Error when trying to move NV storage partition to external flash

RE: Error when trying to move NV storage partition to external flash

Amanda Hsieh — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 15:04:47 GMT

Happy to hear it works.

-Amanda H.

RE: Error when trying to move NV storage partition to external flash

GBDVE — Fri, 07 Jul 2023 14:37:51 GMT

Hi Amanda,

Thank you for the suggested configuration.

With the debug enabled, I've finally found the solution.

The problem was that I'd also moved the secondary partition on the external flash,

so the primary partition increased in size up to 959kB.

In the mcuboot.conf I've added the line

CONFIG_BOOT_MAX_IMG_SECTORS=256

After this, the app started to work.

RE: Error when trying to move NV storage partition to external flash

Amanda Hsieh — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 16:57:05 GMT

Hi,

[quote user="GBDVE"]Is it possible to redirect the mcuboot debug on jlink RTT?[/quote]

You can add the following configs to mcuboot.conf

# Disable UART Console and enable the RTT console
CONFIG_UART_CONSOLE=n
CONFIG_RTT_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_USE_SEGGER_RTT=y

# Config logger
CONFIG_LOG=y
CONFIG_LOG_BACKEND_RTT=y
CONFIG_LOG_BACKEND_UART=n

CONFIG_MULTITHREADING=y

[quote user="GBDVE"]I tested the code on an nrf5340dk EVB, and in the 3rd serial port appears the following message:[/quote]

Not sure how you set the configs for nRF53DK, but I have an example devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../hello_5F00_world_5F00_nrf53_5F00_qpsi.7z for NCS v2.1.0 which uses nRF5340 with external memory on DK. You can use it as a reference. If it cannot help, please provide the complete prj.conf and mcuboot.conf.

Beware that this code/configuration is not fully tested or qualified and should be considered provided “as-is”. Please test it with your application and let me know if you find any issues.

-Amanda H.

RE: Error when trying to move NV storage partition to external flash

GBDVE — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 07:16:23 GMT

Hi,

Unfortunately, our hardware does not have an accessible UART port.

Is it possible to redirect the mcuboot debug on jlink RTT?

I tested the code on an nrf5340dk EVB, and in the 3rd serial port appears the following message:

*** Booting Zephyr OS build v3.1.99-ncs1  ***
I: Starting bootloader
W: Failed reading sectors; BOOT_MAX_IMG_SECTORS=128 - too small?
E: Image in the primary slot is not valid!
E: Unable to find bootable image

It doesn't seem related to the external flash (on the EVB hardware is a different device), the primary image should be in the internal flash.

Thanks.

Gabriele.

RE: Error when trying to move NV storage partition to external flash

Amanda Hsieh — Wed, 14 Jun 2023 16:02:35 GMT

Hi,

Because mcuboot uses 0x10000 and mcuboot_pad uses mcuboot_pad, the app starts at 0x10200. That looks correct.

[quote user="GBDVE"]but the generated code doesn't work on the hardware.[/quote]

Could you elaborate in more detail on how it doesn't work? Could you provide the complete log? See this post to enable mcuboot log.

-Amanda H.

RE: Error when trying to move NV storage partition to external flash

GBDVE — Tue, 13 Jun 2023 08:07:56 GMT

Hi Amanda,

the modification you suggested did work, but now there is another big problem.

As you can notice on the demo code I've sent, in the child_image directory, there is a mcuboot.conf with a configuration parameter to increase the bootloader size. Without this setting, the build fails with the following error:

region `FLASH' overflowed by 5924 bytes
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
ninja: build stopped: subcommand failed.

By adjusting the mcuboot size with the following line:

CONFIG_PM_PARTITION_SIZE_MCUBOOT=0x10000

the build completes without errors, but the generated code doesn't work on the hardware. I notice that the app code starts on a +0x200 byte offset in the internal flash, could this be the problem?

