RIOT-2019.07 - Release Notes

RIOT is a multi-threading operating system which enables soft real-time capabilities and comes with support for a range of devices that are typically found in the Internet of Things: 8-bit and 16-bit microcontrollers as well as light-weight 32-bit processors.

RIOT is based on the following design principles: energy-efficiency, soft real-time capabilities, small memory footprint, modularity, and uniform API access, independent of the underlying hardware (with partial POSIX compliance).

RIOT is developed by an international open-source community which is independent of specific vendors (e.g. similarly to the Linux community) and is licensed with a non-viral copyleft license (LGPLv2.1), which allows indirect business models around the free open-source software platform provided by RIOT.

About this release:

The 2019.07 release includes a number of new features including many new boards and cpu, riotboot added to many new and old boards, USB is now available, BLE improvements, Ethernet on stm32 platforms, as well as many bug fixes and documentation updates. Testing has also improved with both On-Target Testing increasing and now Hardware Assisted Automated Tests being run.

About 300 pull requests with about 659 commits have been merged since the last release and about 50 issues have been solved. 26 people contributed with code in 106 days. Approximately 1377 files have been touched with 181993 insertions and 19668 deletions.

Notations used below:

+ means new feature/item
* means modified feature/item
- means removed feature/item

New features and changes

System libraries

+ Add OCB encryption mode
+ sys/shell: add loramac shell command
* Fletcher16: extend with multi-part functions
+ USBUS: Initial work towards an USB stack
+ usbus: Initial simple auto init structure
* sys: make uart_stdio RX optional
+ sys/event: add event_wait_until()
+ sys/bluetil: add bluetil_addr_from_str()
+ usbus: Add CDC-ECM (Ethernet Control Model) function
* usbus: simplify adding entry to list
* sys/stdio_ethos: replace USE_ETHOS_FOR_STDIO by stdio_ethos pseudomodule

Networking

* gnrc_ipv6_nib: add address from netif to address validation timer
+ netdev_ieee802154: add txpower and page
+ net/lorawan/hdr: add lorawan header helpers
+ ble/nimble: add support for build-in IPSS service
* pkg/semtech-loramac: rework interaction with the MAC
* pkg/semtech-loramac: provide basic persistence for MAC state
* RPL: API update suggestions
+ ipv6_ext: add fragmentation extension definitions
* net/sock_util: Accept NULL pointers in urlsplit
+ sys/net: add netopt options for lorawan
* gnrc_tftp: Fix out-of-bounds memory access when comparing modes
- gnrc_pktbuf: remove gnrc_pktbuf_duplicate_upto
- gnrc_ipv6: remove obsolete and harmful reception code
* gnrc_tftp: set port on server init
+ ble/softdevice: add ble_nordic_softdevice feature
* net/mqttsn: fix client ID length to comply to the standard
+ gnrc_tftp: Add minimum packet length check

Packages

* pkg/monocypher: bump version to 2.0.5
* ble/nimble: bump version to 9d4bda2
* openthread: update to release 20180926
* minmea: bump version to current master
+ nanocbor: Initial support for the nanocbor package
* pkg/lua: Make the module searchers conform to the API

Boards

+ boards/stm32l0538-disco: add initial support
+ boards/nucleo-l4r5zi: initial basic support
+ boards/particle-{xenon,argon,boron}: add initial support
* boards/kw41z: add common configuration and use it with existing
  kw41z boards
+ added SPI support for Nucleo-F767ZI
+ boards: Add support for the Arduino-Leonardo
* boards/nucleof7*: SPI and refactoring
+ boards/stm32: introduce and use new common rtt configuration header
+ boards/stm32l0/l4: add rtt feature
+ boards: add support for i-nucleo-lrwan1 (Arduino-like shield)
+ boards/nrf52840-mdk: added I2C config
+ boards/lsn50: add support for Dragino LSN50 LoRa Sensor Node
* boards/stm32l0: introduce common clock configuration and apply it to
  related boards
* boards/b-l072z-lrwan1: use STM32 common i2C configuration
+ Add usbdev feature to Sodaq boards
+ boards/pba-d-01-kw2x: add riotboot support
+ sensebox: add usbdev feature
+ boards/stm32f429i-disc1: add i2c configuration
+ boards/nucleo-l476rg: add riotboot
+ boards/same54-xpro: add riotboot support
+ boards: Add FLASHFILE support
+ boards/nucleo-l476rg: Add DMA support
+ nrf52: Add suspend/resume detection to usbdev
+ nrf5x: Add UART modecfg feature implementation
+ boards/stm32f3: add support for riotboot feature
+ boards/lobaro-lorabox: add sx1272 radio driver dependency
  to netdev_default
+ boards/stm32l4: add riotboot support
+ boards/microbit: add QEMU emulation
+ boards/frdm-kw41z-k64f: add riotboot
* boards/sltb001a: reset before flashing

