Just following up on the testing that Cleo did with @Eric-Katzfey 's suggestion of installing http://voxl-packages.modalai.com/dists/qrb5165/sdk-1.4/binary-arm64/modalai-slpi_1.1.19_arm64.deb :

Before installing the new package

• qmi_client_send_msg_sync at PX4 startup during boot number 48
• qmi_client_send_msg_sync at PX4 startup during boot number 62
• qmi_client_send_msg_sync at PX4 startup during boot number 95
• qmi_client_send_msg_sync at PX4 startup during boot number 131
• qmi_client_send_msg_sync at PX4 startup during boot number 22

After installing the new package:

• 550 boots in a row without any failures during PX4 startup

Going forward Cleo will be installing http://voxl-packages.modalai.com/dists/qrb5165/sdk-1.4/binary-arm64/modalai-slpi_1.1.19_arm64.deb on all dronuts we build.

Thank you for your help @Eric-Katzfey !

@Eric-Katzfey

The SLPI image used to be part of the main system image. It was then separated out into it's own package for easier maintenance.

Gotcha makes sense!

So you have a very old version missing many important bug fixes. We've never tried installing the latest modalai-slpi package on an old SDK but I think it will work. Give it a try and see what happens.

Will do, just wanted to confirm that it "might work" so not totally wasting my time exploring this avenue haha.

But, obviously, it's really hard for us to support you when you use such old software with custom modifications on top of it. You should really try to make any customization such that they can easily be used with newer versions of VOXL SDK as they come out.

Yes this is something that we constantly run into at Cleo as a small company trying release a stable product but also keep up with the latest and greatest from modal and other open source vendors. As a dev at Cleo it feels like two things are pulling in opposite directions:

1. Having your base platform constantly updating, which then requires patches for API changes and sometimes more low level incompatibilities that come along with those updates.
2. Getting the stability and functional improvements that come along with those base platform updates.

I'm sure these competing forces are felt by others as well, not just at Cleo. It's a conversation that is perhaps worthy of a call between Cleo and Modal devs to get aligned on the best way to get the stability and functional improvements from each vendor (modalai) release while at the same time minimizing the Cleo dev time needed to do those API patches and minimize incompatibilities or at least forecast them before spending the time trying to do an upgrade and then finding a incompatibility.

@Eric-Katzfey The first distro I see modalai-slpi in is http://voxl-packages.modalai.com/dists/qrb5165/sdk-1.2/binary-arm64/

We install http://voxl-packages.modalai.com/dists/qrb5165/sdk-1.0/binary-arm64/ which is probably why I don't see it in voxl-version!

Is it okay for me to install the latest distro's (http://voxl-packages.modalai.com/dists/qrb5165/sdk-1.4/binary-arm64/) modalai-slpi on my voxl2 alongside the existing older software, or will that break anything?

If modalai-slpi has something to do with PX4 communication with the SLPI, how is it possible that I don't have any version of modalai-slpi installed but PX4 can still run software on the SLPI?

Thank you,

Rowan

@Eric-Katzfey I do not see modal-slpi in the output of voxl-version:

voxl2:/$ voxl-version | grep slpi
        qrb5165-slpi-test-sig                     01-r0
        voxl-slpi-uart-bridge                     1.0.1

Here is the full output:

