MCUBoot Fails to Boot Updated Image on Custom nRF7002 Board (is25lp064 SPI NOR)

RE: MCUBoot Fails to Boot Updated Image on Custom nRF7002 Board (is25lp064 SPI NOR)

AHaug — Mon, 05 May 2025 08:50:12 GMT

Hi,

Glad to hear that you were able to resolve it and that you found the input helpful and thank you for sharing the verified solution

I will mark this case as verified/closed and feel free to open new tickets in the future if you have any other inquiries and/or issues!

Kind regards,
Andreas

RE: MCUBoot Fails to Boot Updated Image on Custom nRF7002 Board (is25lp064 SPI NOR)

ItachiVN — Fri, 02 May 2025 01:15:00 GMT

Hi Andreas,

Thank you again for your detailed support and guidance throughout this process.

I’m happy to report that the issue has been resolved. After adding some read-back validation to the SPI-NOR flash driver for debugging, I discovered that certain sections of the flash were not reading back correctly after a write. This mismatch led to the hash validation failure in the MCUBoot TLV record.

Once I updated the overlay files and adjusted related configuration values for my custom board and everything started working as expected, including image validation and boot.

Your suggestions on verifying flash configurations and partitioning were especially helpful — I really appreciate your support.

Best regards,
Minh Thuan.

RE: MCUBoot Fails to Boot Updated Image on Custom nRF7002 Board (is25lp064 SPI NOR)

AHaug — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 08:56:05 GMT

Hi again,

[quote user="ItachiVN"]I’ve reviewed the current configuration to ensure that the issues you pointed out are properly addressed. Here’s a summary of what I’ve checked and confirmed:[/quote]

It looks good to me w.r.t the latest suggestion I made, the most important question is now; does this work on your end for your custom board? Are you able to perform a DFU with the is25lp spi nor flash or is it still only working on the nrf7002dk with the mx25 device?

If not, then I believe there is one thing we're missing.

https://docs.nordicsemi.com/bundle/ncs-latest/page/nrf/app_dev/device_guides/nrf70/nrf70_fw_patch_update.html together with https://docs.nordicsemi.com/bundle/ncs-latest/page/nrf/app_dev/device_guides/nrf53/simultaneous_multi_image_dfu_nrf5340.html allows you to perform a simultaneous multi-image update for your device, but since you not only have an app-core and net-core image for the 5340, you also need to add support for the wifi fw patch image on the 7002 SoC.

Note

If you want to use the Sysbuild images feature, you need to set the SB_CONFIG_DFU_MULTI_IMAGE_PACKAGE_WIFI_FW_PATCH Kconfig option to y, and must also set the CONFIG_DFU_MULTI_IMAGE_MAX_IMAGE_COUNT Kconfig option to one of the following values:

For the nRF5340 DK and nRF7002 DK without the network core: 2
For the nRF5340 DK and nRF7002 DK with the network core: 3

If not, then I think we need to do some more debugging and see where in MCUboot the error message comes from, i.e

[00:00:00.370,269] <err> mcuboot: Image in the primary slot is not valid!
[00:00:00.377,929] <err> mcuboot: Unable to find bootable image

The last suggestion I want to make is that it might be related to changes in where the build image starts, i.e the start address for your app has somehow started (reflected in "Unable to find bootable image"), but I find that a bit strange.

Could you make sure that you use an identical partitioning on the new update firmware as you have on your initial firmware through adding a pm_static.yml?

Kind regards,
Andreas

RE: MCUBoot Fails to Boot Updated Image on Custom nRF7002 Board (is25lp064 SPI NOR)

ItachiVN — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 17:11:29 GMT

Hello Andreas,

Thank you for the detailed suggestions and the helpful references.

I’ve reviewed the current configuration to ensure that the issues you pointed out are properly addressed. Here’s a summary of what I’ve checked and confirmed:

External Flash Driver:
The external flash driver appears to be enabled correctly. From the device tree (build/mcuboot/zephyr/zephyr.dts), the nordic,pm-ext-flash = &is25; is set, and the external flash node (is25lp064d@0) is configured with status = "okay" and the appropriate JEDEC ID and size.

