path: root/NEWS

Starting with 1.47, changes marked with SYSLINUX/PXELINUX/ISOLINUX
apply to that specific program only; other changes apply to all of
them.

Changes in 3.11:
	* MEMDISK: Fix bug by which accessing the real floppy disk
	  as B: in MS-DOS was broken.
	* Simple menu system: allow tweaking of the screen layout.
	* Simple menu system: better command-line editing, correctly
	  handle command lines above 256 characters.
	* PXELINUX: revert memory allocation change that caused
	  problems on some network cards.
	* MEMDISK: Try work around a bug on some BIOSes when no
	  physical floppy disk is present in the system.
	* Enable the 16550A FIFOs, if present, when doing serial
	  console.
	* New "totaltimeout" command establishes a timeout without
	  regard for any user input.
	* Simple menu system: timeout behaviour now more in line with
	  user expectations.

Changes in 3.10:
	* gcc 4.0.1 compilation fixes.
	* Add support for querying the PCI BIOS in libcom32
	  (used by ethersel et al.)
	* Fix PCI handing (ethersel etc) on several old chipsets (and
	  VMWare.)
	* Try to deal with systems with broken EBIOS.
	* New API call to do "localboot".
	* New API call to query features.
	* New API call to run kernel image, a lower-level call than
	  "run command".  See comboot.doc.
	* Fix for bug in EBIOS code discovered by Arwin Vosselman.
	* NOESCAPE security fix.
	* Comments are now recognized even without a space following #.
	* Fix incorrect handling of mixes of entries with and without
	  MENU PASSWD.
	* The idle API call now harmlessly returns failure if it is a
	  no-op.  That way the caller can decide whether or not to
	  bother invoking it again.
	* Temporarily disable the idle API call on PXELINUX, due to
	  some platforms on which the idle API call seems to hang; this
	  problem has not yet been debugged.
	* MEMDISK: the handling of DOSEMU-headered images was broken;
	  fix it.
	* EXTLINUX: symlinks are now supported.
	* Simple menu system: N and P now work correctly as hotkeys.
	* MEMDISK: more BIOS bug workarounds.

Changes in 3.09:
	* gcc4 compilation fix.
	* <BEL> (Ctrl-G) in message files now causes a beep.
	* Reduce the command line to 511 characters; 1023 caused
	  memory overflows.

Changes in 3.08:
	* SYSLINUX: Fix performance regression (-s mode always
	  enabled.)
	* Add API function for idle loop.
	* libutil: Add do_idle() function for idle loop, make
	  get_key() use it.
	* libutil: Add SHA-1 and base64 functions.
	* Simple menu system: add password support.
	* EXTLINUX: Sparse files now handled correctly.
	* EXTLINUX: Large directories now handled correctly.
	* ALL: At the prompt, Ctrl-X now forces text mode.
	* Fix configuration file parsing error, that could cause
	  hangs.
	* Rewritten advanced menuing system from Murali Ganapathy.
	* MEMDISK: New "bigraw" mode to work around certain broken
	  BIOS flash programs.
	* COM32 module to boot Multiboot systems, including Xen.  See
	  com32/modules/mboot.doc.
	* Max command line changed to 1023 characters.  Note that the
	  kernel proper still can only handle 255 characters without
	  patching, and COM16 binaries can only handle 125 characters.

Changes in 3.07:
	* Fix chainloading (chain.c32).
	* Fix zlib build problem.
	* Use a private copy of <linux/ext2_fs.h>.

Changes in 3.06:
	* Fix typo that caused the ramdisk to load in the wrong place.

Changes in 3.05:
	* New API function "shuffle and boot"; allows COM32 modules to
	  load or construct (almost) arbitrarily complex objects,
	  e.g. a kernel and its initrd/initramfs in pieces, and have
	  the API core reorganize memory for booting.  (A library API
	  for this function will be introduced in a later version.)
	* The initrd= option now supports multiple filenames separated
	  by commas.  This is mostly useful for initramfs, which can
	  be composed of multiple separate cpio or cpio.gz archives.
	  (Note: all files except the last one are zero-padded to a 4K
	  page boundary.  This should not affect initramfs.)
	* EXTLINUX: Fix API function 000Ah (get derivative-specific
	  info).
	* libcom32/ethersel: Support PCI Config Mechanism #2 on
	  machines still infested with that hideous old hack.
	* SYSLINUX: Fix directory-parsing bug.

