how little do i have to do to define flash layout on my system?

[Robert P. J. Day]

  currently, my 8xx 2.4 kernel-based system defines its flash layout
with a proprietary driver file we installed into the "maps" directory,
but i'd like to simplify that approach.

  certainly, i can use command-line partitioning to define all of the
partitions, making the driver file *way* simpler.  can i somehow avoid
even the creation of that driver file (so i don't have to mess with
the kernel source tree at all)?

  i just read that there is a generic driver for accessing CFI flash
chips on systems that have no specific mapping driver.  does this mean
what i think it means?  that i can somehow take advantage of that
generic driver to avoid having to write my own?

  i need to be able to concatenate 2 16M chips into a single 32M
address space, then partition into 5 or 6 partitions.  am i being too
optimistic about not needing my own driver map program if i can use
the "generic" one?

rday