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 * Add "timeoutcmd" to allow timeout to have a different action
7 than just pressing Enter.
8 * Fix bugs in the COMBOOT/COM32 command-line parsing. APPEND
9 now works with COMBOOT/COM32 images.
12 * MEMDISK: Workaround for BIOSes which go into a snit when
13 they get a RESET command for the floppy system when there is
14 no floppy in the system.
15 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend 2", which passes the hardware
16 address of the boot interface to the kernel as a
18 * mkdiskimage: fix the generation of the end limit.
19 * PXELINUX: Fix multiple bugs in chainloading of other NBPs.
20 * MEMDISK: Fix bug that would occationally cause "ran out of
21 input data" when using compressed disk images.
22 * SYSLINUX: Updates for the win32 installer (from Lars Munch.)
23 * PXELINUX: PXELINUX-specific options are now recognized both
24 in a vendor-option-space (a.k.a. type 43 encapsulated) as
25 well as in a site-option-space (unencapsulated.)
26 * COM32: Don't crash when DS != 0.
27 * COMBOOT/COM32: Make file reading work correctly. Thanks to
28 Phung Chi Kien for submitting a test program.
31 * ALL: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
32 boot failure, depending on the length of the kernel.
33 * ISOLINUX: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
34 boot failure, depending on the length of directories.
35 * SYSLINUX: Win32 installer now flushes buffers.
36 * ppmtolss16: Be fully compliant with the PNM spec;
37 actually process comments in the header and odd
38 alignments of the various parameters, as well as
39 "plain" (not raw) files and PBM and PGM files.
40 * PXELINUX: Lower the default MTU to 1472 in order to deal
41 with systems with slightly nonstandard MTUs, and PXE
42 stacks which don't defragment correctly. Unfortunately this
43 is very hard to test dynamically.
46 * PXELINUX: Add a default query based on the hardware address
47 of the boot device. This is in lower case hexadecimal form
48 separated by dashes and including the hardware type, for
49 example, the Ethernet (type 1) address 88:99:AA:BB:CC:DD
50 would query the file pxelinux.cfg/01-88-99-aa-bb-cc-dd.
51 * PXELINUX: Fix bug involving non-IP-based config file names.
52 * SYSLINUX: New installer for WinNT-based systems, from Lars
54 * MEMDISK: Fix handling of memory region overlap when
55 decompressing. Thanks to Mikhail Kupchik for identifying
59 * ALL: Reclaim even more low memory by observing that
60 comboot_seg == real_mode_seg is perfectly fine, and by the
61 fact that the 1000h segment managed to get unused in all
63 * PXELINUX: Attempt to negotiate full Ethernet-sized blocks
64 (1468 bytes) using the blksize option.
65 * SYSLINUX: Resurrect the old no-mtools version of the
66 installer, although as a root-only tool. Some distributors
67 have indicated that they need a small standalone installer.
68 * MEMDISK: Fix a memory offset computation error when
69 installing compressed disks which generally would cause
70 1 MB of memory to be wasted.
71 * MEMDISK: Fix installing the E820 memory map. Calling
72 INT 15h AX=0E820h with MEMDISK 2.03 loaded would give a
73 completely corrupt memory map.
74 * SYSLINUX: Make libsyslinux a dynamic library, so that it can
75 be updated separately from client programs. The whole idea,
76 after all, is to enable alternate programs to become
78 * Include an rpm spec file in the distribution, so rpmbuild
82 * Actually support comment lines in the configuration file.
83 * PXELINUX: Try to resolve some problems with stack switches.
84 * PXELINUX: Handle PXE stacks with broken routing.
85 With these workarounds, the remote install PXE boot floppy
86 (rbfg.exe) from Argon Technologies should work correctly.
87 * Fix problems with Perl scripts in UTF-8 locales.
88 * You probably need NASM 0.98.34 or later to compile this
89 version. 0.98.36 is recommended.
90 * MEMDISK: Now supports gzip compressed images.
93 * SYSLINUX: Security flaws have been found in the SYSLINUX
94 installer when running setuid root. Rewrite the SYSLINUX
95 installer so it uses mtools instead. It therefore now
96 requires mtools (specifically mcopy and mattrib) to exist on
97 your system, but it will not require root privileges and
101 * MEMDISK: Fix memory sizing bug when the ramdisk crosses the
103 * MEMDISK: Add a "pause" option to stop immediately before
104 booting, to read off the messages.
