nRF5340 Production DFU

RE: nRF5340 Production DFU

AnujPathak — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 09:12:55 GMT

Hi,

[quote userid="107683" url="~/f/nordic-q-a/104743/nrf5340-production-dfu/450963"]Noted, thank you for clarifying. Then I can with certainty say that simultaneous DFU is production ready for the nRF5340.[/quote]

Thanks for confirming that simultaneous DFU is production ready. SDK Document line "The simultaneous update of multiple images is available for testing since nRF Connect SDK v1.7.0" not clear, and give a sense that it is still available for testing only. We suggest to update the document to reflect the production readiness of the feature.

[quote userid="107683" url="~/f/nordic-q-a/104743/nrf5340-production-dfu/450963"]In general only SPI NOR flashes are supported so mostly out of curiosity could you verify if you've successfully implemented a custom driver to perform DFU using the external NAND flash?[/quote]

Yes we are using a custom NAND driver with our bad block management to make sure images are not corrupted. It was working fine as per our internal testing.

[quote userid="107683" url="~/f/nordic-q-a/104743/nrf5340-production-dfu/450963"]If you're referring to this part of the documentation, then the answer is yes, and as the documentation states then mcuboot_primary_1 must be used as the RAM partition mediator. MCUboot recovery of the appcore will also work as described in mcuboot recovery of the application, but it will need a secondary slot either on internal or external flash to store the new firmware image[/quote]

Yes we referring to same section and this will add a fallback routine to recover/update devices even if NAND has any issue. But i think secondary slot is not needed to app core recovery process. but it should be defined in partition yaml and dts files. Right?

Regards

RE: nRF5340 Production DFU

AHaug — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 07:38:47 GMT

Hi,

[quote user="AnujPathak"]1. We just want to confirm that the Simultaneous DFU feature is still experimental or production ready ? Because SDK document still says "The simultaneous update of multiple images is available for testing since nRF Connect SDK v1.7.0".[/quote]

Noted, thank you for clarifying. Then I can with certainty say that simultaneous DFU is production ready for the nRF5340.

[quote user="AnujPathak"]2. Since secondary slots will be hosted on external NAND (8Gb in our case) with our custom driver. [/quote]

In general only SPI NOR flashes are supported so mostly out of curiosity could you verify if you've successfully implemented a custom driver to perform DFU using the external NAND flash?

[quote user="AnujPathak"]Can we always fallback to "MCUBoot Recovery with netcore" mode to write to app/net core directly bypassing external NAND ?[/quote]

If you're referring to this part of the documentation, then the answer is yes, and as the documentation states then mcuboot_primary_1 must be used as the RAM partition mediator. MCUboot recovery of the appcore will also work as described in mcuboot recovery of the application, but it will need a secondary slot either on internal or external flash to store the new firmware image

https://github.com/hellesvik-nordic/samples_for_nrf_connect_sdk/tree/main/bootloader_samples/serial_recovery contains

Kind regards,
Andreas

RE: nRF5340 Production DFU

AnujPathak — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 13:42:38 GMT

Thanks for reply.

We have got simultaneous working and are aware the non-simultaneous can leave app core / net core in inconsistent state.
1. We just want to confirm that the Simultaneous DFU feature is still experimental or production ready ? Because SDK document still says "The simultaneous update of multiple images is available for testing since nRF Connect SDK v1.7.0".
Since our devices are completely sealed pack we'll be relying on robustness of bootloader for device lifetime once that is programmed.
2. Since secondary slots will be hosted on external NAND (8Gb in our case) with our custom driver. Can we always fallback to "MCUBoot Recovery with netcore" mode to write to app/net core directly bypassing external NAND ?

Regards

RE: nRF5340 Production DFU

AHaug — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 13:20:07 GMT

Hi,

Regarding both questions: To be certain I can answer with 100% confidence, could you elaborate some of your concerns regarding this? In general simultaneous is what we recommend that users do when migrating versions since that ensures that the firmware on the netcore is compatible with the firmware on the appcore. Doing them non-simultaneous can result in communication issues in between the cores since the Softdevice controller

This case nrf5340 multi-image DFU update over BLE 'Remote Error: In Value(3)' ? , more specifically this comment elaborates some of the incompatibilities you may face if you do nonsimultaneous updates when your migrating in between several major NCS versions

Let me know about the question I've asked and if the other case I've linked and supported clarifies things for you

Kind regards,
Andreas