Crate cortex_m_quickstart [] [src]

A template for building applications for ARM Cortex-M microcontrollers

Dependencies

  • Nightly Rust toolchain: rustup default nightly
  • ARM linker: sudo apt-get install binutils-arm-none-eabi (on Ubuntu)
  • Cargo clone subcommand: cargo install cargo-clone
  • GDB: sudo apt-get install gdb-arm-none-eabi (on Ubuntu)
  • OpenOCD: sudo apt-get install OpenOCD (on Ubuntu)
  • Xargo: cargo install xargo
  • [Optional] Cargo add subcommand: cargo install cargo-edit

Usage

1) Clone this crate

$ cargo clone cortex-m-quickstart && cd $_

2) Change the crate name, author and version

$ edit Cargo.toml && head $_
[package]
authors = ["Jorge Aparicio <jorge@japaric.io>"]
name = "demo"
version = "0.1.0"

3) Specify the memory layout of the target device

NOTE board support crates sometimes provide this file for you (check the crate documentation). If you are using one that does then remove both the memory.x and build.rs files.

$ edit memory.x && cat $_
MEMORY
{
  /* NOTE K = KiBi = 1024 bytes */
  FLASH : ORIGIN = 0x08000000, LENGTH = 256K
  RAM : ORIGIN = 0x20000000, LENGTH = 40K
}

4) Optionally, set a default build target

$ cat >>.cargo/config <<'EOF'
[build]
target = "thumbv7em-none-eabihf"
EOF

5) Depend on a device, HAL implementation or a board support crate.

$ # add a device crate, OR
$ cargo add stm32f30x

$ # add a HAL implementation crate, OR
$ cargo add stm32f103xx-hal

$ # add a board support crate
$ cargo add f3

6) Write the application or start from one of the examples

$ rm -r src/* && cp examples/hello.rs src/main.rs

7) Build the application

$ # NOTE this command requires `arm-none-eabi-ld` to be in $PATH
$ xargo build --release

$ # sanity check
$ arm-none-eabi-readelf -A target/thumbv7em-none-eabihf/release/demo
Attribute Section: aeabi
File Attributes
  Tag_conformance: "2.09"
  Tag_CPU_arch: v7E-M
  Tag_CPU_arch_profile: Microcontroller
  Tag_THUMB_ISA_use: Thumb-2
  Tag_FP_arch: VFPv4-D16
  Tag_ABI_PCS_GOT_use: direct
  Tag_ABI_FP_denormal: Needed
  Tag_ABI_FP_exceptions: Needed
  Tag_ABI_FP_number_model: IEEE 754
  Tag_ABI_align_needed: 8-byte
  Tag_ABI_align_preserved: 8-byte, except leaf SP
  Tag_ABI_HardFP_use: SP only
  Tag_ABI_VFP_args: VFP registers
  Tag_ABI_optimization_goals: Aggressive Speed
  Tag_CPU_unaligned_access: v6
  Tag_FP_HP_extension: Allowed
  Tag_ABI_FP_16bit_format: IEEE 754

8) Flash the program

$ # Launch OpenOCD on a terminal
$ openocd -f (..)
$ # Start a debug session in another terminal
$ arm-none-eabi-gdb target/thumbv7em-none-eabihf/release/demo

NOTE As of nightly-2017-05-14 or so and cortex-m-quickstart v0.1.6 you can simply run xargo run or xargo run --example $example to build the program, and immediately start a debug session. IOW, it lets you omit the arm-none-eabi-gdb command.

$ cargo run --example hello
> # drops you into a GDB session

Examples

Check the examples module

Troubleshooting

This section contains fixes for common errors encountered when the cortex-m-quickstart template is misused.

Forgot to launch an OpenOCD instance

Error message:

$ arm-none-eabi-gdb target/..
Reading symbols from hello...done.
.gdbinit:1: Error in sourced command file:
:3333: Connection timed out.

Solution: Launch OpenOCD on other terminal. See Usage section.

Didn't modify the memory.x linker script

Error message:

$ xargo build
Compiling demo v0.1.0 (file:///home/japaric/tmp/demo)
error: linking with `arm-none-eabi-ld` failed: exit code: 1
|
= note: "arm-none-eabi-ld" "-L" (..)
= note: arm-none-eabi-ld: address 0xbaaab838 of hello section `.text' is ..
arm-none-eabi-ld: address 0xbaaab838 of hello section `.text' is ..
arm-none-eabi-ld:
Invalid '.rodata.exceptions' section.
Make sure to place a static with type `cortex_m::exception::Handlers`
in that section (cf. #[link_section]) ONLY ONCE.

