cant access internal flash with sysbuild enabled

[th8d]

Hi support

I am developing code for the application core on the nrf5340 and testing this on an nrf7002dk dev kit. I am using sdk version 3.0.0.

The code needs to read from and write to the internal nrf5340 flash. As a start, I have copied the approach used in the soc_flash_nrf sample. This accesses the storage_partition. However I find that this code only works if sysbuild is disabled in the build configuration. If sysbuild is enabled, the device_is_ready() function fails when i run the code on the dev kit.

Is there a way that I can access the internal flash with code that is build with sysbuild enabled ?

[Vidar Berg]

Hello,

I was not able to reproduce this issue with the soc_flash_nrf sample. However, the relevant difference when enabling Sysbuild is likely that the Partition Manager is used to manage the memory layout. In your build folder, please check whether the /<project_name>/zephyr/include/generated/pm_config.h file includes the PM_SETTINGS_STORAGE_DEV or PM_NVS_STORAGE_DEV symbol. You can also check the generated partition file (build/partitions.yml) to check if the storage partition got included.

Best regards,

Vidar

[th8d]

I looked at the build directories created when my code was built with sysbuild and without sysbuild:

1) code build with sysbuild
No build/<project_name/zephyr/include directory was generated
the file build/partition.yml was created. it included partitions for app, otp, rpmsg_nrf53_sram and sram_primary but there was no storage_partition

as before the device_is_ready() function failed when I ran the code.

2) code built without systbuild
The directory build/<project_name/zephyr/include/generated was created but it did not contain a file pm_config.h
no file build/partition.yml was created

as before the code ran successfully on the dev board.

I have now worked out how to compile the soc_flash_nrf sample code for my nrf7002dk board with sysbuild enabled. When I run this on the board I find that it runs successfully. However, I am not clear why my code is failing. Do you have any suggestions ?

[Vidar Berg]

Thanks for the additional information. So the difference is that the Partition manager will not include the storage partition unless it the partition statically defined (Configuring static partitions), or enabled through Kconfig. Reason it gets included in the soc_flash_nrf sample is that CONFIG_SETTINGS=y depends on this partition.

To create a static storage partition in your project, please create a new file named pm_static.yml in your project folder with the following content:

storage_partition:
  address: 0xff000
  placement:
    align:
      start: 0x1000
    before:
    - end
  region: flash_primary
  size: 0x1000

Then do a pristine build to ensure the configuration is picked up by the build system.

[th8d]

That has resolved the issue. My code now works when it is build with sysbuild. Many thanks for your help.