# build/mcuboot/zephyr/zephyr.dts
/ {
    ...
	chosen {
		zephyr,entropy = &cryptocell;
		zephyr,flash-controller = &flash_controller;
		zephyr,console = &uart0;
		zephyr,shell-uart = &uart0;
		zephyr,uart-mcumgr = &uart0;
		zephyr,bt-mon-uart = &uart0;
		zephyr,bt-c2h-uart = &uart0;
		zephyr,bt-hci = &bt_hci_ipc0;
		nordic,802154-spinel-ipc = &ipc0;
		zephyr,ieee802154 = &ieee802154;
		zephyr,ipc_shm = &sram0_shared;
		zephyr,sram = &sram0_image;
		zephyr,flash = &flash0;
		zephyr,code-partition = &slot0_partition;
		zephyr,sram-secure-partition = &sram0_s;
		zephyr,sram-non-secure-partition = &sram0_ns;
		zephyr,wifi = &wlan0;
		nordic,pm-ext-flash = &is25;
	};

	is25: is25lp064d@0 {
		compatible = "jedec,spi-nor";
		status = "okay";
		reg = < 0x0 >;
		spi-max-frequency = < 0x7a1200 >;
		jedec-id = [ 9D 60 17 ];
		size = < 0x4000000 >;
		sfdp-bfp = [ E5 20 F1 FF FF FF FF 03 44 EB 08 6B 08 3B 04 BB EE FF FF FF FF FF 00 FF FF FF 00 FF 0C 20 0F 52 10 D8 00 FF 23 72 F5 00 82 ED 04 CC 44 83 68 44 30 B0 30 B0 F7 C4 D5 5C 00 BE 29 FF F0 D0 FF FF ];
	};
}

Kconfig Settings:
In the bootloader’s .config (spi/build/spi/zephyr/.config) file, the following relevant options are set:

CONFIG_PM_EXTERNAL_FLASH_HAS_DRIVER=y
CONFIG_PM_EXTERNAL_FLASH_ENABLED=y
CONFIG_PM_EXTERNAL_FLASH_MCUBOOT_SECONDARY=y
CONFIG_BOOT_MAX_IMG_SECTORS=512

These settings should address concerns about both flash accessibility and maximum image sector allocation.

# spi/build/spi/zephyr/.config

#
# NCS subsystem configurations
#
# CONFIG_PM_SINGLE_IMAGE is not set
CONFIG_PM_EXTERNAL_FLASH_HAS_DRIVER=y
CONFIG_PM_EXTERNAL_FLASH_BASE=0
CONFIG_PM_EXTERNAL_FLASH_ENABLED=y
CONFIG_PM_EXTERNAL_FLASH_PATH="/soc/peripheral@50000000/spi@9000/is25lp064d@0"
CONFIG_PM_EXTERNAL_FLASH_SIZE_BITS=67108864
CONFIG_PM_EXTERNAL_FLASH_MCUBOOT_SECONDARY=y
CONFIG_PM_OVERRIDE_EXTERNAL_DRIVER_CHECK=y
CONFIG_PM_SRAM_BASE=0x20000000
CONFIG_PM_SRAM_SIZE=0x80000
# end of Partition Manager


#
# MCUBoot settings
#
# CONFIG_SINGLE_APPLICATION_SLOT is not set
CONFIG_BOOT_IMG_HASH_ALG_SHA256_ALLOW=y
# CONFIG_BOOT_IMG_HASH_DIRECTLY_ON_STORAGE is not set
CONFIG_BOOT_IMG_HASH_ALG_SHA256=y
# CONFIG_BOOT_SIGNATURE_TYPE_NONE is not set
CONFIG_BOOT_SIGNATURE_TYPE_RSA=y
CONFIG_BOOT_SIGNATURE_TYPE_RSA_LEN=2048
# CONFIG_BOOT_SIGNATURE_TYPE_ECDSA_P256 is not set
# CONFIG_BOOT_SIGNATURE_TYPE_ED25519 is not set
CONFIG_MCUBOOT_CLEANUP_ARM_CORE=y
# CONFIG_MCUBOOT_CLEANUP_RAM is not set
CONFIG_MBEDTLS=y
# CONFIG_NRF_SECURITY is not set
CONFIG_MBEDTLS_CFG_FILE="mcuboot-mbedtls-cfg.h"
# CONFIG_BOOT_HW_KEY is not set
CONFIG_BOOT_VALIDATE_SLOT0=y
CONFIG_BOOT_PREFER_SWAP_MOVE=y
# CONFIG_BOOT_SWAP_USING_SCRATCH is not set
# CONFIG_BOOT_UPGRADE_ONLY is not set
CONFIG_BOOT_SWAP_USING_MOVE=y
# CONFIG_BOOT_DIRECT_XIP is not set
# CONFIG_BOOT_RAM_LOAD is not set
# CONFIG_BOOT_FIRMWARE_LOADER is not set
# CONFIG_BOOT_BOOTSTRAP is not set
CONFIG_BOOT_ENCRYPTION_SUPPORT=y
# CONFIG_BOOT_ENCRYPT_IMAGE is not set
# CONFIG_BOOT_MAX_IMG_SECTORS_AUTO is not set
CONFIG_BOOT_MAX_IMG_SECTORS=512
CONFIG_BOOT_SHARE_BACKEND_DISABLED=y
# CONFIG_BOOT_SHARE_BACKEND_EXTERNAL is not set
CONFIG_BOOT_FIH_PROFILE_OFF=y

