Using FarmbotOS beta updates

connor · September 10, 2018, 6:02pm

WARNING

Please Only opt into beta updates if you are working with Farmbot Developers to report bugs. Beta updates are not intended for daily usage, and are mostly used for testing bug fixes and features.

Usage

When opting into a beta update, please be aware of the changes being made. The changelog will have information on what changes will be in the update.

If something doesn’t work properly please report the issue in this thread. Include as much information as possible. At least the following:

Current production version
Beta version
Beta commit SHA
What you expected to happen
What actually happened
Any relevant logs

If your bot rebooted/failed to boot please gather a log dump

Gathering a Log Dump

If your bot did not boot properly and you ended up in Configurator, there will be a dump of log files from the previous boot. Navigate to http://192.168.24.1/logs while connected to Configurator BEFORE trying to reconfigurate. This will give you a file called: “[VERSION]-[MD5SUM]-logs.sqlite3”. Do NOT post that file to this thread or any other thread. Either email it or private message it on the forum to one of the Farmbot developers.

Gathering Information at Runtime

There are other ways to gather information about Farmbot while it is running:

FTDI cable

Almost all development for FarmbotOS is done using one of these. You can purchase one here. This will allow you to connect a PC to FarmBot to see very verbose logs about what is happening internally to FarmBot.

SSH

As of the 6.4.10 beta release a debug SSH console was added. In the “Advanced Network Settings” menu during Configurator you will be able to add an SSH public key that you can connect with. See this document for usage.

Connect a monitor

This is the least useful, but can help in a crunch. The same logs are displayed on the HDMI port, although you won’t be able to scroll them, and you are stuck either copying them or taking a picture (preferred).

Opting in to Beta updates

Now that you’ve read the warnings and usage documentation, you are ready to actually opt into beta updates.

Click the FarmBotOS Version on the device panel.
Click the BETA RELEASE OPT-IN toggle
Agree to the warning.
Click UPDATE
- You may need to wait up to 30 minutes for this to take affect.

Downgrading

Currently one may opt out of Beta updates, but not downgrade. This will likely change in the coming weeks, but for now you will either have to wait for the production version to be releases, or manually flash your sdcard.

Extra credit

If you want a release even more bleeding edge than what the beta release offers, you can follow this guide.

Intelbotfarmer · July 4, 2019, 7:37pm

Hi Connor!
One little bug I notice right off the bat:
On the V8 release notes, under “Navigation Improvements”
It is stated:
" * The More [+] dropdown in MOVE TO sequence steps will now load in an open state if there are any non-zero offsets, and a closed state if all offsets are zero. There is also a new option in the sequence editor settings menu to make advanced step options always open by default. "

However, if a change is made and “Save” is selected, the state changes to closed ( “More [+]” )
Also, if a change is made, and the focus is switched to another sequence, the state changes to closed (“More [+]” )
Also, if any of the following fields are selected but no change made, the Sequence shows as changed/modified (" * " after sequence name) -->X-OFFSET, Y-OFFSET, Z-OFFSET & SPEED (%)

roryaronson · July 8, 2019, 7:04pm

That particular feature is working as intended right now. When you load the sequence, save a sequence, or switch between sequences, the UI will close any More [+] dropdowns that don’t need to be open (when all offsets are 0 and speed is 100) and open any that are used (non-zero offsets, speed value other than 100). This can save space (more important on small screens) and focuses the eyes on what fields in the sequence are being used rather than cluttering it with fields that are unused. If you want stuff to just always stay open, that’s what the option in the settings menu is for.

Regarding the unsaved change issue, we’re aware of this - it actually affects more than just those fields. Its just been low on our priority list of things to do. Thanks for bringing it up though nonetheless.

Moving forward, try to keep this thread’s feedback focused on FarmBot OS beta feedback, so things that have specifically to do with using the actual FarmBot that were unexpected or not working. Feedback on the UI, or the web app side of things is best in a new topic, or where the feature was announced

jsimmonds · July 11, 2019, 7:23am

Test-driving v8.0.0-rc25

[Configurator] Two fixme-s on the /network page; the MAC addresses for wired and wireless are not available.

[Don’t-know] Use the WebApp, Device page, Power and Reset to SHUTDOWN the bot actually causes a Reboot instead. The FarmBotOS.Platform.Target.SystemTasks.shutdown does the correct thing (power-off).

[FarmBotOS] The configured (advanced) optional NTP 1 and NTP 2 servers are ignored.

connor · July 11, 2019, 8:06pm

Thanks for the reports. We just fixed the reboot and ntp issues. Working on the mac address one next

jsimmonds · July 12, 2019, 10:47am

Road-testing v8.0.0-rc27 using API at https://my.farm.bot

[Maybe-Infrastructure] Farmbot app: farmbot exited 0: :shutdown after many NervesHub.Supervisor crashes.

