BLE OTA DFU using external flash

[allenyang]

I'm using the NCS 2.5.2 sdk and nrf 5340 with 7002, and I want to do BLE OTA DFU using external flash.

I've found this guide Add DFU support to your application - Software - nRF Connect SDK guides - Nordic DevZone (nordicsemi.com), and successfully  done BLE OTA DFU using internal flash, just add the commands below,

#Enable MCUBOOT bootloader build in the application

CONFIG_BOOTLOADER_MCUBOOT=y

#Include MCUMGR and the dependencies in the build

CONFIG_NCS_SAMPLE_MCUMGR_BT_OTA_DFU=y

but I don't know how to do with external flash, I've tried looking at main.c in mcuboot, and I didn't find where to modify the code.

[Sigurd Hellesvik]

It looks good to me.

From External flash memory partitions:

"f the external flash device is not using the QSPI NOR driver, you must enable CONFIG_PM_OVERRIDE_EXTERNAL_DRIVER_CHECK to override the Partition Manager’s external flash driver check, and the required driver must also be enabled for all applications that need it."

Try to set that configuration, I suspect that should do it.

I realized this as your log was complaining about QSPI drivers were missing, and this would explain why it tried to access QSPI flash while you have SPI flash in the DTS

[allenyang]

Hi, I've seen the article, so I had added the line "CONFIG_PM_OVERRIDE_EXTERNAL_DRIVER_CHECK" to both prj.conf and mcuboot.conf,

but it still has same error.

[Sigurd Hellesvik]

Ah right, it is a "feature" we have with CONFIG_NCS_SAMPLE_MCUMGR_BT_OTA_DFU.

This assumes that you use QSPI, and forces that.

Instead of using CONFIG_NCS_SAMPLE_MCUMGR_BT_OTA_DFU you should do set the configurations this config does instead.

Then after that, I suggest that you re-check Kconfig override warnings, cause it looks like you will have some of those.

[allenyang]

"Instead of using CONFIG_NCS_SAMPLE_MCUMGR_BT_OTA_DFU you should do set the configurations this config does instead."

After doing that,

it really build successfully this time.

thank you

And I want to ask some questions about partition manager,

In our external flash, it has some image file from 0x0 to 0x310000,

so I need to create a pm_static.yml (copied from partition.yaml in the build folder) in the project(create outside the build folder), and set mcuboot_secondary start address to 0x310000?

and I don't want other partitions of external flash, can I just delete it or just set size to 0?

app:
  address: 0x10200
  end_address: 0x100000
  region: flash_primary
  size: 0xefe00
external_flash:
  address: 0x400000
  end_address: 0x400000
  region: external_flash
  size: 0x0
mcuboot:
  address: 0x0
  end_address: 0x10000
  placement:
    before:
    - mcuboot_primary
  region: flash_primary
  size: 0x10000
mcuboot_pad:
  address: 0x10000
  end_address: 0x10200
  placement:
    align:
      start: 0x4000
    before:
    - mcuboot_primary_app
  region: flash_primary
  size: 0x200
mcuboot_primary:
  address: 0x10000
  end_address: 0x100000
  orig_span: &id001
  - app
  - mcuboot_pad
  region: flash_primary
  size: 0xf0000
  span: *id001
mcuboot_primary_app:
  address: 0x10200
  end_address: 0x100000
  orig_span: &id002
  - app
  region: flash_primary
  size: 0xefe00
  span: *id002
mcuboot_secondary:
  address: 0x310000
  device: DT_CHOSEN(nordic_pm_ext_flash)
  end_address: 0x400000
  placement:
    align:
      start: 0x4
  region: external_flash
  share_size:
  - mcuboot_primary
  size: 0xf0000
otp:
  address: 0xff8100
  end_address: 0xff83fc
  region: otp
  size: 0x2fc
pcd_sram:
  address: 0x20000000
  end_address: 0x20002000
  placement:
    after:
    - start
  region: sram_primary
  size: 0x2000
rpmsg_nrf53_sram:
  address: 0x20070000
  end_address: 0x20080000
  placement:
    before:
    - end
  region: sram_primary
  size: 0x10000
sram_primary:
  address: 0x20002000
  end_address: 0x20070000
  region: sram_primary
  size: 0x6e000

pm_static.yml

app:
  address: 0x10200
  end_address: 0x100000
  region: flash_primary
  size: 0xefe00
external_flash:
  address: 0xf0000
  end_address: 0x400000
  region: external_flash
  size: 0x310000
mcuboot:
  address: 0x0
  end_address: 0x10000
  placement:
    before:
    - mcuboot_primary
  region: flash_primary
  size: 0x10000
mcuboot_pad:
  address: 0x10000
  end_address: 0x10200
  placement:
    align:
      start: 0x4000
    before:
    - mcuboot_primary_app
  region: flash_primary
  size: 0x200
mcuboot_primary:
  address: 0x10000
  end_address: 0x100000
  orig_span: &id001
  - app
  - mcuboot_pad
  region: flash_primary
  size: 0xf0000
  span: *id001
mcuboot_primary_app:
  address: 0x10200
  end_address: 0x100000
  orig_span: &id002
  - app
  region: flash_primary
  size: 0xefe00
  span: *id002
mcuboot_secondary:
  address: 0x0
  device: DT_CHOSEN(nordic_pm_ext_flash)
  end_address: 0xf0000
  placement:
    align:
      start: 0x4
  region: external_flash
  share_size:
  - mcuboot_primary
  size: 0xf0000
otp:
  address: 0xff8100
  end_address: 0xff83fc
  region: otp
  size: 0x2fc
pcd_sram:
  address: 0x20000000
  end_address: 0x20002000
  placement:
    after:
    - start
  region: sram_primary
  size: 0x2000
rpmsg_nrf53_sram:
  address: 0x20070000
  end_address: 0x20080000
  placement:
    before:
    - end
  region: sram_primary
  size: 0x10000
sram_primary:
  address: 0x20002000
  end_address: 0x20070000
  region: sram_primary
  size: 0x6e000

partitiom.yaml

[Sigurd Hellesvik]

allenyang said:

so I need to create a pm_static.yml (copied from partition.yaml in the build folder) in the project(create outside the build folder), and set mcuboot_secondary start address to 0x310000?

and I don't want other partitions of external flash, can I just delete it or just set size to 0?

Do you mean that you want to create a custom partition?