Joiner callback never being executed

RE: Joiner callback never being executed

Maria Gilje — Mon, 12 May 2025 09:29:12 GMT

Hi Allan,

Thank you for the update! Let me know if you need further support.

Best regards,

Maria

RE: Joiner callback never being executed

Allan-led — Fri, 09 May 2025 16:56:44 GMT

Hi Maria,

Sorry, I forgot to get back to you yesterday.

I had trouble setting up the sniffer, but I found a piece of sample code that provided a solution to my problem:
https://github.com/martelmy/NCS_examples/blob/main/openthread/joiner/src/main.c

openthread_api_mutex_lock(context) and an unlock need to be wrapped around OpenThread API function calls.

I believe this is good enough for me to start my integration and fix the overall structure of my codebase.

Thanks.

Best regards,

Allan Wang

RE: Joiner callback never being executed

Maria Gilje — Fri, 09 May 2025 11:07:16 GMT

Hi Allan,

I did a sniffer trace today, and noticed that the joiner device does not send a Discovery Request when otJoinerStart is called. I have not found out why this is yet, but this is where I'm at now.

The commissioner was set up before starting the captures, and I have one capture where the joiner is started from CLI and one from the application. The network key is the standard (00112233445566778899aabbccddeeff).

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../344777_5F00_joiner_5F00_start_5F00_cli.pcapng devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../344777_5F00_joiner_5F00_start_5F00_app.pcapng

I'll continue my investigations next week.

Best regards,

Maria

RE: Joiner callback never being executed

Maria Gilje — Thu, 08 May 2025 14:16:33 GMT

Hi Allan,

[quote user="Allan-led"]Sorry I forgot to clarify this, but this was a piece of CLI code modified by a previous firmware engineer, and I do not know why there is a main.h either. [/quote]

No worries, I just asked to be thorough. I can see that there are some include statements which are not in my main.c, so I have included them now.

[quote user="Allan-led"]

I still haven't found a solution to the problem, but I would like you to know that we can also perform the following:
1. start the commissioner, add wildcard joiner

2. factoryreset the joiner device

3. `ot stop joiner` on joiner device

4. `ot ifconfig down` on joiner device

5. `ot ifconfig up` on joiner device

6. `ot joiner start J01NME` on joiner device

Then the join can still be successful, and everything works out,

[/quote]

Thank you for sharing this. It does indicate that starting the joiner through the source code is what is not working and not a limitation with configuration of the modified CLI sample.

We could learn more by sniffing the traffic of this. I will do this tomorrow morning and report back with my findings. If you can also do a trace of the traffic that is a good bonus.

[quote user="Allan-led"]I ran the debugger on the Joiner program, but it seems like it halts due to reason 3. However, the command line seems to be active, always. Thus, I don't think I have observed a fatal halt. [/quote]

I'll look out for this as well. Are you building with debugging optimizations before running the debugging session?

[quote user="Allan-led"]Another strange thing that I have noticed recently is that when I run the debugger on my code, it lands at a fatal halt with reason 3. Is this expected behaviour? What does reason 3 mean in this context? I don't think this is something that affects the execution of my program though, as all of my programs run into this issue, but most of them execute without any problems. [/quote]

I tried to search for a short time for an explanation on what reason 3 is, but I did not find it. I will search some more and possibly ask one of my colleagues if they know.

[quote user="Allan-led"]By looking at my code and procedures, do you think it SHOULD "just work out" normally? I believe this is quite a simple program that should be straight forward to create. [/quote]

I think there are some pieces missing, but I don't know which yet. I was considering the CONFIG_OPENTHREAD_JOINER_AUTOSTART feature, but then you won't get the custom callback.

Maybe the sniffer trace will shed some light on what is going on.

[quote user="Allan-led"]Please also note that I am conducting my experiments with the nRF54L15DK this time, instead of our custom modules which has caused some trouble in the past. [/quote]

Noted. I am also using nRF54L15 DKs.

