MCUBoot’s secondary image on external flash on nrf9160

[ICM_UC]

I am using nrf9160 custom board with an external flash memory mx25l6433f. I first tested the external flash with the example 'sdk-zephyr/samples/drivers/spi_flash_at45' and for it to work was added an '.overlay'

 

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&spi3 {

status = "okay";

sck-pin = <8>;

mosi-pin = <11>;

miso-pin = <10>;

cs-gpios = <&gpio0 9 GPIO_ACTIVE_LOW>;

mx25l64: mx25l6433f@0 {

compatible = "jedec,spi-nor";

reg = <0>;

spi-max-frequency = <8000000>;

label = "MX25L64";

jedec-id = [c2 20 17];

sfdp-bfp = [

e5 20 f1 ff ff ff ff 03 44 eb 08 6b 08 3b 04 bb

ee ff ff ff ff ff 00 ff ff ff 00 ff 0c 20 0f 52

10 d8 00 ff 23 72 f5 00 82 ed 04 cc 44 83 68 44

30 b0 30 b0 f7 c4 d5 5c 00 be 29 ff f0 d0 ff ff

];

size = <67108864>;

has-dpd;

t-enter-dpd = <10000>;

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

&spi3 {
	status = "okay";
	sck-pin = <8>;
	mosi-pin = <11>;
	miso-pin = <10>;
	cs-gpios = <&gpio0 9 GPIO_ACTIVE_LOW>;
	mx25l64: mx25l6433f@0 {
		compatible = "jedec,spi-nor";
		reg = <0>;
		spi-max-frequency = <8000000>;
		label = "MX25L64";
		jedec-id = [c2 20 17];
		sfdp-bfp = [
			e5 20 f1 ff  ff ff ff 03  44 eb 08 6b  08 3b 04 bb
			ee ff ff ff  ff ff 00 ff  ff ff 00 ff  0c 20 0f 52
			10 d8 00 ff  23 72 f5 00  82 ed 04 cc  44 83 68 44
			30 b0 30 b0  f7 c4 d5 5c  00 be 29 ff  f0 d0 ff ff
		];
		size = <67108864>;
		has-dpd;
		t-enter-dpd = <10000>;
		t-exit-dpd = <35000>;
	};
};

and on my 'proj.conf' added

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# Test ext Flash

CONFIG_SPI=y

CONFIG_FLASH=y

CONFIG_FLASH_PAGE_LAYOUT=y

CONFIG_SPI_NOR=y

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

# Test ext Flash
CONFIG_SPI=y
CONFIG_FLASH=y
CONFIG_FLASH_PAGE_LAYOUT=y
CONFIG_SPI_NOR=y

Compiled and tested. The external flash is working.

After this i tried to implement 'MCUBOOT secondary on external flash', after reading several posts i ended with this configurations:

nrf9160dk_nrf9160_ns.overlay

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&spi3 {

status = "okay";

sck-pin = <8>;

mosi-pin = <11>;

miso-pin = <10>;

cs-gpios = <&gpio0 9 GPIO_ACTIVE_LOW>;

mx25l64: mx25l6433f@0 {

compatible = "jedec,spi-nor";

reg = <0>;

spi-max-frequency = <8000000>;

label = "MX25L64";

jedec-id = [c2 20 17];

sfdp-bfp = [

e5 20 f1 ff ff ff ff 03 44 eb 08 6b 08 3b 04 bb

ee ff ff ff ff ff 00 ff ff ff 00 ff 0c 20 0f 52

10 d8 00 ff 23 72 f5 00 82 ed 04 cc 44 83 68 44

30 b0 30 b0 f7 c4 d5 5c 00 be 29 ff f0 d0 ff ff

];

size = <67108864>;

has-dpd;

t-enter-dpd = <10000>;

