Unable to build sample application on Windows

Question

Hi,

I installed nRF Connect SDK (1.9.1) using Toolchain Manager v0.10.3, and nRF Connect for Desktop v3.11.0. Before that I also installed NRF command line tools 10.15.4.

My OS is Windows 10.

I installed VS Code 1.67.0 and all extensions that the Toolchain Manager recommended. The extensions were installed from within the Toolchain manager.

All this is a new install. I never used the Nordic SDK before.

I installed the SDK in c:\nordic\ncs

In VSCode, I performed the quick setup:

After that I created a Freestanding application from a sample. The application location is c:\nordic\myapps and the application name is lpuart-test. The application was created Ok.

But when I tried to create build configuration and build it, the build step fails with this error:

> Executing task: nRF Connect: Generate config nrf52833dongle_nrf52833 for c:\nordic\myapps\lpuart-test <

Building lpuart-test
west build --build-dir c:\nordic\myapps\lpuart-test\build c:\nordic\myapps\lpuart-test --pristine --board nrf52833dongle_nrf52833 -- -DNCS_TOOLCHAIN_VERSION:STRING="NONE" -DCONFIG_DEBUG_OPTIMIZATIONS=y -DCONFIG_DEBUG_THREAD_INFO=y -DBOARD_ROOT:STRING="c:/nordic/myapps/lpuart-test"

usage: west [-h] [-z ZEPHYR_BASE] [-v] [-V] <command> ...
west: error: argument <command>: invalid choice: 'build' (choose from 'init', 'update', 'list', 'manifest', 'diff', 'status', 'forall', 'help', 'config', 'topdir', 'selfupdate')
The terminal process terminated with exit code: 2.

This seems to be exactly the same problem as mentioned here (for OS X):

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../can-t-build-example-application-in-visual-studio-code-osx

That post mentions about invoking "west init". I tried to invoke west, but it complains the Python is not found.

What do I need to do in order to resolve the above? I just want to build one the provided sample applications.

Thank you,

D.

