Zephyrtools - Extending support to other ARM & Xtensa boards

zpm1066

Hi everyone,

I’ve been trying to update Jared’s zephyrtools manifest and its toolchain configuration to support Raspberry Pico, Espressif ESP32 and STM32 boards, so that I can use zephyrtools VSCode extension for these boards as well as nRF Connect SDK / Vanilla Zephyr builds.

I was able to get successful builds for rpi_pico and Adafruit_feather_stm32f405 but ran into issues with xiao_esp32s3. For the latter, I was able to build successfully using my own workspace with VSCode pointing to the same zephyr-sdk toolchain as when using zephyr tools. So, not quite sure why I got an error for an ESP32 build.

@jaredwolff, Have I missed some change needed in zephyrtools configuration for the Xtensa boards?

I’d like to use zephyrtools extension for both ARM and Xtensa builds as it makes the whole build process much
easier and more flexible. Thank you.

Here are the changes I made to extend support for ARM & Xtensa boards.

west-vanilla.yml modifications
- removed the following from the import: name-blocklist:
  – hal_rpi_pico
  – hal_espressif
  – hal_xtensa
  – hal_stm32
- ran west update to get the hal, device tree bindings, etc.
For Xtensa, copied the Xtensa Espressif SDK into .zephyrtools/toolchain/zephyr-sdk-0.15.1
and also to /opt/nordic/ncs/toolchains/20d68df7e5/opt/zephyr-sdk to support the esp32-s3 and esp32-s2 builds.

	- xtensa-espressif_esp32s3_zephyr-elf
	- xtensa-espressif_esp32s2_zephyr-elf

Results
As I anticipated, the builds for the ARM boards rpi_pico and adafruit_feather_stm32f405
built fine. There were no issues at all.

However, with xiao_esp32s3 builds I ran into issues.

For both ARM and the Xtensa builds, although I’m using west-vanilla, the
host-tool and toolchain used were from the path below instead of ~/.zephyrtools.

-- Found host-tools: zephyr 0.16.1 (/opt/nordic/ncs/toolchains/20d68df7e5/opt/zephyr-sdk)
-- Found toolchain: zephyr 0.16.1 (/opt/nordic/ncs/toolchains/20d68df7e5/opt/zephyr-sdk)

I expected zephyrtools zephyr-sdk to be used.

.zephyrtools/toolchain/zephyr-sdk-0.15.1

I tried setting ZEPHYR_SDK_INSTALL_DIR to the zephyrtools zephyr-sdk containing the
Espressif toolchain but still got a build error.

However, when I used my own zephyr_vanilla_zephyrproject.code-workspace with VSCode and set ZEPHYR_SDK_INSTALL_DIR then build worked fine for esp32s3. So, I expected zephyrtools to also work with the same toolchain.

VSCode: zephyr_vanilla_zephyrproject.code-workspace

	"settings": {
		"terminal.integrated.env.osx": {
			"PATH": "$HOME/zephyrproject350/zephyr/scripts",
			"ZEPHYR_BASE": "${env:HOME}/zephyrproject350/zephyr",
			"ZEPHYR_SDK_INSTALL_DIR": "/opt/zephyr-sdk-0.16.4",
		}

Any suggestions how I can fix the error below and also force zephyrtools to use its toolchain
for vanilla-zephyr builds?

Here’s the build output with errors.

The error occurs when attempting to build ‘EspIdfBootloader’.

