Hi everyone,
We know we've been a little absent from the forum, but we've been absolutely bombarded with messages from Kickstarter regarding shipping. Before I talk about the Omega2+ fixes, I would like to thank everyone for their patience and support so far. We know we've done a poor job of communicating so far and we are actively working to fix that issue. Expect more frequent updates from us and more time spent on the forum!
Also, I will make it a priority to get our Pull Request to the LEDE project repo merged in and to open source the vast majority of our code.

What you came here for:
As of firmware b143, reboot and mounting/reading/writing SD cards has been fixed!

What's next:
We will be putting together a changelog so that everyone knows whats going on in the firmware, expect that soon!
Also incoming: documentation on using the SD card and a repo of known issues!

Onion

We've been hard at work at Onion HQ, sometimes even sleeping on the couch overnight, but all that hard work has paid off...

The Omega now supports NodeJS version 4.3.1!!

The new version requires some updates to the Linux kernel, so you will need to do a full firmware update to prepare your Omega for the latest NodeJS. To reflect this, the Omega firmware version has been changed to 0.0.7

To update to the latest firmware, either run oupgrade in the command line, or upgrade through the console.

Installing Node

opkg update
opkg install nodejs

If you experience any issues, a factory reset should fix everything, just make sure to back up any data you don’t want to lose.

NPM is also available and can be installed with:

opkg install npm

Note that it takes up quite a bit of space, so you will most likely need to transfer your rootfs to USB storage to install both NPM and node.

We’re working on reducing the amount of space the default programs take up so that additional storage is not required to use both programs. Stay tuned.

SPI Support

Also included in the firmware is support for SPI over the GPIOs! There's a static C library, a Python Module, and a command line tool.

There's a wiki article that goes in-depth on how to use the library.
To install the Python Module (and the static C library):

opkg update
opkg install python-light pyOnionSpi

To install the command line tool:

opkg update
opkg install spi-tool

For info on how to use it, run spi-tool -h.
A wiki article on the tool is coming soon!
EDIT: The wiki article can be found at: https://wiki.onion.io/Tutorials/Using-SPI

A message from the Onion team

We want to take a minute to thank all Onioneers for their support and patience. We've encountered issues with manufacturing and delays with our software, but through this process we've learned how to better manage these activities and what it means to run an IoT startup.

As a team, we're 100% aligned in giving our customers everything that was promised during the Kickstarter campaign and more, the best from Onion is yet to come! Look out, 2016 will definitely be the year of the Omega and the Onion!

PS: Be sure to keep an eye on the Onion Wiki, we’re working hard to add content and make it a valuable resource to the community!

Mega Omega Software Release

Hey everyone, it looks like we've finally figured out how to transform coffee into code, meaning that version 0.0.5 of the Omega firmware is available with a whole bunch of goodies in tow! We've been listening to you guys and this release is all about the Expansions!

Expansion Drivers

The OLED Expansion has finally gotten some love and now has a driver called oled-exp! You can use the driver application to:

• initialize the expansion
• clear the display
• turn it on and off (while preserving the image)
• invert the display colours
• dim the brightness
• set the text cursor
• write a message
• enable horizontal or diagonal scrolling
• display an image

The best part is that all of the commands can be cascaded, so you can do multiple things in one call. Detailed documentation will be available tomorrow (December 4th), in the meantime, you can run oled-exp -h to see the usage instructions.

Oh and one more thing, all of the driver functions used in the pwm-exp, relay-exp, and oled-exp are now in their own static C libraries, so anybody can use them in their C/C++ applications to directly control these three Expansions. Documentation for this is coming soon, most likely Saturday, December 5th. Info on using these libraries with Python shortly afterwards. We also have a C/C++ cross compilation project in the works so stay tuned!

The Console

It wouldn't be a real software update with some goodies being added to the console, so we proudly present the Ando N2 Console Release!

