Allow user app to signal need to enter an OTA bootloader

[pfalcon]

Allow user app to call some function which cause a reboot with unconditional start of ota-server part. (E.g., to implement MicroPython's pyb.bootloader()).

[pfalcon]

This is actually soft-blocked on micropython/micropython#2779

[ulno]

Isn't it possible to write a magic word with machine.RTC().memory(magicword) into the RTC-memory and check for this from boot8266.c?

I can set and re-read (after reset) the memory successfully from the RTC-mem in micropython, however I am kind of pulling my hair, how to get the user-memory contents from boot8266.c. I have printed all the memory (512 bytes) starting from BASE_RTCMEM=0x60001000, but can't find anything defined before in micropython in the output - after entering micropython again, I can see the memory in machine.RTC().memory().

http://www.esp8266.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=3505 mentions to use system_rtc_mem_read but I assume that his should map anyways back to the aforementioned memory address.

Any idea or advice, how I can get the RTC-memory-content and any suggestions for magic words ("YAOTAOTA","MPOTAOTA")? Then I will happily fork and patch.

[ulno]

Ah, just saw that the memory start seems to be 0x60001200 and I found the contents there too.

[ulno]

Working and implemented in ulno@566a292

You can now trigger the OTA mode via the following:

import machine
machine.RTC().memory("yaotaota")
machine.reset()

After such a reset, the memory will show zaotaota:

import machine
machine.RTC().memory()
machine.RTC().memory()
b'zaotaota'

[hexxter]

Hi @ all,
is a better way available as this to start the ota server via remote? My IOT device are build in (wall, housings, ...) and i will make update over the air without press a button. Is this way to write a magic word in the flash the best solution?
Thx Hexxter

[ulno]

What I described, works pretty well, and is just a small patch to yaota - just check out my fork.

Though recently I have trouble compiling it against head (compare #19) - does the normal yaota still compile against micropython head?