Database Info

Memory and Stock Recovery Info

Everyone,
I've written this a bunch of times but and putting it in
it's own thread so folks can read and use it.
Memory and Storage:
/sdcard -- internal memory of the tablet
/sdcard2 -- microSD card in the external slot
/usbdisk -- USB key slot
Stock Recovery Info:
Main method: Put your recovery folder and update.zip on /sdcard, turn off the tablet, the press power and volume + to initiate standard recovery.
Second method: Put your recovery folder and update.zip on a microSD card. Edit the command file in the recovery folder with Notepad to change the location from /sdcard to /sdcard2 and save it with the name "command" (NO
.txt or other file extension). Then boot recovery with power/volume + and the OS will use the sdcard (assuming you don't have a live recovery/update.zip file in /sdcard).
Third method: If you can boot recovery to CWM but can't get your ROM to work, go in recovery to the mount menu and go down to the mount USB memory option and choose it. Then plug your connector cable from the miniUSB port to your PC. When you plug into your PC an Explorer window should open and you should have a drive letter representing the G-Tablet (it's G: on mine) on your menu. You now can select that letter and you have access to your tablet memory (/sdcard). I've even had a time or two when not a single file showed!!! I added update.zip and recovery and loaded
a ROM!
The tablet boot process apparently checks /SDCARD. If it doesn't find a recovery file there it does the same check if you have a miniSD external card installed. The large USB slot is not useable for booting or recovery so far as I have determined or read.
I hope this helps you.
Rev
EDIT: I didn't put one fact in here about recovery that everyone should know. When you run a recovery operation, the system deletes the command file so you can't accidentally do it again. If you have to run a recovery or
attempt to load something again, make sure you have a command file in the recovery folder with the correct command in it!!! Sorry I omitted this first time around.

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Hope everybody who needs this has seen it. I won't kick it up again.
Rev

Can you also add information about partitioning of /sdcard and why would one need it?
Is there another "hidden" flash memory available for firmware or all mods and custom ROMs go into /sdcard only?

Thanks so much, I thought I'm dead cuz I wiped out everything.

This may have been asked before, but how does one perform a full data wipe w/o using CWM? Thanks.

HackaMathecian said:
This may have been asked before, but how does one perform a full data wipe w/o using CWM? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to use nvflash (nvidia tegra SoC flashing utility). There are alot of posts about it. Do be carefull if you go this route, as even though you will not damage your tablet, it may be difficult to put it back to a bootable state if you don't do it properly.

thanks!
thanks great. simple and to the point. should help people that get confused. thanks again!

Vlad_z,
It has been my experience that when somebody gets boot loops, it often involves a
partition problem. Also, sometimes the G-Tablet does flaky things. I have one I
just shut down. Restarted it with boot looping and had to rebuild.
The three locations listed above are the three memory places you can store stuff
unless you find software that custom sets up something else.
Rev

Os Money:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=861950
This thread completely explains the NVFlash process.
Rev

That's kind of odd, my removable sd card ended up with the label ex-sd. Doesn't seem to be messing anything up though.

sixtofive,
I've never seen or heard of that with the stock ROM. Are you running a different ROM?
Some of them do change the directories.
Rev

So simply put, we should copy and backup the recovery folder and update.zip in /sdcard (or tablet storage) and when things get f'ed up, we move the recovery folder and update.zip back into the /sdcard?
Maybe it's just me, but I looked into the recovery that was already in the tablet and there's nothing in it; is that normal? If not, can anyone provide the back up recovery folder and update.zip just in case?

sam,
Recovery is simply a folder which holds a file named "command" in it. Command is a file
that has the command line in it with the command and parameters to "recover" or "load" files onto your G-Tablet.
Sometimes when your tablet gets messed up, you can still use recovery and are lucky. But sometimes the recovery partition gets damaged and then you have to look
for other ways to get in and fix things.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1010943
Many of us keep telling people there is a lot to learn here -- and Android doesn't have
all the stuff built into it Windows does. Nor is Android known for it's great documentation!
If everyone would read all the stickies at the start of the forums, it would provide
probably 80% of everything they need to know.
Rev

If OP also put links to stock ROMs, that would be great

interesting...even though I don't have a microSD card in mine /sdcard2 seems to be a valid directory within "root explorer"
what partition and memory structure should I be seeing on my brand new g-tablet? any suggestion on "mount" and "df" output?

Question, which is the best method or quicker to backup before attempting other rom installs?

Deleting CWM
How would one delete CWM so that the tablet can be returned?

