1 Fastboot
2 --------
3
4 The fastboot protocol is a mechanism for communicating with bootloaders
5 over USB or ethernet. It is designed to be very straightforward to implement,
6 to allow it to be used across a wide range of devices and from hosts running
7 Linux, macOS, or Windows.
8
9
10 ## Basic Requirements
11
12 * USB
13 * Two bulk endpoints (in, out) are required
14 * Max packet size must be 64 bytes for full-speed, 512 bytes for
15 high-speed and 1024 bytes for Super Speed USB.
16 * The protocol is entirely host-driven and synchronous (unlike the
17 multi-channel, bi-directional, asynchronous ADB protocol)
18
19 * TCP or UDP
20 * Device must be reachable via IP.
21 * Device will act as the server, fastboot will be the client.
22 * Fastboot data is wrapped in a simple protocol; see below for details.
23
24
25 ## Transport and Framing
26
27 1. Host sends a command, which is an ascii string in a single
28 packet no greater than 64 bytes.
29
30 2. Client response with a single packet no greater than 64 bytes.
31 The first four bytes of the response are "OKAY", "FAIL", "DATA",
32 or "INFO". Additional bytes may contain an (ascii) informative
33 message.
34
35 a. INFO -> the remaining 60 bytes are an informative message
36 (providing progress or diagnostic messages). They should
37 be displayed and then step #2 repeats
38
39 b. FAIL -> the requested command failed. The remaining 60 bytes
40 of the response (if present) provide a textual failure message
41 to present to the user. Stop.
42
43 c. OKAY -> the requested command completed successfully. Go to #5
44
45 d. DATA -> the requested command is ready for the data phase.
46 A DATA response packet will be 12 bytes long, in the form of
47 DATA00000000 where the 8 digit hexadecimal number represents
48 the total data size to transfer.
49
50 3. Data phase. Depending on the command, the host or client will
51 send the indicated amount of data. Short packets are always
52 acceptable and zero-length packets are ignored. This phase continues
53 until the client has sent or received the number of bytes indicated
54 in the "DATA" response above.
55
56 4. Client responds with a single packet no greater than 64 bytes.
57 The first four bytes of the response are "OKAY", "FAIL", or "INFO".
58 Similar to #2:
59
60 a. INFO -> display the remaining 60 bytes and return to #4
61
62 b. FAIL -> display the remaining 60 bytes (if present) as a failure
63 reason and consider the command failed. Stop.
64
65 c. OKAY -> success. Go to #5
66
67 5. Success. Stop.
68
69
70 ## Example Session
71
72 Host: "getvar:version" request version variable
73
74 Client: "OKAY0.4" return version "0.4"
75
76 Host: "getvar:nonexistant" request some undefined variable
77
78 Client: "FAILUnknown variable" getvar failure; see getvar details below
79
80 Host: "download:00001234" request to send 0x1234 bytes of data
81
82 Client: "DATA00001234" ready to accept data
83
84 Host: < 0x1234 bytes > send data
85
86 Client: "OKAY" success
87
88 Host: "flash:bootloader" request to flash the data to the bootloader
89
90 Client: "INFOerasing flash" indicate status / progress
91 "INFOwriting flash"
92 "OKAY" indicate success
93
94 Host: "powerdown" send a command
95
96 Client: "FAILunknown command" indicate failure
97
98
99 ## Command Reference
100
101 * Command parameters are indicated by printf-style escape sequences.
102
103 * Commands are ascii strings and sent without the quotes (which are
104 for illustration only here) and without a trailing 0 byte.
105
106 * Commands that begin with a lowercase letter are reserved for this
107 specification. OEM-specific commands should not begin with a
108 lowercase letter, to prevent incompatibilities with future specs.
109
110 The various currently defined commands are:
111
112 getvar:%s Read a config/version variable from the bootloader.
113 The variable contents will be returned after the
114 OKAY response. If the variable is unknown, the bootloader
115 should return a FAIL response, optionally with an error
116 message.
