BLE DFU softdevice loading issue in bootloader

RE: BLE DFU softdevice loading issue in bootloader

RVM — Wed, 15 Mar 2023 01:32:17 GMT

Just wondering what exactly did you do when you say you "set up GCC environment instead of SES"...

Did you give up on using the SES IDE for the build and migrate your boot loader and application builds to a GCC specific (e.g. command line) build?

OR,

Did you just change the compiler drivers in the SES IDE from 'gcc' to 'Segger' (or one of the other options)?

Thanks for your response...

RE: BLE DFU softdevice loading issue in bootloader

Hieu — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 18:00:37 GMT

Hi Sebastiaan,

Hope you don't mind coming back to this for a bit. What SES version did you use when you had the problem?

Hieu

RE: BLE DFU softdevice loading issue in bootloader

Hieu — Mon, 31 Oct 2022 16:26:50 GMT

Hi Sebastiaan,

It's great that you finally got it to work.

The fact that the environment change fixed it is very interesting. Your guess is probably right.

Unfortunately, nRF5 SDK is in maintenance now, so there probably won't be much investigation into it. However, I will still send this back to our team for further discussions and record.

Thank you for letting us know.

Best regards,

Hieu

RE: BLE DFU softdevice loading issue in bootloader

Sebastiaan — Sun, 30 Oct 2022 10:48:29 GMT

Hi Hieu,

I've just setup an GCC environment instead of the SES environment.

Now the DFU bootloader works.

My best guess is that the SES compiler/linker screws something up.

It now works and am over the moon.
thank you so much for your assist.

regards,

Sebastiaan

RE: BLE DFU softdevice loading issue in bootloader

Sebastiaan — Sat, 29 Oct 2022 16:18:48 GMT

Hi Hieu,

Your findings are very interesting .
You seem to get much further with my bootloader than I am able .

The bootloader gives up for me during the initialization of the SD.

The offset in my bootloader was on purpose to allow for the logging to be accomodated in the bootloader.

I have an version where I again stripped all the logging and set the sizes back to normal (0xF1000)

Still whatever I do my bootloader keeps failing on the loading of the SD.

My issue occurs in file nrf_dfu_ble.c in function ble_stack_init()

When nrf_dfu_mbr_init_sd() gets executed I receive back an error.
Which in turn reboots the board.

Is there perhaps any vector table or something which I might have corrupted ?

(attached the bootloader with reduced memory profile) (logging removed)

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../1452.secure_5F00_bootloader_5F00_ble_5F00_s140_5F00_pca10056_5F00_debug.hex

RE: BLE DFU softdevice loading issue in bootloader

Hieu — Tue, 25 Oct 2022 14:08:15 GMT

Hi Sebastiaan,

So, I wrestle with the project quite a bit today. Here are my "test report" of what you have given me.

Using your four hex files:

The device can boot. I see it advertises just fine.
As I don't have your private key, I cannot test DFU

So this test doesn't have much meaning...

Using your bootloader project and my application project:

I don't run into the same problem with the SoftDevice.
I did run into a problem which is probably due to logging cannot keep up with the bootloader's activity.
Changing logging baud to 1,000,000 fixed it, I can perform DFU successfully

(Of course, there are other differences: I use Windows 10; UART_TX pin changed to 6 because I'm on the DK; and I had to use my private/public key pair; I also restore the nrf_crypto_allocator.h file that you probably unintentionally discarded).

So there seems to be no problem with your project...

I observe that the bootloader .emProject file is changed. Besides the addition of UART related libraries, a Debug configuration was added, and the flash size is increased by 0x4000 with the address changed to 0xED000 instead. That explains the difference seen in one of my previous replies.

Did you intentionally make the above change?

If you did not, there is the possibility that your SDK was changed in some previous development jobs...

As I cannot reproduce your issue, I can only recommend you restart the process with a clean download of the SDK.
If you do restart, this time I recommend you follow the blog post I shared previously though. It is here: Getting started with Nordic's Secure DFU bootloader, a step by step guide

As a side note, I did make my own implementation of the NovelBits article work. I did have to add the following small fix though.
That's for if you wish to give the NovelBits article another try. I recommend giving our guide a try this time.

static void ble_dfu_buttonless_evt_handler(ble_dfu_buttonless_evt_type_t event)
{
    ...
    switch (event)
    {
        case BLE_DFU_EVT_BOOTLOADER_ENTER_PREPARE:
            sd_ble_gap_disconnect(m_conn_handle, BLE_HCI_REMOTE_USER_TERMINATED_CONNECTION);
            NRF_LOG_INFO("Device is preparing to enter bootloader mode\r\n");
            break;
        
        ...
    }
}

Sorry it took so much time, but I couldn't figure out what is wrong after all...

Best regards,

Hieu

RE: BLE DFU softdevice loading issue in bootloader

Sebastiaan — Sat, 22 Oct 2022 10:39:26 GMT

Hi Hieu,

This is the project + main
I did not add all the directories. just the one I use

This is not of critical importance yet. just need it to work before the project is done.

again thank you for your help,

regards,

Sebastiaan

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../bleBootloader_5F00_main.zip

RE: BLE DFU softdevice loading issue in bootloader

Hieu — Fri, 21 Oct 2022 15:06:40 GMT

Hi Sebastiaan,

Thank you for the file. It seems the secure bootloader hex is at some very different addresses compare to mine. Mine doesn't work very well on the PCA10056 though, so it is probably not a very good reference point.
As the Secure Bootloader is likely the part having problem, do you mind giving me your project files as well? If you can, please zip up just the folder that contains main.c and without the Output folders.