This then causes endlessly repeating FarmBotOS re-boot. (period about 3 minutes)

Also (probably not related to v8.0.0)
The RPi serial console reports (every 2nd boot or so) early after Erlang VM starts :

(edit in actual msg :))
kmsg_tailer: (null): sendfile: Broken pipe

connor · July 12, 2019, 11:34am

That’s very strange. Ill check this out. Thereay be a race condition that needs catching or maybe there was a momentary breakage in infrastructure like you said

daniel · July 13, 2019, 3:18am

Hi,

I was testing Release v8.0.0-rc29 today and had some trouble with taking pictures:

Is this supposed to work at the moment? I saw that @connor recently made changes to the farmware interface so I am not sure if this still is work in progress.

Also after upgrading from 7.0.1, the first-party farmware was completely missing. I re-flashed the SD card and manually installed the camera farmware to have it at least show the error message.

Cheers,
Daniel

connor · July 13, 2019, 6:05am

Please see this post for what is and is not expected to work as of this time

jsimmonds · July 13, 2019, 8:47am

Now testing v8.0.0-rc29 with the https://my.farm.bot API.

Still have that repeating (3 minute) Farmbot app: crash followed shortly by OS Restart.

Will see what I can make of the Erlang stack traces. (Not sure it’s Infrastructure, but I am way over in Ausstrayliaah . . and previous poster seemed to have their bot up long enough to play with )

<edit>
Think I have a clue on this one . . I always just grab the .IMG from the GitHub Pre-Release artefacts, check its sha256sum then burn it to a known good SDHC then go and Configurate it, etc…

Others probably use the NervesHub to do an OTA update !! I wonder if that’s it ??

I just booted a v8.0.0-rc29 that I built locally and it’s staying up.

@connor, in your copious spare time, could you grab a .IMG from Release and see whether it behaves badly for you too ? Thanks !

connor · July 15, 2019, 6:11pm

hmm that’s a good question if an image file works. I had my doubts that beta images would work. I’ll try it out

I’ve opened an issue #850 and hopefully fixed with #851. Still waiting on continuous integration to build it please test it out when it’s up.

Update:
I just tested and it seemed to work. Let me know if it works for you

jsimmonds · July 16, 2019, 12:29am

Thanks . . but still not working on my RPi in fact v8.0.0-rc35 assets won’t even boot !?

Tried the .IMG and then tried fwup-ing the .FW file . . in each case, the RPi just does 4 slow Red blinks and 4 fast Red blinks, repeating, until I remove power. Nothing on the serial console.

connor · July 16, 2019, 12:50am

You must be using a RPI 3b+. I just fixed this in the latest RC

jsimmonds · July 16, 2019, 1:06am

Yes, RPi 3 B+ is the same machine I’ve used since before 7.0.1

v8.0.0-rc36 won’t boot either.

< Oh, wait ! >

I just see v8.0.0-rc37 . . I’ll give that a spin.

jsimmonds · July 16, 2019, 6:34am

Aaaaahhhhhhh . . the sweet sounds of machinery humming Thanks ! ( -rc37 .IMG )

Those User-specified NTP server names are still being ignored, however

AND this seems new on the Serial Console for this Pre-Release

connor · July 16, 2019, 3:16pm

Huh i thought i fixed this. I’ll reopen the ticket.

That is normal, unfortunately. It is espeak opening the sound device. ALSA is just really noisy for some reason. I could probably add a config file of some sort with all the defaults to prevent it, but it’s not that big of a deal. To get serial logs, you should be able to do a RingLogger.attach()

jsimmonds · July 17, 2019, 8:27am

On -rc38 now but NTP server names config still not activated.
Maybe this one belongs with the :nerves_time app. ?

jsimmonds · July 17, 2019, 8:35am

May have another issue coming . . I just need to dig deeper / debug it some more.

I’m in AU (Australia) and the WiFi Configurator AP is painfully slow and unresponsive, even on my trusty Ubuntu laptop.
I usually end up using the serial console and IEx to setup the basic network and credentials.

I noted that the AP is using US reg.dom. WiFi channels . . I need to check whether this is a problem.

connor · July 17, 2019, 3:07pm

You are setting these values from configurator right? they aren’t checked after configuration time so if your device was already configured they probably wouldn’t be used.

jsimmonds · July 17, 2019, 11:40pm

Yes, these were set from the /config_wired Configurator page, Advanced fields.
The persisted values I showed were sampled after at least one OS full reboot.