The "Hello Great Outdoors" Release
This is a massive release of Sideband, and one I've been looking forward to bringing you all for a long time. So much work went into all the behind-the-scenes stuff, especially regarding the RNode firmware and related tools, to make this possible.
Sideband is now more useful than ever when out and about, since you can now connect RNodes wirelessly to Sideband over Bluetooth. Sideband also features handy controls to configure the Bluetooth state of your RNodes.
Required RNode Version
You must update your RNodes to at least firmware version 1.52. This is easier than ever with the much improved rnodeconf utility, which is now found directly in the rns package. If you already have Reticulum installed on your system, you also have rnodeconf, and you can update your devices by connecting it and running rnodeconf /dev/ttyUSB0 --update.
Bluetooth Setup
When setting up an RNode for the first time, connect it with a USB cable initially, and put it into pairing mode via the RNode section in the Hardware screen of the program. You can then pair the RNode from the Bluetooth settings of your Android device. The RNode will display the pairing code on it's display, if it has one. After the devices are paired, Sideband can automatically connect to your RNode when it is in range.
Support For More Devices
Sideband is now build to target Android 7.0 and up, and includes binaries for both 64- and 32-bit ARM processors. This greatly expands the number of devices that Sideband can be used on.
Changes
- Added full support for connecting to RNodes over Bluetooth
- Added ability to control Bluetooth settings of connected RNodes
- Added ability to put connected RNodes into Bluetooth Pairing mode
- Added support for Android devices on 32-bit ARM SoCs
- Added support for Android 7.0 (API level 24)
- Added better I2P status to connectivity dialog
- Added Identity hash display to preferences screen
- Added showing Sideband logo on connected RNode displays
- Added dialog displaying any RNode hardware errors on startup if any occurred
- Added continously updating status in connectivity dialog
- Restructured connectivity page to work around a KivyMD rendering bug
- Fixed cross-platform graphics paths not working on some platforms
- Fixed orientation lock not being obeyed on Android
- Fixed a missing OS check for Android-specific code
- Fixed a missing settings field update
- Fixed sub-hardware screens not closing properly