Re: [PATCH] tango_nand.c: fix ecc.stats_corrected in empty flash case

[Marc Gonzalez <marc_gonzalez@sigmadesigns.com>]

[ Trimming CC list ]

On 22/04/2017 12:40, Pavel Machek wrote:

> Fix ecc.stats_corrected in empty flash case.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Pavel Machek <pavel@denx.de>
> 
> ---
> 
> This was suggested by Boris Brezillon in another context. Not tested;
> I don't have the hardware.
> 
> diff --git a/drivers/mtd/nand/tango_nand.c b/drivers/mtd/nand/tango_nand.c
> index 4a5e948..db4bff4 100644
> --- a/drivers/mtd/nand/tango_nand.c
> +++ b/drivers/mtd/nand/tango_nand.c
> @@ -193,6 +193,8 @@ static int check_erased_page(struct nand_chip *chip, u8 *buf)
>  						  chip->ecc.strength);
>  		if (res < 0)
>  			mtd->ecc_stats.failed++;
> +		else
> +			mtd->ecc_stats.corrected += res;
>  
>  		bitflips = max(res, bitflips);
>  		buf += pkt_size;
> 

Hello Pavel,

You may have noticed that ecc_stats.corrected is not updated in
decode_error_report() which is the main code path, i.e. the path
that will succeed 99.99% of the time (HW read).

It turns out that the HW does not report the number of errors
corrected in a page... Instead it reports two values:
1) U = number of errors corrected in the first packet/step
2) V = max number of errors corrected in other packets/steps

Thus, it is not possible to determine the actual number of errors
corrected in a page (unless V is 0). Otherwise, we just have an
interval; let n be the number of packets/steps:

U + V <= corrected errors count <= U + (n-1)*V

In my opinion, it is better to provide no information than to
provide incorrect information. Therefore, I did not update
ecc_stats.corrected in decode_error_report().

One could argue that updating ecc_stats.corrected in
check_erased_page() sets the correct value, since the error
counts are computed in software for each step. But updating
the value here is IMO pointless if we can't do it in the main
code path.

Regards.