[c-nsp] partition-table and file-system type on Cisco 4500 SUP compact-flash

[Martin T]

Another utility, which should support both reading and writing to
"Class A" file-systems, at least to some extent, is cffs:

root at T60:~# cffs -v
cffs version 0.06  (C) Simon Evans 2002 (spse at secret.org.uk)
root at T60:~#

However, it seems to refuse to support ATA-type flash-memory cards:

root at T60:~# fdisk -lu /dev/sdb

Disk /dev/sdb: 32 MB, 32112640 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3 cylinders, total 62720 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table
root at T60:~# cffs /dev/sdb --dir
/dev/sdb is not an MTD character device
root at T60:~#


..and detects only linear-flash cards. For example SMART 4MB linear
flash PCMCIA card:

root at T60:~# dmesg | tail -5
[ 2756.208470] pcmciamtd 0.0: pcmcia: could not parse base and rmask0 of CIS
[ 2756.212768] Found: Intel 28F016S5
[ 2756.212773] SMART Modular Technologies  4MB FLASH Card          :
Found 2 x8 devices at 0x0 in 16-bit bank
[ 2756.215555] erase region 0: offset=0x0,size=0x20000,blocks=32
[ 2756.218484] pcmciamtd 0.0: mtd0: SMART Modular Technologies  4MB
FLASH Card
root at T60:~# cffs /dev/mtd0 --dir
root at T60:~# cffs /dev/mtd0 --fsck
Free space = 4194304 bytes

Flash is not blank
root at T60:~# cffs /dev/mtd0 --erase
Size = 4194304 erase size = 131072
32 Erase blocks
Proceed with erase [Y/n]Y
Erasing block      1/32
erase failed: Timer expired


However, this erase operation never completes. Ciscoflash, on the
other hand, seems not to support linear flash:

root at T60:~# ciscoflash -v -d /dev/mtd0 info
ciscoflash: Unknown magic number (0x00000000)
root at T60:~#


Are there "Class A" and "Class B" file-systems both on ATA-type and
linear-type flash cards? Has anyone succesfully written to "Class A"
file-system under Linux?


thanks,
Martin


On Mon, Jun 17, 2013 at 5:18 PM, Martin T <m4rtntns at gmail.com> wrote:
> One utility, which supports reading the "Class A" file-system, is
> ciscoflash(http://freecode.com/projects/ciscoflash) by Simon Lockhart:
>
> T42 ~ # ciscoflash -d /dev/sdb dir
> -#- --type-- --crc--- -seek-- -length- -----date/time------ name
>   1 00000002 E81CCB85 09831C   426652 Jun 17 2013 03:56:03
> cat4500-ios-promupgrade-122_31r_SGA7
> T42 ~ # ciscoflash -d /dev/sdb extract
> T42 ~ # ls -l cat4500-ios-promupgrade-122_31r_SGA7
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 426652 2013-06-17 17:13
> cat4500-ios-promupgrade-122_31r_SGA7
> T42 ~ #
>
> However, it does not support writing to "Class A" file-systems.
>
>
> regards,
> Martin
>
> 2013/6/17, Martin T <m4rtntns at gmail.com>:
>> Hi,
>>
>> older Cisco 4500 series supervisor engines support compact flash
>> cards. However, Cisco-branded 32MB compact-flash taken from Cisco 1800
>> series router is not recognized by SUP:
>>
>> Catalyst4500#dir slot0:
>> %Error opening slot0:/ (Bad device info block)
>> Catalyst4500#
>>
>> After executing "format slot0:", the compact flash became accessible:
>>
>> Catalyst4500#format slot0:
>> Format operation may take a while. Continue? [confirm]
>> Format operation will destroy all data in "slot0:".  Continue? [confirm]
>> Enter volume ID (up to 64 chars)[default slot0]:
>>
>> Format of slot0 complete
>> Catalyst4500#dir slot0:
>> Directory of slot0:/
>>
>> No files in directory
>>
>> 31784960 bytes total (31784960 bytes free)
>> Catalyst4500#
>>
>>
>> The problem is, that now I'm not able to access this compact-flash in
>> my PC. Looks like it even does not have a partition-table:
>>
>> T42 ~ # dmesg | tail
>> [1983944.880491] ata5.00: 62720 sectors, multi 0: LBA
>> [1983944.888476] ata5.00: configured for PIO0
>> [1983944.888794] scsi 4:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ATA      STI Flash
>> 8.0.0  01/1 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
>> [1983944.889398] sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
>> [1983944.891205] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] 62720 512-byte logical blocks:
>> (32.1 MB/30.6 MiB)
>> [1983944.891403] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
>> [1983944.891414] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
>> [1983944.891501] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: enabled, read cache:
>> enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
>> [1983944.910031]  sdb: unknown partition table
>> [1983944.910632] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
>> T42 ~ # fdisk -lu /dev/sdb
>>
>> Disk /dev/sdb: 32 MB, 32112640 bytes
>> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3 cylinders, total 62720 sectors
>> Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
>> Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
>> I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
>> Disk identifier: 0x00000000
>>
>> Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table
>> T42 ~ # file -s /dev/sdb
>> /dev/sdb: data
>> T42 ~ # dd if=/dev/sdb bs=512 count=1 | hexdump -C
>> 00000000  88 06 35 76 ea 01 00 00  01 00 00 00 00 00 04 00
>> |..5v............|
>> 00000010  ff ff ff ff 01 00 06 00  03 00 00 00 e5 01 00 00
>> |................|
>> 00000020  00 00 00 01 02 00 7c 60  00 00 00 00 02 00 c2 ff
>> |......|`........|
>> 00000030  00 00 3e 00 e8 01 00 00  01 00 00 00 e9 01 00 00
>> |..>.............|
>> 00000040  01 00 00 00 6c 73 74 6f  00 30 00 00 00 00 00 00
>> |....lsto.0......|
>> 00000050  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
>> |................|
>> *
>> 000000a0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00
>> |................|
>> 000000b0  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff  ff ff ff ff ff ff ff ff
>> |................|
>> *
>> 00000100  d0 ba 1e 0b 02 00 f8 5f  b8 80 ff ff ff ff ff ff
>> |......._........|
>> 00000110  6f 79 61 64 66 2d 6c 73  62 69 6d 2d 00 00 00 00
>> |oyadf-lsbim-....|
>> 00000120  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
>> |................|
>> *
>> 00000140  45 7f 46 4c 02 01 00 01  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
>> |E.FL............|
>> 00000150  02 00 70 00 00 00 01 00  00 01 00 00 00 00 34 00
>> |..p...........4.|
>> 00000160  02 00 68 5e 00 00 00 00  34 00 20 00 01 00 28 00  |..h^....4.
>> ...(.|
>> 00000170  0a 00 09 00 00 00 01 00  01 00 00 00 00 01 00 00
>> |................|
>> 00000180  00 01 00 00 01 00 b4 57  29 00 a4 c2 00 00 07 00
>> |.......W).......|
>> 00000190  01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
>> |................|
>> 000001a0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
>> |................|
>> *
>> 1+0 records in
>> 1+0 records out
>> 512 bytes (512 B) copied, 0.0158727 s, 32.3 kB/s
>> 00000200
>> T42 ~ #
>>
>>
>> "format" command creates a "Class A" file-system? Is this "Class A"
>> file-system some kind of Cisco-proprietary file-system? is there a way
>> to access this file-system under modern(2.6/3.x) Linux kernel?
>>
>>
>> regards,
>> Martin
>>