porting nRF52 project from IAR to ARMGCC

[iprogramplus]

Hi. I have a working IAR project based on the nrf52 SDK \nordic\examples\ble_peripheral\ble_app_uart. i am attempting to port the project to ARMGCC using VSCode. I am at a stage in the port where all the files compile and link and I am at the main() stepping in and out of functions using the GDB. i come across a function "localtime" and have a HARDFAULT. I verified the input parameters are valid.

thanks in advance.

Barry

[iprogramplus]

Hi I'm back after a while. I am trying to retain some data structure in RAM in my c file, I define 

#if defined(__ICCARM__)  // IAR Compiler
#pragma location = HITLESS_START_ADDRESS
__no_init volatile HITLESS_STRUCTURE hitless_struct; 
 #elif defined(__GNUC__)  // GCC Compiler
/**
 * @brief Fixed-location hitless structure (retains values across soft reset).
 */
__attribute__((section(".persistent")))
__attribute__((used))
volatile HITLESS_STRUCTURE hitless_struct;
 #else

in my linker file I define:

SECTIONS
{
  . = 0x20003324;
  hitless_struct = .;
  .persistent (NOLOAD) :
  {
    KEEP(*(.persistent))
  } > RAM
}

When debugging, the address is set as designated; however, after a soft reset, the data is not retained.

I appreciate any help you can provide.

Barry

[Susheel Nuguru]

You are manually setting location counter to 0x20003324 just before defining the .persistent section. This might place .persistent at 0x20003324. Also this section can be silently overridden by a startup code zeroing out the .bss sections if .persistent overlaps it.

I suggest use simpler declaration in C code like below

__attribute__((section(".noinit")))
volatile HITLESS_STRUCTURE hitless_struct;

Also this in your linker script to tell the startup code to skip initialization on this section.

.noinit (NOLOAD) :
{
  . = ALIGN(4);
  KEEP(*(.noinit))
} > RAM