Run a standard Zephyr application in NRF5

Question

I have a sample application running in standard Zephyr 3.2.99. The application is just looping doing a sleep (k_sleep(K_SECONDS(10))) and logging a line. 
 I tried to build it to be run in nRF with MBR, Sofdevice (disabled) and bootloader. This will not be the system definitive app, just a special purpose one that would be convenient to be a Zephyr app. 
 To build it I took care of different memory layout: flash load offset 0x26000 (then changed to 0x1000), and reserving first 0x3000 RAM addresses that could be used by Softdevice. 
 When started by the Nordic bootloader, it correctly loops for >= 250 seconds (regardless of k_sleep interval, e.g. 10 or 30 sec), then it stops logging. 
 I tried doubling and quadrupling CONFIG_PRIVILEGED_STACK_SIZE and CONFIG_MAIN_STACK_SIZE (then even CONFIG_ISR_STACK_SIZE and CONFIG_IDLE_STACK_SIZE). I checked usage of SVC interrupts, yet they seem unused bot in nFR and in zephyr. Then I investigated debugging, it looks like the last k_sleep call is waiting for a PendSV exception in arch_swap(). 
 It's not clear to me why the PendSV interrupts are coming fro ~4 minutes and they stop. I read the S132 SoftDevice Specification and I couldn't find a valid reason why this should happen. 
 I thought about a possible incompatibility with Sofdtdevice and then I moved the app from 0x26000 to 0x1000 and I was surprised that the issue is the same. 
 The bootloader sets the vector table address for Sofdevice and now my app is in place of SD at 0x1000, so I would expect that the interrupts are forwarded (not only for 4 minutes). 
 Any suggestion is welcome. 
 Thanks, 
 Giancarlo.

giansta · Accepted Answer

Hello. Last week finally I found a solution that looks promising. The fix is at moment in my application init: /* Fix: Reset RTC1 bits resulting from nRF5 environment that prevent scheduling after ~ 4 minutes. */ NRF_RTC1->INTENCLR = 0x00020000; NRF_RTC1->EVTENCLR = 0x00020002; I found this using a rough empirical approach: saving the processor registers values when the application is started with the working official Zephyr application and comparing them with the Zephyr application built for nRF5 SDK. After excluding non significant ones, the main difference was in INTENSET = INTENCLR = 0x00010002 -> 0x00030002 EVTEN = EVTENSET = EVTENCLR = 0x00010000 -> 0x00030002 it seems like the enable interrupt and event routing for COMPARE[1] is set in nRF5 environment in addition to the ones for COMPARE[0]. I don't have the complete picture of the clock usage to understand why this produces the effects I saw. I'll try to have a look. Yet I'd like especially to look at the Zephyr initialization and why the results are different even when using CONFIG_INIT_ARCH_HW_AT_BOOT that I would have expected to fix my issue. I'm reporting these results, even in case you have useful suggestions.

Run a standard Zephyr application in NRF5

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