Sysbuild and MCUboot porting build error

Zoptune 25 days ago

Hi,

I am working on a project with an nrf9160 on a custom board that I first developed with NCS v2.6.1.

I am trying to upgrade to latest NCS v2.9.1 but I am facing an issue a link stage.

I moved my custom board definition to HW model v2 without any (visible) issue and I want to move the build system to sysbuild and use MCUboot as immutable first-stage bootloader.
If followed the different guides and looked at how it has been done in the existing samples in NCS repository but I am facing an issue at link time where it says that a section does not fit in FLASH region.

[544/549] Linking C executable zephyr/zephyr_pre0.elf
...
/home/alexandre/ncs/toolchains/b77d8c1312/opt/zephyr-sdk/arm-zephyr-eabi/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-zephyr-eabi/12.2.0/../../../../arm-zephyr-eabi/bin/ld.bfd: zephyr/zephyr_pre0.elf section `text' will not fit in region `FLASH'
/home/alexandre/ncs/toolchains/b77d8c1312/opt/zephyr-sdk/arm-zephyr-eabi/bin/../lib/gcc/arm-zephyr-eabi/12.2.0/../../../../arm-zephyr-eabi/bin/ld.bfd: region `FLASH' overflowed by 154696 bytes
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status

Here is the result of the partition manager report.

  flash_primary (0x100000 - 1024kB): 
+--------------------------------------------------+
+---0x0: b0_container (0x8000 - 32kB)--------------+
| 0x0: b0 (0x8000 - 32kB)                          |
+---0x8000: s0 (0xc000 - 48kB)---------------------+
| 0x8000: s0_pad (0x200 - 512B)                    |
+---0x8200: s0_image (0xbe00 - 47kB)---------------+
| 0x8200: mcuboot (0xbe00 - 47kB)                  |
+--------------------------------------------------+
| 0x14000: EMPTY_0 (0x4000 - 16kB)                 |
+---0x18000: s1 (0xc000 - 48kB)--------------------+
| 0x18000: s1_pad (0x200 - 512B)                   |
| 0x18200: s1_image (0xbe00 - 47kB)                |
+--------------------------------------------------+
| 0x24000: EMPTY_1 (0x4000 - 16kB)                 |
+---0x28000: mcuboot_primary (0x68000 - 416kB)-----+
+---0x28000: tfm_secure (0x8000 - 32kB)------------+
| 0x28000: mcuboot_pad (0x200 - 512B)              |
+---0x28200: app_image (0x67e00 - 415kB)-----------+
+---0x28200: mcuboot_primary_app (0x67e00 - 415kB)-+
| 0x28200: tfm (0x7e00 - 31kB)                     |
+---0x30000: tfm_nonsecure (0x60000 - 384kB)-------+
| 0x30000: app (0x60000 - 384kB)                   |
+--------------------------------------------------+
| 0x90000: mcuboot_secondary (0x68000 - 416kB)     |
| 0xf8000: EMPTY_2 (0x6000 - 24kB)                 |
+---0xfe000: nonsecure_storage (0x2000 - 8kB)------+
| 0xfe000: settings_storage (0x2000 - 8kB)         |
+--------------------------------------------------+

I don't know where to start to investigate this issue. Also I am not sure to fully understand what are the different image built in non-secure mode (b0, s0, s1, ...).

Regards

Alexandre

Top Replies

Zoptune 11 days ago in reply to Vidar Berg +1

Thanks. Looking at the course I realized that I was using CONFIG_MCUBOOT_BOOTLOADER_MODE_SINGLE_APP instead of SB_CONFIG_MCUBOOT_MODE_SINGLE_APP. It works great now :)

Parents

0 Vidar Berg 24 days ago

Hello,

Please check what the size of the main app was in your project based on v2.6.1 and also create a partition manager report of that project for comparison. The NSIB bootloader (B0) and the s0 and s1 slots are included when you enable SB_CONFIG_SECURE_BOOT_APPCORE and it results in less available space for the application slots.

Best regards,

Vidar
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0 Vidar Berg 24 days ago

Hello,

Please check what the size of the main app was in your project based on v2.6.1 and also create a partition manager report of that project for comparison. The NSIB bootloader (B0) and the s0 and s1 slots are included when you enable SB_CONFIG_SECURE_BOOT_APPCORE and it results in less available space for the application slots.

Best regards,

Vidar
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0 Zoptune 22 days ago in reply to Vidar Berg

Hello and thanks for your answer !

