NCS v1.7.0 Toolchain for nRF9160 + nRF52840 Dual-IC Gateway (Fanstel BLG840FB4) — Build Environment and Migration Guidance

[Kirolos Sedra]

Hi Nordic team,
We have a production firmware developed on nRF Connect SDK v1.7.0 targeting a Fanstel BLG840FB4 gateway module (nRF9160 SiP + nRF52840 SoC). We are trying to rebuild the firmware from source and are hitting toolchain and environment issues. We would appreciate Nordic's guidance on the following.

1. Correct Toolchain for NCS v1.7.0
The nrfutil sdk-manager only lists SDK versions from v2.0.0 onward. We understand v1.7.0 can be set up manually via west init / west update. Could you confirm:
The exact GCC ARM Embedded Toolchain version validated against NCS v1.7.0 — we believe it is gcc-arm-none-eabi-10-2020-q4-major. Can you confirm?
The correct Zephyr SDK version, if applicable.

• Whether the legacy toolchain bundles are still available at files.nordicsemi.com/ui/native/swtools/external/legacy-toolchains/, and which bundle corresponds to v1.7.0.

2. nRF9160 Modem Firmware Compatibility
Which modem firmware version is validated with NCS v1.7.0? We want to ensure our modem firmware is compatible before flashing.

3. Migration Path if v1.7.0 Is No Longer Practical
If Nordic considers NCS v1.7.0 too old to support, what is the recommended minimum migration target for an existing nRF9160 LTE + nRF52840 BLE codebase? We are looking for the version that requires the least refactoring of:

• LTE link control and modem libraries
• MQTT / TLS socket APIs
• Multi-image build (nRF9160 + nRF52840)

We suspect NCS v2.1.x or v2.2.x may be the closest stepping stone from 1.7.0, before the larger TF-M and sysbuild changes landed. Can you confirm whether that is a reasonable migration path, or if there is a better target?

4. Board Support
The BLG840FB4 is a Fanstel product. We are requesting board-level DTS/overlay files from Fanstel separately. If Nordic has any generic dual-IC gateway reference (nRF9160 + nRF52840) board definitions that may be close to this hardware, pointers would be helpful.

Environment Details
ItemDetailHost OS Windows 11 and Windos 10 Current NCSv1.7.0 (cloned via west)Target hardwareFanstel BLG840FB4 (nRF9160 SICA + nRF52840 QIAA)Use caseBLE-to-LTE gateway, MQTT over TLS to cloud. 





Thank you for any guidance.
Best regards,
Kirolos

[Achim Kraus]

My 2 cent (I'm just an other user):

AFAIK the Fanstel module was just using the nRF9160-DK board definitions with an overlay (at least that was the case 2 or 3 years ago, when I was testing it).

Even NCS v2.2.x is somehow deprecated, the current versions would be v.3.2.3 (or v3.1.2).

How hard it will be to migrate from a that old version (1.7), isn't easy to say.

In some cases, the app was build adapting a sample, e.g. the a http, mqtt, coap or udp sample. If so, it may be easier to use the current version of that sample and try to adapt that again.