Run application with softdevice at custom address without bootloader

Question

Hello, I am currently working on nRF52832 custom board with SDK 15.2.0 and softdevice S132. I am using Segger Embedded Studio as IDE. I would like to include an external library compiled to start at address 0x26000 and ends at address 0x30000. Unfortunately without bootloader, the softedice expects an application at address 0x26000 which corresponds to the start address of the precompiled external library. I would like to make it work with an application starting at addres 0x30000 and without bootloader ! As Napoleon Bonaparte said one day: " A good sketch is better than a long speech": When I write UICR NRFFW[0] register manually using nrfjprog and set it to 0x30000, my program starts at address 0x30000 and runs the application. But I can't have a project that requires to set a register manually each time you start from an erased chip. So my idea was to define in my flash_placement.xml a MemorySection and a ProgramSection corresponding to UICR NRFFW[0] register: And then set its value from code, so I included nrf_bootloader_info.c which contains these lines of code: #include "nrf_bootloader_info.h" /** @brief This variable ensures that the linker script will write the bootloader start address * to the UICR register. This value will be written in the HEX file and thus written to * UICR when the bootloader is flashed into the chip. */ #if defined (__CC_ARM ) #pragma push #pragma diag_suppress 1296 uint32_t m_uicr_bootloader_start_address __attribute__((at(NRF_UICR_BOOTLOADER_START_ADDRESS))) = BOOTLOADER_START_ADDR; #pragma pop #elif defined ( __GNUC__ ) || defined ( __SES_ARM ) volatile uint32_t m_uicr_bootloader_start_address __attribute__ ((section(".uicr_bootloader_start_address"))) = BOOTLOADER_START_ADDR; #elif defined ( __ICCARM__ ) __root const uint32_t m_uicr_bootloader_start_address @ NRF_UICR_BOOTLOADER_START_ADDRESS = BOOTLOADER_START_ADDR; #endif And I verified that in my case BOOTLOADER_START_ADDR corresponds to the beginning of my application: #define BOOTLOADER_START_ADDR (CODE_START) As additionnal information I share with you my section placement macros: FLASH_PH_START=0x0 FLASH_PH_SIZE=0x80000 RAM_PH_START=0x20000000 RAM_PH_SIZE=0x10000 FLASH_START=0x30000 FLASH_SIZE=0x5a000 RAM_START=0x20002220 RAM_SIZE=0xdde8 EXT_LIB_START=0x26000 EXT_LIB_SIZE=0xA000 My flash placement xml file: It seems that UICR NRFFW[0] register is not set within my code because when I read it using nrfjprog I get 0xFFFFFFFF and when I run my program, it starts from some point in the SoftDevice and prevent my application from runing correctly. What am I missing to set UICR NRFFW[0] register from my code ? Thanks for your help ! Bilal

Bilal Bouguerra · Accepted Answer

I figured it out myself: 
 uicr_bootloader_start_address RX 0x10001014 0x4 
 Was missing in the linker section placements segments. 
 I also had to add this function: 
 uint32_t nrf_dfu_mbr_init_sd(void)
{
 uint32_t ret_val;

 sd_mbr_command_t command =
 {
 .command = SD_MBR_COMMAND_INIT_SD
 };

 ret_val = sd_mbr_command(&command);

 return ret_val;
} 
 Before ble_stack_init function in the initialization procedure. 
 I also added: 
 err_code = sd_softdevice_vector_table_base_set(0x30000);
APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code); 
 At the beginning of ble_stack_init function. 
 
 I hope this post will avoid other people to spend hours on a similar case. 
 
 Kind regards. 
 
 Bilal

Run application with softdevice at custom address without bootloader

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