error: L6236E: No section matches selector - no section to be FIRST/LAST.

[Salman]

I am trying to run the ble_app_beacon example code for board pca10040 but I am getting the following error

.\_build\nrf52832_xxaa.sct(7): error: L6236E: No section matches selector - no section to be FIRST/LAST.
Not enough information to list image symbols.
Not enough information to list load addresses in the image map.
Finished: 2 information, 0 warning and 1 error messages.
".\_build\nrf52832_xxaa.axf" - 1 Error(s), 0 Warning(s).
Target not created.
Build Time Elapsed: 00:00:41

What seems to be the issue?

[Salman]

Hi Vidar Berg I am already using the latest version of Nordic deviceFamilyPack 8.31.0. I have also tires to uninstall the install previous versions and then install the latest version again. But nothing happened.

Regarding the compiler_abstraction.h file I have attached the screen shot.

[Vidar Berg]

Hm, I get the exact same build errors if I comment out the definition of __UNUSED. Maybe the project uses the compiler_abstraction.h file distributed with the SDK instead. What SDK version are you currently using?

The header file is located in  \modules\nrfx\mdk\ if you're using a more recent SDK release.

[Vidar Berg]

It shouldn't be an issue since you are using SDK 16. Both headers include the required symbol definitions. Please try the project attached below and see if you get the same build error. It builds without errors here and it would be interesting to see if you got the same result.

ble_app_blinky_keil.zip

Extract to \nRF5_SDK_16.0.0_98a08e2\examples\ble_peripheral\ before compiling. 

[Salman]

I am getting the following errors

Why is the path not from the SDK folder?

[Vidar Berg]

Good question. Mine are installed to C:\Keil_v5 and files such as system_nrf52.c are automatically imported to the /RTE folder adjacent to the project file. What version of uVision are you using?  I'm testing with v5.29.0 here. Have you tried to see if you can build the Keil4 project?

[Salman]

Should I change the path and try again? 

I am using Keil v5.29.0

I tried to build keil 4 project on keil 5 but it is giving me around 47 errors.

[Vidar Berg]

Can you try  to replace the  __UNUSED symbols  with __attribute__((unused)) in the nrfxx_erratas.h files you have in located C:\Users\syeds\AppData\Local\Arm\Packs\NordicSemiconductor\nRF_DeviceFamilyPack\8.31.0\Device\Include\ to confirm it's not related to the symbol definition in compiler abstraction? I don't see any other possible reasons as to why you are getting this build error. Maybe I'm overlooking something obvious.

[Salman]

It worked after I changed "__UNUSED " to "__attribute__((unused))" in the following files

nrf51_erratas.h

nrf52_erratas.h

nrf53_erratas.h

nrf91_erratas.h

any reason why this happened?

[Vidar Berg]

Thanks for confirming that it worked. The problem doesn't make sense to me because you already had the __UNUSED symbol defined in your compiler_abstraction.h header.  The only thing I can think of is that Keil for some reason is including an outdated version of it (older packs versions did not include this symbol). You can inspect the include headers as shown below and verify that they all have this symbol.

[Embedded_Engineer]

Vidar Berg 

I had the same issue, I am using Startup and StartupConfig both versioned 8.30.2.

I saw the __UNUSED macro was not defined in (modifiable) compiler_abstraction.h, however it did exist in the (locked- file with key symbol). See

After defining it in the compiler_abstraction.h the error was resolved.