1 Starting with 1.47, changes marked with SYSLINUX, PXELINUX, ISOLINUX
2 or EXTLINUX apply to that specific program only; other changes apply
6 * New shuffler mechanism and API.
7 * Rewritten mboot.c32 module.
8 * The syslinux_boot_linux() function has been simplified.
9 * Don't hang trying to boot a "menu quit" label from the CLI.
10 * Fix problem with boot-once "sticking" on some BIOSes.
11 * isohybrid: fix problem with images over 2 GB in size.
14 * ISOLINUX: fix the handling of large directories. Bug found
15 and fixed by Steffen Winterfeldt.
18 * PXELINUX: fix the "keeppxe" option, which was broken in
20 * MEMDISK: correct the extraction of geometry information from
21 the MBR of a hard disk image, again broken in 3.74.
22 * extlinux(1) man page from Brian Pellin.
23 * Simple menu: MENU SAVE is now controllable on a menu-by-menu
24 or entry-by-entry basis.
25 * gPXELINUX: fix interrupt-disabling bug.
26 * HDT: fix lockup on machines with certain PCI configurations.
29 * New UI directive, which allows a more natural way to specify
30 a menu system (or not.) With the UI directive specifying
31 the menu system, the DEFAULT directive can be used to select
32 the default entry inside the menus.
33 * kbdmap.c32: new module to load a new keyboard map
35 * isohybrid: workaround bug in some versions of binutils.
36 * Fix issue with the placement of the initrd on some machines.
37 * ifcpu64: fix handling of less than three arguments.
38 * Fix bug in the shuffle library when dealing with a very
39 large number of fragments.
40 * Documentation fixes by Vicente Jimenez Aguilar.
41 * gPXE updated to version 0.9.7.
42 * hdt.c32: Hardware Detection Tool, an interactive hardware
43 analyzer module by Erwan Velu.
44 * MEMDISK: enable automatic determination of the disk geometry
45 for a large floppy disk image if (and only if) it is
46 formatted with a FAT filesystem.
47 * SYSLINUX: fix the handling of .bss files on FAT12/16.
48 * Suppress the Loading ... message if "quiet" is specified on
49 the kernel command line.
50 * Fix the use of "CONSOLE 0" with menu.c32.
51 * Allow COM32 modules to be aware of all memory even in the
52 presence of a memory hole. The "linux.c32" module can be
53 used to load a kernel (or memdisk) plus large initrd on
55 * MBR: produce alternate MBR variants which force the drive
56 number to hd0 (_f variants), or force the drive number to
57 hd0 if the Ctrl key is pressed (_c variants.) Furthermore,
58 add an MBR variant (altmbr*.bin) which ignores the active
59 flag and instead boots the partition number specified in the
60 byte at offset 439 decimal.
61 * Add IPAPPEND strings to com32 modules, especially needed for
63 * New MENU SAVE directive which saves the latest menu
64 selection until the next boot. Currently only implemented for
66 * gfxboot.com: *experimental* interface module to Steffen
67 Winterfeldt's "gfxboot" graphical front end
68 (http://gfxboot.sourceforge.net/). Module by Sebastian Herbszt.
71 * Upgrade gPXE to release version 0.9.5.
72 * Fix a number of build errors on various platforms.
73 * Handle systems with E820 "extended attributes" per ACPI 3.
74 Someone "cleverly" decided to change the E820 spec in a
75 backwards-incompatible manner!
76 * MEMDISK: default to "safeint".
77 * Adopt the moniker "The Syslinux Project", standard proper
78 noun capitalization, to refer to the project as a whole.
79 Thus, reserve the all-caps "SYSLINUX" to refer to the FAT
81 * mboot.c32: add "-solaris" option to pass DHCP information to
82 the Solaris kernel; required for automatic Solaris boot
83 without using Solaris' pxeboot program.
84 * config.c32: trivial COM32 module to restart Syslinux with
85 another configuration file from the command line (equivalent
86 to the CONFIG command in the configuratin file.)
89 * Include the pxechain.com module from Jeffery Hutzelman at
90 Carnegie Mellon University. This allows chaining another
91 PXE boot program while changing the DHCP packet passed to
93 * Reorganize the Makefile system.
94 * Major PCI core cleanups and other source cleanup.
96 * Try to avoid memory-snooping attacks on passwords. Note
97 that if someone has root on the box, they generally don't
98 need to compromise the boot loader...
99 * ISOLINUX: fix crash when given a zero-length file.
100 * sdi.c32: support gzipped SDI images.
101 * ISOLINUX: support generating images which can be either
102 a CD-ROM or a hard disk (USB disk, etc.) See
103 doc/isolinux.txt for more information.
104 * Remote gdb support for COM32 modules; patch from Stefan
106 * Support beeps in F-key help in the simple menu system.
107 * Tab display of labels, based on a patch from Sebastian
108 Herbszt. Can be disabled with the NOCOMPLETE configuration
110 * "menu default" can now be specified after "menu begin", to
111 indicate that a specific submenu should be the default entry.
114 * Workaround for a VESA BIOS which tries to make DOS system
116 * Simple menu: fix navigation around disabled entries
117 (or at least try to...)
118 * EXTLINUX: proper error message when confused about mount
120 * MEMDISK: be smarter about incompletely disabled floppies in
121 the BIOS and about being the only floppy.
122 * Optionally allow initrd to be specified on a separate line
123 rather than as part of the "append" line. This is not
124 recommended, but apparently makes life easier for some
126 * SYSLINUX: if no config file is present, set the current
127 directory to the root directory (Sebastian Herbszt).
128 * chain.c32: option "hide" to support hiding and unhiding of
129 primary partitions on the boot drive with DOS, Win, or OS/2
130 partition types (01, 04, 06, 07, 0b, 0c, 0e).
131 * Unbreak the KBDMAP command (broken in 3.70).
132 * EXTLINUX: fix the handling of the ADV when using CBIOS.
133 * ifcpu64.c32: simple COM32 module to select a 32- or 64-bit
134 kernel (and optionally 32-bit kernels with or without PAE.)
135 Eventually we want a scripting language for this
136 kind of stuff; a Lua module is under development.
137 * Fix parsing of the SERIAL command without a baud rate
139 * chain.c32: error out when try to boot an unbootable
141 * SYSLINUX: when building the Win32 installer, search for
142 MinGW under a large number of possible names.
145 * PXELINUX: Support enhanced capabilities when running on top
146 of gPXE (http://www.etherboot.org/). In particular, support
147 URL-style syntax for filenames, and any protocol that gPXE
148 supports (except, currently, iSCSI and AoE.) This feature
149 is currently highly experimental.
