Database Info

getting swapfile working on /data partition

Im trying out a theory. I running JAC Hero 2.3 and wanna try running the swapfile on the /data partition. I moved app_s over to /system/sd and used swapper app to create the swapfile but android doesnt seem to use it. when i run free It says Total/used/free are all 0 but the swap file is 34 meg. I tried putting it in a sub folder and chown root.root on the folder before setting up and still no luck. Anyone have any ideas why it wont work on /data or how to get it to work on /data?

Once you run swapper go into the setting and change the location of your swap file from /sdcard/swapfile.swp to /system/sd/swap.swp ( see sxfx post[url]

you don't want to do that. Swapping involves a lot of writing and erasing, it'll wear out your internal chip and you'll start experiencing reduced capacity, write cycles for nand are even less than for flash memory!

jubeh said:
you don't want to do that. Swapping involves a lot of writing and erasing, it'll wear out your internal chip and you'll start experiencing reduced capacity, write cycles for nand are even less than for flash memory!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not to mention, swapon as implemented (on every build i've tried) doesn't work on a swapfile stored on a yaffs2 partition

jubeh said:
you don't want to do that. Swapping involves a lot of writing and erasing, it'll wear out your internal chip and you'll start experiencing reduced capacity, write cycles for nand are even less than for flash memory!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually /sdcard/ is your fat32 portion of your sd card, /system/sd/ is the ext2/3 of your sd card.
Also I have done a bunch of research on this write/read fiasco just because of android.
And even if you set a swap file to your SD sure it will shorten your life of the card but it will still last you at least 2 years.
I have been using USB devices on linux as swap locations forever now and I still have thumb drives that have been used and abused for months and months as a swap place and they are still pulling strong.
As for the internal chip, Im not sure what you mean by that?

Even if you could put swap on the internal flash, its not going to be faster.
Putting swap on the internal flash will make things slower as the internal flash is about 3 to 5 times slower than a class 6 sdcard.

you're comparing using a flash drive for swap in a full blown computer that probably has around 1-4gb of ram, the swap file is hardly ever touched, unless you're running a lot of applications at a time. Dream has only 90 mb available to dalvik, and rosie is a big fat... lady... plus linux/dalvik manage memory in a different way, so files are often dropped to swap and they dont stay there for long (maybe in a 256 swap, but not in a 32 mb one).
the OP also is talking about moving his swap to his internal storage (chip, nand, whatever), as he thinks it's having no effect working from the sd card. Personally, i think that both a2sd and swapper are flawed. They're overcompensating for an os that was not meant to run on that device, and the real work should be in porting (as in developing, not just file-swapping as most "devs" do here) a launcher app that we can feel comfortable with running on a stock android system with stock (or slightly improved) libraries and that we can call comparable to rosie. Just look at ahome or dxtop or openhome, they're good, solid, great looking home replacements that work as well or better than rosie, but they run out of the stock libraries. I wonder why nobody has made a free, open source home replacement app yet

jubeh said:
you're comparing using a flash drive for swap in a full blown computer that probably has around 1-4gb of ram, the swap file is hardly ever touched, unless you're running a lot of applications at a time. Dream has only 90 mb available to dalvik, and rosie is a big fat... lady... plus linux/dalvik manage memory in a different way, so files are often dropped to swap and they dont stay there for long (maybe in a 256 swap, but not in a 32 mb one).
the OP also is talking about moving his swap to his internal storage (chip, nand, whatever), as he thinks it's having no effect working from the sd card. Personally, i think that both a2sd and swapper are flawed. They're overcompensating for an os that was not meant to run on that device, and the real work should be in porting (as in developing, not just file-swapping as most "devs" do here) a launcher app that we can feel comfortable with running on a stock android system with stock (or slightly improved) libraries and that we can call comparable to rosie. Just look at ahome or dxtop or openhome, they're good, solid, great looking home replacements that work as well or better than rosie, but they run out of the stock libraries. I wonder why nobody has made a free, open source home replacement app yet
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You make a very good point about computer having 1-4gigs of ram and not needing a swap file.
Honestly I almost never run a swap file on a computer that has more then 1gig of ram.
Plus90% of the time when I do run a swap file is when Im running a live distro of linux of a cd, but also 90% of the time I run the distro from the flash drive instead of cd cause its much faster.
So now imagine how many reads/writes I abuse that flash drive with by running a full OS on it.
Also I don't understand how a2sd or swapper is flawed? Just because they do their job? I mean it's not really our fault that they made the G1 with a little less memory spaces then we would like it to have.
But that's exactly why we have tools like swapper and a2sd. Plus no one is really forced to run these roms on the G1 phone and those of us that do realize that we have to take extra steps in creating tools to help it.
And that's not only true for the G1 but anywhere in the computer world these days.

