1 Starting with 1.47, changes marked with SYSLINUX, PXELINUX, ISOLINUX
2 or EXTLINUX apply to that specific program only; other changes apply
6 * SYSLINUX: correctly handle the case where the -d option is
7 specified with a non-absolute path, i.e. "syslinux -d
8 syslinux" instead of "syslinux -d /syslinux".
9 * ISOLINUX: recognize the directory names /boot/syslinux and
10 /syslinux, and the filename syslinux.cfg in addition to the
11 isolinux-specific names. Thus, "syslinux.cfg" is now a
12 generic name, whereas "isolinux.cfg" or "extlinux.conf" is
13 specific to different derivative.
14 * chain.c32: support setting alternate config filename for
15 stage2 of GRUB Legacy (Gert Hulselmans).
16 * whichsys.c32: execute specific command, based on Syslinux
17 bootloader variant (Gert Hulselmans).
18 * lua.c32: a lot of new bindings added to the "syslinux"
19 namespace: VESA, PCI, DMI, kernel loading (Marcel Ritter).
20 * btrfs: print a comprehensive error message if compressed or
21 encrypted files are encountered (neither is currently
23 * SYSLINUX: mtools installer: honor TMPDIR, error out on disk
25 * Handle fallbacks from EDD to CHS, to deal with systems which
26 announce EDD support but don't actually have it.
27 * SYSLINUX: the mtools, DOS and win32 installers now use the new
31 * ISOLINUX: fix initialization on systems which don't zero
33 * SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX: fix handing of disk read retries in
35 * ISOLINUX: change the initialization sequence to avoid
36 problems with certain (old) BIOSes. Special thanks to
37 Helmut Hullen for invaluable debugging support.
38 * ifplop.c32: new module which detects if the PLoP Boot Loader
39 already has booted a CDROM or USB drive (Gert Hulselmans).
40 * Correct a severe memory overwrite bug, triggered primarily
41 when selecting a very long command line in the menu system.
42 * lua.c32: Lua script interpreter, currently experimental
43 (Alexey Zaytsev, Marcel Ritter, Geert Stappers).
44 * PXELINUX: new option IPAPPEND 4 to append the system UUID to
45 the kernel command line.
46 * PXELINUX: display BOOTIF and SYSUUID at startup time, and
47 when Ctrl-N is pressed on the command line.
50 * Major code base changes; all filesystem rewritten in C.
51 This work was done primarily by Liu Aleaxander (Yuanhan Liu).
52 * EXTLINUX: btrfs and ext4 support. btrfs support was done by
54 * EXTLINUX is no longer a separate derivative; extlinux and
55 syslinux both install the same loader (ldlinux.sys); for the
56 Linux-based installers the extlinux binary is used for a
57 mounted filesystem; the syslinux binary for an unmounted
59 * When loading a new configuration file with the CONFIG
60 command, one can now also specify a new current directory
61 with an APPEND statement.
62 * Full ADV support for Syslinux, to boot-once and MENU SAVE
64 * Full support of GPT-partitioned disks, including disks
65 and/or parititions larger than 2 TiB (if supported by BIOS.)
66 * The GPT handover protocol adjusted to the current T13
67 committee draft; see doc/gpt.txt.
68 * HDT: code cleanup, small bugfixes
69 * The "linux" syslinux installer (syslinux-nomtools) now has a
70 command-line syntax closer to the extlinux installer. The
71 mtools, dos and win32 installers will get this new syntax
72 eventually, but it is not implemented yet.
73 * chain.c32: support booting GPT partitions by index, GUID, label.
74 * chain.c32: support booting the Syslinux partition with "fs".
75 * chain.c32: implement gpt.txt hand-over protocol.
76 * chain.c32: support for chainloading Grub stage 2.
77 * PXELINUX: TFTP URL syntax (tftp://) supported even when not
78 running gPXE/gpxelinux.
79 * New ls.c32 module to display the contents of the disk from
80 the command line, and pwd.c32 to display the current
82 * rosh.c32 (read only shell) updated and hopefully usable.
83 * PXELINUX: Support "localboot -1", just like the other
85 * gfxboot.com removed in favor of gfxboot.c32.
86 * New MENU HELP statement to display fullscreen help text as a
87 result of a menu selection.
88 * memdiskfind utility that can be used with the phram driver
89 in the Linux kernel to mount a memdisk.
90 * ifcpu.c32: Adding usage when no parameters are given,
92 * ifcpu.c32, ifcpu64.c32: handle more than one argument per
94 * isohybrid: C version which does not require Perl.
95 * New command MENU IMMEDIATE to permit hotkeys to activate
96 immediately without needing Enter.
97 * mdiskchk.com supports a --no-sequential (or -n) option to
98 suppress the classic all-drive-probing heuristic. Useful
99 on BIOSes who crash/hang when certain drive numbers are
101 * ElTorito.Sys DOS driver now scans drive numbers upwards
102 instead of downwards, in order to avoid a fairly common
103 bug on some BIOSes where probing drive 0xFF causes a
105 * NASM 2.03 or later required to build. 2.07 or later
109 * chain.c32: fix chainloading the MBR of a hard disk (broken
111 * mboot.c32: report the boot loader name in the information
113 * com32: set argv[0] in a com32 module.
114 * core: add a workaround for a bug in Xen HVM older than
115 version 3.3: disable halt on those platforms.
116 * Fix problems where certain operations in com32 modules would
117 cause the core to believe the system was idle.
118 * MEMDISK: fix MBR detection when used with a DOSEMU header or
120 * MEMDISK: generate the mBFT checksum correctly.
123 * gPXELINUX: updated to gPXE 1.0.0. gPXELINUX can now do NBP
124 chainloading, and does not require a second DHCP.
125 * vesamenu.c32: unbreak the default "grey hole" background.
126 * We no longer have a built-in default of "linux auto".
127 Instead, if no DEFAULT or UI statement is found, or the
128 configuration file is missing entirely, we drop to the boot:
129 prompt with an error message (if NOESCAPE is set, we stop
130 with a "boot failed" message; this is also the case for
131 PXELINUX if the configuration file is not found.)
132 * chain.c32: support chainloading Grub4DOS; patch by Gert
134 * New tool: sysdump.c32, can be used to produce system
135 information for debugging via tftp or ymodem (serial port).
136 * "vga=current" on the Linux command line is now supported.
137 * chain.c32: support for Windows Recovery Console, via the
139 * chain.c32: should now support loading NTLDR from different
140 type media than loaded from.
141 * chain.c32: support chainloading to a FAT/NTFS partition with
142 invalid "hidden sectors" via the "sethidden" option.
143 * memdisk: fix the mBFT ACPI table.
144 * vesamenu.c32: if the image is smaller than the screen, tile
145 it across the whole screen.
146 * mkdiskimage: -s option for producing a sparse image.
147 * vesamenu.c32: support arbitrary resolution setting (beyond
148 BIOS support) on some Intel-based video chipsets. This code
149 is a modified version of the "915resolution" tool by
150 Steve Tomljenovic; your mileage might vary.
153 * SYSLINUX: make the DOS installer work for MS-DOS 7.x/8.x
155 * HDT: updated to version 0.3.6 (numerous changes.)
156 * mboot.c32: now supports video mode setting if requested by
158 * MEMDISK: Fix floppy images of PC-DOS.
159 * MEMDISK: Add support for emulation of CD-ROM images; patch
161 * MEMDISK: Comply with the Win9x "safe hook" standard,
162 allowing a protected-mode driver.
163 * MEMDISK: New "mBFT" ACPI table, by analogy with the iSCSI
164 iBFT table. This allows detection from a protected-mode
165 operating system without EDD support.
166 * 32-bit version of the gfxboot loader (gfxboot.c32), so far
167 experimental. This will replace gfxboot.com in the future.
168 * vesamenu.c32: new MENU RESOLUTION directive to set a screen
169 resolution other than 640x480.
