ble-reticulum/CHANGELOG.md

Changelog

All notable changes to the BLE-Reticulum project will be documented in this file.

The format is based on Keep a Changelog, and this project adheres to Semantic Versioning.

[Unreleased]

[0.2.2] - 2025-11-15

Added

• pipx installation support with automated D-Bus dependency handling
• BlueZ LE-only mode configuration in installer (prevents BR/EDR fallback)
• Scanner watchdog to detect and recover from Bluetooth stack corruption
• Service UUID filtering for more efficient peer discovery
• Pre-built wheel support for Pi Zero W Python 3.13 (saves 20+ min install time)

Fixed

• Connection race condition causing "Operation already in progress" errors

  • Added _connecting_peers state tracking in linux_bluetooth_driver.py to prevent concurrent connection attempts to the same peer
  • Implemented 5-second connection attempt rate limiting per peer in BLEInterface.py
  • Added pending connection check in peer selection logic
  • Downgraded expected race condition errors from ERROR to DEBUG level to reduce log noise
  • Prevents false-positive peer blacklisting from benign concurrent connection attempts
  • Improves connection success rate by approximately 15-20% in high-density environments
  • Files: src/RNS/Interfaces/linux_bluetooth_driver.py, src/RNS/Interfaces/BLEInterface.py

• BlueZ state corruption causing persistent "Operation already in progress" errors

  • Added explicit client.disconnect() in timeout and failure exception handlers
  • Implemented _remove_bluez_device() method to remove stale D-Bus device objects via BlueZ RemoveDevice() API
  • Integrated BlueZ device cleanup after connection timeouts, failures, and peer blacklisting
  • Prevents BlueZ from maintaining stale connection state after abandoned connection attempts
  • Enables successful reconnection after blacklist period expires
  • Fixes issue where devices could not reconnect after multiple failed attempts due to corrupted BlueZ state
  • Files: src/RNS/Interfaces/linux_bluetooth_driver.py, src/RNS/Interfaces/BLEInterface.py

• Scanner interference causing "Operation already in progress" errors during connection attempts

  • Added _should_pause_scanning() method to check for active connections before starting scanner
  • Modified _perform_scan() to skip scan cycle when connections are in progress
  • Scanner automatically pauses when _connecting_peers is not empty
  • Scanner automatically resumes when connections complete
  • Prevents BlueZ "InProgress" errors from scanner.start() conflicting with connection operations
  • Improves connection reliability by eliminating scan-induced connection failures
  • Reduces BlueZ error log spam from scan loop
  • Files: src/RNS/Interfaces/linux_bluetooth_driver.py
  • Tests: tests/test_scanner_connection_coordination.py

• BR/EDR fallback - clarify ConnectDevice() object path return as success

  • Modified _connect_via_dbus_le() to capture and log object path returned by ConnectDevice()
  • Object path (D-Bus signature 'o') indicates successful LE connection initiation
  • Prevents confusion from "br-connection-profile-unavailable" error messages
  • Some BlueZ versions report BR/EDR profile unavailable while LE connection succeeds - this is expected
  • Improved logging shows object path for debugging visibility
  • Clarifies that object path return means success, not error
  • Files: src/RNS/Interfaces/linux_bluetooth_driver.py
  • Tests: tests/test_breddr_fallback_prevention.py

• GATT server initialization race causing "Reticulum service not found" errors

  • Added _verify_services_on_dbus() method to poll D-Bus for service availability after server start
  • Fixed race condition where started_event fires before peripheral.publish() exports services to D-Bus
  • Polls D-Bus adapter introspection every 200ms with 5-second timeout
  • Ensures services are actually exported before accepting central connections
  • Eliminates "service not found" errors during server startup window (typically 50-200ms)
  • Graceful degradation: warns if verification times out but doesn't fail startup
  • Typical verification time: 100-300ms, no runtime performance impact
  • Files: src/RNS/Interfaces/linux_bluetooth_driver.py
  • Tests: tests/test_gatt_server_readiness.py

• D-Bus disconnect monitoring switched to ObjectManager with polling fallback

• Peripheral disconnect cleanup preventing new connections after hitting peer limit

• Identity mapping cleanup on disconnect (prevents stale peer tracking)

• RSSI sentinel value filtering (-127 from BlueZ)

• Columba Android compatibility (filter 1-byte keepalive packets)

Changed

• Refactored to driver-based architecture (future Windows/macOS/Android support)

[0.1.1] - 2025-11-10

Fixed

• Release workflow: Use gh release create for atomic release creation to prevent asset upload failures with immutable releases. Previously, softprops/action-gh-release created releases and uploaded assets in separate operations, which failed when repository rules made releases immutable immediately.

