1 Starting with 1.47, changes marked with SYSLINUX, PXELINUX, ISOLINUX
2 or EXTLINUX apply to that specific program only; other changes apply
6 * vesamenu.c32: unbreak the default "grey hole" background.
7 * We no longer have a built-in default of "linux auto".
8 Instead, if no DEFAULT or UI statement is found, or the
9 configuration file is missing entirely, we drop to the boot:
10 prompt with an error message (if NOESCAPE is set, we stop
11 with a "boot failed" message; this is also the case for
12 PXELINUX if the configuration file is not found.)
15 * SYSLINUX: make the DOS installer work for MS-DOS 7.x/8.x
17 * HDT: updated to version 0.3.6 (numerous changes.)
18 * mboot.c32: now supports video mode setting if requested by
20 * MEMDISK: Fix floppy images of PC-DOS.
21 * MEMDISK: Add support for emulation of CD-ROM images; patch
23 * MEMDISK: Comply with the Win9x "safe hook" standard,
24 allowing a protected-mode driver.
25 * MEMDISK: New "mBFT" ACPI table, by analogy with the iSCSI
26 iBFT table. This allows detection from a protected-mode
27 operating system without EDD support.
28 * 32-bit version of the gfxboot loader (gfxboot.c32), so far
29 experimental. This will replace gfxboot.com in the future.
30 * vesamenu.c32: new MENU RESOLUTION directive to set a screen
31 resolution other than 640x480.
32 * chain.c32: add support for loading isolinux.bin.
33 * chain.c32: make sure to always return to text mode.
34 * eltorito.sys: DOS driver for generic CD-ROMs; by Gary Tong
38 * PXELINUX: clear memory before handing over to a chainloaded
39 NBP. This may help avoid a bug in Windows RIS.
40 * PXELINUX: fix localboot after NBP chainloading on certain
41 BIOSes (including ASUS A8N-E, but possibly others.)
42 * chain.c32: support chainloaded bootloaders on ISOLINUX.
43 * PXELINUX: allow filenames up to 251 characters.
44 * MEMDISK: fix problems booting from USB on Thinkpads, and
45 possibly other machines or hardware combinations.
46 * isohybrid: fix the -id option.
47 * HDT: updated to version 0.3.4.
48 * MEMDISK: the stack size is now configurable, with the stack=
50 * Simple menu: fix Ctrl-W (word erase) in command-line edit.
51 * Simple menu: fix crash on some platforms.
52 * Gfxboot: fixes to the configuration file parsing.
53 * PXELINUX: add a tool to override specific DHCP options via
54 values hardcoded in the pxelinux.0 file. These hardcoded
55 values can be either "before DHCP" (defaults if DHCP do not
56 provide values), or "after DHCP" (overrides DHCP). The tool
57 pxelinux-options can be used to set these options. This
58 feature does not apply to gpxelinux.0; when used with gPXE
59 this is better handled by modifying the embedded script.
62 * isohybrid: fix the -partok logic for loading from a partition.
63 * ISOLINUX: deal with systems which return from INT 13h with
65 * Do not invoke the idle handler during large file loads.
66 * Simple menu: make ONTIMEOUT work with MENU HIDDEN.
67 * PXELINUX: handle TFTP servers which have extra NULs at the
68 end of an OACK packet.
71 * Shuffler: fix bug in real-mode entry. This affected a
72 number of modules, probably in relatively unimportant ways,
73 but it completely broke linux.c32.
74 * Improved performance.
75 * Attempt to halt the processor while idle. This can cause
76 bad reponsiveness when using a serial console especially for
77 automated input; if that ends up being a problem, use the
78 new "NOHALT 1" configuration command.
79 * linux.c32 now suppresses all messages if the "quiet" flag is
81 * isohybrid: add a variety of options, and a help message.
82 * ISOLINUX: fix booting in hybrid mode when CBIOS is used.
83 This unfortunately means that the isohybrid handoff protocol
84 has changed, so the isohybrid utility must version-match
86 * Drop support for ACPI 3 extended memory flags.
87 * Menu system: don't set the autocr flag on the serial
89 * altmbr: fix handling of logical partitions.
90 * altmbr: cap at 439 bytes so the partition select byte isn't
94 * New shuffler mechanism and API.
95 * Rewritten mboot.c32 module.
96 * The syslinux_boot_linux() function has been simplified.
97 * Don't hang trying to boot a "menu quit" label from the CLI.
98 * Fix problem with boot-once "sticking" on some BIOSes.
99 * isohybrid: fix problem with images over 2 GB in size.
100 * APM poweroff module (poweroff.com) by Sebastian Herbszt.
101 * ISOLINUX: fix the handling of large directories. Bug found
102 and fixed by Steffen Winterfeldt.
105 * PXELINUX: fix the "keeppxe" option, which was broken in
107 * MEMDISK: correct the extraction of geometry information from
108 the MBR of a hard disk image, again broken in 3.74.
109 * extlinux(1) man page from Brian Pellin.
110 * Simple menu: MENU SAVE is now controllable on a menu-by-menu
111 or entry-by-entry basis.
112 * gPXELINUX: fix interrupt-disabling bug.
113 * HDT: fix lockup on machines with certain PCI configurations.
116 * New UI directive, which allows a more natural way to specify
117 a menu system (or not.) With the UI directive specifying
118 the menu system, the DEFAULT directive can be used to select
119 the default entry inside the menus.
120 * kbdmap.c32: new module to load a new keyboard map
122 * isohybrid: workaround bug in some versions of binutils.
123 * Fix issue with the placement of the initrd on some machines.
124 * ifcpu64: fix handling of less than three arguments.
125 * Fix bug in the shuffle library when dealing with a very
126 large number of fragments.
127 * Documentation fixes by Vicente Jimenez Aguilar.
128 * gPXE updated to version 0.9.7.
129 * hdt.c32: Hardware Detection Tool, an interactive hardware
130 analyzer module by Erwan Velu.
131 * MEMDISK: enable automatic determination of the disk geometry
132 for a large floppy disk image if (and only if) it is
133 formatted with a FAT filesystem.
134 * SYSLINUX: fix the handling of .bss files on FAT12/16.
135 * Suppress the Loading ... message if "quiet" is specified on
136 the kernel command line.
137 * Fix the use of "CONSOLE 0" with menu.c32.
138 * Allow COM32 modules to be aware of all memory even in the
139 presence of a memory hole. The "linux.c32" module can be
140 used to load a kernel (or memdisk) plus large initrd on
142 * MBR: produce alternate MBR variants which force the drive
143 number to hd0 (_f variants), or force the drive number to
144 hd0 if the Ctrl key is pressed (_c variants.) Furthermore,
145 add an MBR variant (altmbr*.bin) which ignores the active
146 flag and instead boots the partition number specified in the
147 byte at offset 439 decimal.
148 * Add IPAPPEND strings to com32 modules, especially needed for
150 * New MENU SAVE directive which saves the latest menu
151 selection until the next boot. Currently only implemented for
153 * gfxboot.com: *experimental* interface module to Steffen
154 Winterfeldt's "gfxboot" graphical front end
155 (http://gfxboot.sourceforge.net/). Module by Sebastian Herbszt.
