Issue with Enabling MCUboot on Custom Board with nRF5340

RE: Issue with Enabling MCUboot on Custom Board with nRF5340

Einar Thorsrud — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 09:13:27 GMT

Hi,

The error in the previous post indicate attemting to communicate with an external flash device (the one that is on the DK), but that does not work. So it seems like your board files stil refer to the external flash from the DK even though that is not present on your custom board? If so, that should be removed. It could be that just adding this in an .overlay to start with would be enough:

/delete-node/ &mx25r64;

&qspi {
	status = "disabled";
};

(but this needs to be disabled both in the app and the bootloader, so fixing the board files is best and cleanest)

RE: Issue with Enabling MCUboot on Custom Board with nRF5340

Yashaswini S — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 07:01:32 GMT

when I checked in debug mode I got below response, after uploading to new image.

By the time it enters to line no 327 board will start reset.

I am not able to understand the behavior, why it is resting.

Thank you

RE: Issue with Enabling MCUboot on Custom Board with nRF5340

Yashaswini S — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 05:38:46 GMT

Hi,

After updating the above commands on mcuboot.conf in the RTT log I'm getting these debug messages.

Thank you

RE: Issue with Enabling MCUboot on Custom Board with nRF5340

Einar Thorsrud — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 15:28:44 GMT

In most cases it should be enough to ensure you have the following in the mcuboot configuration:

CONFIG_LOG=y
CONFIG_MCUBOOT_LOG_LEVEL_INF=y

RE: Issue with Enabling MCUboot on Custom Board with nRF5340

Yashaswini S — Mon, 13 Jan 2025 04:58:44 GMT

Logging enabled in mcuboot: can you give, how can I do this to enable see the logs.

Thank you

RE: Issue with Enabling MCUboot on Custom Board with nRF5340

Einar Thorsrud — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 11:59:22 GMT

Hi,

[quote user="Yashaswini S"]above Image that you shared also the one of the issues I'm getting, rather than that I have major one, for that issue itself I raised the ticket.[/quote]

Yes, I thought that was for the DK? If not, it is odd that mcumgr communication worked first, and then suddently did not.

[quote user="Yashaswini S"]The same bootloader that works successfully on DK board, when I tried same thing with the custom board, new firmware is not updating in the hardware, but commands are working.[/quote]

OK, everything looks good here, with nothing here explaining why the new image is not activated. Do you have logging enabled in MCUboot? If not, can you enable it and share the log here? That should show us what happens after the reste when the new image should have been swapped in and booted.

RE: Issue with Enabling MCUboot on Custom Board with nRF5340

Yashaswini S — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 09:02:27 GMT

Hi,

above Image that you shared also the one of the issues I'm getting, rather than that I have major one, for that issue itself I raised the ticket.

In the down I mentioned can you that and help us to resolve that,

1. The difference between the dk and custom board will be on dts file and peripherals.

2. I am using mcumgr command line tool to perform DFU. I have used same commands mentioned in . Exercise 1 - DFU over UART - Nordic Developer Academy By using this i am able do the DFU for nRF5340dk board and new firmware upgrade sucessfully.

I will share the commands which used to update new firmware using mcumgr commands.

At this time new firmware binary file upload but after the reset that new is not reflecting the hardware.

You can see the pending permanent after trying swap to primary address.

after that I will do reset then also the same.

The same bootloader that works successfully on DK board, when I tried same thing with the custom board, new firmware is not updating in the hardware, but commands are working.

Thank you

RE: Issue with Enabling MCUboot on Custom Board with nRF5340

Einar Thorsrud — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 08:21:01 GMT

Hi,

I see. Can you show the terminal output from all mcumgr command you use when you upload the image to the custom board? If I understand correctly, the only log I have seen from that is this, which does not show any successfull communication:

If you are able to upload the firmware via SMP but not activate it, that is odd, but seeing the whole set of commands (including the listed images before you attempt to test or confirm) could be usefull. Plese show the shole sequence of commands and responses by copy-pasting from the terminal.

RE: Issue with Enabling MCUboot on Custom Board with nRF5340

Yashaswini S — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 09:14:48 GMT

1. I am a bit confused about this, as from what I am able to see you are not able to communicate at all with the custom board over UART with mcumgr. So is this with a DK, or did I misunderstand?

No, with the DK able to communicate and bootloader loads the new firmware using mcumgr commands, but with the custom board which is having the mrf5340mcu with BT40 module to this module not able to upload the new firmware.

But the commands are working fine, if i give upload the new binary file it loads but after the reset it is not reflecting in hardware.

2. After the firmware is transvered it needs to be activated. This can be done permanently or a single time ("test"). This must be configured before the reset, and then the bootloader will swap in the new image upon boot. If there are issues here, perhaps you can share exactly what you are doing (specifying board and step by step instrutions), and in what way it does not work?

After the updating I'm giving the confirm to done permanently swap with primary address.This one also I'm doing before the reset it itself by giving mcumgr -c testDK image confirm <NEW_HASH>.

