While messing around with ext2 and data2ext i noticed that android doesn't umount the sd-ext partition (Vold process unmounts the fat partition just fine as it can be seen with logcat). Also cyanogen states the same in this posting (Im wasn't sure on this but i don't doubt him EDIT: i doubt him now ... ).
I wonder now why the recommended solution for file corruption issues is using ext3/4 (wich slows things down due to the journal and reduces the lifetime of flashdrives due to limited r/w cycles) instead of just make a shutdown script wich unmounts the ext partition? (About lifetime: I think 10.000-100.000 r/w cycles is a rather high value and lifetime is only a theoretical and not a practical issue - but im not sure on this)
Since i'm not really expirenced in scripting on either linux or android i wanted to ask if a script in "init.d/rc0.d" (+"init.d/rc6.d" for reboot) would be possible? I could write one but i don't know if this would be executed and i actually don't know how i could check if it works (i think logcat would be shutdown before this is done).
Edit: At least if rc0.d scripts are run BEFORE logcat stops it doesn't work. Logcat log is empty if i "grep test" an "echo "test"" script.
Need help. Someone ...
melethron said:
While messing around with ext2 and data2ext i noticed that android doesn't umount the sd-ext partition (Vold process unmounts the fat partition just fine as it can be seen with logcat). Also cyanogen states the same in this posting (Im wasn't sure on this but i don't doubt him ).
I wonder now why the recommended solution for file corruption issues is using ext3/4 (wich slows things down due to the journal and reduces the lifetime of flashdrives due to limited r/w cycles) instead of just make a shutdown script wich unmounts the ext partition? (About lifetime: I think 10.000-100.000 r/w cycles is a rather high value and lifetime is only a theoretical and not a practical issue - but im not sure on this)
Since i'm not really expirenced in scripting on either linux or android i wanted to ask if a script in "init.d/rc0.d" (+"init.d/rc6.d" for reboot) would be possible? I could write one but i don't know if this would be executed and i actually don't know how i could check if it works (i think logcat would be shutdown before this is done).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does /system/bin/shutdown get called to turn off the phone?
Logcat looks like its the last thing to stop
coutts99 said:
Does /system/bin/shutdown get called to turn off the phone?
Logcat looks like its the last thing to stop
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Code:
adb logcat | grep /system/bin/shutdown > ~/shutdowntest.log
Empty file
Although the file is present in ROM's so maybe it IS called after logcat stops. But i don't know if it's added to Custom ROMs and if it's also present in RUU's.
If it's not called do you see any possibility to use "Vold" process? Cause it does the unmounting:
Code:
I/Vold ( 145): /mnt/secure/staging/.android_secure sucessfully unmounted
I/Vold ( 145): /mnt/secure/asec sucessfully unmounted
I/Vold ( 145): /mnt/secure/staging sucessfully unmounted
I/Vold ( 145): /mnt/sdcard unmounted sucessfully
D/Vold ( 145): Volume sdcard state changing 5 (Unmounting) -> 1 (Idle-Unmounted)
melethron said:
Code:
adb logcat | grep /system/bin/shutdown > ~/shutdowntest.log
Empty file
Although the file is present in ROM's so maybe it IS called after logcat stops. But i don't know if it's added to Custom ROMs and if it's also present in RUU's.
If it's not called do you see any possibility to use "Vold" process? Cause it does the unmounting:
Code:
I/Vold ( 145): /mnt/secure/staging/.android_secure sucessfully unmounted
I/Vold ( 145): /mnt/secure/asec sucessfully unmounted
I/Vold ( 145): /mnt/secure/staging sucessfully unmounted
I/Vold ( 145): /mnt/sdcard unmounted sucessfully
D/Vold ( 145): Volume sdcard state changing 5 (Unmounting) -> 1 (Idle-Unmounted)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hmm, interesting. Maybe have to poke through the source and see what is called to shutdown the phone.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
coutts99 said:
hmm, interesting. Maybe have to poke through the source and see what is called to shutdown the phone.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think this would be a major improvement. Since journaling is actually bad for sd's. Im not sure on this, but the journal is in some specific area on the filesystem. If this is the case I'm not sure if algorithms used to distribute r/w on flash drives will help if the journal gets overwritten (as i understand it so far the r/w is distributet over FREE space but not if something gets overwriten). If this is the case the part of the SD with the journal will be stressed heavy.
I've been playing around with data2sd with ext2 for a few weeks now.
I might be wrong but I think that the system is unmounting cleanly /data (and not /dev/block/mtdblock5) because I always have a clean e2fsck log after rebooting the phone.