170 * chain.c32: add support for loading isolinux.bin.
171 * chain.c32: make sure to always return to text mode.
172 * eltorito.sys: DOS driver for generic CD-ROMs; by Gary Tong
176 * PXELINUX: clear memory before handing over to a chainloaded
177 NBP. This may help avoid a bug in Windows RIS.
178 * PXELINUX: fix localboot after NBP chainloading on certain
179 BIOSes (including ASUS A8N-E, but possibly others.)
180 * chain.c32: support chainloaded bootloaders on ISOLINUX.
181 * PXELINUX: allow filenames up to 251 characters.
182 * MEMDISK: fix problems booting from USB on Thinkpads, and
183 possibly other machines or hardware combinations.
184 * isohybrid: fix the -id option.
185 * HDT: updated to version 0.3.4.
186 * MEMDISK: the stack size is now configurable, with the stack=
188 * Simple menu: fix Ctrl-W (word erase) in command-line edit.
189 * Simple menu: fix crash on some platforms.
190 * Gfxboot: fixes to the configuration file parsing.
191 * PXELINUX: add a tool to override specific DHCP options via
192 values hardcoded in the pxelinux.0 file. These hardcoded
193 values can be either "before DHCP" (defaults if DHCP do not
194 provide values), or "after DHCP" (overrides DHCP). The tool
195 pxelinux-options can be used to set these options. This
196 feature does not apply to gpxelinux.0; when used with gPXE
197 this is better handled by modifying the embedded script.
200 * isohybrid: fix the -partok logic for loading from a partition.
201 * ISOLINUX: deal with systems which return from INT 13h with
203 * Do not invoke the idle handler during large file loads.
204 * Simple menu: make ONTIMEOUT work with MENU HIDDEN.
205 * PXELINUX: handle TFTP servers which have extra NULs at the
206 end of an OACK packet.
209 * Shuffler: fix bug in real-mode entry. This affected a
210 number of modules, probably in relatively unimportant ways,
211 but it completely broke linux.c32.
212 * Improved performance.
213 * Attempt to halt the processor while idle. This can cause
214 bad reponsiveness when using a serial console especially for
215 automated input; if that ends up being a problem, use the
216 new "NOHALT 1" configuration command.
217 * linux.c32 now suppresses all messages if the "quiet" flag is
219 * isohybrid: add a variety of options, and a help message.
220 * ISOLINUX: fix booting in hybrid mode when CBIOS is used.
221 This unfortunately means that the isohybrid handoff protocol
222 has changed, so the isohybrid utility must version-match
224 * Drop support for ACPI 3 extended memory flags.
225 * Menu system: don't set the autocr flag on the serial
227 * altmbr: fix handling of logical partitions.
228 * altmbr: cap at 439 bytes so the partition select byte isn't
232 * New shuffler mechanism and API.
233 * Rewritten mboot.c32 module.
234 * The syslinux_boot_linux() function has been simplified.
235 * Don't hang trying to boot a "menu quit" label from the CLI.
236 * Fix problem with boot-once "sticking" on some BIOSes.
237 * isohybrid: fix problem with images over 2 GB in size.
238 * APM poweroff module (poweroff.com) by Sebastian Herbszt.
239 * ISOLINUX: fix the handling of large directories. Bug found
240 and fixed by Steffen Winterfeldt.
243 * PXELINUX: fix the "keeppxe" option, which was broken in
245 * MEMDISK: correct the extraction of geometry information from
246 the MBR of a hard disk image, again broken in 3.74.
247 * extlinux(1) man page from Brian Pellin.
248 * Simple menu: MENU SAVE is now controllable on a menu-by-menu
249 or entry-by-entry basis.
250 * gPXELINUX: fix interrupt-disabling bug.
251 * HDT: fix lockup on machines with certain PCI configurations.
254 * New UI directive, which allows a more natural way to specify
255 a menu system (or not.) With the UI directive specifying
256 the menu system, the DEFAULT directive can be used to select
257 the default entry inside the menus.
258 * kbdmap.c32: new module to load a new keyboard map
260 * isohybrid: workaround bug in some versions of binutils.
261 * Fix issue with the placement of the initrd on some machines.
262 * ifcpu64: fix handling of less than three arguments.
263 * Fix bug in the shuffle library when dealing with a very
264 large number of fragments.
265 * Documentation fixes by Vicente Jimenez Aguilar.
266 * gPXE updated to version 0.9.7.
267 * hdt.c32: Hardware Detection Tool, an interactive hardware
268 analyzer module by Erwan Velu.
269 * MEMDISK: enable automatic determination of the disk geometry
270 for a large floppy disk image if (and only if) it is
271 formatted with a FAT filesystem.
272 * SYSLINUX: fix the handling of .bss files on FAT12/16.
273 * Suppress the Loading ... message if "quiet" is specified on
274 the kernel command line.
275 * Fix the use of "CONSOLE 0" with menu.c32.
276 * Allow COM32 modules to be aware of all memory even in the
277 presence of a memory hole. The "linux.c32" module can be
278 used to load a kernel (or memdisk) plus large initrd on
280 * MBR: produce alternate MBR variants which force the drive
281 number to hd0 (_f variants), or force the drive number to
282 hd0 if the Ctrl key is pressed (_c variants.) Furthermore,
283 add an MBR variant (altmbr*.bin) which ignores the active
284 flag and instead boots the partition number specified in the
285 byte at offset 439 decimal.
286 * Add IPAPPEND strings to com32 modules, especially needed for
288 * New MENU SAVE directive which saves the latest menu
289 selection until the next boot. Currently only implemented for
291 * gfxboot.com: *experimental* interface module to Steffen
292 Winterfeldt's "gfxboot" graphical front end
293 (http://gfxboot.sourceforge.net/). Module by Sebastian Herbszt.
296 * Upgrade gPXE to release version 0.9.5.
297 * Fix a number of build errors on various platforms.
298 * Handle systems with E820 "extended attributes" per ACPI 3.
299 Someone "cleverly" decided to change the E820 spec in a
300 backwards-incompatible manner!
301 * MEMDISK: default to "safeint".
302 * Adopt the moniker "The Syslinux Project", standard proper
303 noun capitalization, to refer to the project as a whole.
304 Thus, reserve the all-caps "SYSLINUX" to refer to the FAT
306 * mboot.c32: add "-solaris" option to pass DHCP information to
307 the Solaris kernel; required for automatic Solaris boot
308 without using Solaris' pxeboot program.
309 * config.c32: trivial COM32 module to restart Syslinux with
310 another configuration file from the command line (equivalent
311 to the CONFIG command in the configuratin file.)
314 * Include the pxechain.com module from Jeffery Hutzelman at
315 Carnegie Mellon University. This allows chaining another
316 PXE boot program while changing the DHCP packet passed to
318 * Reorganize the Makefile system.
319 * Major PCI core cleanups and other source cleanup.
321 * Try to avoid memory-snooping attacks on passwords. Note
322 that if someone has root on the box, they generally don't
323 need to compromise the boot loader...
324 * ISOLINUX: fix crash when given a zero-length file.
325 * sdi.c32: support gzipped SDI images.
326 * ISOLINUX: support generating images which can be either
327 a CD-ROM or a hard disk (USB disk, etc.) See
328 doc/isolinux.txt for more information.
329 * Remote gdb support for COM32 modules; patch from Stefan
331 * Support beeps in F-key help in the simple menu system.
332 * Tab display of labels, based on a patch from Sebastian
333 Herbszt. Can be disabled with the NOCOMPLETE configuration
335 * "menu default" can now be specified after "menu begin", to
336 indicate that a specific submenu should be the default entry.
339 * Workaround for a VESA BIOS which tries to make DOS system
341 * Simple menu: fix navigation around disabled entries
342 (or at least try to...)
