OTA on external flash fails after having loaded an image

RE: OTA on external flash fails after having loaded an image

GBDVE — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 20:19:51 GMT

Important Update: I've finally found the solution for the 4K flash page settings, and now the OTA works fine:

in the case of mcuboot config, the CONFIG_SPI_NOR_SFDP_MINIMAL=n must be included in the mcuboot.conf.

I looked at autoconf.h and noticed that it was set to yes, and probably when active, the other option CONFIG_SPI_NOR_SFDP_RUNTIME=n is ignored.

It seems that the CONFIG_SPI_NOR_FLASH_LAYOUT_PAGE_SIZE parameter is considered only if those two options are disabled.

After this modification, the OTA procedure works properly: the mcuboot recognizes the second image and does the swap.

Many Thanks, Amanda, for your support. I'll check your suggestion in the next few days. Please consider that I've prepared the test code very quickly, and maybe there is something wrong, and its behavior may be different from the project I'm working on.

Now, it remains to understand why the first build ignores the mcuboot configuration in the child_image dir.

Regards,

Gabriele.

RE: OTA on external flash fails after having loaded an image

Amanda Hsieh — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 20:06:37 GMT

Hi,

I see these relevant warnings in the build log

warning: SPI_NOR (defined at drivers/flash/Kconfig.nor:4) was assigned the value 'y' but got the
value 'n'. Check these unsatisfied dependencies: DT_HAS_JEDEC_SPI_NOR_ENABLED (=n). See
http://docs.zephyrproject.org/latest/kconfig.html#CONFIG_SPI_NOR and/or look up SPI_NOR in the
menuconfig/guiconfig interface. The Application Development Primer, Setting Configuration Values,
and KLoaded configuration 'C:/ncs/v2.1.0/zephyr/boards/arm/nrf5340dk_nrf5340/nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpuapp_defconfig'
Merged configuration 'C:/ncs/v2.1.0/bootloader/mcuboot/boot/zephyr/prj.conf'
Merged configuration 'C:/ncs/v2.1.0/nrf/subsys/pcd/pcd.conf'
Merged configuration 'C:/ncs/v2.1.0/nrf/subsys/bootloader/bl_override/override_external_mcuboot.conf'
Merged configuration 'C:/ncs/v2.1.0/nrf/subsys/partition_manager/ext_flash_mcuboot_secondary.conf'
config - Tips and Best Practices sections of the manual might be helpful too.


warning: SPI_NOR_FLASH_LAYOUT_PAGE_SIZE (defined at drivers/flash/Kconfig.nor:56) was assigned the
value '4096' but got the value ''. Check these unsatisfied dependencies: SPI_NOR (=n). See
http://docs.zephyrproject.org/latest/kconfig.html#CONFIG_SPI_NOR_FLASH_LAYOUT_PAGE_SIZE and/or look
up SPI_NOR_FLASH_LAYOUT_PAGE_SIZE in the menuconfig/guiconfig interface. The Application Development
Primer, Setting Configuration Values, and Kconfig - Tips and Best Practices sections of the manual
might be helpful too.

For testing can you first try to make the flash test driver to work?

https://github.com/nrfconnect/sdk-zephyr/tree/main/tests/drivers/flash

In your case that want to use spi you can find these two files relevant:
boards/nrf52840dk_flash_spi.conf
boards/nrf52840dk_mx25r_high_perf.overlay
(remove the mxicy,mx25r-power-mode = "high-performance"; in your case from the .overlay)

By modifying the .overlay file you should hopefully relatively quickly find configuration that works.

-Amanda H.

RE: OTA on external flash fails after having loaded an image

GBDVE — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 16:35:30 GMT

Hi Amanda, thanks for your reply.

I've attached an example source based on my project. It contains the configurations to use the external flash on the SPI bus, not QSPI.

