How to REALLY turn OFF network activity of CubeMX 5.2.1? Is it a SPY software now or what?

[vml]

CubeMX creates a lot of network activity even if there is no need to do so.

I can imagine only two reasons explained to user for CubeMX to do any network activity:

1. To update CubeMX and its components
2. To collect info about usage of CubeMX

First one I turned OFF in Updater Settings to Manual Check (see screenshot)

Second one is turned OFF in User Preferences (see screenshot)

So there should be no reason for CubeMX to tell anything to someone in internet or ask anything there. BUT CubeMX does not care and tries to do a LOT of connections in internet. WHY?

Every time I "Generate Code" it needs connection. Every time I create project - it needs connection. And all this with trurned usage collection turned off. Looks like spying ... NO?

And moreover CubeMX states that it needs this connection to fullfill operation with anoying message box. If I press Home after I opened project it states "A network connection is required to proceed". Really!? CubeMX need internet to go to start screen of CubeMX!?

Please fix this spying behavious of CubeMX. If user selected to manually update and turned off collection of usage info then NO CONNECTION should be asked by CubeMX software (or there is some hidden reporting/connectioning which people usually call "spying")!

Here is the screesnshots

[MikeDB]

Does CubeMX get a new processor configuration file every time it is used ?

[vml]

>Does CubeMX get a new processor configuration file every time it is used ?

What do you mean? Processor's families packs are installed for used families of micros (F3, F4). Updates are said to be manual. Data Auto-refresh is turned off. So from user point of view there should be no reasons for automatic requests of connection with internet in any case ... except of cause the case when CubeMX does not care about selected by user parameters :( ... or is simply spying :(. Both things are "not good" and should be changed I think

[MikeDB]

I know the STM MCU finder accesses the cloud for the latest processor details every time it is launched so it is quite possible CubeMX may do the same as well. The files stored on your PC may just be pointers to the data in the cloud.

[Jack Peacock_2]

Reminds me of the old Gahan Wilson cartoon about the street corner lemonade stand. On one side of the corner a child is giving away free glasses of lemonade. Walk around the corner and there's a second stand, selling the antidote to the lemonade for $25.00 a glass.....

If you read the news privacy is now a service, and it isn't free. An IDE that won't work offline raises many reliability questions.

Jack Peacock

[MikeDB]

I agree with you, but almost all the EDA tools I use are now cloud based, even down to storage of the active datasets. You can make local copies as backups but the data being processed sits remotely.

[vml]

>MCU finder accesses the cloud for the latest processor details every time it is launched

As I mentioned to yout previous message "Data Auto-refresh is turned off" on screenshot. So CubeMX should avoid doing this on "Application Stratup" update

[MikeDB]

And as I mentioned, this is the way all design software is going. I don't know if CubeMX does rely on the cloud, but it is free. I've seen tools with 'maintenance' costs of hundreds of thousands per annum doing it. If it does need the cloud, ST should just remove the menu box, which possibly came from an earlier build.

[vml]

>If you read the news privacy is now a service, and it isn't free

You mean that you can buy from St privacy service in CubeMx!? If not then decribed "news" about something else are probably not applied to CubeMX. And moreover CubeMX clearly states that user "can stop collecting usage statistics" ... see screenshot.

>An IDE that won't work offline raises many reliability questions

Agree. For St this is also a reason to fix this strange behaviour of CubeMX.

From user experince point of view such behaviour is also very annoying ... answering many many times a day that you do not want to set connection settings, is making user crazy and angry ... screenshot 3 with "Proxy Error" ... this message box poping up again and again while user do something! I switched off all known to me reasons to connect to internet but message box is still apearing! I do not remember such annoying behaviour in previos version of CubeMX.

Until this is fixed I think I need to go back to previous version of CuebeMX. But how (I do not see any downgrade functionality in CubeMX)!?

>I agree with you, but almost all the EDA tools I use are now cloud based, even down to storage of the active datasets

Which is not needed for individual developers of things which should be stable and raliable. CubeMX was always ok for offline work ... MCU packages can be installed from files ... and why you can not put whatever you need for work with MCU in package and install it from zip-file? I think this way of doing things should be kept available for users.

Online is necessary for stock market. Why for MCU developer? Pinout of MCU could change in an hour?! 😉

[vml]

>And as I mentioned, this is the way all design software is going

Collecting of usage statistic is not a reason to popup a message box in users's face many many times a day. This is not "the way all design software is going". If St wants to know how many times people press Generate Code button and waste cloud resources on collecting that data - it is stupid but, if some people are OK to participate in this ... why not? BUT ... there is really NO functionality in CubeMx which REQUIRE internet connection! MCU should work without internet and behave the same way today and in a 10 years from now. So developer who program MCU should also be able to keep working without internet and have tools which behave the same way today and in a 10 years from now. Offline mode - simply comes from application area for CubeMx.

For other areas like stock marketing software or browasers - online is just the reason of using the software. So "the way design software is going" is clearly area-dependent.