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 * Fix errors in the PCI and DMI detection modules (Erwan Velu,
8 * Fix host dependencies and other issues in the build system.
9 * PXELINUX: Allow class E addresses as unicast.
10 * sdi.c32: module to load Microsoft System Deployment Images.
11 * EXTLINUX: Correct reading directories with deleted entries.
12 * Shuffle library: correct the handling of certain geometries
13 (an upward move with source material blocking the move); as
14 required by sdi.c32 but theoretically possible for other
16 * Add "make netinstall" to install /tftpboot.
17 * Fix some documentation files that didn't get moved/renamed.
20 * Clean up garbage after "aborted." message.
21 * Clean up memdump.com filenames.
22 * Support SHA256 and SHA512 encrypted passwords.
23 * The shuffle library now can generate chained descriptors,
24 thus allowing pretty much arbitrarily complex memory maps.
25 * Handle command lines up to 2047 characters, the current
27 * vesamenu: support systems without linear framebuffer support
28 (sigh, what is this, 1993?) and 15-bit RGB modes.
29 * Move the label storage (for the command-line interface) to
30 high memory, removing the size limit and freeing up 64K of
32 * Get rid of 4096-entry limit in the simple menu system.
33 * New hierarchial submenu support: see MENU BEGIN, MENU END,
34 MENU GOTO in doc/menu.txt.
35 * MENU QUIT allows creating a menu entry for returning to the
37 * ISOLINUX: Work around bug in certain Adaptec BIOSes,
38 patch by Bruce Robson.
39 * pngtopnm dependency removed from samples/ directory.
40 * Text documentation files (in doc/) renamed *.doc -> *.txt.
43 * EXTLINUX: fix crash when accessing an empty file.
44 * elf.c32: If a PHDR segment is present, load it.
45 * Fix SHA-1 and MD5 passwords.
46 * ISOLINUX: fix booting when mastered without
47 mkisofs -boot-info-table (broken since 3.50, sigh...)
48 * Handle BIOSes which emit multiple contiguous valid
49 memory regions in the e820 map.
52 * Support for "auxilliary data vector", a small amount of
53 writable storage. Currently only supported for EXTLINUX,
54 but the infrastructure is there for the other derivatives,
55 assuming a suitable storage location can be found.
56 * EXTLINUX: boot-once support (--once, --clear-once, and
58 * A command is now required to the EXTLINUX installer, i.e. at
59 least one of --install, --update, --once, --clear-once, or
63 * PXELINUX: as per RFC 5071, PXELINUX no longer requires the
64 use of the magic cookie option (208) for unencapsulated
65 options. Currently it does not require it for
66 vendor-encapsulated options (vendor-option-space) either,
67 but that MAY be reverted in the future if it causes
69 * Documentation text files moved to a common "doc" directory;
70 man pages from the Debian project added to the "man"
72 * Correct bug with self-overlapping memory areas when using
73 the shuffle interface.
76 * Add "menu separator", "menu indent", "menu disabled"
78 * vesamenu: fix handing of VESA modes with noncontiguous
79 memory buffers. In particular, Qemu/KVM sets up such a mode
80 when Cirrus Logic emulation is enabled (which is the
82 * Support for calling real mode functions using far calls,
83 with argument on the stack. This was implemented to support
84 the BIOS BBS specification, but subsequent experiments show
85 that the at least one of the most common BIOS cores, Award,
86 passes the presence check but doesn't actually implement the
90 * Fix bugs related to the $PnP BIOS functionality on some
92 * PXELINUX: Fix the "naked" version of :: (suppress prefix.)
93 * elf.c32: better error messages.
94 * Faster operation under Intel VT virtualization.
95 * PXELINUX: Fix DHCP bootfile option.
96 * mkdiskimage: Support more than 1024 cylinders.
97 * (Hopefully) fix installer on non-x86 platforms.
98 * Fix shuffle_and_boot_rm, used by linux.c32.
99 * Fix shuffle_and_boot_pm on 386/486.
100 * ISOLINUX (at least): fix bss memory overwrite hang.
101 * MBR: Fix booting from logical partitions.
105 * Handle capitalized F-key commands in the menu system.
106 * Fix padding error when loading multiple ramdisks.
107 * Workaround for VMware crashing when trying to print a
108 message during early kernel boot (does not seem to work,
110 * chain.c32: add the ability to search for a specific MBR
111 signature at runtime.
112 * Fall back to the server identity option if the siaddr field
113 in the DHCP header isn't set. This seems to match the
114 behaviour of most PXE stacks.
115 * mkdiskimage: give the generated disk image an MBR signature.
116 * MEMDISK: Fix failures on some BIOSes.
117 * Simple menu system: new "MENU HIDDEN" option to not display
118 the menu unless the user presses a key.
119 * Simple menu system: support MD5-encrypted passwords (modern
120 Unix standard style, with "$1$" prefixes.)
121 * pcitest.c32: now functions as a full "lspci". Thanks to
122 Erwan Velu for this work.
123 * MEMDISK: Make EDD actually work.
124 * ISOLINUX: Fix for certain broken CD-ROM BIOSes which
125 randomly corrupted register FS.
126 * Simple menu system: fix memory overwrite bug that caused
127 some systems to lock up or behave weirdly.
128 * Fix building on 64-bit systems without a 32-bit libc installed.
