Chronos V0.4.0 Beta - Debian and Networking

[Bian]

The new user interface is awesome!
But have the same problems like NiNeff in his posts 

[skronstein]

A new method to run update a camera to the new Debian release is now available. There is a camUpdate zip file containing the update-to-debian app, which runs on a Chronos 1.4 running software v0.3.2 or older, and writes the debian image to the SD card in the top slot. This is different previous updates, which would apply the update to the card in the bottom slot which the camera runs from.

The camUpdate zip file can be downloaded here: http://debian.krontech.ca/builds/camUpdate-debian-2020-03-17.zip

To use it:
1. Put the camUpdate folder on a USB flash drive formatted as FAT32.
2. insert that drive into the Chronos.
3. Press the Apply Software Update button on the Util screen (found on either the Main or Storage tab, depending on software version)
4. Follow the directions on screen in the app to write the image to the SD card.
5. Continue with "Step 5: Insert the microSD Card into Your Camera" in this topic. http://forum.krontech.ca/index.php?topic=531

[ieSe]

Use the attached instructions to set up an SMB share on a Windows 10 system, or an NFS share on a Linux system.
These instructions will also be in the next revision of the user manual.

Thank you for the release V0.4.0 Beta.

I had installed and run chronos-voyager-20200302.img for my chronos 1.4 32GB. The new UI is easy to use but i think some features isn't finished yet and it is less responsive than the old UI. I asked if you can share the instruction for network saving form the new UI, because i think the file you share is not fro the new UI.

Bugs:

• If I press (Menu -> Camera settings) and then choose save camera settings, i have to force the camera to shut down as it not responding any more.
• Some time when you go to play & save tab, you can't see the videos that you had recorded. The green bar in the bottom area is sometimes missing when you move forward and backward.
• (Menu -> Review saved Videos) this tab is really helpful but if you saved many videos and go there to check them you will find no videos in "Files o Device"

I have also another question, is saving through Ethernet cable will skip saving to the ring buffer or it just another way for saving videos like saving on SD-card or external Hard disk?

[skronstein]

It seems pretty quick. On the playback previous recordings section I never see any recordings and the %used is wonky but that doesn't break functionality by any means.

Do you have a readme for the network menu on the new UI? First thing it did was ask me to set a pw without saying what it was for. Will it change the root pw used for ssh?

I haven't used the new UI in a while, but I think the new UI's network menu won't let you use it at all until you set a password on it. I believe it sets the root password for ssh for both the USB and ethernet connections.

There are 2 buttons beside the text box on the App & Internet access screen. Either enter your own password, or tap the button with the dice on it to generate a random password. The network accessible features should be displayed once you have a password and tap the button with the diagonal lines.

Use the attached instructions to set up an SMB share on a Windows 10 system, or an NFS share on a Linux system.
These instructions will also be in the next revision of the user manual.

Thank you for the release V0.4.0 Beta.

I had installed and run chronos-voyager-20200302.img for my chronos 1.4 32GB. The new UI is easy to use but i think some features isn't finished yet and it is less responsive than the old UI. I asked if you can share the instruction for network saving form the new UI, because i think the file you share is not fro the new UI.

NFS and SMB shares have only been implemented in the old UI, not the new one.

Bugs:

• If I press (Menu -> Camera settings) and then choose save camera settings, i have to force the camera to shut down as it not responding any more.
• Some time when you go to play & save tab, you can't see the videos that you had recorded. The green bar in the bottom area is sometimes missing when you move forward and backward.
• (Menu -> Review saved Videos) this tab is really helpful but if you saved many videos and go there to check them you will find no videos in "Files o Device"

Sorry, I was not able to reproduce the freeze after saving settings. My camera pauses for 5-10 seconds while saving the settings to the USB stick, and is then responsive again.

Play & Save is only for viewing and saving the current video in memory, not the viewing of previously saved videos.

Many features have not been completed at this time, including the viewing of previously saved videos..

I have also another question, is saving through Ethernet cable will skip saving to the ring buffer or it just another way for saving videos like saving on SD-card or external Hard disk?

