| NEWS - list of user-visible changes between releases of GRUB |
| |
| New in 0.5.90 - FIXME, Gordon Matzigkeit: |
| * Bug fixes. |
| * GRUB understands symlinks on ext2fs (but not ffs). |
| * Many source code and build cleanups to comply with GNU standards. |
| |
| Version 0.5: |
| |
| - Improved error messages in the stage1 to be strings (easier |
| to read than the previous case of single characters), and |
| removed any display in the case of no error (less confusing). |
| |
| - New document describing error conditions and messages. |
| |
| - Improved configure/build process. |
| |
| - Made the early bootup interrupt-safe. Wasn't doing cli/sti when |
| necessary sometimes. |
| |
| - It now shuts off the floppy before transferring control to any other |
| programs/modules/loaders. (chain-loading doesn't matter here, |
| just loading 32-bit modules/kernels) |
| |
| - Fixed a few stupid bugs, including a several in the ext2fs code. |
| |
| - Linux boot format support extended from just "zImage" to include |
| "bzImage" and initial ramdisk (also called "initrd") support for |
| both. "initrd" support is untested, but the critical parts were |
| taken from a supplied patch and seem OK. |
| |
| - Several new command features. See the command-listing for details. |
| |
| Version 0.4: |
| |
| - GRUB now correctly points ES:SI at a partition descriptor when |
| chain-loading. |
| |
| - Many minor bugs fixed (some in the build scripts). |
| |
| - Intel MPS 1.4 config/check code is totally new, and the "syscmd=" |
| command is completely removed. Check command-listing for details. |
| |
| Version 0.4-pre -- (pre-release for public testing): |
| |
| - Reorganized docs, moved most "NOTE" items to a FAQ (with new |
| entries as well). |
| |
| - Now supports automatic decompression of any files loaded via the |
| GRUB stage2 filesystem code. Simply compress the file using GNU |
| gzip normally, then when loading, the GRUB internals will see the |
| contents in the decompressed state... i.e. all GRUB functions operate |
| normally as if it is the uncompressed file. An extra version of the |
| "module" loading function has been added which disables this |
| functionality if desired (in all the other cases, not decompressing |
| doesn't make sense). |
| |
| - Changed device strings used in filesystem code to more logical |
| format. Added "relative" disk and partition capability, see |
| command-listing and filesystem syntax description for details. |
| |
| - "install=" command vastly improved. Also moved to non-debug area. |
| Check command-listing and install documentation for details. |
| |
| - Added several new commands: "rootnoverify=", "uppermem=", and a |
| new debug command "displaymem". Check command-listing for details. |
| |
| - Added versioning numbers (and subsequently broke compatibility with |
| some of the previous code, so GRUB should be re-installed!). |
| |
| - Added unattended booting support via new "fallback=" command. |
| |
| - During debug probe of SMP configuration table compatible with Intel |
| MPS 1.4 standard, GRUB now checks for a pointer in the EBDA. |
| |
| - Using a "default=" entry greater than 11 caused the UI to do funny |
| things (it didn't pre-scroll the list to the appropriate place). |
| |
| - Reading files on FAT floppies had yet more problems related by many |
| users of version 0.3 6/17/96. Again, all known problems fixed. |
| |
| - "Extended" partitions now work (still cannot make an extended partition |
| active with "makeactive" command). |
| |
| - The build environment is greatly simplified, now using an autoconf-like |
| "configure" script. |
| |
| Version 0.3 dated 6/17/96 -- public "beta" release: |
| |
| - Yet more documentation improvements. |
| |
| - Known bugs in floppy operation fixed (12-bit FAT didn't work for most |
| cases, and inserting other floppies didn't flush the filesystem cache). |
| |
| - NASTY uninitialized pointer bug causing "raw" floppy operation to crash |
| on several PCs is now fixed. This seems to have been the root cause of |
| all of the compatibility problems that have currently been observed. |
| |
| - debug-mode command added to automate most difficult step of installation |
| for common cases (new install method #4). |
| |
| - Testing "mini-debugger" now merged with command-line when "DEBUG" |
| defined in compile (no SYSDEBUG option anymore). See description of |
| commands in the command-line for details. |
| |
| Version 0.3 dated 6/2/96 -- first public "alpha" release: |
| |
| - Completed initial licenses. |
| |
| - Initial filesystem documentation written. |
| |
| - Block-list and FAT filesystems now work as documented (in particular, |
| for the blocklist filesystem, shortcuts like "+1" for "0+1,512" now |
| work correctly). |