158 * Upgrade gPXE to release version 0.9.5.
159 * Fix a number of build errors on various platforms.
160 * Handle systems with E820 "extended attributes" per ACPI 3.
161 Someone "cleverly" decided to change the E820 spec in a
162 backwards-incompatible manner!
163 * MEMDISK: default to "safeint".
164 * Adopt the moniker "The Syslinux Project", standard proper
165 noun capitalization, to refer to the project as a whole.
166 Thus, reserve the all-caps "SYSLINUX" to refer to the FAT
168 * mboot.c32: add "-solaris" option to pass DHCP information to
169 the Solaris kernel; required for automatic Solaris boot
170 without using Solaris' pxeboot program.
171 * config.c32: trivial COM32 module to restart Syslinux with
172 another configuration file from the command line (equivalent
173 to the CONFIG command in the configuratin file.)
176 * Include the pxechain.com module from Jeffery Hutzelman at
177 Carnegie Mellon University. This allows chaining another
178 PXE boot program while changing the DHCP packet passed to
180 * Reorganize the Makefile system.
181 * Major PCI core cleanups and other source cleanup.
183 * Try to avoid memory-snooping attacks on passwords. Note
184 that if someone has root on the box, they generally don't
185 need to compromise the boot loader...
186 * ISOLINUX: fix crash when given a zero-length file.
187 * sdi.c32: support gzipped SDI images.
188 * ISOLINUX: support generating images which can be either
189 a CD-ROM or a hard disk (USB disk, etc.) See
190 doc/isolinux.txt for more information.
191 * Remote gdb support for COM32 modules; patch from Stefan
193 * Support beeps in F-key help in the simple menu system.
194 * Tab display of labels, based on a patch from Sebastian
195 Herbszt. Can be disabled with the NOCOMPLETE configuration
197 * "menu default" can now be specified after "menu begin", to
198 indicate that a specific submenu should be the default entry.
201 * Workaround for a VESA BIOS which tries to make DOS system
203 * Simple menu: fix navigation around disabled entries
204 (or at least try to...)
205 * EXTLINUX: proper error message when confused about mount
207 * MEMDISK: be smarter about incompletely disabled floppies in
208 the BIOS and about being the only floppy.
209 * Optionally allow initrd to be specified on a separate line
210 rather than as part of the "append" line. This is not
211 recommended, but apparently makes life easier for some
213 * SYSLINUX: if no config file is present, set the current
214 directory to the root directory (Sebastian Herbszt).
215 * chain.c32: option "hide" to support hiding and unhiding of
216 primary partitions on the boot drive with DOS, Win, or OS/2
217 partition types (01, 04, 06, 07, 0b, 0c, 0e).
218 * Unbreak the KBDMAP command (broken in 3.70).
219 * EXTLINUX: fix the handling of the ADV when using CBIOS.
220 * ifcpu64.c32: simple COM32 module to select a 32- or 64-bit
221 kernel (and optionally 32-bit kernels with or without PAE.)
222 Eventually we want a scripting language for this
223 kind of stuff; a Lua module is under development.
224 * Fix parsing of the SERIAL command without a baud rate
226 * chain.c32: error out when try to boot an unbootable
228 * SYSLINUX: when building the Win32 installer, search for
229 MinGW under a large number of possible names.
232 * PXELINUX: Support enhanced capabilities when running on top
233 of gPXE (http://www.etherboot.org/). In particular, support
234 URL-style syntax for filenames, and any protocol that gPXE
235 supports (except, currently, iSCSI and AoE.) This feature
236 is currently highly experimental.
237 * Substantial infrastructure changes to support files whose
238 length aren't known at open time (typically network
239 connections.) Please note that the semantics of some of the
240 comboot APIs have changed slightly; please see doc/comboot.txt.
241 * PXELINUX: We no longer require a TFTP server which supports
242 the tsize option for all transfers.
243 * PXELINUX: Integrate with the gPXE source base; unified image
244 now included as "gpxelinux.0".
245 * The source tree has been restructured; files that were
246 previously in the root have moved into the core, dos, gpxe,
247 and utils directories.
248 * "make install", "make netinstall", and "make extbootinstall"
249 have been updated massively. "make install-all" now installs
251 * Change default dir for auxiliary files from
252 /usr/lib/syslinux to /usr/share/syslinux.
253 * SYSLINUX: VFAT long filename support.
254 * MEMDISK: Any image less than 4096K (4 MB) is treated as a
255 floppy disk. The geometry-guessing code will recognize all
256 common extended formats, but it is still possible some very
257 exotic formats need geometry specification. Large floppies
258 and very small harddisks still need explicit specification.
259 * chain.c32: option "swap" to support swapping of BIOS drive
260 numbers. This is necessary to boot certain operating systems
261 (DOS, Windows) from a secondary drive.
262 * chain.c32: option "file=" to support loading a boot file from
263 the SYSLINUX filesystem instead of loading the boot sector
265 * chain.c32: option "seg=" to control the load location.
266 * chain.c32: option "ntldr=" as a shorthand for "seg=0x2000
267 file="; use this to load one of WinNT's loaders:
269 chain.c32 hd0 1 ntldr=/MiniNT/setupldr.bin
271 Note that the file needs to be in the SYSLINUX filesystem.
272 * chain.32: options "freedos=" and "msdos="/"pcdos=" as
273 shorthands for "seg=0x60 file=" and "seg=0x70 file="
274 respectively; use this to load FreeDOS's kernel.sys, MS-DOS's
275 io.sys or PC-DOS's ibmbio.sys.
276 * Change to the A20 algorithm which *MIGHT* help systems that
277 have systems which freeze when Syslinux is used with USB
278 keyboards. Note that this has been hard do verify, so I
279 would greatly appreciate feedback on it.
280 * Complex menu system: unbreak menus which has unnamed
281 submenus, like complex.c.
282 * Fix newline on the serial port for some com32 modules.
283 * chain.c32: support "boot" as the drive specification,
284 indicating the drive from which it was booted
285 (for syslinux/extlinux).
286 * SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX: support "localboot" with the same feature
288 * Add an experimental MBR for GPT partition tables.
289 * Use $(CC) when determining compile flags.
290 * chain.c32: fix booting from logical partitions (Sergey
294 * Fix errors in the PCI and DMI detection modules (Erwan Velu,
296 * Fix host dependencies and other issues in the build system.
297 * PXELINUX: Allow class E addresses as unicast.
298 * sdi.c32: module to load Microsoft System Deployment Images.
299 For additional information, please see:
300 http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms838543.aspx
301 * EXTLINUX: Correct reading directories with deleted entries.
302 * Shuffle library: correct the handling of certain geometries
303 (an upward move with source material blocking the move); as
304 required by sdi.c32 but theoretically possible for other
306 * Add "make netinstall" to install /tftpboot.
307 * Fix some documentation files that didn't get moved/renamed.
