Problems with MCUBoot and external flash

[Alessio Galliazzo]

Hi Guys,

I'm working with a couple of NRF52840-DK trying to implement my own firmware update logic using Openthread and MCUBoot. My goal is to use CoAP to upload chunk of firmware on the non active slot and then switch firmware partition after a reset.

In my project I use the external NOR flash to store data (my desiderata is to use that also to store the second image, but it's not mandatory at this stage) and I'm experiencing some strange compiler behaivour. It seems that the build of MCUBoot works fine but once is time to compile the firmware it fails with error:

C:\Users\agall\OneDrive\Lavoro\NRFDomoticWorkspace\NRFDomotic\nrf\include\flash_map_pm.h:50:18: error: 'PM_PM_PM_external_partition_ID_LABEL_OFFSET' undeclared (first use in this function)

As far as I understand (I'm working with zephyr for about 6 months now and I gain some experiences but, for suure, I'm not a guru) it seems that external_partition is not recognized in the DTS file. So, I took a look at the zephyr build folder and in the zephyr.dts file I have:

		qspi: flash_qspi: qspi@40029000 {
			compatible = "nordic,nrf-qspi";
			#address-cells = < 0x1 >;
			#size-cells = < 0x0 >;
			reg = < 0x40029000 0x1000 >, < 0x12000000 0x8000000 >;
			reg-names = "qspi", "qspi_mm";
			interrupts = < 0x29 0x1 >;
			status = "okay";
			pinctrl-0 = < &qspi_default >;
			pinctrl-1 = < &qspi_sleep >;
			pinctrl-names = "default", "sleep";
			mx25r64: storage: mx25r6435f@0 {
				compatible = "nordic,qspi-nor";
				reg = < 0x0 >;
				writeoc = "pp4io";
				readoc = "read4io";
				sck-frequency = < 0x7a1200 >;
				jedec-id = [ C2 28 17 ];
				sfdp-bfp = [ E5 20 F1 FF FF FF FF 03 44 EB 08 6B 08 3B 04 BB EE FF FF FF FF FF 00 FF FF FF 00 FF 0C 20 0F 52 10 D8 00 FF 23 72 F5 00 82 ED 04 CC 44 83 68 44 30 B0 30 B0 F7 C4 D5 5C 00 BE 29 FF F0 D0 FF FF ];
				size = < 0x4000000 >;
				has-dpd;
				t-enter-dpd = < 0x2710 >;
				t-exit-dpd = < 0x88b8 >;
				status = "okay";
				partitions {
					status = "okay";
					compatible = "fixed-partitions";
					#address-cells = < 0x1 >;
					#size-cells = < 0x1 >;
					external_partition: partition@0 {
						label = "ext_storage";
						reg = < 0x0 0x4000 >;
						phandle = < 0x5 >;
					};
				};
			};
		};

So, as far as I understand the DTS is properly managed.

The strange thing is that, if I compile everything with

CONFIG_BOOTLOADER_MCUBOOT=n

it properly compile and the fine runs fine.

Did you guys have any idea?

Thanks for in advance your support

[azwin]

hi refer this link : you may get idea about external memory     https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/83110/driver-support-for-nrf-52840-external-memory-on-nrf-52840-get-started 

 

[Alessio Galliazzo]

Hi, thanks for your reply, I'm able to make the external flash working properly, the problem is only when I compile with the CONFIG_BOOTLOADER_MCUBOOT=y that I get that error.

And, of course, the external flash works properly without MCUBoot.

[dejans]

Hi,

The error that you get might be related to the flash_map and partition manager. Partition manager is used for all multi-image builds but you can read from the Note (on the same linked page) that devicetree source flash partitions are ignored. Child image defines its Partition Manager configuration in the pm.yml file. The output of Partition Manager creates as an output partitions.yml file which contains the content of pm.yml and sizes and addresses of all partitions. You could use this partitions.yml file as a base for to creating your own static configuration. These 2 discussions might be useful - defining extra flash partition and MCUboot flash offset.

Best regards,
Dejan

[Alessio Galliazzo]

Hi Dejan,

Thanks for your update, I indeed was on the right path, the only thing I was missing was to use pm_static.yml instead of pm.yml

Adding only the external_partition to the pm_static made everything compile properly.

thanks for the support