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| 1 | +Broadcom BCM47xx Partitions |
| 2 | +=========================== |
| 3 | + |
| 4 | +Broadcom is one of hardware manufacturers providing SoCs (BCM47xx) used in |
| 5 | +home routers. Their BCM947xx boards using CFE bootloader have several partitions |
| 6 | +without any on-flash partition table. On some devices their sizes and/or |
| 7 | +meanings can also vary so fixed partitioning can't be used. |
| 8 | + |
| 9 | +Discovering partitions on these devices is possible thanks to having a special |
| 10 | +header and/or magic signature at the beginning of each of them. They are also |
| 11 | +block aligned which is important for determinig a size. |
| 12 | + |
| 13 | +Most of partitions use ASCII text based magic for determining a type. More |
| 14 | +complex partitions (like TRX with its HDR0 magic) may include extra header |
| 15 | +containing some details, including a length. |
| 16 | + |
| 17 | +A list of supported partitions includes: |
| 18 | +1) Bootloader with Broadcom's CFE (Common Firmware Environment) |
| 19 | +2) NVRAM with configuration/calibration data |
| 20 | +3) Device manufacturer's data with some default values (e.g. SSIDs) |
| 21 | +4) TRX firmware container which can hold up to 4 subpartitions |
| 22 | +5) Backup TRX firmware used after failed upgrade |
| 23 | + |
| 24 | +As mentioned earlier, role of some partitions may depend on extra configuration. |
| 25 | +For example both: main firmware and backup firmware use the same TRX format with |
| 26 | +the same header. To distinguish currently used firmware a CFE's environment |
| 27 | +variable "bootpartition" is used. |
| 28 | + |
| 29 | + |
| 30 | +Devices using Broadcom partitions described above should should have flash node |
| 31 | +with a subnode named "partitions" using following properties: |
| 32 | + |
| 33 | +Required properties: |
| 34 | +- compatible : (required) must be "brcm,bcm947xx-cfe-partitions" |
| 35 | + |
| 36 | +Example: |
| 37 | + |
| 38 | +flash@0 { |
| 39 | + partitions { |
| 40 | + compatible = "brcm,bcm947xx-cfe-partitions"; |
| 41 | + }; |
| 42 | +}; |
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