[U-Boot] JFFS2 with NAND flash is very SLOW ...

[U-Boot] JFFS2 with NAND flash is very SLOW ...

[Pierre Savary]

Hi all,
Currently I work with the lpc3250 board of Phytec. I wish boot my Linux
kernel from a NAND flash formatted with JFFS2. Here my current
configuration:

[...]
#define CONFIG_CMD_NAND
#define CONFIG_SYS_MAX_FLASH_BANKS	1
#define CONFIG_SYS_MAX_NAND_DEVICE	1
#define CONFIG_SYS_NAND_BASE		0x20020000
#define NAND_MAX_CHIPS			1
#define CONFIG_ENV_IS_IN_NAND
[...]
#define CONFIG_CMD_JFFS2
[...]
#define CONFIG_JFFS2_NAND
#undef CONFIG_JFFS2_CMDLINE
#define CONFIG_JFFS2_DEV		"nand0"
#define CONFIG_JFFS2_PART_SIZE	0x00C00000
#define CONFIG_JFFS2_PART_OFFSET	0x000C8000
[...]

It works... but I have a very big problem : it's very very slow!!!! How can
I decrease the time to load the kernel image?
I try with u-boot 1.3.3, 1.3.4 and 2009.03 but the problem is always
present...
Can you help me please?

Thanks in advance,
Best Regards

Pierre

[U-Boot] JFFS2 with NAND flash is very SLOW ...

[Cote, Sylvain]

Dear Pierre,

> It works... but I have a very big problem : it's very very slow!!!! How can
> I decrease the time to load the kernel image?
> I try with u-boot 1.3.3, 1.3.4 and 2009.03 but the problem is always
> present...

I have tried to boot from nand with 1.3.4 and 2009.03.  I can tell you that
2009.03 is much faster then 1.3.4 to boot from a formatted JFFS2 nand.

> Can you help me please?

What is the size of the partition used to store the kernel? I suggest to use a small partition to store the kernel (5M by exemple something like 10M if you have an initramfs).  You should have something like this:

MTD1 u-boot 2M
MTD2 kernel 5M
MTD3 content remainingM

Sylvain Cote


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[U-Boot] JFFS2 with NAND flash is very SLOW ...

[Pierre Savary]

In my side:
MTD0 (720kB): U-boot
MTD1 (80kB) : env. Variables
MTD2 (12MB) : kernel + initramfs
MTD3 (50MB) : rootfs

If it exists a difference between 2009.03 and 1.3.3 it is not sufficient. It
is very slow in both versions. It takes more than 1 minutes to obtain the
result of "fsinfo" command !!!

Thanks for your help,

Pierre

-----Message d'origine-----
De?: u-boot-bounces at lists.denx.de [mailto:u-boot-bounces at lists.denx.de] De
la part de Cote, Sylvain
Envoy??: mardi 2 juin 2009 14:22
??: Pierre Savary; u-boot-users at lists.sourceforge.net; u-boot at lists.denx.de
Objet?: Re: [U-Boot] JFFS2 with NAND flash is very SLOW ...

Dear Pierre,

> It works... but I have a very big problem : it's very very slow!!!! How
can
> I decrease the time to load the kernel image?
> I try with u-boot 1.3.3, 1.3.4 and 2009.03 but the problem is always
> present...

I have tried to boot from nand with 1.3.4 and 2009.03.  I can tell you that
2009.03 is much faster then 1.3.4 to boot from a formatted JFFS2 nand.

> Can you help me please?

What is the size of the partition used to store the kernel? I suggest to use
a small partition to store the kernel (5M by exemple something like 10M if
you have an initramfs).  You should have something like this:

MTD1 u-boot 2M
MTD2 kernel 5M
MTD3 content remainingM

Sylvain Cote


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[U-Boot] JFFS2 with NAND flash is very SLOW ...

