Partition Manager and device tree partitions

RE: Partition Manager and device tree partitions

liteyear — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 18:44:06 GMT

Okay. So people can find the answer if they come across this one, the new ticket is here.

RE: Partition Manager and device tree partitions

Marte Myrvold — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 13:53:09 GMT

Hi,

This is an old ticket. Please create a new ticket for your question. Thank you.

Best regards,
Marte

RE: Partition Manager and device tree partitions

liteyear — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 05:33:47 GMT

I'm confused by this too, but I think it's maybe no longer a concern? In Nov 2022, shortly before the OP, there were a couple of changes addressing Partition Manager support:

https://github.com/nrfconnect/sdk-mcuboot/commit/f7de93fe96daf9776a7331d2157d33f54e9f526f

https://github.com/nrfconnect/sdk-mcuboot/commit/82ee5d0bb9ac68c14033b102705904ee9991ee3d

As far as I can tell now (at least since ncs v2.5.2), if MCUBoot is enabled with CONFIG_BOOTLOADER_MCUBOOT, the build becomes a "Multi-image build". That enables Partition Manager, which makes fixed-partitions in the DTS irrelevant.

At least when I try it, removing all trace of fixed-partitions results in the same output, and no mention of boot_partition.

But then that makes comments like this one:

https://github.com/nrfconnect/sdk-nrf/blob/5c862041c865a7e8c6046b98608078cac852f0d0/boards/nordic/nrf7002dk/nrf5340_cpuapp_partition_conf.dts#L14

incorrect. So which is it? Does MCUBoot make fixed-partitions necessary, or unnecessary?

RE: Partition Manager and device tree partitions

Marte Myrvold — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 13:16:23 GMT

Hi,

This is an old ticket. Please create a new ticket for your question. Thank you.

Best regards,
Marte

RE: Partition Manager and device tree partitions

sachrmed — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 16:36:06 GMT

Manually matching the device tree partitions with the pm_static.yml files is exactly what I do.

It is rather tedious, so perhaps there's a way to manage this that I'm not aware of?

RE: Partition Manager and device tree partitions

puz_md — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 08:17:28 GMT

Hi Marte,

if MCUboot is compiled before the partition manager runs, then how does it know the locations of the application partitions / slots? Do I have to match the devicetree partition definitions with pm_static.yml?

Best regards,
Michael

RE: Partition Manager and device tree partitions

Marte Myrvold — Tue, 21 Mar 2023 15:26:57 GMT

That is great to hear 🙂

RE: Partition Manager and device tree partitions

sachrmed — Tue, 21 Mar 2023 15:13:04 GMT

Thanks for the reply Marte, and no problem with the delay 🙂

Indeed I have tested it and it seems to be working.

RE: Partition Manager and device tree partitions

Marte Myrvold — Tue, 21 Mar 2023 08:17:34 GMT

Hi,

Yes, that is correct.
I have been out of the office, so I apologize for the delay. Have you been able to test this while I was away?

Best regards,
Marte

RE: Partition Manager and device tree partitions

sachrmed — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 20:12:19 GMT

Thank you for the reply Marte!

I suppose all I need in the dts is a simple config like so, and leave the rest to Partition Manager?

&flash0 {

    partitions {
        compatible = "fixed-partitions";

        boot_partition: partition@0 {
            label = "mcuboot";
            reg = <0x000000000 0x0000C000>;
        };
    };
};

RE: Partition Manager and device tree partitions

Marte Myrvold — Thu, 09 Mar 2023 15:13:24 GMT

Hi,

When you build a multi-image application, the partitions in devicetree should be ignored.
However, in the case of MCUboot, the MCUboot child image is built before Partition Manager runs, and MCUboot is using boot_partition in the file bootloader/mcuboot/boot/zephyr/dts.overlay.

If interested, you can add printing to the Partition Manager script, nrf/scripts/partition_manager.py, to see when it runs during the build process (for testing/debugging purposes). As an example, I added the following right before PartitionError:

print("------------------")
print("Partition Manager")
print("------------------")

After adding this and building, I can see that the Partition Manager script only runs after the MCUboot child image is done building (which you can see from === child image mcuboot - end ===).

Best regards,
Marte