3 * New/improved filesystem and disk support:
5 * Experimental 64-bit ext2 support.
6 * Various fixes for non-512-byte sector devices.
7 * New `proc' filesystem framework, used by LUKS disks.
8 * Fix DM-RAID partition handling.
9 * New `nativedisk' command to switch from firmware to native disk drivers.
11 * DragonFly BSD labels.
13 * Handle partitioned LVM properly.
14 * Use LVM UUIDs whenever possible.
16 * New `progress' module that shows progress information while reading
18 * ZFS features support.
20 * XFS V5 format support.
23 * New/improved terminal and video support:
24 * Monochrome text (matching `hercules' in GRUB Legacy).
25 * Morse code output using system speaker.
26 * `spkmodem' output (simple data protocol using system speaker).
27 * Handle Japanese special keys.
28 * coreboot framebuffer.
30 * Native vt100 handling for grub-emu, replacing the use of the curses
32 * New gfxmenu options for terminal window positioning, theme background
33 image handling, and scrollbar padding, plus `item_pixmap_style' and
35 * Support several more image types (paletted and greyscale).
37 * Boot protocol improvements:
38 * Support Apple FAT binaries on non-Apple platforms.
39 * Improve FreeDOS direct loading support compatibility.
40 * Enable `linux16' on all x86 platforms, not just BIOS.
41 * New TrueCrypt ISO loader.
42 * multiboot2 boot-services EFI specification.
43 * multiboot2 EFI memory map specification.
44 * multiboot2 full-file specfication.
46 * New/improved network support:
47 * New variables `net_default_*' containing properties of the default
49 * Autoload `http' and `tftp' modules if necessary.
50 * Improve TFTP robustness.
51 * Parse `nd' disk names in GRUB Legacy configuration files.
52 * Issue separate DNS queries for IPv4 and IPv6.
53 * Support IPv6 Router Advertisement to configure default router.
54 * New variable net_<interface>_next_server containing next server
57 * Coreboot improvements:
58 * CBFS support both in on-disk images (loopback) and flash.
59 * Ability to launch another payload from flash or disk
60 * Coreboot framebuffer
61 * CBMEMC support (both logging and inspecting logs)
62 * Command for inspecting coreboot timestamps (`coreboot_boottime').
63 * Command for inspecting coreboot tables (`lscoreboot').
64 * New target default_payload.elf.
65 * Increased maximal core size.
66 * Prefer pmtimer for TSC calibration.
68 * New/improved platform support:
69 * New `efifwsetup' and `lsefi' commands on EFI platforms.
70 * New `cmosdump' and `cmosset' commands on platforms with CMOS support.
71 * New command `pcidump' for PCI platforms.
72 * Improve opcode parsing in ACPI halt implementation.
73 * Use the TSC as a possible time source on i386-ieee1275.
74 * Merge PowerPC grub-mkrescue implementation with the common one.
75 * Support grub-mkrescue on i386-ieee1275, sparc64, bootinfo machines such
76 as pSeries, and mips-arc.
77 * Make grub-mkrescue better support Apple Intel Macs on CD.
78 * Enable GRUB Legacy configuration file parsing on EFI.
79 * Support halt for Loongson 2E.
80 * ARM U-Boot and EFI ports.
81 * Reorganise platform-dependent code in utilities to avoid #ifdef mess.
82 * AROS and Haiku support for userspace utilities.
84 * Fix EFI stack alignment.
86 * On Linux, read partition start offsets from sysfs if possible.
87 * New grub-macbless utility, and better integration with Mac firmware in
89 * Support Yeeloong 3A.
90 * Add `cpuid --pae' option to detect Physical Address Extension on x86.
91 * Support for USB debug dongles.
92 * Support for *-emu on all platforms (previously only i386/x86_64 worked).
93 * Support *-emu on Windows.
94 * New platform `none' which builds only user level utilities. This is now
95 default if target CPU is not supported.
96 * Support for booting little-endian Linux kernel on powerpc.
97 * Support network boot with Oracle sun4v vnet devices.
98 * Added SAS disks to the IEEE 1275 Open Firmware device list.
99 * Try multiple methods for TSC (timestamp counter) calibration - PIT, pmtimer,
100 EFI Stall. If everything fails, use hardcoded frequency 800MHz.
101 * Support Hyper-V Gen2 platforms which lack PIT for TSC calibration.
102 * Map UEFI Persistent Memory to E820 persistent memory.