This is the output of the "ninja partition_manager_report" command:

  external_flash (0x2000000 - 32768kB): 
+-------------------------------------------------+
| 0x0: mcuboot_secondary (0xf0000 - 960kB)        |
| 0xf0000: settings_storage (0x2000 - 8kB)        |
| 0xf2000: littlefs_storage (0xf0e000 - 15416kB)  |
| 0x1000000: external_flash (0x1000000 - 16384kB) |
+-------------------------------------------------+

  flash_primary (0x100000 - 1024kB): 
+--------------------------------------------------+
| 0x0: mcuboot (0x10000 - 64kB)                    |
+---0x10000: mcuboot_primary (0xf0000 - 960kB)-----+
| 0x10000: mcuboot_pad (0x200 - 512B)              |
+---0x10200: mcuboot_primary_app (0xefe00 - 959kB)-+
| 0x10200: app (0xefe00 - 959kB)                   |
+--------------------------------------------------+

  otp (0x2fc - 764B): 
+------------------------------+
| 0xff8100: otp (0x2fc - 764B) |
+------------------------------+

  sram_primary (0x80000 - 512kB): 
+-----------------------------------------------+
| 0x20000000: pcd_sram (0x2000 - 8kB)           |
| 0x20002000: sram_primary (0x6e000 - 440kB)    |
| 0x20070000: rpmsg_nrf53_sram (0x10000 - 64kB) |
+-----------------------------------------------+

 CPUNET flash_primary (0x40000 - 256kB): 
+--------------------------------------------+
+---0x1000000: b0n_container (0x8800 - 34kB)-+
| 0x1000000: b0n (0x8600 - 33kB)             |
| 0x1008600: provision (0x200 - 512B)        |
+---0x1008800: app (0x37800 - 222kB)---------+
| 0x1008800: hci_rpmsg (0x37800 - 222kB)     |
+--------------------------------------------+

 CPUNET sram_primary (0x10000 - 64kB): 
+-------------------------------------------+
| 0x21000000: sram_primary (0x10000 - 64kB) |
+-------------------------------------------+

As you can see, the app starts at the address 0x10200.

My question is: what is the correct way to increase the mcuboot sector?

Thanks.

Gabriele.

RE: Error when trying to move NV storage partition to external flash

Amanda Hsieh — Fri, 09 Jun 2023 13:08:04 GMT

Hi,

Looks like the last #endif in pm.yml.settings is one line too low.

From for example pm.yml.file_system, we can see that "size" should be defined after the #endif. Try to move this line after the #endif

diff --git a/subsys/partition_manager/pm.yml.settings b/subsys/partition_manager/pm.yml.settings
index 5bbc9cc6c..798943908 100644
--- a/subsys/partition_manager/pm.yml.settings
+++ b/subsys/partition_manager/pm.yml.settings
@@ -10,5 +10,5 @@ settings_storage:
     align: {start: CONFIG_NRF_SPU_FLASH_REGION_SIZE}
 #endif
   inside: [nonsecure_storage]
-  size: CONFIG_PM_PARTITION_SIZE_SETTINGS_STORAGE
 #endif
+  size: CONFIG_PM_PARTITION_SIZE_SETTINGS_STORAGE

Please let me know if this can help or not. Thanks.

-Amanda H.

RE: Error when trying to move NV storage partition to external flash

GBDVE — Thu, 08 Jun 2023 12:41:35 GMT

Hi Amanda,
Please find the attachment containing a sample source code using the same configuration as our application.

In the build directory, I use the following commands to populate the cmake project:

$ cmake -B . -DBOARD=nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpuapp -G"Eclipse CDT4 - Ninja" ../bs02_fw

after some computation, it fails with the following messages:

