nRF5340 netcore firmware version

[Riccardo Gaiati]

Hi,

running the script from the SDK 2.5.0:

imgtool verify netcore.bin

I get the following result:

Image was correctly validated
Image version: 3.1.9+0
Image digest: ba84b9d23622459a3d958a1377607c0c823feb67ace1b606636c88916ddfda83

After flashing the netcore i cannot find the location where the image version is stored.

Could you kindly tell me if there is a way to retrieve the fw version of the netcore ?

Thanks in advance !

Kind regards

Riccardo Gaiati

[Vidar Berg]

Hi,

The MCUBoot image header where your '3.1.9+0' number is stored is not included the network core update since the nRF5340: Network core bootloader does not use this header. There is, however, a FW 'information structure' embedded within the netcore application image which includes a monotonically increasing version counter. This structure can be accessed with the fw_info_find() function.

Best regards,

Vidar

[Riccardo Gaiati]

Hi Vidor,

thanks for the prompt reply.

Who defines the values inside this data structure ? Who increase the version counter ?

Thanks again !

[Vidar Berg]

Hi Riccardo,

I must correct myself, the version number is not incremented automatically. Instead, it is defined by the 'CONFIG_FW_INFO_FIRMWARE_VERSION' value set in your 'hci_rpmsg' child image build, which defaults to '1'.

Best regards,

Vidar

[Riccardo Gaiati]

Thanks a lot Vidar !

[Riccardo Gaiati]

Hi Vidar,

sorry to pick up again this ticket. Just more question regarding the functions reported here https://docs.nordicsemi.com/bundle/nrf-apis-2.9.2/page/fw_info_bare_8h.html
For the nrf5340, these can only be called by the netcore, since the app core has not access to netcore memory space. 

Thanks for your feedback

[Vidar Berg]

Hi,

Yes correct, the appcore cannot access the netcore's flash memory. Another alternative assuming you're using BLE  is to use the SDC_HCI_OPCODE_CMD_VS_ZEPHYR_READ_VERSION_INFO  HCI command to get the version information for the Bluetooth controller. The HCI command can be sent using the hci_vs_sdc_zephyr_read_version_info() function if your SDK version includes this commit: https://github.com/nrfconnect/sdk-nrf/commit/635fa76ef9b2e677b816d4442c5879976d58e5e6 

[Riccardo Gaiati]

Thanks a lot Vidar !  I am still on the 2.9.2. At this point i was thinking to declared some shared memory between app and net, at the boot up the net allocate a variable containing the version and the app will read it then. 

regards

Riccardo