users May 2023

users@lists.genode.org

15 participants
12 discussions

Announcement: Genode OS Framework version 23.05 released
by Christian Helmuth 22 Aug '23

22 Aug '23

Today we released Genode 23.05 as a colorful bouquet of new features, improvements, and fixes. The most prominent change for developers is the update of our tool chain to GCC 12, binutils 2.40, and GDB 13.1. The new GCC version gave us the opportunity to switch from C++17 to C++20 as default setting and benefit from modern C++ language features. Another noteworthy addition falling into the same category is the release of the evolving Goa tool for Sculpt 23.04, which now enables the use of existing SDKs like Lomiri or Rust's cargo for Genode. Our Linux device-driver environment (DDE), which enables the use of Linux drivers as Genode components was upgraded to Linux 6.1.20. For example, the DDE now powers our cross-platform Wifi stack that works for the PC and ARM platforms as the PinePhone alike. Further, we integrated the initial use of our custom base-hw microkernel as x86 hypervisor, a profoundly reworked block-encryption stack, and updates of supported third-party software like the seL4 kernel and VirtualBox. Last but not least, we published our annual documentation update in form of "Genode Foundations" and "Genode Platforms" books. The current release contains the following changes and new features: - Goa tool updated to Sculpt OS 23.04 - Ubuntu-Touch-UI toolkit - Initial support for Rust cargo - New tool chain based on GCC 12.3 - C++20 enabled by default - Annual documentation update - Uniform Wifi stack across PC and ARM platforms - Revision of Genode's custom block-encryption infrastructure - Linux device-driver environment updated to Linux 6.1.20 - Improved USB, Intel display, and NVMe drivers - VirtualBox 6.1.44 - Initial x86 virtualization via the base-hw microkernel - Updated seL4 microkernel to version 12.1 - NetBSD rump kernel on RISC-V Read the complete release documentation for the version 23.05 here https://genode.org/documentation/release-notes/23.05 Best regards -- Christian Helmuth Genode Labs https://www.genode-labs.com/ · https://genode.org/ https://twitter.com/GenodeLabs · https://genodians.org/ Genode Labs GmbH · Amtsgericht Dresden · HRB 28424 · Sitz Dresden Geschäftsführer: Dr.-Ing. Norman Feske, Christian Helmuth

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Announcement: Sculpt OS 23.04 released
by Christian Helmuth 30 Jun '23

30 Jun '23

Hello Genodians, I'm proud to announce the release of Genode-based Sculpt OS 23.04. https://genode.org/news/sculpt-os-release-23.04 Today's release marks the first-time PinePhone support in addition to the PC version. We added two key features to Genode during the past months, which are the phone-oriented Sculpt user-interface variant and the system-update functionality. With these tools at hand, Sculpt versions can be switched by three easy steps directly in the integrated user interface: downloading system images to the software depot, install the desired version on the boot medium, and reboot the device. Further, the release supports so-called presets in the system menu UI, which are entire runtime scenarios. The user can load and switch between presets by just one click. Presets currently available in Sculpt are a simple GUI demo (nano3d), a simple desktop including background picture and window manager, and a ready to use Falkon web browser. Still, components can be integrated into the system (or the currently running preset) by the + menu of the component graph. As usual, the starting point is a ready-to-use disk image at the Sculpt download page. https://genode.org/download/sculpt Documentation including use and build instructions for Sculpt is available at the following pages. https://genode.org/documentation/articles/sculpt-23-04 https://genode.org/documentation/sculpt-23-04.pdf Happy sculpting -- Christian Helmuth Genode Labs https://www.genode-labs.com/ · https://genode.org/ https://twitter.com/GenodeLabs · https://genodians.org/ Genode Labs GmbH · Amtsgericht Dresden · HRB 28424 · Sitz Dresden Geschäftsführer: Dr.-Ing. Norman Feske, Christian Helmuth

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ath9k usb Wi-Fi driver
by Colin Parker 23 Jun '23