131 * EXTLINUX: Fix failure to find the configuration file.
134 * New keywords allow the type of file to be specified in the
136 * It is now supported to load a different configuration file
137 with the CONFIG keyword.
138 * Fix API call 0x0019 (Read Disk.)
139 * MENU AUTOBOOT, MENU TABMSG, MENU PASSPROMPT allows
140 internationalization of menu messages.
141 * A new feature, TEXT HELP, allows the administrator to set
142 a multi-line help message for individual selections.
143 * Fix API call 0x0012 (Cleanup, shuffle and boot.)
144 * New API call "Cleanup, shuffle and boot to flat protected mode"
145 * New API call "Cleanup, shuffle and boot to real mode",
146 similar to API call 0x0012 but allows arbitrary register setting.
147 * Introduce a library interface for loading arbitrary binary
148 formats with relatively easily understood code. See
149 the elf.c32 module for an example on how to use it.
150 * New module "elf.c32", to load a protected-mode ELF kernel.
151 * MBR (old and new): Fix bug in CHS mode when LBA >
153 * vesamenu: fix decoding of palettized PNG images.
154 * Update the Linux kernel boot protocol.
155 * PXELINUX: Press Ctrl-N at the boot prompt to read out the
157 * Instead of the (non-existent) MAC, use the client identifier
158 for networks like Infiniband and Firewire/1394.
159 * Add a new INCLUDE command to the core syslinux parser.
160 * Allow binding help text to F11 and F12.
161 * F-key help now available in the simple menu system.
162 * Disabled the polling for ARP during idle. It is simply too
163 slow on some (broken!) PXE stacks.
164 * PXELINUX: also try to fetch the config file based on UUID.
165 * SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX: New RAID mode (-r) which calls the BIOS
166 to load the next device (typically the next drive) on boot
170 * MEMDISK: Disable EDD by default on floppy disks. EDD can be
171 enabled with the "edd" option and disabled with "noedd".
172 This (hopefully) should make Ghost work again.
173 * SYSLINUX: "unix" installer now uses Linux ioctls instead of
175 * New MBR which can boot from logical partitions.
176 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in detecting special extensions which was
177 introduced in 3.35 :(
178 * PXELINUX: Unbreak chainbooting FreeBSD (and possibly others.)
181 * MEMDISK: New "safeint" mode.
182 * MEMDISK: Be more compliant with the PnP BIOS spec.
183 * MEMDISK: Turn on EDD support by default.
184 * MEMDISK: Try to work on some machines on which it would not
185 work when there was no floppy drive in the system.
186 * Simple menu system: fix serial console support (broken in
188 * SYSLINUX: Support subdirectories. Like ISOLINUX, the
189 "current directory" is the directory in which syslinux.cfg
190 is found; this is searched for in the sequence
191 /boot/syslinux, /syslinux, /. As a side benefit, label names
192 like "linux-2.6.18" and "linux-2.6.19" are now supported.
194 To install ldlinux.sys in a subdirectory, pass the -d
195 directory option to the SYSLINUX installer.
197 This work was sponsored by slax.org (thanks, Tomas!)
198 * New API call: read disk.
199 * Invoke ONERROR on initrd load failure.
202 * The simple menu system (menu.c32 and vesamenu.c32) now
203 support loading more than one configuration file at a time,
204 using MENU INCLUDE or by specifying multiple filenames.
205 * The MENU COLOR statement can now control the shadowing mode.
208 * libcom32 extended to support graphics mode and graphical console.
209 * vesamenu.c32, new graphical version of the Simple
210 Menu System, see README.menu.
211 * New com32 modules by Erwan Velu do selection based on CPUID
212 or PCI devices present.
213 * RPM spec: add syslinux-tftpboot module; move syslinux by
214 default to the /usr/share/syslinux directory.
215 * RPM spec: extlinux is now a separate package.
218 * EXTLINUX: New options --install (-i) and --update (-U), to
219 make it clear if a boot loader should be installed or
220 updated. For now, defaults to --install for compatibility;
221 a future version will require one of these options.
222 * New library functions to load and place files in memory.
223 * mboot.c32 bug fixes.
224 * Remove 8 MB kernel size restriction.
225 * Add "klibc" target for building unix/syslinux and
226 extlinux/extlinux with klcc (klibc-1.4.27 or later.)
227 * PXELINUX: Fail (and eventually reboot) if no configuration
229 * COM32 module by Erwan Velu to make decisions based on DMI
231 * Fix issue where going back and forth between menus a lot
233 * ISOLINUX: Fix bug which made "cd boot sectors" not work.
236 * MEMDISK: Fix bug by which accessing the real floppy disk
237 as B: in MS-DOS was broken.
238 * Simple menu system: allow tweaking of the screen layout.
239 * Simple menu system: better command-line editing, correctly
240 handle command lines above 256 characters.
241 * PXELINUX: revert memory allocation change that caused
242 problems on some network cards.
243 * MEMDISK: Try work around a bug on some BIOSes when no
244 physical floppy disk is present in the system.
245 * Enable the 16550A FIFOs, if present, when doing serial
247 * New "totaltimeout" command establishes a timeout without
248 regard for any user input.
249 * Simple menu system: timeout behaviour now more in line with
251 * Simple menu system: "ontimeout" should now work correctly.