310 * Clean up garbage after "aborted." message.
311 * Clean up memdump.com filenames.
312 * Support SHA256 and SHA512 encrypted passwords.
313 * The shuffle library now can generate chained descriptors,
314 thus allowing pretty much arbitrarily complex memory maps.
315 * Handle command lines up to 2047 characters, the current
317 * vesamenu: support systems without linear framebuffer support
318 (sigh, what is this, 1993?) and 15-bit RGB modes.
319 * Move the label storage (for the command-line interface) to
320 high memory, removing the size limit and freeing up 64K of
322 * Get rid of 4096-entry limit in the simple menu system.
323 * New hierarchial submenu support: see MENU BEGIN, MENU END,
324 MENU GOTO in doc/menu.txt.
325 * MENU QUIT allows creating a menu entry for returning to the
327 * ISOLINUX: Work around bug in certain Adaptec BIOSes,
328 patch by Bruce Robson.
329 * pngtopnm dependency removed from samples/ directory.
330 * Text documentation files (in doc/) renamed *.doc -> *.txt.
333 * EXTLINUX: fix crash when accessing an empty file.
334 * elf.c32: If a PHDR segment is present, load it.
335 * Fix SHA-1 and MD5 passwords.
336 * ISOLINUX: fix booting when mastered without
337 mkisofs -boot-info-table (broken since 3.50, sigh...)
338 * Handle BIOSes which emit multiple contiguous valid
339 memory regions in the e820 map.
342 * Support for "auxilliary data vector", a small amount of
343 writable storage. Currently only supported for EXTLINUX,
344 but the infrastructure is there for the other derivatives,
345 assuming a suitable storage location can be found.
346 * EXTLINUX: boot-once support (--once, --clear-once, and
348 * A command is now required to the EXTLINUX installer, i.e. at
349 least one of --install, --update, --once, --clear-once, or
353 * PXELINUX: as per RFC 5071, PXELINUX no longer requires the
354 use of the magic cookie option (208) for unencapsulated
355 options. Currently it does not require it for
356 vendor-encapsulated options (vendor-option-space) either,
357 but that MAY be reverted in the future if it causes
359 * Documentation text files moved to a common "doc" directory;
360 man pages from the Debian project added to the "man"
362 * Correct bug with self-overlapping memory areas when using
363 the shuffle interface.
366 * Add "menu separator", "menu indent", "menu disabled"
368 * vesamenu: fix handing of VESA modes with noncontiguous
369 memory buffers. In particular, Qemu/KVM sets up such a mode
370 when Cirrus Logic emulation is enabled (which is the
372 * Support for calling real mode functions using far calls,
373 with argument on the stack. This was implemented to support
374 the BIOS BBS specification, but subsequent experiments show
375 that the at least one of the most common BIOS cores, Award,
376 passes the presence check but doesn't actually implement the
380 * Fix bugs related to the $PnP BIOS functionality on some
382 * PXELINUX: Fix the "naked" version of :: (suppress prefix.)
383 * elf.c32: better error messages.
384 * Faster operation under Intel VT virtualization.
385 * PXELINUX: Fix DHCP bootfile option.
386 * mkdiskimage: Support more than 1024 cylinders.
387 * (Hopefully) fix installer on non-x86 platforms.
388 * Fix shuffle_and_boot_rm, used by linux.c32.
389 * Fix shuffle_and_boot_pm on 386/486.
390 * ISOLINUX (at least): fix bss memory overwrite hang.
391 * MBR: Fix booting from logical partitions.
395 * Handle capitalized F-key commands in the menu system.
396 * Fix padding error when loading multiple ramdisks.
397 * Workaround for VMware crashing when trying to print a
398 message during early kernel boot (does not seem to work,
400 * chain.c32: add the ability to search for a specific MBR
401 signature at runtime.
402 * Fall back to the server identity option if the siaddr field
403 in the DHCP header isn't set. This seems to match the
404 behaviour of most PXE stacks.
405 * mkdiskimage: give the generated disk image an MBR signature.
406 * MEMDISK: Fix failures on some BIOSes.
407 * Simple menu system: new "MENU HIDDEN" option to not display
408 the menu unless the user presses a key.
409 * Simple menu system: support MD5-encrypted passwords (modern
410 Unix standard style, with "$1$" prefixes.)
411 * pcitest.c32: now functions as a full "lspci". Thanks to
412 Erwan Velu for this work.
413 * MEMDISK: Make EDD actually work.
414 * ISOLINUX: Fix for certain broken CD-ROM BIOSes which
415 randomly corrupted register FS.
416 * Simple menu system: fix memory overwrite bug that caused
417 some systems to lock up or behave weirdly.
418 * Fix building on 64-bit systems without a 32-bit libc installed.
421 * EXTLINUX: Fix failure to find the configuration file.
424 * New keywords allow the type of file to be specified in the
426 * It is now supported to load a different configuration file
427 with the CONFIG keyword.
428 * Fix API call 0x0019 (Read Disk.)
429 * MENU AUTOBOOT, MENU TABMSG, MENU PASSPROMPT allows
430 internationalization of menu messages.
431 * A new feature, TEXT HELP, allows the administrator to set
432 a multi-line help message for individual selections.
433 * Fix API call 0x0012 (Cleanup, shuffle and boot.)
434 * New API call "Cleanup, shuffle and boot to flat protected mode"
435 * New API call "Cleanup, shuffle and boot to real mode",
436 similar to API call 0x0012 but allows arbitrary register setting.
437 * Introduce a library interface for loading arbitrary binary
438 formats with relatively easily understood code. See
439 the elf.c32 module for an example on how to use it.
440 * New module "elf.c32", to load a protected-mode ELF kernel.
441 * MBR (old and new): Fix bug in CHS mode when LBA >
443 * vesamenu: fix decoding of palettized PNG images.
444 * Update the Linux kernel boot protocol.
445 * PXELINUX: Press Ctrl-N at the boot prompt to read out the
447 * Instead of the (non-existent) MAC, use the client identifier
448 for networks like Infiniband and Firewire/1394.
449 * Add a new INCLUDE command to the core syslinux parser.
450 * Allow binding help text to F11 and F12.
451 * F-key help now available in the simple menu system.
452 * Disabled the polling for ARP during idle. It is simply too
453 slow on some (broken!) PXE stacks.
454 * PXELINUX: also try to fetch the config file based on UUID.
455 * SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX: New RAID mode (-r) which calls the BIOS
456 to load the next device (typically the next drive) on boot
460 * MEMDISK: Disable EDD by default on floppy disks. EDD can be
461 enabled with the "edd" option and disabled with "noedd".
462 This (hopefully) should make Ghost work again.
463 * SYSLINUX: "unix" installer now uses Linux ioctls instead of
465 * New MBR which can boot from logical partitions.
466 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in detecting special extensions which was
467 introduced in 3.35 :(
468 * PXELINUX: Unbreak chainbooting FreeBSD (and possibly others.)
471 * MEMDISK: New "safeint" mode.