Right off the bat, you'll notice the new apps to control the control the Servo, Relay, and OLED Expansions. Play around with them, we've tried to make them as intuitive as possible but don't be afraid to reach out if you have any questions.
The GPIO control app now has a new mode where the pins are laid out to match the Expansion Dock. We figured it would be nice to have some options

Last but definitely not least, after using a few of the apps, you'll notice the new taskbar at the bottom of the screen, allowing you to quickly switch between any open apps. We would love to know what you think of it!

Remember to clear your browser's cache in order to load the console updates!

Expect a change-log for the Console to be published in the next couple of days

The Onion Package Repo

Another big thing is that the Onion Package Repo is now available and can be used in conjunction with opkg to install packages! Run opkg update after updating your firmware to configure the Omega to use this repo.

Stay tuned, we'll be adding more packages to the repo and more info as well!

NodeJS

We've also been able to make a nice opkg package for NodeJS v0.10.5. To install it after updating your firmware, run the following:

opkg update
opkg install nodejs

This installation takes up about 3.1MB so it will fit on the on-board storage with no problems. We're also actively working on a package for NodeJS version 0.12.7 so keep your eyes peeled for that next week, just note that it will take up significantly more disk space than the currently available version.

How to Upgrade

To get the latest firmware, you can run oupgrade on the terminal, or you can use the Firmware Upgrade tool in the Console's settings app.

I would recommend backing up all your files and doing a factory reset after the new firmware is installed, just to ensure all of the new files make it to your filesystem.

Hold down the reset button for 10 seconds and release to initiate a Factory Reset.

Happy hacking!

Make sure to let us know if you find any issues or have any suggestions!

I just want to take a moment to thank you guys for your patience and understanding. We're working super hard and doing the best we can, but unfortunately there's only so many hours in a day. Rest assured that we are completely commited to building the very best product we can for you!

Oh and on a personal note, ll is now automatically aliased to ls -al... this was driving me crazy!

The issue came up when libcurl was updated to v7.53.0 in Lede, for whatever reason the URL to connect to the Cloud Device Server causes libcurl to throw an Invalid URL error.

This never happened before, we're looking into it and will let you guys know when we know anything. Stay tuned for updates.

If you're subscribed to the Onion Newsletter, you might already now that the Onion Cloud is up and ready for all Onion users!!

The Onion Newsletter

We definitely suggest that you sign up to the newsletter to receive Onion related news and updates. The Newsletter is an email that goes out once a week containing an update on what's new in Onion-land, a featured tutorial or project, and a Deal of the Week.

You can subscribe to the newsletter by going to onion.io, scrolling to the very bottom, and entering your email address in the form:

The Cloud

We've been working very hard on the Cloud and we're very proud to finally open it up to all of our users.

Without any further ado: you can navigate to cloud.onion.io and login with your Onion account to access the Cloud.
If you feel unsure of what to do at any point, click on the Info icon on the left-hand sidebar for a guided tour of the screen that's currently open:

The tour will walk you through how to use the Cloud and all of the currently available features.

You will need to update your Omega to firmware version 0.1.1 in order to connect it to the Cloud. Check out the Cloud Device Manager App Tour for the steps required to register your Omega with the Cloud.

Feel free to use the Bug Report button on the left-hand side to let us know about any issues you find or any suggestions you have.

What's Next

This is the very first Cloud release, there are many features that are still in the works! We plan to continue following our development roadmap as closely as possible.

Since the Cloud is hosted on our servers, we will be doing rolling updates so don't be surprised to see new features when you log in!

As always, happy hacking!

It's new firmware time, version 0.0.8 is here!!!

Let's jump right in to what's new!

Node and NPM Fix

As many of you had seen, HTML requests from Node and the installation of packages with NPM did not work because all the requests would attempt to resolve to IPv6. We pounded our heads against the wall until Zheng finally figured out that it was a uClibc issue! (For those who are curious, uClibc is a version of the GNU C Library meant to run on embedded systems, check out their site for more info).

