New board extensions not supported by VSCode nRF extension?

[pcspets]

Hello

When following the guidline of a new way to extend boards, VSCode "Add Build Configuration" is blank. Am I doing something wrong or this is not yet supported by nRF VSCode extension?

Attached is a sample project with the following "board.yaml":

board:
  extend: nrf52840dk
  variants:
    - name: test
      qualifier: nrf52840

extended_board_test.zip

[Kazi Afroza Sultana]

Hello,

I have looked at your application folder and also run the sample on NCS V3.2.0. Your board file is incomplete.

It does not look like a proper board file.

The error shows

You mentioned earlier that ''It's not the build that fails. It's the VSCode nRF Extension that cannot start debug session. And it cannot show graphical representation of DeviceTree either.'' Can you send me the application folder which you were able to build?

[pcspets]

Well, yeah, That is the problem still not solved, that was discussed earlier in this thread. A quick and simple work-around is to add the line:

list(APPEND DTS_EXTRA_CPPFLAGS "-isystem$ENV{ZEPHYR_BASE}/boards/")

...to the original board "pre_dt_board.cmake" file, in Zephyr source tree.

[pcspets]

Any update on this issue?

[Maria Gilje]

Hello, 

In your two latest responses, it seems like you solved your issue with AI. Is this not the case? 

Please give us an updated description of your current issue so we know what to focus on. 

Best regards,

Maria

[pcspets]

Yes, but if your read my post, the fix is in the minified .js files of the nRF Extension. And that will be overwritten every time there is an update. As far as I know, Nordic doesn't disclose the source code of these extensions. It shouldn't be very difficult for you to fix it, according to the report I made.

[Maria Gilje]

Hello, 

Our extension team has checked the code handling board extensions, and are unable to reproduce this issue with multi segment qualifiers. That is, the extended board is easily found by the extension. 

Our recommendation is to update all our VS Code extensions (newest nrf-connect version is v2026.8.2347) and if that does not work, try with the latest SDK version as well (latest is v3.4.0 (LTS)). 

Best regards,

Maria

[pcspets]

Nope, still doesn't work with the latest version. Open this sample project and try to add new build conf. After clicking "Add Build Configuration" - the whole VS Code freezes.extended_board_test_add_build_conf_freezes.zip

[Maria Gilje]

Hello,

I have done some more testing now. With your files, "Add Build Configuration" is stuck in the "Loading boards" stage, but if I create a fresh directory with the same content as your files, the extension behaves as expected. I don't know what is going on here, but I recommend that you don't use the files shared in the zip, and recreate the board extension in a fresh directory. 

I have uploaded the board extension files which worked for me. For transparency's sake: I made some minor changes to the files during my debugging process. The affected files are nrf9160dk_nrf9160_ns_overseer.yaml and nrf9160dk_nrf9160_ns_overseer.dts. In the .yaml I replaced a space with a dash in the name, and in the .dts I included the .dtsi for the board revision directly instead of through the .overlay.

nrf9160dk_overseer.zip

Best regards,

Maria

[pcspets]

Interesting. Did you try to compile the project? In your version "board.yml" has different file extension "board.yaml". VScode plugin seems to work but build fails.

I was following the Zephyr documentation (https://docs.zephyrproject.org/latest/hardware/porting/board_porting.html#board-extensions) where "board" has "yml" and other YAML files have ".yaml" extension. Is this important? Seems to me that build system doesn't recognize "board.yaml" file because CMake gives the error:

No board named 'nrf9160dk_nrf9160_ns_overseer' found. Did you mean:

[Maria Gilje]

Hi, 

I did not build it, and I do see the same error as you do. I'll look more into this. 

Regarding .yaml vs .yml, you should stick to the extensions which are described in the documentation. 

Also, the extension developers have implemented a fix for the debugging start issue and the issue where the devicetree does not see the boards. These fixes will be included in future extension releases. 

Best regards,

Maria