NHS Patchset

Latest version: 2.1.4-nhs-2
userhook0: v2.1.4-nhs-2.zip
Github: JeremyRand/cbc (current), matthewbot/cbc (historical)

What's this?

Norman and Nease have agreed to co-maintain a community patchset against the official CBC kipr codebase. This means that we'll be making our own userhook0s containing the very latest code from KIPR, as well as code written by ourselves and other members of the community.

Why would I want to use it?

Well, this will always have the very latest stable code from KIPR. KIPR doesn't release userhook0s to the home base very often, but does publish fixes and tweaks almost immediately to their public git repository. We'll test these changes, and put them in to our repository as soon as we can. Once in our repository, it'll make its way to our own, more frequent userhook0 releases, for you to install and enjoy before anyone else!

It also means you'll get access to new mods and fixes that we and other members of the community have written. Even our very first release already has some useful bug fixes to many everyday issues, like the ability to plug the camera in for a second time and have it work, or for display_clear to actually clear the display. It also includes some nifty new features, like the ability to control the brightness of the CBC display, and the ability to run shell scripts directly from the file manager. To keep up with exactly what user-visible changes have made it into the current release, just check the wiki.

Why would I not want to use it?

We offer no assurance to anyone that it actually works, and definitely no assurance that it won't somehow harm your CBC. We do test them, and will be using them on our robots, but we cannot be held accountable if anything at all goes wrong while using them, even if its directly the fault of our userhook0.

That being said, from a purely technical perspective anything these userhook0s do intentionally could be completely cleaned up by using an official userhook0. Sometimes however, things unintentionally happen. We are still not accountable, and you have been warned.

When is the next release and what will it have?

We'll make the next release as soon as more useful code is written by either ourselves, KIPR, or other members of the community. I know that for me personally, I'm hoping to write some kind of wifi control panel to replace the chumby control panel used by the norman nease mods.

What will happen to the Norman Nease mods?

At this moment it looks like they will likely continue, but portions of them will eventually be incorporated in to these mods. As of right now, the mods install and work normally on top of this patchset, however, I'd like to in the next release or two begin to incorporate portions of the mods into this userhook0, such as binary caching or support for C++. The programs distributed with the mods however, like VNC support or access to the chumby control panel will probably remain a part of the mods.

Can I make a patch?

Sure! I'm going to write up a complete guide at some point, but for now just sign on to the botballer's chat. If you want to go it your own, I've written a build script that will automatically build qt embedded on your linux system, which is all you need to build the nhs patchset codebase from source and then begin making your own!

I've got some questions or concerns

Either post in this thread, or hop on to the botballer's chat where I usually idle in the evenings.