Unfortunately adding version 2.9.1 broke my 2.6.1 installation.
I get a cmake error regarding python when trying to build:

-- CMake version: 3.21.0
-- Using NCS Toolchain 2.8.20241119.788085347090 for building. (/home/alexandre/ncs/toolchains/b77d8c1312/cmake)
CMake Error at /home/alexandre/ncs/toolchains/2be090971e/usr/local/share/cmake-3.21/Modules/FindPackageHandleStandardArgs.cmake:230 (message):
  Could NOT find Python3 (missing: Interpreter) (Required is at least version
  "3.8")

      Reason given by package: 
          Interpreter: Cannot run the interpreter "/home/alexandre/ncs/toolchains/b77d8c1312/usr/local/bin/python3"

0 Vidar Berg 22 days ago in reply to Zoptune

Hello,

Have you tried using an older version of the NCS toolchain? It looks like you are currently using v2.8.0.
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0 Zoptune 16 days ago in reply to Vidar Berg

Sorry for the delay,

I tried to specify the toolchain to use because I have both NCS version 2.6.1 and 2.9.1 installed but it does not work. I end up removing toolchain for 2.9.1 but I still have the same issue with toolchain 2.6:

-- CMake version: 3.21.0
-- Using NCS Toolchain 2.6.20240304.188451165982 for building. (/home/alexandre/ncs/toolchains/2be090971e/cmake)
CMake Error at /home/alexandre/ncs/toolchains/2be090971e/usr/local/share/cmake-3.21/Modules/FindPackageHandleStandardArgs.cmake:230 (message):
  Could NOT find Python3 (missing: Interpreter) (Required is at least version
  "3.8")

      Reason given by package: 
          Interpreter: Cannot run the interpreter "/home/alexandre/ncs/toolchains/b77d8c1312/usr/local/bin/python3"

It still tries to run interpreter in toolchain b77d8c1312 which correspond to toolchain for 2.9.1 (I think).

I will try to clean my env and reinstall it.

0 Vidar Berg 15 days ago in reply to Zoptune

I assume this path does not exist anymore since you have removed the toolcain: /home/alexandre/ncs/toolchains/b77d8c1312/usr/local/bin/python3? Either way, I think you should be able to build the previous project with the new toolchain.
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0 Zoptune 14 days ago in reply to Vidar Berg

Ok finally was able to recreate both 2.6.1 and 2.9.1 working environment.

The problem is the one described in the error (ofc), my image is too big.

- With NCS v2.6.1, I was using nrf immutable bootlader with a single app section (~984kB).

  flash_primary (0x100000 - 1024kB): 
+---------------------------------------------+
+---0x0: tfm_secure (0x8000 - 32kB)-----------+
| 0x0: tfm (0x8000 - 32kB)                    |
+---0x8000: tfm_nonsecure (0xf6000 - 984kB)---+
| 0x8000: app (0xf6000 - 984kB)               |
+---0xfe000: nonsecure_storage (0x2000 - 8kB)-+
| 0xfe000: settings_storage (0x2000 - 8kB)    |
+---------------------------------------------+

  otp (0x2f4 - 756B): 
+------------------------------+
| 0xff8108: otp (0x2f4 - 756B) |
+------------------------------+

  sram_primary (0x40000 - 256kB): 
+--------------------------------------------------+
+---0x20000000: sram_secure (0x8000 - 32kB)--------+
| 0x20000000: tfm_sram (0x8000 - 32kB)             |
+---0x20008000: sram_nonsecure (0x38000 - 224kB)---+
+---0x20008000: nrf_modem_lib_sram (0x4568 - 17kB)-+
| 0x20008000: nrf_modem_lib_ctrl (0x4e8 - 1kB)     |
| 0x200084e8: nrf_modem_lib_tx (0x2080 - 8kB)      |
| 0x2000a568: nrf_modem_lib_rx (0x2000 - 8kB)      |
+--------------------------------------------------+
| 0x2000c568: sram_primary (0x33a98 - 206kB)       |
+--------------------------------------------------+

- With NCS v2.9.1 and mcuboot I now have 2 app section much smaller (416kB) wich is not enough for my app (~515kB).

Memory region         Used Size  Region Size  %age Used
           FLASH:      528312 B       984 KB     52.43%
             RAM:      120920 B     211608 B     57.14%
        IDT_LIST:          0 GB        32 KB      0.00%

I will try to reduce my app size but I would like to first use mcuboot in single app image mode in order to get back to a single 900kB section and later I will add an external flash to switch to dual image mode.

What config do I need to add (and where) to achieve single image mode this (using sysbuild) and where do I define the slot size ? Because of the SPM, defining it in DTS does not work right ?

Regards,