6.2

Enhancements

• New FPP Commands:
  • Command to run multiple presets one after another
  • Command to run a preset sometime in the future
  • Command to Insert a single random item from a given playlist
• Remove about 300MB of unused files from BBB image to reduce size
• Updates to FPP_Install.sh to install on Ubuntu 22.04, some Armbian "Jammy" builds
• Start adding detection of Genius Controllers

Bug Fixes

• Add exim/mail to image (requires OS update)
• Fix bugs in BBBSerial trying to find pin out configuration when uploaded from xLights
• Fix some hostname validation issues with some characters that are now allowed in hostnames
• Fix "Ping" button with hostnames that have certain characters (like dashes)
• Fix Kiosk install script
• Fix persistent net names on Pi3
• Fix hostapd config on latest Arbian/Ubuntu
• Fix crash with test mode if end channel is lower than start channel
• Fix crash/hang/race condition in playlists with inserted playlists while status is being retrieved
• Fix crash in auto creation of overlay models if strings are missing or non-consecutive
• Default to sending mac address for DHCP client (requires OS update)

Installation Instructions

If you have a system running 6.x, you can go to the FPP about page (about.php) and click on the "Manual Update" button. At that point, a big green "Upgrade" bar should appear on the main status page. Click on that to start the update process. It may take a long time to upgrade. Likely 5-10 minutes. You will need to reboot after the upgrade is complete to finish the upgrade process.

NOTE: The exim/mail updates and DHCP client updates are an OS level update and will require using the "fppos" method to update to the 2022-11 OS level.

For users of FPP 5.x or older, it is strongly recommended to do a full "OS Level" upgrade or re-image instead of attempting to upgrade directly from any older FPP version. There are several new features that will not work if an OS level upgrade is not done. There are two ways to do so:

• Re-image - you can backup your 5.x configuration, create a new image, and restore the configuration.
• In-place upgrade - this requires you to have FPP 5.5 and all the updates for 5.5 already running on the device. Download the appropriate "fppos" file to your computer. Make sure the file extension is still fppos (some browsers will rename it). Upload it to the "File Manager" on the FPP instance. Then go to the about page. Under the normal "Manual Upgrade", a new Upgrade OS button should appear. Click it and wait a LONG time. When done, it should reboot into 6.2. At that point, go to the Uploads tab of the FPP File Manager and delete the fppos file. Note: In SOME cases, the reboot will fail due to library replacement. In that case, a power cycle may be required to get it back up and running.

Selecting an image

For Raspberry Pi series including Pi B, Pi B+, Pi 3, Pi 3+, Pi 4 and Pi Zero use this image

• FPP-v6.2-Pi.img.zip

For Beaglebone Black, Beaglebone Green, PocketBeagle, and Beaglebone Green Gateway use this image

• FPP-v6.2-BBB.img.zip

6.1

Enhancements

• Updated systemd-networkd/wpasupplicant to better support WIFI roaming (BeagleBone Only, requires OS update)
• New "BBShiftString" output which can provide significantly larger controllers and support future Beagle hardware
• In some limited cases, allow input actions defined on gpio inputs page to override cape provided actions
• Add many common causes of "Cannot start output XXXXX" to the warnings displayed right in the UI thus not requiring examining of the logs
• Display the value of range sliders when adjusting FPP Commands (example: WLED effects)
• Add warning if storage space is getting low
• New version of ccache installed, this potentially allows faster updates for developers on master branch (by setting a ccache property) (requires OS update)
• Change thumb color of RGB sliders on Display Testing page
• Added some configs/scripts to help configure FPP to boot/run from USB SSD on Pi 4's
• Add an auto-showing/hidden 'Top' button to scroll to top of page
• Standardize WiFi level to use Link Quality normalized to 0-100 range
• Added 4 channel support to rpi_ws281x