Thank you

RE: Issue with Enabling MCUboot on Custom Board with nRF5340

Einar Thorsrud — Wed, 08 Jan 2025 09:58:53 GMT

Hi,

[quote user="Yashaswini S"]I have crosschecked the pin details on devicetree and everything is mapped according to the datasheet.[/quote]

Do you get UART working for other use cases, such as logging? With the same instance? If not, it could be good to verify that the UART pins used in the genrated zephyr.dts in the build folder points to the actual UART pins on your hardware.

[quote user="Yashaswini S"]I am having another issue, that I mentioned earlier like dual swap method is not reflecting in the hardware, which I shared the commands also in previous discussion. we have tried[/quote]

I am a bit confused about this, as from what I am able to see you are not able to communicate at all with the custom board over UART with mcumgr. So is this with a DK, or did I misunderstand?

[quote user="Yashaswini S"]These are thing which we tried but the successfully new bin file is loading but once i press the reset after that, changes are not reflecting in the hardw[/quote]

After the firmware is transvered it needs to be activated. This can be done permanently or a single time ("test"). This must be configured before the reset, and then the bootloader will swap in the new image upon boot. If there are issues here, perhaps you can share exactly what you are doing (specifying board and step by step instrutions), and in what way it does not work?

RE: Issue with Enabling MCUboot on Custom Board with nRF5340

Yashaswini S — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 06:31:53 GMT

Hi,

I have crosschecked the pin details on devicetree and everything is mapped according to the datasheet.

I am having another issue, that I mentioned earlier like dual swap method is not reflecting in the hardware, which I shared the commands also in previous discussion. we have tried

We already tried taking the NRF5340DK_nrf5340 folder and copying it to an Agora_bt40 folder, then replaced all references to nrf5340dk_nrf5340 with Agora_bt40.
We took the elements of the agora_bt40.dts file which are different from the standard nRf5340DK and reflected those changes in the agora_bt40_common.dtsi file. But the response is same.
Also, the slot partitions changed in agora_bt40_common.dtsi wrt agora_bt40.dts.
We made the agora_bt40.dts to agora_bt40.overlay and tried.

Still the LED blink bin file loading through bootloader doesn’t reflect in the hardware.

These are thing which we tried but the successfully new bin file is loading but once i press the reset after that, changes are not reflecting in the hardware.

But in the dk board it works successfully, with the custom board the issue is happening.

Thank you

RE: Issue with Enabling MCUboot on Custom Board with nRF5340

Einar Thorsrud — Mon, 06 Jan 2025 15:25:37 GMT

Hi,

I am sorry for the delay. As you get a timeout it seems that there is no communication, as mentionned earlier. Which UART pins are you using on the custom board, and how have you configured your devicetree accordingly? And have you connected the correct pins to your USB-UART interface?

RE: Issue with Enabling MCUboot on Custom Board with nRF5340

Yashaswini S — Sat, 21 Dec 2024 04:50:48 GMT

Hi,

I'm not using the UART for different communication and also the not using same port at a time.

RE: Issue with Enabling MCUboot on Custom Board with nRF5340

Einar Thorsrud — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 14:55:34 GMT

Hi,

I see. NMP timeout indicate UART communication problems. Are you using the UART for something else, or perhaps you have a serial terminal open for the same port at the same time?

RE: Issue with Enabling MCUboot on Custom Board with nRF5340

Yashaswini S — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 11:26:33 GMT

Hi,

1. The difference between the dk and custom board will be on dts file and peripherals.

I will share the commands which used to update new firmware using mcumgr commands.

For the custom board, I am using the same commands to update the new firmware.

1.To update new firmware for custom board, do I need to change anything in command?

2.while doing, sometimes I will face error called NMP_timeout.

What could be the reason for this and how to solve this?

Thank you

RE: Issue with Enabling MCUboot on Custom Board with nRF5340

Einar Thorsrud — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 13:54:48 GMT

Hi,

I see. We need to know more about what is happening (logging/debug information).

What is the difference when you do it on a DK and you custom board?
How do you perform the DFU (using MCUmgr or nRF connect on a phone or similar?
1. Do you do it in the same way?
2. Can you share logs?
Can you enable logging and share logs from the nRF?
What else have you found by testing/debugging?

RE: Issue with Enabling MCUboot on Custom Board with nRF5340

Yashaswini S — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 13:34:17 GMT

Hi,

We have tried in nRF5340 DK and everything works as per the Nordic exercise: Single slot and Dual slot methods for DFU over UART.Exercise 1 - DFU over UART - Nordic Developer Academy

But when we have a nRF5340 custom board with different or updated board files, following the same procedure gives different results.

Firmware loads but doesn’t reflect in board. Also slot swap doesn’t work.

Thank you

RE: Issue with Enabling MCUboot on Custom Board with nRF5340

Einar Thorsrud — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 14:46:30 GMT

Hi,

Adding keys are described under Enabling a bootloader chain using sysbuild. For older SDK versions or if you are using the parent-child image, you need to follow the instructions under Enabling a bootloader chain using child and parent images (deprecated).

