FOTA update for nrf52840 dongle not working.

[GoRo3]

Hi!

I'm trying to prepare FOTA firmware using instructions provided by: FOTA upgrades but it seems not working.I have couple of issues and questions. Please help me. 

My environment is NCS 1.6.1 and nrf52840 dongle. I have choose an open-thread cli sample from SDK. Because I need to develop open-thread application. And I have connected UART-USB converter to pins described by .dts file as UART0 (Yes i'm aware of crossing RX and TX): 

&uart0 {
	compatible = "nordic,nrf-uarte";
	status = "okay";
	current-speed = <115200>;
	tx-pin = <20>;
	rx-pin = <24>;
	rts-pin = <17>;
	cts-pin = <22>;
};

So when I'm running on dongle CLI example it works correctly. I see a CLI on my minicom terminal and are able to write commands to configure open-thread. But the problem is when I'm trying to add CONFIG_BOOTLOADER_MCUBOOT. So: 

1. I have got a flash partition error of mcuboot and need to add to "west" command this cmake variable: "-Dmcuboot_OVERLAY_CONFIG=$(pwd)/usb_cdc_acm_log_recovery.conf" and change partition size to 0x10000 this is full config file: 

CONFIG_PM_PARTITION_SIZE_MCUBOOT=0x10000
CONFIG_LOG=y

# The build won't fit on the partition allocated for it without size
# optimizations.
CONFIG_SIZE_OPTIMIZATIONS=y

# Serial
CONFIG_SERIAL=y
CONFIG_UART_LINE_CTRL=y

# MCUBoot serial
CONFIG_MCUBOOT_SERIAL=y
CONFIG_BOOT_SERIAL_CDC_ACM=y

CONFIG_LOG_BACKEND_UART=y
CONFIG_LOG_BACKEND_RTT=n

Now i'm able to compile application with mcuboot. But problem is when I try to run this application. So I have created a .zip file from "merged.hex" file using this command: 

nrfutil pkg generate --hw-version 52 --sd-req=0x00 \
        --application build/zephyr/merged.hex \
        --application-version 1 cli.zip

and upload it using this command: 

nrfutil dfu usb-serial -pkg cli.zip -p /dev/tty.usbmodemD4911D54D2A41

And after that the board is "dead" no cli prompt and no reaction to any inputs. I have tried to use mcuboot serial recovery mode on bootloader and when using command "mynewt-mcumgr-cli --conntype=serial --connstring='dev=/dev/tty.usbmodem14101,baud=115200' image list" i got this: 

Images:
Split status: N/A (0)

So i suspect just nothing works.

And my final question. Do I need to make some special configuration to enable logging over serial in mcuboot? I don't see any logs on my UART adapter. 

So if you could assist me how to run mcuboot application on dongle i will be much appreciated. It's blocking my development now. 

Thanks in advance! 

[Øyvind]

Hello,

I'm not sure I understand what you are trying to achieve. Can you please elaborate? In our OpenThread documentation the nrf52840dongle_nrf52840 is used as RCP to connect the OpenThread Border Router. In the documentation for programming the dongle, MCUBoot is not used, which I think is the reason for the board is "dead". 

For development we highly encourage developers to use our nRF52840 DK which is much more friendly in regards to programming.

Kind regards,
Øyvind

[GoRo3]

Hi. 

I need to develop sensor based on openThread. But I want to use some kind of Over The Air updates. So I have started development od basic steps - need to have update over the air. It could be FOTA as in FOTA upgrades described or DFU - this examples I didn't find in NCS. 

I try to configure use of MCUboot to get FOTA upgrades but, on all examples that I have tried it didn't work. You could take even basic zephyr or NCS blinky examples. When adding CONFIG_BOOTLOADER_MCUBOOT to their prj.conf and reproducing my steps from above the dongle is not working. Won't boot-up and no logs printed to the serial.

I'm on it for couple of days now and pretty frustrated. All information that i find on the documents or forum is not solving my problem. Se question is what i'm doing wrong? 

