KCONFIG unable to select softdevice LL controller

RE: KCONFIG unable to select softdevice LL controller

Anthony Ambuehl — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 16:23:42 GMT

Thanks for that info. I'll switch to 2.7.0 official release.

RE: KCONFIG unable to select softdevice LL controller

Einar Thorsrud — Mon, 14 Oct 2024 08:27:01 GMT

Hi,

I would not recommend that. 2.7.99-cs is for nRF54 development, at the latest tag there 2.7.99-cs2 was only tested on nRF54H20. Generally, unless you have a good reason not to I recomend you stick with tagged releases (and not the special chip support or dev tags unless your device/product is targeted by that tag). So I would suggest that you use 2.7 at this point, and potentially migrate to 2.8 when that is released.

RE: KCONFIG unable to select softdevice LL controller

Anthony Ambuehl — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 17:29:00 GMT

According to my notes I originally forked at NRF Connect SDK 2.5.2, I subsequently updated to 2.7.0-rc1 on 6/10/24. I also must have update nrf later since it now looks like I have 2.7.99 up to about 8/15. I see my nrf git repo has the latest SHA 5c78866015013608252bfba16c535a542bc05f93.

I just read the recommendation to switch to the pre-release version of the VSCode extensions from the 2.7.0 release notes, so I will try that to see if it helps..

https://docs.nordicsemi.com/bundle/nrf-connect-vscode/page/rel_notes_overview.html#switching-to-a-pre-release-version

I will plan to properly switch to the official 2.7.0 release sometime next week.

Should I consider going to the 2.7.99-cs branches instead of 2.7.0?

RE: KCONFIG unable to select softdevice LL controller

Einar Thorsrud — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 15:40:15 GMT

Hi,

[quote user="anthony.asterisk"]Regarding the short .config... if you noticed the first line... I'm using grep to filter for specific Bluetooth lines.[/quote]

Sorry, my bad, I jumped to the end and saw the short file name (which would make sense if using sysbuild based on the explanation in my previous post).

[quote user="anthony.asterisk"]I don't have a <project_name> subfolder, i'm not even sure what my project name would be. [/quote]

It is only relevant when using sysbuild.

[quote user="anthony.asterisk"]I started the project from 2.6, and I don't think the merge step introduced sys build. [/quote]

That is correct. I may have misintrepreted when you wrote "My last merge from upstread was in June", I assumed that ment you were using main or somethign other than a release? If you are using a 2.6 relaese (which?) sysbuild is still introduced but not fully support and never used by default, so it shoudl not be relevant.

RE: KCONFIG unable to select softdevice LL controller

Anthony Ambuehl — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 15:31:33 GMT

Regarding the short .config... if you noticed the first line... I'm using grep to filter for specific Bluetooth lines.

I don't have a <project_name> subfolder, i'm not even sure what my project name would be. I started the project from 2.6, and I don't think the merge step introduced sys build. At some point I guess I will need a Primer on how to add sys build. For now considering the lagging tools I think its better to work without sysbuild.

I noticed the kconfig gui had an update release in September and appears to be on a 6-7 month cycle, so I imagine this will be broken for the entirety of my development time on this project.

I did switch to 2.7.0 toolchain which fixed some issues with tooltips but the kconfig gui is still incorrect

RE: KCONFIG unable to select softdevice LL controller

Einar Thorsrud — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 09:33:23 GMT

Hi,

The short .config here is what I would expect if using sysbuild. Are you sure you are not using it? (It is default for nRF Connect SDK projects starting with 2.7.0, which was tagged in the end of June, so that should be close to what you have). If using sysbuild, the full .config is located deeper down, specifically <build_folder>/<project_name>/zephyr/.config. And this is not fully supported by the VS Code plugins yet.

[quote user="anthony.asterisk"]

Is there an alternative to nrf kconfig gui that would give valid feedback so I don't waste my dev time chasing imaginary problems?

[/quote]

I recommend you check the files with an editor instead of using the Kconfig GUI for now. That will not show you the dependencies directly, but you can easily see which configs are enabled or not.

