NRf9151 - external flash with MCUboot

[mmohorcic]

Hello, 

Looking at the already opened questions, there seem to be some similar questions asked when migrating to the DTS partitions, but i haven't found the answer on specific combination (9151 with external flash and mcuboot on 3.4.0 release) 

We are using a custom board with nrf9151. Using the 3.4.0 NRF connect release for its long term support. 

I can get the nrf9151DK/ns build and successfully run "hello world" application using the mcuboot and external flash. 
Basically modifiy the dfu example [0], define changes in device tree, and flash. Output is seen on the UART. 


When using custom board definition there are issues with stability. 
Custom board definition is minimal. We have defined in device only SOC, mx25r8035f SPI flash and UART (for logging) in dts. 
Partitioning is also defined via dts. 

One of the issue is same as here where I add the CONFIG_TFM_LOG_LEVEL_SILENCE flag (same issue as [1] ) , the compilaton goes through, but after flash the device fails to boot. Nothing is shown from MCU or application on uart. 

When on debugger there is an exception in MCUBoot, that i cannot catch. Looking at the documentation i am slightly lost (for the 3.4.0 release  and DTS there still seem to be some documentation missing for the 91 series. 


Is there a minimal working set of configuration flags and dts files that produces stable mcuboot with external flash? 

Thanks in advance, 

Best regards,
  MIha M 

[0] https://academy.nordicsemi.com/courses/nrf-connect-sdk-intermediate/lessons/lesson-9-bootloaders-and-dfu-fota/topic/exercise-3-dfu-with-external-

[1] devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../compilation-of-nrf9151-project-with-tf-m-log-routed-to-uart0-results-in-error-undefined-reference-to-stdio_init

[Syed Maysum Abbas Zaidi]

Hi,

Thanks for the detailed description. To help pinpoint the issue, could you share

- Your custom board DTS file
- Your sysbuild.conf and MCUboot files (sysbuild/mcuboot.conf and overlay)

And does the board boot without MCUboot (plain hello_world)?

Best Regards,
Syed Maysum

[mmohorcic]

Hi, 

Thanks for you response. 

Yes, the board  is fully tested without the mcuboot (including flash access, power consumption) 

Sorry for late response, It took me quite some time to remove everything else and to produce minimal definition that should in my mind work. Looking at differences it is quite close to a DK with removed unused periphery. 

Board named mcuboot_minimal

 - i created a new custom board using the nrf connect tool with 9151 SOC (3.4 NRF release) 
 - partitioning remove slot1
 - add ext_flash and add slot1
 - in ____common.dtsi define flash and uart interface
 - in same file define console and uart to avoid any weird behaviour 
 
Attached in zip file. 

I'll try to further minimize and optimize the build. 

Best, 
 Miha M


clnMcu.zip