Bug Fixes

• Garbled/stuttering audio output (requires reboot)
• Plugin upgrades not calling the proper upgrade scripts which may be needed to rebuild the plugin
• Several older WIFI adapters that worked with 5.5 were not working with 6.0 (requires OS update)
• Problems pinging github from certain countries were preventing updates
• Always show storage tab if SD card needs expanding
• Change timing for V2 smart receivers to support the latest batch from Falcon
• Fix exim4 mail install and configuration
• Fix calling some python scripts due to Debian upgrade from python -> python3
• Fix upload of large files
• Fix pixel strings UI bug when expansion ports are disabled
• Fix elapsed time reported for Pause playlist entry items
• Fix fallback interface for UDP channel outputs
• Allow access to REST API from localhost when using UI password
• Add Warning banner for BBB48String for unlicensed strings
• Fix multisync of videos
• Remove the rules on BBB that create the SoftAp0 interface on BBBW and BBGGW

Installation Instructions

If you have a system running 6.x, you can go to the FPP about page (about.php) and click on the "Manual Update" button. At that point, a big green "Upgrade" bar should appear on the main status page. Click on that to start the update process. It may take a long time to upgrade. Likely 5-10 minutes. You will need to reboot after the upgrade is complete to finish the upgrade process.

NOTE: The WIFI updates are an OS level update and will require using the "fppos" method to update to the 2022-09 OS level.

For users of FPP 5.x or older, it is strongly recommended to do a full "OS Level" upgrade or re-image instead of attempting to upgrade directly from any older FPP version. There are several new features that will not work if an OS level upgrade is not done. There are two ways to do so:

• Re-image - you can backup your 5.x configuration, create a new image, and restore the configuration.
• In-place upgrade - this requires you to have FPP 5.5 and all the updates for 5.5 already running on the device. Download the appropriate "fppos" file to your computer. Make sure the file extension is still fppos (some browsers will rename it). Upload it to the "File Manager" on the FPP instance. Then go to the about page. Under the normal "Manual Upgrade", a new Upgrade OS button should appear. Click it and wait a LONG time. When done, it should reboot into 6.1. At that point, go to the Uploads tab of the FPP File Manager and delete the fppos file. Note: In SOME cases, the reboot will fail due to library replacement. In that case, a power cycle may be required to get it back up and running.

Selecting an image

For Raspberry Pi series including Pi B, Pi B+, Pi 3, Pi 3+, Pi 4 and Pi Zero use this image

• FPP-v6.1-Pi.img.zip

For Beaglebone Black, Beaglebone Green, PocketBeagle, and Beaglebone Green Gateway use this image

• FPP-v6.1-BBB.img.zip

6.0

FPP 6.0

• FPP 6.0
• Enhancements
• Major Changes/Incompatibilities
• Other updates/changes
• Upgrade Instructions
  • Selecting an image

Enhancements

• Upgraded from Debian Buster (10.x) to Debian Bullseye (11.x). This is an entire new version of the underlying Linux Operating System
• Security
  • To comply with various laws targeting security in IOT devices, on first boot, FPP will now require you to choose to use a UI Password or not and to set an OS level password. You can choose insecure settings to match previous versions of FPP, but that is your choice.
  • Advanced UI level setting to allow uploading SSH public keys
  • Samba, Rsyncd, and ftpd services are disabled by default. If you require these services, you must enable them on the System page in settings. (Advanced UI level)
• Cape/Hat Selection - If the Cape/Hat does not have a valid physical eeprom for FPP to pull information 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.
• 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.
• Networking - the change to Debian Bullseye has allowed for some new features:
  • Enable DHCP Server to provide IP addresses to other devices. Includes reserved DHCP leases.
  • Configuration of IP Masquerade/NAT to allow devices to access the internet more securely/easily
  • Route metric configuration
• 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. As an FPP command, it can also be multisynced out to all remotes allowing testing of the entire display.
  • Certain outputs (LED Panels, BBB String outputs) now have a "Test Pattern" button on the output configuration page to enable a specific test pattern for that output to help diagnose issues specific to that type of output. For example, the LED Panels will put the Output/Panel number on each panel. The BBB Strings will light up the first number of pixels white equal to the port number.
• Pixel Overlay Model/Framebuffer updates
  • 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 content.
• Channel Outputs
  • Raspberry Pi - DPI Pixel Output - new pixel driver for the Raspberry Pi that allows up to 24 strings.
  • Twinkly Channel Output to control Twinkly lights over WiFi
  • LED Panels Config UI - add "Auto Layout" button to make initial setup easier
  • Pixel Strings Page - show warnings when channels overlap, allow viewing of GPIO/Pin the string is assigned to
• Scheduler
  • Added ability to adjust start/end times of future scheduled playlists when extending a running playlist's end time.
  • Added button to status UI to start next scheduled playlist now.
  • Added setting to display more than two weeks in advance for the schedule preview.

