I just poking around doing some TalkGroup config changes today on my DMR Pi-Star MMDVM node that I use for VK DMR network, I was prompted with an upgrade notice, so I proceeded to upgrade that DMR node and I also upgraded my P25 Pi-Star Node while I was a it.
I been running version 4.1.6 for probably 2 years now since it was release in November 2021
I noticed during upgrade it did two steps, upgrade to 4.1.7, then onto 4.1.8
I then thought it be good idea to check the Release Notes to see what it is about,
here is extract off the Pi-Star website, no new functionality, its underlying infrastructure changes, required to allow for new functionality to be added in future, such as M17 Support. I still hanging out for some P25 Gateway functionality. (fingers crossed)
Pi-Star Downloads - pistar.uk
current Release Notes, as of 19th April, 2024
16-Feb-2024 **Version 4.2.1** - Available for Download or Upgrade.
This version addresses some issues with the nextiondriver.service
unit file, and with NextionDriver in general. I had
not actually intended to include the unit file with
4.2.0, but it's there, so to clean that up, we need
a minor upgrade.
While working on NextionDriver, I also noticed an issue with
4.2.0 not always syncing the time correctly.
This update also addresses NTP issues in the 4.2.0
build.
Additional disk cleaning is done in the release image,
reducing the image size slightly.
05-Feb-2024 **Version 4.2.0** - Available for Download.
This release upgrades the base OS from Buster to Bullseye.
Binaries / Dashboard are all the same as 4.1.x chain.
There will be some of you that need (for some reason)
to use the older binary set, if that happens to be
the case, check out this post on the forum:
https://forum.pistar.uk/viewtopic.php?t=4806
On the NanoPi / OrangePi and Odroid releases, the kernels
are now updated as part of normal OS updates.
Along with the "Legacy" branch should you need them, there
is also now a "Testing" that is going to keep pace
with the upstream releases, so now any of you can
take part in the testing of new packages.
If you have a 4.2.0 Beta image installed, you can keep using
it so long as it's working OK for you, the last bug
that has been crushed relates to Wi-Fi on the
Raspberry Pi Zero 2W, it would drop the Wi-Fi after
a few hours, if you are seeing that, re-flash with the
current release.
21-Jan-2024 **Version 4.1.8** - Available for Download.
This it is not possible to in-place upgrade and get the changes
that matter in this download, the /boot volume has
been 64MB in size for many years, and before there
were too many versions of Raspberry Pi boards, this
was fine. The ever growing number of kernels and
systems supported by Raspbian means that 64MB is just
not large enough any more.
This change to the size of /boot (up to 256MB) also requires
that I lift the minimum uSD card size to 4GB (it has
been 2G since Pi-Star launched 10 years ago). This is
the start of a lot of work to take Pi-Star past some
of the baked in decisions from years ago that have made
upgrades painful.
If you have a working system, upgrade to 4.1.8, but don't rush
to re-image, 4.2.0 is on the horizon, bumping the OS
to bullseye, and paving the way for what comes next.
Those of you waiting for bookworm, well you need to wait just
a little bit longer, we need a stable release on
bullseye out, before we get too radical.
New binaries are coming soon, I wanted to get some of the long
standing issues cured before pushing those, I will
re-spin the images once they land.
18-Jan-2024 **Version 4.1.8** - Available for Upgrade.
Bringing in M17 components, it's not configurable on the dash
yet, but that is coming soon. First bring in the parts
to make the service work, and pull in audio files etc.
More work is required, but the basics of the dash changes are
done, still to-do update config page and the repeater
info panel. Thos should get pulled in over the next
few days.
05-Jan-2024 **Version 4.1.7** - Available for download and upgrade.
It has been a while since I pushed a full update. Mostly that
has been owing the to the very stable nature of the
current build, however, it was getting to have some
issues creep in.
What is new? - Actually nothing new, this update us just fixing
the expired keys for the apt repos. This caused the OS
and other packages not to get some updates.
Upgrade to 4.1.7 from the dashboard (it's faster) and
the new keys get installed, allowing all of the update
goodness to function once more.
I know this is not terribly exciting, but there are other things
being worked on that are more exciting, more news on that
later.
NOTE: as I mentioned back in October, 2022, to run P25 mode, you have to use the old Kernel 4.19.97+ as the P25 Mode doesn't like the later 5.10.11+ kernel.
To use the later versions of DMR (ie. 4.1.6 and later) you need to use a later version kernel, 5.10.11+ or later, otherwise it starts up and looks fine, but will not connect to a Master, e.g. DMR+.
