Changelog

This change log covers the XLink Kai client ONLY. Changes to the server-side applications and other infrastructure are not covered here.

This page is a work in progress. For many years change between versions were not public, or properly recorded.

7.4.45

Released November 2, 2023

New Features

• Cellular tethering for internet access is now supported
• Added Portuguese (Brazil) localization

Changes

• WebUI is now served out of memory to improve update flexibility

Bugfixes

• Fix crash in UPNP handler on all OSes
• Fix UTF16 handling for Japanese language
• Fix rendering of accented characters common in Spanish

7.4.44

Released February 19, 2023

New Features

• Added "headerless" DDS mode to support emulators that use simple UDP sockets and do not implement DDS
• Added support for the Sony PlayStation 3 emulator RPCS3
• Added support for the Nintendo Switch emulator Ryujinx
• Added support for the Microsoft Xbox emulator Xemu
• Added Polish localization
• Added Russian localization

Changes

• Client now automatically reconnects if the connection to the XLink Kai network is lost

Bugfixes

• Fix bug where the client could get stuck "Querying Orbital Mesh..."
• Fix numerous bugs on Windows installs in non-latin languages
• Fix UPNP support on macOS

7.4.43

Released June 5, 2022

New Features

• Add ability to log directly to PCAP files in temp directory for easier debugging of DDS etc
• Add Discord rich presence support to macOS x86_64 builds
• Add the ability to navigate to a game arena after login via case-sensitive CLI argument --arena. If the path has spaces it must be quoted: --arena "Arena/XBox/First Person Shooter/Halo 2"
• Add the ability to navigate to a game arena after login via CLI argument --gameid. Game ID values are not yet public. Example for Halo 2 --gameid 45
• Add URI handler on Windows and macOS (linux soon!) for xlinkai:// scheme. Formats: xlinkkai://Arena/XBox/First Person Shooter/Halo 2 and xlinkkai://game/45 are accepted.

Changes

• Block the use of the win10pcap capture library since it is incompatible with XLink Kai
• Gracefully detach UI clients with invalid sessions
• Move most media assets to the CDN to improve loading times
• Logging out via the UI now shuts down the client instead of restarting it
• Remove "Follow PSP SSID" from the configuration screen and remove the ability to auto-join PSP WiFi networks when using legacy PSP mode on Windows XP/Vista/7 on supported WiFI cards with "PSP XLink Mode" in the NDIS 5 drivers.

Bugfixes

• Fix crash in outbound relay traffic
• Fix crash due to poor UTF-8 handling
• Fix UTF-8 support in private messages
• Fix handling of P2P game traffic when new players join an arena with an ongoing match
• Fix display of PSP ESSID on the Metrics screen

7.4.42

Released January 7, 2022

New Features

• Add Linux sparc64/SPARCV9 support
• Add Linux ARMEL support
• Add DHCP support for PSvita/PSTV
• Add CLI argument --noupnp to disable UPNP regardless of config file contents
• Add CLI argument --nosplash to disable the splash screen on Windows and macOS
• Add CLI argument --webui to force the WebUI to be used on Windows regardless of the UI setting in the configuration file
• Add Desktop shortcut on Windows

Changes

• Drop privileges on Linux installs done via .deb packages
• Reduce CPU usage on Linux platforms by changing how traffic capture is buffered. Old method can be enabled using --fastcapture
• Update the output of /engine consoles to be more helpful for the user
• Update Libpcap to 1.10.1 for Linux x86/x86_64/armhf/aarch64/raspbian and macOS
• Update Boost to 1.76.0 for Linux x86/x86_64/armhf/aarch64/raspbian and macOS

Bugfixes

• Fix bug on Windows systems using Cyrillic character sets that causes a crash on the configuration screen
• Fix crash on macOS caused by UPNP conflicting with Bonjour
• Fix crash on Windows 7 caused by unassociated wifi adapters
• Fix crash on macOS during logout and client restart
• Fix crash when jumboframes are in use
• Fix crash on macOS BigSur 11.3.1 x86_64 during startup
• Fix crash on Linux platforms caused by empty DNS lookup
• Fix DHCP assignment on PS2/PS3/PS4/PS5
• Fix Multicast support on PSP/PSvita
• Fix IPv6 handling for PS4/PS5/Xbox One/Xbox Series X/S
• Fix handling of DNS resolution failure
• Fix bug on Windows where Xbox "Wireless Adapter for Windows 10" would show as a network interface
• Fix bug on Windows where Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S controllers would be recognized as game consoles
• Fix window focus for error dialogs on GUI builds (Windows/macOS)
• Fix crash on Windows caused by the upgrade dialog
• Fix incorrect setcap command instructions on Linux
• Fix WebUI auto-open on Linux
• Fix missing Start Menu items on Windows 10/11