Major Changes/Incompatibilities

• Licensing -Some multi-string pixel capes will need a license key applied to continue to use the multi-string pixel channel output code on the BeagleBone and Raspberry Pi. License key vouchers are available for all existing BBB and Pi capes with more than 2 WS2821X pixel string outputs. Visit https://shop.falconplayer.com/faqs/ and https://shop.falconplayer.com/key-announcement/ for more info.
• Image Playlist Entry now displays the image on an Overlay Model instead of directly to the Linux framebuffer.
• The Virtual Display has been changed from writing to a framebuffer device to writing to a PixelOverlayModel. Any existing Virtual Display channel output must be recreated. This does not affect the HTTPVirtualDisplay, only the framebuffer Virtual Display is affected. The X11VirtualDisplay has been removed.
• The Virtual Matrix has been converted to display to a Pixel Overlay Model. Any existing Virtual Matrices will need to be recreated after creating a Pixel Overlay Model for the desired video output device.
• Removed old PlaylistEntryVolume and PlaylistEntryMQTT playlist entry types. These were deprecated a long time ago and should have been moved to using FPP Commands, but if some ancient playlists still exist that use these, they may break.

Other updates/changes

• Crash Reporting - HOPEFULLY you won't experience 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.

Upgrade Instructions

It is strongly recommended to do a full "OS Level" upgrade or re-image instead of attempting to upgrade directly from any older FPP version. There are several new features that will not work if an OS level upgrade is not done. There are two ways to do so:

• Re-image - you can backup your 5.x configuration, create a new image, and restore the configuration.
• In-place upgrade - this is new and requires you to have the latest FPP 5.5 and all updates already running on the device. Download the appropriate "fppos" file to your computer. Make sure the file extension is still fppos (some browsers will rename it). Upload it to the "File Manager" on the FPP instance. Then go to the about page. Under the normal "Manual Upgrade", a new Upgrade OS button should appear. Click it and wait a LONG time. When done, it should reboot into 6.0. At that point, go to the Uploads tab of the FPP File Manager and delete the fppos file. Note: In SOME cases, the reboot will fail due to library replacement. In that case, a power cycle may be required to get it back up and running.

Selecting an image

For Raspberry Pi series including Pi B, Pi B+, Pi 3, Pi 3+, Pi 4 and Pi Zero use this image

• FPP-v6.0.2-Pi.img.zip

For Beaglebone Black, Beaglebone Green, PocketBeagle, and Beaglebone Green Gateway use this image

• FPP-v6.0.2-BBB.img.zip

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 distribution 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

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

5.5

This is mostly a bug fix release to fix issues encountered with Christmas shows, but it also contains some other enhancements.

Note: There are no OS level changes. OS level will remain at 5.3.