[quote user="anthony.asterisk"]Also how do I change/fix the provider of the prj.conf to the problems tab in visual studio code?[/quote]

We are workign on updating this but I do not believe there is a simple workaround you can do on your end. That said, the problems tab can generally be ignored except for when looking into VS code issues, as the build output in the terminal tab will show you any warning or errors related to the actual build.

[quote user="anthony.asterisk"]My last merge from upstread was in June, is it possible some of these issues would be improved if I update to more recent nrf connect sdk?[/quote]

I do not expect so, as this is mostly that our VS Code plugins does not fully support 2.7.0 yet where there were some major diferences, includign introduction of sysbuild and a new hardware model (teh latter not diretly related in this specific case).

[quote user="anthony.asterisk"]Another consideration, I'm using toolchain 2.6.1, perhaps I should update it?[/quote]

Yes, I would use the 2.7.0 toolchain, though I don't expect it would make a difference here.

RE: KCONFIG unable to select softdevice LL controller

Anthony Ambuehl — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 15:48:52 GMT

NOTE: I'm not using sysbuild.

Then this seems to be the main issue, since the build/zephyr/.config shows that I am in fact using the softdevice but the nrf kconfig gui indicates I am not.

Here is the zephyr/.config output:

$ grep CONFIG_BT .config | grep -v "is not set" | grep -v "LOG"
CONFIG_BT_HCI_VS=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR=y
CONFIG_BT_USER_PHY_UPDATE=y
CONFIG_BT_BUF_EVT_DISCARDABLE_SIZE=43
CONFIG_BT_FLIPPER_DIS=y
CONFIG_BT_FLIPPER_DIS_MODEL="Speedo Train Goggle"
CONFIG_BT_FLIPPER_DIS_MANUF="CIYE"
CONFIG_BT_FLIPPER_DIS_SERIAL_NUMBER=y
CONFIG_BT_FLIPPER_DIS_FW_REV=y
CONFIG_BT_FLIPPER_DIS_HW_REV=y
CONFIG_BT_FDS=y
CONFIG_BT_FLIPPER_BLE=y
CONFIG_BT_BUF_CMD_TX_COUNT=2
CONFIG_BT_L2CAP_TX_MTU=498
CONFIG_BT_BUF_ACL_TX_SIZE=502
CONFIG_BT_BUF_ACL_RX_SIZE=502
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_DATA_LENGTH_MAX=251
CONFIG_BT_COMPANY_ID_NORDIC=0x0059
CONFIG_BT_COMPANY_ID=0x0059
CONFIG_BT_MAX_CONN=1
CONFIG_BT_LL_SOFTDEVICE_HEADERS_INCLUDE=y
CONFIG_BT_LL_SOFTDEVICE=y
CONFIG_BT_LL_SOFTDEVICE_BUILD_TYPE_LIB=y
CONFIG_BT_HCI_TX_STACK_SIZE=1536
CONFIG_BT_RX_STACK_SIZE=1536
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_SDC_PERIPHERAL_COUNT=1
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_SDC_MAX_CONN_EVENT_LEN_DEFAULT=4000000
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_SDC_CONN_EVENT_EXTEND_DEFAULT=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_SDC_CENTRAL_ACL_EVENT_SPACING_DEFAULT=4000000
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_SDC_PERIODIC_ADV_EVENT_LEN_DEFAULT=7500
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_SDC_TX_PACKET_COUNT=3
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_SDC_RX_PACKET_COUNT=2
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_SDC_SCAN_BUFFER_COUNT=3
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_SDC_PERIODIC_SYNC_BUFFER_COUNT=3
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_SDC_RX_PRIO=6
CONFIG_BT_LL_SOFTDEVICE_MULTIROLE=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_FAL_SIZE=8
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_ECDH_LIB_OBERON=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_ECDH_STACK_SIZE=900
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_SDC_BIG_RESERVED_TIME_US=1600
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_SDC_CIG_RESERVED_TIME_US=1300
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_SDC_CIS_SUBEVENT_LENGTH_US=0
CONFIG_BT_GATT_AUTO_SEC_REQ=y
CONFIG_BT_DRIVERS=y
CONFIG_BT_PERIPHERAL=y
CONFIG_BT_BROADCASTER=y
CONFIG_BT_CONN=y
CONFIG_BT_PHY_UPDATE=y
CONFIG_BT_DATA_LEN_UPDATE=y
CONFIG_BT_BAS=y
CONFIG_BT_BUF_ACL_TX_COUNT=10
CONFIG_BT_BUF_ACL_RX_COUNT=6
CONFIG_BT_BUF_EVT_RX_SIZE=68
CONFIG_BT_BUF_EVT_RX_COUNT=10
CONFIG_BT_BUF_EVT_DISCARDABLE_COUNT=3
CONFIG_BT_BUF_CMD_TX_SIZE=65
CONFIG_BT_HAS_HCI_VS=y
CONFIG_BT_RPA=y
CONFIG_BT_ASSERT=y
CONFIG_BT_ASSERT_VERBOSE=y
CONFIG_BT_DEBUG_NONE=y
CONFIG_BT_LONG_WQ=y
CONFIG_BT_LONG_WQ_STACK_SIZE=1300
CONFIG_BT_LONG_WQ_PRIO=10
CONFIG_BT_LONG_WQ_INIT_PRIO=50