105 * MEMDISK: Support disk images with DOSEMU headers.
106 * Update the mkdiskimage script to handle newer mtools
107 versions, and be able to generate disk images with DOSEMU
108 headers (controlled by the -d option).
109 * Fix the COM32 sample program.
110 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix some COMBOOT API calls.
112 * Build SYSLINUX into a small library for encapsulation into
113 other programs (however, please keep in mind this is a GPL'd
115 * SYSLINUX: Make installer work with "owner" in /etc/fstab.
116 * SYSLINUX: Fix issue with working on nonpartitioned hard disk
117 devices. THIS CONFIGURATION IS NOT RECOMMENDED.
120 * ALL: Add support for "COM32" (32-bit COMBOOT) images.
121 * ALL: Add an API for COMBOOT/COM32 images. See comboot.doc
122 for details. There is a C development environment for
123 COM32 being created; it should be ready at some point in
125 * Fix mbr.asm so that it actually works.
126 * SYSLINUX: The syslinux installer *SHOULD* now be safe to
128 * PXELINUX: Fix bug where PXELINUX would override random
129 chunks of the UNDI code segment! Thanks to Kevin Tran for
131 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug related to slashes in pathnames.
132 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug in handling initrds over 128 MB.
133 * ALL: Make the <Ctrl-V> key print out the version; this is
135 * Add a small script, mkdiskimage, to create a DOS-formatted
136 hard disk image using mtools. This may be useful in
137 conjunction with MEMDISK.
138 * ISOLINUX: Search for a /boot/isolinux directory as well as
140 * ALL: Fix a bug related to very long configuration files.
141 * PXELINUX: Work around a NASM bug which would result in no
142 delay before reset if an error occurs.
145 * ISOLINUX: Remove code no longer used which caused hangs on
146 some Toshiba laptops.
149 * ALL: NASM 0.98.32 or later is now required to build
150 SYSLINUX from sources.
151 * SYSLINUX: put back in the workaround for the BIOS floppy
152 table. This seems to be a requirement for "extended" floppy
153 formats to work correctly.
154 * SYSLINUX: No longer warn if one is trying to boot on a 286
155 or older. The above BIOS workaround no longer fits if the
156 requirement to use only 8086-compatible code in the early
157 boot is maintained. It made sense in 1994, but in 2002 a
158 286 or older is a museum object.
159 * SYSLINUX: Use a downright bizarre, stateful algorithm to try
160 to guess the maximum transfer size. I am *hoping* this will
161 cut down on the number of systems for which -s is required
162 to work at any acceptable speed.
163 * ISOLINUX: Add a few more workarounds for various broken El
165 * Make sure .depend files aren't accidentally packed...
166 * ALL: Fix bugs in the extension-detect code; this caused
167 files like COMBOOT images and CD boot sectors to be
168 mis-identified as Linux kernels and rejected.
169 * ALL: Fix the return from COMBOOT.
170 * ALL: Do some of the early groundwork for supporting DOS
171 system calls in COMBOOT.
172 * Get rid of unnecessary "near" directives, making the code
174 * PXELINUX: Put the PXE stack back in the init state before
175 invoking a chain-loaded NBP.
176 * PXELINUX: Actually found the combination of calls that
177 allows some (most?) PXE 2+ stacks to be unloaded from memory
179 * PXELINUX: Add "keeppxe" command-line option to disable
180 the standard unloading of the PXE stack.
183 * SYSLINUX: fix bug that would cause valid kernel images to be
187 * Work on removing gratuitous differences between modules.
188 * Break up the source in common and module-specific files.
189 * PXELINUX: Allow chaining of other PXE NBPs.
190 * ISOLINUX: Allow loading "CD-ROM boot sectors".
191 * ALL: generalize the definition of a boot sector/NBP.
194 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix bugs in the new core code.
197 * Fix a "brown paper bag" class bug in the new core code.
200 * Major code restructuring.
201 * Relax the conventional memory limits somewhat.
202 * MEMDISK: Set up the "version number string" pointer in the
204 * SYSLINUX: Fix, again, "the bug that won't die": the use of
205 the offset parameter with the SYSLINUX installer.
206 * SYSLINUX: Fix possible superblock corruption problem in the
210 * Handle bug in the location of initrd.
213 * MEMDISK: Make compile with newer versions of gcc.
