Hi,
I am using Atmel-ICE to program/debug Adafruit Metro M4 board.

With Microchip studio and VS2022, I tried all three uploader options, "Atmel-ICE", "Atmel-ICE over openOCD", "Atmel-ICE over openOCD(vMicro)". The same error happens.

Open On-Chip Debugger 0.10.0+dev-gf0767a31 (2018-06-11-13:36)
Licensed under GNU GPL v2
For bug reports, read
     http://openocd.org/doc/doxygen/bugs.html
debug_level: 0
embedded:startup.tcl:60: Error: Can't find tro_m4/openocd_scripts/metro_m4.cfg
in procedure 'script' 
at file "embedded:startup.tcl", line 60
The uploader process failed
The uploader returned an error

please, help.

Thanks for the quick reply!
I tried your approach, and the error persists.

Uploading 'Statechart_middleware_SAMD_ino' to 'Adafruit Metro M4 (SAMD51) (adafruit_adafruit_metro_m4)' using 'Atmel ICE over OpenOCD (vMicro)'
Error during upload using programmer
The uploader process failed

The uploader process failed
Open On-Chip Debugger 0.10.0+dev-01058-g853a05287 (2020-02-13-16:41)
The uploader returned an error
Licensed under GNU GPL v2
For bug reports, read
     http://openocd.org/doc/doxygen/bugs.html
debug_level: 0
swd
embedded:startup.tcl:26: Error: Can't find openocd_scripts/metro_m4.cfg
in procedure 'script' 
at file "embedded:startup.tcl", line 26

Does it mean the board.txt is not recognized by vMicro?

Just tried the new script. We are making progress, and the error message changes as follows.

Uploading 'Statechart_middleware_SAMD_ino' to 'Adafruit Metro M4 (SAMD51) (adafruit_adafruit_metro_m4)' using 'Atmel ICE over OpenOCD (vMicro)'
Open On-Chip Debugger 0.10.0+dev-01058-g853a05287 (2020-02-13-16:41)
Licensed under GNU GPL v2
For bug reports, read
     http://openocd.org/doc/doxygen/bugs.html
debug_level: 0
swd
****[vMicro]**** Uploading ELF :target halted due to debug-request, current mode: Thread 
xPSR: 0x01000000 pc: 0x0000058c msp: 0x2000d6a0
Error during upload using programmer
The uploader process failed

The uploader process failed
The uploader returned an error
** Programming Started **
Error: SAM: NVM lock error
Error: SAM: NVM programming error
Error: Failed to erase block containing 00000000
Error: SAM: failed to erase sector 0 at 0x00000000
Error: failed erasing sectors 0 to 9
embedded:startup.tcl:510: Error: ** Programming Failed **
in procedure 'program' 
in procedure 'program_error' called at file "embedded:startup.tcl", line 575
at file "embedded:startup.tcl", line 510

Here is the log

Uploading 'Statechart_middleware_SAMD_ino' to 'Adafruit Metro M4 (SAMD51) (adafruit_adafruit_metro_m4)' using 'Atmel ICE over OpenOCD (vMicro)'
Open On-Chip Debugger 0.10.0+dev-01058-g853a05287 (2020-02-13-16:41)
Licensed under GNU GPL v2
For bug reports, read
     http://openocd.org/doc/doxygen/bugs.html
debug_level: 0
swd
adapter speed: 100 kHz
****[vMicro]**** Uploading ELF :target halted due to debug-request, current mode: Thread 
xPSR: 0x01000000 pc: 0x000009ac msp: 0x2000d608
****[vMicro]**** Listing BOOTPROT Size
Bootloader protected in the first 16384 bytes
****************************************************************
shutdown command invoked
     The upload process has finished.

I think we are getting closer, but not yet successes
What if I erase the whole chip manually and just use the hardware programmer?

Uploading 'Statechart_middleware_SAMD_ino' to 'Adafruit Metro M4 (SAMD51) (adafruit_adafruit_metro_m4)' using 'Atmel ICE over OpenOCD (vMicro)'
Open On-Chip Debugger 0.10.0+dev-01058-g853a05287 (2020-02-13-16:41)
Licensed under GNU GPL v2
For bug reports, read
     http://openocd.org/doc/doxygen/bugs.html
debug_level: 0
swd
adapter speed: 100 kHz
****[vMicro]**** Uploading ELF :target halted due to debug-request, current mode: Handler PendSV
xPSR: 0x6100000e pc: 0x00008b46 msp: 0x2002ffc0
****[vMicro]**** Listing BOOTPROT Size
Bootloader protected in the first 16384 bytes
****[vMicro]**** Disabling BOOTPROT
Bootloader protected in the first 0 bytes
Error during upload using programmer
The uploader process failed

****************************************************************
****[vMicro]**** Uploading ELF :
The uploader process failed
The uploader returned an error

Is there a way to use Microchip studio's native Atmel-ICE interfaces/APIs instead of OpenOCD?

I wish to use Atmel-ice as a hardware debugger. I am not sure, but the way I understand vMicro is I have to first setup Atmel-ice as uploader, then use it as debugger.

Furthermore, using Atmel-ice as debugger also requires the support of openOCD, I guess?

Thanks, yes we had seen the GitHub report about it missing when we found it was not included in the board package.

The options to get it working are either:
1) Continue with our assistance to see if we can get it running with OpenOCD and send Adafruit the PR (as well as integrate it with vMicro).
2) Use Microchip Studio's tools to configure the Atmel ICE, then select it as the Uploader and Debugger in vMicro allowing Microchip Studio to handle both of these aspects.

NOTE: The debugging can be configured without the need to handle the uploader, as the standard uploader can be used via USB.  The debugger also wouldn't run into the locked bootloader element, as this is only involved in the upload process.

If debugging is the priority then we can assist with that, assuming you are happy to use the standard upload tools?

Thanks for confirming debugging is the main aim, and using the standard upload tools instead of the ICE avoids the memory locks for now.

If you try the attached contents in your local board.txt this should allow the debugging to start succesfully.

Once we have that working, we can revisit the upload via the Atmel-ICE if you are happy to try that out, as we do not have this board to test with.

Thanks for the update.

Do you get any additional information in the Output > Debug or Output > Micro Build windows? (please attach both as text files for us to review)

Does Debug > Attach to Process start the debugging session now the code is uploaded?