S-Record Generation with gcc for ARM/Kinetis

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Erich Styger

With my Freedom KL25Z board I’m using the GNU/gcc build tools and Eclipse/CodeWarrior. When I wanted to create an S19 file of my application using the GNU tools, this was not that easy to find out. So here are the steps to do this:

I open the project setting using the menu Project > Properties and go to C/C++ Build > Settings > Additional Tools and enable’Create Flash Image‘:

Additional Tools gcc Settings

Now I need to press the Apply button:

Apply Button

Pressing the Apply button will show up an additional ‘Create Flash Image’ group. Many other formats are available in the drop down as shown in the screenshot.

Create Flash Image Option

Now I can specify S-Record/S19 as output format:

Settings to create S-Record

Pressing OK, and building my project again will show up the S19 file together with the application file:

S19 File Generated

Post Build Step

A generic way to generate the S19 file is to use a post build step:

Post Build Step to produce S19 file

In the above screenshot, I’m using the objcopy (which is present in my PATH environment variable). It is using the command line options described here. See DIY Free Toolchain for Kinetis: Part 2 – Eclipse IDE for more details.

Happy Tooling 🙂

46 thoughts on “S-Record Generation with gcc for ARM/Kinetis”

SutoCom on September 24, 2012 at 12:35 said:

Reblogged this on Sutoprise Avenue, A SutoCom Source.

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Jack on October 24, 2012 at 10:42 said:

I think it is better to use suffix .s19 for a s-record file instead of suffix .hex, right?

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- Erich Styger on October 24, 2012 at 12:43 said:
  
  Yes, agreed. I see that the output file name in the plugin is hard-coded always to use the .hex extension. But it is possible to overwrite this. In the settings, change the command line pattern from
  “${ARMSourceryDir}/${COMMAND}” ${INPUTS} ${FLAGS} ${OUTPUT_FLAG}${OUTPUT_PREFIX} ${OUTPUT}
  to
  “${ARMSourceryDir}/${COMMAND}” ${INPUTS} ${FLAGS} ${OUTPUT_FLAG}${OUTPUT_PREFIX} myFile.s19
  
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Long Tran on December 10, 2012 at 10:18 said:

You can use the Variable ProjName so that the file will be “demo.s19” if your project name is “demo”

“${ARMSourceryDir}/${COMMAND}” ${INPUTS} ${FLAGS} ${OUTPUT_FLAG}${OUTPUT_PREFIX}${ProjName}.s19

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- Erich Styger on December 10, 2012 at 11:00 said:
  
  Many thanks for that solution, very useful!
  
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- Jei Chou on September 24, 2013 at 05:30 said:
  
  Very useful. Thanks for the tips. But one additional question. The size of a line is only 43 characters (16 bytes of binaries.) It should have an option to specify the size, isn’t it? What would that be?
  
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  - Erich Styger on September 24, 2013 at 09:30 said:
    
    Yes, there is an option:
    –srec-len
    But you need to add this option to the command line, or to use a post build step.
    I have updated the post with that information.
    
    I hope this helps.
    
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Jeff Mucha on March 15, 2013 at 08:04 said:

I have a FRDM Board and I loaded CodeWarrior Dev Studio and when I follow these steps Everything looks like it should work, but I don’t get the srec file showing up in the project explorer like it does in this example.. What am I doing wrong? I see my .elf and .map but i’m not getting an srec..

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- Erich Styger on March 15, 2013 at 11:14 said:
  
  Hi Jeff,
  Can you check the Console view if it shows that it generates the file?
  It should write something like ‘Invoking: ARM Ltd Windows GNU Create Flash Image’.
  Then be aware that by default the file name extension is .hex (and not .S19 or something similar).
  I hope this helps.
  