150 * Substantial infrastructure changes to support files whose
151 length aren't known at open time (typically network
152 connections.) Please note that the semantics of some of the
153 comboot APIs have changed slightly; please see doc/comboot.txt.
154 * PXELINUX: We no longer require a TFTP server which supports
155 the tsize option for all transfers.
156 * PXELINUX: Integrate with the gPXE source base; unified image
157 now included as "gpxelinux.0".
158 * The source tree has been restructured; files that were
159 previously in the root have moved into the core, dos, gpxe,
160 and utils directories.
161 * "make install", "make netinstall", and "make extbootinstall"
162 have been updated massively. "make install-all" now installs
164 * Change default dir for auxiliary files from
165 /usr/lib/syslinux to /usr/share/syslinux.
166 * SYSLINUX: VFAT long filename support.
167 * MEMDISK: Any image less than 4096K (4 MB) is treated as a
168 floppy disk. The geometry-guessing code will recognize all
169 common extended formats, but it is still possible some very
170 exotic formats need geometry specification. Large floppies
171 and very small harddisks still need explicit specification.
172 * chain.c32: option "swap" to support swapping of BIOS drive
173 numbers. This is necessary to boot certain operating systems
174 (DOS, Windows) from a secondary drive.
175 * chain.c32: option "file=" to support loading a boot file from
176 the SYSLINUX filesystem instead of loading the boot sector
178 * chain.c32: option "seg=" to control the load location.
179 * chain.c32: option "ntldr=" as a shorthand for "seg=0x2000
180 file="; use this to load one of WinNT's loaders:
182 chain.c32 hd0 1 ntldr=/MiniNT/setupldr.bin
184 Note that the file needs to be in the SYSLINUX filesystem.
185 * chain.32: options "freedos=" and "msdos="/"pcdos=" as
186 shorthands for "seg=0x60 file=" and "seg=0x70 file="
187 respectively; use this to load FreeDOS's kernel.sys, MS-DOS's
188 io.sys or PC-DOS's ibmbio.sys.
189 * Change to the A20 algorithm which *MIGHT* help systems that
190 have systems which freeze when Syslinux is used with USB
191 keyboards. Note that this has been hard do verify, so I
192 would greatly appreciate feedback on it.
193 * Complex menu system: unbreak menus which has unnamed
194 submenus, like complex.c.
195 * Fix newline on the serial port for some com32 modules.
196 * chain.c32: support "boot" as the drive specification,
197 indicating the drive from which it was booted
198 (for syslinux/extlinux).
199 * SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX: support "localboot" with the same feature
201 * Add an experimental MBR for GPT partition tables.
202 * Use $(CC) when determining compile flags.
203 * chain.c32: fix booting from logical partitions (Sergey
207 * Fix errors in the PCI and DMI detection modules (Erwan Velu,
209 * Fix host dependencies and other issues in the build system.
210 * PXELINUX: Allow class E addresses as unicast.
211 * sdi.c32: module to load Microsoft System Deployment Images.
212 For additional information, please see:
213 http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms838543.aspx
214 * EXTLINUX: Correct reading directories with deleted entries.
215 * Shuffle library: correct the handling of certain geometries
216 (an upward move with source material blocking the move); as
217 required by sdi.c32 but theoretically possible for other
219 * Add "make netinstall" to install /tftpboot.
220 * Fix some documentation files that didn't get moved/renamed.
223 * Clean up garbage after "aborted." message.
224 * Clean up memdump.com filenames.
225 * Support SHA256 and SHA512 encrypted passwords.
226 * The shuffle library now can generate chained descriptors,
227 thus allowing pretty much arbitrarily complex memory maps.
228 * Handle command lines up to 2047 characters, the current
230 * vesamenu: support systems without linear framebuffer support
231 (sigh, what is this, 1993?) and 15-bit RGB modes.
232 * Move the label storage (for the command-line interface) to
233 high memory, removing the size limit and freeing up 64K of
235 * Get rid of 4096-entry limit in the simple menu system.
236 * New hierarchial submenu support: see MENU BEGIN, MENU END,
237 MENU GOTO in doc/menu.txt.
238 * MENU QUIT allows creating a menu entry for returning to the
240 * ISOLINUX: Work around bug in certain Adaptec BIOSes,
241 patch by Bruce Robson.
242 * pngtopnm dependency removed from samples/ directory.
243 * Text documentation files (in doc/) renamed *.doc -> *.txt.
246 * EXTLINUX: fix crash when accessing an empty file.
247 * elf.c32: If a PHDR segment is present, load it.
248 * Fix SHA-1 and MD5 passwords.
249 * ISOLINUX: fix booting when mastered without
250 mkisofs -boot-info-table (broken since 3.50, sigh...)
251 * Handle BIOSes which emit multiple contiguous valid
252 memory regions in the e820 map.
255 * Support for "auxilliary data vector", a small amount of
256 writable storage. Currently only supported for EXTLINUX,
257 but the infrastructure is there for the other derivatives,
258 assuming a suitable storage location can be found.
259 * EXTLINUX: boot-once support (--once, --clear-once, and
261 * A command is now required to the EXTLINUX installer, i.e. at
262 least one of --install, --update, --once, --clear-once, or
266 * PXELINUX: as per RFC 5071, PXELINUX no longer requires the
267 use of the magic cookie option (208) for unencapsulated
268 options. Currently it does not require it for
269 vendor-encapsulated options (vendor-option-space) either,
270 but that MAY be reverted in the future if it causes
272 * Documentation text files moved to a common "doc" directory;
273 man pages from the Debian project added to the "man"
275 * Correct bug with self-overlapping memory areas when using
276 the shuffle interface.
279 * Add "menu separator", "menu indent", "menu disabled"
281 * vesamenu: fix handing of VESA modes with noncontiguous
282 memory buffers. In particular, Qemu/KVM sets up such a mode
283 when Cirrus Logic emulation is enabled (which is the
285 * Support for calling real mode functions using far calls,
286 with argument on the stack. This was implemented to support
287 the BIOS BBS specification, but subsequent experiments show
288 that the at least one of the most common BIOS cores, Award,
289 passes the presence check but doesn't actually implement the
293 * Fix bugs related to the $PnP BIOS functionality on some
295 * PXELINUX: Fix the "naked" version of :: (suppress prefix.)
296 * elf.c32: better error messages.