Changes in 3.02:
	* SYSLINUX: The "unix" installer now sets the MS-DOS
	  attributes (hidden, system, readonly.)
	* COM32 library: build the .lnx (test modules for running
	  under Linux) as architecture native modules, in case
	  i386 devel libraries aren't installed.
	* EXTLINUX: Hack for systems which don't have BLKGETSIZE64
	  defined in the standard header files.
	* Simple menu system: minor aestetic improvements, and try to
	  work better over a serial console (speed, and readability on
	  monochrome terminal emulators.)
	* New CONSOLE directive to control output on the video console
	  (useful for dealing with some broken serial-forwarding
	  BIOSes.)
	* New com32 module "ethersel" for searching for an Ethernet
	  card and selecting the proper version of Etherboot.
	* EXTLINUX: Allow the user to override the detected geometry.
	  Add help.

Changes in 3.01:
	* EXTLINUX, SYSLINUX: Fix compile errors on some systems.
	* EXTLINUX: Default to zipdrive geometry (64 heads, 32
	  sectors) if no other geometry can be detected.

Changes in 3.00:
	* SYSLINUX: Support FAT32 and EDD.  As an unfortunate
	  consequence, LDLINUX.SYS is no longer an ordinary file; it
	  is block-mapped at install time, which means it can only be
	  written using the syslinux installers.
	* SYSLINUX: Reorganize the source code for the installers;
          each one of the installers (dos, win32, unix, mtools) is now
          built in its own subdirectory.  In particular, "mtools" is
	  the unprivileged installer which uses mtools; "unix" is the
	  privileged installer which uses system calls.
	* SYSLINUX: Completely rewritten DOS installer in C.
	* ALL: "label" statement information is now stored in a
	  compressed format, which means that a lot more labels are
	  permitted (500-1000 in a typical configuration, but depends
	  on the complexity.)
	* EXTLINUX: New derivative, which boots from an ext2/ext3
	  filesystem.
	* SYSLINUX: The DOS and Win32 installers can now optionally
	  write the boot sector to a file instead of the real boot
	  sector.  This is not supported in the Linux installers,
	  however.
	* ALL: New NOESCAPE command, disables the "hold down the Shift
	  key to display the prompt" behaviour.
	* New simple menu system, as an alternative to the advanced
	  menu system already present.  See README.menu for details.
	* PXELINUX: Filenames can now be prefixed with an IP address
	  or DNS name plus :: (e.g. 192.0.2.1::filename or
	  server.domain.com::filename), which downloads a file from an
	  alternate TFTP server, or just a :: (e.g. ::filename), which
	  suppresses the common pathname prefix.  See pxelinux.doc.
	* SYSLINUX: Add an -m option to the DOS and Win32 installers
	  to write an MBR and -a to mark the partition SYSLINUX is
	  being installed on active.
	* MEMDISK: Give a way to query the boot loader type while
	  running MEMDISK; see memdisk/memdisk.doc and
	  sample/mdiskchk.c.
	* mkdiskimage: substantially improved mkdiskimage which, among
	  other things, can now be used to initialize USB keys as
	  zipdrives; see README.usbkey for more information.

Changes in 2.13:
	* MEMDISK: Fix command-line parsing "brown paper bag" class
	  bug.
	* MEMDISK: Add "raw" mode to support the DOS boot disk from
	  WinME/XP, which seems to deliberately crash the system
	  when someone uses the "INT 15h mover" highmem API.
	* Make "make install" do something sane for the com32
	  development environment.
	* In the spec file, create a separate -devel RPM for the com32
	  development environment.

Changes in 2.12:
	* Simple C library, based on klibc, for writing COM32
	  programs.
	* Fix the handling of file length in loading of COM32
	  programs.
	* MEMDISK: Work around a linker bug by rearranging the code to
	  not use the linker for the 16-bit code.
	* SYSLINUX: If we're building on a machine without a Win32
	  (mingw) compiler, just skip building syslinux.exe.
	* ISOLINUX: Support non-mkisofs mastering programs, at least
	  as long as the image is single-session.  For best results,
	  ISOLINUX should be the only boot loader installed.
	* MEMDISK: Allow the user to specify that the simulated disk
	  should be write-protected.

Changes in 2.11:
	* ALL: Add an API call to get the configuration file name.
	* SYSLINUX: Fix bug in 2.10 that prevented it from working
	  correctly for a lot of people.
	* SYSLINUX: In the installer, make mtools a bit less fussy.
	* Make the menu system compile with newer gcc's.