Unfortunately, the backlog situation has arisen once more, so I might take a while to be back. I will be back latest by Tuesday though.
Is this currently urgent for you? So that I can give some proper priority.

If you wish to have some progress while waiting, my colleague Hung Bui recommends a blog of his: Getting started with Nordic's Secure DFU bootloader, a step by step guide

Best regards,

Hieu

RE: BLE DFU softdevice loading issue in bootloader

Sebastiaan — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 11:23:49 GMT

Hi Hieu,

I will provide the files.
I am currently building using the SES IDE

Regards,

Sebastiaan

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../4503.secure_5F00_bootloader_5F00_ble_5F00_s140_5F00_pca10056_5F00_debug.hex devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../5164.s140_5F00_nrf52_5F00_7.2.0_5F00_softdevice.hex devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../4186.bl_5F00_settings.hex devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../2043.ble_5F00_app_5F00_blinky_5F00_pca10059_5F00_s140.hex

RE: BLE DFU softdevice loading issue in bootloader

Hieu — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 14:09:37 GMT

Hi Sebastiaan,

[quote user="Sebastiaan"]

I am using a Seeed board:
https://www.seeedstudio.com/Seeed-XIAO-BLE-Sense-nRF52840-p-5253.html

My thoughts on the PCA10059 was that it is closest to the design of the Seeed board.

[/quote]

I see. It should be fine then. There might be some pin conflicts, especially since we are on the blinky example. But it should not be a problem.
I will keep a note of this though, if our next steps yield no results.

[quote user="Sebastiaan"]Interesting point that you reach such different memory profile.[/quote]

Yes, and it might be the cause... Before digging in deep, allow me a simple check first, because one of your hex files might have problem then if this memory layout is not intentional.

Could you confirm that you have these four files and only those four, and send them over if possible?

1. SoftDevice

2. Bootloader

3. Application

4. Bootloader Settings

Meanwhile, could you please also retrace your step with the article to make sure all files are generated with the appropriate config?

[quote user="Sebastiaan"]

Maybe It is good to mention I use Ubuntu linux.

And to merge the applications I've been using the mergehex tool provided by nordic semi

(nRf Command Line Tools pulled from the website)

[/quote]

This is also something that should be fine, but I will also keep a note. Are you using Segger Embedded Studio or some other toolchain?

Best regards,

Hieu

RE: BLE DFU softdevice loading issue in bootloader

Sebastiaan — Fri, 14 Oct 2022 11:59:32 GMT

Hi Hieu,

I am using a Seeed board:
https://www.seeedstudio.com/Seeed-XIAO-BLE-Sense-nRF52840-p-5253.html

My thoughts on the PCA10059 was that it is closest to the design of the Seeed board.
The log I've obtained by configuring the Serial port to log it to my USBttl device.

(I've hooked it with some pin headers up to the board)

Interesting point that you reach such different memory profile.

The code I've been using should be very close to the default which I downloaded from the nordic semi website.
(I first wanted to make sure I could pull off this bootloading feat before I continued the development on the board.)

Maybe It is good to mention I use Ubuntu linux.

And to merge the applications I've been using the mergehex tool provided by nordic semi

(nRf Command Line Tools pulled from the website)

I hope this helps?

regards,

Sebastiaan

RE: BLE DFU softdevice loading issue in bootloader

Hieu — Wed, 12 Oct 2022 16:36:22 GMT

Hi Sebastiaan,

I am sorry for the long wait once again. Please know that I have started working on your case.

I tried to follow the novelbits article step by step. I succeeded with the nRF52 DK but is having a little problem with the nRF52840 DK (PCA10056).

I noticed you are using the PCA10059 app image in your commands. Are you working on an nRF52840 Dongle?
If so, how are you getting the debug log? Did you connect an external debugger?
Another thing I notice is the memory layout of your merged hex is very different from mine. In the image below yours is on the left and mine is on the right.
Are you having an application with custom memory layout?

Best regards,

Hieu

RE: BLE DFU softdevice loading issue in bootloader

Sebastiaan — Thu, 06 Oct 2022 06:08:49 GMT

Ok this is the merged hex:
to generate it I use these commands:

nrfutil settings generate --family NRF52840 --application ble_app_blinky_pca10059_s140.hex --application-version 1 --bootloader-version 1 --bl-settings-version 2 bl_settings.hex

mergehex --merge bl_settings.hex secure_bootloader_ble_s140_pca10056_debug.hex s140_nrf52_7.2.0_softdevice.hex ble_app_blinky_pca10059_s140.hex --output merged_BL_SD_app.hex

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../merged_5F00_BL_5F00_SD_5F00_app.hex

RE: BLE DFU softdevice loading issue in bootloader

Hieu — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 21:49:45 GMT

Hi Sebastiaan,

I just want to let you know that due to circumstances I have quite the backlog at the moment, and still couldn't get to your case yet.

I am hoping I can get to it tomorrow.

I really appreciate your offer. A merge hex could be helpful, as it could at least be used to verify that the SoftDevice in this case, and to immediately see the problem on our end.

I am very sorry for the delay in response.

Best regards,

Hieu.

RE: BLE DFU softdevice loading issue in bootloader

Sebastiaan — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 16:05:06 GMT

Hi Hieu,

Thank you for confirming.

Is there anything I can do to help you diagnose this. Would the merged hex perhaps be helpful?

Regards,

Sebastiaan

RE: BLE DFU softdevice loading issue in bootloader

Hieu — Wed, 28 Sep 2022 16:25:50 GMT

Hello Sebastiaan,

I just want to let you know that I have received your case. However I will need some more time to look into it.

Best regards,

Hieu