one-wire: a lost echo and a dead line are not the same report

The blind-write path said "lost to the device's ack" for any missing echo, and
the count is what distinguishes two different faults. Some bytes lost is the
device's ack winning the line against the host's series resistor — ordinary,
and what the knock retry absorbs. *Every* byte lost is nothing coming back at
all, which means the line is not free: a pin held low, a wedge, or an RX that
is not on it.

Found pointing the wrong way on purpose-built hardware. This rig's LED demo
ends by driving every port pin low, and one of them is the shared link — so a
knock into a finished demo got no echo whatsoever and was told the device had
acked, when nothing had answered and nothing could. Same retry either way, but
blaming an ack that never happened sends the reader to the protocol when the
answer is a pin.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

pureboot/pureboot.py

@@ -454,11 +454,26 @@ class OneWirePort:
     def __init__(self, port):
         self._port = port
         self._pending = b""
+        self.lost_echoes = 0
 
     def __getattr__(self, name):
         return getattr(self._port, name)
 
-    def write(self, data):
+    def write(self, data, blind=False):
+        """Put `data` on the line and consume its echo.
+
+        `blind` marks the protocol's one multi-byte write with no ack between
+        its bytes — the knock. Aimed at a loader already in session, its first
+        byte draws a prompt while the second is still going out, and on real
+        wiring the device's push-pull ack **wins the line** against the host's
+        1 k series resistor: that second byte is *destroyed, not delayed*, and
+        its echo never comes. Measured on an ATtiny13A at 57600 — the loader
+        answers a single byte perfectly and loses the knock's second every
+        time. So on a blind write a missing echo is a property of the wiring
+        rather than a fault in it, and the caller's retry is what deals with
+        it. Every other write is ack-paced and cannot collide, so a missing
+        echo there really is an RX that is not on the line.
+        """
         data = bytes(data)
         self._port.write(data)
         # The echo arrives at line rate — 10 bits a byte — plus adapter
@@ -466,16 +481,39 @@ class OneWirePort:
         # of the error path.
         deadline = time.monotonic() + 10 * len(data) / self._port.baud + 0.5
         remaining = data
-        while remaining:
+        while remaining and time.monotonic() < deadline:
-            budget = deadline - time.monotonic()
+            # Speculative, so it cannot be read_exact, whose contract is to
-            if budget <= 0:
+            # raise: doing that made the diagnosis below unreachable on every
-                raise Error(f"one-wire echo missing after {len(data) - len(remaining)} of "
+            # quiet line and surfaced a bare "timeout: got 0 of 1 bytes" in
-                            f"{len(data)} byte(s) — is the adapter's RX tied to the line?")
+            # its place — the one message this class exists to replace.
-            byte = self._port.read_exact(1, budget)
+            for byte in self._port.read_available(0.02):
-            if byte == remaining[:1]:
+                if remaining and byte == remaining[0]:
                     remaining = remaining[1:]
                 else:
-                self._pending += byte
+                    self._pending += bytes((byte,))
+        if not remaining:
+            return
+        if not blind:
+            raise Error(f"one-wire echo missing after {len(data) - len(remaining)} of "
+                        f"{len(data)} byte(s) — is the adapter's RX tied to the line?")
+        self.lost_echoes += len(remaining)
+        # Which loss this is matters, and the count says it. *Some* bytes lost is
+        # the device's ack winning the line against the host's series resistor —
+        # ordinary, and what the retry absorbs. *Every* byte lost is nothing
+        # coming back at all, which is a line that is not free: an application
+        # holding the shared pin low (this rig's LED demo ends that way), a
+        # wedge, or an RX that is not on the line. Same retry either way, but
+        # blaming an ack that never happened sends the reader to the wrong place.
+        if len(remaining) == len(data):
+            verbose(f"one-wire: none of {len(data)} byte(s) echoed — the line is not "
+                    f"coming back. Held low by something? (a pin driven low, a wedge, "
+                    f"or an RX not on the line)")
+        else:
+            verbose(f"one-wire: {len(remaining)} of {len(data)} knock byte(s) lost to the "
+                    f"device's ack; retrying")
+
+    def write_blind(self, data):
+        self.write(data, blind=True)
 
     def read_exact(self, count, timeout):
         taken, self._pending = self._pending[:count], self._pending[count:]
@@ -658,9 +696,16 @@ class Loader:
                     break
         knocks = 0
         refusal = None
+        # The knock is the only write in the protocol with no ack between its
+        # bytes, so on a shared line it is the only one whose echo may
+        # legitimately not come back — the device's ack collides with it and
+        # wins (OneWirePort.write). Losing a byte here is what the retry below
+        # is for; raising instead aborted the loop before it ever ran, which on
+        # real wiring made every reconnect into a live session fail.
+        knock_out = getattr(self.port, "write_blind", self.port.write)
         while True:
             self.port.flush_input()
-            self.port.write(knock)
+            knock_out(knock)
             knocks += 1
             if PROMPT in self.port.read_available(0.4):
                 # Settle: absorb a real loader's trailing bytes before asking

tools/pbhw.py

@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ class Suite:
         """The info block, which every later check takes its bounds from."""
         module = pbrig.load_pureboot(self.rig.d.pureboot)
         self.rig.reset()
-        port = module.Port(self.rig.d.port, self.rig.d.baud)
+        port = self.rig.open_port()  # wrapped for the echo where the line is shared
         try:
             loader = module.Loader(port)
             if self.rig.d.autobaud:
@@ -87,7 +87,10 @@ class Suite:
                 rate = module.scan_rate(self.rig.d.baud, pct)
                 self.rig.reset()
                 try:
-                    port = module.Port(self.rig.d.port, rate)
+                    # Same wrap as identity(): on a shared line an undiscarded
+                    # echo answers every rate a scan probes, so the walk would
+                    # report the first one it tried.
+                    port = self.rig.open_port(rate)
                 except module.Error as error:
                     self.check("scan opens every probe rate", False, f"{rate} Bd: {error}")
                     return
@@ -129,18 +132,28 @@ class Suite:
         got = erased.read_bytes() if erased.exists() else b""
         self.check("EEPROM erase leaves 0xff", got == b"\xff" * size, f"{len(got)} B")
 