Please let me know if you spot anything I might have missed or if you have any additional suggestions. Again thank you for your support!

Best regards,

RE: MCUBoot Fails to Boot Updated Image on Custom nRF7002 Board (is25lp064 SPI NOR)

AHaug — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 13:13:18 GMT

Hi,

[quote user="ItachiVN"]d on the spi_flash example. From what I understand, communication with the flash (erase/write/read) is working. I’ve added a few more log messages to provide better visibility into the process.
Below are the logs captured via RTT Viewer:[/quote]

Looks correct to me.

The next item is to look at the boot sectors. The Non-optimal sector distribution is typically caused when CONFIG_BOOT_MAX_IMG_SECTORS is too small (ref: https://docs.nordicsemi.com/bundle/ncs-latest/page/nrf/app_dev/bootloaders_dfu/mcuboot_nsib/bootloader_partitioning.html#mcuboot_failure). Could you see if either of the 3 suggested fixes resolves the issue?

The external flash driver for the application image partitions used by MCUboot is not enabled or an incorrect Kconfig option has been given to the DEFAULT_DRIVER_KCONFIG of the Partition Manager external region definition. See External flash memory partitions for details.
An out-of-tree external flash driver is not selecting CONFIG_PM_EXTERNAL_FLASH_HAS_DRIVER, resulting in partitions for images located in the external flash memory being not accessible. See External flash memory partitions for details.
Insufficient value set for the CONFIG_BOOT_MAX_IMG_SECTORS Kconfig option, as MCUboot typically increases slot sizes when external flash is enabled. See MCUboot’s Kconfig options used in Zephyr for details.

Kind regards,
Andreas

RE: MCUBoot Fails to Boot Updated Image on Custom nRF7002 Board (is25lp064 SPI NOR)

ItachiVN — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 13:50:38 GMT

Hello Andreas,
Thank you for your support.

My test application is based on the spi_flash example. From what I understand, communication with the flash (erase/write/read) is working. I’ve added a few more log messages to provide better visibility into the process.
Below are the logs captured via RTT Viewer:

Test 1: Flash erase

[00:00:00.003,997] <inf> flash_test: Attempting to erase 4096 bytes from offset 0x7f0000
[00:00:00.104,797] <inf> flash_test: Attempting to read 4 bytes from offset 0x7f0000
[00:00:00.105,224] <inf> flash_test: Read data: ff ff ff ff
[00:00:00.105,499] <inf> flash_test: Flash erase succeeded!
[00:00:00.105,743] <inf> flash_test: 
Test 2: Flash write

[00:00:00.106,018] <inf> flash_test: Attempting to write 4 bytes to offset 0x7f0000
[00:00:00.106,323] <inf> flash_test: Write data: aa bb cc dd
[00:00:00.106,842] <inf> flash_test: Attempting to read 4 bytes from offset 0x7f0000
[00:00:00.107,269] <inf> flash_test: Read data: aa bb cc dd
[00:00:00.107,543] <inf> flash_test: Data read matches data written. Good!!
[00:00:00.107,818] <inf> flash_test: Test completed, waiting for next test
[00:00:00.108,093] <inf> flash_test: Entering looping ....

RE: MCUBoot Fails to Boot Updated Image on Custom nRF7002 Board (is25lp064 SPI NOR)

AHaug — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 12:39:45 GMT

Hi Thuan,

It could indicate that you've not used the correct SPI nor flash configuration. Could you first try spi nor flash standalone without anything else going on and see if you can communicate with the flash? For instance with something like this sample? https://docs.nordicsemi.com/bundle/ncs-latest/page/zephyr/samples/drivers/spi_flash/README.html

Kind regards,
Andreas