bad block recovery

[Stephen Bardsley]

> sbardsley at rlwinc.com said:
> >  My understanding is that the chip is now "unreliable", which I can
> > live with for now.  Does unreliable mean I can still use the chip if I
> > can somehow format it?
> 
> Yes. Blocks can go bad during normal operation, and we have to be able to 
> deal with that case _anyway_. My nftl_format program can be made to do some 
> primitive tests on each erase block, and mark the completely broken ones as 
> such before formatting. But (for the benefit of the peanut gallery) you 
> should _only_ use nftl_format if you have already lost your bad block list.
> 
> --
> dwmw2

Dave, thanks for the prompt response.

I built the mtd/utils, and read the FAQ.  All indications are that the bad
block table is gone.  So I ran nftl_format and received the message
"Erase size not 8Kb - I'm confused".  What exactly does this mean?

I took a quick look at the code and see that meminfo.erasesize is used to
scale various values.  I don't see why 8Kb is a limit.  I have found that
my chip's erase size to be 16Kb; is there any way for me to use nftl_format?
If necessary, I don't mind modifying the code, but I don't want to screw it
up.  Any hints?

Steve
_____________________
Stephen Bardsley
RLW Inc.
Malta, NY