5.0-alpha1

This is an early "Alpha" level release of FPP 5.0 images. These are based on entirely new/updates OS images for both the Pi and BBB. The linux kernel has been updated on both platforms which may cause various issues. Much more testing is needed.

Known issues Common:

Known issues Raspberry Pi:

• Many of the external/USB Wifi adapters that worked with the 4.x images will not work on the Pi. (Beagles should be fine)
• SSH host keys may not be generated, logging in via ssh won't work. This can be "fixed" by using the SSH shell (which isn't really SSH) from the Help menu in FPP to login and then run "sudo /usr/bin/ssh-keygen -A" and then reboot
• Audio does not work using the Pi's built in headphone jack. This is fixed on the latest master. Do a manual update and then reboot to pick up the changes.

Known issues Beaglebones:

4.6.1

Enhancements

• Add wireless information to Troubleshooting page
• Add warning if universes active but main UDP channel output disabled
• Save sort order on Multisync page

Bug Fixes

• Don't publish MQTT idle events when exiting a child playlist
• Don't randomize playlist on load if starting position passed in
• Fix MAX_CHANNELS on Other tab preventing large virtual matrices
• Make sure dnsmasq doesn't wipe out the resolve.conf that connman creates
• Remove "Restart DNS" button as it doesn't actually do anything at all
• Make some tweaks to the video sync timing to help minimize the chances of video freeze-ups
• Fix changelog link not showing on about page

Installation Instructions

If you have a system running 4.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 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 FPP 2.x or 3.x 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 3.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 from the FPP 4.6 release 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 4.6. 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. After it's running, go to the about page and hit the "Manual Update" button to update from 4.6 to 4.6.1.

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-v4.6.1-Pi.img.zip

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

• FPP-v4.6.1-BBB.img.zip

4.6

Note: There are NO OS level updates in this release. OS level will still report as 4.4.

Enhancements

• New X11PanelMatrix output for testing panel matrix code
• New Wifi Strength indicator to title bar and Multisync page
• Move unicast sync checkbox to beside the IP address to allow specific IP to be chosen
• New warning if Debug/Excessive logging is enabled
• New "Loop" test for Branch playlist item to execute every Xth iteration
• New "Playlist" destination for Branching to invoke a new playlist then return to original when done
• New Multisync packet stats on Remotes
• New ability to randomize a playlist on load or per iteration
• Optimize HTTP discovery to be faster/parallel
• HTTP Discovery allows ranges to be specified ("192.168.2[100-150]")
• Discover DIYLEDExpress E1.31 Bridge via HTTP discovery
• Add some extra information into MQTT status messages
• New "Enhanced LOR Protocol" support to send channel data to Pixie controllers
• New Advanced UI setting to disable the fake e1.31/DDP listeners.
• New "Effects Stop" FPP Command to stop all running effects
• New API for retrieving Overlay model data in a simple RLE format to reduce bandwidth/cpu usage
• New Advanced UI button to install/enable Kiosk mode instead of having a separate Kiosk image
• Developer Mode: add ability to jump to specific git hash

Bug Fixes

• Fix problems with playlist editor if filenames/playlist names have various special HTML characters (like amp)
• Fix "help" text for -t argument to fpp command line
• Fix problems with date picker in scheduler UI
• Fix some problems with plugins and other settings that may have HTML special characters
• Fix Multisync controller detection of F16v2R and F4v2
• Fix excess logs relating to variable header length check
• Fix "dedup" of UDP packets using wrong channel offsets
• Fix some problems with Priority based scheduling not taking end time into consideration properly
• Fix password character length to allow longer passwords
• Fix BBB String page not allowing ports 1-16 to be an "Expansion" type
• Fix some issues of blanking between sequences if certain plugins (like brightness) are installed
• Fix bugs with "Stop after loop" not working properly
• Fix some issues with subcommands not refreshing properly in various FPP Command editors
• Fix some crashes if HTTP discovers controllers via hostname instead of IP address
• Fix missing "git version" on Multisync page
• Fix some scheduler issues with playlists stopping prematurely
• Fix some scheduler issues with repeats that cross the weekend boundary
• Fix Image playlist entry type trying to find images if path not specified
• Fix Image playlist entry not displaying correctly on 1366x768 monitor
• Fix "/stop/afterloop" MQTT Topic
• Fix call to VLC to adjust rate less often to reduce problems with video stopping
• Fix problems with start/stop playlist from OLED if UI password is set
• Fix some routing/dns issues if a gateway is not set on an interface
• Reduce the frequency and intensity of the ping/monitor process to reduce impact on already overloaded controllers/networks
• Fix crashes if logging channel data

Installation Instructions

If you have a system running 4.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 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 FPP 2.x or 3.x 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 3.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 4.6. 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-v4.6-Pi.img.zip

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

• FPP-v4.6-BBB.img.zip

4.5

Note: There are NO OS level updates in this release. OS level will still report as 4.4.