**[152/163] Performing build step for 'EspIdfBootloader'
FAILED: esp-idf/src/EspIdfBootloader-stamp/EspIdfBootloader-build**

 *  Executing task: west build -b xiao_esp32s3 -p 

-- west build: making build dir /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/demo/hello_world/build pristine
-- west build: generating a build system
Loading Zephyr default modules (Zephyr base).
-- Application: /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/demo/hello_world
-- CMake version: 3.24.2
-- Using NCS Toolchain 2.5.20231017.141038581733 for building. (/opt/nordic/ncs/toolchains/20d68df7e5/cmake)
CMake Deprecation Warning at /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/zephyr/cmake/modules/FindDeprecated.cmake:121 (message):
  'PYTHON_PREFER' variable is deprecated.  Please use Python3_EXECUTABLE
  instead.
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/zephyr/cmake/modules/python.cmake:16 (find_package)
  /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/zephyr/cmake/modules/zephyr_default.cmake:129 (include)
  /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/zephyr/share/zephyr-package/cmake/ZephyrConfig.cmake:66 (include)
  /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/zephyr/share/zephyr-package/cmake/ZephyrConfig.cmake:92 (include_boilerplate)
  CMakeLists.txt:5 (find_package)

-- Found Python3: /opt/nordic/ncs/toolchains/20d68df7e5/bin/python3 (found suitable version "3.9.6", minimum required is "3.8") found components: Interpreter 
-- Cache files will be written to: /Users/quasar1015/Library/Caches/zephyr
-- Zephyr version: 3.5.0 (/Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/zephyr)
-- Found west (found suitable version "1.1.0", minimum required is "0.14.0")
-- Board: xiao_esp32s3
-- Found host-tools: zephyr 0.16.1 (/opt/nordic/ncs/toolchains/20d68df7e5/opt/zephyr-sdk)
-- Found toolchain: zephyr 0.16.1 (/opt/nordic/ncs/toolchains/20d68df7e5/opt/zephyr-sdk)
-- Found Dtc: /opt/nordic/ncs/toolchains/20d68df7e5/bin/dtc (found suitable version "1.6.1", minimum required is "1.4.6") 
-- Found BOARD.dts: /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/zephyr/boards/xtensa/xiao_esp32s3/xiao_esp32s3.dts
-- Generated zephyr.dts: /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/demo/hello_world/build/zephyr/zephyr.dts
-- Generated devicetree_generated.h: /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/demo/hello_world/build/zephyr/include/generated/devicetree_generated.h
-- Including generated dts.cmake file: /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/demo/hello_world/build/zephyr/dts.cmake
/Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/demo/hello_world/build/zephyr/zephyr.dts:40.39-47.5: Warning (interrupt_provider): /soc/interrupt-controller@600c2000: Missing #address-cells in interrupt provider
Parsing /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/zephyr/Kconfig
Loaded configuration '/Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/zephyr/boards/xtensa/xiao_esp32s3/xiao_esp32s3_defconfig'
Merged configuration '/Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/demo/hello_world/prj.conf'
Configuration saved to '/Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/demo/hello_world/build/zephyr/.config'
Kconfig header saved to '/Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/demo/hello_world/build/zephyr/include/generated/autoconf.h'
-- Found GnuLd: /opt/nordic/ncs/toolchains/20d68df7e5/opt/zephyr-sdk/xtensa-espressif_esp32s3_zephyr-elf/bin/../lib/gcc/xtensa-espressif_esp32s3_zephyr-elf/12.2.0/../../../../xtensa-espressif_esp32s3_zephyr-elf/bin/ld.bfd (found version "2.38") 
-- The C compiler identification is GNU 12.2.0
-- The CXX compiler identification is GNU 12.2.0
-- The ASM compiler identification is GNU
-- Found assembler: /opt/nordic/ncs/toolchains/20d68df7e5/opt/zephyr-sdk/xtensa-espressif_esp32s3_zephyr-elf/bin/xtensa-espressif_esp32s3_zephyr-elf-gcc
-- Configuring done
-- Generating done
-- Build files have been written to: /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/demo/hello_world/build
-- west build: building application
[1/163] Preparing syscall dependency handling

