devkitPro

Another month, another libnx release. Like always, libnx 1.5.0 and switch-examples 20181027 are now available via pacman. Use sudo (dkp-)pacman -Syu to update or sudo (dkp-)pacman -S libnx switch-mesa switch-examples to install.

libnx 1.5.0

system

• Improved service IPC support for domains.
• Added RandomSeed HBABI key handling, which fixes broken/identical random number generation output when launching homebrew NROs multiple times with nx-hbloader.
• Added Barrier synchronization primitive.
• Added threadGetCurHandle.
• Fixed several C11 thread support standard compliance issues.
• Fixed virtmem handling on 1.x.
• Fixed ProcessState enumeration names and descriptions.
• Fixed bug in eventCreate.
• Fixed bug in jitCreate.

services

• fsp-srv and fsp-ldr services:
  • Now using domains for IPC, which solves problems related to having a large number of filesystem resources open.
  • Added fsdevGetDeviceFileSystem.
• time services:
  • Added timezone support.
  • The user system clock is now used by default instead of the network clock.
  • The user system clock is now also used as fallback if the specified system clock override (__nx_time_type) is not available.
• applet services:
  • Added support for running with nx-hbloader as an Application.
  • Added support for enabling video recording when running as an Application, although it needs a specific flag set in the host title's nacp to be accessible.
  • Added appletLockExit/appletUnlockExit, which can be used to ensure that user processes get a chance to finish before the application is closed by the system.
  • Added __nx_applet_exit_mode, used to control the application's behavior on close (including self-exit support).
  • Added AppletHookType_OnExitRequest.
  • Fixed issues related to running as an Application.
  • Minor internal refactor to use Event objects instead of raw handles.
• hid (input) services:
  • Added SixAxisSensor support.
  • Vibration partially fixed, although it needs disable/enable in system settings for it to be effective.
  • Added hidSetSupportedNpadStyleSet, hidSetSupportedNpadIdType, hidSetNpadJoyHoldType, hidGetControllerType, hidGetControllerColors, hidIsControllerConnected.
• USB services:
  • Major refactor which adds support for 5.x+ systems.
  • Added usbCommsSetErrorHandling, which now disables USB fatal errors by default.
• audin/audout services: minor internal refactor to use Event objects instead of raw handles.
• Added pm:shell command: pmshellGetApplicationPid.
• Added set:sys command: setsysGetFirmwareVersion.
• Added psm commands: psmGetBatteryVoltageState, psmBindStateChangeEvent, psmWaitStateChangeEvent, psmUnbindStateChangeEvent.
• fatal services: on systems prior to 3.x, FatalType_ErrorReportAndErrorScreen is used again due to FatalType_ErrorScreen not existing. Beware of fatal errors on 1.x and 2.x since they now create reports again (instead of silently hanging the system).

graphics

• Refactored console device:
  • The console now has an interface that can be used to override the default software rendering backend with a custom implementation (including GPU rendering).
  • The software renderer now takes care of calling gfxInitDefault, gfxSwapBuffers, gfxExit. gfx functions should not be called explicitly by console users.
  • Added consoleUpdate and consoleExit.
  • Old code is still compatible, although it is strongly advised to update it to use the new functions instead of calling gfx functions directly.
• Fixed NvFence regression on 1.x.
• Increased default nvservices transfermem heap size to 8 MB, which allows for more complex GPU homebrew to run.
• Changed nvBufferCreate to support different settings for cpu/gpu cacheability.

network

• Added nifm handling to socketInitialize/Exit, which makes gethostid/gethostname work by default.
• Added missing declarations to netinet/in.h.
• Changed nifm to use IPC domains.
• Optimized select/poll to avoid using malloc when possible.
• Fixed poll to accept -1 fds.

miscellaneous

• Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments to enhance the user experience.

switch-examples 20181027

• Updated console examples to use the new console API.
• Added graphics/opengl/gpu_console example.
• Added hid/sixaxis example.
• Added hid/colors example.
• Added applet/recording example.
• Added applet/lockexit example.
• Improved documentation of application template.
• Other minor fixes.

bonus

In addition, the internal layer that sits between libnx and switch-mesa (switch-libdrm_nouveau) has also been updated for compatibility with libnx 1.5.0. As a bonus, it now has basic support for GPU cache and compressed surfaces, which gives GPU applications a moderate speedup.