Syslinux 4 Changelog: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 17:20, 23 October 2010

Changes in 4.03

• Don't hang if no configuration file is found.
• Better support for booting from MBRs which don't pass handover information.
• EXTLINUX: Try to be smarter about finding the partition offset.
• chain.c32: support chainloading Dell Real Mode Kernel (Gene Cumm).
• chain.c32: fix booting in CHS mode.
• rosh.c32 updated (Gene Cumm).
• Fix the -s option to the syslinux/extlinux installer (Arwin Vosselman).
• isohybrid: fix padding of large images (PJ Pandit).

Changes in 4.02

• SYSLINUX: correctly handle the case where the -d option is specified with a non-absolute path, i.e. syslinux -d syslinux instead of syslinux -d /syslinux.
• ISOLINUX: recognize the directory names /boot/syslinux and /syslinux, and the filename syslinux.cfg in addition to the isolinux-specific names. Thus, syslinux.cfg is now a generic name, whereas isolinux.cfg or extlinux.conf is specific to different derivatives.
• chain.c32: support setting alternate config filename for stage2 of GRUB Legacy (Gert Hulselmans).
• whichsys.c32: execute a specific command, based on the Syslinux bootloader variant (Gert Hulselmans).
• lua.c32: a lot of new bindings added to the "syslinux" namespace: VESA, PCI, DMI, kernel loading (Marcel Ritter).
• btrfs: print a comprehensive error message if compressed or encrypted files are encountered (neither is currently supported.)
• SYSLINUX: mtools installer: honor TMPDIR, error out on disk full.
• Handle fallbacks from EDD to CHS, to deal with systems which announce EDD support but don't actually have it.
• SYSLINUX: the mtools, DOS and win32 installers now use the new command line options.
• PXELINUX: fix the use of IP addresses in TFTP :: or tftp:// host syntax.
• SYSLINUX: experimental Win64 installer (syslinux64.exe).

Changes in 4.01

• ISOLINUX: fix initialization on systems which don't zero low memory.
• SYSLINUX/EXTLINUX: fix handing of disk read retries in EDD mode.
• ISOLINUX: change the initialization sequence to avoid problems with certain (old) BIOSes. Special thanks to Helmut Hullen for invaluable debugging support.
• ifplop.c32: new module which detects if the PLoP Boot Manager already has booted a CDROM or USB drive (Gert Hulselmans).
• Correct a severe memory overwrite bug, triggered primarily when selecting a very long command line in the menu system.
• lua.c32: Lua script interpreter, currently experimental.
• PXELINUX: new option IPAPPEND 4 to append the system UUID to the kernel command line.
• PXELINUX: display BOOTIF and SYSUUID at startup time, and when Ctrl-N is pressed on the command line.

Changes in 4.00

• Major code base changes; all filesystem rewritten in C. This work was done primarily by Liu Aleaxander (Yuanhan Liu).
• EXTLINUX: btrfs and ext4 support. btrfs support was done by Alek Du of Intel.
• EXTLINUX is no longer a separate derivative; extlinux and syslinux both install the same loader (ldlinux.sys); for the Linux-based installers the extlinux binary is used for a mounted filesystem; the syslinux binary for an unmounted filesystem.
• When loading a new configuration file with the CONFIG command, one can now also specify a new current directory with an APPEND statement.
• Full ADV support for Syslinux, so boot-once and MENU SAVE works.
• Full support of GPT-partitioned disks, including disks and/or parititions larger than 2 TiB (if supported by BIOS.)
• The GPT handover protocol adjusted to the current T13 committee draft; see doc/gpt.txt.
• HDT: code cleanup, small bugfixes
• The "linux" syslinux installer (syslinux-nomtools) now has a command-line syntax closer to the extlinux installer. The mtools, dos and win32 installers will get this new syntax eventually, but it is not implemented yet.
• chain.c32: support booting GPT partitions by index, GUID, label.
• chain.c32: support booting the Syslinux partition with "fs".
• chain.c32: implement gpt.txt hand-over protocol.
• chain.c32: support for chainloading Grub stage 2.
• PXELINUX: TFTP URL syntax (tftp://) supported even when not running gPXE/gpxelinux.
• New ls.c32 module to display the contents of the disk from the command line, and pwd.c32 to display the current directory.
• rosh.c32 (read only shell) updated and hopefully usable.
• PXELINUX: Support "localboot -1", just like the other derivatives.
• gfxboot.com removed in favor of gfxboot.c32.
• New MENU HELP statement to display fullscreen help text as a result of a menu selection.
• memdiskfind utility that can be used with the phram driver in the Linux kernel to mount a memdisk.
• ifcpu.c32: Adding usage when no parameters are given, adding PAE support.
• ifcpu.c32, ifcpu64.c32: handle more than one argument per target.
• isohybrid: C version which does not require Perl.
• New command MENU IMMEDIATE to permit hotkeys to activate immediately without needing Enter.
• mdiskchk.com supports a --no-sequential (or -n) option to suppress the classic all-drive-probing heuristic. Useful on BIOSes who crash/hang when certain drive numbers are probed.
• ElTorito.Sys DOS driver now scans drive numbers upwards instead of downwards, in order to avoid a fairly common bug on some BIOSes where probing drive 0xFF causes a failure.