CPU

* cpu/esp8266: added/changed helper functions
+ cpu/cc2538: Add periph_uart_mode implementation
* saml1x: enable pm_layered by default
+ cpu/cc26x0: implement uart_mode()
+ cpu/sam0: add support for SAMD5x/SAME5x
+ sam0_common: add uart modecfg support
+ cpu/stm32f3: add support for flashpage and flashpage_raw
* cpu/stm32l{1,4}: refactor flashpage numof macros
* cpu/stm32: optimize stop mode for stm32f*
* cpu/nrf5x_common: map hwrng to SoC library if SoftDevice is present

Device Drivers

+ devfs: add /dev/urandom and /dev/hwrng
* drivers/mrf24j40 : support of NETOPT_LAST_ED_LEVEL
+ drivers/mrf24j40: add external PA/LNA control on MC/MD/ME devices
* drivers/at86rf2xx: enable NETOPT_RX_END_IRQ and fix RSSI values
* drivers/adt7310: Replace binary literal with hex literal
+ drivers/ds75lx: add basic driver for temperature sensor
+ drivers/include: add header definition for wdt
+ drivers/at: Add 'at_recv_bytes_until_string' function
+ sx127x: add several NETOPT for GNRC LoRaWAN
* drivers/sx127x: fix device reset
+ drivers: stm32 eth peripheral driver
+ drivers/periph/gpio_util: add gpio_util_shiftin()

Build System / Tooling

* makefiles/docker: export BOARDS
+ makefiles: add bootloaders to the list of applications
* Makefile.include: allow overwriting flash-recipe
* dist/tools/buildsystem_sanity_check: add an export variable check
* sys/Makefile.include: include riotboot headers when
  FEATURES_REQUIRED=riotboot
+ make: add print-versions helper target
+ make: add LOG_LEVEL to overridable variables
* riotboot/Makefile.include: increase RIOTBOOT_HDR_LEN for ARMv7*-M
* dist/tools/build_system_sanity_check: BUG fix errors being ignored
* boards/common: use Makefile.features
+ make: add termdeps target
* periph_common: add as dependency to periph drivers
+ nrf52: Add USB peripheral driver
+ makefiles/boards.inc.mk: list boards variables
+ makefiles/app_dirs.inc.mk: target to list supported applications/boards
+ Makefile.features: add a common file for the features parsing
+ Makefile.features: add declarative FEATURES_ variables definition
+ makefiles/utils/variables: add functions to help managing variables
* Migrate all boards to define FLASHFILE
* tools/openocd.sh: try to probe the board for real flash address

Testing

* tests/periph_flashpage: add RWWEE automatic test if hw supports it
* tests/pthread_tls: allow negative key values
* tests/gnrc_udp: include `gnrc_pktbuf_cmd` per default
+ tests/periph_hwrng: add automated python test
* tests/periph_timer: include kw41z boards in low-power timer boards
* tests/pkg_c25519: increase timeout for arduino-mega2560
+ tests/xtimer_usleep: fail with negative offsets
+ unittests: add tsrb tests
+ tests/stdin: add non regression test for stdin module
+ tests/xtimer_mutex_lock_timeout: add simple case test
+ Add NimBLE heart rate sensor example (GATT notifications)
* tests/driver_rn2xx3: fix invalid element index for txmode
* tests/pkg_semtech-loramac: don't init the mac from main
* tests/devfs: move tests-devfs out of unittests
+ examples/lorawan: fix semtech_loramac_send TX ret code
* tests/unittests: split remaining packages tests to different test
                   directory

API Changes

• uart_stdio RX is now optional
• CPU_MODEL declared in boards/Makefile.features

- void isrpipe_init(isrpipe_t *isrpipe, char *buf, size_t bufsize);
+ void isrpipe_init(isrpipe_t *isrpipe, uint8_t *buf, size_t bufsize);

