1 Starting with 1.47, changes marked with SYSLINUX, PXELINUX, ISOLINUX
2 or EXTLINUX apply to that specific program only; other changes apply
6 * PXELINUX: clear memory before handing over to a chainloaded
7 NBP. This may help avoid a bug in Windows RIS.
8 * PXELINUX: fix localboot after NBP chainloading on certain
9 BIOSes (including ASUS A8N-E, but possibly others.)
10 * chain.c32: support chainloaded bootloaders on ISOLINUX.
11 * PXELINUX: allow filenames up to 251 characters.
12 * MEMDISK: fix problems booting from USB on Thinkpads, and
13 possibly other machines or hardware combinations.
14 * isohybrid: fix the -id option.
15 * HDT: updated to version 0.3.4.
16 * MEMDISK: the stack size is now configurable, with the stack=
18 * Simple menu: fix Ctrl-W (word erase) in command-line edit.
19 * Simple menu: fix crash on some platforms.
20 * Gfxboot: fixes to the configuration file parsing.
23 * isohybrid: fix the -partok logic for loading from a partition.
24 * ISOLINUX: deal with systems which return from INT 13h with
26 * Do not invoke the idle handler during large file loads.
27 * Simple menu: make ONTIMEOUT work with MENU HIDDEN.
28 * PXELINUX: handle TFTP servers which have extra NULs at the
29 end of an OACK packet.
32 * Shuffler: fix bug in real-mode entry. This affected a
33 number of modules, probably in relatively unimportant ways,
34 but it completely broke linux.c32.
35 * Improved performance.
36 * Attempt to halt the processor while idle. This can cause
37 bad reponsiveness when using a serial console especially for
38 automated input; if that ends up being a problem, use the
39 new "NOHALT 1" configuration command.
40 * linux.c32 now suppresses all messages if the "quiet" flag is
42 * isohybrid: add a variety of options, and a help message.
43 * ISOLINUX: fix booting in hybrid mode when CBIOS is used.
44 This unfortunately means that the isohybrid handoff protocol
45 has changed, so the isohybrid utility must version-match
47 * Drop support for ACPI 3 extended memory flags.
48 * Menu system: don't set the autocr flag on the serial
50 * altmbr: fix handling of logical partitions.
51 * altmbr: cap at 439 bytes so the partition select byte isn't
55 * New shuffler mechanism and API.
56 * Rewritten mboot.c32 module.
57 * The syslinux_boot_linux() function has been simplified.
58 * Don't hang trying to boot a "menu quit" label from the CLI.
59 * Fix problem with boot-once "sticking" on some BIOSes.
60 * isohybrid: fix problem with images over 2 GB in size.
61 * APM poweroff module (poweroff.com) by Sebastian Herbszt.
62 * ISOLINUX: fix the handling of large directories. Bug found
63 and fixed by Steffen Winterfeldt.
66 * PXELINUX: fix the "keeppxe" option, which was broken in
68 * MEMDISK: correct the extraction of geometry information from
69 the MBR of a hard disk image, again broken in 3.74.
70 * extlinux(1) man page from Brian Pellin.
71 * Simple menu: MENU SAVE is now controllable on a menu-by-menu
72 or entry-by-entry basis.
73 * gPXELINUX: fix interrupt-disabling bug.
74 * HDT: fix lockup on machines with certain PCI configurations.
77 * New UI directive, which allows a more natural way to specify
78 a menu system (or not.) With the UI directive specifying
79 the menu system, the DEFAULT directive can be used to select
80 the default entry inside the menus.
81 * kbdmap.c32: new module to load a new keyboard map
83 * isohybrid: workaround bug in some versions of binutils.
84 * Fix issue with the placement of the initrd on some machines.
85 * ifcpu64: fix handling of less than three arguments.
86 * Fix bug in the shuffle library when dealing with a very
87 large number of fragments.
88 * Documentation fixes by Vicente Jimenez Aguilar.
89 * gPXE updated to version 0.9.7.
90 * hdt.c32: Hardware Detection Tool, an interactive hardware
91 analyzer module by Erwan Velu.
92 * MEMDISK: enable automatic determination of the disk geometry
93 for a large floppy disk image if (and only if) it is
94 formatted with a FAT filesystem.
95 * SYSLINUX: fix the handling of .bss files on FAT12/16.
96 * Suppress the Loading ... message if "quiet" is specified on
97 the kernel command line.
98 * Fix the use of "CONSOLE 0" with menu.c32.
99 * Allow COM32 modules to be aware of all memory even in the
100 presence of a memory hole. The "linux.c32" module can be
101 used to load a kernel (or memdisk) plus large initrd on
103 * MBR: produce alternate MBR variants which force the drive
104 number to hd0 (_f variants), or force the drive number to
105 hd0 if the Ctrl key is pressed (_c variants.) Furthermore,
106 add an MBR variant (altmbr*.bin) which ignores the active
107 flag and instead boots the partition number specified in the
108 byte at offset 439 decimal.
109 * Add IPAPPEND strings to com32 modules, especially needed for
111 * New MENU SAVE directive which saves the latest menu
112 selection until the next boot. Currently only implemented for
114 * gfxboot.com: *experimental* interface module to Steffen
115 Winterfeldt's "gfxboot" graphical front end
116 (http://gfxboot.sourceforge.net/). Module by Sebastian Herbszt.
119 * Upgrade gPXE to release version 0.9.5.
120 * Fix a number of build errors on various platforms.
121 * Handle systems with E820 "extended attributes" per ACPI 3.
122 Someone "cleverly" decided to change the E820 spec in a
123 backwards-incompatible manner!
124 * MEMDISK: default to "safeint".
125 * Adopt the moniker "The Syslinux Project", standard proper
126 noun capitalization, to refer to the project as a whole.
127 Thus, reserve the all-caps "SYSLINUX" to refer to the FAT
129 * mboot.c32: add "-solaris" option to pass DHCP information to
130 the Solaris kernel; required for automatic Solaris boot
131 without using Solaris' pxeboot program.
132 * config.c32: trivial COM32 module to restart Syslinux with
133 another configuration file from the command line (equivalent
134 to the CONFIG command in the configuratin file.)
137 * Include the pxechain.com module from Jeffery Hutzelman at
138 Carnegie Mellon University. This allows chaining another
139 PXE boot program while changing the DHCP packet passed to
141 * Reorganize the Makefile system.
142 * Major PCI core cleanups and other source cleanup.
144 * Try to avoid memory-snooping attacks on passwords. Note
145 that if someone has root on the box, they generally don't
146 need to compromise the boot loader...
147 * ISOLINUX: fix crash when given a zero-length file.
148 * sdi.c32: support gzipped SDI images.
149 * ISOLINUX: support generating images which can be either
150 a CD-ROM or a hard disk (USB disk, etc.) See
151 doc/isolinux.txt for more information.