216 * ISOLINUX: Support booting disk image files (to boot DOS or
217 other non-Linux operating systems), *IF* the BIOS works
218 correctly; unfortunately many BIOSes apparently don't.
219 * Support Linux boot protocol version 2.03 (explicitly
220 specify the initrd address limit.)
221 * Handle small "pseudo-kernels"; images that use the Linux
222 kernel boot protocols but are less than 64K in size.
223 * MEMDISK: New subsystem; this is a driver which allows
224 legacy OSes to boot using an in-memory simulated disk.
225 See memdisk/memdisk.doc for more info.
226 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Correctly handle files larger than 65535
227 blocks (32 MB for PXELINUX, 128 MB for ISOLINUX.)
228 * PXELINUX: Make a best-effort attempt at freeing all memory
229 claimed. From the looks of it, it will fail on most PXE
233 * Limited support for hardware flow control when using a
235 * Support specifying the serial port I/O address explicitly.
236 * Make DOS installer hopefully behave more nicely when used on
237 recent Windows versions.
238 * Fix returning to text mode when a font has been specified.
239 * Attempt to detect missing serial port hardware and disable
240 the serial port if there is nothing there.
243 * Make the ppmtolss16 program handle color conversion more
245 * Clean up "make install" target, honour INSTALLROOT if it
247 * SYSLINUX: Fix stack-smash bug identified by Steffen
249 * Hopefully fix return-to-text-mode on some graphics cards.
250 * ISOLINUX: Bug workaround for Award BIOS 4.51, and perhaps
251 other buggy BIOSes as well.
254 * PXELINUX: Allow the DHCP server to override the
255 configuration file name and pathname prefix, using
256 "site-specific" DHCP options.
257 * PXELINUX: Documentation fixes.
258 * PXELINUX: Fix the "ipappend" option; the last two values
259 were reversed vs. what the kernel expected.
260 * Introduce a way to return to text mode once we are already
261 in graphics mode. This may be useful for F-key help
263 * Fix several bugs in the way return to text mode was handled.
266 * ISOLINUX: Support full pathname searches. Max length for a
267 pathname is 255 characters. As a result, only 64 "label"
268 statements are supported in ISOLINUX.
269 * PXELINUX: Max filename length extended to 63 characters.
272 * Add support for graphical splash screens.
273 * Add mode control characters, which allows you to control
274 message display output depending on output mode (text,
275 graphics, or serial port.)
276 * ISOLINUX: New program, which boots Linux from a CD-ROM
277 without using floppy emulation mode. See isolinux.doc for
279 * PXELINUX: Don't search for boot sector file types, since
280 they don't work anyway.
281 * SYSLINUX: Document the LOCK command for Win9x, and the error
282 dialog box for WinNT/2K.
285 * PXELINUX: Fix code for finding !PXE from PXENV+. This was
286 due to a spec bug; match the most recent spec since that
287 seems to be what implementations actually do.
288 * SYSLINUX: Add some smarts to the boot sector, which
289 hopefully should reduce the number of systems which require
290 stupid mode ("syslinux -s").
291 * PXELINUX: Document further some of the pathologies with old
293 * When specifying a "default" command line, no longer
294 automatically appent "auto". See the "DEFAULT" command in
295 syslinux.doc for more information.
296 * PXELINUX: Clean up the allocation of local socket numbers.
299 * PXELINUX: Rename pxelinux.bin to pxelinux.0, to match what
300 most PXE servers seem to expect.
301 * PXELINUX: Update the DHCP/boot server setup documentation.
302 * PXELINUX: Support new "localboot" option for "label"
304 * PXELINUX: More robust parsing of DHCP/boot server packets.
305 * PXELINUX: Include a small utility program "gethostip" to
306 compute hexadecimal IP addresses.
309 * PXELINUX: Fix bugs introduced by new A20 code. (SYSLINUX
310 has also been changed for code consistency reasons, but I'm
311 pretty sure the changes are don't care on SYSLINUX.)
312 * Documentation updates.
313 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend" option to generate an ip= option to
317 * PXELINUX: Not all PXE stacks fill in the IP address for a
318 type 3 cached info query. Use a type 2 cached info query
319 for this information (only.)
