Magellan Linux

Contents of /trunk/mkinitrd-magellan/isolinux/NEWS

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Revision 532 - (show annotations) (download)
Sat Sep 1 22:45:15 2007 UTC (16 years, 8 months ago) by niro
File size: 34271 byte(s)
-import if magellan mkinitrd; it is a fork of redhats mkinitrd-5.0.8 with all magellan patches and features; deprecates magellan-src/mkinitrd

1 Starting with 1.47, changes marked with SYSLINUX/PXELINUX/ISOLINUX
2 apply to that specific program only; other changes apply to all of
3 them.
4
5 Changes in 3.11:
6 * MEMDISK: Fix bug by which accessing the real floppy disk
7 as B: in MS-DOS was broken.
8 * Simple menu system: allow tweaking of the screen layout.
9 * Simple menu system: better command-line editing, correctly
10 handle command lines above 256 characters.
11 * PXELINUX: revert memory allocation change that caused
12 problems on some network cards.
13 * MEMDISK: Try work around a bug on some BIOSes when no
14 physical floppy disk is present in the system.
15 * Enable the 16550A FIFOs, if present, when doing serial
16 console.
17 * New "totaltimeout" command establishes a timeout without
18 regard for any user input.
19 * Simple menu system: timeout behaviour now more in line with
20 user expectations.
21
22 Changes in 3.10:
23 * gcc 4.0.1 compilation fixes.
24 * Add support for querying the PCI BIOS in libcom32
25 (used by ethersel et al.)
26 * Fix PCI handing (ethersel etc) on several old chipsets (and
27 VMWare.)
28 * Try to deal with systems with broken EBIOS.
29 * New API call to do "localboot".
30 * New API call to query features.
31 * New API call to run kernel image, a lower-level call than
32 "run command". See comboot.doc.
33 * Fix for bug in EBIOS code discovered by Arwin Vosselman.
34 * NOESCAPE security fix.
35 * Comments are now recognized even without a space following #.
36 * Fix incorrect handling of mixes of entries with and without
37 MENU PASSWD.
38 * The idle API call now harmlessly returns failure if it is a
39 no-op. That way the caller can decide whether or not to
40 bother invoking it again.
41 * Temporarily disable the idle API call on PXELINUX, due to
42 some platforms on which the idle API call seems to hang; this
43 problem has not yet been debugged.
44 * MEMDISK: the handling of DOSEMU-headered images was broken;
45 fix it.
46 * EXTLINUX: symlinks are now supported.
47 * Simple menu system: N and P now work correctly as hotkeys.
48 * MEMDISK: more BIOS bug workarounds.
49
50 Changes in 3.09:
51 * gcc4 compilation fix.
52 * <BEL> (Ctrl-G) in message files now causes a beep.
53 * Reduce the command line to 511 characters; 1023 caused
54 memory overflows.
55
56 Changes in 3.08:
57 * SYSLINUX: Fix performance regression (-s mode always
58 enabled.)
59 * Add API function for idle loop.
60 * libutil: Add do_idle() function for idle loop, make
61 get_key() use it.
62 * libutil: Add SHA-1 and base64 functions.
63 * Simple menu system: add password support.
64 * EXTLINUX: Sparse files now handled correctly.
65 * EXTLINUX: Large directories now handled correctly.
66 * ALL: At the prompt, Ctrl-X now forces text mode.
67 * Fix configuration file parsing error, that could cause
68 hangs.
69 * Rewritten advanced menuing system from Murali Ganapathy.
70 * MEMDISK: New "bigraw" mode to work around certain broken
71 BIOS flash programs.
72 * COM32 module to boot Multiboot systems, including Xen. See
73 com32/modules/mboot.doc.
74 * Max command line changed to 1023 characters. Note that the
75 kernel proper still can only handle 255 characters without
76 patching, and COM16 binaries can only handle 125 characters.
77
78 Changes in 3.07:
79 * Fix chainloading (chain.c32).
80 * Fix zlib build problem.
81 * Use a private copy of <linux/ext2_fs.h>.
82
83 Changes in 3.06:
84 * Fix typo that caused the ramdisk to load in the wrong place.
85
86 Changes in 3.05:
87 * New API function "shuffle and boot"; allows COM32 modules to
88 load or construct (almost) arbitrarily complex objects,
89 e.g. a kernel and its initrd/initramfs in pieces, and have
90 the API core reorganize memory for booting. (A library API
91 for this function will be introduced in a later version.)
92 * The initrd= option now supports multiple filenames separated
93 by commas. This is mostly useful for initramfs, which can
94 be composed of multiple separate cpio or cpio.gz archives.
