Linus, please, pull UBI tree from
git://git.infradead.org/ubi-2.6.git for-linus
The UBI tree has been in -mm for several releases and we would like to
see it in the mainline.
We have several groups using UBI now and it has proved to be fairly
stable. We've also got some feedback from community. We have also sent
UBI for review to LKML several times, got feedback, and fixed what was
requested.
In short, UBI provides wear-leveling support across the whole flash
chip. UBI completely hides 2 aspects of flash chips which make them very
difficult to work with:
1. wear of eraseblocks;
2. bad eraseblocks.
UBI also makes it possible to dynamically create, delete and re-size
flash partitions (UBI volumes). So here some analogy to LVM may be
pointed.
We are using UBI to develop a new flash file system on top, because it
encapsulates most of the media-related complexities and make it possible
to concentrate on file-system problems, instead on of solving flash
media problems.
There is some documentation available at:
http://www.linux-mtd.infradead.org/doc/ubi.html
http://www.linux-mtd.infradead.org/faq/ubi.html
The sources are available via the GIT tree:
git://git.infradead.org/ubi-2.6.git
One can also browse the GIT tree using http://git.infradead.org/
MAINTAINERS | 8 +
drivers/mtd/Kconfig | 2 +
drivers/mtd/Makefile | 2 +
drivers/mtd/ubi/Kconfig | 58 ++
drivers/mtd/ubi/Kconfig.debug | 104 +++
drivers/mtd/ubi/Makefile | 7 +
drivers/mtd/ubi/build.c | 848 +++++++++++++++++++++
drivers/mtd/ubi/cdev.c | 722 ++++++++++++++++++
drivers/mtd/ubi/debug.c | 224 ++++++
drivers/mtd/ubi/debug.h | 161 ++++
drivers/mtd/ubi/eba.c | 1241 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
drivers/mtd/ubi/gluebi.c | 323 ++++++++
drivers/mtd/ubi/io.c | 1259 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
drivers/mtd/ubi/kapi.c | 575 ++++++++++++++
drivers/mtd/ubi/misc.c | 105 +++
drivers/mtd/ubi/scan.c | 1368 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
drivers/mtd/ubi/scan.h | 167 ++++
drivers/mtd/ubi/ubi.h | 535 +++++++++++++
drivers/mtd/ubi/upd.c | 348 +++++++++
drivers/mtd/ubi/vmt.c | 809 ++++++++++++++++++++
drivers/mtd/ubi/vtbl.c | 809 ++++++++++++++++++++
drivers/mtd/ubi/wl.c | 1671 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
fs/jffs2/fs.c | 12 +
fs/jffs2/os-linux.h | 6 +
fs/jffs2/wbuf.c | 24 +
include/linux/mtd/ubi.h | 202 +++++
include/mtd/Kbuild | 2 +
include/mtd/mtd-abi.h | 1 +
include/mtd/ubi-header.h | 360 +++++++++
include/mtd/ubi-user.h | 161 ++++
30 files changed, 12114 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
Artem B. Bityutskiy (1):
UBI: Unsorted Block Images
Artem Bityutskiy (3):
JFFS2: add UBI support
UBI: add me to MAINTAINERS
UBI: remove unused variable
commit d468a030026017008286919aa6127b1190efb2c2
Author: Artem Bityutskiy <[email protected]>
Date: Fri Apr 27 15:11:44 2007 +0300
UBI: remove unused variable
Signed-off-by: Artem Bityutskiy <[email protected]>
commit 485764016d5accb813e8bdd076802a7e3318bb64
Author: Artem Bityutskiy <[email protected]>
Date: Tue Feb 13 17:11:10 2007 +0200
UBI: add me to MAINTAINERS
Signed-off-by: Artem Bityutskiy <[email protected]>
commit 0029da3bf430eea498eee8cef5933f9214534b8a
Author: Artem Bityutskiy <[email protected]>
Date: Wed Oct 4 19:15:21 2006 +0300
JFFS2: add UBI support
This patch make JFFS2 able to work with UBI volumes via the emulated MTD
devices which are directly mapped to these volumes.
