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I have updated the Bibo Patch Rollup Collection posted to SourceForge at
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=2773502&group_id=58151&atid=486699
The primary changes are in Patch 11, which provides DCC support, and the key
change in that patch was the modification of some assembly code that
performed motor controller bitmasking.
Still known to be outstanding is an issue using firmdl3 on Linux when using
a USB IR tower.
Thanks,
Matthew
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I have again updated the Bibo Patch Rollup Collection posted to SourceForge
at
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=2773502&group_id=58151&atid=486699
A big change this time is the consolidation of the code bases of util/firmdl
and util/dll-src. Working with all the similar-but-different code was
getting a bit cumbersome, so I finally decided to try to clean it up. This
should make enhancing or creating other host utilities much easier.
Point by point, updates since the last lugnet posting are as follows:
* Kudos to Joe for identifying the source of the IR tower problem in Linux,
as he tracked it down to the O_NDELAY flag. For now, this flag has been
removed.
* Made NCD tty types a runtime option instead of a compile-time #define.
* Merged patches for BrickOS with Bibo, including LDCC, lnp_printf, and
lnpmsg (formerly LegOShrink)
* Reworked firmdl3, dll, and lnpmsg under utils as well as lnp and
lnp-logic in the kernel to facilitate better code reuse, remove essentially
duplicate code, and establish a set of common functions for rcx_comm and
LNP. Merged the resulting code into util/host, deprecating util/firmld,
util/dll-src, and util/fontdesign.c.
* Util dll--made fast mode a runtime option instead of a compile-time
#define.
* Added ability to send LNP messages directly from the lnpmsg command line.
* Added ir-server from Jochen Hoenike's BrickEmu package and used the code
reworked from above to add support for tty downlinking (e.g. serial, USB,
TCP) or TCP uplinking.
Notes and issues:
* If lnp_integrity_byte() is processing firmware download communication on
the host (e.g. if lnpmsg is listening on an ir-server repeating the firmware
download), a segmentation fault will eventually result.
* Command-line argument format and command-line argument processing - the
various programs use different methods of processing command-line arguments,
resulting in similar argument being handled differently by different
programs. Ideally, this would be addressed in another round of code
cleanup.
* I am not currently setup to test either serial IR towers or NCD serial
connections, so any reports for these devices would be welcome.
Using the updated ir-server, I have actually been able to send firmdl3 to
ir-server (instance A) to ir-server (instance B) to USB IR tower to physical
RCX. I then used
dll to send helloworld_lnp.lx up the same route. Finally with one instance
of lnpmsg listening on ir-server (A) and another instance of lnpmsg
listening on ir-server (B), I ran the helloworld_lnp program on the physical
RCX. I did have to increase RCX_TIMEOUT to 500, but everything otherwise
works as expected.
I also tried the same sequence using BrickEmu (with a ROM image from my RCX)
instead of the USB IR tower. The only anomaly was that "unlock firmware"
fails, but everything else seems to work fine.
Thanks,
Matthew
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I've again updated the Bibo Patch Rollup Collection posted to SourceForge at
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=2773502&group_id=58151&atid=486699
This update adds two new patches--18 and 19.
18: For the host utilities, this patch attempts to standardize the command
line arguments and their processing. There is also some additional cleanup
in lnpmsg, plus the addressing of a gcc 4 warning that was brought to my
attention. The original lnpmsg (actually LegOShrink) supported logging to
file, sending from file, and filtering LNP addressing messages based on
destination host and/or port. To ease the process of standardizing the
common host utility code, some of those features were trimmed out; however,
some of the supporting functions remain in place, including SendFile() and
LogString in lnpmsg_comm.c
19: The assembly file dccasm.S with functions necessary for DCC operation
was moved from libs/dcc to alongside kernel/dcc.c. As has been the case
dcc.c, the code in dccasm.S now builds based on whether or not CONF_DCC has
been defined. The folder lib/dcc may be deleted.
Thank you,
Matthew
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The Bibo Patch Rollup Collection posted to SourceForge at
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=2773502&group_id=58151&atid=486699
has been updated.
This update adds a handful of patch files--20 through 24.
20: Nice group of Linux error/warning fixes from Carl and posted to
SourceForge at
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=2793018&group_id=58151&atid=486699
Thanks, Carl!
21: This is a group of bibo paches by Dr. Hoenicke, of which the major
changes relate to makefile, assembly branching, and util man page updates
(plus a documentation typo on my part--sorry! :-). Thank you!
