Elk M1G firmware 5.3.10

[mikefamig]

Mike,
 
Was thinking of loading 5.3.10 . . . I guess just to feel nice about the UL listing.  However, when I was on 5.3.8 I had the same random reboot issues you described and had to downgrade to 5.2.10.  No problems at all for 13 months on that firmware.  My reboots were totally random and had nothing to do with any user action, armed status or anything.  I was getting about 2 per week for the month or so I was using 5.3.8.  
 
In short, since you updated to 5.3.10, have you had any spontaneous reboots?
 
 
Thanks.

No more reboots. My system log is as clean as fresh fallen snow not having any sort of errors any more.
 
Mike.

 

[apostolakisl]

No more reboots. My system log is as clean as fresh fallen snow not having any sort of errors any more.
 
Mike.

Thanks.  I'll give it a try then.

 

[mikefamig]

FYI
 
I am using XEP, XIN, OVR, XSP w/UPB and m1xrftw wireless.

 

[apostolakisl]

I've got the xep and several input/output expanders as well and an xsp and am linked to my ISY.  I don't have any wireless.  I updated all the firmware on everything else (xep, keypads, and anything else that has firmware) to the latest version last year.  It only required downgrading the motherboard firmware to fix the reboots.  

 

[apostolakisl]

Reboots not fixed.  Just had a reboot on 5.3.10 this morning while the system was otherwise sitting idle.  Will go back to 5.2.10.  So much for UL listing,

 

[wmahvd]

Yes, I know it's five years later now, but just wanted to thank the above posters (in case they're still active here) for maintaining the availability of the M1G firmware release note files for older versions - I've been having a hard time finding them anywhere. Now if I can only find out where I can still download the actual older firmware itself....

 

[RAL]

What older firmware levels are you looking for? 

 

[wmahvd]

  Hi RAL, thanks for the reply. I'm still trying to work that out. My system has been chugging along for about ten years and I haven't really fooled with it for quite awhile because things were pretty much working, but I've been forced back into reacquainting myself with all the details and upgrading certain components. This was all triggered by AT&T getting rid of 3G cellphone support (it's a long story). I have an M1G with an M1XEP and an old M1XRF2G (working just fine), input and output expanders, a new ISY994i (just upgraded from an old ISY99 that was also working just fine). M1 is at version 5.1.20, with 3.3.2 bootware. M1XEP is at 1.3.28. So now that I'm immersed in "update land" again, I was thinking I would try to update the M1 as well - I've been living with a couple of issues that I could continue to live with but that would be nice to eliminate:
 
- Elk lady loses her voice occasionally, usually after some sort of alarm activity, and I have to cycle through the chime modes to get her back (usually after I forgot and have to come back downstairs after trying to arm as I'm getting into bed). I recall seeing references to this issue in old forum posts and I believe this has been fixed, but not sure when (don't see it in the release notes I just retrieved from here)
 
- Rules bug that crashes the control, having something to do with a rule referencing multiple counters (?) don't remember the details any more, but I also recall seeing this discussed in an old forum post, and hoping that it's fixed as well.
 
- difficulty recovering from rf transmitter low battery issues, and also false RF transmitter low battery notifications - I occasionally see these
 
  Of course, going through the release notes I also see some other changes/fixes that may benefit me as well
 
  So I'm thinking I probably want to upgrade to M1 firmware 5.2.10 or possibly 5.3.0 (if it still supports the M1XRF2G - I've seen conflicting info on that). Also updating to 3.3.6 bootware to resolve the RF false low battery as noted in the release notes. As far as I've been able to determine I should still be ok with my current M1XEP version. Still not sure about ElkRP - I'm at 2.0.20 and I haven't figured out if there's any benefit to upgrade that (more googling to come).
 
  So if you know where I can find these older downloads (as I hope your question implies) I'd be interested in hearing about it. I would probably also want to be able to retrieve a copy of my current 5.1.20 version just in case the update doesn't go well, although I'm not sure 5.1.20 would work again once I update the bootware to 3.3.6.
 
  Thanks and Regards

 

[RAL]

I have the following releases for the M1:
 
5.2.8 
5.2.10
5.3.0 (which was withdrawn because of problems)
5.3.8
5.3.10
 
I also have the M1 bootware file to update from 3.3.2 to 3.3.6. 
 
