Burning the arduino bootloader does not work on windows, flash_writer.exe does nothing

[Axel Jäger]

Hello,
today I tried getting my spresense board to run a hello world using the arduino IDE.
I went so far that I need to burn the bootloader.
https://developer.sony.com/develop/spresense/developer-tools/get-started-using-arduino-ide/set-up-the-arduino-ide#_install_bootloader
Everything works as documented until step 4.
When issuing the burn boot loader menu, nothing happens. The dialog for accepting the EULA never appears.

I tried this on two different computers with the same results. Also, I checked the command issued by the Arduino IDE.
This is C:\Users\MyUser\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\SPRESENSE\tools\spresense-tools\1.2.0\flash_writer\windows\flash_writer.exe

Manually starting this application leads to no visible window. Also starting this application using a command line leads to no visible output on the screen.

I also noticed that the arguments passed to flash_writer.exe are kind of strange as they pass
C:\Users\MyUser\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\SPRESENSE\tools\spresense-sdk\1.2.0/spresense/firmware/lo... as file to flash.
(I cannot give the whole filename due to limitations of the windows task manager).

This is strange for two reasons:

1. Most of the filename uses the backslash as separator , only the last three separators are the ordinary slash / as used on unix operating systems.
2. There is no file starting with lo in this directory. However, there is a zip-file called firmware.zip that contains a file called loader.espk.

Any clue whats wrong here? Has anyone successfully used v1.2 of the Arduino SDK on Windows?

Best regards,

Axel

[TE-KarlKomierowski]

Hi @Axel-Jäger

I updated my Arduino Spresense package to 1.2.0 and did a firmware update and it was no problem.
This was done on a laptop running Windows 7.
Could you try to reinstall the Spresense package and try to reflash the Spresense FW again?

Here is the log:

>>> Install files ...
License agreement accepted.
FIle: C:\Users\MyUser\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\SPRESENSE\tools\spresense-sdk\1.2.0/spresense/firmware\firmware.zip
UPDATE
install -b 921600
Install C:\Users\MyUser\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\SPRESENSE\tools\spresense-sdk\1.2.0/spresense/firmware/loader.espk
|0%-----------------------------50%------------------------------100%|
######################################################################

118752 bytes loaded.
Package validation is OK.
Saving package to "loader"
updater# install -b 921600
Install C:\Users\MyUser\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\SPRESENSE\tools\spresense-sdk\1.2.0/spresense/firmware/gnssfw.espk
|0%-----------------------------50%------------------------------100%|
######################################################################

450736 bytes loaded.
Package validation is OK.
Saving package to "gnssfw"
updater# install -b 921600
Install C:\Users\MyUser\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\SPRESENSE\tools\spresense-sdk\1.2.0/spresense/firmware/dnnrt-mp.espk
|0%-----------------------------50%------------------------------100%|
######################################################################

88352 bytes loaded.
Package validation is OK.
Saving package to "dnnrt-mp"
updater# install -b 921600
Install C:\Users\MyUser\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\SPRESENSE\tools\spresense-sdk\1.2.0/spresense/firmware/AESM.espk
|0%-----------------------------50%------------------------------100%|
######################################################################

28944 bytes loaded.
Package validation is OK.
Saving package to "AESM"
updater# sync
updater# Restarting the board ...
reboot

[Axel Jäger]

Hi,
thank you for your reply. I tried reinstalling the spresense package, but the result is the same: When issuing the burn bootloader command, nothing happes. After several minutes, I get an error: Error burning bootloader.
I only tried reinstalling on one of my computers. I am running windows 10.

I guess when you issue the burn bootloader command from the arduino ide, a dialog to accept the license appears? This is not the case here. Maybe the technology to show this dialog is somehow blocked by some security feature? I hope I can try tomorrow test on a mac as I have no more windows 7 machines available.

Some more questions:

• Can you estimate which UI technology is used by the firmware updater? Java maybe?
• Do you have a Java Runtime installed?
• Has anyone else seen this error around? Currently we have one successfull mention on windows 7 and one failed on windows 10. I do not count my two PCs as two as they were both setup and configured by me in a similar fashion.

Best regards

Axel

[Axel Jäger]

I am two steps further: I get the exact same behaviour running Arduino on a Mac, so I guess my Spresense board is broken. I will order a new board and report back when I tried with the new board.

[TE-KarlKomierowski]

@Axel-Jäger said in Burning the arduino bootloader does not work on windows, flash_writer.exe does nothing:

I am two steps further: I get the exact same behaviour running Arduino on a Mac, so I guess my Spresense board is broken. I will order a new board and report back when I tried with the new board.

Hi Axel,

Ok, interesting, hopefully it is not broken.
Could you try to follow the steps on this page and see if it helps?
https://developer.sony.com/develop/spresense/support/spresense-faq/#_about_spresense_main_board

Topic:
Why do I see a "D>" message?

[Axel Jäger]

After using a new board, everything works as expected. It seems the original board was indeed broken.