I am working with a custom board: I have a Touchgfx project that seems to work fine with my custom loader, but if I place text in the external flash it will hard fault. Please note that when I place images/Icons it works fine.

[cleonb322]

..

[cleonb322]

[cleonb322]

when I un-comment the following lines in the linker that is when it crashes:

/* Un-comment this section to place fonts and text in external flash */

 FontFlashSection :

{

*(FontFlashSection FontFlashSection.*)

*(.gnu.linkonce.r.*)

    . = ALIGN(0x4);

} >QUADSPI

 TextFlashSection :

{

*(TextFlashSection TextFlashSection.*)

*(.gnu.linkonce.r.*)

    . = ALIGN(0x4);

} >QUADSPI

[SKacp.1]

Hi,

What You have messages from linker? Please show the whole linker file.

[cleonb322]

/**

 ******************************************************************************

 * @file   LinkerScript.ld

 * @author  Auto-generated by STM32CubeIDE

 * @brief   Linker script for STM32F767BITx Device from STM32F7 series

 *           2048Kbytes FLASH

 *           512Kbytes RAM

 *

 *      Set heap size, stack size and stack location according

 *      to application requirements.

 *

 *      Set memory bank area and size if external memory is used

 ******************************************************************************

 * @attention

 *

 * <h2><center>&copy; Copyright (c) 2020 STMicroelectronics.

 * All rights reserved.</center></h2>

 *

 * This software component is licensed by ST under BSD 3-Clause license,

 * the "License"; You may not use this file except in compliance with the

 * License. You may obtain a copy of the License at:

 *            opensource.org/licenses/BSD-3-Clause

 *

 ******************************************************************************

 */

/* Entry Point */

ENTRY(Reset_Handler)

/* Highest address of the user mode stack */

_estack = ORIGIN(RAM) + LENGTH(RAM); /* end of "RAM" Ram type memory */

_Min_Heap_Size = 0x200 ; /* required amount of heap */

_Min_Stack_Size = 0x400 ; /* required amount of stack */

/* Memories definition */

MEMORY

{

 RAM   (xrw)  : ORIGIN = 0x20000000, LENGTH = 512K

 FLASH  (rx)   : ORIGIN = 0x8000000,  LENGTH = 2048K

 QUADSPI (r)   : ORIGIN = 0x90000000, LENGTH = 8M

}

/* Sections */

SECTIONS

{

 /* The startup code into "FLASH" Rom type memory */

 .isr_vector :

 {

  . = ALIGN(4);

  KEEP(*(.isr_vector)) /* Startup code */

  . = ALIGN(4);

 } >FLASH

 /* The program code and other data into "FLASH" Rom type memory */

 .text :

 {

  . = ALIGN(4);

  *(.text)      /* .text sections (code) */

  *(.text*)     /* .text* sections (code) */

  *(.glue_7)     /* glue arm to thumb code */

  *(.glue_7t)    /* glue thumb to arm code */

  *(.eh_frame)

  KEEP (*(.init))

  KEEP (*(.fini))

  . = ALIGN(4);

  _etext = .;    /* define a global symbols at end of code */

 } >FLASH

 /* Constant data into "FLASH" Rom type memory */

 .rodata :

 {

  . = ALIGN(4);

  *(.rodata)     /* .rodata sections (constants, strings, etc.) */

  *(.rodata*)    /* .rodata* sections (constants, strings, etc.) */

  . = ALIGN(4);

 } >FLASH

 .ARM.extab  : {

  . = ALIGN(4);

  *(.ARM.extab* .gnu.linkonce.armextab.*)

  . = ALIGN(4);

 } >FLASH

 .ARM : {

  . = ALIGN(4);

  __exidx_start = .;

  *(.ARM.exidx*)

  __exidx_end = .;

  . = ALIGN(4);

 } >FLASH

 .preinit_array   :

 {

  . = ALIGN(4);

  PROVIDE_HIDDEN (__preinit_array_start = .);

  KEEP (*(.preinit_array*))