Releases 5.3.0 and later do not support the M1XRF2G.  They still support the M1XRFEG, so if you replace the 2G, you should be ok.  There appears to be a new version of the M1XRFEG which is called the M1XRF319. 
 
One problem you're likely to run into is with the M1XEP and RP2 and Windows.  Older firmware for the XEP used SSL connections between the XEP and the outside world,  SSL had security problems, and has been replaced by TLS.  Unfortunately, there wasn't room in the firmware to support both, so SSL was dropped.  Windows and the various browsers have also stopped supporting SSL.  So if you don't upgrade the XEP firmware, you will need a Windows XP system to run RP2 on. 
 
Depending on what level of code is on your XEP, it takes multiple steps to upgrade to the latest XEP code using RP2.  Elk finally released a standalone updater program that will get you to 2.0.34, and then you use RP2 from there to install later versions.  I think 2.0.46 is the current level.   
 
Once you upgrade the XEP to TLS, there is no going back. 
 
I can send you any of the files above. 

 

[lanbrown]

Current browsers haven't supported TLS 1.0 and 1.1 for about 2 years now (early 2020 is when they were deprecated) and only TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 are supported.  So just TLS support being listed doesn't mean much.  The use of Internet Explorer would provide TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 support though.
 
Chances are, Elk uses OpenSSL (as I highly doubt that they wrote they own stack) and removal was more with Elk using a version that removed that support and not an actual issue with supporting both.  The entire OpenSSL was less than 4MB in the version that supported SSL 3.0 as well as TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1.  Granted it was close to 6MB for the TLS 1.2 and TLS 1.3 only versions.

 

[wmahvd]

  Thank-you both for the prompt replies. I think I'm OK regarding the SSL issues - I have a windows 7 desktop that's dedicated for all this stuff, and that I currently run ElkRP2 on (2.0.20) talking to the M1XEP at 1.3.28. I stopped windows updates on this PC years ago (when Win 7 updates were still active), and in fact had to back off some of the updates that were installed (although as I recall that had something to do with an encryption key length being increased). I only use it for local network stuff and don't go out on the WAN, also have old versions of java (which I needed to talk to my old ISY99 that I just replaced) and firefox. I'm vulnerable due to the possibility that this desktop will die at some point, but that's a problem for another day.
 
  After reviewing the release notes and more forum browsing, it seems that I want to update to M1G version 5.2.10, which by many accounts is stable, will hopefully address some of the issues I mentioned above, and that will permit me to keep using my M1XRF2G. As far as I can tell I can do this while still continuing with my current 2.0.20 RP2 and 1.3.28 M1XEP. I'll also update the M1G bootware to 3.3.6.
 
  I downloaded the latest M1G firmware files from the Elk site, to see if any older versions were part of the download, and it does include both 5.3.10 and 5.3.8, but nothing earlier. It did however include the 3.3.6 bootware, so I now have that. So I would like to order the 5.2.10 M1G firmware version from your a la carte menu Kind Sir, and I very much appreciate your help.
 
  I don't understand why Elk no longer provides these earlier releases on their site any more - surely I'm not the only Elk owner that's still running, and desires to keep running, with older hardware that's working perfectly fine.
 
  Thanks Again.

 

[RAL]

I sent you a PM with links to the files for download. 

 

[wmahvd]

An update - I was able to successfully upgrade my M1G bootware from 3.3.2 to 3.3.6 and the firmware from 5.1.20 to 5.2.10, all seems to be ok - a few days running and checking stuff will tell for sure. Had a bit of a scare though - during my first attempt to update the bootware, it aborted after just a few seconds and reported a flash erase error, after which RP crashed with an exception. I'm assuming that it erases the firmware before trying to update the bootware and that the failure occurred during the firmware erase. After this the control was running out of bootware (still 3.3.2). So with nothing to lose, I tried updating the bootware again, and it worked. Then updated the firmware with no issues. The control came back up, the keypad display was all scrambled, and various outputs were asserted in strange combinations, but all flushed out pretty quickly. Many thanks again to RAL for his assistance.