Visual Studio Code - unable to update SDK, or access previous SDKs

[Mike Austin (LPI)]

I'm having some pretty significant issues with Visual Studio Code and the nRF Connect SDK/Toolchain installation.

I'm on Windows 10, and have been running V2.6.1 of the SDK for a year or so now, but needed to update to a more recent one to access some features not available in V2.6.1.  Went through the usual process within Visual Studio Code when I can install a toolchain, and install an SDK.  The toolchain for v3.0.1 seems to download and install correctly.  But when I went to install the V3.0.1 SDK, it downloaded, unpacked and then the final step failed with some random error code:

[15:13:35] nrfutil-sdk-manager sdk,install,v3.0.1,--sdk-path,c:\ncs\v3.0.1: Download SDK v3.0.1
[15:36:38] nrfutil-sdk-manager sdk,install,v3.0.1,--sdk-path,c:\ncs\v3.0.1: null: success
[15:36:38] nrfutil-sdk-manager sdk,install,v3.0.1,--sdk-path,c:\ncs\v3.0.1: Calculating SDK checksum
[15:36:44] nrfutil-sdk-manager sdk,install,v3.0.1,--sdk-path,c:\ncs\v3.0.1: Verified download: success
[15:36:44] nrfutil-sdk-manager sdk,install,v3.0.1,--sdk-path,c:\ncs\v3.0.1: Unpack SDK v3.0.1

[west]: exited with code -4058.

And now, Visual Studio Code seems almost completely broken.  If I open up an existing Workspace, then attempt to click on the nRF Connect icon on the left, it just sits there looking like this:

I've left it sitting there like this for > 30mins and nothing seems to change.  Shutting down Visual Studio Code, restarting my machine, and restarting VSC doesn't seem to fix things.  I've even attempted a complete uninstall of nRF Command Line Tools and Visual Studio Code, then reinstalling, but it is still showing this behaviour.

I'm now at the point where I basically can't do any further development, nor program any boards I have going through production, so I'm pretty stuck.

Is there something I am supposed to be doing different from what is described in this tutorial video when installing nRF Command Line Tools, VSC, Toolchains and SDK's now?

www.youtube.com/watch

I'm pretty desperate to get this issue resolved

Regards,

Mike

[Ryn]

same problem

[Mike Austin (LPI)]

Ryn 

Have a look at this ticket: devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../sdk-3-0-1-installation-failed

Hope it gets you out of trouble!

Cheers,

Mike

[dejans]

Hi Mike,

Can you try to use nrfutil directly? Does running 
nrfutil sdk-manager install v3.0.1 --sdk-path c:\ncs\v3.0.1 --install-dir c:\ncs
work as expected?

Best regards,
Dejan

[Mike Austin (LPI)]

Hi Dejan,

No, that didn't work.  I got this error:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>nrfutil sdk-manager install v3.0.0 --sdk-path c:\ncs\v3.0.0 --install-dir c:\ncs
[00:00:00] ###### 100% [Install toolchain v3.0.0] Compatible toolchain found in c:\ncs\toolchains\0b393f9e1b
[00:39:33] ###### 100% [Download SDK v3.0.0] Download SDK v3.0.0
[00:00:05] ###### 100% [Calculating SDK checksum] Verified download
[00:00:14] ##----  28% [Unpack SDK v3.0.0] Unpacking
Error: Subprocess C:\Users\mikea.SURFACE-PRO-7\.nrfutil\bin\nrfutil-sdk-manager.exe failed with unexpected exit code Some(5)

The only approach that has been successful is to download the SDK via the GitHub option within VSC's "Install nRF Connect SDK" window.  If I try and use the pre-packaged SDK option, I get the error I described in my original post, and VSC seems to get hung up.

I seem to be able to get things working again by taking this approach.

Cheers,

Mike

[dejans]

Hi Mike,

Thank you for the update.

To further look into this issue, can you please provide log from trace level run?
nrfutil sdk-manager install v3.0.1 --sdk-path c:\ncs\v3.0.1 --install-dir c:\ncs --log-level trace
and provide the log located in %userprofile%\.nrfutil\logs\nrfutil-sdk-manager.log

Best regards,
Dejan

[Mike Austin (LPI)]

Hi Dejan,

I'm getting this error when I try and run that command:

Error: nrfutil command `sdk-manager` not found. See `nrfutil list` for full list of installed commands, `nrfutil search` for installable commands, and `nrfutil install` for installation of new commands.

Caused by:
Subcommand nrfutil-sdk-manager.exe not found

If I run nrfutil device --version, this is what I get:

PS C:\> nrfutil device --version
nrfutil-device 2.8.4 (3a563c3 2025-03-24)
commit-hash: 3a563c3538e0aa0e767a844dcb2a9d18d35a1125
commit-date: 2025-03-24
host: x86_64-pc-windows-msvc
build-timestamp: 2025-03-24T14:01:51.338001900Z
classification: nrf-external

Detected SEGGER J-Link version: JLink_V8.46

Regards,

Mike