Mbr without softdevice

RE: Mbr without softdevice

Riyad — Thu, 29 Mar 2018 12:50:34 GMT

Hi,

WDT is enabled on both bootloader and application. It works for me now after adding the following to: nrf_bootloader_app_start():

#define MBR_IRQ_FORWARD_ADDRESS_ADDRESS (0x20000000)

// Manually set the forward address if this MBR doesn't have the command.
*(uint32_t *)(MBR_IRQ_FORWARD_ADDRESS_ADDRESS) = start_addr;

Thank you for the prompt reply

RE: Mbr without softdevice

Susheel Nuguru — Thu, 29 Mar 2018 12:45:34 GMT

Hi Riyad,

This is confusing when you say that your application works when it is copied to 0x0000000 but does not work when it is moved to 0x1000. This means that the bootloader is initializing and starting the watchdog? Not sure at what point WDT is enabled in your application or bootloader, but if you do not need watchdog, then please do not enable it.

RE: Mbr without softdevice

Riyad — Wed, 28 Mar 2018 17:21:58 GMT

Hi Aryan,

I have an existing DFU working with softdevice and now wanted to remove softdevice dependency from DFU due to space (application size growing). I did this by extracting MBR from existing softdeivce hex file. I flashed it in along with DFU. Changed my application now to go on top of the old device area (0x1000). Everything checks out from DFU stand point. It flashes and bootloader run. I validated flash and looks like application copied. In fact it even runs but, I am getting watchdog reset. Same application when flashed into 0x00000000 works fine.

Running nRF_SDK_12.1.0. Yes old but too much code to port for newer SDK.

Any hints or help as to why it isn't working?

RE: Mbr without softdevice

Riyad — Wed, 28 Mar 2018 17:15:28 GMT

Hi,

Running nRF_SDK_12.1.0. Yes old but too much code to port for newer SDK.

Any hints or help as to why it isn't working?

RE: Mbr without softdevice

endnode — Tue, 13 Oct 2015 09:21:55 GMT

I back this request but even if this won't happen I know people who are using Nordic's MBR with their proprietary bootloading solution to reflash both SD and App so it shouldn't be that hard...;)

RE: Mbr without softdevice

Clem Taylor — Tue, 13 Oct 2015 00:49:20 GMT

Personally I think it would be very useful if Nordic released the source code for the MBR, specially for the nrf52.

One night I was bored/annoyed and I messed around with disassembling it, but my IDA Pro skillz where lacking (it is a scary cool tool, but it has quite a learning curve).

RE: Mbr without softdevice

endnode — Mon, 12 Oct 2015 14:28:00 GMT

Thanks Aryan.

RE: Mbr without softdevice

Martijn — Mon, 12 Oct 2015 08:43:05 GMT

great! Thanks for confirming it is possible. I will look into this.

RE: Mbr without softdevice

Susheel Nuguru — Mon, 12 Oct 2015 07:48:45 GMT

i am editing my answer ...

RE: Mbr without softdevice

Martijn — Sun, 11 Oct 2015 21:47:43 GMT

interrupt forwarding is still needed for the bootloader / application to work. We are building a device that uses a proprietary protocol and we want to let the user upgrade the application via a serial connection. No Bluetooth involved in this. My thought was, because you already build a mbr and bootloader, maybe I could just use that part and save some flash space. Now we need to install a complete softdevice for this to work, or we need to build A new mbr/ bootloader to deal with this.

RE: Mbr without softdevice

endnode — Sun, 11 Oct 2015 21:37:12 GMT

Hi Aryan, is there any restriction in Nordic license agreement for Soft Devices? Because HEX file is simple ASCII text which allows easy split of MBR (first 3kB on nRF51and 12kB on nRF52) and actual stack/Soft Device and I'd bet MBR will work without the rest (that's actually its purpose, isn't it?). Thanks Jan

RE: Mbr without softdevice

Susheel Nuguru — Sun, 11 Oct 2015 21:35:04 GMT

There are many features in MBR that does not make sense if softdevice is not there. One thing i can think of is the interrupt forward mechanism. you are right, Bootloader is seperate

I did not knew about the serial version of MBR, now i feel i have jumped into this too fast. I will find out and comeback to you. What are you trying to achieve exactly?

RE: Mbr without softdevice

Martijn — Sun, 11 Oct 2015 20:47:11 GMT

there is a serial version, right? That does not use the bluetooth softdevice, or am I missing something? May I ask why it is one hex? The bootloader is seperate too, right?

RE: Mbr without softdevice

Susheel Nuguru — Sun, 11 Oct 2015 19:22:09 GMT

what do you need bootloader for if you do not need bluetooth? And no, it is not possible to separate MBR and softdevice, they come as one hex file.

EDIT 12.10.2015

Few things i learned today (did not knew we had serial version of bootlaoder). We do not provide separate hex file for MBR. Yes, it is possible to generate the MBR hexfile from softdevice hex as we know their address space.

Nordic employees have tried extracting MBR from the hex and to use it. It works. Only thing that does not work in the bootloader is the flash API (because the implementation of flash code resides inside softdevice). So you need to make your own flash library for the bootloader to work normally.

License issues. once you split the hex file, then you are on your own. It would mean that you have MBR hex file that we do not guarantee to be production quality. But you can still use it if you wish on your own risk.