Use internal flash MCUboot and nRF5340

[Johan_c]

I'm trying to setup so that I can do firmware update on nRF5340 using only the internal flash.
Due to the many dependencies between different images I'm creating my custom board by using a copy of the
thingy53 board, however on my board there is no external flash. 

I'm using the nrf sdk 2.5.2 and it does not seem like the mcuboot integration works without external flash.

CONFIG_NRF53_MCUBOOT_PRIMARY_1_RAM_FLASH needs to be set which depends on CONFIG_NRF53_MULTI_IMAGE_UPDATE, which in turn depends on PM_EXTERNAL_FLASH_MCUBOOT_SECONDARY.

config NRF53_MULTI_IMAGE_UPDATE
	bool "Support updating app core and net core in a single operation"
	default y
	depends on UPDATEABLE_IMAGE_NUMBER > 1
	depends on SOC_NRF5340_CPUAPP
	depends on BOOT_IMAGE_ACCESS_HOOKS
	depends on FLASH_SIMULATOR
	depends on FLASH_SIMULATOR_DOUBLE_WRITES
	depends on !FLASH_SIMULATOR_STATS
	depends on PM_EXTERNAL_FLASH_MCUBOOT_SECONDARY
	depends on BOOT_UPGRADE_ONLY || USE_NRF53_MULTI_IMAGE_WITHOUT_UPGRADE_ONLY
	depends on $(dt_compat_enabled,$(DT_COMPAT_SIM_FLASH))
	select NRF53_MCUBOOT_PRIMARY_1_RAM_FLASH

here also BOOT_IMAGE_ACCESS_HOOKS depends on PM_EXTERNAL_FLASH_MCUBOOT_SECONDARY being set.

[Sigurd Hellesvik]

Hi,

I remember having looked at that before. However, I do not recall the outcome. I have reported this as a bug to our developers.

In the meantime I suggest that you remove that dependency as a patch from sdk-nrf.
Does that work for you?

thingy53 board,

In general I would recommend that you base it on the nRF5340DK instead, as the Thingy can be a bit odd at times. In the end, the choice is yours.

Regards,
Sigurd Hellesvik

[Johan_c]

Thanks, I got it to build and work by removing the dependencies to PM_EXTERNAL_FLASH_MCUBOOT_SECONDARY. At first I tried to run my application in non secure mode but I ran into an issue where the secure/unsecure regions seems to have hardcoded sizes in tfm.

[tomas_mjp]

Hi Johan_c do you remember what changes did you made to get it working?

[Johan_c]

diff --git a/modules/mcuboot/boot/zephyr/Kconfig b/modules/mcuboot/boot/zephyr/Kconfig
index f59464b54..519ea2ddf 100644
--- a/modules/mcuboot/boot/zephyr/Kconfig
+++ b/modules/mcuboot/boot/zephyr/Kconfig
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ config BOOT_ERASE_PROGRESSIVELY
 
 config BOOT_IMAGE_ACCESS_HOOKS
        bool
-       default y if UPDATEABLE_IMAGE_NUMBER > 1 && SOC_NRF5340_CPUAPP && PM_EXTERNAL_FLASH_MCUBOOT_SECONDARY
+       default y if UPDATEABLE_IMAGE_NUMBER > 1 && SOC_NRF5340_CPUAPP
        depends on MCUBOOT
 
 config BOOT_IMAGE_ACCESS_HOOK_NRF5340
@@ -128,7 +128,6 @@ config NRF53_MULTI_IMAGE_UPDATE
        depends on FLASH_SIMULATOR
        depends on FLASH_SIMULATOR_DOUBLE_WRITES
        depends on !FLASH_SIMULATOR_STATS
-       depends on PM_EXTERNAL_FLASH_MCUBOOT_SECONDARY
        depends on BOOT_UPGRADE_ONLY || USE_NRF53_MULTI_IMAGE_WITHOUT_UPGRADE_ONLY
        depends on $(dt_compat_enabled,$(DT_COMPAT_SIM_FLASH))
        select NRF53_MCUBOOT_PRIMARY_1_RAM_FLASH

together with a custom pm_static_*.yml file for my board. it was kind of painful to configure.

