[PATCH v6.12.y 1/2] mtd: ubi: skip programming unused bits in ubi headers

Dominique Martinet dominique.martinet at atmark-techno.com
Mon Aug 17 19:09:34 PDT 2026


From: Cheng Ming Lin <chengminglin at mxic.com.tw>

This patch prevents unnecessary programming of bits in ec_hdr and
vid_hdr that are not used or read during normal UBI operation. These
unused bits are typcially already set to 1 in erased flash and do not
need to be explicitly programmed to 0 if they are not used.

Programming such unused areas offers no functional benefit and may
result in unnecessary flash wear, reducing the overall lifetime of the
device. By skipping these writes, we preserve the flash state as much as
possible and minimize wear caused by redundant operations.

This change ensures that only necessary fields are written when preparing
UBI headers, improving flash efficiency without affecting functionality.

Additionally, the Kioxia TC58NVG1S3HTA00 datasheet (page 63) also notes
that continuous program/erase cycling with a high percentage of '0' bits
in the data pattern can accelerate block endurance degradation.
This further supports avoiding large 0x00 patterns.

Link: https://europe.kioxia.com/content/dam/kioxia/newidr/productinfo/datasheet/201910/DST_TC58NVG1S3HTA00-TDE_EN_31442.pdf

Signed-off-by: Cheng Ming Lin <chengminglin at mxic.com.tw>
Reviewed-by: Miquel Raynal <miquel.raynal at bootlin.com>
Reviewed-by: Zhihao Cheng <chengzhihao1 at huawei.com>
Signed-off-by: Richard Weinberger <richard at nod.at>
(cherry picked from commit 77530d1a78ca5c274e37d6494a965223672630b2)
Signed-off-by: Dominique Martinet <dominique.martinet at atmark-techno.com>
---
 drivers/mtd/ubi/io.c | 10 ++++++++++
 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+)

diff --git a/drivers/mtd/ubi/io.c b/drivers/mtd/ubi/io.c
index a4999bce435f..915eb64cb001 100644
--- a/drivers/mtd/ubi/io.c
+++ b/drivers/mtd/ubi/io.c
@@ -868,6 +868,8 @@ int ubi_io_write_ec_hdr(struct ubi_device *ubi, int pnum,
 		return -EROFS;
 	}
 
+	memset((char *)ec_hdr + UBI_EC_HDR_SIZE, 0xFF, ubi->ec_hdr_alsize - UBI_EC_HDR_SIZE);
+
 	err = ubi_io_write(ubi, ec_hdr, pnum, 0, ubi->ec_hdr_alsize);
 	return err;
 }
@@ -1150,6 +1152,14 @@ int ubi_io_write_vid_hdr(struct ubi_device *ubi, int pnum,
 		return -EROFS;
 	}
 
+	if (ubi->vid_hdr_shift) {
+		memset((char *)p, 0xFF, ubi->vid_hdr_shift);
+		memset((char *)p + ubi->vid_hdr_shift + UBI_VID_HDR_SIZE, 0xFF,
+		       ubi->vid_hdr_alsize - (ubi->vid_hdr_shift + UBI_VID_HDR_SIZE));
+	} else {
+		memset((char *)p + UBI_VID_HDR_SIZE, 0xFF, ubi->vid_hdr_alsize - UBI_VID_HDR_SIZE);
+	}
+
 	err = ubi_io_write(ubi, p, pnum, ubi->vid_hdr_aloffset,
 			   ubi->vid_hdr_alsize);
 	return err;

-- 
2.55.0.dirty





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