Issue with command line compilation of NRF9160 samples

RE: Issue with command line compilation of NRF9160 samples

Bjørn Kvaale — Tue, 23 Apr 2019 08:47:49 GMT

Yes, there should be a new release tagged soon. In regards to the NCS master branch, there has been an update in this blog post here. Segger finally has support for the Zephyr master branch now!

I have tested this myself & followed the following procedure (using Windows 10). Remember to run choco commands using an Administrator command prompt. First, I upgraded to the latest nRF Getting Started Assistant guide in nRF Connect. If you have already installed the toolchain, you can skip the first two commands:

choco feature enable -n allowGlobalConfirmation
choco install -y cmake --installargs 'ADD_CMAKE_TO_PATH=System'

For all of the following choco install commands, I instead ran choco upgrade (see example below):

choco upgrade git

After each upgrade, I verified the upgrade by pressing the Verify button in the nRF Connect for Desktop app.

In the "Clone the nRF Connect SDK" section, I ran the following command first:

pip3 install west --upgrade

I then created a new ncs folder. After running the "west init" command, I then ran "west update" when prompted to do so in the command prompt (if you want to use the master branch). If you want to use a tagged branch, see the command below this one. I was not able to verify the west init step unfortunately (most likely because I named by ncs folder ncs_master instead of ncs).

I then deleted the old Segger v4.14 (the one used for NCS) & installed the new v4.16. I find it is helpful to make a shortcut of the emStudio.exe file. That way, you won't need to go to that folder every time you want to launch SES.

The first time, I received an error code 1. I needed to change the zephyr base as described in the linked blog post.

If you have any more questions regarding this, please open a new devzone case, as this thread is becoming large & slightly disorganized.

RE: Issue with command line compilation of NRF9160 samples

rkguy — Wed, 17 Apr 2019 01:06:56 GMT

There has to be a new release tagged sometime soon, right?

RE: Issue with command line compilation of NRF9160 samples

Bjørn Kvaale — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 10:32:59 GMT

Sorry for the delayed response everyone. I have been on a business trip & am now on vacation. Due to Easter break there will be lower support staffing, but DevZone should be fully staffed again next week from the 23rd of April. I will take a look at this case ASAP once I am back in office. You should have an answer latest by the 24th of April.

The examples in the master branch have not been as rigorously tested as the tagged versions of Nordic Connect SDK, so there are bound to be more bugs in the master branch.

RE: Issue with command line compilation of NRF9160 samples

rkguy — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 02:23:58 GMT

Oh man. Continuous integration should include windows buildts too.. Maybe use appveyor.

Bjørn Kvaale can you please have the devs take a look at this. Alternatively Gregory, you can actually do a git blame on the line in question and find the commit then make a comment I think...hmm

RE: Issue with command line compilation of NRF9160 samples

Gregor Bader — Mon, 15 Apr 2019 10:56:40 GMT

jbrzozoski Found Solution:

https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/46208/nrf-connect-sdk-broken-for-nrf9160-command-line-build-on-windows

RE: Issue with command line compilation of NRF9160 samples

jbrzozoski — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 04:56:32 GMT

Another clue: I was able to build from HEAD of master on an Ubuntu setup, and my failing builds earlier today were on Windows. Now I'm hoping it's something stupid like a /-vs-\ slash item in some Kconfig or CMake file somewhere...

RE: Issue with command line compilation of NRF9160 samples

jbrzozoski — Wed, 10 Apr 2019 17:11:27 GMT

Those commits weren't back to back, but I'm fighting the same issue and so just iterated through 'git bisect'. Here is the final output:

b5123a4edfe18cdd80a5d1972feb9791b8463e25 is the first bad commit
commit b5123a4edfe18cdd80a5d1972feb9791b8463e25
Author: Robert Lubos <robert.lubos@nordicsemi.no>
Date:   Thu Apr 4 14:51:57 2019 +0200

    manifest: update fw-nrfconnect-zephyr

    Update fw-nrfconnect-zephyr revision to reference latest upmerge.

