nRF Command Line Tools for ARM aarch64?

[Roger Leigh]

Hi folks,

Looking at the nRF Command Line Tools download page, I can see versions of the nRF Command Line Tools for Linux, MacOS and Windows.  The Linux versions come as variants for 32- and 64-bit Intel.  Is there a build for ARM aarch64?  If not, is that something you might consider providing in the future?  ARM now provide their GNU ARM Embedded toolchain for these three platforms, and it would be very useful it it was possible to directly build and flash on aarch64.

If you don't provide binaries, is it possible to build the command line tools from source?

Thanks, Roger

[Einar Thorsrud]

Hi Roger,

We do not share the source code for the command line tools. However I have forwarded your request for official builds to the responsible team so that they can look into it.

Einar

[Anne van Rossum]

Hi Einar,

At https://www.nordicsemi.com/Products/Development-tools/nRF-Command-Line-Tools/Download I see there's an image for Darwin and for 32-bit ARM.

However, there are quite a few scenarios in which people have a 64-bit ARM / aarch64. Not just M1.

Currently, I've for example a docker with all tools available for a Raspberry PI 4 (yes, aarch64) apart from the nRF Command Line Tools.

You already support armhf, and you've compiled for the M1, so just a .deb for arm64 should be easy now as well!

#8 1363.7  package architecture (armhf) does not match system (arm64)
#8 1363.8 Errors were encountered while processing:
#8 1363.8  /bluenet/tools/nrfjprog/nrf-command-line-tools_10.15.0_armhf.deb

If you can forward that to the team as well, would be splendid!

Anne

[Einar Thorsrud]

Hi Anne,

I have forwarded your request to the team responsible for commanding tools. I cannot say when there will be a release built for aarch64, though.

[Anne van Rossum]

Super!

I'll experimenting with the 32-bit binaries on the 64-bit architecture, but these requires CONFIG_COMPAT to be set in the kernel which won't always be the case.

For the diligent reader (this is what you can do you in your docker):

# Add support for armhf (32-bit arm binaries) required for nRF command line tools
RUN echo "deb [arch=armhf] http://ports.ubuntu.com/ focal main universe" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
RUN echo "deb-src [arch=armhf] http://ports.ubuntu.com/ focal main universe" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
RUN dpkg --add-architecture armhf

RUN apt-get update 

# The 32-bit ARM dependencies of nRF command line tools
RUN apt-get install -y libc6:armhf libudev1:armhf libusb-1.0-0:armhf

Or the equivalent commands on your aarch64 itself. Not tested.