1 Starting with 1.47, changes marked with SYSLINUX/PXELINUX/ISOLINUX
2 apply to that specific program only; other changes apply to all of
6 * MEMDISK: Handle images compressed with zip as well as with
7 gzip. Some Windows-based image tools apparently generate
8 these kinds of images by default. Patch by Patrick
10 * Major menu improvement from Murali Ganapathy.
11 * ISOLINUX: Wonderfully sick and brilliant workaround for
12 severe bugs in certain Award BIOSes; from Knut Petersen.
13 * SYSLINUX: Fix for the nomtools installed, from Frederic
17 * SYSLINUX: Remove residual setuid crap from
19 * Handle video pages correctly when using the API functions.
20 * Handle compiling on an x86-64 platform correctly.
21 * Menu system from Murali Krishnan Ganapathy; see the menu
22 directory for information.
23 * COMBOOT: Allow COMBOOT programs to change screen text mode.
24 * COMBOOT: Correct the documentation of how to detect
25 SYSLINUX from COMBOOT!!!!
26 * COMBOOT: Fix "get key without echo" API function.
27 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug that affected the API open function.
28 * ALL: Improve the E820 memory parser, to work around some
32 * Add new configuration command "ontimeout" to allow timeout
33 to have a different action than just pressing Enter.
34 * Add new configuration command "onerror" to allow a custom
35 command to be executed in case the kernel image is not found.
36 * Fix bugs in the COMBOOT/COM32 command-line parsing. APPEND
37 now works with COMBOOT/COM32 images.
38 * PXELINUX: Poll for ARP requests while sitting at the
39 prompt. This makes some boot servers a lot less unhappy.
40 * PXELINUX: Actually free sockets when we get a failure
41 (including file not found.) This bug would cause us to run
42 out of sockets and thus "go deaf" after a while.
43 * MEMDISK: Add an API to query for the existence of MEMDISK.
44 * SYSLINUX: Fix loading boot sectors (.bs/.bss) from floppy
46 * .c32 is now one of the extensions searched for
48 * PXELINUX: RFBG.exe seems to randomly overwrite memory
49 location 0x5700. Thus, don't use it!
50 * PXELINUX: Change pathname length max from 63 to 127; change
51 max vkernels from 128 to 64.
52 * Support Ctrl-U -> kill entire command line input.
53 * The "samples" directory contains a (barely at all tested)
54 chain loading example, chain.c32, which may be used to
55 chainload local floppy disks and hard disks. Use with
56 "chain fdN" or "chain hdN [partition]"; N = 0 for the first
60 * MEMDISK: Workaround for BIOSes which go into a snit when
61 they get a RESET command for the floppy system when there is
62 no floppy in the system.
63 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend 2", which passes the hardware
64 address of the boot interface to the kernel as a
66 * mkdiskimage: fix the generation of the end limit.
67 * PXELINUX: Fix multiple bugs in chainloading of other NBPs.
68 * MEMDISK: Fix bug that would occationally cause "ran out of
69 input data" when using compressed disk images.
70 * SYSLINUX: Updates for the win32 installer (from Lars Munch.)
71 * PXELINUX: PXELINUX-specific options are now recognized both
72 in a vendor-option-space (a.k.a. type 43 encapsulated) as
73 well as in a site-option-space (unencapsulated.)
74 * COM32: Don't crash when DS != 0.
75 * COMBOOT/COM32: Make file reading work correctly. Thanks to
76 Phung Chi Kien for submitting a test program.
79 * ALL: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
80 boot failure, depending on the length of the kernel.
81 * ISOLINUX: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
82 boot failure, depending on the length of directories.
83 * SYSLINUX: Win32 installer now flushes buffers.
84 * ppmtolss16: Be fully compliant with the PNM spec;
85 actually process comments in the header and odd
86 alignments of the various parameters, as well as
87 "plain" (not raw) files and PBM and PGM files.
88 * PXELINUX: Lower the default MTU to 1472 in order to deal
89 with systems with slightly nonstandard MTUs, and PXE
90 stacks which don't defragment correctly. Unfortunately this
91 is very hard to test dynamically.
