nRF Connect Extension for VS Code Unable to run most commands

[teedoubleyuh]

While following the "nRF Connect SDK Fundamentals" tutorial, my nRF Connect extension fails on the "Install Toolchain" step with error command 'nrf-connect.installToolchain' not found. I'm able to circumvent for now by using nRF Connect for Desktop and installing the toolchain with its Toolchain Manager, but still troubling that none of the commands seem to work directly from the VS Code nRF Connect extension. Nearly all nRF Connect commands similarly fail from VS Code including "Install SDK", "Manage Toolchains", "Check nRF Command Line Tools Update".

Any help to resolve would be greatly appreciated!

My setup:

• Windows 10 64bit PC
• VS Code v1.86.1
• nRF Connect for VS Code Extension pack v2023.11.3
• nRF Command Line tools v10.24.0

[teedoubleyuh]

Hi Priyanka,

This was a first-time install. After initial installation, this was the welcome screen:

When trying to select "Install Toolchain" here or manually running "nRF Connect: Install Toolchain" via the command palette it gave this error:

Trying commands "Install SDK", "Manage Toolchains", and "Check nRF Command Line Tools Update" in the command palette give similar errors.

Thank you!

[Priyanka]

Hi Travis,

Do you have the nRF Command Lines tools installed? https://www.nordicsemi.com/Products/Development-tools/nRF-Command-Line-Tools/Download?lang=en#infotabs 

If not, please try installing this first and then reload your VSCode window. [(Ctrl + Shift + P) and enter "reload window"]. Please try to install the SDK and Toolchain after these steps.

Regards,

Priyanka

[Priyanka]

Hi,

Could you try one more thing?

1. Click on Help → Toggle Developer Tools (and then select Console, if that is not already open)
2. In the command palette execute “Developer: Reload Window”
3. Select “Manage Toolchains” again, to trigger the error notification.
4. See whether any additional output appears in the developer console, which might tell us anything about why the extension did not activate correctly.

This might tell us more about what the problem is.

Regards,

Priyanka

[teedoubleyuh]

Hi Priyanka,

When I select Install Toolchain, the Developer Tools log that it is failing to find C:\Program Files\SEGGER\JLink_V794h. I currently have V794e. Interestingly, you can only currently download V794k and V794l from Segger.

[Priyanka]

Hi Travis,

Thank you very much. It's really helpful and we are looking into this. I checked the SEGGER J-Link site and surprisingly I could only find the v7.94m,l and k versions. We will check into this and keep you updated.

Regards,

Priyanka

[Priyanka]

Hi Travis,

Could you check your windows registry and in case it contains incorrect entry, please fix it:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\Software\\SEGGER\\J-Link 

Also, you seem to have a .west folder in the C:\NCS . Please remove this as it is wrong and it's preventing the SDKs within this path from functioning properly.

Regards,

Priyanka

[teedoubleyuh]

Thank you, Priyanka! I uninstalled Jlink and removed the entry in the windows registry. I then reinstalled VS Code and it was able to install the toolchain and SDK from VS Code. I think the setup steps for VS Code in Lesson 1 of "nRF Connect SDK Fundamentals" in the DevAcademy may be a bit outdated. Even if using an older nRF SDK version (before 2.0.0), it seems to still be better to follow the v2.x.x steps. I'm using 1.9.1 and following the steps of manually installing the supporting software seems to be the root of what caused all the problems with my nRF Connect for VS Code extension. I'll also note that installing nRF Command Line tools is supposed to automatically install SEGGER tools on Windows PCs but that was not the case for me. I had to manually install SEGGER tools separately. 

[Priyanka]

Hi Travis,

Glad to hear that you are able to install now. I will pass this onto the team.

teedoubleyuh said:

following the steps of manually installing the supporting software seems to be the root of what caused all the problems with my nRF Connect for VS Code extension

This could be a cause, and we also recommend automatic installation over the manual installation.

Regards,

Priyanka