[LinuxBIOS] Use Linux MTD framework for SPI flash?

Carl-Daniel Hailfinger c-d.hailfinger.devel.2006 at gmx.net
Wed Aug 1 13:45:37 CEST 2007


On 31.07.2007 23:44, Stefan Reinauer wrote:
> * Jordan Crouse <jordan.crouse at amd.com> [070731 23:33]:
>>> In this scenario, who loads the correct kernel module(s)? 
>> The user.  
>>
>>> Which southbridges does the MTD SPI code support? Last time I checked
>>> only some ARM embedded systems were possibly supported.
>> Sure - but what SPI southbridges does flashrom support? 
> 
> Exactly as many as mtd for x86 based systems: 0

I don't know how difficult it will be for the existing chipset support
drivers in the MTD framework to add SPI support, but maybe it is easier
than we think.
* Nvidia CK804
* AMD 76X
* Intel ICHx

> Are there any plans for mtd to do hardware detection like /dev/bios or
> flashrom do? 

MTD sort of has autodetection for SPI flash chips once the SPI
southbridge has a driver loaded.

BTW, that is something that bothers me about flashrom: You have to add
probing support for every single flash chip to the code even if a new
chip is detected by probe_jedec. Some generic JEDEC detection run for
different sizes followed by a lookup in a id table would be so much
nicer. In case flashing needs special code we still have to read the
data sheets now and this won't get worse in the future, but having a
message "Your flash chip was detected as unknown (id $ID) from
$MANUFACTURER, most probable size is $SIZE, please mail linuxbios@"
would surely help a lot for adoption of flashrom.

Regards,
Carl-Daniel




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