Combined bootloader(BLE + Serial USB) without security

[naga_nordic]

Hi.,

I would like to develop custom boot loader(Combined USB serial and BLE- bootloder) for nrf52580 device., without security feature.,

Environment:

- nrf52580

- Eclipse IDE

- GNU arm gcc compiler

 Does there exists a solution for a combined boot loader without security?

 Is it possible to integrate a combined boot loader into the limited Boot Flash area?

[Anne van Rossum]

Is this gonna be addressed? The size of the bootloader grew out of control. We reserved enough headspace for the bootloader (almost 4k), but you guys blew past it with almost doubling it size. Configurability is then key. We should be able to remove the features we don't want, e.g. the encryption libs, etc. Is someone working on that?

[tesc]

Hi,

There was a size increase from the legacy DFU bootloader (SDK 11 and earlier) to the secure DFU bootloader (SDK 12 and newer). After that we have been strict on keeping the bootloader within the size bounds.

While I do not know the specifics of future versions of the bootloader, both providing features for various usage scenarios and maintaining the upgrade path are important. Configurability might offer a solution for those seemingly incompatible constraints.

From what I can tell you are looking for a configuration option for the DFU bootloader so that it uses legacy DFU (and takes up less flash space). For any requests or details on future products and roadmaps, please contact our regional sales manager for your area. If you do not know who that is then please ask in a private ticket or in a private message and we will let you know.

Regards,
Terje

[Constantin]

Is there already a version released which is the combination of both USB and BLE. The manual merge seems kind of hacky.

[tesc]

Hi,

Please note that for new projects we recommend nRF Connect SDK, and not the now-in-maintenance-mode nRF5 SDK. If you already have a product based on nRF5 SDK, on the other hand, sticking to nRF5 SDK based firmware may be the best option since we do not have any straight-forward DFU paths from nRF5 SDK to nRF Connect SDK. For more details, please have a look at our nRF Connect SDK and nRF5 SDK statement.

Combining USB and BLE transports became a little bit easier in the later releases of nRF5 SDK, but I am afraid you still need to combine it yourself. In nRF5 SDK 17 it should be enough to add the files needed for the transports, including USB dependencies, and maybe do some configurations in the sdk_config.h file. There is one known pitfall worth mentioning: The BLE transport uses the SoftDevice Flash backend while the serial transports do not. Because of this, it may be necessary to do some trickery for the flash handling libraries to initialize using the SoftDevice Flash backend.

Since this is a four year old thread related to nRF5 SDK v15, I kindly ask you to create a new thread if you need further help or get any issues with the nRF5 SDK v17 based solution. Things have changed between those SDK releases, so solutions for one is not necessarily valid for the other.

Regards,
Terje