343 * EXTLINUX: proper error message when confused about mount
345 * MEMDISK: be smarter about incompletely disabled floppies in
346 the BIOS and about being the only floppy.
347 * Optionally allow initrd to be specified on a separate line
348 rather than as part of the "append" line. This is not
349 recommended, but apparently makes life easier for some
351 * SYSLINUX: if no config file is present, set the current
352 directory to the root directory (Sebastian Herbszt).
353 * chain.c32: option "hide" to support hiding and unhiding of
354 primary partitions on the boot drive with DOS, Win, or OS/2
355 partition types (01, 04, 06, 07, 0b, 0c, 0e).
356 * Unbreak the KBDMAP command (broken in 3.70).
357 * EXTLINUX: fix the handling of the ADV when using CBIOS.
358 * ifcpu64.c32: simple COM32 module to select a 32- or 64-bit
359 kernel (and optionally 32-bit kernels with or without PAE.)
360 Eventually we want a scripting language for this
361 kind of stuff; a Lua module is under development.
362 * Fix parsing of the SERIAL command without a baud rate
364 * chain.c32: error out when try to boot an unbootable
366 * SYSLINUX: when building the Win32 installer, search for
367 MinGW under a large number of possible names.
370 * PXELINUX: Support enhanced capabilities when running on top
371 of gPXE (http://www.etherboot.org/). In particular, support
372 URL-style syntax for filenames, and any protocol that gPXE
373 supports (except, currently, iSCSI and AoE.) This feature
374 is currently highly experimental.
375 * Substantial infrastructure changes to support files whose
376 length aren't known at open time (typically network
377 connections.) Please note that the semantics of some of the
378 comboot APIs have changed slightly; please see doc/comboot.txt.
379 * PXELINUX: We no longer require a TFTP server which supports
380 the tsize option for all transfers.
381 * PXELINUX: Integrate with the gPXE source base; unified image
382 now included as "gpxelinux.0".
383 * The source tree has been restructured; files that were
384 previously in the root have moved into the core, dos, gpxe,
385 and utils directories.
386 * "make install", "make netinstall", and "make extbootinstall"
387 have been updated massively. "make install-all" now installs
389 * Change default dir for auxiliary files from
390 /usr/lib/syslinux to /usr/share/syslinux.
391 * SYSLINUX: VFAT long filename support.
392 * MEMDISK: Any image less than 4096K (4 MB) is treated as a
393 floppy disk. The geometry-guessing code will recognize all
394 common extended formats, but it is still possible some very
395 exotic formats need geometry specification. Large floppies
396 and very small harddisks still need explicit specification.
397 * chain.c32: option "swap" to support swapping of BIOS drive
398 numbers. This is necessary to boot certain operating systems
399 (DOS, Windows) from a secondary drive.
400 * chain.c32: option "file=" to support loading a boot file from
401 the SYSLINUX filesystem instead of loading the boot sector
403 * chain.c32: option "seg=" to control the load location.
404 * chain.c32: option "ntldr=" as a shorthand for "seg=0x2000
405 file="; use this to load one of WinNT's loaders:
407 chain.c32 hd0 1 ntldr=/MiniNT/setupldr.bin
409 Note that the file needs to be in the SYSLINUX filesystem.
410 * chain.32: options "freedos=" and "msdos="/"pcdos=" as
411 shorthands for "seg=0x60 file=" and "seg=0x70 file="
412 respectively; use this to load FreeDOS's kernel.sys, MS-DOS's
413 io.sys or PC-DOS's ibmbio.sys.
414 * Change to the A20 algorithm which *MIGHT* help systems that
415 have systems which freeze when Syslinux is used with USB
416 keyboards. Note that this has been hard do verify, so I
417 would greatly appreciate feedback on it.
418 * Complex menu system: unbreak menus which has unnamed
419 submenus, like complex.c.
420 * Fix newline on the serial port for some com32 modules.
421 * chain.c32: support "boot" as the drive specification,
422 indicating the drive from which it was booted
423 (for syslinux/extlinux).
424 * SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX: support "localboot" with the same feature
426 * Add an experimental MBR for GPT partition tables.
427 * Use $(CC) when determining compile flags.
428 * chain.c32: fix booting from logical partitions (Sergey
432 * Fix errors in the PCI and DMI detection modules (Erwan Velu,
434 * Fix host dependencies and other issues in the build system.
435 * PXELINUX: Allow class E addresses as unicast.
436 * sdi.c32: module to load Microsoft System Deployment Images.
437 For additional information, please see:
438 http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms838543.aspx
439 * EXTLINUX: Correct reading directories with deleted entries.
440 * Shuffle library: correct the handling of certain geometries
441 (an upward move with source material blocking the move); as
442 required by sdi.c32 but theoretically possible for other
444 * Add "make netinstall" to install /tftpboot.
445 * Fix some documentation files that didn't get moved/renamed.
448 * Clean up garbage after "aborted." message.
449 * Clean up memdump.com filenames.
450 * Support SHA256 and SHA512 encrypted passwords.
451 * The shuffle library now can generate chained descriptors,
452 thus allowing pretty much arbitrarily complex memory maps.
453 * Handle command lines up to 2047 characters, the current
455 * vesamenu: support systems without linear framebuffer support
456 (sigh, what is this, 1993?) and 15-bit RGB modes.
457 * Move the label storage (for the command-line interface) to
458 high memory, removing the size limit and freeing up 64K of
460 * Get rid of 4096-entry limit in the simple menu system.
461 * New hierarchial submenu support: see MENU BEGIN, MENU END,
462 MENU GOTO in doc/menu.txt.
463 * MENU QUIT allows creating a menu entry for returning to the
465 * ISOLINUX: Work around bug in certain Adaptec BIOSes,
466 patch by Bruce Robson.
467 * pngtopnm dependency removed from samples/ directory.
468 * Text documentation files (in doc/) renamed *.doc -> *.txt.
471 * EXTLINUX: fix crash when accessing an empty file.
472 * elf.c32: If a PHDR segment is present, load it.
473 * Fix SHA-1 and MD5 passwords.
474 * ISOLINUX: fix booting when mastered without
475 mkisofs -boot-info-table (broken since 3.50, sigh...)
476 * Handle BIOSes which emit multiple contiguous valid
477 memory regions in the e820 map.
480 * Support for "auxilliary data vector", a small amount of
481 writable storage. Currently only supported for EXTLINUX,
482 but the infrastructure is there for the other derivatives,
483 assuming a suitable storage location can be found.
484 * EXTLINUX: boot-once support (--once, --clear-once, and
486 * A command is now required to the EXTLINUX installer, i.e. at
487 least one of --install, --update, --once, --clear-once, or
491 * PXELINUX: as per RFC 5071, PXELINUX no longer requires the
492 use of the magic cookie option (208) for unencapsulated
493 options. Currently it does not require it for
494 vendor-encapsulated options (vendor-option-space) either,
495 but that MAY be reverted in the future if it causes
497 * Documentation text files moved to a common "doc" directory;
498 man pages from the Debian project added to the "man"
500 * Correct bug with self-overlapping memory areas when using
501 the shuffle interface.
504 * Add "menu separator", "menu indent", "menu disabled"
506 * vesamenu: fix handing of VESA modes with noncontiguous
507 memory buffers. In particular, Qemu/KVM sets up such a mode
508 when Cirrus Logic emulation is enabled (which is the
510 * Support for calling real mode functions using far calls,
511 with argument on the stack. This was implemented to support
512 the BIOS BBS specification, but subsequent experiments show
513 that the at least one of the most common BIOS cores, Award,
514 passes the presence check but doesn't actually implement the
518 * Fix bugs related to the $PnP BIOS functionality on some
520 * PXELINUX: Fix the "naked" version of :: (suppress prefix.)
521 * elf.c32: better error messages.
522 * Faster operation under Intel VT virtualization.
