--- David Given dg@cowlark.com wrote:
Thanks to Cliff for the detailed explanation of how the flash metadata works. From that, it seems to me that the view of the flash that PBL sees (after bad-block remapping) is *not* the same as the view that Linux sees (talking directly to the chip). Which means that while I'm safe and won't be able to trash the metadata using PBL, I *will* be able to trash the metadata using Linux --- and if I trash the metadata, I won't be able to use PBL to boot from the flash.
Could the strange issues at the end of the flash be this metadata?
I dont know if it will be of any help but I found a copy of the toshiba data sheet for that nand device and put it on my website for download here: http://www.en4rab.dsl.pipex.com/TC58DVAM82AF1FT_030129.pdf The metadata (crc's for ECC and other stuff) is stored at the end of eack page. A page is 528 bytes, 512 bytes are for user data and 16 bytes for ECC or other metadata. There is a small note at the end of the datasheet (page32) about checking for bad pages on a new chip. en4rab
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