    Signed-off-by: Robert Lubos <robert.lubos@nordicsemi.no>

:100644 100644 fc4ad48cc887a00a67d7be32da7b4891057df750 d049a0e6ba8e5cf227c3f9e403c4551caee7d4c0 M      west.yml

RE: Issue with command line compilation of NRF9160 samples

rkguy — Wed, 10 Apr 2019 11:53:22 GMT

Thank you. Are these commits back to back? If so, I think you've just given Nordic a big clue as to what caused the problem. Bjørn Kvaale

RE: Issue with command line compilation of NRF9160 samples

Gregor Bader — Wed, 10 Apr 2019 11:11:13 GMT

I'm getting these errors with latest github sources too!

An older checkout (from 28. march) is working correctly.

Error with: https://github.com/NordicPlayground/fw-nrfconnect-nrf/commit/f8233c7a88c7d4a1fd2094da52833d030fa8e338

Working with: https://github.com/NordicPlayground/fw-nrfconnect-nrf/commit/dea29b663b047a473b3767a8ecbbc4599b39577a

RE: Issue with command line compilation of NRF9160 samples

Bjørn Kvaale — Wed, 10 Apr 2019 08:47:41 GMT

rkguy Have you deleted the build folder before you tried building the spm example? I tried to build using the:

west build -b nrf9160_pca10090 -d build

which worked. When building the spm example, it is important to set the board to nrf9160_pca10090 instead of nrf9160_pca10090ns because the spm example sets the secure peripherals. Therefore, you should not use the nrf9160_pca10090ns, which refers to the non-secure version of the board. Use the nrf9160_pca10090 board instead.

RE: Issue with command line compilation of NRF9160 samples

rkguy — Tue, 09 Apr 2019 04:39:29 GMT

I am still getting similar errors when trying to build for the secure boot (now called spm?):

$ cmake -DBOARD=nrf9160_pca10090 -GNinja ..
-- Using application from 'C:/PROJECTCODE/ncs/nrf/samples/nrf9160/spm'
Zephyr version: 1.14.0
-- Found PythonInterp: C:/Python37/python.exe (found suitable version "3.7.2", minimum required is "3.4")
-- Selected BOARD nrf9160_pca10090
-- Found west: C:/Python37/Scripts/west.exe (found suitable version "0.5.7", minimum required is "0.5.6")
-- Cache files will be written to: C:\Users\ruben\AppData\Local/.cache/zephyr
-- Loading C:/PROJECTCODE/ncs/zephyr/boards/arm/nrf9160_pca10090/nrf9160_pca10090.dts as base
-- Overlaying C:/PROJECTCODE/ncs/zephyr/dts/common/common.dts
-- Overlaying C:/PROJECTCODE/ncs/nrf/samples/nrf9160/spm/nrf9160_pca10090.overlay

C:/PROJECTCODE/ncs/nrf/samples/nrf9160/spm/prj.conf:2: warning: attempt to assign the value 'y' to the undefined symbol SPM
Parsing Kconfig tree in C:/PROJECTCODE/ncs/zephyr/Kconfig
Loading C:/PROJECTCODE/ncs/zephyr/boards/arm/nrf9160_pca10090/nrf9160_pca10090_defconfig as base
Merging C:/PROJECTCODE/ncs/nrf/samples/nrf9160/spm/prj.conf

Error: Aborting due to non-whitelisted Kconfig warning
'C:/PROJECTCODE/ncs/nrf/samples/nrf9160/spm/prj.conf:2: warning: attempt to assign the value 'y' to
the undefined symbol SPM'. Note: If this warning doesn't point to an actual problem, you can add it
to the whitelist at the top of C:/PROJECTCODE/ncs/zephyr/scripts/kconfig/kconfig.py.

CMake Error at C:/PROJECTCODE/ncs/zephyr/cmake/kconfig.cmake:191 (message):
  command failed with return code: 1
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  C:/PROJECTCODE/ncs/zephyr/cmake/app/boilerplate.cmake:476 (include)
  CMakeLists.txt:3 (include)

RE: Issue with command line compilation of NRF9160 samples

Bjørn Kvaale — Thu, 04 Apr 2019 19:29:54 GMT

Martin Thanks for letting us know! We are aware of this issue & are busy looking for a fix.

Ryan Farrelly Thanks for the tips!

In addition to using cmake & ninja, it is also possible to use the Zephyr west tool to build & program the board. These two links helped me figure this out: link 1, link 2.