254 * gcc 4.0.1 compilation fixes.
255 * Add support for querying the PCI BIOS in libcom32
256 (used by ethersel et al.)
257 * Fix PCI handing (ethersel etc) on several old chipsets (and
259 * Try to deal with systems with broken EBIOS.
260 * New API call to do "localboot".
261 * New API call to query features.
262 * New API call to run kernel image, a lower-level call than
263 "run command". See comboot.doc.
264 * Fix for bug in EBIOS code discovered by Arwin Vosselman.
265 * NOESCAPE security fix.
266 * Comments are now recognized even without a space following #.
267 * Fix incorrect handling of mixes of entries with and without
269 * The idle API call now harmlessly returns failure if it is a
270 no-op. That way the caller can decide whether or not to
271 bother invoking it again.
272 * Temporarily disable the idle API call on PXELINUX, due to
273 some platforms on which the idle API call seems to hang; this
274 problem has not yet been debugged.
275 * MEMDISK: the handling of DOSEMU-headered images was broken;
277 * EXTLINUX: symlinks are now supported.
278 * Simple menu system: N and P now work correctly as hotkeys.
279 * MEMDISK: more BIOS bug workarounds.
282 * gcc4 compilation fix.
283 * <BEL> (Ctrl-G) in message files now causes a beep.
284 * Reduce the command line to 511 characters; 1023 caused
288 * SYSLINUX: Fix performance regression (-s mode always
290 * Add API function for idle loop.
291 * libutil: Add do_idle() function for idle loop, make
293 * libutil: Add SHA-1 and base64 functions.
294 * Simple menu system: add password support.
295 * EXTLINUX: Sparse files now handled correctly.
296 * EXTLINUX: Large directories now handled correctly.
297 * ALL: At the prompt, Ctrl-X now forces text mode.
298 * Fix configuration file parsing error, that could cause
300 * Rewritten advanced menuing system from Murali Ganapathy.
301 * MEMDISK: New "bigraw" mode to work around certain broken
303 * COM32 module to boot Multiboot systems, including Xen. See
304 com32/modules/mboot.doc.
305 * Max command line changed to 1023 characters. Note that the
306 kernel proper still can only handle 255 characters without
307 patching, and COM16 binaries can only handle 125 characters.
310 * Fix chainloading (chain.c32).
311 * Fix zlib build problem.
312 * Use a private copy of <linux/ext2_fs.h>.
315 * Fix typo that caused the ramdisk to load in the wrong place.
318 * New API function "shuffle and boot"; allows COM32 modules to
319 load or construct (almost) arbitrarily complex objects,
320 e.g. a kernel and its initrd/initramfs in pieces, and have
321 the API core reorganize memory for booting. (A library API
322 for this function will be introduced in a later version.)
323 * The initrd= option now supports multiple filenames separated
324 by commas. This is mostly useful for initramfs, which can
325 be composed of multiple separate cpio or cpio.gz archives.
326 (Note: all files except the last one are zero-padded to a 4K
327 page boundary. This should not affect initramfs.)
328 * EXTLINUX: Fix API function 000Ah (get derivative-specific
330 * libcom32/ethersel: Support PCI Config Mechanism #2 on
331 machines still infested with that hideous old hack.
332 * SYSLINUX: Fix directory-parsing bug.
335 * SYSLINUX: The "unix" installer now sets the MS-DOS
336 attributes (hidden, system, readonly.)
337 * COM32 library: build the .lnx (test modules for running
338 under Linux) as architecture native modules, in case
339 i386 devel libraries aren't installed.
340 * EXTLINUX: Hack for systems which don't have BLKGETSIZE64
341 defined in the standard header files.
342 * Simple menu system: minor aestetic improvements, and try to
343 work better over a serial console (speed, and readability on
344 monochrome terminal emulators.)
345 * New CONSOLE directive to control output on the video console
346 (useful for dealing with some broken serial-forwarding
348 * New com32 module "ethersel" for searching for an Ethernet
349 card and selecting the proper version of Etherboot.
350 * EXTLINUX: Allow the user to override the detected geometry.
354 * EXTLINUX, SYSLINUX: Fix compile errors on some systems.
355 * EXTLINUX: Default to zipdrive geometry (64 heads, 32
356 sectors) if no other geometry can be detected.
359 * SYSLINUX: Support FAT32 and EDD. As an unfortunate
360 consequence, LDLINUX.SYS is no longer an ordinary file; it
361 is block-mapped at install time, which means it can only be
362 written using the syslinux installers.
363 * SYSLINUX: Reorganize the source code for the installers;
364 each one of the installers (dos, win32, unix, mtools) is now
365 built in its own subdirectory. In particular, "mtools" is
366 the unprivileged installer which uses mtools; "unix" is the
367 privileged installer which uses system calls.
368 * SYSLINUX: Completely rewritten DOS installer in C.
369 * ALL: "label" statement information is now stored in a
370 compressed format, which means that a lot more labels are
371 permitted (500-1000 in a typical configuration, but depends
373 * EXTLINUX: New derivative, which boots from an ext2/ext3
375 * SYSLINUX: The DOS and Win32 installers can now optionally
376 write the boot sector to a file instead of the real boot
377 sector. This is not supported in the Linux installers,
379 * ALL: New NOESCAPE command, disables the "hold down the Shift
380 key to display the prompt" behaviour.