523 * PXELINUX: Fix DHCP bootfile option.
524 * mkdiskimage: Support more than 1024 cylinders.
525 * (Hopefully) fix installer on non-x86 platforms.
526 * Fix shuffle_and_boot_rm, used by linux.c32.
527 * Fix shuffle_and_boot_pm on 386/486.
528 * ISOLINUX (at least): fix bss memory overwrite hang.
529 * MBR: Fix booting from logical partitions.
533 * Handle capitalized F-key commands in the menu system.
534 * Fix padding error when loading multiple ramdisks.
535 * Workaround for VMware crashing when trying to print a
536 message during early kernel boot (does not seem to work,
538 * chain.c32: add the ability to search for a specific MBR
539 signature at runtime.
540 * Fall back to the server identity option if the siaddr field
541 in the DHCP header isn't set. This seems to match the
542 behaviour of most PXE stacks.
543 * mkdiskimage: give the generated disk image an MBR signature.
544 * MEMDISK: Fix failures on some BIOSes.
545 * Simple menu system: new "MENU HIDDEN" option to not display
546 the menu unless the user presses a key.
547 * Simple menu system: support MD5-encrypted passwords (modern
548 Unix standard style, with "$1$" prefixes.)
549 * pcitest.c32: now functions as a full "lspci". Thanks to
550 Erwan Velu for this work.
551 * MEMDISK: Make EDD actually work.
552 * ISOLINUX: Fix for certain broken CD-ROM BIOSes which
553 randomly corrupted register FS.
554 * Simple menu system: fix memory overwrite bug that caused
555 some systems to lock up or behave weirdly.
556 * Fix building on 64-bit systems without a 32-bit libc installed.
559 * EXTLINUX: Fix failure to find the configuration file.
562 * New keywords allow the type of file to be specified in the
564 * It is now supported to load a different configuration file
565 with the CONFIG keyword.
566 * Fix API call 0x0019 (Read Disk.)
567 * MENU AUTOBOOT, MENU TABMSG, MENU PASSPROMPT allows
568 internationalization of menu messages.
569 * A new feature, TEXT HELP, allows the administrator to set
570 a multi-line help message for individual selections.
571 * Fix API call 0x0012 (Cleanup, shuffle and boot.)
572 * New API call "Cleanup, shuffle and boot to flat protected mode"
573 * New API call "Cleanup, shuffle and boot to real mode",
574 similar to API call 0x0012 but allows arbitrary register setting.
575 * Introduce a library interface for loading arbitrary binary
576 formats with relatively easily understood code. See
577 the elf.c32 module for an example on how to use it.
578 * New module "elf.c32", to load a protected-mode ELF kernel.
579 * MBR (old and new): Fix bug in CHS mode when LBA >
581 * vesamenu: fix decoding of palettized PNG images.
582 * Update the Linux kernel boot protocol.
583 * PXELINUX: Press Ctrl-N at the boot prompt to read out the
585 * Instead of the (non-existent) MAC, use the client identifier
586 for networks like Infiniband and Firewire/1394.
587 * Add a new INCLUDE command to the core syslinux parser.
588 * Allow binding help text to F11 and F12.
589 * F-key help now available in the simple menu system.
590 * Disabled the polling for ARP during idle. It is simply too
591 slow on some (broken!) PXE stacks.
592 * PXELINUX: also try to fetch the config file based on UUID.
593 * SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX: New RAID mode (-r) which calls the BIOS
594 to load the next device (typically the next drive) on boot
598 * MEMDISK: Disable EDD by default on floppy disks. EDD can be
599 enabled with the "edd" option and disabled with "noedd".
600 This (hopefully) should make Ghost work again.
601 * SYSLINUX: "unix" installer now uses Linux ioctls instead of
603 * New MBR which can boot from logical partitions.
604 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in detecting special extensions which was
605 introduced in 3.35 :(
606 * PXELINUX: Unbreak chainbooting FreeBSD (and possibly others.)
609 * MEMDISK: New "safeint" mode.
610 * MEMDISK: Be more compliant with the PnP BIOS spec.
611 * MEMDISK: Turn on EDD support by default.
612 * MEMDISK: Try to work on some machines on which it would not
613 work when there was no floppy drive in the system.
614 * Simple menu system: fix serial console support (broken in
616 * SYSLINUX: Support subdirectories. Like ISOLINUX, the
617 "current directory" is the directory in which syslinux.cfg
618 is found; this is searched for in the sequence
619 /boot/syslinux, /syslinux, /. As a side benefit, label names
620 like "linux-2.6.18" and "linux-2.6.19" are now supported.
622 To install ldlinux.sys in a subdirectory, pass the -d
623 directory option to the SYSLINUX installer.
625 This work was sponsored by slax.org (thanks, Tomas!)
626 * New API call: read disk.
627 * Invoke ONERROR on initrd load failure.
630 * The simple menu system (menu.c32 and vesamenu.c32) now
631 support loading more than one configuration file at a time,
632 using MENU INCLUDE or by specifying multiple filenames.
633 * The MENU COLOR statement can now control the shadowing mode.
636 * libcom32 extended to support graphics mode and graphical console.
637 * vesamenu.c32, new graphical version of the Simple
638 Menu System, see README.menu.
639 * New com32 modules by Erwan Velu do selection based on CPUID
640 or PCI devices present.
641 * RPM spec: add syslinux-tftpboot module; move syslinux by
642 default to the /usr/share/syslinux directory.
643 * RPM spec: extlinux is now a separate package.
646 * EXTLINUX: New options --install (-i) and --update (-U), to
647 make it clear if a boot loader should be installed or
648 updated. For now, defaults to --install for compatibility;
649 a future version will require one of these options.
650 * New library functions to load and place files in memory.
651 * mboot.c32 bug fixes.
652 * Remove 8 MB kernel size restriction.
653 * Add "klibc" target for building unix/syslinux and
654 extlinux/extlinux with klcc (klibc-1.4.27 or later.)
655 * PXELINUX: Fail (and eventually reboot) if no configuration
657 * COM32 module by Erwan Velu to make decisions based on DMI
659 * Fix issue where going back and forth between menus a lot
661 * ISOLINUX: Fix bug which made "cd boot sectors" not work.
664 * MEMDISK: Fix bug by which accessing the real floppy disk
665 as B: in MS-DOS was broken.
666 * Simple menu system: allow tweaking of the screen layout.
667 * Simple menu system: better command-line editing, correctly
668 handle command lines above 256 characters.
669 * PXELINUX: revert memory allocation change that caused
670 problems on some network cards.
671 * MEMDISK: Try work around a bug on some BIOSes when no
672 physical floppy disk is present in the system.
673 * Enable the 16550A FIFOs, if present, when doing serial
675 * New "totaltimeout" command establishes a timeout without
676 regard for any user input.
677 * Simple menu system: timeout behaviour now more in line with
679 * Simple menu system: "ontimeout" should now work correctly.
682 * gcc 4.0.1 compilation fixes.
683 * Add support for querying the PCI BIOS in libcom32
684 (used by ethersel et al.)
685 * Fix PCI handing (ethersel etc) on several old chipsets (and
687 * Try to deal with systems with broken EBIOS.
688 * New API call to do "localboot".
689 * New API call to query features.
690 * New API call to run kernel image, a lower-level call than
691 "run command". See comboot.doc.
692 * Fix for bug in EBIOS code discovered by Arwin Vosselman.
693 * NOESCAPE security fix.
694 * Comments are now recognized even without a space following #.
695 * Fix incorrect handling of mixes of entries with and without
697 * The idle API call now harmlessly returns failure if it is a
698 no-op. That way the caller can decide whether or not to
699 bother invoking it again.
700 * Temporarily disable the idle API call on PXELINUX, due to
701 some platforms on which the idle API call seems to hang; this
702 problem has not yet been debugged.
