Categories
Development General VSCP

Change of #VSCP package header definition

The VSCP package header is a 16-bit code that give some information about a VSCP event. A change has been made to this header that is not binary backward compatible. Software relying on it must therefore be recompiled to be compatible with other software for the upcoming version 14.0 of VSCP & Friends.

The first change is that the dumb-node bit has been moved from bit 14 to bit 15. This bit is used to indicate that an event originate from a node that does not have a MDF, no registers, noting else than that it can send VSCP events and maybe receive VSCP events. Ignorant of any other rules. Applications that used the VSCP_HEADER16_DUMB define will handle this perfectly if recompiled.

The second change is the bit that tells that the GUID is an IPv6 address. This bit was previously in bit 15 but is now in bit 12. Furthermore a field of three bits (14/13/12) has been allocated for GUID types. Applications that want to be compatible with the upcoming 14.0 release must take care of this.

Two new GUID types are also introduced. RFC-4122 V1 and RFC-4122 V4. You can read more about the difference between them here. This make sit easier to take advantage of UUID generating tools like this one.

So the complete header is now defined as

/*
            Bit 15 - This is a dumb node. No MDF, register, nothing.
            Bit 14 - GUID type 
            Bit 13 - GUID type
            Bit 12 - GUID type (GUID is IP v.6 address.)
            Bit 8-11 = Reserved
            Bit 765 =  priority, Priority 0-7 where 0 is highest.
            Bit 4 = hard coded, true for a hard coded device.
            Bit 3 = Don't calculate CRC, false for CRC usage.
                  Just checked when CRC is used.
                  If set the CRC should be set to 0xAA55 for
                  the event to be accepted without a CRC check.
            Bit 2 = Rolling index.
            Bit 1 = Rolling index.
            Bit 0 = Rolling index.
 */

New and old/changed defines are

#define VSCP_HEADER16_IPV6_GUID 0x1000 /* GUID is IPv6 address */
#define VSCP_HEADER16_DUMB 0x8000      /* This node is dumb */

/* Bits 14/13/12 for GUID type */
#define VSCP_HEADER16_GUID_TYPE_STANDARD  0x0000 /* VSCP standard GUID */
#define VSCP_HEADER16_GUID_TYPE_IPV6  0x1000     /* GUID is IPv6 address */
/* https://www.sohamkamani.com/blog/2016/10/05/uuid1-vs-uuid4/ */
#define VSCP_HEADER16_GUID_TYPE_RFC4122V1  0x2000 /* GUID is RFC 4122 Version 1 */
#define VSCP_HEADER16_GUID_TYPE_RFC4122V4  0x3000 /* GUID is RFC 4122 Version 4 */

Categories
Development General VSCP

New #VSCP documentation site

The VSCP project will move away from Gitbook (with all it’s problem and slow/no support) in favor of Docsify deployed on one of our own servers. This will make it easier to add versioned documentation, among many other things.

At the moment only the VSCP spec. is available but other documentation will follow.

The VSCP documentation site is located at http://docs.vscp.org

Categories
Drivers General VSCP

The new #VSCP #MQTT driver

The MQTT driver is next i line in the major rewrite of the VSCP software that is going on. Currently MQTT publishing works. As before the “simple” method is available so that one can publish the value for an event on a MQTT topic. But now it is also possible to publish VSCP events on string form, XML form and JSON form. The same functions will work for subscribing. It is therefore very easy to interface for example node-red and others. But for node-red more support functionality will come.

Also new in the next release is that Level II drivers use a totally new interface. You may now also (re)configure them on the fly if you need and enable that functionality.

But still some code to go through before the 12.0.0 release.

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General

US

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General

Status of VSCP

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General

Wishing everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving



		
Categories
General VSCP

#VSCPWORKS #VSCP

vscpworks is deprecated. But as it will still take some time before the ++ version is released some updates will be done to it to keep it usable by the community.

In the current release a Debian package is for example available for Debian/Ubuntu. A windows setup will also be available soon.