381 * New simple menu system, as an alternative to the advanced
382 menu system already present. See README.menu for details.
383 * PXELINUX: Filenames can now be prefixed with an IP address
384 or DNS name plus :: (e.g. 192.0.2.1::filename or
385 server.domain.com::filename), which downloads a file from an
386 alternate TFTP server, or just a :: (e.g. ::filename), which
387 suppresses the common pathname prefix. See pxelinux.doc.
388 * SYSLINUX: Add an -m option to the DOS and Win32 installers
389 to write an MBR and -a to mark the partition SYSLINUX is
390 being installed on active.
391 * MEMDISK: Give a way to query the boot loader type while
392 running MEMDISK; see memdisk/memdisk.doc and
394 * mkdiskimage: substantially improved mkdiskimage which, among
395 other things, can now be used to initialize USB keys as
396 zipdrives; see README.usbkey for more information.
399 * MEMDISK: Fix command-line parsing "brown paper bag" class
401 * MEMDISK: Add "raw" mode to support the DOS boot disk from
402 WinME/XP, which seems to deliberately crash the system
403 when someone uses the "INT 15h mover" highmem API.
404 * Make "make install" do something sane for the com32
405 development environment.
406 * In the spec file, create a separate -devel RPM for the com32
407 development environment.
410 * Simple C library, based on klibc, for writing COM32
412 * Fix the handling of file length in loading of COM32
414 * MEMDISK: Work around a linker bug by rearranging the code to
415 not use the linker for the 16-bit code.
416 * SYSLINUX: If we're building on a machine without a Win32
417 (mingw) compiler, just skip building syslinux.exe.
418 * ISOLINUX: Support non-mkisofs mastering programs, at least
419 as long as the image is single-session. For best results,
420 ISOLINUX should be the only boot loader installed.
421 * MEMDISK: Allow the user to specify that the simulated disk
422 should be write-protected.
425 * ALL: Add an API call to get the configuration file name.
426 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in 2.10 that prevented it from working
427 correctly for a lot of people.
428 * SYSLINUX: In the installer, make mtools a bit less fussy.
429 * Make the menu system compile with newer gcc's.
432 * MEMDISK: Handle images compressed with zip as well as with
433 gzip. Some Windows-based image tools apparently generate
434 these kinds of images by default. Patch by Patrick
436 * Major menu improvement from Murali Ganapathy.
437 * ISOLINUX: Wonderfully sick and brilliant workaround for
438 severe bugs in certain Award BIOSes; from Knut Petersen.
439 * SYSLINUX: Fix for the nomtools installed, from Frederic
441 * PXELINUX: Fix handling of IP numbers in the ranges
443 * ALL: New option "allowoptions" (defaults to 1), which
444 controls if options are allowed on the command line or not.
445 * SYSLINUX: Support building under klibc (see the klibc
446 distribution for details.)
449 * SYSLINUX: Remove residual setuid crap from
451 * Handle video pages correctly when using the API functions.
452 * Handle compiling on an x86-64 platform correctly.
453 * Menu system from Murali Krishnan Ganapathy; see the menu
454 directory for information.
455 * COMBOOT: Allow COMBOOT programs to change screen text mode.
456 * COMBOOT: Correct the documentation of how to detect
457 SYSLINUX from COMBOOT!!!!
458 * COMBOOT: Fix "get key without echo" API function.
459 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug that affected the API open function.
460 * ALL: Improve the E820 memory parser, to work around some
464 * Add new configuration command "ontimeout" to allow timeout
465 to have a different action than just pressing Enter.
466 * Add new configuration command "onerror" to allow a custom
467 command to be executed in case the kernel image is not found.
468 * Fix bugs in the COMBOOT/COM32 command-line parsing. APPEND
469 now works with COMBOOT/COM32 images.
470 * PXELINUX: Poll for ARP requests while sitting at the
471 prompt. This makes some boot servers a lot less unhappy.
472 * PXELINUX: Actually free sockets when we get a failure
473 (including file not found.) This bug would cause us to run
474 out of sockets and thus "go deaf" after a while.
475 * MEMDISK: Add an API to query for the existence of MEMDISK.
476 * SYSLINUX: Fix loading boot sectors (.bs/.bss) from floppy
478 * .c32 is now one of the extensions searched for
480 * PXELINUX: RFBG.exe seems to randomly overwrite memory
481 location 0x5700. Thus, don't use it!
482 * PXELINUX: Change pathname length max from 63 to 127; change
483 max vkernels from 128 to 64.
484 * Support Ctrl-U -> kill entire command line input.
485 * The "samples" directory contains a (barely at all tested)
486 chain loading example, chain.c32, which may be used to
487 chainload local floppy disks and hard disks. Use with
488 "chain fdN" or "chain hdN [partition]"; N = 0 for the first
492 * MEMDISK: Workaround for BIOSes which go into a snit when
493 they get a RESET command for the floppy system when there is
494 no floppy in the system.
495 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend 2", which passes the hardware
496 address of the boot interface to the kernel as a
498 * mkdiskimage: fix the generation of the end limit.
499 * PXELINUX: Fix multiple bugs in chainloading of other NBPs.
500 * MEMDISK: Fix bug that would occationally cause "ran out of
501 input data" when using compressed disk images.