I have tried this on 52832dk, and it works out of the box (using west flash cmd)- so i suppose that problem is with dongle configuration. 52840DK I will have in couple of weeks as it is not ordered yet but I have bunch of dongles from last project. 

[Øyvind]

Hello, 

First of all, in the nRF Connect SDK v1.6.1, have you verified that the Thread:CLI sample supports nRF52840 Dongle? This is added in the latest version of NCS, coming v1.7.0.

The mix of nrfutil and mcuboot is most likely what is causing issues here. 

Can you please try running nrfutil dfu with zephyr.hex instead of merged.hex? I will would highly encourage you to move to a DK, as the dongle is not designed for development use.

Kind regards,
Øyvind

[GoRo3]

Hi. 

I think we could drop a Thread:CLI sample for now. It's not relevant to the problem. I have made some progress but still program crashes. I have taken a ble_lbs example and try to compile it with mcuboot enable. This is my configuration: 

# BEGIN Configurations from basic/minimal

CONFIG_NCS_SAMPLES_DEFAULTS=y

CONFIG_BT=y
CONFIG_BT_PERIPHERAL=y
CONFIG_BT_DEVICE_NAME="Nordic_LBS"

# Enable the LBS service
CONFIG_BT_LBS=y
CONFIG_BT_LBS_POLL_BUTTON=y
CONFIG_DK_LIBRARY=y

CONFIG_BOOTLOADER_MCUBOOT=y

# Drivers and peripherals
CONFIG_I2C=n
CONFIG_WATCHDOG=n
CONFIG_GPIO=n
CONFIG_PINMUX=n
CONFIG_SPI=n
CONFIG_SERIAL=n

# Power management
CONFIG_PM=n

# Interrupts
CONFIG_DYNAMIC_INTERRUPTS=n
CONFIG_IRQ_OFFLOAD=n

# Memory protection
CONFIG_THREAD_STACK_INFO=n
CONFIG_THREAD_CUSTOM_DATA=n
CONFIG_FPU=n

# Boot
CONFIG_BOOT_BANNER=n
CONFIG_BOOT_DELAY=0

# Console
CONFIG_CONSOLE=n
CONFIG_UART_CONSOLE=n
CONFIG_STDOUT_CONSOLE=n
CONFIG_PRINTK=n
CONFIG_EARLY_CONSOLE=n

# Build
CONFIG_SIZE_OPTIMIZATIONS=y

# ARM
CONFIG_ARM_MPU=n
# END Configurations from basic/minimal

# In order to correctly tune the stack sizes for the threads the following
# Configurations can enabled to print the current use:
CONFIG_THREAD_NAME=y
CONFIG_THREAD_ANALYZER=y
CONFIG_THREAD_ANALYZER_AUTO=y
CONFIG_THREAD_ANALYZER_RUN_UNLOCKED=y
CONFIG_THREAD_ANALYZER_USE_PRINTK=y
CONFIG_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_UART_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_SERIAL=y
CONFIG_PRINTK=y
CONFIG_EARLY_CONSOLE=y

# Example output of thread analyzer
# SDC RX              : unused 816 usage 208 / 1024 (20 %)
# BT RX               : unused 1784 usage 416 / 2200 (18 %)
# BT TX               : unused 992 usage 544 / 1536 (35 %)
# thread_analyzer     : unused 136 usage 376 / 512 (73 %)
# sysworkq            : unused 1824 usage 224 / 2048 (10 %)
# MPSL signal         : unused 520 usage 504 / 1024 (49 %)
# idle 00             : unused 192 usage 64 / 256 (25 %)
# main                : unused 136 usage 888 / 1024 (86 %)
# Configurations set based on thread analyzer output.
CONFIG_SDC_RX_STACK_SIZE=324
CONFIG_BT_RX_STACK_SIZE=1024
CONFIG_BT_HCI_TX_STACK_SIZE_WITH_PROMPT=y
CONFIG_BT_HCI_TX_STACK_SIZE=640
CONFIG_SYSTEM_WORKQUEUE_STACK_SIZE=256
CONFIG_MPSL_SIGNAL_STACK_SIZE=640
CONFIG_MAIN_STACK_SIZE=1024
CONFIG_IDLE_STACK_SIZE=128
CONFIG_ISR_STACK_SIZE=1024

