Zephyr 3.7.0 (Working Draft)

We are pleased to announce the release of Zephyr version 3.7.0.

Major enhancements with this release include:

• A new, completely overhauled hardware model has been introduced. This changes the way both SoCs and boards are named, defined and constructed in Zephyr. Additional information can be found in the Board Porting Guide.

• Zephyr now requires Python 3.10 or higher

An overview of the changes required or recommended when migrating your application from Zephyr v3.6.0 to Zephyr v3.7.0 can be found in the separate migration guide.

The following sections provide detailed lists of changes by component.

Security Vulnerability Related

The following CVEs are addressed by this release:

More detailed information can be found in: https://docs.zephyrproject.org/latest/security/vulnerabilities.html

• CVE-2024-3077 Zephyr project bug tracker GHSA-gmfv-4vfh-2mh8

• CVE-2024-4785: Under embargo until 2024-08-07

API Changes

Removed APIs in this release

• The Bluetooth subsystem specific debug symbols are removed. They have been replaced with the Zephyr logging ones.

• Removed deprecated pcie_probe and pcie_bdf_lookup functions from the PCIe APIs.

Deprecated in this release

• Bluetooth advertiser options BT_LE_ADV_OPT_USE_NAME and BT_LE_ADV_OPT_FORCE_NAME_IN_AD are now deprecated. That means the following macro are deprecated:

  • BT_LE_ADV_CONN_NAME

  • BT_LE_ADV_CONN_NAME_AD

  • BT_LE_ADV_NCONN_NAME

  • BT_LE_EXT_ADV_CONN_NAME

  • BT_LE_EXT_ADV_SCAN_NAME

  • BT_LE_EXT_ADV_NCONN_NAME

  • BT_LE_EXT_ADV_CODED_NCONN_NAME

  Application developer will now need to set the advertised name themselves by updating the advertising data or the scan response data.

• SPI

• Deprecated spi_is_ready() API function has been removed.

Architectures

• ARC

• ARM

• RISC-V

  • Implemented frame-pointer based stack unwinding.

  • The fatal error message triggered from a fault now contains the callee-saved-registers states.

• Xtensa

Kernel

• Added k_uptime_seconds() function to simplify k_uptime_get() / 1000 usage.

Bluetooth

• Audio

  • Removed err from bt_bap_broadcast_assistant_cb.recv_state_removed as it was redundant.

• Host

  • Added Nordic UART Service (NUS), enabled by the CONFIG_BT_ZEPHYR_NUS. This Service exposes the ability to declare multiple instances of the GATT service, allowing multiple serial endpoints to be used for different purposes.

  • Implemented Hands-free Audio Gateway (AG), enabled by the CONFIG_BT_HFP_AG. It works as a device that is the gateway of the audio. Typical device acting as Audio Gateway is cellular phone. It controls the device (Hands-free Unit), that is the remote audio input and output mechanism.

Boards & SoC Support

• Added support for these SoC series:

• Made these changes in other SoC series:

  • ITE: Rename the Kconfig symbol for all ITE SoC variants.

• Added support for these ARM boards:

• Added support for these Xtensa boards:

• Made these changes for ARM boards:

• Made these changes for RISC-V boards:

• Made these changes for native/POSIX boards:

  • Introduced the simulated nrf54l15bsim target.

  • LLVM fuzzing support has been refactored while adding support for it in native_sim.

• Added support for these following shields:

Build system and Infrastructure

• CI-enabled blackbox tests were added in order to verify correctness of the vast majority of Twister flags.

• A socs folder for applications has been introduced that allows for Kconfig fragments and devicetree overlays that should apply to any board target using a particular SoC and board qualifier.

• Board/SoC flashing configuration settings have been added.

• Deprecated the global CSTD cmake property in favor of the CONFIG_STD_C choice to select the C Standard version. Additionally subsystems can select a minimum required C Standard version, with for example CONFIG_REQUIRES_STD_C11.

• Fixed issue with passing UTF-8 configs to applications using sysbuild.