152 * Remote gdb support for COM32 modules; patch from Stefan
154 * Support beeps in F-key help in the simple menu system.
155 * Tab display of labels, based on a patch from Sebastian
156 Herbszt. Can be disabled with the NOCOMPLETE configuration
158 * "menu default" can now be specified after "menu begin", to
159 indicate that a specific submenu should be the default entry.
162 * Workaround for a VESA BIOS which tries to make DOS system
164 * Simple menu: fix navigation around disabled entries
165 (or at least try to...)
166 * EXTLINUX: proper error message when confused about mount
168 * MEMDISK: be smarter about incompletely disabled floppies in
169 the BIOS and about being the only floppy.
170 * Optionally allow initrd to be specified on a separate line
171 rather than as part of the "append" line. This is not
172 recommended, but apparently makes life easier for some
174 * SYSLINUX: if no config file is present, set the current
175 directory to the root directory (Sebastian Herbszt).
176 * chain.c32: option "hide" to support hiding and unhiding of
177 primary partitions on the boot drive with DOS, Win, or OS/2
178 partition types (01, 04, 06, 07, 0b, 0c, 0e).
179 * Unbreak the KBDMAP command (broken in 3.70).
180 * EXTLINUX: fix the handling of the ADV when using CBIOS.
181 * ifcpu64.c32: simple COM32 module to select a 32- or 64-bit
182 kernel (and optionally 32-bit kernels with or without PAE.)
183 Eventually we want a scripting language for this
184 kind of stuff; a Lua module is under development.
185 * Fix parsing of the SERIAL command without a baud rate
187 * chain.c32: error out when try to boot an unbootable
189 * SYSLINUX: when building the Win32 installer, search for
190 MinGW under a large number of possible names.
193 * PXELINUX: Support enhanced capabilities when running on top
194 of gPXE (http://www.etherboot.org/). In particular, support
195 URL-style syntax for filenames, and any protocol that gPXE
196 supports (except, currently, iSCSI and AoE.) This feature
197 is currently highly experimental.
198 * Substantial infrastructure changes to support files whose
199 length aren't known at open time (typically network
200 connections.) Please note that the semantics of some of the
201 comboot APIs have changed slightly; please see doc/comboot.txt.
202 * PXELINUX: We no longer require a TFTP server which supports
203 the tsize option for all transfers.
204 * PXELINUX: Integrate with the gPXE source base; unified image
205 now included as "gpxelinux.0".
206 * The source tree has been restructured; files that were
207 previously in the root have moved into the core, dos, gpxe,
208 and utils directories.
209 * "make install", "make netinstall", and "make extbootinstall"
210 have been updated massively. "make install-all" now installs
212 * Change default dir for auxiliary files from
213 /usr/lib/syslinux to /usr/share/syslinux.
214 * SYSLINUX: VFAT long filename support.
215 * MEMDISK: Any image less than 4096K (4 MB) is treated as a
216 floppy disk. The geometry-guessing code will recognize all
217 common extended formats, but it is still possible some very
218 exotic formats need geometry specification. Large floppies
219 and very small harddisks still need explicit specification.
220 * chain.c32: option "swap" to support swapping of BIOS drive
221 numbers. This is necessary to boot certain operating systems
222 (DOS, Windows) from a secondary drive.
223 * chain.c32: option "file=" to support loading a boot file from
224 the SYSLINUX filesystem instead of loading the boot sector
226 * chain.c32: option "seg=" to control the load location.
227 * chain.c32: option "ntldr=" as a shorthand for "seg=0x2000
228 file="; use this to load one of WinNT's loaders:
230 chain.c32 hd0 1 ntldr=/MiniNT/setupldr.bin
232 Note that the file needs to be in the SYSLINUX filesystem.
233 * chain.32: options "freedos=" and "msdos="/"pcdos=" as
234 shorthands for "seg=0x60 file=" and "seg=0x70 file="
235 respectively; use this to load FreeDOS's kernel.sys, MS-DOS's
236 io.sys or PC-DOS's ibmbio.sys.
237 * Change to the A20 algorithm which *MIGHT* help systems that
238 have systems which freeze when Syslinux is used with USB
239 keyboards. Note that this has been hard do verify, so I
240 would greatly appreciate feedback on it.
241 * Complex menu system: unbreak menus which has unnamed
242 submenus, like complex.c.
243 * Fix newline on the serial port for some com32 modules.
244 * chain.c32: support "boot" as the drive specification,
245 indicating the drive from which it was booted
246 (for syslinux/extlinux).
247 * SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX: support "localboot" with the same feature
249 * Add an experimental MBR for GPT partition tables.
250 * Use $(CC) when determining compile flags.
251 * chain.c32: fix booting from logical partitions (Sergey
255 * Fix errors in the PCI and DMI detection modules (Erwan Velu,
257 * Fix host dependencies and other issues in the build system.
258 * PXELINUX: Allow class E addresses as unicast.
259 * sdi.c32: module to load Microsoft System Deployment Images.
260 For additional information, please see:
261 http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms838543.aspx
262 * EXTLINUX: Correct reading directories with deleted entries.
263 * Shuffle library: correct the handling of certain geometries
264 (an upward move with source material blocking the move); as
265 required by sdi.c32 but theoretically possible for other
267 * Add "make netinstall" to install /tftpboot.
268 * Fix some documentation files that didn't get moved/renamed.
271 * Clean up garbage after "aborted." message.
272 * Clean up memdump.com filenames.
273 * Support SHA256 and SHA512 encrypted passwords.
274 * The shuffle library now can generate chained descriptors,
275 thus allowing pretty much arbitrarily complex memory maps.
276 * Handle command lines up to 2047 characters, the current
278 * vesamenu: support systems without linear framebuffer support
279 (sigh, what is this, 1993?) and 15-bit RGB modes.
280 * Move the label storage (for the command-line interface) to
281 high memory, removing the size limit and freeing up 64K of
283 * Get rid of 4096-entry limit in the simple menu system.
284 * New hierarchial submenu support: see MENU BEGIN, MENU END,
285 MENU GOTO in doc/menu.txt.
286 * MENU QUIT allows creating a menu entry for returning to the
288 * ISOLINUX: Work around bug in certain Adaptec BIOSes,
289 patch by Bruce Robson.
290 * pngtopnm dependency removed from samples/ directory.
291 * Text documentation files (in doc/) renamed *.doc -> *.txt.
294 * EXTLINUX: fix crash when accessing an empty file.
295 * elf.c32: If a PHDR segment is present, load it.
296 * Fix SHA-1 and MD5 passwords.
297 * ISOLINUX: fix booting when mastered without
298 mkisofs -boot-info-table (broken since 3.50, sigh...)