703 * MEMDISK: the handling of DOSEMU-headered images was broken;
705 * EXTLINUX: symlinks are now supported.
706 * Simple menu system: N and P now work correctly as hotkeys.
707 * MEMDISK: more BIOS bug workarounds.
710 * gcc4 compilation fix.
711 * <BEL> (Ctrl-G) in message files now causes a beep.
712 * Reduce the command line to 511 characters; 1023 caused
716 * SYSLINUX: Fix performance regression (-s mode always
718 * Add API function for idle loop.
719 * libutil: Add do_idle() function for idle loop, make
721 * libutil: Add SHA-1 and base64 functions.
722 * Simple menu system: add password support.
723 * EXTLINUX: Sparse files now handled correctly.
724 * EXTLINUX: Large directories now handled correctly.
725 * ALL: At the prompt, Ctrl-X now forces text mode.
726 * Fix configuration file parsing error, that could cause
728 * Rewritten advanced menuing system from Murali Ganapathy.
729 * MEMDISK: New "bigraw" mode to work around certain broken
731 * COM32 module to boot Multiboot systems, including Xen. See
732 com32/modules/mboot.doc.
733 * Max command line changed to 1023 characters. Note that the
734 kernel proper still can only handle 255 characters without
735 patching, and COM16 binaries can only handle 125 characters.
738 * Fix chainloading (chain.c32).
739 * Fix zlib build problem.
740 * Use a private copy of <linux/ext2_fs.h>.
743 * Fix typo that caused the ramdisk to load in the wrong place.
746 * New API function "shuffle and boot"; allows COM32 modules to
747 load or construct (almost) arbitrarily complex objects,
748 e.g. a kernel and its initrd/initramfs in pieces, and have
749 the API core reorganize memory for booting. (A library API
750 for this function will be introduced in a later version.)
751 * The initrd= option now supports multiple filenames separated
752 by commas. This is mostly useful for initramfs, which can
753 be composed of multiple separate cpio or cpio.gz archives.
754 (Note: all files except the last one are zero-padded to a 4K
755 page boundary. This should not affect initramfs.)
756 * EXTLINUX: Fix API function 000Ah (get derivative-specific
758 * libcom32/ethersel: Support PCI Config Mechanism #2 on
759 machines still infested with that hideous old hack.
760 * SYSLINUX: Fix directory-parsing bug.
763 * SYSLINUX: The "unix" installer now sets the MS-DOS
764 attributes (hidden, system, readonly.)
765 * COM32 library: build the .lnx (test modules for running
766 under Linux) as architecture native modules, in case
767 i386 devel libraries aren't installed.
768 * EXTLINUX: Hack for systems which don't have BLKGETSIZE64
769 defined in the standard header files.
770 * Simple menu system: minor aestetic improvements, and try to
771 work better over a serial console (speed, and readability on
772 monochrome terminal emulators.)
773 * New CONSOLE directive to control output on the video console
774 (useful for dealing with some broken serial-forwarding
776 * New com32 module "ethersel" for searching for an Ethernet
777 card and selecting the proper version of Etherboot.
778 * EXTLINUX: Allow the user to override the detected geometry.
782 * EXTLINUX, SYSLINUX: Fix compile errors on some systems.
783 * EXTLINUX: Default to zipdrive geometry (64 heads, 32
784 sectors) if no other geometry can be detected.
787 * SYSLINUX: Support FAT32 and EDD. As an unfortunate
788 consequence, LDLINUX.SYS is no longer an ordinary file; it
789 is block-mapped at install time, which means it can only be
790 written using the syslinux installers.
791 * SYSLINUX: Reorganize the source code for the installers;
792 each one of the installers (dos, win32, unix, mtools) is now
793 built in its own subdirectory. In particular, "mtools" is
794 the unprivileged installer which uses mtools; "unix" is the
795 privileged installer which uses system calls.
796 * SYSLINUX: Completely rewritten DOS installer in C.
797 * ALL: "label" statement information is now stored in a
798 compressed format, which means that a lot more labels are
799 permitted (500-1000 in a typical configuration, but depends
801 * EXTLINUX: New derivative, which boots from an ext2/ext3
803 * SYSLINUX: The DOS and Win32 installers can now optionally
804 write the boot sector to a file instead of the real boot
805 sector. This is not supported in the Linux installers,
807 * ALL: New NOESCAPE command, disables the "hold down the Shift
808 key to display the prompt" behaviour.
809 * New simple menu system, as an alternative to the advanced
810 menu system already present. See README.menu for details.
811 * PXELINUX: Filenames can now be prefixed with an IP address
812 or DNS name plus :: (e.g. 192.0.2.1::filename or
813 server.domain.com::filename), which downloads a file from an
814 alternate TFTP server, or just a :: (e.g. ::filename), which
815 suppresses the common pathname prefix. See pxelinux.doc.
816 * SYSLINUX: Add an -m option to the DOS and Win32 installers
817 to write an MBR and -a to mark the partition SYSLINUX is
818 being installed on active.
819 * MEMDISK: Give a way to query the boot loader type while
820 running MEMDISK; see memdisk/memdisk.doc and
822 * mkdiskimage: substantially improved mkdiskimage which, among
823 other things, can now be used to initialize USB keys as
824 zipdrives; see README.usbkey for more information.
827 * MEMDISK: Fix command-line parsing "brown paper bag" class
829 * MEMDISK: Add "raw" mode to support the DOS boot disk from
830 WinME/XP, which seems to deliberately crash the system
831 when someone uses the "INT 15h mover" highmem API.
832 * Make "make install" do something sane for the com32
833 development environment.
834 * In the spec file, create a separate -devel RPM for the com32
835 development environment.
838 * Simple C library, based on klibc, for writing COM32
840 * Fix the handling of file length in loading of COM32
842 * MEMDISK: Work around a linker bug by rearranging the code to
843 not use the linker for the 16-bit code.
844 * SYSLINUX: If we're building on a machine without a Win32
845 (mingw) compiler, just skip building syslinux.exe.
846 * ISOLINUX: Support non-mkisofs mastering programs, at least
847 as long as the image is single-session. For best results,
848 ISOLINUX should be the only boot loader installed.
849 * MEMDISK: Allow the user to specify that the simulated disk
850 should be write-protected.
853 * ALL: Add an API call to get the configuration file name.
854 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in 2.10 that prevented it from working
855 correctly for a lot of people.
856 * SYSLINUX: In the installer, make mtools a bit less fussy.
857 * Make the menu system compile with newer gcc's.
860 * MEMDISK: Handle images compressed with zip as well as with
861 gzip. Some Windows-based image tools apparently generate
862 these kinds of images by default. Patch by Patrick
864 * Major menu improvement from Murali Ganapathy.
865 * ISOLINUX: Wonderfully sick and brilliant workaround for
866 severe bugs in certain Award BIOSes; from Knut Petersen.
867 * SYSLINUX: Fix for the nomtools installed, from Frederic
869 * PXELINUX: Fix handling of IP numbers in the ranges
871 * ALL: New option "allowoptions" (defaults to 1), which
872 controls if options are allowed on the command line or not.
873 * SYSLINUX: Support building under klibc (see the klibc
874 distribution for details.)
877 * SYSLINUX: Remove residual setuid crap from
879 * Handle video pages correctly when using the API functions.
880 * Handle compiling on an x86-64 platform correctly.
881 * Menu system from Murali Krishnan Ganapathy; see the menu
882 directory for information.
883 * COMBOOT: Allow COMBOOT programs to change screen text mode.
884 * COMBOOT: Correct the documentation of how to detect
885 SYSLINUX from COMBOOT!!!!
886 * COMBOOT: Fix "get key without echo" API function.
887 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug that affected the API open function.
888 * ALL: Improve the E820 memory parser, to work around some
892 * Add new configuration command "ontimeout" to allow timeout
893 to have a different action than just pressing Enter.
