VS Code custom board in external module not showing

[AndrewSafehear]

 Hello,

We have a workspace in the T3 topology (Forest).

Our own module is then in <zephyr_topdir>/our_module and this folder has a boards folder. But when I want to add a new build config, I don't see my custom board on the list.

For testing purpose I also added a boards folder inside our application folder and it's working. But we want to have only a boards folder in our module as to reuse those files.

In the build/zephyr_settings.txt of our application I see our module in BOARD_ROOT but not on the UI to create a new build config.

Did I do something wrong or is this not implemented as of today ?

Kind regards,

Andrew

[Øyvind]

Hello Andrew, have you followed the Custom Board, Devicetree and SOC Definitions chapter in the Zephyr documentation?

The structure needed to support out-of-tree board and SOC development is similar to how boards and SOCs are maintained in the Zephyr tree.

In the build/zephyr_settings.txt of our application I see our module in BOARD_ROOT but not on the UI to create a new build config.

What does BOARD_ROOT point to? Where have you configured BOARD_ROOT?

From: zephyr/cmake/modules/boards.cmake it states

Hints:

- if your board directory is '/foo/bar/boards/<ARCH>/my_board' then add '/foo/bar' to BOARD_ROOT, not the entire board directory

- if in doubt, use absolute paths")

 More information is found in Boards sub-chapter in Custom Board, Devicetree and SOC Definitions chapter:

When specifyingBOARD_ROOTin a CMakeLists.txt, then an absolute path must be provided, for examplelist(APPENDBOARD_ROOT${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/<extra-board-root>). When using-DBOARD_ROOT=<board-root>both absolute and relative paths can be used. Relative paths are treated relatively to the application directory.

Kind regards,
Øyvind

[AndrewSafehear]

Hello,

Yes I have followed the documentation. I will explain better, when I use directly west on a terminal, I can build my project with my custom board with no problem.

The problem is that I also want to be able to select this custom board on the UI of your extension for VSCode when adding a new build configuration for my project.

My custom board is in a module at the root of the workspace folder (like the nrf, nrfxlib, zephyr, bootloader, mbedtls, etc folders). This custom module is correctly put inside my west.yml file.

I've used a module and didn't put my board insid my project folder because I reuse it on several projects with other customs drivers.

workspace

 ┣ applications

 ┃ ┗ custom_app <= my projects are here

 ┣ bootloader

 ┣ mbedtls

 ┣ modules

 ┣ nrf

 ┣ nrfxlib

 ┣ custom_modules <= the west.yml to init my workspace with west is here

 ┃ ┗ boards <= custom boards are here

 ┣ test

 ┣ tools

 ┗ zephyr

Kind regards,

Andrew

[Øyvind]

Have you tried adding this to the nRF Connect extension settings?

CTRL+SHIFT+P --> Preferences: Open Settings --> Extensions --> nRF Connect

[AndrewSafehear]

Like this it work yes, but I don't understand why my boards are not showing without this. My module is correctly added to west so it should be able to locate the boards folder without manually adding it.

[Øyvind]

Hello, I've got some feedback from our developers. The answer is simple:

Currently, the extension only looks for boards in the nrf and zephyr directories, as well as the open VS Code workspace folders and whatever is added to the board roots setting. 

They have added this as a feature request but do not have a timeline.

Kind regards,
Øyvind