103 * New Xen loader on ARM64.
104 * Respect alignment requirement for block device IO buffers on EFI.
107 * Add optional facility to enforce that all files read by the core image
108 from disk have a valid detached digital signature.
111 * Avoid costly division operations in many places.
112 * New boot time analysis framework (`./configure --enable-boot-time').
113 * Initialise USB ports in parallel.
114 * New `testspeed' command to test file read speed.
115 * Speed-up gfxterm by storing intermediate results in more compact format.
116 * Lazy LVM/mdraid scan.
120 * New `eval' and `tr' commands.
121 * grub-script-check fails on scripts containing no commands.
123 * Installation and other utility improvements:
124 * Add option to compress files on installation or image creation.
125 * Using grub-reboot no longer requires setting `GRUB_DEFAULT=saved'.
126 * Support probing EFI System Partition (requires os-prober >= 1.58).
127 * Fix inconsistent use of `GRUB_CRYPTODISK_ENABLE' and
128 `GRUB_ENABLE_CRYPTODISK'; the latter is now used consistently.
129 * grub-mount handles symbolic links to directories.
130 * Support disabling submenus with `GRUB_DISABLE_SUBMENU' configuration key
132 * grub-install, grub-mknetdir, grub-mkrescue, and grub-mkstandalone
133 rewritten in C. They should now work in supported non-Unix-like
135 * Native mingw support.
136 * Ability to install on EFI under windows.
137 * Reorganise timeout handling using new `timeout_style' environment
138 variable and `GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE' configuration key for grub-mkconfig.
139 Menu hotkeys pressed during a hidden timeout now boot the corresponding
140 menu entry immediately.
141 * New `file' command and grub-file utility to check file types.
142 * New syslinux configuration file parser.
143 * Set menu entry class to primary OS name returned by os-prober to display
145 * On Linux x86 detect EFI word size in grub-install and automatically select
146 correct platform (x86_64-efi or i386-efi) to install. Requires Linux kernel
150 * Remove all uses of nested functions; GRUB no longer requires an
152 * Fix documentation build with Texinfo >= 5.1.
153 * More robust and documented cross-compiling support.
154 * Partial clang support for some platforms (experimental).
155 * Partial mingw64 x86_64-efi compile support (highly experimental).
156 * Partial mingw32 i386-* (other than already present i386-pc)
157 compile support (highly experimental).
158 * Support for grub-mkpasswd on Windows.
159 * Eliminate the use of AutoGen. This allowed some performance
160 improvements to the build system.
161 * Remove variable length arrays.
162 * OpenBSD compile and tools support (NetBSD and FreeBSD were already supported).
163 * Fix build with FreeType >= 2.5.1.
164 * Make gentpl.py compatible with Python 3. It now requires at least
166 * modinfo.sh contains build information now.
167 * Added many new tests to improve robustness.
168 * Target is built without libgcc now. Necessary builtins are reimplemented
169 directly. This removes requirement for target-specific runtime on build
171 * emu libusb support removed (was broken and unmaintained).
172 * powerpc64le compile support.
173 * Use fixed timestamp when generating GRUB image for reproducible builds.
174 * Verify at build time that modules contain only supported relocations and their
175 structure matches what boot-time module loader expects.
176 * Do not require fonts on powerpc-ieee1275.
178 * Revision control moved to git.
183 * Official theme for gfxmenu (starfield)
184 * Menu is organised with submenus.
185 * Better default video mode selection using EDID.
189 * Fuloong2F support (including GRUB as firmware)
190 * Fuloong2E support (except GRUB as firmware)
191 * ARCS (SGI machines) port.
194 * grub-mount to mount filesystems using GRUB FS drivers and FUSE.
196 * Changed security default so entries are locked by default if any superuser is
205 * Network stack for BIOS, IEEE1275, EMU and EFI, including TFTP, HTTP and DNS.
207 * New filesystem, filters and disks formats:
209 * Plan9 partition map.
215 * Big-endian minixfs.
218 * Support non-512B disk blocks.
219 * LUKS and GELI support.
220 * LDM read support (no install yet).
223 * Improved filesystem and disks formats support:
224 * HFS+ label support.
225 * Improved reiserfs support.
226 * multidevice, mirrored and raidz(2,3) ZFS support.
227 * RAID LVM (internal RAIDing) support.
228 * ZFS crypto support.
229 * ZLE, LZ4 and GZIP on ZFS support.
230 * Support ZFS up to 33.