320 * Yet another attempt at A20 coding. Now support BIOS call
321 15:2401 as well, and handle machines which always have A20
323 * Support memory detection using INT 15h, AX=0E820h. BIOS
324 manufacturers have apparently gotten sloppy about keeping
325 INT 15h, AX=0E801h working properly.
326 * Don't issue <CR><LF> onto the serial port when we're doing
330 * Yet another A20-code update. It seems some "legacy-free"
331 machines and embedded gear simply don't have a KBC to talk
332 to, and that waiting for one will wait forever. Sigh.
335 * SYSLINUX: Implement a hack for BIOS drivers which hog significant
336 chunks of low memory during boot. (Note: PXELINUX already
337 had this modification. SYSLINUX does still require that the
338 low 512K is available; PXELINUX requires 384K. Machines
339 with a physical memory hole in the low 640K cannot boot
340 Linux no matter what.) Depending what the reason is for the
341 memory hole, a new kernel (2.4.0-test3-pre3 or later) may be
343 * SYSLINUX: Default installer binary now compiled against
344 glibc 2.1. If this is inappropriate for your system and you
345 still want to use the offical version of SYSLINUX, please
346 follow the instructions in "distrib.doc" to rebuild the
348 * SYSLINUX: Linux installer program now supports -o <offset>
349 option which does a loopback mount with the
350 -o loop,offset=<> option. Useful to run SYSLINUX on an
351 individual partition of a whole-harddisk image.
352 * Include the source code to a Master Boot Record (MBR)
353 functionally equivalent to the one installed DOS except it
354 includes EBIOS support, and should be resistant to geometry
355 changes. The MBR code is public domain.
356 * PXELINUX: Fix "double p" bug: if the tftp prefix was null,
357 all filenames would get a "p" preprended, e.g.
358 "ppxelinux.cfg" and "pvmlinux".
361 * PXELINUX: Workaround for PXE ROMs based on the Intel PXE PDK
362 3.0 build 071 and earlier: missing !PXE structure pointer.
363 * PXELINUX: Handle larger BOOTP/DHCP packages.
364 * PXELINUX: The command line passing was broken; fix.
365 * PXELINUX: Make COMBOOT images work.
366 * PXELINUX: Documentation on how to make booting work using
367 the PDK 3.0-derived clients, which aren't so generous as to
368 allow booting with only "PXEClient" specified.
371 * PXELINUX: RFC 1123 states that a TFTP implementation MUST
372 use adaptive timeout, "at least an exponential backoff of
373 retransmission timeout is necessary." Implement a very
374 simple exponential backoff for retransmits.
375 * PXELINUX: Updated documentation, including pointer to new
377 * PXELINUX: When sending ERROR due to bad OACK, use the proper
378 destination port number (why are TFTP port numbers so odd?)
379 * PXELINUX: If the boot dies in the middle somewhere,
380 eventually give up and reset the machine (unattended
384 * New program PXELINUX to do network booting using a
385 PXE-compliant (Pre-Execution Environment) network booting
386 PROM. See pxelinux.doc for details.
389 * Serial console support. See syslinux.doc for details.
392 * Change HIGHMEM_MAX to 38000000h to (hopefully) avoid the
393 kernel stepping on it; 3f000000h was apparently a higher
394 limit than the kernel used!
397 * Add sys2ansi.pl script to display the contents of a
398 colorized SYSLINUX file.
399 * Changed the io_delay once again, after a report that the
400 old delay port causes hangs on some systems.
403 * Frob the "fast A20 gate" port as well as the keyboard
404 controller; will this help systems with problems?
405 * Be even more paranoid about A20, unfortunately even this
406 seems to be not paranoid enough... what I don't understand
407 is that if there is hardware out there *this broken*, how
408 can it run Linux at all? Report an error message rather
409 than hang forever if A20 is stuck.
410 * Include some intermediate files in the distribution, plus
411 provide a "make installer" target for distributors to relink
412 the install programs only. I would prefer the syslinux boot
413 loader proper to be "binary clean" for debuggablity -- use
414 "make clean ; make installer" to rebuild the installers only.
417 * Don't get confused by directories, volume labels, or VFAT
419 * Use INT 15h, AX=0E801h to query memory size before trying
420 INT 15h, AH=88h. This not only provides more headroom
421 between the kernel and the initrd on large-memory machines,
422 but it appears some recent BIOSes actually have started
423 returning garbage for the AH=88h (older) call.
424 * Trust high memory beyond the 15 MB mark if the user has
425 specified it, or if obtained with INT 15h, AH=0E801h (with
426 no memory holes above 1 MB.)