297 * Faster operation under Intel VT virtualization.
298 * PXELINUX: Fix DHCP bootfile option.
299 * mkdiskimage: Support more than 1024 cylinders.
300 * (Hopefully) fix installer on non-x86 platforms.
301 * Fix shuffle_and_boot_rm, used by linux.c32.
302 * Fix shuffle_and_boot_pm on 386/486.
303 * ISOLINUX (at least): fix bss memory overwrite hang.
304 * MBR: Fix booting from logical partitions.
308 * Handle capitalized F-key commands in the menu system.
309 * Fix padding error when loading multiple ramdisks.
310 * Workaround for VMware crashing when trying to print a
311 message during early kernel boot (does not seem to work,
313 * chain.c32: add the ability to search for a specific MBR
314 signature at runtime.
315 * Fall back to the server identity option if the siaddr field
316 in the DHCP header isn't set. This seems to match the
317 behaviour of most PXE stacks.
318 * mkdiskimage: give the generated disk image an MBR signature.
319 * MEMDISK: Fix failures on some BIOSes.
320 * Simple menu system: new "MENU HIDDEN" option to not display
321 the menu unless the user presses a key.
322 * Simple menu system: support MD5-encrypted passwords (modern
323 Unix standard style, with "$1$" prefixes.)
324 * pcitest.c32: now functions as a full "lspci". Thanks to
325 Erwan Velu for this work.
326 * MEMDISK: Make EDD actually work.
327 * ISOLINUX: Fix for certain broken CD-ROM BIOSes which
328 randomly corrupted register FS.
329 * Simple menu system: fix memory overwrite bug that caused
330 some systems to lock up or behave weirdly.
331 * Fix building on 64-bit systems without a 32-bit libc installed.
334 * EXTLINUX: Fix failure to find the configuration file.
337 * New keywords allow the type of file to be specified in the
339 * It is now supported to load a different configuration file
340 with the CONFIG keyword.
341 * Fix API call 0x0019 (Read Disk.)
342 * MENU AUTOBOOT, MENU TABMSG, MENU PASSPROMPT allows
343 internationalization of menu messages.
344 * A new feature, TEXT HELP, allows the administrator to set
345 a multi-line help message for individual selections.
346 * Fix API call 0x0012 (Cleanup, shuffle and boot.)
347 * New API call "Cleanup, shuffle and boot to flat protected mode"
348 * New API call "Cleanup, shuffle and boot to real mode",
349 similar to API call 0x0012 but allows arbitrary register setting.
350 * Introduce a library interface for loading arbitrary binary
351 formats with relatively easily understood code. See
352 the elf.c32 module for an example on how to use it.
353 * New module "elf.c32", to load a protected-mode ELF kernel.
354 * MBR (old and new): Fix bug in CHS mode when LBA >
356 * vesamenu: fix decoding of palettized PNG images.
357 * Update the Linux kernel boot protocol.
358 * PXELINUX: Press Ctrl-N at the boot prompt to read out the
360 * Instead of the (non-existent) MAC, use the client identifier
361 for networks like Infiniband and Firewire/1394.
362 * Add a new INCLUDE command to the core syslinux parser.
363 * Allow binding help text to F11 and F12.
364 * F-key help now available in the simple menu system.
365 * Disabled the polling for ARP during idle. It is simply too
366 slow on some (broken!) PXE stacks.
367 * PXELINUX: also try to fetch the config file based on UUID.
368 * SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX: New RAID mode (-r) which calls the BIOS
369 to load the next device (typically the next drive) on boot
373 * MEMDISK: Disable EDD by default on floppy disks. EDD can be
374 enabled with the "edd" option and disabled with "noedd".
375 This (hopefully) should make Ghost work again.
376 * SYSLINUX: "unix" installer now uses Linux ioctls instead of
378 * New MBR which can boot from logical partitions.
379 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in detecting special extensions which was
380 introduced in 3.35 :(
381 * PXELINUX: Unbreak chainbooting FreeBSD (and possibly others.)
384 * MEMDISK: New "safeint" mode.
385 * MEMDISK: Be more compliant with the PnP BIOS spec.
386 * MEMDISK: Turn on EDD support by default.
387 * MEMDISK: Try to work on some machines on which it would not
388 work when there was no floppy drive in the system.
389 * Simple menu system: fix serial console support (broken in
391 * SYSLINUX: Support subdirectories. Like ISOLINUX, the
392 "current directory" is the directory in which syslinux.cfg
393 is found; this is searched for in the sequence
394 /boot/syslinux, /syslinux, /. As a side benefit, label names
395 like "linux-2.6.18" and "linux-2.6.19" are now supported.
397 To install ldlinux.sys in a subdirectory, pass the -d
398 directory option to the SYSLINUX installer.
400 This work was sponsored by slax.org (thanks, Tomas!)
401 * New API call: read disk.
402 * Invoke ONERROR on initrd load failure.
405 * The simple menu system (menu.c32 and vesamenu.c32) now
406 support loading more than one configuration file at a time,
407 using MENU INCLUDE or by specifying multiple filenames.
408 * The MENU COLOR statement can now control the shadowing mode.
411 * libcom32 extended to support graphics mode and graphical console.
412 * vesamenu.c32, new graphical version of the Simple
413 Menu System, see README.menu.
414 * New com32 modules by Erwan Velu do selection based on CPUID
415 or PCI devices present.
416 * RPM spec: add syslinux-tftpboot module; move syslinux by
417 default to the /usr/share/syslinux directory.
418 * RPM spec: extlinux is now a separate package.
421 * EXTLINUX: New options --install (-i) and --update (-U), to
422 make it clear if a boot loader should be installed or
423 updated. For now, defaults to --install for compatibility;
424 a future version will require one of these options.
425 * New library functions to load and place files in memory.
426 * mboot.c32 bug fixes.
427 * Remove 8 MB kernel size restriction.
428 * Add "klibc" target for building unix/syslinux and
429 extlinux/extlinux with klcc (klibc-1.4.27 or later.)
430 * PXELINUX: Fail (and eventually reboot) if no configuration
432 * COM32 module by Erwan Velu to make decisions based on DMI
434 * Fix issue where going back and forth between menus a lot
436 * ISOLINUX: Fix bug which made "cd boot sectors" not work.
439 * MEMDISK: Fix bug by which accessing the real floppy disk
440 as B: in MS-DOS was broken.
441 * Simple menu system: allow tweaking of the screen layout.
442 * Simple menu system: better command-line editing, correctly
443 handle command lines above 256 characters.
