Zephyr and OpenThread join support

[Louis]

While attempting to join a network formed by the OpenThread border router reference implementation and an external commissioner using the Android app, my zephyr end device (based on the lwm2m client sample) ends up failing an assertion:

assertion "awaited_property == AWAITED_PROPERTY_NONE" failed: file "WEST_TOPDIR/zephyr/modules/hal_nordic/nrf_802154/serialization/platform/nrf_802154_spinel_response_notifier.c", line 63, function: nrf_802154_spinel_response_notifier_lock_before_request

I'm not sure I'm doing this properly. CONFIG_OPENTHREAD_CUSTOM_PARAMETERS has to be set in order to be able to link the binary which I think is a little suspicious and not documented as far as I know:

CONFIG_OPENTHREAD_JOINER=y
CONFIG_OPENTHREAD_CUSTOM_PARAMETERS="OPENTHREAD_CONFIG_JOINER_ENABLE=1"
CONFIG_OPENTHREAD_JOINER_AUTOSTART=y
CONFIG_OPENTHREAD_JOINER_PSKD="J01NU5"
CONFIG_MBEDTLS_HEAP_SIZE=10240

[Carl Richard]

Hello, Louis!

Are you using Zephyr standalone or the nRF Connect SDK, based on Zephyr? In the latter we provide a OpenThread configuration guide and samples that should be more straightforward to setup with our devices. 

I will ask the developers about the issue you're seeing here.

Best regards,
Carl Richard

[Louis]

Thanks,

I'm using the nRF SDK. I tried to add join support to the cli sample. Configuring the application with OPENTHREAD_JOINER_AUTOSTART didin't do anything (no failed assertion but no join either). So I added a "join button" (project here) and ended up with the same failed assertion.

[Carl Richard]

Hi again!

Apologies for the long delay here, but I've finally managed to reproduce your issue using an nRF5340 and external commissioning through a border router setup according to this codelabs tutorial. I will do further investigation, but it's clear that something is not correct here. Thank you for your patience!

Best regards,
Carl Richard

[Louis]

Thanks. No problem for the delay.

[Louis]

Hi Carl,

Just doing a follow-up on this. 

[Øyvind]

Hello, 

I have been assigned this ticket as Carl Richard is currently out of office. 

Since last response, we have release version 1.7.0 of nRF Connect SDK which should have better support for OpenThread and the border router. Could you please try to upgrade to 1.7.0? I fear that the developers will ask the same questions, as I see that there are no updates in the internal ticket.

Kind regards,
Øyvind

[Louis]

Hello Øyvind,

I confirm that the issue is still there with 1.7:

assertion "awaited_property == AWAITED_PROPERTY_NONE" failed: file "WEST_TOPDIR/zephyr/modules/hal_nordic/nrf_802154/serialization/platform/nrf_802154_spinel_response_notifier.c", line 63, function: nrf_802154_spinel_response_notifier_lock_before_request
exit

[Øyvind]

Thank you! I have forwarded to our Thread developers. Will get back to you when I hear back from them.

Kind regards,
Øyvind

[Øyvind]

Hello, 

One of my colleagues tried to reproduce the issue using NCS v1.7.x. Could you please try to install a fresh install of NCS v1.7.x via our Toolchain Manager?

Kind regards,
Øyvind

[Louis]

I started again with the exact same set of openthread options used with the cli sample and I'm now able to join with the 1.7.