D0023 · Answer

Hello Øyvind, I was able to get it to work. It looks like there is some type of race condition, probably between west and git. I used SDK 1.7.0, because it prints out more information while installing. Here is the output when running ncsmgr init-ncs, from a Bash prompt: NCS repositories are not yet cloned here. To do so run the following command: ncsmgr init-ncs 501@c-DF0V MINGW64 /c/nordic/ncs/v1.7.0 $ ncsmgr init-ncs Checking out NCS v1.7.0 ...=== Initializing in C: ordic cs\v1.7.0 --- Cloning manifest repository from https://github.com/nrfconnect/sdk-nrf, rev. v1.7.0 Cloning into 'C: ordic cs\v1.7.0\.west\manifest-tmp'... remote: Enumerating objects: 114292, done. remote: Counting objects: 100% (86/86), done. remote: Compressing objects: 100% (62/62), done. remote: Total 114292 (delta 31), reused 46 (delta 23), pack-reused 114206 Receiving objects: 100% (114292/114292), 65.74 MiB | 6.44 MiB/s, done. Resolving deltas: 100% (84710/84710), done. Note: switching to 'd29f1ddec99b81a66af93b7f0882a7bd0dfa30ee'. You are in 'detached HEAD' state. You can look around, make experimental changes and commit them, and you can discard any commits you make in this state without impacting any branches by switching back to a branch. If you want to create a new branch to retain commits you create, you may do so (now or later) by using -c with the switch command. Example: git switch -c Or undo this operation with: git switch - Turn off this advice by setting config variable advice.detachedHead to false Updating files: 100% (4788/4788), done. Traceback (most recent call last): File "shutil.py", line 788, in move PermissionError: [WinError 5] Access is denied: 'C:\nordic\ncs\v1.7.0\.west\manifest-tmp' -> 'C:\nordic\ncs\v1.7.0\nrf' During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred: Traceback (most recent call last): File "runpy.py", line 193, in _run_module_as_main File "runpy.py", line 86, in _run_code File "C: ordic cs\v1.7.0 oolchain\opt\bin\Scripts\west.exe\__main__.py", line 7, in File "C: ordic cs\v1.7.0 oolchain\opt\bin\Lib\site-packages\west\app\main.py", line 779, in main app.run(argv or sys.argv[1:]) File "C: ordic cs\v1.7.0 oolchain\opt\bin\Lib\site-packages\west\app\main.py", line 106, in run self.run_command(argv) File "C: ordic cs\v1.7.0 oolchain\opt\bin\Lib\site-packages\west\app\main.py", line 336, in run_command cmd.run(args, unknown, self.topdir, manifest=self.manifest) File "C: ordic cs\v1.7.0 oolchain\opt\bin\Lib\site-packages\west\commands.py", line 132, in run self.do_run(args, unknown) File "C: ordic cs\v1.7.0 oolchain\opt\bin\Lib\site-packages\west\app\project.py", line 198, in do_run topdir = self.bootstrap(args) File "C: ordic cs\v1.7.0 oolchain\opt\bin\Lib\site-packages\west\app\project.py", line 305, in bootstrap shutil.move(os.fspath(tempdir), os.fspath(manifest_abspath)) File "shutil.py", line 800, in move File "shutil.py", line 737, in rmtree File "shutil.py", line 610, in _rmtree_unsafe File "shutil.py", line 610, in _rmtree_unsafe File "shutil.py", line 610, in _rmtree_unsafe File "shutil.py", line 615, in _rmtree_unsafe File "shutil.py", line 613, in _rmtree_unsafe PermissionError: [WinError 5] Access is denied: 'C:\nordic\ncs\v1.7.0\.west\manifest-tmp\.git\objects\pack\pack-7e558cb519128fd6fa01f63f6a7fb2fc16c13469.idx' HEAD is now at d29f1ddec ncs: v1.7.0 /C/nordic/ncs/v1.7.0 done Updating repos ... Traceback (most recent call last): File "C: ordic cs\v1.7.0 oolchain\opt\bin\Lib\site-packages\west\manifest.py", line 172, in _mpath path = cp.get('manifest', 'path') File "configparser.py", line 781, in get File "configparser.py", line 1149, in _unify_values configparser.NoSectionError: No section: 'manifest' The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception: Traceback (most recent call last): File "runpy.py", line 193, in _run_module_as_main File "runpy.py", line 86, in _run_code File "C: ordic cs\v1.7.0 oolchain\opt\bin\Scripts\west.exe\__main__.py", line 7, in File "C: ordic cs\v1.7.0 oolchain\opt\bin\Lib\site-packages\west\app\main.py", line 779, in main app.run(argv or sys.argv[1:]) File "C: ordic cs\v1.7.0 oolchain\opt\bin\Lib\site-packages\west\app\main.py", line 106, in run self.run_command(argv) File "C: ordic cs\v1.7.0 oolchain\opt\bin\Lib\site-packages\west\app\main.py", line 336, in run_command cmd.run(args, unknown, self.topdir, manifest=self.manifest) File "C: ordic cs\v1.7.0 oolchain\opt\bin\Lib\site-packages\west\commands.py", line 132, in run self.do_run(args, unknown) File "C: ordic cs\v1.7.0 oolchain\opt\bin\Lib\site-packages\west\app\project.py", line 801, in do_run self.update_all() File "C: ordic cs\v1.7.0 oolchain\opt\bin\Lib\site-packages\west\app\project.py", line 855, in update_all self.manifest = Manifest.from_file( File "C: ordic cs\v1.7.0 oolchain\opt\bin\Lib\site-packages\west\manifest.py", line 1104, in from_file (mpath, mname) = _mpath(topdir=topdir) File "C: ordic cs\v1.7.0 oolchain\opt\bin\Lib\site-packages\west\manifest.py", line 177, in _mpath raise MalformedConfig('no "manifest.path" config option is set') from e west.manifest.MalformedConfig: no "manifest.path" config option is set done usage: west [-h] [-z ZEPHYR_BASE] [-v] [-V] ... west: error: argument : invalid choice: 'zephyr-export' (choose from 'init', 'update', 'list', 'manifest', 'diff', 'status', 'forall', 'help', 'config', 'topdir', 'selfupdate') See line 63: PermissionError: [WinError 5] Access is denied: 'C:\nordic\ncs\v1.7.0\.west\manifest-tmp\.git\objects\pack\pack-7e558cb519128fd6fa01f63f6a7fb2fc16c13469.idx' My Windows user has full control of the entire c: ordic tree. No other process is accessing that directory tree. If I add 3 seconds delay in ncsmgr_init-ncs.sh, like this: pushd "${baseDir}/.." >/dev/null log -n "Checking out NCS ${ncs_tag} ..." if [ "$1" = "--just-update" ]; then cd nrf git fetch origin else west init -m https://github.com/nrfconnect/sdk-nrf --mr "${ncs_tag}" cd nrf fi sleep 3 git checkout "${ncs_tag}" cd - everything works Ok. Here is the output (I interrupted it when it started cloning zephyr - if I left it it would continue and clone all NCS remaining repositories): 501@c-DF0V MINGW64 /c/nordic/ncs/v1.7.0 $ ncsmgr init-ncs Checking out NCS v1.7.0 ...=== Initializing in C: ordic cs\v1.7.0 --- Cloning manifest repository from https://github.com/nrfconnect/sdk-nrf, rev. v1.7.0 Cloning into 'C: ordic cs\v1.7.0\.west\manifest-tmp'... remote: Enumerating objects: 114292, done. remote: Counting objects: 100% (86/86), done. remote: Compressing objects: 100% (63/63), done. remote: Total 114292 (delta 31), reused 44 (delta 22), pack-reused 114206 Receiving objects: 100% (114292/114292), 65.72 MiB | 6.85 MiB/s, done. Resolving deltas: 100% (84732/84732), done. Note: switching to 'd29f1ddec99b81a66af93b7f0882a7bd0dfa30ee'. You are in 'detached HEAD' state. You can look around, make experimental changes and commit them, and you can discard any commits you make in this state without impacting any branches by switching back to a branch. If you want to create a new branch to retain commits you create, you may do so (now or later) by using -c with the switch command. Example: git switch -c Or undo this operation with: git switch - Turn off this advice by setting config variable advice.detachedHead to false Updating files: 100% (4788/4788), done. --- setting manifest.path to nrf === Initialized. Now run "west update" inside C: ordic cs\v1.7.0. HEAD is now at d29f1ddec ncs: v1.7.0 /C/nordic/ncs/v1.7.0 done Updating repos ... === updating zephyr (zephyr): --- zephyr: initializing Initialized empty Git repository in C:/nordic/ncs/v1.7.0/zephyr/.git/ --- zephyr: fetching, need revision v2.6.99-ncs1 remote: Enumerating objects: 643744, done. By adding sleep 3 , I was able to install SDK 1.9.1. Without the sleep 3 , SDK 1.9.1 does not print any errors, even though it fails to install. It would be good if at least the install process does not silently ignore the error so the user can see that something failed, right away.