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- Erich Styger on March 15, 2013 at 21:09 said:
  
  Hi Jeff,
  just as an FYI: I have found the S19 or Code size information not generated if I had a linked file to a non-existing HTML file in project. I had this linked file to the index.html of my doxygen files. For whatever reason this impacted the build process. Having that linked file removed or having the destination of the link present fixed the problem. Just in case you run into that same corner case.
  
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  - Mike Braddock on July 24, 2013 at 03:30 said:
    
    Eric,
    
    What if the ‘Invoking: ARM Ltd Windows GNU Create Flash Image’ is not showing up?
    
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    - Erich Styger on July 24, 2013 at 07:30 said:
      
      Hi Mike,
      maybe this one helps:
      
      Traps and Pitfalls: No Hex/Bin/S19 File Created with GNU?
      
      ?
      
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Cesar Calva on February 27, 2014 at 03:06 said:

Thank you Erich!!!
Recently I had a problem, I burn my FRDM-KL25Z board when soldering, and it is not possible to debug from Codewarrior with its debugger (it shows the open SDA communication error, I tried all ways you say on this blog and others without results), so the only solution I could figure was to work only with mbed and its drag and drop style.
Now I learned how to do the same but with my programs made on CW, and I am very happy because thanks to you I save my board.

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- Erich Styger on February 27, 2014 at 06:40 said:
  
  Hi Cesar,
  glad to hear that things worked out for you. I’m wondering what happened with your soldering, as you did not destroy the the processor?
  
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Marc Lindahl on April 21, 2014 at 00:49 said:

FYI I found this post-build set line worked for me:

“${ARMSourceryDir}/arm-none-eabi-objcopy” -O srec “${ProjName}.${BuildArtifactFileExt}” “${ProjName}.s19”

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- Marc Lindahl on May 7, 2014 at 23:19 said:
  
  warning — beware of the quotes. This website changed them, re-type the regular straight-up-and-down double quotes.
  
  Another example for making a binary:
  
  “${ARMSourceryDir}/arm-none-eabi-objcopy” -O binary “${BuildArtifactFileName}” “${BuildArtifactFileBaseName}.bin”
  
  I found that some of these variables may be different for different project, just go to the C/C++ Build->Build Variables area in properties and check the ‘show system variables’ box to see what’s available.
  
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  - Erich Styger on May 8, 2014 at 06:21 said:
    
    Hi Marc,
    yes, thanks for the warning. That’s a typcial problem of web page copy-paste, and gives strange errors in the tools :-(. And yes, variables are different from Eclipse distribution to another, and can cause issues moving projects with Eclipse releases too 😦
    
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Durgesh on July 16, 2014 at 08:25 said:

Hi Erich,

As you suggested i have typed the command (arm-none-eabi-objcopy -O srec “${ProjDirPath}/Debug/${ProjName}.${BuildArtifactFileExt}””${ProjName}.s19” ) in post build steps command. But I am getting the error : “arm-none-eabi-objcopy’ is not recognized as an internal or external command.

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- Erich Styger on July 16, 2014 at 08:28 said:
  
  instead of arm-none-eabi-objcopy, can you use the full path to the arm-none-eabi-objcopy.exe? I think that it might not be present in your PATH, as the error message indicates that it cannot be found.
  
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Ming on November 14, 2014 at 21:57 said:

Is it possible to have s19 file output re-formatted with word size address aligment instead of byte address aligment with some additional option flag set?

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- Erich Styger on November 15, 2014 at 08:01 said:
  
  Not with this GNU tool, but have a look at http://srecord.sourceforge.net/ and https://mcuoneclipse.com/2013/10/29/s-record-manipulation-with-gnu-objcopy-and-burner-utility/
  
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Abhi on December 25, 2014 at 18:25 said:

Hello,
I am new to code warrior.
I set output file format srec, and build the project.
After that I am getting following error:
“arm-none-eabi-gcc: warning: ‘-x assembler-with-cpp’ after last input file has no effect”

Please help

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- Erich Styger on December 26, 2014 at 08:58 said:
  
  You can simply ignore that warning. It is an oversight of the CodeWarrior tool chain command line generation.
  
