arm: configs: aspeed: Disable CONFIG_MTD_SPI_NOR_USE_4K_SECTORS

Milton stopped by and mentioned that you had tried to modify the 4K erase sector previously for a perhaps bmc chip and saw some flash corruption when moving to an image that changed it?

Just wanted to add that this change only changes the pnor setting and I didn’t see any issues powering on a system after updating the BMC with an image with this change. Then I updated the pnor with an image that had the mbox enabled. Also checked with AndrewJ and the hostboot team and there’s no hard-coded assumptions in their side about the erase size.

With all this info let me know if you have any thoughts or concerns.

Thanks!

Begin forwarded message:

From: Adriana Kobylak <[email protected]>
Subject: [PATCH linux dev-4.7] arm: configs: aspeed: Disable CONFIG_MTD_SPI_NOR_USE_4K_SECTORS
Date: May 4, 2017 at 10:58:07 AM CDT
To: [email protected]
Cc: Adriana Kobylak <[email protected]>

Disable the 4KB erase block size from the spi nor to be able to use UBIFS, since UBIFS requires the erase size to be at least 15KB.

Signed-off-by Adriana Kobylak <[email protected]>

---
arch/arm/configs/aspeed_g4_defconfig | 1 +
arch/arm/configs/aspeed_g5_defconfig | 1 +

2 files changed, 2 insertions(+)

arch/arm/configs/aspeed_g4_defconfig +0 -0

index 4350f67..6538993 100644
@@ -69,6 +69,7 @@ CONFIG_MTD=y

CONFIG_MTD_BLOCK=y
CONFIG_MTD_PARTITIONED_MASTER=y
CONFIG_MTD_SPI_NOR=y
+# CONFIG_MTD_SPI_NOR_USE_4K_SECTORS is not set
CONFIG_ASPEED_FLASH_SPI=y
CONFIG_MTD_UBI=y
CONFIG_MTD_UBI_FASTMAP=y

arch/arm/configs/aspeed_g5_defconfig +0 -0

index b6b3ca0..7063949 100644
@@ -68,6 +68,7 @@ CONFIG_MTD=y

CONFIG_MTD_BLOCK=y
CONFIG_MTD_PARTITIONED_MASTER=y
CONFIG_MTD_SPI_NOR=y
+# CONFIG_MTD_SPI_NOR_USE_4K_SECTORS is not set
CONFIG_ASPEED_FLASH_SPI=y
CONFIG_MTD_UBI=y
CONFIG_MTD_UBI_FASTMAP=y
--
1.8.2.2

Quoted 10 lines · Adriana Kobylak

Milton stopped by and mentioned that you had tried to modify the 4K erase sector previously for a perhaps bmc chip and saw some flash corruption when moving to an image that changed it?

Just wanted to add that this change only changes the pnor setting and I didn’t see any issues powering on a system after updating the BMC with an image with this change. Then I updated the pnor with an image that had the mbox enabled. Also checked with AndrewJ and the hostboot team and there’s no hard-coded assumptions in their side about the erase size.

Quoted 1 line

With all this info let me know if you have any thoughts or concerns.

I recall issues relating to this option. I didn't record what they were though.

Cedric, can you remind me what the issues are with the 4K kconfig option?

Quoted 12 lines · Joel Stanley

Quoted 10 lines · Adriana Kobylak

Milton stopped by and mentioned that you had tried to modify the 4K erase sector previously for a perhaps bmc chip and saw some flash corruption when moving to an image that changed it?

Just wanted to add that this change only changes the pnor setting and I didn’t see any issues powering on a system after updating the BMC with an image with this change. Then I updated the pnor with an image that had the mbox enabled. Also checked with AndrewJ and the hostboot team and there’s no hard-coded assumptions in their side about the erase size.

Quoted 4 lines

Quoted 1 line

With all this info let me know if you have any thoughts or concerns.

I recall issues relating to this option. I didn't record what they were though.

We tried to activate 4K erase on some chips, which supported it, and that the OpenPOWER systems use. That was because the PNOR sections were not aligned with the erase size and that caused some issues in pflash. But it breaks the compatibility with previously created jffs2 filesystems. jffs2 stores the erase size. So we stepped back.

Quoted 1 line

Cedric, can you remind me what the issues are with the 4K kconfig option?

CONFIG_MTD_SPI_NOR_USE_4K_SECTORS enables the 4K erase commands, and without it, the driver will use the sector erase command, most likely 64K. I suppose we could have the same problem as described above, as it can change the default erase size of a chip. to be checked.

Cheers,

C.