Best regards,

Maria

RE: Joiner callback never being executed

Allan-led — Wed, 07 May 2025 22:49:26 GMT

Hi Maria,

I still haven't figured out a solution to this issue. By looking at my code and procedures, do you think it SHOULD "just work out" normally? I believe this is quite a simple program that should be straight forward to create.

Another strange thing that I have noticed recently is that when I run the debugger on my code, it lands at a fatal halt with reason 3. Is this expected behaviour? What does reason 3 mean in this context? I don't think this is something that affects the execution of my program though, as all of my programs run into this issue, but most of them execute without any problems.

Also, I tried implementing a commissioner by program as well, but it seems like it gets stuck at the petitioning state, similar to how the joiner gets stuck at the discover state.
I made sure that the commissioner device would become the leader before starting commissioner as well.

Here are some logs that the 2 programs produced:

As you see, it is quite unusual, as the commissioner should petition for less than a second before it becomes active (given that it is the leader already), and the joiner should also return some kind of error and return to Idle mode, if it doesn't find a corresponding commissioner within the set time.

Here are the logs when I manually interact with them, stopping their commissioner/joiner and restarting them by command line:

The join is successful.

Below is the code for starting the commissioner. Please note that I did not implement a callback function for the commissioner when a join event occurs for simplicity.

#include <openthread/commissioner.h>
#include <openthread/instance.h>
#include <openthread/ip6.h>
#include <openthread/thread_ftd.h>
#include <openthread/platform/logging.h>
#include <zephyr/logging/log.h>
#include <zephyr/kernel.h>
LOG_MODULE_REGISTER(main, LOG_LEVEL_INF);

otInstance *ot_instance;


// Optional callback
void commissioner_callback(otCommissionerState aState, void *aContext)
{
    switch (aState)
    {
    case OT_COMMISSIONER_STATE_ACTIVE:
        LOG_INF("Commissioner started successfully");
        break;
    case OT_COMMISSIONER_STATE_DISABLED:
        LOG_INF("Commissioner disabled");
        break;
    case OT_COMMISSIONER_STATE_PETITION:
        LOG_INF("Commissioner petitioning");
        break;
    }
}

int main() {
	ot_instance = otInstanceInitSingle();
	if (ot_instance == NULL) {
		LOG_ERR("Failed to initialize OpenThread instance");
		return -1;
	}

	otError err = otIp6SetEnabled(ot_instance, true);
	if (err != OT_ERROR_NONE) {
		LOG_ERR("Failed to enable IPv6: %d", err);
		return -1;
	}
	err = otThreadSetEnabled(ot_instance, true);
	if (err != OT_ERROR_NONE) {
		LOG_ERR("Failed to enable Thread: %d", err);
		return -1;
	}
	while (otThreadGetDeviceRole(ot_instance) != OT_DEVICE_ROLE_LEADER) {
		LOG_INF("Waiting for the device to become a leader...");
		k_msleep(4000);
	}
	LOG_INF("Device is now leader");
	for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
		LOG_INF("Delay time left: %d", 5 - i);
		k_msleep(1000);
	}
	err = otCommissionerStart(ot_instance, commissioner_callback, NULL, NULL);
	if (err != OT_ERROR_NONE) {
		LOG_ERR("Failed to start commissioner: %d", err);
		return -1;
	}

	while (otCommissionerGetState(ot_instance) != OT_COMMISSIONER_STATE_ACTIVE) {
		LOG_INF("Waiting for commissioner to become active...");
		k_msleep(4000);
	}

	otCommissionerAddJoiner(ot_instance, NULL, "J01NME", 300);

	while (1) {
		k_msleep(1000);
	}
	return 0;
}

Please also note that I am conducting my experiments with the nRF54L15DK this time, instead of our custom modules which has caused some trouble in the past.

Thanks.