95 (Note: all files except the last one are zero-padded to a 4K
96 page boundary. This should not affect initramfs.)
97 * EXTLINUX: Fix API function 000Ah (get derivative-specific
98 info).
99 * libcom32/ethersel: Support PCI Config Mechanism #2 on
100 machines still infested with that hideous old hack.
101 * SYSLINUX: Fix directory-parsing bug.
102
103 Changes in 3.02:
104 * SYSLINUX: The "unix" installer now sets the MS-DOS
105 attributes (hidden, system, readonly.)
106 * COM32 library: build the .lnx (test modules for running
107 under Linux) as architecture native modules, in case
108 i386 devel libraries aren't installed.
109 * EXTLINUX: Hack for systems which don't have BLKGETSIZE64
110 defined in the standard header files.
111 * Simple menu system: minor aestetic improvements, and try to
112 work better over a serial console (speed, and readability on
113 monochrome terminal emulators.)
114 * New CONSOLE directive to control output on the video console
115 (useful for dealing with some broken serial-forwarding
116 BIOSes.)
117 * New com32 module "ethersel" for searching for an Ethernet
118 card and selecting the proper version of Etherboot.
119 * EXTLINUX: Allow the user to override the detected geometry.
120 Add help.
121
122 Changes in 3.01:
123 * EXTLINUX, SYSLINUX: Fix compile errors on some systems.
124 * EXTLINUX: Default to zipdrive geometry (64 heads, 32
125 sectors) if no other geometry can be detected.
126
127 Changes in 3.00:
128 * SYSLINUX: Support FAT32 and EDD. As an unfortunate
129 consequence, LDLINUX.SYS is no longer an ordinary file; it
130 is block-mapped at install time, which means it can only be
131 written using the syslinux installers.
132 * SYSLINUX: Reorganize the source code for the installers;
133 each one of the installers (dos, win32, unix, mtools) is now
134 built in its own subdirectory. In particular, "mtools" is
135 the unprivileged installer which uses mtools; "unix" is the
136 privileged installer which uses system calls.
137 * SYSLINUX: Completely rewritten DOS installer in C.
138 * ALL: "label" statement information is now stored in a
139 compressed format, which means that a lot more labels are
140 permitted (500-1000 in a typical configuration, but depends
141 on the complexity.)
142 * EXTLINUX: New derivative, which boots from an ext2/ext3
143 filesystem.
144 * SYSLINUX: The DOS and Win32 installers can now optionally
145 write the boot sector to a file instead of the real boot
146 sector. This is not supported in the Linux installers,
147 however.
148 * ALL: New NOESCAPE command, disables the "hold down the Shift
149 key to display the prompt" behaviour.
150 * New simple menu system, as an alternative to the advanced
151 menu system already present. See README.menu for details.
152 * PXELINUX: Filenames can now be prefixed with an IP address
153 or DNS name plus :: (e.g. 192.0.2.1::filename or
154 server.domain.com::filename), which downloads a file from an
155 alternate TFTP server, or just a :: (e.g. ::filename), which
156 suppresses the common pathname prefix. See pxelinux.doc.
157 * SYSLINUX: Add an -m option to the DOS and Win32 installers
158 to write an MBR and -a to mark the partition SYSLINUX is
159 being installed on active.
160 * MEMDISK: Give a way to query the boot loader type while
161 running MEMDISK; see memdisk/memdisk.doc and
162 sample/mdiskchk.c.
163 * mkdiskimage: substantially improved mkdiskimage which, among
164 other things, can now be used to initialize USB keys as
165 zipdrives; see README.usbkey for more information.
166
167 Changes in 2.13:
168 * MEMDISK: Fix command-line parsing "brown paper bag" class
169 bug.
170 * MEMDISK: Add "raw" mode to support the DOS boot disk from
171 WinME/XP, which seems to deliberately crash the system
172 when someone uses the "INT 15h mover" highmem API.
173 * Make "make install" do something sane for the com32
174 development environment.
175 * In the spec file, create a separate -devel RPM for the com32
176 development environment.
177
178 Changes in 2.12:
179 * Simple C library, based on klibc, for writing COM32
180 programs.
181 * Fix the handling of file length in loading of COM32
182 programs.
183 * MEMDISK: Work around a linker bug by rearranging the code to
184 not use the linker for the 16-bit code.
185 * SYSLINUX: If we're building on a machine without a Win32
186 (mingw) compiler, just skip building syslinux.exe.
187 * ISOLINUX: Support non-mkisofs mastering programs, at least
188 as long as the image is single-session. For best results,
189 ISOLINUX should be the only boot loader installed.
190 * MEMDISK: Allow the user to specify that the simulated disk
191 should be write-protected.
