[SOLVED] J-Link Remote Tunnel

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  • [SOLVED] J-Link Remote Tunnel

    Recently (after 10+ years of using J-Links) I have had occasion to use the J-Link Remote Tunnel server. Once to help out a co-worker who was remote working due to the pandemic situation, and once to diagnose and fix some problems a field team was having servicing a unit.

    That software and service are totally awesome! Super easy to setup, and once connected everything works just like I was using the J-Link at my desk (only somewhat slower).

    I would like to suggest a couple things that might help make a client connection go smoother:

    1. The remote server software has a "Client connection string" (that looks like: "ip tunnel:mwb1100:password:jlink-america.segger.com"), but the client dialogs that let you connect to the remote server has separate fields for the name (mwb1100 here), password, and the tunnel server name. That's workable of course, but it would be nicer if I could just copy/past the "client connection string" that the guy running the remote server sends me in a message into some field. As far as I know, right now the client connection string is only directly useful as an argument to the jlink.exe "-IP" command line option.

    2. in Jflash there isn't a way to set the tunnel configuration in the project settings dialog (there are only options for USB, USB SN, and TCP/IP - which will only accept a plain IP address or hostname). It would be nice if the project settings allowed an "IP via tunnel" configuration option or if I could paste the "ip tunnel:mwb1100:password:jlink-america.segger.com" connection string into the IP field and have it figure out that the tunnel server should be used instead of a plain IP connection.

    3. related to #2, in JFlash it seems that the only way to get the dialog that allows you to specify the client tunnel configuration is to disconnect all local USB-connected J-Links. And you don't get the dialog that allows you to configure the tunnel connection until you try to connect to the target and JFlash finds no USB connected J-Links to use.

    But all-in-all, the remote tunnel service was a godsend! Who is it I should buy a beer for?

    Thanks!

  • Hi,
    First: Thanks a lot for the compliment!
    We are glad that you like our software.

    Regarding your inquiry:

    Note, that the "ip " is not part of the connection stirng.
    It is used to indicate that "IP" has to be selected as host interface.
    The connection string is only "tunnel:mwb1100:password:jlink-america.segger.com".
    So pasting this (without quotations) into any TCP/IP field,
    or use it as command line parameter, when using J-Link software works.

    For an example, see 2 & 3).

    1) This depends on the dialog, but usually, there is only a "TCP/IP" field for this purpose.
    The hostinterface can usually also be passed using a command line option though, so this should also work.
    E.g. JLink.exe -ip "tunnel:mwb1100:password:jlink-america.segger.com"

    2 & 3) This is possible in J-Flash:
    Options -> Project settings... -> General -> Connection type -> select TCP/IP:
    However, you would have to leave out the "ip " part:


    We will revisit the documentation and see if we can somehow make this clearer.

    BR
    Fabian
    Please read the forum rules before posting.

    Keep in mind, this is *not* a support forum.
    Our engineers will try to answer your questions between their projects if possible but this can be delayed by longer periods of time.
    Should you be entitled to support you can contact us via our support system: segger.com/ticket/
    Or you can contact us via e-mail.

  • Thanks for the screenshot - I thought I had tried that (the connection string without the "ip" prefix), but I'm probably remembering wrong. When you're trying to support a technician at a customer site who is troubleshooting a problem, you don't' always take the best notes of what didn't work - just what did.

    I will take note for next time.

    And just to stress: the remote J-Link feature is a great to begin with, but the tunnel service made it possible to use in situations that I would never have expected. So next time I ask for J-Link Plus units, I'll have a couple stories that'll make them easy to justify. In fact, I'm already thinking that for a field trial we could get a J-Link Plus Compact and an RPi unit for each field test installation and we'd be able to have developers and testers be able to flash and debug anytime, anywhere.