MCUBoot secondary slot in external SPI Flash

[zrivard]

I am using NCS v1.9.1  with the nRF52840 and I am not able to move the MCUBoot secondary slot to SPI flash.

I have been able to communicate with the device over the SPI port that is configured as such:

&spi2 {
 compatible = "nordic,nrf-spi";
 status = "okay";
 sck-pin = <36>;
 mosi-pin = <34>;
 miso-pin = <35>;
 cs-gpios = < &gpio1 01 GPIO_ACTIVE_LOW>;

 sdhc0: sdhc@0 {
   compatible = "jedec,spi-nor";
   reg = <0>;
   status = "okay";
   spi-max-frequency = <2400000>;
   label = "EXT_FLASH_SPI";
   jedec-id = [c2 28 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 = <0x100000>;
   has-dpd;
   t-enter-dpd = <10000>;
   t-exit-dpd = <35000>;
 };
};

I modified my project structure to reflect the sample 1207.hello_world_spi_nor_ext_flash.zip given in this thread but keep getting this error:

Partition manager failed: Statically defined partitions are not packed at start of region 'external_flash'.
Failed to partition region external_flash, size of region: 131072
Partition Configuration:
external_flash:
 size: 1048576
mcuboot_secondary:
 placement:
   align:
     start: 4
 size: 991232

 Any help is appreciated in getting the secondary image slot onto the external flash.

Thank you

[Håkon Alseth]

Hi,

 

Are you using a spi-nor device, or are you using a sdhc device?

Could you share your build-folder/partitions.yml file?

 

PS: The example listed here:

https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/f/nordic-q-a/82430/ncs-external-flash-ota-change-qspi-to-spi/345238#345238

You should move the child_image/mcuboot/nrf52840dk_nrf52840.overlay to child_image/mcuboot/boards/nrf52840dk_nrf52840.overlay

 

Kind regards,

Håkon

[zrivard]

Hi Håkon,

I am trying to use a sdhc device (it's just an SD card that is SPI-accessible).

The build fails before it is able to generate partitions.yml file.

I have provided a pm_static.yml with the following contained:

external_flash:
  address: 0x0
  region: external_flash
  size: 0x100000

The overlay file was already in the child_image/mcuboot/boards/ directory.

Can SDHC devices be used as secondary slots?

[Håkon Alseth]

Hi,

 

The pm_static.yml only describes the static partitions, leaving the rest to be dynamically placed. Your build-folder/partitions.yml shows the whole layout. Could you attach this one?

Do you have a section where you select the "sdhc0" to be used as a mcuboot secondary, similar to how its done here?

https://github.com/nrfconnect/sdk-nrf/blob/main/tests/modules/mcuboot/external_flash/boards/nrf52840dk_nrf52840.overlay#L1-L5

 

Kind regards,

Håkon