8.3

NOTE: The OS level has changed. On the Beaglebone, there are minor changes to help with WIFI tethering. On the Pi, in addition to the tethering updates, there are new "external" WIFI drivers (for Pi 4 and lower, not available on Pi 5) that may work better for some USB WIFI adapters if you are not using the Pi's onboard WIFI.

Enhancements

• Troubleshooting page updated to display scan of WIFI networks that are available
• Load vendor image for menu asynchronously to avoid pause if image cannot be downloaded
• Add fold output processor that reverses a strand in the middle and interleaves the pixels
• Change start and channel count on "Other" output tab to number input type to prevent any characters from being entered
• "External" WIFI adapters added to Pi image (Pi 4 and older) to match with Beaglebone images

Bug Fixes

• Bunches of updates to make sure tethering is enabled if no connection, even if the OS takes a significantly long time to detect and load the WIFI drivers
• Update some IP address validation to allow leading zeros
• Make sure socket send buffers are set to a reasonable size, set smaller receive buffers to save memory
• Fix problems with Hats with multiple GPIO expanders now working on a Pi3
• Fix playlist item display on status page for mobiles
• Fix a bunch of unnecessary statements being logged to syslog
• Fix some race conditions and locking problems in the "Warnings" API's that could cause the frontend to pause/hang
• Fix some crashes if the eeprom and cape don't physically match and sensors that the eeprom say to use don't actually exist
• Update volume sliders to trigger only on value change and rate limit api volume call
• Fix crashes on BBShiftString capes if differential receiver is set for v4/v5 but the cape doesn't have v5 listener hardware
• Limit USBDMX to 512 channels to prevent overrun/crash

Installation Instructions

If you have a system running 8.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 7.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 7.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 or FPP 6.x/7.x 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 8.3. At that point, go to the Uploads tab of the FPP File Manager and delete the fppos file. An alternate method to do an in-place upgrade if you are only upgrading one device AND the device has internet connectivity, is to select the 8.3 fppos (download) file and then click on the Upgrade OS button. This will download the fppos file and then install it as mentioned above. This will still take a LONG time and if you are doing this on more than one device, you will essentially be downloading the same file multiple times so is probably not the best way.

• 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 use this image

• FPP-v8.3-Pi.img.zip

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

• FPP-v8.3-BBB.img.zip

8.2

NOTE: The OS level has not changed. If running OS level 2024.10, there is no need to update the OS. However, there was a bug in the fppos update from FPP 7.x on the Raspberry Pi that would cause downloading of logs to fail. If you had updated from 7.x on the Pi using the fppos update, you need to use the new 8.2 fppos update to correct the OS install.

Enhancements

• Add ability for Multisync plugins to respond to incoming multisync packets
• Add Stop Media and Stop All Media commands
• Simplify Virtual Matrix creation using "Auto Create" by removing pixel size option, auto scale to screen size

Bug Fixes

• Fix "Total" current display on capes with less than 8 ports
• Fix various crashes
• Fix race condition at boot where Timezone may not be fully configured
• Fix race condition at boot where OLED push buttons may not be configured
• Fix problems configuring Access Point mode if rfkill disables the wlan adapater
• Fix plugin install script log output not adding new line where needed
• Fix crash when using Play Media command
• Fix problems drawing Virtual Matrices into Sub Buffers
• Fix recognition of "Composite-1" KMS devices

Installation Instructions

If you have a system running 8.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 7.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 7.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 or FPP 6.x/7.x 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 8.2. At that point, go to the Uploads tab of the FPP File Manager and delete the fppos file. An alternate method to do an in-place upgrade if you are only upgrading one device AND the device has internet connectivity, is to select the 8.2 fppos (download) file and then click on the Upgrade OS button. This will download the fppos file and then install it as mentioned above. This will still take a LONG time and if you are doing this on more than one device, you will essentially be downloading the same file multiple times so is probably not the best way.

• 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 2, Pi 3, Pi 3+, Pi 4, Pi 5, Pi Zero, and Pi Zero 2 use this image

• FPP-v8.2-Pi.img.zip

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

• FPP-v8.2-BBB.img.zip

8.1

NOTE: The OS level has changed. To get all of the updates, you will need to use the fppos upgrade method or use a new image.

