I am not able to install littlefs on an external qspi flash

RE: I am not able to install littlefs on an external qspi flash

Vidar Berg — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 05:35:13 GMT

Thanks for confirming. So maybe the mx25 is just busy erasing flash pages while the nRF is rebooting, and therefore isn't able to respond to the read ID command. To confirm this, maybe you can try to call sys_reboot(0) when you receive the -ENODEV error in the application. The idea is that this will allow the device to recover, as the flash erase will be completed on the following startup.

RE: I am not able to install littlefs on an external qspi flash

Aurele — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 13:44:04 GMT

Hello Vidar

That's a good point. You are right, I cannot reproduce the same issue when I make a power cyle reset. The issue only occurs when I make a pin reset, so it means that the SPI stays in a bad stat. I guess I should start with a reset of the external flash (mx25) but how ? Is it possible to drive the reset pin of MX25 independantly as it is already used by the QSPI driver ?

Regards

RE: I am not able to install littlefs on an external qspi flash

Vidar Berg — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 08:11:40 GMT

[quote user="Aurel"]Actually, i have noticed that the erase could be very very long, and when I reset the device during an erase, the issue occurs !!! So, I think everything is related to this erase that does not have time to finised before the reset ...[/quote]

I see. So you only experience the issue if you have a sudden reset during the erase operation. Maybe the SPI flash is getting into a bad state. Are you able to reproduce the same if you do a power cycle instead of resetting only the nRF?

RE: I am not able to install littlefs on an external qspi flash

Aurele — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 15:24:58 GMT

[quote userid="4240" url="~/f/nordic-q-a/120804/i-am-not-able-to-install-littlefs-on-an-external-qspi-flash/532645"]Yes, for some reason the SPI flash didn't respond to the device ID read command. This causes the qspi driver init to fail and the subsequent -ENODEV error when the app tries to mount the filesystem. I've seen similar issues on custom boards where the SPI flash was powered on too late and wasn't ready by the time the QSPI initialization function was called, but not on the nRF52840 DK board. [/quote]

I m working with nrf52840DK v3.0.3 (even if i'm using a custom device tree definition board)

[quote userid="4240" url="~/f/nordic-q-a/120804/i-am-not-able-to-install-littlefs-on-an-external-qspi-flash/532645"]Does this seem to mitigate the problem with the qspi flash driver initialization? I don't see how it could be related. [/quote]

Actually, i have noticed that the erase could be very very long, and when I reset the device during an erase, the issue occurs !!! So, I think everything is related to this erase that does not have time to finised before the reset ...

[quote userid="4240" url="~/f/nordic-q-a/120804/i-am-not-able-to-install-littlefs-on-an-external-qspi-flash/532645"]If possible, please provide a minimal version of your project that will allow me to reproduce the problem here.[/quote]

Sure, I will share it. Do I have to share it here, in this tread or do you have an email ?

Best regards,

RE: I am not able to install littlefs on an external qspi flash

Vidar Berg — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 15:06:45 GMT

Hello Aurélien,

[quote userid="55583" url="~/f/nordic-q-a/120804/i-am-not-able-to-install-littlefs-on-an-external-qspi-flash/532639"]I guess the driver cannot read JEDEC ID : [/quote]

Yes, for some reason the SPI flash didn't respond to the device ID read command. This causes the qspi driver init to fail and the subsequent -ENODEV error when the app tries to mount the filesystem. I've seen similar issues on custom boards where the SPI flash was powered on too late and wasn't ready by the time the QSPI initialization function was called, but not on the nRF52840 DK board.

[quote userid="55583" url="~/f/nordic-q-a/120804/i-am-not-able-to-install-littlefs-on-an-external-qspi-flash/532639"]I'm starting with an erase after each reboot. ([/quote]

Does this seem to mitigate the problem with the qspi flash driver initialization? I don't see how it could be related.

If possible, please provide a minimal version of your project that will allow me to reproduce the problem here.

Best regards,

Vidar

RE: I am not able to install littlefs on an external qspi flash

Aurele — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 14:38:20 GMT

Hello

When it is not working, I see :

E: JEDEC id [00 00 00] expect [c2 28 17]
I: littlefs partition at /lfs1
*** Booting My Application v0.8.9-55bf6540e72c ***
*** Using nRF Connect SDK v2.9.0-7787b2649840 ***
*** Using Zephyr OS v3.7.99-1f8f3dc29142 ***
Starting Bluetooth
I: 2 Sectors of 4096 bytes
I: alloc wra: 0, dc8
I: data wra: 0, 318
I: SoftDevice Controller build revision:
I: 2d 79 a1 c8 6a 40 b7 3c |-y..j@.<
I: f6 74 f9 0b 22 d3 c4 80 |.t.."...
I: 74 72 82 ba |tr..
I: HW Platform: Nordic Semiconductor (0x0002)
I: HW Variant: nRF52x (0x0002)
I: Firmware: Standard Bluetooth controller (0x00) Version 45.41337 Build 3074452168
I: No ID address. App must call settings_load()
W: opcode 0xfc0e status 0x42
Set Tx power err: -5 reason 0x00
Bluetooth initialized
I: Identity: ED:CF:94:01:17:9A (random)
I: HCI: version 6.0 (0x0e) revision 0x106b, manufacturer 0x0059
I: LMP: version 6.0 (0x0e) subver 0x106b
Non-connectable advertising started
Created adv: 0x20002c48
Connectable advertising started
Advertising successfully started
Sample program to r/w files on littlefs
E: FAIL: unable to find flash area 0: -19