[Cote, Sylvain]

> In my side:
> MTD0 (720kB): U-boot
> MTD1 (80kB) : env. Variables
> MTD2 (12MB) : kernel + initramfs
> MTD3 (50MB) : rootfs

Maybe it will not help you but I have

MTD0 (all the nand 256M)
MTD1 uboot+ embedded config 2M RAW 
MTD2 1M JFFS2
MTD5 config 5M JFFS2
MTD3 Kernel + initramfs 12M JFFS2
MTD4 KernelBKp 12M JFFS2
MTD5 content 224M

Scanning and fsload of the MTD3 partition take 3 seconds with 2009.03
With 1.3.4 it was something like 6-10 seconds.  But never 1 minute.  I have seen that when scanning the content partition of 224M.

> If it exists a difference between 2009.03 and 1.3.3 it is not sufficient. It
> is very slow in both versions. It takes more than 1 minutes to obtain the
> result of "fsinfo" command !!!



sYLVAIN

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[U-Boot] JFFS2 with NAND flash is very SLOW ...

[Stefan Roese]

On Tuesday 02 June 2009 15:02:17 Cote, Sylvain wrote:
> > In my side:
> > MTD0 (720kB): U-boot
> > MTD1 (80kB) : env. Variables
> > MTD2 (12MB) : kernel + initramfs
> > MTD3 (50MB) : rootfs
>
> Maybe it will not help you but I have
>
> MTD0 (all the nand 256M)
> MTD1 uboot+ embedded config 2M RAW
> MTD2 1M JFFS2
> MTD5 config 5M JFFS2
> MTD3 Kernel + initramfs 12M JFFS2
> MTD4 KernelBKp 12M JFFS2
> MTD5 content 224M
>
> Scanning and fsload of the MTD3 partition take 3 seconds with 2009.03
> With 1.3.4 it was something like 6-10 seconds.  But never 1 minute.  I have
> seen that when scanning the content partition of 224M.

Parameters like I-cache and D-cache handling greatly effect this scan time. 
Some platforms have caches enabled others don't. This might explain some 
differences here.

Best regards,
Stefan

=====================================================================
DENX Software Engineering GmbH,     MD: Wolfgang Denk & Detlev Zundel
HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: +49-8142-66989-0 Fax: +49-8142-66989-80  Email: office at denx.de
=====================================================================

[U-Boot] JFFS2 with NAND flash is very SLOW ...

[Pierre Savary]

Is it better to use or not D-cache and I-cache?
Currently, in my config file, I have only
#define CONFIG_CMD_CACHE
What do I have to add?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Pierre


-----Message d'origine-----
De?: u-boot-bounces at lists.denx.de [mailto:u-boot-bounces at lists.denx.de] De
la part de Stefan Roese
Envoy??: mardi 2 juin 2009 15:18
??: u-boot at lists.denx.de
Cc?: Pierre Savary; Cote, Sylvain
Objet?: Re: [U-Boot] JFFS2 with NAND flash is very SLOW ...

On Tuesday 02 June 2009 15:02:17 Cote, Sylvain wrote:
> > In my side:
> > MTD0 (720kB): U-boot
> > MTD1 (80kB) : env. Variables
> > MTD2 (12MB) : kernel + initramfs
> > MTD3 (50MB) : rootfs
>
> Maybe it will not help you but I have
>
> MTD0 (all the nand 256M)
> MTD1 uboot+ embedded config 2M RAW
> MTD2 1M JFFS2
> MTD5 config 5M JFFS2
> MTD3 Kernel + initramfs 12M JFFS2
> MTD4 KernelBKp 12M JFFS2
> MTD5 content 224M
>
> Scanning and fsload of the MTD3 partition take 3 seconds with 2009.03
> With 1.3.4 it was something like 6-10 seconds.  But never 1 minute.  I
have
> seen that when scanning the content partition of 224M.

Parameters like I-cache and D-cache handling greatly effect this scan time. 
Some platforms have caches enabled others don't. This might explain some 
differences here.

Best regards,
Stefan

=====================================================================
DENX Software Engineering GmbH,     MD: Wolfgang Denk & Detlev Zundel
HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: +49-8142-66989-0 Fax: +49-8142-66989-80  Email: office at denx.de
=====================================================================
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[U-Boot] JFFS2 with NAND flash is very SLOW ...

[Stefan Roese]

On Tuesday 02 June 2009 15:23:57 Pierre Savary wrote:
> Is it better to use or not D-cache and I-cache?