Enhancements

• Update Raspberry Pi ws281x and spixel libraries to support latest Raspberry Pi 4 hardware
• Update FSEQ files to support additional compression blocks for very large sequences
• Update BBB pcm5102a audio overlay to use a more accurate clock
• Update multisync.php page to gather all the FPP remote information in one call, big performance boost
• Playlist selection box is now resizable
• Change wording on Multisync page to "Unicast Sync" instead of "Enable Sync"
• Display errors in playlist UI if sequence or media cannot be found

Bug Fixes

• Fix some flashing on various BBB pixel ports if serial output is also enabled
• Fix some flashing on various BBB pixel ports, particularly with smart receivers
• Fix updating FPP from another FPP instance not updating submodules
• Remove extra line printed from /opt/fpp/src/fpp that was causing issues with some scripts
• Fix problems if a network interface ends up with multiple ip addresses
• Fix problems with "fpp -v" volume control with some USB sound devices
• Fix several bugs with sub playlists in the UI code
• Fix several bugs with dynamic playlists
• Fix crashing if UDP output is targeting another FPP instance
• Fix bugs with calendar widget on schedule page if loading an old schedule from last year
• Fix problems of calendar not appearing for newly added schedule rows
• Fix FPP commands not appearing for api/help.php

Installation Instructions

If you have a system running 4.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 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 FPP 2.x or 3.x 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 3.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 4.5. 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 one of these images

• FPP-v4.5-Pi.img.zip
• FPP-v4.5-Pi-Kiosk.img.zip

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

• FPP-v4.5-BBB.img.zip

4.4

Enhancements

• Priority based scheduling - playlists higher in the schedule will interrupt lower playlists
• Add shutdown/reboot options to MultiSync actions
• Add bridge/master/remote/standalone mode options to MultiSync actions
• Ability to specify the HDMI resolution for the HDMI ports on the Pi
• Hide the WIFI password and tether passwords
• Increase panel width limit to 24
• Add a tail to the File Manager log viewer

Bug Fixes

• Fix problems with ampersands in string descriptions for BBB Strings and Pi Pixel Strings
• Fix problems with model wish slashes in the name cause fppd to crash
• Fix force_hdmi setting on Pi, also sets force_hdmi for second hdmi port on Pi4
• Reduce log levels in some cases to avoid logs growing unnecessarily
• Fix problems with SSID names that are too long and/or contain spaces
• Fix problems trying to stop scheduled playlists
• Fix high CPU usage with BBB Panels and Pixels with large channel counts
• Fix one based DDP output not outputting correct channels

Installation Instructions

If you have a system running 4.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. This method will get all the updates above except those marked with *. Those changes will require a re-image or use of the "fppos" update method described below.

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 FPP 2.x or 3.x 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 3.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 4.4. 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 one of these images

• FPP-v4.4-Pi.img.zip
• FPP-v4.4-Pi-Kiosk.img.zip

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

• FPP-v4.4-BBB.img.zip

4.3.1

Enhancements

• Add midi devices and video debug information to troubleshooting page
• Add optional "If not running" flag to all the Start/Insert playlist commands

Bug Fixes

• Fix 1 based DDP output sending wrong channels
• Fix "ForceHDMI" setting not working, persist across fppos upgrade
• Reduce black blanking between sequences on VirtualMatrix

Installation Instructions

If you have a system running 4.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. This method will get all the updates above except those marked with *. Those changes will require a re-image or use of the "fppos" update method described below.

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 FPP 2.x or 3.x 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 3.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 4.3.1. 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 one of these images

• FPP-v4.3.1-Pi.img.zip
• FPP-v4.3.1-Pi-Kiosk.img.zip

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

• FPP-v4.3.1-BBB.img.zip

4.3

Enhancements

• VirtualMatrix updates to allow 1:1 pixel perfect output
• VirtualMatrix can now display multiple matrices on one framebuffer in 1:1 mode
• Optimized memory usage for BBB48String and BBBMatrix for lower CPU usage
• Add volume control on remotes
• Bridge mode timeout - if no data received, blank the data
• BBB Matrix - Support for newer 1:2 scan P10's
• Disallow empty IP and Netmask if using Static IP
• Add interface names associated with IP in title area

Bug Fixes

• HTTP Discovery of FPP instances on local network
• LOR Output "off by one" problems for LOR unit ID's
• Fix some problems deleting playlists with strange characters in the name
• Fix problems displaying playlist durations if over 99 minutes
• Fix problems with graceful stop of playlists if end time is hit while playing an "inserted" item
• Fix channel range on test page to display entire range if multiple ranges are configured/required, not just the first range
• Fix crash on shutdown if mqtt is not used
• Fix maximum number of universes per line
• Fix for retrieving metadata for sequences with spaces in their name
• Fix "Hidden" flag for Wifi networks

Installation Instructions

If you have a system running 4.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. This method will get all the updates above except those marked with *. Those changes will require a re-image or use of the "fppos" update method described below.

