mcuboot missing trait mcuBoot in nrfutil

[mdell]

The board is nrf52840 based using mcuboot via usb, mcuboot can be activated using a switch, and is indicated via a led, all setup via device-tree, so no legacy here. Software is quite up to date using zephyr-2.4.99/ncs-2.5.0. Updating works fine using mcumgr, but as I understand it, this tool is deprecated and nrfutil is the new swiss-army-knive (devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../nrf-util-unified-command-line-utility).

But: Updating using nrfutil does not work, presumably because there is no mcuBoot trait listed for MCUBOOT. My question: How do I achieve that mcuboot shows this trait in nrfutil?

# nrfutil --version
nrfutil 7.6.0 (92ce3a0 2023-08-15)
commit-hash: 92ce3a0c1cc7e203326d85919d826009510dc631
commit-date: 2023-08-15
host: x86_64-apple-darwin
build-timestamp: 2023-08-23T08:22:30.0306Z
classification: nrf-external

# nrfutil device list
6XXXXXXXXXXXXXXB
product MCUBOOT
ports /dev/tty.usbmodem14301, vcom: 0
/dev/tty.usbmodem14303, vcom: 1
traits serialPorts, usb

[Hieu]

Hi mdell,

It seems that custom devices are not officially supported by nRF Util yet. The documentation says:

nRF Util supports Nordic Semiconductor Development Kit (DK)s, prototyping platforms, and dongles.

You could try adding --override-traits mcuBoot to the command and see if it helps?

Hieu

[mdell]

I could not find any documentation about the --override-traits flag. If I try to use it, I get an error:

# nrfutil device program --firmware app_signed.hex --traits mcuBoot --override-traits mcuBoot 

error: unexpected argument '--override-traits' found

# nrfutil --version
nrfutil 7.6.0 (92ce3a0 2023-08-15)
commit-hash: 92ce3a0c1cc7e203326d85919d826009510dc631
commit-date: 2023-08-15
host: x86_64-apple-darwin
build-timestamp: 2023-08-23T08:22:30.0306Z
classification: nrf-external

# nrfutil upgrade
nrfutil-device is already the newest version (2.0.3)
nrfutil-nrf5sdk-tools is already the newest version (1.0.1)

[Thibaud]

Hello Hieu,

Are you talking about the experimental option in nrfutil device command x-boot-mode-get/set ?

nrfutil can work with smpserver ? I used it long time ago with mcumgr but now I am moving to nrfutil because it is faster in USB and I am looking for a way to starts my update sequence from application . For now I am able to do update with nrfutil but I need to have my product in bootloader.

Firstly I was replying to this post because mcuboot traits was missing in nrfutil device list but since my comment I found that I needed to change VID/PID of my product.

Regards

Thibaud

[Hieu]

Hello Thibaud,

Thibaud said:

Are you talking about the experimental option in nrfutil device command x-boot-mode-get/set ?

nrfutil can work with smpserver ?

No, the feature isn't available right now. However, there will be a new feature to communicate with devices using the SMP Protocol.

Thibaud said:

I used it long time ago with mcumgr but now I am moving to nrfutil because it is faster in USB and I am looking for a way to starts my update sequence from application . For now I am able to do update with nrfutil but I need to have my product in bootloader.

Firstly I was replying to this post because mcuboot traits was missing in nrfutil device list but since my comment I found that I needed to change VID/PID of my product.

I am a little confused here. Do you communicate with your device using SMP Protocol over USB? What commands are you using?

Regards,

Hieu

[Thibaud]

Helo Hieu,

For now I ddin't implemented SMP server in my app.

I just flashed mcuBoot and using nrfUtil with mcuBoot. 

Now I am looking for a way to go in bootloader from app via nrfUtil command.

Regards

Thibaud

[Hieu]

Hi Thibaud,

The protocol that you use to talk with MCUboot is also SMP Protocol. As mentioned, a more full-feature support for it is in the work, but we don't comment about release date on DevZone.

Thibaud said:

I just flashed mcuBoot and using nrfUtil with mcuBoot. 

Do you mean you flash MCUboot using nrfUtil with a debugger? Or could you explain in more details what you did here?

Regards,

Hieu

[Thibaud]

Hi Hieu

Hieu said:

The protocol that you use to talk with MCUboot is also SMP Protocol. As mentioned, a more full-feature support for it is in the work, but we don't comment about release date on DevZone.

Ok, no problem. And about the experimental option of nrfutil device command "x-boot-mode-get/set" can you do any comment ?

Hieu said:

Do you mean you flash MCUboot using nrfUtil with a debugger? Or could you explain in more details what you did here?

I flashed a merged.hex of my app and mcuboot with a debugger and I am using nrfutil to do DFU.For now, I need to start my product in bootloader to be able to do the DFU and I am looking for a way to reset my product and start in boot. I thought I may be able to do it with nrfutil experimental option mentionned aboved but I don't know how to make my app handles the nrfutil commands.

Regards

Thibaud