Firmware & system upgrade

[RaspberryPiBeginners]

So i've released a new video on how to upgrade your firmware and i've been informed that it's not 100% correct.

My understanding was that "apt-get upgrade" will update software packages and Hexxeh "rpi-update" software will update the firmware from the firmware.

However i've been informed that "apt-get upgrade" also do the firmware and "rpi-update" is only for bleeding edge updates leased to git hub. Can someone who knows more than me confirm my new understanding is correct?

[itimpi]

So i've released a new video on how to upgrade your firmware and i've been informed that it's not 100% correct.

My understanding was that "apt-get upgrade" will update software packages and Hexxeh "rpi-update" software will update the firmware from the firmware.

However i've been informed that "apt-get upgrade" also do the firmware and "rpi-update" is only for bleeding edge updates leased to git hub. Can someone who knows more than me confirm my new understanding is correct?

It is correct that rpi-update will always for the bleeding edge update and apt-get for more stable updates.

The issue has been that the upgrade to handle 512MB systems WAS bleeding edge software. Therefore you had to use rpi-update to get that update. However I have heard that that firmware to support 512MB may have finally made it into the repositories so that apt-get upgrade now works. That is a good thing as it means that the average user can now avoid using rpi-update (which may introduce new bugs).

[RaspberryPiBeginners]

Thanks itimpi for such a quick reply. I'll update my video tonight.

If i disclaimer everywhere on the video i'll still show people the "rpi-update" if people are like me, i like to try new features even if it borks my devices.

[tbar]

Where can you see which features are to be found in the stable kernel?

I specifically want to run NFSv4 on a stable kernel but it is not supported yet:

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 ~ # /etc/init.d/nfs-kernel-server restart
[ ok ] Stopping NFS kernel daemon: mountd nfsd.
[ ok ] Unexporting directories for NFS kernel daemon....
[warn] Not starting NFS kernel daemon: no support in current kernel. ... (warning).

This post indicates that it is available in a non-stable kernel: http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewt ... 00#p166017

I've tried running apt-get update && apt-get upgrade but this changes nothing in this regard...

[Wanderlei]

Sorry this has probably been asked many times.

Normally to update firmware on OpenELEC I would just get the latest bootcode.bin, loader,bin and start.elf and replace the old ones.

For Raspbian and such is the manual process for updating firmware the same? and is there anything that attentional needs to be updated because the changes introduced for the 512mb boards?

[NielsMayer]

That is a good thing as it means that the average user can now avoid using rpi-update (which may introduce new bugs).

I attempted to fix the wrong problem by rpi-updating and ended up with the 10/28/12 version that caused xbmc to stop playing video and fail with error:

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15:02:38 T:1214248000  NOTICE: OMXClock using video as reference
15:02:38 T:1214248000   ERROR: COMXCoreComponent::SetConfig - OMX.broadcom.clock failed with omx_err(0x80001005)
15:02:38 T:1214248000   ERROR: OMXClock::OMXReset error setting OMX_IndexConfigTimeClockState

https://github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-firmware/commits/master lists a few culprits:
Use a dummy edid when hdmi_ignore_edid is true and edid is invalid
Avoid allocating dispmanx offscreen buffer when not requested. It was… …
Update to LKG56 for dispmanx, hvs, dispserv, scalarlib. …

However the stock firmware -- "Oct 25 2012 16:37:21" -- that came with the latest upgrades was able to play video successfully.

To get XBMC working again, I was able to "roll back" to the distributed version of firmware:

rpi2-3-~> vcgencmd version
Oct 25 2012 16:37:21
Copyright (c) 2012 Broadcom
version 346337 (release)

By issuing the following command to force re-installation of the latest update version of kernel/firmware, then rebooting:

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rpi2-2-~> sudo apt-get install --reinstall libraspberrypi-doc  libraspberrypi-dev  libraspberrypi-bin libraspberrypi0 raspberrypi-bootloader
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 5 reinstalled, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/64.7 MB of archives.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
(Reading database ... 87033 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace libraspberrypi-bin 1.20121025-1 (using .../libraspberrypi-bin_1.20121025-1_armhf.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libraspberrypi-bin ...
Preparing to replace libraspberrypi-dev 1.20121025-1 (using .../libraspberrypi-dev_1.20121025-1_armhf.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libraspberrypi-dev ...
Preparing to replace libraspberrypi-doc 1.20121025-1 (using .../libraspberrypi-doc_1.20121025-1_armhf.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libraspberrypi-doc ...
Preparing to replace libraspberrypi0 1.20121025-1 (using .../libraspberrypi0_1.20121025-1_armhf.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement libraspberrypi0 ...
Preparing to replace raspberrypi-bootloader 1.20121025-1 (using .../raspberrypi-bootloader_1.20121025-1_armhf.deb) ...
Adding 'diversion of /boot/bootcode.bin to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/bootcode.bin by rpikernelhack'
Adding 'diversion of /boot/fixup.dat to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/fixup.dat by rpikernelhack'
Adding 'diversion of /boot/fixup_cd.dat to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/fixup_cd.dat by rpikernelhack'
Adding 'diversion of /boot/kernel.img to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/kernel.img by rpikernelhack'
Adding 'diversion of /boot/kernel_cutdown.img to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/kernel_cutdown.img by rpikernelhack'
Adding 'diversion of /boot/kernel_emergency.img to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/kernel_emergency.img by rpikernelhack'
Adding 'diversion of /boot/start.elf to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/start.elf by rpikernelhack'
Adding 'diversion of /boot/start_cd.elf to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/start_cd.elf by rpikernelhack'
Unpacking replacement raspberrypi-bootloader ...
Setting up raspberrypi-bootloader (1.20121025-1) ...
Memory split is now set in /boot/config.txt.
You may want to use raspi-config to set it
Removing 'diversion of /boot/bootcode.bin to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/bootcode.bin by rpikernelhack'
Removing 'diversion of /boot/fixup.dat to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/fixup.dat by rpikernelhack'
Removing 'diversion of /boot/fixup_cd.dat to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/fixup_cd.dat by rpikernelhack'
Removing 'diversion of /boot/kernel.img to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/kernel.img by rpikernelhack'
Removing 'diversion of /boot/kernel_cutdown.img to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/kernel_cutdown.img by rpikernelhack'
Removing 'diversion of /boot/kernel_emergency.img to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/kernel_emergency.img by rpikernelhack'
Removing 'diversion of /boot/start.elf to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/start.elf by rpikernelhack'
Removing 'diversion of /boot/start_cd.elf to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/start_cd.elf by rpikernelhack'
Setting up libraspberrypi0 (1.20121025-1) ...
Setting up libraspberrypi-bin (1.20121025-1) ...
Setting up libraspberrypi-dev (1.20121025-1) ...
Setting up libraspberrypi-doc (1.20121025-1) ...
...
rpi2-6-~> sudo reboot

[mechos]

It's worth pointing out that the Hexxeh rpi-update route to accessing the full 512MB of newer PI's is not limited to hard-float (i.e. Raspbian) distribution.
I was delighted to find it worked for soft-float Debian too.
On my PI the process generated some console output that indicated that it recognised the soft-float configuration.

This should be of interest to those using Oracle's Java JDK or JRE which is all the more useful with larger RAM, and currently limited to running only on soft-float ARM Debian, not Raspbian.

This will keep me going till we have hard-float Wheezy release; until Oracle release a hard-float compatible JDK/JRE; until raspi-config manages memory splits for the newer 512MB PI's.

Now - Back to playing with leJOS robot code!