Debugging in VSCode gets stuck booting Zephyr OS

Question

I've been trying to get breakpoints working on a new nRF Connect project but have been running into an issue: when I hit "Debug" in the nRF Connect plugin in VSCode, the app compiles, loads, and logs everything from my application, but seems to ignore the breakpoints. Then, it seems to reboot, because it says it's loading Zephyr again, but this time it never succeeds. The call stack on the left has values but then quickly becomes empty. 
 I am using a nRF52DK (nRF52832) and am also experiencing the same issue with a BMD-300 Dev Kit. 
 Here is the log: 
 *** Booting Zephyr OS build v3.1.99-ncs1-1 *** I: Starting bootloader I: Primary image: magic=unset, swap_type=0x1, copy_done=0x3, image_ok=0x3 I: Secondary image: magic=unset, swap_type=0x1, copy_done=0x3, image_ok=0x3 I: Boot source: none I: Swap type: none I: Bootloader chainload address offset: 0xc000 �*** Booting Zephyr OS build v3.1.99-ncs1-1 *** [00:00:00.004,699] <inf> [Logs from myapp showing that the main() function finished successfully.] *** Booting Zephyr OS build v3.1.99-ncs1-1 *** 
 The device seems to hang at this point and isn't advertising via BLE. When I load the same app without the debugger, it advertises and works perfectly. 
 A few things I have already tried: 1. I made sure the "Enable debug options" is checked for my build configuration and did a pristine build 2. I restarted VSCode 3. I unplugged and plugged in the device 
 I've attached an image of the setup if that's helpful. 
 Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Vidar Berg · Accepted Answer

It's interesting that it works fine with the "hello world" sample. This indicates that the debugger and everything is configured correctly, at least. 
 Maybe you can try to build your application without the bootloader (CONFIG_BOOTLOADER_MCUBOOT=n) to see if it works better when you only have one FW image. This may help narrow down the problem. 
 The CPU registers can be viewed in the top left corner here: 
 
 deveryn said: One thing I tried was disabling the "Enable debug options", creating a pristine build, and running the debugger. This seems to break inside "cpu_idle" when run and then a FIH_PANIC spot (see screenshot) when I hit pause, but continuing doesn't continue past when I hit continue (F5). I assume this is going down the wrong path but maybe it's helpful for debugging the problem? 
 This shows that the program hangs inside MCUBoot because it did not find a bootable app. This can happen if only the mcuboot image is programmed to the device instead (i.e. if the zephyr.hex in build/mcuboot/zephyr/ was programmed instead of the merged.hex in build/zephyr)

Debugging in VSCode gets stuck booting Zephyr OS

Top Replies