So basically if you mount something under the /data mountpoint, it won't be cleanly unmounted and you'll end-up with corrupted FS. That what happens for A2SD because /data is still /dev/block/mtdblock5. But if you mount straight over /data, like I do with DATA2SD, the system unmounts /data on shutdown, witch is now your ext partition (whether your ext partition or a file on ext partition mounted via a loop device) and your FS is not corrupted. In that case you don't need journaling and can stick with ext2.
sibere said:
I've been playing around with data2sd with ext2 for a few weeks now.
I might be wrong but I think that the system in unmounting cleanly /data (and not /dev/block/mtdblock5) because I always have a clean e2fsck log after rebooting the phone.
So basically if you mount something under the /data mountpoint, it won't be cleanly unmounted and you'll end-up with corrupted FS. That what happens for A2SD because /data is still /dev/block/mtdblock5. But if you mount straight over /data, like I do with DATA2SD, the system unmounts /data on shutdown, witch is now your ext partition (whether your ext partition or a file on ext partition mounted via a loop device) and your FS is not corrupted. In that case you don't need journaling and can stick with ext2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im pretty sure for 3 reasons that it doesnt unmount data:
1. Android unmounts "/sdcard" as it can be seen in logcat while other stuff isn't unmounted. It may be still that the other unmount stuff is not not by the "Vold" process. Sdcard needs to be able to get unmounted when the phone is plugged to usb.
2. I also did quite a lot testing with sd-ext directly mounted to /data and i did get quite a lot corruption. But it is situation depended. If my phone was "idle" i didn't get corruption (1 time in 20 reboots) with no corruption. Then to make absolutly sure that it works i shut it down right after it boots up. There is many stuff running then wich means there is a much higher chance that something is still written while it shutdowns. Doing this i had corruption every 3rd reboot.
3. And this is the most important reason why you didn't get corruption but i did : You use sync as a mount option so you there is no need to unmount it ^^ !!!!
Sync is not an option for me for some reason:
-No cache will slowdown write on small files heavily
-Without cache every other process has to wait if some writing is done (lags).
-Much more wear for the sd since small files aren't cached
Using ext2 with sync isn't an option for me. Either i get ext2 with a proper unmount to work or i'll use Ext4 with an "ordered" journal then (or maybe i give a s*** about data2ext then).
melethron said:
Im pretty sure for 3 reasons that it doesnt unmount data:
1. Android unmounts "/sdcard" as it can be seen in logcat while other stuff isn't unmounted. It may be still that the other unmount stuff is not not by the "Vold" process. Sdcard needs to be able to get unmounted when the phone is plugged to usb.
2. I also did quite a lot testing with sd-ext directly mounted to /data and i did get quite a lot corruption. But it is situation depended. If my phone was "idle" i didn't get corruption (1 time in 20 reboots) with no corruption. Then to make absolutly sure that it works i shut it down right after it boots up. There is many stuff running then wich means there is a much higher chance that something is still written while it shutdowns. Doing this i had corruption every 3rd reboot.
3. And this is the most important reason why you didn't get corruption but i did : You use sync as a mount option so you there is no need to unmount it ^^ !!!!
Sync is not an option for me for some reason:
-No cache will slowdown write on small files heavily
-Without cache every other process has to wait if some writing is done (lags).
-Much more wear for the sd since small files aren't cached
Using ext2 with sync isn't an option for me. Either i get ext2 with a proper unmount to work or i'll use Ext4 with an "ordered" journal then (or maybe i give a s*** about data2ext then).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To me, the main purpose with data2Sd was to get more storage with at least the same amount of performances than the original NAND. I found that, on top of the extra space I have now, I also have a very good performance, roughly the same as NAND on small files and a much better one on bigger files. And I'm not thinking about quadrant score here
Talking about the unmount, if I run an e2fsck -n on the ext2 file while it's in use by the system, I have a report of a few errors (like deleted inode with nodtime, or wrong count of free blocks) But if I shut down the phone and turn in on again, the e2fsck I run at boot reports no errors at all. I might be wrong but my guess is that there is a clean umount done at some stage...
What I am going to do is an other test. You know that when an ext2 partition is not umounted properly, a flag is activated and this ext2 partition must be checked, regardless of the number of mounts done before running a check. This flag can be check by running a tune2fs -l on the partition before mounting it. It is reported as well by the system that the partition hasn't been unmounted properly when you try to mount it and that it should be checked .
So If i turn off my phone, restart in recovery mode, run a tune2fs -l on the ext2 file or mount it manually, I should be able to see if the partition has been unmounted by the system or not before the actual reboot.