472 * MEMDISK: Be more compliant with the PnP BIOS spec.
473 * MEMDISK: Turn on EDD support by default.
474 * MEMDISK: Try to work on some machines on which it would not
475 work when there was no floppy drive in the system.
476 * Simple menu system: fix serial console support (broken in
478 * SYSLINUX: Support subdirectories. Like ISOLINUX, the
479 "current directory" is the directory in which syslinux.cfg
480 is found; this is searched for in the sequence
481 /boot/syslinux, /syslinux, /. As a side benefit, label names
482 like "linux-2.6.18" and "linux-2.6.19" are now supported.
484 To install ldlinux.sys in a subdirectory, pass the -d
485 directory option to the SYSLINUX installer.
487 This work was sponsored by slax.org (thanks, Tomas!)
488 * New API call: read disk.
489 * Invoke ONERROR on initrd load failure.
492 * The simple menu system (menu.c32 and vesamenu.c32) now
493 support loading more than one configuration file at a time,
494 using MENU INCLUDE or by specifying multiple filenames.
495 * The MENU COLOR statement can now control the shadowing mode.
498 * libcom32 extended to support graphics mode and graphical console.
499 * vesamenu.c32, new graphical version of the Simple
500 Menu System, see README.menu.
501 * New com32 modules by Erwan Velu do selection based on CPUID
502 or PCI devices present.
503 * RPM spec: add syslinux-tftpboot module; move syslinux by
504 default to the /usr/share/syslinux directory.
505 * RPM spec: extlinux is now a separate package.
508 * EXTLINUX: New options --install (-i) and --update (-U), to
509 make it clear if a boot loader should be installed or
510 updated. For now, defaults to --install for compatibility;
511 a future version will require one of these options.
512 * New library functions to load and place files in memory.
513 * mboot.c32 bug fixes.
514 * Remove 8 MB kernel size restriction.
515 * Add "klibc" target for building unix/syslinux and
516 extlinux/extlinux with klcc (klibc-1.4.27 or later.)
517 * PXELINUX: Fail (and eventually reboot) if no configuration
519 * COM32 module by Erwan Velu to make decisions based on DMI
521 * Fix issue where going back and forth between menus a lot
523 * ISOLINUX: Fix bug which made "cd boot sectors" not work.
526 * MEMDISK: Fix bug by which accessing the real floppy disk
527 as B: in MS-DOS was broken.
528 * Simple menu system: allow tweaking of the screen layout.
529 * Simple menu system: better command-line editing, correctly
530 handle command lines above 256 characters.
531 * PXELINUX: revert memory allocation change that caused
532 problems on some network cards.
533 * MEMDISK: Try work around a bug on some BIOSes when no
534 physical floppy disk is present in the system.
535 * Enable the 16550A FIFOs, if present, when doing serial
537 * New "totaltimeout" command establishes a timeout without
538 regard for any user input.
539 * Simple menu system: timeout behaviour now more in line with
541 * Simple menu system: "ontimeout" should now work correctly.
544 * gcc 4.0.1 compilation fixes.
545 * Add support for querying the PCI BIOS in libcom32
546 (used by ethersel et al.)
547 * Fix PCI handing (ethersel etc) on several old chipsets (and
549 * Try to deal with systems with broken EBIOS.
550 * New API call to do "localboot".
551 * New API call to query features.
552 * New API call to run kernel image, a lower-level call than
553 "run command". See comboot.doc.
554 * Fix for bug in EBIOS code discovered by Arwin Vosselman.
555 * NOESCAPE security fix.
556 * Comments are now recognized even without a space following #.
557 * Fix incorrect handling of mixes of entries with and without
559 * The idle API call now harmlessly returns failure if it is a
560 no-op. That way the caller can decide whether or not to
561 bother invoking it again.
562 * Temporarily disable the idle API call on PXELINUX, due to
563 some platforms on which the idle API call seems to hang; this
564 problem has not yet been debugged.
565 * MEMDISK: the handling of DOSEMU-headered images was broken;
567 * EXTLINUX: symlinks are now supported.
568 * Simple menu system: N and P now work correctly as hotkeys.
569 * MEMDISK: more BIOS bug workarounds.
572 * gcc4 compilation fix.
573 * <BEL> (Ctrl-G) in message files now causes a beep.
574 * Reduce the command line to 511 characters; 1023 caused
578 * SYSLINUX: Fix performance regression (-s mode always
580 * Add API function for idle loop.
581 * libutil: Add do_idle() function for idle loop, make
583 * libutil: Add SHA-1 and base64 functions.
584 * Simple menu system: add password support.
585 * EXTLINUX: Sparse files now handled correctly.
586 * EXTLINUX: Large directories now handled correctly.
587 * ALL: At the prompt, Ctrl-X now forces text mode.
588 * Fix configuration file parsing error, that could cause
590 * Rewritten advanced menuing system from Murali Ganapathy.
591 * MEMDISK: New "bigraw" mode to work around certain broken
593 * COM32 module to boot Multiboot systems, including Xen. See
594 com32/modules/mboot.doc.
595 * Max command line changed to 1023 characters. Note that the
596 kernel proper still can only handle 255 characters without
597 patching, and COM16 binaries can only handle 125 characters.
600 * Fix chainloading (chain.c32).
601 * Fix zlib build problem.
602 * Use a private copy of <linux/ext2_fs.h>.
605 * Fix typo that caused the ramdisk to load in the wrong place.
608 * New API function "shuffle and boot"; allows COM32 modules to
609 load or construct (almost) arbitrarily complex objects,
610 e.g. a kernel and its initrd/initramfs in pieces, and have
611 the API core reorganize memory for booting. (A library API
612 for this function will be introduced in a later version.)
613 * The initrd= option now supports multiple filenames separated
614 by commas. This is mostly useful for initramfs, which can
615 be composed of multiple separate cpio or cpio.gz archives.
616 (Note: all files except the last one are zero-padded to a 4K
617 page boundary. This should not affect initramfs.)
618 * EXTLINUX: Fix API function 000Ah (get derivative-specific
620 * libcom32/ethersel: Support PCI Config Mechanism #2 on
621 machines still infested with that hideous old hack.
622 * SYSLINUX: Fix directory-parsing bug.
625 * SYSLINUX: The "unix" installer now sets the MS-DOS
626 attributes (hidden, system, readonly.)
627 * COM32 library: build the .lnx (test modules for running
628 under Linux) as architecture native modules, in case
629 i386 devel libraries aren't installed.
630 * EXTLINUX: Hack for systems which don't have BLKGETSIZE64
631 defined in the standard header files.
632 * Simple menu system: minor aestetic improvements, and try to
633 work better over a serial console (speed, and readability on
634 monochrome terminal emulators.)
635 * New CONSOLE directive to control output on the video console
636 (useful for dealing with some broken serial-forwarding
638 * New com32 module "ethersel" for searching for an Ethernet
639 card and selecting the proper version of Etherboot.
640 * EXTLINUX: Allow the user to override the detected geometry.