Changes in 2.10:
	* MEMDISK: Handle images compressed with zip as well as with
	  gzip.  Some Windows-based image tools apparently generate
	  these kinds of images by default.  Patch by Patrick
	  LoPresti.
	* Major menu improvement from Murali Ganapathy.
	* ISOLINUX: Wonderfully sick and brilliant workaround for
	  severe bugs in certain Award BIOSes; from Knut Petersen.
	* SYSLINUX: Fix for the nomtools installed, from Frederic
	  Pasteleurs.
	* PXELINUX: Fix handling of IP numbers in the ranges
	  100-109 and 200-209.
	* ALL: New option "allowoptions" (defaults to 1), which
	  controls if options are allowed on the command line or not.
	* SYSLINUX: Support building under klibc (see the klibc
	  distribution for details.)

Changes in 2.09:
	* SYSLINUX: Remove residual setuid crap from
	  syslinux-nomtools.
	* Handle video pages correctly when using the API functions.
	* Handle compiling on an x86-64 platform correctly.
	* Menu system from Murali Krishnan Ganapathy; see the menu
	  directory for information.
	* COMBOOT: Allow COMBOOT programs to change screen text mode.
	* COMBOOT: Correct the documentation of how to detect
	  SYSLINUX from COMBOOT!!!!
	* COMBOOT: Fix "get key without echo" API function.
	* SYSLINUX: Fix bug that affected the API open function.
	* ALL: Improve the E820 memory parser, to work around some
	  buggy BIOSes.

Changes in 2.08:
	* Add new configuration command "ontimeout" to allow timeout
	  to have a different action than just pressing Enter.
	* Add new configuration command "onerror" to allow a custom
	  command to be executed in case the kernel image is not found.
	* Fix bugs in the COMBOOT/COM32 command-line parsing.  APPEND
	  now works with COMBOOT/COM32 images.
	* PXELINUX: Poll for ARP requests while sitting at the
	  prompt.  This makes some boot servers a lot less unhappy.
	* PXELINUX: Actually free sockets when we get a failure
	  (including file not found.)  This bug would cause us to run
	  out of sockets and thus "go deaf" after a while.
	* MEMDISK: Add an API to query for the existence of MEMDISK.
	* SYSLINUX: Fix loading boot sectors (.bs/.bss) from floppy
	  disk.
	* .c32 is now one of the extensions searched for
	  automatically.
	* PXELINUX: RFBG.exe seems to randomly overwrite memory
	  location 0x5700.  Thus, don't use it!
	* PXELINUX: Change pathname length max from 63 to 127; change
	  max vkernels from 128 to 64.
	* Support Ctrl-U -> kill entire command line input.
	* The "samples" directory contains a (barely at all tested)
	  chain loading example, chain.c32, which may be used to
	  chainload local floppy disks and hard disks.  Use with
	  "chain fdN" or "chain hdN [partition]"; N = 0 for the first
	  drive of each type.

Changes in 2.07:
	* MEMDISK: Workaround for BIOSes which go into a snit when
	  they get a RESET command for the floppy system when there is
	  no floppy in the system.
	* PXELINUX: Add "ipappend 2", which passes the hardware
	  address of the boot interface to the kernel as a
	  command-line option.
	* mkdiskimage: fix the generation of the end limit.
	* PXELINUX: Fix multiple bugs in chainloading of other NBPs.
	* MEMDISK: Fix bug that would occationally cause "ran out of
	  input data" when using compressed disk images.
	* SYSLINUX: Updates for the win32 installer (from Lars Munch.)
	* PXELINUX: PXELINUX-specific options are now recognized both
	  in a vendor-option-space (a.k.a. type 43 encapsulated) as
	  well as in a site-option-space (unencapsulated.)
	* COM32: Don't crash when DS != 0.
	* COMBOOT/COM32: Make file reading work correctly.  Thanks to
	  Phung Chi Kien for submitting a test program.

Changes in 2.06:
	* ALL: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
	  boot failure, depending on the length of the kernel.
	* ISOLINUX: Fix problem that would occationally cause a
	  boot failure, depending on the length of directories.
	* SYSLINUX: Win32 installer now flushes buffers.
	* ppmtolss16: Be fully compliant with the PNM spec;
	  actually process comments in the header and odd
	  alignments of the various parameters, as well as
	  "plain" (not raw) files and PBM and PGM files.
	* PXELINUX: Lower the default MTU to 1472 in order to deal
	  with systems with slightly nonstandard MTUs, and PXE
	  stacks which don't defragment correctly.  Unfortunately this
	  is very hard to test dynamically.

