Partial or Full chip erase before programming?

[Andrew Neil]

Keil (among others) allows the choice of whether to do a full or partial erase before programming:

Is it possible to do that in STM32CubeIDE ?

If so, how ?

[Kraal]

Hi @Andrew Neil 

I don't think there is a nice GUI window as in Keil, I'm using the external tool configuration and depending on the argument you specify it can do either mass erase or only needed sectors:

For the sectors needed only, the argument is:
-c port=SWD mode=UR -d ${workspace_loc}\${project_name}\${config_name:${project_name}}\${project_name}.elf -v -rst

For mass erase instead:
-c port=SWD mode=UR -e all -d ${workspace_loc}\${project_name}\${config_name:${project_name}}\${project_name}.elf -v -rst

You can even skip the flash erase, or only some sectors. Everything is explained in the STM32_Programmer_CLI help.

Have a nice day,
Kraal

[Andrew Neil]

Thanks for that.

So is that all I need to do, or does it also need some reference to the "external tool" to be added/modified elsewhere?

[Kraal]

From the external tool configuration, the last tab "Common" there is a checkbox under "Display in favorites menu" that you should check (red box below) :

Your configurations will then show in the main menu in the IDE :

Note that you don't need to develop the drop down menu if you always use the same configuration, you can directly click on "Play_toolbox" icon (if you hover over it, the text shall say "use latest tool" or something like so).

Warning: in my case, I have to select the project I want to flash in the project pane for the tool to work OK. Otherwise it fails to convert ${workspace_loc}\${project_name}\${config_name:${project_name}}\${project_name}.elf into something meaningful and will comply.

[Andrew Neil]

So this is giving a button to do just the programming - without debugging?

How do I integrate this with starting a Debug session?

How do I tell the Debug Configuration to use this to do its download? Or does it "just happen" automagically?

Or is there a way to tell the Debug Configuration to not do its download?

(I see I didn't mention that I wanted this included as part of starting a debug session - as Keil "just does it")

[Andrew Neil]

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@Andrew Neil wrote:

Or is there a way to tell the Debug Configuration to not do its download?

---

Aha - that one is answered by @TDK here:

https://community.st.com/t5/stm32-mcus-boards-and-hardware/connecting-to-running-target/m-p/272667/highlight/true#M9438

But is there a way to modify the Debug Configuration's down load behaviour ?

[Uwe Bonnes]

If you run with GDB ans some GDBserver and the right memory map for the device, gdb does a sector erase  for the sectors involved. E.g. blackmagic has a monitor command "mon(itor) erase_mass" to do a full erase.

[Kraal]

You should be able to modify the debug download behavior, but I'm not sure to what extent. @STTwo-32 can you help regarding this please ?

Otherwise, the old TrueStudio documentation suggested to create a "Launch group" which executes:
- first the external tool to download the executable in the microcontroller (this can include external memory like QSPI providing you have the right external loader)
- then the debug session, with its download checkbox unticked