Issue with devicetree configuration, while using MCUBoot on v2.4.1 and external flash module

RE: Issue with devicetree configuration, while using MCUBoot on v2.4.1 and external flash module

Shahin97 — Fri, 24 Nov 2023 14:26:07 GMT

Issue has been resolved.

RE: Issue with devicetree configuration, while using MCUBoot on v2.4.1 and external flash module

Håkon Alseth — Thu, 23 Nov 2023 11:59:56 GMT

Hi,

You have the reverse scenario of this thread, where you explicitly want to enable external flash in mcuboot.

You can look at how this is solved for the nrf9161dk_nrf9161_ns board here: https://github.com/nrfconnect/sdk-nrf/blob/v2.5.0/applications/asset_tracker_v2/child_image/mcuboot/boards/nrf9161dk_nrf9161.conf

If you still have issues, please open a new ticket.

Kind regards,

Håkon

RE: Issue with devicetree configuration, while using MCUBoot on v2.4.1 and external flash module

Shahin97 — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 15:17:45 GMT

Håkon Alseth Giannis Anastasopoulos

I have an issue regarding this - SPI in the overlay works fine for the application.

However I need to flash mcuboot bootloader using: in bootloader/mcuboot/boot/zephyr

I don't think I will be able to add an overlay to this?

RE: Issue with devicetree configuration, while using MCUBoot on v2.4.1 and external flash module

Håkon Alseth — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 13:13:25 GMT

Hi,

Glad to hear you got it working as intended.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Kind regards,

Håkon

RE: Issue with devicetree configuration, while using MCUBoot on v2.4.1 and external flash module

Giannis Anastasopoulos — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 14:55:45 GMT

The overlay solution became needed to transition from 2.1.0 to to 2.4.1. Before that, there was no need for the overlay. So, from what I understand something changed regarding enabling SPI in the non secure part of the application in the board files. Also note that my overlay is not meant for the child_image, but the main application. And this is because I had to remove the flash definition from the common.dts and then only apply it for the non secure part.

In order to fix my project without adding the overlay I had to simply disable SPI for the secure device.

RE: Issue with devicetree configuration, while using MCUBoot on v2.4.1 and external flash module

Håkon Alseth — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 14:35:38 GMT

Hi,

Thank you for clarifying. I needed to ask in case it wasn't the desired behavior.

[quote user="Giannis Anastasopoulos"]Having said that it is strange that we need to add these configurations in v2.4.1 but they were not needed in v2.1.0. What exactly has changed between the 2 versions (I think that the change is there already in v2.2.0)?[/quote]

The change is highly likely due to the devicetree/kconfig integration work that has been in-progress between these versions. Enabling a peripheral in devicetree is mitigated through kconfig, selecting the peripheral/driver in kconfig.

Here's an example by adding your overlay to the mcuboot child image overlay in NCS v2.5.0:

$ grep -r CONFIG_SPI
...
mcuboot/zephyr/.config:CONFIG_SPI=y
mcuboot/zephyr/.config:CONFIG_SPI_NOR=y
mcuboot/zephyr/.config:CONFIG_SPI_NOR_SFDP_MINIMAL=y
..

versus the same added overlay in ncs v2.1.0:

$ grep -r CONFIG_SPI
...
mcuboot/zephyr/.config:# CONFIG_SPI is not set

Kind regards,

Håkon

RE: Issue with devicetree configuration, while using MCUBoot on v2.4.1 and external flash module

Giannis Anastasopoulos — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 13:52:33 GMT

The external flash is used for storing data related to the application and not for dual boot. Having said that it is strange that we need to add these configurations in v2.4.1 but they were not needed in v2.1.0. What exactly has changed between the 2 versions (I think that the change is there already in v2.2.0)?

RE: Issue with devicetree configuration, while using MCUBoot on v2.4.1 and external flash module

Håkon Alseth — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 10:36:38 GMT

Hi,

If you remove SPI/External flash from the secure part, mcuboot will not see the SPI flash, and you're not able to access it for dual banking your image slot.

Is this intended?

You can verify this by looking at the build-folder/partitions.yml file to see if the mcuboot_secondary is located in internal or external flash.

Kind regards,

Håkon

RE: Issue with devicetree configuration, while using MCUBoot on v2.4.1 and external flash module

Giannis Anastasopoulos — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 09:48:01 GMT

Håkon Alseth

Based on your response and the error described in my ticket the solution for us was to remove the external flash definition from the nrf9160.dts (so the secure part) and also disable the SPI and SPI_NOR in the defconfig of our board.

RE: Issue with devicetree configuration, while using MCUBoot on v2.4.1 and external flash module

Håkon Alseth — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 14:33:22 GMT

Hi!

It looks like the SPI module itself is not enabled for the mcuboot image.

You can set mcuboot specific configurations in this specific file:

..\my_project\child_image\mcuboot.conf

Or you can set this on a board-related level:

..\my_project\child_image\mcuboot\boards\$BOARD.conf

You probably want to have a couple of other configurations set for your project, similar as shown in this mcuboot configuration:

https://github.com/nrfconnect/sdk-nrf/blob/v2.5.0/samples/net/aws_iot/child_image/mcuboot/boards/nrf7002dk_nrf5340_cpuapp.conf#L10-L28

Could you try this and report back?

Kind regards,

Håkon