CONFIG_BT_HCI_HOST=y
CONFIG_BT_HCI_TX_PRIO=7
CONFIG_BT_RECV_WORKQ_BT=y
CONFIG_BT_RX_PRIO=8
CONFIG_BT_DRIVER_RX_HIGH_PRIO=6
CONFIG_BT_LIM_ADV_TIMEOUT=30
CONFIG_BT_CONN_TX_USER_DATA_SIZE=16
CONFIG_BT_CONN_FRAG_COUNT=1
CONFIG_BT_CONN_TX_MAX=10
CONFIG_BT_USER_DATA_LEN_UPDATE=y
CONFIG_BT_SMP=y
CONFIG_BT_BONDABLE=y
CONFIG_BT_SMP_ENFORCE_MITM=y
CONFIG_BT_SMP_MIN_ENC_KEY_SIZE=7
CONFIG_BT_L2CAP_TX_BUF_COUNT=10
CONFIG_BT_L2CAP_TX_FRAG_COUNT=2
CONFIG_BT_L2CAP_DYNAMIC_CHANNEL=y
CONFIG_BT_ATT_TX_COUNT=10
CONFIG_BT_ATT_PREPARE_COUNT=2
CONFIG_BT_ATT_RETRY_ON_SEC_ERR=y
CONFIG_BT_GATT_SERVICE_CHANGED=y
CONFIG_BT_GATT_CACHING=y
CONFIG_BT_GATT_ENFORCE_SUBSCRIPTION=y
CONFIG_BT_GATT_READ_MULTIPLE=y
CONFIG_BT_GATT_READ_MULT_VAR_LEN=y
CONFIG_BT_GAP_AUTO_UPDATE_CONN_PARAMS=y
CONFIG_BT_GAP_PERIPHERAL_PREF_PARAMS=y
CONFIG_BT_PERIPHERAL_PREF_MIN_INT=12
CONFIG_BT_PERIPHERAL_PREF_MAX_INT=12
CONFIG_BT_PERIPHERAL_PREF_LATENCY=0
CONFIG_BT_PERIPHERAL_PREF_TIMEOUT=200
CONFIG_BT_DEVICE_NAME_GATT_WRITABLE=y
CONFIG_BT_MAX_PAIRED=1
CONFIG_BT_CREATE_CONN_TIMEOUT=3
CONFIG_BT_CONN_PARAM_UPDATE_TIMEOUT=500
CONFIG_BT_CONN_PARAM_RETRY_COUNT=3
CONFIG_BT_CONN_PARAM_RETRY_TIMEOUT=1000
CONFIG_BT_DEVICE_NAME_DYNAMIC=y
CONFIG_BT_DEVICE_NAME_MAX=28
CONFIG_BT_DEVICE_NAME="Zephyr"
CONFIG_BT_DEVICE_APPEARANCE=0
CONFIG_BT_ID_MAX=1
CONFIG_BT_ECC=y
CONFIG_BT_CRYPTO=y
CONFIG_BT_HCI_INIT_PRIORITY=50
CONFIG_BT_DRV_TX_STACK_SIZE=256
CONFIG_BT_DRV_RX_STACK_SIZE=256
CONFIG_BT=y
CONFIG_BT_HCI=y
CONFIG_BT_CONN_TX=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_LE_ENC_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_EXT_REJ_IND_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_DATA_LEN_UPDATE_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_PRIVACY_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_EXT_SCAN_FP_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_PHY_UPDATE_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_PHY_2M_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_PHY_CODED_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_ADV_EXT_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_ADV_PERIODIC_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_ADV_PERIODIC_RSP_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_SYNC_PERIODIC_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_SYNC_PERIODIC_RSP_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_SYNC_TRANSFER_SENDER_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_SYNC_TRANSFER_RECEIVER_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_ADV_ISO_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_SYNC_ISO_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_CENTRAL_ISO_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_PERIPHERAL_ISO_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_CHAN_SEL_2_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_SCA_UPDATE_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_CONN_RSSI_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_ECDH_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_LE_POWER_CONTROL_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_LE_PATH_LOSS_MONITORING_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_SUBRATING_SUPPORT=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_HCI=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_CRYPTO=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_HCI_VS_BUILD_INFO=""
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_TX_PWR_0=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_TX_PWR_DBM=0
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_TX_PWR_ANTENNA=0
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_LE_ENC=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_ECDH=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_EXT_REJ_IND=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_LE_PING=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_DATA_LENGTH=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_PHY=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_PRIVACY=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_RL_SIZE=8
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_PHY_2M=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_PHY_CODED=y
CONFIG_BT_CTLR_CHAN_SEL_2=y