Enhancements

• Allow proxying of WebSocket connections
• Add device type/model to Log banner to aid in debugging/reproducing issues
• Remove some unnecessary reboots from the network settings page
• BeagleBone - update Linux kernel to 6.11 (OS Level Change)
• BeagleBone - update wifi drivers, fix 8192cu driver (OS Level Change)
• Add ability to enable WPA3/SAE Wifi authentication
• eFuse capes - Advanced mode ability to configure automatic retries
• Asynchronously ping UDP controllers for faster startup, particularly if many are offline

Bug Fixes

• Update file item count in File Manager on item deletion
• Fix detection of RGBMatrix (Pi LED panels) at boot and don't load snd_bcm2835
• Fix NTP not able to update time if NTP server specified
• Workaround for controllers that are not putting their IP address in the ping/discovery packets
• Fix Command Presets layout when warning alerts are present
• Fix "Test Pattern" button on Beagle based capes not starting test pattern
• Fix "Insert Random Item from Playlist" not being random
• Fix problems with Remotes staring video if they need to jump to the middle of the video
• Delay Pi power warning until it occurs multiple times
• Fix many issues on Channel Outputs page if Cape EEPROM does not contain a "provides" attribute
• Fix Kiosk mode no able to be disabled
• Fix issues with GPIO expanders on Pi5 not being properly numbered
• Fix problems starting sequences that are greater than 2G in size
• Only display "Icon for help" message if help messages actually exist
• Fail/Warn (instead of hang) if RGBMatrix configured on Pi5
• Fix some crashed when background threads add/update timers (MQTT reconnect main offender)
• Fix some crashes if VLC fails to start (log instead of crash)

Installation Instructions

If you have a system running 8.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 7.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 7.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 or FPP 6.x/7.x 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 8.1. At that point, go to the Uploads tab of the FPP File Manager and delete the fppos file. An alternate method to do an in-place upgrade if you are only upgrading one device AND the device has internet connectivity, is to select the 8.1 fppos (download) file and then click on the Upgrade OS button. This will download the fppos file and then install it as mentioned above. This will still take a LONG time and if you are doing this on more than one device, you will essentially be downloading the same file multiple times so is probably not the best way.

• 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, Pi 5, and Pi Zero use this image

• FPP-v8.1-Pi.img.zip

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

• FPP-v8.1-BBB.img.zip

8.0

FPP 8.0

Enhancements

• The primary change in FPP 8.0 is the upgrade from Debian 11 to Debian 12. This provides a newer kernel, newer libraries, and newer versions of software. This includes PHP 8.2, Python 3.10, and many other libraries. This also provides support for newer hardware such as the Raspberry Pi 5.

• Faster bootup - many of the bootup actions have been re-written to provide faster bootup

• Allow for a backup SSID to connect to alternative WIFI networks if primary SSID is not found

• Support for flashing FPP onto NVMe drives on Raspberry Pi 5

• Better integration with xLights for Proxies and Models

• Ability to be a DMX input device - FPP can accept channel data via serial input

• Playlist entries can specify a Time Code to associate with that entry when using various plugins that process timecodes (Advanced UI)

• New Screen DPMS timeout setting for Kiosk Mode

• UI Enhancements

  • New Tab Based Troubleshooting page
  • Sticky table headers throughout the UI to make it easier to understand long tables
  • New warning if exiting edited but unsaved playlist
  • New ability to upload authorized_keys file to configure SSH automatically
  • When starting playlists using a start/end positions, only display that section of the playlist when playing
  • Add ability to add Sequences/Media to Playlists directly from File Manager
  • Verify command presets and prevent saving of invalid entries
  • Show UP interfaces in status bar even if they don't have an IP address (ex: ColorLight connection)
  • Added option to disable volume slider on status page
  • Add configurable home page URL for kiosk mode
  • Add schedule entry info to scheduler preview
  • File Mangers colums are now sortable and filterable
  • Raspberry Pi - Lightning bolt indicator and warning if voltage drops too low
  • Filter available plugins and scripts to only those that have been tested with the current version of FPP

• Commands

  • New FPP Commands to switch between Player and Remote modes.
  • Allow scheduling FPP Commands on systems running in Remote Mode. (Advanced UI Mode)