Enhancements

• Enhance the scheduler to allow scheduling repeating FPP Commands
• Restarting FPPD when a scheduled playlist is running will restart at the same item
• Open links to remotes from Multisync page in new tabs
• Remember MultiSync filters to avoid having to reenter each time
• Allow deleting a corrupt Playlist from the Playlist list UI
• Enhancements to Channel Testing page to allow easier selection of channel ranges
• Added robots.txt to protect exposed FPP instances from being listed on the usual search engines (although exposing FPP is a bad idea)
• Add multi arch support to docker for both amd64 and arm64
• Add to warning if UDP output is set to self
• Updates for floating player controls

Bug Fixes

• Fix problems if scheduled entry start and end times were equal
• Fix "Insert Playlist" commands not working correctly to insert an entire playlist
• Fix problem of extended playlists that stopped gracefully may restart instead of fully stopping
• Fix Script Editor Save/Cancel buttons
• Allow hostnames in universe IP fields
• Fix a bunch of place that did not allow start channels above 1M
• Allow DDP outputs to have more than 512K channels
• Don't show the second 12:00 AM when not in 24-hour format
• Fix second-midnight not working in scheduler UI in 12-hour mode
• If the user starts a playlist manually that is supposed to be running via the scheduler, use the scheduler to start the playlist so that it stops at the scheduled end time.
• Several playlist randomization bugs are fixed
• When jumping to another position in the currently scheduled playlist, don't reset the schedule so the playlist will end on time.
• Fix range/volume sliders not displaying correctly in Firefox/Edge
• Fix playlist editor losing playlist durations

Installation Instructions

If you have a system running 5.x, you can go to the FPP about page (about.php) and click on the "Manual Update" button. At that point, a big green "Upgrade" bar should appear on the main status page. Click on that to start the update process. It may take a long time to upgrade. Likely 5-10 minutes. You will need to reboot after the upgrade is complete to finish the upgrade process.

For users of FPP 4.x or older, it is strongly recommended to do a full "OS Level" upgrade or re-image instead of attempting to upgrade directly from any older FPP version. There are several new features that will not work if an OS level upgrade is not done. There are two ways to do so:

• Re-image - you can backup your 4.x configuration, create a new image, and restore the configuration.
• In-place upgrade - this is new and requires you to have FPP 3.6.2 (or 4.0-alpha2) or newer already running on the device. Download the appropriate "fppos" file to your computer. Make sure the file extension is still fppos (some browsers will rename it). Upload it to the "File Manager" on the FPP instance. Then go to the about page. Under the normal "Manual Upgrade", a new Upgrade OS button should appear. Click it and wait a LONG time. When done, it should reboot into 5.0. At that point, go to the Uploads tab of the FPP File Manager and delete the fppos file. Note: In SOME cases, the reboot will fail due to library replacement. In that case, a power cycle may be required to get it back up and running.

Selecting an image

For Raspberry Pi series including Pi B, Pi B+, Pi 3, Pi 3+, Pi 4 and Pi Zero use this image

• FPP-v5.5-Pi.img.zip

For Beaglebone Black, Beaglebone Green, PocketBeagle, and Beaglebone Green Gateway use this image

• FPP-v5.5-BBB.img.zip

5.4

Enhancements

• Updated rpi_ws281x and rpi-led-panels libraries to detect and support the new Raspberry Pi Zero W2
• Reduce some padding on Multisync page to display more information
• Compress Mulisync stats by showing duration instead of time
• Enhance the pop-up FPP Command Editor to allow chosing Command Presets and saving a command as a preset.
• Added pruning of old locally stored JSON setting backup files greater than 90 days if there are more than 14 files
• Schedule out 5 weeks to provide better preview of future actions
• Add Boxing Day to USA holiday list
• Additional MQTT Commands to stop/restart FPPD, shutdown/restart the OS
• Increase the max size of an SMTP email password

Bug Fixes

• Allow directories to be used for Image Playlist Entry type
• On non-Pi/BBB devices, tons of sensors may display in the header causing menus to be unavailable
• Fix problems with scheduler when daylight savings time starts/ends
• Sort Pixel Overlay Effects names so they are sorted in the API and UI
• F1/Help on settings pages not returning the proper help page
• Fix problems of wlan0/wifi not working if ethernet connected (BBB only)
• Fix UI error message in GetFiles
• Make sure jquery is loaded via relative url to work behind proxies
• Fix spixels output not properly mapping pixel protocols
• Make sure playlist names are urldecoded to decode spaces and such. Fixes playlist uploads from xLights
• Fix volume Slider in remote mode
• remoteOffset was not doing anything for sequences, make sure the timestamp is used if provided in sync packet
• Fix the ipaddress validator code to better handle hostnames
• Add timeout to Audio Device Warnings

