LP-AM261: Problems when loading C application on the PRU programmatically (stuck in __TI_decompress_lzss)

Daniel Watson

Part Number: LP-AM261

Tool/software:

Hi!

I am having some problems when loading my C PRU application programmatically from the R5 with PRUICSS_loadFirmware()
The same application runs just fine when I load it from JTAG.
And I have built another small C application which just toggles a LED on/off, that one runs just fine when I load it from the R5 PRUICSS_loadFirmware()
But when I load my other application from the R5 and load the symbols on the PRU, it seems to be continuously calling __TI_decompress_lzss() and I don't understand why.
I do not have that problem when loading it from JTAG and my other "led blink" application does not exhibit the same problems when loaded from PRUICSS_loadFirmware().

Could you please help me figure out what is going on?

Best regards
Daniel

25 days ago

0 Nilabh Anand 25 days ago

TI__Mastermind 45004 points

Hi Daniel,

Thank you for sharing the details,

Allow me sometime to reproduce this and debug the issue, I will try to get back by early next week.

0 Nilabh Anand 20 days ago in reply to Nilabh Anand

TI__Mastermind 45004 points

Hi Daniel,

I was not able to reproduce this,

Did you set the entry point of the PRU project properly in arm linker option in project setting. Looks like that is missing.

0 Daniel Watson 13 days ago in reply to Nilabh Anand

Prodigy 165 points

Hi Nilabh,

I tried setting in to main in the project "--entry_point=main" but makes no difference.

Here is my original map file without setting the entry point to main.

******************************************************************************
                     PRU Linker PC v2.3.3                      
******************************************************************************
>> Linked Tue Sep  2 15:44:08 2025

OUTPUT FILE NAME:   <PRU_0.out>
ENTRY POINT SYMBOL: "_c_int00_noargs"  address: 00000458


MEMORY CONFIGURATION

         name            origin    length      used     unused   attr    fill
----------------------  --------  ---------  --------  --------  ----  --------
PAGE 0:
  PRU_IMEM              00000000   00003000  000004b4  00002b4c  RWIX

PAGE 1:
  PRU0_DMEM_0           00000000   00002000  00000160  00001ea0  RWIX
  PRU0_DMEM_1           00002000   00002000  00000000  00002000  RWIX

PAGE 2:
  PRU_SHAREDMEM         00010000   00008000  00000000  00008000  RWIX


SECTION ALLOCATION MAP

 output                                  attributes/
section   page    origin      length       input sections
--------  ----  ----------  ----------   ----------------
.text      0    00000000    000004b4     
                  00000000    000000d0     rtspruv3_le.lib : copy_decompress_lzss.c.obj (.text:decompress:lzss:__TI_decompress_lzss)
                  000000d0    00000088                     : autoinit.c.obj (.text:__TI_auto_init_nobinit_nopinit:__TI_auto_init_nobinit_nopinit)
                  00000158    00000080     main.obj (.text:send_pixel)
                  000001d8    00000078     main.obj (.text:send_frame)
                  00000250    00000068     main.obj (.text:send_zero)
                  000002b8    00000064     main.obj (.text:send_one)
                  0000031c    00000040     main.obj (.text:delay_ms)
                  0000035c    00000034     rtspruv3_le.lib : memcpy.asm.obj (.text)
                  00000390    0000002c     main.obj (.text:error)
                  000003bc    00000028     rtspruv3_le.lib : copy_decompress_none.c.obj (.text:decompress:none:__TI_decompress_none)
                  000003e4    00000028     main.obj (.text:init)
                  0000040c    00000028     main.obj (.text:main)
                  00000434    00000024     main.obj (.text:send_reset)
                  00000458    00000020     rtspruv3_le.lib : boot.c.obj (.text:_c_int00_noargs)
                  00000478    0000001c     main.obj (.text:wait_for_interrupt)
                  00000494    0000000c     main.obj (.text:send_interrupt_to_r5)
                  000004a0    00000008     rtspruv3_le.lib : exit.c.obj (.text:abort)
                  000004a8    00000008                     : exit.c.obj (.text:loader_exit)
                  000004b0    00000004                     : startup.c.obj (.text:_system_post_cinit)

.stack     1    00000000    00000100     UNINITIALIZED
                  00000000    00000004     rtspruv3_le.lib : boot.c.obj (.stack)
                  00000004    000000fc     --HOLE--