Changes in 2.05:
	* PXELINUX: Add a default query based on the hardware address
	  of the boot device.  This is in lower case hexadecimal form
	  separated by dashes and including the hardware type, for
	  example, the Ethernet (type 1) address 88:99:AA:BB:CC:DD
	  would query the file pxelinux.cfg/01-88-99-aa-bb-cc-dd.
        * PXELINUX: Fix bug involving non-IP-based config file names.
	* SYSLINUX: New installer for WinNT-based systems, from Lars
	  Munch.
	* MEMDISK: Fix handling of memory region overlap when
	  decompressing.  Thanks to Mikhail Kupchik for identifying
	  the problem.

Changes in 2.04:
	* ALL: Reclaim even more low memory by observing that
	  comboot_seg == real_mode_seg is perfectly fine, and by the
	  fact that the 1000h segment managed to get unused in all
	  derivatives...
	* PXELINUX: Attempt to negotiate full Ethernet-sized blocks
	  (1468 bytes) using the blksize option.
	* SYSLINUX: Resurrect the old no-mtools version of the
	  installer, although as a root-only tool.  Some distributors
	  have indicated that they need a small standalone installer.
	* MEMDISK: Fix a memory offset computation error when
	  installing compressed disks which generally would cause
	  1 MB of memory to be wasted.
	* MEMDISK: Fix installing the E820 memory map.  Calling
	  INT 15h AX=0E820h with MEMDISK 2.03 loaded would give a
	  completely corrupt memory map.
	* SYSLINUX: Make libsyslinux a dynamic library, so that it can
	  be updated separately from client programs.  The whole idea,
	  after all, is to enable alternate programs to become
	  syslinux installers.
	* Include an rpm spec file in the distribution, so rpmbuild
	  -ta works.

Changes in 2.03:
	* Actually support comment lines in the configuration file.
	* PXELINUX: Try to resolve some problems with stack switches.
	* PXELINUX: Handle PXE stacks with broken routing.
	  With these workarounds, the remote install PXE boot floppy
	  (rbfg.exe) from Argon Technologies should work correctly.
	* Fix problems with Perl scripts in UTF-8 locales.
	* You probably need NASM 0.98.34 or later to compile this
	  version.  0.98.36 is recommended.
	* MEMDISK: Now supports gzip compressed images.

Changes in 2.02:
	* SYSLINUX: Security flaws have been found in the SYSLINUX
	  installer when running setuid root.  Rewrite the SYSLINUX
	  installer so it uses mtools instead.  It therefore now
	  requires mtools (specifically mcopy and mattrib) to exist on
	  your system, but it will not require root privileges and
	  SHOULD NOT be setuid.

Changes in 2.01:
	* MEMDISK: Fix memory sizing bug when the ramdisk crosses the
	  16 MB boundary.
	* MEMDISK: Add a "pause" option to stop immediately before
	  booting, to read off the messages.
	* MEMDISK: Support disk images with DOSEMU headers.
	* Update the mkdiskimage script to handle newer mtools
	  versions, and be able to generate disk images with DOSEMU
	  headers (controlled by the -d option).
	* Fix the COM32 sample program.
	* PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix some COMBOOT API calls.
	* PXELINUX: Doc fix.
	* Build SYSLINUX into a small library for encapsulation into
	  other programs (however, please keep in mind this is a GPL'd
	  library.)
	* SYSLINUX: Make installer work with "owner" in /etc/fstab.
	* SYSLINUX: Fix issue with working on nonpartitioned hard disk
	  devices.  THIS CONFIGURATION IS NOT RECOMMENDED.

Changes in 2.00:
	* ALL: Add support for "COM32" (32-bit COMBOOT) images.
	* ALL: Add an API for COMBOOT/COM32 images.  See comboot.doc
	  for details.  There is a C development environment for
	  COM32 being created; it should be ready at some point in
	  the future.
	* Fix mbr.asm so that it actually works.
	* SYSLINUX: The syslinux installer *SHOULD* now be safe to
	  run setuid root.
	* PXELINUX: Fix bug where PXELINUX would override random
	  chunks of the UNDI code segment!  Thanks to Kevin Tran for
	  finding this bug.
	* ISOLINUX: Fix a bug related to slashes in pathnames.
	* ISOLINUX: Fix a bug in handling initrds over 128 MB.
	* ALL: Make the <Ctrl-V> key print out the version; this is
	  to help debugging.
	* Add a small script, mkdiskimage, to create a DOS-formatted
	  hard disk image using mtools.  This may be useful in
	  conjunction with MEMDISK.
	* ISOLINUX: Search for a /boot/isolinux directory as well as
	  /isolinux.
	* ALL: Fix a bug related to very long configuration files.
	* PXELINUX: Work around a NASM bug which would result in no
	  delay before reset if an error occurs.