Categories
Development General VSCP

New #VSCP Level II driver interface

The driver interface for Level II drivers will change for the upcoming 14.0.0 release. In previous versions the message passing has been done through the tcp/ip interface. This is no longer used (will still be used by Level III drivers).

The interface a driver maker has to implement is very simple and looks like this

// Open connection
long VSCPOpen( const char *pPathConfig, const unsigned char*pguid );

// Close connection
int VSCPClose( long handle );

// Write event
int VSCPWrite( long handle, const vscpEvent *pEvent, long timeout );

// Read event
int VSCPRead( long handle, vscpEvent *pEvent, unsigned long timeout );

// Get driver version MSB = major, LSB = build with minor/release in between
unsigned long VSCPGetVersion(  void );

// Get vendor string describing driver maker
const char *VSCPGetVendorString( void );

I think it is pretty selfexplanatory.

All Level II driver now must have a unique GUID assign to them. Configuration is

<driver enable="true"     
        name="driver-name"     
        path-driver="/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/vscpl2drv-driver-name1.so"     
        path-config="/var/lib/vscpl2drv-driver-name/drv.xml"       
        guid="FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FC:88:99:AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF" 
</driver>

Worth to note here is that driver now by default will be installed to /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ and /usr/lib/x86_32-linux-gnu/ so one can have 32-bit and 64-bit drivers installed on a system at the same time. We by this adopt to Debian roles used in deb packages.

Also driver names will end with the major version. So a a level II driver “automation” will be vscpl2drv-automation1. Also, drivers will comply to the Linux library installation schema used on Linux so they will be installed with the full version for example vscpl2drv-automation1.so.1.1.1 but links will be created for vscpl2drv-automation1.so.1.1, vscpl2drv-automation1.so.1 and vscpl2drv-automation1.so so drivers can be addressed as before.

If you make driver please use this schema. In the same way use vscpl1drv- as prefix for level I driver.

name is a system unique name for the driver.

path-driver gives the path to the driver as expected.

path-config is a path to a configuration file for a driver. Normally this file should be in xml format. The location for the configuration file can be anywhere but recommended is /var/lib/vscpl2drv-driver-name/ for a driver that can be configured on the fly and /etc/vscp for a driver that are static. The later being the safest place.

guid is a system unique GUID for the driver. This GUID must be set and it must be valid.

New for level II drivers is that they will be able to be configured on the fly and be interacted with through the web interface, websockets and tcp/ip interface. One can therefore easily set up configuration pages etc. More on that later.

For a sample of the new futures and a base for your own projects check the vscpl2drv-automation driver. This driver implements the automation functionality that was previously integrated into the VSCP daemon. Tables, DM, remote variables, udp, multicast are other functionality that is moved out to drivers with the upcoming 14.0.0 version.

A lot of new functionality is demonstrated in the vscpl2drv-automation. Save and load for example that save/load the current configuration. Also all parameters are possible to edit/change when the driver is loaded and alive in a system.

Some parameters may still be changed so look at tis as somewhat preliminary information.

Categories
Programming Raspberry Pi

Building #ARM #Raspbian packages on your #Intel PC

If you are a maintainer of a software project as I am, you probably spend a lot of time testing and deploying code. The more platforms you add the harder this gets and at some point you need to think carefully what you can do to minimize manual work.

I build things for Ubuntu/Debian/Raspian and Windows. In the beginning a lot of the deployment here was done on each platform. Hours spent on this for each release. Frustrating. I decided to do some scripts that would make it possible to do the first tree automatically. Saving time if I could get it to work.

I found Stein Magnus Jodal‘s excellent article Building ARM Debian packages with pbuilder and he is the only one that should take credit for the things I describe here. I am just a copy cat in this case, well more or less, just adding some vital things.

