ABI checking

There is no day so wasted that you can’t take notes about what didn’t work, so here’s some talk about ABI-compliance-checking. ABI-compliance, or ABI-compatibility, is roughly when a shared library can be changed (to a different version, usually an update and upgrade) and users of that shared library (applications, or other libraries) just work with the new version. This requires some discipline, and there are tools to help out. [...] One way to help maintain binary compatibility is to use tools that check the ABI: figure out the shape of the ABI in one version, the shape in another version, and compare those shapes. KDE Frameworks have checks in place, like this one (that link assumes openSUSE and Qt 5.15 are still in use and that there was a recent successful build). Generally, an ABI-shape getting bigger is not a problem (from a technical perspective, although you can have all kinds of semantic mix-ups). Things that go away – functions, variables, etc. – those are problematic. Calamares is a Linux system installer – it can be customized by Linux distro’s to act as the installer for their ISO images. It’s a C++ program offering modules for all kinds of system-installation services. It also offers an ABI: the modules use the ABI of the Calamares libraries to talk to the main program. Calamares supports “third-party” modules, e.g. modules specific to one distro or otherwise customized, and for those third-party modules, ABI compatibility suddenly becomes an issue: it would be nice if they didn’t have to be recompiled when a new Calamares library comes out. That can only happen if the Calamares libraries commit to ABI compatibility.

Devices: Jetson, Aaeon, Raspberry Pi

 

• Jetson TX2 NX module offers TX2 power in a Nano footprint

  Nvidia has launched a 260-pin “Jetson TX2 NX” variant of the TX2 with 4GB LPDDR4, 16GB eMMC, and slightly reduced camera, display, and PCIe Gen2 support. Nvidia has introduced a spin-down of the Jetson TX2 compute module that falls between the TX2 and the lower-end Jetson Nano. The Jetson TX2 NX runs Linux on the same hexa-core CPU and 256-core Pascal GPU with 1.33-TOPS AI performance as the TX2, and it supplies the same 4GB LPDDR4 and 16GB eMMC as the lower-end 4GB TX2 module. However, it moves from a 400-pin board-to-board edge connector to the 260-pin connector found on the Nano and higher-end Jetson Xavier NX, and has fewer PCIe Gen2, MIPI-CSI, MIPI-DSI, and other interfaces.

  

• Net appliance boasts four 10GbE ports and up to three wireless links

  Aaeon’s “FWS-2365” net appliance runs on an up to 16-core Atom C3000 with up to 6x GbE and 4x 10GbE SFP+ ports plus 2x SATA, 2x USB, 2x mini-PCIe, M.2, and eMMC. Aaeon announced a desktop network appliance for white box uCPE and SD-WAN applications with VPN support and NFV functions such as firewall and router deployment. The FWS-2365 follows earlier FWS branded appliances such as the FWS-2360 and FWS-7360, which similarly feature Intel’s 4x to 16x core Atom C3000 (“Denverton”) networking SoC. No OS support was listed, but the FWS-2360 supports Linux.

  

• Raspberry Pi RP2040 boards are coming with... HDMI?

  We’ve already seen Raspberry Pi RP2040 MCU can support VGA output using the microcontroller’s programmable I/O blocks.  But yesterday, I saw two upcoming RP2040 boards with an HDMI connector. How is that supposed to work? The first one is Olimex RP2040-PICO-PC that’s indeed like a pico PC board with an HDMI connector for video, a micro SD card for storage, a standard 3.5mm audio jack for speaker or headphone, and a USB host for a keyboard.

WWW: Chrome 89 and DevOps at Mozilla

• New in Chrome 89

  Chrome 89 is starting to roll out to stable now.

• Chrome 89 Released With Various New Web APIs Deemed Stable

  Chrome 89 is out today as the latest stable version of Google's web browser. With Chrome 89 various new APis are deemed stable including WebHID, WebNFC, and Web Serial. Chrome 89 promoted its WebHID, WebNFC, and Web Serial support with those APIs for HID devices, near field communication, and serial devices being deemed ready for production use. Chrome 89 is also significant for AV1 encoding support for WebRTC in early form.

 

• DevOps at Mozilla

  I first joined Mozilla as an intern in 2010 for the “Tools and Automation Team” (colloquially called the “A-Team”). I always had a bit of difficulty describing our role. We work on tests. But not the tests themselves, the the thing that runs the tests. Also we make sure the tests run when code lands. Also we have this dashboard to view results, oh and also we do a bunch of miscellaneous developer productivity kind of things. Oh and sometimes we have to do other operational type things as well, but it varies.

CMS: Kiwi TCMS 10.0 and WordPress 5.7 Release Candidate 2

• Kiwi TCMS 10.0

  We're happy to announce Kiwi TCMS version 10.0!

• WordPress 5.7 Release Candidate 2

  The second release candidate for WordPress 5.7 is now available! [...] Thank you to all of the contributors who tested the Beta/RC releases and gave feedback. Testing for bugs is a critical part of polishing every release and a great way to contribute to WordPress.