A question about ubiformat and and some flash utils.

A question about ubiformat and and some flash utils.

[yoav feldman]

Hello,

i just picked up in google a messaging about flashing ubi images.
i have also problem with the erase speed,  and i wonder if u can
answer about some qustion that i have.
i found there this peregraph:

"OK. But did you consider to pre-create the image with ubinize and
mkfs.ubifs tools and just flash the raw image in production? This is the
fastest possible way."

This is the method that i'm trying to use, but things going too slow:
1. ubiformat is taking too much time (about 5-10 min).
2. for burning linux kernel image, i'm using flash_eraseall and
flashcp. the flash_eraseall also takes long time.

Do you know what can i to decrease the erase time?
its important for me to erase the whole flash when i'm updating the software.
Thanks alot!

Yoav Feldman.

Re: A question about ubiformat and and some flash utils.

[Ricard Wanderlof]

On Wed, 7 Dec 2011, yoav feldman wrote:

> Hello,
>
> i just picked up in google a messaging about flashing ubi images.
> i have also problem with the erase speed,  and i wonder if u can
> answer about some qustion that i have.
> i found there this peregraph:
>
> "OK. But did you consider to pre-create the image with ubinize and
> mkfs.ubifs tools and just flash the raw image in production? This is the
> fastest possible way."
>
> This is the method that i'm trying to use, but things going too slow:
> 1. ubiformat is taking too much time (about 5-10 min).
> 2. for burning linux kernel image, i'm using flash_eraseall and
> flashcp. the flash_eraseall also takes long time.
>
> Do you know what can i to decrease the erase time?
> its important for me to erase the whole flash when i'm updating the software.

What type of flash are you using (NOR vs. NAND) and how big is your image? 
NOR flashes are slow to erase and program, from what I recall they can be 
in the order of 15 to 30 seconds per megabyte for an erase/program cycle.

/Ricard
-- 
Ricard Wolf Wanderlöf                           ricardw(at)axis.com
Axis Communications AB, Lund, Sweden            www.axis.com
Phone +46 46 272 2016                           Fax +46 46 13 61 30