dwang said:
Even if you could put swap on the internal flash, its not going to be faster.
Putting swap on the internal flash will make things slower as the internal flash is about 3 to 5 times slower than a class 6 sdcard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd like to spread swap over the sd and internal storage if possible -- should make paging a lot less evident if priorities are set up properly.

dwang said:
Even if you could put swap on the internal flash, its not going to be faster.
Putting swap on the internal flash will make things slower as the internal flash is about 3 to 5 times slower than a class 6 sdcard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
internal memory is faster. class 6 guarantees 6mbs read/write times but doesnt mean the bus can support those times. if you run a test copying something to /system/sd and to /data you will see /data is faster. as for those saying it will degrade the internal memory, that is not the case being the flash memory inside is designed to have much much much more read/write cycles. Think about it in a stock G1, this is where dalvik-cache is writen to as well as email, sms, user settings, cache for browser and uTube. Do not confuse internal flash memory to sd card flash memory

Are you sure about that? This guy has some test results and it indicates that a class 6 sdcard is much faster than the internal flash.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=4059520&postcount=15
MonkySlap said:
internal memory is faster. class 6 guarantees 6mbs read/write times but doesnt mean the bus can support those times. if you run a test copying something to /system/sd and to /data you will see /data is faster. as for those saying it will degrade the internal memory, that is not the case being the flash memory inside is designed to have much much much more read/write cycles. Think about it in a stock G1, this is where dalvik-cache is writen to as well as email, sms, user settings, cache for browser and uTube. Do not confuse internal flash memory to sd card flash memory
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

dwang said:
Are you sure about that? This guy has some test results and it indicates that a class 6 sdcard is much faster than the internal flash.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=4059520&postcount=15
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's interesting. Going to have to try that test out. I just noticed when xfering stuff to /data it was faster then to /system/sd. If it is then touche my friend.....touche

Using a swap file in /data partition?

Hey guys!
Just been racking my brains for ways to try and speed up my poor little G1, as its quite a sloth these days In my quest for more memory, I have tried using swap on my SD card, and despite having a Sandisk Ultra, it does (overall!) seem to make my phone much slower, I also tried compcache (still slow) and compcache with backing swap (slow again). It does have some benefits I have noticed, but overall not, so I turned it all off.
I was thinking about the different partitions in the phone, and I'm assuming that the /data partition is probably faster than an SD card, I could be wrong. So I was thinking, why not put a swap file on the much lesser used (got apps2sd) /data partition in the hope that it wont be as painfully slow and supply some better swap? I used DroidSwap to set the location of the test 16MB file on the data partition, told it to go ahead. It created it, did a mkswap on it, then for whatever reason couldn't swapon on it. I then tried a mkswap on the file manually in terminal, worked fine, then swapon, get an 'invalid argument' error. Tried to google it, and I didn't really find anything of use. I'm running the one just before the latest Cynanogenmod. Can anyone give me some insight, or tell me if I'm just on a wild goose chase and wasting my time?
Thanks in advance!
Chris

I think it will be something to do with the filesystem
I may be wrong, but I think yaffs are 'fractured' and therefore no good for what you want
In anycase it probably isn't a good idea to hammer out with swap you only get so many read writes , and it is much easier to replace an sdcard.
there is an app called auto memory on the market, you may be able to get some use out of that.
when it comes to swap there is always some debate about what's best
some, none, lots, etc
personally I'm in the “lots as soon as possible“ camp
I would rather have real memory available to my current app than having some app I'm not using hog it. having a lil bit of lag while pages load back from swap is better than waiting for a killed app to reload, which is what happens when you have no swap and lots of apps
but at the end of the day no one is wrong, all options have pros and cons.
all very much depends on your usage.

[Q] Will future versions of the Android OS fix this blasted "out of space" problem?