7.4.41

Released May 12, 2021

Changes

• Simplify the language used in the NAT test to reduce confusion

Bugfixes

• Fix bug where original xbox/xbox 360 games played under backwards compatibility on xbox one/xbox series S/X might trigger IP assignment failure messages
• Fix bug allowing users not in your contact list to send you arena invites
• Fix bug where SSDP discovery was not sent on all network interfaces
• Fix bug in DDS 'e;d;' message headers [internal use only]

7.4.40

Released April 10, 2021

New Features

• Add support for Xbox Series X and Series S
• Add support for Playstation 5
• Add Discord support to Linux x86_64
• Add support for PSP Multicast traffic
• Add several new commands to the DDS Protocol
• Add windows network interface "friendly names" to config and metrics
• Add automatic workaround for users in CGNAT firewall configurations
• Add NAT mode tester which runs automatically 5 seconds after login. Results are shown in Metrics. Can also be triggered with /engine testnat in chat

Changes

• Make Discord DLL optional on windows
• Improve Discord rich presence
• Drop support for Windows 2000, Windows XP is now the minimum supported
• Windows exes are now signed (self signed)

Bugfixes

• Remove erroneous "NDIS" adapters from adapters listing on Windows

7.4.39

Released October 26, 2020

New Features

• Added AARCH64/ARM64 support
• Add remote DDS Protocol
• Add DDS application throughput display to WebUI and Legacy KaiUI
• Add new command '/engine upnp' to view the status of the last UPNP request, and to trigger a reattempt on failure

Changes

• Enhance security checks on Ethernet traffic
• Update Libpcap to 1.9.1 for Linux x86/x86_64 and macOS
• Add more information to output of '/engine nics' command
• Add explicit check for CAP_NET_ADMIN and CAP_NET_RAW, or root permissions on Linux platforms

Bugfixes

• Fix remote UI access control
• Fix UPNP support, which had been broken since 7.4.32
• Fix segfault on Linux systems caused by Libpcap accessing interfaces that are not up
• Fixed instability with Npcap 0.9996 and higher
• Fix crash on windows caused by PCAP library trying to put Bluetooth interfaces in promiscuous mode

7.4.38

Released September 04, 2020

New Features

• Added Npcap support on Windows
• Added dark mode to WebUI config
• Added notifications system

Changes

• Improved translations support

Bugfixes

• Fix login bug caused by UTF8 characters in passwords

7.4.37

Released June 26, 2020

• Added support for applications to directly connect to XLink Kai see DDS Protocol
• Added "/engine ddsclients" command to show connected applications (mainly for debugging)
• x86_64 support for Linux
• Discord rich presence on Windows
• Reduced latency in game traffic processing

7.4.36

Released April 20, 2020

• Added "/engine nics" command to help debug network interface detection failures
• kaiengine.conf is now reset to defaults if the contents would have crashed the client
• kaiengine.conf is now reset to defaults when the client binary is updated
• Drastically changed process to check if an update is available
• Improved error messages during network interface detection failure

7.4.35

Released March 25, 2020

• macOS Catalina support
• Support 64bit for macOS
• Improved client launch time 10 fold for users on slow internet connections
• Switched to generic console types in the UI to reduce confusion caused by console MAC address overlap between console generations
• Improved process for using third party USB adapters on Wii/WiiU/Switch
• Fixed some minor bugs with the language handler
• Improved notifications in CLI during engine startup
• Removed WebUI/config options for PS2/PS3/PS4 DHCP config, combined into Sony

7.4.34

Released December 10, 2019

• Added support for Gamecube LAN on Wii via Nintendont
• Fixed Unicode character support in chat
• Added third party LAN adapter support for Gamecube/Wii/Switch (add mac address to your profile on the website)
• Added check for root privileges OR equivalent capabilities

7.4.33

Released December 29th, 2018

• Added check for root privileges
• Fixed creation of config directory on some Linux distributions
• Changed IP ranges for Xbox/xbox 360 homebrew
• Changed IP range for gamecube

7.4.32

Released December 22, 2018

• Added support for PS4, PSVita, Xbox One, and Switch LAN
• Added xbox/xbox 360 homebrew support (For games that don't implement actual system-link)

7.4.31

Released January 29, 2018

• Improved backwards compatibility for older Linux distributions. GLIBC >= 2.9 is required.
• Sends a keepalive to the orbital server every 2 minutes to solve problems with New Zealand ISP issued routers

7.4.30

Released April 30, 2016

• Added display of active arenas when in /Arena/ or a Console arena
• By default listens on port 34522 on all interfaces for WebUI HTTP connections
• Config is saved in ~/.xlink/
• If you change your config the engine will prompt the user to restart on the CLI, then die and require a manual restart of the engine
• On some Linux distributions there might be a permissions error preventing the config folder from being created, to fix run: sudo mkdir ~/.xlink

7.4.29

Released January 31, 2016

7.4.28

• Added ARMv7/ARMHF support for Raspberry Pi

7.4.27

Released April 8, 2014

7.4.26

Released October 27, 2012

7.4.18

• Last x86 Linux release with GUI splash screen and tray menu

7.4.14

• Added UPNP support