Drivers and Sensors

• ADC

• Auxiliary Display

• Audio

• Battery

  • Added re-charge-voltage-microvolt property to the battery binding. This allows to set limit to automatically start charging again.

• Battery backed up RAM

• CAN

  • Deprecated the can_calc_prescaler() API function, as it allows for bitrate errors. Bitrate errors between nodes on the same network leads to them drifting apart after the start-of-frame (SOF) synchronization has taken place, leading to bus errors.

  • Added can_get_bitrate_min() and can_get_bitrate_max() for retrieving the minimum and maximum supported bitrate for a given CAN controller/CAN transceiver combination, reflecting that retrieving the bitrate limits can no longer fail. Deprecated the existing can_get_min_bitrate() and can_get_max_bitrate() API functions.

  • Extended support for automatic sample point location to also cover can_calc_timing() and can_calc_timing_data().

  • Added optional min-bitrate devicetree property for CAN transceivers.

  • Added devicetree macros DT_CAN_TRANSCEIVER_MIN_BITRATE and DT_INST_CAN_TRANSCEIVER_MIN_BITRATE for getting the minimum supported bitrate of a CAN transceiver.

  • Added support for specifying the minimum bitrate supported by a CAN controller in the internal CAN_DT_DRIVER_CONFIG_GET and CAN_DT_DRIVER_CONFIG_INST_GET macros.

  • Added a new CAN controller API function can_get_min_bitrate() for getting the minimum supported bitrate of a CAN controller/transceiver combination.

  • Updated the CAN timing functions to take the minimum supported bitrate into consideration when validating the bitrate.

  • Made the sample-point and sample-point-data devicetree properties optional.

• Charger

  • Added chgin-to-sys-current-limit-microamp property to maxim,max20335-charger.

  • Added system-voltage-min-threshold-microvolt property to maxim,max20335-charger.

  • Added re-charge-threshold-microvolt property to maxim,max20335-charger.

  • Added thermistor-monitoring-mode property to maxim,max20335-charger.

• Clock control

• Counter

• Crypto

• Display

• DMA

• Entropy

• eSPI

  • Renamed eSPI virtual wire direction macros and enum values to match the new terminology in eSPI 1.5 specification.

• Ethernet

  • Deperecated eth_mcux driver in favor of the reworked nxp_enet driver.

  • Driver nxp_enet is no longer experimental.

  • All boards and SOCs with nxp,kinetis-ethernet compatible nodes reworked to use the new nxp,enet binding.

• Flash

• GNSS

• GPIO

• I2C

• I2S

• I3C

• IEEE 802.15.4

• Input

• LED Strip

  • The chain-length and color-mapping properties have been added to all LED strip bindings.

• MDIO

• MFD

• PCIE

• MEMC

• MIPI-DBI

• Pin control

• PWM

• Regulators

• Retained memory

• RTC

• SMBUS:

• SDHC

• Sensor

  • Added TMP114 driver

  • Added DS18S20 1-wire temperature sensor driver.

• Serial

  • Added driver to support UART over Bluetooth LE using NUS (Nordic UART Service). This driver enables using Bluetooth as a transport to all the subsystems that are currently supported by UART (e.g: Console, Shell, Logging).

• SPI

• USB

• W1

• Watchdog

  • Added CONFIG_WDT_NPCX_WARNING_LEADING_TIME_MS to set the leading warning time in milliseconds. Removed no longer used CONFIG_WDT_NPCX_DELAY_CYCLES.

• Wi-Fi

  • Added support for configuring RTS threshold. With this, users can set the RTS threshold value or disable the RTS mechanism.

  • Added support for configuring AP parameters. With this, users can set AP parameters at build and run time.

  • Added support to configure “max_inactivity” BSS parameter. Users can set this both build and runtime duration to control the maximum time duration after which AP may disconnect a STA due to inactivity from STA.