Solution: Specify your device memory layout in the memory.x linker script. See Usage section.

Forgot to set a default build target

Error message:

$ xargo build
(..)
Compiling cortex-m-semihosting v0.1.3
error[E0463]: can't find crate for `std`

error: aborting due to previous error

Solution: Set a default build target in the .cargo/config file (see Usage section), or call Xargo with --target flag: xargo build --target thumbv7em-none-eabi.

Overwrote the original .cargo/config file

Error message:

error: linking with `arm-none-eabi-gcc` failed: exit code: 1
  |
  = note: (..)
(..)
(..)/crt0.o: In function `_start':
(.text+0x90): undefined reference to `memset'
(..)/crt0.o: In function `_start':
(.text+0xd0): undefined reference to `atexit'
(..)/crt0.o: In function `_start':
(.text+0xd4): undefined reference to `__libc_init_array'
(..)/crt0.o: In function `_start':
(.text+0xe4): undefined reference to `exit'
(..)/crt0.o: In function `_start':
(.text+0x100): undefined reference to `__libc_fini_array'
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status

Solution: You probably overwrote the original .cargo/config instead of appending the default build target (e.g. cat > instead of cat >>). The less error prone way to fix this is to remove the .cargo directory, clone a new copy of the template and then copy the .cargo directory from that fresh template into your current project. Don't forget to append the default build target to .cargo/config.

Called OpenOCD with wrong arguments

Error message:

$ openocd -f ..
(..)
Error: open failed
in procedure 'init'
in procedure 'ocd_bouncer'

Solution: Correct the OpenOCD arguments. Check the /usr/share/openocd/scripts directory (exact location varies per distribution / OS) for a list of scripts that can be used.

Used Cargo instead of Xargo

Error message:

$ cargo build
Compiling cortex-m-rt v0.2.0
error[E0463]: can't find crate for `core`
|
= note: the `thumbv7em-none-eabihf` target may not be installed

error: aborting due to previous error

Solution: Use xargo build.

Used the stable toolchain

Error message:

$ xargo build
error: failed to run `rustc` to learn about target-specific information

To learn more, run the command again with --verbose.

Solution: Switch to the nightly toolchain with rustup default nightly.

Used gdb instead of arm-none-eabi-gdb

Error message:

$ gdb target/..
Reading symbols from hello...done.
warning: Architecture rejected target-supplied description
warning: Cannot convert floating-point register value to ..
value has been optimized out
Cannot write the dashboard
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<string>", line 353, in render
File "<string>", line 846, in lines
gdb.error: Frame is invalid.
0x00000000 in ?? ()
semihosting is enabled
Loading section .text, size 0xd88 lma 0x8000000
Start address 0x8000000, load size 3464
.gdbinit:6: Error in sourced command file:
Remote connection closed

Solution: Use arm-none-eabi-gdb target/..

Used a named piped for itm.fifo

Error message:

$ xargo run [--example ..]

Reading symbols from target/thumbv7em-none-eabihf/debug/cortex-m-quickstart...done.
cortex_m_rt::reset_handler ()
    at $REGISTRY/cortex-m-rt-0.3.12/src/lib.rs:330
330     unsafe extern "C" fn reset_handler() -> ! {
semihosting is enabled
Ignoring packet error, continuing...
Ignoring packet error, continuing...

Note that when you reach this point OpenOCD will become unresponsive and you'll have to kill it and start a new OpenOCD process before you can invoke xargo run / start GDB.

Cause: You uncommented the monitor tpiu .. line in .gdbinit and are using a named pipe to receive the ITM data (i.e. you ran mkfifo itm.fifo). This error occurs when itmdump -f itm.fifo (or equivalent, e.g. cat itm.fifo) is not running.

Solution: Run itmdump -f itm.fifo (or equivalently cat itm.fifo) before invoking xargo run / starting GDB. Note that sometimes itmdump will exit when the GDB session ends. In that case you'll have to run itmdump before you start the next GDB session.

Alternative solution: Use a plain text file instead of a named pipe. In this scenario you omit the mkfifo itm.dump command. You can use itmdump's follow mode (-F) to get named pipe like output.

Modules

examples

Examples