444 * PXELINUX: revert memory allocation change that caused
445 problems on some network cards.
446 * MEMDISK: Try work around a bug on some BIOSes when no
447 physical floppy disk is present in the system.
448 * Enable the 16550A FIFOs, if present, when doing serial
450 * New "totaltimeout" command establishes a timeout without
451 regard for any user input.
452 * Simple menu system: timeout behaviour now more in line with
454 * Simple menu system: "ontimeout" should now work correctly.
457 * gcc 4.0.1 compilation fixes.
458 * Add support for querying the PCI BIOS in libcom32
459 (used by ethersel et al.)
460 * Fix PCI handing (ethersel etc) on several old chipsets (and
462 * Try to deal with systems with broken EBIOS.
463 * New API call to do "localboot".
464 * New API call to query features.
465 * New API call to run kernel image, a lower-level call than
466 "run command". See comboot.doc.
467 * Fix for bug in EBIOS code discovered by Arwin Vosselman.
468 * NOESCAPE security fix.
469 * Comments are now recognized even without a space following #.
470 * Fix incorrect handling of mixes of entries with and without
472 * The idle API call now harmlessly returns failure if it is a
473 no-op. That way the caller can decide whether or not to
474 bother invoking it again.
475 * Temporarily disable the idle API call on PXELINUX, due to
476 some platforms on which the idle API call seems to hang; this
477 problem has not yet been debugged.
478 * MEMDISK: the handling of DOSEMU-headered images was broken;
480 * EXTLINUX: symlinks are now supported.
481 * Simple menu system: N and P now work correctly as hotkeys.
482 * MEMDISK: more BIOS bug workarounds.
485 * gcc4 compilation fix.
486 * <BEL> (Ctrl-G) in message files now causes a beep.
487 * Reduce the command line to 511 characters; 1023 caused
491 * SYSLINUX: Fix performance regression (-s mode always
493 * Add API function for idle loop.
494 * libutil: Add do_idle() function for idle loop, make
496 * libutil: Add SHA-1 and base64 functions.
497 * Simple menu system: add password support.
498 * EXTLINUX: Sparse files now handled correctly.
499 * EXTLINUX: Large directories now handled correctly.
500 * ALL: At the prompt, Ctrl-X now forces text mode.
501 * Fix configuration file parsing error, that could cause
503 * Rewritten advanced menuing system from Murali Ganapathy.
504 * MEMDISK: New "bigraw" mode to work around certain broken
506 * COM32 module to boot Multiboot systems, including Xen. See
507 com32/modules/mboot.doc.
508 * Max command line changed to 1023 characters. Note that the
509 kernel proper still can only handle 255 characters without
510 patching, and COM16 binaries can only handle 125 characters.
513 * Fix chainloading (chain.c32).
514 * Fix zlib build problem.
515 * Use a private copy of <linux/ext2_fs.h>.
518 * Fix typo that caused the ramdisk to load in the wrong place.
521 * New API function "shuffle and boot"; allows COM32 modules to
522 load or construct (almost) arbitrarily complex objects,
523 e.g. a kernel and its initrd/initramfs in pieces, and have
524 the API core reorganize memory for booting. (A library API
525 for this function will be introduced in a later version.)
526 * The initrd= option now supports multiple filenames separated
527 by commas. This is mostly useful for initramfs, which can
528 be composed of multiple separate cpio or cpio.gz archives.
529 (Note: all files except the last one are zero-padded to a 4K
530 page boundary. This should not affect initramfs.)
531 * EXTLINUX: Fix API function 000Ah (get derivative-specific
533 * libcom32/ethersel: Support PCI Config Mechanism #2 on
534 machines still infested with that hideous old hack.
535 * SYSLINUX: Fix directory-parsing bug.
538 * SYSLINUX: The "unix" installer now sets the MS-DOS
539 attributes (hidden, system, readonly.)
540 * COM32 library: build the .lnx (test modules for running
541 under Linux) as architecture native modules, in case
542 i386 devel libraries aren't installed.
543 * EXTLINUX: Hack for systems which don't have BLKGETSIZE64
544 defined in the standard header files.
545 * Simple menu system: minor aestetic improvements, and try to
546 work better over a serial console (speed, and readability on
547 monochrome terminal emulators.)
548 * New CONSOLE directive to control output on the video console
549 (useful for dealing with some broken serial-forwarding
551 * New com32 module "ethersel" for searching for an Ethernet
552 card and selecting the proper version of Etherboot.
553 * EXTLINUX: Allow the user to override the detected geometry.
557 * EXTLINUX, SYSLINUX: Fix compile errors on some systems.
558 * EXTLINUX: Default to zipdrive geometry (64 heads, 32
559 sectors) if no other geometry can be detected.
562 * SYSLINUX: Support FAT32 and EDD. As an unfortunate
563 consequence, LDLINUX.SYS is no longer an ordinary file; it
564 is block-mapped at install time, which means it can only be
565 written using the syslinux installers.
566 * SYSLINUX: Reorganize the source code for the installers;
567 each one of the installers (dos, win32, unix, mtools) is now
568 built in its own subdirectory. In particular, "mtools" is
569 the unprivileged installer which uses mtools; "unix" is the
570 privileged installer which uses system calls.
571 * SYSLINUX: Completely rewritten DOS installer in C.
572 * ALL: "label" statement information is now stored in a
573 compressed format, which means that a lot more labels are
574 permitted (500-1000 in a typical configuration, but depends
576 * EXTLINUX: New derivative, which boots from an ext2/ext3
578 * SYSLINUX: The DOS and Win32 installers can now optionally
579 write the boot sector to a file instead of the real boot
580 sector. This is not supported in the Linux installers,
582 * ALL: New NOESCAPE command, disables the "hold down the Shift
583 key to display the prompt" behaviour.
584 * New simple menu system, as an alternative to the advanced
585 menu system already present. See README.menu for details.
586 * PXELINUX: Filenames can now be prefixed with an IP address
587 or DNS name plus :: (e.g. 192.0.2.1::filename or
588 server.domain.com::filename), which downloads a file from an
589 alternate TFTP server, or just a :: (e.g. ::filename), which
590 suppresses the common pathname prefix. See pxelinux.doc.
591 * SYSLINUX: Add an -m option to the DOS and Win32 installers
592 to write an MBR and -a to mark the partition SYSLINUX is
593 being installed on active.