If you face issues, can you elaborate on what you are doing an in what way it does not work?

RE: Issue with Enabling MCUboot on Custom Board with nRF5340

Yashaswini S — Mon, 16 Dec 2024 13:15:44 GMT

Hi,

I tried by creating byown private and public key and adding with to existing project.

Do you any reference for the adding the keys to existing project.since after adding the keys also not reflcting in the project.

and also issue still persists.

Thank you

RE: Issue with Enabling MCUboot on Custom Board with nRF5340

Einar Thorsrud — Wed, 11 Dec 2024 09:04:40 GMT

Hi,

I am glad to see you were able to get the board files right.

Regarding the DFU issue, I see uploading the image works well, but soemthing goes wrong during activation/swapping and the new image is never booted. There could be serveral reasons for that, though. Is the version of the new image not higher? Or is it signed with an invalid key? One way to see this better is to enable logging in the bootlodaer and see what it does (and why).

RE: Issue with Enabling MCUboot on Custom Board with nRF5340

Yashaswini S — Mon, 09 Dec 2024 12:26:11 GMT

Hi,

I have followed the steps as you mentioned, copied all the dk files and renamed to custom board name. That is working fine now. able to build successfully without error and also try to update the firmware using mcumgr commands.

But now i have another issue,

1.here the once after giving uart configurations that has to show two image slots information that is not getting here.

2.once after giving new firmware using upload command it is taking after that it is showing complete two slots details.

3. After updating the secondary memory details to primary using HASH value return with done.

4. since after that need to reset the microcontroller then the new firmware will load into primary address i.e image 0 where the main application is running. but here after the reset it is not updating with new firmware, once after giving to check image list i am able to see only the slot 0 details with previous HASH value not with new firmware updated value.

Could you help me to address this, what is the reason for this?

Thank you

RE: Issue with Enabling MCUboot on Custom Board with nRF5340

Einar Thorsrud — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 09:15:14 GMT

Hi,

There are 3 main boards for the nRF5340 DK in the SDK:

nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpuapp
nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpuapp_ns
nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpunet

All these boards consist of several files each. If you are using the net core as well as the app core (which you always need for using the radio), you need nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpunet in addition to nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpuapp. And if you are using TrustZone, you need nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpuapp_ns for the non-secure application. However, you also need nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpuapp for the secure builds, which is for instance the bootloader. The bootloader is always a secure build. And the error you are getting indicate that you are attempting to build the bootlodaser for a non-secure board, which will not work.

For the files you list:

nrf5340_cpuapp_common.dtsi file is included in both the nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpuapp and nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpuapp_ns boards.
nrf5340_cpuapp_partition_conf.dtsi is also includedin both, by being included in nrf5340_cpuapp_common.dtsi.
nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpuapp.dts is the device tree file for the secure board. This is used for all secure builds (bootloaders etc), but not non-secure applications.
nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpuapp_ns.dts is used if you have a non-secure application (i.e. you are including TF-M to utilize TrustZone).

In short, as you are using a non-secure application, you need both secure and non-secure boards. And as this is quite complex to get right, I recomend you take all of the nRF5340 DK files and copy and rename to use as your custom baord files. You can see more practical information on this under Board files for multi-core hardware & TF-M in the intermediate nRF Connect SDK course.

RE: Issue with Enabling MCUboot on Custom Board with nRF5340

Yashaswini S — Tue, 03 Dec 2024 08:54:39 GMT

Hi,

While working on DTS file, in C:\ncs\v2.7.0\zephyr\boards\nordic\nrf5340dk I have seen different dts file so here which one has to select to work with bootloader development.

nrf5340_cpuapp_common.dtsi, nrf5340_cpuapp_partition_conf.dtsi,nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpuapp.dts,nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpuapp_ns.dts so I have seen these 4 dts files.

While in our customized agora board we having nrf5340dk, when i try to compare with dts file which file should I need to consider, in that 4.

Thank you

RE: Issue with Enabling MCUboot on Custom Board with nRF5340

Einar Thorsrud — Wed, 27 Nov 2024 08:50:30 GMT

Hi,

The error point to missing SPU configuration in the board as disussed before, so it seems MCU boot is built for non-secure or that the secure board configuration is incorrect, and does not contain the SPU (which it must). The nRF5340 is quite complex, so to avoid this the simplest is to copy all of the nRF5340 board files, and modify as needed for your custom HW. Note that you need both secure and non-secure board files as MCUboot will always be built as secure even if the application is non-secure.

If you have not made any progress, can you share your board files as well as full build log (so that I see how you build the project as well as any errors)?

RE: Issue with Enabling MCUboot on Custom Board with nRF5340

Yashaswini S — Mon, 25 Nov 2024 10:40:20 GMT

Hi,

Even after modifying the dts file from the nrf5340dk into customized agora_bt40 dts, continue to encounter the same error.

After enabling the mcuboot on prj.conf it through error, otherwise builds without error.