117
118 Previous versions of this document indicated that getvar
119 should return an empty OKAY response for unknown
120 variables, so older devices might exhibit this behavior,
121 but new implementations should return FAIL instead.
122
123 download:%08x Write data to memory which will be later used
124 by "boot", "ramdisk", "flash", etc. The client
125 will reply with "DATA%08x" if it has enough
126 space in RAM or "FAIL" if not. The size of
127 the download is remembered.
128
129 upload Read data from memory which was staged by the last
130 command, e.g. an oem command. The client will reply
131 with "DATA%08x" if it is ready to send %08x bytes of
132 data. If no data was staged in the last command,
133 the client must reply with "FAIL". After the client
134 successfully sends %08x bytes, the client shall send
135 a single packet starting with "OKAY". Clients
136 should not support "upload" unless it supports an
137 oem command that requires "upload" capabilities.
138
139 verify:%08x Send a digital signature to verify the downloaded
140 data. Required if the bootloader is "secure"
141 otherwise "flash" and "boot" will be ignored.
142
143 flash:%s Write the previously downloaded image to the
144 named partition (if possible).
145
146 erase:%s Erase the indicated partition (clear to 0xFFs)
147
148 boot The previously downloaded data is a boot.img
149 and should be booted according to the normal
150 procedure for a boot.img
151
152 continue Continue booting as normal (if possible)
153
154 reboot Reboot the device.
155
156 reboot-bootloader
157 Reboot back into the bootloader.
158 Useful for upgrade processes that require upgrading
159 the bootloader and then upgrading other partitions
160 using the new bootloader.
161
162 powerdown Power off the device.
163
164
165
166 ## Client Variables
167
168 The "getvar:%s" command is used to read client variables which
169 represent various information about the device and the software
170 on it.
171
172 The various currently defined names are:
173
174 version Version of FastBoot protocol supported.
175 It should be "0.4" for this document.
176
177 version-bootloader Version string for the Bootloader.
178
179 version-baseband Version string of the Baseband Software
180
181 product Name of the product
182
183 serialno Product serial number
184
185 secure If the value is "yes", this is a secure
186 bootloader requiring a signature before
187 it will install or boot images.
188
189 Names starting with a lowercase character are reserved by this
190 specification. OEM-specific names should not start with lowercase
191 characters.
192
193
194 ## TCP Protocol v1
195
196 The TCP protocol is designed to be a simple way to use the fastboot protocol
197 over ethernet if USB is not available.
198
199 The device will open a TCP server on port 5554 and wait for a fastboot client
200 to connect.
201
202 ### Handshake
203 Upon connecting, both sides will send a 4-byte handshake message to ensure they
204 are speaking the same protocol. This consists of the ASCII characters "FB"
205 followed by a 2-digit base-10 ASCII version number. For example, the version 1
206 handshake message will be [FB01].
207
208 If either side detects a malformed handshake, it should disconnect.
209
210 The protocol version to use must be the minimum of the versions sent by each
211 side; if either side cannot speak this protocol version, it should disconnect.
212
213 ### Fastboot Data
214 Once the handshake is complete, fastboot data will be sent as follows:
215
216 [data_size][data]
217
218 Where data\_size is an unsigned 8-byte big-endian binary value, and data is the
219 fastboot packet. The 8-byte length is intended to provide future-proofing even
220 though currently fastboot packets have a 4-byte maximum length.
221
222 ### Example
223 In this example the fastboot host queries the device for two variables,
224 "version" and "none".
225
226 Host <connect to the device on port 5555>
227 Host FB01
228 Device FB01
229 Host [0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x0E]getvar:version
230 Device [0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x07]OKAY0.4
231 Host [0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x0B]getvar:none
232 Device [0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x00][0x14]FAILUnknown variable
233 Host <disconnect>
234
235
236 ## UDP Protocol v1
237
238 The UDP protocol is more complex than TCP since we must implement reliability
239 to ensure no packets are lost, but the general concept of wrapping the fastboot
240 protocol is the same.