[Q] Will future versions of the Android OS fix this blasted "out of space" problem?
So I have been an avid fan of Google for many, many years. I was looking forward to the Google phone before any Android details came out. So I naturally jumped at the chance to own one. But lately, I'm starting to have a change of heart. These constant out of space warnings are really getting annoying.
So much in fact, I don't know that I want my next phone to be an Android device sadly. I really want to want another one. But this experience is starting to sour my taste for them.
I currently run a rooted (virtuous) Dinc. I have gotten the out of space notification many, many times. I have now started to get it again after installing the Google Music app after being invited into the beta. I have removed about 15 programs, but I still only have about 17MB free on that stupid 149MB partition!
This is beyond annoying. If the phone has something like 8GB of internal memory, why can't I use it? Why can't the apps install there? Why limit this massive amount of storage to a measly 150MB? What year is this, 1995?
I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but I am fed up. I don't know what else to do here and I'm ready to walk away. Someone please tell me that Google has saw the light and is going to fix this glaring bug of theirs in Gingerbread or Ice Cream Sandwich!

Why did you create a partition so small? You should create a larger partition to prevent these notifications so often since you'll have more space and use up the extra space not being used. Also, it's not the Android OS's fault that your phone has a small partition made. Since the partition is so small, and you have hardly any memory left (17mb) then it's just one of the phone's functions to notify you about this which should be a good thing to let you know.

theonew said:
Why did you create a partition so small? You should create a larger partition to prevent these notifications so often since you'll have more space and use up the extra space not being used. Also, it's not the Android OS's fault that your phone has a small partition made. Since the partition is so small, and you have hardly any memory left (17mb) then it's just one of the phone's functions to notify you about this which should be a good thing to let you know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Umm...I didn't make the partition...Android did. Trust me, if it were my choice it would be bigger!

ned4spd8874 said:
Umm...I didn't make the partition...Android did. Trust me, if it were my choice it would be bigger!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android doesn't just make partitions by itself. Maybe the rom you have did that. try getting a new rom because this is not normal.

theonew said:
Android doesn't just make partitions by itself. Maybe the rom you have did that. try getting a new rom because this is not normal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wrong. At least on the HTC Droid Incredible, ROM's have a standard 150 megabyte \data\data partition. For either odexed or deodexed ROM's space is taken in that partition by pretty much every installed application. I've seen contacts hog nearly 70 megabytes of that partition for some handsets, and Sense takes a lot of it, too. Odexed ROM's allegedly require less of the space.
I've run several Froyo ROM's and they all have that limitation. I cannot speak for AOSP ROM's, only Sense ROM's.
There is an app which I have used (but don't seem to be able to find in the Market any more, and the dev isn't responding to PM's here at xda, but I digress) called NotEnoughSpace which allows some portions of the contents to be shifted elsewhere. I found it was very helpful when I was on Froyo, but it does not appear to work on GingerSense. On the other hand, the partition appears to be bigger in GingerSense. The flip side is that the GingerSense ROM's are so fat, there's less RAM available for applications to run.
Pick your poison. I agree it's a stupid limitation that somebody should figure out a way to fix.

hgoldner said:
Wrong. At least on the HTC Droid Incredible, ROM's have a standard 150 megabyte \data\data partition. For either odexed or deodexed ROM's space is taken in that partition by pretty much every installed application. I've seen contacts hog nearly 70 megabytes of that partition for some handsets, and Sense takes a lot of it, too. Odexed ROM's allegedly require less of the space.
I've run several Froyo ROM's and they all have that limitation. I cannot speak for AOSP ROM's, only Sense ROM's.
There is an app which I have used (but don't seem to be able to find in the Market any more, and the dev isn't responding to PM's here at xda, but I digress) called NotEnoughSpace which allows some portions of the contents to be shifted elsewhere. I found it was very helpful when I was on Froyo, but it does not appear to work on GingerSense. On the other hand, the partition appears to be bigger in GingerSense. The flip side is that the GingerSense ROM's are so fat, there's less RAM available for applications to run.
Pick your poison. I agree it's a stupid limitation that somebody should figure out a way to fix.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, thanks for explaining that much better than I could!
I do have NotEnoughSpace and don't use it for that purpose anymore. I just use it to see how much space I have available and to clean up the dalvik cache. When I was using it to get more space, my apps kept disappearing on me and I would have to re-install them constantly!

