[SOLVED] Use J-Link commander to flash a file to area that is not erased?

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  • [SOLVED] Use J-Link commander to flash a file to area that is not erased?

    To flash an GD32 device I'm working with, I use a script that writes a temporary J-Link Commander "command" file (or whatever the correct term is) that includes the LoadFile command to flash the .bin or .hex file. An example command file might look like:

    Source Code

    1. ExitOnError 1
    2. Connect
    3. h
    5. LoadFile C:\devtrees\test-bin\test-bin.bin,0x08080000
    7. r
    8. exit
    The problem is that this fails if there is already data at address 0x08080000. If I erase the flash first it works great, but the script only knows how to erase the entire chip, not just the area of flash that the .bin (or .hex) file corresponds to. That means to update a single binary (this project flashes 3 binaries to various parts of the flash) I have to erase the chip then flash all 3 binaries, which is error prone when I have several versions of each binary that can be flashed.

    The `erase` command can be used to erase only a selected range of flash, but the script file would need to figure out what the appropriate range is and it doesn't do that - it only has the capability to erase the entire chip.


    Is there a way to tell `LoadFile` to erase the area of flash that it will be updating? I couldn't see such an option or setting in wiki.segger.com/J-Link_Commander

    Here is an example session trying to flash a non-erased chip:

    Source Code

    1. c:\devtrees\test-bin>flash-gd32.py C:\devtrees\test-bin\test-bin.bin,08080000
    2. SEGGER J-Link Commander V7.66g (Compiled Jul 7 2022 10:37:30)
    3. DLL version V7.66g, compiled Jul 7 2022 10:35:46
    6. J-Link Command File read successfully.
    7. Processing script file...
    8. J-Link>ExitOnError 1
    9. J-Link Commander will now exit on Error
    10. J-Link>Connect
    11. J-Link connection not established yet but required for command.
    12. Connecting to J-Link via USB...O.K.
    13. Firmware: J-Link V10 compiled Nov 2 2021 12:14:50
    14. Hardware version: V10.10
    15. S/N: 600105391
    16. License(s): RDI, FlashBP, FlashDL, JFlash, GDB
    17. VTref=3.310V
    18. Device "GD32F303ZK" selected.
    21. Connecting to target via SWD
    22. Found SW-DP with ID 0x2BA01477
    23. DPIDR: 0x2BA01477
    24. CoreSight SoC-400 or earlier
    25. Scanning AP map to find all available APs
    26. AP[1]: Stopped AP scan as end of AP map has been reached
    27. AP[0]: AHB-AP (IDR: 0x24770011)
    28. Iterating through AP map to find AHB-AP to use
    29. AP[0]: Core found
    30. AP[0]: AHB-AP ROM base: 0xE00FF000
    31. CPUID register: 0x410FC241. Implementer code: 0x41 (ARM)
    32. Found Cortex-M4 r0p1, Little endian.
    33. FPUnit: 6 code (BP) slots and 2 literal slots
    34. CoreSight components:
    35. ROMTbl[0] @ E00FF000
    36. [0][0]: E000E000 CID B105E00D PID 000BB00C SCS-M7
    37. [0][1]: E0001000 CID B105E00D PID 003BB002 DWT
    38. [0][2]: E0002000 CID B105E00D PID 002BB003 FPB
    39. [0][3]: E0000000 CID B105E00D PID 003BB001 ITM
    40. [0][4]: E0040000 CID B105900D PID 000BB9A1 TPIU
    41. [0][5]: E0041000 CID 00000000 PID 00000000 ???
    42. Cortex-M4 identified.
    43. J-Link>h
    44. PC = 08027744, CycleCnt = 2AD8BC18
    45. R0 = 00000000, R1 = CDCDCDCD, R2 = 80000000, R3 = 08031999
    46. R4 = 6802B4D0, R5 = 00000001, R6 = 6802B4D0, R7 = CCCC0007
    47. R8 = CCCC0008, R9 = CCCC0009, R10= CCCC000A, R11= CCCC000B
    48. R12= 08031998
    49. SP(R13)= 20003400, MSP= 200033D8, PSP= 20003400, R14(LR) = 21000000
    50. XPSR = 01000000: APSR = nzcvq, EPSR = 01000000, IPSR = 000 (NoException)
    51. CFBP = 02000000, CONTROL = 02, FAULTMASK = 00, BASEPRI = 00, PRIMASK = 00
    53. FPS0 = 4A71DF44, FPS1 = 20925D1B, FPS2 = 2010E87E, FPS3 = F69BF462
    54. FPS4 = 64DB8277, FPS5 = E3EB6079, FPS6 = 23C78804, FPS7 = D577FD7F
    55. FPS8 = DAC9F9F9, FPS9 = 502666CE, FPS10= 5B6F31D3, FPS11= 7A6FC353
    56. FPS12= FE89A50F, FPS13= 842683E1, FPS14= 842FBC66, FPS15= 2F0DAE5F
    57. FPS16= 6E59BC16, FPS17= 5E86E6ED, FPS18= ADB0E7B1, FPS19= 934CF140
    58. FPS20= FFF56F97, FPS21= 00EEBE6F, FPS22= CF3423CD, FPS23= B975F6E5
    59. FPS24= 849C7D2F, FPS25= AEED31C8, FPS26= 1ABDC822, FPS27= 9B88E032
    60. FPS28= 4EBE14CF, FPS29= A0EA7FD2, FPS30= B97B02D2, FPS31= 4ADCCC57
    61. FPSCR= 00000000
    62. J-Link>LoadFile C:\devtrees\test-bin\test-bin.bin,08080000
    63. Downloading file [C:\devtrees\test-bin\test-bin.bin]...
    64. Error while programming flash: Programming failed.
    66. Script processing completed.
    68. resetting...
    69. Done in 0 min 3.574 sec
    Display All