23 Jun '23

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Wireguard with remote peer
by Stefan Thöni 01 Jun '23

01 Jun '23

Dear Genodians We are looking into using wireguard to access sensor nodes connected by a genode-powered gateway through a wireguard server running on Linux. By trying this, we discovered that the wireguard connection works only once, and upon restart of the runscript yields "Invalid handshake initiation" in the servers log. We based on a post by wireguard developer Jason Donenfeld [1] (key phrase: "WireGuard relies on a timestamp counter always moving forward.") we concluded that this problem is caused by DDE restarting at time zero instead of using an RTC connection, thereby triggering wireguard's replay protection mechanism on the server peer. We're not sure how to best fix the problem. Do you have any suggestions? [1] https://inbox.vuxu.org/wireguard/7aa9fe5e-2ae2-cf8b-ae6d-d98de2031b44@poste… Best Regards Stefan Thöni gapfruit AG Baarerstrasse 135 6300 Zug https://gapfruit.com

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PinePhone Sculpt Success
by John J. Karcher 24 May '23

24 May '23

Hello All, I am happy to report that, after switching to a new SD card, I had immediate success installing and running PinePhone Sculpt (3GB developer edition). Everything works as expected (except the SIM card, which I can investigate further). No more sluggishness or problems with screen flickering. At first, I thought "osci" wasn't working, but then I noticed that the microphone was set to "Phone" instead of "On", and changing that solved the problem. PEBKAC! ;^) I would like to say that I really like the Leitzentrale design. The overall section-based design is clean and easy to navigate by finger, and the presets concept is really handy. The software adding/updating system is really nice, and translates surprisingly well to the small screen / touch interface. One minor touch that I really appreciate is the Software section status bar ("...", "!", etc.), which is subtle but highly informative, even when looking at other sections - the "Genode Way" even in small details! (Likewise for the "+" indicator for charging.) Overall, this is very impressive! I can't wait to see the progress continue, but I already leave the phone on all day with Sculpt running, even though I'm not really using it, just because it's fun and gives me hope for the future. :^) Actually, with a few more simple apps, utilities, and/or games, I think the system is ready to be useful already. Thanks for all the hard work! Happy Sculpting! John J. Karcher devuser(a)alternateapproach.com

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Fetches failing for latest img Sculpt PP
by Sagar Acharya 22 May '23

22 May '23

Dear Devs, Kudos to the team on the progress on Sculpt OS for Pinephone. I have flashed it on 3GB RAM convergence edition. Going to storage option, I enable use of 16GB memory card on which Sculpt is flashed and after connecting to WiFi when I load any preset, say of gpu test, Status shows it tried to fetch, then it switches to unavailable and then it shows failed for all pkg s. While fetching mesa gpu-lima gpu drv. Thanking you Sagar Acharya http://humaaraartha.in <https://humaaraartha.in> P.S. 5GHz band is not available in options.

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VNC server thoughts
by ttcoder＠netcourrier.com 15 May '23

15 May '23

Dear Genodians, Late this week I decided it was time to add a VNC server to my "suite", spent a bit of time on that, here's my feedback. Skip to bottom for "actionable" stuff. My first instinct was to grep repos/ genode-world for the string "vnc" since those two are my go-to places to find ports. Found VNC-related libs and a "hello world" style example server. (its Makefile seems to need tweaking BTW). Checked out https://genode.org/about/challenges and indeed VNC server is listed there as a potential future task. So that settled it, I thought, I will have to wait until someone volunteers (or volunteer myself). But reading more carefully, I noted it referenced the old "Framebuffer" interface instead of the up-to-date "Gui" interface, and "Input" instead of "Events". So that prompted me to also grep my internal notes and... found a reference to https://genodians.org/jschlatow/2021-06-09-vnc-server , which addresses my need neatly. Yay ! It seems to require a one-liner patch though, otherwise it crashes with a "invalid zero alloc" style message. So I just went ahead and hardcoded a non-empty initial _area (setting it to 320,200) on the first line of this constructor here (_area gets set to the correct screen size later in the code path anyway). Seems leaving it set to "capture.screensize" sets it to an empty area otherwise. https://github.com/jschlatow/goa-pkgs/blob/e881b9e236aa2c2d5083259f9dea68e4… Will look into adding password support etc but I'm already quite a happy camper at any rate, this propels me way ahead. *** Some low-priority recommendations (for after the 23.05 release when the dust settles): * maybe update (or remove) the "challenges" entry about a VNC server * maybe look into "make test/ vnc server example" : I solved the "example.o not found" error with a hackish hardcoding of the full path (strange that it's needed, the "vpath" gmake directive should suffice? my gmake skills are close to zero so not sure) * maybe look into the "zero alloc" crash. Cedric