Got my gtablet last evening. Seems there is a lot to learn.
thanks butchconner...
Thanks all the people who are contributing at xda. You are doing a wonderful job. In fact I bought this device because of you ( I think Viewsonic owes you guys a lot. At least they avoided a big loss because of you. )

Two questions:
1) Is it recommended to flash back to stock before changing roms?
2) Is there a link to the stock Rom files that I am missing?
Thanks

[Q] Tiamat 1.4.0, 3g/wifi, sdcard doesnt mount on boot.

i tried hijacking the other 1.4.0 thread but got ignored and didnt want to keep a something stale that was off-topic alive.
so, i have flashed 1.4.0, verified that the kernel is in fact running. i wiped before the update to get rid of other issues i was having with some apps.
now, with 1.4.0 running, it appears that the external sdcard is not mounting while the system is booted. in recovery, it shows up as it should with all of the files. i have an /mnt/sdcard/sdcard2 and i have an an external directory under /sdcard
ive tried with card in before boot and after. i can say that dmesg is in fact seeing the card being removed and pushed in; however it doesnt seem to 'automount' from vold.fstab properly, or something else is jacked.
that being said, i dont seem to have a /devices which is where these things are suppose to be mounting from, is it not?
/sys/devices/platform/sdhci-tegra.2/mmc_host/mmc1
should i add the prefix /sys to both the usbOTG and sdcard to fix this?
or is there something else that is missing? presumably i could also create a symbolic link /devices -> /sys/devices, or does the kernel chroot to /sys at some point so none of this is needed, and i am having a different problem?
thanks for the help,
~marion

ya i noticed mine sd card is doing the same thing wont mount but works in recovery and i know it did work bc i had sdcard access through root explorer on v1.4.0 and now it does not work like it died over night

mine has not worked since moving to 1.4.0.
i originally went from 1.3.2 to 1.4.0 but the update didnt work well through the clockworkmod steps was having problems mounting e: so i went back to 1.3.1 then -> 1.4.0 [after wiping cache/data, and readding an sdcard2] using kernelmanager.
the update worked well, i rebooted to recovery and say that i could mount e:, and files where on the sdcard as expected. when booting to OS external has no files and sdcard2 has no files. also using connectbot for a shell, df shows nothing mounted.
is this because vold.fstab isnt mounting from /sys as described in my earlier post?

still unable to mount external sdcard while xoom is boote in 1.4.0.
Am able to pc-mount, and back up to it via recovery... no one else is seeing anything similar?

In 1.4.0 the sdcard should be in /sdcard/external not sdcard2. The card has to be in before turning it on. They are not hot-swappable.
Sent from my Xoom

Guys this is why Mass Storage has been removed in 1.4.1. Here's basically what's going on. When the device boots, the Sdcard is mounted to data/media/external which is the same as Sdcard/external. The Sdcard mounts before data/media is "fused" to create a virtual internal Sdcard. This is the only reason why you can actually see the external Sdcard inside the internal Sdcard. And this is why gallery can see the external Sdcard. However, in order for the Sdcard to mount as mass storage, Vold.fstab MUST mount the Sdcard at mnt/Sdcard so that Vold service can see it. But, this is the same mount point the internal storage is "fused" to. So when mass storage is done, it attempts to remount the sdcard where it was previously mounted, sdcard/external. But because of the way "fuse" works, it does not let any devices be mounted inside it. This is why I need source to do it right. I can then tell Vold to look some other place for the sdcard mount point. Until then, it's borked and that's why I pulled it.

@bwcorvus: in my first post i said that it wasnt showing up in sdcard2 or external... maybe i wasnt clear enough but its there.
@bigrush: thats exactly what i was seeing, and what i was presuming. i figured the lack of response meant either people werent seeing the issue or noticing it.
that being said... dmesg shows the device showing up if inserted/removed while running. but its showing out of /sys/devices... instead of /devices... changing that in vold.fstab didnt do anything for me as im not sure i have a great grasp on the boot sequence.
~marion

That's odd, mine mounts to external with no issue with 1.4.0

[Q] E: Cant mount /sdcard - CWR

Hi guys and gals. I'm a complete newb when it comes to tinkering with Android, I have a little experience with iProducts as I have mucked around with them for a while. Jailbreaking an iProduct is piss easy compared to this!
I have just unlocked & flashed my Xoom with JWTylers One click method here...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1011196
All works well. In the 'about' section it showed the Tiamat kernel to be 1.1.6, or something like that. I also downloaded Rom Manager and flashed CWR through it. What I wanted to achieve was external sdcard functionality, so I tried reflashing with this step to 1.3.1 ...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=13036180&postcount=497
Worked a peach.
So, I did everything step by step, and created a new folder called 'sdcard2' in the sdcard directory. After finishing everything I downloaded the 1.3.2 zip and moved it from downloads to sdcard2 folder with Root Explorer? Ran the CWR recovery and when I go to press the flash zip from sdcard I get an error: E: Cant mount /sdcard".
I dont have an sdcard in the slot while I'm doing this, so, I don't know if this is the cause.
Any help to explaining this would be great!

