99% of the problems users are having with Apps2SD are caused by the unclean shutdown of the ext2 filesystem, because Android does not unmount it when rebooting or shutting down the system, and there are no tools on the device to fsck the filesystem on boot. Ext3 is journaled and this isn't an issue because the journal will simply replay on boot.
I'd like to put an end to this.
Attached is e2fsprogs (tune2fs, e2fsck, resize2fs, and mke2fs) built for Android/ARM. You should also use the "-t auto" mount option so that it's still backwards compatible with ext2.
To convert your ext2 to ext3, you can simply run "tune2fs -j /dev/block/mmcblk0p2" after you have these tools on your device, and reboot (assuming your ramdisk allows for mounting as "auto"). You should unmount and e2fsck the partition first, if it's not been checked for errors.
Step by step by neoobs
can we have a noob-friendly guide to this preferably through terminal.
cyanogen said:
99% of the problems users are having with Apps2SD are caused by the unclean shutdown of the ext2 filesystem, because Android does not unmount it when rebooting or shutting down the system, and there are no tools on the device to fsck the filesystem on boot. Ext3 is journaled and this isn't an issue because the journal will simply replay on boot.
I'd like to put an end to this.
Attached is e2fsprogs (tune2fs, e2fsck, resize2fs, and mke2fs) built for Android/ARM. You should also use the "-t auto" mount option so that it's still backwards compatible with ext2.
To convert your ext2 to ext3, you can simply run "tune2fs -j /dev/block/mmcblk0p2" after you have these tools on your device, and reboot (assuming your ramdisk allows for mounting as "auto"). You should unmount and e2fsck the partition first, if it's not been checked for errors.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will this work with ADP JF1.5?
Before I try it, let me get a few things straing. I have to put these files in the corresponding folders, reflash, then type type the commands from terminal on the phone? Or does this have to be done with adb?
Beast84 said:
Will this work with ADP JF1.5?
Before I try it, let me get a few things straing. I have to put these files in the corresponding folders, reflash, then type type the commands from terminal on the phone? Or does this have to be done with adb?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its already working for ADP. I have both my phones running on EXT3 and I havent found a problem. Its more reliable and I have gotten a Force Close or Wait screen with all the speed his build has.
cyanogen said:
To convert your ext2 to ext3, you can simply run "tune2fs -j /dev/block/mmcblk0p2" after you have these tools on your device, and reboot (assuming your ramdisk allows for mounting as "auto"). You should unmount and e2fsck the partition first, if it's not been checked for errors.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Huh?
Can you explain this in English please?
Henchman said:
Huh?
Can you explain this in English please?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I mainly intended this for other ROM makers, so they can incorporate these features into cooked ROMs.
So this basically means all of us with ext2 partitions will have to get a new card or is there anyways for us to convert to ext3?
djdeviance said:
So this basically means all of us with ext2 partitions will have to get a new card or is there anyways for us to convert to ext3?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
please re-read the first post.
"To convert your ext2 to ext3, you can simply run "tune2fs -j /dev/block/mmcblk0p2" ....
pershoot said:
please re-read the first post.
"To convert your ext2 to ext3, you can simply run "tune2fs -j /dev/block/mmcblk0p2" ....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I did read that and tried as well. Was unsuccessful that why I asked.
Premature SD failure from frequent journal commits?
I wondered why this solution wasn't inplemented from the beginning. However, In one of the threads on A2SD, I read that moving /DATA/DATA to SD would negatively affect the longevity of the SD cards because of the frequent write/re-write cycles of files in that directory, particularly sqlite database commits . One contributor suggested that a using a journalled filesystem in this context would have a similar effect in that there would be repeated writes to the specific area of the SD where the journal is stored.
Any thoughts on this?
Once we run the commands in terminal, will that wipe everything off the ext partition? Or will it just convert the ext2 to ext3 & leave all my apps intact?
sir*mez said:
its already working for ADP. I have both my phones running on EXT3 and I havent found a problem. Its more reliable and I have gotten a Force Close or Wait screen with all the speed his build has.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not on his build. I am on ADP JF1.5
Which is why I asked if it will work on JF's build & not his build. I know it works on his. He's the one who brought it up
arqueware said:
I wondered why this solution wasn't inplemented from the beginning. However, In one of the threads on A2SD, I read that moving /DATA/DATA to SD would negatively affect the longevity of the SD cards because of the frequent write/re-write cycles of files in that directory, particularly sqlite database commits . One contributor suggested that a using a journalled filesystem in this context would have a similar effect in that there would be repeated writes to the specific area of the SD where the journal is stored.