[tomas_mjp]

Thank you very much! I'm able to update the appcore but netcore is giving me some troubles and I think it's related to the netcore partitions size.

Can you show me your pm_static.yml file?

This is mine, I'm setting netcore partitions size of 128kB.

app:
  address:     0x00c200
  end_address: 0x074000
  region: flash_primary
  size:        0x067e00

mcuboot:
  address:     0x000000
  end_address: 0x00c000
  placement:
    before:
    - mcuboot_primary
  region: flash_primary
  size:        0x00c000

mcuboot_pad:
  address:     0x00c000
  end_address: 0x00c200
  placement:
    align:
      start:   0x004000
    before:
    - mcuboot_primary_app
  region: flash_primary
  size:        0x000200

mcuboot_primary:
  address:     0x00c000
  end_address: 0x074000
  orig_span: &id001
  - mcuboot_pad
  - app
  region: flash_primary
  sharers: 0x1
  size:        0x068000
  span: *id001

mcuboot_primary_app:
  address:     0x00c200
  end_address: 0x074000
  orig_span: &id002
  - app
  region: flash_primary
  size:        0x067e00
  span: *id002

mcuboot_secondary:
  address:     0x074000
  end_address: 0x0dc000
  placement:
    after:
    - mcuboot_primary
    align:
      start:   0x004000
  region: flash_primary
  share_size:
  - mcuboot_primary
  size:        0x068000

#NetCore partitions
# NetCore primary partition in AppCore RAM. Needed for DFU
mcuboot_primary_1:
  address: 0x0
  device: flash_ctrl
  end_address: 0x020000
  region: ram_flash
  size: 0x020000

# RAM allocation for NetCore primary partition. Used by MCUBoot. Needed for DFU
ram_flash:
  address: 0x20000
  end_address: 0x20000
  region: ram_flash
  size: 0x0

# NetCore secondary partition in internal flash. Needed for DFU
mcuboot_secondary_1:
  address:     0x0dc000
  end_address: 0x0fc000
  placement:
    after:
    - mcuboot_secondary
  region: flash_primary
  size:        0x020000

nvs_storage:
  address:     0x0fc000
  end_address: 0x100000
  placement:
    after:
    - mcuboot_secondary_1
  region: flash_primary
  size:        0x004000
  
otp:
  address: 0xff8100
  end_address: 0xff83fc
  region: otp
  size: 0x2fc

pcd_sram:
  address: 0x2006f000
  end_address: 0x20071000
  placement:
    before:
    - networkCore_sram
    - end
  region: sram_primary
  size: 0x2000
  
networkCore_sram:
  address: 0x20071000
  end_address: 0x20080000
  placement:
    before:
    - end
  region: sram_primary
  size: 0xF000
  
shared_sram:
  address: 0x20000000
  end_address: 0x20001000
  placement:
    before:
    - sram_primary
  region: sram_primary
  size: 0x1000

sram_primary:
  address: 0x20010000
  end_address: 0x2006f000
  region: sram_primary
  size: 0x6e000

[tomas_mjp]

I solved it by adding a custom pm_static.yml file for the network core.

app:
  address: 0x1008800
  end_address: 0x1020000
  orig_span: &id001
  - nodeNetworkCore
  region: flash_primary
  size: 0x17800
  span: *id001
b0n:
  address: 0x1000000
  end_address: 0x1008580
  placement:
    after:
    - start
  region: flash_primary
  size: 0x8580
b0n_container:
  address: 0x1000000
  end_address: 0x1008800
  orig_span: &id002
  - b0n
  - provision
  region: flash_primary
  size: 0x8800
  span: *id002
nodeNetworkCore:
  address: 0x1008800
  end_address: 0x1020000
  region: flash_primary
  size: 0x17800
provision:
  address: 0x1008580
  end_address: 0x1008800
  placement:
    after:
    - b0n
  region: flash_primary
  size: 0x280
sram_primary:
  address: 0x21000000
  end_address: 0x21010000
  region: sram_primary
  size: 0x10000