V8.0.1 - using vTaskList crashes to vPortFree

k1mgy wrote on Thursday, November 02, 2017:

After a few days of head pounding, I’ve traced a problem: enabling vTaskList with:

#define  configUSE_TRACE_FACILITY                1
#define  configUSE_STATS_FORMATTING_FUNCTIONS	 1

…causes FreeRTOS to halt at vPortFree().

vTaskList worked fine in 7.0 and 7.3, and did not require setting these constants.

I have not touched the memory management scheme. Looked at which memmang file has been selected and see** heap_1.c**

How to fix?

Here’s the entire config:

#ifndef FREERTOS_CONFIG_H
#define FREERTOS_CONFIG_H

/* For documentation for all the configuration symbols, go to:
 * http://www.freertos.org/a00110.html.
 */

#if defined (__GNUC__) || defined (__ICCARM__)
/* Important: put #includes here unless they are also meant for the assembler.
 */
#include <stdint.h>
void assert_triggered( const char * file, uint32_t line );
#endif

#define configUSE_PREEMPTION                    1
#define configUSE_IDLE_HOOK                     0
#define configUSE_TICK_HOOK                     0
#define configPRIO_BITS                         2
#define configCPU_CLOCK_HZ                      ( 8000000 )
#define configTICK_RATE_HZ                      ( ( TickType_t ) 1000 )
#define configMAX_PRIORITIES                    ( ( uint32_t ) 5 )
#define configMINIMAL_STACK_SIZE                ( ( uint16_t ) 100 )
/* configTOTAL_HEAP_SIZE is not used when heap_3.c is used. */
#define configTOTAL_HEAP_SIZE                   ( ( size_t ) ( 15000 ) )
#define configMAX_TASK_NAME_LEN                 ( 8 )
#define configUSE_TRACE_FACILITY                1
#define configUSE_STATS_FORMATTING_FUNCTIONS	1
#define configUSE_16_BIT_TICKS                  0
#define configIDLE_SHOULD_YIELD                 1
#define configUSE_MUTEXES                       1
#define configQUEUE_REGISTRY_SIZE               0
#define configCHECK_FOR_STACK_OVERFLOW          0
#define configUSE_RECURSIVE_MUTEXES             1
#define configUSE_MALLOC_FAILED_HOOK            0
#define configUSE_COUNTING_SEMAPHORES           1
#define configUSE_QUEUE_SETS                    1
#define configGENERATE_RUN_TIME_STATS           0
#define configENABLE_BACKWARD_COMPATIBILITY     1

/* Co-routine definitions. */
#define configUSE_CO_ROUTINES                   0
#define configMAX_CO_ROUTINE_PRIORITIES         ( 2 )

/* Software timer definitions. */
#define configUSE_TIMERS                        1
#define configTIMER_TASK_PRIORITY               ( 2 )
#define configTIMER_QUEUE_LENGTH                2
#define configTIMER_TASK_STACK_DEPTH            ( 80 )

/* Set the following definitions to 1 to include the API function, or zero
to exclude the API function. */
#define INCLUDE_vTaskPrioritySet                1
#define INCLUDE_uxTaskPriorityGet               1
#define INCLUDE_vTaskDelete                     1
#define INCLUDE_vTaskSuspend                    1
#define INCLUDE_xResumeFromISR                  1
#define INCLUDE_vTaskDelayUntil                 1
#define INCLUDE_vTaskDelay                      1
#define INCLUDE_xTaskGetSchedulerState          1
#define INCLUDE_xTaskGetCurrentTaskHandle       1
#define INCLUDE_uxTaskGetStackHighWaterMark     0
#define INCLUDE_xTaskGetIdleTaskHandle          0
#define INCLUDE_xTimerGetTimerDaemonTaskHandle  0
#define INCLUDE_pcTaskGetTaskName               0
#define INCLUDE_eTaskGetState                   0