Changes in 1.76:
	* ISOLINUX: Remove code no longer used which caused hangs on
	  some Toshiba laptops.

Changes in 1.75:
	* ALL: NASM 0.98.32 or later is now required to build
	  SYSLINUX from sources.
	* SYSLINUX: put back in the workaround for the BIOS floppy
	  table.  This seems to be a requirement for "extended" floppy
	  formats to work correctly.
	* SYSLINUX: No longer warn if one is trying to boot on a 286
	  or older.  The above BIOS workaround no longer fits if the
	  requirement to use only 8086-compatible code in the early
	  boot is maintained.  It made sense in 1994, but in 2002 a
	  286 or older is a museum object.
	* SYSLINUX: Use a downright bizarre, stateful algorithm to try
	  to guess the maximum transfer size.  I am *hoping* this will
	  cut down on the number of systems for which -s is required
	  to work at any acceptable speed.
	* ISOLINUX: Add a few more workarounds for various broken El
	  Torito BIOSes.
	* Make sure .depend files aren't accidentally packed...
	* ALL: Fix bugs in the extension-detect code; this caused
	  files like COMBOOT images and CD boot sectors to be
	  mis-identified as Linux kernels and rejected.
	* ALL: Fix the return from COMBOOT.
	* ALL: Do some of the early groundwork for supporting DOS
	  system calls in COMBOOT.
	* Get rid of unnecessary "near" directives, making the code
	  bigger.
	* PXELINUX: Put the PXE stack back in the init state before
	  invoking a chain-loaded NBP.
	* PXELINUX: Actually found the combination of calls that
	  allows some (most?) PXE 2+ stacks to be unloaded from memory
	  properly.
	* PXELINUX: Add "keeppxe" command-line option to disable
	  the standard unloading of the PXE stack.

Changes in 1.74:
	* SYSLINUX: fix bug that would cause valid kernel images to be
	  labelled "invalid".

Changes in 1.73:
	* Work on removing gratuitous differences between modules.
	* Break up the source in common and module-specific files.
	* PXELINUX: Allow chaining of other PXE NBPs.
	* ISOLINUX: Allow loading "CD-ROM boot sectors".
	* ALL: generalize the definition of a boot sector/NBP.

Changes in 1.72:
	* PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Fix bugs in the new core code.

Changes in 1.71:
	* Fix a "brown paper bag" class bug in the new core code.

Changes in 1.70:
	* Major code restructuring.
	* Relax the conventional memory limits somewhat.
	* MEMDISK: Set up the "version number string" pointer in the
	  header correctly.
        * SYSLINUX: Fix, again, "the bug that won't die": the use of
          the offset parameter with the SYSLINUX installer.
	* SYSLINUX: Fix possible superblock corruption problem in the
	  SYSLINUX installer.

Changes in 1.67:
	* Handle bug in the location of initrd.

Changes in 1.66:
	* MEMDISK: Make compile with newer versions of gcc.

Changes in 1.65:
	* ISOLINUX: Support booting disk image files (to boot DOS or
	  other non-Linux operating systems), *IF* the BIOS works
	  correctly; unfortunately many BIOSes apparently don't.
	* Support Linux boot protocol version 2.03 (explicitly
	  specify the initrd address limit.)
	* Handle small "pseudo-kernels"; images that use the Linux
	  kernel boot protocols but are less than 64K in size.
	* MEMDISK: New subsystem; this is a driver which allows
	  legacy OSes to boot using an in-memory simulated disk.
	  See memdisk/memdisk.doc for more info.
	* PXELINUX, ISOLINUX: Correctly handle files larger than 65535
	  blocks (32 MB for PXELINUX, 128 MB for ISOLINUX.)
	* PXELINUX: Make a best-effort attempt at freeing all memory
	  claimed.  From the looks of it, it will fail on most PXE
	  stacks.