192
193 Changes in 2.11:
194 * ALL: Add an API call to get the configuration file name.
195 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug in 2.10 that prevented it from working
196 correctly for a lot of people.
197 * SYSLINUX: In the installer, make mtools a bit less fussy.
198 * Make the menu system compile with newer gcc's.
199
200 Changes in 2.10:
201 * MEMDISK: Handle images compressed with zip as well as with
202 gzip. Some Windows-based image tools apparently generate
203 these kinds of images by default. Patch by Patrick
204 LoPresti.
205 * Major menu improvement from Murali Ganapathy.
206 * ISOLINUX: Wonderfully sick and brilliant workaround for
207 severe bugs in certain Award BIOSes; from Knut Petersen.
208 * SYSLINUX: Fix for the nomtools installed, from Frederic
209 Pasteleurs.
210 * PXELINUX: Fix handling of IP numbers in the ranges
211 100-109 and 200-209.
212 * ALL: New option "allowoptions" (defaults to 1), which
213 controls if options are allowed on the command line or not.
214 * SYSLINUX: Support building under klibc (see the klibc
215 distribution for details.)
216
217 Changes in 2.09:
218 * SYSLINUX: Remove residual setuid crap from
219 syslinux-nomtools.
220 * Handle video pages correctly when using the API functions.
221 * Handle compiling on an x86-64 platform correctly.
222 * Menu system from Murali Krishnan Ganapathy; see the menu
223 directory for information.
224 * COMBOOT: Allow COMBOOT programs to change screen text mode.
225 * COMBOOT: Correct the documentation of how to detect
226 SYSLINUX from COMBOOT!!!!
227 * COMBOOT: Fix "get key without echo" API function.
228 * SYSLINUX: Fix bug that affected the API open function.
229 * ALL: Improve the E820 memory parser, to work around some
230 buggy BIOSes.
231
232 Changes in 2.08:
233 * Add new configuration command "ontimeout" to allow timeout
234 to have a different action than just pressing Enter.
235 * Add new configuration command "onerror" to allow a custom
236 command to be executed in case the kernel image is not found.
237 * Fix bugs in the COMBOOT/COM32 command-line parsing. APPEND
238 now works with COMBOOT/COM32 images.
239 * PXELINUX: Poll for ARP requests while sitting at the
240 prompt. This makes some boot servers a lot less unhappy.
241 * PXELINUX: Actually free sockets when we get a failure
242 (including file not found.) This bug would cause us to run
243 out of sockets and thus "go deaf" after a while.
244 * MEMDISK: Add an API to query for the existence of MEMDISK.
245 * SYSLINUX: Fix loading boot sectors (.bs/.bss) from floppy
246 disk.
247 * .c32 is now one of the extensions searched for
248 automatically.
249 * PXELINUX: RFBG.exe seems to randomly overwrite memory
250 location 0x5700. Thus, don't use it!
251 * PXELINUX: Change pathname length max from 63 to 127; change
252 max vkernels from 128 to 64.
253 * Support Ctrl-U -> kill entire command line input.
254 * The "samples" directory contains a (barely at all tested)
255 chain loading example, chain.c32, which may be used to
256 chainload local floppy disks and hard disks. Use with
257 "chain fdN" or "chain hdN [partition]"; N = 0 for the first
258 drive of each type.
259
260 Changes in 2.07:
261 * MEMDISK: Workaround for BIOSes which go into a snit when
262 they get a RESET command for the floppy system when there is
263 no floppy in the system.
264 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend 2", which passes the hardware
265 address of the boot interface to the kernel as a
266 command-line option.
267 * mkdiskimage: fix the generation of the end limit.
268 * PXELINUX: Fix multiple bugs in chainloading of other NBPs.
269 * MEMDISK: Fix bug that would occationally cause "ran out of
270 input data" when using compressed disk images.
271 * SYSLINUX: Updates for the win32 installer (from Lars Munch.)
272 * PXELINUX: PXELINUX-specific options are now recognized both
273 in a vendor-option-space (a.k.a. type 43 encapsulated) as
274 well as in a site-option-space (unencapsulated.)
275 * COM32: Don't crash when DS != 0.
276 * COMBOOT/COM32: Make file reading work correctly. Thanks to
277 Phung Chi Kien for submitting a test program.
278
279 Changes in 2.06:
280 * ALL: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
281 boot failure, depending on the length of the kernel.
282 * ISOLINUX: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
283 boot failure, depending on the length of directories.
284 * SYSLINUX: Win32 installer now flushes buffers.