# Disable features not needed
CONFIG_TIMESLICING=n
CONFIG_MINIMAL_LIBC_MALLOC=n
CONFIG_LOG=y
CONFIG_ASSERT=y

# Disable Bluetooth features not needed
CONFIG_BT_DEBUG_NONE=y
CONFIG_BT_ASSERT=y
CONFIG_BT_DATA_LEN_UPDATE=n
CONFIG_BT_PHY_UPDATE=n
CONFIG_BT_GATT_CACHING=n
CONFIG_BT_GATT_SERVICE_CHANGED=n
CONFIG_BT_GAP_PERIPHERAL_PREF_PARAMS=n
CONFIG_BT_SETTINGS_CCC_LAZY_LOADING=y
CONFIG_BT_HCI_VS_EXT=n

# Disable Bluetooth controller features not needed
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_PRIVACY=n
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_PHY_2M=n

# Reduce Bluetooth buffers
CONFIG_BT_BUF_EVT_DISCARDABLE_COUNT=1
CONFIG_BT_BUF_EVT_DISCARDABLE_SIZE=43
CONFIG_BT_BUF_EVT_RX_COUNT=2

CONFIG_BT_CONN_TX_MAX=2
CONFIG_BT_L2CAP_TX_BUF_COUNT=2
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_RX_BUFFERS=1
CONFIG_BT_BUF_ACL_TX_COUNT=3
CONFIG_BT_BUF_ACL_TX_SIZE=27

CONFIG_MCUMGR_SMP_BT=y
CONFIG_MCUMGR_SMP_BT_AUTHEN=n
CONFIG_MCUMGR_SMP_SHELL=y

And after building I'm writing `merged.hex` to the board using `nrfutil`. Thank to enabling uart_console and adding uart<->USB converter I see this error: 

Starting Bluetooth Peripheral LBS example
I: No GC Done marker found: restarting gc
ThrE: ***** BUS FAULT *****
E:   Imprecise data bus error
E: r0/a1:  0x00000031  r1/a2:  0x00000065  r2/a3:  0xb0000000
E: r3/a4:  0x00037011 r12/ip:  0xaaaaaaaa r14/lr:  0x0002ab3b
E:  xpsr:  0x21000000
E: Faulting instruction address (r15/pc): 0x00037012
E: >>> ZEPHYR FATAL ERROR 0: CPU exception on CPU 0
E: Current thread: 0x20001450 (thread_analyzer)
Starting Bluetooth Peripheral LBS example
I: No GC Done marker found: restarting gc
ThrE: ***** BUS FAULT *****
E:   Imprecise data bus error
E: r0/a1:  0x00000040  r1/a2:  0x00000065  r2/a3:  0xb0000000
E: r3/a4:  0x00037011 r12/ip:  0xaaaaaaaa r14/lr:  0x0002ab3b
E:  xpsr:  0x01000000
E: Faulting instruction address (r15/pc): 0x000234f6
E: >>> ZEPHYR FATAL ERROR 0: CPU exception on CPU 0
E: Current thread: 0x20001450 (thread_analyzer)
Starting Bluetooth Peripheral LBS example
I: No GC Done marker found: restarting gc
ThrE: ***** BUS FAULT *****
E:   Imprecise data bus error
E: r0/a1:  0x00000000  r1/a2:  0x00000065  r2/a3:  0x00037644
E: r3/a4:  0x40002000 r12/ip:  0xaaaaaaaa r14/lr:  0x0002ab33
E:  xpsr:  0x21000000
E: Faulting instruction address (r15/pc): 0x00036552
E: >>> ZEPHYR FATAL ERROR 0: CPU exception on CPU 0
E: Current thread: 0x20001450 (thread_analyzer)

I have check addresses using `arm-none-eabi-addr2line` I so where error occurs. And it is in: 

