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.

edit 2 I deleted the old firmware attached here because it was causing too many problems - just use a new build instead:

You can now update to it via the app loader at https://banglejs.com/apps/?id=fwupdate and choosing an iflash cutting edge build. but please do a backup first!

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

[RKBoss6]

So overall, how reliable is this build as of right now? I'm looking to (maybe) update my watch, but it's my only one, so don't want to do anything that could break it... If it can be switched back without any issues, I'm up to try it.

[thyttan]

does changes propagate over from the main fw to this as well,

Yes, they both build from master branch at the same time. So they both get the same commits.

[RKBoss6]

ok, thanks!

[devsnd]

I have been using the I flash build for a long while now and it has been very stable and reliable for me. The reason I use it is because the external flash is broken in my watch so I had no other choice. The major downside is that I have to limit the number of apps massively because there is just not enough space for all the apps I had before.

So if you only have a limited amount of apps, then I can wholeheartedly recommend trying out the iflash build. It is certainly much faster than using the external flash.

[thyttan]

@devsnd you are using the noflash build I think? The iflash builds fall back to external flash when internal is full 🤓

[devsnd]

Oops, sorry, you are right. I am using the noflash build which indeed is different from the i-flash build as it does not use the external flash at all.

[eisengpferd]

Hi Folks, I want to test the faster firmware, but the "reinstall apps" button dont work for me. It bangle stucks in the bangle-start-screen.
(I testet from Edge and Chrome at the site https://banglejs.com/apps with two separate bangle.js2)
(I have this issue with the actual firmware 2v28 as well)

The Backup or Restore is working. Also the "install favourite apps" is working.

Can I use the "restore" instead? Or is there the old firmware included?

/Hendrik/

[gfwilliams]

Yes - definitely don't try 2v25! Use the latest cutting edge iflash build

[eisengpferd]

...

[eisengpferd]

In the fw installer on the app loader you will find up to date iflash builds. Scroll down, click it, scroll back up and click upload.

oh... sorry I didnt see that. So I used the download from the first post here...

[eisengpferd]

ok, one step further :-)
Installed firmware [espruino_2v28.90_banglejs2_iflash
Then the "reinstall apps" starts but this task is not perfect. After a few apps there is popup to set the language in the "languages" app and after that the script stopps. The watch is showing the next app to install but in the browser now responding anymore.

[eisengpferd]

final words:

I like the iflash firmware. The responding is faster.

Thanks for this improvement

But I had to make a fresh install. The "reinstall apps" trick did not work for me.

/Hendrik/

[eisengpferd]

oh, one step back...
I was not able to get "ios integration" to work with the iflash firmware.

Then I testet the noflash firmware. Here is not enough space for my apps, and reflash of the normal firmware is not possible...
I tested installing the "default apps" and reset to factory over the bangle, but the firmware flash always stops
and the browser says: "Customise failed, Unexpected response ">OK""

Do I have to take the DFU path now to reflash a normal firmware?

[thyttan]

Do I have to take the DFU path now to reflash a normal firmware?

Potentially. I have no experience with the noflash build. I've used DFU sometimes when app loader fw update didn't work. But lately app loader has worked for me.

[gfwilliams]

Ahh - yes, because there isn't access to external flash, you then have to use the backup DFU method to change to anything else: https://www.espruino.com/Firmware+Update#nrf52

[thyttan]

I was not able to get "ios integration" to work with the iflash firmware.

In what way didn't it work?

@RKBoss6 Have you used iflash build with ios?

[eisengpferd]

good point, but I am using the pc. And after every connect I have to restart the pc to be able to connect again. So this seems to be broken too...
This behavior is only if ios integration is installed. On my good bangle (with normal firmware) this behavior is rare but possible too.

[eisengpferd]

(and yes enaon: shure sometimes I have to clear the bangle out of the windows bluetooth settings)

[gfwilliams]

maybe half of the app is in internal flash, and half in external flash?

Well, it may be but that shouldn't cause issues.

Really you'd have to connect with the Web IDE then try and run the app and see what error messages get displayed

[eisengpferd]

here is the text when I try to open the "message" app:

espruino.com
2v28.90 (c) 2025 G.Williams
Uncaught Error: Module "messages" not found
at messagegui.app.js (messagegui.app.js:18:29)

I will now try to get back to a propper firmware with DFU...

[gfwilliams]

Ok, well, you could try reinstalling the messages app in that case?

But if you're on the noflash firmware then you probably don't have enough memory to install everything which is why it's broken. iflash should fare a lot better

[RKBoss6]

I tried out the iflash build, but for me on an iphone, the pairing seems to not work. What happens normally is a prompt comes up asking for pairing and notification forwarding, but nothing comes up now. Some other people have mentioned there are problems with bt pairing, have those been resolved?

[RKBoss6]

Thanks, recovery menu --> boot seems to have worked for me! Another issue I faced is with uploading an image in ClockBg. The app loader shows an error saying: StorageFile Write from app loader failed: NAK while sending packet. I'm not sure if that's something to do with the iflash build - what does the error mean?

[gfwilliams]

I feel like I'm probably answering the same question twice here as @eisengpferd
has just posted similar problems on https://github.com/orgs/espruino/discussions/4032#discussioncomment-15797072

While replying to him I remembered: after you have installed iOS integration and long-pressed, make sure you turn Bluetooth off on your iPhone and back on. iOS caches Bluetooth characteristics, so it would 'rememeber' what the Bangle had on it before and not even bother to look for the new iOS services when trying to reconnect.

[gfwilliams]

The NAK means that for some reason the file couldn't be created in storage. You're definitely using iflash and not noflash? noflash could have run out of memory and so not been able to create the file

[RKBoss6]

No, I'm using iflash - strange... out of curiosity, how much storage does the internal flash have for apps, taking out the storage used by espruino fw?

[thyttan]

It's stated in the opening post on this discussion.