update_flash does not find MTD device

I have a Connect ME with (I’m pretty sure) the original image connected with a null modem cable and ethernet; I got nfs working and so have a build directory on my host machine mounted. However, running update_flash fails:

update_flash -f -c -v -r -t /ram nfs/linux.bin 1 /nfs/jffs2.img 3

No MTD devices available.

Looking in /dev shows that there is no /dev/mtd/ directory, only /dev/mtdblock:

ls /dev/

console eeprom kmem mtdblock port random tty urandom
cua full mem null pty root ttyS0 zero

dmesg doesn’t print anything that cues me in here; any ideas? I can always reprogram it with jtag, but I’m wondering what’s up.

Thanks,
Steve

okay, it’s the ‘insmod mtdchar’ that does the trick.