More details for "No board named 'ex' found." build errors

[Elitearcanist]

Is your enhancement proposal related to a problem? Please describe. When building using a custom board with a bug, such as a missing config file, the compiler only indicates that "No board named 'ex' found." and lists all the supported boards. This error code is not helpful or specific when you are debugging a custom board.

The documentation for custom board creation is good but human errors can lead to wasted hours when a descriptive error message can quickly point things in the right direction

Describe the solution you'd like A more comprehensive error detection would be extremely helpful. Being able to identify potential missing files or file syntax errors would be great for debugging.

Describe alternatives you've considered The documentation for custom board creation could always improve but I feel that wouldn't remove human error or provide project specific feedback when problems do arise.

Additional context Here is an example error, the nucleo_h743zi_defconfig file was missing. The custom board was based on the nucleo_h743zi, (which is supported) but customized to fit the projects needs.

---

-- west build: making build dir D:\test_proj\zephyr-spi-directly-main\build pristine -- west build: generating a build system Loading Zephyr default modules (Zephyr base). -- Application: D:/test_proj/zephyr-spi-directly-main -- CMake version: 3.26.4 -- Found Python3: D:/zephyrproject/.venv/Scripts/python.exe (found suitable exact version "3.11.1") found components: Interpreter -- Cache files will be written to: D:/zephyrproject/zephyr/.cache -- Zephyr version: 3.4.99 (D:/zephyrproject/zephyr) -- Found west (found suitable version "1.1.0", minimum required is "0.14.0") -- Board: nucleo_h743zi2 No board named 'nucleo_h743zi2' found.

Please choose one of the following boards:

*list of all supported boards (removed to save space)*

CMake Error at D:/zephyrproject/zephyr/cmake/modules/boards.cmake:163 (message): Invalid BOARD; see above. Call Stack (most recent call first): D:/zephyrproject/zephyr/cmake/modules/zephyr_default.cmake:115 (include) D:/zephyrproject/zephyr/share/zephyr-package/cmake/ZephyrConfig.cmake:66 (include) D:/zephyrproject/zephyr/share/zephyr-package/cmake/ZephyrConfig.cmake:92 (include_boilerplate) CMakeLists.txt:4 (find_package)

-- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred! FATAL ERROR: command exited with status 1: 'C:\Program Files\CMake\bin\cmake.EXE' -DWEST_PYTHON=D:/zephyrproject/.venv/Scripts/python.exe '-BD:\test_proj\zephyr-spi-directly-main\build' -GNinja -DBOARD=nucleo_h743zi2 -DBOARD_ROOT= '-SD:\test_proj\zephyr-spi-directly-main'

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[nordicjm]

It is not possible to guess what files are missing, board lookup is done based on that file existing or not.

[zephyrbot]

Hi @tejlmand,

This issue, marked as an Enhancement, was opened a while ago and did not get any traction. It was just assigned to you based on the labels. If you don't consider yourself the right person to address this issue, please re-assing it to the right person.

Please take a moment to review if the issue is still relevant to the project. If it is, please provide feedback and direction on how to move forward. If it is not, has already been addressed, is a duplicate, or is no longer relevant, please close it with a short comment explaining the reason.

@Elitearcanist you are also encouraged to help moving this issue forward by providing additional information and confirming this request/issue is still relevant to you.

Thanks!