The above patches were incorporated into the rollup to minimize merge
differences with subsequent patches.
22: This patch changes kexeci's argv argument from type char** to type
void** and is based on some (now old) feedback from the Lego.NET folks (
http://www.dcl.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/research/lego.NET/ ). Some delegate-type
functions aren't (yet) implemented for Lego.NET, but the capability should
be there for wait_event-type delegates. For the case of kexeci, the
Lego.NET delegate's argv would not be of type char**. From what I can tell
by reviewing the code, the type of argv does not matter to the BrickOS/Bibo
kernel, so it should be safe for a Lego.NET delegate to pass a non-char-type
argv. If anyone has any deeper insight, I would welcome the feedback.
23: Back to work on LNP. Implemented some code and ideas from
http://lnphost.sf.net/ , which was designed as a replacement for lnpd.
While there are a few drawbacks due to implementation differences (no
tty_type_t support, no sharing/reuse of lnp and lnp-logical with the kernel,
a small documented problem that "in some rare cases lego packets might not
be detected correctly"), it does have some nice features, including handlers
for standard Lego messages and a nicer hexdump routine (shows both hex and
ASCII-printable characters. That hexdump routine has been incorporated,
replacing the existing one.
LNP was updated to include a handler for standard Lego messages (this is in
addition to existing functionality), and the ability to send "Lego remote
codes" was added. The lnpmsg program also received several updates.
Support was added for both displaying and sending both standard firmware
messages and Lego remote codes. The LNP message output format was changed
to use the updated hexdump routine (instead of just a text string), which
should make it easier to monitor non-text LNP messages.
24: Improved the keepalive capabilities to remove some of the keepalive
burden from programs that might use rcx_comm. Unfortunately, I'm not setup
right now to test either a serial IR tower or an NCD port, but I did try to
setup a dummy NCD-like tty for testing. Keepalive works of a signal and
alarm, with code in place to prevent a keepalive byte from being sent while
either writing (rcx_nbwrite) or actively reading (rcx_nbread). I would be
interested in feedback from anyone using a device that needs a keepalive.
Thank you again to those who have responded or provided feedback. If you
ever catch a few more free moments, Carl, I would be interested in a Bibo
version of your edgecount patch. :-)
Thanks,
Matthew
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The Bibo Patch Rollup Collection posted to SourceForge at
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=2773502&group_id=58151&atid=486699
has been updated.
New for this update are patches 25 through 35.
25: Cleanup in the util subdirectory
- Updated lnpmsg to more cleanly handle and process command-line arguments
- Removed in mkimg that is a duplicate of code in srecload
- Updated some Makefile cross targets
26: Updated makefiles
- Changed the existing TOOLPREFIX to CROSSTOOLPREFIX, then used TOOLPREFIX
for the host tools (needed when creating packages that must be targeted to,
for example, a 486 processor)
- Moved some target definitions to Makefile.user, since it is shared by
both Makefile.dist and Bibo's make process. This also reduced Makefile
dependencies across SUBDIRS (util, lib, include, kernel, demo, doc). Some
individual subdirs can now be removed from the SUBDIRS assignment statement
in the main Makefile and the rest of the project will still build
successfully.
- Updates related to util/host, as it seems to be stabilizing. Some items
in util/Makefile.sub have been moved to util/host/Makefile.sub, since the
code now resides there
- Removed the need to set PROGRAMS when building *.lx files. Building %.c
/ %.cpp / %.s / %.S will now look for a make variable by the name of "%_SRC"
to determine if additional object files need to be built.
- Changed the cross-compiler optimization from -O2 to -Os (space)
27: Configuration #defines
- Added a CONF_VIEW_BUTTON define based on Taiichi Yuasa's modification,
allowing exclusion of the information display normally provided when
pressing the RCX View button. The primary reason for adding this
configuration define is enable building a smaller kernel.
- Added a configuration define needed in one of the demo programs in case
CONF_RCX_MESSAGE is not defined.
28: Merged XS Lisp - http://www.xslisp.com/
- A few of the above patches were in preparation for this update
- Was originally based on BrickOS 0.2.6.10
- Is not an addition to the kernel but instead can be used to build *.lx
files that can be downloaded to the RCX. The generated *.lx programs are
large, so a smaller kernel is needed.