- int isrpipe_write_one(isrpipe_t *isrpipe, char c);
+ int isrpipe_write_one(isrpipe_t *isrpipe, uint8_t c);

- int isrpipe_read(isrpipe_t *isrpipe, char *buf, size_t count);
+ int isrpipe_read(isrpipe_t *isrpipe, uint8_t *buf, size_t count);

- int isrpipe_read_timeout(isrpipe_t *isrpipe, char *buf, size_t count,\
                           int32_t timeout);
+ int isrpipe_read_timeout(isrpipe_t *isrpipe, uint8_t *buf, size_t count,\
                           uint32_t timeout);

- int isrpipe_read_all_timeout(isrpipe_t *isrpipe, char *buf, size_t count,\
                               uint32_t timeout);
+ int isrpipe_read_all_timeout(isrpipe_t *isrpipe, uint8_t *buf, size_t count,\
                               uint32_t timeout);

typedef struct tsrb {
...
-    char *buf;                  /**< Buffer to operate on. */
+    uint8_t *buf;               /**< Buffer to operate on. */
...
} tsrb_t

- int tsrb_get(tsrb_t *rb, char *dst, size_t n);
+ int tsrb_get(tsrb_t *rb, uint8_t *dst, size_t n);

- int tsrb_add_one(tsrb_t *rb, char c);
+ int tsrb_add_one(tsrb_t *rb, uint8_t c);

- int tsrb_add(tsrb_t *rb, const char *src, size_t n);
+ int tsrb_add(tsrb_t *rb, const uint8_t *src, size_t n);

typedef struct {
...
-   uint16_t (*calc_rank)(gnrc_rpl_parent_t *parent, uint16_t base_rank);
-   gnrc_rpl_parent_t *(*which_parent)(gnrc_rpl_parent_t *, gnrc_rpl_parent_t *);
+  uint16_t (*calc_rank)(gnrc_rpl_dodag_t *dodag, uint16_t base_rank);

-   void (*reset)(gnrc_rpl_dodag_t *);    /**< resets the OF */
+  void (*reset)(gnrc_rpl_dodag_t *dodag);
...
-   void (*init)(void);  /**< OF specific init function */
+  void (*init)(gnrc_rpl_dodag_t *dodag);
} gnrc_rpl_of_t;

- thread_state_t
+ thread_status_t

- void sched_set_status(thread_t *process, thread_state_t status);
+ void sched_set_status(thread_t *process, thread_status_t status);

struct _thread {
...
-   thread_state_t status;
+  thread_status_t status;
...
}

- bool mrf24j40_cca(mrf24j40_t *dev);
+ bool mrf24j40_cca(mrf24j40_t *dev, int8_t *rssi);

Deprecations

Warnings

gnrc_tftp module ubjson module

Removals

gcoap_req_send() replaced with gcoap_req_send2()->gcoap_req_send2()

Known issues

Networking related issues

#11860: send data with UDP at 10HZ, the program die #11859: examples: dtls-echo fails silently when DTLS_ECC flag enabled #11519: shell/ping6: Incorrect handling of unexpected pongs #11405: nrfmin: communication not possible after multicast ping with no interval #11390: gnrc networking crashs on nRF51dk #11212: POSIX sockets + lwIP: bad file descriptor #11033: 6lo: RIOT does not receive packets from Linux when short_addr is set #10969: net: netdev_driver_t::send() doc unclear #10861: cpu/esp8266: Tracking open problems of esp_wifi netdev driver #10809: openthread: does not build on current Arch #10410: Missing drop implementations in netdev_driver_t::recv #10389: gnrc_sock_udp: Possible Race condition on copy in application buffer #10380: netdev_ieee802154: Mismatch between radio ll address and in memory address #10370: gomach: Resetting netif with cli doesn't return #10338: xbee: setting PAN ID sometimes fails #9709: examples: failed assertion in dtls-echo example #9656: gnrc/netif: various problems after resetting interface a second time #8779: CC2538 RF overlapping PIN usage #8752: mrf24j40: does not link for examples/default #8631: at86rf2xx/kw2xrf: scalar NETOPT options checked as arrays #8271: app/netdev: application stops working after receiving frames with assertion or completely without error #8242: at86rf2xx: Dead lock when sending while receiving #8199: gcoap example request on tap I/F fails with NIB issue #8172: gnrc_netif, gnrc_uhcpc: Replacing prefix on border router results in no configured prefix #8130: gcoap: can't build with network stacks other than GNRC #8086: gnrc_rpl_p2p: port to nib and fix compile errors #7737: pkg: libcoap is partially broken and outdated #7474: 6lo gnrc fragmentation expects driver to block on TX #6018: nRF52 gnrc 6lowpan ble memory leak #5863: OSX + SAMR21-xpro: shell cannot handle command inputs larger than 64 chars #5748: gnrc: nodes crashing with too small packet buffer #5486: at86rf2xx: lost interrupts #5230: gnrc ipv6: multicast packets are not dispatched to the upper layers #5051: Forwarding a packet back to its link layer source should not be allowed #5016: gnrc_rpl: Rejoining RPL instance as root after reboot messes up routing #4527: gnrc_ipv6: Multicast is not forwarded if routing node listens to the address