Installation Instructions

If you have a system running 5.x, you can go to the FPP about page (about.php) and click on the "Manual Update" button. At that point, a big green "Upgrade" bar should appear on the main status page. Click on that to start the update process. It may take a long time to upgrade. Likely 5-10 minutes. You will need to reboot after the upgrade is complete to finish the upgrade process.

For users of FPP 4.x or older, it is strongly recommended to do a full "OS Level" upgrade or re-image instead of attempting to upgrade directly from any older FPP version. There are several new features that will not work if an OS level upgrade is not done. There are two ways to do so:

• Re-image - you can backup your 4.x configuration, create a new image, and restore the configuration.
• In-place upgrade - this is new and requires you to have FPP 3.6.2 (or 4.0-alpha2) or newer already running on the device. Download the appropriate "fppos" file to your computer. Make sure the file extension is still fppos (some browsers will rename it). Upload it to the "File Manager" on the FPP instance. Then go to the about page. Under the normal "Manual Upgrade", a new Upgrade OS button should appear. Click it and wait a LONG time. When done, it should reboot into 5.0. At that point, go to the Uploads tab of the FPP File Manager and delete the fppos file. Note: In SOME cases, the reboot will fail due to library replacement. In that case, a power cycle may be required to get it back up and running.

Selecting an image

For Raspberry Pi series including Pi B, Pi B+, Pi 3, Pi 3+, Pi 4 and Pi Zero use this image

• FPP-v5.4.1-Pi.img.zip

For Beaglebone Black, Beaglebone Green, PocketBeagle, and Beaglebone Green Gateway use this image

• FPP-v5.4.1-BBB.img.zip

5.3

Enhancements

• Updated to latest external Realtek WIFI drivers (requires OS update via re-image or fppos - optional)
• Speed up boot by autoloading discovered drivers/modules for WIFI and sound
• Sort list of scripts
• Virtual Matrix max size increased to allow 4 digit dimmensions
• Add Override Zero Output Processor (useful for moving heads)
• Display all sensors on wider browser windows
• Add setting to prioritize sequence data over bridge data
• Add support for newer Falcon smart receivers that can chain up to 6 receivers

Bug Fixes

• More updates to VLC to reduce VLC freezing issues
• Avoid NaN in calculated playlist length
• Fix some issues with special characters in media files and sequences
• Don't suggest BBB fppos files on Debian/Docker/unknown systems
• If an output configuration json file is corrupt, add a warning about that file, but continue to process other output configurations
• Fix "flash" on boot on BBB pixel capes
• Fix FPP Backups not backing up all json config files and network interface files
• Fix crashes using "Start Playlist" FPP Command without proper number of arguments
• Fix BBBSerial not recording the proper first channel it needs
• Fix merging/sorting of required ranges so FPP connect can produce a better fseq file

Installation Instructions

If you have a system running 5.x, you can go to the FPP about page (about.php) and click on the "Manual Update" button. At that point, a big green "Upgrade" bar should appear on the main status page. Click on that to start the update process. It may take a long time to upgrade. Likely 5-10 minutes. You will need to reboot after the upgrade is complete to finish the upgrade process.

NOTE: The updated WIFI drivers are an OS level update and will require using the "fppos" method to update to the 5.3 OS level.

