Summary
Zephyr microPlatform changes for 0.18
Zephyr from near the end of the v1.12 cycle, minor application updates for new Bluetooth APIs.
Linux microPlatform changes for 0.18
OSF Unified Linux Kernel updated to the 4.16.8 stable release.
Zephyr microPlatform
Summary
Zephyr from near the end of the v1.12 cycle, minor application updates for new Bluetooth APIs.
Highlights
- No MCUboot changes
- Zephyr has a new watchdog API, Python-based menuconfig, new storage APIs, Bluetooth nonvolatile settings
- Sample applications were updated to new Bluetooth identity setting API
Components
MCUboot
Features
- Not addressed in this update
Bugs
- Not addressed in this update
Zephyr
Features
New Watchdog API:
- Continuing the Zephyr Long Term Support (LTS) goal of having stable driver APIs, the watchdog.h interface was overhauled and re-worked. The wdt_enable(), wdt_get_config(), wdt_set_config() and wdt_api_reload() routines are still around for now, but have been deprecated. Users of the watchdog API will want to switch to the new routines documented in include/watchdog.h instead.
A driver using the new API was merged for the nRF SoC family's watchdog peripheral. This driver uses device tree.
Menuconfig is now in Python:
- The previously experimental Python menuconfig implementation has replaced the C tools, following the addition of symbol search and jump-to-definition features.
Users who were building the C tools in order to run menuconfig must use the new Python tools instead. Windows users need to install a new dependency via pip (by re-running "pip3 install -r scripts/requirements.txt") before using this program. Mac and Linux users do not require any additional dependencies.
Zephyr's use of Kconfig includes additional features not present in the language implemented by the C tools. Somewhat confusingly, documentation for these features was added to the board porting guide:
http://docs.zephyrproject.org/porting/board_porting.html#kconfig-extensions
This is a significant change, in that it now makes Zephyr development possible on Windows in the native cmd.exe or Powershell shells, without any additional Unix-specific toolchains or environments.
Storage API changes:
- A variety of storage-related API changes were merged. These mostly are used to enable new features.
The Kconfig knob which enables the storage_partition flash partition (see http://docs.zephyrproject.org/devices/dts/flash_partitions.html) was renamed from CONFIG_FS_FLASH_MAP_STORAGE to CONFIG_FS_FLASH_STORAGE_PARTITION. This rename was done because use of the storage partition does not require the flash_map module.
The filesystem API's struct fs_mount_t can now store references to storage devices of arbitrary type in its storage_dev field; it was previously restricted to a struct device*, but is now a void*. This change was made to enable additional layers of indirection between this field and the backing device.
The disk_access.h API was modified to support simultaneous use of multiple disk interfaces. The old disk_access_ram.c and disk_access_flash.c have seen a corresponding refactor; their globally available functions are now hidden behind instances of the new struct disk_info and struct disk_operations structures introduced in this change. The external FAT file system library now supports multiple volumes.
The filesystem subsystem now supports multiple mounted instances of a filesystem. As a result of these changes, the fs/fs_interface.h API no longer assumes that either FAT or NFFS file systems are being used.
Bluetooth bt_storage removed in favor of settings API:
- The bt_storage API was removed, as it provided features now enabled by the settings subsystem using CONFIG_BT_SETTINGS. Users of this API will need updates.
The Bluetooth shell and mesh and mesh_demo samples now have settings support, as demonstrations of using the API.
Bluetooth Mesh support for the settings API required some refactoring to expose previously hidden symbols to the storage API. There are some tradeoffs, particularly related to managing flash wear when storing the local sequence number and replay protection list; refer to the help for the new CONFIG_BT_MESH_SEQ_STORE_RATE and BT_MESH_RPL_STORE_TIMEOUT options for details.
Using this API requires a larger system workqueue stack size; the present recommended size when using this API is now 2 KB, double its default value.
One additional alternative to using the settings API is the new bt_set_id_addr() routine, which allows applications to set their identity addresses in a manner similar to the bt_settings API.
Arches:
- ARMv8-M MCUs with the Main Extension now have support for hardware-based main stack overflow protection. The relevant Kconfig option to enable the feature is CONFIG_BUILTIN_STACK_GUARD.
x86 CPUs can now grant user space access to the heap when using the newlib C library.
Documentation:
- In something of a meta development, documentation was added for how to write Zephyr documentation:
http://docs.zephyrproject.org/contribute/doc-guidelines.html
Drivers and Device Tree:
- The YAML device tree bindings for SPI now include an optional cs-gpios property, which can be used to generate GPIO chip select definitions.
The bindings for ST's SPI-based BTLE nodes now require irq-gpios and reset-gpios properties. The names of such devices are now only present in Kconfig if a new CONFIG_HAS_DTS_SPI_PINS selector is unset.
There are two new Kconfig symbols, CONFIG_HAS_DTS_GPIO and CONFIG_HAS_DTS_GPIO_DEVICE, which respectively allow declaring that the GPIO driver supports device tree, and that drivers which need GPIOs do as well. Currently, only the STM32 and MCUX GPIO drivers select CONFIG_HAS_DTS_GPIO.
DT-based GPIO support for the NXP i.MX7 M4 SoC was added.
The mcux DSPI driver now uses device tree; SPI bindings were added to the SoC files appropriately to enable this change. This driver also now supports KW40/41Z SoCs.
