A lot of spi-nand flashes is supported linux kernel. It will be very helpful to add a possibility to read/write/erase such flashes using standard linux support. Unfortunately spi-nand support is not enabled in armbian linux kernel.
example: recovery bootloader on the router board
Orange Pi 4 configuration
1. Recompile orange pi 4 linux kernel to enable spi-nand driver (linux-5.10 or above is required). Make sure spinand, mtd and nandcore are built as modules
2. sudo armbian-config, go to “System → DTC” and replace spidev with spinand
3. install the following packages: mtd-utils
4. reboot board to apply changes
Connect spi-nand chip to orange pi4 board
Testpoint Meaning Where to connect
3.3V 3.3V power supply pin 17 of orange pi 4 connector
DI SPI Data In pin 19 of orange pi 4 connector
DO SPI Data Out pin 21 of orange pi 4 connector
CLK SPI Clock pin 23 of orange pi 4 connector
GND Ground pin 25 of orange pi 4connector
CS# SPI Chip Select pin 24 of orange pi 4 connector
WP# Write Protect short with HOLD# and 3.3V testpoints
HOLD# Hold short with WP# and 3.3V testpoints
restart spinand and mtd modules
rmmod ofpart spinand mtd nandcore
modprobe spinand
modprobe mtd
make sure the flash was detected
dmesg | tail -n 6
[ 237.055291] spi-nand: probe of spi0.0 failed with error -524
[ 383.913569] spi-id: 00, ef, aa, 21
[ 383.913729] spi-id: ef, aa, 21, 00
[ 383.913878] spi-id: ef, aa, 21, 00
[ 383.913936] spi-nand spi0.0: Winbond SPI NAND was found.
[ 383.913965] spi-nand spi0.0: 128 MiB, block size: 128 KiB, page size: 2048, OOB size: 64
Recovering bootloader
Add partitions of your choice using
mtdpart add /dev/mtd0 <PART_NAME>
Erase & flash partition
flash_erase /dev/mtd 0 0
nandwrite /dev/mtd image_file
Disconnect flash from orange pi board and test it
