS works
212 correctly; unfortunately many BIOSes apparently don't.
213 * Support Linux boot protocol version 2.03 (explicitly
214 specify the initrd address limit.)
215 * Handle small "pseudo-kernels"; images that use the Linux
216 kernel boot protocols but are less than 64K in size.
217 * MEMDISK: New subsystem; this is a driver which allows
218 legacy OSes to boot using an in-memory simulated disk.
219 See memdisk/memdisk.doc for more info.
220 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Correctly handle files larger than 65535
221 blocks (32 MB for PXELINUX, 128 MB for ISOLINUX.)
222 * PXELINUX: Make a best-effort attempt at freeing all memory
223 claimed. From the looks of it, it will fail on most PXE
227 * Limited support for hardware flow control when using a
229 * Support specifying the serial port I/O address explicitly.
230 * Make DOS installer hopefully behave more nicely when used on
231 recent Windows versions.
232 * Fix returning to text mode when a font has been specified.
233 * Attempt to detect missing serial port hardware and disable
234 the serial port if there is nothing there.
237 * Make the ppmtolss16 program handle color conversion more
239 * Clean up "make install" target, honour INSTALLROOT if it
241 * SYSLINUX: Fix stack-smash bug identified by Steffen
243 * Hopefully fix return-to-text-mode on some graphics cards.
244 * ISOLINUX: Bug workaround for Award BIOS 4.51, and perhaps
245 other buggy BIOSes as well.
248 * PXELINUX: Allow the DHCP server to override the
249 configuration file name and pathname prefix, using
250 "site-specific" DHCP options.
251 * PXELINUX: Documentation fixes.
252 * PXELINUX: Fix the "ipappend" option; the last two values
253 were reversed vs. what the kernel expected.
254 * Introduce a way to return to text mode once we are already
255 in graphics mode. This may be useful for F-key help
257 * Fix several bugs in the way return to text mode was handled.
260 * ISOLINUX: Support full pathname searches. Max length for a
261 pathname is 255 characters. As a result, only 64 "label"
262 statements are supported in ISOLINUX.
263 * PXELINUX: Max filename length extended to 63 characters.
266 * Add support for graphical splash screens.
267 * Add mode control characters, which allows you to control
268 message display output depending on output mode (text,
269 graphics, or serial port.)
270 * ISOLINUX: New program, which boots Linux from a CD-ROM
271 without using floppy emulation mode. See isolinux.doc for
273 * PXELINUX: Don't search for boot sector file types, since
274 they don't work anyway.
275 * SYSLINUX: Document the LOCK command for Win9x, and the error
276 dialog box for WinNT/2K.
279 * PXELINUX: Fix code for finding !PXE from PXENV+. This was
280 due to a spec bug; match the most recent spec since that
281 seems to be what implementations actually do.
282 * SYSLINUX: Add some smarts to the boot sector, which
283 hopefully should reduce the number of systems which require
284 stupid mode ("syslinux -s").
285 * PXELINUX: Document further some of the pathologies with old
287 * When specifying a "default" command line, no longer
288 automatically appent "auto". See the "DEFAULT" command in
289 syslinux.doc for more information.
290 * PXELINUX: Clean up the allocation of local socket numbers.
293 * PXELINUX: Rename pxelinux.bin to pxelinux.0, to match what
294 most PXE servers seem to expect.
295 * PXELINUX: Update the DHCP/boot server setup documentation.
296 * PXELINUX: Support new "localboot" option for "label"
298 * PXELINUX: More robust parsing of DHCP/boot server packets.
299 * PXELINUX: Include a small utility program "gethostip" to
300 compute hexadecimal IP addresses.
303 * PXELINUX: Fix bugs introduced by new A20 code. (SYSLINUX
304 has also been changed for code consistency reasons, but I'm
305 pretty sure the changes are don't care on SYSLINUX.)
306 * Documentation updates.
307 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend" option to generate an ip= option to
311 * PXELINUX: Not all PXE stacks fill in the IP address for a
312 type 3 cached info query. Use a type 2 cached info query
313 for this information (only.)
