MCUBoot+sysbuild+ns-variant: E: Protect mcuboot flash failed, cancel startup.

[Erlend Isachsen]

Hi.

Goal
I am creating a new application for the nRF54l15 and want to follow the latest recommendations for project configuration. I need to do DFU over BLE, so I'm trying to add MCUBoot in the chain-of-trust regime, using sysbuild. To get there, I used the zephyr/samples/sysbuild/with_mcuboot as a starting point.

Problem
The sample in question does not explicitly support any of the nordic boards with secure/non-secure regime, and I haven't found any samples that combine all these criteria. So I have tried to build the zephyr/sysbuild/with_mcuboot sample for nrf54l15dk/nrf54l15/ns. After erase+flash to my nRF54l15-PDK, I get the following error:

*** Booting MCUboot v2.1.0-dev-2b69d93e75bc ***
*** Using nRF Connect SDK v3.1.0-6c6e5b32496e ***
*** Using Zephyr OS v4.1.99-1612683d4010 ***
E: Protect mcuboot flash failed, cancel startup.

How to recreate
Open zephyr/sysbuild/with_mcuboot and build for zephyr/sysbuild/with_mcuboot sample for nrf54l15dk/nrf54l15/ns. My first build failed, but after doing a pristine build it built successfully and I was able to flash (VSCode build output is attached). Finally, flash to the DK and it should produce the error message shown above.

My setup
Support information is attached. I'm using SDK and toolchain version 3.1.0 with VSCode for windows 10, and nRF54L15-PDK (0.8.1, 2024.38).

Solutions?
I don't have to be able to run this exact sample, but what is causing this error and how do I best resolve it?

vscode_build_log.txt 

Fullscreen nrf-connect-support-20250818091511.json Download

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[Simon D-M]

Hi,

There is a sample in Zephyr on how to use MCUBoot with Sysbuild (link). I tried to build it for the nrf9151dk/nrf9151/ns, and it seems to build.

If you want to see the default partitioning to base your partitioning on, you can find it in the SDK. For the nRF9151 DK it is located in "ncs/v3.4.0/zephyr/dts/vendor/nordic/nrf91xx_partition.dtsi".

If you still need more information, can you please make a new ticket ?

Best regards,

Simon

[embeddedCoder]

It was specifically nRF54L15, as mentioned in the ticket I was hoping for an example for. I tried SB_CONFIG_BOOTLOADER_MCUBOOT=y and got errors for lack of partitions.

[Simon D-M]

Hi,

Can you please create another ticket for this?

This is not exactly the subject of this thread. And it helps us to keep the threads clean.

Best regards,

Simon

[Erlend Isachsen]

Simon D-M said:

Can you please try the new fix? 

Thank you. I have now verified this in the nRF Connect SDK v3.4.0, and it is indeed (barely) possible to build with the recommended configuration in v3.4.0.

It would still be nice with an example/sample app that is "secure by default" as some other comments here requested to make the process a bit easier. I had to combine the current ticket, this ticket, another ticket, yet another ticket and migrate to 3.4.0 to get the board to boot in the recommended secure configuration (along the guides you suggested). While this is not exactly what the original ticket was about, the essence of this ticket was:

Erlend Isachsen said:

creating a new application for the nRF54l15 and want to follow the latest recommendations for project configuration

which is still quite tricky to do to be honest. 

So for anyone else attempting to build with the recommended configuration, you would need something like this:
partitions/
 partitions_ns.dtsi
 partitions.dtsi

Here you put your "static" partition layout. They should look something like this:

&cpuapp_rram {
	/* Application does not use cpuflpr core. Assign whole RRAM to cpuapp. */
	reg = <0x0 DT_SIZE_K(1524)>;

	/delete-node/ partitions;
	
	partitions {
	 // Your static partitions here...
	};
};

non-ns and ns partitions should match closely, MCUBoot (and NSIB) will use the secure variant to get their partition config, and the application will use the ns variant.

Then, create overlays to ensure the board picks them up:
boards/
 boardname_cpuapp_ns.overlay
 boardname_cpuapp.overlay

These overlays should simply include the partition files

Next you need b0 (if you use NSIB as recommended) and MCUBoot to pick up the right configuration:

sysbuild/
 b0/
  prj.conf (NSIB configuration with what you need, keeping it below 31 kiB for protection compatibility)
  boards/
   boardname_cpuapp.overlay (uses the secure layout)
 mcuboot/
  prj.conf
  boards/
   boardname_cpuapp.overlay (uses the secure layout)

These board overlays select zephyr,code-partition (&b0_partition and &boot_partition, respectively) and include the partitions via the overlays in boards/.

Finally, sysbuild.conf need to set boot signature types and files for both B0 and MCUBoot and enable NSIB. Keys must be provisioned to both BL_PUBKEY and UROT_PUBKEY when using NSIB and MCUBoot.

Since I don't have a basic setup with this I unfortunately can't share the full setup, so hopefully Nordic will provide a sample for the recommended secure configuration in the near future. Otherwise the tickets I shared earlier are very useful. I also want to highlight mcuboot-sysbuild-ns-variant-dts-style-partitioning-example ticket (also mentioned earlier) to follow progress on a sample that includes all this.