Best regards,

Allan

RE: Joiner callback never being executed

Allan-led — Tue, 06 May 2025 19:03:58 GMT

I ran the debugger on the Joiner program, but it seems like it halts due to reason 3. However, the command line seems to be active, always. Thus, I don't think I have observed a fatal halt.

RE: Joiner callback never being executed

Allan-led — Mon, 05 May 2025 20:39:27 GMT

Hi Maria,

I still haven't found a solution to the problem, but I would like you to know that we can also perform the following:
1. start the commissioner, add wildcard joiner

2. factoryreset the joiner device

3. `ot stop joiner` on joiner device

4. `ot ifconfig down` on joiner device

5. `ot ifconfig up` on joiner device

6. `ot joiner start J01NME` on joiner device

Then the join can still be successful, and everything works out, and the success logs are displayed on the commissioner, as shown below:

RE: Joiner callback never being executed

Allan-led — Mon, 05 May 2025 16:06:48 GMT

Hi Maria,

Sorry I forgot to clarify this, but this was a piece of CLI code modified by a previous firmware engineer, and I do not know why there is a main.h either. But essentially the main.h just has include statements, and I have moved all the relevant ones into main.c already. I will go comment out #include main.h as well now.

Here's main.h for reference:

// My stuff
#include <openthread/thread.h>
#include <openthread/joiner.h>
#include <openthread/instance.h>
#include <openthread/link.h>
#include <openthread/tasklet.h>
#include <openthread/ip6.h>
#include <openthread/dataset.h>
#include <openthread/commissioner.h>

void start_joiner(void);

I will let you know if I make any progress or findings as well.

Best regards,

Allan

RE: Joiner callback never being executed

Maria Gilje — Mon, 05 May 2025 14:57:56 GMT

Hi Allan,

Thank you for sharing the prj.conf and main.c files. I have reproduced the issue, but I was not able to find an explanation nor a fix today. I'll work on it more the next day(s).

Just a quick question: Do you have something vital in main.h? I was able to build fine after just commenting it out, so I'm mostly wondering if there is something in it at all.

Best regards,

Maria

RE: Joiner callback never being executed

Allan-led — Sat, 03 May 2025 00:33:12 GMT

Hi Maria,

My device A acts as the commissioner, and it is controlled through the command line. The CLI sample code was flashed, and I have only modified its prj.conf file (full file below, the bottom parts were added on by me).

# Network shell
CONFIG_SHELL=y
CONFIG_OPENTHREAD_SHELL=y
CONFIG_SHELL_ARGC_MAX=26
CONFIG_SHELL_CMD_BUFF_SIZE=416

# Increase Settings storage size
CONFIG_PM_PARTITION_SIZE_SETTINGS_STORAGE=0x8000

# Enable OpenThread features set
CONFIG_OPENTHREAD_NORDIC_LIBRARY_MASTER=y

CONFIG_NET_L2_OPENTHREAD=y

# Generic networking options
CONFIG_NETWORKING=y

CONFIG_GPIO_SHELL=y


CONFIG_SETTINGS_ZMS=y
CONFIG_ZMS=y
CONFIG_NVS=n
CONFIG_FLASH=y
CONFIG_FLASH_MAP=y
CONFIG_SPI_NOR=n

CONFIG_NRFX_POWER=y
CONFIG_SOC_NRF_FORCE_CONSTLAT=y

My device B acts as the joiner, here is main.c and its prj.conf file. This was also built on top of the CLI sample code.