314 * Yet another attempt at A20 coding. Now support BIOS call
315 15:2401 as well, and handle machines which always have A20
317 * Support memory detection using INT 15h, AX=0E820h. BIOS
318 manufacturers have apparently gotten sloppy about keeping
319 INT 15h, AX=0E801h working properly.
320 * Don't issue <CR><LF> onto the serial port when we're doing
324 * Yet another A20-code update. It seems some "legacy-free"
325 machines and embedded gear simply don't have a KBC to talk
326 to, and that waiting for one will wait forever. Sigh.
329 * SYSLINUX: Implement a hack for BIOS drivers which hog significant
330 chunks of low memory during boot. (Note: PXELINUX already
331 had this modification. SYSLINUX does still require that the
332 low 512K is available; PXELINUX requires 384K. Machines
333 with a physical memory hole in the low 640K cannot boot
334 Linux no matter what.) Depending what the reason is for the
335 memory hole, a new kernel (2.4.0-test3-pre3 or later) may be
337 * SYSLINUX: Default installer binary now compiled against
338 glibc 2.1. If this is inappropriate for your system and you
339 still want to use the offical version of SYSLINUX, please
340 follow the instructions in "distrib.doc" to rebuild the
342 * SYSLINUX: Linux installer program now supports -o <offset>
343 option which does a loopback mount with the
344 -o loop,offset=<> option. Useful to run SYSLINUX on an
345 individual partition of a whole-harddisk image.
346 * Include the source code to a Master Boot Record (MBR)
347 functionally equivalent to the one installed DOS except it
348 includes EBIOS support, and should be resistant to geometry
349 changes. The MBR code is public domain.
350 * PXELINUX: Fix "double p" bug: if the tftp prefix was null,
351 all filenames would get a "p" preprended, e.g.
352 "ppxelinux.cfg" and "pvmlinux".
355 * PXELINUX: Workaround for PXE ROMs based on the Intel PXE PDK
356 3.0 build 071 and earlier: missing !PXE structure pointer.
357 * PXELINUX: Handle larger BOOTP/DHCP packages.
358 * PXELINUX: The command line passing was broken; fix.
359 * PXELINUX: Make COMBOOT images work.
360 * PXELINUX: Documentation on how to make booting work using
361 the PDK 3.0-derived clients, which aren't so generous as to
362 allow booting with only "PXEClient" specified.
365 * PXELINUX: RFC 1123 states that a TFTP implementation MUST
366 use adaptive timeout, "at least an exponential backoff of
367 retransmission timeout is necessary." Implement a very
368 simple exponential backoff for retransmits.
369 * PXELINUX: Updated documentation, including pointer to new
371 * PXELINUX: When sending ERROR due to bad OACK, use the proper
372 destination port number (why are TFTP port numbers so odd?)
373 * PXELINUX: If the boot dies in the middle somewhere,
374 eventually give up and reset the machine (unattended
378 * New program PXELINUX to do network booting using a
379 PXE-compliant (Pre-Execution Environment) network booting
380 PROM. See pxelinux.doc for details.
383 * Serial console support. See syslinux.doc for details.
386 * Change HIGHMEM_MAX to 38000000h to (hopefully) avoid the
387 kernel stepping on it; 3f000000h was apparently a higher
388 limit than the kernel used!
391 * Add sys2ansi.pl script to display the contents of a
392 colorized SYSLINUX file.
393 * Changed the io_delay once again, after a report that the
394 old delay port causes hangs on some systems.
397 * Frob the "fast A20 gate" port as well as the keyboard
398 controller; will this help systems with problems?
399 * Be even more paranoid about A20, unfortunately even this
400 seems to be not paranoid enough... what I don't understand
401 is that if there is hardware out there *this broken*, how
402 can it run Linux at all? Report an error message rather
403 than hang forever if A20 is stuck.
404 * Include some intermediate files in the distribution, plus
405 provide a "make installer" target for distributors to relink
406 the install programs only. I would prefer the syslinux boot
407 loader proper to be "binary clean" for debuggablity -- use
408 "make clean ; make installer" to rebuild the installers only.
411 * Don't get confused by directories, volume labels, or VFAT
413 * Use INT 15h, AX=0E801h to query memory size before trying
414 INT 15h, AH=88h. This not only provides more headroom
415 between the kernel and the initrd on large-memory machines,
416 but it appears some recent BIOSes actually have started
417 returning garbage for the AH=88h (older) call.
418 * Trust high memory beyond the 15 MB mark if the user has
419 specified it, or if obtained with INT 15h, AH=0E801h (with
420 no memory holes above 1 MB.)
423 * Increase A20M delay and put in a test to avoid problems on
424 certain IBM Thinkpads (thanks to Donnie Barnes of RedHat
425 for vital info on this one.)
426 * Support COMBOOT style boot command images.
427 * Support chain loading (foreign operating systems, e.g. DOS).
428 * Include a new "copybs" DOS utility to copy a boot sector to
429 a file (under Linux, use "dd".)
430 * Fix the DOS installer to work for disks over 32 MB.
431 * SYSLINUX should now handle disks with more than 65536 tracks.
434 * Fix a bug that caused "label" statements in syslinux.cfg to
435 not be handled properly.
436 * Updated the documentation. Among other things, we now allow
437 up to 128 "label" statements.
440 * Fix for booting old (pre-initrd) kernels.
441 * It seems at least some versions of OS/2 doesn't set up all
442 the fields in the superblock correctly. Account for that.
443 * Fix bug that caused boot failure when using the mem= option.
446 * Loading from partitions now should work properly. (Actually
447 tested, this time. You should even be able to dd a floppy
448 to a partition and boot from it.)
449 * Removed large workaround code for an alleged ancient BIOS
450 bug I have never actually seen. The -s option should work
451 on those machines, anyway.
452 * Support for simple keyboard remappings, same as used by
453 LILO (once again to support localization.) The program
454 keytab-lilo.pl from the LILO distribution included to
456 * Added a "safe, slow and stupid" (-s) option to the
457 installers. This option will lobotomize the boot sector to
458 hopefully work on even very buggy BIOSes.
461 * Ability to load a VGA font on bootup (for localized Linux
465 * Bug fix in the Linux installer.
466 * Added a workaround for a bug in certain AMI/Intel BIOSes
467 when booting from CD-ROM.
468 * Documentation changes.
471 * FAT16 filesystems are now supported.
474 * Now compiles under Linux, using NASM, rather than using
475 Turbo Assembler under DOS. See http://www.cryogen.com/Nasm
476 for information about NASM.
477 * Linux-hosted SYSLINUX installer, as well as a
478 rewritten DOS installer (now is written in assembler, so we
482 * Added support for loading bzImage and initrd loading, and made
483 SYSLINUX new-setup-code aware (SYSLINUX 1.30 id=0x31).
484 * Added LILO-style kernel labels; see the LABEL and IMPLICIT
485 keywords in README file.
486 * Added support for colorization of intro and help screens.
487 * The vga= option is now handled correctly.
488 * Massive rewrite of large chunks of the code in order to
489 support the first two new features.
492 * Added simple online help at the "boot:" prompt.
493 * Removed 2880K image as I no longer have access to such a
494 floppy drive. (Donations accepted!!)
495 * Decided to distribute the source in a subdirectory rather
496 than in a nested zipfile.
499 * Removed a sanity check which would cause booting to fail on
500 Phoenix BIOS version 4.03. Apparently this BIOS is buggy.
503 * Added configuration file SYSLINUX.CFG. This file contains all
504 configurable options, and can be edited from any OS which can
505 access an MS-DOS filesystem; there is no longer a need to run
506 SYSLINUX.EXE except to write the boot sector.
507 * Default command line now given by "default" line in config
509 * LINUXMSG.TXT and BOOTMSG.TXT hard-coded file names replaced by
510 "display" and "prompt" lines in config file.
511 * LILO-style option appending now supported ("append" line in
513 * Prompt timeout is now supported ("timeout" line in config
514 file). The timeout is cancelled when anything is typed on the
516 * Pressing <ESC> or <Ctrl-C> at the Loading... stage now aborts
517 the kernel loading in progress and returns the user to the
519 * The installer now automatically sets the READONLY flag on
521 * Added 2880K disk image.
524 * Fixed bug that would prevent booting from double-density
525 floppies and other DOS filesystems with multiple sectors per
527 * Added 720K disk image.
528 * Changed default kernel name on disk images to LINUX.
531 * Fixed bug that would garble the command line on recent kernels
532 with more than 4 sectors of setup code (this wasn't really a
533 *bug*; rather, a kernel change broke the code. Unfortunately
534 the Linux boot interface is still sorely undocumented).
535 * Added BOOTMSG.TXT file support (message file which does not
536 force display of the boot prompt).
539 * Fixed bug on some (most?) 386 BIOSes would require two boot