Is scripts/firmwareupdater.ini file needed?

[traversaro]

After launching some scripts as reported in #176, I launched the FirmwareUpdater from the scripts directory, and I was quite surprised by the fact that it showed a lot of top level elements. I understood later that it was due to the fact that when launched in the scripts folder, the FirmwareUpdater was loading the file firmwareupdater.ini from https://github.com/robotology/icub-firmware-build/blob/master/scripts/firmwareupdater.ini, instead of the correct one from https://github.com/robotology/robots-configuration/blob/master/ergoCubSN002/firmwareupdater.ini . Perhaps to avoid this confusion we could remove the scripts/firmwareupdater.ini file?

@valegagge @MSECode

[traversaro]

For a similar reason, perhaps we could remove the https://github.com/robotology/icub-firmware-build/tree/6152a3d7325422c2f2be8a786e5f76700b9e80b4/scripts the network.iCub***.xml files present in scripts?

[MSECode]

After launching some scripts as reported in #176, I launched the FirmwareUpdater from the scripts directory, and I was quite surprised by the fact that it showed a lot of top level elements. I understood later that it was due to the fact that when launched in the scripts folder, the FirmwareUpdater was loading the file firmwareupdater.ini from https://github.com/robotology/icub-firmware-build/blob/master/scripts/firmwareupdater.ini, instead of the correct one from https://github.com/robotology/robots-configuration/blob/master/ergoCubSN002/firmwareupdater.ini . Perhaps to avoid this confusion we could remove the scripts/firmwareupdater.ini file?

@valegagge @MSECode

For me this might be fine.

[MSECode]

For a similar reason, perhaps we could remove the https://github.com/robotology/icub-firmware-build/tree/6152a3d7325422c2f2be8a786e5f76700b9e80b4/scripts the network.iCub***.xml files present in scripts?

In this case, we should see, since that file might be used when updating automatically all the boards in the robot exploiting a bash script we developed some times ago (that actually need to be refined)

[traversaro]

After launching some scripts as reported in #176, I launched the FirmwareUpdater from the scripts directory, and I was quite surprised by the fact that it showed a lot of top level elements. I understood later that it was due to the fact that when launched in the scripts folder, the FirmwareUpdater was loading the file firmwareupdater.ini from https://github.com/robotology/icub-firmware-build/blob/master/scripts/firmwareupdater.ini, instead of the correct one from https://github.com/robotology/robots-configuration/blob/master/ergoCubSN002/firmwareupdater.ini . Perhaps to avoid this confusion we could remove the scripts/firmwareupdater.ini file?
@valegagge @MSECode

For me this might be fine.

Great, I propose the removal in #181 .

[valegagge]

Hi @traversaro, I don't understand if the fileupdater.ini file in the script folder caused the script not to work or if it just created confusion for the user.

I'd like to understand if the list of possible devices makes the update script faults. If we are in this case, for sure we need to remove this file from the folder script. Instead of removing it at all, we can keep it as a template.

If it is just for confusion, maybe we can leave and update the documentation accordingly.

What do you think?

cc @MSECode

[traversaro]

Hi @traversaro, I don't understand if the fileupdater.ini file in the script folder caused the script not to work or if it just created confusion for the user.

No, the script worked "normally", with some errors but not related to the firmwareupdater.ini file. The problem is that if your current working directory is already the scripts folder (as you moved there to launch the scripts) and then you see some errors, the first thing that I did (as I was already there) was to launch the FirmwareUpdater GUI from the same directory. In that case the FirmwareUpdater loaded the firmwareupdater.ini contained in this repo, instead of the correct one contained in the robots-configuration repo. I understood what was going on as I am familiar with the fact that YARP modules first look for their configuration files in the current working directory, but this may not be obvious for non-expert users. If we really want to keep this file, can we at least move it in another directory, so that if you launch the FirmwareUpdater from the scripts folder it does not accidentally load the wrong firmwareupdater.ini file?

[valegagge]

Hi @traversaro ,
the file loaded is correct, but I agree with you that seeing the list of devices on which connect to search the embedded boards instead of the ETH one only could confuse the no-expert user.

So I think we have two options:

1. leave the file there and update the documentation accordingly
2. rename the file or move it in a different folder and keep it as a template file.

What do you think? Have you other ideas?

[traversaro]

I really prefer solution 2 as it may happen that users do not read all aspects of documentation, thanks!

[traversaro]

Just to check if I understand correctly: that file is useful for expert users that use the Firmware update to connect directly to non-ETH boards?

[valegagge]

after a F2F discussion w/ @traversaro we concluded that the best solution is to remove the file since it is already in icub-main/src/tools/FirmwareUpdater as the default file. In addition ,it is mentioned in the icub-tech Documentation.