nrfutil 6.1.0 on raspberry pi 4 -- what SD API version to use?

[RMV]

Hi

I want to use nrfutil as a command line tool on a Raspberry Pi 4 box.

Out of the box, I could not install nrfutil (missing drivers?) compatible with Python3 so I tried Python 2.
I was able to install nrfutil but could not run it -- kept getting run time errors that pc-ble-driver libraries could not be loaded (or something similar to that sort of error).

Then I downloaded and build the pc-ble-driver from sources, as documented here. After a lot of struggles, I was finally able to get a build for Python3.

*** BUT ***

The build generated multiple shared libraries with filenames ending in _v2.so, _v3.so, _v4.so, _v4.so, _v6.so.

The nrfutil error message was saying that it could not find the shared library 'libpc_ble_driver_shared_sd_api_v3.so' but none of the files generated by the build match this name.
On a whim, I created a soft link from the generated file 'libnrf-ble-driver-sd_api_v3.so' to a file named 'libpc_ble_driver_shared_sd_api_v3.so' and added this folder to the environment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

Now, the nrfutil loads this shared object but I get the error trace:

  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/dist-packages/nordicsemi/__main__.py", line 67, in ble_driver_init
    from pc_ble_driver_py.ble_driver    import BLEDriver, Flasher
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.7/dist-packages/pc_ble_driver_py/ble_driver.py", line 112, in <module>
    driver = importlib.import_module(SWIG_MODULE_NAME)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.7/importlib/__init__.py", line 127, in import_module
    return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pc_ble_driver_sd_api_v3'

My question(s) are:

1. What is the actual/correct version of the generated shared objects that should be pulled into the nrfutil?

2. Why is the error referring to version 3 of the API while all of the documentation I see for the nRF52 DK (with nRF52832) state that the BLE Driver API to use is v5.0?

3. How do I 'install' the compiled pc-ble-driver so that the nrfutil python installation can correctly and properly find my build from sources?

Cheers

RMV

[Vidar Berg]

I was doing DFU with nrfutil v.6.1.0 and everything appeared to be stable. However, I was using the nRF52840 Dongle with the built-in nRF USB and not a dev kit with the J-link USB. Have you disabled the Mass Storage class on your  J-link: https://developer.nordicsemi.com/nRF_Connect_SDK/doc/latest/zephyr/guides/tools/nordic_segger.html#nordic-segger-msd?

[RMV]

Disabling the Mass Storage Device seems to work. Just one note though that the JLink for ARM is different from JLink for Linux-32 bit (which is what I tried initially but got an architecture mismatch).

Thanks for all your help, Vidar.

[Vidar Berg]

Good to hear. Thanks for confirming that it worked.

[RMV]

Vidar Berg said:

pc_ble_driver_py-0.15.0-cp37-cp37m-linux_armv7l.whl

Just a suggestion based on my use case.

The top level function raises exceptions for different kinds of failures.

Specifically, the 'NordicSemiException' generates descriptive error messages but those are quite verbose and different to match even with regular expressions.

However, this class also has the attribute ErrorCode which is currently always set to 'None'. It would be helpful if this attribute could be updated with perhaps some integral values to designate specific errors so that the callee can quickly distinguish betwee the error conditions and take corrective action.