.data      1    00000100    00000044     UNINITIALIZED
                  00000100    00000020     main.obj (.data:blank_frame)
                  00000120    00000020     main.obj (.data:red_frame)
                  00000140    00000004     main.obj (.data)

.cinit     1    00000144    0000001c     
                  00000144    0000000f     (.cinit..data.load) [load image, compression = lzss]
                  00000153    00000001     --HOLE-- [fill = 0]
                  00000154    00000004     (__TI_handler_table)
                  00000158    00000008     (__TI_cinit_table)

MODULE SUMMARY

       Module                       code   ro data   rw data
       ------                       ----   -------   -------
    .\
       main.obj                     716    0         68     
    +--+----------------------------+------+---------+---------+
       Total:                       716    0         68     
                                                            
    C:\App\ti\ti-cgt-pru_2.3.3\lib\rtspruv3_le.lib
       copy_decompress_lzss.c.obj   208    0         0      
       autoinit.c.obj               136    0         0      
       memcpy.asm.obj               52     0         0      
       copy_decompress_none.c.obj   40     0         0      
       boot.c.obj                   32     0         0      
       exit.c.obj                   16     0         0      
       startup.c.obj                4      0         0      
    +--+----------------------------+------+---------+---------+
       Total:                       488    0         0      
                                                            
       Stack:                       0      0         256    
       Linker Generated:            0      27        0      
    +--+----------------------------+------+---------+---------+
       Grand Total:                 1204   27        324    


LINKER GENERATED COPY TABLES

__TI_cinit_table @ 00000158 records: 1, size/record: 8, table size: 8
	.data: load addr=00000144, load size=0000000f bytes, run addr=00000100, run size=00000044 bytes, compression=lzss


LINKER GENERATED HANDLER TABLE

__TI_handler_table @ 00000154 records: 2, size/record: 2, table size: 4
	index: 0, handler: __TI_decompress_lzss
	index: 1, handler: __TI_decompress_none


SEGMENT ATTRIBUTES

    id tag      seg value
    -- ---      --- -----
     0 PHA_PAGE 1   1    
     1 PHA_PAGE 2   1    


GLOBAL SYMBOLS: SORTED ALPHABETICALLY BY Name 

page  address   name                          
----  -------   ----                          
0     000004a8  C$$EXIT                       
1     00000158  __TI_CINIT_Base               
1     00000160  __TI_CINIT_Limit              
1     00000154  __TI_Handler_Table_Base       
1     00000158  __TI_Handler_Table_Limit      
1     00000100  __TI_STACK_END                
abs   00000100  __TI_STACK_SIZE               
0     000000d0  __TI_auto_init_nobinit_nopinit
0     00000000  __TI_decompress_lzss          
0     000003bc  __TI_decompress_none          
abs   ffffffff  __c_args__                    
0     00000458  _c_int00_noargs               
1     00000000  _stack                        
0     000004b0  _system_post_cinit            
0     000004a0  abort                         
1     00000100  blank_frame                   
0     0000031c  delay_ms                      
0     00000390  error                         
0     000003e4  init                          
0     0000040c  main                          
0     0000035c  memcpy                        
1     00000120  red_frame                     
0     000001d8  send_frame                    
0     00000494  send_interrupt_to_r5          
0     000002b8  send_one                      
0     00000158  send_pixel                    
0     00000434  send_reset                    
0     00000250  send_zero                     
1     00000140  shared_mem                    
0     00000478  wait_for_interrupt            


GLOBAL SYMBOLS: SORTED BY Symbol Address 

page  address   name                          
----  -------   ----                          
0     00000000  __TI_decompress_lzss          
0     000000d0  __TI_auto_init_nobinit_nopinit
0     00000158  send_pixel                    
0     000001d8  send_frame                    
0     00000250  send_zero                     
0     000002b8  send_one                      
0     0000031c  delay_ms                      
0     0000035c  memcpy                        
0     00000390  error                         
0     000003bc  __TI_decompress_none          
0     000003e4  init                          
0     0000040c  main                          
0     00000434  send_reset                    
0     00000458  _c_int00_noargs               
0     00000478  wait_for_interrupt            
0     00000494  send_interrupt_to_r5          
0     000004a0  abort                         
0     000004a8  C$$EXIT                       
0     000004b0  _system_post_cinit            
1     00000000  _stack                        
1     00000100  __TI_STACK_END                
1     00000100  blank_frame                   
1     00000120  red_frame                     
1     00000140  shared_mem                    
1     00000154  __TI_Handler_Table_Base       
1     00000158  __TI_CINIT_Base               
1     00000158  __TI_Handler_Table_Limit      
1     00000160  __TI_CINIT_Limit              
abs   00000100  __TI_STACK_SIZE               
abs   ffffffff  __c_args__                    

[30 symbols]

Here is the map file with the entry point set to main.