  Eclipse CDT4 generator amendment mode:
   C and CXX includes, defines in .cproject without __cplusplus
   with project includes and defines
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/opt/nordicsemi/ncs2/nrf/scripts/partition_manager.py", line 1940, in <module>
    main()
  File "/opt/nordicsemi/ncs2/nrf/scripts/partition_manager.py", line 1020, in main
    static_config, regions))
  File "/opt/nordicsemi/ncs2/nrf/scripts/partition_manager.py", line 962, in solve_region
    get_region_config(partitions, region_config, static_partitions, system_reqs=pm_config)
  File "/opt/nordicsemi/ncs2/nrf/scripts/partition_manager.py", line 735, in get_region_config
    static_conf, system_reqs)
  File "/opt/nordicsemi/ncs2/nrf/scripts/partition_manager.py", line 782, in solve_simple_region
    address += pm_config[partition_name]['size']
KeyError: 'size'
CMake Error at /opt/nordicsemi/ncs2/nrf/cmake/partition_manager.cmake:290 (message):
  Partition Manager failed, aborting.  Command:
  /usr/bin/python3.7;/opt/nordicsemi/ncs2/nrf/scripts/partition_manager.py;--input-files;/home/dve/progetti/elettroprogetti/nexter/bs02/software/fw/ticket_nordic01/build/mcuboot/zephyr/include/generated/pm.yml;/home/dve/progetti/elettroprogetti/nexter/bs02/software/fw/ticket_nordic01/build/mcuboot/modules/nrf/subsys/partition_manager/pm.yml.pcd;/home/dve/progetti/elettroprogetti/nexter/bs02/software/fw/ticket_nordic01/build/zephyr/include/generated/pm.yml;/home/dve/progetti/elettroprogetti/nexter/bs02/software/fw/ticket_nordic01/build/modules/nrf/subsys/partition_manager/pm.yml.settings;/home/dve/progetti/elettroprogetti/nexter/bs02/software/fw/ticket_nordic01/build/modules/nrf/subsys/partition_manager/pm.yml.file_system;/home/dve/progetti/elettroprogetti/nexter/bs02/software/fw/ticket_nordic01/build/modules/nrf/subsys/partition_manager/pm.yml.rpmsg_nrf53;--regions;sram_primary;otp;flash_primary;external_flash;--output-partitions;/home/dve/progetti/elettroprogetti/nexter/bs02/software/fw/ticket_nordic01/build/partitions.yml;--output-regions;/home/dve/progetti/elettroprogetti/nexter/bs02/software/fw/ticket_nordic01/build/regions.yml;--sram_primary-size;0x80000;--sram_primary-base-address;0x20000000;--sram_primary-placement-strategy;complex;--sram_primary-dynamic-partition;sram_primary;--otp-size;764;--otp-base-address;0xff8100;--otp-placement-strategy;start_to_end;--flash_primary-size;0x100000;--flash_primary-base-address;0x0;--flash_primary-placement-strategy;complex;--flash_primary-device;flash_controller;--flash_primary-default-driver-kconfig;CONFIG_SOC_FLASH_NRF;--external_flash-size;33554432;--external_flash-base-address;0;--external_flash-placement-strategy;start_to_end;--external_flash-device;/soc/peripheral@50000000/spi@b000/w25q256jveiq@0;--external_flash-default-driver-kconfig;CONFIG_PM_OVERRIDE_EXTERNAL_DRIVER_CHECK
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  /opt/nordicsemi/ncs2/zephyr/cmake/modules/kernel.cmake:244 (include)
  /opt/nordicsemi/ncs2/zephyr/cmake/modules/zephyr_default.cmake:130 (include)
  /opt/nordicsemi/ncs2/zephyr/share/zephyr-package/cmake/ZephyrConfig.cmake:66 (include)
  /opt/nordicsemi/ncs2/zephyr/share/zephyr-package/cmake/ZephyrConfig.cmake:92 (include_boilerplate)
  CMakeLists.txt:12 (find_package)

If you comment the two lines relative to the external storage in the prj.conf, the project can be configured and built:

# External partitions
CONFIG_PM_PARTITION_REGION_LITTLEFS_EXTERNAL=y
#CONFIG_PM_PARTITION_REGION_SETTINGS_STORAGE_EXTERNAL=y
#CONFIG_PM_PARTITION_REGION_NVS_STORAGE_EXTERNAL=y

Thanks for your support.
Gabriele.

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../bs02_5F00_fw.zip

RE: Error when trying to move NV storage partition to external flash

Amanda Hsieh — Wed, 07 Jun 2023 18:55:17 GMT

Hi,

I haven't seen that error before, could you provide the project to reproduce the issue?

[quote user=""]Is there a way to limit the external_flash region to a value different than 0x200000?[/quote]

I need to check your overlay.

Regards,
Amanda H.