is this just a droid problem? i have an epic 4g and it allows me to use the entire 485mb for app storage. what about an apps to sd option? i know at least half of my apps have the option of being stored on the sd card. just wondering.

darksideauto said:
is this just a droid problem? i have an epic 4g and it allows me to use the entire 485mb for app storage. what about an apps to sd option? i know at least half of my apps have the option of being stored on the sd card. just wondering.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Every app that can be moved to the SD is. But I still have only 17MB available.

ned4spd8874 said:
Every app that can be moved to the SD is. But I still have only 17MB available.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This does not make any sense. If an app is moved to the SD Card, the space it took up on the device (some if not all) should be gained back since it's not there any longer. Whenever I move an app to the SD Card, I get back my space. There really must be something wrong with your rom/phone.

You sir have alot of apps then.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

The small internal Storage is a massive problem. I agree to you.
But I know there are several ways to fix this. What I don't know is how...
There are several ROMs who support different kinds of app2sd scripts so you get more 'virtual' internal storage on the sd card.
As you can see on the pictures attached i have approx. 550 mb free internal storage but more than 40 apps that could be pushed to sd.
To get this it is necessary to re-partition your sd-card and install the correct scripts.
Unfortunately, as i said, i'm not able to tell you exactly how to get this work. I just followed a step-by-step guide somwhere in this forum.
The ROM i use, uses D2SD automatically, if the SD-card is partitioned the right way.
I'm sure you will find something that fits to the ROM you use.

darksideauto said:
You sir have alot of apps then.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have 75 non-standard/included apps. I've read where other people have hundreds!

pistolero0 said:
The small internal Storage is a massive problem. I agree to you.
But I know there are several ways to fix this. What I don't know is how...
There are several ROMs who support different kinds of app2sd scripts so you get more 'virtual' internal storage on the sd card.
As you can see on the pictures attached i have approx. 550 mb free internal storage but more than 40 apps that could be pushed to sd.
To get this it is necessary to re-partition your sd-card and install the correct scripts.
Unfortunately, as i said, i'm not able to tell you exactly how to get this work. I just followed a step-by-step guide somwhere in this forum.
The ROM i use, uses D2SD automatically, if the SD-card is partitioned the right way.
I'm sure you will find something that fits to the ROM you use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've used the app2sd and notenoughspace programs in the past, but it seems they have done more harm than good. Apps would stop working. They would disappear completely. The system would crash, etc. I kinda gave up hope on using those approaches.
I was hoping the Google Android team would wake up and just fix this instead of us paying users have to perform work-arounds just to use our devices.

ned4spd8874 said:
I've used the app2sd and notenoughspace programs in the past, but it seems they have done more harm than good. Apps would stop working. They would disappear completely. The system would crash, etc. I kinda gave up hope on using those approaches.
I was hoping the Google Android team would wake up and just fix this instead of us paying users have to perform work-arounds just to use our devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then you are pretty unlucky. I never had problems with this stuff. All works just fine as it should.
But, of course you are right, i can't understand why they don't give us a GB or so as internal storage either.
Damn scrooges.

ned4spd8874 said:
I've used the app2sd and notenoughspace programs in the past, but it seems they have done more harm than good. Apps would stop working. They would disappear completely. The system would crash, etc. I kinda gave up hope on using those approaches.
I was hoping the Google Android team would wake up and just fix this instead of us paying users have to perform work-arounds just to use our devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try using a cleaner ROM for your DInc (ie "stock Android"- no Sense UI). I just got a DInc yesterday, switching from an Aria. Did a factory wipe, rooted, and installed the CM7 nightly 100. I believe I currently have s2e on my 8gb MicroSD (just swapped it from my Aria, which had s2e and CM7). Anyway, I have 118MB used, 630MB free internal storage space for apps. This clearly isn't a Google/Android problem. Could be an HTC Sense problem, I suppose.
edit: My Aria even has 185MB available for apps. Not a huge amount, but considering it has a lot less internal space than a DInc, yeah, OP something is wrong.

[Q] Swap, ext2/3/4(?) guide?