644 * EXTLINUX, SYSLINUX: Fix compile errors on some systems.
645 * EXTLINUX: Default to zipdrive geometry (64 heads, 32
646 sectors) if no other geometry can be detected.
649 * SYSLINUX: Support FAT32 and EDD. As an unfortunate
650 consequence, LDLINUX.SYS is no longer an ordinary file; it
651 is block-mapped at install time, which means it can only be
652 written using the syslinux installers.
653 * SYSLINUX: Reorganize the source code for the installers;
654 each one of the installers (dos, win32, unix, mtools) is now
655 built in its own subdirectory. In particular, "mtools" is
656 the unprivileged installer which uses mtools; "unix" is the
657 privileged installer which uses system calls.
658 * SYSLINUX: Completely rewritten DOS installer in C.
659 * ALL: "label" statement information is now stored in a
660 compressed format, which means that a lot more labels are
661 permitted (500-1000 in a typical configuration, but depends
663 * EXTLINUX: New derivative, which boots from an ext2/ext3
665 * SYSLINUX: The DOS and Win32 installers can now optionally
666 write the boot sector to a file instead of the real boot
667 sector. This is not supported in the Linux installers,
669 * ALL: New NOESCAPE command, disables the "hold down the Shift
670 key to display the prompt" behaviour.
671 * New simple menu system, as an alternative to the advanced
672 menu system already present. See README.menu for details.
673 * PXELINUX: Filenames can now be prefixed with an IP address
674 or DNS name plus :: (e.g. 192.0.2.1::filename or
675 server.domain.com::filename), which downloads a file from an
676 alternate TFTP server, or just a :: (e.g. ::filename), which
677 suppresses the common pathname prefix. See pxelinux.doc.
678 * SYSLINUX: Add an -m option to the DOS and Win32 installers
679 to write an MBR and -a to mark the partition SYSLINUX is
680 being installed on active.
681 * MEMDISK: Give a way to query the boot loader type while
682 running MEMDISK; see memdisk/memdisk.doc and
684 * mkdiskimage: substantially improved mkdiskimage which, among
685 other things, can now be used to initialize USB keys as
686 zipdrives; see README.usbkey for more information.
689 * MEMDISK: Fix command-line parsing "brown paper bag" class
691 * MEMDISK: Add "raw" mode to support the DOS boot disk from
692 WinME/XP, which seems to deliberately crash the system
693 when someone uses the "INT 15h mover" highmem API.
694 * Make "make install" do something sane for the com32
695 development environment.
696 * In the spec file, create a separate -devel RPM for the com32
697 development environment.
700 * Simple C library, based on klibc, for writing COM32
702 * Fix the handling of file length in loading of COM32
704 * MEMDISK: Work around a linker bug by rearranging the code to
705 not use the linker for the 16-bit code.
706 * SYSLINUX: If we're building on a machine without a Win32
707 (mingw) compiler, just skip building syslinux.exe.
708 * ISOLINUX: Support non-mkisofs mastering programs, at least
709 as long as the image is single-session. For best results,
710 ISOLINUX should be the only boot loader installed.
711 * MEMDISK: Allow the user to specify that the simulated disk
712 should be write-protected.
715 * ALL: Add an API call to get the configuration file name.
716 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in 2.10 that prevented it from working
717 correctly for a lot of people.
718 * SYSLINUX: In the installer, make mtools a bit less fussy.
719 * Make the menu system compile with newer gcc's.
722 * MEMDISK: Handle images compressed with zip as well as with
723 gzip. Some Windows-based image tools apparently generate
724 these kinds of images by default. Patch by Patrick
726 * Major menu improvement from Murali Ganapathy.
727 * ISOLINUX: Wonderfully sick and brilliant workaround for
728 severe bugs in certain Award BIOSes; from Knut Petersen.
729 * SYSLINUX: Fix for the nomtools installed, from Frederic
731 * PXELINUX: Fix handling of IP numbers in the ranges
733 * ALL: New option "allowoptions" (defaults to 1), which
734 controls if options are allowed on the command line or not.
735 * SYSLINUX: Support building under klibc (see the klibc
736 distribution for details.)
739 * SYSLINUX: Remove residual setuid crap from
741 * Handle video pages correctly when using the API functions.
742 * Handle compiling on an x86-64 platform correctly.
743 * Menu system from Murali Krishnan Ganapathy; see the menu
744 directory for information.
745 * COMBOOT: Allow COMBOOT programs to change screen text mode.
746 * COMBOOT: Correct the documentation of how to detect
747 SYSLINUX from COMBOOT!!!!
748 * COMBOOT: Fix "get key without echo" API function.
749 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug that affected the API open function.
750 * ALL: Improve the E820 memory parser, to work around some
754 * Add new configuration command "ontimeout" to allow timeout
755 to have a different action than just pressing Enter.
756 * Add new configuration command "onerror" to allow a custom
757 command to be executed in case the kernel image is not found.
758 * Fix bugs in the COMBOOT/COM32 command-line parsing. APPEND
759 now works with COMBOOT/COM32 images.
760 * PXELINUX: Poll for ARP requests while sitting at the
761 prompt. This makes some boot servers a lot less unhappy.
762 * PXELINUX: Actually free sockets when we get a failure
763 (including file not found.) This bug would cause us to run
764 out of sockets and thus "go deaf" after a while.
765 * MEMDISK: Add an API to query for the existence of MEMDISK.
766 * SYSLINUX: Fix loading boot sectors (.bs/.bss) from floppy
768 * .c32 is now one of the extensions searched for
770 * PXELINUX: RFBG.exe seems to randomly overwrite memory
771 location 0x5700. Thus, don't use it!
772 * PXELINUX: Change pathname length max from 63 to 127; change
773 max vkernels from 128 to 64.
774 * Support Ctrl-U -> kill entire command line input.
775 * The "samples" directory contains a (barely at all tested)
776 chain loading example, chain.c32, which may be used to
777 chainload local floppy disks and hard disks. Use with
778 "chain fdN" or "chain hdN [partition]"; N = 0 for the first
782 * MEMDISK: Workaround for BIOSes which go into a snit when
783 they get a RESET command for the floppy system when there is
784 no floppy in the system.
785 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend 2", which passes the hardware
786 address of the boot interface to the kernel as a
788 * mkdiskimage: fix the generation of the end limit.
789 * PXELINUX: Fix multiple bugs in chainloading of other NBPs.
790 * MEMDISK: Fix bug that would occationally cause "ran out of
791 input data" when using compressed disk images.
792 * SYSLINUX: Updates for the win32 installer (from Lars Munch.)
793 * PXELINUX: PXELINUX-specific options are now recognized both
794 in a vendor-option-space (a.k.a. type 43 encapsulated) as
795 well as in a site-option-space (unencapsulated.)
796 * COM32: Don't crash when DS != 0.
797 * COMBOOT/COM32: Make file reading work correctly. Thanks to
798 Phung Chi Kien for submitting a test program.
801 * ALL: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
802 boot failure, depending on the length of the kernel.
