mdt_debug write

[Andre Przywara]

Hi Stephen,

On 28/11/2023 20:07, Stephen Graf wrote:
> Below is the consol log from trying to use mtd_debug write. It returned 
> immediately with a strange success message.
> 
> root at orangepizero3:~# mtd_debug write /dev/mtd0 0 0xf0000 
> /home/sysadmin/u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin
> file_to_flash: fread, size 0xf0000, n 0xf0000
> fread(): Success

interesting, I was under the impression that "mtd_debug write" would be 
the way to write to flash. In hindsight, the "debug" in that name should 
have probably put me off. Anyway, "cat" is probably not a good choice, 
"dd" is better, but it looks like "flashcp" (also part of mtdutils) is 
the go-to tool, since it does the required erasing automatically and 
also reportedly does some error detection. Can you please test this?
# flashcp u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin /dev/mtd0
I would test this on my end ASAP as well.

Do you feel like sending a patch to the U-Boot documentation to get this 
changed then?

Thanks,
Andre

> I then used the cat command to write to the SPI flash which took a few 
> seconds to execute:
> 
> root at orangepizero3:~# cat /home/sysadmin/u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin > 
> /dev/mtd0
> 
> 
> 
>>>>
>>>> I tried to follow the u-boot documentation on writing the SPI flash but
>>>> had problems with the write command.  When issued it returned
>>>> immediately. The erase command took about 5 sec to execute. I 
>>>> researched
>>>> use of mtd commands and got a suggestion to use cat instead, which 
>>>> worked.
>>>>
>>>> "root at orangepizero3:~# mtdinfo
>>>> Count of MTD devices:           1
>>>> Present MTD devices:            mtd0
>>>> Sysfs interface supported:      yes
>>>> root at orangepizero3:~# mtd_debug erase /dev/mtd0 0 0xf0000
>>>> Erased 983040 bytes from address 0x00000000 in flash
>>>> root at orangepizero3:~# mtd_debug write /dev/mtd0 0 0xf0000
>>>> /home/sysadmin/u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin
>>>> file_to_flash: fread, size 0xf0000, n 0xf0000
>>>> fread(): Success
>>>>
>>>>
>