Depends a bit on the "application". From my experience I-Cache is most 
important. But for memory intensive applications (JFFS2 might be such a beast) 
D-cache could be very helpful as well. Best is to have both enabled of course.

> Currently, in my config file, I have only
> #define CONFIG_CMD_CACHE
> What do I have to add?

Defining the cache commands doesn't insure that caches are really enabled. 
Some platforms don't support I- and/or D-cache in U-Boot. I can only speak for 
PPC4xx which has I-cache enabled and "usually" D-cache disabled (because of 
cache-coherency issues). This might be different on your platform. Again, just 
enabling the cache commands will most likely not help here.

Best regards,
Stefan

=====================================================================
DENX Software Engineering GmbH,     MD: Wolfgang Denk & Detlev Zundel
HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: +49-8142-66989-0 Fax: +49-8142-66989-80  Email: office at denx.de
=====================================================================

[U-Boot] JFFS2 with NAND flash is very SLOW ...

[Pierre Savary]

In fact it is not better with this config:
#define CONFIG_ICACHE_ON
#define CONFIG_DCACHE_ON
#define CONFIG_SYS_DCACHE_SIZE          32768
#define CONFIG_SYS_ICACHE_SIZE          32768
#define CONFIG_SYS_CACHELINE_SIZE       32

My architecture is arm926ejs and it seems that CACHE management is not
implemented...

I just measure a load of uImage (2MB) ... it takes more than 2 minutes :-(

Pierre


-----Message d'origine-----
De?: u-boot-bounces at lists.denx.de [mailto:u-boot-bounces at lists.denx.de] De
la part de Stefan Roese
Envoy??: mardi 2 juin 2009 15:32
??: u-boot at lists.denx.de
Cc?: Pierre Savary; 'Cote, Sylvain'
Objet?: Re: [U-Boot] JFFS2 with NAND flash is very SLOW ...

On Tuesday 02 June 2009 15:23:57 Pierre Savary wrote:
> Is it better to use or not D-cache and I-cache?

Depends a bit on the "application". From my experience I-Cache is most 
important. But for memory intensive applications (JFFS2 might be such a
beast) 
D-cache could be very helpful as well. Best is to have both enabled of
course.

> Currently, in my config file, I have only
> #define CONFIG_CMD_CACHE
> What do I have to add?

Defining the cache commands doesn't insure that caches are really enabled. 
Some platforms don't support I- and/or D-cache in U-Boot. I can only speak
for 
PPC4xx which has I-cache enabled and "usually" D-cache disabled (because of 
cache-coherency issues). This might be different on your platform. Again,
just 
enabling the cache commands will most likely not help here.

Best regards,
Stefan

=====================================================================
DENX Software Engineering GmbH,     MD: Wolfgang Denk & Detlev Zundel
HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: +49-8142-66989-0 Fax: +49-8142-66989-80  Email: office at denx.de
=====================================================================
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http://lists.denx.de/mailman/listinfo/u-boot

[U-Boot] JFFS2 with NAND flash is very SLOW ...

[Stefan Roese]

On Tuesday 02 June 2009 15:56:25 Pierre Savary wrote:
> In fact it is not better with this config:
> #define CONFIG_ICACHE_ON
> #define CONFIG_DCACHE_ON
> #define CONFIG_SYS_DCACHE_SIZE          32768
> #define CONFIG_SYS_ICACHE_SIZE          32768
> #define CONFIG_SYS_CACHELINE_SIZE       32
>
> My architecture is arm926ejs and it seems that CACHE management is not
> implemented...
>
> I just measure a load of uImage (2MB) ... it takes more than 2 minutes :-(

Yes, this is really slow. Jean-Christophe will be able to tell us if caches 
are supported on this platform in U-Boot.

Best regards,
Stefan

=====================================================================
DENX Software Engineering GmbH,     MD: Wolfgang Denk & Detlev Zundel
HRB 165235 Munich, Office: Kirchenstr.5, D-82194 Groebenzell, Germany
Phone: +49-8142-66989-0 Fax: +49-8142-66989-80  Email: office at denx.de
=====================================================================

[U-Boot] JFFS2 with NAND flash is very SLOW ...

