Hello!

Thanks for your reply. The embedded memory explorer indeed did reveal an alignment issue. Oddly, the sections are placed correctly, while the whole alignment is off (see attachments).
Both builds use an identical linker script. I could not find SRAM_DTC, SRAM_ITC or SRAM_OC anywhere within the project at all (Visual Studio CTL+SHIFT+F). Memory alignment in both files looks like:

[...]
MEMORY
{
m_flash_config (RX) : ORIGIN = 0x60000000, LENGTH = 0x00001000
m_ivt (RX) : ORIGIN = 0x60000000 + 0x1000, LENGTH = 0x00001000
m_interrupts (RX) : ORIGIN = 0x60000000 + 0x2000, LENGTH = 0x00000400
m_text (RX) : ORIGIN = 0x60000000 + 0x2400, LENGTH = 0x400000 - 0x2400
m_text2 (RX) : ORIGIN = 0x00000000, LENGTH = 0x00020000
m_data (RW) : ORIGIN = 0x80000000, LENGTH = 0x01E00000
m_ncache (RW) : ORIGIN = 0x81E00000, LENGTH = 0x00200000
m_data2 (RW) : ORIGIN = 0x20000000, LENGTH = 0x00020000
m_data3 (RW) : ORIGIN = 0x20200000, LENGTH = 0x00040000
}
SECTIONS
{
.flash_config :
{
. = ALIGN(8);
__FLASH_BASE = .;
KEEP(* (.boot_hdr.conf))
. = ALIGN(8);
} > m_flash_config
ivt_begin= ORIGIN(m_flash_config) + LENGTH(m_flash_config);
.ivt : AT(ivt_begin)
{
[...]

I also wrote a script to extract each command along with the *.rsp files from the ProjectName-Debug.bat and compared the output with the commands $make would use. This totals at 906 toolchain calls for gnu make and 905 for VisualGDB. We managed to identify the additional call as the preprocessing of the linker script. While we didn’t get too deep into the compile and assemble commands so far, we tried to look closely at the linking, but could not find any significant difference.

make (1017+711+61600 columns, last being .link_options.txt)
arm-none-eabi-cpp -E -P -Wl,--gc-sections -Wl,--wrap,main -Wl,--wrap,_malloc_r -Wl,--wrap,_free_r -Wl,--wrap,_realloc_r -Wl,--wrap,_memalign_r -Wl,--wrap,_calloc_r -Wl,--wrap,exit -Wl,--wrap,atexit -Wl,-n -Wl,--wrap,printf -Wl,--wrap,sprintf -Wl,--wrap,snprintf -Wl,--wrap,vprintf -Wl,--wrap,vsprintf -Wl,--wrap,vsnprintf -Wl,--wrap,fprintf -Wl,--wrap,vfprintf -mcpu=cortex-m7 -mthumb -mfpu=fpv5-d16 -mfloat-abi=softfp -Wall -Wextra -Wno-unused-parameter -Wno-missing-field-initializers -fmessage-length=0 -fno-exceptions -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections -funsigned-char -MMD -fomit-frame-pointer -Og -DMBED_DEBUG -DMBED_TRAP_ERRORS_ENABLED=1 -DMBED_MINIMAL_PRINTF -mcpu=cortex-m7 -mthumb -mfpu=fpv5-d16 -mfloat-abi=softfp -DMBED_RAM1_START=0x0 -DMBED_RAM1_SIZE=0x20000 -DMBED_RAM_START=0x20000000 -DMBED_RAM_SIZE=0x60000 -DMBED_BOOT_STACK_SIZE=1024 -DXIP_ENABLE=0 .././mbed-os/targets/TARGET_NXP/TARGET_MCUXpresso_MCUS/TARGET_MIMXRT1050/device/TOOLCHAIN_GCC_ARM/MIMXRT1052xxxxx.ld -o nxp_wsl_gmake.link_script.ld
arm-none-eabi-gcc -Wl,--gc-sections -Wl,--wrap,main -Wl,--wrap,_malloc_r -Wl,--wrap,_free_r -Wl,--wrap,_realloc_r -Wl,--wrap,_memalign_r -Wl,--wrap,_calloc_r -Wl,--wrap,exit -Wl,--wrap,atexit -Wl,-n -Wl,--wrap,printf -Wl,--wrap,sprintf -Wl,--wrap,snprintf -Wl,--wrap,vprintf -Wl,--wrap,vsprintf -Wl,--wrap,vsnprintf -Wl,--wrap,fprintf -Wl,--wrap,vfprintf -mcpu=cortex-m7 -mthumb -mfpu=fpv5-d16 -mfloat-abi=softfp -DMBED_RAM1_START=0x0 -DMBED_RAM1_SIZE=0x20000 -DMBED_RAM_START=0x20000000 -DMBED_RAM_SIZE=0x60000 -DMBED_BOOT_STACK_SIZE=1024 -DXIP_ENABLE=0 -T nxp_wsl_gmake.link_script.ld --output nxp_wsl_gmake.elf @.link_options.txt -Wl,--start-group -lstdc++ -lsupc++ -lm -lc -lgcc -lnosys -Wl,--end-group