For users of FPP 4.x or older, it is strongly recommended to do a full "OS Level" upgrade or re-image instead of attempting to upgrade directly from any older FPP version. There are several new features that will not work if an OS level upgrade is not done. There are two ways to do so:

• Re-image - you can backup your 4.x configuration, create a new image, and restore the configuration.
• In-place upgrade - this is new and requires you to have FPP 3.6.2 (or 4.0-alpha2) or newer already running on the device. Download the appropriate "fppos" file to your computer. Make sure the file extension is still fppos (some browsers will rename it). Upload it to the "File Manager" on the FPP instance. Then go to the about page. Under the normal "Manual Upgrade", a new Upgrade OS button should appear. Click it and wait a LONG time. When done, it should reboot into 5.0. At that point, go to the Uploads tab of the FPP File Manager and delete the fppos file. Note: In SOME cases, the reboot will fail due to library replacement. In that case, a power cycle may be required to get it back up and running.

Selecting an image

For Raspberry Pi series including Pi B, Pi B+, Pi 3, Pi 3+, Pi 4 and Pi Zero use this image

• FPP-v5.3-Pi.img.zip

For Beaglebone Black, Beaglebone Green, PocketBeagle, and Beaglebone Green Gateway use this image

• FPP-v5.3-BBB.img.zip

5.2

Enhancements

• Selecting hash in ChangeLog will now prompt to revert to that version or view the changes on GitHub
• About page can now download the fppos update files directly
• Support for new capes (new RTC clock chips, Panel/pixel combination capes, etc...)
• Add description fields to some of the outputs on the Other page
• Adds Sensor information to about page

Bug Fixes

• Fix "Command Failed" message on Reboot/Shutdown
• Fix UI password not working for various endpoints
• Fix bugs with string page allowing fractional channels
• Fix UDP de-duplication not working correctly when configuration pushed from xLights
• Fix "Force HDMI Display" not forcing the second port on a Pi4

Installation Instructions

If you have a system running 5.x, you can go to the FPP about page (about.php) and click on the "Manual Update" button. At that point, a big green "Upgrade" bar should appear on the main status page. Click on that to start the update process. It may take a long time to upgrade. Likely 5-10 minutes. You will need to reboot after the upgrade is complete to finish the upgrade process.

NOTE: there are no OS level updates in this release. The "FPP OS Build" will remain v5.0.

For users of FPP 4.x or older, it is strongly recommended to do a full "OS Level" upgrade or re-image instead of attempting to upgrade directly from any older FPP version. There are several new features that will not work if an OS level upgrade is not done. There are two ways to do so:

• Re-image - you can backup your 4.x configuration, create a new image, and restore the configuration.
• In-place upgrade - this is new and requires you to have FPP 3.6.2 (or 4.0-alpha2) or newer already running on the device. Download the appropriate "fppos" file to your computer. Make sure the file extension is still fppos (some browsers will rename it). Upload it to the "File Manager" on the FPP instance. Then go to the about page. Under the normal "Manual Upgrade", a new Upgrade OS button should appear. Click it and wait a LONG time. When done, it should reboot into 5.0. At that point, go to the Uploads tab of the FPP File Manager and delete the fppos file. Note: In SOME cases, the reboot will fail due to library replacement. In that case, a power cycle may be required to get it back up and running.

Selecting an image

For Raspberry Pi series including Pi B, Pi B+, Pi 3, Pi 3+, Pi 4 and Pi Zero use this image

• FPP-v5.2-Pi.img.zip

For Beaglebone Black, Beaglebone Green, PocketBeagle, and Beaglebone Green Gateway use this image

• FPP-v5.2-BBB.img.zip

5.1

Enhancements

• New MQTT channel output to publish channel values to an MQTT topic
• Allow turning off the IP announcement on non Pi platforms
• Better support for the rPi-MFC Hat to only present a single output string to configure
• Add a bunch of new API's to the playlist/player code to support new functionalities of the SMPTE and ArtNet Advanced plugins
• On "Wide" browsers, display the full IP address

Changes/Incompatibilities

• ArtNet timecode support was removed from FPP and moved into the FPP ArtNet Advanced plugin which provides additional ArtNet functionality