The LED driver subsystem now has system call handlers for user mode configurations.
The USB device controller driver for STM32 devices now supports all STM32 families, among a variety of other improvements to enable USB support on STM32 MCUs in a variety of families. Board support was also added for olimexino_stm32 and stm32f3_disco.
The pinmux subsystem no longer supports user mode access. This subsystem's drivers lack sufficient input validation to prevent a malicious userspace from accessing unauthorized memory through API calls. A proper fix will require developing a specification for the subsystem, and updating existing drivers to do appropriate input validation.
Altera HAL drivers can now be run on Zephyr. Such a driver for the Nios-II modular scatter-gather DMA (mSGDMA) peripheral was merged, from the Altera SDK v17. This was used to add a shim driver using Zephyr's dma.h API.
Networking:
- The LWM2M implementation was significantly refactored and cleaned up. Once nice benefit of this work is a 3KB RAM savings when running an LWM2M client.
The network interface core now supports net_if_ipv4_select_src_addr() and net_if_ipv4_get_ll() routines for accessing IPv4 source addresses.
Each struct net_pkt now uses one less byte of space, thanks to an optimization in the size of its _unused field.
Testing:
- The test case documentation now describes best practices for developing a test suite, and how to list and skip test cases; see http://docs.zephyrproject.org/subsystems/test/ztest.html for details.
Various tests were converted to use the ztest API, along with other cleanups, renames, and Doxygen fixups added to the test suite.
Bugs
Build fix on sam_e70:
- A build issue on sam_e70 was fixed.
ARM MPU buffer validation fix:
- An off-by-one error in the ARM MPU buffer validation routine was fixed.
Bluetooth Mesh sequence number fixes:
- A dedicated routine for incrementing the sequence number in the Bluetooth Mesh implementation was added; in addition to fixing race conditions, this is used by Mesh's settings subsystem integration in order to persist sequence numbers to flash.
A Bluetooth Mesh bug affecting sequence number calculation in the Friend queue was fixed.
Drivers fixes:
- Fixes to the TI ADC108S102 driver; VL53L0X, LSM6DSL, and HTS221 sensor drivers; and QMSI UART driver were merged.
Sensor DTS fixes on NXP boards:
- Fixes for using the FXOS8700, FXAS21002, and MCR20A drivers on NXP boards were merged.
User mode heap access fix when using newlib:
- User mode heap access was fixed for applications which use the newlib C library. User mode applications also no longer allow the stack sentinel debugging feature to be enabled. This change was made because CONFIG_USERSPACE implies separate and more robust stack protection mechanisms.
Traffic class fixes:
- The networking traffic class map from packet priorities to traffic classes was fixed to comply with the IEEE 802.1Q specification.
Websocket Coverity fixes:
- The websocket implementation was refactored to avoid unnecessary tricky calculations, resolving Coverity warnings.
http_client fixes for TLS:
- The http_client sample was fixed in cases when TLS is enabled; previously, this application overflowed a stack in this use case.
smp_svr build fixed:
- The mcumgr smp_svr sample's build was fixed.
Network echo fixes:
- The echo_client and echo_server sample applications saw a few fixes; echo_server works again to test OpenThread on frdm_kw41z, and echo_client was fixed on cc2520.
DTS fixups:
- Various fixes and refactoring patches were merged to the extract_dts_includes.py script, which generates code used by Zephyr from the final device tree produced during an application build.
hawkBit and MQTT sample application
Features
Bluetooth identity API change:
- The sample was updated to use a new bt_set_id_addr() routine, following the upstream removal of the bt_settings API.
Bugs
- Not addressed in this update
LWM2M sample application
Features
Bluetooth identity API change:
- The sample was updated to use a new bt_set_id_addr() routine, following the upstream removal of the bt_settings API.
Bugs
- Not addressed in this update
Linux microPlatform
Summary
OSF Unified Linux Kernel updated to the 4.16.8 stable release.
Highlights
- OSF Unified Linux Kernel updated to 4.16.8.
Components
Meta OSF Layer
Features
Layer Update:
- OSF Unified Linux Kernel updated to 4.16.8.
Bugs
- Not addressed in this update
Meta Freescale
Features
Layer Update:
- New machine configuration for ls1043ardb-be, ls1046ardb-be, ls1088ardb-be, ls2088ardb-be.
Bugs
- Not addressed in this update
Meta Linaro
Features
Layer Update:
- Added optee-examples bitbake recipe, which builds the OPTEE examples trusted applications.
Bugs
- Not addressed in this update
Meta OpenEmbedded Layer
Features
Layer Update:
- Yp-tools updated to 4.2.3. Added wpan-tools recipe. Wireshark updated to 2.4.6. Mbedtls updated to 2.8.0.
Bugs
- Not addressed in this update
Meta Qualcomm
Features
Layer Update:
- Updated qmic, qrtr and rmtfs to the latest version available.
Bugs
- Not addressed in this update
Meta RaspberryPi
Features
Layer Update:
- rpi-config extended to cover more commonly used config variables.
Bugs
- Not addressed in this update
Meta Updater Layer
Features
Layer Update:
- Aktualizr now validates /var/sota file access permission before initializing the service. Aktualizr can now publish the target network information to the OTA+ server. Garage-sign version now depends on what gets provided by the remote server available in the sota credentials file.
Bugs
- Not addressed in this update