Intel P30, locked sectors?

Intel P30, locked sectors?

[Nils Faerber]

Hi!
I now did a kernel update (in fact, I started over with a new kernel)
and am now using 2.6.18-RC6 from kernel.org.

I have read access to the flash, rootfs is mounted correctly but at
first write attempt I get:

[42949375.150000] Freeing init memory: 96K
[42949376.480000] Erase at 0x00cc0000 failed immediately: -EROFS. Is the
sector locked?
[42949377.520000] Erase at 0x00c80000 failed immediately: -EROFS. Is the
sector locked?
[42949378.560000] Erase at 0x00c40000 failed immediately: -EROFS. Is the
sector locked?
[42949379.600000] Erase at 0x00c00000 failed immediately: -EROFS. Is the
sector locked?


I had hoped that the P30 chips would be supported now, but it seems they
are not fully. How can I unlock the sectors, if that is really the issue
here.

This is really starting to scare me a little ;)

Thanks in advance!

Cheers
  nils faerber

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kernel concepts GbR      Tel: +49-271-771091-12
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Re: Intel P30, locked sectors?

[Justin Clacherty]

Nils Faerber wrote:
> I had hoped that the P30 chips would be supported now, but it seems they
> are not fully. How can I unlock the sectors, if that is really the issue
> here.
>   
P30 flash is supported in that it supports CFI.  You can read and write 
to it as long as it's unlocked.  CFI does not support automatic 
unlocking, it assumes if it's locked, it's locked for a reason.  The 
bootloader has to ensure that the sectors occupied by the rootfs are 
unlocked before mounting the filesystem.  We're using P30 here without 
problems.

Justin.

Re: Intel P30, locked sectors?

[Nils Faerber]

Justin Clacherty schrieb:
> Nils Faerber wrote:
>> I had hoped that the P30 chips would be supported now, but it seems they
>> are not fully. How can I unlock the sectors, if that is really the issue
>> here.
> P30 flash is supported in that it supports CFI.  You can read and write
> to it as long as it's unlocked.  CFI does not support automatic
> unlocking, it assumes if it's locked, it's locked for a reason.  The
> bootloader has to ensure that the sectors occupied by the rootfs are
> unlocked before mounting the filesystem.  We're using P30 here without
> problems.

Hmm... OK.
Just in theory, can one write to a locked sector?

I ask because I flashed the very same rootfs to the chip using the
bootloader. The bootloader, which is BLOB BTW, seems to be able to write
to the chips and the contents written also seems to be OK (since I can
boot and mount the rootfs).

> Justin.
Cheers
  nils faerber

-- 
kernel concepts GbR      Tel: +49-271-771091-12
Dreisbachstr. 24         Fax: +49-271-771091-19
D-57250 Netphen          Mob: +49-176-21024535
--

Re: Intel P30, locked sectors?

[Nicolas Pitre]

On Wed, 6 Sep 2006, Nils Faerber wrote:

> Hi!
> I now did a kernel update (in fact, I started over with a new kernel)
> and am now using 2.6.18-RC6 from kernel.org.
> 
> I have read access to the flash, rootfs is mounted correctly but at
> first write attempt I get:
> 
> [42949375.150000] Freeing init memory: 96K
> [42949376.480000] Erase at 0x00cc0000 failed immediately: -EROFS. Is the
> sector locked?

Before the first write attempt you need to run flash-unlock on the 
corresponding flash partition.


Nicolas

Re: Intel P30, locked sectors?

[Nils Faerber]

Nicolas Pitre schrieb:
> On Wed, 6 Sep 2006, Nils Faerber wrote:
>> I now did a kernel update (in fact, I started over with a new kernel)
>> and am now using 2.6.18-RC6 from kernel.org.
>> I have read access to the flash, rootfs is mounted correctly but at
>> first write attempt I get:
>> [42949375.150000] Freeing init memory: 96K
>> [42949376.480000] Erase at 0x00cc0000 failed immediately: -EROFS. Is the
>> sector locked?
> Before the first write attempt you need to run flash-unlock on the 
> corresponding flash partition.

Ah, cool, thanks!
I guess that this tool is part of mtd-utils, right?

Will be tested ASAP! But I fear that will have to wait until tomorrow,
gotta go soon.

Thanks again!

> Nicolas
Cheers
  nils faerber

-- 
kernel concepts GbR      Tel: +49-271-771091-12
Dreisbachstr. 24         Fax: +49-271-771091-19
D-57250 Netphen          Mob: +49-176-21024535
--

Re: Intel P30, locked sectors?

[Justin Clacherty]

Nils Faerber wrote:
> Just in theory, can one write to a locked sector?
>   
No.
> I ask because I flashed the very same rootfs to the chip using the
> bootloader. The bootloader, which is BLOB BTW, seems to be able to write
> to the chips and the contents written also seems to be OK (since I can
> boot and mount the rootfs).
>   
Not sure how blob works, maybe it unlocks, writes, then relocks...

Re: Intel P30, locked sectors?

[Justin Clacherty]

Nicolas Pitre wrote:
> Before the first write attempt you need to run flash-unlock on the
> corresponding flash partition.
>   
Will this work if it's your rootfs?  ie. it will need to be mounted and 
possibly written to before you get to the point where you can run 
flash-unlock.  I guess if you mount ro then there won't be any writes.

Justin.

Re: Intel P30, locked sectors?

[Nicolas Pitre]

On Thu, 7 Sep 2006, Justin Clacherty wrote:

> Nicolas Pitre wrote:
> > Before the first write attempt you need to run flash-unlock on the
> > corresponding flash partition.
> >   
> Will this work if it's your rootfs?  ie. it will need to be mounted and 
> possibly written to before you get to the point where you can run 
> flash-unlock. 

Up to you to manage for flash-unlock to be executed before writes.

> I guess if you mount ro then there won't be any writes.

Yes, And then you can remount rw.


Nicolas