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March 24, 2026March 23, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

ESP-IDF v6.0 framework adds support for ESP32-C5 and ESP32-C61, preview for ESP32-H21 and ESP32-H4

Espressif Systems released the ESP-IDF v6.0 framework a few days ago with stable support for ESP32-C5 and ESP32-C61 SoCs, as well as preview support for ESP32-H21 and ESP32-H4 low-power wireless microcontrollers. The framework also implements a new ESP-IDF Installation Manager (EIM) to make the ESP-IDF installation easier, relies on the low-footprint Picolibc C library, adds security and tooling updates, as well as a few Wi-Fi enhancements, and the ability to update the bootloader over the air. Here are some of the ESP-IDF v6.0 highlights: ESP-IDF Installation Manager – Unified cross-platform tool to simplify the setup process for ESP-IDF and compatible IDEs. It’s available as a graphical interface or a CLI for automation and CI/CD pipelines. You can check the installation instructions for your OS. Picolibc replaces Newlib for a smaller memory footprint and better performance on resource-constrained devices. Check the Newlib vs Picolibc comparison for details. Contrary to some of […]

September 4, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

EtherealOS: easily install Linux ISO and OS images from the Internet on Amlogic SBCs

Libre Computer has just announced the general availability of EtherealOS for the company’s Amlogic SBCs, namely AML-S905X-CC (Le Potato), AML-S805X-AC (La Frite), AML-S905X-CC-V2 ( Sweet Potato), AML-S905D3-CC (Solitude), and AML-A311D-CC (Alta). EtherealOS is described as a lightweight internet-booted operating system designed for performing tasks such as file and disk manipulation, operating system deployment, light browser tasks, and more. It includes a limited set of tools compared to a full operating system, and it’s basically an OS to install other operating systems directly from the Internet, in a way similar to Khadas OOWOW or Radxa ROOBI OS. The difference is that EtherealOS apparently supports upstreamed operating systems, namely Debian (debian-12.11.0-arm64-DVD-1.iso / debian-testing-arm64-DVD-1.iso), Fedora (Fedora-Workstation-Live-42-1.1.aarch64.iso), and OpenSUSE, besides images optimized by Libre Computer based on Debian, Ubuntu, and Raspbian. The video below shows how the terminal GUI in EtherealOS can install Debian to the eMMC flash of one of the company’s single […]

February 7, 2025February 7, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

FOSSASIA 2025 – Operating systems, open hardware, and firmware sessions

The FOSSASIA Summit is the closest we have to FOSDEM in Asia. It’s a free and open-source event taking place each year in Asia, and FOSSASIA 2025 will take place in Bangkok, Thailand on March 13-15 this year. It won’t have quite as many speakers and sessions as in FOSDEM 2025 (968 speakers, 930 events), but the 3-day event will still have over 170 speakers and more than 200 sessions. Most of the sessions are for high-level software with topics like AI and data science, databases, cloud, and web3, but I also noticed a few sessions related to “Hardware and firmware” and “Operating System” which are closer to what we cover here at CNX Software. So I’ll make a virtual schedule based on those two tracks to check out any potentially interesting talks. None of those sessions take place on March 13, so we’ll only have a schedule for March […]

September 13, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

$999 Librem 11 Linux tablet features Celeron N5100 processor, 1TB NVMe SSD, 2.5K AMOLED display

Purism Librem 11 is an 11.5-inch Linux tablet running the secure PureBoot bootloader and PureOS Linux distribution with a focus on privacy and respect for personal freedom. The tablet comes with what looks to be a decent 11.5-inch AMOLED touchscreen display with a 2560×1600 resolution, 8GB RAM, and a 1TB NVMe SSD, but the Intel Celeron N5100 quad-core Jasper Lake processor would be considered entry-level in 2023. The tablet also comes with a keyboard and stylus making a 2-in1 hybrid device. Purism Librem 11 specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron N5100 quad-core Jasper Lake processor @ 1.1GHz/2.89GHz (Turbo) with Intel UHD Graphics System Memory – 8 GB LPDDR4 (soldered) Storage 1 TB NVMe SSD (Kingston KC3000) microSD card reader implemented with Genesys Logic GL823K Display – 11.5-inch AMOLED display with 2560×1600 resolution, 60Hz refresh rate, Goodix GXTP7380 multitouch digitizer, stylus support Stylus – 2x buttons, 4096 pressure levels, tilt support (XY), […]