I had no major problem to get buildings for Ubuntu and Debian to work with pbuilder following Stein Magnis Jodal’s document. The ARM builds was another thing. What I got was this

...
 qemu:handle_cpu_signal received signal outside vCPU context @ pc=0x60184bcc
 qemu:handle_cpu_signal received signal outside vCPU context @ pc=0x600019f9
...

qemu (or rather pbuilder-satisfydepends) fails when checking dependencies. After a long struggle I found that replacing pbuilder-satisfydepends with pbuilder-satisfydepends-apt was a solution to this problem.

I repeat the steps from Stein Magnis Jodal’s document here with my changes and updates and comments to get things working. Again credit is to Stein Magnis Jodal.

Setup pbuilder environment

Add a file .pbuilderrc to your root acount with the following content

!/bin/sh
 set -e
 if [ "$OS" == "debian" ]; then
     MIRRORSITE="http://ftp.se.debian.org/debian/"
     COMPONENTS="main contrib non-free"
     DEBOOTSTRAPOPTS=("${DEBOOTSTRAPOPTS[@]}"
         "--keyring=/usr/share/keyrings/debian-archive-keyring.gpg")
     : ${DIST:="stretch"}
     : ${ARCH:="amd64"}
     if [ "$DIST" == "jessie" ]; then
         #EXTRAPACKAGES="$EXTRAPACKAGES debian-backports-keyring"
         OTHERMIRROR="$OTHERMIRROR | deb $MIRRORSITE jessie-backports $COMPONENTS"
     fi
 elif [ "$OS" == "raspbian" ]; then
     MIRRORSITE="http://ftp.acc.umu.se/mirror/raspbian/raspbian/"
     COMPONENTS="main contrib non-free"
     PBUILDERSATISFYDEPENDSCMD="/usr/lib/pbuilder/pbuilder-satisfydepends-apt"
     DEBOOTSTRAPOPTS=("${DEBOOTSTRAPOPTS[@]}"
         "--keyring=/usr/share/keyrings/raspbian-archive-keyring.gpg")
     : ${DIST:="stretch"}
     : ${ARCH:="armhf"}
 elif [ "$OS" == "ubuntu" ]; then
     MIRRORSITE="http://se.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/"
     COMPONENTS="main restricted universe multiverse"
     DEBOOTSTRAPOPTS=("${DEBOOTSTRAPOPTS[@]}"
         "--keyring=/usr/share/keyrings/ubuntu-archive-keyring.gpg")
 else
     echo "Unknown OS: $OS"
     exit 1
 fi
 if [ "$DIST" == "" ]; then
     echo "DIST is not set"
     exit 1
 fi

Note the PBUILDERSATISFYDEPENDSCMD under the Raspbian section.

Now pbuilder will require three environment variables (in upper case) for it’s use

OS

The os you build for.It can be set to ubuntu, debian or raspbian

ARCH

The arcitecture you are builing for. It can be any of amd64, i386, armel, or armhf. Yes som eother supported arcitecure also of course.

DIST

Distribution of the os. For Debian/Raspbian buster, stretch, jessie. For Ubuntu eoan, disco, bionic, xenial, trusty. Well others shoudl work to.

If you are on a PC qemu-debootstrap is used for the ARM builds. So you have to install it with

sudo apt install pbuilder qemu-user-static

We also need the keyrings. For Ubuntu and Debian install them with

sudo apt install ubuntu-keyring debian-archive-keyring

If that for some reason does not work you can fetch the keyring fro Debian at https://packages.debian.org/sid/all/ubuntu-keyring/download and for Ubuntu keyring can be fetched here https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-keyring

The keyring for Raspbian you can get here

 wget http://archive.raspbian.org/raspbian/pool/main/r/raspbian-archive-keyring/raspbian-archive-keyring_20120528.2_all.deb  
sudo dpkg -i raspbian-archive-keyring_20120528.2_all.deb

Now you need to build the chroots. You do this with steps like

sudo mkdir -p /var/cache/pbuilder/debian-stretch-amd64/aptcache/  
sudo OS=debian DIST=stretch ARCH=amd64 pbuilder --create

Replace OS/DIST/ARCH for your needs.