VisualGDB (total of 81355 columns)
arm-none-eabi-g++.exe -o VisualGDB/Debug/IMXRT1050_NXP -Wl,-gc-sections -T./PreprocessedLinkerScript.ld --specs=nano.specs --specs=nosys.specs -Wl,--gc-sections -Wl,--wrap,main -Wl,--wrap,_malloc_r -Wl,--wrap,_free_r -Wl,--wrap,_realloc_r -Wl,--wrap,_memalign_r -Wl,--wrap,_calloc_r -Wl,--wrap,exit -Wl,--wrap,atexit -Wl,-n -Wl,--wrap,printf -Wl,--wrap,sprintf -Wl,--wrap,snprintf -Wl,--wrap,vprintf -Wl,--wrap,vsprintf -Wl,--wrap,vsnprintf -Wl,--wrap,fprintf -Wl,--wrap,vfprintf -mcpu=cortex-m7 -mthumb -mfpu=fpv5-d16 -mfloat-abi=softfp -DMBED_RAM_START=0x20000000 -DMBED_RAM_SIZE=0x60000 -DMBED_RAM1_START=0x0 -DMBED_RAM1_SIZE=0x20000 -DMBED_BOOT_STACK_SIZE=1024 -DXIP_ENABLE=0 -mthumb -mfloat-abi=hard -mfpu=fpv4-sp-d16 -mcpu=cortex-m7 -Wl,--start-group VisualGDB/Debug/main.o [...] -lm -lstdc++ -lsupc++ -lm -lc -lgcc -lnosys -Wl,--end-group

Is it even possible that this alignment issue could be caused by the compiled files before linking? Or would it make sense to dissect the prior build process (900+ lines) after all? Thanks!

Hello again,

I’m not using the preprocessor for linker files on MSBuild. Instead the setup currently uses the file from mbed-cli after preprocessing, which is identical to the linker file from MSBuild after preprocessing – aside of unused #defines in the header. All the processed linker files from MSBuild, mbed-cli or gmake are identical.

Sadly, it currently looks like there are issues in the object files as well as the linker command. I’ve narrowed the object files down to a folder within mbed-os, but whether those are changed or the linker command it breaks the build.
What is most puzzling, however: When copying the .elf file from the mbed-cli compilation (and renaming accordingly), the embedded memory explorer still shows a broken layout (see attachments in last post)? But if I delete the .elf file, it indeed says the file does not exist. Is this expected behavior?

Thank you for this command. None of both ELF files actually show the memory partitioning from the linker file (like m_ivt or SRAM_DTC, see attachments in previous post). Where does the embedded memory explorer get this information from? The controller/board in question has three memory setups for code execution: External Hyperflash/QSPI or internal RAM. Could the (presumably wrong) information origin from the project setup? Would this lead to more wrong settings due to?

I also simply copied a ELF file from the MSBuild setup to the mbed-cli one – and it looks fine this way.

This explains a lot. Then there (probably) is no memory alignment issue in first place. I also finally managed to find the culprit in the linker command: Both -mfloat-abi=hard and -mfloat-abi=soft are defined. If -mfloat-abi=hard is removed the code works. By now I do not know if this is correct, though. Now remains to,

1. Find where to disable -mfloat-abi=hard in the project settings. It seems to be added automatically somewhere outside of Properties -> Linker?
2. And more importantly, why the Debugger cannot set any breakpoints or map any code. Anything is “Frame not in module”.  Any directions where to start here?

Thanks!

When setting this option it also got removed from linker command, thanks!

The hardcoded breakpoint works like a charm and shows in the disassembly as expected too. (The debugger should be fine because it works in NXP’s native example projects.) How do I fix debugging symbols for embedded devices in custom projects in VisualGDB? Is this related to the BSP and different type of memory being used by default?

I didn’t know that applies for embedded setups too! But that worked well indeed, thanks!

For anyone else reading this thread, stripping debug information flag is not capital S, but also capital S apparently. -s = -Wl,-S, but not -S