| |
| - Fixed several problems (old and new) in the various filesystems |
| (for example, the ext2fs filesystem code is now much faster, as it |
| caches some mapping blocks where it didn't at all before). Filesystem |
| semantics are much more uniform as well (symbolic links and reading |
| a directory as a file now return errors where it would silently fail |
| before). |
| |
| - "makeactive" now works for standard PC partitions on hard disks (not |
| extended partitions... so any PC partition number above 3 will give |
| a "no such partition" error). If a BSD sub-partition is is used, it |
| will ignore it, and only use the primary PC partition number. |
| |
| Version 0.3 dated 5/20/96: |
| |
| - Updated instructions (though still very sparse). |
| |
| - New floppy probe (works much like the Linux floppy boot probe) attempts |
| to find the size of a floppy in a drive. Might still need work! Please |
| try on various floppy drives with various media! |
| |
| - New floppy handler will claim a non-existent drive if the floppy disk |
| isn't present in the drive. (for example, it won't be on the list of |
| installed drives unless a floppy is present) |
| |
| - Stage1 now compatible with both a hard disk MBR and the DOS BIOS |
| parameter block (see "install/README" for more details on how this can |
| be used). |
| |
| - Block-list filesystem partially works, as described in the file "NOTES". |
| Loading an a.out or elf kernel won't work with it, but all other filetypes |
| pretty much should. (certainly chain-loading works OK) NOTE: |
| you must use the full format "0+1,512" for just he first block... no |
| parameters can be implicit in this version.. THis is being fixed too. |
| |
| - Linux ext2 filesystem works. (it's very slow for big files, but this |
| is being fixed) |
| |
| - Linux boot type now supported. Use a standard piggybacked image as |
| with LILO. Put in hack to support >64MB via GRUB placing the RAM size |
| as the first item on the command-line automatically. Must pass root |
| partition on command-line using normal Linux syntax... if not, it uses |
| it's builtin root partition. |
| |
| - Supports chain-loading. For details, see "COMMANDS" and the examples |
| directory. (was able to boot DOS and Windows NT on my test box). NOTE |
| that the "root partition" must be set to work right. "makeactive" |
| is currently a no-op. |
| |
| - Several weird bugs fixed. One important note: If you recompile, |
| it will warn about a clash with builtin "strcmp". This is normal... |
| do NOT remove the strcmp definition, as then GCC will possibly put |
| inline code from it's own builtin function in some places. (my strcmp |
| has slightly different functionality, hence the problem) |
| |
| - Mini-debugger is currently broken. |
| |
| Version 0.2 dated 4/12/96: |
| |
| - Completely new menu-based UI. See "COMMANDS" and the examples |
| directory for details. NOTE that the argument to a command must |
| be preceded by a space between it and the '=', in both the config |
| file and the command-line. This will be fixed. |
| |
| Version 0.1 dated 3/31/96 (lots of changes): |
| |
| - Newer version of Multiboot Standard (version 0.6) supported. |
| |
| - Autodetects kernel types. Supports Multiboot, FreeBSD, NetBSD (Linux |
| isn't finished). |
| |
| - Stage 1.5 works now. Default setup is now for working with a BSD FFS |
| floppy loading "/grub/stage2" as the main bootloader. |
| |
| - Filesystem support improved. It didn't work on many floppies |
| before (problem with the partition-detection code). |
| |
| - Memory probe now supports arbitrary amounts of RAM (some technical |
| limitations exist, see Multiboot standard version 0.6 for details). |
| |
| - A mini-debugger is included by default, activated by hitting '~' |
| on the command-line (it might interfere with things, but it |
| seems OK for my alpha-testing). The commands are in the function |
| "enter_sysdebug" defined in "common.c". If you have an Intel MPS- |
| compatible machine, there are extra commands enabled for SMP cpu |
| testing. 'q' exits and goes back to what you were doing before. |
| |
| Version 0.0 dated 2/6/96: |
| |
| - Newer version of Multiboot Standard (version 0.4) supported. |
| |
| Version 0.0 dated 12/10/95: |
| |
| - You can now perform TAB-based completion listing of any valid |
| partially completed disk/partition/file-name combination. Try it |
| out to see what you like, examples are in the NOTES file under |
| "Device completion". |
| |
| - Fixed a bug causing the memory size routine to sometimes report |
| rediculous values. |
| |
| - Fixed some documentation (what little there is :-/ and a few assembly |
| bugs in the BIOS access routines that nobody reported yet, so I won't |
| detail it here. |