Changes in 1.64:
	* Limited support for hardware flow control when using a
	  serial port console.
	* Support specifying the serial port I/O address explicitly.
	* Make DOS installer hopefully behave more nicely when used on
	  recent Windows versions.
	* Fix returning to text mode when a font has been specified.
	* Attempt to detect missing serial port hardware and disable
	  the serial port if there is nothing there.

Changes in 1.63:
	* Make the ppmtolss16 program handle color conversion more
	  correctly.
	* Clean up "make install" target, honour INSTALLROOT if it
	  exists.
	* SYSLINUX: Fix stack-smash bug identified by Steffen
	  Winterfeldt.
	* Hopefully fix return-to-text-mode on some graphics cards.
	* ISOLINUX: Bug workaround for Award BIOS 4.51, and perhaps
	  other buggy BIOSes as well.

Changes in 1.62:
	* PXELINUX: Allow the DHCP server to override the
	  configuration file name and pathname prefix, using
	  "site-specific" DHCP options.
	* PXELINUX: Documentation fixes.
	* PXELINUX: Fix the "ipappend" option; the last two values
	  were reversed vs. what the kernel expected.
	* Introduce a way to return to text mode once we are already
	  in graphics mode.  This may be useful for F-key help
	  screens.
	* Fix several bugs in the way return to text mode was handled.

Changes in 1.61:
	* ISOLINUX: Support full pathname searches.  Max length for a
	  pathname is 255 characters.  As a result, only 64 "label"
	  statements are supported in ISOLINUX.
	* PXELINUX: Max filename length extended to 63 characters.

Changes in 1.60:
	* Add support for graphical splash screens.
	* Add mode control characters, which allows you to control
	  message display output depending on output mode (text,
	  graphics, or serial port.)
	* ISOLINUX: New program, which boots Linux from a CD-ROM
	  without using floppy emulation mode.  See isolinux.doc for
	  more details.
	* PXELINUX: Don't search for boot sector file types, since
	  they don't work anyway.
	* SYSLINUX: Document the LOCK command for Win9x, and the error
	  dialog box for WinNT/2K.

Changes in 1.54:
	* PXELINUX: Fix code for finding !PXE from PXENV+.  This was
	  due to a spec bug; match the most recent spec since that
	  seems to be what implementations actually do.
	* SYSLINUX: Add some smarts to the boot sector, which
	  hopefully should reduce the number of systems which require 
	  stupid mode ("syslinux -s").
	* PXELINUX: Document further some of the pathologies with old
	  PXE stacks.
	* When specifying a "default" command line, no longer
	  automatically appent "auto".  See the "DEFAULT" command in
	  syslinux.doc for more information.
	* PXELINUX: Clean up the allocation of local socket numbers.

Changes in 1.53:
	* PXELINUX: Rename pxelinux.bin to pxelinux.0, to match what
	  most PXE servers seem to expect.
	* PXELINUX: Update the DHCP/boot server setup documentation.
	* PXELINUX: Support new "localboot" option for "label"
	  sections.
	* PXELINUX: More robust parsing of DHCP/boot server packets.
	* PXELINUX: Include a small utility program "gethostip" to
	  compute hexadecimal IP addresses.

Changes in 1.52:
	* PXELINUX: Fix bugs introduced by new A20 code.  (SYSLINUX
	  has also been changed for code consistency reasons, but I'm
	  pretty sure the changes are don't care on SYSLINUX.)
	* Documentation updates.
	* PXELINUX: Add "ipappend" option to generate an ip= option to
	  the kernel.

Changes in 1.51:
	* PXELINUX: Not all PXE stacks fill in the IP address for a
	  type 3 cached info query.  Use a type 2 cached info query
	  for this information (only.)
	* Yet another attempt at A20 coding.  Now support BIOS call
	  15:2401 as well, and handle machines which always have A20
	  on separately.
	* Support memory detection using INT 15h, AX=0E820h.  BIOS
	  manufacturers have apparently gotten sloppy about keeping
	  INT 15h, AX=0E801h working properly.
	* Don't issue <CR><LF> onto the serial port when we're doing
	  screen wraparound.

Changes in 1.50:
	* Yet another A20-code update.  It seems some "legacy-free"
	  machines and embedded gear simply don't have a KBC to talk
	  to, and that waiting for one will wait forever.  Sigh.