894 * Add new configuration command "onerror" to allow a custom
895 command to be executed in case the kernel image is not found.
896 * Fix bugs in the COMBOOT/COM32 command-line parsing. APPEND
897 now works with COMBOOT/COM32 images.
898 * PXELINUX: Poll for ARP requests while sitting at the
899 prompt. This makes some boot servers a lot less unhappy.
900 * PXELINUX: Actually free sockets when we get a failure
901 (including file not found.) This bug would cause us to run
902 out of sockets and thus "go deaf" after a while.
903 * MEMDISK: Add an API to query for the existence of MEMDISK.
904 * SYSLINUX: Fix loading boot sectors (.bs/.bss) from floppy
906 * .c32 is now one of the extensions searched for
908 * PXELINUX: RFBG.exe seems to randomly overwrite memory
909 location 0x5700. Thus, don't use it!
910 * PXELINUX: Change pathname length max from 63 to 127; change
911 max vkernels from 128 to 64.
912 * Support Ctrl-U -> kill entire command line input.
913 * The "samples" directory contains a (barely at all tested)
914 chain loading example, chain.c32, which may be used to
915 chainload local floppy disks and hard disks. Use with
916 "chain fdN" or "chain hdN [partition]"; N = 0 for the first
920 * MEMDISK: Workaround for BIOSes which go into a snit when
921 they get a RESET command for the floppy system when there is
922 no floppy in the system.
923 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend 2", which passes the hardware
924 address of the boot interface to the kernel as a
926 * mkdiskimage: fix the generation of the end limit.
927 * PXELINUX: Fix multiple bugs in chainloading of other NBPs.
928 * MEMDISK: Fix bug that would occationally cause "ran out of
929 input data" when using compressed disk images.
930 * SYSLINUX: Updates for the win32 installer (from Lars Munch.)
931 * PXELINUX: PXELINUX-specific options are now recognized both
932 in a vendor-option-space (a.k.a. type 43 encapsulated) as
933 well as in a site-option-space (unencapsulated.)
934 * COM32: Don't crash when DS != 0.
935 * COMBOOT/COM32: Make file reading work correctly. Thanks to
936 Phung Chi Kien for submitting a test program.
939 * ALL: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
940 boot failure, depending on the length of the kernel.
941 * ISOLINUX: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
942 boot failure, depending on the length of directories.
943 * SYSLINUX: Win32 installer now flushes buffers.
944 * ppmtolss16: Be fully compliant with the PNM spec;
945 actually process comments in the header and odd
946 alignments of the various parameters, as well as
947 "plain" (not raw) files and PBM and PGM files.
948 * PXELINUX: Lower the default MTU to 1472 in order to deal
949 with systems with slightly nonstandard MTUs, and PXE
950 stacks which don't defragment correctly. Unfortunately this
951 is very hard to test dynamically.
954 * PXELINUX: Add a default query based on the hardware address
955 of the boot device. This is in lower case hexadecimal form
956 separated by dashes and including the hardware type, for
957 example, the Ethernet (type 1) address 88:99:AA:BB:CC:DD
958 would query the file pxelinux.cfg/01-88-99-aa-bb-cc-dd.
959 * PXELINUX: Fix bug involving non-IP-based config file names.
960 * SYSLINUX: New installer for WinNT-based systems, from Lars
962 * MEMDISK: Fix handling of memory region overlap when
963 decompressing. Thanks to Mikhail Kupchik for identifying
967 * ALL: Reclaim even more low memory by observing that
968 comboot_seg == real_mode_seg is perfectly fine, and by the
969 fact that the 1000h segment managed to get unused in all
971 * PXELINUX: Attempt to negotiate full Ethernet-sized blocks
972 (1468 bytes) using the blksize option.
973 * SYSLINUX: Resurrect the old no-mtools version of the
974 installer, although as a root-only tool. Some distributors
975 have indicated that they need a small standalone installer.
976 * MEMDISK: Fix a memory offset computation error when
977 installing compressed disks which generally would cause
978 1 MB of memory to be wasted.
979 * MEMDISK: Fix installing the E820 memory map. Calling
980 INT 15h AX=0E820h with MEMDISK 2.03 loaded would give a
981 completely corrupt memory map.
982 * SYSLINUX: Make libsyslinux a dynamic library, so that it can
983 be updated separately from client programs. The whole idea,
984 after all, is to enable alternate programs to become
986 * Include an rpm spec file in the distribution, so rpmbuild
990 * Actually support comment lines in the configuration file.
991 * PXELINUX: Try to resolve some problems with stack switches.
992 * PXELINUX: Handle PXE stacks with broken routing.
993 With these workarounds, the remote install PXE boot floppy
994 (rbfg.exe) from Argon Technologies should work correctly.
995 * Fix problems with Perl scripts in UTF-8 locales.
996 * You probably need NASM 0.98.34 or later to compile this
997 version. 0.98.36 is recommended.
998 * MEMDISK: Now supports gzip compressed images.
1001 * SYSLINUX: Security flaws have been found in the SYSLINUX
1002 installer when running setuid root. Rewrite the SYSLINUX
1003 installer so it uses mtools instead. It therefore now
1004 requires mtools (specifically mcopy and mattrib) to exist on
1005 your system, but it will not require root privileges and
1006 SHOULD NOT be setuid.
1009 * MEMDISK: Fix memory sizing bug when the ramdisk crosses the
1011 * MEMDISK: Add a "pause" option to stop immediately before
1012 booting, to read off the messages.
1013 * MEMDISK: Support disk images with DOSEMU headers.
1014 * Update the mkdiskimage script to handle newer mtools
1015 versions, and be able to generate disk images with DOSEMU
1016 headers (controlled by the -d option).
1017 * Fix the COM32 sample program.
1018 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix some COMBOOT API calls.
1019 * PXELINUX: Doc fix.
1020 * Build SYSLINUX into a small library for encapsulation into
1021 other programs (however, please keep in mind this is a GPL'd
1023 * SYSLINUX: Make installer work with "owner" in /etc/fstab.
1024 * SYSLINUX: Fix issue with working on nonpartitioned hard disk
1025 devices. THIS CONFIGURATION IS NOT RECOMMENDED.
1028 * ALL: Add support for "COM32" (32-bit COMBOOT) images.
1029 * ALL: Add an API for COMBOOT/COM32 images. See comboot.doc
1030 for details. There is a C development environment for
1031 COM32 being created; it should be ready at some point in
1033 * Fix mbr.asm so that it actually works.
1034 * SYSLINUX: The syslinux installer *SHOULD* now be safe to
1036 * PXELINUX: Fix bug where PXELINUX would override random
1037 chunks of the UNDI code segment! Thanks to Kevin Tran for
1039 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug related to slashes in pathnames.
1040 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug in handling initrds over 128 MB.
1041 * ALL: Make the <Ctrl-V> key print out the version; this is
1043 * Add a small script, mkdiskimage, to create a DOS-formatted
1044 hard disk image using mtools. This may be useful in
1045 conjunction with MEMDISK.
1046 * ISOLINUX: Search for a /boot/isolinux directory as well as
1048 * ALL: Fix a bug related to very long configuration files.
1049 * PXELINUX: Work around a NASM bug which would result in no
1050 delay before reset if an error occurs.
1053 * ISOLINUX: Remove code no longer used which caused hangs on
1054 some Toshiba laptops.
1057 * ALL: NASM 0.98.32 or later is now required to build
1058 SYSLINUX from sources.
1059 * SYSLINUX: put back in the workaround for the BIOS floppy
1060 table. This seems to be a requirement for "extended" floppy
1061 formats to work correctly.
1062 * SYSLINUX: No longer warn if one is trying to boot on a 286
1063 or older. The above BIOS workaround no longer fits if the
1064 requirement to use only 8086-compatible code in the early
1065 boot is maintained. It made sense in 1994, but in 2002 a
1066 286 or older is a museum object.
