UBIFS mount failure on NOR flash

UBIFS mount failure on NOR flash

[Philby John]

Hello,

Platform: Cavium CN5020
Filesystem: UBIFS
Flash Type: NOR
Flash Size: 8MB
Partition Details Kernel Log:
Creating 2 MTD partitions on "phys_mapped_flash":
0x000000000000-0x000000700000 : "Octeon BOOT partition"
0x000000700000-0x000000800000 : "Octeon test partition"


$mount -t ubifs ubi1:test /mnt/nor
UBIFS error (pid 851): init_constants_early: too few LEBs (12), min. is 17
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on ubi1:test,
       missing codepage or helper program, or other error
       (for several filesystems (e.g. nfs, cifs) you might
       need a /sbin/mount.<type> helper program)
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so


But JFFS2 is able to mount the same partition flawlessly. Shouldn't
UBIFS be able to do the same? What I would like to know is, is this the
expected behavior or a bug? If its a bug I would like to look into it.

Thanks and regards,
Philby

Re: UBIFS mount failure on NOR flash

[Artem Bityutskiy]

On Tue, 2010-06-15 at 18:29 +0530, Philby John wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> Platform: Cavium CN5020
> Filesystem: UBIFS
> Flash Type: NOR
> Flash Size: 8MB
> Partition Details Kernel Log:
> Creating 2 MTD partitions on "phys_mapped_flash":
> 0x000000000000-0x000000700000 : "Octeon BOOT partition"
> 0x000000700000-0x000000800000 : "Octeon test partition"
> 
> 
> $mount -t ubifs ubi1:test /mnt/nor
> UBIFS error (pid 851): init_constants_early: too few LEBs (12), min. is 17
> mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on ubi1:test,
>        missing codepage or helper program, or other error
>        (for several filesystems (e.g. nfs, cifs) you might
>        need a /sbin/mount.<type> helper program)
>        In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
>        dmesg | tail  or so
> 
> 
> But JFFS2 is able to mount the same partition flawlessly. Shouldn't
> UBIFS be able to do the same? What I would like to know is, is this the
> expected behavior or a bug? If its a bug I would like to look into it.

Yes, this is expected. For such a tiny flash partition you should rather
use JFFS2. I've just created a FAQ entry for you:

http://www.linux-mtd.infradead.org/faq/ubifs.html#L_few_lebs

-- 
Best Regards,
Artem Bityutskiy (Артём Битюцкий)

Re: UBIFS mount failure on NOR flash

[Philby John]

On 06/15/2010 07:07 PM, Artem Bityutskiy wrote:
> On Tue, 2010-06-15 at 18:29 +0530, Philby John wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> Platform: Cavium CN5020
>> Filesystem: UBIFS
>> Flash Type: NOR
>> Flash Size: 8MB
>> Partition Details Kernel Log:
>> Creating 2 MTD partitions on "phys_mapped_flash":
>> 0x000000000000-0x000000700000 : "Octeon BOOT partition"
>> 0x000000700000-0x000000800000 : "Octeon test partition"
>>
>>
>> $mount -t ubifs ubi1:test /mnt/nor
>> UBIFS error (pid 851): init_constants_early: too few LEBs (12), min. is 17
>> mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on ubi1:test,
>>         missing codepage or helper program, or other error
>>         (for several filesystems (e.g. nfs, cifs) you might
>>         need a /sbin/mount.<type>  helper program)
>>         In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
>>         dmesg | tail  or so
>>
>>
>> But JFFS2 is able to mount the same partition flawlessly. Shouldn't
>> UBIFS be able to do the same? What I would like to know is, is this the
>> expected behavior or a bug? If its a bug I would like to look into it.
>
> Yes, this is expected. For such a tiny flash partition you should rather
> use JFFS2. I've just created a FAQ entry for you:
>
> http://www.linux-mtd.infradead.org/faq/ubifs.html#L_few_lebs
>

Okay, thanks for the clarification.

Regards,
Philby