  • Added support to configure “inactivity_poll” BSS parameter. Users can set build only AP parameter to control whether AP may poll the STA before throwing away STA due to inactivity.

  • Added support to configure “max_num_sta” BSS parameter. Users can set this both build and run time parameter to control the maximum numuber of STA entries.

Networking

• DHCPv4:

  • Added support for encapsulated vendor specific options. By enabling CONFIG_NET_DHCPV4_OPTION_CALLBACKS_VENDOR_SPECIFIC callbacks can be registered with net_dhcpv4_add_option_vendor_callback() to handle these options after being initialised with net_dhcpv4_init_option_vendor_callback().

  • Added support for the “Vendor class identifier” option. Use the CONFIG_NET_DHCPV4_VENDOR_CLASS_IDENTIFIER to enable it and CONFIG_NET_DHCPV4_VENDOR_CLASS_IDENTIFIER_STRING to set it.

  • The NTP server from the DHCPv4 option can now be used to set the system time. This is done by default, if CONFIG_NET_CONFIG_CLOCK_SNTP_INIT is enabled.

• LwM2M:

  • Added new API function:

    • lwm2m_set_bulk()

  • Added new offset parameter to lwm2m_engine_set_data_cb_t callback type. This affects post write and validate callbacks as well as some firmware callbacks.

• IPSP:

  • Removed IPSP support. CONFIG_NET_L2_BT does not exist anymore.

USB

Devicetree

Libraries / Subsystems

• Management

  • hawkBit

    • The hawkBit subsystem has been reworked to use the settings subsystem to store the hawkBit configuration.

    • By enabling CONFIG_HAWKBIT_SET_SETTINGS_RUNTIME, the hawkBit settings can be configured at runtime. Use the hawkbit_set_config() function to set the hawkBit configuration. It can also be set via the hawkBit shell, by using the hawkbit set command.

    • When using the hawkBit autohandler and an update is installed, the device will now automatically reboot after the installation is complete.

    • By enabling CONFIG_HAWKBIT_CUSTOM_DEVICE_ID, a callback function can be registered to set the device ID. Use the hawkbit_set_device_identity_cb() function to register the callback.

    • By enabling CONFIG_HAWKBIT_CUSTOM_ATTRIBUTES, a callback function can be registered to set the device attributes that are sent to the hawkBit server. Use the hawkbit_set_custom_data_cb() function to register the callback.

• Logging

  • By enabling CONFIG_LOG_BACKEND_NET_USE_DHCPV4_OPTION, the IP address of the syslog server for the networking backend is set by the DHCPv4 Log Server Option (7).

• Modem modules

• Picolibc

• Power management

• Crypto

  • MbedTLS was updated to 3.6.0. Release notes can be found at: https://github.com/Mbed-TLS/mbedtls/releases/tag/v3.6.0

• Random

  • Besides the existing sys_rand32_get() function, sys_rand8_get(), sys_rand16_get() and sys_rand64_get() are now also available. These functions are all implemented on top of sys_rand_get().

• Retention

• SD

• State Machine Framework

  • The SMF_CREATE_STATE macro now always takes 5 arguments.

  • Transition sources that are parents of the state that was run now choose the correct Least Common Ancestor for executing Exit and Entry Actions.

  • Passing NULL to smf_set_state() is now not allowed.

• Storage

  • FAT FS: It is now possible to expose file system formatting functionality for FAT without also enabling automatic formatting on mount failure by setting the CONFIG_FS_FATFS_MKFS Kconfig option. This option is enabled by default if CONFIG_FILE_SYSTEM_MKFS is set.

• POSIX API

• LoRa/LoRaWAN

• ZBus

HALs

• STM32

MCUboot

zcbor

LVGL

Tests and Samples

• Added snippet for easily enabling UART over Bluetooth LE by passing -S nus-console during west build. This snippet sets the CONFIG_BT_ZEPHYR_NUS_AUTO_START_BLUETOOTH which allows non-Bluetooth samples that use the UART APIs to run without modifications (e.g: Console and Logging examples).