94 * PXELINUX: Add a default query based on the hardware address
95 of the boot device. This is in lower case hexadecimal form
96 separated by dashes and including the hardware type, for
97 example, the Ethernet (type 1) address 88:99:AA:BB:CC:DD
98 would query the file pxelinux.cfg/01-88-99-aa-bb-cc-dd.
99 * PXELINUX: Fix bug involving non-IP-based config file names.
100 * SYSLINUX: New installer for WinNT-based systems, from Lars
102 * MEMDISK: Fix handling of memory region overlap when
103 decompressing. Thanks to Mikhail Kupchik for identifying
107 * ALL: Reclaim even more low memory by observing that
108 comboot_seg == real_mode_seg is perfectly fine, and by the
109 fact that the 1000h segment managed to get unused in all
111 * PXELINUX: Attempt to negotiate full Ethernet-sized blocks
112 (1468 bytes) using the blksize option.
113 * SYSLINUX: Resurrect the old no-mtools version of the
114 installer, although as a root-only tool. Some distributors
115 have indicated that they need a small standalone installer.
116 * MEMDISK: Fix a memory offset computation error when
117 installing compressed disks which generally would cause
118 1 MB of memory to be wasted.
119 * MEMDISK: Fix installing the E820 memory map. Calling
120 INT 15h AX=0E820h with MEMDISK 2.03 loaded would give a
121 completely corrupt memory map.
122 * SYSLINUX: Make libsyslinux a dynamic library, so that it can
123 be updated separately from client programs. The whole idea,
124 after all, is to enable alternate programs to become
126 * Include an rpm spec file in the distribution, so rpmbuild
130 * Actually support comment lines in the configuration file.
131 * PXELINUX: Try to resolve some problems with stack switches.
132 * PXELINUX: Handle PXE stacks with broken routing.
133 With these workarounds, the remote install PXE boot floppy
134 (rbfg.exe) from Argon Technologies should work correctly.
135 * Fix problems with Perl scripts in UTF-8 locales.
136 * You probably need NASM 0.98.34 or later to compile this
137 version. 0.98.36 is recommended.
138 * MEMDISK: Now supports gzip compressed images.
141 * SYSLINUX: Security flaws have been found in the SYSLINUX
142 installer when running setuid root. Rewrite the SYSLINUX
143 installer so it uses mtools instead. It therefore now
144 requires mtools (specifically mcopy and mattrib) to exist on
145 your system, but it will not require root privileges and
146 SHOULD NOT be setuid.
149 * MEMDISK: Fix memory sizing bug when the ramdisk crosses the
151 * MEMDISK: Add a "pause" option to stop immediately before
152 booting, to read off the messages.
153 * MEMDISK: Support disk images with DOSEMU headers.
154 * Update the mkdiskimage script to handle newer mtools
155 versions, and be able to generate disk images with DOSEMU
156 headers (controlled by the -d option).
157 * Fix the COM32 sample program.
158 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix some COMBOOT API calls.
160 * Build SYSLINUX into a small library for encapsulation into
161 other programs (however, please keep in mind this is a GPL'd
163 * SYSLINUX: Make installer work with "owner" in /etc/fstab.
164 * SYSLINUX: Fix issue with working on nonpartitioned hard disk
165 devices. THIS CONFIGURATION IS NOT RECOMMENDED.
168 * ALL: Add support for "COM32" (32-bit COMBOOT) images.
169 * ALL: Add an API for COMBOOT/COM32 images. See comboot.doc
170 for details. There is a C development environment for
171 COM32 being created; it should be ready at some point in
173 * Fix mbr.asm so that it actually works.
174 * SYSLINUX: The syslinux installer *SHOULD* now be safe to
176 * PXELINUX: Fix bug where PXELINUX would override random
177 chunks of the UNDI code segment! Thanks to Kevin Tran for
179 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug related to slashes in pathnames.
180 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug in handling initrds over 128 MB.