299 * Handle BIOSes which emit multiple contiguous valid
300 memory regions in the e820 map.
303 * Support for "auxilliary data vector", a small amount of
304 writable storage. Currently only supported for EXTLINUX,
305 but the infrastructure is there for the other derivatives,
306 assuming a suitable storage location can be found.
307 * EXTLINUX: boot-once support (--once, --clear-once, and
309 * A command is now required to the EXTLINUX installer, i.e. at
310 least one of --install, --update, --once, --clear-once, or
314 * PXELINUX: as per RFC 5071, PXELINUX no longer requires the
315 use of the magic cookie option (208) for unencapsulated
316 options. Currently it does not require it for
317 vendor-encapsulated options (vendor-option-space) either,
318 but that MAY be reverted in the future if it causes
320 * Documentation text files moved to a common "doc" directory;
321 man pages from the Debian project added to the "man"
323 * Correct bug with self-overlapping memory areas when using
324 the shuffle interface.
327 * Add "menu separator", "menu indent", "menu disabled"
329 * vesamenu: fix handing of VESA modes with noncontiguous
330 memory buffers. In particular, Qemu/KVM sets up such a mode
331 when Cirrus Logic emulation is enabled (which is the
333 * Support for calling real mode functions using far calls,
334 with argument on the stack. This was implemented to support
335 the BIOS BBS specification, but subsequent experiments show
336 that the at least one of the most common BIOS cores, Award,
337 passes the presence check but doesn't actually implement the
341 * Fix bugs related to the $PnP BIOS functionality on some
343 * PXELINUX: Fix the "naked" version of :: (suppress prefix.)
344 * elf.c32: better error messages.
345 * Faster operation under Intel VT virtualization.
346 * PXELINUX: Fix DHCP bootfile option.
347 * mkdiskimage: Support more than 1024 cylinders.
348 * (Hopefully) fix installer on non-x86 platforms.
349 * Fix shuffle_and_boot_rm, used by linux.c32.
350 * Fix shuffle_and_boot_pm on 386/486.
351 * ISOLINUX (at least): fix bss memory overwrite hang.
352 * MBR: Fix booting from logical partitions.
356 * Handle capitalized F-key commands in the menu system.
357 * Fix padding error when loading multiple ramdisks.
358 * Workaround for VMware crashing when trying to print a
359 message during early kernel boot (does not seem to work,
361 * chain.c32: add the ability to search for a specific MBR
362 signature at runtime.
363 * Fall back to the server identity option if the siaddr field
364 in the DHCP header isn't set. This seems to match the
365 behaviour of most PXE stacks.
366 * mkdiskimage: give the generated disk image an MBR signature.
367 * MEMDISK: Fix failures on some BIOSes.
368 * Simple menu system: new "MENU HIDDEN" option to not display
369 the menu unless the user presses a key.
370 * Simple menu system: support MD5-encrypted passwords (modern
371 Unix standard style, with "$1$" prefixes.)
372 * pcitest.c32: now functions as a full "lspci". Thanks to
373 Erwan Velu for this work.
374 * MEMDISK: Make EDD actually work.
375 * ISOLINUX: Fix for certain broken CD-ROM BIOSes which
376 randomly corrupted register FS.
377 * Simple menu system: fix memory overwrite bug that caused
378 some systems to lock up or behave weirdly.
379 * Fix building on 64-bit systems without a 32-bit libc installed.
382 * EXTLINUX: Fix failure to find the configuration file.
385 * New keywords allow the type of file to be specified in the
387 * It is now supported to load a different configuration file
388 with the CONFIG keyword.
389 * Fix API call 0x0019 (Read Disk.)
390 * MENU AUTOBOOT, MENU TABMSG, MENU PASSPROMPT allows
391 internationalization of menu messages.
392 * A new feature, TEXT HELP, allows the administrator to set
393 a multi-line help message for individual selections.
394 * Fix API call 0x0012 (Cleanup, shuffle and boot.)
395 * New API call "Cleanup, shuffle and boot to flat protected mode"
396 * New API call "Cleanup, shuffle and boot to real mode",
397 similar to API call 0x0012 but allows arbitrary register setting.
398 * Introduce a library interface for loading arbitrary binary
399 formats with relatively easily understood code. See
400 the elf.c32 module for an example on how to use it.
401 * New module "elf.c32", to load a protected-mode ELF kernel.
402 * MBR (old and new): Fix bug in CHS mode when LBA >
404 * vesamenu: fix decoding of palettized PNG images.
405 * Update the Linux kernel boot protocol.
406 * PXELINUX: Press Ctrl-N at the boot prompt to read out the
408 * Instead of the (non-existent) MAC, use the client identifier
409 for networks like Infiniband and Firewire/1394.
410 * Add a new INCLUDE command to the core syslinux parser.
411 * Allow binding help text to F11 and F12.
412 * F-key help now available in the simple menu system.
413 * Disabled the polling for ARP during idle. It is simply too
414 slow on some (broken!) PXE stacks.
415 * PXELINUX: also try to fetch the config file based on UUID.
416 * SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX: New RAID mode (-r) which calls the BIOS
417 to load the next device (typically the next drive) on boot
421 * MEMDISK: Disable EDD by default on floppy disks. EDD can be
422 enabled with the "edd" option and disabled with "noedd".
423 This (hopefully) should make Ghost work again.
424 * SYSLINUX: "unix" installer now uses Linux ioctls instead of
426 * New MBR which can boot from logical partitions.
427 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in detecting special extensions which was
428 introduced in 3.35 :(
429 * PXELINUX: Unbreak chainbooting FreeBSD (and possibly others.)
432 * MEMDISK: New "safeint" mode.
433 * MEMDISK: Be more compliant with the PnP BIOS spec.
434 * MEMDISK: Turn on EDD support by default.
435 * MEMDISK: Try to work on some machines on which it would not
436 work when there was no floppy drive in the system.
437 * Simple menu system: fix serial console support (broken in
439 * SYSLINUX: Support subdirectories. Like ISOLINUX, the
440 "current directory" is the directory in which syslinux.cfg
441 is found; this is searched for in the sequence
442 /boot/syslinux, /syslinux, /. As a side benefit, label names
443 like "linux-2.6.18" and "linux-2.6.19" are now supported.
445 To install ldlinux.sys in a subdirectory, pass the -d
446 directory option to the SYSLINUX installer.
448 This work was sponsored by slax.org (thanks, Tomas!)
449 * New API call: read disk.
450 * Invoke ONERROR on initrd load failure.
453 * The simple menu system (menu.c32 and vesamenu.c32) now
454 support loading more than one configuration file at a time,
455 using MENU INCLUDE or by specifying multiple filenames.
456 * The MENU COLOR statement can now control the shadowing mode.
459 * libcom32 extended to support graphics mode and graphical console.