******************************************************************************
                     PRU Linker PC v2.3.3                      
******************************************************************************
>> Linked Tue Sep  2 15:46:54 2025

OUTPUT FILE NAME:   <PRU_0.out>
ENTRY POINT SYMBOL: "main"  address: 00000384


MEMORY CONFIGURATION

         name            origin    length      used     unused   attr    fill
----------------------  --------  ---------  --------  --------  ----  --------
PAGE 0:
  PRU_IMEM              00000000   00003000  000003f8  00002c08  RWIX

PAGE 1:
  PRU0_DMEM_0           00000000   00002000  00000060  00001fa0  RWIX
  PRU0_DMEM_1           00002000   00002000  00000000  00002000  RWIX

PAGE 2:
  PRU_SHAREDMEM         00010000   00008000  00000000  00008000  RWIX


SECTION ALLOCATION MAP

 output                                  attributes/
section   page    origin      length       input sections
--------  ----  ----------  ----------   ----------------
.text      0    00000000    000003f8     
                  00000000    000000d0     rtspruv3_le.lib : copy_decompress_lzss.c.obj (.text:decompress:lzss:__TI_decompress_lzss)
                  000000d0    00000080     main.obj (.text:send_pixel)
                  00000150    00000078     main.obj (.text:send_frame)
                  000001c8    00000068     main.obj (.text:send_zero)
                  00000230    00000064     main.obj (.text:send_one)
                  00000294    00000040     main.obj (.text:delay_ms)
                  000002d4    00000034     rtspruv3_le.lib : memcpy.asm.obj (.text)
                  00000308    0000002c     main.obj (.text:error)
                  00000334    00000028     rtspruv3_le.lib : copy_decompress_none.c.obj (.text:decompress:none:__TI_decompress_none)
                  0000035c    00000028     main.obj (.text:init)
                  00000384    00000028     main.obj (.text:main)
                  000003ac    00000024     main.obj (.text:send_reset)
                  000003d0    0000001c     main.obj (.text:wait_for_interrupt)
                  000003ec    0000000c     main.obj (.text:send_interrupt_to_r5)

.data      1    00000000    00000044     UNINITIALIZED
                  00000000    00000020     main.obj (.data:blank_frame)
                  00000020    00000020     main.obj (.data:red_frame)
                  00000040    00000004     main.obj (.data)

.cinit     1    00000044    0000001c     
                  00000044    0000000f     (.cinit..data.load) [load image, compression = lzss]
                  00000053    00000001     --HOLE-- [fill = 0]
                  00000054    00000004     (__TI_handler_table)
                  00000058    00000008     (__TI_cinit_table)

MODULE SUMMARY

       Module                       code   ro data   rw data
       ------                       ----   -------   -------
    .\
       main.obj                     716    0         68     
    +--+----------------------------+------+---------+---------+
       Total:                       716    0         68     
                                                            
    C:\App\ti\ti-cgt-pru_2.3.3\lib\rtspruv3_le.lib
       copy_decompress_lzss.c.obj   208    0         0      
       memcpy.asm.obj               52     0         0      
       copy_decompress_none.c.obj   40     0         0      
    +--+----------------------------+------+---------+---------+
       Total:                       300    0         0      
                                                            
       Linker Generated:            0      27        0      
    +--+----------------------------+------+---------+---------+
       Grand Total:                 1016   27        68     


LINKER GENERATED COPY TABLES

__TI_cinit_table @ 00000058 records: 1, size/record: 8, table size: 8
	.data: load addr=00000044, load size=0000000f bytes, run addr=00000000, run size=00000044 bytes, compression=lzss


LINKER GENERATED HANDLER TABLE

__TI_handler_table @ 00000054 records: 2, size/record: 2, table size: 4
	index: 0, handler: __TI_decompress_lzss
	index: 1, handler: __TI_decompress_none


SEGMENT ATTRIBUTES

    id tag      seg value
    -- ---      --- -----
     0 PHA_PAGE 1   1    
     1 PHA_PAGE 2   1    


