old nrfutil can't be installed with new python, new nrfutil not suitable replacement

[ambrice2]

I have an i.MX8 arm linux system running an OS based on yocto, with an nrf52840 connected over USB.  The linux system receives nrf52840 firmware as part of its OTA, and updates the nrf over USB using the old python nrfutil dfu usb-serial commands.

Newer yocto versions are using python 3.11 which is incompatible with the old nrfutil.  But I can't include the new nrfutil for a few reasons:

1) I can't find any information about the licensing of the new nrfutil?

2) I can't find any source and there does not seem to be an arm64 binary.

3) The weird way the nrfutil installs binaries into the users home directory makes it difficult to integrate into a system image.  I need a `nrfutil install --global --arm64` option that would put binaries into $SYSROOT/usr/bin/ at build time.

Is there an alternative utility to nrfutil that can be used on an arm64 system to perform dfu over USB?

Thanks,

Aaron

[Einar Thorsrud]

Hi Aaron,

I have forvared the feedback internally. Nordic has not provided any other USB DFU tools than nrfutil (and the implementation of the nRF5 SDK releated features in the new nrfutil is the last version from the old nrfutil, with no updates). There may be third party implementations I am not aware of though, and you are free to fork and  update/modify or make  your own solution with inspiration from the old nrfutil github project if you like.

[ambrice2]

So is it safe to say then that DFU over USB is not going to be officially supported going forward?

[Einar Thorsrud]

The nRF5 SDK is no longer actively worked on (see nRF Connect SDK and nRF5 SDK statement), and this also include surroinding tools. Going forward we recomend using the nRF Connet SDK (which also supports DFU over USB but with an entierly different mechanism).

[ambrice2]

If we switch to nRF Connect SDK, what is the mechanism for DFU over USB from an arm system?  I thought it was still nrfutil, just different commands.

[Einar Thorsrud]

Hi,

The DFU solution for the nRF Connect SDK is based on Simple Management Protocol (SMP) and demonstrated by this sample, and you can use use mcumgr as a command line tool for performing DFU from a computer.

If the task at hand is to make DFU over USB work on an existing product, I expect it would make more sense to work on a solution on the Linux side to find a solution instaed or re-writing the firmware entierly. But for any new products, I would certainly recommmend the nRF Connect SDK.

PS: We are working on supporting Linux arm64 for nrfutil device.