In the current software, videos must be recorded to the ring buffer, before being written to the SD card. In the future, we will support a Continuous recording mode that will allow recording continuously at 60fps on the Chronos 1.4, skipping the ring buffer and saving directly to the SD card.

[Kuhny1]

Software update went nicely, I only saw two bugs that was not mentioned
* The camera will seem to fail at initializing the sensor, it will show the cube animation repeatedly. The UI will load but the cube will still stay in the upper left inside of the UI.
* When trying to view past recordings, nothing shows up in the list to view.

And some help for anyone else with Ethernet control

W10 (likely to be nearly the same on older versions)

Not sure if this is common knowledge but for those who would like to directly connect the camera to a laptop without having internet access, you need to share your WiFi connection to your Ethernet port, here's how to do it.


1. Go into Control panel --> Network and Internet -->
Network and Sharing Center --> (on the left) Change Adapter Settings

2. Right click on your WiFi connection and click properties

3. Click the sharing tab and then check both boxes and hit ok.

4. You should now be able to plug your camera into the Ethernet port with a standard Enet cable and your computer will assign it an IP. Connect to it like normal.


Side Note - Even if your laptop has no active wifi connection, it will still assign it an IP and work as usual.

[ieSe]

I haven't used the new UI in a while, but I think the new UI's network menu won't let you use it at all until you set a password on it. I believe it sets the root password for ssh for both the USB and ethernet connections.

There are 2 buttons beside the text box on the App & Internet access screen. Either enter your own password, or tap the button with the dice on it to generate a random password. The network accessible features should be displayed once you have a password and tap the button with the diagonal lines.

Thank you skronstein for your replay. I installed the software V0.4.0 Beta again without applying the new UI. I tried the instructions but it didn't work. Here is the error "Mount Failed: mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on //192.168.0.102/smb, missing codepage or helper program, or other error (for several file systems (e.g nfs, cifs) you might need a /sbin/mount.<type> helper program)". I think this is a problem with sharing files between Linux and windows.

Hardware Setup

• My laptop is connected to the router through wireless network.
• Chronos 1.4 is connected to the same router through the Ethernet cable.

My laptop is running Windows 10 Home. You can find my network sharing settings in images.
I thought that smb file location address might differ from the instructions file, so i tried these addresses but none of them works too.
In Mount tab:

• smb
• \\DESKTOP-23CTSB5\smb
• \DESKTOP-23CTSB5\smb
• DESKTOP-23CTSB5\smb
• //DESKTOP-23CTSB5/smb
• /DESKTOP-23CTSB5/smb
• DESKTOP-23CTSB5/smb

Did i make something wrong?

[foobar]

The networking shares work by configuring your laptop as the SMB server, to which the camera will connect as a client. From the screenshots you have provided, it looks like you have configured your camera correctly. However, due to the age of the Linux kernel running on the camera (version 3.2, which is about 10 years old now), we are only able to support SMBv1 for the time being. This means that you will need to enable the SMBv1 Server feature on your Windows 10 laptop for sharing to work.

As someone who has an interest in network security, this situation makes me quite sad; SMBv1 is quite old, and has many known vulnerabilities in it, which is why Microsoft disables it by default.

[foobar]

After discussing the state of the new GUI with the rest of the software team, we have found that it isn't ready for serious use and that there are too many outstanding issues for us to be able to reasonably address with the size of team we have available. As such, we have decided that we will not be supporting this new GUI going forward, and we will instead make the original GUI our focus for the camera. Therefore, if you encounter bugs or missing features in the new GUI, we cannot promise that we will be able to fix them, and we encourage you to switch back to the original GUI if these issues become problematic.

We will keep the new GUI accessible via the software update tool for the time being as an experimental option, and we would be glad to receive any feedback about it and its features. If there are things that you like about the new GUI, we would like to try and migrate those features into the original GUI.

I apologize for getting your hopes up with the new look and feel and I hope that you will forgive me for releasing software that is incomplete and full of bugs.