502 * SYSLINUX: Updates for the win32 installer (from Lars Munch.)
503 * PXELINUX: PXELINUX-specific options are now recognized both
504 in a vendor-option-space (a.k.a. type 43 encapsulated) as
505 well as in a site-option-space (unencapsulated.)
506 * COM32: Don't crash when DS != 0.
507 * COMBOOT/COM32: Make file reading work correctly. Thanks to
508 Phung Chi Kien for submitting a test program.
511 * ALL: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
512 boot failure, depending on the length of the kernel.
513 * ISOLINUX: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
514 boot failure, depending on the length of directories.
515 * SYSLINUX: Win32 installer now flushes buffers.
516 * ppmtolss16: Be fully compliant with the PNM spec;
517 actually process comments in the header and odd
518 alignments of the various parameters, as well as
519 "plain" (not raw) files and PBM and PGM files.
520 * PXELINUX: Lower the default MTU to 1472 in order to deal
521 with systems with slightly nonstandard MTUs, and PXE
522 stacks which don't defragment correctly. Unfortunately this
523 is very hard to test dynamically.
526 * PXELINUX: Add a default query based on the hardware address
527 of the boot device. This is in lower case hexadecimal form
528 separated by dashes and including the hardware type, for
529 example, the Ethernet (type 1) address 88:99:AA:BB:CC:DD
530 would query the file pxelinux.cfg/01-88-99-aa-bb-cc-dd.
531 * PXELINUX: Fix bug involving non-IP-based config file names.
532 * SYSLINUX: New installer for WinNT-based systems, from Lars
534 * MEMDISK: Fix handling of memory region overlap when
535 decompressing. Thanks to Mikhail Kupchik for identifying
539 * ALL: Reclaim even more low memory by observing that
540 comboot_seg == real_mode_seg is perfectly fine, and by the
541 fact that the 1000h segment managed to get unused in all
543 * PXELINUX: Attempt to negotiate full Ethernet-sized blocks
544 (1468 bytes) using the blksize option.
545 * SYSLINUX: Resurrect the old no-mtools version of the
546 installer, although as a root-only tool. Some distributors
547 have indicated that they need a small standalone installer.
548 * MEMDISK: Fix a memory offset computation error when
549 installing compressed disks which generally would cause
550 1 MB of memory to be wasted.
551 * MEMDISK: Fix installing the E820 memory map. Calling
552 INT 15h AX=0E820h with MEMDISK 2.03 loaded would give a
553 completely corrupt memory map.
554 * SYSLINUX: Make libsyslinux a dynamic library, so that it can
555 be updated separately from client programs. The whole idea,
556 after all, is to enable alternate programs to become
558 * Include an rpm spec file in the distribution, so rpmbuild
562 * Actually support comment lines in the configuration file.
563 * PXELINUX: Try to resolve some problems with stack switches.
564 * PXELINUX: Handle PXE stacks with broken routing.
565 With these workarounds, the remote install PXE boot floppy
566 (rbfg.exe) from Argon Technologies should work correctly.
567 * Fix problems with Perl scripts in UTF-8 locales.
568 * You probably need NASM 0.98.34 or later to compile this
569 version. 0.98.36 is recommended.
570 * MEMDISK: Now supports gzip compressed images.
573 * SYSLINUX: Security flaws have been found in the SYSLINUX
574 installer when running setuid root. Rewrite the SYSLINUX
575 installer so it uses mtools instead. It therefore now
576 requires mtools (specifically mcopy and mattrib) to exist on
577 your system, but it will not require root privileges and
578 SHOULD NOT be setuid.
581 * MEMDISK: Fix memory sizing bug when the ramdisk crosses the
583 * MEMDISK: Add a "pause" option to stop immediately before
584 booting, to read off the messages.
585 * MEMDISK: Support disk images with DOSEMU headers.
586 * Update the mkdiskimage script to handle newer mtools
587 versions, and be able to generate disk images with DOSEMU
588 headers (controlled by the -d option).
589 * Fix the COM32 sample program.
590 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix some COMBOOT API calls.
592 * Build SYSLINUX into a small library for encapsulation into
593 other programs (however, please keep in mind this is a GPL'd
595 * SYSLINUX: Make installer work with "owner" in /etc/fstab.
596 * SYSLINUX: Fix issue with working on nonpartitioned hard disk
597 devices. THIS CONFIGURATION IS NOT RECOMMENDED.
600 * ALL: Add support for "COM32" (32-bit COMBOOT) images.
601 * ALL: Add an API for COMBOOT/COM32 images. See comboot.doc
602 for details. There is a C development environment for
603 COM32 being created; it should be ready at some point in
605 * Fix mbr.asm so that it actually works.
606 * SYSLINUX: The syslinux installer *SHOULD* now be safe to
608 * PXELINUX: Fix bug where PXELINUX would override random
609 chunks of the UNDI code segment! Thanks to Kevin Tran for
611 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug related to slashes in pathnames.
612 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug in handling initrds over 128 MB.
613 * ALL: Make the <Ctrl-V> key print out the version; this is
615 * Add a small script, mkdiskimage, to create a DOS-formatted
616 hard disk image using mtools. This may be useful in
617 conjunction with MEMDISK.