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Ganesh R on March 21, 2016 at 08:38 said:

Hey Erich,
I am using Kinetis Design Studio. I don’t have any option called “Additional Tools” as explained here. What should I Do ?
Thanks
Ganesh R

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- Ganesh R on March 21, 2016 at 10:41 said:
  
  Hey Erich I got it. It was under Toolchains tab. Thanks
  
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Manoj on August 4, 2016 at 08:22 said:

Hi ,

i have created srec file for my project and try to download using MSD application,nothing is happening. How ever precompiled example files are downloading and working succefully

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- Erich Styger on August 4, 2016 at 08:27 said:
  
  What kind of MSD are you using? Note that the mbed MSD only accepts bin files (not s19), see https://mcuoneclipse.com/2014/04/20/binary-files-for-the-mbed-bootloader-with-eclipse-and-gnu-arm-eclipse-plugins/
  
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kishanblogemb on October 10, 2016 at 13:29 said:

Hello Eric sir,

I am using KDS IDE. I want to create .s19 file.

SIGN_BOARD_100_10_2016 is my project name….

I write following command in post

${ARMSourceryDir}/arm-none-eabi-objcopy” -O srec “${ProjName}.${BuildArtifactFileExt}” “${ProjName}.s19

Description;
serc s19 file

but I am getting follwoing error

c:/freescale/kds_v3/eclipse/../bin/sh: /arm-none-eabi-objcopy”: not found
makefile:85: recipe for target ‘post-build’ failed
make[1]: [post-build] Error 127 (ignored)

post-build:
-@echo ‘serc s19’
-/arm-none-eabi-objcopy” -O srec “SIGN_BOARD_100_10_2016.elf” “SIGN_BOARD_100_10_2016.s19
-@echo ‘ ‘

And how do I use arm-none-eabi-objcopy.exe file..

Thank you..

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- Erich Styger on October 10, 2016 at 16:45 said:
  
  Hello,
  with KDS there is very simply way to generate S19 files (or other files), see https://mcuoneclipse.com/2014/04/20/binary-files-for-the-mbed-bootloader-with-eclipse-and-gnu-arm-eclipse-plugins/. There is an option under the toolchain path for this.
  Your problem is that you Eclipse does not find the objcopy, plus you are missing a double quote at the end.
  What works for me is this:
  "C:\nxp\KDS_3.2.0\Toolchain\bin\arm-none-eabi-objcopy.exe" -O srec "${ProjName}.${BuildArtifactFileExt}" "${ProjName}.s19"
  Of course update the path to where you have placed the binary on your machine.
  I hope this helps,
  Erich
  
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  - Erich Styger on October 10, 2016 at 16:47 said:
    
    Here is another version:
    "${eclipse_home}/../toolchain/bin/arm-none-eabi-objcopy.exe" -O srec "${ProjName}.${BuildArtifactFileExt}" "${ProjName}.s19"
    
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chum on January 19, 2019 at 07:01 said:

Hi Erich,
I’m using MCUXpresso IDE to build demo application image file. I have .s19 file, I need to know how to generate boot_image.sb using s19 for MIMXRT1050-EVK ?

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- Erich Styger on January 19, 2019 at 09:36 said:
  
  So you are really using the EVK and not the EVKB? I don’t recommend the EVK (non-B) version because this is using an outdated silicon version. See https://mcuoneclipse.com/2018/08/04/i-mx-rt1050-evk-vs-evkb/
  
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- Erich Styger on January 23, 2019 at 08:06 said:
  
  I have documented the steps how to create a boot image to boot from SD card on i.MX RT1050: https://mcuoneclipse.com/2019/01/22/tutorial-booting-the-nxp-i-mx-rt-from-micro-sd-card/
  I hope this helps?
  
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