[Jean-Christophe PLAGNIOL-VILLARD]

On 15:59 Tue 02 Jun     , Stefan Roese wrote:
> On Tuesday 02 June 2009 15:56:25 Pierre Savary wrote:
> > In fact it is not better with this config:
> > #define CONFIG_ICACHE_ON
> > #define CONFIG_DCACHE_ON
> > #define CONFIG_SYS_DCACHE_SIZE          32768
> > #define CONFIG_SYS_ICACHE_SIZE          32768
> > #define CONFIG_SYS_CACHELINE_SIZE       32
> >
> > My architecture is arm926ejs and it seems that CACHE management is not
> > implemented...
> >
> > I just measure a load of uImage (2MB) ... it takes more than 2 minutes :-(
> 
> Yes, this is really slow. Jean-Christophe will be able to tell us if caches 
> are supported on this platform in U-Boot.
I've not yet find time to implement the MMU support for arm (needed for
D-Cache support), I've plan to add it for the next release (not for this next
merge window)

I-Cache is supported

but 2 mins is really slow, could show us your code?

Best Regards,
J.

[U-Boot] JFFS2 with NAND flash is very SLOW ...

[Pierre Savary]

Which source code? I use the 2009.03 version without modification.
This is my config file:
[...]
#define CONFIG_CMD_NAND
#define CONFIG_SYS_MAX_FLASH_BANKS	1
#define CONFIG_SYS_MAX_NAND_DEVICE	1
#define CONFIG_SYS_NAND_BASE		0x20020000
#define NAND_MAX_CHIPS			1
#define CONFIG_ENV_IS_IN_NAND
[...]
#define CONFIG_CMD_JFFS2
[...]
#define CONFIG_JFFS2_NAND
#undef CONFIG_JFFS2_CMDLINE
#define CONFIG_JFFS2_DEV		"nand0"
#define CONFIG_JFFS2_PART_SIZE	0x00C00000
#define CONFIG_JFFS2_PART_OFFSET	0x000C8000
[...]
#define CONFIG_ICACHE_ON
#define CONFIG_DCACHE_ON
#define CONFIG_SYS_DCACHE_SIZE          32768
#define CONFIG_SYS_ICACHE_SIZE          32768
#define CONFIG_SYS_CACHELINE_SIZE       32
[...]

And in fact it is better with I-Cache enabled. I carried out more precise
measurements and I obtain: 1min45 without I-cache and 40sec with I-cache. It
is better but not enough...

Thanks for your help.
Best Regards,

Pierre


-----Message d'origine-----
De?: u-boot-bounces at lists.denx.de [mailto:u-boot-bounces at lists.denx.de] De
la part de Jean-Christophe PLAGNIOL-VILLARD
Envoy??: mardi 2 juin 2009 17:06
??: Stefan Roese
Cc?: Pierre Savary; 'Cote, Sylvain'; u-boot at lists.denx.de
Objet?: Re: [U-Boot] JFFS2 with NAND flash is very SLOW ...

On 15:59 Tue 02 Jun     , Stefan Roese wrote:
> On Tuesday 02 June 2009 15:56:25 Pierre Savary wrote:
> > In fact it is not better with this config:
> > #define CONFIG_ICACHE_ON
> > #define CONFIG_DCACHE_ON
> > #define CONFIG_SYS_DCACHE_SIZE          32768
> > #define CONFIG_SYS_ICACHE_SIZE          32768
> > #define CONFIG_SYS_CACHELINE_SIZE       32
> >
> > My architecture is arm926ejs and it seems that CACHE management is not
> > implemented...
> >
> > I just measure a load of uImage (2MB) ... it takes more than 2 minutes
:-(
> 
> Yes, this is really slow. Jean-Christophe will be able to tell us if
caches 
> are supported on this platform in U-Boot.
I've not yet find time to implement the MMU support for arm (needed for
D-Cache support), I've plan to add it for the next release (not for this
next
merge window)

I-Cache is supported

but 2 mins is really slow, could show us your code?

Best Regards,
J.
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