Flashing firmware without erasing factory data

RE: Flashing firmware without erasing factory data

Sigurd Hellesvik — Mon, 06 May 2024 06:56:25 GMT

Hi,

Simon is away for a vacation so I will continue to help here in the meantime.

[quote user="Yuelin.Li"]he subsequent flash without erase in VS code will not erase the factory data region any more.[/quote]

Great to hear!

Good luck with your project onwards and let us know if you need any more help

Regards,
Sigurd Hellesvik

RE: Flashing firmware without erasing factory data

Yuelin.Li — Fri, 03 May 2024 16:19:40 GMT

Not sure what happened, but after a full restart of my laptop, setting CONFIG_CHIP_FACTORY_DATA_BUILD to no and flash the firmware, the subsequent flash without erase in VS code will not erase the factory data region any more. Thanks for your help!

RE: Flashing firmware without erasing factory data

Simonr — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 06:24:41 GMT

FICR (factory stored data) is stored on the flash memory no matter what, even with a chip erase/JTAG flash. UICR is what you're referring to, that can be preserved between DFU, but will be reloaded with a full chip erase/flash.

We have this API reference for the FICR/UICR HAL: https://developer.nordicsemi.com/nRF_Connect_SDK/doc/latest/nrfx/drivers/icr/index.html#. The FICR HAL is used to get data from the FICR, and the UICR HAL is for managing the UICR.

Best regards,

Simon

RE: Flashing firmware without erasing factory data

Yuelin.Li — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 20:53:55 GMT

Hi Susheel,

Thank you for the response. When you say during firmware updates, do you mean via DFU? So for JTAG flash there's no way to preserve factory data, but for updating via MCUBoot, the factory data can be preserved. Is that correct?

In terms of utilizing UICR or FICR, is there any page management API/logic other than directly write/read on an address?

Thanks,

Yuelin

RE: Flashing firmware without erasing factory data

Susheel Nuguru — Fri, 26 Apr 2024 12:56:32 GMT

In the preparation of factory data section you are creating a separate partition in pm_static.yml called factory_data which will be preserved during firmware updates. I do not think you can protect part of flash memory (which is not UICR or FICR) from sectorerase when using nrfjprog. It is possible to cut access to debugger overall but not part of memory.

RE: Flashing firmware without erasing factory data

Yuelin.Li — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 22:42:56 GMT

Hi Maria,

I didn't see the document you referred discussing preserve flashed factory data after the initial flash, or any parameter to skip erasing the factory data region in subsequential firmware flashes.

Is there a way to preserve factory data from being erased from subsequential firmware flashes? How can I ensure --sectorerase param doesn't erase the factory data region? I went through the nrfjprog page:Nordic Semiconductor Infocenter but didn't find any option to skip erasing factory data region.

Playing around with CONFIG_CHIP_FACTORY_DATA_BUILD seems not changing the region to be erased before flashing as well.

Thanks,

Yuelin

RE: Flashing firmware without erasing factory data

Maria Gilje — Thu, 18 Apr 2024 13:58:05 GMT

Hello Yuelin,

Please see the documentation on configuring factory data for Matter here, specifically the section on programming factory data.

Best regards,

Maria