[U-Boot] [PATCH v1 0/2] mtd: nand: omap: booting from NAND using u-boot

[Gupta, Pekon]

Hi Brian,

>From: Brian Norris
>
>Hi Pekon,
>
>Sorry, I'm revisiting your patch series a bit late. There are a few
>factors that contributed to this, though.
>
>1. This patch series talks extensively about U-Boot. U-Boot is not my
>   interest, nor should it be the focus of kernel (driver) development.
>   Any work done here should be framed in the kernel driver context. [1]
>
>2. You have previously CC'd me on U-Boot patches. Or at least, I think
>   so. More about this in the next point...
>
>3. The U-Boot source code structure is rather similar to pieces of Linux
>   subsystems. So without additional effort, it is hard to discern
>   whether a patch is intended for Linux MTD or U-Boot MTD.
>
>4. You cross-posted to both the U-Boot and Linux-MTD mailing lists.
>
>So the sum of all this is that I ignored these patches at first, as they
>weren't clearly intended for me.
>
>On Fri, Dec 13, 2013 at 02:42:56PM +0530, Pekon Gupta wrote:
>> As there were parallel set of patches running between u-boot and kernel.
>
>I don't know what patches you're talking about.
>
Following patch-sets touched ecc.layout while cleaning up OMAP NAND driver.
u-boot: http://lists.denx.de/pipermail/u-boot/2013-November/167551.html
kernel: http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/linux-mtd/2013-October/049414.html


>> hence, some patch-sets caused regression for OMAP3x platforms when booting
>
>"Hence" is not the right word. The previous sentence doesn't imply that
>there were regressions.
>
>> using u-boot specifically for ecc-schemes (like BCH4_SW).
>
>Huh? What does "specifically for ecc-schemes" mean? You mean that only
>some schemes had regressions? Can you be more specific? What are these
>regressions?
>
It was reported by Enric Balletbo Serra <eballetbo at iseebcn.com> [2] that
when using 'OMAP_ECC_BCH8_CODE_HW_DETECTION_SW' ecc-scheme
there was a mismatch in ECC layout between mainline u-boot and kernel.
This caused boot failure when kernel tried to mount UBIFS with image
flashed from u-boot.

This was missed while testing earlier patch-sets because only OMAP3 boards
use above ecc-scheme as OMAP3 SoC do not have ELM hardware engine.
All the later platforms use 'OMAP_ECC_BCH8_CODE_HW' ecc-scheme.
Both ecc-scheme are based on same algorithm of BCH8 ECC code except that:
(1) 'OMAP_ECC_BCH8_CODE_HW_DETECTION_SW' uses /lib/bch.c software
library for ecc-correction.
(2) 'OMAP_ECC_BCH8_CODE_HW' uses ELM hardware engine for ecc-correction.

This regression affects following ecc-schemes, as ecc.layout logic is just
copy-paste of each-other.
- 'OMAP_ECC_BCH4_CODE_HW_DETECTION_SW' and
- 'OMAP_ECC_BCH8_CODE_HW_DETECTION_SW'


>The rest of this cover letter (and most of the patch descriptions)
>describes the configurations and testing (which is all very good, don't
>get me wrong), with a lot of focus on things I don't follow (namely,
>U-Boot), but you omit many of the important details, like
>
> * What is the regression? I honestly don't see a description of the
>   actual regression. (I can read the code to intuit that, but what's
>   the point of your pages of description if it doesn't mention this?)
>   Please give some logical description of the problem
>
[Patch 1/2] of this series actually simplification of 'ecclayout->oobfree->offset'
It does not fix the regression, but it's important to clean it, before any new
feature additions.
[Patch 2/2] Actually fixes the regression for affected ecc-schemes. But
"this patch also touches other ecc-schemes as the fix required
 refactoring common code, into ecc-scheme specific code."


> * What are the effects of the regression? ECC bytes in the wrong place,
>   so you see correction failures/corruption? JFFS2 failures? (The
>   "oobfree" changes, for instance, should only affect something like
>   JFFS2.)
>
As mentioned above [PATCH 1/2] which touches 'ecclayout->oobfree->offset'
is a clean-up not affecting regression, but it should be taken in before
any further feature or ecc-scheme changes.
Now, what is your preference?
(a)  Take [PATCH 1/2] ecc.layout clean-up separately.
(b) Take ecc.layout as part of this series, but may be with different patch title.


> * What Linux commit caused the regression?
> * Should this patch set be marked for -stable? And for what kernel
>   release? (the previous question would help answer this)
>
This regression was caused in 
	commit b491da7233d5dc1a24d46ca1ad0209900329c5d0
	 mtd: nand: omap: clean-up ecc layout for BCH ecc schemes
So, this should be applicable from 3.13.x+


>> Hence this patch series fixes those regressions, and tests complete
>[...] snip
>
>I'm preparing a 3.14 pull request soon, and since you seem committed to
>fixing and properly testing a known regression here, I'd like to see
>this go in. But given the late timing and the unanswered questions, I
>think it's unlikely to go in -rc1. Perhaps I can send a later pull
>request if we can get it together properly.
>
Yes, if the above details are sufficient, then I'll:
(1) re-word [PATCH 1/2] commit log & title to mention that it's a clean-up
(2) Add above description and details of regression into commit log of [PATCH 2/2]
(3) Include your other comments on individual patches.


>So I'd like to first of all get a few answers to my questions, and then
>I think we might want to refresh this patch series with a little better
>commit messages and perhaps a separate documentation file (not
>necessarily in the same patch series, as the fix is more urgent).
>
Yes, I plan to get some documentation in kernel docs. But for now
I do have a 'un-polished' page for OMAP NAND driver on TI wiki [3].
Please let me know if you would like something similar for kernel docs.

I'm happy that you are scrutinizing each patch and their commit logs wisely.
Thanks much for that. This helps me and probably everyone else to tighten-up
so that only good quality patch-sets go in. This eventually will make the
sub-system and the drivers more stable for long-term.

Also, if you don't mind, I'll still continue to cross-post this particular
Patch-series on both u-boot and kernel mailing lists just to maintain
continuity, as I know there are lot of OMAP3 users which are following
only one of the two lists.. (but I'm cutting down on the CC list).
I'll avoid cross posting in future.


>Brian
>
>   [1] For instance, rather than saying "the ECC layout doesn't match
>   U-Boot", you should probably describe what the intended ECC layout
>   should look like and show that Linux does not match it. Perhaps it's
>   time for some better documentation, like Ezequiel stashed under
>   Documentation/mtd/nand/ for pxa3xx. You could also take some cues
>   from Huang's comments on ECC layouts, etc., in gpmi-nand.c.


[2] http://lists.denx.de/pipermail/u-boot/2013-December/168440.html
[3] https://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/Linux_Core_NAND_User%27s_Guide (under construction)


with regards, pekon