MinGW / MSYS tip of the day

If ever you encounter error like this:

(159/159) checking for file conflicts                                                                                          [###################################################################] 100%
error: failed to commit transaction (conflicting files)
mingw-w64-i686-glib2: /mingw32/bin/gi-compile-repository.exe exists in filesystem
mingw-w64-i686-glib2: /mingw32/bin/gi-decompile-typelib.exe exists in filesystem
mingw-w64-i686-glib2: /mingw32/bin/gi-inspect-typelib.exe exists in filesystem
mingw-w64-i686-glib2: /mingw32/bin/libgirepository-2.0-0.dll exists in filesystem
...and so on...

The use the following command to update your system:

pacman -Suuy --overwrite "*" 

HackRF Portapack Mayhem 2.0.1


The new stable firmware is out, with a bunch of bugfixes, new features, and new apps !!
Here you go for a detailed changelog since 2.0.0 !
First apps changes are listed, and then the UI / Radio / Baseband / Website / GIT ones.

TLDR, main features for that update:

  • Freqman is supporting a lot more files than before
  • Tone beep has been added to a ton of apps and as a global setting too
  • 2 new apps which will make use of the incoming ESP32 USB tooling
  • Auto record and repeat in Recon
  • Autostart app on power on option
  • RX IQ CALibration
  • lots of fixes and cleanings
  • some new preset/freqman files
  • some new BLE options

List of updated apps:

ADSB:

  • Beep-on-packet support in ADSB RX app
  • Added sil value ASDB

AIS:

  • Beep-on-packet support in AIS app

Audio:

  • Adding Rx IQ error phase CAL to SPEC Audio_App
  • Added a beep duration parameter
  • Improved audio beep tone

BLE:

  • Added all and all-safe attack types to blespam
  • Bt namespam

Capture/Recording apps:

  • Record gps lat, lon, satinuse from recorder app if there was gps signal

Recon:

  • Fix Recon Modulation/Bandwidth presets
  • Recon repeat auto recorded file mode
  • Added enums for recon_config bits

ERT:

  • beep on packet

Freqman:

  • Add FPV analog frequenqies to FREQMAN
  • Update FPV_ANALOG.TXT
  • Limiting description size to 30, and minor fix
  • SSTV Freqs
  • Added and fixed freqs
  • Create RADIOS_FM_FR_PARIS.TXT with FM Radios in Paris
  • Adding Australian UHF channels and Brisbane Airband to FREQMAN

Fileman:

  • Support “clean” files
  • File manager “Clean” button tweaks
  • Darken FileMan button colors for visibility
  • Fileman memory opt
  • Allow to load more files but unordered
  • Continued folder names consolidation & GPS default folder
  • FileMan support for folder Cut & Paste and Timestamp Rename

Games:

  • Cheat code protect in pacman app

Fox hunt:

Level:

  • Added Rxsat in Level app
  • Level app: coloration of RxSat value
  • Level fix and beep, RSSI avg fix
  • Fixing level beep, bad copy paste on special SPEC mode
  • Fix gui glitch on beep squelch

Looking glass:

  • Looking glass beep
  • Added CubeSats to Presets
  • Adding Australian UHF to Looking Glass
  • Adjust GUI for more preset name room

Mic:

  • Mic audio ak4951 fix

POCSAG:

  • Beep-on-packet support in POCSAG app

RadioSonde:

  • Fixed Sonde RSSI “Beep”
  • Radiosonde beep tone tweaks
  • Radiosonde QR code fixes

Settings:

  • Autostart option
  • Fix Cancel button in Settings->Autostart
  • Beep-on-packets option in Settings

TPMS:

  • Beep-on-packet support in TPMS app

Wardrive Map:

Weather:

  • Beep-on-packet support in Weather app

Other updates:

Radio:

  • Set iq_phase_cal in radio when starting SPEC mode
  • Added RXIQCALC
  • Preserve radio mode when updating iq_tx_phase_cal

Tools/Debug:

  • Improved flash image validation
  • External sensor tester app
  • Lambda the flash util menu add item code
  • Audio Beep Test (Debug) external app
  • Improved Audio Beep Test
  • More debug Audio Beep Test tweaks
  • Show true M0 free heap space in DFU overlay
  • Commented out Debug -> Memory Usage app

Baseband:

  • Start audio DMA only in apps that use audio
  • Disabled unused baseband “no-op” process
  • Stop audio DMA in baseband::shutdown
  • Use freq from AppSettings unless passed from another app

USB/Serial:

  • Added crc32 command to usb shell
  • Dynamic usb buffer fill for screenframeshort

UI:

  • Optimized fake brightness code
  • Change sun bitmap to make it more like a sun
  • Remove unused text_info widget
  • Eliminate unnecessary NumberField to save code space
  • Deallocate menu buttons to save memory
  • Fix butngrid/capture and fix contributor name
  • Removed special font characters
  • Move the no ext app tile to forward
  • Modify warning text
  • Add GPS icon, fix overwrite bug

Code/Build:

  • Fix compiler warnings
  • Fix unused warnings
  • Fix build warning in settings
  • Declare all folder names in a single source file

Git depot:

  • Update bug_report.md
  • Create config.yml
  • Rename bug_report.md to 01_bug_report.yml
  • Update and rename feature_request.md to feature_request.yml
  • Rename feature_request.yml to 02_feature_request.yml
  • Update config.yml
  • Rename problem-upgrading-the-firmware.md to 03_problem-upgrading-the-firmware.md

Website (https://hackrf.app):

  • Fix shift back in screenshot and mayhem hub

Last notes:

If you are coming from a version <2.0.0, you have to first update using the classic hackrf_spiflash method to bring your firmware to a version >=2.0.0. It will only update the parts of the firmware on the flash, all external apps will NOT be updated using only hackrf_spiflash.

In a second time use the web interface at https://hackrf.app to update to lastest stable/nightly. It will ALSO update external apps that are stored on the sdcard.

If your firmware is already >= 2.0.0, just directly go to https://hackrf.app and update all in one go from there.

!! all sdcard content is NOT updated through website, only the external apps !!

Links:
https://github.com/portapack-mayhem/mayhem-firmware/releases
https://github.com/portapack-mayhem/mayhem-firmware/wiki/Update-firmware

#hackrf #portapack #mayhem #firmware #update

scp error: path canonicalization failed

If you’re doing scp command, with ‘-r’ recursive option, and stumble upon a strange “path canonicalization failed” out of nowhere:

Starting from SSH 9.0.0 scp is using sFTP to copy files. And in sFTP, target directories must exist.

Simple fix: use -O, legacy mode:

“Use the legacy SCP protocol for file transfers instead of the SFTP protocol. Forcing the use of the SCP protocol may be necessary for servers that do not implement SFTP, for backwards-compatibility for particular filename wildcard patterns and for expanding paths with a `~’ prefix for older SFTP servers”

#SSH #SCP #ERROR

reMarkable 2, quick review and advanced configuration

Overview

The reMarkable 2 tablet is an e-ink paper feel like tablet, aimed at note taking, quick drawing, and PDF/EPub reading.

You can read the product informations/hardware directly on the reMarkable website.

It’s voluntarily simple and with no extra apps/functions so you stays focused on what you’re doing. Some says it’s a default, some says it’s a perk. I think it’s a perk 😉

The environnement of the reMarkables (1 & 2) is an open source based linux. By default you can have an ssh access to your tablet, and you have the root access.

reMarkable Guide

Nearly every information on that article can be found in great details here: https://remarkable.guide/

That guide is like the “hitchhiker’s guide to the remarkable world”.

They’re also the ones behind the excellent ‘reMarkable’ discord server

!! Warning for what’s following !!

We are not responsible if you break your device.

Read all the documentation BEFORE acting so you know what you do.


If you want to try something undocumented / unsupported, you better ask the question on remarkable discord first.