I: LittleFS version 2.9, disk version 2.1
E: can't open flash area 0
E: fs mount error (-19)
FAIL: mount id 0 at /lfs1: -19

Thread BT CTLR ECDH → stack libre : 264 octets
Thread BT RX WQ → stack libre : 3880 octets
Thread mcumgr smp → stack libre : 1864 octets
Thread BT LW WQ → stack libre : 1160 octets
Thread sysworkq → stack libre : 1520 octets
Thread MPSL Work → stack libre : 736 octets
Thread idle → stack libre : 272 octets
Thread main → stack libre : 3120 octets

I guess the driver cannot read JEDEC ID :

E: JEDEC id [00 00 00] expect [c2 28 17]

but i don't know why. Is there a way to have more information from the qspi driver in the RTT logger ?

When it is working, I see :

I: littlefs partition at /lfs1
*** Booting My Application v0.8.9-55bf6540e72c ***
*** Using nRF Connect SDK v2.9.0-7787b2649840 ***
*** Using Zephyr OS v3.7.99-1f8f3dc29142 ***
Starting Bluetooth
I: 2 Sectors of 4096 bytes
I: alloc wra: 0, db8
I: data wra: 0, 330
I: SoftDevice Controller build revision: 
I: 2d 79 a1 c8 6a 40 b7 3c |-y..j@.<
I: f6 74 f9 0b 22 d3 c4 80 |.t.."...
I: 74 72 82 ba             |tr..    
I: HW Platform: Nordic Semiconductor (0x0002)
I: HW Variant: nRF52x (0x0002)
I: Firmware: Standard Bluetooth controller (0x00) Version 45.41337 Build 3074452168
I: No ID address. App must call settings_load()
W: opcode 0xfc0e status 0x42 
Set Tx power err: -5 reason 0x00
Bluetooth initialized
I: Identity: ED:CF:94:01:17:9A (random)
I: HCI: version 6.0 (0x0e) revision 0x106b, manufacturer 0x0059
I: LMP: version 6.0 (0x0e) subver 0x106b
Non-connectable advertising started
Created adv: 0x20002c48
Connectable advertising started
Advertising successfully started
Sample program to r/w files on littlefs
Area 0 at 0x0 on mx25r6435f@0 for 8388608 bytes
E: Erasing flash area ... 0
I: LittleFS version 2.9, disk version 2.1
I: FS at mx25r6435f@0:0x0 is 2048 0x1000-byte blocks with 512 cycle
I: sizes: rd 16 ; pr 16 ; ca 64 ; la 32
E: WEST_TOPDIR/modules/fs/littlefs/lfs.c:1374: Corrupted dir pair at {0x0, 0x1}
W: can't mount (LFS -84); formatting
I: /lfs1 mounted
/lfs1 mount: 0
/lfs1: bsize = 16 ; frsize = 4096 ; blocks = 2048 ; bfree = 2046

Listing dir /lfs1 ...
/lfs1/boot_count read count:0 (bytes: 0)
/lfs1/boot_count write new boot count 1: [wr:1]
I: Test file: /lfs1/pattern.bin not found, create one!

I'm starting with an erase after each reboot. (

flash_area_flatten)

Regards

Aurélien

RE: I am not able to install littlefs on an external qspi flash

Vidar Berg — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 09:12:56 GMT

Hello,

Are you not seeing any error messages from the QSPI driver too (nrf_qpi_nor.c)? The message E: FAIL: unable to find flash area 0: -19 (where -19 corresponds to -ENODEV) indicates that the mx25r6435f device was not initialized. This issue should be unrelated to whether the SPI flash is empty or not.

Best regards,

Vidar

RE: I am not able to install littlefs on an external qspi flash

Aurele — Fri, 18 Apr 2025 08:03:43 GMT

Hello

I managed to get it to work, but for it to work, I have to force a file upload with the "Device Manager" app, and when I reset the device, I see:

Area 0 at 0x0 on mx25r6435f@0 for 8388608 bytes
I: LittleFS version 2.9, disk version 2.1
I: FS at mx25r6435f@0:0x0 is 2048 0x1000-byte blocks with 512 cycles
I: sizes: rd 16 ; pr 16 ; ca 64 ; la 32
/lfs1 mount: 0
/lfs1: bsize = 16 ; frsize = 4096 ; blocks = 2048 ; bfree = 2044

Listing dir /lfs1 ...
[FILE] Lorem_10.txt (size = 10)
[FILE] Lorem_1000.txt (size = 1000)
[FILE] boot_count (size = 1)
[FILE] pattern.bin (size = 547)

Otherwise, as soon as I boot for the first time or after an erase, I see the following error:

E: FAIL: unable to find flash area 0: -19