1067 * SYSLINUX: Use a downright bizarre, stateful algorithm to try
1068 to guess the maximum transfer size. I am *hoping* this will
1069 cut down on the number of systems for which -s is required
1070 to work at any acceptable speed.
1071 * ISOLINUX: Add a few more workarounds for various broken El
1073 * Make sure .depend files aren't accidentally packed...
1074 * ALL: Fix bugs in the extension-detect code; this caused
1075 files like COMBOOT images and CD boot sectors to be
1076 mis-identified as Linux kernels and rejected.
1077 * ALL: Fix the return from COMBOOT.
1078 * ALL: Do some of the early groundwork for supporting DOS
1079 system calls in COMBOOT.
1080 * Get rid of unnecessary "near" directives, making the code
1082 * PXELINUX: Put the PXE stack back in the init state before
1083 invoking a chain-loaded NBP.
1084 * PXELINUX: Actually found the combination of calls that
1085 allows some (most?) PXE 2+ stacks to be unloaded from memory
1087 * PXELINUX: Add "keeppxe" command-line option to disable
1088 the standard unloading of the PXE stack.
1091 * SYSLINUX: fix bug that would cause valid kernel images to be
1095 * Work on removing gratuitous differences between modules.
1096 * Break up the source in common and module-specific files.
1097 * PXELINUX: Allow chaining of other PXE NBPs.
1098 * ISOLINUX: Allow loading "CD-ROM boot sectors".
1099 * ALL: generalize the definition of a boot sector/NBP.
1102 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix bugs in the new core code.
1105 * Fix a "brown paper bag" class bug in the new core code.
1108 * Major code restructuring.
1109 * Relax the conventional memory limits somewhat.
1110 * MEMDISK: Set up the "version number string" pointer in the
1112 * SYSLINUX: Fix, again, "the bug that won't die": the use of
1113 the offset parameter with the SYSLINUX installer.
1114 * SYSLINUX: Fix possible superblock corruption problem in the
1118 * Handle bug in the location of initrd.
1121 * MEMDISK: Make compile with newer versions of gcc.
1124 * ISOLINUX: Support booting disk image files (to boot DOS or
1125 other non-Linux operating systems), *IF* the BIOS works
1126 correctly; unfortunately many BIOSes apparently don't.
1127 * Support Linux boot protocol version 2.03 (explicitly
1128 specify the initrd address limit.)
1129 * Handle small "pseudo-kernels"; images that use the Linux
1130 kernel boot protocols but are less than 64K in size.
1131 * MEMDISK: New subsystem; this is a driver which allows
1132 legacy OSes to boot using an in-memory simulated disk.
1133 See memdisk/memdisk.doc for more info.
1134 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Correctly handle files larger than 65535
1135 blocks (32 MB for PXELINUX, 128 MB for ISOLINUX.)
1136 * PXELINUX: Make a best-effort attempt at freeing all memory
1137 claimed. From the looks of it, it will fail on most PXE
1141 * Limited support for hardware flow control when using a
1142 serial port console.
1143 * Support specifying the serial port I/O address explicitly.
1144 * Make DOS installer hopefully behave more nicely when used on
1145 recent Windows versions.
1146 * Fix returning to text mode when a font has been specified.
1147 * Attempt to detect missing serial port hardware and disable
1148 the serial port if there is nothing there.
1151 * Make the ppmtolss16 program handle color conversion more
1153 * Clean up "make install" target, honour INSTALLROOT if it
1155 * SYSLINUX: Fix stack-smash bug identified by Steffen
1157 * Hopefully fix return-to-text-mode on some graphics cards.
1158 * ISOLINUX: Bug workaround for Award BIOS 4.51, and perhaps
1159 other buggy BIOSes as well.
1162 * PXELINUX: Allow the DHCP server to override the
1163 configuration file name and pathname prefix, using
1164 "site-specific" DHCP options.
1165 * PXELINUX: Documentation fixes.
1166 * PXELINUX: Fix the "ipappend" option; the last two values
1167 were reversed vs. what the kernel expected.
1168 * Introduce a way to return to text mode once we are already
1169 in graphics mode. This may be useful for F-key help
1171 * Fix several bugs in the way return to text mode was handled.
1174 * ISOLINUX: Support full pathname searches. Max length for a
1175 pathname is 255 characters. As a result, only 64 "label"
1176 statements are supported in ISOLINUX.
1177 * PXELINUX: Max filename length extended to 63 characters.
1180 * Add support for graphical splash screens.
1181 * Add mode control characters, which allows you to control
1182 message display output depending on output mode (text,
1183 graphics, or serial port.)
1184 * ISOLINUX: New program, which boots Linux from a CD-ROM
1185 without using floppy emulation mode. See isolinux.doc for
1187 * PXELINUX: Don't search for boot sector file types, since
1188 they don't work anyway.
1189 * SYSLINUX: Document the LOCK command for Win9x, and the error
1190 dialog box for WinNT/2K.
1193 * PXELINUX: Fix code for finding !PXE from PXENV+. This was
1194 due to a spec bug; match the most recent spec since that
1195 seems to be what implementations actually do.
1196 * SYSLINUX: Add some smarts to the boot sector, which
1197 hopefully should reduce the number of systems which require
1198 stupid mode ("syslinux -s").
1199 * PXELINUX: Document further some of the pathologies with old
1201 * When specifying a "default" command line, no longer
1202 automatically appent "auto". See the "DEFAULT" command in
1203 syslinux.doc for more information.
1204 * PXELINUX: Clean up the allocation of local socket numbers.
1207 * PXELINUX: Rename pxelinux.bin to pxelinux.0, to match what
1208 most PXE servers seem to expect.
1209 * PXELINUX: Update the DHCP/boot server setup documentation.
1210 * PXELINUX: Support new "localboot" option for "label"
1212 * PXELINUX: More robust parsing of DHCP/boot server packets.
1213 * PXELINUX: Include a small utility program "gethostip" to
1214 compute hexadecimal IP addresses.
1217 * PXELINUX: Fix bugs introduced by new A20 code. (SYSLINUX
1218 has also been changed for code consistency reasons, but I'm
1219 pretty sure the changes are don't care on SYSLINUX.)
1220 * Documentation updates.
1221 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend" option to generate an ip= option to
1225 * PXELINUX: Not all PXE stacks fill in the IP address for a
1226 type 3 cached info query. Use a type 2 cached info query
1227 for this information (only.)
1228 * Yet another attempt at A20 coding. Now support BIOS call
1229 15:2401 as well, and handle machines which always have A20
1231 * Support memory detection using INT 15h, AX=0E820h. BIOS
1232 manufacturers have apparently gotten sloppy about keeping
1233 INT 15h, AX=0E801h working properly.
1234 * Don't issue <CR><LF> onto the serial port when we're doing
1238 * Yet another A20-code update. It seems some "legacy-free"
1239 machines and embedded gear simply don't have a KBC to talk
1240 to, and that waiting for one will wait forever. Sigh.
1243 * SYSLINUX: Implement a hack for BIOS drivers which hog significant
1244 chunks of low memory during boot. (Note: PXELINUX already
1245 had this modification. SYSLINUX does still require that the
1246 low 512K is available; PXELINUX requires 384K. Machines
1247 with a physical memory hole in the low 640K cannot boot
1248 Linux no matter what.) Depending what the reason is for the
1249 memory hole, a new kernel (2.4.0-test3-pre3 or later) may be
1251 * SYSLINUX: Default installer binary now compiled against
1252 glibc 2.1. If this is inappropriate for your system and you
1253 still want to use the offical version of SYSLINUX, please
1254 follow the instructions in "distrib.doc" to rebuild the
1256 * SYSLINUX: Linux installer program now supports -o <offset>
1257 option which does a loopback mount with the
1258 -o loop,offset=<> option. Useful to run SYSLINUX on an
1259 individual partition of a whole-harddisk image.