181 * ALL: Make the <Ctrl-V> key print out the version; this is
183 * Add a small script, mkdiskimage, to create a DOS-formatted
184 hard disk image using mtools. This may be useful in
185 conjunction with MEMDISK.
186 * ISOLINUX: Search for a /boot/isolinux directory as well as
188 * ALL: Fix a bug related to very long configuration files.
189 * PXELINUX: Work around a NASM bug which would result in no
190 delay before reset if an error occurs.
193 * ISOLINUX: Remove code no longer used which caused hangs on
194 some Toshiba laptops.
197 * ALL: NASM 0.98.32 or later is now required to build
198 SYSLINUX from sources.
199 * SYSLINUX: put back in the workaround for the BIOS floppy
200 table. This seems to be a requirement for "extended" floppy
201 formats to work correctly.
202 * SYSLINUX: No longer warn if one is trying to boot on a 286
203 or older. The above BIOS workaround no longer fits if the
204 requirement to use only 8086-compatible code in the early
205 boot is maintained. It made sense in 1994, but in 2002 a
206 286 or older is a museum object.
207 * SYSLINUX: Use a downright bizarre, stateful algorithm to try
208 to guess the maximum transfer size. I am *hoping* this will
209 cut down on the number of systems for which -s is required
210 to work at any acceptable speed.
211 * ISOLINUX: Add a few more workarounds for various broken El
213 * Make sure .depend files aren't accidentally packed...
214 * ALL: Fix bugs in the extension-detect code; this caused
215 files like COMBOOT images and CD boot sectors to be
216 mis-identified as Linux kernels and rejected.
217 * ALL: Fix the return from COMBOOT.
218 * ALL: Do some of the early groundwork for supporting DOS
219 system calls in COMBOOT.
220 * Get rid of unnecessary "near" directives, making the code
222 * PXELINUX: Put the PXE stack back in the init state before
223 invoking a chain-loaded NBP.
224 * PXELINUX: Actually found the combination of calls that
225 allows some (most?) PXE 2+ stacks to be unloaded from memory
227 * PXELINUX: Add "keeppxe" command-line option to disable
228 the standard unloading of the PXE stack.
231 * SYSLINUX: fix bug that would cause valid kernel images to be
235 * Work on removing gratuitous differences between modules.
236 * Break up the source in common and module-specific files.
237 * PXELINUX: Allow chaining of other PXE NBPs.
238 * ISOLINUX: Allow loading "CD-ROM boot sectors".
239 * ALL: generalize the definition of a boot sector/NBP.
242 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix bugs in the new core code.
245 * Fix a "brown paper bag" class bug in the new core code.
248 * Major code restructuring.
249 * Relax the conventional memory limits somewhat.
250 * MEMDISK: Set up the "version number string" pointer in the
252 * SYSLINUX: Fix, again, "the bug that won't die": the use of
253 the offset parameter with the SYSLINUX installer.
254 * SYSLINUX: Fix possible superblock corruption problem in the
258 * Handle bug in the location of initrd.
261 * MEMDISK: Make compile with newer versions of gcc.
264 * ISOLINUX: Support booting disk image files (to boot DOS or
265 other non-Linux operating systems), *IF* the BIOS works
266 correctly; unfortunately many BIOSes apparently don't.
267 * Support Linux boot protocol version 2.03 (explicitly
268 specify the initrd address limit.)
269 * Handle small "pseudo-kernels"; images that use the Linux
270 kernel boot protocols but are less than 64K in size.
271 * MEMDISK: New subsystem; this is a driver which allows
272 legacy OSes to boot using an in-memory simulated disk.
273 See memdisk/memdisk.doc for more info.
274 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Correctly handle files larger than 65535
275 blocks (32 MB for PXELINUX, 128 MB for ISOLINUX.)
276 * PXELINUX: Make a best-effort attempt at freeing all memory
277 claimed. From the looks of it, it will fail on most PXE
281 * Limited support for hardware flow control when using a
283 * Support specifying the serial port I/O address explicitly.
284 * Make DOS installer hopefully behave more nicely when used on
285 recent Windows versions.
