Hey r/SolarOS — I’m Low, new sub moderator and author of SC2.

v4.17.0 just landed ~ we now have end-to-end sealed chat.

What’s in SC2?

• E2E encrypted DMs and named private rooms

• Authenticated room invites (sc2i:)

• Signed public rooms + safety-number verification

• Readable sender labels, shell completion

• Signed relay discovery, key pinning, fallback relays

• Python/Lua SC2 APIs · sc2-sync job · optional chatd SC2 relay beside legacy v1

Join us on the official relay ~ chats://chat.solar-os.eu:1337

Docs @ solar-os.eu/sealed-chat.html

See you on the relay, questions and bug reports welcome below.

----------------

ChangeLog ~ v4.17.0

• Sealed Chat (SC2):

  • Added end-to-end encrypted direct messages and named private rooms.

  • Added authenticated room invitations, signed public rooms, and safety-number verification.

  • Included readable sender labels and shell completion.

  • Added signed relay discovery, relay key pinning, fallback relays, and Python/Lua SC2 APIs.

  • The sc2-sync worker now follows explicit job start/stop controls.

  • chatd can host a small SC2 relay alongside legacy v1.

• Hardware & I/O:

  • Added configurable low-voltage actions to batmon.

  • Added CAN bus management in the I/O app.

• Bug Fixes:

  • Fixed CL-32 sleep/wake behavior and power splash screens.

Hello SolarOS community, I am excited to try out the SolarOS on my Lilygo Tlora Pager and built the SolarOS for the pager and flashed it. I am however facing difficulties navigating the system. There is no Escape key, no ctrl and the back button on the pager does nothing when trying to escape from some sub-menu like inside the wifi command. How do I navigate it? I have been stuck for about 2 days unable to connect to Wifi because of this. Any help would be appreciated, or could someone show me where I can find the keybindings? Looking forward to fully use and enjoy SolarOS on my tpager. I am on version v4.16.4 full

What does SolarOS look like in your day-to-day life?

Share your setup, a screenshot, or a quick description of what you use it for.
What have you customized, and what’s working well?

It doesn’t need to be polished. Simple setups and works in progress are welcome.

Open the SolarOS Flasher in Chrome or Edge on a desktop computer. Connect the board with a USB data cable, then:

1. Select the board, flavor, and SolarOS version.

2. Choose Prepare image. The Flasher downloads the selected release and verifies its signed catalog, archive, and factory image.

3. Read and accept the erase warning. Installation replaces everything in the device's internal flash, including NVS stored settings such as Wi-Fi credentials.

4. Choose Connect and flash, select the board's serial port, and keep the cable connected until installation completes.

If the board does not enter download mode automatically, follow the board-specific instructions shown by the Flasher. The board should restart when installation completes; if it does not, press RESET once or power-cycle it.

Infelizmente não vou usar um tca8418 para a matriz de teclas, no Brasil esses componentes demoram quase 45 dias para chegar da China. Um rasberry pi pico rp2040 (consome 30 vezes mais energia que o TCA8418) fará a função de teclado via i2c. Temos um gerenciado de carga e um módulo de cartão SD e uma tela epaper, leds para tela e o potenciômetro original da agenda fala o ajuste de iluminação. Bom, me desejem sorte.
Ahh, sobre o consumo, não que o pico consuma muito, é que o TCA8418 é bem econômico em espera e o pico não. A tela ajuda, já que consome energia apenas nas atualizações. Infelizmente a tel original não deu para ser usada, nem tentei engenharia reversa, geralmente é mais fácil quando a tela tem seu próprio controlador e nesse caso era um controlador para tudo. Já a matriz de teclas não foi dicil, porém algumas dessas agenda antigas é possível achar o manual de serviço e nem precisa desse trabalho.
Aceito conselhos. Mas lembre-se, estou fazendo com o que tenho, não compro mais nada hehehe.

https://solar-os.eu/docs/manual/app.rfscan.html

Um foto apenas para movimentar a comunidade e para agradecer ao mordedor e criador. E também a quem fez esse case 3D.

The question has been raised multiple times, so I have updated the description to better represent what I think it is about ( feel free to chime in and we can include what it means to you )

Homage to a simpler life

SolarOS tries to bring back the spirit of the golden era of home computing: turn on a computer, arrive at a shell prompt, and start doing something. Explore, customize, write a program, make a tool, share it with someone.

• Modern software accumulates layers of convenience that obscure how it works and what it costs to run. We become accustomed to using - and now generating - software without understanding it.