Changes in 1.49:
	* SYSLINUX: Implement a hack for BIOS drivers which hog significant
	  chunks of low memory during boot.  (Note: PXELINUX already
	  had this modification.  SYSLINUX does still require that the
	  low 512K is available; PXELINUX requires 384K.  Machines
	  with a physical memory hole in the low 640K cannot boot
	  Linux no matter what.)  Depending what the reason is for the
	  memory hole, a new kernel (2.4.0-test3-pre3 or later) may be
	  required.
	* SYSLINUX: Default installer binary now compiled against
	  glibc 2.1.  If this is inappropriate for your system and you
	  still want to use the offical version of SYSLINUX, please
	  follow the instructions in "distrib.doc" to rebuild the
	  installer.
	* SYSLINUX: Linux installer program now supports -o <offset>
	  option which does a loopback mount with the
	  -o loop,offset=<> option.  Useful to run SYSLINUX on an
	  individual partition of a whole-harddisk image.
	* Include the source code to a Master Boot Record (MBR)
	  functionally equivalent to the one installed DOS except it
	  includes EBIOS support, and should be resistant to geometry
	  changes.  The MBR code is public domain.
	* PXELINUX: Fix "double p" bug: if the tftp prefix was null,
	  all filenames would get a "p" preprended, e.g.
	  "ppxelinux.cfg" and "pvmlinux".

Changes in 1.48:
	* PXELINUX: Workaround for PXE ROMs based on the Intel PXE PDK
	  3.0 build 071 and earlier: missing !PXE structure pointer.
	* PXELINUX: Handle larger BOOTP/DHCP packages.
	* PXELINUX: The command line passing was broken; fix.
	* PXELINUX: Make COMBOOT images work.
	* PXELINUX: Documentation on how to make booting work using
	  the PDK 3.0-derived clients, which aren't so generous as to
	  allow booting with only "PXEClient" specified.

Changes in 1.47:
	* PXELINUX: RFC 1123 states that a TFTP implementation MUST
	  use adaptive timeout, "at least an exponential backoff of
          retransmission timeout is necessary."  Implement a very
	  simple exponential backoff for retransmits.
	* PXELINUX: Updated documentation, including pointer to new
	  TFTP server.
	* PXELINUX: When sending ERROR due to bad OACK, use the proper
	  destination port number (why are TFTP port numbers so odd?)
	* PXELINUX: If the boot dies in the middle somewhere,
	  eventually give up and reset the machine (unattended
	  operation.)

Changes in 1.46:
	* New program PXELINUX to do network booting using a
	  PXE-compliant (Pre-Execution Environment) network booting
	  PROM.  See pxelinux.doc for details.

Changes in 1.45:
	* Serial console support.  See syslinux.doc for details.

Changes in 1.44:
	* Change HIGHMEM_MAX to 38000000h to (hopefully) avoid the
	  kernel stepping on it; 3f000000h was apparently a higher
	  limit than the kernel used!

Changes in 1.43:
	* Add sys2ansi.pl script to display the contents of a
	  colorized SYSLINUX file.
	* Changed the io_delay once again, after a report that the
	  old delay port causes hangs on some systems.

Changes in 1.42:
	* Frob the "fast A20 gate" port as well as the keyboard
	  controller; will this help systems with problems?
	* Be even more paranoid about A20, unfortunately even this
	  seems to be not paranoid enough... what I don't understand
	  is that if there is hardware out there *this broken*, how
	  can it run Linux at all?  Report an error message rather
	  than hang forever if A20 is stuck.
	* Include some intermediate files in the distribution, plus
	  provide a "make installer" target for distributors to relink
	  the install programs only.  I would prefer the syslinux boot
	  loader proper to be "binary clean" for debuggablity -- use
	  "make clean ; make installer" to rebuild the installers only.

Changes in 1.41:
	* Don't get confused by directories, volume labels, or VFAT
	  long names.
	* Use INT 15h, AX=0E801h to query memory size before trying
	  INT 15h, AH=88h.  This not only provides more headroom
	  between the kernel and the initrd on large-memory machines,
	  but it appears some recent BIOSes actually have started
	  returning garbage for the AH=88h (older) call.
	* Trust high memory beyond the 15 MB mark if the user has
	  specified it, or if obtained with INT 15h, AH=0E801h (with
	  no memory holes above 1 MB.)

Changes in 1.40:
	* Increase A20M delay and put in a test to avoid problems on
	  certain IBM Thinkpads (thanks to Donnie Barnes of RedHat
	  for vital info on this one.)
	* Support COMBOOT style boot command images.
	* Support chain loading (foreign operating systems, e.g. DOS).
	* Include a new "copybs" DOS utility to copy a boot sector to
	  a file (under Linux, use "dd".)
	* Fix the DOS installer to work for disks over 32 MB.
	* SYSLINUX should now handle disks with more than 65536 tracks.