/*
 * Copyright (c) 2020 Nordic Semiconductor ASA
 *
 * SPDX-License-Identifier: LicenseRef-Nordic-5-Clause
 */

 #include <zephyr/kernel.h>
 #include <zephyr/logging/log.h>
 #include <openthread/thread.h>
 #include <openthread/joiner.h>
 #include <openthread/instance.h>
 #include <openthread/ip6.h>
 
 #include <zephyr/drivers/uart.h>
 #include <zephyr/usb/usb_device.h>
 
 #include "main.h"
 
 LOG_MODULE_REGISTER(cli_sample, CONFIG_OT_COMMAND_LINE_INTERFACE_LOG_LEVEL);
 
 
 #define JOINER_RETRY_DELAY_MS 5000
 #define JOINER_PSKD "J01NME"
 
 static otInstance *ot_instance;
 
 // Callback for joiner completion
 void joiner_callback(otError error, void *context)
 {
     if (error == OT_ERROR_NONE) {
         printk("Joiner successfully joined the network.\n");
     } else {
         printk("Joiner failed to join the network: %d\n", error);
     }
 }
 
 // Start the joiner process
 void start_joiner(void)
 {
     otError error = otJoinerStart(ot_instance, JOINER_PSKD, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, joiner_callback, NULL);
     if (error == OT_ERROR_NONE) {
         printk("Joiner started successfully.\n");
     } else {
         printk("Failed to start joiner, retrying in %d ms...\n", JOINER_RETRY_DELAY_MS);
         // Retry after a delay if joiner fails to start
         k_sleep(K_MSEC(JOINER_RETRY_DELAY_MS));
         start_joiner();
     }
 }
 
 int main(void)
 {
     ot_instance = otInstanceInitSingle();
     if (ot_instance == NULL) {
         printk("Failed to initialize OpenThread instance.\n");
         return 0;
     }
 
     otError error = otIp6SetEnabled(ot_instance, true);
     if (error != OT_ERROR_NONE) {
         printk("Failed to enable IPv6: %d\n", error);
         return 0;
     }
 
     // Start the joiner process
     start_joiner();
 
     while (1) {
         k_sleep(K_MSEC(1000));
     }
 
 
     return 0;
 }

#
# Copyright (c) 2020 Nordic Semiconductor
#
# SPDX-License-Identifier: LicenseRef-Nordic-5-Clause
#

# Network shell
CONFIG_SHELL=y
CONFIG_OPENTHREAD_SHELL=y
CONFIG_SHELL_ARGC_MAX=26
CONFIG_SHELL_CMD_BUFF_SIZE=416

# Enable OpenThread features set
CONFIG_OPENTHREAD_NORDIC_LIBRARY_MASTER=y

CONFIG_NET_L2_OPENTHREAD=y

# Generic networking options
CONFIG_NETWORKING=y

CONFIG_MBEDTLS_SHA1_C=n
CONFIG_FPU=y

CONFIG_GPIO_SHELL=y

#THREAD CONFIGS
CONFIG_OPENTHREAD_COMMISSIONER=n
CONFIG_OPENTHREAD_JOINER=y
CONFIG_OPENTHREAD_FTD=y

#RTT CONFIG (Turn off if uart is on)
CONFIG_LOG=y
# CONFIG_USE_SEGGER_RTT=y
# CONFIG_RTT_CONSOLE=y
# CONFIG_SHELL_BACKEND_RTT=y

#UART CONFIGS FOR RECEIVING COMMANDS (Turn off if rtt is on)
# CONFIG_LOG=y
# CONFIG_SERIAL=y
# CONFIG_UART_CONSOLE=y
# CONFIG_SHELL=y
# CONFIG_SHELL_BACKEND_SERIAL=y

CONFIG_OPENTHREAD_OPERATIONAL_DATASET_AUTO_INIT=n

I hope this helps with your reconstruction, was using two nRF54L15 dks for this job.

Best regards,

Allan Wang

RE: Joiner callback never being executed

Maria Gilje — Fri, 02 May 2025 15:04:36 GMT

Hi Allan,

I'll try to reproduce this on Monday. If there is more code you have edited than in your screenshot, please share.

Best regards,

Maria

RE: Joiner callback never being executed

Allan-led — Fri, 02 May 2025 00:26:52 GMT

I would also like to follow up,

I have also tried specifying eui64 in commissioner, but that does not work either, same behavior as described above.