Extra warning on reMarkable 2: you’ll need a special pogo connector to do a real factory reset !! (see https://remarkable.guide/tech/recovery.html for more informations)

List of the hacks I use / links to project pages

Let’s start by stating that I’m not willing to use any cloud related functions on that tablet.

I used first codexctl to downgrade the tablet to the last toltec supported version, that is 2.15.1.1189 at the time of the article. Support for 3.X is in the tube, but not yet ready for users.

Then I used toltec to install / manage the linux packets on the reMarkable system.

Once toltec installed, I used the provided opkg commands to install Oxide

Oxide is a desktop environment for the reMarkable tablet.

Features:

  • Multitasking / application switching
  • Notifications
  • Wifi managment
  • Chroot for applications that you don’t fully trust
  • Optional lockscreen
  • Homescreen for launching applications
  • Process manager
  • Take, view, and manage screenshots

See https://oxide.eeems.codes/

Then I installed the following via opkg install (I linked the project pages so you can go to see by yourself):

KOReader : An ebook reader application supporting PDF, DjVu, EPUB, FB2

Plato: An ebook reader application supporting PDF/CBZ/FB2/XPS/ePUB/DJVU reader

Sill: Gesture-based text editor (and shell) for the reMarkable tablet

VNSee: VNC client for the reMarkable tablet allowing you to use the device as a second screen
calculator

rmFM: Bare-bones file manager for the reMarkable paper tablet, built using Node.js and sas

restream: Stream your reMarkable screen over SSH

webinterface-wifi: View the web interface over wifi. For the ReMarkable Tablet

webinterface-upload: Upload button for the web interface, alternative to drag and drop. For the ReMarkable Tablet

webinterface-onboot: Enable the web interface on boot. For the ReMarkable Tablet

I also installed genie and iago (UI for drawing shapes with the pen) and genie (config based gesture launcher) following that reddit comment.

I may have installed a few others, but I’m not using them daily.

For some more, you should explore the Awesome reMarkable page (A curated list of projects related to the reMarkable tablet) as well as toltec package list / toltec entware package list

Quick gestures/shortcut reminders:


Templates:

I tried reCalendar, a free online calendar generator that is also making links on dates

Ultimate HackRF Portapack Mayhem Upgrade Guide

2023-2024 Edition

Introduction

When updating your devices, you may sometimes encounter problems that are directly related to the way you updated and to the changes that have occurred between your version jump.

That guide does not pretend to solve all the problems, some are real issues that have to be opened on the Mayhem GITHUB issues tracker.

On the other hand, if you have followed that guide and still have a problem, your issue have better chances to be solved as it will be possible to set aside common updates related problems.

List of important steps:

  • download all necessary files (it means at least SDCARD apps and firmware bin file !!)
  • have a reliable USB cable
  • ensure that your button battery is not dead, else use ‘PMem to Sdcard’ options in ‘Settings’
  • ensure that your CPLD is up to date (no need to update each time, but be sure at least once)
  • flash the firmware
  • update sdcard content (do not forget to update APPS if you’re manually refreshing !)
  • if you are having strange apps problems, try a factory default reset. It’s important to note that you will loose your settings and will have to set them back if you’re doing that step
  • always go and check the settings after the updates, we may have added things that changed the memory layout of settings thus messing them.

You may search each each steps details in the Mayhem GITHUB Wiki, particularly in the following sections:

#hackrf #portapack #mayhem #update #upgrade #guide

KAFKA: raw write your own encoded AVRO event

Like they said, if you use a language for which serializers aren’t written yet, you can write the encoded event yourself. Here are both the recipe and the link:

0Magic ByteConfluent serialization format version number; currently always 0.
1-4Schema ID4-byte schema ID as returned by Schema Registry.
5-…Data

https://docs.confluent.io/platform/current/schema-registry/fundamentals/serdes-develop/index.html#wire-format

#kafka #avro #schema #id #raw #event #wire #format

GPT4 analysis by Two Minutes Papers

#GPT4 is so amazing that it is a little bit frightening.