MBP-Grzegorz:peripheral_lbs $ ~/Programowanie/Nordic/gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2019-q4-major/bin/arm-none-eabi-addr2line -e build/zephyr/zephyr.elf 0x000234f6
/Volumes/Programowanie/Nordic/ncs/modules/hal/nordic/nrfx/soc/nrfx_coredep.h:172
MBP-Grzegorz:peripheral_lbs $ ~/Programowanie/Nordic/gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2019-q4-major/bin/arm-none-eabi-addr2line -e build/zephyr/zephyr.elf 0x00036552
/Users/grzegorz/Programowanie/Nordic/ncs/zephyr/drivers/serial/uart_nrfx_uarte.c:469
MBP-Grzegorz:peripheral_lbs $ ~/Programowanie/Nordic/gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2019-q4-major/bin/arm-none-eabi-addr2line -e build/zephyr/zephyr.elf 0x00037012
??:0
MBP-Grzegorz:peripheral_lbs $ ~/Programowanie/Nordic/gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2019-q4-major/bin/arm-none-eabi-addr2line -e build/zephyr/zephyr.elf 0x0002ab3b
/Users/grzegorz/Programowanie/Nordic/ncs/zephyr/drivers/serial/uart_nrfx_uarte.c:485

So moving further analyzing this address I see that error occur at: 

* 0x0002ab3b

static int wait_tx_ready(const struct device *dev)
{
	int key;

	do {
		/* wait arbitrary time before back off. */
		bool res;

		NRFX_WAIT_FOR(is_tx_ready(dev), 100, 1, res); <----- HERE! 

		if (res) {
			key = irq_lock();
			if (is_tx_ready(dev)) {
				break;
			}

			irq_unlock(key);
		}
		if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_MULTITHREADING)) {
			k_msleep(1);
		}
	} while (1);

	return key;
}

* 0x00037012

static bool is_tx_ready(const struct device *dev)
{
	NRF_UARTE_Type *uarte = get_uarte_instance(dev);
	bool ppi_endtx = get_dev_config(dev)->flags & UARTE_CFG_FLAG_PPI_ENDTX;

	return nrf_uarte_event_check(uarte, NRF_UARTE_EVENT_TXSTOPPED) ||
		(!ppi_endtx ?
		       nrf_uarte_event_check(uarte, NRF_UARTE_EVENT_ENDTX) : 0); <--- HERE! 
}

So do you know what could cause the problem? 

When using this example without MCUBOOT enabled of course it works. I have taken the nrf 52832DK and try on it and the problem don't occur. I suppose it's related to nrf52840dongle configuration. 

[Øyvind]

Ok, let's start from scratch. The as stated in the nRF52840 Dongle page under Supported boards in Zephyr: 
The board is factory-programmed with Nordic’s bootloader from Nordic’s nRF5 SDK. With this option, you’ll use Nordic’s nrfutil program to create firmware packages supported by this bootloader and flash them to the device. That said, it is also possible to use the MCUboot bootloader with this board to flash Zephyr applications. You need to do some one-time set-up to build and flash MCUboot on your board. From that point on, you can build and flash other Zephyr applications using MCUboot’s serial recovery mode. This process does not overwrite the built-in Nordic bootloader. This is from Using MCUboot in Serial Recovery Mode subchapter.

Can you please follow the instructions from the latter link and let me know how that works for you?

Thanks. 

Kind regards,
Øyvind

[GoRo3]

Okej. So... about this topic: Using MCUboot in Serial Recovery Mode. It's not quite correct described because out of the box it doesn't work. I was suppose to make another topic on the forum about it. 

There are two bugs. 

1. If you will build mcuboot as described in first stage of preparations it will build correctly. And you will be able to upload .zip package using DFU. But when you will build "smp_svr" as described there will be error. From reasons I don't know MCUBOOT configuration is larger and compiled binary don't fit on it's partition: 

/Volumes/Programowanie/Nordic/gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2019-q4-major/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/9.2.1/../../../../arm-none-eabi/bin/ld.bfd: zephyr/zephyr_prebuilt.elf section `text' will not fit in region `FLASH'
/Volumes/Programowanie/Nordic/gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2019-q4-major/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-none-eabi/9.2.1/../../../../arm-none-eabi/bin/ld.bfd: region `FLASH' overflowed by 6108 bytes
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
ninja: build stopped: subcommand failed.

