Re: [Buildroot] [PATCH] package/libphidget: bump to version 1.24.20260127

["Franciszek Stachura" <fbstachura@gmail.com>]

Hello Julien, All,

On Tue Apr 7, 2026 at 7:39 PM CEST, Julien Olivain wrote:
> Applied to master, thanks.

This patch has also been reviewed by Bernd Kuhls, who pointed out that
it breaks phidgetwebservice. I have indeed forgotten to check if packages
that depend on libphidget still build. Sorry for the confusion.

It looks like the review did not make it to the mailing list, or at
least I don't see it on lore, so I don't know if you have seen it:

On Mon Apr 6, 2026 at 11:31 PM CEST, Bernd Kuhls wrote:
> Hi Franciszek,
>
> Am Mon,  6 Apr 2026 20:48:59 +0200 schrieb Franciszek Stachura:
>
>> This is also a backward-incompatible upgrade from version 21 to 22 [1].
>
> correct, building phidgetwebservice breaks with this bump:
>
> configure: error: Missing libphidget21; make sure the Phidget21 library is 
> installed.
>
>> As an alternative, I would propose removing this package from Buildroot.
>> Version 21 was deprecated some time ago and the package has been causing
>> the same errors in autobuild, almost daily, for more than a year already
>> (see 2024-07-06).
>
> I also tried sometime ago to fix the packages but stopped due to 
> complexity and lack of interest.
>
> @Jonathan: You are listed as maintainer for both packages.
> What is your opinion about it?
>
> Regards, Bernd

Jonathan wrote the following in response:

On Tue Apr 7, 2026 at 2:52 PM CEST, Jonathan Ben Avraham wrote:
> Hi Bernd, Franciszek,
> After giving this further thought...
>
> 1. The current libphidget version in HEAD of the buildroot master is 
> 2.1.9.20190409.
>
> 2. The current libphidget version at 
> https://www.phidgets.com/downloads/phidget22/libraries/linux/libphidget22/ is 
> libphidget22-1.24.20260127.
>
> 3. Between the two versions listed above there were about 64 intervening 
> releases on https://www.phidgets.com/downloads/phidget22/libraries/linux/
> which indicates a significant level of activity (by at least one person ;-).
>
> 4. ArchLinux supports libphidget 2:1.17.20231004-1 - someone was interested, but 
> not enough demand to continue support since the end of 2023.
>
> 5. AFAIK removing the current 2.1.9.20190409 from Buildroot will not break 
> anyone's project/product.
>
> 6. https://www.phidgets.com/ appears to be an active company, although I am no 
> longer involved in supporting their devices. This company is in the business of 
> rapid prototyping and design of sensing and control devices. Their customers 
> are probably mostly makers and students. The customer I worked for was using 
> Phidget devices in test jigs to test consumer microwave ovens. This customer 
> eventually sold their product portfolio to Miele and closed its local operations 
> where I live.
>
> There are currently 184 active products in the Phidgets catalog as of early 2026 
> [Gemini].
>
> 7. https://www.linkedin.com/company/phidgets-inc/ shows eight employees.
>
> 8. A history of the idea behind phidgets is available at 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phidget.
>
> 9. I wrote to support@phidgets.com just now to ask if they think there is 
> interest in Buildroot support.
>
>
> In summary:
>
> 1, Through negligence I did not remove myself as maintainer for this project. I 
> apologize to the community.
>
> 2. I recommend removing the current libphidgets and phidgetwebservice packages 
> and not trying to update the packages without a maintainer.
>
> 3. I recommend conditioning re-adding updated versions of these packages on 
> finding a maintainer:
>
>   - who can in good faith commit to fixing issues for at least two years
>   - who has the infrastructure to test fitness for use of these packages on a 
> Buildroot target system, not just fix build errors
>
> I agree to reposting this email on Buildroot-related forums.
>
> BR,
>
>   - yba
>

@Julien, @Bernd
What would be the best way to move forward in this case?
The previous version of libphidget does not build on sensible configs,
so that's already suboptimal.
Would you like me to provide a patch that replaces phidgetwebservice with
phidget22networkserver? As I pointed out, I cannot test it, so maybe
attempting to bump libphidget was already a bad idea.
Should we wait for response from Phidgets?
Or maybe it would actually be better to just remove these packages?

Regards,
Franciszek Stachura
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