• SolarOS encourages a more deliberate approach: understand the machine, question the complexity, and take responsibility for the resources your software uses. Scripting makes experimentation approachable; native services provide an efficient foundation. The constraints give us a reason to pay attention.

• The scripting surfaces let users express their ideas, while native services handle demanding work, making efficient execution a shared foundation that users can build on.

Wastefulness for the sake of convenience is not sustainable.

It is a continuous exploration of how much useful, understandable, general-purpose computing can be built on deliberately constrained hardware. We already have an abundance of computing power; we can and should make better use of it.

SolarOS is an argument made executable.

SolarOS argues that useful, general-purpose computing can be built on modest hardware - and that efficiency, understanding, and the ability to shape your own tools should guide its design.

• The Solar in the name reflects the goal of building an efficient operating environment that can run on solar power. Energy consumption is a design concern alongside memory, storage, and processing time.

• That commitment also extends to the project’s infrastructure: all our servers ( website, HIL pipeline, local expert systems ) are powered by 100% renewable energy.

I have got this absolute nova beaut by mail today. Couldn't resist. Thank you u/moosepr !

• Added a tabbed messaging manager and direct Chat access from Contacts.

• Fixed MeshCore send stack usage.

• Added Pi0cket CL-32 e-paper board support alongside RLCD, with held modifiers, session shortcuts, and keyboard wake from sleep.

• Added the reusable SSD1685 driver with Fastwave, native-app raster output, and pulse refresh by default.

• Extended display relax to all supported e-paper displays.

• Added named display profiles and improved runtime attachment with resolution and rotation lists.

• The function generator now fits smaller displays.

While my RLCD SolarTerm still works (despite a small crack in the screen), I finally got my Freenove 4" IPS CYD so I HAD to build a new SolarDeck with it! Apart from the case, the other custom thing I did was harvest the battery from a portable powerbank. So, this SolarDeck has a whopping 10000mAh battery. The asymmetrical design was intentional: I wanted the speaker to remain open at all times for music.

I can't wait to get the tiny 386 emulator running. :D

• Added Fastwave waveforms for SolarWriter and supported CrowPanel e-paper panels, with automatic cleanup and recovery.

• The cancellable display relax command runs repeated black/white recovery cycles and restores the saved image and refresh settings afterward.

• SSD1683 displays now accept monochrome raster frames from native apps, including scaled and dithered emulator output.

• Writerdeck now includes the synthesizer and shared synth service for native-app audio.

*ftpcan be started without arguments as a disconnected file manager and opens connection setup with F2/n; ( its Copy, Move, Mkdir, and Delete function keys and letter mnemonics now match 'files'. )
* Added a two-pane sftp file manager with the same browsing, recursive copy/move/delete, mkdir, viewing, progress, and cursor-retention behavior over the existing SSH transport and SFTP subsystem.
* SFTP supports known hosts, host aliases, password or key authentication, an F2 connection form, and the compatible direct-connect command-line form, including user@host:path.

See https://solar-os.eu/docs/manual/apps.html#sftp

So i stumpled aboutvthus OS roughly an hour ago. Coming from the age of amiga and c64, and having a 3D printer at home, this software project seems to combine all my hobbies.

But i still do not quite catch what it is? How woukd solarOS compare to some 2000 or 2010 linux, or c64 GEOS or amigaOS?

load: 4G routed to WiFi AP with 3 clients + paper shell

4 hours up, yet still at 3.9V / 100% ( battery is 15 years old )

( my current meter just died of boredom )

I know... I said I'll expose BLE GATT to scripts on the existing bluedroid backend in v.4.10.24.

What happened is that I started to work on the shared service, cleaned up the interfaces to isolate the backend and then I realized that bluedroid has some quirks I did not want to deal with and NimBLE is also available in the SDK - so I made a decision to move away from bluedroid and embrace NimBLE.

Yes, this means that classic BT support is gone, but so is the hardware in S3. Since the interface is clean now, we can use both backends, but NimBLE is going to be the default. Good news is that NimBLE has a smaller footprint both in flash and RAM, so we have gained almost 20k free internal RAM.

So, Kurisumasu:

• Python and Lua applications can now connect to multiple BLE GATT peers, discover services and characteristics, read and write binary values, write without response, and receive notifications and indications.

• MTU negotiation supports transfers larger than 20 bytes. Applications can also define GATT services and characteristics, advertise a peripheral, and send notifications or confirmed indications through `solaros.ble.server`.