460 * vesamenu.c32, new graphical version of the Simple
461 Menu System, see README.menu.
462 * New com32 modules by Erwan Velu do selection based on CPUID
463 or PCI devices present.
464 * RPM spec: add syslinux-tftpboot module; move syslinux by
465 default to the /usr/share/syslinux directory.
466 * RPM spec: extlinux is now a separate package.
469 * EXTLINUX: New options --install (-i) and --update (-U), to
470 make it clear if a boot loader should be installed or
471 updated. For now, defaults to --install for compatibility;
472 a future version will require one of these options.
473 * New library functions to load and place files in memory.
474 * mboot.c32 bug fixes.
475 * Remove 8 MB kernel size restriction.
476 * Add "klibc" target for building unix/syslinux and
477 extlinux/extlinux with klcc (klibc-1.4.27 or later.)
478 * PXELINUX: Fail (and eventually reboot) if no configuration
480 * COM32 module by Erwan Velu to make decisions based on DMI
482 * Fix issue where going back and forth between menus a lot
484 * ISOLINUX: Fix bug which made "cd boot sectors" not work.
487 * MEMDISK: Fix bug by which accessing the real floppy disk
488 as B: in MS-DOS was broken.
489 * Simple menu system: allow tweaking of the screen layout.
490 * Simple menu system: better command-line editing, correctly
491 handle command lines above 256 characters.
492 * PXELINUX: revert memory allocation change that caused
493 problems on some network cards.
494 * MEMDISK: Try work around a bug on some BIOSes when no
495 physical floppy disk is present in the system.
496 * Enable the 16550A FIFOs, if present, when doing serial
498 * New "totaltimeout" command establishes a timeout without
499 regard for any user input.
500 * Simple menu system: timeout behaviour now more in line with
502 * Simple menu system: "ontimeout" should now work correctly.
505 * gcc 4.0.1 compilation fixes.
506 * Add support for querying the PCI BIOS in libcom32
507 (used by ethersel et al.)
508 * Fix PCI handing (ethersel etc) on several old chipsets (and
510 * Try to deal with systems with broken EBIOS.
511 * New API call to do "localboot".
512 * New API call to query features.
513 * New API call to run kernel image, a lower-level call than
514 "run command". See comboot.doc.
515 * Fix for bug in EBIOS code discovered by Arwin Vosselman.
516 * NOESCAPE security fix.
517 * Comments are now recognized even without a space following #.
518 * Fix incorrect handling of mixes of entries with and without
520 * The idle API call now harmlessly returns failure if it is a
521 no-op. That way the caller can decide whether or not to
522 bother invoking it again.
523 * Temporarily disable the idle API call on PXELINUX, due to
524 some platforms on which the idle API call seems to hang; this
525 problem has not yet been debugged.
526 * MEMDISK: the handling of DOSEMU-headered images was broken;
528 * EXTLINUX: symlinks are now supported.
529 * Simple menu system: N and P now work correctly as hotkeys.
530 * MEMDISK: more BIOS bug workarounds.
533 * gcc4 compilation fix.
534 * <BEL> (Ctrl-G) in message files now causes a beep.
535 * Reduce the command line to 511 characters; 1023 caused
539 * SYSLINUX: Fix performance regression (-s mode always
541 * Add API function for idle loop.
542 * libutil: Add do_idle() function for idle loop, make
544 * libutil: Add SHA-1 and base64 functions.
545 * Simple menu system: add password support.
546 * EXTLINUX: Sparse files now handled correctly.
547 * EXTLINUX: Large directories now handled correctly.
548 * ALL: At the prompt, Ctrl-X now forces text mode.
549 * Fix configuration file parsing error, that could cause
551 * Rewritten advanced menuing system from Murali Ganapathy.
552 * MEMDISK: New "bigraw" mode to work around certain broken
554 * COM32 module to boot Multiboot systems, including Xen. See
555 com32/modules/mboot.doc.
556 * Max command line changed to 1023 characters. Note that the
557 kernel proper still can only handle 255 characters without
558 patching, and COM16 binaries can only handle 125 characters.
561 * Fix chainloading (chain.c32).
562 * Fix zlib build problem.
563 * Use a private copy of <linux/ext2_fs.h>.
566 * Fix typo that caused the ramdisk to load in the wrong place.
569 * New API function "shuffle and boot"; allows COM32 modules to
570 load or construct (almost) arbitrarily complex objects,
571 e.g. a kernel and its initrd/initramfs in pieces, and have
572 the API core reorganize memory for booting. (A library API
573 for this function will be introduced in a later version.)
574 * The initrd= option now supports multiple filenames separated
575 by commas. This is mostly useful for initramfs, which can
576 be composed of multiple separate cpio or cpio.gz archives.
577 (Note: all files except the last one are zero-padded to a 4K
578 page boundary. This should not affect initramfs.)
579 * EXTLINUX: Fix API function 000Ah (get derivative-specific
581 * libcom32/ethersel: Support PCI Config Mechanism #2 on
582 machines still infested with that hideous old hack.
583 * SYSLINUX: Fix directory-parsing bug.
586 * SYSLINUX: The "unix" installer now sets the MS-DOS
587 attributes (hidden, system, readonly.)
588 * COM32 library: build the .lnx (test modules for running
589 under Linux) as architecture native modules, in case
590 i386 devel libraries aren't installed.
591 * EXTLINUX: Hack for systems which don't have BLKGETSIZE64
592 defined in the standard header files.
593 * Simple menu system: minor aestetic improvements, and try to
594 work better over a serial console (speed, and readability on
595 monochrome terminal emulators.)
596 * New CONSOLE directive to control output on the video console
597 (useful for dealing with some broken serial-forwarding
599 * New com32 module "ethersel" for searching for an Ethernet
600 card and selecting the proper version of Etherboot.
601 * EXTLINUX: Allow the user to override the detected geometry.
605 * EXTLINUX, SYSLINUX: Fix compile errors on some systems.
606 * EXTLINUX: Default to zipdrive geometry (64 heads, 32
607 sectors) if no other geometry can be detected.
610 * SYSLINUX: Support FAT32 and EDD. As an unfortunate
611 consequence, LDLINUX.SYS is no longer an ordinary file; it
612 is block-mapped at install time, which means it can only be
613 written using the syslinux installers.
614 * SYSLINUX: Reorganize the source code for the installers;
615 each one of the installers (dos, win32, unix, mtools) is now
616 built in its own subdirectory. In particular, "mtools" is
617 the unprivileged installer which uses mtools; "unix" is the
618 privileged installer which uses system calls.
619 * SYSLINUX: Completely rewritten DOS installer in C.