• New features for Capes/Hats/Outputs

  • New "PWM" tab in channel outputs to allow for the configuration of PWM based outputs. This is useful for controlling servos, LEDs, and other PWM devices.
  • Raspberry Pi 5 can support two strings of pixels via DPIPixels driver without a license.
  • New "led_row_address_type" settings for Pi Matrix Hats to support additional "outdoor" panels

• New features for Developers/Plugins

  • Plugins can provide handlers for file extensions to provide actions/conversions when files with a given extension is uploaded. A dedicated tab in the FileManger is created for that extension.
  • Warnings can have an optional "id" number and more extensive Help (provided in markdown format)

• MQTT Updates

  • FPP version, Hostname, Description, and Platform added to fppd_status topic
  • Last Will and Testament sent to "/ready" Topic
  • Add option to publish output port information including current draw

Major Changes/Incompatibilities

• Due to the upgrade from Debian 11 to Debian 12, many libraries have been upgraded to new versions. Some incompatibilies are expected, primarily with plugins.
• PHP has been upgrade from PHP 7.4 to 8.2. Plugins that rely on 7.4 behavior may no longer work properly and will need to be updated.
• Video output device names have changed. The prior names of "fb0" and "fb1" no longer work and will need to be reconfigured to use the new names of HDMI-A-1, HDMI-A-2, DSI-1, DPI-1, or similar reflecting how the display is connected. Anything that outputs to a display (Virutal Matrix, Virtual Display, etc...) will need to be reconfigured.
• Many flags to /opt/fpp/src/fpp have been removed. Use of REST API is now required.

Upgrade Instructions

Due to incompatibilies with the libraries and versions in Debian 11, an "OS Level" upgrade is required.

• Re-image - you can backup your 7.x configuration, create a new image, and restore the configuration.
• In-place upgrade - This requires you to have the latest FPP 7.5 or newer and all updates already running on the device. On the "About" page in FPP, there is an "Upgrade OS" choice selection where the appropriate 8.0_2024-09 image can be selected. FPP will automatically download the fppos file and install the upgrade. It will take a LONG time. When done, it should reboot into 8.0. 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-v8.0-Pi.img.zip

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

• FPP-v8.0-BBB.img.zip

Additional 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
• FPP can now be installed on other Linux distributions such as Ubuntu 24.04 and Linux Mint

7.5

NOTE: The OS level not has changed and will remain at 2023.12 level.

Enhancements

• Add ability to turn on/off/reset individual eFuse ports from Current Monitoring page
• Email setting on privacy tab to allow FPP developers to contact users if more information is needed to diagnose crashes
• Set thread names so crash logs are easier to diagnose
• Some optimizations to load/process playlists quicker
• javascript enhancement to add setting name as parameter to callbacks
• Add Sequence Info button Sequences page of File Manger to display FSEQ header information
• If inputs are enabled, make the default warn if data is received and sequence is running
• Detect Falcon v5's when using http discovery

Bug Fixes

• Fix potential crash with Command Preset timing tracks
• Fix potential crash when setting log levels using fpp command line tool
• Fix some crashes with Twinkly output
• Fix problems with UDP de-dup settings not properly sending needed packets
• Fix temp/voltage display on multi sync page for Falcon controllers

Installation Instructions

If you have a system running 7.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 6.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/6.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 or FPP 6.3 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 7.5. At that point, go to the Uploads tab of the FPP File Manager and delete the fppos file. An alternate method to do an in-place upgrade if you are only upgrading one device AND the device has internet connectivity, is to select the 7.5 fppos (download) file and then click on the Upgrade OS button. This will download the fppos file and then install it as mentioned above. This will still take a LONG time and if you are doing this on more than one device, you will essentially be downloading the same file multiple times so is probably not the best way.

• 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 2, Pi 3, Pi 3+, Pi 4 and Pi Zero (all models) use this image

• FPP-v7.5-Pi.img.zip

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

• FPP-v7.5-BBB.img.zip

The Raspberry Pi 5 is not supported by FPP v7.x. Support for the Pi 5 will be added in FPP v8.0.

7.4

NOTE: The OS level has changed. To get all of the updates, you will need to use the fppos upgrade method or use a new image.

