USB-BLE Bootloader stuck unable to DFU after DFU process was interrupted

[m.li]

Hello,

We've recently updated our BLE-USB bootloader from using SDK v15.2.0 to v17.0.2 and noticed an issue. Our USB-BLE bootloader was created with the USB-serial bootloader as the base. We then added the ble transport files, soft-device-related files, and relevant sdk config flags on top.

We call the USB-serial dfu in nrfutil using the following command:

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nrfutil dfu usb-serial -pkg package.zip -p COM75

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

nrfutil dfu usb-serial -pkg package.zip -p COM75

When we interrupt the nrfutil dfu (e.g. through keyboard interrupt), the device bootloader will get stuck in a state where subsequent dfu attempts through nrfutil will not go through and output this error message:

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File "C:\Python27\Scripts\nrfutil-script.py", line 11, in <module>

load_entry_point('nrfutil==5.1.0', 'console_scripts', 'nrfutil')()

File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\click-7.1.2-py2.7.egg\click\core.py", line 829, in __call__

return self.main(*args, **kwargs)

File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\click-7.1.2-py2.7.egg\click\core.py", line 782, in main

rv = self.invoke(ctx)

File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\click-7.1.2-py2.7.egg\click\core.py", line 1259, in invoke

return _process_result(sub_ctx.command.invoke(sub_ctx))

File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\click-7.1.2-py2.7.egg\click\core.py", line 1259, in invoke

return _process_result(sub_ctx.command.invoke(sub_ctx))

File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\click-7.1.2-py2.7.egg\click\core.py", line 1066, in invoke

return ctx.invoke(self.callback, **ctx.params)

File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\click-7.1.2-py2.7.egg\click\core.py", line 610, in invoke

return callback(*args, **kwargs)

File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\nrfutil-5.1.0-py2.7.egg\nordicsemi\__main__.py", line 1000, in usb_serial

timeout)

File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\nrfutil-5.1.0-py2.7.egg\nordicsemi\__main__.py", line 955, in do_serial

dfu.dfu_send_images()

File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\nrfutil-5.1.0-py2.7.egg\nordicsemi\dfu\dfu.py", line 129, in dfu_send_images

self._dfu_send_image(self.manifest.application)

File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\nrfutil-5.1.0-py2.7.egg\nordicsemi\dfu\dfu.py", line 102, in _dfu_send_image

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

File "C:\Python27\Scripts\nrfutil-script.py", line 11, in <module>
load_entry_point('nrfutil==5.1.0', 'console_scripts', 'nrfutil')()
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\click-7.1.2-py2.7.egg\click\core.py", line 829, in __call__
return self.main(*args, **kwargs)
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\click-7.1.2-py2.7.egg\click\core.py", line 782, in main
rv = self.invoke(ctx)
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\click-7.1.2-py2.7.egg\click\core.py", line 1259, in invoke
return _process_result(sub_ctx.command.invoke(sub_ctx))
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\click-7.1.2-py2.7.egg\click\core.py", line 1259, in invoke
return _process_result(sub_ctx.command.invoke(sub_ctx))
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\click-7.1.2-py2.7.egg\click\core.py", line 1066, in invoke
return ctx.invoke(self.callback, **ctx.params)
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\click-7.1.2-py2.7.egg\click\core.py", line 610, in invoke
return callback(*args, **kwargs)
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\nrfutil-5.1.0-py2.7.egg\nordicsemi\__main__.py", line 1000, in usb_serial
timeout)
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\nrfutil-5.1.0-py2.7.egg\nordicsemi\__main__.py", line 955, in do_serial
dfu.dfu_send_images()
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\nrfutil-5.1.0-py2.7.egg\nordicsemi\dfu\dfu.py", line 129, in dfu_send_images
self._dfu_send_image(self.manifest.application)
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\nrfutil-5.1.0-py2.7.egg\nordicsemi\dfu\dfu.py", line 102, in _dfu_send_image
self.dfu_transport.send_firmware(data)
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\nrfutil-5.1.0-py2.7.egg\nordicsemi\dfu\dfu_transport_serial.py", line 301, in send_firmware
response['crc'] = self.__stream_data(data=data, crc=response['crc'], offset=i)
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\nrfutil-5.1.0-py2.7.egg\nordicsemi\dfu\dfu_transport_serial.py", line 475, in __stream_data
response = self.__calculate_checksum()
File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\nrfutil-5.1.0-py2.7.egg\nordicsemi\dfu\dfu_transport_serial.py", line 413, in __calculate_checksum
raise NordicSemiException('Did not receive checksum response from DFU target. '
pc_ble_driver_py.exceptions.NordicSemiException: Did not receive checksum response from DFU target. If MSD is enabled on the target device, try to disable it ref. https://wiki.segger.com/index.php?title=J-Link-OB_SAM3U

The device's bootloader is stuck in this mode until we reflash it. We've tried using nrfutil on another computer but dfu still fails with this message. We've also tried this with nrfutil version 6.1.0.

We did not have this issue on the v15.2.0 bootloader. Is there something introduced in the latest SDK revisions since v15.2.0 that causes conflict between the USB and BLE dfu transports?

Thanks for your help.

[Amanda Hsieh]

Hi, 

Sorry for the delay. 

Have you tried to disable the MSD class as the warning suggested (Disabling MSD - remember power-cycle at the end)?

Are you able to update successfully without the keyboard interrupt?

Can you provide the debug log while the error happened? 

What do you update? SD+BL or SD+BL+APP?

Please post the command you are using to generate the package.

See my explanation in this post. 

-Amanda

[m.li]

> Have you tried to disable the MSD class as the warning suggested (Disabling MSD - remember power-cycle at the end)?

We have tried to disable MSD on the J-Link but it did not make a difference. We are also not using the Development Kit.

> Are you able to update successfully without the keyboard interrupt?

Yes, the device is able to be DFU successfully when nrfutil is not interrupted.

> Can you provide the debug log while the error happened? 

We did not log yet as it is a bit difficult to get debug messages set up with the bootloader. Will update with the log when it is available.

> What do you update? SD+BL or SD+BL+APP?

We are only updating the Application.

> Please post the command you are using to generate the package.

We use this command to generate the DFU package:

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nrfutil pkg generate --hw-version 52 --application-version 0 --application app.hex --sd-req 0x00 --sd-id 0x0100 --key-file ../NordicSDK/keys/private.key app_dfu_package.zip

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

nrfutil pkg generate --hw-version 52 --application-version 0 --application app.hex --sd-req 0x00 --sd-id 0x0100 --key-file ../NordicSDK/keys/private.key app_dfu_package.zip

Thanks for your reply.

[Amanda Hsieh]

Hi, 

Does the issue also happen to the unmodified SDK 15.2 bootloader? 

m.li said:

Yes, the device is able to be DFU successfully when nrfutil is not interrupted.

Can the application run successfully after DFU updating?

m.li said:

We did not log yet as it is a bit difficult to get debug messages set up with the bootloader. Will update with the log when it is available.

It's good to have log to know what happen on the device. 

m.li said:

We are only updating the Application.

What is the application? Does it require SD s140_nrf52_7.2.0 to run? Does the board already contain SD s140_nrf52_7.2.0 before DFU updating?

It seems you are running usb-bootloader based on SDK15.2 to update the application running with s140_nrf52_7.2.0. Is that right?

-Amanda