Of corse there is some solution for that. Need to add a

"CONFIG_PM_PARTITION_SIZE_MCUBOOT=0x10000" (this is described in one of the tutorial on this forum) to dongle configuration file. But i have doubts that addresses of the final binary will be the same as those in first section build of mcuboot. 

But when you accomplish building this binary there will be a signed image generated at the end. And it's good because this leads as to another bug. 

2. When I try to run cmd: "west sign -t imgtool --bin --no-hex -d build/smp_svr -B smp_svr.signed.bin -- --key mcuboot/root-rsa-2048.pem "  it's exit with error: 

west sign -t imgtool --bin --no-hex -d build/smp_svr \
          -B smp_svr.signed.bin -- --key ./bootloader/mcuboot/root-rsa-2048.pem
=== image configuration:
partition offset: 65536 (0x10000)
partition size: 385024 (0x5e000)
rom start offset: 0 (0x0)
=== signing binaries
unsigned bin: /Volumes/Programowanie/Nordic/ncs/build/smp_svr/zephyr/zephyr.bin
signed bin:   smp_svr.signed.bin
Usage: imgtool sign [OPTIONS] INFILE OUTFILE

Error: Invalid value for '-H' / '--header-size': Minimum value for -H/--header-size is 32
FATAL ERROR: command exited with status 2: /usr/local/bin/imgtool sign --version 0.0.0+0 --align 4 --header-size 0 --slot-size 385024 --key ./bootloader/mcuboot/root-rsa-2048.pem /Volumes/Programowanie/Nordic/ncs/build/smp_svr/zephyr/zephyr.bin smp_svr.signed.bin

even adding "-H 32" doesn't help: 

west sign -t imgtool --bin --no-hex -d build/smp_svr \
          -B smp_svr.signed.bin -- --key ./bootloader/mcuboot/root-rsa-2048.pem -H 32
=== image configuration:
partition offset: 65536 (0x10000)
partition size: 385024 (0x5e000)
rom start offset: 0 (0x0)
=== signing binaries
unsigned bin: /Volumes/Programowanie/Nordic/ncs/build/smp_svr/zephyr/zephyr.bin
signed bin:   smp_svr.signed.bin
Usage: imgtool sign [OPTIONS] INFILE OUTFILE

Error: Header padding was not requested and image does not start with zeros
FATAL ERROR: command exited with status 2: /usr/local/bin/imgtool sign --version 0.0.0+0 --align 4 --header-size 0 --slot-size 385024 --key ./bootloader/mcuboot/root-rsa-2048.pem -H 32 /Volumes/Programowanie/Nordic/ncs/build/smp_svr/zephyr/zephyr.bin smp_svr.signed.bin

And this is blocker that hold me on this. So I suppose that dongle is not so well documented as rest of the nordic platforms. 

Of course i have tried to upload to board new binary "app_update.bin" but it don't work: 

mynewt-mcumgr-cli --conntype=serial --connstring='dev=/dev/tty.usbmodem14101,baud=115200' image upload -e build/smp_svr/zephyr/app_update.bin
 37.07 KiB / 37.07 KiB [===========================================================] 100.00% 3.14 KiB/s 11s
Done
MBP-Grzegorz:ncs $ mynewt-mcumgr-cli --conntype=serial --connstring='dev=/dev/tty.usbmodem14101,baud=115200' image confirm
Images:
 image=0 slot=0
    version: 0.0.0.0
    bootable: false
    flags:
    hash: Unavailable
Split status: N/A (0)
MBP-Grzegorz:ncs $ mynewt-mcumgr-cli --conntype=serial --connstring='dev=/dev/tty.usbmodem14101,baud=115200' reset
Done

I have read all internet to find solutions for my problem before i created a ticket. So... :)