620 * ALL: "label" statement information is now stored in a
621 compressed format, which means that a lot more labels are
622 permitted (500-1000 in a typical configuration, but depends
624 * EXTLINUX: New derivative, which boots from an ext2/ext3
626 * SYSLINUX: The DOS and Win32 installers can now optionally
627 write the boot sector to a file instead of the real boot
628 sector. This is not supported in the Linux installers,
630 * ALL: New NOESCAPE command, disables the "hold down the Shift
631 key to display the prompt" behaviour.
632 * New simple menu system, as an alternative to the advanced
633 menu system already present. See README.menu for details.
634 * PXELINUX: Filenames can now be prefixed with an IP address
635 or DNS name plus :: (e.g. 192.0.2.1::filename or
636 server.domain.com::filename), which downloads a file from an
637 alternate TFTP server, or just a :: (e.g. ::filename), which
638 suppresses the common pathname prefix. See pxelinux.doc.
639 * SYSLINUX: Add an -m option to the DOS and Win32 installers
640 to write an MBR and -a to mark the partition SYSLINUX is
641 being installed on active.
642 * MEMDISK: Give a way to query the boot loader type while
643 running MEMDISK; see memdisk/memdisk.doc and
645 * mkdiskimage: substantially improved mkdiskimage which, among
646 other things, can now be used to initialize USB keys as
647 zipdrives; see README.usbkey for more information.
650 * MEMDISK: Fix command-line parsing "brown paper bag" class
652 * MEMDISK: Add "raw" mode to support the DOS boot disk from
653 WinME/XP, which seems to deliberately crash the system
654 when someone uses the "INT 15h mover" highmem API.
655 * Make "make install" do something sane for the com32
656 development environment.
657 * In the spec file, create a separate -devel RPM for the com32
658 development environment.
661 * Simple C library, based on klibc, for writing COM32
663 * Fix the handling of file length in loading of COM32
665 * MEMDISK: Work around a linker bug by rearranging the code to
666 not use the linker for the 16-bit code.
667 * SYSLINUX: If we're building on a machine without a Win32
668 (mingw) compiler, just skip building syslinux.exe.
669 * ISOLINUX: Support non-mkisofs mastering programs, at least
670 as long as the image is single-session. For best results,
671 ISOLINUX should be the only boot loader installed.
672 * MEMDISK: Allow the user to specify that the simulated disk
673 should be write-protected.
676 * ALL: Add an API call to get the configuration file name.
677 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in 2.10 that prevented it from working
678 correctly for a lot of people.
679 * SYSLINUX: In the installer, make mtools a bit less fussy.
680 * Make the menu system compile with newer gcc's.
683 * MEMDISK: Handle images compressed with zip as well as with
684 gzip. Some Windows-based image tools apparently generate
685 these kinds of images by default. Patch by Patrick
687 * Major menu improvement from Murali Ganapathy.
688 * ISOLINUX: Wonderfully sick and brilliant workaround for
689 severe bugs in certain Award BIOSes; from Knut Petersen.
690 * SYSLINUX: Fix for the nomtools installed, from Frederic
692 * PXELINUX: Fix handling of IP numbers in the ranges
694 * ALL: New option "allowoptions" (defaults to 1), which
695 controls if options are allowed on the command line or not.
696 * SYSLINUX: Support building under klibc (see the klibc
697 distribution for details.)
700 * SYSLINUX: Remove residual setuid crap from
702 * Handle video pages correctly when using the API functions.
703 * Handle compiling on an x86-64 platform correctly.
704 * Menu system from Murali Krishnan Ganapathy; see the menu
705 directory for information.
706 * COMBOOT: Allow COMBOOT programs to change screen text mode.
707 * COMBOOT: Correct the documentation of how to detect
708 SYSLINUX from COMBOOT!!!!
709 * COMBOOT: Fix "get key without echo" API function.
710 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug that affected the API open function.
711 * ALL: Improve the E820 memory parser, to work around some
715 * Add new configuration command "ontimeout" to allow timeout
716 to have a different action than just pressing Enter.
717 * Add new configuration command "onerror" to allow a custom
718 command to be executed in case the kernel image is not found.
719 * Fix bugs in the COMBOOT/COM32 command-line parsing. APPEND
720 now works with COMBOOT/COM32 images.
721 * PXELINUX: Poll for ARP requests while sitting at the
722 prompt. This makes some boot servers a lot less unhappy.
723 * PXELINUX: Actually free sockets when we get a failure
724 (including file not found.) This bug would cause us to run
725 out of sockets and thus "go deaf" after a while.
726 * MEMDISK: Add an API to query for the existence of MEMDISK.
727 * SYSLINUX: Fix loading boot sectors (.bs/.bss) from floppy
729 * .c32 is now one of the extensions searched for
731 * PXELINUX: RFBG.exe seems to randomly overwrite memory
732 location 0x5700. Thus, don't use it!
733 * PXELINUX: Change pathname length max from 63 to 127; change
734 max vkernels from 128 to 64.
735 * Support Ctrl-U -> kill entire command line input.
736 * The "samples" directory contains a (barely at all tested)
737 chain loading example, chain.c32, which may be used to
738 chainload local floppy disks and hard disks. Use with
739 "chain fdN" or "chain hdN [partition]"; N = 0 for the first
743 * MEMDISK: Workaround for BIOSes which go into a snit when
744 they get a RESET command for the floppy system when there is
745 no floppy in the system.
746 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend 2", which passes the hardware
747 address of the boot interface to the kernel as a
749 * mkdiskimage: fix the generation of the end limit.
750 * PXELINUX: Fix multiple bugs in chainloading of other NBPs.
751 * MEMDISK: Fix bug that would occationally cause "ran out of
752 input data" when using compressed disk images.
753 * SYSLINUX: Updates for the win32 installer (from Lars Munch.)
754 * PXELINUX: PXELINUX-specific options are now recognized both
755 in a vendor-option-space (a.k.a. type 43 encapsulated) as
756 well as in a site-option-space (unencapsulated.)
757 * COM32: Don't crash when DS != 0.
758 * COMBOOT/COM32: Make file reading work correctly. Thanks to
759 Phung Chi Kien for submitting a test program.
762 * ALL: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
763 boot failure, depending on the length of the kernel.
764 * ISOLINUX: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
765 boot failure, depending on the length of directories.
766 * SYSLINUX: Win32 installer now flushes buffers.
767 * ppmtolss16: Be fully compliant with the PNM spec;
768 actually process comments in the header and odd
769 alignments of the various parameters, as well as
770 "plain" (not raw) files and PBM and PGM files.
771 * PXELINUX: Lower the default MTU to 1472 in order to deal
772 with systems with slightly nonstandard MTUs, and PXE
773 stacks which don't defragment correctly. Unfortunately this
774 is very hard to test dynamically.