Further the Problems tab shows the same incorrect info as nrf Kconfig GUI, indicating various errors that didn't actually occur during the build.

Is there an alternative to nrf kconfig gui that would give valid feedback so I don't waste my dev time chasing imaginary problems?

Also how do I change/fix the provider of the prj.conf to the problems tab in visual studio code?

I'm really missing SES these days, it didn't have all these fancy features, but it never lied.

My last merge from upstread was in June, is it possible some of these issues would be improved if I update to more recent nrf connect sdk?

Another consideration, I'm using toolchain 2.6.1, perhaps I should update it?

RE: KCONFIG unable to select softdevice LL controller

Einar Thorsrud — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 08:53:21 GMT

Hi,

The first screenshot shows that you are trying to use the SoftDevice BT controller (BT_LL_SW_SPLIT - "Software-based BLE Link Layer [EXPERIMENTAL]"). This is not the same as the SoftDevice controller, and not recommended nor supported.

[quote user=""]Specifically even though I'm using an nrf52840 it doesn't have SOC_SERIES_NRF52X[/quote]

If you have properly speciifed your board and that it is a nRF5 device, the SoftDevice Controller should be used automatically, so I wonder if the issue is with your board definition? This specific config is selected if you also have SOC_NRF52840, which you should have. So I suggest looking at you board files first. (You may also find information about custom board in the documentation here and here in the Developer academy).

Regarding Kconfig the tools do not fully support nRF Connect SDK 2.7.0 yet, particularily not if using sysbuild. But this is being worked on.

RE: KCONFIG unable to select softdevice LL controller

Anthony Ambuehl — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 01:07:13 GMT

I'm also seeing many discrepancies between the nrf kconfig gui, and build/zephyr/.config looks like the nrf kconfig gui is completely wrong... also the annotation/hints of prj.conf is wrong as well. I have no idea where the wrong information is coming from..

Could this be an issue with nrf Kconfig GUI not understanding workspace applications?