How to Configure the VOXL Package Manager
Table of contents
Overview
The VOXL SDK is distributed as a pre-built installer. After flashing, VOXL is configured to point its package manager at the Debian package repository section matching that SDK release at http://voxl-packages.modalai.com/dists/.
This page describes how to use the voxl-configure-pkg-manager tool to point the package manager at a different release section.
Generally you do NOT need this tool unless you know what you are doing and have a good reason to change from a stable SDK distribution. Each SDK release is tested as a whole - system image and voxl-suite together - so the supported way to move between SDK releases, including patch releases, is a full system flash. Mixed package versions are not a supported configuration, and we will not support software issues that arise from pulling packages outside your flashed release.
VOXL SDK packages are licensed to run on ModalAI hardware only, so the package repository is for use on VOXL itself - not for installation on development machines.
Available Sections
sdk-x.y
We periodically assemble all of our packages into a tested SDK release. These sections are enumerated to match the version of voxl-suite within (i.e. SDK-1.6 has voxl-suite version 1.6.x and its dependencies). Alpha, beta, and full SDK releases are all built from these sections. Full releases are considered stable and receive new updates and features that should not break APIs. See the Configuration Management page for how releases are assembled and tested.
An SDK minor version release is tied to a system image version so you cannot upgrade to a newer SDK with the voxl-configure-pkg-manager tool. You must follow the SDK installer instructions.
Dev
This is the development repository containing often untested or experimental software that is automatically pushed via CI on every commit made by ModalAI’s software team. Nightly SDK builds, along with nightly system image builds, are assembled from this repository. It serves for ModalAI to use internally. Packages on this repo are updated very regularly and are not guaranteed to function.
Staging
A holdover section that sees limited use; packages are promoted from dev directly into sdk-x.y release sections as part of the release process.