Error in building the program. Error in build step #5 (Make): Make process exited with code 2

Coder
1

Good evening everyone,
I have a custom board with an STM32G474RE microprocessor that works perfectly when programmed with STM32CubeIDE. Problems arise when I try to use PLECS Coder: I cannot compile or flash the firmware. Not even a simple test to make an LED flash works with PLECS.

The error I see is as follows:

Error in build step #5 (Make): Make process exited with code 2:
“C:/Users/chiar/Documents/Plexim/PLECS 4.8 (64 bit)/tsp_stm32/bin/c2p-gdb/c2p-gdb” load --server-cmd “\“C:/Users/chiar/Documents/Plexim/PLECS 4.8 (64 bit)/tsp_stm32/bin/openocd/bin/openocd\” -s \“C:/Users/chiar/Documents/Plexim/PLECS 4.8 (64 bit)/tsp_stm32/bin/openocd/share/openocd/scripts\” -s \“C:/Users/chiar/Documents/Plexim/PLECS 4.8 (64 bit)/tsp_stm32/templates/openocd\” -f board/st_nucleo_g4.cfg” --server-start-delay 1000 --port 3333 --nvic 0x08000000 ./output_STM32G474RE/led.elf
Architecture: arm
Unable to load binary “./output_STM32G474RE/led.elf”. Unable to erase flash.
Healthy exit.
led.mk:243: recipe for target ‘download’ failed

Open On-Chip Debugger 0.11.0 (2021-12-23-14:02)
Licensed under GNU GPL v2
For bug reports, read

Info : The selected transport took over low-level target control. The results might differ compared to plain JTAG/SWD
srst_only separate srst_nogate srst_open_drain connect_deassert_srst

Info : Listening on port 6666 for tcl connections
Info : Listening on port 4444 for telnet connections
Info : clock speed 2000 kHz
Error: libusb_open() failed with LIBUSB_ERROR_NOT_SUPPORTED
Info : STLINK V3J16M7B5S1 (API v3) VID:PID 0483:374F
Info : Target voltage: 3.261130
Info : stm32g4x.cpu: hardware has 6 breakpoints, 4 watchpoints
Info : starting gdb server for stm32g4x.cpu on 3333
Info : Listening on port 3333 for gdb connections
Info : accepting ‘gdb’ connection on tcp/3333
target halted due to debug-request, current mode: Thread
xPSR: 0x6100cc00 pc: 0x0800072c msp: 0x2001ffd0
Info : device idcode = 0x20036469 (STM32G47/G48xx - Rev ‘unknown’ : 0x2003)
Info : flash size = 512kbytes
Info : flash mode : dual-bank
Info : Unable to match requested speed 2000 kHz, using 1000 kHz
Info : Unable to match requested speed 2000 kHz, using 1000 kHz
Error: timed out while waiting for target halted
TARGET: stm32g4x.cpu - Not halted
in procedure ‘ocd_gdb_restart’
Info : Unable to match requested speed 2000 kHz, using 1000 kHz
Info : Unable to match requested speed 2000 kHz, using 1000 kHz
Error: timed out while waiting for target halted
Error executing event gdb-flash-erase-start on target stm32g4x.cpu:
TARGET: stm32g4x.cpu - Not halted
Error: Target not halted
Error: failed erasing sectors 0 to 4
Error: flash_erase returned -304
Info : dropped ‘gdb’ connection
make: *** [download] Error 1

How can I solve it?

2

Hello Chiara,

On some Windows 11 machines we have observed the issue that the pre-installed drivers do not support flashing the STM32 MCUs using OpenOCD. A workaround is to install STM32CubeIDE, which changes which drivers are used by OpenOCD. Is it possible that this is the case on your system?

3

Thanks for your reply. I fixed it by connecting the NRST signal of the STlink V3 to the NRST pin of the MCU. Probably it could not reset the MCU while programming it. Still do not understand why STM32IDE can do it…

4

I am glad to read that you found a fix!

Yes, PLECS requires the NRST pin to be connected. The reason for this is that we use OpenOCD to deploy the code out of PLECS. STM32CubeIDE uses custom proprietary tools to flash STM32 MCUs that don’t require the NRST pin to be connected.