Bug Fixes

• Fix some usability issues with the "Tabs" on mobile browsers
• Fix several crashes that have been identitified
• Fix MQTT topic /set/playlist/PLAYLISTNAME/start not working correctly
• Fix some issues with the exim/email credentials not being usable
• Use Boot Delay setting to also wait for missing Wifi adapters. Some wifi adapters are taking a while for the Linux kernel to detect and initialize.
• Fix "Remote Trigger Preset Slot" FPP Command not working correctly
• Fix some schedule/timing issues with times between midnight-1am and noon-1pm.
• Fix offsets appearing with AM/PM time formats
• Fix "Flash to eMMC BTRFS" not working

Installation Instructions

If you have a system running 5.x, you can go to the FPP about page (about.php) and click on the "Manual Update" button. At that point, a big green "Upgrade" bar should appear on the main status page. Click on that to start the update process. It may take a long time to upgrade. Likely 5-10 minutes. You will need to reboot after the upgrade is complete to finish the upgrade process.

NOTE: there are no OS level updates in this release. The "FPP OS Build" will remain v5.0.

For users of FPP 3.x or older, it is strongly recommended to do a full "OS Level" upgrade or re-image instead of attempting to upgrade directly from any older FPP version. There are several new features that will not work if an OS level upgrade is not done. There are two ways to do so:

• Re-image - you can backup your 4.x configuration, create a new image, and restore the configuration.
• In-place upgrade - this is new and requires you to have FPP 3.6.2 (or 4.0-alpha2) or newer already running on the device. Download the appropriate "fppos" file to your computer. Make sure the file extension is still fppos (some browsers will rename it). Upload it to the "File Manager" on the FPP instance. Then go to the about page. Under the normal "Manual Upgrade", a new Upgrade OS button should appear. Click it and wait a LONG time. When done, it should reboot into 5.0. At that point, go to the Uploads tab of the FPP File Manager and delete the fppos file. Note: In SOME cases, the reboot will fail due to library replacement. In that case, a power cycle may be required to get it back up and running.

Selecting an image

For Raspberry Pi series including Pi B, Pi B+, Pi 3, Pi 3+, Pi 4 and Pi Zero use this image

• FPP-v5.1-Pi.img.zip

For Beaglebone Black, Beaglebone Green, PocketBeagle, and Beaglebone Green Gateway use this image

• FPP-v5.1-BBB.img.zip

5.0

FPP 5.0

• FPP 5.0
• Enhancements
• Major Changes/Incompatibilities
• Other updates/changes
• Upgrade Instructions
  • Selecting an image

Enhancements

• Interface/"Look and Feel" Updates
  • The entire FPP UI has been completely re-written to be more "modern" and mobile friendly. We tried to keep it familiar to FPP users, yet "new and fresh".
  • New "Wizard" on first startup to help configure FPP for the first time
  • Troubleshooting page updated to run commands asynchronously and provide direct links to needed results.
  • Display testing page updated to provide easier adjustments to channel ranges and test settings
  • MultiSync Page updates to provide faster updates and much more information
  • New Privacy settings to prevent callouts to 3rd party sites for vendor logos, statistics, etc...
• Audio configured to use "dmix" when possible to allow simultaneous audio streams (ex: "Play Media" FPP command can play sound effects from GPIO triggers while show is running)
• Scheduler Enhancements:
  • Global disable of scheduler to easily disable all scheduled events
  • Allow scheduling of FPP Commands that can execute independently of playlists
  • Allow scheduling of FSEQ files directly so playlists do not need to be created for single sequences
  • Added Preview button to main status page and Scheduler page to preview the upcoming scheduled items
  • Added Dusk/Dawn options to the Scheduler (in addition to SunSet/SunRise). Requires location (Latitude and Longitude) to be set.
• Pixel Overlay Model Enhancements:
  • Many built in effects for use on Pixel Overlay Models (from WLED project)
  • Automatically create Pixel Overlay Models from descriptions on Pixel Strings and Matrices
• New Phillips KiNet output support
• Popup "Run FPP Command" trigger button in footer allowing easy execution of commands from with UI
• Several enhancements for using FPP in Docker:
  • Auto-set the hostname FPP uses if specified in docker config
  • Auto-set the host description to include the container ID if the description has not been set by the user.
  • Expose the host description setting on the System settings tab when running in docker since the network settings page is not shown.
  • Allow FPP to advertise the external host IP docker is using by setting a FPP_DOCKER_IP environment variable when the container is spawned or by using a setting on the System page
  • Hook up reboot/shutdown actions to kill apache2 when running in docker to trigger the container to shutdown or restart (actual action depends on how the container is configured)
  • Added a sample docker-compose.yml config in docs/samples which uses the FPP image created by dockerBuild.sh or from the docker repo.
• Pixel String Outputs:
  • Unify the BBB Strings, Pi Pixel Strings, and X11 Pixel Strings pages into a single consistent page
  • Add "End Nulls" option for each virtual pixel string

