How to install a Mod in an release/instrumented build?

[linfan68]

From the mod document, it mentioned to make mcrun working, the host needs to run a debug build with mcconfig -d, and said to install a Mod in release mode there need some other way (but without pointers in the doc)
Can I have some pointers regarding install a mode in a release/instrumented build?

[phoddie]

Basically, you need to copy the mod binary to the space in flash reserved for mods. That is different depending on the microcontroller. If you are working on ESP32, mods are stored in the xs partition. When you do a clean build, the partition table is displayed:

*******************************************************************************
# ESP-IDF Partition Table
# Name, Type, SubType, Offset, Size, Flags
nvs,data,nvs,0x9000,24K,
phy_init,data,phy,0xf000,4K,
factory,app,factory,0x10000,7872K,
xs,64,1,0x7c0000,256K,
*******************************************************************************

Here the offset of the xs partition is 0x7c0000. That may be different for your development board., so be sure to check rather than re-using this value.

The path to the mod binary is based on its name. For a mod named example, the path for the release mod binary is: $MODDABLE/build/bin/esp32/release/example/example.xsa.

You can use esptool.py with the write_flash option to install the mod binary.

There are many other approaches. For example, you could run an HTTP server on the ESP32 and use curl to push a mod. You would use the Flash module on the device to write the received data to the XS partition.

[linfan68]

Got it! I'll give it a try, thanks!

[linfan68]

@phoddie I think it'll be a good idea to add your instruction into the Mod document

[phoddie]

@linfan68 – good suggestion. I'll think about how to do that. Please let me know if you are able to get that working.

[linfan68]

I'm tryting to get this working, and there are some details may be helpful for other people:

How to only BUILD the Mod?

the mcrun actually take -t argument (but different ones), to just build the MOD( get the .xsa file) you can do this:
my project name is [rtkClient]

mcrun -d -v -m -p esp32/esp32s3 -t $MODDABLE/build/bin/esp32/debug/rtkClient/rtkClient.xsa

Partition Table

Here is my partition table info (by running a clean HOST build)

*******************************************************************************
# ESP-IDF Partition Table
# Name, Type, SubType, Offset, Size, Flags
nvs,data,nvs,0x9000,24K,
phy_init,data,phy,0xf000,4K,
factory,app,factory,0x10000,3776K,
xs,64,1,0x3c0000,256K,
*******************************************************************************

Flash command

esptool.py --chip esp32s3 --port $PORT --baud 115200 write_flash 0x3c0000 $MODDABLE/build/bin/esp32/release/rtkClient/rtkClient.xsa

Monitor Command (See the output)

cd /root/moddable/build/tmp/esp32/esp32s3/instrument/modHost/xsProj-esp32s3
idf.py monitor -p  $PORT

and it looks like this:

ESP-ROM:esp32s3-20210327
Build:Mar 27 2021
rst:0x1 (POWERON),boot:0x8 (SPI_FAST_FLASH_BOOT)
SPIWP:0xee
mode:DIO, clock div:1
load:0x3fce3808,len:0x128
load:0x403c9700,len:0xbc8
load:0x403cc700,len:0x274c
entry 0x403c98c8
I (226) cpu_start: Pro cpu up.
I (226) cpu_start: Starting app cpu, entry point is 0x4037501c
0x4037501c: call_start_cpu1 at /opt/esp/idf/components/esp_system/port/cpu_start.c:148

I (0) cpu_start: App cpu up.
I (237) cpu_start: Pro cpu start user code
I (237) cpu_start: cpu freq: 240000000
I (237) cpu_start: Application information:
I (237) cpu_start: Project name:     xs_esp32
I (241) cpu_start: App version:      3.9.2
I (245) cpu_start: Compile time:     May 16 2023 15:49:40
I (250) cpu_start: ELF file SHA256:  ccf5bb59f0371980...
I (255) cpu_start: ESP-IDF:          v4.4.3-dirty
I (260) heap_init: Initializing. RAM available for dynamic allocation:
I (266) heap_init: At 3FC9FC90 len 00049A80 (294 KiB): D/IRAM
I (271) heap_init: At 3FCE9710 len 00005724 (21 KiB): STACK/DRAM
I (277) heap_init: At 3FCF0000 len 00008000 (32 KiB): DRAM
I (282) heap_init: At 600FE000 len 00002000 (8 KiB): RTCRAM
I (288) spi_flash: detected chip: generic
I (291) spi_flash: flash io: qio
W (294) spi_flash: Detected size(8192k) larger than the size in the binary image header(4096k). Using the size in the binary image header.
I (307) sleep: Configure to isolate all GPIO pins in sleep state
I (312) sleep: Enable automatic switching of GPIO sleep configuration
I (318) cpu_start: Starting scheduler on PRO CPU.
I (0) cpu_start: Star��instruments key: Pixels drawn,Frames drawn,Network bytes read,Network bytes written,Network sockets,Timers,Files,Poco display list used,Piu command List used,SPI flash erases,Turns,System bytes free,CPU 0,CPU 1,Chunk used,Chunk available,Slot used,Slot available,Stack used,Stack available,Garbage collections,Keys used,Modules loaded,Parser used,Floating Point
No Wi-Fi SSID
=============Hello World=============!
Importing module rtkClient...[found] importing...
Mod [RTK Client]
I (49) pp: pp rom version: e7ae62f
I (50) net80211: net80211 rom version: e7ae62f
I (432) system_api: Base MAC address is not set
I (435) system_api: read default base MAC address from EFUSE
I (442) wifi_init: rx ba win: 6
I (443) wifi_init: tcpip mbox: 32
I (446) wifi_init: udp mbox: 6
I (449) wifi_init: tcp mbox: 6
I (452) wifi_init: tcp tx win: 5744
I (455) wifi_init: tcp rx win: 5744
I (458) wifi_init: tcp mss: 1436
I (461) wifi_init: WiFi IRAM OP enabled
I (464) wifi_init: WiFi RX IRAM OP enabled
[imported]
instruments: 2,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,127304,44,62,1848,78848,18640,78832,3776,8192,0,83,6,0,0
instruments: 0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,1,127484,0,0,1848,78848,19152,78832,848,8192,0,83,6,0,0
.
instruments: 0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,1,127476,0,0,1848,78848,19152,78832,608,8192,0,83,6,0,0
.instruments: 0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,1,126908,47,0,1848,78848,19152,78832,608,8192,0,83,6,0,0
.Wi-Fi connect
I (3771) esp_netif_handlers: sta ip: 10.21.0.107, mask: 255.255.255.0, gw: 10.21.0.1
instruments: 0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,2,126480,21,0,1912,78848,19152,78832,624,8192,0,83,6,0,0

[phoddie]

Thank you for sharing these great notes. I will add a reference to it in the Mod document to make it easy to find.

It looks like you have successfully installed the mod with these instructions:

=============Hello World=============!
Importing module rtkClient...[found] importing...
Mod [RTK Client]