nRF5 SDK custom bootloader, attempting flash write operation returns NRF_LOG_INTERNAL and NRF_ERROR_INVALID_ADDR

RE: nRF5 SDK custom bootloader, attempting flash write operation returns NRF_LOG_INTERNAL and NRF_ERROR_INVALID_ADDR

rbmarcus — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 16:47:24 GMT

Word alignment fixed the problem. Thank you Einar! I'm not sure why this hasn't been a problem across other fstorage instances in my code, since there are several libraries also writing to internal flash without explicit word alignment that did not exhibit this problem. Maybe it's because the source buffers in the other instances are declared globally rather than locally? In any case, this resolves the issue and I am now successfully able to write to flash: static uint8_t binary_chunk[200] __attribute__((aligned(4)));

RE: nRF5 SDK custom bootloader, attempting flash write operation returns NRF_LOG_INTERNAL and NRF_ERROR_INVALID_ADDR

Einar Thorsrud — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 13:28:35 GMT

Hi,

I see that when you get the return valeue 0x0016 (NRF_ERROR_INVALID_ADDR) the source address is 0x2000850A, so it is not word aligned. So the error is expected in this case. Both the source and destination address must be word aligned.

RE: nRF5 SDK custom bootloader, attempting flash write operation returns NRF_LOG_INTERNAL and NRF_ERROR_INVALID_ADDR

rbmarcus — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 16:54:01 GMT

I added the following print statements to my code:

// in dfu flash callback
NRF_LOG_INFO("callback evt: %u result: 0x%04X", evt->id, evt->result);

// fstorage erase
err = nrf_fstorage_erase(&dfu_flash, dfu_flash.start_addr, num_pages, dfu_flash_callback);
NRF_LOG_INFO("fstorage erase p_fs: %p, page_addr: 0x%08X, len: %u, err: 0x%04X)", 
             (void*)&dfu_flash, dfu_flash.start_addr, num_pages, err);

// fstorage write
err = nrf_fstorage_write(&dfu_flash, payload_loc, binary_chunk, len, dfu_flash_callback);
NRF_LOG_INFO("fstorage p_fs: %p, dest: 0x%08X, p_src: %p, len: %u, err: 0x%04X", 
             (void*)&dfu_flash, payload_loc, (void*)binary_chunk, len, err);

// within write execute function, sd flash write
uint32_t err = sd_flash_write(p_dest, p_src, chunk_len);
NRF_LOG_INFO("sd flash: p_dest: %p, p_src: %p, chunk len: %u, err: 0x%04X", 
             (void*)p_dest, (void*)p_src, chunk_len, err);
return err;

and got these logs:

fstorage erase p_fs: 0x200059EC, page_addr: 0x00070000, len: 13, err: 0x0000
callback evt: 2 result: 0x0000

fstorage p_fs: 0x200059EC, dest: 0x00070000, p_src: 0x2000850A, len: 200, err: 0x0000
sd flash: p_dest: 0x00070000, p_src: 0x2000850A, chunk len: 5, err: 0x0016
callback evt: 1 result: 0x0003

I added the prints to the functional version of the code in the main app and got these results (the callback didn't occur until after 15 successful flash write calls, I only included the first 2 to save space):

fstorage p_fs: 0x20002D54, dest: 0x00070000, p_src: 0x200044A8, len: 200, err: 0x0000
sd flash: p_dest: 0x00070000, p_src: 0x200044A8, chunk len: 5, err: 0x0000
sd flash: p_dest: 0x00070014, p_src: 0x200044BC, chunk len: 5, err: 0x0000
...
callback evt: 1 result: 0x0000

RE: nRF5 SDK custom bootloader, attempting flash write operation returns NRF_LOG_INTERNAL and NRF_ERROR_INVALID_ADDR

Einar Thorsrud — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 07:10:40 GMT

Hi,

I agree with your resoning, fstorage also checks for word alignment and boundaries. However, I do not see any other reason for getting NRF_ERROR_INVALID_ADDR returned from a call to sd_flash_write() when looking at the SoftDevice implementation. Can you log the parameters you pass to each call to sd_flash_write() so that we can see which exact parameters you call it with when you get the unexpected NRF_ERROR_INVALID_ADDR returned?

RE: nRF5 SDK custom bootloader, attempting flash write operation returns NRF_LOG_INTERNAL and NRF_ERROR_INVALID_ADDR

rbmarcus — Mon, 29 Jul 2024 16:34:10 GMT

If there were a word alignment issue, wouldn't this be rejected on the initial call to nrf_fstorage_write rather the error code being passed into the callback handler? I attempt to write a 200-byte chunk into address 0x70000, and the source address comes from static uint8_t binary_chunk[200]. This process originally worked when it was used in the main app, but began reporting errors after I shifted the logic into the bootloader. The flash and RAM regions from the bootloader are taken from the secure bootloader sample in 15.0.0:

MEMORY
{
  FLASH (rx) : ORIGIN = 0xf1000, LENGTH = 0xd000
  RAM (rwx) :  ORIGIN = 0x200057b8, LENGTH = 0x3a848
  uicr_mbr_params_page (r) : ORIGIN = 0x10001018, LENGTH = 0x4
  mbr_params_page (r) : ORIGIN = 0x000FE000, LENGTH = 0x1000
  bootloader_settings_page (r) : ORIGIN = 0x000FF000, LENGTH = 0x1000
  uicr_bootloader_start_address (r) : ORIGIN = 0x10001014, LENGTH = 0x4
}

RE: nRF5 SDK custom bootloader, attempting flash write operation returns NRF_LOG_INTERNAL and NRF_ERROR_INVALID_ADDR

Einar Thorsrud — Mon, 29 Jul 2024 10:33:34 GMT

Hi,

Which address did you attempt to write to when you got NRF_ERROR_INVALID_ADDR? Are you able to log it or check with a debugger? You can get this error in a few different cases:

If the source or destination adsdress is not word aligned
If the destination address is outside of the physical address space of the device

For reference, if you try to write over the SoftDevice itself, you will get a different error: NRF_ERROR_FORBIDDEN.

RE: nRF5 SDK custom bootloader, attempting flash write operation returns NRF_LOG_INTERNAL and NRF_ERROR_INVALID_ADDR

rbmarcus — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 14:46:10 GMT

The SoftDevice is being used in the bootloader for a custom DFU process. I’m working with a complex design involving several modules and pre-existing bootloader functionality so I don’t have the ability to use the Nordic samples at this point in the project, but the current bootloader code is based on a Nordic template. Are there SoftDevice functions not accessible to me in the bootloader?

I do sidestep the Nordic DFU libraries for my BLE initialization (https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/111298/implementing-custom-ble-transfer-process-in-bootloader) and now I’m wondering if that could be related to the problem.

RE: nRF5 SDK custom bootloader, attempting flash write operation returns NRF_LOG_INTERNAL and NRF_ERROR_INVALID_ADDR

Simonr — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 12:02:43 GMT

Initially, this seems to be caused by trying to access the SoftDevice addresses which you're not allowed to read from or write to. What exactly is your use case for accessing the SoftDevice here? Is there a reason you can't use the bootloader available in the SDK already?

Best regards,

Simon