From af4053ebdef9fdd2df4f197cf12b9b650fbd1a69 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Adam Wujek <adam.wujek@cern.ch>
Date: Thu, 24 Nov 2016 18:01:07 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] patches/kernel: disable BBT for the nand flash
Disable the Bad Block Table (BBT) because the BBT uses the 4 last PEBs of
nand flash, which overwrites UBIFS.
BBT was disabled in the old kernel. There is not so much performance penalty
due to that (see the last sentence in the citation below). There is no impact
on the reliability of a flash because this is just a table of bad blocks which
is otherwise recreated in the ram at every boot.
The MTD layer supplies upper layers (including UBI) with information about bad
PEBs. It keeps so-called bad block table in RAM, which is usually 1 bit per PEB.
When the driver initializes, it has to build this table by scanning whole flash
media, which normally includes reading OOB area of 1st NAND page of each PEB.
This takes time and may be improved by using on-flash BBT (bad block table).
In this case the bad PEB map is stored on flash and MTD does not have to do any
scanning. See the NAND_USE_FLASH_BBT constant in the Linux source codes. But
note, bad PEB scanning is usually minor comparing to the UBI scan time, so
on-flash BBT is not probably going to give much.
(http://www.linux-mtd.infradead.org/faq/ubi.html#L_attach_faster)
Signed-off-by: Adam Wujek <adam.wujek@cern.ch>
---
.../0010-disable-BBT-for-the-nand-flash.patch | 46 +++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 46 insertions(+)
create mode 100644 patches/kernel/v3.16.37/0010-disable-BBT-for-the-nand-flash.patch
diff --git a/patches/kernel/v3.16.37/0010-disable-BBT-for-the-nand-flash.patch b/patches/kernel/v3.16.37/0010-disable-BBT-for-the-nand-flash.patch
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..7267c5f30
--- /dev/null
+++ b/patches/kernel/v3.16.37/0010-disable-BBT-for-the-nand-flash.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+From 882cefc0c65c424e6f080b00e77465cadbe777c6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
+From: Adam Wujek <adam.wujek@cern.ch>
+Date: Thu, 24 Nov 2016 17:06:13 +0100
+Subject: [PATCH] disable BBT for the nand flash
+
+Disable the Bad Block Table (BBT) because the BBT uses the 4 last PEBs of
+nand flash, which overwrites UBIFS.
+BBT was disabled in the old kernel. There is not so much performance penalty
+due to that (see the last sentence in the citation below). There is no impact
+on the reliability of a flash because this is just a table of bad blocks which
+is otherwise recreated in the ram at every boot.
+
+The MTD layer supplies upper layers (including UBI) with information about bad
+PEBs. It keeps so-called bad block table in RAM, which is usually 1 bit per PEB.
+When the driver initializes, it has to build this table by scanning whole flash
+media, which normally includes reading OOB area of 1st NAND page of each PEB.
+This takes time and may be improved by using on-flash BBT (bad block table).
+In this case the bad PEB map is stored on flash and MTD does not have to do any
+scanning. See the NAND_USE_FLASH_BBT constant in the Linux source codes. But
+note, bad PEB scanning is usually minor comparing to the UBI scan time, so
+on-flash BBT is not probably going to give much.
+(http://www.linux-mtd.infradead.org/faq/ubi.html#L_attach_faster)
+
+Signed-off-by: Adam Wujek <adam.wujek@cern.ch>
+---
+ arch/arm/mach-at91/board-sam9m10g45ek.c | 4 +++-
+ 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
+
+diff --git a/arch/arm/mach-at91/board-sam9m10g45ek.c b/arch/arm/mach-at91/board-sam9m10g45ek.c
+index 5686a87..59fe03d 100644
+--- a/arch/arm/mach-at91/board-sam9m10g45ek.c
++++ b/arch/arm/mach-at91/board-sam9m10g45ek.c
+@@ -181,7 +181,9 @@ static struct atmel_nand_data __initdata ek_nand_data = {
+ .enable_pin = AT91_PIN_PC14,
+ .det_pin = -EINVAL,
+ .ecc_mode = NAND_ECC_SOFT,
+- .on_flash_bbt = 1,
++ .on_flash_bbt = 0, /* Disable the BBT since it uses 4 last PEBs in
++ the nand, which are used by the ubifs already.
++ It does not decrease in the reliability. */
+ .parts = ek_nand_partition,
+ .num_parts = ARRAY_SIZE(ek_nand_partition),
+ };
+--
+1.9.1
+
--
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