Hey, just flash the new Timat kernal 1.4.0 and download auto mount from the market and your set!

endine said:
Hey, just flash the new Timat kernal 1.4.0 and download auto mount from the market and your set!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, thx for your reply. Can I just download the file directly to'my downloads folder on my Xoom, like I did in the second link I pasted in my post, and follow those steps? I also mentioned that I don't have an sdcard inserted. Would this make any difference as to why I'm getting the error message in CWR?

flombs said:
Hi, thx for your reply. Can I just download the file directly to'my downloads folder on my Xoom, like I did in the second link I pasted in my post, and follow those steps? I also mentioned that I don't have an sdcard inserted. Would this make any difference as to why I'm getting the error message in CWR?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need an sd card, that is probably why you got the error.

endine said:
You need an sd card, that is probably why you got the error.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Appreciate your help. I'll be getting my sdcard soon, I hope it works.
I also did download an auto mount program from market. What is it exactly suppose to do? It had one option at the top to tick which was to auto mount, and that was it. I suppose it runs in the background doing it's thing?

OK. I got the sdcard working, I flashed to 1.3.2.
I can transfer stuff onto my sdcard2 within my xoom and it will show when i insert the card into my PC. It won't work the other way around though. I can't get the files to show up in root explorer, or with any media player even if its a video file. Why is that? Is there a work around?
All help appreciated.

flombs said:
OK. I got the sdcard working, I flashed to 1.3.2.
I can transfer stuff onto my sdcard2 within my xoom and it will show when i insert the card into my PC. It won't work the other way around though. I can't get the files to show up in root explorer, or with any media player even if its a video file. Why is that? Is there a work around?
All help appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have to reboot the xoom for them to show up.
Sent from my Xoom

hahaaaa....
That was the simplest advice I could've ever received in my life!
Thanks again.

[Q] I screwed up (Solved)

I was trying to update a friends transformer to ICS (revolver) and I forgot that you have to put the zip on the internal storage (at least that's the only way I know how to do it) I'm using roach CWM based 5.5.0.4, I was playing around in there and, this is where I really screwed up, wiped /system. I have adb access and I'm in recovery but there's no rom installed on the tab because of me wiping /system. The rom is on the sd card (not the internal storage labeled as sdcard, an actual sd card). I tried pushing it from adb but I was probably doing it wrong. I was looking for a way to mount the internal storage but I didn't see any. I've tried several options but none have worked so any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

so why don't you just install the rom from the microSD?
You have a 5.xxx recovery, and that allows you to install zips from microSD. Just pop that into a PC and copy the rom file on it. Select install from microsd and there you go...
PS: wiping /system doesn't format the internal storage...

zdalin2003 said:
so why don't you just install the rom from the microSD?
You have a 5.xxx recovery, and that allows you to install zips from microSD. Just pop that into a PC and copy the rom file on it. Select install from microsd and there you go...
PS: wiping /system doesn't format the internal storage...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the rom on the external sd card. I tried the flash from sd and it was looking at the internal "virtual" sd card. I didn't see an option to switch to the external sd and I think there are some recoverys that use the external sd as default but I haven't been able to find one. If I did find one it would have to be an image so I could flash it through bootloader.
I was looking for a .img file to flash through bootloader but couldn't find one of those. I tried adb push to get the .zip onto the internal storage but, and I'm sure I was doing something wrong, that didn't work.

wait wait wait... just to clarify, are you using the full size sd card on the dock?
LE: what's your sbk version? if you're sbk1, you can also use nvflash

zdalin2003 said:
wait wait wait... just to clarify, are you using the full size sd card on the dock?
LE: what's your sbk version? if you're sbk1, you can also use nvflash
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the guy said MicroSD up there, the one you inserted on the side. But the onboard CWM only detect the internal virtual SDcard.
Now he screwed because of the full wipe prior flashing while the intended Rom was placed in the MicroSD..
Yea, if the transformer comes with B70 or below, then you can use Flash to do the magic.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium HD app