Ok first off hope everyone had a great holiday (or Christmas, as the case may be )
I have come to realize that alot of my issues may/may not have been caused by factors outside my phone or the rom I was attempting to install and use. I will give myself credit tho in that in all but one case I have managed to follow instructions to a "T" and have not experienced many/any of the issues that others have. Anyways, I got a new wireless router, and also a class 10 SD card. Some of my earlier connectivity issues are very rare now, and camera issues seem to be minimal also (assuming that the issue there was write speed to the card).
So I've really come to like a few of the roms, in particular one I'm liking right now VERY MUCH is MIUI 1.11.9. What a nicely put together package that is. I would really really like to stay with it.
However, it's huge. With that and two apps (Gmail and Facebook), I'm lucky if I have 14 mb left over. Obviously, this causes crashes and reboots left right and center. Camera usage is almost impossible. But, I'm willing to admit, the problem is likely my fault, because I have not done anything to manipulate swap/ext/etc on my sd card. I have the phone, and I have a formatted 16 gb class 10 sd card.
I've looked through 10 pages of threads and to be honest I'm finding it hard to know where to begin. I'm convinced, however, that if I can learn what swap ext/ext2/ext3 do, and how to create/use them..and whatever else, that MIUI and probably a few of the other roms will be amazing for me.
So is someone bored over the holidays here and can help either point me in the right direction of a Guide to do this, or maybe even write a bit about it for me? Assume I know nothing about how to create a swap, an ext, link2sd, any of it. I don't know how to use terminal emulator, modify or execute scripts...but I can learn!!
I realize that I'm asking for info that is probably obtainable by reading numerous other threads..but I can't find anything truly comphrensive..it's too bad threads couldn't be "stickied"...this subject seems crucial to me in order to get some of these roms to run ok. Many of them operate the same way: they take up 100 mb or so, and they don't allow for easy moving of apps to the SD card.
Anyways many thanks in advance if you can help. I'm sure there's a few others who could probably use a refresher in this also.

I'm learning alot about this and hope to update this thread with my own tips for how to do this in the coming days.
That is, if anyone is interested. If so, hit me with a msg.
Sent from my Milestone XT720 using XDA App

internal upgrade?
can someone tell me how to upgrade the internal memory because im getting very low in phone memory.. are there any solutions like using the 1GB for the internal memory of my 8GB card?

Well, you cant physically expand the memory but you can virtually via an extended primary partition and an app like link2sd.
Sent from my Milestone XT720 using XDA App

Hey acrobat69
I am pretty much the same boat as you. I have tried a bunch of ROMs, and I am still on 6.3 rc3 now.. went back and tweeked after learning some things and this is the least buggy for me at the moment.
I also do not use swap at the moment.. but this is also something that those in the know here on the Xt720 forums have debated.. how useful is it???
I would love to try swap.. or any other tips you might have.. so I at least will be listening.
I would like to get FM radio working on 6.3 rc3 too.. no luck so far.
I have found that when you overclock.. some speeds and Vsel work better in some roms.. or applications.
I saw one fellow who was running 800/48vsel - overall nice and great for battery usage.. but camera would not work at 48vsel.. would crash it .. running several highpower apps like wifi tether and gps at the same time would crash a low vsel set phone..
SO I know there are many factors that you can tune to make a rom work best for you.
James

When I get back to my PC, ill type something up on this for you as well as archer's other thread similar to this Q.

FYI, FM radio works since 6.3.0 RC4. Well at least as much as FM radio "works" on any of the non-stock-based ROMs at the moment-- volume control is difficult/problematic.
I think 6.3.6 is a good choice if you don't mind disabling the hardware button lights. And if it does bother you, I can make a patch that puts the lights back as the were in RC3 (but would disable notification leds).
Sent from my Milestone XT720 using xda premium