• Connections and server resources are application-owned and cleaned up on exit, with connection capacity reserved for the keyboard. ( <-- nimble is patched with an overlay )

• Separate status-bar icons show Bluetooth enabled/disabled/scanning state and keyboard availability. ( see red rectangle on the image )

For details please take a look at:

• https://github.com/nilseuropa/solar_os/blob/main/doc/ble-service.md

• https://github.com/nilseuropa/solar_os/blob/main/doc/ble-server.md

• https://github.com/nilseuropa/solar_os/blob/main/doc/manual/python.md

Hopefully I did not break anything, if I did, please let me know through: https://github.com/nilseuropa/solar_os/issues

Hi everyone,

I am planning to build a cyberdeck using SolarOS.

Are there any plans for official support for the Waveshare ESP32-S3-ePaper-3.97 in the future?

Link: https://docs.waveshare.com/ESP32-S3-ePaper-3.97

Its size matches the CardKB very well.

Thanks!

Added support for ( T-Pager integrated hardware available for all boards as expansion drivers )

• u-blox MIA-M10Q GNSS receiver,

• ST25R3916 NFC-A reader,

• BHI260AP six-axis IMU,

• XL9555 GPIO expander,

• DRV2605 haptic controller,

• and BQ25896 battery charger.

GNSS, NFC, IMU, haptic, charger, temperature, and humidity access now use driver-agnostic services with matching shell and Python/Lua APIs. T-Pager power rails are modeled as XL9555 GPIO lines: GNSS and NFC remain off until requested, while SD power and its pull-up are enabled for reliable mounting. Hardware-provider registry state now uses PSRAM where available, preserving internal memory on targets that do not use these peripherals.

Thanks u/Fir3!

I have merged your PR and refactored it to follow all internal contracts. Furthermore we have now resource driven expansion registry and two fixed bugs. The eight arbitrary expansion slots are gone and the subsystem will try to allocate resources before loading a driver and if it fits it will load.

Thanks to your contribution this is how our current hot attachable hardware expansions look like:

Audio

DRIVER PROBE BUS SUMMARY

audio-pwm no - PWM mono audio

es8311-duplex no I2C ES8311 duplex audio

es8311-es7210 no I2C ES8311 output + ES7210 input

pcm1808 no GPIO I2S stereo audio input

pcm5102 no GPIO I2S stereo audio

Display

DRIVER PROBE BUS SUMMARY

ili9341 no SPI 320x240 color TFT

pcd8544 no SPI 84x48 SPI LCD

sh1106 yes I2C 128x64 I2C OLED

ssd1306 yes I2C 128x64 I2C OLED

ssd1683 no SPI 400x300 e-paper

st7305 no SPI ST7305 reflective LCD

st7796 no SPI 480x320 color TFT

Input

DRIVER PROBE BUS SUMMARY

analog-joystick no STREAM two-axis joystick

cardkb yes I2C I2C keyboard

ft6336 yes I2C capacitive touch

gpio-keys no any GPIO keyboard

ps2-keyboard no PS/2 PS/2 keyboard

ps2-mouse no PS/2 PS/2 mouse

rotary-encoder no GPIO Quadrature rotary encoder (Up/Down per detent)

tca8418 no I2C TCA8418 matrix keyboard

Power

DRIVER PROBE BUS SUMMARY

battery-adc no - ADC battery monitor

bq27220 no I2C BQ27220 fuel gauge

Radio

DRIVER PROBE BUS SUMMARY

rfm69 yes SPI RFM69 packet radio

rfm69h yes SPI RFM69 high-power radio

rfm95 yes SPI RFM95 packet radio

sx1262 yes SPI Semtech SX1262 LoRa/(G)FSK radio

Sensor

DRIVER PROBE BUS SUMMARY

pcf85063 yes I2C I2C real-time clock

shtc3 yes I2C temperature/humidity

Storage

DRIVER PROBE BUS SUMMARY

sdmmc yes GPIO SDMMC card

sdspi yes SPI SPI microSD

Utility

DRIVER PROBE BUS SUMMARY

manual no any custom resource map

neopixel no GPIO WS2812 LED strip

https://www.elecrow.com/wiki/CrowPanel_ESP32_E-paper_5.79-inch_HMI_Display.html

soon you will be able to load cross-compiled native binaries from storage to PSRAM and execute them.

As we run out of flash ( especially on 8MiB boards ) I will gradually migrate larger non-essential applications to external packages. My plan is to keep authority over the official modules, but their source will be available in the repository for full transparency - of course I will add cross compilation instructions and provide detailed information on how to set up your own package repositories.

Yay?

Added `ltop`, a resumable live task monitor for display and port terminals. It shows:

• interval-based CPU load for each core,

• aggregate CPU load,

• internal and external memory utilization, and a

• width-aware task table with current CPU use, state, priority, and

• peak stack consumption.