Yep, it looks like ARP was missing on my MX, cos I installed tools as you suggested, and Scan IP now works great, thanks.
I expect multi-platform Toolkit UDP works for other people, but it has never worked on my dual network interface system... possibly because the default internet connection uses the wired ethernet interface, whereas my remote isolated Annex subnets and devices are only accessible via the wifi interface.
On the original windows Toolkit I could steer UDP by selecting the required network port, but the multi-platform version doesn't have that option, and is possibly defaulting to the wired internet port which is on a different subnet to the isolated Annex subnet.
Doesn't matter for me though, cos I can use my Annex UDP Console for monitoring remote Annex wifi devices, and that does route via the wifi port ok.
Everything else I've tried on the multi-platform version with linux has worked ok, therefore it seems to be the Windows users that have had problems, possibly because the multi-platform version is quite different to what they have been used to, so perhaps Windows users may need special attention.
But not all Win 10 users will be able to afford to upgrade to Windows 11, and not all may want to.
Similarly for the inevitable Windows 12 upgrade, and all ensuing enforced Windows upgrades... especially with persistent mention of Microsofts long-term leanings towards linux anyway.
Therefore limiting Annex to a reducing Microsoft user base would not seem a far-sighted policy for growth.
Like I said, I successfully did a green button upgrade, but am unable to check out the 1.43.4 firmware updates because of the missing Change Log files, so is there any way to get them ?
Regarding AppImages, I've seen at least 2 different tools that allow creating an appimage file from an installed linux program by wrapping up the installed program into a file which includes its virtual environment.
Because the resulting Appimage file contains its own environment and can run on many flavours of linux and also directly from a USB, it opens up the intriguing possibility of creating an Annex Toolkit Appimage on a small bootable linux system on USB (
perhaps on Ventoy) which could boot and
run on any computer irrespective of the hdd boot system... now that
would offer a future-proof policy for growth.
What makes a Toolkit appimage even more attractive for Annex is AppImageHub which is a centralised Appimage repositary available to everyone:
https://appimage.github.io/apps/
It would offer exposure of Annex appimage to all linux users.
Even though I am not a software developer I was able to create an Appimage file from my installed multi-platform Toolkit which was 106Mb and could be loaded
and run from USB on either of my 2 MX systems... but I hasten to add that it only worked correctly on the system which had the installed dependencies such as esptool etc and the necessary group permissions... but that was only due to my limitations, not the tools.
I know there is another appimage creation tool which records all dependencies as the developer exercises all application options, so the resulting Appimage environment contains everything which the original application used and needs... but unfortunately too much of it went over my head.
Some background info:
https://github.com/AppImage/AppImageKit
appimagetool is a tool that lets you generate AppImage files. An AppImage is a self-running bundle that contains an application and everything it needs to run that cannot reasonably expected to be part of each target system.
This can include libraries that are not commonly available on target systems, resources such as translations, icons, fonts, and other auxiliary files. appimagetool makes it easy to take an AppDir (e.g., generated by linuxdeployqt) and turn it into an AppImage.
You can also embed update information so that your users can update the AppImage using binary delta updates with the AppImageUpdate tool. You can also sign the AppImage with GPG.
The AppImage format is a format for packaging applications in a way that allows them to run on a variety of different target systems (base operating systems, distributions) without further modification.
Using AppImageKit you can package desktop applications as AppImages that run on common Linux-based operating systems, such as RHEL, CentOS, Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian and derivatives.
appimagetool converts an AppDir into a self-mounting filesystem image. appimaged is a daemon that handles registering and unregistering AppImages with the system (e.g., menu entries, icons, MIME types, binary delta updates, and such).
Providing an AppImage for distributing application has, among others, these advantages:
Applications packaged as an AppImage can run on many distributions (including Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, CentOS, elementaryOS, Linux Mint, and others)
One app = one file = super simple for users: just download one AppImage file, make it executable, and run
No unpacking or installation necessary
No root needed
No system libraries changed
Works out of the box, no installation of runtimes needed
Optional desktop integration with appimaged
Optional binary delta updates, e.g., for continuous builds (only download the binary diff) using AppImageUpdate
Can optionally GPG2-sign your AppImages (inside the file)
Works on Live ISOs
Can use the same AppImages when dual-booting multiple distributions
Can be listed in the AppImageHub central directory of available AppImages
Can double as a self-extracting compressed archive with the --appimage-extract parameter