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Zephyr: introduce bootloader requests #477

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Merged
merged 3 commits into from
Aug 29, 2025
Merged

Zephyr: introduce bootloader requests #477

merged 3 commits into from
Aug 29, 2025

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tomchy
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@tomchy tomchy commented Jul 24, 2025 •
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In some cases, a Zephyr platform is not able to use the RAM-based retention subsystem. This results in no ability to communicate with the bootloader to:

  • Request the recovery mode from the main application
  • Request the firmware loader mode from the main application

The other case in which the application wants to communicate with the bootloader are platforms that want to have the active slot configured as read-only. In such case, the following flow can be introduced to mitigate this restriction:

  • The main application sends a request to the bootloader informing which image should be confirmed.
  • The main application reboots the device.
  • The device reboots and resets memory permissions so that the bootloader can perform the updates.
  • In the permitted state, the bootloader processes the confirmation requests, before analyzing the state of the slots.
  • The bootloader continues the logic as if the application had confirmed the slot.

There is also a third use case for the application requests in the Direct XIP mode:

  • Currently, the decision of which slot to boot is based only on the version number.
  • Even if there are two valid slots on the device, a user cannot request a temporary rollback to the previous firmware.
  • By introducing a request for slot preference, the slot selection logic may be extended with custom logic that runs as part of the main application and sends such a request to the bootloader to alter the default behavior.

This PR introduces an API that can be used to collect all of the above requests in a single module.
The Kconfig to select or extend the boot request format is located in the configuration file of the mcuboot module in the Zephyr repository.
In addition, a simple integration with bootutil library is included, allowing this feature to be used with an existing MCUmgr implementation.

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@NordicBuilder NordicBuilder mentioned this pull request Jul 24, 2025
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ahasztag
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@tomchy tomchy force-pushed the feature/zephyr/NCSDK-NONE_boot_requests_nrf branch from 832b4c9 to ce1a921 Compare July 25, 2025 12:15
@tomchy tomchy requested a review from ahasztag July 25, 2025 12:23
@tomchy tomchy force-pushed the feature/zephyr/NCSDK-NONE_boot_requests_nrf branch from ce1a921 to f6f21a3 Compare July 28, 2025 10:50
@tomchy tomchy marked this pull request as ready for review July 28, 2025 11:07
nordicjm
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@tomchy tomchy force-pushed the feature/zephyr/NCSDK-NONE_boot_requests_nrf branch from f6f21a3 to 0b5d331 Compare July 28, 2025 14:30
@tomchy tomchy requested a review from nordicjm July 28, 2025 14:34
ahasztag
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@tomchy tomchy force-pushed the feature/zephyr/NCSDK-NONE_boot_requests_nrf branch from 0b5d331 to 911bb8c Compare July 29, 2025 09:38
@tomchy tomchy requested a review from ahasztag July 29, 2025 09:38
ahasztag
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@tomchy tomchy force-pushed the feature/zephyr/NCSDK-NONE_boot_requests_nrf branch from 911bb8c to 2be0d3d Compare July 29, 2025 10:31
@tomchy tomchy requested a review from ahasztag July 29, 2025 10:35
@tomchy tomchy force-pushed the feature/zephyr/NCSDK-NONE_boot_requests_nrf branch 3 times, most recently from 4e1ece5 to 9be377a Compare July 31, 2025 14:48
nordicjm
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nvlsianpu
nvlsianpu reviewed Aug 1, 2025
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boot/bootutil/zephyr/src/boot_request_retention.c Outdated
* @return 0 on success; nonzero on failure.
*/
static int
boot_request_slot_find(enum boot_request_type type, boot_request_img_t image, size_t *slot)
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slot term is used for image partitions in MCUboot.
Can we have different name there - index, reqest_idx, req_idx, entry_idx?
And so one for any code related to request entries?

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@tomchy tomchy Aug 1, 2025 •
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Decided to go with the entry name instead.

boot/bootutil/src/bootutil_public.c
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just wonder whether flash_area_to_image() -> flash_area_to_image() can more associated with a upstream patch?

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Yet I do not have an argument, why this change is needed there...

@tomchy tomchy force-pushed the feature/zephyr/NCSDK-NONE_boot_requests_nrf branch 2 times, most recently from ad1c9eb to dc8f8c6 Compare August 1, 2025 11:14
@tomchy tomchy requested review from nordicjm and nvlsianpu August 1, 2025 11:21
@tomchy tomchy force-pushed the feature/zephyr/NCSDK-NONE_boot_requests_nrf branch from dc8f8c6 to cb3eee7 Compare August 1, 2025 14:16
@tomchy tomchy force-pushed the feature/zephyr/NCSDK-NONE_boot_requests_nrf branch from cb3eee7 to 0ac02e0 Compare August 1, 2025 15:19
@ahasztag ahasztag force-pushed the feature/zephyr/NCSDK-NONE_boot_requests_nrf branch 3 times, most recently from 17ac549 to 3e1a300 Compare August 19, 2025 15:12
tomchy added 3 commits August 28, 2025 12:44
@tomchy
[nrf fromtree] loader: Add boot hook for slot selection
bddb550 
Add a bootloader hook to alter the logic of the active slot selection in
Direct XIP modes.

Signed-off-by: Tomasz Chyrowicz <[email protected]>
(cherry picked from commit 7c4ec9a)
@tomchy
[nrf fromtree] zephyr: Add support for slot selection boot hook
ec0cd9a 
Add a Kconfig option to enable a bootloader hook to alter
the logic of the active slot selection in Direct XIP modes.

Signed-off-by: Tomasz Chyrowicz <[email protected]>
(cherry picked from commit d5f84b4)
@tomchy
[nrf noup] bootloader: Add bootloader requests
f5c7d73 
Add a capability inside the Zephyr bootloader to handle memory-based
bootloader requests to:
 - Boot recovery firmware
 - Boot firmware loader
 - Confirm an image
 - Set the slot preference

Ref: NCSDK-34429

Signed-off-by: Tomasz Chyrowicz <[email protected]>
@tomchy tomchy force-pushed the feature/zephyr/NCSDK-NONE_boot_requests_nrf branch from 3e1a300 to f5c7d73 Compare August 28, 2025 10:44
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Quality Gate Passed Quality Gate passed

Issues
9 New issues
0 Accepted issues

Measures
0 Security Hotspots
0.0% Coverage on New Code
1.6% Duplication on New Code

See analysis details on SonarQube Cloud

@anangl anangl merged commit e1f2ab3 into nrfconnect:main Aug 29, 2025
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@de-nordic de-nordic Awaiting requested review from de-nordic de-nordic is a code owner

@nvlsianpu nvlsianpu Awaiting requested review from nvlsianpu

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@tomchy @nvlsianpu @nordicjm @ahasztag @anangl