2005-10-25 18:13:30

by John Bowler

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: [PATCH]: 2.6.14-rc5 arch-ixp4xx/system.h: ensure flash is readable before reboot

This patch was discussed before on l-a-k under the subject "ixp4xx flash:
don't twiddle chip selects?" (that thread starts with discussion of a
*different* patch, this is related, at least stylistically.) The prior
discussion examined other possible places to do this patch (including within
the MTD driver).

The problem is that a machine reboot hangs because the attempt to read the
flash (the very first instruction fetch after the reset) fails as a result
of the flash being in a non-read (command) mode.

The problem is ARCH specific, I suspect it actually happens on any IXP4XX
system which has onboard flash which is used for a JFFS2 file system and
which does not have a hardware reset on the flash (I am told this applies to
any XScale because the reset line simply doesn't come out of the CPU chip.)
I can only confirm the problem on the NSLU2, it is intermittent (sometimes
very hard to reproduce). I and other NSLU2/OpenSlug users have been running
with this patch in both LE and BE systems for maybe a month now and have not
seen the hang - so I'm confident of the fix.

The fix is to execute a flash reset command immediately before the reset,
the instruction fetch then works (fetches the instruction at address 0, as
opposed to the results of a flash command.) The command address (0xAA) is
actually irrelevant - any address works just so long as the write ends up
going to the flash chip - hence the fix works for any endianness and any
flash layout. It has been tested on LE builds where the address gets
changed to 0xA8 in the hardware.

Signed-off-by: John Bowler <[email protected]>

---
linux-2.6.13/.pc/25-nslu2-arch-reset.patch/include/asm-arm/arch-ixp4xx/syste
m.h 2005-08-28 16:41:01.000000000 -0700
+++ linux-2.6.13/include/asm-arm/arch-ixp4xx/system.h 2005-09-25
23:34:14.762872391 -0700
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
*/

#include <asm/hardware.h>
+#include <asm/mach-types.h>

static inline void arch_idle(void)
{
@@ -22,6 +23,21 @@

static inline void arch_reset(char mode)
{
+ /* On NSLU2 machines the flash is sometimes left in a non-read
+ * mode, such that attempting a read will cause problems - such as
+ * a hang. This will prevent both hard and soft reboot since the
+ * first thing done is to read the first instruction from the flash!
+ * Therefore issue a flash reset command here.
+ */
+ if ( machine_is_nslu2()) {
+ /* Use the physical address here and write the reset command
+ * to the command address (not technically necessary). See
+ * <linux/mtd/cfi.h> for how to calculate this for other
+ * systems. The NSLU2 has one bank of 16 bit flash.
+ */
+ *(__u16*)(NSLU2_FLASH_BASE+0xAA/*command*/) = 0x00ff/*reset*/;
+ }
+
if ( 1 && mode == 's') {
/* Jump into ROM at address 0 */
cpu_reset(0);
@@ -39,4 +55,3 @@
*IXP4XX_OSWE = IXP4XX_WDT_RESET_ENABLE | IXP4XX_WDT_COUNT_ENABLE;
}
}
-


2005-10-26 16:21:15

by John Bowler

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: RE: [PATCH]: 2.6.14-rc5 arch-ixp4xx/system.h: ensure flash is readable before reboot

My apologies - I made a mistake when I split up the NSLU2 patch set.
The way the flash reset part is written makes it dependent on the
the NSLU2 header file (which defines the flash base address).

The modified version of the patch which I have attached is
independent of the other (not yet submitted) patches (i.e. it will
compile correctly without the other patches.)

Signed-off-by: John Bowler <[email protected]>

# On NSLU2 ensure that the flash is readable on system boot.

--- linux-2.6.13/include/asm-arm/arch-ixp4xx/system.h 2005-08-28 16:41:01.000000000 -0700
+++ linux-2.6.13/include/asm-arm/arch-ixp4xx/system.h 2005-10-26 07:43:11.763839457 -0700
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
*/

#include <asm/hardware.h>
+#include <asm/mach-types.h>

static inline void arch_idle(void)
{
@@ -22,6 +23,23 @@ static inline void arch_idle(void)

static inline void arch_reset(char mode)
{
+#if (defined CONFIG_MACH_NSLU2) && (defined NSLU2_FLASH_BASE)
+ /* On NSLU2 machines the flash is sometimes left in a non-read
+ * mode, such that attempting a read will cause problems - such as
+ * a hang. This will prevent both hard and soft reboot since the
+ * first thing done is to read the first instruction from the flash!
+ * Therefore issue a flash reset command here.
+ */
+ if ( machine_is_nslu2()) {
+ /* Use the physical address here and write the reset command
+ * to the command address (not technically necessary). See
+ * <linux/mtd/cfi.h> for how to calculate this for other
+ * systems. The NSLU2 has one bank of 16 bit flash.
+ */
+ *(__u16*)(NSLU2_FLASH_BASE+0xAA/*command*/) = 0x00ff/*reset*/;
+ }
+#endif
+
if ( 1 && mode == 's') {
/* Jump into ROM at address 0 */
cpu_reset(0);
@@ -39,4 +57,3 @@ static inline void arch_reset(char mode)
*IXP4XX_OSWE = IXP4XX_WDT_RESET_ENABLE | IXP4XX_WDT_COUNT_ENABLE;
}
}
-