Enhancements

• Change to use dedicated "falcon player" NTP pool (OS level update needed)
• Update the ChangeLog page to show tags on the branch
• fsequtils - add ability to examine sequence channel data
• Proxies will now open in a new tab when IP is selected
• Hide Scheduler menu entry and status box on remotes
• Add 'Save As New' button when editing an existing playlist entry
• Change hostname link to go to main status page
• Allow LED Panels in Advanced UI mode w/ non-panel cape installed
• Remove some unused packages on Pi (saves 180MB of space)
• Log output from mp3gain
• Run scripts in popup vs new tab.
• File Manager - Show thumbnails for image files with user-selectable thumbnail size

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bunch of minor memory leaks to prevent some crashes
• On multi-core Pi's, delay an extra 5s at boot (unless configured otherwise) to allow USB devices to be detected
• Don't show external URL's on multi sync page for Kiosk mode
• Fix crash if playlist json is invalid
• Fix crash in twinkly output if twinkly device is too busy to respond to authentication request
• Fix crash if empty string passes for playlist filename
• Fix problems download syslog and /var/log/messages
• Honor Group Count in auto-created Pixel String models
• Fix next playlist scheduledStartTime in status API.
• Pixel String page - Fix issue with pixel count warnings not displaying error status
• Fix rsyncd/smbd services restart after OS upgrade
• Fix reading settings with spaces in the values
• Fix compile on latest Fedora
• Try to detect corrupt eeprom and not crash fppd
• Don't flash a corrupt eeprom if eeprom download fails
• Bunch of minor spelling mistakes, text spacing updates, etc....
• Fix several race conditions that could cause lockups/hangs when using effects on overlay models
• Fix multi sync packets sending media timestamp and not the sequence timestamp
• Fix control channel output not using correct channels
• Fix support for 1600x900 monitors
• Fix Shift-Click in File Manager not working properly
• Fix auto generated overlay model names for models on smart receivers
• Fix issues signing cape eeproms
• Fix some issues with settings backups creating thousands of backup files consuming space

Installation Instructions

If you have a system running 7.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 6.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/6.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 or FPP 6.3 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 7.3. At that point, go to the Uploads tab of the FPP File Manager and delete the fppos file. An alternate method to do an in-place upgrade if you are only upgrading one device AND the device has internet connectivity, is to select the 7.3 fppos (download) file and then click on the Upgrade OS button. This will download the fppos file and then install it as mentioned above. This will still take a LONG time and if you are doing this on more than one device, you will essentially be downloading the same file multiple times so is probably not the best way.

• 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-v7.4-Pi.img.zip

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

• FPP-v7.4-BBB.img.zip

7.3

NOTE: The OS level has changed. To get all of the updates, you will need to use the fppos upgrade method or use a new image.

Enhancements

• Add some Realtek WIFI 6 drivers based on 8852bu and 8852au chips (OS update required)
• Update rpi_ws281x to support newer Raspberry Pi 3B+ hardware
• Don't keep eeprom mounted as a file to prevent any overwriting of the file
• Allow FPP to be added to the home screen as a progressive web app
• BBB Support for 80x40 10scan Outdoor P4 panels
• Update testing.php to default to RGB Cycle

Bug Fixes

• Give Pi Zero W 2 devices more GPU memory (OS update required)
• Set a max requests for php-fpm children to all periodic cleanup of processes and memory (OS update required)
• Preserve unicode character for media information sent to plugins
• Make sure the "Expand media" banner is visible if media has significant unallocated space
• Add a bunch of missing API to help docs
• Fix long-distance preview of Odd/Even schedule entries
• css tweak to fix issue with some browsers causing incorrect display of hidden items
• Delay warning of MQTT disconnect for 10 seconds to see if it reconnects automatically
• Display all eth* interfaces in troubleshooting

Installation Instructions

If you have a system running 7.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 6.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/6.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 or FPP 6.3 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 7.3. At that point, go to the Uploads tab of the FPP File Manager and delete the fppos file. An alternate method to do an in-place upgrade if you are only upgrading one device AND the device has internet connectivity, is to select the 7.3 fppos (download) file and then click on the Upgrade OS button. This will download the fppos file and then install it as mentioned above. This will still take a LONG time and if you are doing this on more than one device, you will essentially be downloading the same file multiple times so is probably not the best way.