286 * Fix returning to text mode when a font has been specified.
287 * Attempt to detect missing serial port hardware and disable
288 the serial port if there is nothing there.
291 * Make the ppmtolss16 program handle color conversion more
293 * Clean up "make install" target, honour INSTALLROOT if it
295 * SYSLINUX: Fix stack-smash bug identified by Steffen
297 * Hopefully fix return-to-text-mode on some graphics cards.
298 * ISOLINUX: Bug workaround for Award BIOS 4.51, and perhaps
299 other buggy BIOSes as well.
302 * PXELINUX: Allow the DHCP server to override the
303 configuration file name and pathname prefix, using
304 "site-specific" DHCP options.
305 * PXELINUX: Documentation fixes.
306 * PXELINUX: Fix the "ipappend" option; the last two values
307 were reversed vs. what the kernel expected.
308 * Introduce a way to return to text mode once we are already
309 in graphics mode. This may be useful for F-key help
311 * Fix several bugs in the way return to text mode was handled.
314 * ISOLINUX: Support full pathname searches. Max length for a
315 pathname is 255 characters. As a result, only 64 "label"
316 statements are supported in ISOLINUX.
317 * PXELINUX: Max filename length extended to 63 characters.
320 * Add support for graphical splash screens.
321 * Add mode control characters, which allows you to control
322 message display output depending on output mode (text,
323 graphics, or serial port.)
324 * ISOLINUX: New program, which boots Linux from a CD-ROM
325 without using floppy emulation mode. See isolinux.doc for
327 * PXELINUX: Don't search for boot sector file types, since
328 they don't work anyway.
329 * SYSLINUX: Document the LOCK command for Win9x, and the error
330 dialog box for WinNT/2K.
333 * PXELINUX: Fix code for finding !PXE from PXENV+. This was
334 due to a spec bug; match the most recent spec since that
335 seems to be what implementations actually do.
336 * SYSLINUX: Add some smarts to the boot sector, which
337 hopefully should reduce the number of systems which require
338 stupid mode ("syslinux -s").
339 * PXELINUX: Document further some of the pathologies with old
341 * When specifying a "default" command line, no longer
342 automatically appent "auto". See the "DEFAULT" command in
343 syslinux.doc for more information.
344 * PXELINUX: Clean up the allocation of local socket numbers.
347 * PXELINUX: Rename pxelinux.bin to pxelinux.0, to match what
348 most PXE servers seem to expect.
349 * PXELINUX: Update the DHCP/boot server setup documentation.
350 * PXELINUX: Support new "localboot" option for "label"
352 * PXELINUX: More robust parsing of DHCP/boot server packets.
353 * PXELINUX: Include a small utility program "gethostip" to
354 compute hexadecimal IP addresses.
357 * PXELINUX: Fix bugs introduced by new A20 code. (SYSLINUX
358 has also been changed for code consistency reasons, but I'm
359 pretty sure the changes are don't care on SYSLINUX.)
360 * Documentation updates.
361 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend" option to generate an ip= option to
365 * PXELINUX: Not all PXE stacks fill in the IP address for a
366 type 3 cached info query. Use a type 2 cached info query
367 for this information (only.)
368 * Yet another attempt at A20 coding. Now support BIOS call
369 15:2401 as well, and handle machines which always have A20
371 * Support memory detection using INT 15h, AX=0E820h. BIOS
372 manufacturers have apparently gotten sloppy about keeping
373 INT 15h, AX=0E801h working properly.
374 * Don't issue <CR><LF> onto the serial port when we're doing
378 * Yet another A20-code update. It seems some "legacy-free"
379 machines and embedded gear simply don't have a KBC to talk
380 to, and that waiting for one will wait forever. Sigh.