Timer related issues

#10545: periph_timer: systematic proportional error in timer_set #10523: saml21 system time vs rtc #10351: samd21/periph/rtt: Interrupt flags are not correctly cleared #10073: xtimer_usleep wrong delay time #9187: sys/newlib: gettimeofday() returns time since boot, not current wall time. #9052: misc issues with tests/trickle #9049: xtimer mis-scaling with long sleep times #8746: stm32_common/periph/rtc: current implementation broken/poor accuracy #8388: xtimer_periodic_wakeup is not interrupt safe #8251: telosb: xtimer config wrong when running on a tmote sky #7347: xtimer_usleep stuck for small values #7114: xtimer: add's items to the wrong list if the timer overflows between _xtimer_now() and irq_disable() #6442: cpu/native: timer interrupt issue #6052: tests: xtimer_drift gets stuck #5338: xtimer: xtimer_now() not ISR safe #5103: xtimer: weird behavior of tests/xtimer_drift, bug?

Drivers related issues

#11763: spi_transfer_reg behavior doesn't follow doc #11104: STM32: SPI clock not returning to idle state and generating additional clock cycles #10620: rn2xx3: rn2xx3_write_cmd_no_wait can't be correct #9546: dht: driver for dht11 sensor sometimes stuck in dht_read() on Atmel SAM R21 #9419: cpu/msp430: GPIO driver doesn't work properly #8213: at86rf2xx: Basic mode and NETOPT_AUTOACK #8045: stm32/periph/uart: extra byte transmitted on first transmission #8028: diskio: failed assertion in send_cmd() on lpc2387 #4876: at86rf2xx: Simultaneous use of different transceiver types is not supported #3366: periph/i2c: handle NACK

Native related issues

#11603: NATIVEINCLUDES Does not include USEMODULE_INCLUDES from log_printfnoformat #7206: native: race-condition in IPC #5796: native: tlsf: early malloc will lead to a crash #495: native not float safe

Other platforms related issues

#10842: Preemption of malloc on AVR #10258: Incorrect default $PORT building for esp32-wroom-32 on macOS #10122: Indeterministic hard fault in _mutex_lock(), with nRF52 SoftDevice #10076: cpu/cortexm_common: irq_enable returns the current state of interrupts (not previous) #8408: pkg/fatfs: linker error when build tests/pkg_fatfs_vfs for msb430 based boards #8052: mips: several issues #7753: pic32-wifire: race-condition when linking in concurrent build #7020: isr_rfcoreerrors while pinging between CC2538DKs #6567: periph/spi: Switching between CPOL=0,1 problems on Kinetis with software CS #5774: cpu: cortexm_common: context switching code breaks when compiling with LTO #4954: chronos: compiling with -O0 breaks #1891: newlib-nano: Printf formatting does not work properly for some numeric types

Build system related issues

#10857: frdm-kw41z: requires newer flasher than openocd 0.10 from ubuntu- bionic. #10850: Tracking: remove harmful use of export in make and immediate evaluation #10459: make: make clean all does not make sense and should be removed #10047: Make warns to expect errors when disabling optional modules #9913: Build dependencies - processing order issues #9742: buildtest uses wrong build directory #9645: Different build behavior between murdock and riot/riotbuild:latest image #9589: application/Makefile: environment settings after inclusion of Makefile.include #8913: make: use of immediate value of variables before they have their final value #8122: doxygen: riot.css modified by 'make doc' #7918: Usage of GCC extension for binary constants #6120: Windows AVR Mega development makefile Error #5848: arduino: Race condition in sys/arduino/Makefile.include #5776: make: Predefining CFLAGS are parsed weirdly #4053: macros: RIOT_FILE_RELATIVE printing wrong file name for headers