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

&spi3 {
	status = "okay";
	sck-pin = <8>;
	mosi-pin = <11>;
	miso-pin = <10>;
	cs-gpios = <&gpio0 9 GPIO_ACTIVE_LOW>;
	mx25l64: mx25l6433f@0 {
		compatible = "jedec,spi-nor";
		reg = <0>;
		spi-max-frequency = <8000000>;
		label = "MX25L64";
		jedec-id = [c2 20 17];
		sfdp-bfp = [
			e5 20 f1 ff  ff ff ff 03  44 eb 08 6b  08 3b 04 bb
			ee ff ff ff  ff ff 00 ff  ff ff 00 ff  0c 20 0f 52
			10 d8 00 ff  23 72 f5 00  82 ed 04 cc  44 83 68 44
			30 b0 30 b0  f7 c4 d5 5c  00 be 29 ff  f0 d0 ff ff
		];
		size = <67108864>;
		has-dpd;
		t-enter-dpd = <10000>;
		t-exit-dpd = <35000>;
	};
};

/ {
	chosen {
		nordic,pm-ext-flash = &mx25l64;
	};
};

prj.conf

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# Test ext Flash

CONFIG_SPI=y

CONFIG_FLASH=y

CONFIG_FLASH_PAGE_LAYOUT=y

CONFIG_SPI_NOR=y

# set mcuboot_secondary on external flash

# This value must match the size of the MCUboot primary partition

CONFIG_PM_PARTITION_SIZE_MCUBOOT_SECONDARY=0xe0000

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

# Test ext Flash
CONFIG_SPI=y
CONFIG_FLASH=y
CONFIG_FLASH_PAGE_LAYOUT=y
CONFIG_SPI_NOR=y

# set mcuboot_secondary on external flash
# This value must match the size of the MCUboot primary partition
CONFIG_PM_PARTITION_SIZE_MCUBOOT_SECONDARY=0xe0000

mcuboot.conf

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# Enable flash operations

CONFIG_FLASH=y

# This value must match the size of the MCUboot primary partition.

CONFIG_PM_PARTITION_SIZE_MCUBOOT_SECONDARY=0xe0000

# This must be increased to accommodate the bigger images.

CONFIG_BOOT_MAX_IMG_SECTORS=256

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

# Enable flash operations
CONFIG_FLASH=y

# This value must match the size of the MCUboot primary partition.
CONFIG_PM_PARTITION_SIZE_MCUBOOT_SECONDARY=0xe0000

# This must be increased to accommodate the bigger images.
CONFIG_BOOT_MAX_IMG_SECTORS=256

In the end, after applying the changes my flash space doubled the amount and on 'build\build_nrf9160dk_nrf9160_ns\partitions.yml' we can see the external flash and mcuboot secondary on external flash

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...

external_flash:

address: 0xe0000

end_address: 0x800000

region: external_flash

size: 0x720000

mcuboot:

address: 0x8200

end_address: 0x10000

placement:

before:

- mcuboot_primary

region: flash_primary

sharers: 0x1

size: 0x7e00

mcuboot_pad:

address: 0x18000

end_address: 0x18200

placement:

align:

start: 0x8000

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

...
external_flash:
  address: 0xe0000
  end_address: 0x800000
  region: external_flash
  size: 0x720000
mcuboot:
  address: 0x8200
  end_address: 0x10000
  placement:
    before:
    - mcuboot_primary
  region: flash_primary
  sharers: 0x1
  size: 0x7e00
mcuboot_pad:
  address: 0x18000
  end_address: 0x18200
  placement:
    align:
      start: 0x8000
    before:
    - mcuboot_primary_app
  region: flash_primary
  sharers: 0x2
  size: 0x200
mcuboot_primary:
  address: 0x18000
  end_address: 0xf8000
  orig_span: &id002
  - mcuboot_pad
  - app
  - spm
  region: flash_primary
  size: 0xe0000
  span: *id002
mcuboot_primary_app:
  address: 0x18200
  end_address: 0xf8000
  orig_span: &id003
  - app
  - spm
  region: flash_primary
  size: 0xdfe00
  span: *id003
mcuboot_secondary:
  address: 0x0
  device: MX25L64
  end_address: 0xe0000
  placement:
    align:
      start: 0x4
  region: external_flash
  size: 0xe0000
...

Then i programmed it to nrf9160 and it doesn't boot.

In one of the attempts to put it to work i removed the line 'CONFIG_PM_PARTITION_SIZE_MCUBOOT_SECONDARY=0xe0000' from mcuboot.conf and programmed it to nrf9160, this time it booted and started the program, but when i tried to update the firmware through DFU it says there is not enough space to store the update

Is this a bug, or did I simply went off track somewhere? Thanks.