594 * MEMDISK: Give a way to query the boot loader type while
595 running MEMDISK; see memdisk/memdisk.doc and
597 * mkdiskimage: substantially improved mkdiskimage which, among
598 other things, can now be used to initialize USB keys as
599 zipdrives; see README.usbkey for more information.
602 * MEMDISK: Fix command-line parsing "brown paper bag" class
604 * MEMDISK: Add "raw" mode to support the DOS boot disk from
605 WinME/XP, which seems to deliberately crash the system
606 when someone uses the "INT 15h mover" highmem API.
607 * Make "make install" do something sane for the com32
608 development environment.
609 * In the spec file, create a separate -devel RPM for the com32
610 development environment.
613 * Simple C library, based on klibc, for writing COM32
615 * Fix the handling of file length in loading of COM32
617 * MEMDISK: Work around a linker bug by rearranging the code to
618 not use the linker for the 16-bit code.
619 * SYSLINUX: If we're building on a machine without a Win32
620 (mingw) compiler, just skip building syslinux.exe.
621 * ISOLINUX: Support non-mkisofs mastering programs, at least
622 as long as the image is single-session. For best results,
623 ISOLINUX should be the only boot loader installed.
624 * MEMDISK: Allow the user to specify that the simulated disk
625 should be write-protected.
628 * ALL: Add an API call to get the configuration file name.
629 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in 2.10 that prevented it from working
630 correctly for a lot of people.
631 * SYSLINUX: In the installer, make mtools a bit less fussy.
632 * Make the menu system compile with newer gcc's.
635 * MEMDISK: Handle images compressed with zip as well as with
636 gzip. Some Windows-based image tools apparently generate
637 these kinds of images by default. Patch by Patrick
639 * Major menu improvement from Murali Ganapathy.
640 * ISOLINUX: Wonderfully sick and brilliant workaround for
641 severe bugs in certain Award BIOSes; from Knut Petersen.
642 * SYSLINUX: Fix for the nomtools installed, from Frederic
644 * PXELINUX: Fix handling of IP numbers in the ranges
646 * ALL: New option "allowoptions" (defaults to 1), which
647 controls if options are allowed on the command line or not.
648 * SYSLINUX: Support building under klibc (see the klibc
649 distribution for details.)
652 * SYSLINUX: Remove residual setuid crap from
654 * Handle video pages correctly when using the API functions.
655 * Handle compiling on an x86-64 platform correctly.
656 * Menu system from Murali Krishnan Ganapathy; see the menu
657 directory for information.
658 * COMBOOT: Allow COMBOOT programs to change screen text mode.
659 * COMBOOT: Correct the documentation of how to detect
660 SYSLINUX from COMBOOT!!!!
661 * COMBOOT: Fix "get key without echo" API function.
662 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug that affected the API open function.
663 * ALL: Improve the E820 memory parser, to work around some
667 * Add new configuration command "ontimeout" to allow timeout
668 to have a different action than just pressing Enter.
669 * Add new configuration command "onerror" to allow a custom
670 command to be executed in case the kernel image is not found.
671 * Fix bugs in the COMBOOT/COM32 command-line parsing. APPEND
672 now works with COMBOOT/COM32 images.
673 * PXELINUX: Poll for ARP requests while sitting at the
674 prompt. This makes some boot servers a lot less unhappy.
675 * PXELINUX: Actually free sockets when we get a failure
676 (including file not found.) This bug would cause us to run
677 out of sockets and thus "go deaf" after a while.
678 * MEMDISK: Add an API to query for the existence of MEMDISK.
679 * SYSLINUX: Fix loading boot sectors (.bs/.bss) from floppy
681 * .c32 is now one of the extensions searched for
683 * PXELINUX: RFBG.exe seems to randomly overwrite memory
684 location 0x5700. Thus, don't use it!
685 * PXELINUX: Change pathname length max from 63 to 127; change
686 max vkernels from 128 to 64.
687 * Support Ctrl-U -> kill entire command line input.
688 * The "samples" directory contains a (barely at all tested)
689 chain loading example, chain.c32, which may be used to
690 chainload local floppy disks and hard disks. Use with
691 "chain fdN" or "chain hdN [partition]"; N = 0 for the first
695 * MEMDISK: Workaround for BIOSes which go into a snit when
696 they get a RESET command for the floppy system when there is
697 no floppy in the system.
698 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend 2", which passes the hardware
699 address of the boot interface to the kernel as a
701 * mkdiskimage: fix the generation of the end limit.
702 * PXELINUX: Fix multiple bugs in chainloading of other NBPs.
703 * MEMDISK: Fix bug that would occationally cause "ran out of
704 input data" when using compressed disk images.
705 * SYSLINUX: Updates for the win32 installer (from Lars Munch.)
706 * PXELINUX: PXELINUX-specific options are now recognized both
707 in a vendor-option-space (a.k.a. type 43 encapsulated) as
708 well as in a site-option-space (unencapsulated.)
709 * COM32: Don't crash when DS != 0.
710 * COMBOOT/COM32: Make file reading work correctly. Thanks to
711 Phung Chi Kien for submitting a test program.
714 * ALL: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
715 boot failure, depending on the length of the kernel.
716 * ISOLINUX: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
717 boot failure, depending on the length of directories.
718 * SYSLINUX: Win32 installer now flushes buffers.
719 * ppmtolss16: Be fully compliant with the PNM spec;
720 actually process comments in the header and odd
721 alignments of the various parameters, as well as
722 "plain" (not raw) files and PBM and PGM files.
723 * PXELINUX: Lower the default MTU to 1472 in order to deal
724 with systems with slightly nonstandard MTUs, and PXE
725 stacks which don't defragment correctly. Unfortunately this
726 is very hard to test dynamically.
729 * PXELINUX: Add a default query based on the hardware address
730 of the boot device. This is in lower case hexadecimal form
731 separated by dashes and including the hardware type, for
732 example, the Ethernet (type 1) address 88:99:AA:BB:CC:DD
733 would query the file pxelinux.cfg/01-88-99-aa-bb-cc-dd.
734 * PXELINUX: Fix bug involving non-IP-based config file names.
735 * SYSLINUX: New installer for WinNT-based systems, from Lars
737 * MEMDISK: Fix handling of memory region overlap when
738 decompressing. Thanks to Mikhail Kupchik for identifying
742 * ALL: Reclaim even more low memory by observing that
743 comboot_seg == real_mode_seg is perfectly fine, and by the
744 fact that the 1000h segment managed to get unused in all
746 * PXELINUX: Attempt to negotiate full Ethernet-sized blocks
747 (1468 bytes) using the blksize option.