GLOBAL SYMBOLS: SORTED ALPHABETICALLY BY Name 

page  address   name                    
----  -------   ----                    
1     00000058  __TI_CINIT_Base         
1     00000060  __TI_CINIT_Limit        
1     00000054  __TI_Handler_Table_Base 
1     00000058  __TI_Handler_Table_Limit
0     00000000  __TI_decompress_lzss    
0     00000334  __TI_decompress_none    
abs   ffffffff  __c_args__              
1     00000000  blank_frame             
0     00000294  delay_ms                
0     00000308  error                   
0     0000035c  init                    
0     00000384  main                    
0     000002d4  memcpy                  
1     00000020  red_frame               
0     00000150  send_frame              
0     000003ec  send_interrupt_to_r5    
0     00000230  send_one                
0     000000d0  send_pixel              
0     000003ac  send_reset              
0     000001c8  send_zero               
1     00000040  shared_mem              
0     000003d0  wait_for_interrupt      


GLOBAL SYMBOLS: SORTED BY Symbol Address 

page  address   name                    
----  -------   ----                    
0     00000000  __TI_decompress_lzss    
0     000000d0  send_pixel              
0     00000150  send_frame              
0     000001c8  send_zero               
0     00000230  send_one                
0     00000294  delay_ms                
0     000002d4  memcpy                  
0     00000308  error                   
0     00000334  __TI_decompress_none    
0     0000035c  init                    
0     00000384  main                    
0     000003ac  send_reset              
0     000003d0  wait_for_interrupt      
0     000003ec  send_interrupt_to_r5    
1     00000000  blank_frame             
1     00000020  red_frame               
1     00000040  shared_mem              
1     00000054  __TI_Handler_Table_Base 
1     00000058  __TI_CINIT_Base         
1     00000058  __TI_Handler_Table_Limit
1     00000060  __TI_CINIT_Limit        
abs   ffffffff  __c_args__              

[22 symbols]

Best regards
Daniel

0 Nilabh Anand 11 days ago in reply to Daniel Watson

TI__Mastermind 45004 points

Hi Daniel,

I will look into the project shared by you tomorrow, and give up an updated latest by Monday

0 Daniel Watson 10 days ago in reply to Nilabh Anand

Prodigy 165 points

Hi Nilabh!
I have made some progress, I added --ram_model to my PRU linker flags and I modified my PRU linker command script by adding .text:_c_int00* > 0x0, PAGE 0 at the top of SECTIONS {
So now I can load code on the PRU from the R5 and it's executing as expected.

But now the access to the shared memory has stopped working, so when I write 0x55555555 from the PRU to the shared memory I only read 0 from the R5.

/* Specify the sections allocation into memory */
SECTIONS {

    .text:_c_int00* >  0x0,         PAGE 0
    .text           >  PRU_IMEM,    PAGE 0
    .bss            >  PRU0_DMEM_0, PAGE 1
    .stack          >  PRU0_DMEM_0, PAGE 1
    .data           >  PRU0_DMEM_0, PAGE 1
    .cinit          >  PRU0_DMEM_0, PAGE 1
    .rodata         >  PRU0_DMEM_0, PAGE 1
}

******************************************************************************
                     PRU Linker PC v2.3.3                      
******************************************************************************
>> Linked Fri Sep  5 13:17:14 2025

OUTPUT FILE NAME:   <PRU_0.out>
ENTRY POINT SYMBOL: "_c_int00_noinit_noargs"  address: 00000000


MEMORY CONFIGURATION

         name            origin    length      used     unused   attr    fill
----------------------  --------  ---------  --------  --------  ----  --------
PAGE 0:
  PRU_IMEM              00000000   00003000  000002f0  00002d10  RWIX

PAGE 1:
  PRU0_DMEM_0           00000000   00002000  00000144  00001ebc  RWIX
  PRU0_DMEM_1           00002000   00002000  00000000  00002000  RWIX

PAGE 2:
  PRU_SHAREDMEM         00010000   00008000  00000000  00008000  RWIX


SECTION ALLOCATION MAP

 output                                  attributes/
section   page    origin      length       input sections
--------  ----  ----------  ----------   ----------------
.text:_c_int00* 
*          0    00000000    0000001c     
                  00000000    0000001c     rtspruv3_le.lib : boot.c.obj (.text:_c_int00_noinit_noargs)