285 * ppmtolss16: Be fully compliant with the PNM spec;
286 actually process comments in the header and odd
287 alignments of the various parameters, as well as
288 "plain" (not raw) files and PBM and PGM files.
289 * PXELINUX: Lower the default MTU to 1472 in order to deal
290 with systems with slightly nonstandard MTUs, and PXE
291 stacks which don't defragment correctly. Unfortunately this
292 is very hard to test dynamically.
293
294 Changes in 2.05:
295 * PXELINUX: Add a default query based on the hardware address
296 of the boot device. This is in lower case hexadecimal form
297 separated by dashes and including the hardware type, for
298 example, the Ethernet (type 1) address 88:99:AA:BB:CC:DD
299 would query the file pxelinux.cfg/01-88-99-aa-bb-cc-dd.
300 * PXELINUX: Fix bug involving non-IP-based config file names.
301 * SYSLINUX: New installer for WinNT-based systems, from Lars
302 Munch.
303 * MEMDISK: Fix handling of memory region overlap when
304 decompressing. Thanks to Mikhail Kupchik for identifying
305 the problem.
306
307 Changes in 2.04:
308 * ALL: Reclaim even more low memory by observing that
309 comboot_seg == real_mode_seg is perfectly fine, and by the
310 fact that the 1000h segment managed to get unused in all
311 derivatives...
312 * PXELINUX: Attempt to negotiate full Ethernet-sized blocks
313 (1468 bytes) using the blksize option.
314 * SYSLINUX: Resurrect the old no-mtools version of the
315 installer, although as a root-only tool. Some distributors
316 have indicated that they need a small standalone installer.
317 * MEMDISK: Fix a memory offset computation error when
318 installing compressed disks which generally would cause
319 1 MB of memory to be wasted.
320 * MEMDISK: Fix installing the E820 memory map. Calling
321 INT 15h AX=0E820h with MEMDISK 2.03 loaded would give a
322 completely corrupt memory map.
323 * SYSLINUX: Make libsyslinux a dynamic library, so that it can
324 be updated separately from client programs. The whole idea,
325 after all, is to enable alternate programs to become
326 syslinux installers.
327 * Include an rpm spec file in the distribution, so rpmbuild
328 -ta works.
329
330 Changes in 2.03:
331 * Actually support comment lines in the configuration file.
332 * PXELINUX: Try to resolve some problems with stack switches.
333 * PXELINUX: Handle PXE stacks with broken routing.
334 With these workarounds, the remote install PXE boot floppy
335 (rbfg.exe) from Argon Technologies should work correctly.
336 * Fix problems with Perl scripts in UTF-8 locales.
337 * You probably need NASM 0.98.34 or later to compile this
338 version. 0.98.36 is recommended.
339 * MEMDISK: Now supports gzip compressed images.
340
341 Changes in 2.02:
342 * SYSLINUX: Security flaws have been found in the SYSLINUX
343 installer when running setuid root. Rewrite the SYSLINUX
344 installer so it uses mtools instead. It therefore now
345 requires mtools (specifically mcopy and mattrib) to exist on
346 your system, but it will not require root privileges and
347 SHOULD NOT be setuid.
348
349 Changes in 2.01:
350 * MEMDISK: Fix memory sizing bug when the ramdisk crosses the
351 16 MB boundary.
352 * MEMDISK: Add a "pause" option to stop immediately before
353 booting, to read off the messages.
354 * MEMDISK: Support disk images with DOSEMU headers.
355 * Update the mkdiskimage script to handle newer mtools
356 versions, and be able to generate disk images with DOSEMU
357 headers (controlled by the -d option).
358 * Fix the COM32 sample program.
359 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix some COMBOOT API calls.
360 * PXELINUX: Doc fix.
361 * Build SYSLINUX into a small library for encapsulation into
362 other programs (however, please keep in mind this is a GPL'd
363 library.)
364 * SYSLINUX: Make installer work with "owner" in /etc/fstab.
365 * SYSLINUX: Fix issue with working on nonpartitioned hard disk
366 devices. THIS CONFIGURATION IS NOT RECOMMENDED.
367
368 Changes in 2.00:
369 * ALL: Add support for "COM32" (32-bit COMBOOT) images.
370 * ALL: Add an API for COMBOOT/COM32 images. See comboot.doc
371 for details. There is a C development environment for
372 COM32 being created; it should be ready at some point in
373 the future.
374 * Fix mbr.asm so that it actually works.
375 * SYSLINUX: The syslinux installer *SHOULD* now be safe to
376 run setuid root.
377 * PXELINUX: Fix bug where PXELINUX would override random
378 chunks of the UNDI code segment! Thanks to Kevin Tran for
379 finding this bug.
380 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug related to slashes in pathnames.