748 * SYSLINUX: Resurrect the old no-mtools version of the
749 installer, although as a root-only tool. Some distributors
750 have indicated that they need a small standalone installer.
751 * MEMDISK: Fix a memory offset computation error when
752 installing compressed disks which generally would cause
753 1 MB of memory to be wasted.
754 * MEMDISK: Fix installing the E820 memory map. Calling
755 INT 15h AX=0E820h with MEMDISK 2.03 loaded would give a
756 completely corrupt memory map.
757 * SYSLINUX: Make libsyslinux a dynamic library, so that it can
758 be updated separately from client programs. The whole idea,
759 after all, is to enable alternate programs to become
761 * Include an rpm spec file in the distribution, so rpmbuild
765 * Actually support comment lines in the configuration file.
766 * PXELINUX: Try to resolve some problems with stack switches.
767 * PXELINUX: Handle PXE stacks with broken routing.
768 With these workarounds, the remote install PXE boot floppy
769 (rbfg.exe) from Argon Technologies should work correctly.
770 * Fix problems with Perl scripts in UTF-8 locales.
771 * You probably need NASM 0.98.34 or later to compile this
772 version. 0.98.36 is recommended.
773 * MEMDISK: Now supports gzip compressed images.
776 * SYSLINUX: Security flaws have been found in the SYSLINUX
777 installer when running setuid root. Rewrite the SYSLINUX
778 installer so it uses mtools instead. It therefore now
779 requires mtools (specifically mcopy and mattrib) to exist on
780 your system, but it will not require root privileges and
781 SHOULD NOT be setuid.
784 * MEMDISK: Fix memory sizing bug when the ramdisk crosses the
786 * MEMDISK: Add a "pause" option to stop immediately before
787 booting, to read off the messages.
788 * MEMDISK: Support disk images with DOSEMU headers.
789 * Update the mkdiskimage script to handle newer mtools
790 versions, and be able to generate disk images with DOSEMU
791 headers (controlled by the -d option).
792 * Fix the COM32 sample program.
793 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix some COMBOOT API calls.
795 * Build SYSLINUX into a small library for encapsulation into
796 other programs (however, please keep in mind this is a GPL'd
798 * SYSLINUX: Make installer work with "owner" in /etc/fstab.
799 * SYSLINUX: Fix issue with working on nonpartitioned hard disk
800 devices. THIS CONFIGURATION IS NOT RECOMMENDED.
803 * ALL: Add support for "COM32" (32-bit COMBOOT) images.
804 * ALL: Add an API for COMBOOT/COM32 images. See comboot.doc
805 for details. There is a C development environment for
806 COM32 being created; it should be ready at some point in
808 * Fix mbr.asm so that it actually works.
809 * SYSLINUX: The syslinux installer *SHOULD* now be safe to
811 * PXELINUX: Fix bug where PXELINUX would override random
812 chunks of the UNDI code segment! Thanks to Kevin Tran for
814 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug related to slashes in pathnames.
815 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug in handling initrds over 128 MB.
816 * ALL: Make the <Ctrl-V> key print out the version; this is
818 * Add a small script, mkdiskimage, to create a DOS-formatted
819 hard disk image using mtools. This may be useful in
820 conjunction with MEMDISK.
821 * ISOLINUX: Search for a /boot/isolinux directory as well as
823 * ALL: Fix a bug related to very long configuration files.
824 * PXELINUX: Work around a NASM bug which would result in no
825 delay before reset if an error occurs.
828 * ISOLINUX: Remove code no longer used which caused hangs on
829 some Toshiba laptops.
832 * ALL: NASM 0.98.32 or later is now required to build
833 SYSLINUX from sources.
834 * SYSLINUX: put back in the workaround for the BIOS floppy
835 table. This seems to be a requirement for "extended" floppy
836 formats to work correctly.
837 * SYSLINUX: No longer warn if one is trying to boot on a 286
838 or older. The above BIOS workaround no longer fits if the
839 requirement to use only 8086-compatible code in the early
840 boot is maintained. It made sense in 1994, but in 2002 a
841 286 or older is a museum object.
842 * SYSLINUX: Use a downright bizarre, stateful algorithm to try
843 to guess the maximum transfer size. I am *hoping* this will
844 cut down on the number of systems for which -s is required
845 to work at any acceptable speed.
846 * ISOLINUX: Add a few more workarounds for various broken El
848 * Make sure .depend files aren't accidentally packed...
849 * ALL: Fix bugs in the extension-detect code; this caused
850 files like COMBOOT images and CD boot sectors to be
851 mis-identified as Linux kernels and rejected.
852 * ALL: Fix the return from COMBOOT.
853 * ALL: Do some of the early groundwork for supporting DOS
854 system calls in COMBOOT.
855 * Get rid of unnecessary "near" directives, making the code
857 * PXELINUX: Put the PXE stack back in the init state before
858 invoking a chain-loaded NBP.
859 * PXELINUX: Actually found the combination of calls that
860 allows some (most?) PXE 2+ stacks to be unloaded from memory
862 * PXELINUX: Add "keeppxe" command-line option to disable
863 the standard unloading of the PXE stack.
866 * SYSLINUX: fix bug that would cause valid kernel images to be
870 * Work on removing gratuitous differences between modules.
871 * Break up the source in common and module-specific files.
872 * PXELINUX: Allow chaining of other PXE NBPs.
873 * ISOLINUX: Allow loading "CD-ROM boot sectors".
874 * ALL: generalize the definition of a boot sector/NBP.
877 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix bugs in the new core code.
880 * Fix a "brown paper bag" class bug in the new core code.
883 * Major code restructuring.
884 * Relax the conventional memory limits somewhat.
885 * MEMDISK: Set up the "version number string" pointer in the
887 * SYSLINUX: Fix, again, "the bug that won't die": the use of
888 the offset parameter with the SYSLINUX installer.
889 * SYSLINUX: Fix possible superblock corruption problem in the
893 * Handle bug in the location of initrd.
896 * MEMDISK: Make compile with newer versions of gcc.
899 * ISOLINUX: Support booting disk image files (to boot DOS or
900 other non-Linux operating systems), *IF* the BIOS works
901 correctly; unfortunately many BIOSes apparently don't.
902 * Support Linux boot protocol version 2.03 (explicitly
903 specify the initrd address limit.)
904 * Handle small "pseudo-kernels"; images that use the Linux
905 kernel boot protocols but are less than 64K in size.
906 * MEMDISK: New subsystem; this is a driver which allows
907 legacy OSes to boot using an in-memory simulated disk.