[ieSe]

The networking shares work by configuring your laptop as the SMB server, to which the camera will connect as a client. From the screenshots you have provided, it looks like you have configured your camera correctly. However, due to the age of the Linux kernel running on the camera (version 3.2, which is about 10 years old now), we are only able to support SMBv1 for the time being. This means that you will need to enable the SMBv1 Server feature on your Windows 10 laptop for sharing to work.

I enabled SMB 1.0/CIFS Client but the camera still can't access smb file due to the same error. And when I pressed "Test", I got "SMB share cam on 192.168.0.102 is not connected".

[dindindy]

I think the recorded clips can be play in Chronons itself would be very nice.  n_n

[Bian]

After discussing the state of the new GUI with the rest of the software team, we have found that it isn't ready for serious use and that there are too many outstanding issues for us to be able to reasonably address with the size of team we have available. As such, we have decided that we will not be supporting this new GUI going forward, and we will instead make the original GUI our focus for the camera. Therefore, if you encounter bugs or missing features in the new GUI, we cannot promise that we will be able to fix them, and we encourage you to switch back to the original GUI if these issues become problematic.

We will keep the new GUI accessible via the software update tool for the time being as an experimental option, and we would be glad to receive any feedback about it and its features. If there are things that you like about the new GUI, we would like to try and migrate those features into the original GUI.

I apologize for getting your hopes up with the new look and feel and I hope that you will forgive me for releasing software that is incomplete and full of bugs.

Sad to hear this, because the new version is very user friendly. Does this mean to switch back to the  version 0.3.2 or is it also avaliable on the debian unstable?

[NiNeff]

After discussing the state of the new GUI with the rest of the software team, we have found that it isn't ready for serious use and that there are too many outstanding issues for us to be able to reasonably address with the size of team we have available. As such, we have decided that we will not be supporting this new GUI going forward, and we will instead make the original GUI our focus for the camera. Therefore, if you encounter bugs or missing features in the new GUI, we cannot promise that we will be able to fix them, and we encourage you to switch back to the original GUI if these issues become problematic.

We will keep the new GUI accessible via the software update tool for the time being as an experimental option, and we would be glad to receive any feedback about it and its features. If there are things that you like about the new GUI, we would like to try and migrate those features into the original GUI.

I apologize for getting your hopes up with the new look and feel and I hope that you will forgive me for releasing software that is incomplete and full of bugs.

That's quite sad, but you having to focus your ressources is very valid.
Features I'd like to see in the old GUI:
* Zoom
* Battery Charge indicator as changing icon
* python scripts (should still be possible over ssh anyway)
* stored file playback

[foobar]

Sad to hear this, because the new version is very user friendly. Does this mean to switch back to the  version 0.3.2 or is it also avaliable on the debian unstable?

We will continue to keep the new GUI2 as an option on the unstable branch for you to experiment with, we just have to say that we are unable to commit to fixing problems that you might find in it, and that our officially supported user interface is going to be the existing Chronos user interface.

This does not mean that we are abandoning the v0.4.0 software and its features, just that the user interface will continue to have the same look and feel as our v0.3.2 and earlier releases.

[foobar]

That's quite sad, but you having to focus your ressources is very valid.
Features I'd like to see in the old GUI:
* Zoom
* Battery Charge indicator as changing icon
* python scripts (should still be possible over ssh anyway)
* stored file playback

I'd love to see all of those features made available on the old GUI too, especially the zoom, as I have often found the limited screen real estate to be quite difficult to workaround when faced with weird aspect ratios (try focusing a camera at 1280x96 to see how fun this can be).

Unfortunately, stored file playback will probably be a long ways out, since this is one of the screens in the new GUI whose functionality is not implemented.

[foobar]

I enabled SMB 1.0/CIFS Client but the camera still can't access smb file due to the same error. And when I pressed "Test", I got "SMB share cam on 192.168.0.102 is not connected".

I've spent a bit of time looking into this, and it seems like we might have a bug in the SMB mounting code, I'll let you know as soon as I have a fix ready to be deployed.