    And here is the J-Link command file that the script produced for that session:

    Source Code

    1. ExitOnError 1
    2. Connect
    3. h
    5. LoadFile C:\devtrees\test-bin\test-bin.bin,08080000
    7. r
    8. exit

  • There is something wrong here…
    A „loadfile“ has always done and should still do erase + verify implicitly, besides programming.

    Could you please provide a log file of a failing session?
    wiki.segger.com/Enable_J-Link_log_file
    Please read the forum rules before posting.

    Keep in mind, this is *not* a support forum.
    Our engineers will try to answer your questions between their projects if possible but this can be delayed by longer periods of time.
    Should you be entitled to support you can contact us via our support system: segger.com/ticket/
    Or you can contact us via e-mail.

  • I should have thought to do this before. Here's an annotated manual jlink session that gets the script out of the picture and just tries to erase a couple sectors of flash:

    C Source Code

    1. C:\devtrees\cpa-ramfunc>jlink -log just-erase.gd32f303zk.jlink.log -device GD32F303ZK -if swd -speed 4000 -autoconnect
    2. 1
    3. SEGGER J-Link Commander V7.66g (Compiled Jul 7 2022 10:37:30)
    4. DLL version V7.66g, compiled Jul 7 2022 10:35:46
    6. Connecting to J-Link via USB...O.K.
    7. Firmware: J-Link V10 compiled Nov 2 2021 12:14:50
    8. Hardware version: V10.10
    9. S/N: 600105391
    10. License(s): RDI, FlashBP, FlashDL, JFlash, GDB
    11. VTref=3.315V
    12. Device "GD32F303ZK" selected.
    15. Connecting to target via SWD
    16. Found SW-DP with ID 0x2BA01477
    17. DPIDR: 0x2BA01477
    18. CoreSight SoC-400 or earlier
    19. Scanning AP map to find all available APs
    20. AP[1]: Stopped AP scan as end of AP map has been reached
    21. AP[0]: AHB-AP (IDR: 0x24770011)
    22. Iterating through AP map to find AHB-AP to use
    23. AP[0]: Core found
    24. AP[0]: AHB-AP ROM base: 0xE00FF000
    25. CPUID register: 0x410FC241. Implementer code: 0x41 (ARM)
    26. Found Cortex-M4 r0p1, Little endian.
    27. FPUnit: 6 code (BP) slots and 2 literal slots
    28. CoreSight components:
    29. ROMTbl[0] @ E00FF000
    30. [0][0]: E000E000 CID B105E00D PID 000BB00C SCS-M7
    31. [0][1]: E0001000 CID B105E00D PID 003BB002 DWT
    32. [0][2]: E0002000 CID B105E00D PID 002BB003 FPB
    33. [0][3]: E0000000 CID B105E00D PID 003BB001 ITM
    34. [0][4]: E0040000 CID B105900D PID 000BB9A1 TPIU
    35. [0][5]: E0041000 CID 00000000 PID 00000000 ???
    36. Cortex-M4 identified.
    39. // dump some memory
    41. J-Link>mem 08080000 80
    42. 08080000 = 52 46 55 4E FC 1F 16 00 FC 1F 01 20 00 00 01 20 RFUN....... ...
    43. 08080010 = 89 02 01 20 8D 02 01 20 A1 02 01 20 9A 02 00 00 ... ... ... ....
    44. 08080020 = 00 00 00 00 FC 1F 00 00 40 28 23 29 63 70 61 2D ........@(#)cpa-
    45. 08080030 = 66 6C 61 73 68 63 6F 70 69 65 72 20 76 32 30 2D flashcopier v20-
    46. 08080040 = 75 6E 6B 6E 6F 77 6E 20 62 75 69 6C 64 3A 30 20 unknown build:0
    47. 08080050 = 53 65 70 20 20 31 20 32 30 32 32 20 30 31 3A 31 Sep 1 2022 01:1