1260 * Include the source code to a Master Boot Record (MBR)
1261 functionally equivalent to the one installed DOS except it
1262 includes EBIOS support, and should be resistant to geometry
1263 changes. The MBR code is public domain.
1264 * PXELINUX: Fix "double p" bug: if the tftp prefix was null,
1265 all filenames would get a "p" preprended, e.g.
1266 "ppxelinux.cfg" and "pvmlinux".
1269 * PXELINUX: Workaround for PXE ROMs based on the Intel PXE PDK
1270 3.0 build 071 and earlier: missing !PXE structure pointer.
1271 * PXELINUX: Handle larger BOOTP/DHCP packages.
1272 * PXELINUX: The command line passing was broken; fix.
1273 * PXELINUX: Make COMBOOT images work.
1274 * PXELINUX: Documentation on how to make booting work using
1275 the PDK 3.0-derived clients, which aren't so generous as to
1276 allow booting with only "PXEClient" specified.
1279 * PXELINUX: RFC 1123 states that a TFTP implementation MUST
1280 use adaptive timeout, "at least an exponential backoff of
1281 retransmission timeout is necessary." Implement a very
1282 simple exponential backoff for retransmits.
1283 * PXELINUX: Updated documentation, including pointer to new
1285 * PXELINUX: When sending ERROR due to bad OACK, use the proper
1286 destination port number (why are TFTP port numbers so odd?)
1287 * PXELINUX: If the boot dies in the middle somewhere,
1288 eventually give up and reset the machine (unattended
1292 * New program PXELINUX to do network booting using a
1293 PXE-compliant (Pre-Execution Environment) network booting
1294 PROM. See pxelinux.doc for details.
1297 * Serial console support. See syslinux.doc for details.
1300 * Change HIGHMEM_MAX to 38000000h to (hopefully) avoid the
1301 kernel stepping on it; 3f000000h was apparently a higher
1302 limit than the kernel used!
1305 * Add sys2ansi.pl script to display the contents of a
1306 colorized SYSLINUX file.
1307 * Changed the io_delay once again, after a report that the
1308 old delay port causes hangs on some systems.
1311 * Frob the "fast A20 gate" port as well as the keyboard
1312 controller; will this help systems with problems?
1313 * Be even more paranoid about A20, unfortunately even this
1314 seems to be not paranoid enough... what I don't understand
1315 is that if there is hardware out there *this broken*, how
1316 can it run Linux at all? Report an error message rather
1317 than hang forever if A20 is stuck.
1318 * Include some intermediate files in the distribution, plus
1319 provide a "make installer" target for distributors to relink
1320 the install programs only. I would prefer the syslinux boot
1321 loader proper to be "binary clean" for debuggablity -- use
1322 "make clean ; make installer" to rebuild the installers only.
1325 * Don't get confused by directories, volume labels, or VFAT
1327 * Use INT 15h, AX=0E801h to query memory size before trying
1328 INT 15h, AH=88h. This not only provides more headroom
1329 between the kernel and the initrd on large-memory machines,
1330 but it appears some recent BIOSes actually have started
1331 returning garbage for the AH=88h (older) call.
1332 * Trust high memory beyond the 15 MB mark if the user has
1333 specified it, or if obtained with INT 15h, AH=0E801h (with
1334 no memory holes above 1 MB.)
1337 * Increase A20M delay and put in a test to avoid problems on
1338 certain IBM Thinkpads (thanks to Donnie Barnes of RedHat
1339 for vital info on this one.)
1340 * Support COMBOOT style boot command images.
1341 * Support chain loading (foreign operating systems, e.g. DOS).
1342 * Include a new "copybs" DOS utility to copy a boot sector to
1343 a file (under Linux, use "dd".)
1344 * Fix the DOS installer to work for disks over 32 MB.
1345 * SYSLINUX should now handle disks with more than 65536 tracks.
1348 * Fix a bug that caused "label" statements in syslinux.cfg to
1349 not be handled properly.
1350 * Updated the documentation. Among other things, we now allow
1351 up to 128 "label" statements.
1354 * Fix for booting old (pre-initrd) kernels.
1355 * It seems at least some versions of OS/2 doesn't set up all
1356 the fields in the superblock correctly. Account for that.
1357 * Fix bug that caused boot failure when using the mem= option.
1360 * Loading from partitions now should work properly. (Actually
1361 tested, this time. You should even be able to dd a floppy
1362 to a partition and boot from it.)
1363 * Removed large workaround code for an alleged ancient BIOS
1364 bug I have never actually seen. The -s option should work
1365 on those machines, anyway.
1366 * Support for simple keyboard remappings, same as used by
1367 LILO (once again to support localization.) The program
1368 keytab-lilo.pl from the LILO distribution included to
1370 * Added a "safe, slow and stupid" (-s) option to the
1371 installers. This option will lobotomize the boot sector to
1372 hopefully work on even very buggy BIOSes.
1375 * Ability to load a VGA font on bootup (for localized Linux
1379 * Bug fix in the Linux installer.
1380 * Added a workaround for a bug in certain AMI/Intel BIOSes
1381 when booting from CD-ROM.
1382 * Documentation changes.
1385 * FAT16 filesystems are now supported.
1388 * Now compiles under Linux, using NASM, rather than using
1389 Turbo Assembler under DOS. See http://www.cryogen.com/Nasm
1390 for information about NASM.
1391 * Linux-hosted SYSLINUX installer, as well as a
1392 rewritten DOS installer (now is written in assembler, so we
1393 don't need Turbo C.)
1396 * Added support for loading bzImage and initrd loading, and made
1397 SYSLINUX new-setup-code aware (SYSLINUX 1.30 id=0x31).
1398 * Added LILO-style kernel labels; see the LABEL and IMPLICIT
1399 keywords in README file.
1400 * Added support for colorization of intro and help screens.
1401 * The vga= option is now handled correctly.
1402 * Massive rewrite of large chunks of the code in order to
1403 support the first two new features.
1406 * Added simple online help at the "boot:" prompt.
1407 * Removed 2880K image as I no longer have access to such a
1408 floppy drive. (Donations accepted!!)
1409 * Decided to distribute the source in a subdirectory rather
1410 than in a nested zipfile.
1413 * Removed a sanity check which would cause booting to fail on
1414 Phoenix BIOS version 4.03. Apparently this BIOS is buggy.
1417 * Added configuration file SYSLINUX.CFG. This file contains all
1418 configurable options, and can be edited from any OS which can
1419 access an MS-DOS filesystem; there is no longer a need to run
1420 SYSLINUX.EXE except to write the boot sector.
1421 * Default command line now given by "default" line in config
1423 * LINUXMSG.TXT and BOOTMSG.TXT hard-coded file names replaced by
1424 "display" and "prompt" lines in config file.
1425 * LILO-style option appending now supported ("append" line in
1427 * Prompt timeout is now supported ("timeout" line in config
1428 file). The timeout is cancelled when anything is typed on the
1430 * Pressing <ESC> or <Ctrl-C> at the Loading... stage now aborts
1431 the kernel loading in progress and returns the user to the
1433 * The installer now automatically sets the READONLY flag on
1435 * Added 2880K disk image.
1438 * Fixed bug that would prevent booting from double-density
1439 floppies and other DOS filesystems with multiple sectors per
1441 * Added 720K disk image.
1442 * Changed default kernel name on disk images to LINUX.
1445 * Fixed bug that would garble the command line on recent kernels
1446 with more than 4 sectors of setup code (this wasn't really a
1447 *bug*; rather, a kernel change broke the code. Unfortunately
1448 the Linux boot interface is still sorely undocumented).
1449 * Added BOOTMSG.TXT file support (message file which does not
1450 force display of the boot prompt).
1453 * Fixed bug on some (most?) 386 BIOSes would require two boot
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