Ok so to answer a few of the above questions, I'll try to break it up into sections. Ext2/3/4, Swap and basic memory management.
Ext partitions: since our XT's are so low on memory, a fair while back some scripts were created to make it so that when you downloaded an app, it went into your ext partition and not to the internal. Remember that this was when we had 2.1 and Froyo was only a dream. As you know Froyo has the native App2sd function where you can move most of the app's data/function to your SD card via the .androidsecure folder on your card. Since this was not a function on 2.1 we needed a bypass. This was done by creating a EXT partition on your SDCard to bypass/hijack the installation process and "force" the apps to install to the SDCard rather than the meager internal memory. Since the grand old days, we have evolved that function from app2sd to app2ext where now the /cache can be moved over to the partition as well, in addition to apps like Link2sd with one-click UI to do it for you.
This is how to do it.
1 Make sure your ROM supports app2ext-it should be in that ROMs OP.
2 You need to use GParted or Minitool Partition Wizard to create your Ext2/3 partitions (do not create an Ext4 with either of these b/c they won't work correctly, most ROMs don't support it and you can convert it from 2/3 to 4 in MZ's open recovery).
3 You have a 16gb card and are asking what size should I make my partitions. They need to be in this order-FAT/EXT/SWAP from L->R. FAT is what it sounds like. It is your biggest sized one (and make it Primary/Bootable in your partition wizard). Your Ext is going to be up to you on the size. I usually recommend 350-450mb. Anything bigger is really wasted space. In fact, I chorgle to myself when I see people with 1gb Ext partitions b/c your average size app is usually about 7-12mb (with something like Angry Birds at a meaty 18mb). Remember that 1gb=1024mb. 12mb vs 1024mb-see what I am saying here?
4 So now you have your partitions set up. How do you activate it. You flash your ROM and let it settle down. Get ROOT and open a file manager and go to the ROOT. You will see a folder labeled SD-ext. Open this folder and make another folder called App (not Apps-no S) or if you are using Link2sd, you would put a folder called Link2sd (not LinkS2sd-again no S). Reboot and BAM!!!once it boots up, all your apps that you had will be in there and any new ones will be installed there saving you tons of internal space.
I'll cover Swap tomorrow b/c I am tired of typing for now but here is a thread on some unknown types of memory management that you can do on your own.
Sorry for the long post but I wanted to make it as general as possible so that it wasn't too technical.

Woodrube thank you very much for that, indeed very helpful and to the point. Ill hit you with a thanks when back on my laptop.
James: debates nothwithstanding, I can't see how its possible to install one of these Roms and actually use it...and any decent number of apps with stability, without using the extended partition. I have not had any success until I learned how to do this. Therefore, were absolutely not going to debate it, just do it!
To Woodrubes excellent instructions I will add these tips, learned from Mio7's advice and trial and error:
- do any partitioning before you install your new rom, and do it via a card reader inserted into your computer, not by plugging the phone into the computer via usb.
- do not make the second partition fat. In some threads people said it worked however it never works for me. Create the second partition as ext2 , then go to open recovery and convert it to ext3
- use root explorer to create the folder in sd-ext as Woodrube advised. Make sure root explorer is in R/W mode not R/O or you wont be allowed to
- install Link2sd first of any program. It's when you're running link2sd it seems that you can't create the link for certain applications check the market to see if to the downloadable version then uninstall the app from the phone and reinstall it yourself then when you go back into linksd youll be able to create a link. I'm still experimenting with just how much I can rip out of the system and then reinstall myself so as to be able to move over to the sd card. Btw if the rom app manager wont let you uninstall, use the uninstall function in link2sd. It works, even tho it says "Failed" when done.
See the signature at the bottom of my thread that should be all you need to know about whether not the advice in this thread is good because I'm posting from my phone and I'm using voice to text
Next up I'm going to try installing other roms like MIUI or 7.1 to see you what ones this can be used on. I will post my successes and failures in this thread
Sent from my Milestone XT720 using XDA App

With regard to milestone overclock settings I'm currently running 900 and 60 and have achieved general stability with no crashes during picture taking or video recording
Sent from my Milestone XT720 using XDA App

Mio: Nooo don't disable LED its great the way it is. Who needs those backlights anyways the keys are far enough away to not need a light to tell my thumbs where to go by now
Sent from my Milestone XT720 using XDA App

Rooted phone: requesting info re: ext partition size, type of ext, and others

Hi:
I am a newbie, but I've learned a lot about things using this site and others. Thank you!
I have a rooted LG Volt, which of course has the odious KitKat restrictions on putting apps on SD cards. I've read about mini-tools and have Link2SD (premium, so I can link everything to the SD), but haven't tried it out yet because I wanted to ask some questions first. For reference, I have a 16g (class?) 10 SD card, which I've verified is legit using an app (forgot name).
1) Is there a maximum size for the second (ext) partition? I've read 2g, but other sites have said that there are now no restrictions. 2g is quite small for me since the Volt has very little internal memory, and I download a ton of apps; I don't use as much data. Ideally, I'd like to go half and half (approx. 8/8g data/app partition).
2) If it is limited to 2g, is there any workaround that doesn't require a ton of knowledge? I read something about changing system apps to user apps, but would this work--and is there a noob-friendly walk through?
3) Is there a preferred ext partition type? Again, I've read varied opinions; most say that ext2 is optimal, but others say ext4 might work better with Link2SD.
4) Is there any advantage to using a swap file? Again, varied opinions, but it seems mostly beneficial in terms of speed, and not to a degree that it matters.
I have other questions regarding partition alignment (found a calculator, so I think I can figure out how to optimize the partitions) and will probably have more in the future, but I would really love answers (or else links to answers) about these issues.
Thanks in advance!