Quoted 28 lines · Cédric Le Goater

Quoted 12 lines · Joel Stanley

Quoted 10 lines · Adriana Kobylak

Milton stopped by and mentioned that you had tried to modify the 4K erase sector previously for a perhaps bmc chip and saw some flash corruption when moving to an image that changed it?

Just wanted to add that this change only changes the pnor setting and I didn’t see any issues powering on a system after updating the BMC with an image with this change. Then I updated the pnor with an image that had the mbox enabled. Also checked with AndrewJ and the hostboot team and there’s no hard-coded assumptions in their side about the erase size.

Quoted 4 lines

Quoted 1 line

With all this info let me know if you have any thoughts or concerns.

I recall issues relating to this option. I didn't record what they were though.

We tried to activate 4K erase on some chips, which supported it, and that the OpenPOWER systems use. That was because the PNOR sections were not aligned with the erase size and that caused some issues in pflash. But it breaks the compatibility with previously created jffs2 filesystems. jffs2 stores the erase size. So we stepped back.

Quoted 8 lines

Quoted 1 line

Cedric, can you remind me what the issues are with the 4K kconfig option?

CONFIG_MTD_SPI_NOR_USE_4K_SECTORS enables the 4K erase commands, and without it, the driver will use the sector erase command, most likely 64K. I suppose we could have the same problem as described above, as it can change the default erase size of a chip. to be checked.

Thanks Cedric for the info. It appears there are no issues when disabling the 4K sectors for the pnor chip (yes, the erase size is then 64K), probably because the pnor is not formatted with a jffs2 filesystem. We might need to clear the pnor chip anyways to be able to format it as a UBI volume. So would you say we’re ok with this patch?

Quoted 36 lines · Adriana Kobylak

Quoted 36 lines · Cédric Le Goater

Quoted 12 lines · Joel Stanley

Quoted 10 lines · Adriana Kobylak

Milton stopped by and mentioned that you had tried to modify the 4K erase sector previously for a perhaps bmc chip and saw some flash corruption when moving to an image that changed it?

Just wanted to add that this change only changes the pnor setting and I didn’t see any issues powering on a system after updating the BMC with an image with this change. Then I updated the pnor with an image that had the mbox enabled. Also checked with AndrewJ and the hostboot team and there’s no hard-coded assumptions in their side about the erase size.

Quoted 4 lines

Quoted 1 line

With all this info let me know if you have any thoughts or concerns.

I recall issues relating to this option. I didn't record what they were though.

We tried to activate 4K erase on some chips, which supported it, and that the OpenPOWER systems use. That was because the PNOR sections were not aligned with the erase size and that caused some issues in pflash. But it breaks the compatibility with previously created jffs2 filesystems. jffs2 stores the erase size. So we stepped back.

Quoted 1 line

Cedric, can you remind me what the issues are with the 4K kconfig option?

CONFIG_MTD_SPI_NOR_USE_4K_SECTORS enables the 4K erase commands, and without it, the driver will use the sector erase command, most likely 64K. I suppose we could have the same problem as described above, as it can change the default erase size of a chip. to be checked.

Quoted 6 lines

Thanks Cedric for the info. It appears there are no issues when disabling the 4K sectors for the pnor chip (yes, the erase size is then 64K), probably because the pnor is not formatted with a jffs2 filesystem. We might need to clear the pnor chip anyways to be able to format it as a UBI volume. So would you say we’re ok with this patch?

Well, what if the BMC is using a flash module with a 4K erase size ?

C.

Quoted 47 lines · On May 16, 2017, at 1:01 AM, Cédric Le Goater <[email protected]…

Quoted 42 lines · Adriana Kobylak

Quoted 28 lines · On May 13, 2017, at 3:49 PM, Cédric Le Goater <[email protected]…

Quoted 12 lines · Joel Stanley

Quoted 10 lines · On Thu, May 11, 2017 at 7:31 AM, Adriana Kobylak <[email protected]…

Milton stopped by and mentioned that you had tried to modify the 4K erase sector previously for a perhaps bmc chip and saw some flash corruption when moving to an image that changed it?

Just wanted to add that this change only changes the pnor setting and I didn’t see any issues powering on a system after updating the BMC with an image with this change. Then I updated the pnor with an image that had the mbox enabled. Also checked with AndrewJ and the hostboot team and there’s no hard-coded assumptions in their side about the erase size.

Quoted 4 lines

Quoted 1 line

With all this info let me know if you have any thoughts or concerns.

I recall issues relating to this option. I didn't record what they were though.

We tried to activate 4K erase on some chips, which supported it, and that the OpenPOWER systems use. That was because the PNOR sections were not aligned with the erase size and that caused some issues in pflash. But it breaks the compatibility with previously created jffs2 filesystems. jffs2 stores the erase size. So we stepped back.

Quoted 8 lines

Quoted 1 line

Cedric, can you remind me what the issues are with the 4K kconfig option?

CONFIG_MTD_SPI_NOR_USE_4K_SECTORS enables the 4K erase commands, and without it, the driver will use the sector erase command, most likely 64K. I suppose we could have the same problem as described above, as it can change the default erase size of a chip. to be checked.

Thanks Cedric for the info. It appears there are no issues when disabling the 4K sectors for the pnor chip (yes, the erase size is then 64K), probably because the pnor is not formatted with a jffs2 filesystem. We might need to clear the pnor chip anyways to be able to format it as a UBI volume. So would you say we’re ok with this patch?

Quoted 1 line

Well, what if the BMC is using a flash module with a 4K erase size ?

All the mtd devices except PNOR in the P8 and P9 systems running openbmc have already an erase size of 64K.

Ex witherspoon:

root@witherspoon:~# cat /proc/mtd 
dev:    size   erasesize  name
mtd0: 02000000 00010000 "bmc"
mtd1: 00060000 00010000 "u-boot"
mtd2: 00020000 00010000 "u-boot-env"
mtd3: 00440000 00010000 "kernel"
mtd4: 01740000 00010000 "rofs"
mtd5: 00400000 00010000 "rwfs"
mtd6: 02000000 00010000 "alt"
mtd7: 08000000 00001000 “pnor”

Ex barreleye:

root@barreleye:~# cat /proc/mtd 
dev:    size   erasesize  name
mtd0: 02000000 00010000 "bmc"
mtd1: 00060000 00010000 "u-boot"
mtd2: 00020000 00010000 "u-boot-env"
mtd3: 00440000 00010000 "kernel"
mtd4: 01740000 00010000 "rofs"
mtd5: 00400000 00010000 "rwfs"
mtd6: 04000000 00001000 "pnor"

Quoted 2 lines

C.

Quoted 32 lines · Adriana Kobylak

Quoted 32 lines · On May 16, 2017, at 1:01 AM, Cédric Le Goater <[email protected]…

Quoted 28 lines · Adriana Kobylak

Quoted 28 lines · On May 13, 2017, at 3:49 PM, Cédric Le Goater <[email protected]…

Quoted 12 lines · Joel Stanley

Quoted 10 lines · On Thu, May 11, 2017 at 7:31 AM, Adriana Kobylak <[email protected]…

Milton stopped by and mentioned that you had tried to modify the 4K erase sector previously for a perhaps bmc chip and saw some flash corruption when moving to an image that changed it?

Just wanted to add that this change only changes the pnor setting and I didn’t see any issues powering on a system after updating the BMC with an image with this change. Then I updated the pnor with an image that had the mbox enabled. Also checked with AndrewJ and the hostboot team and there’s no hard-coded assumptions in their side about the erase size.

Quoted 4 lines

Quoted 1 line

With all this info let me know if you have any thoughts or concerns.

I recall issues relating to this option. I didn't record what they were though.

We tried to activate 4K erase on some chips, which supported it, and that the OpenPOWER systems use. That was because the PNOR sections were not aligned with the erase size and that caused some issues in pflash. But it breaks the compatibility with previously created jffs2 filesystems. jffs2 stores the erase size. So we stepped back.

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Quoted 1 line

Cedric, can you remind me what the issues are with the 4K kconfig option?

CONFIG_MTD_SPI_NOR_USE_4K_SECTORS enables the 4K erase commands, and without it, the driver will use the sector erase command, most likely 64K. I suppose we could have the same problem as described above, as it can change the default erase size of a chip. to be checked.

Quoted 8 lines

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Quoted 1 line

Thanks Cedric for the info. It appears there are no issues when disabling the 4K sectors for the pnor chip (yes, the erase size is then 64K), probably because the pnor is not formatted with a jffs2 filesystem. We might need to clear the pnor chip anyways to be able to format it as a UBI volume. So would you say we’re ok with this patch?

Quoted 4 lines

Quoted 1 line

Well, what if the BMC is using a flash module with a 4K erase size ?

All the mtd devices except PNOR in the P8 and P9 systems running openbmc have already an erase size of 64K.

So everything is fine for these.

Cheers,

C.

Quoted 26 lines

Ex witherspoon:

root@witherspoon:~# cat /proc/mtd
dev:    size   erasesize  name
mtd0: 02000000 00010000 "bmc"
mtd1: 00060000 00010000 "u-boot"
mtd2: 00020000 00010000 "u-boot-env"
mtd3: 00440000 00010000 "kernel"
mtd4: 01740000 00010000 "rofs"
mtd5: 00400000 00010000 "rwfs"
mtd6: 02000000 00010000 "alt"
mtd7: 08000000 00001000 “pnor”

Ex barreleye:

root@barreleye:~# cat /proc/mtd
dev:    size   erasesize  name
mtd0: 02000000 00010000 "bmc"
mtd1: 00060000 00010000 "u-boot"
mtd2: 00020000 00010000 "u-boot-env"
mtd3: 00440000 00010000 "kernel"
mtd4: 01740000 00010000 "rofs"
mtd5: 00400000 00010000 "rwfs"
mtd6: 04000000 00001000 "pnor"

Quoted 2 lines

C.

Quoted 33 lines · On Tue, May 16, 2017 at 9:59 PM, Cédric Le Goater <[email protected]…

Quoted 32 lines · Adriana Kobylak

Quoted 32 lines · On May 16, 2017, at 1:01 AM, Cédric Le Goater <[email protected]…

Quoted 28 lines · Adriana Kobylak

Quoted 28 lines · On May 13, 2017, at 3:49 PM, Cédric Le Goater <[email protected]…

Quoted 12 lines · Joel Stanley

Quoted 10 lines · On Thu, May 11, 2017 at 7:31 AM, Adriana Kobylak <[email protected]…

Milton stopped by and mentioned that you had tried to modify the 4K erase sector previously for a perhaps bmc chip and saw some flash corruption when moving to an image that changed it?

Just wanted to add that this change only changes the pnor setting and I didn’t see any issues powering on a system after updating the BMC with an image with this change. Then I updated the pnor with an image that had the mbox enabled. Also checked with AndrewJ and the hostboot team and there’s no hard-coded assumptions in their side about the erase size.

Quoted 4 lines

Quoted 1 line

With all this info let me know if you have any thoughts or concerns.

I recall issues relating to this option. I didn't record what they were though.

We tried to activate 4K erase on some chips, which supported it, and that the OpenPOWER systems use. That was because the PNOR sections were not aligned with the erase size and that caused some issues in pflash. But it breaks the compatibility with previously created jffs2 filesystems. jffs2 stores the erase size. So we stepped back.

Quoted 7 lines

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Cedric, can you remind me what the issues are with the 4K kconfig option?

CONFIG_MTD_SPI_NOR_USE_4K_SECTORS enables the 4K erase commands, and without it, the driver will use the sector erase command, most likely 64K. I suppose we could have the same problem as described above, as it can change the default erase size of a chip. to be checked.

The same question as Cedric, PNOR has sections that are not 64K aligned but 4K aligned,
e.g. HBEL, GARD:
ID=02 HBEL 000a0000..000c4000 (actual=00024000) [ECC]
ID=03 GUARD 000d0000..000d5000 (actual=00005000) [ECC]

When using gard tool to clear GARD partition, it will fail if erasing size is 64K.

Do we have a plan to support this case?

Quoted 46 lines

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Thanks Cedric for the info. It appears there are no issues when disabling the 4K sectors for the pnor chip (yes, the erase size is then 64K), probably because the pnor is not formatted with a jffs2 filesystem. We might need to clear the pnor chip anyways to be able to format it as a UBI volume. So would you say we’re ok with this patch?

Quoted 4 lines

Quoted 1 line

Well, what if the BMC is using a flash module with a 4K erase size ?

All the mtd devices except PNOR in the P8 and P9 systems running openbmc have already an erase size of 64K.

So everything is fine for these.

Cheers,

C.

Quoted 25 lines

Ex witherspoon:

root@witherspoon:~# cat /proc/mtd
dev:    size   erasesize  name
mtd0: 02000000 00010000 "bmc"
mtd1: 00060000 00010000 "u-boot"
mtd2: 00020000 00010000 "u-boot-env"
mtd3: 00440000 00010000 "kernel"
mtd4: 01740000 00010000 "rofs"
mtd5: 00400000 00010000 "rwfs"
mtd6: 02000000 00010000 "alt"
mtd7: 08000000 00001000 “pnor”

Ex barreleye:

root@barreleye:~# cat /proc/mtd
dev:    size   erasesize  name
mtd0: 02000000 00010000 "bmc"
mtd1: 00060000 00010000 "u-boot"
mtd2: 00020000 00010000 "u-boot-env"
mtd3: 00440000 00010000 "kernel"
mtd4: 01740000 00010000 "rofs"
mtd5: 00400000 00010000 "rwfs"
mtd6: 04000000 00001000 "pnor"

Quoted 2 lines

C.

Quoted 52 lines · On May 16, 2017, at 8:48 PM, Lei YU <[email protected]…

Quoted 33 lines · On Tue, May 16, 2017 at 9:59 PM, Cédric Le Goater <[email protected]…

Quoted 32 lines · Adriana Kobylak

Quoted 32 lines · On May 16, 2017, at 1:01 AM, Cédric Le Goater <[email protected]…

Quoted 28 lines · Adriana Kobylak

Quoted 28 lines · On May 13, 2017, at 3:49 PM, Cédric Le Goater <[email protected]…

Quoted 12 lines · Joel Stanley

Quoted 10 lines · On Thu, May 11, 2017 at 7:31 AM, Adriana Kobylak <[email protected]…

Milton stopped by and mentioned that you had tried to modify the 4K erase sector previously for a perhaps bmc chip and saw some flash corruption when moving to an image that changed it?

Just wanted to add that this change only changes the pnor setting and I didn’t see any issues powering on a system after updating the BMC with an image with this change. Then I updated the pnor with an image that had the mbox enabled. Also checked with AndrewJ and the hostboot team and there’s no hard-coded assumptions in their side about the erase size.

Quoted 4 lines

Quoted 1 line

With all this info let me know if you have any thoughts or concerns.

I recall issues relating to this option. I didn't record what they were though.

We tried to activate 4K erase on some chips, which supported it, and that the OpenPOWER systems use. That was because the PNOR sections were not aligned with the erase size and that caused some issues in pflash. But it breaks the compatibility with previously created jffs2 filesystems. jffs2 stores the erase size. So we stepped back.

Quoted 7 lines

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Cedric, can you remind me what the issues are with the 4K kconfig option?

CONFIG_MTD_SPI_NOR_USE_4K_SECTORS enables the 4K erase commands, and without it, the driver will use the sector erase command, most likely 64K. I suppose we could have the same problem as described above, as it can change the default erase size of a chip. to be checked.

The same question as Cedric, PNOR has sections that are not 64K aligned but 4K aligned,
e.g. HBEL, GARD:
ID=02 HBEL 000a0000..000c4000 (actual=00024000) [ECC]
ID=03 GUARD 000d0000..000d5000 (actual=00005000) [ECC]

Quoted 4 lines

When using gard tool to clear GARD partition, it will fail if erasing size is 64K.

Do we have a plan to support this case?

Thanks Lei for providing this info. For the proposed openbmc implementation, it’d work since the pnor sections (or partitions) would be files located in a ubi volume, and their data loaded into memory (virtual pnor) for the host to access, so erasing GUARD for example would underneath the covers modify the GUARD.bin file and not a specific offset in the physical pnor chip.

But that raises the question about openpower systems that are not running openbmc. Should disabling 4k be an openbmc only patch?

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Thanks Cedric for the info. It appears there are no issues when disabling the 4K sectors for the pnor chip (yes, the erase size is then 64K), probably because the pnor is not formatted with a jffs2 filesystem. We might need to clear the pnor chip anyways to be able to format it as a UBI volume. So would you say we’re ok with this patch?

Quoted 4 lines

Quoted 1 line

Well, what if the BMC is using a flash module with a 4K erase size ?

All the mtd devices except PNOR in the P8 and P9 systems running openbmc have already an erase size of 64K.

So everything is fine for these.

Cheers,

C.

Quoted 25 lines

Ex witherspoon:

root@witherspoon:~# cat /proc/mtd
dev:    size   erasesize  name
mtd0: 02000000 00010000 "bmc"
mtd1: 00060000 00010000 "u-boot"
mtd2: 00020000 00010000 "u-boot-env"
mtd3: 00440000 00010000 "kernel"
mtd4: 01740000 00010000 "rofs"
mtd5: 00400000 00010000 "rwfs"
mtd6: 02000000 00010000 "alt"
mtd7: 08000000 00001000 “pnor”

Ex barreleye:

root@barreleye:~# cat /proc/mtd
dev:    size   erasesize  name
mtd0: 02000000 00010000 "bmc"
mtd1: 00060000 00010000 "u-boot"
mtd2: 00020000 00010000 "u-boot-env"
mtd3: 00440000 00010000 "kernel"
mtd4: 01740000 00010000 "rofs"
mtd5: 00400000 00010000 "rwfs"
mtd6: 04000000 00001000 "pnor"

Quoted 2 lines

C.