618 * ISOLINUX: Search for a /boot/isolinux directory as well as
620 * ALL: Fix a bug related to very long configuration files.
621 * PXELINUX: Work around a NASM bug which would result in no
622 delay before reset if an error occurs.
625 * ISOLINUX: Remove code no longer used which caused hangs on
626 some Toshiba laptops.
629 * ALL: NASM 0.98.32 or later is now required to build
630 SYSLINUX from sources.
631 * SYSLINUX: put back in the workaround for the BIOS floppy
632 table. This seems to be a requirement for "extended" floppy
633 formats to work correctly.
634 * SYSLINUX: No longer warn if one is trying to boot on a 286
635 or older. The above BIOS workaround no longer fits if the
636 requirement to use only 8086-compatible code in the early
637 boot is maintained. It made sense in 1994, but in 2002 a
638 286 or older is a museum object.
639 * SYSLINUX: Use a downright bizarre, stateful algorithm to try
640 to guess the maximum transfer size. I am *hoping* this will
641 cut down on the number of systems for which -s is required
642 to work at any acceptable speed.
643 * ISOLINUX: Add a few more workarounds for various broken El
645 * Make sure .depend files aren't accidentally packed...
646 * ALL: Fix bugs in the extension-detect code; this caused
647 files like COMBOOT images and CD boot sectors to be
648 mis-identified as Linux kernels and rejected.
649 * ALL: Fix the return from COMBOOT.
650 * ALL: Do some of the early groundwork for supporting DOS
651 system calls in COMBOOT.
652 * Get rid of unnecessary "near" directives, making the code
654 * PXELINUX: Put the PXE stack back in the init state before
655 invoking a chain-loaded NBP.
656 * PXELINUX: Actually found the combination of calls that
657 allows some (most?) PXE 2+ stacks to be unloaded from memory
659 * PXELINUX: Add "keeppxe" command-line option to disable
660 the standard unloading of the PXE stack.
663 * SYSLINUX: fix bug that would cause valid kernel images to be
667 * Work on removing gratuitous differences between modules.
668 * Break up the source in common and module-specific files.
669 * PXELINUX: Allow chaining of other PXE NBPs.
670 * ISOLINUX: Allow loading "CD-ROM boot sectors".
671 * ALL: generalize the definition of a boot sector/NBP.
674 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix bugs in the new core code.
677 * Fix a "brown paper bag" class bug in the new core code.
680 * Major code restructuring.
681 * Relax the conventional memory limits somewhat.
682 * MEMDISK: Set up the "version number string" pointer in the
684 * SYSLINUX: Fix, again, "the bug that won't die": the use of
685 the offset parameter with the SYSLINUX installer.
686 * SYSLINUX: Fix possible superblock corruption problem in the
690 * Handle bug in the location of initrd.
693 * MEMDISK: Make compile with newer versions of gcc.
696 * ISOLINUX: Support booting disk image files (to boot DOS or
697 other non-Linux operating systems), *IF* the BIOS works
698 correctly; unfortunately many BIOSes apparently don't.
699 * Support Linux boot protocol version 2.03 (explicitly
700 specify the initrd address limit.)
701 * Handle small "pseudo-kernels"; images that use the Linux
702 kernel boot protocols but are less than 64K in size.
703 * MEMDISK: New subsystem; this is a driver which allows
704 legacy OSes to boot using an in-memory simulated disk.
705 See memdisk/memdisk.doc for more info.
706 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Correctly handle files larger than 65535
707 blocks (32 MB for PXELINUX, 128 MB for ISOLINUX.)
708 * PXELINUX: Make a best-effort attempt at freeing all memory
709 claimed. From the looks of it, it will fail on most PXE
713 * Limited support for hardware flow control when using a
715 * Support specifying the serial port I/O address explicitly.
716 * Make DOS installer hopefully behave more nicely when used on
717 recent Windows versions.
718 * Fix returning to text mode when a font has been specified.
719 * Attempt to detect missing serial port hardware and disable
720 the serial port if there is nothing there.
723 * Make the ppmtolss16 program handle color conversion more
725 * Clean up "make install" target, honour INSTALLROOT if it
727 * SYSLINUX: Fix stack-smash bug identified by Steffen
729 * Hopefully fix return-to-text-mode on some graphics cards.
730 * ISOLINUX: Bug workaround for Award BIOS 4.51, and perhaps
731 other buggy BIOSes as well.
734 * PXELINUX: Allow the DHCP server to override the
735 configuration file name and pathname prefix, using
736 "site-specific" DHCP options.
737 * PXELINUX: Documentation fixes.
738 * PXELINUX: Fix the "ipappend" option; the last two values
739 were reversed vs. what the kernel expected.
740 * Introduce a way to return to text mode once we are already
741 in graphics mode. This may be useful for F-key help
743 * Fix several bugs in the way return to text mode was handled.
746 * ISOLINUX: Support full pathname searches. Max length for a
747 pathname is 255 characters. As a result, only 64 "label"
748 statements are supported in ISOLINUX.
749 * PXELINUX: Max filename length extended to 63 characters.
752 * Add support for graphical splash screens.
753 * Add mode control characters, which allows you to control
754 message display output depending on output mode (text,
755 graphics, or serial port.)
756 * ISOLINUX: New program, which boots Linux from a CD-ROM
757 without using floppy emulation mode. See isolinux.doc for
759 * PXELINUX: Don't search for boot sector file types, since
760 they don't work anyway.