    48. 08080060 = 36 3A 32 36 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 6:26............
    49. 08080070 = 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
    52. // erase a range that includes that memory
    54. J-Link>erase 08080000 08081fff
    55. Erasing selected range...
    56. J-Link: Flash download: Total time needed: 0.194s (Prepare: 0.097s, Compare: 0.000s, Erase: 0.083s, Program: 0.000s, Verify: 0.000s, Restore: 0.013s)
    57. J-Link: Flash download:
    58. Flash sectors within Range [0x08080000 - 0x08081FFF] deleted.
    59. Erasing done.
    63. // erase didn't work
    65. J-Link>mem 08080000 80
    66. 08080000 = 52 46 55 4E FC 1F 16 00 FC 1F 01 20 00 00 01 20 RFUN....... ...
    67. 08080010 = 89 02 01 20 8D 02 01 20 A1 02 01 20 9A 02 00 00 ... ... ... ....
    68. 08080020 = 00 00 00 00 FC 1F 00 00 40 28 23 29 63 70 61 2D ........@(#)cpa-
    69. 08080030 = 66 6C 61 73 68 63 6F 70 69 65 72 20 76 32 30 2D flashcopier v20-
    70. 08080040 = 75 6E 6B 6E 6F 77 6E 20 62 75 69 6C 64 3A 30 20 unknown build:0
    71. 08080050 = 53 65 70 20 20 31 20 32 30 32 32 20 30 31 3A 31 Sep 1 2022 01:1
    72. 08080060 = 36 3A 32 36 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 6:26............
    73. 08080070 = 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
    77. // erase the whole chip
    79. J-Link>erase
    80. Without any given address range, Erase Chip will be executed
    81. Erasing device...
    82. J-Link: Flash download: Total time needed: 0.608s (Prepare: 0.070s, Compare: 0.000s, Erase: 0.501s, Program: 0.000s, Verify: 0.000s, Restore: 0.037s)
    83. J-Link: Flash download: Total time needed: 1.155s (Prepare: 0.055s, Compare: 0.000s, Erase: 1.062s, Program: 0.000s, Verify: 0.000s, Restore: 0.037s)
    84. Erasing done.
    87. // full chip erase worked
    89. J-Link>mem 08080000 80
    90. 08080000 = FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF ................
    91. 08080010 = FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF ................
    92. 08080020 = FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF ................
    93. 08080030 = FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF ................
    94. 08080040 = FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF ................
    95. 08080050 = FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF ................
    96. 08080060 = FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF ................
    97. 08080070 = FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF ................
    98. J-Link>exit
    Display All

    And attached is the log file in case it shows something helpful: just-erase.gd32f303zk.jlink.log

    The post was edited 4 times, last by mwb1100 ().

  • I just tried updating the J-Link software package to v7.70e. This also resulted in the J-Link's firmware being updated.

    The test performs exactly the same (except that the erase command does a reset now as explained in the release notes).

    The erase of a memory range still doesn't actually do the erase.

