Mac OS & Linux support

[rnouse]

I'm trying to get Thingy91 works under either Mac OS or Linux. Neither of Programmer nor LTE Link Monitor doesn't work. Programmer complains about that device is not in MCU mode, LTE Link Monitor do not get any response from the port. I've tried to hold SW3 before switching Thingy on. I saw MCUBOOT USB device in the list, but dfu-util doesn't report any compatible devices and running with several "-v" arguments doesn't make sense when getting output from libusb. Same for Linux. I've tried to power cycle and hold SW3 many times.

The only way when the Programmer and Monitor works is under Windows. With the first attempt I was able to update firmware & use LTE Monitor. Windows was physically run on the same machine as Linux (dual boot). I've tried to "strace" the process that do DFU-related things under Linux, but there is no glue why it doesn't work: the code tries to write firmware as base64 encoded string and got nothing back. Under Mac OS I use various kind of usb-serial devices with a speed up to 3M without any issues.

And how to get BLE work? I've updated Config.txt file on the virtual flash device to enable BLE, but after power cycling it still not available under BLE tool: it reports operation timeout when attempting to communicate to BLE device even under Windows.

PS. I use the most recent nRF Connect v3.5.0. Tried with Mac OS 10.15.7 and Ubuntu 20.04 (no permission issues while accessing /dev/ttyACMx devices).

[Øyvind]

Hello rnouse,

I'm sorry to hear about these issues. We need to handle one topic at a time here. 

I'm trying to get Thingy91 works under either Mac OS or Linux. Neither of Programmer nor LTE Link Monitor doesn't work. Programmer complains about that device is not in MCU mode, LTE Link Monitor do not get any response from the port. I've tried to hold SW3 before switching Thingy on. I saw MCUBOOT USB device in the list, but dfu-util doesn't report any compatible devices and running with several "-v" arguments doesn't make sense when getting output from libusb. Same for Linux. I've tried to power cycle and hold SW3 many times.

What are you trying to do? What are the error messages you get? Have you updated the modem FW or application FW? Can you please elaborate what "running with several "-v" arguments" means when using the Programmer app? Please note that in order to generate an DFU image for the Thingy:91, one must use NCS. See this information on "Developing and programming from the source code". 

Are you using a new Thingy:91?

Thank you. 

Kind regards,
Øyvind

[rnouse]

I've tried to update Modem firmware as well as Application firmware from the precompiled archives as mentioned over here (just follow up the steps):

https://www.nordicsemi.com/Software-and-tools/Prototyping-platforms/Nordic-Thingy-91/GetStarted#infotabs

The programmer complains:

The LTE Link Monitor even after power cycle can not read anything from the port (neither in Mac nor Linux):

But it works perfectly under Windows. Even after FW upgrade, the device still not reachable from Mac OS or Linux.

On Mac OS the dfu-util shows nothing useful:

$ sudo dfu-util -l  -U aaa.bin -vvvv
dfu-util 0.9

Copyright 2005-2009 Weston Schmidt, Harald Welte and OpenMoko Inc.
Copyright 2010-2016 Tormod Volden and Stefan Schmidt
This program is Free Software and has ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY
Please report bugs to http://sourceforge.net/p/dfu-util/tickets/

[timestamp] [threadID] facility level [function call] <message>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ 0.006530] [00000307] libusb: debug [libusb_get_device_list]
[ 0.006597] [00000307] libusb: debug [libusb_get_device_descriptor]
[ 0.006605] [00000307] libusb: debug [libusb_get_config_descriptor] index 0
[ 0.006618] [00000307] libusb: debug [parse_configuration] skipping descriptor 0xb
[ 0.006635] [00000307] libusb: debug [parse_endpoint] skipping descriptor b
[ 0.006646] [00000307] libusb: debug [libusb_get_device_descriptor]
[ 0.006649] [00000307] libusb: debug [libusb_get_config_descriptor] index 0
[ 0.006654] [00000307] libusb: debug [libusb_get_device_descriptor]
[ 0.006657] [00000307] libusb: debug [libusb_get_config_descriptor] index 0
[ 0.006661] [00000307] libusb: debug [libusb_get_device_descriptor]
[ 0.006664] [00000307] libusb: debug [libusb_get_config_descriptor] index 0
dfu-util: No DFU capable USB device available

I've tried different combos of "-d" values to explicitly set the vendor:product ids as well as using "-D" param instead of reading "-U" to actually write an image in hex format.

The Thingy91 is the one I recently ordered. On the box it is labeled as: 1.4.0 / 2020.24 (same on the PCB's label).

[Øyvind]

Hello, 

Just to be clear, were you able to update modem FW at one point? Using MCUboot to update modem will also wipe the application area, which means you must program the application again. This would explain why you do not have anything in the output of LTE Link Monitor (if mcuboot is not enabled on device)

Have you ensured that the "Enable MCUboot" is tagged when running either modem update or application update?

I'm not familiar with the dfu-util, and can't help with that I'm afraid.

Can you provide a full screenshot of the programmer app? What more is showing in the device list:

Kind regards,
Øyvind

[rnouse]

Programmer:

An attempt to write Modem firmware and Application:

Under Windows:

I can (re-)program it successfully:

LTE Link Monitor works well:

But even under Windows, BLE doesn't work:

The Config.txt has this line:

BLE_ENABLED=1

[rnouse]

Re dfu-util, it was requested by Getting Started Assistant. Usually, DFU used as a method to program ARM Cortex SoCs through serial port instead of JTAG/SWD/whatever: