Development snapshots for 2.6 release

#1

Hello everyone. We have new development snapshots for those of you who would like to give them a spin.

As usual, please keep in mind these are experimental, yada yada. May cause damage, loss, grief, and so on.

Common changes

On both ORx and Lighthouse the snapshots include:

  • Fixes for FSAL
  • Fix for twitter app indexing glitch
  • Content analytics tracking
  • New “Settings” section in the settings page (yes, “Yo dawg, we heard u like settings…”) which allows you to turn the analytics off and change the default UI language

Note that you will see the language wizard step pop up again right after booting these snapshots. This is normal.

Lighthouse-specific changes

Lighthouse now has the ability to retain SSH user password if it’s changed. This should be good news for those of you that wish to expose the SSH port to the Internet.

To change the password, ssh into the receiver and use the passwd command.

(ORx could do this since several releases ago.)

ORx-specific change

ORx-specific changes are bit more substantial this time. The new card image format means that you cannot simply update an existing card. You will need to use a tool like Gparted to remove all partitions on the card or get a new card.

With the new format, all you need to do to create a new ORx card is to unzip the contents of the zip file to the card. And that’s pretty much it.

After having used the receiver for a while, you will find two new files and one new folder on the card if you put it in a computer:

  • data.img - databases and logs
  • persist.img - persistent configuration
  • DOWNLOADS - the files downloaded from Outernet

With future releases there will also be no difference between creating new cards and updating existing ones. It’ll just be a matter of copying the new files over the old ones.

Download locations

2 Likes
#2

Hello Branko,
it´s up and running: http://obereip.selfhost.de/en/files/.
The new installation process is easy to perform.

Wolfgang

#3

Hi Branko - - Lighthouse Version 2.6a3 loaded as described in Wiki without any problems. All content reappeared as expected. Will watch for anomalies. Ken

#4

Thanks Ken.

I’ve uploaded LH snapshot 2.6a4, and ORx snapshot 2.6a2. The changes in them are quite minor, so you don’t really need to upgrade to them.

#5

Ok, so first 2.6 release candidate images are being uploaded for both ORx and LH. The following changes are included in addition to the list in the first post:

  • Help text is now shown below settings in the new “Settings” block
  • Fix for Internet detection code in the analytics package
  • ONDD fix that resolves issues with some large USB sticks

Look for 2.6rc1 images.

#6

This is what the new settings subsection looks like:

2016-02-16-145949_927x367_scrot.png927×367 20.4 KB

Note that analytics is turned on by default.

#7

I don’t see the help text. Ken

#8

Are you using the correct image?

2016-02-16-182621_493x880_scrot.png493×880 32.1 KB

#9

Yes - - here it is:

#10

OK wait a minute - - you said Lighthouse 2.6a4. That’s even newer than 2.6a3. Let me download 2.6a4 and try it. Ken

#11

Last version is 2.6rc1

#12

OH let me do that one. 2.6a4 wouldn’t update 2.6a3 Ken

#13

Note that when updating using USB sticks, you can leave the external storage stick/hard drive in and plug in a second stick with the update.

1 Like
#14

I got Lighthouse version 2.6rc1 loaded now. It looks as you pictured it. :grinning:

I presume turning off the analytic setting stops sending the “heart beat” status data. This makes sense for folks out in the field who pay by the bit for their internet connectivity. I don’t worry about that at home, but I know (for example) in the Bahamas using 3G cellular internet costs $20 per megabit! That’s over 100 times the cost in Europe on 3G cellular. Ken

#15

To clarify, analytics is not the same as heartbeat. We still haven’t added the option of turning heartbeat off.

Analytics sends us actual file usage statistics, including the number of times files are accessed, and the way they are accessed (download vs read, etc). This data helps us determine what kind of content is interesting to the end user, and it also allows us to collect information we need when talking to potential clients and investors.

Given there could be users that do not like this, though, we added the option of turning it off. Even though the data does not allow us to tell who is using the receiver, it still lets us know where this receiver may be located, and how many different users are using it, which may appear as too intrusive to more sensitive users.

In the next release, we will be adding the option to turn off heartbeat, among other things.

#16

Either way you go, this could be a choice between “privacy” and “economy”.

Keeping in mind, our primary user population does not have internet connectivity, so this may be a mute point. Ken