381 * ISOLINUX: Fix a bug in handling initrds over 128 MB.
382 * ALL: Make the <Ctrl-V> key print out the version; this is
383 to help debugging.
384 * Add a small script, mkdiskimage, to create a DOS-formatted
385 hard disk image using mtools. This may be useful in
386 conjunction with MEMDISK.
387 * ISOLINUX: Search for a /boot/isolinux directory as well as
388 /isolinux.
389 * ALL: Fix a bug related to very long configuration files.
390 * PXELINUX: Work around a NASM bug which would result in no
391 delay before reset if an error occurs.
392
393 Changes in 1.76:
394 * ISOLINUX: Remove code no longer used which caused hangs on
395 some Toshiba laptops.
396
397 Changes in 1.75:
398 * ALL: NASM 0.98.32 or later is now required to build
399 SYSLINUX from sources.
400 * SYSLINUX: put back in the workaround for the BIOS floppy
401 table. This seems to be a requirement for "extended" floppy
402 formats to work correctly.
403 * SYSLINUX: No longer warn if one is trying to boot on a 286
404 or older. The above BIOS workaround no longer fits if the
405 requirement to use only 8086-compatible code in the early
406 boot is maintained. It made sense in 1994, but in 2002 a
407 286 or older is a museum object.
408 * SYSLINUX: Use a downright bizarre, stateful algorithm to try
409 to guess the maximum transfer size. I am *hoping* this will
410 cut down on the number of systems for which -s is required
411 to work at any acceptable speed.
412 * ISOLINUX: Add a few more workarounds for various broken El
413 Torito BIOSes.
414 * Make sure .depend files aren't accidentally packed...
415 * ALL: Fix bugs in the extension-detect code; this caused
416 files like COMBOOT images and CD boot sectors to be
417 mis-identified as Linux kernels and rejected.
418 * ALL: Fix the return from COMBOOT.
419 * ALL: Do some of the early groundwork for supporting DOS
420 system calls in COMBOOT.
421 * Get rid of unnecessary "near" directives, making the code
422 bigger.
423 * PXELINUX: Put the PXE stack back in the init state before
424 invoking a chain-loaded NBP.
425 * PXELINUX: Actually found the combination of calls that
426 allows some (most?) PXE 2+ stacks to be unloaded from memory
427 properly.
428 * PXELINUX: Add "keeppxe" command-line option to disable
429 the standard unloading of the PXE stack.
430
431 Changes in 1.74:
432 * SYSLINUX: fix bug that would cause valid kernel images to be
433 labelled "invalid".
434
435 Changes in 1.73:
436 * Work on removing gratuitous differences between modules.
437 * Break up the source in common and module-specific files.
438 * PXELINUX: Allow chaining of other PXE NBPs.
439 * ISOLINUX: Allow loading "CD-ROM boot sectors".
440 * ALL: generalize the definition of a boot sector/NBP.
441
442 Changes in 1.72:
443 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix bugs in the new core code.
444
445 Changes in 1.71:
446 * Fix a "brown paper bag" class bug in the new core code.
447
448 Changes in 1.70:
449 * Major code restructuring.
450 * Relax the conventional memory limits somewhat.
451 * MEMDISK: Set up the "version number string" pointer in the
452 header correctly.
453 * SYSLINUX: Fix, again, "the bug that won't die": the use of
454 the offset parameter with the SYSLINUX installer.
455 * SYSLINUX: Fix possible superblock corruption problem in the
456 SYSLINUX installer.
457
458 Changes in 1.67:
459 * Handle bug in the location of initrd.
460
461 Changes in 1.66:
462 * MEMDISK: Make compile with newer versions of gcc.
463
464 Changes in 1.65:
465 * ISOLINUX: Support booting disk image files (to boot DOS or
466 other non-Linux operating systems), *IF* the BIOS works
467 correctly; unfortunately many BIOSes apparently don't.
468 * Support Linux boot protocol version 2.03 (explicitly
469 specify the initrd address limit.)
470 * Handle small "pseudo-kernels"; images that use the Linux
471 kernel boot protocols but are less than 64K in size.
472 * MEMDISK: New subsystem; this is a driver which allows
473 legacy OSes to boot using an in-memory simulated disk.
474 See memdisk/memdisk.doc for more info.
475 * PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Correctly handle files larger than 65535
476 blocks (32 MB for PXELINUX, 128 MB for ISOLINUX.)
477 * PXELINUX: Make a best-effort attempt at freeing all memory
478 claimed. From the looks of it, it will fail on most PXE
479 stacks.
480
481 Changes in 1.64:
482 * Limited support for hardware flow control when using a
483 serial port console.