I'll report the results and let you know if I'm wrong
OK
I've just turned off my phone. rebooted in recovery, mounted the 2nd FAT32 partition and run a tune2fs -l ext2 (that's the name of my ext2 file mounted via a loop device over /data)
Here is the result:
Code:
tune2fs 1.40.8 (13-Mar-2008)
Filesystem volume name: userdata
Last mounted on: /data
Filesystem UUID: 296f98d0-21e8-48b6-82ac-6c94c4edf28d
Filesystem magic number: 0xEF53
Filesystem revision #: 1 (dynamic)
Filesystem features: ext_attr dir_index filetype sparse_super
Filesystem flags: unsigned_directory_hash
Default mount options: (none)
Filesystem state: clean
Errors behavior: Continue
Filesystem OS type: Linux
Inode count: 60800
Block count: 243056
Reserved block count: 0
Free blocks: 168874
Free inodes: 57516
First block: 0
Block size: 4096
Fragment size: 4096
Blocks per group: 32768
Fragments per group: 32768
Inodes per group: 7600
Inode blocks per group: 475
Filesystem created: Tue Dec 7 15:00:51 2010
Last mount time: Thu Dec 9 17:40:16 2010
Last write time: Thu Dec 9 21:16:43 2010
Mount count: 1
Maximum mount count: 21
Last checked: Thu Dec 9 17:40:10 2010
Check interval: 15552000 (6 months)
Next check after: Tue Jun 7 17:40:10 2011
Reserved blocks uid: 0 (user root)
Reserved blocks gid: 0 (group root)
First inode: 11
Inode size: 256
Default directory hash: half_md4
Directory Hash Seed: 8ff9238f-aef7-48a7-85e1-7d2d45b9e809
You can see that it's reporting that the system is clean. If the ext2 partition wasn't cleanly unmounted by the system at shutdown, it would never report as being clean.
Obviously, if I check the state now that, after booting to android, the FS is mounted over /data, it is reported as being unclean.
It's reporting 1 as mount count because I'm forcing an fsck on boot anyway.
This doesn't mean that I will never get errors tho. I even have some errors from time to time when I reboot my linux home server
melethron said:
-No cache will slowdown write on small files heavily
-Without cache every other process has to wait if some writing is done (lags).
-Much more wear for the sd since small files aren't cached
Using ext2 with sync isn't an option for me. Either i get ext2 with a proper unmount to work or i'll use Ext4 with an "ordered" journal then (or maybe i give a s*** about data2ext then).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Remember that there is no writeback cache (AFAIK) with YAFFS2
But I should try with sync off and see if the system is still "clean" after a shutdown. If the systems unmounts ext2 properly, then the cache should be flushed by the system before unmounting the filesystem.
sibere said:
OK
I've just turned off my phone. rebooted in recovery, mounted the 2nd FAT32 partition and run a tune2fs -l ext2 (that's the name of my ext2 file mounted via a loop device over /data)
You can see that it's reporting that the system is clean. If the ext2 partition wasn't cleanly unmounted by the system at shutdown, it would never report as being clean.
Obviously, if I check the state now that, after booting to android, the FS is mounted over /data, it is reported as being unclean.
It's reporting 1 as mount count because I'm forcing an fsck on boot anyway.
This doesn't mean that I will never get errors tho. I even have some errors from time to time when I reboot my linux home server
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are right about the "clean" flag being set while unmounted. But you forgot one thing. The "clean" flag must be cleared when the partition is mounted. You should check if it as also reported while it IS mounted .... if so mount doesn't write proberly to the superblock. I would do this myself but im on ext4 and afaik it isn't cleared on mount then. For me this far it shows also "clean" when it is mounted.
My guess that mount doesn't write the superblock proberly is also supported by the fact that your and my mount count both shows 1. This could be a coincidince (chance for this is 0,147928994083 %) but could also support my assumption.
So check again while you mounted your system.
EDIT: I completly agree with you that data2ext is about space. Considering speed i also expirienced that reading larger amounts of data from data/data is faster with data2ext. But i also expirienced some slowdown sometimes on ext 4. It was better on ext2 and with that im really fine.
Remount done: Mount count still 1. I bet you will also get clean when you mount your ext.
melethron said:
Since i'm not really expirenced in scripting on either linux or android i wanted to ask if a script in "init.d/rc0.d" (+"init.d/rc6.d" for reboot) would be possible? I could write one but i don't know if this would be executed and i actually don't know how i could check if it works (i think logcat would be shutdown before this is done).
Edit: At least if rc0.d scripts are run BEFORE logcat stops it doesn't work. Logcat log is empty if i "grep test" an "echo "test"" script.
