mpremote REPL and mount issues with socket:// and RFC2217 connections
Port, board and/or hardware
Any platform - affects mpremote tool when connecting via socket:// or RFC2217
MicroPython version
- mpremote 1.27.0
- Tested against MicroPython unix port 1.27.0 via
- socket://localhost:port
- rfc2217://localhost:2217
Reproduction
1 unable to mount host filesystem over socket connections
- mpremote connect socket://localhost:2218 mount .
AttributeError: 'SerialIntercept' object has no attribute 'in_waiting'
2 Incorrect newline handling in interactive repl over socket
-
Connect to MicroPython Unix port:
mpremote connect socket://localhost:2218 repl -
Type commands and observe output appears like:
>>> print("hello") hello >>>
3 repl over socket://
mpremote connect socket://localhost:2218 repl
REPL may fail to respond or hang
4 repl over rfc2217
mpremote connect rfc2217://localhost:2217 repl
Output may be delayed, laggy, or appear in bursts
pyserial's RFC2217 implementation uses a background thread to process telnet data from the socket into an internal buffer. When mpremote's REPL loop usesselect()on the socket, it signals "ready" when data arrives, butinWaiting()returns 0 because the background thread hasn't processed the data yet.
Race condition sequence:
select()returns because socket has datainWaiting()returns 0 (background thread hasn't processed yet)- REPL loop skips reading
- Next iteration:
select()returns, nowinWaiting() > 0 - Finally reads the data
This causes noticeable lag and stuttering in the REPL.
Expected behaviour
mpremote should work correctly with socket-based connections (socket://, RFC2217), providing:
- Functional mount operations
- Proper newline handling in REPL output
- Responsive REPL without lag or race conditions
Observed behaviour
- Mount operations fail with
AttributeError - REPL output has "staircase" effect (misaligned lines)
- REPL may hang or fail to get input from socket connections
- REPL output is laggy/stuttering with RFC2217 connections
Additional Information
aeb1ce6- Addin_waitingproperty to SerialIntercept class2d46d52- Fix REPL newline handling7f0abfd- Improvewaitchar()wrt socket connections1ff555c- Fix REPL race conditions with RFC2217
Code of Conduct
Yes, I agree
tools/mpremote: Improve speed of echoing device data to console.
By reading and writing in chunks.
When connected to a device that is constantly outputting data, this gets mpremote CPU usage down from about 90% to 5% (on my local machine).