/* Normal assert() semantics without relying on the provision of an assert.h
header file. */
#define configASSERT( x ) \
        if( ( x ) == 0 ) { taskDISABLE_INTERRUPTS(); for( ;; ); }

/* Definitions that map the FreeRTOS port interrupt handlers to their CMSIS
standard names - or at least those used in the unmodified vector table. */
#define vPortSVCHandler                         SVC_Handler
#define xPortPendSVHandler                      PendSV_Handler
#define xPortSysTickHandler                     SysTick_Handler

/* The lowest interrupt priority that can be used in a call to a "set priority"
function. */
#define configLIBRARY_LOWEST_INTERRUPT_PRIORITY			0x0f

/* The highest interrupt priority that can be used by any interrupt service
routine that makes calls to interrupt safe FreeRTOS API functions.  DO NOT CALL
INTERRUPT SAFE FREERTOS API FUNCTIONS FROM ANY INTERRUPT THAT HAS A HIGHER
PRIORITY THAN THIS! (higher priorities are lower numeric values. */
#define configLIBRARY_MAX_SYSCALL_INTERRUPT_PRIORITY	10

/* Interrupt priorities used by the kernel port layer itself.  These are generic
to all Cortex-M ports, and do not rely on any particular library functions. */
#define configKERNEL_INTERRUPT_PRIORITY 		( configLIBRARY_LOWEST_INTERRUPT_PRIORITY << (8 - configPRIO_BITS) )
#define configMAX_SYSCALL_INTERRUPT_PRIORITY 	( configLIBRARY_MAX_SYSCALL_INTERRUPT_PRIORITY << (8 - configPRIO_BITS) )

#endif /* FREERTOS_CONFIG_H */


k1mgy wrote on Thursday, November 02, 2017:

I posted the v7 config… just updated it to that used with v8… /m

k1mgy wrote on Thursday, November 02, 2017:

Well, as I am using ASF (should have mentioned this)…

I looked back inside the FreeRTOS selection mechanism that ASF provides. There’s a hidden additional selection to choose the memory management model. I chose 4, which seems to be the most recommended, and no crash.

However, now the task is called much more frequently. It’s set to 1000 ticks, which equated to 1S. Now it’s being hit every 10ms or so. Crazy.

k1mgy wrote on Thursday, November 02, 2017:

Regarding the task called more frequently, it appears that the memory model selected has some influence on the tick to clock speed setting. By default (and I accepted it) the CPU clock config setting is 8MHz. Mine is 120MHz. So once I set it properly, 1 tick == 1 ms, which is what we want. Why changing from model 1 to model 4 effects this I have no clue.

rtel wrote on Thursday, November 02, 2017:

By memory mode, do you mean the heap memory manger? As in using heap_1.c, heap_2.c, etc.? That should not effect anything to do with timing directly, but could be a symptom of the code not working previously but starting to work once you switched to heap_4.c

Note heap_1.c cannot be used with anything that tries to delete previously allocated memory: http://www.freertos.org/a00111.html

k1mgy wrote on Thursday, November 02, 2017:

|| Note heap_1.c cannot be used with anything that tries to delete previously allocated memory

I suspect there’s something in the FreeRTOS code base that does just this. Using a simple test case from the Atmel Software Framework, it works fine until I upgrade to version 8. Then, I get the vPortFree() trap. No malloc/free operations are in the user code.

rtel wrote on Thursday, November 02, 2017:

vPortFree() is also called internally if you delete an object. In that
version (are you sure it is V8 you upgraded to and not V9?) all objects
are allocated dynamically, which means if you free an object it will be
deallocated too (vPortFree() will be called). This applies to any RTOS
object such as a task, queue, semaphore, even group, etc.

k1mgy wrote on Friday, November 03, 2017:

Yes, V8.
To reproduce, use Atmel Studio and select ASF project for FreeRTOS. Loads with version 7.
Runs fine.
Now change the FreeRTOS version to 8, make the compatibility changes, and test. It will break.