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Project Updates
The Nerves Project can be followed on Bluesky and on the Fediverse. This newsletter is probably the best place to get the official updates but we try to surface cool projects on socials. Best place to ask questions and get help is the Nerves section of the Elixir Forum.
Updates
This update includes Extensions, a mechanism to handle extensions on a device for custom data and/or reporting outside the firmware update mechanism. These are isolated from the socket as to not get in the way of potential firmware updates and can be defined in external libs as well as this one by implementing the NervesHubLink.Extensions behavior. Extensions are controlled by NervesHub and can be adjusted at the product or device level for granular control.
A matching version of nerves_hub_web will allow making use of the extensions in the UI. Future plans include using the health reporting to inform deployments on how well they are going. And geo helps when drawing a map of devices. More on this when nerves_hub_web gets a new version.
- Add support for Extensions using the Socket (#228)
- Initial extensions supported are NervesHubLink.Extensions.Health and NervesHubLink.Extensions.Geo
Bump device_api_version to 2.2.0; check README for details (#255)
System updates!
All systems got the same basic buildroot update:
- Update Nerves systems to nerves_system_br v1.29.1 (Erlang/OTP 27.1.2, Buildroot 2024.08.1). Some of the systems are getting a major Erlang and Buildroot update. Please see the nerves_system_br v1.29.0 release notes when upgrading from below 1.29 if you've forked the system.
- Linux 6.6.51 (for Raspberry Pi: stable_20241008 release)
- Update all dependencies
- Added notebook for connecting to NervesHub
- Update to Elixir 1.17.3
nerves_system_mangopi_mq_pro, v0.11.0
nerves_system_osd32mp1, v0.20.0
- Switch to ops.fw for handling revert firmware and similar
- Several changes to make running from Qemu better. See README.md for instructions
- Switch to ops.fw for handling revert firmware and similar
System below also share these release notes:
- Applied and enabled the Real-Time Linux patch set, PREEMPT_RT. Please see write-ups on the web for benefits and how to use. The impact of this patch shouldn’t be noticeable to most Nerves users.
- Switch CPU frequency governor from conservative to the more modern schedutil. See LWN article for details.
nerves_system_bbb, v2.25.0
nerves_system_grisp2, v0.13.0
nerves_system_rpi0, v1.29.0
nerves_system_rpi, v1.29.0
Include device tree for the original Raspberry Pi Compute Module. This is needed to support devices like the RevPi.
nerves_system_rpi2, v1.29.0
nerves_system_rpi3, v1.29.0
Enable dtc commandline programs to support dynamic device tree loading at runtime
- Enable ARM NEON compilation for packages that can use it.
- Fix missing option for out-of-the-box QMI (cellular modem) support
Add missing Pi Camera lens device driver
FLOSS Weekly
I try to floss daily but sometimes when invitation comes you gotta FLOSS Weekly.
Bad jokes aside I was invited to talk about Nerves and so I did.
Thanks to the unknown enthusiast who suggest Nerves as a topic and me to come talk about it. Do suggest us to other shows and I'm happy to do my darndest to spread the word.
Reaching more developers
One thing brought up in multiple talks at Code BEAM Berlin is that our community needs to speak outside of Elixir events and reach the rest of the developer world with our fabulous projects.
I tried my hand at that with Oredev 2024 and talking about Nerves (also 2023 but that was just Elixir).
You can watch it, share it to the curious.
Soleil
Gus Workman, who recently contributed some major improvements to nerves_hub_cli, is gearing up to take on Nerves projects and right now he is sharing some experiments. The Soleil board got some glamour shots.
Follow the link to his Bluesky where he has shared some more details. I may get one of these in my hands soon and if so will have to try and get into some good trouble.
Nerves Meetup
Now available to follow on Bluesky. Alex and Redwire Labs does a great job with keeping this thing rolling.
The previous talk, Beeps and Ports is available online. Always interested in people doing audio with computers and this looks like a banger.
Next event is just before the Christmas period, check the event page for your localized time :)
Participating in the community
The Nerves community is found wherever Elixirists gather. Try any of the following:
Questions are best asked on the Elixir Forum.
Social conversation and banter:
- Elixir Slack, #nerves channel
- Elixir Discord, #nerves channel
How you can help Nerves
Contribute in the way that works for you:
- 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.
- Write or port a new hardware library and include it in the Elixir Circuits collection.
- 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.
Finally, if you have questions about the newsletter or want to suggest something you can simply respond to this email.
- Lars
