Workspace application breaks NCS VSCode extension

[rbmarcus]

Has anyone else had problems with adding build configurations for workspace applications using the VSCode GUI interface? Initially I clone the repo using CLI-based west commands and run west update. Almost always, I run into a problem where I'm repeatedly prompted to re-run west update when trying to add a build configuration. Through no specific action aside from repeated retries and reboots, this problem seems to resolve itself then never arises again.

The second problem I have, which I'm still working on resolving, is that the NCS extension shows "No boards found" when attempting to select a board target. This also resolved itself randomly once, but I'm setting up the NCS + Zephyr ecosystem on another PC and running into the issue again. I added this to the VSCode settings:

    "nrf-connect.boardRoots": [
      "${workspaceFolder}/external/zephyr/boards",
      "${workspaceFolder}/external/nrf/boards"
    ],

I also tried without the boards folder (just the parent folder containing boards) but neither makes a difference. Is this a common issue? How can I go about resolving it? For context, I'm using toolchain and SDK v3.0.0. 

[Edvin]

Hello,

I suspect that both of these issues are related to that the extension is not set up the way it is intended to. Have you tried installing the SDK and toolchain using the extension itself?

To add a folder to your workspace, you can use the "Open an existing application" menu, which you can also see in this screenshot.

The second problem, is this what you are seeing?

Or do you see this message somewhere else?

If this is the one, then it suggests that it is not able to find nrfutil installed. 

Try to download and install nrfutil on your computer, and make sure it is available in the system path. Also, make sure that the submodule "nrfutil device" is installed, and that everything is up to date. I suggest you run these commands:

nrfutil self-upgrade
nrfutil install device
nrfutil upgrade

Let me know if you are still seeing the "No devices found" message after this.

Best regards,

Edvin