- Supports both an IR-link mode and an autonomous mode (IR features were
updated to use rcx_comm)
- Added better support for building from Makefiles
- For the full detail on XS, please see the file xs/README and or visit
the website. Note that information on the website refers to files such as
xs, xs0, xs1, xs2, etc. When merged with Bibo, the numeric suffixes were
replace with more descriptive text, and xs/README reflects this
modification.
- A list of suggested configurations to disable is also included in
xs/README. Any other recommendations or suggestions here would be
appreciated.
29: RCX Communication
- Created a tty struct to replace the existing FILEDESCR and tty_type_t
that get passed around in host-based programs.
- Replaced the fast/slow options in the host utilities with support for
specifying a baud rate at run-time.
30: RCX Communication Timeout for Host Utilities
- Timeout value in milliseconds can now be specified at run-time instead
of being a build-time #define. This is useful when switching between a
low-latency, local IR tower and a TCP connection over the Internet (e.g.
using the uplink and downlink features added to ir-server) with a higher
latency.
31: TTY Device Names
- Added support for interpreting NQC-style port name strings of the format
"<device type>:<device name>". This format was already being used by the
TCP and NQC Bibo additions and was extended to include "serial:" and "usb:".
Backwards compatibility with existing conventions has been maintained.
32: Read Default TTY from a Config File
- Added support for reading the default tty device name from a
configuration file ("~/.rcx/tty.conf"). This essentially fulfills the same
purpose as the RCXTTY environment variable, but without some of the
limitations of environment variables. I am hoping to be able to add this
support to NQC, too.
33: IR Communication and Hacked-on (e.g. Bluetooth) Communication
- Attempted to provide an easier starting point for those using
communication hacks such as the bluetooth hack
~ Ability to set the baud rate
~ Ability to turn of echo handling
- Created configuration #defines to allow setting defaults for
~ Baud rate
~ IR Carrier enabled/disabled
~ Transmit echo/no echo
- Replaced slow/fast (2400/4800 bps) options with the ability to select a
baud rate
- Firmware downloads at 2400 bps can now also be completed without sending
the complement bytes (previously, this option was only available for "fast"
4800 baud)
- Enabled setting the communication timeout value at run-time. This is
useful, for example, when switching between a low-latency serial connection
and a higher-latency TCP-based connection.
- Improved the keepalive functionality for serial IR towers
- Moved help text for standard rcx_comm options to the rcx_comm header
file
** IMPORTANT CHANGE NOTE: Parity for all baud rates is now "odd"
34: Config File Cleanup
- Removed #define entries for configurations that no longer exist
- Removed RCX-only #define entries from the host configuration file
35: Remove CONF_ASCII Dependencies
- Currently, if CONF_PROGRAM is defined CONF_ASCII must also be defined.
This patch reduces the CONF_PROGRAM dependency level from CONF_ASCII to
CONF_CONIO, reducing the size of the kernel needed for program support.
- Created #defines for each of the entries in CONF_ASCII's
ASCII-to-CONIO-mask lookup table
- With those #defines, CONF_ASCII is no longer needed for displaying
static strings. (The small hex lookup table included by CONF_CONIO is still
present there.) Functions that are variants of cputc_native*, cpuc_hex*, or
cputw may be used to write to the display. For example, cputs("Lego") may
now be written as cputc_native_user(CHAR_L, CHAR_e, CHAR_g, CHAR_o). While
it's a little longer statement to type, it does help toward reducing kernel
size. ;-)
- All demo programs were able updated to eliminate the need for
CONF_ASCII.
- For dynamically generated strings, CONF_ASCII will still be required.
XS utilizes CONF_ASCII features for the XS functions that mirror the cputs
andcputc C functions (puts and putc), but due to the large size of XS, this
patch just limits the cputs/cputc functionality if CONF_ASCII is disabled
(puts will output "ASCII" and putc will display a '-' in the specified
position).
Thanks,
Matthew
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The Bibo Patch Rollup Collection posted to SourceForge at
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=2773502&group_id=58151&atid=486699
has been updated.
New for this update are patches 36 through 39.
36: RCX tty config file - Extends patch 32 so that /etc/rcx/device.conf will
also be checked for a default tty. The precedence order is first, the
RCXTTY environment variable; second, ~/.rcx/device.conf; third,
/etc/rcx/device.conf.
37: Automatic Shutoff Timer - Reset the automatic shutoff timer if the Lego
remote is used in direct mode (when no programs are running).
