UART example with external toolchain breaks debugging with "Stopped by vector catch"

Question

I'm working in Segger Embedded Studio and NRF52840-dk. The project is configured to work with External Toolchain -> Arm Gnu Embedded Toolchain (9 2020-q2-update). 
 I've imported the complete UART example from the Nordic SDK folder. If I start debugging, while APP_UART_FIFO_INIT(), JLINK stops with following message: "Stopped by vector catch". 
 
 The application stops in startup_armcm-gcc.S at "Default_Handler: b" 
 
 I expect, that I need to assign a handler for e.g. NMI_HANDLER. 
 Sorry for this maybe nooby question - I'm literally lost. 
 Appreciate any help, thanks and cheers

Jared · Accepted Answer

Hi, 
 
 devCheek said: In my startup_ARMCM_GCC.S, 
 Does this indicate that you're not using the included startup files? 
 Honestly, I would just recommend using the gcc with the makefiles that are already included in the example folder in the SDK, if that is an option. I don't really have much experience with using the external toolchain option in SES. Maybe the community does? 
 regards 
 Jared

devCheek · Answer

Thanks for the feedback. I was able to solve the problem now. 
 Maybe some chronological background for others facing the same problem: 
 
 I followed the tutorial to use an external toolchain in SES, created a new project, adapted the toolchain and compiler settings etc. 
 With this new project, a new startup file has been generated (which I used) 
 I was able to build an empty "hello-world" project. 
 I added the sdk, application code and includes from the peripheral/uart example in the sdk folder. Then the described problem occured. 
 After trying different solutions, I started to suspect the startup file to be the problem. 
 I copied the startup file from the uart SES example project in the sdk, which didn't help. 
 I swapped back to the generated Startup file, copied in all interrupt handler definitions from the example project - but it didn't help. 
 It was really strange. I added interrupt handlers for 43 interrupts, but it always stopped with "Default Handler", I wasn't able to handle any interrupts. 
 
 Solution: I removed all statrtup files and added the specific startup file from the CMAKE folder of the example application. 
 I'd really like to know, which exact part went wrong / was wrongly configured. I expected to get a working configuration using the "new external build executable" wizzard and handling all interrupts. 
 Thanks Jared for the great and fast support. 
 Best regards

UART example with external toolchain breaks debugging with "Stopped by vector catch"

Top Replies