All you need now is the Debian source package for the code you want to work with. Go to the folder where it is and issue

sudo OS=debian DIST=stretch ARCH=armhf pbuilder build *.dsc

Replace OS/DIST/ARCH for your needs.

If all goes well you find the resulting package in

/var/cache/pbuilder//var/cache/pbuilder/debian-stretch-amd64/result/

replace ‘stretch’, ‘amd64’ and ‘debian’ as to you settings for DIST, ARCH and OS.

If you rather want you can go into an unpacked source folder and issu

tar xvf ../src-pkg.debian.tar.xz
tar xvf ../src-pkg.orig.tar.gz
sudo OS=debian DIST=stretch ARCH=amd64 pdebuild

Again replace OS/DIST/ARCH for your needs.

Thats it really.

I experienced situation when dh-autoreconf was not available in the chroot and when it did not get installed. This was for Ubuntu. If this happens you can instll it manually with

sudo OS=ubuntu DIST=xenial ARCH=amd64 pbuilder --login --save-after-exec 
apt install dh-autoreconf 
exit

Hope this can save some time for someone. And again thanks to Stein Magnis Jodal for his work.

Lazy section

Below is some code you can use if you think typing on a keyboard is tiresome…

Ubuntu

sudo mkdir -p /var/cache/pbuilder/ubuntu-trusty-amd64/aptcache/
sudo OS=ubuntu DIST=trusty ARCH=amd64 pbuilder --create
sudo OS=ubuntu DIST=trusty ARCH=amd64 pbuilder build vscpl2drv-automation1_1.1.0-1.dsc

sudo mkdir -p /var/cache/pbuilder/ubuntu-xenial-amd64/aptcache/
sudo OS=ubuntu DIST=xenial ARCH=amd64 pbuilder --create
sudo OS=ubuntu DIST=xenial ARCH=amd64 pbuilder build vscpl2drv-automation1_1.1.0-1.dsc

sudo mkdir -p /var/cache/pbuilder/ubuntu-bionic-amd64/aptcache/
sudo OS=ubuntu DIST=bionic ARCH=amd64 pbuilder --create
sudo OS=ubuntu DIST=bionic ARCH=amd64 pbuilder build vscpl2drv-automation1_1.1.0-1.dsc

sudo mkdir -p /var/cache/pbuilder/ubuntu-disco-amd64/aptcache/
sudo OS=ubuntu DIST=disco ARCH=amd64 pbuilder --create
sudo OS=ubuntu DIST=disco ARCH=amd64 pbuilder build vscpl2drv-automation1_1.1.0-1.dsc

sudo mkdir -p /var/cache/pbuilder/ubuntu-eoan-amd64/aptcache/
sudo OS=ubuntu DIST=eoan ARCH=amd64 pbuilder --create
sudo OS=ubuntu DIST=eoan ARCH=amd64 pbuilder build vscpl2drv-automation1_1.1.0-1.dsc

Debian

For the arm builds you may need to add the line

PBUILDERSATISFYDEPENDSCMD="/usr/lib/pbuilder/pbuilder-satisfydepends-apt"

to your pbuilder configuration (.pbuilderrc) file.

sudo mkdir -p /var/cache/pbuilder/raspbian-jessie-amd64/aptcache/
sudo OS=raspbian DIST=jessie ARCH=amd64 pbuilder --create
sudo OS=raspbian DIST=jessie ARCH=amd64 pbuilder build *.dsc

sudo mkdir -p /var/cache/pbuilder/raspbian-stretch-amd64/aptcache/
sudo OS=raspbian DIST=stretch ARCH=amd64 pbuilder --create
sudo OS=raspbian DIST=stretch ARCH=amd64 pbuilder build *.dsc

sudo mkdir -p /var/cache/pbuilder/raspbian-buster-amd64/aptcache/
sudo OS=raspbian DIST=buster ARCH=amd64 pbuilder --create
sudo OS=raspbian DIST=buster ARCH=amd64 pbuilder build *.dsc