803 * ISOLINUX: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
804 boot failure, depending on the length of directories.
805 * SYSLINUX: Win32 installer now flushes buffers.
806 * ppmtolss16: Be fully compliant with the PNM spec;
807 actually process comments in the header and odd
808 alignments of the various parameters, as well as
809 "plain" (not raw) files and PBM and PGM files.
810 * PXELINUX: Lower the default MTU to 1472 in order to deal
811 with systems with slightly nonstandard MTUs, and PXE
812 stacks which don't defragment correctly. Unfortunately this
813 is very hard to test dynamically.
816 * PXELINUX: Add a default query based on the hardware address
817 of the boot device. This is in lower case hexadecimal form
818 separated by dashes and including the hardware type, for
819 example, the Ethernet (type 1) address 88:99:AA:BB:CC:DD
820 would query the file pxelinux.cfg/01-88-99-aa-bb-cc-dd.
821 * PXELINUX: Fix bug involving non-IP-based config file names.
822 * SYSLINUX: New installer for WinNT-based systems, from Lars
824 * MEMDISK: Fix handling of memory region overlap when
825 decompressing. Thanks to Mikhail Kupchik for identifying
829 * ALL: Reclaim even more low memory by observing that
830 comboot_seg == real_mode_seg is perfectly fine, and by the
831 fact that the 1000h segment managed to get unused in all
833 * PXELINUX: Attempt to negotiate full Ethernet-sized blocks
834 (1468 bytes) using the blksize option.
835 * SYSLINUX: Resurrect the old no-mtools version of the
836 installer, although as a root-only tool. Some distributors
837 have indicated that they need a small standalone installer.
838 * MEMDISK: Fix a memory offset computation error when
839 installing compressed disks which generally would cause
840 1 MB of memory to be wasted.
841 * MEMDISK: Fix installing the E820 memory map. Calling
842 INT 15h AX=0E820h with MEMDISK 2.03 loaded would give a
843 completely corrupt memory map.
844 * SYSLINUX: Make libsyslinux a dynamic library, so that it can
845 be updated separately from client programs. The whole idea,
846 after all, is to enable alternate programs to become
848 * Include an rpm spec file in the distribution, so rpmbuild
852 * Actually support comment lines in the configuration file.
853 * PXELINUX: Try to resolve some problems with stack switches.
854 * PXELINUX: Handle PXE stacks with broken routing.
855 With these workarounds, the remote install PXE boot floppy
856 (rbfg.exe) from Argon Technologies should work correctly.
857 * Fix problems with Perl scripts in UTF-8 locales.
858 * You probably need NASM 0.98.34 or later to compile this
859 version. 0.98.36 is recommended.
860 * MEMDISK: Now supports gzip compressed images.
863 * SYSLINUX: Security flaws have been found in the SYSLINUX
864 installer when running setuid root. Rewrite the SYSLINUX
865 installer so it uses mtools instead. It therefore now
866 requires mtools (specifically mcopy and mattrib) to exist on
867 your system, but it will not require root privileges and
868 SHOULD NOT be setuid.
871 * MEMDISK: Fix memory sizing bug when the ramdisk crosses the
873 * MEMDISK: Add a "pause" option to stop immediately before
874 booting, to read off the messages.
875 * MEMDISK: Support disk images with DOSEMU headers.
876 * Update the mkdiskimage script to handle newer mtools
877 versions, and be able to generate disk images with DOSEMU
878 headers (controlled by the -d option).
879 * Fix the COM32 sample program.
880 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix some COMBOOT API calls.
882 * Build SYSLINUX into a small library for encapsulation into
883 other programs (however, please keep in mind this is a GPL'd
885 * SYSLINUX: Make installer work with "owner" in /etc/fstab.
886 * SYSLINUX: Fix issue with working on nonpartitioned hard disk
887 devices. THIS CONFIGURATION IS NOT RECOMMENDED.
890 * ALL: Add support for "COM32" (32-bit COMBOOT) images.
891 * ALL: Add an API for COMBOOT/COM32 images. See comboot.doc
892 for details. There is a C development environment for
893 COM32 being created; it should be ready at some point in
895 * Fix mbr.asm so that it actually works.
896 * SYSLINUX: The syslinux installer *SHOULD* now be safe to
898 * PXELINUX: Fix bug where PXELINUX would override random
899 chunks of the UNDI code segment! Thanks to Kevin Tran for
901 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug related to slashes in pathnames.
902 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug in handling initrds over 128 MB.
903 * ALL: Make the <Ctrl-V> key print out the version; this is
905 * Add a small script, mkdiskimage, to create a DOS-formatted
906 hard disk image using mtools. This may be useful in
907 conjunction with MEMDISK.
908 * ISOLINUX: Search for a /boot/isolinux directory as well as
910 * ALL: Fix a bug related to very long configuration files.
911 * PXELINUX: Work around a NASM bug which would result in no
912 delay before reset if an error occurs.
915 * ISOLINUX: Remove code no longer used which caused hangs on
916 some Toshiba laptops.
919 * ALL: NASM 0.98.32 or later is now required to build
920 SYSLINUX from sources.
921 * SYSLINUX: put back in the workaround for the BIOS floppy
922 table. This seems to be a requirement for "extended" floppy
923 formats to work correctly.
924 * SYSLINUX: No longer warn if one is trying to boot on a 286
925 or older. The above BIOS workaround no longer fits if the
926 requirement to use only 8086-compatible code in the early
927 boot is maintained. It made sense in 1994, but in 2002 a
928 286 or older is a museum object.
929 * SYSLINUX: Use a downright bizarre, stateful algorithm to try
930 to guess the maximum transfer size. I am *hoping* this will
931 cut down on the number of systems for which -s is required
932 to work at any acceptable speed.
933 * ISOLINUX: Add a few more workarounds for various broken El
935 * Make sure .depend files aren't accidentally packed...
936 * ALL: Fix bugs in the extension-detect code; this caused
937 files like COMBOOT images and CD boot sectors to be
938 mis-identified as Linux kernels and rejected.
939 * ALL: Fix the return from COMBOOT.
940 * ALL: Do some of the early groundwork for supporting DOS
941 system calls in COMBOOT.
942 * Get rid of unnecessary "near" directives, making the code
944 * PXELINUX: Put the PXE stack back in the init state before
945 invoking a chain-loaded NBP.
946 * PXELINUX: Actually found the combination of calls that
947 allows some (most?) PXE 2+ stacks to be unloaded from memory
949 * PXELINUX: Add "keeppxe" command-line option to disable
950 the standard unloading of the PXE stack.
953 * SYSLINUX: fix bug that would cause valid kernel images to be
957 * Work on removing gratuitous differences between modules.
958 * Break up the source in common and module-specific files.
959 * PXELINUX: Allow chaining of other PXE NBPs.
960 * ISOLINUX: Allow loading "CD-ROM boot sectors".
961 * ALL: generalize the definition of a boot sector/NBP.
964 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix bugs in the new core code.
967 * Fix a "brown paper bag" class bug in the new core code.
970 * Major code restructuring.