761 * SYSLINUX: Document the LOCK command for Win9x, and the error
762 dialog box for WinNT/2K.
765 * PXELINUX: Fix code for finding !PXE from PXENV+. This was
766 due to a spec bug; match the most recent spec since that
767 seems to be what implementations actually do.
768 * SYSLINUX: Add some smarts to the boot sector, which
769 hopefully should reduce the number of systems which require
770 stupid mode ("syslinux -s").
771 * PXELINUX: Document further some of the pathologies with old
773 * When specifying a "default" command line, no longer
774 automatically appent "auto". See the "DEFAULT" command in
775 syslinux.doc for more information.
776 * PXELINUX: Clean up the allocation of local socket numbers.
779 * PXELINUX: Rename pxelinux.bin to pxelinux.0, to match what
780 most PXE servers seem to expect.
781 * PXELINUX: Update the DHCP/boot server setup documentation.
782 * PXELINUX: Support new "localboot" option for "label"
784 * PXELINUX: More robust parsing of DHCP/boot server packets.
785 * PXELINUX: Include a small utility program "gethostip" to
786 compute hexadecimal IP addresses.
789 * PXELINUX: Fix bugs introduced by new A20 code. (SYSLINUX
790 has also been changed for code consistency reasons, but I'm
791 pretty sure the changes are don't care on SYSLINUX.)
792 * Documentation updates.
793 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend" option to generate an ip= option to
797 * PXELINUX: Not all PXE stacks fill in the IP address for a
798 type 3 cached info query. Use a type 2 cached info query
799 for this information (only.)
800 * Yet another attempt at A20 coding. Now support BIOS call
801 15:2401 as well, and handle machines which always have A20
803 * Support memory detection using INT 15h, AX=0E820h. BIOS
804 manufacturers have apparently gotten sloppy about keeping
805 INT 15h, AX=0E801h working properly.
806 * Don't issue <CR><LF> onto the serial port when we're doing
810 * Yet another A20-code update. It seems some "legacy-free"
811 machines and embedded gear simply don't have a KBC to talk
812 to, and that waiting for one will wait forever. Sigh.
815 * SYSLINUX: Implement a hack for BIOS drivers which hog significant
816 chunks of low memory during boot. (Note: PXELINUX already
817 had this modification. SYSLINUX does still require that the
818 low 512K is available; PXELINUX requires 384K. Machines
819 with a physical memory hole in the low 640K cannot boot
820 Linux no matter what.) Depending what the reason is for the
821 memory hole, a new kernel (2.4.0-test3-pre3 or later) may be
823 * SYSLINUX: Default installer binary now compiled against
824 glibc 2.1. If this is inappropriate for your system and you
825 still want to use the offical version of SYSLINUX, please
826 follow the instructions in "distrib.doc" to rebuild the
828 * SYSLINUX: Linux installer program now supports -o <offset>
829 option which does a loopback mount with the
830 -o loop,offset=<> option. Useful to run SYSLINUX on an
831 individual partition of a whole-harddisk image.
832 * Include the source code to a Master Boot Record (MBR)
833 functionally equivalent to the one installed DOS except it
834 includes EBIOS support, and should be resistant to geometry
835 changes. The MBR code is public domain.
836 * PXELINUX: Fix "double p" bug: if the tftp prefix was null,
837 all filenames would get a "p" preprended, e.g.
838 "ppxelinux.cfg" and "pvmlinux".
841 * PXELINUX: Workaround for PXE ROMs based on the Intel PXE PDK
842 3.0 build 071 and earlier: missing !PXE structure pointer.
843 * PXELINUX: Handle larger BOOTP/DHCP packages.
844 * PXELINUX: The command line passing was broken; fix.
845 * PXELINUX: Make COMBOOT images work.
846 * PXELINUX: Documentation on how to make booting work using
847 the PDK 3.0-derived clients, which aren't so generous as to
848 allow booting with only "PXEClient" specified.
851 * PXELINUX: RFC 1123 states that a TFTP implementation MUST
852 use adaptive timeout, "at least an exponential backoff of
853 retransmission timeout is necessary." Implement a very
854 simple exponential backoff for retransmits.
855 * PXELINUX: Updated documentation, including pointer to new
857 * PXELINUX: When sending ERROR due to bad OACK, use the proper
858 destination port number (why are TFTP port numbers so odd?)
859 * PXELINUX: If the boot dies in the middle somewhere,
860 eventually give up and reset the machine (unattended
864 * New program PXELINUX to do network booting using a
865 PXE-compliant (Pre-Execution Environment) network booting
866 PROM. See pxelinux.doc for details.
869 * Serial console support. See syslinux.doc for details.
872 * Change HIGHMEM_MAX to 38000000h to (hopefully) avoid the
873 kernel stepping on it; 3f000000h was apparently a higher
874 limit than the kernel used!
877 * Add sys2ansi.pl script to display the contents of a
878 colorized SYSLINUX file.
879 * Changed the io_delay once again, after a report that the
880 old delay port causes hangs on some systems.
883 * Frob the "fast A20 gate" port as well as the keyboard
884 controller; will this help systems with problems?