-    def application(self, info, app: pathlib.Path, marker: str) -> None:
+    def application(self, info, app: pathlib.Path, marker: str,
+                    marker_wait: float = 2.5) -> None:
         rc, out = self.rig.pureboot("--flash", str(app), "--verify-flash", str(app))
         self.check(f"application flash + verify ({app.name})", rc == 0, self._brief(out))
 
         if marker:
             # The tool hands over as it ends its session, so the application is
-            # already running; opening the port does not reset a board whose DTR
+            # already running — but only on a board whose DTR is unwired, where
-            # is unwired, so this simply listens.
+            # opening a port simply listens. Where DTR *is* wired to reset (an
-            data = self.rig.capture(seconds=2.5)
+            # Arduino, most USB-serial dev boards), this open resets the part
+            # and the activation window comes first, so a marker emitted once at
+            # startup happens on the far side of a wait this cannot know the
+            # length of: the window is a compile-time constant and nothing on
+            # the wire reports it. Hence --marker-wait, and a fixture that
+            # repeats its banner (PUREBOOT_HEARTBEAT) rather than saying it once.
+            data = self.rig.capture(seconds=marker_wait)
             seen = marker.encode() in data
             sample = "".join(chr(b) if 32 <= b < 127 else "." for b in data[:40])
-            self.check(f"application runs (emits {marker!r})", seen, f"|{sample}|")
+            self.check(f"application runs (emits {marker!r})", seen,
+                       f"|{sample}|" if seen or data else
+                       f"nothing in {marker_wait:g} s — if this board resets when its port "
+                       f"opens, that wait has to outlast the activation window")
 
         back = self.work / "app-back.bin"
         rc, out = self.rig.pureboot("--read-flash", str(back))
@@ -187,7 +200,7 @@ class Suite:
     # ------------------------------------------------------------------- run
 
     def run(self, app: pathlib.Path | None, loader_image: pathlib.Path | None,
-            marker: str) -> int:
+            marker: str, marker_wait: float = 2.5) -> int:
         print("identity")
         info = self.identity()
         if info is None:
@@ -203,7 +216,7 @@ class Suite:
 
         if app:
             print("\napplication")
-            self.application(info, app, marker)
+            self.application(info, app, marker, marker_wait)
         else:
             print("\nskip  application checks (pass --app <image.hex>)")
 
@@ -229,6 +242,10 @@ def main(argv: list[str] | None = None) -> int:
                         help="the resident loader's .bin, to prove the slot survives an erase")
     parser.add_argument("--marker", default="",
                         help="text the application emits when it runs, e.g. APP")
+    parser.add_argument("--marker-wait", type=float, default=2.5,
+                        help="seconds to listen for it. On a board whose DTR is wired to "
+                             "reset, opening the port resets the part, so this must outlast "
+                             "the activation window (default 2.5)")
     args = parser.parse_args(argv)
 
     rig = pbrig.Rig(pbrig.Deployment.from_args(args))
@@ -236,7 +253,8 @@ def main(argv: list[str] | None = None) -> int:
           f"{' (autobaud)' if args.autobaud else ''}")
     print("this overwrites the application flash and EEPROM\n")
     with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory(prefix="pbhw-") as temporary:
-        return Suite(rig, pathlib.Path(temporary)).run(args.app, args.loader, args.marker)
+        return Suite(rig, pathlib.Path(temporary)).run(args.app, args.loader, args.marker,
+                                                      args.marker_wait)
 
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":

tools/pbrig.py

@@ -281,6 +281,22 @@ class Rig:
             return 99, f"TIMEOUT after {timeout}s\n{expired.stdout or ''}{expired.stderr or ''}"
         return result.returncode, (result.stdout or "") + (result.stderr or "")
 
+    def open_port(self, baud: int | None = None):
+        """A port opened the way this deployment says to speak to the board.
+
+        Everything the rig runs as a *subprocess* gets its flags from
+        `pureboot()` above; anything that drives the protocol in-process has
+        to reach the same facts, and until this existed only the subprocess
+        path could. A shared line is the one where that gap is fatal rather
+        than untidy: the host reads back every byte it writes, so an
+        undiscarded echo answers the knock before the device does. Open
+        through here and a one-wire deployment cannot be silently driven as
+        a two-wire one.
+        """
+        module = load_pureboot(self.d.pureboot)
+        port = module.Port(self.d.port, self.d.baud if baud is None else baud)
+        return module.OneWirePort(port) if self.d.one_wire else port
+
     def capture(self, seconds: float = 2.0, baud: int | None = None) -> bytes:
         """Listen to whatever the board is saying, at an arbitrary rate.