bootloader issues using gcc

RE: bootloader issues using gcc

Hung Bui — Tue, 23 Aug 2016 13:43:07 GMT

I just tried to test with the example made by Bjørn in the thread, worked fine for me (after copy back the bsp folder that accidentally erased in the example). I would suggest you to track back what you modified.

RE: bootloader issues using gcc

wim — Tue, 23 Aug 2016 12:06:18 GMT

I added the ld and the makefile from which I started in my original question. The makefile is just for reference, I myself am not using make, I am using qmake via QtCreator. However, I checked the execution of the compilation and linking and objcopy and such, so the execution seems to be ok. The .ld file I got from this post

RE: bootloader issues using gcc

Hung Bui — Tue, 23 Aug 2016 11:11:51 GMT

@wim: Please send your .ld configuration (also your makefile), seems that there could be smth wrong with the configuration for FLASH.

RE: bootloader issues using gcc

wim — Tue, 23 Aug 2016 09:26:22 GMT

ok, i will give it a try, but still out of curiosity: the error message that I get, does this suggest that my code is too big? and another question: can I combine the 8.1 bootloader with a 7.3 soft device and and SDK7.2 application?

RE: bootloader issues using gcc

Hung Bui — Tue, 23 Aug 2016 08:33:22 GMT

Hi Wim,

Sorry I forgot that you need to remove NOLOAD. NOLOAD marks that this section should not be loaded with anything and result that you don't write the BANK_VALID_APP into it.

I tried here with SDK v8.1 and it worked fine for me (after removing NOLOAD). I attached the hex in my answer. If you open you can find the word at the 0x3FC00 address was written 0x01.

I would suggest you to download a fresh copy of the SDK v8.1 and test with that before you move back to you bootloader in SDK v7.1.

RE: bootloader issues using gcc

wim — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 13:40:38 GMT

tried that but that did not seem to change anything. (I guess because it is not declared as a constant?) I am now comparing some things between my code and the SDK8.1 I noticed that in my linker script, there is a difference in the definition of .Bootloadersettings.

in version 7.2 I have:

   /* Ensures the bootloader settings are placed at the last flash page. */
  .bootloaderSettings(NOLOAD) :
  {

  } > BOOTLOADER_SETTINGS

In version 8.1 this is:

     /* Ensures the bootloader settings are placed at the last flash page. */
  .bootloaderSettings :
  {
	
  } > BOOTLOADER_SETTINGS

I am not familiar with the syntax of a gcc link script. What does the "(NOLOAD)" do? Tried to remove it but then I get an error during linking:

section .bootloaderSettings loaded at [000000000003fc00,000000000003ffff] overlaps section .data loaded at [000000000003fbe8,000000000003fc4f]

Also, in my hex file, there seems to be data in the BOOTLOADER settings flash page, here is an extract from the hex file:

:10FBE800FFFF00000500000000000000000000000A
:10FBF80000000000000000000000000000000000FD
:10FC08000000000000000000D8FB03000000000016
:10FC180000000000000000000000000000000000DC
:10FC280000000000000000000000000000000000CC
:10FC380000000000000000000000000000000000BC

Where does that data come from?

RE: bootloader issues using gcc

Hung Bui — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 13:33:02 GMT

@wim: Please follow the bootloader_settings.c file in SDK v8.1

if you want to pre-set a value in flash, I think you can try:

uint8_t m_boot_settings[CODE_PAGE_SIZE] attribute ((section(".bootloaderSettings"))) = {BANK_VALID_APP};

RE: bootloader issues using gcc

wim — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 13:15:02 GMT

Triggered about your remark about the BANK_INVALID_APP, found my edit in the Keil project : I added something to this line in bootloader_settings_arm.c: const uint8_t m_boot_settings[CODE_PAGE_SIZE] attribute((at(BOOTLOADER_SETTINGS_ADDRESS))) attribute((used)) = {BANK_VALID_APP};

Not sure how to do this in the GCC equivalent. In my GCC project, I have following line in bootloader_settings.c: attribute ((section(".bootloaderSettings"))) uint8_t m_boot_settings[CODE_PAGE_SIZE];

What will cause a default of 0x01?

RE: bootloader issues using gcc

Hung Bui — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 13:14:33 GMT

@Wim: by default we will not write anything to this. And it will be 0xFF by default. You can have a look at the bootloader_settings.c. It's where we write to UICR and use attribute so that we can choose to write to some address in the flash in compile time.

If you don't want to switch to SDK v8.1, you still can follow what we do in the bootloader (especially the file bootloader_settings.c) to support gcc in SDK v8.1 and use that in your bootloader. They are pretty similar.

Usually the bootloader setting will be stored using bootloader_settings_save(), you may want to add a breakpoint there or print out a trace.

RE: bootloader issues using gcc

wim — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 12:54:00 GMT

Hi Hung,

Well for some reason, in my Keil project, this bit seems to be set during compilation: I see 0x01 on position 0x3FC00. But in my gcc project, I do not see it. I vaguely remember changing something in the past to the Keil project, but cannot really recall what exactly.

Why I am using the SDK7.2.0 version, is because I do not want to move my application to the SDK8.1. And it seems to work now, except for this 1 bit. I did the edit manually and that works just fine.

Please double check to find why "that flash location was already written to 0", this should not happen, it should be 0xFF = BANK_INVALID_APP.

Where should I check this? Is this some initialization value somewhere?

RE: bootloader issues using gcc

Hung Bui — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 12:21:51 GMT

Hi wim,

How did you modify the bootloader for compiling with gcc ?

1 . If you want to increase the size of the bootloader you can follow this guide.

2 . Please clarify this part:

I cannot start my program after programming boot loader, soft device and application hex files using a JlinkExe script, I need to program the application using the DFU; with the Keil version that was not necessary;

With the original bootloader in the SDK, doesn't matter which toolchain you used to compile and program, the bootloader will still mark the application as invalid until you use DFU to update the bootloader.

You can have a look at question E in this FAQ to know how to manually change the bootloader setting to tell the bootloader the valid application is flashed.

Please double check to find why "that flash location was already written to 0", this should not happen, it should be 0xFF = BANK_INVALID_APP.

My suggestion is to use the bootloader from SDK v8.1 or later, gcc is fully supported from that version.

nrf51422_xxac.hex

RE: bootloader issues using gcc

wim — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 09:59:03 GMT

i have it on yes

RE: bootloader issues using gcc

shibshab — Mon, 22 Aug 2016 08:52:48 GMT

Have you enabled Link Time Optimization? There is a known issue on some version of arm-none-eabi-gcc, but the latest should be safe with LTO.