484 * Support specifying the serial port I/O address explicitly.
485 * Make DOS installer hopefully behave more nicely when used on
486 recent Windows versions.
487 * Fix returning to text mode when a font has been specified.
488 * Attempt to detect missing serial port hardware and disable
489 the serial port if there is nothing there.
490
491 Changes in 1.63:
492 * Make the ppmtolss16 program handle color conversion more
493 correctly.
494 * Clean up "make install" target, honour INSTALLROOT if it
495 exists.
496 * SYSLINUX: Fix stack-smash bug identified by Steffen
497 Winterfeldt.
498 * Hopefully fix return-to-text-mode on some graphics cards.
499 * ISOLINUX: Bug workaround for Award BIOS 4.51, and perhaps
500 other buggy BIOSes as well.
501
502 Changes in 1.62:
503 * PXELINUX: Allow the DHCP server to override the
504 configuration file name and pathname prefix, using
505 "site-specific" DHCP options.
506 * PXELINUX: Documentation fixes.
507 * PXELINUX: Fix the "ipappend" option; the last two values
508 were reversed vs. what the kernel expected.
509 * Introduce a way to return to text mode once we are already
510 in graphics mode. This may be useful for F-key help
511 screens.
512 * Fix several bugs in the way return to text mode was handled.
513
514 Changes in 1.61:
515 * ISOLINUX: Support full pathname searches. Max length for a
516 pathname is 255 characters. As a result, only 64 "label"
517 statements are supported in ISOLINUX.
518 * PXELINUX: Max filename length extended to 63 characters.
519
520 Changes in 1.60:
521 * Add support for graphical splash screens.
522 * Add mode control characters, which allows you to control
523 message display output depending on output mode (text,
524 graphics, or serial port.)
525 * ISOLINUX: New program, which boots Linux from a CD-ROM
526 without using floppy emulation mode. See isolinux.doc for
527 more details.
528 * PXELINUX: Don't search for boot sector file types, since
529 they don't work anyway.
530 * SYSLINUX: Document the LOCK command for Win9x, and the error
531 dialog box for WinNT/2K.
532
533 Changes in 1.54:
534 * PXELINUX: Fix code for finding !PXE from PXENV+. This was
535 due to a spec bug; match the most recent spec since that
536 seems to be what implementations actually do.
537 * SYSLINUX: Add some smarts to the boot sector, which
538 hopefully should reduce the number of systems which require
539 stupid mode ("syslinux -s").
540 * PXELINUX: Document further some of the pathologies with old
541 PXE stacks.
542 * When specifying a "default" command line, no longer
543 automatically appent "auto". See the "DEFAULT" command in
544 syslinux.doc for more information.
545 * PXELINUX: Clean up the allocation of local socket numbers.
546
547 Changes in 1.53:
548 * PXELINUX: Rename pxelinux.bin to pxelinux.0, to match what
549 most PXE servers seem to expect.
550 * PXELINUX: Update the DHCP/boot server setup documentation.
551 * PXELINUX: Support new "localboot" option for "label"
552 sections.
553 * PXELINUX: More robust parsing of DHCP/boot server packets.
554 * PXELINUX: Include a small utility program "gethostip" to
555 compute hexadecimal IP addresses.
556
557 Changes in 1.52:
558 * PXELINUX: Fix bugs introduced by new A20 code. (SYSLINUX
559 has also been changed for code consistency reasons, but I'm
560 pretty sure the changes are don't care on SYSLINUX.)
561 * Documentation updates.
562 * PXELINUX: Add "ipappend" option to generate an ip= option to
563 the kernel.
564
565 Changes in 1.51:
566 * PXELINUX: Not all PXE stacks fill in the IP address for a
567 type 3 cached info query. Use a type 2 cached info query
568 for this information (only.)
569 * Yet another attempt at A20 coding. Now support BIOS call
570 15:2401 as well, and handle machines which always have A20
571 on separately.
572 * Support memory detection using INT 15h, AX=0E820h. BIOS
573 manufacturers have apparently gotten sloppy about keeping
574 INT 15h, AX=0E801h working properly.
575 * Don't issue <CR><LF> onto the serial port when we're doing
576 screen wraparound.
577
578 Changes in 1.50:
579 * Yet another A20-code update. It seems some "legacy-free"
580 machines and embedded gear simply don't have a KBC to talk
581 to, and that waiting for one will wait forever. Sigh.