241
242 Overview:
243 1. As with TCP, the device will listen on UDP port 5554.
244 2. Maximum UDP packet size is negotiated during initialization.
245 3. The host drives all communication; the device may only send a packet as a
246 response to a host packet.
247 4. If the host does not receive a response in 500ms it will re-transmit.
248
249 ### UDP Packet format
250
251 +----------+----+-------+-------+--------------------+
252 | Byte # | 0 | 1 | 2 - 3 | 4+ |
253 +----------+----+-------+-------+--------------------+
254 | Contents | ID | Flags | Seq # | Data |
255 +----------+----+-------+-------+--------------------+
256
257 ID Packet ID:
258 0x00: Error.
259 0x01: Query.
260 0x02: Initialization.
261 0x03: Fastboot.
262
263 Packet types are described in more detail below.
264
265 Flags Packet flags: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 C
266 C=1 indicates a continuation packet; the data is too large and will
267 continue in the next packet.
268
269 Remaining bits are reserved for future use and must be set to 0.
270
271 Seq # 2-byte packet sequence number (big-endian). The host will increment
272 this by 1 with each new packet, and the device must provide the
273 corresponding sequence number in the response packets.
274
275 Data Packet data, not present in all packets.
276
277 ### Packet Types
278
279 Query
280 The host sends a query packet once on startup to sync with the device.
281 The host will not know the current sequence number, so the device must
282 respond to all query packets regardless of sequence number.
283
284 The response data field should contain a 2-byte big-endian value
285 giving the next expected sequence number.
286
287 Init
288 The host sends an init packet once the query response is returned. The
289 device must abort any in-progress operation and prepare for a new
290 fastboot session. This message is meant to allow recovery if a
291 previous session failed, e.g. due to network error or user Ctrl+C.
292
293 The data field contains two big-endian 2-byte values, a protocol
294 version and the max UDP packet size (including the 4-byte header).
295 Both the host and device will send these values, and in each case
296 the minimum of the sent values must be used.
297
298 Fastboot
299 These packets wrap the fastboot protocol. To write, the host will
300 send a packet with fastboot data, and the device will reply with an
301 empty packet as an ACK. To read, the host will send an empty packet,
302 and the device will reply with fastboot data. The device may not give
303 any data in the ACK packet.
304
305 Error
306 The device may respond to any packet with an error packet to indicate
307 a UDP protocol error. The data field should contain an ASCII string
308 describing the error. This is the only case where a device is allowed
309 to return a packet ID other than the one sent by the host.
310
311 ### Packet Size
312 The maximum packet size is negotiated by the host and device in the Init packet.
313 Devices must support at least 512-byte packets, but packet size has a direct
314 correlation with download speed, so devices are strongly suggested to support at
315 least 1024-byte packets. On a local network with 0.5ms round-trip time this will
316 provide transfer rates of ~2MB/s. Over WiFi it will likely be significantly
317 less.
318
319 Query and Initialization packets, which are sent before size negotiation is
320 complete, must always be 512 bytes or less.
321
322 ### Packet Re-Transmission
323 The host will re-transmit any packet that does not receive a response. The
324 requirement of exactly one device response packet per host packet is how we
325 achieve reliability and in-order delivery of packets.
326
327 For simplicity of implementation, there is no windowing of multiple
328 unacknowledged packets in this version of the protocol. The host will continue
329 to send the same packet until a response is received. Windowing functionality
330 may be implemented in future versions if necessary to increase performance.
331
332 The first Query packet will only be attempted a small number of times, but
333 subsequent packets will attempt to retransmit for at least 1 minute before
334 giving up. This means a device may safely ignore host UDP packets for up to 1
335 minute during long operations, e.g. writing to flash.
336
337 ### Continuation Packets
338 Any packet may set the continuation flag to indicate that the data is
339 incomplete. Large data such as downloading an image may require many
340 continuation packets. The receiver should respond to a continuation packet with
341 an empty packet to acknowledge receipt. See examples below.