777 * PXELINUX: Add a default query based on the hardware address
778 of the boot device. This is in lower case hexadecimal form
779 separated by dashes and including the hardware type, for
780 example, the Ethernet (type 1) address 88:99:AA:BB:CC:DD
781 would query the file pxelinux.cfg/01-88-99-aa-bb-cc-dd.
782 * PXELINUX: Fix bug involving non-IP-based config file names.
783 * SYSLINUX: New installer for WinNT-based systems, from Lars
785 * MEMDISK: Fix handling of memory region overlap when
786 decompressing. Thanks to Mikhail Kupchik for identifying
790 * ALL: Reclaim even more low memory by observing that
791 comboot_seg == real_mode_seg is perfectly fine, and by the
792 fact that the 1000h segment managed to get unused in all
794 * PXELINUX: Attempt to negotiate full Ethernet-sized blocks
795 (1468 bytes) using the blksize option.
796 * SYSLINUX: Resurrect the old no-mtools version of the
797 installer, although as a root-only tool. Some distributors
798 have indicated that they need a small standalone installer.
799 * MEMDISK: Fix a memory offset computation error when
800 installing compressed disks which generally would cause
801 1 MB of memory to be wasted.
802 * MEMDISK: Fix installing the E820 memory map. Calling
803 INT 15h AX=0E820h with MEMDISK 2.03 loaded would give a
804 completely corrupt memory map.
805 * SYSLINUX: Make libsyslinux a dynamic library, so that it can
806 be updated separately from client programs. The whole idea,
807 after all, is to enable alternate programs to become
809 * Include an rpm spec file in the distribution, so rpmbuild
813 * Actually support comment lines in the configuration file.
814 * PXELINUX: Try to resolve some problems with stack switches.
815 * PXELINUX: Handle PXE stacks with broken routing.
816 With these workarounds, the remote install PXE boot floppy
817 (rbfg.exe) from Argon Technologies should work correctly.
818 * Fix problems with Perl scripts in UTF-8 locales.
819 * You probably need NASM 0.98.34 or later to compile this
820 version. 0.98.36 is recommended.
821 * MEMDISK: Now supports gzip compressed images.
824 * SYSLINUX: Security flaws have been found in the SYSLINUX
825 installer when running setuid root. Rewrite the SYSLINUX
826 installer so it uses mtools instead. It therefore now
827 requires mtools (specifically mcopy and mattrib) to exist on
828 your system, but it will not require root privileges and
829 SHOULD NOT be setuid.
832 * MEMDISK: Fix memory sizing bug when the ramdisk crosses the
834 * MEMDISK: Add a "pause" option to stop immediately before
835 booting, to read off the messages.
836 * MEMDISK: Support disk images with DOSEMU headers.
837 * Update the mkdiskimage script to handle newer mtools
838 versions, and be able to generate disk images with DOSEMU
839 headers (controlled by the -d option).
840 * Fix the COM32 sample program.
841 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix some COMBOOT API calls.
843 * Build SYSLINUX into a small library for encapsulation into
844 other programs (however, please keep in mind this is a GPL'd
846 * SYSLINUX: Make installer work with "owner" in /etc/fstab.
847 * SYSLINUX: Fix issue with working on nonpartitioned hard disk
848 devices. THIS CONFIGURATION IS NOT RECOMMENDED.
851 * ALL: Add support for "COM32" (32-bit COMBOOT) images.
852 * ALL: Add an API for COMBOOT/COM32 images. See comboot.doc
853 for details. There is a C development environment for
854 COM32 being created; it should be ready at some point in
856 * Fix mbr.asm so that it actually works.
857 * SYSLINUX: The syslinux installer *SHOULD* now be safe to
859 * PXELINUX: Fix bug where PXELINUX would override random
860 chunks of the UNDI code segment! Thanks to Kevin Tran for
862 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug related to slashes in pathnames.
863 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug in handling initrds over 128 MB.
864 * ALL: Make the <Ctrl-V> key print out the version; this is
866 * Add a small script, mkdiskimage, to create a DOS-formatted
867 hard disk image using mtools. This may be useful in
868 conjunction with MEMDISK.
869 * ISOLINUX: Search for a /boot/isolinux directory as well as
871 * ALL: Fix a bug related to very long configuration files.
872 * PXELINUX: Work around a NASM bug which would result in no
873 delay before reset if an error occurs.
876 * ISOLINUX: Remove code no longer used which caused hangs on
877 some Toshiba laptops.
880 * ALL: NASM 0.98.32 or later is now required to build
881 SYSLINUX from sources.
882 * SYSLINUX: put back in the workaround for the BIOS floppy
883 table. This seems to be a requirement for "extended" floppy
884 formats to work correctly.
885 * SYSLINUX: No longer warn if one is trying to boot on a 286
886 or older. The above BIOS workaround no longer fits if the
887 requirement to use only 8086-compatible code in the early
888 boot is maintained. It made sense in 1994, but in 2002 a
889 286 or older is a museum object.
890 * SYSLINUX: Use a downright bizarre, stateful algorithm to try
891 to guess the maximum transfer size. I am *hoping* this will
892 cut down on the number of systems for which -s is required
893 to work at any acceptable speed.
894 * ISOLINUX: Add a few more workarounds for various broken El
896 * Make sure .depend files aren't accidentally packed...
897 * ALL: Fix bugs in the extension-detect code; this caused
898 files like COMBOOT images and CD boot sectors to be
899 mis-identified as Linux kernels and rejected.
900 * ALL: Fix the return from COMBOOT.
901 * ALL: Do some of the early groundwork for supporting DOS
902 system calls in COMBOOT.
903 * Get rid of unnecessary "near" directives, making the code
905 * PXELINUX: Put the PXE stack back in the init state before
906 invoking a chain-loaded NBP.
907 * PXELINUX: Actually found the combination of calls that
908 allows some (most?) PXE 2+ stacks to be unloaded from memory
910 * PXELINUX: Add "keeppxe" command-line option to disable
911 the standard unloading of the PXE stack.
914 * SYSLINUX: fix bug that would cause valid kernel images to be
918 * Work on removing gratuitous differences between modules.
919 * Break up the source in common and module-specific files.
920 * PXELINUX: Allow chaining of other PXE NBPs.
921 * ISOLINUX: Allow loading "CD-ROM boot sectors".
922 * ALL: generalize the definition of a boot sector/NBP.
925 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix bugs in the new core code.
928 * Fix a "brown paper bag" class bug in the new core code.
931 * Major code restructuring.
932 * Relax the conventional memory limits somewhat.
933 * MEMDISK: Set up the "version number string" pointer in the
935 * SYSLINUX: Fix, again, "the bug that won't die": the use of
936 the offset parameter with the SYSLINUX installer.
937 * SYSLINUX: Fix possible superblock corruption problem in the
941 * Handle bug in the location of initrd.
944 * MEMDISK: Make compile with newer versions of gcc.