• 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-v7.3.1-Pi.img.zip

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

• FPP-v7.3.1-BBB.img.zip

7.2

NOTE: The OS level has NOT changed. It is still 2023-08. However, updating from 7.x to 7.2 does install additional OS packages (mp3gain) and thus would require internet access for that functionality to be installed.

Enhancements

• Added MP3Gain to Audio FileManger to adjust audio levels of selected mp3 files
• Increase maximum number of virtual strings per port from 30 to 100
• Increase Colorlight maximum panel size to 24x24.
• Added PCF8574 channel output
• Reduce boot time on PocketBeagle/BBB by about 15 seconds by not disabling services that are already disabled

Bug Fixes

• Add "Player w/ Multisync" to multisync page filters
• Fix playlist randomization if using Start Playlist command
• Fix problems with null pixels not cutting off pixels of the actually string
• Increase receive socket buffers and process more packets per read to increase reliability for large universe/DDP channel counts
• Fix e1.31/ddp stats table with Bootstrap 5 (three colums)
• Fix restoring Panel Layout and Single Panel Size settings
• Fix Remap output processor when source and destination overlap
• Fix some cases where config.txt/uEnv.txt files could become corrupt adding settings from cape EEPROMS
• Fix problem with fast restart on BBB's causing infinite crash/restart, requiring reboot to fix
• Fix FPPD_STARTED event from firing before some FPP Commands are registered (so FPPD_STARTED can trigger a GPIO Command)
• Fix Port Number String testing to go R->G->B instead of G->R->B
• Fix some undefined variables in the PHP code preventing some sequence API's from working
• Fix some issues on the Multisync page when FPP is proxied from another FPP device
• Make sure the proper .htaccess file is created/updated, particularly from FPP 5.x updates

Installation Instructions

If you have a system running 7.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 6.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/6.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 or FPP 6.3 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 7.2. At that point, go to the Uploads tab of the FPP File Manager and delete the fppos file. An alternate method to do an in-place upgrade if you are only upgrading one device AND the device has internet connectivity, is to select the 7.2 fppos (download) file and then click on the Upgrade OS button. This will download the fppos file and then install it as mentioned above. This will still take a LONG time and if you are doing this on more than one device, you will essentially be downloading the same file multiple times so is probably not the best way.

• 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-v7.2-Pi.img.zip

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

• FPP-v7.2-BBB.img.zip

7.1

NOTE: The OS level has changed. There are a few fixes that require the fppos update method or new image.

Enhancements

• New "Check Pixel Count" command to compare counted pixels against configured pixels and issue warnings on miss-match. (Requires a cape with current monitoring/pixel counting)
• Several new API's available to plugins around HTTP connections, Timers, Command addition/removal, etc...

Bug Fixes

• NTP service restart on network connection to hopefully resolve network time quicker (Requires OS level update)
• Fix problems with "Other" output tab if commandPresets file is empty or missing
• Create a proper link for SSH shell if running through a proxy
• Retain Kiosk setup on first boot after fppos upgrade (will take a long time to re-install Kiosk components)
• Longer timeout on wifi scans to allow finding networks in crowded environments
• Bugs/issues with autoscroll of playlist on status page
• Re-Apply BBB led lights settings and gpio fan settings on fppos upgrade
• Use 32bit kernel on Raspberry Pi 4 - fixes issues with external Wifi drivers (Requires OS level update)

Installation Instructions

If you have a system running 7.0, 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 6.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/6.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 or FPP 6.3 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 7.1. 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-v7.1-Pi.img.zip