August 29, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

LoRaWAN IoT Button ships with open-source firmware, bootloader, and Android app

LoRaWAN is often used for asset tracking or environmental monitoring, for example, to track cattle location, or monitor temperature and humidity in a field, but n-Fuse’s “LoRaWAN IoT Action Button” enables human interaction and comes with open-source firmware, bootloader, and soon the source code for the Android app. Most of the n-Fuse STx-LR family of LoRaWAN nodes integrates environmental sensors but the LoRaWAN IoT Action Button is different with support supports single, double, and long presses, as well as tactile feedback. n-Fuse STx-LR family comes in three variants with the following key features: MCU – STMicro STM32L071KZU6 Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller @ 32 MHz with 192KB flash, 20KB RAM sta-lr – Action button with tactile feedback. stx-lr – TI HDC2080 environmental sensor (Temperature, Humidity), BMA400 motion sensor (acceleration), magnetic field sensitive Reed switch, ambient light sensor, and proximity sensor. ste-lr – Bosch BME680 environmental sensor with temperature, humidity, air pressure, and […]

April 23, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Intel releases SDK for Cortex-M7 PSE found in Elkhart Lake processors

Elkhart Lake processors integrate the Intel Programmable Services Engine (Intel PSE) offload engine for IoT workloads powered by an Arm Cortex-M7 microcontroller that handles real-time IO control using GPIO, I2C, and/or UART interfaces, and supports functions such as remote, out-of-band device management, network proxy, embedded controller, and sensor hub. Until now the firmware was only provided as a closed-source binary, and Coreboot developers published an open letter to open the source code for the PSE firmware last December, and it’s been successful with Intel releasing the Intel PSE SDK based on Zephyr OS. The SDK combines open-source components (code samples, services, etc…) released under a permissive Apache 2.0 license (“License A”), and closed-source libraries and tools released under an Intel license (“License B”) allowing the redistribution and use in binary form, without modification. You’ll find everything on Github including documentation explaining how to get started with the Zephyr SDK, the […]

April 13, 2022April 18, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Arduino releases secure bootloader based on MCUboot

Arduino has released a new bootloader based on MCUBoot to increase the range of features and firmware safety of Arduino products, with the first release targetting STM32H7 based Arduino Portenta and Nicla Vision boards from the Arduino Pro family. The release focuses on Arduino Mbed OS-based boards, but MCUboot is OS agnostic, and should also work with Zephyr, Nuttx, and Apache mynewt. The company has also made sure that the transition is easy and reused the existing OTA firmware upgrade process in place on Arduino boards. MCUboot Arduino highlights: Signed and encrypted updates – MCUboot has support for encrypting/decrypting images on-the-fly while upgrading. It will also check if the computed signature is matching the one embedded in the image before booting a sketch. Confirm or revert updates – After an update, the new Sketch can update the content of the flash at runtime to mark itself as OK. If everything […]

October 5, 2021October 5, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Android 12 source code pushed to AOSP

Google has now pushed Android 12 source code to AOSP (Android Open Source Project), after introducing Android 12 new features and the developer preview in February, and the first Android 12 Beta in May. The latest version of the mobile operating system should become available on recent Google Pixel phones in the next few weeks, followed by phones from Samsung, OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, Tecno, Vivo, and Xiaomi. You can download the code with the following command :

repo init -u https://android.googlesource.com/platform/manifest -b android-s-beta-5
repo sync

1 2	repo init -u https://android.googlesource.com/platform/manifest -b android-s-beta-5 repo sync

Eventually, there should be an Android 12 tag in the manifest similar to android-12.0.0.0_r1. But that still means developers can start retrieving the source code to adapt the operating system to their needs, for example, to implement support for single board computers or TV boxes that do not use Android TV OS. The release notes for the source code list of the changes made to Android 12 OS including: Support for Android […]