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Official project updates
This publication had a break across Christmas and New Year but not we are thankfully back and we have some major system updates. Pretty exciting stuff :) I'll share Frank's notes from the Slack on this shortly before release as I think they summarize it well, more details in release notes and below:
There are a number of improvements coming. First off, we updated Erlang/OTP to 24.2 and Buildroot to 2021.11. The Buildroot update changes Raspberry Pi firmware options, so if you’re making custom RPi systems you’ll want to watch out. This also pulls in GCC 10.3 for which we enabled a small extension needed for TorchX (for Nx/Axon users). We also published toolchains for Linux aarch64 so that builds can be done on Docker on the Mac M1s. Raspberry Pi users will also get the latest and greatest Linux kernel updates to support libcamera development and use of the Raspberry Pi Zero 2. The built-in Raspberry Pi WiFi firmware also got a lot of updates. The release notes for them are terse, but I’m hoping they enable WiFi features that are lagging on the Pi. BBB users will finally be updated to Linux 5.10.
Thanks to @amclain, we made some CI improvements that you’ll want. The first is that we started a backup package download site at dl.nerves-project.org. We save every package downloaded in the official builds there. This should prevent things like the two day build outage late November when GitHub changed their URL format (and then reverted it). Incidentally, the CI change also reduced build time and Nerves systems should have a better chance of fitting in the new CircleCI free tier build limits. You’ll have to update the CI orb to get this change.
Anyway, this is a big release. New users probably want to hang tight for a bit in case there are issues in areas we don’t regularly test. However, this is going to set us up for some interesting developments in 2022 and I’m really excited about that.
The Updates
nerves_system_vultr, v0.15.0
nerves_system_osd32mp1, v0.9.0
nerves_system_rpi, v1.18.0
nerves_system_rpi2, v1.18.0
nerves_system_rpi3, v1.18.0
nerves_system_rpi3a, v1.18.0
nerves_system_rpi4, v1.18.0
nerves_system_bbb, v2.13.0
nerves_system_x86_64, v1.18.0
nerves_system_rpi0, v1.18.0
build-tools, v0.2.2, build-tools, v0.2.1 and build-tools, v0.2.0
Enable download site with environment variable (PUSH_TO_DOWNLOAD_SITE) instead of CI parameter plus bug fixes related to download sites. Move fetching and caching Buildroot dependencies to its own job
Change default primary download site to https://dl.nerves-project.org.
nerves_system_br, v1.18.2, nerves_system_br, v1.18.1, nerves_system_br, v1.18.0
1.18.0 is a major update that pulls in Buildroot 2021.11. Please see the release notes for details.
1.18.1 and 1.18.2 adress further follow-up things. Fixed an issue creating SBOM information for the RPi WiFi firmware. Include host freetype and host libjpeg to fix compilation errors with qt5webengine. Thanks to @wzin for tracking this down and working with the Buildroot devs. The patch will be here until an upstream fix is released. Update WiFi firmware for all Raspberry Pi platforms. This brings in a number of fixes that were released over the past year. See changelog.
nerves, v1.7.13
Verify the remote website when downloading artifacts. This fixes the warning about unverified HTTPS connections.
Fix error message printout when Nerves toolchain builds fail.
toolchains, v1.5.0
This should be a low risk update to v1.4.3. The main purpose is to make libgomp available. It remains on GCC 10, but pulls in the latest patch releases of associated build tools.
Tool versions
- GCC 10.3 (https://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-10/changes.html#GCC10.3)
- glibc 2.34 (https://sourceware.org/pipermail/libc-alpha/2021-August/129718.html)
- binutils 2.37
- Linux 4.19 headers except for RISC-V. RISC-V uses Linux 5.4 headers.
- Update Livebook to v0.4.1
- Update Elixir to 1.13.1
- Update Nerves Systems to use Erlang 24.2, Buildroot 2021.11 and miscellaneous platform-specific bug fixes and improvements.
- Update various other dependencies to their latest versions
circuits_quickstart, v0.4.9
Update to nerves_system_br v1.18.2-based systems (Erlang/OTP 24.2)
- Update to nerves_system_br v1.17.4-based systems (Erlang/OTP 24.1.7)
- Update to Elixir 1.13
- Update other dependencies to latest
Other Updates
vintage_net_qmi, v0.2.13
Allow APN selection based on ICCID when deploying SIMs from multiple service providers
vintage_net_qmi, v0.2.12
Added more modem properties for manufacturer and product name.
vintage_net, v0.11.4
Internet connectivity checks can now take domain names. Previously only IP addresses were supported.
circuits_i2c, v1.0.1
Properly mark I/O bound functions in NIF.
circuits_spi, v1.1.0
Add max_transfer_size/0 to return the low level maximum size that can be sent at a time. Thanks to @cocoa-xu for this.
Properly mark NIF transfer function as IO bound so that the Erlang scheduler schedules it properly.
Community updates
I have my fingers thoroughly crossed for ElixirConf EU in London in April but I don't pretend it is a given as the Covid situation looks pretty crap from what I gather. Now if it does happen and seems safe I'm personally planning to grab my entire team and head over there and I just might enroll them in:
Frank & Jon's Nerves training called a Hands On Tour Of Nerves Using Livebook.
For the Underjod YouTube channel I had an editor cut down my chatter and pauses to make a denser version of my livestream recording where I play around with eInk and OLED displays. I've had people tell me that session was very useful to them or helped them do a project, so I hope a tighter version is even more helpful. I expect to stream again this friday and I think it might be Nerves.
Also on Underjord @amclain wrote a guest post which I think laid out a very good, nuanced argument on why Nerves presents a unique advantage to a business along with why Elixir does so. The post was sponsored by DockYard, they are not sponsoring this newsletter.
If you want more of your favorite Nerves content in here and less about my efforts with Underjord, send your suggestions in to lars@underjord.io. I'm more excited about things I haven't made for this esteemed newsletter so pretty much everything will be brought in as long as it relates to Nerves, hardware or strongly related Elixir things.
Supporting the Nerves project
We want to encourage everyone to contribute in whatever way works for them. Here are some ways we currently recommend:
- Write or port a new hardware library and include it in the Elixir Circuits collection.
- Give money to the project via Open Collective.
- Get in touch about taking over maintenance duties for some libraries, we might be able to provide you hardware.
- Apply for an EEF stipend on something Nerves-related and build it. We can help if you have questions about this.
- Send corrections or improvements for documentation wherever it fails to help you.
- Write about Nerves, give talks about Nerves. Make videos about Nerves. It is all good.
Finally, if you have questions about the newsletter or want to suggest something you can simply respond to this email it will go directly to me, Lars, who edits this thing. Let me know what you think.
- Lars, Underjord.io