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

• FPP-v7.1-BBB.img.zip

7.0

FPP 7.0

Enhancements

• New "OUTPUTS_ENABLED" and "OUTPUTS_DISABLED" Command preset triggers that are fired when Outputs are enabled/disabled
• FPP remotes can play a "fallback.fseq" file if the main fseq is missing
• FSEQ files can now contain special "Effects" and "Command Preset" timing tracks that can trigger based on timing marks instead of custom On effects on control channels.
• Backups
  • Changing settings will now automatically trigger a configuration backup
  • Backups can be configured to save to an external device (USB) or other FPP host
  • Restoring backups from remote FPP hosts is now fully enabled
• UI Enhancements
  • Playlist "breadcrumbs" displayed for nested/inserted playlists
  • Media files can be played directly from the Playlist drop down on the status page
  • MultiSync page now handles a mixed setup of hostnames and IP address better (CORS issues)
  • MultiSync page will now use the configured background colors of the FPP remotes
  • "Send MultiSync Packets" checkbox made more prominent on MultiSync page
  • Proxies page can now have a description for each entry
  • Popup dialogs are now used for more places where content is streamed from the device such as the expand storage, flash to eMMC/USB, cape eeprom upgrade, etc....
  • File sizes for files larger than 2G will now display
  • REST API Help and FPP Command Help now separated onto separate pages (page was too long to be useful)
  • Ability to "Add" and provision network interfaces that don't yet exist. Should allow provisioning of wlan0 adapters when only eth0 are available at first boot
  • Storage tab can unmount unused storage devices (use with caution)
  • Add "Top" button to page to scroll back to top when scrolling down longer pages
  • Playlists will automatically scroll the currently playing entry into view
• New features for Capes/Hats
  • Upgrade/installing eeproms should now be easier from the Cape Info pages. Selection based on vendor/model/version is available
  • DPIPixel based capes now support Pi 4's as well as 4 channel pixels
  • PiHats now support four channel pixel types
  • Per output/string testing functionality added to string based capes on the string configuration page
  • Support for eFuses/relays - capes can now specify pins to enable ports and get notification of Fuse triggers
  • Current monitors- For capes that provide current monitoring per port, there is a new Current Monitor status page. "Pixel Counting" is available on that page.
  • OLED display can display WIFI QR code when put into Access Point mode
  • Support for ADS7828 A2D sensors
  • Support for using IIO for A2D sensors
• New features for Raspberry Pi
  • On a Pi4 - the storage tab in settings now allows for flashing FPP to USB and booting from USB. Very useful for USB3 attached SATA drives. Note: heat is an issues with USB attached storage. The Pi4 NEEDS good heat syncs and fans to stay cool when using USB attached storage.
  • Kiosk mode - external links are now disables/hidden when running in Kiosk mode to prevent going to sites and not being able to return (no "back" button)
  • System setting to enable PWM fan control on GPIO14
  • Better support for various HDMI touch screens made for the Pi (1024x600 setting available)
• New features in Channel Outputs
  • Twinkly outputs will now revalidate tokens and restart within a couple minutes if the Twinkly device power cycles.
  • "Control Channel" functionality has been moved to a dedicated Channel Output on the "Other" tab. Multiple control channels can be configured.
  • New uDMX channel output driver for uDMX based USB->DMX adapters
• New Features in Overlay Models
  • WLED effects have been updated to the latest WLED
  • Sound reactive WLED effects are available (reacts to the sound played from that FPP instance)
• New C++ API's for PluginDevelopers
  • New "CurlManager" for handling asynchronous HTTP calls
  • New "Timers" for handling periodic tasks
  • New "Events" API for getting additional events (same events sent to MQTT)

Major Changes/Incompatibilities

• Persistent network names for USB ethernet devices will now flip to the Linux persistent naming convention (en#######) instead of eth0/eth1. Devices may need reconfiguring.
• The Web frontend has been upgraded from Bootstrap 4.4 to Bootstrap 5. (Bootstrap is a library uses for UI widgets/layouts) Some FPP plugins may not work properly until they are updated. Please report any issues to the plugin developers.
• Removal of deprecated API's - the old "Rest like APIs" from the FPP 1.x days that were part of fppjson.php and fppxml.php have been removed. Users will need to migrate to the proper REST API's in "/api".
• Removal of Linsn Panel driver - this actually has been broken for a while, but no one reported it so is likely not used.
• Upload of files with special characters will not strip the special characters. Filenames should remain correct.

Other updates/changes

• PHP processing was split from the Apache HTTPD service. Due to this change, older versions of xLights cannot upload files to FPP7.

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 6.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 or newer 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 7.0. 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-v7.0-Pi.img.zip

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

• FPP-v7.0-BBB.img.zip

Additional 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
• FPP can now be installed on other Linux distributions such as Ubuntu 22.10 and Linux Mint that use PHP 8 instead of PHP 7.4