ubiformat in barebox giving timeout

Question

I have a custom iMX 6UL board with Barebox (partially) functional. I have on board a Semper s25hs512t Flash being detected (after adding the necessary device id indrivers/mtd/spi-nor/spi-nor.c)

The problem - My board does not have ethernet or removable SD. I need to burn the boot loader/ flash on the s25hs512. I need to format the flash accordingly and copy the files on it.

my dtsi has

&qspi {
        pinctrl-names = "default";
        pinctrl-0 = <&pinctrl_qspi>;
        status = "okay";

        flash0: s25hs512t@0 {
                #address-cells = <1>;
                #size-cells = <1>;
                compatible = "spansion,s25hs512t", "jedec,spi-nor";
                spi-max-frequency = <40000000>;
                spi-rx-bus-width = <4>;
                spi-tx-bus-width = <4>;
                reg = <0>;
                spi-mode = <0>;
                m25p,fast-read;
                status = "okay";

                partition@0 {
                        label = "barebox";
                        reg = <0x00000000 0x00100000>;
                };
                partition@1 {
                        label = "barebox-env";
                        reg = <0x00100000 0x00040000>;
                };
                partition@2 {
                        label = "barebox-of";
                        reg = <0x00140000 0x00040000>;
                };
                partition@3 {
                        label = "kernel";
                        reg = <0x00180000 0x00800000>;
                };
                partition@4 {
                        label = "root";
                        reg = <0x00980000 0x03640000>;
                };

        };
};

on boot barebox detects the flash

Board: Freescale i.MX6 UltraLite Caisteal Board
detected i.MX6 UltraLite revision 1.0
i.MX6 UltraLite unique ID: 241e09d4e317402a
m25p80 s25hs512t@00: s25hs512t (65536 Kbytes).  <=====
imx-esdhc 2194000.mmc@2194000.of: registered as mmc1
rng_self_test: RNG software self-test passed
caam 2140000.crypto@2140000.of: Instantiated RNG4 SH0
caam 2140000.crypto@2140000.of: Instantiated RNG4 SH1
malloc space: 0x8eefcf80 -> 0x9ddf9eff (size 239 MiB)
barebox-environment chosen:environment.of: probe failed: No such file or directory

devinfo shows

         `-- 21e0000.spi@21e0000.of
            `-- s25hs512t@00
               `-- m25p0
                  `-- 0x00000000-0x03ffffff (    64 MiB): /dev/m25p0
                  `-- m25p0.barebox
                     `-- 0x00000000-0x000fffff (     1 MiB): /dev/m25p0.barebox
                  `-- m25p0.barebox-env
                     `-- 0x00000000-0x0003ffff (   256 KiB): /dev/m25p0.barebox-env
                  `-- m25p0.barebox-of
                     `-- 0x00000000-0x0003ffff (   256 KiB): /dev/m25p0.barebox-of
                  `-- m25p0.kernel
                     `-- 0x00000000-0x007fffff (     8 MiB): /dev/m25p0.kernel
                  `-- m25p0.root
                     `-- 0x00000000-0x0363ffff (  54.3 MiB): /dev/m25p0.root

but when I run ubiformat, I am oddly getting this

barebox@Freescale i.MX6 UltraLite Caisteal Board:/ ubiformat /dev/m25p0.barebox -y
ubiformat: m25p0.barebox (nor), size 1048576 bytes (1 MiB), 4 eraseblocks of 262144 bytes (256 KiB), min. I/O size 1 bytes
libscan: scanning eraseblock 3 -- 100 % complete  
ubiformat: 1 eraseblocks are supposedly empty
ubiformat: warning!: 3 of 4 eraseblocks contain non-ubifs data
ubiformat: warning!: only 0 of 4 eraseblocks have valid erase counter
ubiformat: erase counter 0 will be used for all eraseblocks
ubiformat: note, arbitrary erase counter value may be specified using -e option
ubiformat: use erase counter 0 for all eraseblocks
ubiformat: formatting eraseblock 3 -- 100 % complete  
ERROR: m25p80 s25hs512t@00: flash operation timed out
ERROR: m25p0.barebox: error -110 while writing 262144 bytes to PEB 0:0, written 0 bytes
libubigen: error!: cannot write 262144 bytes
ubiformat: error!: cannot write layout volume
ubiformat: Operation not permitted

Any way ahead from this?