Any thoughts on this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most Class 6 cards support wear leveling these days.
Beast84 said:
I am not on his build. I am on ADP JF1.5
Which is why I asked if it will work on JF's build & not his build. I know it works on his. He's the one who brought it up
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
aaahhhh... ;p no i dont think jf has made his EXT3 compatable which is why cyangen is asking every dev to use EXT3.
Cyanogen
Can I put these files in my ADP JF1.5 update.zip & flash that? Or does something else need to be done to have it see the ext3 partition? Also your boot.img with the noatime change, can I put that in also? Or could you possibly take the boot.img from JF1.5 & change it for me?
ext3 is built in ;P
Code:
$ adb shell cat /proc/filesystems
nodev sysfs
nodev rootfs
nodev bdev
nodev proc
nodev debugfs
nodev sockfs
nodev pipefs
nodev anon_inodefs
nodev tmpfs
nodev inotifyfs
nodev devpts
ext3
ext2
nodev ramfs
vfat
yaffs
yaffs2
Your ramdisk needs to mount the partition with "-t auto" (or "-t ext3" if you don't want backwards compatibility) instead of "-t ext2" for it to be effective. My build is the only one that does this so far AFAIK. In the JF builds, you need to change the "runme.sh" script.
cyanogen said:
Your ramdisk needs to mount the partition with "-t auto" (or "-t ext3" if you don't want backwards compatibility) instead of "-t ext2" for it to be effective. My build is the only one that does this so AFAIK.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm guessing that wouldn't be an easy change to do? Well I guess I will have to try one of the new roms which supports this since JF doesn't update his releases like the other guys do
Beast84 said:
I'm guessing that wouldn't be an easy change to do? Well I guess I will have to try one of the new roms which supports this since JF doesn't update his releases like the other guys do
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It requires a little bit of hacking.
http://android-dls.com/wiki/index.php?title=HOWTO:_Unpack,_Edit,_and_Re-Pack_Boot_Images
cyanogen said:
It requires a little bit of hacking.
http://android-dls.com/wiki/index.php?title=HOWTO:_Unpack,_Edit,_and_Re-Pack_Boot_Images
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow all I see is matrix code! Thanks anyway I will read up, see what I can make of it. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction at least
Hey guys
Recently I've got a ZTE V970M (MT6577) phone and so far it's awesome. However, some people have been asking for a way to extend the /data partition because some games are heavy 'n stuff. That's alright.
There is a method which resizes the partitions by altering the MBR on the EMMC and that way the /data partition ends up with 2GB (from [email protected]) + 512MB (the assigned for /data), but I want to do something different, without having to edit the MBR that way. Dunno, it's fishy imo.
My idea was to format [email protected] (which comes in vfat) as ext4 and then editing init.rc and change the partition mount points from [email protected] to [email protected]
If I do that without formatting, the phone boots but it asks for an encryption key. Reading on the net, it's not asking for an encryption key, it's the fallback mode for when it can't mount the /data partition and then it believes it's encrypted, but it isn't.
If I format the [email protected] to ext4 (mke2fs -T ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk0p6), parted shows it's on ext4 and all that shiz, but the phone seems to disconnect itself from ADB once it finishes booting, and hangs in bootloop. Since I can't ADB it, I don't know wtf is going on with the phone. Something tells me I'm close to reaching the goal though.
Looking on the net I found this useful link -> http://blog.kangkang.org/index.php/archives/242 which talks about extending /data the way I want to do (for the Tegra2 one, but it shouldn't matter). However, Chinese isn't my main or secondary language (lol) and google translate does an horrible job at translating it.
So, anyone got ideas on how to extend such partition? I just want to swap the normal /data partition with the internal SDcard partition, so in theory if I format it to ext4 and swap the mount points it should work, it's just a swap, but why it isn't?
Any ideas are greatly appreciated!
Thanks in advance!
- DARKGuy
I hate bumping but, nobody yet? I've seen this being done in other phones... any ideas?
I can't believe no one has an idea yet... come on, this is XDA... wtf is up?
Yeah, I wanna know this too. If formatting the EMMC on my Note1 to anything other that the FAT32 will help?
When I installed Android 5.0 and later 6.0 ROM on our Xperia L experience was much better than stock. These ROM's are simply fantastic! However, we have memory issues. Yeah we can use apps like Link2SD or foldermount, but that's too much of a hassle. Thet's not really a long-term solution.