885 * Be even more paranoid about A20, unfortunately even this
886 seems to be not paranoid enough... what I don't understand
887 is that if there is hardware out there *this broken*, how
888 can it run Linux at all? Report an error message rather
889 than hang forever if A20 is stuck.
890 * Include some intermediate files in the distribution, plus
891 provide a "make installer" target for distributors to relink
892 the install programs only. I would prefer the syslinux boot
893 loader proper to be "binary clean" for debuggablity -- use
894 "make clean ; make installer" to rebuild the installers only.
897 * Don't get confused by directories, volume labels, or VFAT
899 * Use INT 15h, AX=0E801h to query memory size before trying
900 INT 15h, AH=88h. This not only provides more headroom
901 between the kernel and the initrd on large-memory machines,
902 but it appears some recent BIOSes actually have started
903 returning garbage for the AH=88h (older) call.
904 * Trust high memory beyond the 15 MB mark if the user has
905 specified it, or if obtained with INT 15h, AH=0E801h (with
906 no memory holes above 1 MB.)
909 * Increase A20M delay and put in a test to avoid problems on
910 certain IBM Thinkpads (thanks to Donnie Barnes of RedHat
911 for vital info on this one.)
912 * Support COMBOOT style boot command images.
913 * Support chain loading (foreign operating systems, e.g. DOS).
914 * Include a new "copybs" DOS utility to copy a boot sector to
915 a file (under Linux, use "dd".)
916 * Fix the DOS installer to work for disks over 32 MB.
917 * SYSLINUX should now handle disks with more than 65536 tracks.
920 * Fix a bug that caused "label" statements in syslinux.cfg to
921 not be handled properly.
922 * Updated the documentation. Among other things, we now allow
923 up to 128 "label" statements.
926 * Fix for booting old (pre-initrd) kernels.
927 * It seems at least some versions of OS/2 doesn't set up all
928 the fields in the superblock correctly. Account for that.
929 * Fix bug that caused boot failure when using the mem= option.
932 * Loading from partitions now should work properly. (Actually
933 tested, this time. You should even be able to dd a floppy
934 to a partition and boot from it.)
935 * Removed large workaround code for an alleged ancient BIOS
936 bug I have never actually seen. The -s option should work
937 on those machines, anyway.
938 * Support for simple keyboard remappings, same as used by
939 LILO (once again to support localization.) The program
940 keytab-lilo.pl from the LILO distribution included to
942 * Added a "safe, slow and stupid" (-s) option to the
943 installers. This option will lobotomize the boot sector to
944 hopefully work on even very buggy BIOSes.
947 * Ability to load a VGA font on bootup (for localized Linux
951 * Bug fix in the Linux installer.
952 * Added a workaround for a bug in certain AMI/Intel BIOSes
953 when booting from CD-ROM.
954 * Documentation changes.
957 * FAT16 filesystems are now supported.
960 * Now compiles under Linux, using NASM, rather than using
961 Turbo Assembler under DOS. See http://www.cryogen.com/Nasm
962 for information about NASM.
963 * Linux-hosted SYSLINUX installer, as well as a
964 rewritten DOS installer (now is written in assembler, so we
968 * Added support for loading bzImage and initrd loading, and made
969 SYSLINUX new-setup-code aware (SYSLINUX 1.30 id=0x31).
970 * Added LILO-style kernel labels; see the LABEL and IMPLICIT
971 keywords in README file.
972 * Added support for colorization of intro and help screens.
973 * The vga= option is now handled correctly.
974 * Massive rewrite of large chunks of the code in order to
975 support the first two new features.
978 * Added simple online help at the "boot:" prompt.
979 * Removed 2880K image as I no longer have access to such a
980 floppy drive. (Donations accepted!!)
981 * Decided to distribute the source in a subdirectory rather
982 than in a nested zipfile.
985 * Removed a sanity check which would cause booting to fail on
986 Phoenix BIOS version 4.03. Apparently this BIOS is buggy.
989 * Added configuration file SYSLINUX.CFG. This file contains all
990 configurable options, and can be edited from any OS which can
991 access an MS-DOS filesystem; there is no longer a need to run
992 SYSLINUX.EXE except to write the boot sector.
993 * Default command line now given by "default" line in config
995 * LINUXMSG.TXT and BOOTMSG.TXT hard-coded file names replaced by
996 "display" and "prompt" lines in config file.
997 * LILO-style option appending now supported ("append" line in
999 * Prompt timeout is now supported ("timeout" line in config
1000 file). The timeout is cancelled when anything is typed on the
1002 * Pressing <ESC> or <Ctrl-C> at the Loading... stage now aborts
1003 the kernel loading in progress and returns the user to the
1005 * The installer now automatically sets the READONLY flag on
1007 * Added 2880K disk image.
1010 * Fixed bug that would prevent booting from double-density
1011 floppies and other DOS filesystems with multiple sectors per
1013 * Added 720K disk image.
1014 * Changed default kernel name on disk images to LINUX.
1017 * Fixed bug that would garble the command line on recent kernels
1018 with more than 4 sectors of setup code (this wasn't really a
1019 *bug*; rather, a kernel change broke the code. Unfortunately
1020 the Linux boot interface is still sorely undocumented).
1021 * Added BOOTMSG.TXT file support (message file which does not
1022 force display of the boot prompt).
1025 * Fixed bug on some (most?) 386 BIOSes would require two boot