.text      0    0000001c    000002d4     
                  0000001c    00000080     main.obj (.text:send_pixel)
                  0000009c    00000078     main.obj (.text:send_frame)
                  00000114    00000068     main.obj (.text:send_zero)
                  0000017c    00000064     main.obj (.text:send_one)
                  000001e0    00000040     main.obj (.text:delay_ms)
                  00000220    0000002c     main.obj (.text:error)
                  0000024c    00000028     main.obj (.text:main)
                  00000274    00000024     main.obj (.text:send_reset)
                  00000298    00000020     main.obj (.text:init)
                  000002b8    0000001c     main.obj (.text:wait_for_interrupt)
                  000002d4    0000000c     main.obj (.text:send_interrupt_to_r5)
                  000002e0    00000008     rtspruv3_le.lib : exit.c.obj (.text:abort)
                  000002e8    00000008                     : exit.c.obj (.text:loader_exit)

.stack     1    00000000    00000100     UNINITIALIZED
                  00000000    00000004     rtspruv3_le.lib : boot.c.obj (.stack)
                  00000004    000000fc     --HOLE--

.data      1    00000100    00000044     
                  00000100    00000020     main.obj (.data:blank_frame)
                  00000120    00000020     main.obj (.data:red_frame)
                  00000140    00000004     main.obj (.data)

.cinit     1    00000000    00000000     UNINITIALIZED

MODULE SUMMARY

       Module         code   ro data   rw data
       ------         ----   -------   -------
    .\
       main.obj       708    0         68     
    +--+--------------+------+---------+---------+
       Total:         708    0         68     
                                              
    C:\App\ti\ti-cgt-pru_2.3.3\lib\rtspruv3_le.lib
       boot.c.obj     28     0         0      
       exit.c.obj     16     0         0      
    +--+--------------+------+---------+---------+
       Total:         44     0         0      
                                              
       Stack:         0      0         256    
    +--+--------------+------+---------+---------+
       Grand Total:   752    0         324    


SEGMENT ATTRIBUTES

    id tag      seg value
    -- ---      --- -----
     0 PHA_PAGE 1   1    
     1 PHA_PAGE 2   1    


GLOBAL SYMBOLS: SORTED ALPHABETICALLY BY Name 

page  address   name                  
----  -------   ----                  
0     000002e8  C$$EXIT               
1     00000100  __TI_STACK_END        
abs   00000100  __TI_STACK_SIZE       
abs   ffffffff  __c_args__            
0     00000000  _c_int00_noinit_noargs
1     00000000  _stack                
0     000002e0  abort                 
1     00000100  blank_frame           
0     000001e0  delay_ms              
0     00000220  error                 
0     00000298  init                  
0     0000024c  main                  
1     00000120  red_frame             
0     0000009c  send_frame            
0     000002d4  send_interrupt_to_r5  
0     0000017c  send_one              
0     0000001c  send_pixel            
0     00000274  send_reset            
0     00000114  send_zero             
1     00000140  shared_mem            
0     000002b8  wait_for_interrupt    


GLOBAL SYMBOLS: SORTED BY Symbol Address 

page  address   name                  
----  -------   ----                  
0     00000000  _c_int00_noinit_noargs
0     0000001c  send_pixel            
0     0000009c  send_frame            
0     00000114  send_zero             
0     0000017c  send_one              
0     000001e0  delay_ms              
0     00000220  error                 
0     0000024c  main                  
0     00000274  send_reset            
0     00000298  init                  
0     000002b8  wait_for_interrupt    
0     000002d4  send_interrupt_to_r5  
0     000002e0  abort                 
0     000002e8  C$$EXIT               
1     00000000  _stack                
1     00000100  __TI_STACK_END        
1     00000100  blank_frame           
1     00000120  red_frame             
1     00000140  shared_mem            
abs   00000100  __TI_STACK_SIZE       
abs   ffffffff  __c_args__            

[21 symbols]

0 Nilabh Anand 5 days ago in reply to Daniel Watson

TI__Mastermind 45004 points

Hi Daniel,

Due to release activity I have not been able to debug this issue, Allow me somemore time to get back with observation.

I will try to share more details by friday.

0 Daniel Watson 3 days ago in reply to Nilabh Anand

Prodigy 165 points

Hi Nilabh,

I think that my problems might have to do with the fact that PRUICSS_loadFirmware() only loads data to the instruction ram of the PRU. I found this in another thread "However, there can be some issues with loading C code with the MCU+ PRUICSS driver. Fixing that behavior is still on the TODO list. If you run into problems, please reach out to us."

AM2432: am2432 multiplication in PRU - Arm-based microcontrollers forum - Arm-based microcontrollers - TI E2E support forums