582
583 Changes in 1.49:
584 * SYSLINUX: Implement a hack for BIOS drivers which hog significant
585 chunks of low memory during boot. (Note: PXELINUX already
586 had this modification. SYSLINUX does still require that the
587 low 512K is available; PXELINUX requires 384K. Machines
588 with a physical memory hole in the low 640K cannot boot
589 Linux no matter what.) Depending what the reason is for the
590 memory hole, a new kernel (2.4.0-test3-pre3 or later) may be
591 required.
592 * SYSLINUX: Default installer binary now compiled against
593 glibc 2.1. If this is inappropriate for your system and you
594 still want to use the offical version of SYSLINUX, please
595 follow the instructions in "distrib.doc" to rebuild the
596 installer.
597 * SYSLINUX: Linux installer program now supports -o <offset>
598 option which does a loopback mount with the
599 -o loop,offset=<> option. Useful to run SYSLINUX on an
600 individual partition of a whole-harddisk image.
601 * Include the source code to a Master Boot Record (MBR)
602 functionally equivalent to the one installed DOS except it
603 includes EBIOS support, and should be resistant to geometry
604 changes. The MBR code is public domain.
605 * PXELINUX: Fix "double p" bug: if the tftp prefix was null,
606 all filenames would get a "p" preprended, e.g.
607 "ppxelinux.cfg" and "pvmlinux".
608
609 Changes in 1.48:
610 * PXELINUX: Workaround for PXE ROMs based on the Intel PXE PDK
611 3.0 build 071 and earlier: missing !PXE structure pointer.
612 * PXELINUX: Handle larger BOOTP/DHCP packages.
613 * PXELINUX: The command line passing was broken; fix.
614 * PXELINUX: Make COMBOOT images work.
615 * PXELINUX: Documentation on how to make booting work using
616 the PDK 3.0-derived clients, which aren't so generous as to
617 allow booting with only "PXEClient" specified.
618
619 Changes in 1.47:
620 * PXELINUX: RFC 1123 states that a TFTP implementation MUST
621 use adaptive timeout, "at least an exponential backoff of
622 retransmission timeout is necessary." Implement a very
623 simple exponential backoff for retransmits.
624 * PXELINUX: Updated documentation, including pointer to new
625 TFTP server.
626 * PXELINUX: When sending ERROR due to bad OACK, use the proper
627 destination port number (why are TFTP port numbers so odd?)
628 * PXELINUX: If the boot dies in the middle somewhere,
629 eventually give up and reset the machine (unattended
630 operation.)
631
632 Changes in 1.46:
633 * New program PXELINUX to do network booting using a
634 PXE-compliant (Pre-Execution Environment) network booting
635 PROM. See pxelinux.doc for details.
636
637 Changes in 1.45:
638 * Serial console support. See syslinux.doc for details.
639
640 Changes in 1.44:
641 * Change HIGHMEM_MAX to 38000000h to (hopefully) avoid the
642 kernel stepping on it; 3f000000h was apparently a higher
643 limit than the kernel used!
644
645 Changes in 1.43:
646 * Add sys2ansi.pl script to display the contents of a
647 colorized SYSLINUX file.
648 * Changed the io_delay once again, after a report that the
649 old delay port causes hangs on some systems.
650
651 Changes in 1.42:
652 * Frob the "fast A20 gate" port as well as the keyboard
653 controller; will this help systems with problems?
654 * Be even more paranoid about A20, unfortunately even this
655 seems to be not paranoid enough... what I don't understand
656 is that if there is hardware out there *this broken*, how
657 can it run Linux at all? Report an error message rather
658 than hang forever if A20 is stuck.
659 * Include some intermediate files in the distribution, plus
660 provide a "make installer" target for distributors to relink
661 the install programs only. I would prefer the syslinux boot
662 loader proper to be "binary clean" for debuggablity -- use
663 "make clean ; make installer" to rebuild the installers only.
664
665 Changes in 1.41:
666 * Don't get confused by directories, volume labels, or VFAT
667 long names.
668 * Use INT 15h, AX=0E801h to query memory size before trying
669 INT 15h, AH=88h. This not only provides more headroom
670 between the kernel and the initrd on large-memory machines,
671 but it appears some recent BIOSes actually have started
672 returning garbage for the AH=88h (older) call.
673 * Trust high memory beyond the 15 MB mark if the user has
674 specified it, or if obtained with INT 15h, AH=0E801h (with
675 no memory holes above 1 MB.)
676
677 Changes in 1.40:
678 * Increase A20M delay and put in a test to avoid problems on
679 certain IBM Thinkpads (thanks to Donnie Barnes of RedHat
680 for vital info on this one.)
681 * Support COMBOOT style boot command images.
682 * Support chain loading (foreign operating systems, e.g. DOS).
683 * Include a new "copybs" DOS utility to copy a boot sector to
684 a file (under Linux, use "dd".)