383 * SYSLINUX: Implement a hack for BIOS drivers which hog significant
384 chunks of low memory during boot. (Note: PXELINUX already
385 had this modification. SYSLINUX does still require that the
386 low 512K is available; PXELINUX requires 384K. Machines
387 with a physical memory hole in the low 640K cannot boot
388 Linux no matter what.) Depending what the reason is for the
389 memory hole, a new kernel (2.4.0-test3-pre3 or later) may be
391 * SYSLINUX: Default installer binary now compiled against
392 glibc 2.1. If this is inappropriate for your system and you
393 still want to use the offical version of SYSLINUX, please
394 follow the instructions in "distrib.doc" to rebuild the
396 * SYSLINUX: Linux installer program now supports -o <offset>
397 option which does a loopback mount with the
398 -o loop,offset=<> option. Useful to run SYSLINUX on an
399 individual partition of a whole-harddisk image.
400 * Include the source code to a Master Boot Record (MBR)
401 functionally equivalent to the one installed DOS except it
402 includes EBIOS support, and should be resistant to geometry
403 changes. The MBR code is public domain.
404 * PXELINUX: Fix "double p" bug: if the tftp prefix was null,
405 all filenames would get a "p" preprended, e.g.
406 "ppxelinux.cfg" and "pvmlinux".
409 * PXELINUX: Workaround for PXE ROMs based on the Intel PXE PDK
410 3.0 build 071 and earlier: missing !PXE structure pointer.
411 * PXELINUX: Handle larger BOOTP/DHCP packages.
412 * PXELINUX: The command line passing was broken; fix.
413 * PXELINUX: Make COMBOOT images work.
414 * PXELINUX: Documentation on how to make booting work using
415 the PDK 3.0-derived clients, which aren't so generous as to
416 allow booting with only "PXEClient" specified.
419 * PXELINUX: RFC 1123 states that a TFTP implementation MUST
420 use adaptive timeout, "at least an exponential backoff of
421 retransmission timeout is necessary." Implement a very
422 simple exponential backoff for retransmits.
423 * PXELINUX: Updated documentation, including pointer to new
425 * PXELINUX: When sending ERROR due to bad OACK, use the proper
426 destination port number (why are TFTP port numbers so odd?)
427 * PXELINUX: If the boot dies in the middle somewhere,
428 eventually give up and reset the machine (unattended
432 * New program PXELINUX to do network booting using a
433 PXE-compliant (Pre-Execution Environment) network booting
434 PROM. See pxelinux.doc for details.
437 * Serial console support. See syslinux.doc for details.
440 * Change HIGHMEM_MAX to 38000000h to (hopefully) avoid the
441 kernel stepping on it; 3f000000h was apparently a higher
442 limit than the kernel used!
445 * Add sys2ansi.pl script to display the contents of a
446 colorized SYSLINUX file.
447 * Changed the io_delay once again, after a report that the
448 old delay port causes hangs on some systems.
451 * Frob the "fast A20 gate" port as well as the keyboard
452 controller; will this help systems with problems?
453 * Be even more paranoid about A20, unfortunately even this
454 seems to be not paranoid enough... what I don't understand
455 is that if there is hardware out there *this broken*, how
456 can it run Linux at all? Report an error message rather
457 than hang forever if A20 is stuck.
458 * Include some intermediate files in the distribution, plus
459 provide a "make installer" target for distributors to relink
460 the install programs only. I would prefer the syslinux boot
461 loader proper to be "binary clean" for debuggablity -- use
462 "make clean ; make installer" to rebuild the installers only.
465 * Don't get confused by directories, volume labels, or VFAT
467 * Use INT 15h, AX=0E801h to query memory size before trying
468 INT 15h, AH=88h. This not only provides more headroom
469 between the kernel and the initrd on large-memory machines,
470 but it appears some recent BIOSes actually have started
471 returning garbage for the AH=88h (older) call.
472 * Trust high memory beyond the 15 MB mark if the user has
473 specified it, or if obtained with INT 15h, AH=0E801h (with
474 no memory holes above 1 MB.)
477 * Increase A20M delay and put in a test to avoid problems on
478 certain IBM Thinkpads (thanks to Donnie Barnes of RedHat
479 for vital info on this one.)
480 * Support COMBOOT style boot command images.
481 * Support chain loading (foreign operating systems, e.g. DOS).