• buildtest with BUILD_IN_DOCKER hides host toolchain errors

Other issues

#11861: msba2: floating point tests fail #11842: buildtest with BUILD_IN_DOCKER hides host toolchain errors #11820: stm32l152re: hard-fault unless power-cycled after flash, or depending on optimization #11691: murdock and tests using utf-8 characters #11631: examples / tests: return value of gnrc_netif_hdr_build() not checked in udp.c #11447: frdm-k64f: hwrng support broken, applications using RNG crash #11423: cpu/kinetis: features provided not properly defined according to series #11243: sys/riotboot: documentation issues #10751: Possible memset optimized out in crypto code #10731: nanocoap: incomplete response to /.well-known/core request #10639: sys/stdio_uart: dropped data when received at once #10510: xtimer_set_msg: crash when using same message for 2 timers #10175: No error returned from aes_init when a key with a bad size is used #10121: RIOT cannot compile with the latest version of macOS (10.14) and Xcode 10 #9882: sys/tsrb is not thread safe on AVR #9518: periph/i2c: tracking bugs and untested acks #9371: assert: c99 static_assert macro doesn't function for multiple static_asserts in the same scope #8975: dist/tools/openocd: cannot debug some stlink based boards #8589: Why using -F in avrdude? #8436: Kinetis PhyNode: failed to flash binary > 256K #8107: crypto/ccm: bugs in the implementation of CCM mode #7220: sys/fmt: Missing tests for fmt_float, fmt_lpad #6533: tests/lwip target board for python test is hardcoded to native #5218: some use of asm keyword might be missing volatile #5009: RIOT is saw-toothing in energy consumption (even when idling) #4866: periph: GPIO drivers are not thread safe #4512: pkg: tests: RELIC unittests fail on iotlab-m3 #4488: Making the newlib thread-safe #3256: make: Setting constants on compile time doesn't really set them everywhere #2346: Tracker: Reduce scope on unintended COMMON variables #1263: sys: the TLSF implementation contains (a) read-before-write error(s)

Fixed Issues from the last release (2019.04)

#11626: tests/pkg_semtech-loramac: hardfault on lobaro-lorabox #11605: ruuvitag: Shell test fails without auto_init #11530: pkg/semtech_loramac: deadlock with UNCONFIRMED messages #11525: API change, uart input not working anymore on previously working setups #11508: core: thread_state_t makes RIOT not compilable on MAC OSX #11498: Cannot compile OpenThread example without the CLI-APP. #11494: emcute_mqttsn example setup contains invalid steps #11344: RTT: make test not working #11274: riotboot_flashwrite: Failure on the nrf52 #11091: gnrc_minimal on nRF52DK do not work anymore #11059: board/sltb001a: cannot flash with JLink when 'hello-world' is running and no error #11043: boards/z1: tests/rng resets board #10878: nrfmin can get stuck and never reach RX (while TX works) #10800: iotlab-m3: thread tests failing #10559: I2C API write_regs does not fit implementation #10468: Tinycryt upstream rewrote history in master branch #8653: msba2: default example fails on assert

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all companies that provided us with hardware for porting and testing RIOT-OS. Further thanks go to companies and institutions that directly sponsored development time. And finally, big thanks to all of you contributing in so many different ways to make RIOT worthwhile! A special thanks to @fjmolinas, @leandrolanzieri, @cladmi, @jia200x, @miri64 for helping run the release tests

More information

http://www.riot-os.org

Mailing lists

• RIOT OS kernel developers list devel@riot-os.org (http://lists.riot-os.org/mailman/listinfo/devel)
• RIOT OS users list users@riot-os.org (http://lists.riot-os.org/mailman/listinfo/users)
• RIOT commits commits@riot-os.org (http://lists.riot-os.org/mailman/listinfo/commits)
• Github notifications notifications@riot-os.org (http://lists.riot-os.org/mailman/listinfo/notifications)

IRC

• Join the RIOT IRC channel at: irc.freenode.net, #riot-os

License

• The code developed by the RIOT community is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) version 2.1 as published by the Free Software Foundation.
• Some external sources and packages are published under a separate license.

All code files contain licensing information.