PS : Update Thanks for help from @TrentP - I am focusing only on formatting the larger partitions so that I can write the kernel and root partition. but I have not been able to mount the ubi partition. I get the following issue (Readonly filesystem)

barebox@Freescale i.MX6 UltraLite Caisteal Board:/ erase /dev/m25p0.kernel 

barebox@Freescale i.MX6 UltraLite Caisteal Board:/ ubiattach /dev/m25p0.kernel 
NOTICE: ubi0: scanning is finished
NOTICE: ubi0: empty MTD device detected
NOTICE: ubi0: registering /dev/m25p0.kernel.ubi
NOTICE: ubi0: attached mtd0 (name "m25p0.kernel", size 8 MiB) to ubi0
NOTICE: ubi0: PEB size: 262144 bytes (256 KiB), LEB size: 262016 bytes
NOTICE: ubi0: min./max. I/O unit sizes: 1/256, sub-page size 1
NOTICE: ubi0: VID header offset: 64 (aligned 64), data offset: 128
NOTICE: ubi0: good PEBs: 32, bad PEBs: 0, corrupted PEBs: 0
NOTICE: ubi0: user volume: 0, internal volumes: 1, max. volumes count: 128
NOTICE: ubi0: max/mean erase counter: 1/0, WL threshold: 65536, image sequence number: 1700878141
NOTICE: ubi0: available PEBs: 28, total reserved PEBs: 4, PEBs reserved for bad PEB handling: 0

barebox@Freescale i.MX6 UltraLite Caisteal Board:/ ubimkvol /dev/m25p0.kernel.ubi kernel 0
NOTICE: ubi0: registering kernel as /dev/m25p0.kernel.ubi.kernel


barebox@Freescale i.MX6 UltraLite Caisteal Board:/ mount -t ubifs /dev/m25p0.kernel.ubi.kernel  /mnt/kernel/
ERROR: UBIFS error (ubi0:0): 9de5a2d5: can't format empty UBI volume: read-only mount
ERROR: ubifs ubifs0: probe failed: Read-only file system
mount: Invalid argument

If I use ubiformat I get this

barebox@Freescale i.MX6 UltraLite Caisteal Board:/ ubiformat /dev/m25p0.kernel -y
ubiformat: m25p0.kernel (nor), size 8388608 bytes (8 MiB), 32 eraseblocks of 262144 bytes (256 KiB), min. I/O size 1 bytes
libscan: scanning eraseblock 31 -- 100 % complete  
ubiformat: warning!: 32 of 32 eraseblocks contain non-ubifs data
ubiformat: warning!: only 0 of 32 eraseblocks have valid erase counter
ubiformat: erase counter 0 will be used for all eraseblocks
ubiformat: note, arbitrary erase counter value may be specified using -e option
ubiformat: use erase counter 0 for all eraseblocks
ubiformat: formatting eraseblock 31 -- 100 % complete  
barebox@Freescale i.MX6 UltraLite Caisteal Board:/ ubiattach /dev/m25p0.kernel 
NOTICE: ubi0: scanning is finished
ERROR: ubi0 error: ubi_read_volume_table: the layout volume was not found
ERROR: ubi0 error: ubi_attach_mtd_dev: failed to attach mtd0, error -22
failed to attach: Invalid argument

devinfo

Parent: m25p0.kernel
Parameters:
  available_pebs: 0 (type: uint32)
  bad_peb_count: 0 (type: uint32)
  good_peb_count: 32 (type: uint32)
  leb_size: 262016 (type: uint32)
  max_erase_counter: 2 (type: uint32)
  mean_erase_counter: 0 (type: uint32)
  min_io_size: 1 (type: uint32)
  peb_size: 262144 (type: uint32)
  reserved_pebs: 32 (type: uint32) <=== why all PEBs are reserved?
  sub_page_size: 1 (type: uint32)
  vid_header_offset: 64 (type: uint32)

Any suggestions on what I am doing wrong. I know its something ridiculously simple. just unknown to me

TrentP · Answer 1 · 2021-09-01T06:29:51.000

2

You aren't supposed to use ubiformat on the barebox partition. It's too small. That's why it fails.