We've applied a patch to the firmware to fix the issue, and Node & NPM will now resolve HTTP requests to IPv4, no more ENOTFOUND errors!

Note that to install NPM, you will have to move the Omega's filesystem to USB storage using pivot-overlay/pivot-root

Bluetooth Support

Finally, after wrestling with OpenWRT and code from a variety of packages, the Omega now supports Bluetooth! The tutorial on streaming music to the Omega via Bluetooth can be found on our Wiki.

We're actually quite proud ourselves, as far as we know, Onion is the first to get Bluetooth to cooperate with OpenWRT. This is just the beginning for Bluetooth and the Omega, but we want to hear from you, a survey will be sent out to all BLE expansion owners in the next few days.

Network Manager

Doesn't it kinda suck how the Omega is setup to join a single WiFi network, and if that network can't be found even the Omega's Access Point is off? Well, not anymore!

The Omega now comes with a Network Manager that will allow you to store the configuration for many WiFi networks, and will automatically try to connect to any configured networks that are currently available. The wifisetup program has been overhauled to act as a tool to add/change the configuration of your stored WiFi networks. (This can also be accomplished on the Console, but more on that later). For more info on the overhauled wifisetup script, try running wifisetup --help for a detailed printout on the usage. Running wifisetup with no arguments will start the interactive mode just like before, just run wdb40 when it's done.

The actual network manager is named wdb40, the basic operation follows this sequence:

• Read the info of the configured networks
• Scan the environment to see which networks are currently available
• Check if any of the configured networks are currently available
• Attempt to connect to an available configured network
  • If there are multiple available configured networks, they order in which they appear is the order they will attempt to be connected to. This order can be changed using wifisetup or the through the Console Settings App

If connecting to the network is not successful:

• Try connecting to next available configured network (if any exist)
• Once the list of available configured networks has been exhausted, the Omega's Access Point WiFi network will be activated so that there is connectivity!

The Network Manager will be automatically run at boot, so your Omega will automatically connect to any network it recognizes (Expect a small increase in time from power-on to connecting to WiFI). It can also be run manually at any time after boot with the wdb40 command.

If you experience any issues, please report them on the wdb40 GitHub issues page.

Console Updates

The Console got some love as well this time, don't worry, there's two new apps, an overhaul of the WiFi Settings App, and general bug fixes and improvements.

Programming Calculator App

The Programming Calculator can:

• Convert to and from numbers in decimal, hexadecimal, octal, unicode, and binary
• Provides basic arithmetic functions
• Provides an assortment of bitwise operations (logical operations, bitwise shifts, etc)

To select the number system you would like to work with, simply click on the one you would like to use. Also, clicking any of the bits in the binary readout will modify the number, something I use all the time actually! Another cool thing about this app, you can also use your keyboard to perform most of the available operations. Try it out and let us know how it goes!

Webcam App

If you have a USB webcam connected to your Omega, then this App is for you! Through the drop-down menus you can select your resolution and frames per second settings, we've found 640x480 @ 30fps to be the most stable. The buttons on the top right start and stop the stream, and the stream will be in the middle once it starts. We've used this at Onion HQ to babysit our 3D printer from another room!

WiFi Settings

The Wi-Fi Settings page in the Settings App has been updated to work in tandem with the new Network Manager; the configured networks are listed and there is an button to scan and add a new network. In the list of configured networks, you can connect to the network, change the connection priority, or remove the network altogether.

The Wi-Fi AP Settings page got some work done under-the-hood but it looks and behaves the same way as before.

Feedback

If you experience any issues with the new Console, please post to the Console GitHub repo issues page

From Onion with Love

Now that this release is out, the entire team will be refocusing their development efforts to the cloud. We realize that development has been slower than expected and we are now working almost exclusively on the cloud! Stay tuned!

As always, happy hacking!