908 See memdisk/memdisk.doc for more info.
909 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Correctly handle files larger than 65535
910 blocks (32 MB for PXELINUX, 128 MB for ISOLINUX.)
911 * PXELINUX: Make a best-effort attempt at freeing all memory
912 claimed. From the looks of it, it will fail on most PXE
916 * Limited support for hardware flow control when using a
918 * Support specifying the serial port I/O address explicitly.
919 * Make DOS installer hopefully behave more nicely when used on
920 recent Windows versions.
921 * Fix returning to text mode when a font has been specified.
922 * Attempt to detect missing serial port hardware and disable
923 the serial port if there is nothing there.
926 * Make the ppmtolss16 program handle color conversion more
928 * Clean up "make install" target, honour INSTALLROOT if it
930 * SYSLINUX: Fix stack-smash bug identified by Steffen
932 * Hopefully fix return-to-text-mode on some graphics cards.
933 * ISOLINUX: Bug workaround for Award BIOS 4.51, and perhaps
934 other buggy BIOSes as well.
937 * PXELINUX: Allow the DHCP server to override the
938 configuration file name and pathname prefix, using
939 "site-specific" DHCP options.
940 * PXELINUX: Documentation fixes.
941 * PXELINUX: Fix the "ipappend" option; the last two values
942 were reversed vs. what the kernel expected.
943 * Introduce a way to return to text mode once we are already
944 in graphics mode. This may be useful for F-key help
946 * Fix several bugs in the way return to text mode was handled.
949 * ISOLINUX: Support full pathname searches. Max length for a
950 pathname is 255 characters. As a result, only 64 "label"
951 statements are supported in ISOLINUX.
952 * PXELINUX: Max filename length extended to 63 characters.
955 * Add support for graphical splash screens.
956 * Add mode control characters, which allows you to control
957 message display output depending on output mode (text,
958 graphics, or serial port.)
959 * ISOLINUX: New program, which boots Linux from a CD-ROM
960 without using floppy emulation mode. See isolinux.doc for
962 * PXELINUX: Don't search for boot sector file types, since
963 they don't work anyway.
964 * SYSLINUX: Document the LOCK command for Win9x, and the error
965 dialog box for WinNT/2K.
968 * PXELINUX: Fix code for finding !PXE from PXENV+. This was
969 due to a spec bug; match the most recent spec since that
970 seems to be what implementations actually do.
971 * SYSLINUX: Add some smarts to the boot sector, which
972 hopefully should reduce the number of systems which require
973 stupid mode ("syslinux -s").
974 * PXELINUX: Document further some of the pathologies with old
976 * When specifying a "default" command line, no longer
977 automatically appent "auto". See the "DEFAULT" command in
978 syslinux.doc for more information.
979 * PXELINUX: Clean up the allocation of local socket numbers.
982 * PXELINUX: Rename pxelinux.bin to pxelinux.0, to match what
983 most PXE servers seem to expect.
984 * PXELINUX: Update the DHCP/boot server setup documentation.
985 * PXELINUX: Support new "localboot" option for "label"
987 * PXELINUX: More robust parsing of DHCP/boot server packets.
988 * PXELINUX: Include a small utility program "gethostip" to
989 compute hexadecimal IP addresses.
992 * PXELINUX: Fix bugs introduced by new A20 code. (SYSLINUX
993 has also been changed for code consistency reasons, but I'm
994 pretty sure the changes are don't care on SYSLINUX.)
995 * Documentation updates.
996 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend" option to generate an ip= option to
1000 * PXELINUX: Not all PXE stacks fill in the IP address for a
1001 type 3 cached info query. Use a type 2 cached info query
1002 for this information (only.)
1003 * Yet another attempt at A20 coding. Now support BIOS call
1004 15:2401 as well, and handle machines which always have A20
1006 * Support memory detection using INT 15h, AX=0E820h. BIOS
1007 manufacturers have apparently gotten sloppy about keeping
1008 INT 15h, AX=0E801h working properly.
1009 * Don't issue <CR><LF> onto the serial port when we're doing
1013 * Yet another A20-code update. It seems some "legacy-free"
1014 machines and embedded gear simply don't have a KBC to talk
1015 to, and that waiting for one will wait forever. Sigh.
1018 * SYSLINUX: Implement a hack for BIOS drivers which hog significant
1019 chunks of low memory during boot. (Note: PXELINUX already
1020 had this modification. SYSLINUX does still require that the
1021 low 512K is available; PXELINUX requires 384K. Machines
1022 with a physical memory hole in the low 640K cannot boot
1023 Linux no matter what.) Depending what the reason is for the
1024 memory hole, a new kernel (2.4.0-test3-pre3 or later) may be
1026 * SYSLINUX: Default installer binary now compiled against
1027 glibc 2.1. If this is inappropriate for your system and you
1028 still want to use the offical version of SYSLINUX, please
1029 follow the instructions in "distrib.doc" to rebuild the
1031 * SYSLINUX: Linux installer program now supports -o <offset>
1032 option which does a loopback mount with the
1033 -o loop,offset=<> option. Useful to run SYSLINUX on an
1034 individual partition of a whole-harddisk image.
1035 * Include the source code to a Master Boot Record (MBR)
1036 functionally equivalent to the one installed DOS except it
1037 includes EBIOS support, and should be resistant to geometry
1038 changes. The MBR code is public domain.
1039 * PXELINUX: Fix "double p" bug: if the tftp prefix was null,
1040 all filenames would get a "p" preprended, e.g.
1041 "ppxelinux.cfg" and "pvmlinux".
1044 * PXELINUX: Workaround for PXE ROMs based on the Intel PXE PDK
1045 3.0 build 071 and earlier: missing !PXE structure pointer.
1046 * PXELINUX: Handle larger BOOTP/DHCP packages.
1047 * PXELINUX: The command line passing was broken; fix.
1048 * PXELINUX: Make COMBOOT images work.
1049 * PXELINUX: Documentation on how to make booting work using
1050 the PDK 3.0-derived clients, which aren't so generous as to
1051 allow booting with only "PXEClient" specified.
1054 * PXELINUX: RFC 1123 states that a TFTP implementation MUST
1055 use adaptive timeout, "at least an exponential backoff of
1056 retransmission timeout is necessary." Implement a very
1057 simple exponential backoff for retransmits.
1058 * PXELINUX: Updated documentation, including pointer to new
1060 * PXELINUX: When sending ERROR due to bad OACK, use the proper
1061 destination port number (why are TFTP port numbers so odd?)
