How to FULLY UNINSTALL nRF Connect SDK and SES on macOS?

[Mike Wirth]

Kind folks,

Automated tools like the nRF Connect SDK environment are wonderful when they work, but can be a Procrustean bed when they break or don't fit the exact requirements.  Case in point: I've gone through installing and reinstalling nRF Connect SDK, SES and the VS extension at least half a dozen time in various combinations of automated and manual procedures.  The goal was to merge two sample apps: nrf_dm from the new Nordic v1.9.1 SDK and the nrf_matrix_led example from within the zephyr repo and run the resulting app on a BBC Micro:Bit V2 (an nRF52833-based SBC).  This involved many Kconfig and Device Tree issues.  You can read about some of the details of my journey in an earlier ticket.

Suffice it to say that I've made multiple attempts to uninstall all of the related software, make sure I have cleared away any remnants, and reinstall nRF Connect, and SES (leaving VS code out of the discussion for the moment) all of this running on the absolutely latest macOS Monterey 12.3.  I have failed in this endeavor several times.  Multiple pieces of "trash" (prior state) seem to remain.  For example, when a freshly installed SES is started by clicking on the Open SES, the SES app opens, showing a dashboard which shows a list of recent project (not a blank list).  Then either upon executing the File | Open nRF Connect Project... command, or automatically without any user interaction, the new nRF Project dialog pops up with a covering error message:

Closing the error message leaves an unresponsive options pane.

So, clearly there's some remembered state from prior installs that's preventing a new installation from being done cleanly.  Searching for uninstall instructions for nRF Connect SDK yielded no useful information.  Even searching for uninstallation instructions for SES yields only one suggestion, which proved to be insufficient and didn't erase prior project history. Therefore, I request:

1. An uninstaller tool for nRF Connect, its plugins (e.g., tool manager), any "embedded" SES IDE inside it's tool collection, and any other remnants of nRF Connect, or
2. At least a list of files and directories that need to be deleted to effect a complete uninstallation, and
3. Probably too much to ask for at the current moment, but it sure would be useful to have a description of the process by which "New nRF Connect Project..." does its work inside SES (including critical script files, locations, etc.)

Thanks for any advice.  I am truly stuck and unable to proceed otherwise.

[Mike Wirth]

Øyvind,

Thanks for your persistence in trying to deal with the issues I've encountered.  Responding to your message of 18 hrs ago, with your questions indented: (By the way, the Devzone "reply" mechanism seems clumsy, especially when there is a repeated sequence of replies and answers,). And I should note, I'm trying to act as a member of your test team, reporting issues that might cause trouble for other users and suggestions for correcting them.  I hope you find this useful.

But what version of SES are you opening, the one that follows Toolchain Manager or a manually installed? 

I'm using the copy of SES that is bundled in your SDK installation, at /opt/nordic/ncs/v1.9.1/toolchain/segger_embedded_studio/SEGGER Embedded Studio for ARM 5.68.app.  I have noted before that manual installations of SES, either directly from Segger, or even the Nordic-configured version from your website can create problems (e.g., with licensing, and with differences in execution environment, so I've removed all SES code except the SDK-bundled version at the path above.

As an aside, even if I start with your specially configured version of SES, but follow the manual SDK instructions, I suspect it won't end up at the same path as listed above.  Won't this create problems for manual-SDK-installers?

On another question, after I've done an automatic SDK installation, how am I expected to start an SES session?  Can I invoke the app from the command line at the above listed path?  Or do I need to go through nRF Connect app | Tool Manager plugin | "Start SES" button every time?  The latter ensures certain environment variables are set.  In the former case, I could have invoked SES from some random terminal session and environment.  Seems like this should be in the docs.

...The Open nRF Connect Project dialog will list available projects in the nRF Connect SDK folder.

Perhaps some confusion here.  When I mention old projects appearing, that's in the SES Desktop, not the triangle selector in the "Open nRF Project" Options panel.  And to add a clarification, you say "in the nRF Connect SDK folder".  That's technically correct, but it would probably be useful to note that these samples are in two distinct groups, those at /opt/nordic/ncs/v1.9.1/nrf/samples and at /opt/nordic/ncs/v1.9.1/zephyr/samples.  The triangle selector in the Options panel attempts to list the contents of both, but at least on my MacBook Pro, the performance of scrolling through the list is jumpy and hitting any element is problematic.

Are you able to see nRF Connect SDK Release and Toolchain versions?

I presume you mean the following: 

• The nRF Connect for Desktop app is v3.10.0
• The Toolchain Manager plugin is v0.10.3
• The nrf git repository includes the HEAD/v1.9.1 tags from March 4, and are up to date with commits up to today, the origin/main, origin/HEAD tags.
• The zephyr git repository includes the ncs/V2.7.99-ncs1-1 from Feb. 28, and ncs/test-spec & ncs/main tags from today.

Are you able to see nRF Connect SDK Release and Toolchain versions? Make sure that the Segger Embedded Studio actually points to correct nRF Connect SDK folder.

Yes, as shown here:

If your SES is pointing to /opt/nordic/ncs/v1.9.1 will it still give the script error /syntax error?

Yes, indeed.  When I start up SES, its Desktop appears (by double clicking the app icon at: /opt/nordic/ncs/v1.9.1/toolchain/segger_embedded_studio/SEGGER Embedded Studio for ARM 5.68.app, the desktop opens.  If I then execute the File | Open nRFConnect SDK Project... command, the nRF Connect Options window opens with the Script Error dialog in the middle:

If, however, I start SES by clicking on the alias at /opt/nordic/ncs/v1.9.1/toolchain/segger_embedded_studio/SEGGER Embedded Studio.app, SES immediately follows the desktop with opening the nRF Connect Options window with the same error message, without having to execute the File menu command.

I had similar issues when trying to download the SDK via VPN or LTE connection. Are you downloading on a corporate network or using a corporate computer?

I'm on a fairly direct, domestic (non-business) connection, 1 Gbps fiber.  So not much issue there.  

One possible glitch: I'm running the Avast Security v15.2 antivirus software, which does examine incoming files, web pages, email, etc.  It finds  and filters plenty of infected spam email, but I've never had it modify a download.  It should certainly tell me if it has.  I can try an nRF Connect SDK auto install with it disabled to see if it makes any difference.  Your recommendation?

So, no further ahead from my perspective.  Will await suggestions from you.

Mike