971 * Relax the conventional memory limits somewhat.
972 * MEMDISK: Set up the "version number string" pointer in the
974 * SYSLINUX: Fix, again, "the bug that won't die": the use of
975 the offset parameter with the SYSLINUX installer.
976 * SYSLINUX: Fix possible superblock corruption problem in the
980 * Handle bug in the location of initrd.
983 * MEMDISK: Make compile with newer versions of gcc.
986 * ISOLINUX: Support booting disk image files (to boot DOS or
987 other non-Linux operating systems), *IF* the BIOS works
988 correctly; unfortunately many BIOSes apparently don't.
989 * Support Linux boot protocol version 2.03 (explicitly
990 specify the initrd address limit.)
991 * Handle small "pseudo-kernels"; images that use the Linux
992 kernel boot protocols but are less than 64K in size.
993 * MEMDISK: New subsystem; this is a driver which allows
994 legacy OSes to boot using an in-memory simulated disk.
995 See memdisk/memdisk.doc for more info.
996 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Correctly handle files larger than 65535
997 blocks (32 MB for PXELINUX, 128 MB for ISOLINUX.)
998 * PXELINUX: Make a best-effort attempt at freeing all memory
999 claimed. From the looks of it, it will fail on most PXE
1003 * Limited support for hardware flow control when using a
1004 serial port console.
1005 * Support specifying the serial port I/O address explicitly.
1006 * Make DOS installer hopefully behave more nicely when used on
1007 recent Windows versions.
1008 * Fix returning to text mode when a font has been specified.
1009 * Attempt to detect missing serial port hardware and disable
1010 the serial port if there is nothing there.
1013 * Make the ppmtolss16 program handle color conversion more
1015 * Clean up "make install" target, honour INSTALLROOT if it
1017 * SYSLINUX: Fix stack-smash bug identified by Steffen
1019 * Hopefully fix return-to-text-mode on some graphics cards.
1020 * ISOLINUX: Bug workaround for Award BIOS 4.51, and perhaps
1021 other buggy BIOSes as well.
1024 * PXELINUX: Allow the DHCP server to override the
1025 configuration file name and pathname prefix, using
1026 "site-specific" DHCP options.
1027 * PXELINUX: Documentation fixes.
1028 * PXELINUX: Fix the "ipappend" option; the last two values
1029 were reversed vs. what the kernel expected.
1030 * Introduce a way to return to text mode once we are already
1031 in graphics mode. This may be useful for F-key help
1033 * Fix several bugs in the way return to text mode was handled.
1036 * ISOLINUX: Support full pathname searches. Max length for a
1037 pathname is 255 characters. As a result, only 64 "label"
1038 statements are supported in ISOLINUX.
1039 * PXELINUX: Max filename length extended to 63 characters.
1042 * Add support for graphical splash screens.
1043 * Add mode control characters, which allows you to control
1044 message display output depending on output mode (text,
1045 graphics, or serial port.)
1046 * ISOLINUX: New program, which boots Linux from a CD-ROM
1047 without using floppy emulation mode. See isolinux.doc for
1049 * PXELINUX: Don't search for boot sector file types, since
1050 they don't work anyway.
1051 * SYSLINUX: Document the LOCK command for Win9x, and the error
1052 dialog box for WinNT/2K.
1055 * PXELINUX: Fix code for finding !PXE from PXENV+. This was
1056 due to a spec bug; match the most recent spec since that
1057 seems to be what implementations actually do.
1058 * SYSLINUX: Add some smarts to the boot sector, which
1059 hopefully should reduce the number of systems which require
1060 stupid mode ("syslinux -s").
1061 * PXELINUX: Document further some of the pathologies with old
1063 * When specifying a "default" command line, no longer
1064 automatically appent "auto". See the "DEFAULT" command in
1065 syslinux.doc for more information.
1066 * PXELINUX: Clean up the allocation of local socket numbers.
1069 * PXELINUX: Rename pxelinux.bin to pxelinux.0, to match what
1070 most PXE servers seem to expect.
1071 * PXELINUX: Update the DHCP/boot server setup documentation.
1072 * PXELINUX: Support new "localboot" option for "label"
1074 * PXELINUX: More robust parsing of DHCP/boot server packets.
1075 * PXELINUX: Include a small utility program "gethostip" to
1076 compute hexadecimal IP addresses.
1079 * PXELINUX: Fix bugs introduced by new A20 code. (SYSLINUX
1080 has also been changed for code consistency reasons, but I'm
1081 pretty sure the changes are don't care on SYSLINUX.)
1082 * Documentation updates.
1083 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend" option to generate an ip= option to
1087 * PXELINUX: Not all PXE stacks fill in the IP address for a
1088 type 3 cached info query. Use a type 2 cached info query
1089 for this information (only.)
1090 * Yet another attempt at A20 coding. Now support BIOS call
1091 15:2401 as well, and handle machines which always have A20
1093 * Support memory detection using INT 15h, AX=0E820h. BIOS
1094 manufacturers have apparently gotten sloppy about keeping
1095 INT 15h, AX=0E801h working properly.
1096 * Don't issue <CR><LF> onto the serial port when we're doing
1100 * Yet another A20-code update. It seems some "legacy-free"
1101 machines and embedded gear simply don't have a KBC to talk
1102 to, and that waiting for one will wait forever. Sigh.
1105 * SYSLINUX: Implement a hack for BIOS drivers which hog significant
1106 chunks of low memory during boot. (Note: PXELINUX already
1107 had this modification. SYSLINUX does still require that the
1108 low 512K is available; PXELINUX requires 384K. Machines
1109 with a physical memory hole in the low 640K cannot boot
1110 Linux no matter what.) Depending what the reason is for the
1111 memory hole, a new kernel (2.4.0-test3-pre3 or later) may be
1113 * SYSLINUX: Default installer binary now compiled against
1114 glibc 2.1. If this is inappropriate for your system and you
1115 still want to use the offical version of SYSLINUX, please
1116 follow the instructions in "distrib.doc" to rebuild the
1118 * SYSLINUX: Linux installer program now supports -o <offset>
1119 option which does a loopback mount with the
1120 -o loop,offset=<> option. Useful to run SYSLINUX on an
1121 individual partition of a whole-harddisk image.
1122 * Include the source code to a Master Boot Record (MBR)
1123 functionally equivalent to the one installed DOS except it
1124 includes EBIOS support, and should be resistant to geometry
1125 changes. The MBR code is public domain.
1126 * PXELINUX: Fix "double p" bug: if the tftp prefix was null,
1127 all filenames would get a "p" preprended, e.g.
1128 "ppxelinux.cfg" and "pvmlinux".
1131 * PXELINUX: Workaround for PXE ROMs based on the Intel PXE PDK
1132 3.0 build 071 and earlier: missing !PXE structure pointer.
1133 * PXELINUX: Handle larger BOOTP/DHCP packages.
1134 * PXELINUX: The command line passing was broken; fix.
1135 * PXELINUX: Make COMBOOT images work.