[7/163] Generating include/generated/version.h
-- Zephyr version: 3.5.0 (/Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/zephyr), build: zephyr-v3.5.0
[151/163] Performing configure step for 'EspIdfBootloader'
-- Found Git: /usr/local/bin/git (found version "2.43.0") 
-- The C compiler identification is GNU 12.2.0
-- The CXX compiler identification is GNU 12.2.0
-- The ASM compiler identification is GNU
-- Found assembler: /opt/nordic/ncs/toolchains/20d68df7e5/opt/zephyr-sdk/xtensa-espressif_esp32s3_zephyr-elf/bin/xtensa-espressif_esp32s3_zephyr-elf-gcc
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info
-- Detecting C compiler ABI info - done
-- Check for working C compiler: /opt/nordic/ncs/toolchains/20d68df7e5/opt/zephyr-sdk/xtensa-espressif_esp32s3_zephyr-elf/bin/xtensa-espressif_esp32s3_zephyr-elf-gcc - skipped
-- Detecting C compile features
-- Detecting C compile features - done
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info
-- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info - done
-- Check for working CXX compiler: /opt/nordic/ncs/toolchains/20d68df7e5/opt/zephyr-sdk/xtensa-espressif_esp32s3_zephyr-elf/bin/xtensa-espressif_esp32s3_zephyr-elf-g++ - skipped
-- Detecting CXX compile features
-- Detecting CXX compile features - done
-- Building ESP-IDF components for target esp32s3
-- Project sdkconfig file /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/demo/hello_world/build/esp-idf/build/sdkconfig
-- Adding linker script /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/soc/esp32s3/ld/esp32s3.peripherals.ld
-- Adding linker script /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/esp_rom/esp32s3/ld/esp32s3.rom.ld
-- Adding linker script /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/esp_rom/esp32s3/ld/esp32s3.rom.api.ld
-- Adding linker script /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/esp_rom/esp32s3/ld/esp32s3.rom.libgcc.ld
-- Adding linker script /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/esp_rom/esp32s3/ld/esp32s3.rom.newlib.ld
-- Adding linker script /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/bootloader/subproject/main/ld/esp32s3/bootloader.ld
-- Adding linker script /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/bootloader/subproject/main/ld/esp32s3/bootloader.rom.ld
-- Components: bootloader bootloader_support efuse esp32s3 esp_common esp_hw_support esp_rom esp_system esptool_py freertos hal log main micro-ecc newlib partition_table soc spi_flash xtensa
-- Component paths: /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/bootloader /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/bootloader_support /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/efuse /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/esp32s3 /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/esp_common /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/esp_hw_support /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/esp_rom /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/esp_system /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/esptool_py /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/freertos /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/hal /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/log /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/bootloader/subproject/main /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/bootloader/subproject/components/micro-ecc /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/newlib /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/partition_table /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/soc /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/spi_flash /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/xtensa
-- Configuring done
-- Generating done
-- Build files have been written to: /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/demo/hello_world/build/esp-idf/build/bootloader
**[152/163] Performing build step for 'EspIdfBootloader'
FAILED: esp-idf/src/EspIdfBootloader-stamp/EspIdfBootloader-build** /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/demo/hello_world/build/esp-idf/src/EspIdfBootloader-stamp/EspIdfBootloader-build 
cd /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/demo/hello_world/build/esp-idf/build/bootloader && /usr/local/Cellar/cmake/3.24.2/bin/cmake --build . && /usr/local/Cellar/cmake/3.24.2/bin/cmake -E touch /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/demo/hello_world/build/esp-idf/src/EspIdfBootloader-stamp/EspIdfBootloader-build
[1/101] Generating project_elf_src_esp32s3.c
[2/101] Building C object esp-idf/soc/CMakeFiles/__idf_soc.dir/soc_include_legacy_warn.c.obj
[3/101] Building C object esp-idf/soc/CMakeFiles/__idf_soc.dir/esp32s3/gdma_periph.c.obj
[4/101] Building C object CMakeFiles/bootloader.elf.dir/project_elf_src_esp32s3.c.obj

...
...