231 * HFS string is now treated like mac-roman and not UTF-8
233 * Improved AFFS and SFS support.
234 * LZO-compressed btrfs support.
235 * cpio and tar symlinks support.
236 * Better FS detection to reduce false positives.
238 * New boot protocols:
239 * Ability to load another coreboot payload when on coreboot.
242 * Ntldr/bootmgr (to load Windows bootloader).
243 * chainloader --bpb support to patch FAT or NTFS BPB in memory to correct
244 wrong partition offset.
245 * PXE chainloading support.
246 * Darwin 11 (Mac OS X Lion) protocol support.
248 * Boot protocol improvements:
249 * Multiple initrd support.
250 * Basic illumos and xnu autoconfig.
252 * Testing and debugging:
253 * New grub-fstest commands: cat, zfsinfo, testload xnu_uuid
254 * grub-fstest recursive directory compare for quickly checking that
255 a directory is read correctly.
256 * Backtace on crash (if gdb module is loaded, x86 only)
257 * Disk cache statistics gathering.
258 * GDB stub and GDB support script.
259 * "make check" and "make bootcheck" expanded to almost all platforms
260 (except i386-ieee1275, mips-arc, sparc64-ieee1275, ia64-efi and emu)
261 * New `time' command.
264 * Lazy scanning to avoid accessing devices which aren't really used.
265 This avoids boot delay due to slow device scanning.
266 * Use CPU cache when accessing video memory.
267 * Search hints to first try the most likely device when searching for a
268 device with given UUID. This avoids slow scanning in most cases.
270 * Internationalisation:
271 * Updated to Unicode 6.0.
272 * $"..." syntax for translation in grub scripting language. This allows easy
273 translation of grub.cfg at runtime.
274 * Translations to many languages included in official distribution.
277 * $grub_cpu and $grub_platform variables for conditioning grub.cfg on platform
279 * $feature_* variables to condition scripts on available features.
280 * Use of ids to identify menu entries.
281 * all_video module which is empty but depends on all video modules thus
282 allowing easy loading of all of them.
285 * grub-mknetdir script for easy creation of netbootable GRUB directory.
286 * Itanium and mips support in grub-mkrescue.
287 * grub-install support for all platforms except emu.
288 * PreP partition install support.
289 * No files conflict between flavours (except grub-mkrescue for ppc). This
290 allows easy install of GRUB for several platforms.
291 * grub-mkstandalone script for easy creating of image including all modules
292 for platforms with generous limit on image size.
293 * program-transform-name now functions according to usual conventions.
294 Use --grubdir and --bootdir to get old behaviour.
296 * ADLER32 and CRC64 support (for XZ and hashsum).
298 * ofconsole renamed to console
300 * Experimental support for compiling with Apple toolchain.
302 * grub-mkdevicemap removed. Now all devices are detected on invocation of
307 * Keyboard layouts support.
309 * New `lsapm' command (i386-pc only).
311 * Parser for GRUB Legacy configuration files.
313 * Support RAID on virtio devices.
315 * Remove deprecated `root' command.
317 * New `euro.pf2' font which supports most European languages.
319 * Avoid opening the same device twice on Open Firmware platforms.
321 * Extend `vbeinfo' and `vbetest' commands to non-VBE graphics, as
322 `videoinfo' and `videotest'.
324 * New `lsefisystab', `lssal', and `lsefimmap' commands on EFI platforms.
326 * Support explicit user claim that a device is BIOS-visible. Devices
327 listed in device.map will be assumed to be readable using only BIOS
328 facilities, rather than anything more complex such as LVM or RAID.
330 * New bash-completion script for GRUB utilities.
332 * Use ACPI to shut down if possible.
334 * New `lsacpi' command.
338 * New `--boot-directory' option to `grub-install', `grub-reboot', and
339 `grub-set-default', with clearer semantics than the previous
340 `--root-directory' option.
342 * Rename CD-ROM device to "cd" on BIOS platforms.
344 * Transparent decompression filters.
346 * Simpler PXE image generation. New `grub-mknetdir' utility to generate
347 netboot directory trees.
349 * New relocator. Allows for more kernel support and more
350 straightforward loader writing.
352 * Handle USB pendrives exposed as floppies.
354 * New Automake-based build system.
356 * Add `sendkey' command (i386-pc only).
360 * Support 1.x versions of mdadm metadata.
362 * Fix corruption when reading Reiserfs directory entries.
364 * Bidirectional text and diacritics support.
