MX25L(4)

🎀 NAME 🎀

Okay so bestie, meet mx25l: the SpiFlash-compatible non-volatile storage devices driver. This is the MX25L(4) page from the Kernel Interfaces Manual, and it’s literally your backstage pass to this whole storage-device situation. 💖

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

Kernel-config era: drop this in:

device mx25l

And in loader.conf(5):

mx25l_load="YES"

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

Okay so the mx25l driver provides support for the family of non-volatile storage devices known collectively as SpiFlash(tm), and honestly? Obsessed. SpiFlash chips typically have part numbers beginning with EN25, IS25, MX25, S25, SST25, or W25 — those prefixes are your vibe check. 💅

The mx25l driver uses opcode 0x9f to read the manufacturer and device ID data and determine whether the device is supported. The device ID is looked up using a table of data within the driver, and that table describes the attributes of each supported device, such as block size, sector size, and device capacity. When a supported device is found, the driver creates a disk device and makes it accessible at /dev/flash/spi?. The new disk device is then tasted by the available geom(4) modules as with any disk device — and yes, “tasted” is the technical term, no cap. 🫶

🔥 HARDWARE 🔥

The mx25l driver supports the following spi flash memory devices. It’s giving compatibility queen, and every single one is on the list. ✨

• AT25DF641
• EN25F32
• EN25P32
• EN25P64
• EN25Q32
• EN25Q64
• GD25Q64
• M25P32
• M25P64
• MX25L1606E
• MX25LL128
• MX25LL256
• MX25LL32
• MX25LL64
• N25Q64
• S25FL032
• S25FL064
• S25FL128
• S25FL256S
• SST25VF010A
• SST25VF032B
• W25Q128
• W25Q256
• W25Q32
• W25Q64
• W25Q64BV
• W25X32
• W25X64

🌸 FDT CONFIGURATION 🌸

On an fdt(4) based system, the mx25l device is defined as a slave device subnode of the SPI bus controller node. All properties documented in the spibus.txt bindings document can be used with the mx25l device — the most commonly-used ones are documented below, bestie. 💖

✨ Required properties in the mx25l device subnode ✨

The following properties are required in the mx25l device subnode:

• compatible — Must be the string "jedec,spi-nor".
• reg — Chip select address of device.
• spi-max-frequency — The maximum bus frequency to use when communicating with this slave device. Actual bus speed may be lower, depending on the capabilities of the SPI bus controller hardware.

🎀 Optional properties for the mx25l device subnode 🎀

The following properties are optional for the mx25l device subnode:

• spi-cpha — Empty property indicating the slave device requires shifted clock phase (CPHA) mode.
• spi-cpol — Empty property indicating the slave device requires inverse clock polarity (CPOL) mode.
• spi-cs-high — Empty property indicating the slave device requires chip select active high.

🦋 HINTS CONFIGURATION 🦋

On a device.hints(5) based system, such as MIPS, these values are configurable for mx25l:

• hint.mx25l.%d.at — The spibus the mx25l instance is attached to.
• hint.mx25l.%d.clock — The maximum bus frequency to use when communicating with this device. Actual bus speed may be lower, depending on the capabilities of the SPI bus controller hardware.
• hint.mx25l.%d.cs — The chip-select number to assert when performing I/O for this device. Set the high bit (1 << 31) to invert the logic level of the chip select line.
• hint.mx25l.%d.mode — The SPI mode (0-3) to use when communicating with this device.

🍓 FILES 🍓

• /dev/flash/spi? — Provides read/write access to the storage device. Slay. 💅

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

fdt(4), geom(4) — the lore, iykyk. 🌈

⭐ HISTORY ⭐

The mx25l driver first appeared in FreeBSD 8.0. A whole main character origin story. 💜

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And we out: mwah 💋 — this MX25L(4) page is from Debian, dated November 11, 2025. Stay storied, bestie. 🎀