anoukaimee said:
Hi:
I am a newbie, but I've learned a lot about things using this site and others. Thank you!
I have a rooted LG Volt, which of course has the odious KitKat restrictions on putting apps on SD cards. I've read about mini-tools and have Link2SD (premium, so I can link everything to the SD), but haven't tried it out yet because I wanted to ask some questions first. For reference, I have a 16g (class?) 10 SD card, which I've verified is legit using an app (forgot name).
1) Is there a maximum size for the second (ext) partition? I've read 2g, but other sites have said that there are now no restrictions. 2g is quite small for me since the Volt has very little internal memory, and I download a ton of apps; I don't use as much data. Ideally, I'd like to go half and half (approx. 8/8g data/app partition).
2) If it is limited to 2g, is there any workaround that doesn't require a ton of knowledge? I read something about changing system apps to user apps, but would this work--and is there a noob-friendly walk through?
3) Is there a preferred ext partition type? Again, I've read varied opinions; most say that ext2 is optimal, but others say ext4 might work better with Link2SD.
4) Is there any advantage to using a swap file? Again, varied opinions, but it seems mostly beneficial in terms of speed, and not to a degree that it matters.
I have other questions regarding partition alignment (found a calculator, so I think I can figure out how to optimize the partitions) and will probably have more in the future, but I would really love answers (or else links to answers) about these issues.
Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First of all, you haven't told us what are you trying to do. If you are just trying to get a few questions anwsered just say so.
From what I see you are trying to use Link2SD because of the kitkat sd card restriction?
Note: Apps can't detect if an SD card is fake. It will just test how fast it is and guess if it's fast engough for it's class
You can remove the KitKat SD restriction with this app: SDFix
1) Yes, there is a restriction but it depends on how it's formated: on ext2 and 3 the limit is 35184 GB on a single partition and ext4 has a max limit of 1152921500 GB.
2) It's not limited to 2GB. Changing system apps to user and user to system is useless and should not be done if you don't know what exactly and why you are doing it. Don't let root fool you. Deleting system apps will NOT give you more free space for all the games.
3) Depends on support. If your phone supports ext4 (and it does) use that if not use lower such as ext3 then 2 and so on.
4) Look at this as a glass and some water. Water is memory to be put in ram and the glass is the ram your phone has.
The more water you put in it, the less space there is. And when it's full it will overflow, and your phone will freeze or reboot.
What swap does is when the water overflows in the glass (the ram gets full), the water (memory) that overflows goes to a swap file instead of it just getting lost and the phone getting frozen.
But remember, any SD card is MUCH SLOWER that RAM and using swap will not give any preformacne improvments.
The swap sould be factory set anyways and it also uses a lot of storage.
You REALLY shouldn't mess with the partitions.
You could break your phone forever.
What I recommend using is FolderMount and GL2SD. FolderMount is exactly like Link2SD, but you don't need to do any fancy partitioning. And GL2SD works great too, the only downside is that you have to run the apps (you moved to SD) from within the app.

Thank you!
Wonderful, clear answers! Yes, just trying to figure out "what to do" so I can add more apps to the Volt in the easiest manner possible. Apologize for not being clearer about that.
Just some follow-up questions:
1) will the app cited above (nextapp) allow me to move apps to the sd, or just data? Never having had an android other than this one with the dread KitKat, I don't know how it typically works after a KitKat fix. So should I format the entire sd card as FAT32 or ext4 (is the latter even possible)? And where will the data that I do have be saved if I don't partition the card? All on the one partition?
2. RE: FolderMount and GL2SD: that sounds great. The one concern that I have is that Link2SD's support (I THINK that's where I found this) said that the problem with putting an app on an sd card versus linking it is that if you take the sd card out, all of the apps will be gone. Is that just incorrect?
Thanks again! Very helpful.