The main problem is that /data partition is too small to handle modern app file sizes. It's only 1GB.
And /sdcard partition also exists (which is seperate from data) and represents internal memory - that's 4GB.
On top of that our phone has externalSD slot - /extSD option.
When you install an app it always directly installs to /data. Yeah you can move it. But still 1GB is not enough, somehow I keep getting not enough memory notification.
So the first solution by @Kahana82 was to repartition. That way we could remove 2GB from /sdcard and give it to /data. But the problem is that when we change partitions our phone gets bricked when stock ROM is flashed again.
But I have come across a new idea that could work. Just need community help for that as I am not that experienced.
So instead of repartitioning we could simply mount /SDCard as /data (just rename it!) and mount /data as /SDCard. That way we could increase /data from 1GB to 4GB and I think it is enough for basic app needs. And therefore flashing stock ROM should work as it is just change in kernel or system. Only 1GB internal memory wouldn't be a problem since Android 6.0 allows us to mount externalSD as internal memory.
Now how to do it. I have taken a look at this thread for 2011 Xperia Arc. Looks like ramdisk could be modified to do so as I see that mountpoint is there.
EDIT: OK, I've managed to unpack boot.img and ramdisk. Here's what I get:
fstab.qcom file
Code:
# Android fstab file.
# The filesystem that contains the filesystem checker binary (typically /system) cannot
# specify MF_CHECK, and must come before any filesystems that do specify MF_CHECK
#TODO: Add 'check' as fs_mgr_flags with data partition.
# Currently we dont have e2fsck compiled. So fs check would failed.
#<src> <mnt_point> <type> <mnt_flags and options> <fs_mgr_flags>
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/boot /boot emmc defaults recoveryonly
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/system /system ext4 ro,barrier=1 wait
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/userdata /data ext4 noatime,nosuid,nodev,barrier=1,data=ordered,noauto_da_alloc,journal_async_commit,errors=panic wait,check,encryptable=/persist/footer
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/userdata /data f2fs rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,nodiratime,inline_xattr wait,formattable,check,encryptable=/persist/footer
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/cache /cache ext4 noatime,nosuid,nodev,barrier=1,data=ordered,noauto_da_alloc,journal_async_commit,errors=panic wait,check
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/cache /cache f2fs rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,nodiratime,inline_xattr wait,check
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/FOTAKernel /recovery emmc defaults defaults
/devices/platform/msm_sdcc.1/mmc_host/mmc0* auto auto defaults voldmanaged=sdcard0:32,nonremovable,noemulatedsd
/devices/platform/msm_sdcc.3/mmc_host* auto auto nosuid,nodev voldmanaged=sdcard1:auto,encryptable=userdata
I propose another solution.
Format "SD 0" as EXT4.
Then mount during the boot of Android, "SD 0" as DATA partition.
Simply replace "date" with "SD 0" at the time of installation of partitions.
This does not alter the structure of partitions and would give the 4 GB device for apps installation.
I've done tests. It's easy to format using the TWRP "SD 0" as EXT4.
The same process is easy to reverse.
It is safe because it does not change the structure of the partitions. If there is any problem just restore the Stock ROM.
Soon just need help to know which Android configuration files need to change mount "SD 0 in EXT4" like the DATA unit.
The Xperia L pass from 1,57GB to 4 GB !!!
Help, please !!!!
All the MM ROMs for Xperia L should have Adoptable Storage. You could format a partition of your SD Card as Adoptable Storage (using Apps2SD). And you can then move most of the apps to that partition in its entirety. Apps downloaded from Play Store would automatically go to the Adopted Storage.
Only certain apps like WhatsApp and Maps would refuse to move. You could use Link2SD to force move such apps to Internal SD of your device. It will move a big part of it.
On older ROMs, you should be able to setup a partition of your SD as linkable storage, allowing Link2SD or Apps2SD to move the whole app to the partition.
DragonClawsAreSharp said:
All the MM ROMs for Xperia L should have Adoptable Storage. You could format a partition of your SD Card as Adoptable Storage (using Apps2SD). And you can then move most of the apps to that partition in its entirety. Apps downloaded from Play Store would automatically go to the Adopted Storage.
Only certain apps like WhatsApp and Maps would refuse to move. You could use Link2SD to force move such apps to Internal SD of your device. It will move a big part of it.
On older ROMs, you should be able to setup a partition of your SD as linkable storage, allowing Link2SD or Apps2SD to move the whole app to the partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are advantages to swap partitions instead of using the SD Card:
- The new partition date would be within the device's NAND memory. So there are the risks involved in using a sdcard always fragile ...