[98/101] Linking C static library esp-idf/main/libmain.a
[99/101] Linking C executable bootloader.elf
[100/101] Generating binary image from built executable
FAILED: .bin_timestamp /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/demo/hello_world/build/esp-idf/build/bootloader/.bin_timestamp 
cd /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/demo/hello_world/build/esp-idf/build/bootloader && /opt/nordic/ncs/toolchains/20d68df7e5/bin/python3 /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/esptool_py/esptool/esptool.py --chip esp32s3 elf2image --flash_mode dio --flash_freq 80m --flash_size 2MB --dont-append-digest -o /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/demo/hello_world/build/esp-idf/build/bootloader/bootloader.bin /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/demo/hello_world/build/esp-idf/build/bootloader/bootloader.elf && /usr/local/Cellar/cmake/3.24.2/bin/cmake -E echo "Generated /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/demo/hello_world/build/esp-idf/build/bootloader/bootloader.bin" && /usr/local/Cellar/cmake/3.24.2/bin/cmake -E md5sum /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/demo/hello_world/build/esp-idf/build/bootloader/bootloader.bin > /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/demo/hello_world/build/esp-idf/build/bootloader/.bin_timestamp
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/esptool_py/esptool/esptool/loader.py", line 57, in <module>
    import serial.tools.list_ports as list_ports
  File "/opt/nordic/ncs/toolchains/20d68df7e5/lib/python3.9/site-packages/serial/tools/list_ports.py", line 31, in <module>
    from serial.tools.list_ports_posix import comports
  File "/opt/nordic/ncs/toolchains/20d68df7e5/lib/python3.9/site-packages/serial/tools/list_ports_posix.py", line 33, in <module>
    from serial.tools.list_ports_osx import comports
  File "/opt/nordic/ncs/toolchains/20d68df7e5/lib/python3.9/site-packages/serial/tools/list_ports_osx.py", line 26, in <module>
    import ctypes
  File "/opt/nordic/ncs/toolchains/20d68df7e5/Cellar/python@3.9/3.9.6/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.9/lib/python3.9/ctypes/__init__.py", line 8, in <module>
    from _ctypes import Union, Structure, Array
ImportError: dlopen(/opt/nordic/ncs/toolchains/20d68df7e5/Cellar/python@3.9/3.9.6/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.9/lib/python3.9/lib-dynload/_ctypes.cpython-39-darwin.so, 2): Symbol not found: __dyld_shared_cache_contains_path
  Referenced from: /opt/nordic/ncs/toolchains/20d68df7e5/Cellar/python@3.9/3.9.6/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.9/lib/python3.9/lib-dynload/_ctypes.cpython-39-darwin.so (which was built for Mac OS X 11.0)
  Expected in: /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib
 in /opt/nordic/ncs/toolchains/20d68df7e5/Cellar/python@3.9/3.9.6/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.9/lib/python3.9/lib-dynload/_ctypes.cpython-39-darwin.so

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/esptool_py/esptool/esptool.py", line 31, in <module>
    import esptool
  File "/Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/esptool_py/esptool/esptool/__init__.py", line 41, in <module>
    from esptool.cmds import (
  File "/Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/esptool_py/esptool/esptool/cmds.py", line 14, in <module>
    from .bin_image import ELFFile, ImageSegment, LoadFirmwareImage
  File "/Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/esptool_py/esptool/esptool/bin_image.py", line 14, in <module>
    from .loader import ESPLoader
  File "/Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/modules/hal/espressif/components/esptool_py/esptool/esptool/loader.py", line 62, in <module>
    % (sys.VERSION, sys.executable)
AttributeError: module 'sys' has no attribute 'VERSION'
ninja: build stopped: subcommand failed.
ninja: build stopped: subcommand failed.
FATAL ERROR: command exited with status 1: /usr/local/bin/cmake --build /Users/quasar1015/Documents/2024_aqw_demo/demo/hello_world/build

 *  The terminal process "/bin/bash '-l', '-c', 'west build -b xiao_esp32s3 -p'" terminated with exit code: 1. 
 *  Terminal will be reused by tasks, press any key to close it.

jaredwolff

zpm1066 @jaredwolff, Have I missed some change needed in zephyrtools configuration for the Xtensa boards?