But hey, you can pour it a book and talk… to the book, isn’t it amazing ??

Seriously, the GPTs are incredible and the futur is going to change for sure.

Good or bad, well, wait and see.

PS: I can only encourage you to follow Two Minutes Papers. That channel is just so good, with simple and quick explanations, even when it’s a heavy subject like GPT4

Spotify Linux: fix crash or bad window at startup

If ever at some points Spotify on Linux refuses to start or start with fucked up graphics, there is a high probability that it’s due to hardware acceleration and a pesky update.

Spotify isn’t that much of a GUI CPU hog, so you can start it with hardware acceleration OFF and make it work again, like this:

spotify –disable-gpu

Some users reported that they needed to use –no-zygote too, but it made it instable for me.

Some had to also use –disable-software-rasterizer. I saw no changes when using it.

#spotify #gpu #linux #crash

Kafka symbol lookup error, undefined symbol: rd_kafka_message_leader_epoch

Sometimes when using a program linked with librdkafka, you can encounter the ‘symbol lookup error.

Most of the time it’s because your program have been linked to an old version of librdkafka in your system (like outdated RedHat librdkafka yum package VS the latest build from librdkafka’s git)

Solutions:

-Check your LD_LIBRARY_PATH, be sure to find the directories containing latest librdkafka .so file is listed first

-Check what’s installed on your system
-In some case you will have to rebuild your project, having a proper LD_LIBRARY_PATH configured before

#KAFKA #C #librdkafka

GNU make, get relative PATH for i.e recursive builds with dependencies based on local git copies

In case you’re building yourself everything from source in your project, there is a good chance you once had a problem because you were using relative (like ../myressource) paths in your CFLAGS or LD_FLAGS definition and passed them down to the build system.

Short answer: when getting down in sub directories to i.e build your dependencies, the relative path can’t stay good. Only the absolute path can work.

One solution, if using GNU make, is to use something like this to compute the absolute path:

RES_RELATIVE_PATH=./path_to_my_ressource
RES_ABSOLUTE_PATH=$(realpath $(RES_RELATIVE_PATH))
CFLAGS+= -I$(RES_ABSOLUTE_PATH)

# Note: the naming is up to you. In my case, for something like cJSON, I'm using the following naming:

CJSON_RELPATH=./external/cJSON
CJSON_PATH=$(realpath $(CJSON_RELPATH))
CFLAGS+= -I$(CJSON_PATH)

You can also directly initialize with a shell call:

CJSON_CFLAGS=-I$(shell realpath "./external/cJSON")
CFLAGS+= $(CJSON_FLAGS)

#code #makefile #gnu #path #absolute #relative

Error 407 when using git and a proxy with authentification

Recently I stumbled upon that kind of error when trying to update a submodule:

git submodule update –remote –merge
fatal: unable to access ‘https://github.com/DaveGamble/cJSON.git/’: Received HTTP code 407 from proxy after CONNECT

Turns out that it was the proxy authentification not being sent correctly.
In our case we are using system defined proxy, so we do not need git’s ones

Solved by using:


git config –global http.proxyAuthMethod ‘basic’
git config –global –unset http.proxy
git config –global –unset https.proxy

Some also encountered SSL verification problems due to auto signed certificate use in their network, and had to disable SSL verification. It’ done with the following command, but we do not recommend to use it unless really needed:

git config –global http.sslVerify false

Correctly print uint64_t / size_t in C

Have you even stumbled upon a strange warning when trying to print an uint64_t or a size_t ?
Do no take that warning lightly, as your code can break anytime if you’re not fixing it.

Warning example:

warning: format '%llu' expects argument of type 'long long unsigned int', but argument 4 has type 'uint64_t' [-Wformat]

To avoid the warning and crashes, you have to use a one of the PRIxxx macro which will choose the right way for your system to print the value, without crashes.
Example:

#include <inttypes.h>
uint64_t i;
printf("%"PRIu64"\n", i);

Macros for printf family can be found here.