Unable to update firmware on ExpansionBoard 3.1 - Cannot open DFU device

[Victor Hooi]

I recently purchased several LoPy4 packs, and I'm really struggling to

Firstly - is there a way to check what the current firmware on the ExpansionBoard 3.1 is?

Secondly, I'm trying to follow the installation instructions at https://docs.pycom.io/updatefirmware/expansionboard/.

My laptop is running Ubuntu 21.04.
I have installed dfu-util. (Version 0.9).
I have removed the LoPy4 board, so it's just the ExpansionBoard 3.1.

I then press the "S1" button on the board, and plug in the USB cable to my computer.

It does appear to be quite sensitive to timing - however, when I use "lsusb', I do see two different IDs:

Normal mode (ef98):

lsusb
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0bda:0328 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. USB3.0-CRW
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 06cb:009a Synaptics, Inc. Metallica MIS Touch Fingerprint Reader
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 13d3:56b2 IMC Networks Integrated Camera
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 8087:0a2b Intel Corp. Bluetooth wireless interface
Bus 001 Device 020: ID 04d8:ef98 Microchip Technology, Inc. Expansion3
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

And then the DFU mode (ef99) - where I press the "S1" button before plugging it in:

 lsusb
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0bda:0328 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. USB3.0-CRW
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 06cb:009a Synaptics, Inc. Metallica MIS Touch Fingerprint Reader
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 13d3:56b2 IMC Networks Integrated Camera
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 8087:0a2b Intel Corp. Bluetooth wireless interface
Bus 001 Device 019: ID 04d8:ef99 Microchip Technology, Inc. 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

However, even if I run dfu-util after it's in the "ef99" mode, I get this error:

$ dfu-util -D expansion31_0.0.11.dfu 
dfu-util 0.9

Copyright 2005-2009 Weston Schmidt, Harald Welte and OpenMoko Inc.
Copyright 2010-2016 Tormod Volden and Stefan Schmidt
This program is Free Software and has ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY
Please report bugs to http://sourceforge.net/p/dfu-util/tickets/

Match vendor ID from file: 04d8
Match product ID from file: ef99
dfu-util: Cannot open DFU device 04d8:ef99
dfu-util: No DFU capable USB device available

Does anybody know how to update the ExpansionBoard 3.1 reliably?

[jcaron]

@Victor-Hooi have you tried using sudo or equivalent?

[Victor Hooi]

@jcaron Thank you - that was the trick.

I needed to run sudo dfu-util for it to work correctly.

Do you think that gotcha is worth mentioning on the firmware updating guide? How do we go about suggesting updates there?

[jcaron]

@Victor-Hooi ping @Gijs

[Gijs]

Hmm I don't remember ever having to use elevated privileges to run dfu-util, but I'll add it to the documentation, it could be a solution for some people! Thanks

Gijs