Yep, you read that correctly: Python modules for controlling the Servo, Relay, and OLED Expansions are now available. They're based on the C libraries so the control interface is very similar between C and Python.

How to Install the Modules

Make sure your Omega is running the latest firmware, b244, and then run the following commands:

opkg update
opkg install python-light pyPwmExp pyRelayExp pyOledExp

The modules are completely independent of each other, so you do not need all three!

How to use the Modules

Check out the wiki articles on the Onion libraries, they now include info on the Python Modules as well.

Please let us know if you have any suggestions for the wiki articles on how they can be improved!

Other Stuff

Right now the modules have only been tested with Python 2.7, if there is enough interest, we will make sure Python3 is 100% supported as well.

And right now, the libraries are not object-oriented, just a collection of functions like the C libraries. If there is enough interest, we will make object oriented libraries as well!

Happy hacking and happy holidays!

The Cloud connectivity issue is now fixed in v0.1.9 b149

Also, the reset button now actually triggers a reboot when pressed!

Run oupgrade to get the latest firmware on your Omega!

See our blog post for more details: https://onion.io/2017/01/more-firmware-fixes-now-with-extra-cloud/

Thank you for your patience and support! We're working hard to make the Omega the very best it can be!
Onion

@Luciano-S @fossette @Kit-Bishop @WereCatf
we actually have KERNEL_DEVMEM and KERNEL_DEVKMEM enabled, the firmware just stopped mapping /dev/mem a little while ago. Haven't had the time to dive into it tho!

A known issues page and changelog is in the works!

the sd card issue has been resolved as of b143

Onion

@crispyoz Your PoE suggestion is interesting! Can you give us a little more detail on why, when, and how PoE is helpful?

This goes for all users!

Who knows? Maybe we make a variant with onboard PoE

Yep!
Our new Omega2 Eval Boards represent a new starting point for working with the Onion Omega2 modules. Designed to lower the friction of working with the Omega2, they’re indispensable for evaluation, early prototyping, and development. They also serve as a template to build your own custom board and can even be used as SBCs for your applications.

We’d love for you to give our campaign page a look and consider backing our Omega2 Eval Boards!

hi @mauriziomeucci, sorry to hear about the frustration caused by not having the avahi daemon.

To quote @crispyoz:

The term "Beta" indicating that it is a test release inviting feedback, which would include which packages users may prefer to be included.

The 23.05 firmware is still in beta and not yet our stable firmware. We want to give users a chance to try it out before rolling it out as the default firmware in the factory.

If you have specific improvement suggestions (or bugs to report), you can create an Issue in the OnionIoT/OpenWRT-Packages GitHub Repo. There are issue templates you can use for Improvement Suggestions/Feature Requests and Bug Reports.

You can also try building your own version of the 23.05 firmware that includes the avahi daemon. This is now very easy and takes minutes instead of hours. See the How to Build Custom Firmware article in the new documentation for the procedure.

Let me know how it goes!

---

@luz what's a quick way to test if IPv6 and link local is enabled in the new fw? I'm not too familiar with IPv6 - I need to study

What’s new?

Two big items!

1. New Documentation site for the new firmware is available
2. Firmware based on OpenWRT release 23.05.3 is available!

New Documentation Site

Documentation for the “new” firmware based on OpenWRT 23.05 is now live at: https://documentation.onioniot.com/

This will be the main documentation site going forward!

Just like we started with a clean slate for the firmware, this is a clean slate for documentation. Our goal was to start from scratch, organize the documentation in a way that makes it useful to readers, and not carry over every single item from the existing legacy documentation.

We used Docusaurus - a modern static website generator - as the underlying platform for the documentation site instead of a homebrew solution. It is easy to maintain and deploy, very customizable, and looks quite good in our opinion.

The documentation is open source and available on GitHub: https://github.com/OnionIoT/documentation

Work on the documentation is still in progress - so expect to see updates.

