Upgrade firmware from gateway to node over using nRF Connect SDK

[Anirudh Agarkhed]

Base Samples used -

1. Central DFU SMP Client - <ncs>/nrf/samples/bluetooth/central_dfu_smp

2. SMP Server sample - <ncs>/zephyr/samples/subsys/mgmt/mcumgr/smp_svr

Procedure followed -

1. In the SMP Server sample, commented out "CONFIG_MCUMGR_CMD_FS_MGMT" and "CONFIG_MCUMGR_SMP_SHELL" and kept it running nRF52840DK.

2. Made "hello_world" sample compatible with MCUBoot and generated "app_update.bin".

3. Enabled QSPI flash, LFS and pushed the "app_update.bin" using nRF Device Manager File upload on a modified Central DFU SMP Client running on another nRF52840DK

4. Populated the SMP Command header with Command Group - 1 (IMG_MGMT), Command ID - 1 (Image upload), Operation ID - 2 (Write)

5. As mentioned in this SMP Server limitation, used "seq_num" of the header from base index 0 and also base index 1, to indicate that the data transmitted is part of the same command.

6. Uploaded image is not available in the SMP Server node.

Observations -

1. When the same SMP Server node is used with nRF Connect for Mobile / nRF Device Manager, image upload works fine and the new firmware boots up.

Questions -

1. Is the procedure followed correct? Is there any sample that can help with uploading a firmware image and boot it, from Zephyr (NCS) to Zephyr (NCS) running nodes?

2. In the SMP Server limitation , what does "whole command to be sent in one transfer" mean?

3. Kindly feel free to request any information that could help make the DFU procedure work.

[Simon]

I tried to follow your points, but I did not understand what you're were trying to do. If you could add some explanations to each step, that would be nice.

I do not have too much in-depth knowldege about CBOR, but I think I know what needs to be done in order to achieve your goal: "uploading a firmware image and boot it, from Zephyr (NCS) to Zephyr (NCS) running nodes". I think you have to copy the function send_smp_echo() into several function, to make it possible to issue the commands image upload, image list, image test, reset and image confirm. In addition to the echo command.

Then you can store a .bin file with the image to be upload on the device (or external flash) with the central_dfu_smp sample and transfer it over BLE to another device with the smp_svr sample.

If you're unsure how to go about this, please ask, and I will do some more investigation and try to assist you.

Best regards,

Simon

[Anirudh Agarkhed]

I understood the steps to complete the DFU. As of now, I could do the steps "image upload", "image list", "reset" successfully. Now facing this issue - Image uploads successfully, and on "image list" command, I get both the slots listed. However when I send "image confirm" using following header and payload, state does not change to "pending":true, which would be required for the slot 1 image to boot up.

cbor_buf_writer_init(&writer, smp_cmd.payload, sizeof(smp_cmd.payload));
cbor_encoder_init(&cbor, &writer.enc, 0);
cbor_encoder_create_map(&cbor, &cbor_map, 2);

	
cbor_encode_text_stringz(&cbor_map, "confirm");
cbor_encode_boolean(&cbor_map, true);

cbor_encode_text_stringz(&cbor_map, "hash");
cbor_encode_text_string(&cbor_map, firmware_hash_sha, strlen(firmware_hash_sha));
	
cbor_encoder_close_container(&cbor, &cbor_map);

payload_len = (size_t)(writer.ptr - smp_cmd.payload);

smp_cmd.header.op = 2;
smp_cmd.header.flags = 0;
smp_cmd.header.len_h8 = (uint8_t)((payload_len >> 8) & 0xFF);
smp_cmd.header.len_l8 = (uint8_t)((payload_len >> 0) & 0xFF);
smp_cmd.header.group_h8 = 0;
smp_cmd.header.group_l8 = 1;
smp_cmd.header.seq = 0;
smp_cmd.header.id = 0;

What should be the header and payload for "image test" and "image confirm"?

[Simon]

I'll look into this the upcoming Monday/Tuesday.

Best regards,

Simon

[Anirudh Agarkhed]

Fixed the issue. In that snippet, used CBOR Byte String encode instead of text string encode, and converted the firmware_hash_sha to upper case hex representation (i.e. 0xae to 0xAE). TEST and Confirm swap types are working now. Thank you for spending time on the issue.