Re: [PATCH] mtd: nand: Disable subpage writes for drivers without ecc->hwctl

[Brian Norris <computersforpeace@gmail.com>]

On Thu, Dec 10, 2015 at 10:31:32AM +0100, Helmut Schaa wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 10, 2015 at 12:58 AM, Brian Norris
> <computersforpeace@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Wed, Apr 09, 2014 at 11:13:24AM +0200, Helmut Schaa wrote:
> >> nand_write_subpage_hwecc causes a crash if the driver did not register
> >> ecc->hwctl or ecc->calculate. Fix this by disabling subpage writes if
> >> ecc->hwctl or ecc->calculate is not provided by the driver.
> >>
> >> This behavior was introduced in commit 837a6ba4f3b6d23026674e6af6b6849a4634fff9
> >> "mtd: nand: subpage write support for hardware based ECC schemes".
> >>
> >> This fixes a crash with fsl_elbc_nand and maybe others:
> >>
> > [...]
> >>
> >> --- a/drivers/mtd/nand/nand_base.c
> >> +++ b/drivers/mtd/nand/nand_base.c
> >> @@ -3768,7 +3768,7 @@ int nand_scan_tail(struct mtd_info *mtd)
> >>                       ecc->write_oob = nand_write_oob_std;
> >>               if (!ecc->read_subpage)
> >>                       ecc->read_subpage = nand_read_subpage;
> >> -             if (!ecc->write_subpage)
> >> +             if (!ecc->write_subpage && ecc->hwctl && ecc->calculate)
> >>                       ecc->write_subpage = nand_write_subpage_hwecc;
> >>
> >>       case NAND_ECC_HW_SYNDROME:
> >
> > I realize we've merged a fix for fsl_elbc_nand long ago (commit
> > f034d87def51 "mtd: eLBC NAND: fix subpage write support"), but this
> > change still looks sane, applies, and could possibly fix some other
> > drivers that are lurking somewhere. Any reason I shouldn't apply it?
> 
> I'm not carrying this patch in my tree anymore and did not see any more
> crashes with the flash configuration I'm using. So, I think the original patch
> is kind of superfluous.

There could easily be other drivers that don't have hwctl() or
calculate() callbacks yet use NAND_ECC_HW. By inspection, I see that
maybe the new hisi504_nand.c is susceptible, as well as sh_flctl.c and
maybe even sunxi_nand.c (?). Some of these might not be hit if they
don't use NAND that support subpage writes.

Anyway, I think this patch is helpful, because it prevents drivers from
having to fill in a 'subpage' write callback that looks just like their
write_page() callback.

Brian