Our goal is to make this documentation as useful as possible for our users. To make that happen we’ll need your help! We’ve added comment sections to each article - if anything is missing, confusing, or needs attention, login with Github and drop a comment right in the article.

You can also give us longer feedback by creating an issue in the OnionIoT/documentation GitHub repo. We also accept PRs for direct contributions!

We’re happy to hear your thoughts on what information you need to successfully work with the Omega and update the documentation accordingly!

What about documentation for the v0.3.4 firmware??

The existing documentation at https://docs.onion.io/ will remain available and focused on the v0.3.4 (and earlier) firmware. We will make updates there as needed. But expect it to remain largely the same.

We will call this the legacy documentation site going forward.

New Firmware based on OpenWRT 23.05

A new release of Onion customized firmware is now available!

Highlights include:

• Migrated to the OpenWRT 23.05.3 release
• Running Linux kernel 5.15
• Run-time loadable Device Tree Overlays are fully supported - easily extend the hardware capabilities of the device within Linux
  • No longer have to build firmware from scratch to support additional hardware!
• Added support for more hardware interfaces
  • Hardware PWM - learn more here.
  • p44-ledchain to control WS281x LEDs (Neopixels) - learn more here.
  • One Wire support (using DT Overlay) - learn more here.
  • Better SPI support - using DT Overlay for software-based SPI bus and Python spidev module added for both software and hardware SPI bus control - learn more here and here.
  • Quectel EC25 LTE modem support (used on the Omega2 LTE) - learn more here.
• Fixed the GPIO numbering - GPIO numbers in Linux match the Omega2 pinout diagrams
• Supports NodeJS v18 - as far as we know, modern versions of Node are not supported on any other MIPS platform - learn more here.

How can I get and use this firmware?

The firmware is available in the Onion software repository: http://repo.onioniot.com/omega2/images/openwrt-23.05/

See the Installing the New Firmware article on the new documentation site for instructions on how to take this firmware for a spin

️ The New Firmware works differently from previous versions ️
Try it out on a small scale before rolling it out to production! For a detailed list of changes to the firmware, see the What’s New article on the new documentation site.

Is it easy to build my own version of this firmware?

That’s a great question!

We’ve heard from many users that making customizations to the Onion firmware is hard, confusing, and time-consuming. We’ve put in work to update and simplify this process - it now takes minutes instead of hours! Spend less time setting up the environment and building everything from scratch, and use that time to focus on your application!

See the full break-down of how we build customized firmware in the new documentation.

In a nutshell:

1. All customizations are encapsulated as
   • Patches to the OpenWRT Build System
   • Software Packages
2. We use the Build System to create customized versions of the OpenWRT SDK and Image Builder
3. Onion packages are compiled using the OpenWRT SDK - learn more here.
4. Firmware (featuring Onion packages) is built using the OpenWRT Image Builder - learn more here.

To make your own customized packages and firmware, we suggest doing steps 3 and 4 with some modifications for your own purposes!

How can I report bugs or give feedback?

We value your input and are eager to hear about your experiences with the firmware. Feel free to post in this thread - I’ll be around to chat!

If you have specific improvement suggestions (or bugs to report), you can create an Issue in the OnionIoT/OpenWRT-Packages GitHub Repo. There are issue templates you can use for Improvement Suggestions/Feature Requests and Bug Reports.

What happened to the earlier 22.03 beta firmware?

We continued working on it! I neglected to update the community on our progress - that’s my bad.

After the previous update on the 22.03 firmware we followed through on the next steps from that post:

• Upgraded to the OpenWRT 22.03.5 release
• Add support for:
  • Hardware PWM
  • p44-ledchain to control WS281x LEDs (Neopixels)
  • Device Tree overlays loadable during run time
  • Added one-wire support
  • Added Python spidev module for interacting with the SPI bus
  • Added software SPI support

This firmware will remain available at: http://repo.onioniot.com/omega2/images/openwrt-22.03/

But our future development efforts will be on the OpenWRT 23.05-based firmware!