- How the partition is within the NAND memory beyond the security there is the highest performance.
The only downside is that the restriction would increase from 1,57GB to 4GB.
In my case I not use the smartphone for gaming. All of my APPs would fit into 2.5GB.
If I still needed more space, could use "Adoptable Storage".
- Could unmount and remove the SD card when wanted, after all was being used only for personal files and not apps.
Also it would be a great experimental situation of low risk to learn how to configure mount partitions on Android.
ConceptBR said:
There are advantages to swap partitions instead of using the SD Card:
- The new partition date would be within the device's NAND memory. So there are the risks involved in using a sdcard always fragile ...
- How the partition is within the NAND memory beyond the security there is the highest performance.
The only downside is that the restriction would increase from 1,57GB to 4GB.
In my case I not use the smartphone for gaming. All of my APPs would fit into 2.5GB.
If I still needed more space, could use "Adoptable Storage".
- Could unmount and remove the SD card when wanted, after all was being used only for personal files and not apps.
Also it would be a great experimental situation of low risk to learn how to configure mount partitions on Android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Guys, devs are apparently working on unifying partitions. That's the best solution.
It is already working on Xperia T. So it is possible on Xperia L as well.
Let's just wait and see for now.
IMO This is actually top priority for Xperia L lol other that this the device is working just fine.
ConceptBR said:
I propose another solution.
Format "SD 0" as EXT4.
Then mount during the boot of Android, "SD 0" as DATA partition.
Simply replace "date" with "SD 0" at the time of installation of partitions.
This does not alter the structure of partitions and would give the 4 GB device for apps installation.
I've done tests. It's easy to format using the TWRP "SD 0" as EXT4.
The same process is easy to reverse.
It is safe because it does not change the structure of the partitions. If there is any problem just restore the Stock ROM.
Soon just need help to know which Android configuration files need to change mount "SD 0 in EXT4" like the DATA unit.
The Xperia L pass from 1,57GB to 4 GB !!!
Help, please !!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the same thing I was thinking. But yeah, thanks for the info that SDCard can be formatted to ext4. Then I think this can happen:
Code:
# Android fstab file.
# The filesystem that contains the filesystem checker binary (typically /system) cannot
# specify MF_CHECK, and must come before any filesystems that do specify MF_CHECK
#TODO: Add 'check' as fs_mgr_flags with data partition.
# Currently we dont have e2fsck compiled. So fs check would failed.
#<src> <mnt_point> <type> <mnt_flags and options> <fs_mgr_flags>
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/boot /boot emmc defaults recoveryonly
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/system /system ext4 ro,barrier=1 wait
/devices/platform/msm_sdcc.1/mmc_host/mmc0 /data ext4 noatime,nosuid,nodev,barrier=1,data=ordered,noauto_da_alloc,journal_async_commit,errors=panic wait,check,encryptable=/persist/footer
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/cache /cache ext4 noatime,nosuid,nodev,barrier=1,data=ordered,noauto_da_alloc,journal_async_commit,errors=panic wait,check
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/cache /cache f2fs rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,nodiratime,inline_xattr wait,check
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/FOTAKernel /recovery emmc defaults defaults
/devices/platform/msm_sdcc.3/mmc_host* auto auto nosuid,nodev voldmanaged=sdcard1:auto,encryptable=userdata
Ehh, will try to make boot.img soon. You guys think this code would succeed? Then /sdcard wouldn't exist but let's just see if data would.
I've tried it and it f..ked my phone. I had to reflash stock and go to mm from there ...
cojocar.andrei said:
I've tried it and it f..ked my phone. I had to reflash stock and go to mm from there ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry to hear that...
In my case I need an even simpler solution ...
Using TWRP formatted "SD 0" as EXT4.
I managed to UnMount "/DATA" and "/sdcard".
I would like to reverse the mounts.
Partitioning modifies the structure of partitions.
Mounting is by software changes and safe.
The solution will allow any time to install the ROM Stock since the structure of the partitions will not be changed.
As in TWRP Terminal can ride correct partitions?
if I'm wrong then correct me, please ...
Device Configuration Partitons
sdcard -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p32
Userdata-> /dev/block/mmcblk0p31
CHANGE
sdcard -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p31
Userdata-> /dev/block/mmcblk0p32
------------------------------------------------------------
Is it correct? ADB Shell or Terminal?
unmount /sdcard/
unmount /Userdata/
mount -o rw /dev/block/mmcblk0p32/ /userdata/
mount -o rw /dev/block/mmcblk0p31/ /sdcard/
And reboot smartphone?