429 * Increase A20M delay and put in a test to avoid problems on
430 certain IBM Thinkpads (thanks to Donnie Barnes of RedHat
431 for vital info on this one.)
432 * Support COMBOOT style boot command images.
433 * Support chain loading (foreign operating systems, e.g. DOS).
434 * Include a new "copybs" DOS utility to copy a boot sector to
435 a file (under Linux, use "dd".)
436 * Fix the DOS installer to work for disks over 32 MB.
437 * SYSLINUX should now handle disks with more than 65536 tracks.
440 * Fix a bug that caused "label" statements in syslinux.cfg to
441 not be handled properly.
442 * Updated the documentation. Among other things, we now allow
443 up to 128 "label" statements.
446 * Fix for booting old (pre-initrd) kernels.
447 * It seems at least some versions of OS/2 doesn't set up all
448 the fields in the superblock correctly. Account for that.
449 * Fix bug that caused boot failure when using the mem= option.
452 * Loading from partitions now should work properly. (Actually
453 tested, this time. You should even be able to dd a floppy
454 to a partition and boot from it.)
455 * Removed large workaround code for an alleged ancient BIOS
456 bug I have never actually seen. The -s option should work
457 on those machines, anyway.
458 * Support for simple keyboard remappings, same as used by
459 LILO (once again to support localization.) The program
460 keytab-lilo.pl from the LILO distribution included to
462 * Added a "safe, slow and stupid" (-s) option to the
463 installers. This option will lobotomize the boot sector to
464 hopefully work on even very buggy BIOSes.
467 * Ability to load a VGA font on bootup (for localized Linux
471 * Bug fix in the Linux installer.
472 * Added a workaround for a bug in certain AMI/Intel BIOSes
473 when booting from CD-ROM.
474 * Documentation changes.
477 * FAT16 filesystems are now supported.
480 * Now compiles under Linux, using NASM, rather than using
481 Turbo Assembler under DOS. See http://www.cryogen.com/Nasm
482 for information about NASM.
483 * Linux-hosted SYSLINUX installer, as well as a
484 rewritten DOS installer (now is written in assembler, so we
488 * Added support for loading bzImage and initrd loading, and made
489 SYSLINUX new-setup-code aware (SYSLINUX 1.30 id=0x31).
490 * Added LILO-style kernel labels; see the LABEL and IMPLICIT
491 keywords in README file.
492 * Added support for colorization of intro and help screens.
493 * The vga= option is now handled correctly.
494 * Massive rewrite of large chunks of the code in order to
495 support the first two new features.
498 * Added simple online help at the "boot:" prompt.
499 * Removed 2880K image as I no longer have access to such a
500 floppy drive. (Donations accepted!!)
501 * Decided to distribute the source in a subdirectory rather
502 than in a nested zipfile.
505 * Removed a sanity check which would cause booting to fail on
506 Phoenix BIOS version 4.03. Apparently this BIOS is buggy.
509 * Added configuration file SYSLINUX.CFG. This file contains all
510 configurable options, and can be edited from any OS which can
511 access an MS-DOS filesystem; there is no longer a need to run
512 SYSLINUX.EXE except to write the boot sector.
513 * Default command line now given by "default" line in config
515 * LINUXMSG.TXT and BOOTMSG.TXT hard-coded file names replaced by
516 "display" and "prompt" lines in config file.
517 * LILO-style option appending now supported ("append" line in
519 * Prompt timeout is now supported ("timeout" line in config
520 file). The timeout is cancelled when anything is typed on the
522 * Pressing <ESC> or <Ctrl-C> at the Loading... stage now aborts
523 the kernel loading in progress and returns the user to the
525 * The installer now automatically sets the READONLY flag on
527 * Added 2880K disk image.
530 * Fixed bug that would prevent booting from double-density
531 floppies and other DOS filesystems with multiple sectors per
533 * Added 720K disk image.
534 * Changed default kernel name on disk images to LINUX.
537 * Fixed bug that would garble the command line on recent kernels
538 with more than 4 sectors of setup code (this wasn't really a
539 *bug*; rather, a kernel change broke the code. Unfortunately
540 the Linux boot interface is still sorely undocumented).
541 * Added BOOTMSG.TXT file support (message file which does not
542 force display of the boot prompt).
545 * Fixed bug on some (most?) 386 BIOSes would require two boot