366 * Skip LVM snapshots.
368 * MIPS Yeeloong firmware port.
370 * Change grub-mkdevicemap to emit /dev/disk/by-id/ names where possible
373 * Add `grub-mkconfig' support for Xen with Linux.
375 * Add `grub-mkconfig' support for initrd images on Fedora 13.
377 * Support >3GiB and <16MiB RAM in i386-qemu.
379 * Add support for Cirrus 5446 and Bochs video cards.
381 * Load more appropriate video drivers automatically in `grub-mkconfig'.
383 * USB improvements, including hotplugging/hotunplugging, hub support,
384 and USB serial support.
386 * AMD Geode CS5536 support.
388 * Extensive updates to the Texinfo documentation.
390 * Handle symbolic links under /dev/mapper on GNU/Linux.
392 * Handle installation across multiple partition table types.
394 * Add `cmostest' command (i386/x86_64 only).
396 * Add support for DM-RAID disk devices on GNU/Linux.
398 * Remove `grub-mkisofs'. `grub-mkrescue' now uses GNU xorriso to build
401 * `grub-mkrescue' support for EFI, coreboot, and QEMU platforms.
403 * Unify `grub-mkimage', `grub-setup', and `grub-install' source code
406 * Fix VGA (as opposed to VBE) video driver, formerly a terminal driver.
408 * Add menu hotkey support.
410 * Add support for the nilfs2 filesystem.
412 * `grub-probe' and `grub-mkconfig' support for NetBSD.
414 * Support setting a background image in `grub-mkconfig'.
416 * Support multiple terminals in `grub-mkconfig'.
420 * MIPS multiboot2 support.
422 * Multiboot2 tag support.
424 * sunpc partition table support.
426 * Add a number of new language features to GRUB script: `for', `while',
427 `until', `elif', function parameters, `break', `continue', `shift',
428 multi-line quoted strings, positional parameters with `setparams',
429 `return', filename wildcard expansion, and `!'.
431 * Support nested partition tables. GRUB now prefers to name partitions
432 in the form `(hd0,msdos1,bsd1)' rather than `(hd0,1,a)'.
434 * Speed up consecutive hostdisk operations on the same device.
436 * Compile parts of `grub-emu' as modules.
438 New in 1.98 - 2010-03-06:
440 * Multiboot on EFI support.
442 * Graphical menu support.
446 * Saved default menu entry support, with new utilities `grub-reboot' and
449 * Unit testing framework.
451 * Support for multiple terminals.
453 * Encrypted password support, with a new utility `grub-mkpasswd-pbkdf2'.
455 * `grub-mkfloppy' removed; use `grub-mkrescue' to create floppy images.
457 * Add grub-probe support for GNU/Hurd.
459 * Add support for gettext.
463 * Add support for loading XNU (MacOS X kernel).
465 * ACPI override support.
467 * Integrated gptsync.
469 * Password protection support.
471 * Partition manipulation tool.
473 * Add `keystatus' command.
475 * Unicode fonts are now used by default.
477 * Add `hdparm' command.
479 * Add support for getting the current date and time from CMOS as variables.
481 * Add `drivemap' command.
483 * Add support for RAID levels 4,6 and 10.
485 * update-grub is replaced by grub-mkconfig.
487 * When booting from PXE, PXE can be used to load files.
489 * High resolution timer support.
491 * Image loaders now support IO buffering.
495 * Add Cygwin support.
497 * Add x86_64 EFI support.
499 * Use LZMA compression instead of LZO.
501 * Support for saving the environment from and loading the environment
504 * Allow the UUID to be used as device name.
506 * The `search' command can use UUIDs now.
508 * Add support for IEEE 1275 on i386.
510 * Create partmap.lst and use it to automatically load partition map
513 * grub-mkconfig supports os-prober to add operating systems to the
516 * The ATA driver supports devices bigger than 2 TiB.
518 * Add support for the UDF, AFS and EXT4 filesystems.
520 * The ISO9660 filesystem supports the Joliet extension
522 * Add support for loading kernels of FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD.
524 * Add new command `sleep'.
526 * Support for direct access to AT keyboards.
528 * New utility `grub-fstest'.
530 New in 1.96 - 2008-02-03:
532 * The license term is changed to GNU General Public License Version 3.
534 * grub-emu is made optional. Now you have to use
535 `--enable-grub-emu' to enable it.
537 * Add Multiboot2 support.
539 * grub-emu can access the host filesystem now.