/system/init/init.rc?
------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry my bad english...
ConceptBR said:
In my case I need an even simpler solution ...
Using TWRP formatted "SD 0" as EXT4.
I managed to UnMount "/DATA" and "/sdcard".
I would like to reverse the mounts.
Partitioning modifies the structure of partitions.
Mounting is by software changes and safe.
The solution will allow any time to install the ROM Stock since the structure of the partitions will not be changed.
As in TWRP Terminal can ride correct partitions?
if I'm wrong then correct me, please ...
Device Configuration Partitons
sdcard -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p32
Userdata-> /dev/block/mmcblk0p31
CHANGE
sdcard -> /dev/block/mmcblk0p31
Userdata-> /dev/block/mmcblk0p32
------------------------------------------------------------
Is it correct? ADB Shell or Terminal?
unmount /sdcard/
unmount /Userdata/
mount -o rw /dev/block/mmcblk0p32/ /userdata/
mount -o rw /dev/block/mmcblk0p31/ /sdcard/
And reboot smartphone?
/system/init/init.rc?
------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry my bad english...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In theory it should work. I've tried it but it didn't come up right for me. I suspect the line in fstab.qcom for the user data that I've replaced (/devices/platform/msm_sdcc.1/mmc_host/mmc0).
I think we should replace
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/userdata
with
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/sdcard
and of course format sdcard as ext4.
I see no reason why it shouldn't work. Probably I'll try it again in a few weeks, when I'll have some spare time ...
So for this to work the fstab.qcom needs to look like this:
#TODO: Add 'check' as fs_mgr_flags with data partition.
# Currently we dont have e2fsck compiled. So fs check would failed.
#<src> <mnt_point> <type> <mnt_flags and options> <fs_mgr_flags>
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/boot /boot emmc defaults recoveryonly
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/system /system ext4 ro,barrier=1 wait
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/sdcard /data ext4 noatime,nosuid,nodev,barrier=1,data=ordered,noauto_da_alloc,journal_async_commit,errors=panic wait,check,encryptable=/persist/footer
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/sdcard /data f2fs rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,nodiratime,inline_xattr wait,formattable,check,encryptable=/persist/footer
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/cache /cache ext4 noatime,nosuid,nodev,barrier=1,data=ordered,noauto_da_alloc,journal_async_commit,errors=panic wait,check
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/cache /cache f2fs rw,nosuid,nodev,noatime,nodiratime,inline_xattr wait,check
/dev/block/platform/msm_sdcc.1/by-name/FOTAKernel /recovery emmc defaults defaults
/devices/platform/msm_sdcc.1/mmc_host/mmc0* auto auto defaults voldmanaged=sdcard0:31,nonremovable,noemulatedsd
/devices/platform/msm_sdcc.3/mmc_host* auto auto nosuid,nodev voldmanaged=sdcard1:auto,encryptable=userdata
Great job! It's usable?
Option58 said:
Guys, devs are apparently working on unifying partitions. That's the best solution.
It is already working on Xperia T. So it is possible on Xperia L as well.
Let's just wait and see for now.
IMO This is actually top priority for Xperia L lol other that this the device is working just fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's great, but what are people who can't use SD cards are supposed to do? Where will they store their data?
stuckbootloader said:
That's great, but what are people who can't use SD cards are supposed to do? Where will they store their data?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Want to hear my advice? Install ROM that gives you most data space, I don't know which ROM that is. And use your device as-is until you buy new one. You could also replace your motherboard.
I know this is not xda-spirit like, but I have to say give up messing with your existent motherboard before you hard-brick your device, I destroyed mine. Had to buy new device. Xperia L can be hard-bricked if you mess with partitions.
stuckbootloader said:
That's great, but what are people who can't use SD cards are supposed to do? Where will they store their data?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In Xperia T, i think what @Adrian DC use a sdcard emuled for this...
Option58 said:
Want to hear my advice? Install ROM that gives you most data space, I don't know which ROM that is. And use your device as-is until you buy new one. You could also replace your motherboard.
I know this is not xda-spirit like, but I have to say give up messing with your existent motherboard before you hard-brick your device, I destroyed mine. Had to buy new device. Xperia L can be hard-bricked if you mess with partitions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Other Roms? In Galaxy S2 for example, with PIT partitions(other method), all ROMS working today with pits (official cyanogenmod inclusive) . I'm sorry, but, this is the price of testing
Thread closed at OPs request