Good news! We have a new Release Candidate for the “Aruk SD-image” and i’m pretty confident that this will be the last one: If no critical errors are detected in the next days, RC3 will be the “production version”, or “final release”, or whatever you like to name it
It’s been a long way. We have fixed a lot of bugs and improved a lot of details, but the result is, i hope, the best Zynthian image until now.
For the testers:
Any error or malfunction should be described properly, putting special attention to the instructions for reproducing it. You can open issues in our tracking system:
Please, don’t duplicate issues!! Before creating a new ticket you should search to see if your problem is already addressed by an existing ticket. If you have doubt, don’t hesitate to ask!!
Special considerations:
Reliability!! Stability!! These have been my first priority for this release, so it should be your priority when testing. We don’t want frozen zynthians witht he new Aruk SD image. If you get a frozen UI, please try to reproduce and open an issue ASAP.
XRuns! RBPi3 has limited CPU power, so getting XRuns with some engines (Pianoteq) or presets is normal. We hope that RBPi4 will improve or solve this problem … If you are getting too many XRuns, you should check if the “low-power” flag is shown in the top-right corner. Please, before opening issues regarding XRuns, it’s better to discuss in the forum.
Aruk-RC3 is the latest stretch-based Zynthian SD-image. Next RC4, should be a Buster-based SD-image. No new features are planned. RC3 & RC4 should be functionally identical, with the only “little” difference of working on RBPi-4
And if no critical errors are detected, RC4 will be the production release. Until then, RC3 can be considered the latest stable release of Zynthian SD.
I think you should release Aruk 1.0 now and branch a new major version of Zynthian to support Buster and RPi4. This seems like a natural point to separate versions. We would have a stable Aruk that everyone is clear is the stable version. We retire Gorgona Omega, have Aruk as stable and the new codename as development. Or you could have Buster as Aruk 2.0 if you want to keep the codename.
Aruk RC3 is “Aruk 1.0”. I intend to write a post in the blog in the next days and make it official.
The next release will be Buster-based and i don’t intend to add new features, so it will be functioanlly identical to Aruk RC3. If we call it Aruk RC4, “Aruk 2.0” or choose a different name is of little importance
What it’s important is that having an image that works with RBPi-4 is the first priority now, and this means change to Buster ASAP, maintaining the “code freeze” for new core features until it’s ready.
Anyway, i’m optimistic about it. Fixing the build-script problems shouldn’t be too difficult …
Of course! And Buster images too. Until now, zynthian images are backward compatible with v1 kits. In fact it would work with my first prototypes if rabpi2 is updated to rbpi3.