Changes in 1.37:
	* Fix a bug that caused "label" statements in syslinux.cfg to
	  not be handled properly.
	* Updated the documentation.  Among other things, we now allow
	  up to 128 "label" statements.

Changes in 1.36:
	* Fix for booting old (pre-initrd) kernels.
	* It seems at least some versions of OS/2 doesn't set up all
	  the fields in the superblock correctly.  Account for that.
	* Fix bug that caused boot failure when using the mem= option.

Changes in 1.35:
	* Loading from partitions now should work properly.  (Actually
	  tested, this time.  You should even be able to dd a floppy
	  to a partition and boot from it.)
	* Removed large workaround code for an alleged ancient BIOS
	  bug I have never actually seen.  The -s option should work
	  on those machines, anyway.
	* Support for simple keyboard remappings, same as used by
	  LILO (once again to support localization.)  The program
	  keytab-lilo.pl from the LILO distribution included to
	  generate such maps.
	* Added a "safe, slow and stupid" (-s) option to the
	  installers.  This option will lobotomize the boot sector to
	  hopefully work on even very buggy BIOSes.
	
Changes in 1.34:
	* Ability to load a VGA font on bootup (for localized Linux
	  distributions.) 

Changes in 1.33:
	* Bug fix in the Linux installer.
	* Added a workaround for a bug in certain AMI/Intel BIOSes
	  when booting from CD-ROM.
	* Documentation changes.

Changes in 1.32:
	* FAT16 filesystems are now supported.

Changes in 1.31:
	* Now compiles under Linux, using NASM, rather than using
	  Turbo Assembler under DOS.  See http://www.cryogen.com/Nasm
	  for information about NASM.
	* Linux-hosted SYSLINUX installer, as well as a
	  rewritten DOS installer (now is written in assembler, so we
	  don't need Turbo C.)

Changes in 1.30:
	* Added support for loading bzImage and initrd loading, and made
	  SYSLINUX new-setup-code aware (SYSLINUX 1.30 id=0x31).
	* Added LILO-style kernel labels; see the LABEL and IMPLICIT
	  keywords in README file.
	* Added support for colorization of intro and help screens.
	* The vga= option is now handled correctly.
	* Massive rewrite of large chunks of the code in order to
	  support the first two new features.

Changes in 1.20:
	* Added simple online help at the "boot:" prompt.
	* Removed 2880K image as I no longer have access to such a
	  floppy drive.	 (Donations accepted!!)
	* Decided to distribute the source in a subdirectory rather
	  than in a nested zipfile.

Changes in 1.11:
	* Removed a sanity check which would cause booting to fail on
	  Phoenix BIOS version 4.03.  Apparently this BIOS is buggy.

Changes in 1.10:
	* Added configuration file SYSLINUX.CFG.  This file contains all
	  configurable options, and can be edited from any OS which can
	  access an MS-DOS filesystem; there is no longer a need to run
	  SYSLINUX.EXE except to write the boot sector.
	* Default command line now given by "default" line in config
	  file.
	* LINUXMSG.TXT and BOOTMSG.TXT hard-coded file names replaced by
	  "display" and "prompt" lines in config file.
	* LILO-style option appending now supported ("append" line in
	  config file).
	* Prompt timeout is now supported ("timeout" line in config
	  file).  The timeout is cancelled when anything is typed on the
	  command line.
	* Pressing <ESC> or <Ctrl-C> at the Loading... stage now aborts
	  the kernel loading in progress and returns the user to the
	  boot: prompt.
	* The installer now automatically sets the READONLY flag on
	  LDLINUX.SYS.
	* Added 2880K disk image.

Changes in 1.03:
	* Fixed bug that would prevent booting from double-density
	  floppies and other DOS filesystems with multiple sectors per
	  cluster.
	* Added 720K disk image.
	* Changed default kernel name on disk images to LINUX.

Changes in 1.02:
	* Fixed bug that would garble the command line on recent kernels
	  with more than 4 sectors of setup code (this wasn't really a
	  *bug*; rather, a kernel change broke the code.  Unfortunately
	  the Linux boot interface is still sorely undocumented).
	* Added BOOTMSG.TXT file support (message file which does not
	  force display of the boot prompt).

Changes in 1.01:
	* Fixed bug on some (most?) 386 BIOSes would require two boot
	  attempts.