Release v2.1.0 — March 21, 2026

[jnilo1]

This release updates the bootloader, kernel, and userdata. The recommended upgrade path:

./flash_install_rtl8196e.sh gateway_ip

When a gateway_ip is provided, the script saves your configuration via SSH, flashes all partitions, and restores settings automatically. Auto-flash requires firmware >= v2.0.0; older versions fall back to guided serial flash.

Boothold fix

boothold worked right after a clean boot (the page at 0x003FFFFC hadn't been allocated yet) but failed on a running system: the kernel's page allocator eventually claims that page and actively writes to it through KSEG0 (cached), overwriting the HOLD magic written by devmem through KSEG1 (uncached) within milliseconds — a MIPS KSEG0/KSEG1 cache coherency conflict. Fixed with two changes:

• Kernel: the boothold page (0x003FF000) is declared as reserved-memory with no-map in the device tree — the kernel never allocates it
• Bootloader V2.4: reads and clears the flag through KSEG1 (uncached) so the clear reaches DRAM immediately — no more false boot-hold after power cycle

OTBR status LED

In OTBR mode, the status LED now reflects the Thread network state:

• OFF — wpan0 has no carrier (OTBR not running or no Thread network)
• ON — Thread network joined

Enabled via CONFIG_LEDS_TRIGGER_NETDEV (kernel netdev trigger on wpan0). No impact on Zigbee/serialgateway mode — the LED is still controlled directly by the application.

Thread reliability

• Dataset persistence: sync daemon polls every 30s, syncs to flash only on change, final sync on shutdown (SIGTERM trap)
• Clean shutdown: rcK script stops all services in reverse order on reboot

Flash scripts

• Auto-flash on first flash: flash_install_rtl8196e.sh attempts auto-flash even without SSH (first flash scenario)
• EFR32 flash prompt: interactive mode offers to launch flash_efr32.sh after RTL8196E flash
• Binaries removed from git: rootfs.bin and userdata.bin are rebuilt on the fly by build/flash scripts

Other

• Dropbear updated to latest 2025.89 available version
• EFR32 build scripts: consistent .gbl + .s37 output across all firmware types (.gbl for UART/Xmodem updates via Simplicity Commander, .s37 for J-Link/OpenOCD updates)

Full changelog

• RTL8196E CHANGELOG

[VoxoTech]

Trying to update to 2.1.0 ,
I get :

Saving gateway config...
  Preserved user config from gateway
  Firmware version: v2.0
Sending boothold + reboot...
Waiting for bootloader at 192.168.1.6...
Bootloader detected at 192.168.1.6 (type: v2).

Generating disk image... be patient
configure: error: in `/home/olive/hacking-lidl-silvercrest-gateway/3-Main-SoC-Realtek-RTL8196E/33-Rootfs/DROPBEAR_2025.89':
configure: error: C compiler cannot create executables
See `config.log' for more details

log says :

It was created by configure, which was
generated by GNU Autoconf 2.71. Invocation command line was

$ ./configure --host=mips-lexra-linux-musl --disable-zlib --disable-utmp --disable-wtmp --disable-lastlog --disable-loginfunc>

## --------- ##
## Platform. ##
## --------- ##

hostname = orangepiplus
uname -m = armv7l
uname -r = 6.12.76-current-sunxi
uname -s = Linux
uname -v = #1 SMP Thu Mar  5 15:04:32 UTC 2026

/usr/bin/uname -p = unknown
/bin/uname -X     = unknown

/bin/arch              = armv7l
/usr/bin/arch -k       = unknown
/usr/convex/getsysinfo = unknown
/usr/bin/hostinfo      = unknown
/bin/machine           = unknown
/usr/bin/oslevel       = unknown
/bin/universe          = unknown

PATH: /home/olive/hacking-lidl-silvercrest-gateway/x-tools/mips-lexra-linux-musl/bin/
PATH: /home/olive/.local/bin/
PATH: /usr/local/bin/
PATH: /usr/bin/
PATH: /bin/
PATH: /usr/local/games/
PATH: /usr/games/
PATH: /home/olive/.local/bin/
PATH: /usr/sbin/
PATH: /home/olive/.local/bin/