sudo mkdir -p /var/cache/pbuilder/raspbian-jessie-i385/aptcache/
sudo OS=raspbian DIST=jessie ARCH=i385 pbuilder --create
sudo OS=raspbian DIST=jessie ARCH=i385 pbuilder build *.dsc

sudo mkdir -p /var/cache/pbuilder/raspbian-stretch-i385/aptcache/
sudo OS=raspbian DIST=stretch ARCH=i385 pbuilder --create
sudo OS=raspbian DIST=stretch ARCH=i385 pbuilder build *.dsc

sudo mkdir -p /var/cache/pbuilder/raspbian-buster-i385/aptcache/
sudo OS=raspbian DIST=buster ARCH=i385 pbuilder --create
sudo OS=raspbian DIST=buster ARCH=i385 pbuilder build *.dsc


sudo mkdir -p /var/cache/pbuilder/raspbian-jessie-armle/aptcache/
sudo OS=raspbian DIST=jessie ARCH=armle pbuilder --create
sudo OS=raspbian DIST=jessie ARCH=armle pbuilder build *.dsc

sudo mkdir -p /var/cache/pbuilder/raspbian-stretch-armle/aptcache/
sudo OS=raspbian DIST=stretch ARCH=armle pbuilder --create
sudo OS=raspbian DIST=stretch ARCH=armle pbuilder build *.dsc

sudo mkdir -p /var/cache/pbuilder/raspbian-buster-armle/aptcache/
sudo OS=raspbian DIST=buster ARCH=armle pbuilder --create
sudo OS=raspbian DIST=buster ARCH=armle pbuilder build *.dsc


sudo mkdir -p /var/cache/pbuilder/raspbian-jessie-armhf/aptcache/
sudo OS=raspbian DIST=jessie ARCH=armhf pbuilder --create
sudo OS=raspbian DIST=jessie ARCH=armhf pbuilder build *.dsc

sudo mkdir -p /var/cache/pbuilder/raspbian-stretch-armhf/aptcache/
sudo OS=raspbian DIST=stretch ARCH=armhf pbuilder --create
sudo OS=raspbian DIST=stretch ARCH=armhf pbuilder build *.dsc

sudo mkdir -p /var/cache/pbuilder/raspbian-buster-armhf/aptcache/
sudo OS=raspbian DIST=buster ARCH=armhf pbuilder --create
sudo OS=raspbian DIST=buster ARCH=armhf pbuilder build *.dsc

Raspbian

Use armle for Raspberry Pi 1

sudo mkdir -p /var/cache/pbuilder/raspbian-jessie-armhf/aptcache/
sudo OS=raspbian DIST=jessie ARCH=armhf pbuilder --create
sudo OS=raspbian DIST=jessie ARCH=armhf pbuilder build *.dsc

sudo mkdir -p /var/cache/pbuilder/raspbian-stretch-armhf/aptcache/
sudo OS=raspbian DIST=stretch ARCH=armhf pbuilder --create
sudo OS=raspbian DIST=stretch ARCH=armhf pbuilder build *.dsc

sudo mkdir -p /var/cache/pbuilder/raspbian-buster-armhf/aptcache/
sudo OS=raspbian DIST=buster ARCH=armhf pbuilder --create
sudo OS=raspbian DIST=buster ARCH=armhf pbuilder build *.dsc

This info is current when this is written but may not be when you read it.

Categories
General

CadSoft eagle 6.6.0 on new Ubuntu

I have had problems installing my eagle license for 6.6.0 on new Ubuntu versions for a while and have been forces to run it on my Windows machine (yes I have a license).

I found this link and it is halfway working. Superb work btw. But I still get a complaint about eagle not finding libssl1.0.0

I today found that the solution to this problem is to install libssl1.0.0_1.0.2n-1ubuntu5.3_i386.deb from here. Pretty obvious maybe. Now everything works as expected again.

Posted here in case someone else have the same problem and want to save a minute or two.

edit:

This may also be needed onm later Ubuntu versions

apt-get install libxrender1:i386 libxtst6:i386 libxi6:i386