VS-CODE: build hangs: "Found GnuLd: ld.bfd..."

[KentH]

I am having a recurring problem with NFC-CONNECT: build action. It hangs when building. Gets stuck with the following message in lower-right hand corner of screen:

The procedure I've found to get around this is to cancel the build, and then open a shell in the app directory and do the following:

% rm -rf build*
% export ZEPHYR_BASE=/opt/nordic/ncs/v2.6.0/zephyr
% west build -b nrf52840dk_nrf52840 -p

I can then use the build & build pristine actions.

It might be my environment is not fully supported. The `app` is stand-alone. There is an out-of-the tree module with source i reference with the following CMakeLists.txt fragment:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.20.0)

set(my-module "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/../my-module")
set(EXTRA_ZEPHYR_MODULES ${my-module})

find_package(Zephyr REQUIRED HINTS $ENV{ZEPHYR_BASE})

This module includes (via settings) board_root, dts_root, & soc_root,  as well as source, library, and include trees picked up from cmake + kconfig variables.

The build environment: Apple M1 Mac, MacOS: 12.6.7 (Monterey), VS-Code: v1.88.1, NRF-Connect: v2024.3.25

The Welcome tab shows SDK + Toolchain: v2.6.0. (I also use stock Zephyr to compile for non-Nordic boards, but am selecting proper SDK + toolchain, and have even removed `.west` directory for stock zephyr installation). 

Sorry to keep complaining about a great tool, but it's frustrating when it stops working.

Thanks. Kent

[Simonr]

Hi

We were not able to reproduce it by adding a device tree overlay and doing a pristine build on a MacOS on our end either unfortunately. Anything in specific you're adding/changing to the device tree in order to reproduce this perhaps? Step 1 on our end will have to be to be able to reproduce this here, which we've not been able to as of yet unfortunately.

Best regards,

Simon

[JonasGel]

Hi, 
I have the same issue while building the zigbee weather sample for the Thingy53. I reinstalled everything and it hangs at the ld.bfd point. If I build the app for another board it works perfect.
Best regards, Jonas 

[KentH]

Hi Simon,

Thanks for trying. As I mentioned, I have a "kitchen sink" zephyr module I include in my build which contains libraries, boards, an SOC implementation, as well as bindings. (Think of it as my `nrf` directory.) I don't know if something in the module bothers the vs-code app, but it obviously doesn't bother `west`.

I'm on deadline this week and have taken the advice from _r_y_a_n to fallback vs-code versions. When I get my release out, if the problem hasn't cleared, I'll reinstall current vs-code & prune my project to try to find what in my tree is causing the problem.

Thanks for trying. I'll see what I can do towards the end of the month.

Kent