Inside ncs/zephyr/zephyr-env.cmd:

@echo off
set ZEPHYR_BASE=%~dp0

if exist "%userprofile%\zephyrrc.cmd" (
	call "%userprofile%\zephyrrc.cmd"
)

If you define zephyrrc.cmd inside your user profile (i.e. C:/Users/<username>/), you can write:

@echo off
echo zephyrrc_running

set ZEPHYR_TOOLCHAIN_VARIANT=gnuarmemb
set GNUARMEMB_TOOLCHAIN_PATH=C:\gnuarmemb

That way, when you call zephyr-env.cmd from a command prompt window, you set the Zephyr base, zephyr toolchain variant & gnuarmemb toolchain path without needing to write the three commands each time. This may not work with a bash window (e.g. git bash) because the username may be different.

You can then follow this link to download NCS using west. To build the at_client example for example, change directory to ncs/samples/nrf9160/at_client & then run the following commands:

west build -b nrf9160_pca10090ns -d build
west flash -d build

You can then flash using:

west flash -d build

RE: Issue with command line compilation of NRF9160 samples

Martin — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 22:50:08 GMT

I have the same problem.

The issue is that with Segger Embedded Studio 4.14 (Nordic Version) it is NOT possible to build code after 0.3.X.
It works on the command line with generating ninja files with cmake and then building with ninja.

If I copy the command line that is displayed in the SES output it works also!!!
Therefore the environment variables that I set in the .bashrc are obviously set in the terminal but do not get defined when starting SES from the desktop, make the difference.
If I start SES directly from the terminal it works also.

What also works is starting the project with SES then coping the command line to the terminal and let the project generate. Then I can open the project normally with SES.

So Nordic / Segger please have a look at this issue ....

Best regards

- Martin

RE: Issue with command line compilation of NRF9160 samples

Ryan Farrelly — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 15:58:23 GMT

Ok, managed to get this to work i.e, build, compile and flash.

Before anything, follow the steps in the NRF Connect making sure all dependancies are installed but stay on Master branch.

Set up your .bash_profile like this:

export ZEPHYR_BASE=/path/to/ncs/zephyr
export ZEPHYR_TOOLCHAIN_VARIANT=gnuarmemb
export GNUARMEMB_TOOLCHAIN_PATH=/path/to/gcc-arm-none-eabi-7-2018-q2-update
source /path/to/ncs/zephyr/zephyr-env.sh

From the ncs root directory:
west init -l nrf
west update

Go to mqtt_simple/build ( clean the build folder if already exists )
cmake -DBOARD=nrf9160_pca10090ns -GNinja ..

NOTE: You may get an error about ‘pykwalify’ not being installed:
pip uninstall pykwalify
pip install pykwalify

Run cmake:
cmake -DBOARD=nrf9160_pca10090ns -GNinja ..
ninja
ninja flash

NOTE: Make sure you have the latest nrfjprog otherwise the ninja flash command won’t work and will complain about memory access alignment. And of course, the secure boot should be flashed prior to the main application.

RE: Issue with command line compilation of NRF9160 samples

Martin — Wed, 03 Apr 2019 01:59:37 GMT

+1 same problem here ....

RE: Issue with command line compilation of NRF9160 samples

Ryan Farrelly — Mon, 01 Apr 2019 08:55:58 GMT

Thanks for replying. I've tried all all of your suggestions but the problem persists.

1. I changed the the gcc compiler to version you specified (v7 q2 from 2018) and have tried three other versions.

2. The link you provided is what I have followed originally, I've also changed the structure of the cmake command.

3. Changing prj.conf values will throw the following error e.g: 'warning: ignoring malformed line 'LTE_LINK_CONTROL=y''

RE: Issue with command line compilation of NRF9160 samples

Bjørn Kvaale — Mon, 01 Apr 2019 08:00:40 GMT

Which version of the GNU ARM EMB toolchain are you using? v7 q2 from 2018 or v8 q4 from 2018? If you are using v8 q4, this may be related to this. Could you try using v7 q2 from 2018 instead?

It may also be the way you have structured your cmake command. Have you taken a look at this link to see how to build the zephyr master branch?

In addition, in your prj.conf file in the mqtt_simple folder, does it say CONFIG_LTE_LINK_CONTROL=y or LTE_LINK_CONTROL=y. If it is the latter, I would change it to the former.