541 * Add support for the NTFS, cpio/tar and Reiserfs filesystems.
543 * Add support for ATA/ATAPI.
545 * Add update-grub script to generate grub.cfg.
547 * Add grub-mkrescue script to generate floppy or ElTorito images
550 * Add support for background images in gfxterm (background_image command).
552 * Add support for detection of 64-bit support in CPU (cpuid command).
554 * GPT is now enabled in i386-pc target.
556 * Add grub-install for EFI.
558 * Ported to the following new platforms: Efika, coreboot (a.k.a. LinuxBIOS),
561 * Add support for colored menu (menu_color_normal and menu_color_highlight
564 * Fix support for loading Linux zImages (such as memtest86).
566 New in 1.95 - 2006-10-15:
568 * Number partitions from 1 instead of 0. For instance, the first
569 partition of "hd0" is now "hd0,1" but not "hd0,0".
571 * grub-probefs is renamed to grub-probe, and supports printing a
572 guessed OS device name and a GRUB drive name.
574 * RAID and LVM support is added.
578 * The disk API is changed to support 64-bit addressing.
580 * A TGA loader is added for the video API.
582 New in 1.94 - 2006-06-04:
584 * Fix several serious bugs in HFS+.
586 * Add experimental EFI support. Chainloading and Linux loading are
587 supported at the moment.
589 * Add a new command "blocklist" to show a block list.
591 * Use --with-platform to specify a boot environment. For now, efi,
592 ieee1275 and pc are supported.
594 * Use the filename "kernel.elf" instead of "grubof" on ieee1275.
596 * Install GRUB into pkglibdir instead of pkgdatadir.
598 * Support environmental variables. You can export variables by the
601 * Remove the commands "default" and "timeout". They are now variables.
603 * Add the commands "source" and "." to include a file.
605 * Implement experimental Video API and a new terminal "gfxterm" based
609 New in 1.93 - 2006-03-10:
611 * Add support for the HFS+ wrapper.
613 * Major improvements to scripting support.
615 * Menu entries are now scriptable.
618 New in 1.92 - 2005-12-25:
620 * Add support for GPT partition table format.
622 * Add a new command "play" to play an audio file on PC.
624 * Add support for Linux/ADFS partition table format.
626 * Add support for BASH-like scripting.
628 * Add support for Apple HFS+ filesystems.
631 New in 1.91 - 2005-10-15:
633 * Add support for LZO version 2.
635 * Support completion in the entry editor.
639 * New commands, "search", "vbetest" and "vbeinfo".
641 * The option BOOT_IMAGE is passed to Linux.
643 * Add support for automatic decompression for gzip.
645 * Add support for terminfo and serial.
647 * Add support for x86_64.
649 * GRUB itself is a Multiboot-compliant kernel.
651 * Add new filesystems: XFS, SFS, and AFFS.
654 New in 1.90 - 2005-08-07:
656 * Rename the project name PUPA to GRUB. Now this version is the
657 developmental version of GRUB officially.
659 * The GRUB emulator ``grub-emu'' is added.
661 * Add support for newworld Mac. This should work with other
662 PowerPC-based machines as well, if they use IEEE 1275
665 * Too many changes to describe. Look at ChangeLog for more details.
670 * Problems in cross-compiling PUPA are fixed.
672 * Use -mrtd and -mregparm=3 to reduce the generated code sizes. This
673 means that any missing prototypes could be fatal. Also, you must take
674 care when writing assembly code. See the comments at the beginning of
675 startup.S, for more details.
677 * New utility, ``pupa-setup''. This sets up PUPA to make it bootable
680 * New commands, "prefix", "insmod", "rmmod" and "lsmod" are added into
681 the rescue mode to manipulate PUPA modules.
683 * Linux support is added. Initrd is not support yet.
685 * Reduce the size of a core image significantly by compressing a large
686 part of the core image and decompressing itself at boot time. The
687 currently used algorithm is LZO (more precisely, LZO1X-999). So you
688 have to install LZO to build PUPA. See
689 <http://www.oberhumer.com/opensource/lzo/>, for more information.
692 New in 0.6 - 2002-12-27, Yoshinori K. Okuji:
694 * The chainloader and the FAT filesystem are modularized.
696 * The structure of the source tree is a bit changed.
698 * Support for building loadable modules is added.
700 * Some generic parts of pupa-mkimage are segregated.
702 * Some documentation files are added, according to the GNU Coding