I build it on a Linux environment, in the following way:

$ mkdir build_test_mcuboot_extflash
$ cd build_test_mcuboot_extflash
$ cmake -B . -DBOARD=nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpuapp -G"Eclipse CDT4 - Ninja"  ../test_mcuboot_extflash/
$ west build

The strange behavior I've explained in my previous post also happens when using "west build".

The autoconf.h doesn't reflect the settings in mcuboot.conf:

$ grep CONFIG_SPI_NOR_FLASH_LAYOUT_PAGE_SIZE mcuboot/zephyr/include/generated/autoconf.h
$

the CONFIG_SPI_NOR_FLASH_LAYOUT_PAGE_SIZE define is not present in the generated file.

After having modified line 124 in the boards/nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpuapp.conf, from CONFIG_MCUBOOT_IMAGE_VERSION="2.0.3+3" to CONFIG_MCUBOOT_IMAGE_VERSION="2.0.3+4", and after having reissued the "west build" command, then the autoconf.h contains the definitions in the mcuboot.conf, but the flash page value is wrong:

$ grep CONFIG_SPI_NOR_FLASH_LAYOUT_PAGE_SIZE mcuboot/zephyr/include/generated/autoconf.h 
#define CONFIG_SPI_NOR_FLASH_LAYOUT_PAGE_SIZE 65536

I'm using Zephyr version v3.1.99-ncs1, nrf v2.1.0, mbedtls-nrf v3.1.0-ncs1.

This is the test source code:

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../test_5F00_mcuboot_5F00_extflash.zip

Thank you.

Regards,

Gabriele.

RE: OTA on external flash fails after having loaded an image

Amanda Hsieh — Wed, 04 Oct 2023 18:45:56 GMT

Hi,

[quote user="GBDVE"]Both overlay and config for the mcuboot are similar to the examples you indicated to me.[/quote]

The overlay and configs for SPI/QSPI external are different.

[quote user="GBDVE"]As I previously reported, my problem is that the CONFIG_SPI_NOR_FLASH_LAYOUT_PAGE_SIZE=4096 seems to be ignored by the cmake system, as the final autoconf.h contains a value of 65536.[/quote]

You can check the build log to see why the value is ignored. Could you upload your project?

[quote user="GBDVE"]Is there something wrong in the cmake procedure I reported, or I'm missing something?[/quote]

I am not familiar with cmake build command. We usually suggest using "west build" or VS Code to build the project. See theBuilding and programming an application documentation.

-Amanda H.

RE: OTA on external flash fails after having loaded an image

GBDVE — Tue, 03 Oct 2023 08:03:58 GMT

Hi Amanda, thanks for your reply and assistance.

Both overlay and config for the mcuboot are similar to the examples you indicated to me.

As I previously reported, my problem is that the CONFIG_SPI_NOR_FLASH_LAYOUT_PAGE_SIZE=4096 seems to be ignored by the cmake system, as the final autoconf.h contains a value of 65536.

There is another strange behaviour for the mcuboot sub-project: In the first step, after the creation of the build directory, the cmake command is executed to populate the directory, in the following way:

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

In the second step, the "ninja" command is launched to start the build.

On the first build, the generated mcuboot/zephyr/zephyr.dts and mcuboot/zephyr/include/generetad/autoconf.h do not contain any of the configurations reported on the two files mcuboot.conf and mcuboot.overlay. It's necessary to modify the main prj.conf, for example by changing the version in the CONFIG_MCUBOOT_IMAGE_VERSION definition, and run ninja again. Only after this second step, the generated files in the mcuboot path reflect my settings, except the CONFIG_SPI_NOR_FLASH_LAYOUT_PAGE_SIZE which still presents a value of 64K instead of 4K.

Is there something wrong in the cmake procedure I reported, or I'm missing something?

Thank you very much.

RE: OTA on external flash fails after having loaded an image

Amanda Hsieh — Mon, 02 Oct 2023 18:21:00 GMT

[quote user="GBDVE"]In my hardware, the external flash is connected on the SPI interface. [/quote]

The external SPI flash setting is different from the external QSPI flash of the nrf5340-DK board.

