GRUB 0.5.94 is released

[Gordon Matzigkeit <gord@fig.org>]

I'm pleased to announce the latest beta release of the Grand Unified
Bootloader.  You can get it from:

ftp://alpha.gnu.org/gnu/grub/grub-0.5.94.tar.gz

The Debian package has also been uploaded, and should soon show up in
the `unstable' distribution.

Here is the relevant NEWS:

New in 0.5.94 - 2000-03-17:
* Stage 1 supports both the LBA mode and the CHS mode.
* The NetBSD and OpenBSD boot bug is fixed.
* The more automatic installation command "setup" is added.
* The command "embed" embeds a Stage 1.5 in the sectors after a MBR.
* Support symbolic color name syntax in the command "color".
* The grub shell loads the BIOS drive mapping information from a device
  map file if it is specified and can be opened. If not found, try to
  create it based on the guessed information.
* NetBSD support in the grub shell is improved.
* A simple checker for the format of a Multiboot kernel, ``mbchk'', is
  added.
* The command "find" searches for a filename in all devices and print
  the list of the devices which contain the file.
* The command "map" maps a drive to another drive so that we can
  chain-load some foolish operating systems (such as DOS) even if such
  an operating system resides at a non-first drive.
* The command "setkey" maps a key to another.
* The GRUB manual is rewritten, and now consists of three parts and
  appendices.
* The command "ioprobe" detects what I/O ports are used for a BIOS
  drive.
* OpenBSD support in the grub shell is improved.
* The command "install" can now patch a Stage 2 with a different
  filename from "/boot/grub/menu.lst" even if a Stage 1.5 is used.
* New program, ``grub-install''.
* The command "blocklist" prints the blocklist notation of a file.
* The command "chainloader" now accepts an option "--force", which is
  required if you want to chain-load a boot loader defective in the
  signature, such as SCO Unixware 7.1.
* The netboot support is heavily rewritten, based on Etherboot-4.4.3.
  Most of the device drivers are stolen from it, so we now have many
  network drivers. See netboot/README.netboot for more details.
* Now configure accepts the option `--disable-lba-support-bitmap-check'
  to ignore an incorrect LBA support bitmap returned by a buggy BIOS. If
  you are sure that your BIOS does support LBA mode but GRUB doesn't
  work in LBA mode, recompile GRUB with this option specified. You can
  check if GRUB accesses a drive in LBA mode by the command "geometry".
* New commands "bootp", "dhcp" and "rarp" can be used to initialize a
  network device and get IP addresses from a network.
* Long filename support in the FAT filesystem is added.
* The command "cmp" compares each bytes in two files.


As always, you can find out more about GRUB development at

http://www.gnu.org/software/grub.html

Have fun,

-- 
 Gordon Matzigkeit <gord@fig.org>  //\ I'm a FIG (http://fig.org/)
Committed to freedom and diversity \// I use GNU (http://gnu.fig.org/)