voxl2:/$ voxl-version 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
system-image: 1.7.8-M0054-14.1a-perf
kernel:       #1 SMP PREEMPT Sat May 18 00:10:25 UTC 2024 4.19.125
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
hw version:   M0054
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
voxl-suite:   1.0.0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Packages:
Repo:  http://voxl-packages.modalai.com/ ./dists/qrb5165/sdk-1.0/binary-arm64/
Last Updated: 2023-03-02 13:01:31
List:
        kernel-module-voxl-fsync-mod-4.19.125     1.0-r0
        kernel-module-voxl-gpio-mod-4.19.125      1.0-r0
        kernel-module-voxl-platform-mod-4.19.125  1.0-r0
        libmodal-c2d                              0.1
        libmodal-cv                               0.3.2
        libmodal-exposure                         0.0.0+89cd3ac03
        libmodal-journal                          0.2.2
        libmodal-json                             0.4.3
        libmodal-pipe                             2.10.3
        libqrb5165-io                             0.3.3
        libvoxl-cci-direct                        0.2.3
        libvoxl-cutils                            0.1.1
        mv-voxl                                   0.1-r0
        qrb5165-bind                              0.1-r0
        qrb5165-dfs-server                        0.1.0
        qrb5165-imu-server                        0.6.0
        qrb5165-slpi-test-sig                     01-r0
        qrb5165-system-tweaks                     0.2.2
        qrb5165-tflite                            2.8.0-2
        voxl-bind-spektrum                        0.1.0
        voxl-camera-calibration                   0.4.0
        voxl-camera-server                        0.0.0+89cd3ac03
        voxl-configurator                         0.2.7
        voxl-cpu-monitor                          0.4.6
        voxl-docker-support                       1.2.5
        voxl-eigen3                               3.4.0
        voxl-elrs                                 0.0.7
        voxl-esc                                  1.2.2
        voxl-feature-tracker                      0.2.3
        voxl-flow-server                          0.3.3
        voxl-fsync-mod                            1.0-r0
        voxl-gphoto2-server                       0.0.10
        voxl-gpio-mod                             1.0-r0
        voxl-imu-server                           0.0.0+89cd3ac03
        voxl-jpeg-turbo                           2.1.3-5
        voxl-lepton-server                        1.1.2
        voxl-libgphoto2                           0.0.4
        voxl-libuvc                               1.0.7
        voxl-logger                               0.3.4
        voxl-mavcam-manager                       0.5.1
        voxl-mavlink                              0.1.1
        voxl-mavlink-server                       1.2.0
        voxl-microdds-agent                       2.4.1-0
        voxl-modem                                1.0.5
        voxl-mongoose                             7.7.0-1
        voxl-mpa-to-ros                           0.3.6
        voxl-mpa-tools                            1.0.4
        voxl-opencv                               4.5.5-1
        voxl-platform-mod                         1.0-r0
        voxl-portal                               0.5.9
        voxl-px4                                  1.14.0-2.0.36+deb
        voxl-px4-imu-server                       0.1.2
        voxl-px4-params                           0.1.8
        voxl-qvio-server                          0.0.0+89cd3ac03
        voxl-remote-id                            0.0.8
        voxl-slpi-uart-bridge                     1.0.1
        voxl-streamer                             0.0.0+89cd3ac03
        voxl-suite                                1.0.0
        voxl-tag-detector                         0.0.4
        voxl-tflite-server                        0.3.1
        voxl-utils                                1.3.1
        voxl-uvc-server                           0.1.6

@Eric-Katzfey Gotcha thanks for the info I didn't know about that! Is the version of modalai-slpi highly coupled with the version of PX4 that we are using, or can we update modalai-slpi to get bug fixes without having to worry about compatibility with a specific version of PX4?

I will look into which version of modalai-slpi we are using and get back to you!

@Eric-Katzfey I am not familiar with the "modalai-slpi" codebase, could you elaborate on what that is.

@Eric-Katzfey Any insight into this ^

@Eric-Katzfey Thanks for the response!

Are you using a recent version of VOXL SDK?

Cleo branched off of your repo at this tag: https://github.com/modalai/px4-firmware/tree/v1.14.0-2.0.36-dev

Have you made any modifications to the SDK?

Yup we actively development on the PX4 modules, including the controllers and the EKF that run on the DSP.

So it may be our code running on the DSP causing the DSP crash, or it could be related to the bugs in the https://github.com/modalai/px4-firmware/tree/v1.14.0-2.0.36-dev tag itself that you mentioned have been fixed.

As far as a path forward, are there any methods you can suggest for inspecting the DSP to find the root cause of crashes? Things we can add to the code, perhaps a debug mode we can run the DSP modules in, etc

Also, do you know of bug fix commits in your repo's mainline that we at Cleo can attempt to backport to our fork and see if we also no longer see the DSP crashes?

Thank you for your help,
Rowan

Hey ModalAI PX4 users, has anyone been running into qmi_error causing the PX4 process to abort? At Cleo it happens at boot about 1/20 or 1/100 times. After booting successfully it's more rare about 1/200 times or 1/500 times.
Here's the full error from journalctl:

terminate called after throwing an instance of 'qmi_error'
Mar 19 15:33:57 m0054 voxl-px4[1854]:   what():  qmi_client_send_msg_sync() failed, (client_id=)0, result=0: qmi service error (-2)
Mar 19 15:33:57 m0054 voxl-px4[1854]: /usr/bin/voxl-px4: line 140:  1868 Aborted                 GPS=$GPS RC=$RC OSD=$OSD EXTRA_STEPS=$EXTRA_STEPS px4 $DAEMON -s /usr/bin/voxl-px4-start
Mar 19 15:33:57 m0054 systemd[1]: voxl-px4.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=134/n/a
Mar 19 15:33:57 m0054 systemd[1]: voxl-px4.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

(top is Royale 4, bottom is 5)