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 FPP 2.x or 3.x 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 3.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 4.1. 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 one of these images

• FPP-v4.3-Pi.img.zip
• FPP-v4.3-Pi-Kiosk.img.zip

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

• FPP-v4.3-BBB.img.zip

4.2

Enhancements

• Support for new Beaglebone Green Gateway including the onboard Wifi and Ethernet. All capes that can physically fit onto the BBGG should work, but the double height USB connector on the BBGG will interfere with some capes. (like the K8-B/F8-B) * (requires new image)
• Support for rtl8812au based USB Wifi adapters * (requires new image)
• Added support for PocketBeagle capes that use ttyS1 UART
• Bunch of updates to fsequtils command line utility for merging and converting fseq files
• Support for non-C++ plugins to be able to create FPP Commands (future plugins will use this)
• Added HinksPix and AlphaPix controller discovery from network scan
• Support for using FLAC for media
• Store which temperature unit is used for display
• New "8 Pixel Clustered Zig/Zag" setting for 1/2 scan P10 panels
• Faster bootup on Beaglebones by preload some required modules * (requires new image)

Bug Fixes

• Bunch of issues with ColorLight output on large panels where lower parts of panels would flicker or not display correctly
• Fix some bugs displaying the channel count on the LED Panels page
• Mime type for m4a files was wrong so could not "Listen" from file manager
• Sequences that used timing other than 25ms or 50ms may not play at correct speed
• Random characters on OLED screen for Gateway if no gateway is found
• Don't issue a warning if DDP discovery packet is received when not in bridge mode
• FPP Commands that have sub-commands (overlay model effects) were not displayed correctly in playlist editor
• Schedules that run from 00:00 to 24:00 on Saturdays had all kinds of bugs/issues
• Plugins need to be unloaded prior to GPIO shutdown so plugins that use GPIO's can cleanly cleanup/exit
• Fix problems playing videos on an overlay model if not also running a sequence

Installation Instructions

If you have a system running 4.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. This method will get all the updates above except those marked with *. Those changes will require a re-image or use of the "fppos" update method described below.

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 FPP 2.x or 3.x 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 3.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 4.1. 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 one of these images

• FPP-v4.2-Pi.img.zip
• FPP-v4.2-Pi-Kiosk.img.zip

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

• FPP-v4.2-BBB.img.zip

4.1

Enhancements

• Nicer formatting for /apihelp.php page to make finding and understanding the REST API easier
• Multisync Page Enhancements
  • MultiSyncBroadcast and MultiSyncMulticast should be mutually exclusive
  • Filter drop downs for Platform and Mode to allow easier finding of specific instances
• Description field added for PCA9685 to allow providing user information about the output (ex: Skull Tilt)
• Network Page - WIFI selection changed to drop down of known wifi networks to make selection easier
• Multithreaded UDP output for better performance
• Updated FPP_Install.sh script for installing FPP onto a "desktop" Debian or Ubuntu System while leaving the user, X11, configuration , etc.. intact
  • Add ability to configure an X11 Virtual Matrix
  • Support video files on X11 systems
• New API for plugins to allow modifying sequence data prior to overlay models and output processors
• New FPP Commands
  • "Play Media" to play a particular media file in the background
  • "Toggle Playlist"
• Add "-C FPPCommand arg1 arg2 ..." flags to /opt/fpp/src/fpp command line tool to make invoking commands from scripts easier
• Call media plugins on Remotes that are playing media

Bug Fixes

• FPP Command samples for the REST payload on /apihelp.php were wrong
• Fix excessive memory usage in some rare cases with Remote Falcon plugin
• Bunch of timing adjustments for ws281x pixels on BBB String capes
• Fix some tearing of images on Virtual Matrices
• Some tables need a horizontal scroll bar if the width is too wide or columns would get cut off
• Fix some problems with Multicast FPP Commands that prevented remote instances from detecting that they were supposed to be triggered
• Duration on Text effect of Overlay Models was ignored
• Bridge mode updates to not interfere with plugins, overlays, output processors that are modifying the data

Installation Instructions

If you have a system running 4.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 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 FPP 2.x or 3.x 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 3.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 4.1. 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.