zdalin2003 said:
wait wait wait... just to clarify, are you using the full size sd card on the dock?
LE: what's your sbk version? if you're sbk1, you can also use nvflash
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no, no dock. I'm using the external micro sd.
So I finally got it to push, I renamed the file ics.zip because I didn't feel like typing out the whole file name and because I used .zip at the end the file was actually ics.zip.zip, that's why it couldn't find it.
cmd says:
C:\Transformer>adb push ics.zip /sdcard
1333 KB/s <268182367 bytes in 196.431s>
It pushed but now I just tried "choose zip from sdcard" and I got "couldn't open directory. No files found"
Edit: For some reason nothing was showing up at all on the internal storage so I rebooted back into recovery and all the files that were there before returned. I didn't see my ics.zip in there though which was odd but in searching through the folders i found an older version of a rom I flashed on there when I first rooted it. It's on the welcome screen right now.

Thanks for your input, you were most helpful.
BTW, I did research and the problem is solved now, you'd have noticed if you read.

horndroid said:
I posted at 8:27
You edited your post at 8:28
I can't read the future.
And no you didn't research anything.
Any ADB guide would tell you to push files to /data/media for internal storage, not /sdcard
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Once again, thanks for your assistance /sarcasm

horndroid said:
Any ADB guide would tell you to push files to /data/media for internal storage, not /sdcard
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hm interesting... Why wouldnt you be able to push to /sdcard/ (notice the extra slash)?
Is that folder not mounted correctly while in recovery? Ive never tried ADB in recovery, only in android and push to /sdcard/ works just fine.
pushing anything to /sdcard does not work though (notice the lack of the extra slash). Might be my rom but doubt it since its the same on my phone and other tablet...

Like you said, /sdcard is wrong.
The correct paths are /sdcard/, /data/media, and /data/media/.
Most ADB guides posted on this forum use /data/media(/) though.

horndroid said:
So much fail in this thread.
1. Because his version of CWM doesn't support microSD
2. Since when does 5.xxx recovery support installing from MicroSD?
3. wiping /system doesn't format internal storage but it wipes out the OS so there is no OS to boot into.
The correct path for pushing files to internal storage on TF101 is /data/media
Do some friggin research before you do things, wow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1.&2. his version might not support it and since i'm using Rogue XM Recovery v1.3.0 (CWM-based Recovery v5.0.2.7), i just thought being v5 it would. It was just a fast answer, no need for your superiority complex.
3. *you don't say meme*

Your sarcasm doesn't work because I wasn't trying to assist.
I was just pointing out what an idiot you are.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the thread would eventually solved even without your intervention.
Don't help if you don't feel to.. With your high in moron wouldn't do good for the public seeking for assistant here.
There's alot others intelligent guys around with good manner will come forward..
I respect your knowledge level but you too come from zero at some point way before in the past..
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium HD app

farsight73 said:
I think the thread would eventually solved even without your intervention.
Don't help if you don't feel to.. With your high in moron wouldn't do good for the public seeking for assistant here.
There's alot others intelligent guys around with good manner will come forward..
I respect your knowledge level but you too come from zero at some point way before in the past..
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are a lot of people like him in all the forums, it's best just to walk away. I'm not new but I wasn't thinking clearly due to lack of sleep. Also the tf101 wasn't mine, I forgot how Asus had the storage set up, and I was thinking it would have the same path whether you were booted or through ADB. I knew I screwed up, that's why I said it right in the title. Oh well, it's fixed now. The problem is that a lot of people turn developers and newbies away by acting like that.

(Q) SdCard appears as file in /

Not sure how this happened. In the root directory the folder for sdcard is now a file. This is also true in the /mnt dir. In the storage directory, i can access my sdcard files through sdcard0. Also now my signature says epad instead of whatever it said before. Ive tried to restore and reflash. No joy. Every app that needs the sd crashes including checking storage in the settings.
Any ideas?
Sent from my EPAD using xda premium

This has happened to me also. I installed rayman33's JB build #2, and i should have looked at the zip before i did as it seems theres a kernelblob in there, and while digging it seems that only /storage/sdcard0/ is mounted now instead of /sdcard/. I went back to a revolver nandroid after i tried out the JB rom and now twrp sees /sdcard/ but theres nothing in it. I have a feeling that whatever was in the blob changed the mount point for /data/media to /storage/sdcard0, and i can not for the life of me remember how to change it back.
Looking at /sdcard/ in root explorer shows that it has a link to /storage/sdcard0/, but it does us no good when its not mounted.
Seems like the easiest way is to push an old kernelblob that resembles what our original configs were, but its been so long since i've done that on my transformer that i've forgotten how.
HM, i used superwipe lite to preserve /data/media/, which is where the content was anyway, and reflashed revolver and it seems to have worked.