jffs problems - is my flash memory going bad ? ?

[rb64]

I have a TM-AC1900 (aka tmobile branded RT-AC68U) running 376.47,
and am wondering if its flash memory is going bad. JFFS was working fine
for a few weeks. Then after a reboot yesterday, jffs no longer
gets mounted and I see these errors in dmesg:
(also attempting to manually mount yields same errors in syslog)

mtd->read(0x1fc08 bytes from 0x2c603f8) returned ECC error
Old JFFS2 bitmask found at 0x02c74ae0
You cannot use older JFFS2 filesystems with newer kernels
mtd->read(0x400 bytes from 0x2c80000) returned ECC error
jffs2_scan_eraseblock(): Magic bitmask 0x1985 not found at 0x02c80000: 0x2cc4 instead
 (more jffs2_scan_eraseblock errors snipped...)
Further such events for this erase block will not be printed
mtd->read(0x1fc08 bytes from 0x2c803f8) returned ECC error
mtd->read(0x400 bytes from 0x2ca0000) returned ECC error
jffs2_scan_eraseblock(): Magic bitmask 0x1985 not found at 0x02ca0000: 0x7a4b instead
jffs2_scan_eraseblock(): Magic bitmask 0x1985 not found at 0x02ca0004: 0x8bd7 instead
 (more jffs2_scan_eraseblock errors snipped...)
Further such events for this erase block will not be printed
mtd->read(0x1fc08 bytes from 0x2ca03f8) returned ECC error
Cowardly refusing to erase blocks on filesystem with no valid JFFS2 nodes
empty_blocks 154, bad_blocks 0, c->nr_blocks 758

So far, I have tried
1) checking the Administration->System->Format JFFS partition at next boot (and rebooting)
and have done this several times.
2) tried
nvram unset jffs2_size
nvram set jffs2_format=1
nvram set jffs2_on=1
nvram commit
reboot
3) /sbin/mtd-erase2 jffs2 (as well as "mtd-erase2 jffs", "mtd-erase2 /dev/mtd4")
all yield command-line syntax error usage: mtd-erase2 [device]

Can anyone offer any other suggestions to try ?

 

[Nullity]

How have you been using the flash memory?

 

[rb64]

How have you been using the flash memory?

I don't think i've been abusing the nand. I write to it once a day, as well as the usual syslog stuff (log entries a few times a day).

My jffs partition (mtd4) is currently 99MB. I wonder if it is possible to make
it smaller (in hopes of avoiding flash memory errors). All I need is about 10MB.

 

[RMerlin]

My jffs partition (mtd4) is currently 99MB. I wonder if it is possible to make it smaller (in hopes of avoiding flash memory errors). All I need is about 10MB.

That would require making changes to the kernel source code to modify the partition table.

 

[rb64]

That would require making changes to the kernel source code to modify the partition table.

Yikes. I'm gonna exhaust any other options before mucking with kernel src.

Concerning /sbin/mtd-erase2 (arm version):

 /sbin/mtd-erase2 jffs2 (as well as "mtd-erase2 jffs", "mtd-erase2 /dev/mtd4", "mtd-erase2 mtd4", "mtd-erase2 /dev/mtdblock4")
all yield command-line syntax error [B]usage: mtd-erase2 [device][/B]

I'm curious if :

• I'm supplying the wrong command line argument

• Faulty nand causing the syntax error

• or is mtd-erase2 broken

 

[john9527]

Just for verification....what does

cat /proc/mtd

show

 

[cdouglass]

Have you reset the router back to factory default? If not I would give that a shot.

 

[rb64]

Just for verification....what does

cat /proc/mtd

show

Here you go. Lemme know if u see anything screwy.

dev: size erasesize name
mtd0: 00080000 00020000 "boot"
mtd1: 00180000 00020000 "nvram"
mtd2: 01e00000 00020000 "linux"
mtd3: 01c67730 00020000 "rootfs"
mtd4: 05ec0000 00020000 "brcmnand"
mtd5: 00140000 00020000 "asus"

 

[rb64]

Have you reset the router back to factory default? If not I would give that a shot.

I have - a few times in fact.