There’s a different Xtensa related toolchain you’ll need to install since it’s not ARM. Right now the tools do not support installing/using a different architecture of the SDK.

Search this page for Xtensa. You can replace the contents of the toolchain folder with the Xtensa ones and it should work.

zpm1066

jaredwolff

Hi Jared. Thank you for the quick response.

I already have zephyr-sdk-0.16.4 installed with all the Xtensa toolchains and can build successfully with esp32s3 toolchain using my VSCode zephyr_vanilla_zephyrproject.code-workspace.

"settings": {
	"terminal.integrated.env.osx": {
		"PATH": "$HOME/zephyrproject350/zephyr/scripts",
		"ZEPHYR_BASE": "${env:HOME}/zephyrproject350/zephyr",
		"ZEPHYR_SDK_INSTALL_DIR": "/opt/zephyr-sdk-0.16.4",
	}

However, even with ZEPHYR_SDK_INSTALL_DIR and ZEPHYR_TOOLCHAIN_PATH set to “/opt/zephyr-sdk-0.16.4”, zephyrtools still picks the toolchain from ”/opt/nordic/ncs/toolchains/20d68df7e5/opt/zephyr-sdk".

Copying over the esp32s3 toolchain to the zephyr-sdk folder “/opt/nordic/ncs/toolchains/20d68df7e5/opt/zephyr-sdk” threw up the error that I shared earlier above.

How do I force zephyrtools to pickup the toolchains in /opt/zephyr-sdk-0.16.4?

In VSCode AQW DEMO workspace, I tried adding entry for ZEPHYR_SDK_INSTALL_DIR in .vscode/settings.json to
“/opt/zephyr-sdk-0.16.4” but zephyrtools still defaults to using the toolchain from “/opt/nordic/ncs/toolchains/20d68df7e5/opt/zephyr-sdk”.

Thanks.

zpm1066

jaredwolff

Success!

I repeated the same process I used originally but under macOS Big Sur (11.7.10).

west-vanilla.ymlmodifications:

removed the following from the import: name-blocklist:
– hal_rpi_pico
– hal_espressif
– hal_xtensa
– hal_stm32
ran west update to get the hal, device tree bindings, etc.

For Xtensa, copied the Xtensa toolchains into /opt/nordic/ncs/toolchains/20d68df7e5/opt/zephyr-sdk from /opt/zephyr-sdk-0.16.4 to support esp32-s3 and esp32-s2 builds.

	- xtensa-espressif_esp32s3_zephyr-elf
	- xtensa-espressif_esp32s2_zephyr-elf

I’m not sure why the same steps previously for macOS Catalina failed to build for Xtensa. I’ll repeat the Catalina steps again at a later stage.

For now, I’m good to build ARM and Xtensa boards using zephyrtools VSCode extension.

Still, I’m curious as to why zephyrtools points to zephyr-sdk in /opt/nordic/ncs/toolchains/20d68df7e5/opt/zephyr-sdk, and how to change the path to /opt/zephyr-sdk-0.16.4.

How can I force the change?

Thanks Jared.

jaredwolff

My zephyrtools does not install to that directory. Nordic’s does. Do you have their SDK installed? The two tools do not play nice together.

zpm1066

jaredwolff

Yes, I have the Nordic nRF Connect SDK installed.

Where does zephyrtools set to point to its toolchain?
Is it in the zephyrtools extension code or somewhere else?

According Zephyr docs, one can set ZEPHYR_SDK_INSTALL_DIR to point to a directory containing multiple Zephyr SDKs, allowing for automatic toolchain selection.

I tried overriding the Zephyr SDK and toolchain paths with ZEPHYR_SDK_INSTALL_DIR and ZEPHYR_TOOLCHAIN_PATH but that didn’t help.

For now, I’m able to successfully use your zephyrtools to build ARM & Xtensa boards and flash them.

Thanks.