This release decouples miner releases from Hotspot firmware updates by running miner in a self-updating container.
Running miner in a self-updating container allows for lighter-weight, miner-only updates without the need to fully replace Hotspot firmware. Additionally, downtime is kept to a minimum because updating the miner container is quick and doesn't require a reboot.
While the miner self-updating container is Docker-compatible, it does not require a full instance of Docker Engine on the miner host hardware to run and in fact this firmware change utilizes a lightweight, daemon-less container runtime to orchestrate the miner container in order to reduce the unnecessary consumption of the host hardware's resources. See the Open Container Initiative OCI for more details about the container specification and non-Docker container runtimes.
This is not a release for Makers and only for Helium Hotspots and RAK Hotspots. There are no miner changes.
Plan
We have been beta testing 2022.01.24.0 since January 21, 2022 6:00 PM PST. Current ETA for GA is
9:00 AM PT, January 24, 2022.