    Source Code

    1. SEGGER J-Link Commander V7.70e (Compiled Aug 31 2022 17:08:13)
    2. DLL version V7.70e, compiled Aug 31 2022 17:06:50
    4. Connecting to J-Link via USB...O.K.
    5. Firmware: J-Link V10 compiled Jul 22 2022 11:40:29
    6. Hardware version: V10.10
    7. J-Link uptime (since boot): N/A (Not supported by this model)
    8. S/N: 600105391
    9. License(s): RDI, FlashBP, FlashDL, JFlash, GDB
    10. VTref=3.315V
    11. Device "GD32F303ZK" selected.
    Display All

  • One more clue:

    Since the GD32F303 is a close clone of the STM32F103 (it's actually more like the STM32F103 than it is the STM32F303), I tried connecting to it as an STM32F103ZG. The F103ZG has 1MB of flash so the flash pages in the range 0x08080000 - 0x08081ffff exist on that chip. Telling jlink.exe that it's connecting to an STM32F103ZG makes the erase operation work:

    C Source Code

    1. C:\temp>jlink -device STM32F103ZG -if swd -speed 4000 -autoconnect 1
    2. SEGGER J-Link Commander V7.66g (Compiled Jul 7 2022 10:37:30)
    3. DLL version V7.66g, compiled Jul 7 2022 10:35:46
    5. Connecting to J-Link via USB...O.K.
    6. Firmware: J-Link V10 compiled Jul 22 2022 11:40:29
    7. Hardware version: V10.10
    8. S/N: 600105391
    9. License(s): RDI, FlashBP, FlashDL, JFlash, GDB
    10. VTref=3.310V
    11. Device "STM32F103ZG" selected.
    14. Connecting to target via SWD
    15. InitTarget() start
    16. InitTarget() end
    17. Found SW-DP with ID 0x2BA01477
    18. DPIDR: 0x2BA01477
    19. CoreSight SoC-400 or earlier
    20. Scanning AP map to find all available APs
    21. AP[1]: Stopped AP scan as end of AP map has been reached
    22. AP[0]: AHB-AP (IDR: 0x24770011)
    23. Iterating through AP map to find AHB-AP to use
    24. AP[0]: Core found
    25. AP[0]: AHB-AP ROM base: 0xE00FF000
    26. CPUID register: 0x410FC241. Implementer code: 0x41 (ARM)
    27. Found Cortex-M4 r0p1, Little endian.
    28. Identified core does not match configuration. (Found: Cortex-M4, Configured: Cortex-M3)
    29. FPUnit: 6 code (BP) slots and 2 literal slots
    30. CoreSight components:
    31. ROMTbl[0] @ E00FF000
    32. [0][0]: E000E000 CID B105E00D PID 000BB00C SCS-M7
    33. [0][1]: E0001000 CID B105E00D PID 003BB002 DWT
    34. [0][2]: E0002000 CID B105E00D PID 002BB003 FPB
    35. [0][3]: E0000000 CID B105E00D PID 003BB001 ITM
    36. [0][4]: E0040000 CID B105900D PID 000BB9A1 TPIU
    37. [0][5]: E0041000 CID 00000000 PID 00000000 ???
    38. Cortex-M4 identified.
    39. J-Link>mem 08080000 80
    40. 08080000 = 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
    41. 08080010 = 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
    42. 08080020 = 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
    43. 08080030 = 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
    44. 08080040 = 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
    45. 08080050 = 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
    46. 08080060 = 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
    47. 08080070 = 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
    48. J-Link>erase 08080000 08081fff
    49. T-bit of XPSR is 0 but should be 1. Changed to 1.
    50. Erasing selected range...
    51. J-Link: Flash download: Total time needed: 0.288s (Prepare: 0.102s, Compare: 0.000s, Erase: 0.172s, Program: 0.000s, Verify: 0.000s, Restore: 0.014s)
    52. J-Link: Flash download:
    53. Flash sectors within Range [0x08080000 - 0x08081FFF] deleted.
    54. Erasing done.
    55. J-Link>mem 08080000 80
    56. 08080000 = FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF ................
    57. 08080010 = FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF ................
    58. 08080020 = FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF ................
    59. 08080030 = FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF ................
    60. 08080040 = FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF ................
    61. 08080050 = FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF ................
    62. 08080060 = FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF ................
    63. 08080070 = FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF ................
    64. J-Link>exit
    Display All

    However, I don't think that's an effective workaround for me because this project uses flash up to the end of the GD32F303ZK's flash address space to store data so I need the tool to be able to write to flash above the 1MB limit that the STM32F103ZG has.

  • We reproduced and fixed the issue.
    The fix is already available in the newly released J-Link V7.80.

    Could you give the latest version a try?

    BR
    Sebastian
    Please read the forum rules before posting.

    Keep in mind, this is *not* a support forum.
    Our engineers will try to answer your questions between their projects if possible but this can be delayed by longer periods of time.
    Should you be entitled to support you can contact us via our support system: segger.com/ticket/
    Or you can contact us via e-mail.