1136 * PXELINUX: Documentation on how to make booting work using
1137 the PDK 3.0-derived clients, which aren't so generous as to
1138 allow booting with only "PXEClient" specified.
1141 * PXELINUX: RFC 1123 states that a TFTP implementation MUST
1142 use adaptive timeout, "at least an exponential backoff of
1143 retransmission timeout is necessary." Implement a very
1144 simple exponential backoff for retransmits.
1145 * PXELINUX: Updated documentation, including pointer to new
1147 * PXELINUX: When sending ERROR due to bad OACK, use the proper
1148 destination port number (why are TFTP port numbers so odd?)
1149 * PXELINUX: If the boot dies in the middle somewhere,
1150 eventually give up and reset the machine (unattended
1154 * New program PXELINUX to do network booting using a
1155 PXE-compliant (Pre-Execution Environment) network booting
1156 PROM. See pxelinux.doc for details.
1159 * Serial console support. See syslinux.doc for details.
1162 * Change HIGHMEM_MAX to 38000000h to (hopefully) avoid the
1163 kernel stepping on it; 3f000000h was apparently a higher
1164 limit than the kernel used!
1167 * Add sys2ansi.pl script to display the contents of a
1168 colorized SYSLINUX file.
1169 * Changed the io_delay once again, after a report that the
1170 old delay port causes hangs on some systems.
1173 * Frob the "fast A20 gate" port as well as the keyboard
1174 controller; will this help systems with problems?
1175 * Be even more paranoid about A20, unfortunately even this
1176 seems to be not paranoid enough... what I don't understand
1177 is that if there is hardware out there *this broken*, how
1178 can it run Linux at all? Report an error message rather
1179 than hang forever if A20 is stuck.
1180 * Include some intermediate files in the distribution, plus
1181 provide a "make installer" target for distributors to relink
1182 the install programs only. I would prefer the syslinux boot
1183 loader proper to be "binary clean" for debuggablity -- use
1184 "make clean ; make installer" to rebuild the installers only.
1187 * Don't get confused by directories, volume labels, or VFAT
1189 * Use INT 15h, AX=0E801h to query memory size before trying
1190 INT 15h, AH=88h. This not only provides more headroom
1191 between the kernel and the initrd on large-memory machines,
1192 but it appears some recent BIOSes actually have started
1193 returning garbage for the AH=88h (older) call.
1194 * Trust high memory beyond the 15 MB mark if the user has
1195 specified it, or if obtained with INT 15h, AH=0E801h (with
1196 no memory holes above 1 MB.)
1199 * Increase A20M delay and put in a test to avoid problems on
1200 certain IBM Thinkpads (thanks to Donnie Barnes of RedHat
1201 for vital info on this one.)
1202 * Support COMBOOT style boot command images.
1203 * Support chain loading (foreign operating systems, e.g. DOS).
1204 * Include a new "copybs" DOS utility to copy a boot sector to
1205 a file (under Linux, use "dd".)
1206 * Fix the DOS installer to work for disks over 32 MB.
1207 * SYSLINUX should now handle disks with more than 65536 tracks.
1210 * Fix a bug that caused "label" statements in syslinux.cfg to
1211 not be handled properly.
1212 * Updated the documentation. Among other things, we now allow
1213 up to 128 "label" statements.
1216 * Fix for booting old (pre-initrd) kernels.
1217 * It seems at least some versions of OS/2 doesn't set up all
1218 the fields in the superblock correctly. Account for that.
1219 * Fix bug that caused boot failure when using the mem= option.
1222 * Loading from partitions now should work properly. (Actually
1223 tested, this time. You should even be able to dd a floppy
1224 to a partition and boot from it.)
1225 * Removed large workaround code for an alleged ancient BIOS
1226 bug I have never actually seen. The -s option should work
1227 on those machines, anyway.
1228 * Support for simple keyboard remappings, same as used by
1229 LILO (once again to support localization.) The program
1230 keytab-lilo.pl from the LILO distribution included to
1232 * Added a "safe, slow and stupid" (-s) option to the
1233 installers. This option will lobotomize the boot sector to
1234 hopefully work on even very buggy BIOSes.
1237 * Ability to load a VGA font on bootup (for localized Linux
1241 * Bug fix in the Linux installer.
1242 * Added a workaround for a bug in certain AMI/Intel BIOSes
1243 when booting from CD-ROM.
1244 * Documentation changes.
1247 * FAT16 filesystems are now supported.
1250 * Now compiles under Linux, using NASM, rather than using
1251 Turbo Assembler under DOS. See http://www.cryogen.com/Nasm
1252 for information about NASM.
1253 * Linux-hosted SYSLINUX installer, as well as a
1254 rewritten DOS installer (now is written in assembler, so we
1255 don't need Turbo C.)
1258 * Added support for loading bzImage and initrd loading, and made
1259 SYSLINUX new-setup-code aware (SYSLINUX 1.30 id=0x31).
1260 * Added LILO-style kernel labels; see the LABEL and IMPLICIT
1261 keywords in README file.
1262 * Added support for colorization of intro and help screens.
1263 * The vga= option is now handled correctly.
1264 * Massive rewrite of large chunks of the code in order to
1265 support the first two new features.
1268 * Added simple online help at the "boot:" prompt.
1269 * Removed 2880K image as I no longer have access to such a
1270 floppy drive. (Donations accepted!!)
1271 * Decided to distribute the source in a subdirectory rather
1272 than in a nested zipfile.
1275 * Removed a sanity check which would cause booting to fail on
1276 Phoenix BIOS version 4.03. Apparently this BIOS is buggy.
1279 * Added configuration file SYSLINUX.CFG. This file contains all
1280 configurable options, and can be edited from any OS which can
1281 access an MS-DOS filesystem; there is no longer a need to run
1282 SYSLINUX.EXE except to write the boot sector.
1283 * Default command line now given by "default" line in config
1285 * LINUXMSG.TXT and BOOTMSG.TXT hard-coded file names replaced by
1286 "display" and "prompt" lines in config file.
1287 * LILO-style option appending now supported ("append" line in
1289 * Prompt timeout is now supported ("timeout" line in config
1290 file). The timeout is cancelled when anything is typed on the
1292 * Pressing <ESC> or <Ctrl-C> at the Loading... stage now aborts
1293 the kernel loading in progress and returns the user to the
1295 * The installer now automatically sets the READONLY flag on
1297 * Added 2880K disk image.
1300 * Fixed bug that would prevent booting from double-density
1301 floppies and other DOS filesystems with multiple sectors per
1303 * Added 720K disk image.
1304 * Changed default kernel name on disk images to LINUX.
1307 * Fixed bug that would garble the command line on recent kernels
1308 with more than 4 sectors of setup code (this wasn't really a
1309 *bug*; rather, a kernel change broke the code. Unfortunately
1310 the Linux boot interface is still sorely undocumented).
1311 * Added BOOTMSG.TXT file support (message file which does not
1312 force display of the boot prompt).
1315 * Fixed bug on some (most?) 386 BIOSes would require two boot
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