What’s Next?

You tell us what you’d like to see and we’ll do our best to make it happen

We currently are working on the following:

• Some new hardware is on the horizon - more news on that soon!
• We’re going to continue working on the documentation and firmware based on your feedback
• At some point later this year or early next year, new Omega devices will ship with the OpenWRT 23.05-based firmware - we will give advance notice before this happens!

---

EDIT Oct 18, 2024: fixed issue with broken links in post
EDIT Nov 8, 2024: added warning to try out new firmware on small scale first

@crispyoz this is a great example on creating a new user for ubus use! You beat us to the punch! Could you make a new FAQ?

@crispyoz said in OnionOS user:

I haven't used the OnionOS stuff for a few years but as I recall it uses the the ubus acls

That's right! We use the root user though!

@mrahul said in OM2+ getting stuck in boot stage with custom firmware using b255:

Should we see the same behavior if we use the binary downloaded from the Onion FW Repo?

No, my previous comment does not apply to firmware in the Onion firmware repo - these firmware images are already compiled and should contain everything needed.

So devices with mac addresses that start with 40:A3:6B should boot and operate properly when flashed with any firmware from the Onion firmware repo.

Devices with mac address addresses starting with 88:1E:59 will boot and operate correctly when flashed with firmware b255 and higher.

I've confirmed this with devices I have on hand
Device with 40:A3:6B mac address running firmware b254:

Device with 40:A3:6B mac address running firmware b259:

Device with 88:1E:59 mac address running firmware b256:

---

@mrahul said in OM2+ getting stuck in boot stage with custom firmware using b255:

However, we only use two methods, i.e. through ethernet or syupgrade to upgrade or re-flash a device on bricking. How different are these two processes?

For a device that boots into linux successfully, upgrading the firmware thru sysupgrade and thru ethernet with the bootloader will have the same effect. As long as sysupgrade is run with the -n option to overwrite the existing configuration and filesystem.

For a device that cannot boot into Linux, we recommend reflashing the firmware with ethernet thru the bootloader.

---

@mrahul said in OM2+ getting stuck in boot stage with custom firmware using b255:

Lately, we've started seeing the same behavior again with b255 where it gets stuck in the boot process.

Does this mean the firmware sometimes works and sometimes doesn't?
This could point to something in the hardware design impacting the boot sequence. Do you use any SPI devices? Do you follow the bootstrapping pins guidelines in your hardware?

---

My recommendation

Since you mentioned you're using the through-hole Omega2+, we can try to isolate where the issue is coming from.

I recommend doing the following:

• Remove an Omega2+ device from your custom board
• Plug it into an Onion Expansion Dock with an Ethernet Expansion
• Use the bootloader + ethernet to flash firmware b259 from the Onion firmware repo
• Observe the outcome, given my testing I expect this device should boot properly
• Plug the device back into your custom board and attempt to boot it again

Let me know how it goes!

@crispyoz Cool, I'll try to carve out some time to test drive it

Hi @Jose
If the SIM7600G LTE modem is USB enabled it should be compatible with the Omega2 devices. You will probably need to inquire with the modem manufacturer if there are any additional drivers needed for support in Linux.

If the modem supports QMI, you might be able to use existing tools to configure your modem. See this post for more details: https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/wan/wwan/ltedongle

I would also recommend seeing if the Omega2 LTE single board computer would work for your needs. For more info see: https://onion.io/omega2-lte/

@crispyoz ooo that's good to know, thanks for sharing!

Does it also support DTS fragments for overlays?
For example: https://github.com/OnionIoT/OpenWRT-Packages/blob/openwrt-23.05/onion-dt-overlay/src/sw-spi.dts

@DocHardinger Haven't tried that once specifically, but I can't think of any reason a USB 2.0 Hub won't work with the Omega. That is, as long as it's used in the design as intended by the manufacturer.

Let us know how it goes!