482 * Include a new "copybs" DOS utility to copy a boot sector to
483 a file (under Linux, use "dd".)
484 * Fix the DOS installer to work for disks over 32 MB.
485 * SYSLINUX should now handle disks with more than 65536 tracks.
488 * Fix a bug that caused "label" statements in syslinux.cfg to
489 not be handled properly.
490 * Updated the documentation. Among other things, we now allow
491 up to 128 "label" statements.
494 * Fix for booting old (pre-initrd) kernels.
495 * It seems at least some versions of OS/2 doesn't set up all
496 the fields in the superblock correctly. Account for that.
497 * Fix bug that caused boot failure when using the mem= option.
500 * Loading from partitions now should work properly. (Actually
501 tested, this time. You should even be able to dd a floppy
502 to a partition and boot from it.)
503 * Removed large workaround code for an alleged ancient BIOS
504 bug I have never actually seen. The -s option should work
505 on those machines, anyway.
506 * Support for simple keyboard remappings, same as used by
507 LILO (once again to support localization.) The program
508 keytab-lilo.pl from the LILO distribution included to
510 * Added a "safe, slow and stupid" (-s) option to the
511 installers. This option will lobotomize the boot sector to
512 hopefully work on even very buggy BIOSes.
515 * Ability to load a VGA font on bootup (for localized Linux
519 * Bug fix in the Linux installer.
520 * Added a workaround for a bug in certain AMI/Intel BIOSes
521 when booting from CD-ROM.
522 * Documentation changes.
525 * FAT16 filesystems are now supported.
528 * Now compiles under Linux, using NASM, rather than using
529 Turbo Assembler under DOS. See http://www.cryogen.com/Nasm
530 for information about NASM.
531 * Linux-hosted SYSLINUX installer, as well as a
532 rewritten DOS installer (now is written in assembler, so we
536 * Added support for loading bzImage and initrd loading, and made
537 SYSLINUX new-setup-code aware (SYSLINUX 1.30 id=0x31).
538 * Added LILO-style kernel labels; see the LABEL and IMPLICIT
539 keywords in README file.
540 * Added support for colorization of intro and help screens.
541 * The vga= option is now handled correctly.
542 * Massive rewrite of large chunks of the code in order to
543 support the first two new features.
546 * Added simple online help at the "boot:" prompt.
547 * Removed 2880K image as I no longer have access to such a
548 floppy drive. (Donations accepted!!)
549 * Decided to distribute the source in a subdirectory rather
550 than in a nested zipfile.
553 * Removed a sanity check which would cause booting to fail on
554 Phoenix BIOS version 4.03. Apparently this BIOS is buggy.
557 * Added configuration file SYSLINUX.CFG. This file contains all
558 configurable options, and can be edited from any OS which can
559 access an MS-DOS filesystem; there is no longer a need to run
560 SYSLINUX.EXE except to write the boot sector.
561 * Default command line now given by "default" line in config
563 * LINUXMSG.TXT and BOOTMSG.TXT hard-coded file names replaced by
564 "display" and "prompt" lines in config file.
565 * LILO-style option appending now supported ("append" line in
567 * Prompt timeout is now supported ("timeout" line in config
568 file). The timeout is cancelled when anything is typed on the
570 * Pressing <ESC> or <Ctrl-C> at the Loading... stage now aborts
571 the kernel loading in progress and returns the user to the
573 * The installer now automatically sets the READONLY flag on
575 * Added 2880K disk image.
578 * Fixed bug that would prevent booting from double-density
579 floppies and other DOS filesystems with multiple sectors per
581 * Added 720K disk image.
582 * Changed default kernel name on disk images to LINUX.
585 * Fixed bug that would garble the command line on recent kernels
586 with more than 4 sectors of setup code (this wasn't really a
587 *bug*; rather, a kernel change broke the code. Unfortunately
588 the Linux boot interface is still sorely undocumented).
589 * Added BOOTMSG.TXT file support (message file which does not
590 force display of the boot prompt).
593 * Fixed bug on some (most?) 386 BIOSes would require two boot
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