Guidelines for Bootloader Firmware with MCUBoot and External QSPI Flash

Hi,

Could someone please provide any available guidelines for Bootloader Firmware using MCUBoot and External QSPI Flash based on the following specifications?

  • MCU: R7FA4M3AFCFP
  • IDE: e2Studio
  • FSP Version: V4.2.0

Thanks,
Parth

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  • Yes but this is not using XIP upgrade mode to boot directly from QSPI. The image is loaded into internal code flash and is boot from there:

  • Is it possible to first store the firmware in QSPI memory using application code, and then have the bootloader copy it to internal flash and boot from there? The bootloader would simply copy the data from QSPI to internal flash and boot, as I am not looking to use XIP mode specifically.

    If yes, could you please provide guidelines for achieving this bootloader firmware?

    below is my current configuration of MCUBoot.

  • Yes, this is what the application note and sample code is about. Using QSPI as secondary image slot and booting from code flash/

    You mentioned 'I now need to boot from the external flash instead.' so I assumed you were interested in XIP mode.

  • Got it, thanks for explaining everything in details.

    I have followed these docs still not able to do so? sharing snaps of MCUBoot configs, could you please help me identify what i have missed here? I don't need encryption for now so i have kept it disabled.

  • Have you tried the provided sample project ? Does this work for your device ? Do you want to just disable encryption on the example project ?

    Note that as mentioned on the app note:

    The major use case for encrypted image update is for external flash update image storage. External flash content is prone to theft in many ways. It is critical to secure the external flash secondary image storage area via encryption.

  • I have temporarily disabled encryption in the bootloader to verify that the QSPI is functioning correctly in our custom board. Once it’s confirmed to be working, I will enable the encryption.

    I have not tried sample code, as it includes encryption that I cannot use at the moment. Therefore, I would appreciate your input on what I might have overlooked/missed in the configuration, based on the snapshots I shared earlier.

  • I do not see anything wrong. If you use EK-RA4M3 and the on-board QSPI you should use the same QSPI settings an in the example project.

    The MCUboot settings depend a lot on your application (for example upgrade method, image sizes etc).

  • I believe I may have identified the source of the issue. Here's a brief explanation, and I would appreciate your help in finding a solution. In Approach 1, the data readbacks are incorrect, while in Approach 2, everything works as expected. In Approach 1, I'm directly accessing the memory location, whereas in Approach 2, I’m using the QSPI API with commands. I need to resolve the issue with Approach 1 because the bootloader might be reading data this way (as per approach-1).


    #define QSPI_DEVICE_START_ADDRESS    (0x60000000)

    #define QSPI_FLASH_ADDRESS(page_no)     (uint8_t *) (QSPI_DEVICE_START_ADDRESS + (page_no * PAGE_WRITE_SIZE))

    uint32_t address = (uint32_t)(QSPI_FLASH_ADDRESS(0));

    Approach 1:


    memcpy(write_buffer, (uint8_t *)(address), SIZE_64KB);
    R_BSP_SoftwareDelay(500,1000);

    Approach 2:

    data[0] = 0x03; // Read command
    data[1] = (address >> 16) & 0xFF;
    data[2] = (address >> 8) & 0xFF;
    data[3] = address & 0xFF;
    data[4] = 0x00;
    R_QSPI_DirectWrite(&g_qspi0_ctrl, data, 4, true);
    R_QSPI_DirectRead(&g_qspi0_ctrl, (uint8_t *)write_buffer, SIZE_64KB); // Reading only 3 bytes
    R_BSP_SoftwareDelay(500, BSP_DELAY_UNITS_MILLISECONDS);

    Please assist me to resolve this issue with approach-1.

    Regards,

    Parth