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[depot_autoremove] Removing outdated PGKs from the depot
by Alice Domage 12 May '23

12 May '23

Dear Genodians, With the democratization of Goa and the direction we are taking to use it more often in our workflow, we extensively create, upload, download, extract, and deploy PKGs on our devices. Inevitably, we filled up our storage with the depot, most notably on our arm_v8a-based gateway that only comes with 16Gb of eMMC. We need a strategy to clearly define what can be removed from the device and do it accordingly. I have sketched out a plan for implementing this feature and would like your opinion on that. Also, would you be interested in taking this upstream? I want to create a new component, 'depot_autoremove', that would be executed by the 'depot_download_manager' after the 'extract' step as an optional stage. The 'depot_autoremove' component will consume a config, the installation config, to identify a set of packages to keep installed. It will remove any other packages and orphan dependencies not part of that set. That would be the first iteration for this component. You may have already thought about this problem and might have an idea of how to solve it. 1. Is there already an existing solution to this problem that I have overlooked? 2. Is there an alternative approach that you would be more in favour of? 3. What is your opinion on this approach? Best, Alice Domage

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Help with usb_report_filter
by Colin Parker 12 May '23

12 May '23

Hello, I'm trying to configure my usb driver to accept multiple possible vendor/product combinations. I found the component usb_report_filter, which as I understand consumes a usb devices report, and produces a usb configuration file with a matching policy and a report that my component can use to request the device. The report to my driver looks like this: <usb_devices> <device label="usb-1-2" vendor_id="0xcf3" product_id="0x9271" bus="0x1" dev="0x2"/> </usb_devices> and it makes sense so my driver requests a device called "usb-1-2". The corresponding usb configuration is: <config bios_handoff="true"><report devices="yes" config="yes"/> <raw> <report devices="yes"/> <policy label="wifi_drv -> usb-1-2" vendor_id="0xcf3" product_id="0x9271" bus="0x1" dev="0x2"/> </raw> </config> This seems like almost what I want, but somehow the <policy> node within the <raw> node seems to stop the driver from accepting this connection - I get a warning saying: [init -> usb_host_drv -> usb_drv] Warning: no policy defined for label 'wifi_drv -> usb-1-2' Am I using the component right? Is there a better way to do this? I followed the example in repos/ports/run/vbox5_genode_usb_hid_raw.run. Thanks, Colin

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Can Genode run on the Mixtile Blade 3?
by Jacek Rużyczka 06 May '23

06 May '23

Good evening Genodians, in a couple of months I'll receive a number of Mixtile Blade 3 SBCs (based on the RK3588) https://www.crowdsupply.com/mixtile-limited/mixtile-blade-3 and would like to (at least) try to equip them with the Genode OS. What's necessary for my project, is clustering four such nodes with a PCIe switch (supplied by Mixtile; see their web page) as well as using single SBCs as storage nodes, which will be connected to a hard drive. Is it possible to port Genode onto this platform, or is this impossible with the current version? I simply don't wanna start an infaust undertaking. Thank you. Regards Jacek Rużyczka

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