685 * Fix the DOS installer to work for disks over 32 MB.
686 * SYSLINUX should now handle disks with more than 65536 tracks.
687
688 Changes in 1.37:
689 * Fix a bug that caused "label" statements in syslinux.cfg to
690 not be handled properly.
691 * Updated the documentation. Among other things, we now allow
692 up to 128 "label" statements.
693
694 Changes in 1.36:
695 * Fix for booting old (pre-initrd) kernels.
696 * It seems at least some versions of OS/2 doesn't set up all
697 the fields in the superblock correctly. Account for that.
698 * Fix bug that caused boot failure when using the mem= option.
699
700 Changes in 1.35:
701 * Loading from partitions now should work properly. (Actually
702 tested, this time. You should even be able to dd a floppy
703 to a partition and boot from it.)
704 * Removed large workaround code for an alleged ancient BIOS
705 bug I have never actually seen. The -s option should work
706 on those machines, anyway.
707 * Support for simple keyboard remappings, same as used by
708 LILO (once again to support localization.) The program
709 keytab-lilo.pl from the LILO distribution included to
710 generate such maps.
711 * Added a "safe, slow and stupid" (-s) option to the
712 installers. This option will lobotomize the boot sector to
713 hopefully work on even very buggy BIOSes.
714
715 Changes in 1.34:
716 * Ability to load a VGA font on bootup (for localized Linux
717 distributions.)
718
719 Changes in 1.33:
720 * Bug fix in the Linux installer.
721 * Added a workaround for a bug in certain AMI/Intel BIOSes
722 when booting from CD-ROM.
723 * Documentation changes.
724
725 Changes in 1.32:
726 * FAT16 filesystems are now supported.
727
728 Changes in 1.31:
729 * Now compiles under Linux, using NASM, rather than using
730 Turbo Assembler under DOS. See http://www.cryogen.com/Nasm
731 for information about NASM.
732 * Linux-hosted SYSLINUX installer, as well as a
733 rewritten DOS installer (now is written in assembler, so we
734 don't need Turbo C.)
735
736 Changes in 1.30:
737 * Added support for loading bzImage and initrd loading, and made
738 SYSLINUX new-setup-code aware (SYSLINUX 1.30 id=0x31).
739 * Added LILO-style kernel labels; see the LABEL and IMPLICIT
740 keywords in README file.
741 * Added support for colorization of intro and help screens.
742 * The vga= option is now handled correctly.
743 * Massive rewrite of large chunks of the code in order to
744 support the first two new features.
745
746 Changes in 1.20:
747 * Added simple online help at the "boot:" prompt.
748 * Removed 2880K image as I no longer have access to such a
749 floppy drive. (Donations accepted!!)
750 * Decided to distribute the source in a subdirectory rather
751 than in a nested zipfile.
752
753 Changes in 1.11:
754 * Removed a sanity check which would cause booting to fail on
755 Phoenix BIOS version 4.03. Apparently this BIOS is buggy.
756
757 Changes in 1.10:
758 * Added configuration file SYSLINUX.CFG. This file contains all
759 configurable options, and can be edited from any OS which can
760 access an MS-DOS filesystem; there is no longer a need to run
761 SYSLINUX.EXE except to write the boot sector.
762 * Default command line now given by "default" line in config
763 file.
764 * LINUXMSG.TXT and BOOTMSG.TXT hard-coded file names replaced by
765 "display" and "prompt" lines in config file.
766 * LILO-style option appending now supported ("append" line in
767 config file).
768 * Prompt timeout is now supported ("timeout" line in config
769 file). The timeout is cancelled when anything is typed on the
770 command line.
771 * Pressing <ESC> or <Ctrl-C> at the Loading... stage now aborts
772 the kernel loading in progress and returns the user to the
773 boot: prompt.
774 * The installer now automatically sets the READONLY flag on
775 LDLINUX.SYS.
776 * Added 2880K disk image.
777
778 Changes in 1.03:
779 * Fixed bug that would prevent booting from double-density
780 floppies and other DOS filesystems with multiple sectors per
781 cluster.
782 * Added 720K disk image.
783 * Changed default kernel name on disk images to LINUX.
784
785 Changes in 1.02:
786 * Fixed bug that would garble the command line on recent kernels
787 with more than 4 sectors of setup code (this wasn't really a
788 *bug*; rather, a kernel change broke the code. Unfortunately
789 the Linux boot interface is still sorely undocumented).
790 * Added BOOTMSG.TXT file support (message file which does not
791 force display of the boot prompt).
792
793 Changes in 1.01:
794 * Fixed bug on some (most?) 386 BIOSes would require two boot
795 attempts.