947 * ISOLINUX: Support booting disk image files (to boot DOS or
948 other non-Linux operating systems), *IF* the BIOS works
949 correctly; unfortunately many BIOSes apparently don't.
950 * Support Linux boot protocol version 2.03 (explicitly
951 specify the initrd address limit.)
952 * Handle small "pseudo-kernels"; images that use the Linux
953 kernel boot protocols but are less than 64K in size.
954 * MEMDISK: New subsystem; this is a driver which allows
955 legacy OSes to boot using an in-memory simulated disk.
956 See memdisk/memdisk.doc for more info.
957 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Correctly handle files larger than 65535
958 blocks (32 MB for PXELINUX, 128 MB for ISOLINUX.)
959 * PXELINUX: Make a best-effort attempt at freeing all memory
960 claimed. From the looks of it, it will fail on most PXE
964 * Limited support for hardware flow control when using a
966 * Support specifying the serial port I/O address explicitly.
967 * Make DOS installer hopefully behave more nicely when used on
968 recent Windows versions.
969 * Fix returning to text mode when a font has been specified.
970 * Attempt to detect missing serial port hardware and disable
971 the serial port if there is nothing there.
974 * Make the ppmtolss16 program handle color conversion more
976 * Clean up "make install" target, honour INSTALLROOT if it
978 * SYSLINUX: Fix stack-smash bug identified by Steffen
980 * Hopefully fix return-to-text-mode on some graphics cards.
981 * ISOLINUX: Bug workaround for Award BIOS 4.51, and perhaps
982 other buggy BIOSes as well.
985 * PXELINUX: Allow the DHCP server to override the
986 configuration file name and pathname prefix, using
987 "site-specific" DHCP options.
988 * PXELINUX: Documentation fixes.
989 * PXELINUX: Fix the "ipappend" option; the last two values
990 were reversed vs. what the kernel expected.
991 * Introduce a way to return to text mode once we are already
992 in graphics mode. This may be useful for F-key help
994 * Fix several bugs in the way return to text mode was handled.
997 * ISOLINUX: Support full pathname searches. Max length for a
998 pathname is 255 characters. As a result, only 64 "label"
999 statements are supported in ISOLINUX.
1000 * PXELINUX: Max filename length extended to 63 characters.
1003 * Add support for graphical splash screens.
1004 * Add mode control characters, which allows you to control
1005 message display output depending on output mode (text,
1006 graphics, or serial port.)
1007 * ISOLINUX: New program, which boots Linux from a CD-ROM
1008 without using floppy emulation mode. See isolinux.doc for
1010 * PXELINUX: Don't search for boot sector file types, since
1011 they don't work anyway.
1012 * SYSLINUX: Document the LOCK command for Win9x, and the error
1013 dialog box for WinNT/2K.
1016 * PXELINUX: Fix code for finding !PXE from PXENV+. This was
1017 due to a spec bug; match the most recent spec since that
1018 seems to be what implementations actually do.
1019 * SYSLINUX: Add some smarts to the boot sector, which
1020 hopefully should reduce the number of systems which require
1021 stupid mode ("syslinux -s").
1022 * PXELINUX: Document further some of the pathologies with old
1024 * When specifying a "default" command line, no longer
1025 automatically appent "auto". See the "DEFAULT" command in
1026 syslinux.doc for more information.
1027 * PXELINUX: Clean up the allocation of local socket numbers.
1030 * PXELINUX: Rename pxelinux.bin to pxelinux.0, to match what
1031 most PXE servers seem to expect.
1032 * PXELINUX: Update the DHCP/boot server setup documentation.
1033 * PXELINUX: Support new "localboot" option for "label"
1035 * PXELINUX: More robust parsing of DHCP/boot server packets.
1036 * PXELINUX: Include a small utility program "gethostip" to
1037 compute hexadecimal IP addresses.
1040 * PXELINUX: Fix bugs introduced by new A20 code. (SYSLINUX
1041 has also been changed for code consistency reasons, but I'm
1042 pretty sure the changes are don't care on SYSLINUX.)
1043 * Documentation updates.
1044 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend" option to generate an ip= option to
1048 * PXELINUX: Not all PXE stacks fill in the IP address for a
1049 type 3 cached info query. Use a type 2 cached info query
1050 for this information (only.)
1051 * Yet another attempt at A20 coding. Now support BIOS call
1052 15:2401 as well, and handle machines which always have A20
1054 * Support memory detection using INT 15h, AX=0E820h. BIOS
1055 manufacturers have apparently gotten sloppy about keeping
1056 INT 15h, AX=0E801h working properly.
1057 * Don't issue <CR><LF> onto the serial port when we're doing
1061 * Yet another A20-code update. It seems some "legacy-free"
1062 machines and embedded gear simply don't have a KBC to talk
1063 to, and that waiting for one will wait forever. Sigh.
1066 * SYSLINUX: Implement a hack for BIOS drivers which hog significant
1067 chunks of low memory during boot. (Note: PXELINUX already
1068 had this modification. SYSLINUX does still require that the
1069 low 512K is available; PXELINUX requires 384K. Machines
1070 with a physical memory hole in the low 640K cannot boot
1071 Linux no matter what.) Depending what the reason is for the
1072 memory hole, a new kernel (2.4.0-test3-pre3 or later) may be
1074 * SYSLINUX: Default installer binary now compiled against
1075 glibc 2.1. If this is inappropriate for your system and you
1076 still want to use the offical version of SYSLINUX, please
1077 follow the instructions in "distrib.doc" to rebuild the
1079 * SYSLINUX: Linux installer program now supports -o <offset>
1080 option which does a loopback mount with the
1081 -o loop,offset=<> option. Useful to run SYSLINUX on an
1082 individual partition of a whole-harddisk image.
1083 * Include the source code to a Master Boot Record (MBR)
1084 functionally equivalent to the one installed DOS except it
1085 includes EBIOS support, and should be resistant to geometry
1086 changes. The MBR code is public domain.
1087 * PXELINUX: Fix "double p" bug: if the tftp prefix was null,
1088 all filenames would get a "p" preprended, e.g.
1089 "ppxelinux.cfg" and "pvmlinux".
1092 * PXELINUX: Workaround for PXE ROMs based on the Intel PXE PDK
1093 3.0 build 071 and earlier: missing !PXE structure pointer.
1094 * PXELINUX: Handle larger BOOTP/DHCP packages.
1095 * PXELINUX: The command line passing was broken; fix.
1096 * PXELINUX: Make COMBOOT images work.
1097 * PXELINUX: Documentation on how to make booting work using
1098 the PDK 3.0-derived clients, which aren't so generous as to
1099 allow booting with only "PXEClient" specified.