38: Firmware Fastloader - Added code to initialize the IR carrier frequency.
39: Linux Patches - As some of you may already know, I have been using
Cygwin. I am currently working to get a Linux-based BrickOS/Bibo
environment up and running, and though that Linux environment is not yet
fully functional, this patch is needed to help some of the earlier patches
run under Linux.
A word of thanks goes to Dr. Jochen Hoenicke for his assistance in answering
questions; any errors are mine. :-)
Matthew
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The Bibo Patch Rollup Collection posted to SourceForge at
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=2773502&group_id=58151&atid=486699
has been updated.
There is just one minor Bibo-specific update this time, patch 40.
40: H8/300 TOOLPREFIX - This patch comes from Debian, where
"h8300-hitachi-coff-" is added to the list of potential H8/300 toolprefixes.
The larger update this time is a set of patches for NQC running on Linux.
Included in these patches is a patch that corresponds with Bibo patches 32
and 36, which enables Bibo to read a default tty device name from a
configuration file. This same capability has now been extended to NQC.
More details on the NQC patches are available here -
http://news.lugnet.com/robotics/rcx/nqc/?n=1900
Matthew
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The Bibo Patch Rollup Collection posted to SourceForge at
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=2773502&group_id=58151&atid=486699
has been updated.
New for this update are patches 41 and 42.
41: Makefiles and the Esterel Synchronous Programming Language - The
makefiles were updated to support building Esterel source files for the RCX.
More information and links to the Esterel software required for building is
available at http://www.emn.fr/x-info/lego/. Five sample/demo programs
listed on this site have been included in an "esterel" folder in the bibo
distribution (make will only attempt to build these programs if the Esterel
compiler is found).
Also, when doing a "make && make install" on the bibo source, the installed
makefile may be used to build program source files by running "make -f
/path/to/installed/makefile SOURCES=demo.strl" (or demo.c, demo.cpp, demo.s,
demo.S); alternatively, you may run "make -f /path/to/installed/makefile
PROGRAMS=demo.lx" and make will attempt to build the corresponding code
file.
NOTE: While Esterel supports the CPUTS command, this requires that ASCII
support be enabled in Bibo. ASCII support is now disabled by default due to
(1) the size required for its support and (2) the fact that CONIO was
updated to make it easier to output characters to the display without the
size bloat of ASCII support. Some Esterel-generated programs can be quite
large, so space can be at a particular premium when using Esterel. Ideally,
Esterel could be updated to support some of the CONIO functions.
42: RCX Comm - Updated debug output. Modified rcx_init to allow specifying
whether or not to start the IR tower Keepalive handler (this setting does
not have any effect if the device does not require Keepalive functionality).
Thanks,
Matthew
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The Bibo Patch Rollup Collection posted to SourceForge at
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=2773502&group_id=58151&atid=486699
has been updated.
New for this update are patches 43 and 44
43: Per the report from SourceForge user bollinge, Cygwin no longer has a
problem building printf.c. A Cygwin-specific conditional in
lib/c/Makefile.sub was removed.
44: Kernel size optimization - The values for BASE1 and BASE2 have been
declared as constants; however, calculating these values dynamically enables
greater ease of flexibility in handling changes to the kernel image size.
This is change is based on SourceForge tracker 1120793, but this
implementation is different from what was proposed in that tracker and does
not add a dependency on Perl like that tracker implementation would. This
particular update closes the last currently outstanding patch (apart from
the "(Unofficial) Bibo Release" patch) listed in SourceForge, though I still
have note of a few various and sundry updates posted elsewhere.
Thanks,
Matthew
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Matthew Sheets wrote:
> The Bibo Patch Rollup Collection posted to SourceForge at
> http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=2773502&group_id=58151&atid=486699
> has been updated.
Excellent, Matthew. Many thanks for keeping the project alive and moving
forward.
I've uploaded a little patch with the edge counting (which I needed once
upon a time when I tried to build a plotter without any rotation sensors)
re-implemented in a more sensible way. Here:
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=3527703&group_id=58151&atid=486699
I'm currently working on figuring out all the little quirks of the power
functions protocol (such as what happens with the toggle bit state for
commands where the toggle bit is ignored). Once I have it fully working,
I'll release a patch with power functions control based on Bob Kojima's
code but updated to match the latest PF specification.
Cheers,
//Carl
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