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Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2008 15:10:09 +0530
From: Indraneel <indraneel.m@samsung.com>
Subject: Re: Block devices
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To: "David H. Lynch Jr." <dhlii@dlasys.net>
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David,
First things first. Don't post to multiple mailing lists at the same time.

David H. Lynch Jr. wrote:
>     Sometime recently it seems to have become possible to disable the
> whole block device subsystem.

Yes it is possible. Works for me on 2.6.22-rc5.

>     Though in my tests I can't quit build with it disabled.
> 
>      Anyway, for an embedded device this might be appealing.
>     how does this interact with initramfs and flash ?
>    
>     Can I boot an initramfs kernel without a block device ?

Yes this is also possible. And that's why initramfs is fast.

>     Can I write a filesystem driver for a flash device that does not
> require a block device ?

AFAIK, for a flash file system you need a Block Device. But you can 
write a character driver to access the flash without a Block Device.

>     Are their any examples of something even close ?

  drivers/mtd/mtdchar.c

Regards,
Indro

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