6.0-beta1

6.0-beta1

This is a PRE-RELEASE build of FPP 6.0 provided for testing purposes. There are a lot of very significant changes that need additional testing before being able to be released as FPP 6.0

In particular, it is asked that users thoroughly test the following areas:

• Networking - FPP6 images will be based on Debian 11 (bullseye) instead of Debian 10 (buster). As part of that, all the networking code that used to be managed by connmand had to be completely re-written to use systemd-networkd. This has allows some new features, but also introduces significant risk of new bugs and issues. New features include ability to act as a DHCP server for the show network, reserved DHCP leases, configuration of IP Masquerading/NAT to provide internet access, route metric, etc... Most are "Advanced Mode" options.
• Cape/Hat Selection - If the Cape/Hat does not have a valid physical eeprom for FPP to pull information off from , Cape/Hat selection is now done via virtual eeproms which can provide enhanced functionality and information. On the initial setup, you can select an appropriate virtual eeprom for your cape. Please test to make sure the virtual eeprom for your cape is fully working.
• Licensing - as announced in the forums, SOME capes will require a valid license to remain fully functional. Other capes/hats (like PiHats) will continue to be functional as is, but could gain additional features (such as enabling onboard sound) with a license key. Testing the licensing is important to make sure it's as easy as possible.
• Plugins - many plugins have been updated to work with FPP 6, but others likely still need updating. Please test plugins to make sure they work properly.
• Display Testing - the display testing functionality has been completely re-written to use FPP Command. This does provide a Command that can be invoked via Big Buttons plugin or scripts or similar, but the rewrite could have missed some functionality. As an FPP command, it can also be multisynced out to all remotes allowing testing of the entire display. Please test.
• Crash Reporting - HOPEFULLY you won't have to test this. However, if FPP crashes, it should produce a crash report on a new "Crash Reports" tab in the file manager. If you see these, please let us know. If the device has internet access, they are auto submitted at this point, but that also has had minimal testing so following up with us to make sure the details are available will help get the issues fixed.
• Audio - for sound produced directly by FPP's sound code (not via VLC's which is used to play videos to HDMI), there is now configurable support for multichannel sound instead of just stereo. This does require USB sound device that can support multichannel output.
• Framebuffer/Pixel Overlay Model updates - this is still a work in progress so expect more changes. Overlay models can now be sub-divided into smaller models which can allow effects to run on just a part of the model. Framebuffer devices will now be configured as Pixel Overlay Models and users of framebuffers (Virtual Display, etc...) will then operated against the model. This will allow the HDMI monitor to be divided into areas that can display different things. Again, a work in progress. The "Virtual Matrix" code has not yet been updated for this, but should be soon.

Additional new features not part of the Pi/BBB Images

• FPP can now run natively on MacOS. It's not a simple image and must be "installed" from source. More details will come later, but you would need to download the https://raw.githubusercontent.com/FalconChristmas/fpp/master/SD/FPP_Install_Mac.sh file and run it to get all the pieces working.
• FPP can now be installed on pretty much any Armbian based Single Board Computer. Devices like Orange Pi's, Banana Pi's, Nano Pi's Libre SBC's, etc... can now run FPP. Unfortunately, every single Armbian distibution is tied directly to the device it is designed for so we cannot provide images for all of them. There would be 10's or 100's of them which would be too time consuming. However, installing FPP is not hard. See the README.Armbian: https://github.com/FalconChristmas/fpp/blob/master/SD/README.Armbian

More stuff coming!

There is still work ongoing to add more features into FPP6. We expect to be pushing more changes over the next few weeks. However, we would like the above stuff tested as much as possible to make sure the underlying OS changes, networking changes, etc... are solid as we move forward with Debian 11/Bullseye.

Thanks for testing!
FPP Development Team