1062 * PXELINUX: If the boot dies in the middle somewhere,
1063 eventually give up and reset the machine (unattended
1067 * New program PXELINUX to do network booting using a
1068 PXE-compliant (Pre-Execution Environment) network booting
1069 PROM. See pxelinux.doc for details.
1072 * Serial console support. See syslinux.doc for details.
1075 * Change HIGHMEM_MAX to 38000000h to (hopefully) avoid the
1076 kernel stepping on it; 3f000000h was apparently a higher
1077 limit than the kernel used!
1080 * Add sys2ansi.pl script to display the contents of a
1081 colorized SYSLINUX file.
1082 * Changed the io_delay once again, after a report that the
1083 old delay port causes hangs on some systems.
1086 * Frob the "fast A20 gate" port as well as the keyboard
1087 controller; will this help systems with problems?
1088 * Be even more paranoid about A20, unfortunately even this
1089 seems to be not paranoid enough... what I don't understand
1090 is that if there is hardware out there *this broken*, how
1091 can it run Linux at all? Report an error message rather
1092 than hang forever if A20 is stuck.
1093 * Include some intermediate files in the distribution, plus
1094 provide a "make installer" target for distributors to relink
1095 the install programs only. I would prefer the syslinux boot
1096 loader proper to be "binary clean" for debuggablity -- use
1097 "make clean ; make installer" to rebuild the installers only.
1100 * Don't get confused by directories, volume labels, or VFAT
1102 * Use INT 15h, AX=0E801h to query memory size before trying
1103 INT 15h, AH=88h. This not only provides more headroom
1104 between the kernel and the initrd on large-memory machines,
1105 but it appears some recent BIOSes actually have started
1106 returning garbage for the AH=88h (older) call.
1107 * Trust high memory beyond the 15 MB mark if the user has
1108 specified it, or if obtained with INT 15h, AH=0E801h (with
1109 no memory holes above 1 MB.)
1112 * Increase A20M delay and put in a test to avoid problems on
1113 certain IBM Thinkpads (thanks to Donnie Barnes of RedHat
1114 for vital info on this one.)
1115 * Support COMBOOT style boot command images.
1116 * Support chain loading (foreign operating systems, e.g. DOS).
1117 * Include a new "copybs" DOS utility to copy a boot sector to
1118 a file (under Linux, use "dd".)
1119 * Fix the DOS installer to work for disks over 32 MB.
1120 * SYSLINUX should now handle disks with more than 65536 tracks.
1123 * Fix a bug that caused "label" statements in syslinux.cfg to
1124 not be handled properly.
1125 * Updated the documentation. Among other things, we now allow
1126 up to 128 "label" statements.
1129 * Fix for booting old (pre-initrd) kernels.
1130 * It seems at least some versions of OS/2 doesn't set up all
1131 the fields in the superblock correctly. Account for that.
1132 * Fix bug that caused boot failure when using the mem= option.
1135 * Loading from partitions now should work properly. (Actually
1136 tested, this time. You should even be able to dd a floppy
1137 to a partition and boot from it.)
1138 * Removed large workaround code for an alleged ancient BIOS
1139 bug I have never actually seen. The -s option should work
1140 on those machines, anyway.
1141 * Support for simple keyboard remappings, same as used by
1142 LILO (once again to support localization.) The program
1143 keytab-lilo.pl from the LILO distribution included to
1145 * Added a "safe, slow and stupid" (-s) option to the
1146 installers. This option will lobotomize the boot sector to
1147 hopefully work on even very buggy BIOSes.
1150 * Ability to load a VGA font on bootup (for localized Linux
1154 * Bug fix in the Linux installer.
1155 * Added a workaround for a bug in certain AMI/Intel BIOSes
1156 when booting from CD-ROM.
1157 * Documentation changes.
1160 * FAT16 filesystems are now supported.
1163 * Now compiles under Linux, using NASM, rather than using
1164 Turbo Assembler under DOS. See http://www.cryogen.com/Nasm
1165 for information about NASM.
1166 * Linux-hosted SYSLINUX installer, as well as a
1167 rewritten DOS installer (now is written in assembler, so we
1168 don't need Turbo C.)
1171 * Added support for loading bzImage and initrd loading, and made
1172 SYSLINUX new-setup-code aware (SYSLINUX 1.30 id=0x31).
1173 * Added LILO-style kernel labels; see the LABEL and IMPLICIT
1174 keywords in README file.
1175 * Added support for colorization of intro and help screens.
1176 * The vga= option is now handled correctly.
1177 * Massive rewrite of large chunks of the code in order to
1178 support the first two new features.
1181 * Added simple online help at the "boot:" prompt.
1182 * Removed 2880K image as I no longer have access to such a
1183 floppy drive. (Donations accepted!!)
1184 * Decided to distribute the source in a subdirectory rather
1185 than in a nested zipfile.
1188 * Removed a sanity check which would cause booting to fail on
1189 Phoenix BIOS version 4.03. Apparently this BIOS is buggy.
1192 * Added configuration file SYSLINUX.CFG. This file contains all
1193 configurable options, and can be edited from any OS which can
1194 access an MS-DOS filesystem; there is no longer a need to run
1195 SYSLINUX.EXE except to write the boot sector.
1196 * Default command line now given by "default" line in config
1198 * LINUXMSG.TXT and BOOTMSG.TXT hard-coded file names replaced by
1199 "display" and "prompt" lines in config file.
1200 * LILO-style option appending now supported ("append" line in
1202 * Prompt timeout is now supported ("timeout" line in config
1203 file). The timeout is cancelled when anything is typed on the
1205 * Pressing <ESC> or <Ctrl-C> at the Loading... stage now aborts
1206 the kernel loading in progress and returns the user to the
1208 * The installer now automatically sets the READONLY flag on
1210 * Added 2880K disk image.
1213 * Fixed bug that would prevent booting from double-density
1214 floppies and other DOS filesystems with multiple sectors per
1216 * Added 720K disk image.
1217 * Changed default kernel name on disk images to LINUX.
1220 * Fixed bug that would garble the command line on recent kernels
1221 with more than 4 sectors of setup code (this wasn't really a
1222 *bug*; rather, a kernel change broke the code. Unfortunately
1223 the Linux boot interface is still sorely undocumented).
1224 * Added BOOTMSG.TXT file support (message file which does not
1225 force display of the boot prompt).
1228 * Fixed bug on some (most?) 386 BIOSes would require two boot