UBI is a Linux layer for putting UBI filesystems into NAND or NOR flash. The iMX6UL CPU boot ROM does not understand UBI. It can't boot something in a UBI formatted partition. It's for the root filesystem in the root partition.

Read section 8 of the iMX6UL reference manual, especially §8.6 about QuadSPI booting. This will tell you what you must put into flash to make it bootable.

Also look at the barebox_update command, which can be used to flash the bootloader from Barebox. The board needs to support it and I don't know about your board. The code is in various imx6_bbu_* functions. I'm not sure if qspi is supported, as I only see eMMC/SD,eMMC boot, NAND, and I2C/SPI. The qspi interface isn't the same as a serial EEPROM on one of the eCSPI controllers (again, see RM §8!). But perhaps it would work with an appropriate header already on the image.

edited Sep 01 '21 at 06:29

answered Sep 01 '21 at 06:10

TrentP

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Firstly Thanks. Second am in the deep end of the pool here. I understand what you are saying but I am not sure on way ahead. I understood earlier that we can write a single image file using ubiformat - and had planned to used that write the barebox image (with config header) file to that partition. By what you say, I cannot do that? for the barebox_update do you have a suggested reference source which has a good (and tested) implementation. Still worried how to do it on QSPI. Also any suggestions how to build a barebox image with config header as a single file? – Harkirat Sep 01 '21 at 07:15
1

Barebox and Linux can load images or mount a filesystem from UBI. The iMX6 ROM can not use UBI in any way. It is the ROM which must load the bootloader. You can write to flash with `cp` or `memcyp`. I haven't used qspi booting on iMX. You should be able to find a guide that explains how to create an image. – TrentP Sep 01 '21 at 08:21
Thanks ... getting the sense of the issue. I'll work on that. Back to the original issue though. I get the same error when running ubiformat on the m25p0.root partition. so size doesn't seem to be the issue. that's 54 MB – Harkirat Sep 01 '21 at 09:11
I checked again, some freak failure. second time it worked. But I have not been able to mount it yes. I am getting weird combination of errors. I have amended my post accordingly. If you could have a look – Harkirat Sep 01 '21 at 16:48
2

You need to make volumes with `ubimkvol` and if you want a filesystem then you need to have created a ubifs image and write it with `ubiupdatevol`. The ubifs code in Barebox is read-only. – TrentP Sep 01 '21 at 17:41
Thank you. I think I zeroed down to that also. so I should create a ubifs volume, transfer it to the board write it to volume (/dev/m25p0.root.ubi.root) and then mount it. I will have to test that because I still don't know how to transfer the file without ethernet (maybe use usb/dfu, not figured it out yet). Why is ubiattach failing after ubiformat but succeeding after erase??? and why are all PEBs reserved? – Harkirat Sep 01 '21 at 17:55
Making a volume reserves the PEBs, so when you made a volume of size 0 it should reserve all the PEBs. It does seem like you have some kind of problem with your flash not working correctly. I believe when you attach after erasing flash, UBI uses a format-on-demand mode that waits until a volume is used. Barebox's ubifs support is read-only, so it doesn't work. I don't see any reason why the format and attach example should have failed, unless you did something between to corrupt flash that is omitted. – TrentP Sep 02 '21 at 04:21
Let us [continue this discussion in chat](https://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/236670/discussion-between-harkirat-and-trentp). – Harkirat Sep 02 '21 at 06:36

ubiformat in barebox giving timeout

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