Major Changes/Incompatibilities

• Legacy API has been removed. See the API conversion guide for more information
• "Bridge mode" has been removed. Instead, if e1.31/ArtNet/DDP channel inputs are enabled on the Channel Inputs page, they are always active in both Player and Remote modes. Any incoming channel data will override what is loaded from a sequence. This allows combining pre-rendered sequence data with live data.
• Retirement of Legacy APIs
• "Master mode" has been removed. internally, master mode has always been really just player mode with a setting to send out sync packets. This is now reflected in the UI. Thus, FPP now only has two modes: Player and Remote. Either can receive incoming e1.31/ArtNet/DDP data if the Inputs are enabled. A Player can be configured to send sync packets and/or E1.31/DDP/ArtNet data as needed. A Remote will work as before.
• FPP Events have been changed to "Command Presets". This allows more descriptive names/titles of the events which can make it easier to trigger. There is a now a single trigger channel so users using multiple command channels will need to adjust their configuration.
  • Several stock Command Preset names are called within FPP: FPPD_STARTED, FPPD_STOPPED, PLAYLIST_STARTED, PLAYLIST_STOPPED, PLAYLIST_STOPPING_NOW, PLAYLIST_STOPPING_AFTER_LOOP, PLAYLIST_STOPPING_GRACEFULLY, SEQUENCE_STARTED, SEQUENCE_STOPPED, MEDIA_STARTED, MEDIA_STOPPED

Other updates/changes

• MQTT - now publishes warnings

• Additional warnings for common issues like outputting sound to Dummy devices
• Tons of new REST API's added to support the new UI. Many of the older fppxml.php and fppjson.php calls have been removed. Users using those API's will need to move to the new REST API's. See the API conversion guide for more information
• Capes/Hats that provide string functionality can remove the "Generic" names in the UI and display the cape names

Upgrade Instructions

It is strongly recommended to do a full "OS Level" upgrade or re-image instead of attempting to upgrade directly from any older FPP version. There are several new features that will not work if an OS level upgrade is not done. There are two ways to do so:

• Re-image - you can backup your 4.x configuration, create a new image, and restore the configuration.
• In-place upgrade - this is new and requires you to have FPP 3.6.2 (or 4.0-alpha2) or newer already running on the device. Download the appropriate "fppos" file to your computer. Make sure the file extension is still fppos (some browsers will rename it). Upload it to the "File Manager" on the FPP instance. Then go to the about page. Under the normal "Manual Upgrade", a new Upgrade OS button should appear. Click it and wait a LONG time. When done, it should reboot into 5.0. At that point, go to the Uploads tab of the FPP File Manager and delete the fppos file. Note: In SOME cases, the reboot will fail due to library replacement. In that case, a power cycle may be required to get it back up and running.

Selecting an image

For Raspberry Pi series including Pi B, Pi B+, Pi 3, Pi 3+, Pi 4 and Pi Zero use this image

• FPP-v5.0-Pi.img.zip

For Beaglebone Black, Beaglebone Green, PocketBeagle, and Beaglebone Green Gateway use this image

• FPP-v5.0-BBB.img.zip