342
343 ### Summary
344 The host starts with a Query packet, then an Initialization packet, after
345 which only Fastboot packets are sent. Fastboot packets may contain data from
346 the host for writes, or from the device for reads, but not both.
347
348 Given a next expected sequence number S and a received packet P, the device
349 behavior should be:
350
351 if P is a Query packet:
352 * respond with a Query packet with S in the data field
353 else if P has sequence == S:
354 * process P and take any required action
355 * create a response packet R with the same ID and sequence as P, containing
356 any response data required.
357 * transmit R and save it in case of re-transmission
358 * increment S
359 else if P has sequence == S - 1:
360 * re-transmit the saved response packet R from above
361 else:
362 * ignore the packet
363
364 ### Examples
365
366 In the examples below, S indicates the starting client sequence number.
367
368 Host Client
369 ======================================================================
370 [Initialization, S = 0x55AA]
371 [Host: version 1, 2048-byte packets. Client: version 2, 1024-byte packets.]
372 [Resulting values to use: version = 1, max packet size = 1024]
373 ID Flag SeqH SeqL Data ID Flag SeqH SeqL Data
374 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
375 0x01 0x00 0x00 0x00
376 0x01 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x55 0xAA
377 0x02 0x00 0x55 0xAA 0x00 0x01 0x08 0x00
378 0x02 0x00 0x55 0xAA 0x00 0x02 0x04 0x00
379
380 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
381 [fastboot "getvar" commands, S = 0x0001]
382 ID Flags SeqH SeqL Data ID Flags SeqH SeqL Data
383 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
384 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x01 getvar:version
385 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x01
386 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x02
387 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x02 OKAY0.4
388 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x03 getvar:none
389 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x03
390 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x04
391 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x04 FAILUnknown var
392
393 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
394 [fastboot "INFO" responses, S = 0x0000]
395 ID Flags SeqH SeqL Data ID Flags SeqH SeqL Data
396 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
397 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x00 <command>
398 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x00
399 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x01
400 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x01 INFOWait1
401 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x02
402 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x02 INFOWait2
403 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x03
404 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x03 OKAY
405
406 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
407 [Chunking 2100 bytes of data, max packet size = 1024, S = 0xFFFF]
408 ID Flag SeqH SeqL Data ID Flag SeqH SeqL Data
409 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
410 0x03 0x00 0xFF 0xFF download:0000834
411 0x03 0x00 0xFF 0xFF
412 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x00
413 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x00 DATA0000834
414 0x03 0x01 0x00 0x01 <1020 bytes>
415 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x01
416 0x03 0x01 0x00 0x02 <1020 bytes>
417 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x02
418 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x03 <60 bytes>
419 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x03
420 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x04
421 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x04 OKAY
422
423 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
424 [Unknown ID error, S = 0x0000]
425 ID Flags SeqH SeqL Data ID Flags SeqH SeqL Data
426 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
427 0x10 0x00 0x00 0x00
428 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 <error message>
429
430 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
431 [Host packet loss and retransmission, S = 0x0000]
432 ID Flags SeqH SeqL Data ID Flags SeqH SeqL Data
433 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
434 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x00 getvar:version [lost]
435 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x00 getvar:version [lost]
436 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x00 getvar:version
437 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x00
438 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x01
439 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x01 OKAY0.4
440
441 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
442 [Client packet loss and retransmission, S = 0x0000]
443 ID Flags SeqH SeqL Data ID Flags SeqH SeqL Data
444 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
445 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x00 getvar:version
446 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x00 [lost]
447 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x00 getvar:version
448 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x00 [lost]
449 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x00 getvar:version
450 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x00
451 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x01
452 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x01 OKAY0.4
453
454 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
455 [Host packet delayed, S = 0x0000]
456 ID Flags SeqH SeqL Data ID Flags SeqH SeqL Data
457 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
458 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x00 getvar:version [delayed]
459 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x00 getvar:version
460 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x00
461 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x01
462 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x01 OKAY0.4
463 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x00 getvar:version [arrives late with old seq#, is ignored]
464