## ----------- ##
## Core tests. ##
## ----------- ##

configure:2828: looking for aux files: install-sh config.guess config.sub
configure:2841:  trying ./src/
configure:2852:   ./src/install-sh found
configure:2870:   ./src/config.guess found
configure:2870:   ./src/config.sub found
configure:3002: checking for mips-lexra-linux-musl-gcc
configure:3034: result: mips-lexra-linux-musl-gcc
configure:3432: checking for C compiler version
configure:3441: mips-lexra-linux-musl-gcc --version >&5
./configure: line 3443: mips-lexra-linux-musl-gcc: command not found
configure:3452: $? = 127
configure:3441: mips-lexra-linux-musl-gcc -v >&5
./configure: line 3443: mips-lexra-linux-musl-gcc: command not found
configure:3452: $? = 127
configure:3441: mips-lexra-linux-musl-gcc -V >&5
./configure: line 3443: mips-lexra-linux-musl-gcc: command not found
configure:3452: $? = 127
configure:3441: mips-lexra-linux-musl-gcc -qversion >&5
./configure: line 3443: mips-lexra-linux-musl-gcc: command not found
configure:3452: $? = 127
configure:3441: mips-lexra-linux-musl-gcc -version >&5
./configure: line 3443: mips-lexra-linux-musl-gcc: command not found
configure:3452: $? = 127
configure:3472: checking whether the C compiler works
configure:3494: mips-lexra-linux-musl-gcc -Os -fno-stack-protector  -static -Wl,-z,noexecstack,-z,relro,-z,now conftest.c  >&5
./configure: line 3496: mips-lexra-linux-musl-gcc: command not found
configure:3498: $? = 127
configure:3538: result: no
configure: failed program was:
| /* confdefs.h */
| #define PACKAGE_NAME ""
| #define PACKAGE_TARNAME ""
| #define PACKAGE_VERSION ""
| #define PACKAGE_STRING ""
| #define PACKAGE_BUGREPORT ""
| #define PACKAGE_URL ""
| /* end confdefs.h.  */
|
| int
| main (void)
| {
|
|
|   ;
|   return 0;
| }
configure:3543: error: in `/home/olive/hacking-lidl-silvercrest-gateway/3-Main-SoC-Realtek-RTL8196E/33-Rootfs/DROPBEAR_2025.89':
configure:3545: error: C compiler cannot create executables
See `config.log' for more details

## ---------------- ##
## Cache variables. ##
## ---------------- ##

ac_cv_env_CCC_set=
ac_cv_env_CCC_value=
ac_cv_env_CC_set=set
ac_cv_env_CC_value=mips-lexra-linux-musl-gcc
ac_cv_env_CFLAGS_set=set
ac_cv_env_CFLAGS_value='-Os -fno-stack-protector'
ac_cv_env_CPPFLAGS_set=
ac_cv_env_CPPFLAGS_value=
ac_cv_env_CPP_set=
ac_cv_env_CPP_value=
ac_cv_env_CXXFLAGS_set=
ac_cv_env_CXXFLAGS_value=
ac_cv_env_CXX_set=
ac_cv_env_CXX_value=
ac_cv_env_LDFLAGS_set=set
ac_cv_env_LDFLAGS_value='-static -Wl,-z,noexecstack,-z,relro,-z,now'
ac_cv_env_LIBS_set=
ac_cv_env_LIBS_value=
ac_cv_env_LTM_CFLAGS_set=
ac_cv_env_LTM_CFLAGS_value=
ac_cv_env_build_alias_set=
ac_cv_env_build_alias_value=
ac_cv_env_host_alias_set=set
ac_cv_env_host_alias_value=mips-lexra-linux-musl
ac_cv_env_target_alias_set=
ac_cv_env_target_alias_value=
ac_cv_prog_CC=mips-lexra-linux-musl-gcc

GPT is telling me about missing Realtek SDK ?

[jnilo1]

Thanks for reporting this — it was a bug: dropbearmulti was missing from the repo (gitignored by mistake while busybox was tracked). The build script tried to recompile Dropbear from source, which requires the Lexra cross-compiler — only available on x86_64 hosts.

This is now fixed — dropbearmulti is included in the repo as a pre-built binary (same as busybox). Pull the latest and retry:

git pull
./flash_install_rtl8196e.sh 192.168.1.88

If you ever need to recompile from scratch (kernel, rootfs, etc.), you must use Docker — the Lexra MIPS cross-compilation toolchain was built for x86_64 and won't run on ARM:

cd 1-Build-Environment && docker build -t rtl8196e-build .
docker run --rm -it --network host -v $(pwd):/work rtl8196e-build ./flash_install_rtl8196e.sh 192.168.1.88

No Realtek SDK is needed — everything is self-contained in this repo.