MCUBoot "reading sectors failed" problem with nrf-sdk v1.6.0

[n.marty]

Hi all

We are switching to nrf-sdk v1.6.0 in our project and encountered a problem with MCUBoot.

The image builds successfully and can be flashed successfully as well. MCUBoot loads but is then unable to find a bootable image. There's a message which says:

W: Failed reading sectors; BOOT_MAX_IMG_SECTORS=128 - too small?

I tried increasing BOOT_MAX_IMG_SECTORS up to 91216. But there's still the same error message. I can't increase it more otherwise it overlaps SRAM region. I think the problem is somewhere else but I don't know where. Can someone give me a hint where to look for the problem?

I read that BOOT_MAX_IMG_SECTORS configuration is important for swapping the image in the secondary slot to the primary slot after an update.
I thought as a workaround I could configure MCUBoot to work in XIP Mode "execute in place", which does not need swapping and thus my initial problems disappears. Does anyone have a recommendation if it is a good idea to use XIP?

best regards

[Albrecht Markus Schellenberger]

Hello Nicolas,

could you please provide me with the partitions.yml of the failing application? The file is located in the root of your build folder. I will have to check this with our development team.

Thanks and regards,

Markus

[n.marty]

Attached below the contents of the partitions.yml. This corresponds to the configuration from my previous posts.

EMPTY_0:
  address: 0xc000
  end_address: 0x10000
  placement:
    before:
    - mcuboot_pad
  region: flash_primary
  size: 0x4000
app:
  address: 0x20200
  end_address: 0x88000
  region: flash_primary
  size: 0x67e00
mcuboot:
  address: 0x0
  end_address: 0xc000
  placement:
    before:
    - mcuboot_primary
  region: flash_primary
  size: 0xc000
mcuboot_pad:
  address: 0x10000
  end_address: 0x10200
  placement:
    align:
      start: 0x8000
    before:
    - mcuboot_primary_app
  region: flash_primary
  size: 0x200
mcuboot_primary:
  address: 0x10000
  end_address: 0x88000
  orig_span: &id001
  - app
  - mcuboot_pad
  - spm
  region: flash_primary
  sharers: 0x1
  size: 0x78000
  span: *id001
mcuboot_primary_app:
  address: 0x10200
  end_address: 0x88000
  orig_span: &id002
  - app
  - spm
  region: flash_primary
  size: 0x77e00
  span: *id002
mcuboot_secondary:
  address: 0x88000
  end_address: 0x100000
  placement:
    after:
    - mcuboot_primary
    align:
      start: 0x8000
  region: flash_primary
  share_size:
  - mcuboot_primary
  size: 0x78000
nrf_modem_lib_ctrl:
  address: 0x20010000
  end_address: 0x200104e8
  inside:
  - sram_nonsecure
  placement:
    after:
    - spm_sram
    - start
  region: sram_primary
  size: 0x4e8
nrf_modem_lib_rx:
  address: 0x200124e8
  end_address: 0x200144e8
  inside:
  - sram_nonsecure
  placement:
    after:
    - nrf_modem_lib_tx
  region: sram_primary
  size: 0x2000
nrf_modem_lib_sram:
  address: 0x20010000
  end_address: 0x200144e8
  orig_span: &id003
  - nrf_modem_lib_ctrl
  - nrf_modem_lib_tx
  - nrf_modem_lib_rx
  region: sram_primary
  size: 0x44e8
  span: *id003
nrf_modem_lib_tx:
  address: 0x200104e8
  end_address: 0x200124e8
  inside:
  - sram_nonsecure
  placement:
    after:
    - nrf_modem_lib_ctrl
  region: sram_primary
  size: 0x2000
otp:
  address: 0xff8108
  end_address: 0xff83fc
  region: otp
  size: 0x2f4
spm:
  address: 0x10200
  end_address: 0x20200
  inside:
  - mcuboot_primary_app
  placement:
    before:
    - app
  region: flash_primary
  size: 0x10000
spm_sram:
  address: 0x20000000
  end_address: 0x20010000
  inside:
  - sram_secure
  placement:
    after:
    - start
  region: sram_primary
  size: 0x10000
sram_nonsecure:
  address: 0x20010000
  end_address: 0x20040000
  orig_span: &id004
  - sram_primary
  - nrf_modem_lib_ctrl
  - nrf_modem_lib_tx
  - nrf_modem_lib_rx
  region: sram_primary
  size: 0x30000
  span: *id004
sram_primary:
  address: 0x200144e8
  end_address: 0x20040000
  region: sram_primary
  size: 0x2bb18
sram_secure:
  address: 0x20000000
  end_address: 0x20010000
  orig_span: &id005
  - spm_sram
  region: sram_primary
  size: 0x10000
  span: *id005

Thank you for looking into it.

best regards