Wrong flash size detected for `mxic` flash chip (128 kbytes v 8192 kbytes) with v5.1.1 (IDFGH-11041)

[RobMeades]

Answers checklist.

• [X] I have read the documentation ESP-IDF Programming Guide and the issue is not addressed there.
• [X] I have updated my IDF branch (master or release) to the latest version and checked that the issue is present there.
• [X] I have searched the issue tracker for a similar issue and not found a similar issue.

IDF version.

v5.1.1

Operating System used.

Linux

How did you build your project?

Command line with idf.py

If you are using Windows, please specify command line type.

None

Development Kit.

u-blox NINA-W15

Power Supply used.

USB

What is the expected behavior?

Detect the 8 megabyte mxic flash chip used within the u-blox NINA-W15 module (ESP32) as being of size 8192 kbytes, e.g. as below, which is what version 5.0.1 did.

spi_flash: detected chip: mxic
spi_flash: flash io: dio
spi_flash: Detected size(8192k) larger than the size in the binary image header(2048k). Using the size in the binary image header.
cpu_start: Starting scheduler on PRO CPU.
cpu_start: Starting scheduler on APP CPU.

What is the actual behavior?

With version 5.1.1, ESP-IDF now thinks that the 8 megabyte mxic flash chip only has 128 kbytes of flash:

spi_flash: detected chip: mxic
spi_flash: flash io: dio
spi_flash: Detected size(128k) smaller than the size in the binary image header(2048k). Probe failed.

Steps to reproduce.

Attempt to run a build made with ESP-IDF v5.1.1, as opposed to ESP-IDF v5.0.1, on a u-blox NINA-W15 (ESP32 with 8 Megabyte mxic chip) module, which I am perfectly happy to do to investigate/test any proposed fix.

Debug Logs.

See above.

More Information.

No response

[RobMeades]

Binary-chopping indicates that v5.0.3 does NOT have the issue but both v5.1 and v5.1.1 DO have the issue.

[mythbuster5]

I didn't remember any changes about this part from 5.0 to 5.1. Could you please get the mxic size by esptool.py flash_id. And did you modify any sdkconfig?

[RobMeades]

Hi, and thanks for the swift response. esptool.py reports:

Detecting chip type... ESP32
Chip is ESP32-D0WD-V3 (revision v3.0)
Features: WiFi, BT, Dual Core, 240MHz, VRef calibration in efuse, Coding Scheme None
Crystal is 40MHz
MAC: e8:31:cd:da:6a:00
Uploading stub...
Running stub...
Stub running...
Manufacturer: c2
Device: 2537
Detected flash size: 8MB

In terms of sdkconfig, find it attached (renamed as .txt): lots of stuff in it but it is "boilerplate" as far as we are concerned, we haven't touched it in a long time and very little of it matters to us.

sdkconfig.defaults.txt

[RobMeades]

\<cough />

[RobMeades]

Any suggestions as to how to move forward with this?

[michaelw-inno]

I have the same problem with the NINA-W106 10B-00 with 8MB flash. @RobMeades as you said IDF < 5.1 works, IDF >= 5.1 does not work. I investigated the issue today and I found out that there is a patch 4c66d7e which implements a size_detect function for MXIC chips. This function correctly detects the size of the flash used in the u-blox chips. It can be cherry-picked to 5.1 to fix the issue as a workaround. (I only tried 5.1.2, but I assume it also works for other patch versions)

@espressif is there any plan to port this patch to the newer IDF versions?

[RobMeades]

Woohoo! Thank you @espressif!

[RobMeades]

...and @michaelw-inno of course.