Upgrade Fin kernel

balenaFin
1

Hello,

There is a webcam model that we have which works well on a rpi3 running raspbian with kernel 4.19.118-v7+ but doesn’t work in kernel 4.19.75 of balenaOS 2.51 for fin. I was wondering when a development version of balenaOS 2.53 will be out for balenafin since that contains kernel 4.19.118

Thank you

5

Hi there, we’ll confirm when the next OS version for the Fin is coming out and advise.

8

Hello, The development version of balenaOS 2.53 should be available at the begining of next week (possibly end of this week). Thank you.

1 Like
10

Hello
Any updates regarding this?

14

Hello, I’ve checked and the release date has been pushed back a bit, and it’s now expected to be released next week.

16

OK. Thanks!

18

Thank you balenaFin Gods for downgrading the image for Rasbpberry Pi as well. Having that we could at least continue our work. Now you took it away without a notice and we have to find another way.

24

balenaOS 2.56 is currently being tested in the staging environment for both Fin and RPi3 devices, and will be released in the near future. We will keep you updated.

26

I understand. Can you estimate a date?

27

Hi, our current estimates for the next release is for the next few days, but most likely not tomorrow.

29

Ok. Thank you.

47

Hi, sorry for the delay. We have released OS version v2.58.3+rev1 to production so you can go ahead and use this newer release.

49

Why raspian for fin is so old? Can’t update the kernel using raspian from source

53

Hello @ricardoosorio ,

We’re working on updating the image to Buster (you can follow up our progress here). The current blocker is building the WiFi driver on the new kernel required for Buster, but we’re making progress there and it should be resolved soon.

Apart from running the latest version, are you experiencing any particular issue with the current version or Raspbian?

Cheers,
Nico.

55

Hi Nicolas,

Several comments. Hope would help you guys to have some more customers to you:

56

Hi Ricardo,

I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you mean. Are you experiencing any particular issue with the current version of Raspbian as Nicolas asked?

Please let us know so we can better help you

58

Sure. I don’t know why my email reply didn’t went through. But I will try to paste here my comments…in general:

  1. Documentation seems bit old/inaccurate. Or even very few for certain developers.
    Examples:
  • No pinout description on PDF. No pinout direction. Just location. At least pin1 should be there somewhere.
  • On page balenaFin - Docs > Controlling the RGB LED > Its not ok: its not /sys/class/led/pca963x:$COLOR should be: /sys/class/leds/pca963x:$COLOR/brightness (led should be plural)
  • On the same page: HDMI commands are useless. I’ve used GitHub - mvp/uhubctl: uhubctl - USB hub per-port power control with command uhubctl -l 1-1 -p 4 -a 0 to turn USB off and so turn HDMI off.

  1. The 3G not working on raspian.

  2. Most of the implementations are using dockers (because of balena.io … I know) …but since I want to implement a X11 / Electron fast boot solution…it’s been very hard to convince my team to go for this board.

  3. Most important: Not a single script on raspian (or sample of code) to use the i2c to power-off. There is very very few documentation about how to flash the firmware not using the docker. Dev’s must reverse eng the docker to create code for that…but would be good/easier to have a lean step-by-step guide. I try to watch your video about firmware update and at the end…was just a nice conversation but nothing that could document the process. And the power on/power off (or sleep…) …is a show-stopper for my team.

Our project will require 700 boards / year. So is important for us to select the right board. Suggestion: focus on better documentation

Thank you Nicola!

59

Hello @ricardoosorio,

Thanks a lot for your valuable feedback! Let me address your items one by one and hopefully get you unblocked:

1.1 and 1.2 Thanks for pointing this out. I’ve already filed an issue to fix the leds typo and to include the first pin indication on the datasheet. You can take a look at the physical balenaFin for reference on the pin position in the meantime

1.3 What issue are you having with turning the HDMI off? Do you mean that shutting down port4 of the USB also shuts down the HDMI? I’ll test this tomorrow and get back to you, but I don’t why this would be happening.

  1. Installing the 3G modem in Raspbian should work the same way as if you’d be adding one on a RaspberryPi. I’m not sure which modem you’re using, but the easiest path would be to install ModemManager and NetworkManager to do so. I’ve personally installed a few modems that way. There’s a quick guide here that should get you up and running, do let me know if you face any issues with this.

  2. This shouldn’t be a problem with balenaOS, but in any case, I’ve asked a few colleagues to chime in.

  3. This is a good point, most of our customers have been using the coprocessor within balenaOS and that’s what our docs are focused on. I’ll discuss this internally and get back to you with more information.

Let me know if there’s anything else I can help with.
Cheers,
Nico.

60

1.3 To turn the HDMI off, I try the commands available on dev documentation. But they have no effect on HDMI port. So what I did was to use the USB that powers the screen and turn it on/off using the git code presented.

  1. The 3G modem I try the one included on balenafin. It doesn’t show in neither modemmanager neither networkmanager. But I will look at the guide! THANKS!