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#47 Easier device selection for Segger J-Link connection

Time Permitting
closed
None
5
2015-03-21
2014-05-10
No

I need to enter the device name/identifier into the Segger J-Link launch configuration. To get that device name, I need to check it from the Segger web site. P&E has solved that in a nice way inside the Freescale Kinetis Design Studio that they offer a drop down box so I do not need to enter that string manually.
Would be really cool if that would be the case for Segger J-Link connection too.

Thanks!
Erich

Discussion

  • Liviu Ionescu (ilg)

    P&E has solved that in a nice way ... a drop down box

    right, I considered this, but SEGGER has a huge list of supported devices (probably hundreds of entries), which makes a drop down quite impractical.

    for comparison, since I do not have KDS installed, can you estimate how many entries has the P&E drop down?

     

    Last edit: Liviu Ionescu (ilg) 2014-05-10
    • Erich Styger

      Erich Styger - 2014-05-10

      I count 204 devices.
      Yup, agree on that huge list thing.
      I already asked P&E to 'filter'f or the device (so I do not need to scroll through that list, btw).

       
      • Liviu Ionescu (ilg)

        the Segger list seems 10 times longer... and without an automated method to update it, it is almost unmanageable. :-(

         
  • Liviu Ionescu (ilg)

    • status: open --> open-accepted
    • assigned_to: Liviu Ionescu (ilg)
     
  • Liviu Ionescu (ilg)

    just a note: for STM Cortex-M devices, J-Link automatically detects the device, so I ended up using a generic name like 'ST' for all devices (completely ignored by J-Link GDB Server).

    could you try if this works for Kinetis devices too?

     
  • Erich Styger

    Erich Styger - 2014-05-10

    thanks for that tip! Wow, I had not realized that, altough it is described (not in details) on the Segger page.
    I tried MK, MKL or FSL, but this did not work.
    But what worked was usign the 'core name' as listed on http://www.segger.com/jlink_supported_devices.html#SupportedCPUCores
    So Cortex-M0+ worked for me to connect to the KL25Z :-)

     
    • Liviu Ionescu (ilg)

      can you tell if it uses all Kinetis features? you can try two sessions with or without the full name, and compare the server output, or even the server log.

      in the log you can see the actual sequence used for initialisations; if it is identical in both cases, you can safely use the architecture setting.

       
      • Erich Styger

        Erich Styger - 2014-05-10

        Yes, I need to check this. I have found another way: just specifying a wrong name like 'dummy' opens I dialog from Segger where I can choose the device (after pressing 'yes'. Hovewer, that dialog automatically closes after about 5 seconds. Not sure if this is part of Segger or part of your plugin (that the dialog closes). That about 5 seconds does not give much time. Do you have the same?

         
        • Liviu Ionescu (ilg)

          no, it is a Segger feature implemented only on windows.

           
  • Erich Styger

    Erich Styger - 2014-05-10

    It looks that for using Cortex-M0+ or Cortex-M4 works fine for me, and the GDB output makes sense (but I have not checked every detail).
    The other thing I noticed: if I keep the 'Device name' field empty, I get an error. Would it not be better to use the 'Unspecified' device name (the Segger interface understands this one too). It looks like the Segger is pretty smart and finds out the device based on the hardware device ID/etc.
    I bring this up as my students tend to forget to specify the device name, and if the plugin would use 'Unspecified' as default (instead of an empty text) that would be not a bad idea?

     
  • Liviu Ionescu (ilg)

    ... 'Unspecified' device name (the Segger interface understands ...

    yes, good idea, I'll consider it for the next release.

    thank you,

    Liviu

     
  • Erich Styger

    Erich Styger - 2014-05-10

    Another idea, not sure if this is possible (maybe Segger can make this available): the list of devices is present in the Segger JLinkGDBServer.exe (see attached image). Maybe they have a way to call that dialog/list?

     
  • Liviu Ionescu (ilg)

    Segger agreed to update their software to accept the CMSIS device names.

    In the near future the build plug-in will store the device name, and then the de debug plug-in will use it directly from there.

     
  • Liviu Ionescu (ilg)

    • status: open-accepted --> pending
     
  • Liviu Ionescu (ilg)

    the new approach (to automatically set the j-link device name from the project device selection) was implemented, see the latest beta.

    are there any other details from this ticket still not covered? if not, can we close this ticket?

     
  • Liviu Ionescu (ilg)

    • status: pending --> open-accepted
     
  • Liviu Ionescu (ilg)

    • status: open-accepted --> closed