4.0

Enhancements

• Interface/"Look and Feel" Updates

  • "Tab Based" settings page - we've tried to collect all the various settings to put them in one place.
  • Unification of style sheets, colors, etc... so look and feel is more consistent
  • Add icons onto various menu items and other links
  • "Interface Levels" - on the UI tab of the Settings page, you can select the "Interface Level" appropriate for you. We are trying to "hide" some of the complex/not frequently needed features from the casual user that gets confused by them.
  • Move storage settings to new Storage tab in settings (Advanced UI level) and remove advanced settings page
  • New status page to provide more insight into the currently running playlist
  • Ability to start a sequence directly from the status page

• New Scheduler/Playlist editors

  • New Playlist editor to allow editing playlist entries, drag/drop, etc...
  • Allow offsets from SunSet and SunRise
  • Allow repeats to be on multiples of 5/10/15/20/30/60 minutes

• New Multisync page allows easier/faster control of your entire network of FPP instances.

  • Allow column sorting and filtering
  • Allow excluding individual RFC1918 CIDR blocks from the list
  • Allow restarting FPPD on all/selected instances
  • Allow upgrading FPP on all/selected instances
  • Allow simultaneous rsync of sequences/media/etc... to selected remotes
  • Send "unicast discovery" pings to list of "Additional Remotes" to support advanced discovery across network subnets.
  • Advance mode - HTTP scan of subnets to discover controllers. Detect Falcon/SanDevices/ESPixelStick devices and display their version

• Output updates

  • New optimized ColorLight output to handle larger matrices using less CPU load
  • Update Virtual Matrix to allow arbitrary widths (no longer restricted to multiples of 16)
  • Tighten ws281x timing on BBB Strings to be more accurate and allow full 800 pixels at 40fps.
  • New "Three to Four" output processor to expand RGB to RGBW
  • LED Panel page now has separate "Width" and "Height" fields to make setting up larger matrices easier
  • New media player - we've replaced the omxplayer media player with a new internal VLC based player for videos. This should be more reliable, particularly on the Pi4 where we are having reliability issues with omxplayer. In addition, the new media player allows syncing SOUND on remotes.

• Hardware Capes/Hat updates

  • Add ability to upgrade/update eeproms on Capes/Hats
  • On capes/hats with 4 direction buttons, add ability to set the eth0 IP address and other network settings
  • Support for the I2C 16x2 and 20x4 LCD displays

• Other major changes

  • FPPD is now run directly from systemd and will be automatically restarted if it crashes (although it shouldn't crash)
  • BUNCH of new API's available to Plugins. Several plugins have been updated/added to use them including the fpp-arcade plugin, fpp-HomeAssistant plugin, etc...
  • New Effects that can run on Pixel Overlay Models and trigger-able from FPP Commands. Currently only a few are available. More will come.
  • New GPIO inputs page to allow GPIO's to trigger any FPP Command. GPIO inputs can also control the FPP OLED menus. Also, support for various I2C GPIO expanders.
  • Support setting a different FPP instance as the source for "git pull" upgrades. (Advanced UI setting)
  • Internal updates for running playlists for enhanced position tracking to allow SMPTE/LTC plugin
  • New Kiosk mode image for the Pi that will boot directly to FPP's web page if HDMI monitor and keyboard/mouse is attached

Incompatibilities

• We've removed some seldom used/obsolete outputs including the OLA, TriksC and Hill320
• The Perl based API's have been removed. Scripts using the OLD API's should be updated to use the new REST API's
• fppwss - WebSocket API has been removed. Use the REST API's
• GPIO595 configuration has changed. You will need to reconfigure if using it.
• mpg123, mpg321, and ogg123 are no longer installed. Scripts that use these should install them if needed or flip to using ffmpeg or vlc.
• wiringPi and pigpio are no longer installed. Again, scripts that need them should be re-written or have them installed if needed.
• Several playlist entry types are no longer available and should be auto-converted to the "FPP Command" equivalent.
• Auto-upgrade flag removed.
• Moved to jquery 3.5 and removed jquery-migrate. Plugins that rely on older jquery calls may need to be updated.
• Removed support for the "MultiSync CSV Packets". Nothing uses them and the binary packets provide significantly more information.

Upgrade Instructions

It is strongly recommended to do a full "OS Level" upgrade or re-image instead of attempting to upgrade directly from any FPP 2.x or 3.x 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 3.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 4.0-alpha3. 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.