Signed-off-by: Artem Bityutskiy <[email protected]>
commit 801c135ce73d5df1caf3eca35b66a10824ae0707
Author: Artem B. Bityutskiy <[email protected]>
Date: Tue Jun 27 12:22:22 2006 +0400
UBI: Unsorted Block Images
UBI (Latin: "where?") manages multiple logical volumes on a single
flash device, specifically supporting NAND flash devices. UBI provides
a flexible partitioning concept which still allows for wear-levelling
across the whole flash device.
In a sense, UBI may be compared to the Logical Volume Manager
(LVM). Whereas LVM maps logical sector numbers to physical HDD sector
numbers, UBI maps logical eraseblocks to physical eraseblocks.
More information may be found at
http://www.linux-mtd.infradead.org/doc/ubi.html
Partitioning/Re-partitioning
An UBI volume occupies a certain number of erase blocks. This is
limited by a configured maximum volume size, which could also be
viewed as the partition size. Each individual UBI volume's size can
be changed independently of the other UBI volumes, provided that the
sum of all volume sizes doesn't exceed a certain limit.
UBI supports dynamic volumes and static volumes. Static volumes are
read-only and their contents are protected by CRC check sums.
Bad eraseblocks handling
UBI transparently handles bad eraseblocks. When a physical
eraseblock becomes bad, it is substituted by a good physical
eraseblock, and the user does not even notice this.
Scrubbing
On a NAND flash bit flips can occur on any write operation,
sometimes also on read. If bit flips persist on the device, at first
they can still be corrected by ECC, but once they accumulate,
correction will become impossible. Thus it is best to actively scrub
the affected eraseblock, by first copying it to a free eraseblock
and then erasing the original. The UBI layer performs this type of
scrubbing under the covers, transparently to the UBI volume users.
Erase Counts
UBI maintains an erase count header per eraseblock. This frees
higher-level layers (like file systems) from doing this and allows
for centralized erase count management instead. The erase counts are
used by the wear-levelling algorithm in the UBI layer. The algorithm
itself is exchangeable.
Booting from NAND
For booting directly from NAND flash the hardware must at least be
capable of fetching and executing a small portion of the NAND
flash. Some NAND flash controllers have this kind of support. They
usually limit the window to a few kilobytes in erase block 0. This
"initial program loader" (IPL) must then contain sufficient logic to
load and execute the next boot phase.
Due to bad eraseblocks, which may be randomly scattered over the
flash device, it is problematic to store the "secondary program
loader" (SPL) statically. Also, due to bit-flips it may become
corrupted over time. UBI allows to solve this problem gracefully by
storing the SPL in a small static UBI volume.
UBI volumes vs. static partitions
UBI volumes are still very similar to static MTD partitions:
* both consist of eraseblocks (logical eraseblocks in case of UBI
volumes, and physical eraseblocks in case of static partitions;
* both support three basic operations - read, write, erase.
But UBI volumes have the following advantages over traditional
static MTD partitions:
* there are no eraseblock wear-leveling constraints in case of UBI
volumes, so the user should not care about this;
* there are no bit-flips and bad eraseblocks in case of UBI volumes.
So, UBI volumes may be considered as flash devices with relaxed
restrictions.
Where can it be found?
Documentation, kernel code and applications can be found in the MTD
gits.
What are the applications for?
The applications help to create binary flash images for two purposes: pfi
files (partial flash images) for in-system update of UBI volumes, and plain
binary images, with or without OOB data in case of NAND, for a manufacturing
step. Furthermore some tools are/and will be created that allow flash content
analysis after a system has crashed..
Who did UBI?
The original ideas, where UBI is based on, were developed by Andreas
Arnez, Frank Haverkamp and Thomas Gleixner. Josh W. Boyer and some others
were involved too. The implementation of the kernel layer was done by Artem
B. Bityutskiy. The user-space applications and tools were written by Oliver
Lohmann with contributions from Frank Haverkamp, Andreas Arnez, and Artem.
Joern Engel contributed a patch which modifies JFFS2 so that it can be run on
a UBI volume. Thomas Gleixner did modifications to the NAND layer. Alexander
Schmidt made some testing work as well as core functionality improvements.
Signed-off-by: Artem B. Bityutskiy <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Frank Haverkamp <[email protected]>
--
Best regards,
Artem Bityutskiy (Битюцкий Артём)
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