It would need an overlay file like this example and configs like this post.

-Amanda H.

RE: OTA on external flash fails after having loaded an image

GBDVE — Mon, 02 Oct 2023 11:19:36 GMT

Hi Amanda, thank for your suggestion.

I've successfully tested the smp_svr application on the external QSPI flash of the nrf5340-DK board.

In my hardware, the external flash is connected on the SPI interface. After some debug, I've verified that the mcuboot can correctly access the SPI flash, but it fails with this error:

<wrn> mcuboot: Cannot upgrade: not a compatible amount of sectors: 236 vs 15

After some investigation, I've found that the following configuration in mcuboot.conf seems ignored by the build:

CONFIG_SPI_NOR_FLASH_LAYOUT_PAGE_SIZE=4096

The generated autoconf.h contains the following:

#define CONFIG_SPI_NOR_FLASH_LAYOUT_PAGE_SIZE 65536

I already checked that the CONFIG_FLASH_PAGE_LAYOUT=y is set, the same configuration used in mcuboot.conf its used in the app, and the autoconf.h of the app contains the correct declaration of the page size, set to 4096.

I don't know how to force CONFIG_SPI_NOR_FLASH_LAYOUT_PAGE_SIZE=4096 in the mcuboot.conf, do you have any idea?

Thank you.

RE: OTA on external flash fails after having loaded an image

Amanda Hsieh — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 18:17:02 GMT

Hi,

For NCS v2.1.0, please use the board config and overlay file from my example in the previous reply to build with v2.1.0 smp_svr sample.

-Amanda H.

RE: OTA on external flash fails after having loaded an image

GBDVE — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 13:59:31 GMT

Hi Amanda, thanks for your reply.

The example you shared with me won't compile,
there are some config options undefined on the zephyr system.

I'm using Zephyr version v3.1.99-ncs1, nrf v2.1.0, mbedtls-nrf v3.1.0-ncs1.

I tried to comment the config options that caused the failure:

on prj.conf:
#CONFIG_CRC=y
#CONFIG_MCUMGR_GRP_OS_TASKSTAT=y
#CONFIG_MCUMGR_GRP_IMG=y
#CONFIG_MCUMGR_GRP_OS=y
#CONFIG_MCUMGR_GRP_STAT=y

on nrf5340dk_nrf5340_cpuapp.conf:
#CONFIG_NCS_SAMPLE_MCUMGR_BT_OTA_DFU=y

With those modifications, the cmake command completes without errors, but the ninja build stops with the following:

/opt/nordicsemi/ncs2/nrf/modules/mcuboot/hooks/nrf53_hooks.c: In function 'boot_read_image_header_hook':
/opt/nordicsemi/ncs2/nrf/modules/mcuboot/hooks/nrf53_hooks.c:29:27: error: 'PM_CPUNET_APP_SIZE' undeclared (first use in this function)
   29 |   img_head->ih_img_size = PM_CPUNET_APP_SIZE;
      |                           ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It seems related to something wrong with the PM. In other projects, the PM_CPUNET_APP_SIZE is automatically defined in the file zephyr/include/generated/pm_config.h and mcuboot/zephyr/include/generated/pm_config.h.

Do you have any idea?

Regarding this: "DTS Partitioning is ignored with MCUboot. Use Partition Manager instead." it was just a test I've made after previous failed tests using PM; I suppose the definition added in the overlay does nothing.

Regards,
Gabriele.

RE: OTA on external flash fails after having loaded an image

Amanda Hsieh — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 13:08:50 GMT

Hi,

[quote user=""]The partition has been defined in the overlay configuration file in the following way:[/quote]

DTS Partitioning is ignored with MCUboot. Use Partition Manager instead.

I would suggest you use the SMP Server sample which also has support for LittleFS already. Here is my example smp_svr_nRF5340_ExternalFlash.7z for NCS v2.4.0.

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.

Regards,
Amanda H.