 

[john9527]

Here you go. Lemme know if u see anything screwy.

dev: size erasesize name
mtd0: 00080000 00020000 "boot"
mtd1: 00180000 00020000 "nvram"
mtd2: 01e00000 00020000 "linux"
mtd3: 01c67730 00020000 "rootfs"
mtd4: 05ec0000 00020000 "brcmnand"
mtd5: 00140000 00020000 "asus"

Yes, I do.....here's the output from my system for comparison (AC68U)....

dev: size erasesize name
mtd0: 00080000 00020000 "boot"
mtd1: 00180000 00020000 "nvram"
mtd2: 01e00000 00020000 "linux"
mtd3: 01c599a0 00020000 "rootfs"
mtd4: 06000000 00020000 "brcmnand"
mtd5: 02000000 00020000 "jffs2"

So, you don't have a 'jffs2' partition....

EDIT: See next post by Merlin for next step

 

[RMerlin]

Yes, I do.....here's the output from my system for comparison (AC68U)....

dev: size erasesize name
mtd0: 00080000 00020000 "boot"
mtd1: 00180000 00020000 "nvram"
mtd2: 01e00000 00020000 "linux"
mtd3: 01c599a0 00020000 "rootfs"
mtd4: 06000000 00020000 "brcmnand"
mtd5: 02000000 00020000 "jffs2"

So, you don't have a 'jffs2' partition....

you might try

mtd-erase2 asus

followed by a factory reset and see if that helps.

On recent versions of my firmware as well as stock RT-xxx firmware, the JFFS partition is brcmnand. I changed from a custom jffs2 partition to using brcmnand on the RT-AC66 and newer models so to be in-sync with Asus. Older firmwares, as well as the RT-N66 and RT-N16 use jffs2.

On the stock TM-1900 firmware it might be different. During development I saw Asus do a lot of changes to how they were using the jffs2/brcmnand/asus partition (and tinkering with that asus partition is what actually caused me to brick my initial RT-AC87U development sample), and I don't remember what was the final setup they went with.

The best way to know for sure is to use the "mount" command to see which device is mounted on /jffs.

admin@Stargate87:/tmp/home/root# mount | grep jffs
/dev/mtdblock4 on /jffs type jffs2 (rw,noatime)

 

[rb64]

On recent versions of my firmware as well as stock RT-xxx firmware, the JFFS partition is brcmnand. I changed from a custom jffs2 partition to using brcmnand on the RT-AC66 and newer models so to be in-sync with Asus. Older firmwares, as well as the RT-N66 and RT-N16 use jffs2.

On the stock TM-1900 firmware it might be different. During development I saw Asus do a lot of changes to how they were using the jffs2/brcmnand/asus partition (and tinkering with that asus partition is what actually caused me to brick my initial RT-AC87U development sample), and I don't remember what was the final setup they went with.

The best way to know for sure is to use the "mount" command to see which device is mounted on /jffs.

admin@Stargate87:/tmp/home/root# mount | grep jffs
/dev/mtdblock4 on /jffs type jffs2 (rw,noatime)

Although I no longer can mount it, I am 100% certain that
my jffs partition was mtdblock4 (size 99MB). My asus partition
is only 1MB.

RMerl/John, does /sbin/mtd-erase2 (arm version) return
anything other than:
usage: mtd-erase2 [device]
If yes, then mine is broken (or something
in my tmobile CFE is causing the error) .

 

[RMerlin]

Although I no longer can mount it, I am 100% certain that
my jffs partition was mtdblock4 (size 99MB). My asus partition
is only 1MB.

RMerl/John, does /sbin/mtd-erase2 (arm version) return
anything other than:
usage: mtd-erase2 [device]
If yes, then mine is broken (or something
in my tmobile CFE is causing the error) .

The correct syntax in your case would be:

mtd-erase2 brcmnand

Since that's the name of your mtd4 partition.

 

[rb64]

The correct syntax in your case would be:

mtd-erase2 brcmnand

Since that's the name of your mtd4 partition.

I get same syntax error (thx for suggestion tho)

# /sbin/mtd-erase2 brcmnand
usage: mtd-erase2 [device]

 

[benoitm974]

After reading this forum having the same issue I looked at Merlin git code and saw that the mtd-erase2 was not updated with recent asus renaming jffs2 to brcmnand I've pulled a request to get this back in the rc.c code so you can do mtd-erase2 brcmnand to fix this

 

[mstombs]

I don't have an ARM router but am not impressed with Asus continuous use of it for logs and traffic data - perhaps someone here can take another look at the code that copies syslog to it?

http://www.linksysinfo.org/index.ph...-write-syslog-and-traffic-data-to-jffs.71098/