  PROVIDE_HIDDEN (__preinit_array_end = .);

  . = ALIGN(4);

 } >FLASH

 .init_array :

 {

  . = ALIGN(4);

  PROVIDE_HIDDEN (__init_array_start = .);

  KEEP (*(SORT(.init_array.*)))

  KEEP (*(.init_array*))

  PROVIDE_HIDDEN (__init_array_end = .);

  . = ALIGN(4);

 } >FLASH

 .fini_array :

 {

  . = ALIGN(4);

  PROVIDE_HIDDEN (__fini_array_start = .);

  KEEP (*(SORT(.fini_array.*)))

  KEEP (*(.fini_array*))

  PROVIDE_HIDDEN (__fini_array_end = .);

  . = ALIGN(4);

 } >FLASH

 /* Used by the startup to initialize data */

 _sidata = LOADADDR(.data);

 /* Initialized data sections into "RAM" Ram type memory */

 .data :

 {

  . = ALIGN(4);

  _sdata = .;    /* create a global symbol at data start */

  *(.data)      /* .data sections */

  *(.data*)     /* .data* sections */

  *(.RamFunc)    /* .RamFunc sections */

  *(.RamFunc*)    /* .RamFunc* sections */

  . = ALIGN(4);

  _edata = .;    /* define a global symbol at data end */

 } >RAM AT> FLASH

 /* Uninitialized data section into "RAM" Ram type memory */

 . = ALIGN(4);

 .bss :

 {

  /* This is used by the startup in order to initialize the .bss section */

  _sbss = .;     /* define a global symbol at bss start */

  __bss_start__ = _sbss;

  *(.bss)

  *(.bss*)

  *(COMMON)

  . = ALIGN(4);

  _ebss = .;     /* define a global symbol at bss end */

  __bss_end__ = _ebss;

 } >RAM

 /* User_heap_stack section, used to check that there is enough "RAM" Ram type memory left */

 ._user_heap_stack :

 {

  . = ALIGN(8);

  PROVIDE ( end = . );

  PROVIDE ( _end = . );

  . = . + _Min_Heap_Size;

  . = . + _Min_Stack_Size;

  . = ALIGN(8);

 } >RAM

 /* Remove information from the compiler libraries */

 /DISCARD/ :

 {

  libc.a ( * )

  libm.a ( * )

  libgcc.a ( * )

 }

 .ARM.attributes 0 : { *(.ARM.attributes) }

  

  

ExtFlashSection :

{

*(ExtFlashSection ExtFlashSection.*)

*(.gnu.linkonce.r.*)

    . = ALIGN(0x4);

} >QUADSPI

/* Un-comment this section to place fonts and text in external flash 

  FontFlashSection :

{

*(FontFlashSection FontFlashSection.*)

*(.gnu.linkonce.r.*)

    . = ALIGN(0x4);

} >QUADSPI

  TextFlashSection :

{

*(TextFlashSection TextFlashSection.*)

*(.gnu.linkonce.r.*)

    . = ALIGN(0x4);

} >QUADSPI

*/

}

[SKacp.1]

Hi,

Linker file looks good. What You see messages after You run compile?

Do You have properly initialized driver for external memory QUADSPI?

[cleonb322]

it compiles and runs fine. the only problem I am having is placing the TouchGfx text resources in the external memory. The icons/images are also on the external flash. it works with the icons on the external flash, but when I modified the linker to place the texts on the external flash is when I start having the hard fault issue.

[SKacp.1]

Hi,

If You have hardfault when start then problem is with reading external memory.

When You start debugging after initialization QUADSPI do You see contents memory? (see picture from my project).

[MM..1]

Why not memory mapped mode ?

[cleonb322]

it is configured in memory-mapped mode.

/* USER CODE BEGIN QUADSPI_Init 2 */

  CSP_QUADSPI_Init();

  CSP_QSPI_EnableMemoryMappedMode();

  HAL_NVIC_DisableIRQ(QUADSPI_IRQn);

 /* USER CODE END QUADSPI_Init 2 */