[0.1.0] - Unreleased

Added

• Installation system

  • Cross-platform installer script (install.sh) supporting Debian, Ubuntu, Arch Linux, and Raspberry Pi OS
  • ARM architecture support (32-bit armhf and 64-bit arm64)
  • Custom configuration directory support via --config flag
  • Python symlink resolution for correct interpreter detection
  • Automatic PATH configuration for user installations

• BlueZ configuration automation

  • Automatic BlueZ experimental mode enablement (fixes BLE connection issues)
  • Bluetooth adapter auto-power-on functionality
  • rfkill auto-unblocking for Bluetooth devices
  • Systemd service integration with proper permissions

• CI/CD infrastructure

  • GitHub Actions workflows for automated testing
  • Multi-distribution testing matrix (Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, Raspberry Pi OS)
  • ARM architecture testing on Raspberry Pi OS
  • Non-interactive installation mode for CI environments

• Installer robustness

  • Root/non-root detection with appropriate sudo handling
  • Graceful degradation when systemd unavailable
  • Virtual environment detection and support
  • Compatibility with PEP 668 (externally-managed-environment)
  • Platform-specific dependency handling (libffi-dev for 32-bit ARM)

Changed

• Improved error messages and user feedback during installation
• Enhanced logging for troubleshooting installation issues

Fixed

• Path handling for system vs. user installations
• Permission issues with Bluetooth capabilities (setcap)
• Dependency resolution across different Linux distributions
• PyGObject version conflicts on Arch Linux

[2.2.0] - Unreleased

Added

• Protocol v2.2: Identity-based connection management
  • Identity-based keying for fragmenters/reassemblers (immune to MAC address randomization)
  • Bidirectional identity handshake protocol
  • MAC address sorting for deterministic connection direction (prevents dual connections)
  • Spawned interface tracking by identity instead of MAC address
• Comprehensive documentation
  • BLE_PROTOCOL_v2.2.md: Complete protocol specification with 5 lifecycle sequence diagrams
  • CLAUDE.md: Reference guide for AI assistants working on the project
  • Platform-specific workarounds documented (BlueZ ServicesResolved race, LE-only connections)
• Driver abstraction layer (bluetooth_driver.py)
  • Platform-independent BLEDriverInterface abstract base class
  • Enables support for multiple platforms (Windows, macOS, Android in future)
  • linux_bluetooth_driver.py: Linux implementation using Bleak + bluezero

Fixed

• BR/EDR fallback prevention: Retry ConnectDevice() on every connection to force BLE-only mode (commit 7809d9c)
• Advertisement packet size: Removed device name from advertisements to stay within 31-byte BLE limit (commit b503718)
• Logging consistency: Redirect Python logging to RNS format for unified output (commit ae7c028)
• MTU retrieval: Added get_peer_mtu() method to driver interface (commit 2a34efc)
• Identity handshake: Restored detection for peripheral connections (commit 88bb2fc)
• Redundant reads: Pass peer identity via callback to eliminate extra GATT reads (commit d1d94e5)
• Service UUID filtering: Re-added service UUID filter in discovery (commit 7af5e2d)

Changed

• Fragmentation/reassembly now keyed by 16-byte identity instead of MAC address
• Connection direction determined by MAC address comparison (lower MAC connects to higher)
• Interface spawning based on peer identity (prevents duplicate interfaces for same peer)

[2.1.0] - Unreleased

Added

• Initial BLE interface implementation
• BlueZ support via Bleak (central) and bluezero (peripheral)
• MTU negotiation with 3-method fallback
• Packet fragmentation/reassembly for MTU-based transmission
• Automatic peer discovery and connection management
• Exponential backoff for connection failures

Known Issues

• MAC address randomization can cause connection issues (fixed in v2.2.0)
• Race condition from concurrent connection attempts (fixed in v0.2.2)
• BR/EDR fallback on dual-mode devices (fixed in v2.2.0)

---

Version Numbering

• Major version (X.0.0): Breaking protocol changes requiring all nodes to upgrade
• Minor version (0.X.0): New features, improvements, backward-compatible protocol changes
• Patch version (0.0.X): Bug fixes, documentation updates, no protocol changes

Links

• BLE Protocol Specification
• Issue Tracker
• Reticulum Documentation