New Faster Bangle.js firmware build (Internal Flash)

[gfwilliams]

To date, Bangle.js 2 has stored all its apps on a filesystem on the 8MB external flash, which has worked pretty well but is slower than it needs to be.

There's 1MB of internal flash which has to store the Bangle.js firmware, but also has a bit of free space (currently ~250kB). If we put the JS in internal flash and everything else in external flash, apps will load much faster.

... so that's what I've done. We tried it a year ago and a mysterious bug meant the internal flash suffered some corruption and it was too broken to use, but I've just fixed that and everything appears to be ok now.

I've attached the firmware here - you can update it via the app loader at https://banglejs.com/apps/?id=fwupdate by clicking 'Advanced' and uploading the ZIP: espruino_2v25.424_banglejs2_iflash.zip but please do a backup first!

edit: updated firmware

Once installed you'll have to choose 'reinstall apps' from the app loader to force the JS from the apps to be loaded into the internal flash. If you switch back to a 'normal' firmware you'll have to do the same just to make it work (as all JS will then have been lost!).

Please backup before you try this! and I'd advise not doing it on a watch you need to use every day just in case there are issues.

... but having said all that, this does feel an awful lot faster than before, and if it really does work smoothly it might be something that I make the default in the future.

[thyttan]

I just tried it and ran into some trouble on the reinstall apps step. After reinstalling many apps the watch decided to start compacting when it came to runplus. After that it seemed like no more apps were able to be reinstalled. It seems like I can start the apps that were succesfully reinstalled but not the ones that were not.

I did this from within gadgetbridge. Fw update from official app loader and reinstall apps via development app loader.

Edit: I think I had ca 50 apps installed while doing this (essentially the thyttan default config).

[gfwilliams]

... yes, I just tried and that's the problem.

I'll try and get a fix done in an hour or two. I'm thinking that rather than trying to force compaction on Bank 1 (which could make things slow each time something is written) maybe we just immediately put the file in external flash if there's room?

[gfwilliams]

Just fixed - updated firmware in the link above

[thyttan]

Running it now seemingly without issues! 😀

It really feels substantially faster. Most noticable for regular load calls. But I feel like it can now pick up on quicker swipes as well. Fantastic! 🤩

[devsnd]

@gfwilliams Could you please provide a build that contains the latest fixes? Maybe I should be able to find an artifact in the GitHub Actions somewhere, but I wasn't able to find one using the iFlash option

[devsnd]

Oops, sorry, I just saw that you updated the post above, my browser cached the page, I'm trying out buil 424 now

[enaon]

There's 1MB of internal flash which has to store the Bangle.js firmware, but also has a bit of free space (currently ~250kB). If we put the JS in internal flash and everything else in external flash, apps will load much faster.

Very nice, but isn''t this an old feature? I used to use C on the P8 like so:
name":"C:.bootrst"
and it was a bit faster indeed, is it the same feature?

[gfwilliams]

It is, yes - the issue was it was broken before, so if you ever had to compact the internal storage it'd get corrupted and lose most of the contents :)

[enaon]

It is, yes - the issue was it was broken before, so if you ever had to compact the internal storage it'd get corrupted and lose most of the contents :)

nice, it is working fine on the p8 since some years now, compacting was no problem, I have like this on the repo for the main js files, but I guess it broke after 2.15? Can I use C on the bangle.js 2 now, or is it done automatically?

[gfwilliams]

That's strange. Maybe it did - it'd be interesting to see when the multiple write code went in. The error seems to be when writing more than 2k at once

You mean inline C? Yes, it should 'just work' for the ide as well as apps in the app loader

[enaon]

You mean inline C? Yes, it should 'just work' for the ide as well as apps in the app loader

Sorry, I meant can I choose if the file will go to the internal flash using the C: method?

[gfwilliams]

I meant can I choose if the file will go to the internal flash using the C: method?

Ahh, yes - that method works now (it's just ignored on builds that don't have 2 flash areas). *.js/.bootX/.bootcde files are automatically added to internal flash but everything else goes in external

[elcste]

I've had my Bangle 2 for a couple days now. Great fun! Any reason not to install this version if I've already updated to 2v26?

[thyttan]

I run it and it has seemed stable for me the last couple of days.

It is not absolutely up to date with the normal cutting edge fw or even stable fw 2v26 (edit: looking at it it seems to match 2v26 in terms of git commits), but that doesn't matter super much to me right now.

If you run it you help evaluate it for all of us so that's very welcome :)

But as Gordon said in the opening post:

Please backup before you try this! and I'd advise not doing it on a watch you need to use every day just in case there are issues.

[devsnd]

Generally the build runs fine for me, everything is a bit faster in general, but so far I have one app that broke after reinstalling all apps, smpltmr. I had to uninstall and reinstall sched manually to get it to run again. I dunno why that happened and if this was a user-error on my part. other than that everything runs great! Thanks @gfwilliams to have taken on this task, I think it greatly improves the usability of the watch :)

[gfwilliams]

Thanks! If this is really continuing to look promising I'll maybe enable a 'cutting edge' build for it