1102 * PXELINUX: RFC 1123 states that a TFTP implementation MUST
1103 use adaptive timeout, "at least an exponential backoff of
1104 retransmission timeout is necessary." Implement a very
1105 simple exponential backoff for retransmits.
1106 * PXELINUX: Updated documentation, including pointer to new
1108 * PXELINUX: When sending ERROR due to bad OACK, use the proper
1109 destination port number (why are TFTP port numbers so odd?)
1110 * PXELINUX: If the boot dies in the middle somewhere,
1111 eventually give up and reset the machine (unattended
1115 * New program PXELINUX to do network booting using a
1116 PXE-compliant (Pre-Execution Environment) network booting
1117 PROM. See pxelinux.doc for details.
1120 * Serial console support. See syslinux.doc for details.
1123 * Change HIGHMEM_MAX to 38000000h to (hopefully) avoid the
1124 kernel stepping on it; 3f000000h was apparently a higher
1125 limit than the kernel used!
1128 * Add sys2ansi.pl script to display the contents of a
1129 colorized SYSLINUX file.
1130 * Changed the io_delay once again, after a report that the
1131 old delay port causes hangs on some systems.
1134 * Frob the "fast A20 gate" port as well as the keyboard
1135 controller; will this help systems with problems?
1136 * Be even more paranoid about A20, unfortunately even this
1137 seems to be not paranoid enough... what I don't understand
1138 is that if there is hardware out there *this broken*, how
1139 can it run Linux at all? Report an error message rather
1140 than hang forever if A20 is stuck.
1141 * Include some intermediate files in the distribution, plus
1142 provide a "make installer" target for distributors to relink
1143 the install programs only. I would prefer the syslinux boot
1144 loader proper to be "binary clean" for debuggablity -- use
1145 "make clean ; make installer" to rebuild the installers only.
1148 * Don't get confused by directories, volume labels, or VFAT
1150 * Use INT 15h, AX=0E801h to query memory size before trying
1151 INT 15h, AH=88h. This not only provides more headroom
1152 between the kernel and the initrd on large-memory machines,
1153 but it appears some recent BIOSes actually have started
1154 returning garbage for the AH=88h (older) call.
1155 * Trust high memory beyond the 15 MB mark if the user has
1156 specified it, or if obtained with INT 15h, AH=0E801h (with
1157 no memory holes above 1 MB.)
1160 * Increase A20M delay and put in a test to avoid problems on
1161 certain IBM Thinkpads (thanks to Donnie Barnes of RedHat
1162 for vital info on this one.)
1163 * Support COMBOOT style boot command images.
1164 * Support chain loading (foreign operating systems, e.g. DOS).
1165 * Include a new "copybs" DOS utility to copy a boot sector to
1166 a file (under Linux, use "dd".)
1167 * Fix the DOS installer to work for disks over 32 MB.
1168 * SYSLINUX should now handle disks with more than 65536 tracks.
1171 * Fix a bug that caused "label" statements in syslinux.cfg to
1172 not be handled properly.
1173 * Updated the documentation. Among other things, we now allow
1174 up to 128 "label" statements.
1177 * Fix for booting old (pre-initrd) kernels.
1178 * It seems at least some versions of OS/2 doesn't set up all
1179 the fields in the superblock correctly. Account for that.
1180 * Fix bug that caused boot failure when using the mem= option.
1183 * Loading from partitions now should work properly. (Actually
1184 tested, this time. You should even be able to dd a floppy
1185 to a partition and boot from it.)
1186 * Removed large workaround code for an alleged ancient BIOS
1187 bug I have never actually seen. The -s option should work
1188 on those machines, anyway.
1189 * Support for simple keyboard remappings, same as used by
1190 LILO (once again to support localization.) The program
1191 keytab-lilo.pl from the LILO distribution included to
1193 * Added a "safe, slow and stupid" (-s) option to the
1194 installers. This option will lobotomize the boot sector to
1195 hopefully work on even very buggy BIOSes.
1198 * Ability to load a VGA font on bootup (for localized Linux
1202 * Bug fix in the Linux installer.
1203 * Added a workaround for a bug in certain AMI/Intel BIOSes
1204 when booting from CD-ROM.
1205 * Documentation changes.
1208 * FAT16 filesystems are now supported.
1211 * Now compiles under Linux, using NASM, rather than using
1212 Turbo Assembler under DOS. See http://www.cryogen.com/Nasm
1213 for information about NASM.
1214 * Linux-hosted SYSLINUX installer, as well as a
1215 rewritten DOS installer (now is written in assembler, so we
1216 don't need Turbo C.)
1219 * Added support for loading bzImage and initrd loading, and made
1220 SYSLINUX new-setup-code aware (SYSLINUX 1.30 id=0x31).
1221 * Added LILO-style kernel labels; see the LABEL and IMPLICIT
1222 keywords in README file.
1223 * Added support for colorization of intro and help screens.
1224 * The vga= option is now handled correctly.
1225 * Massive rewrite of large chunks of the code in order to
1226 support the first two new features.
1229 * Added simple online help at the "boot:" prompt.
1230 * Removed 2880K image as I no longer have access to such a
1231 floppy drive. (Donations accepted!!)
1232 * Decided to distribute the source in a subdirectory rather
1233 than in a nested zipfile.
1236 * Removed a sanity check which would cause booting to fail on
1237 Phoenix BIOS version 4.03. Apparently this BIOS is buggy.
1240 * Added configuration file SYSLINUX.CFG. This file contains all
1241 configurable options, and can be edited from any OS which can
1242 access an MS-DOS filesystem; there is no longer a need to run
1243 SYSLINUX.EXE except to write the boot sector.
1244 * Default command line now given by "default" line in config
1246 * LINUXMSG.TXT and BOOTMSG.TXT hard-coded file names replaced by
1247 "display" and "prompt" lines in config file.
1248 * LILO-style option appending now supported ("append" line in
1250 * Prompt timeout is now supported ("timeout" line in config
1251 file). The timeout is cancelled when anything is typed on the
1253 * Pressing <ESC> or <Ctrl-C> at the Loading... stage now aborts
1254 the kernel loading in progress and returns the user to the
1256 * The installer now automatically sets the READONLY flag on
1258 * Added 2880K disk image.
1261 * Fixed bug that would prevent booting from double-density
1262 floppies and other DOS filesystems with multiple sectors per
1264 * Added 720K disk image.
1265 * Changed default kernel name on disk images to LINUX.
1268 * Fixed bug that would garble the command line on recent kernels
1269 with more than 4 sectors of setup code (this wasn't really a
1270 *bug*; rather, a kernel change broke the code. Unfortunately
1271 the Linux boot interface is still sorely undocumented).
1272 * Added BOOTMSG.TXT file support (message file which does not
1273 force display of the boot prompt).
1276 * Fixed bug on some (most?) 386 BIOSes would require two boot