Need help. Someone ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i think that won't work with rc.0 as init.d script execution is initiated in
init.rc only for "before booting", its not as a "normal" linux init system
# Execute files in /etc/init.d before booting
service sysinit /system/bin/logwrapper /system/xbin/busybox run-parts /system/etc/init.d
disabled
oneshot
i wonder if a shutdown.rc could be populated, there is a shutdown.bravo.rc but its empty
for init-handling, in the kernel source its in system/core/init
but im not fit with c/c++ to look into
maybe the init binary would have to be modified by a kernel dev to enable shutdown.rc / also possible that htc has motified it to not to be used.
woti23 said:
i think that won't work with rc.0 as init.d script execution is initiated in
init.rc only for "before booting", its not as a "normal" linux init system
# Execute files in /etc/init.d before booting
service sysinit /system/bin/logwrapper /system/xbin/busybox run-parts /system/etc/init.d
disabled
oneshot
i wonder if a shutdown.rc could be populated, there is a shutdown.bravo.rc but its empty
for init-handling, in the kernel source its in system/core/init
but im not fit with c/c++ to look into
maybe the init binary would have to be modified by a kernel dev to enable shutdown.rc / also possible that htc has motified it to not to be used.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This would have been to easy ....
Well maybe some Kernel Dev will look into this.... coutts, sibere, anyone ... can you help ?
Btw: i still wonder why /system/bin/shutdown is present in ROMs if it's not used ....
melethron said:
This would have been to easy ....
Well maybe some Kernel Dev will look into this.... coutts, sibere, anyone ... can you help ?
Btw: i still wonder why /system/bin/shutdown is present in ROMs if it's not used ....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this works for the script that should be executed part
/system/bin/logwrapper /system/xbin/busybox run-parts /system/etc/shutdown.d
runs every script which is in /system/etc/shutdown.d
if you create /system/etc/shutdown.d before
and put one or more executable script/s that do something in
melethron said:
You are right about the "clean" flag being set while unmounted. But you forgot one thing. The "clean" flag must be cleared when the partition is mounted. You should check if it as also reported while it IS mounted .... if so mount doesn't write proberly to the superblock. I would do this myself but im on ext4 and afaik it isn't cleared on mount then. For me this far it shows also "clean" when it is mounted.
My guess that mount doesn't write the superblock proberly is also supported by the fact that your and my mount count both shows 1. This could be a coincidince (chance for this is 0,147928994083 %) but could also support my assumption.
So check again while you mounted your system.
EDIT: I completly agree with you that data2ext is about space. Considering speed i also expirienced that reading larger amounts of data from data/data is faster with data2ext. But i also expirienced some slowdown sometimes on ext 4. It was better on ext2 and with that im really fine.
Remount done: Mount count still 1. I bet you will also get clean when you mount your ext.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry mate, but, like I wrote in my previous post, it shows unclean when mounted.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
sibere said:
Sorry mate, but, like I wrote in my previous post, it shows unclean when mounted.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ROFL! I should learn to read proberly:
Obviously, if I check the state now that, after booting to android, the FS is mounted over /data, it is reported as being unclean.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well thats actually good news thanks for helping me reading. ^^
Well so this isn't a problem. Now its time for ext4 (no loop) without journal mounted to data. About the loopdevice: you might wanna read what ownhere has to say about loop.
melethron said:
If it's not called do you see any possibility to use "Vold" process? Cause it does the unmounting:
Code:
I/Vold ( 145): /mnt/secure/staging/.android_secure sucessfully unmounted
I/Vold ( 145): /mnt/secure/asec sucessfully unmounted
I/Vold ( 145): /mnt/secure/staging sucessfully unmounted
I/Vold ( 145): /mnt/sdcard unmounted sucessfully
D/Vold ( 145): Volume sdcard state changing 5 (Unmounting) -> 1 (Idle-Unmounted)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://android.git.kernel.org/?p=pl...2af4c72427ad069245d0aa572;hb=refs/heads/froyo
Some interesting stuff in this code here
coutts99 said:
http://android.git.kernel.org/?p=pl...2af4c72427ad069245d0aa572;hb=refs/heads/froyo
Some interesting stuff in this code here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i'm running this now on btrfs partition
/dev/block/mmcblk0p6** on /system/sd type btrfs (rw,relatime,ssd,noacl)
/dev/block/mmcblk0p6 5.2G 1.3G 3.9G 26% /system/sd
tmpfs 85.8M 24.0M 61.8M 28% /cache
a2sd btrfs *
d2sd btrfs *
dalvik-cache in /data mtd
cache in ram 90M
* without loop mounted img filesystem
** logical partition on extented partition
woti23 said:
i'm running this now on btrfs partition
/dev/block/mmcblk0p6** on /system/sd type btrfs (rw,relatime,ssd,noacl)
/dev/block/mmcblk0p6 5.2G 1.3G 3.9G 26% /system/sd
tmpfs 85.8M 24.0M 61.8M 28% /cache
a2sd btrfs *
d2sd btrfs *
dalvik-cache in /data mtd
cache in ram 90M
* without loop mounted img filesystem
** logical partition on extented partition
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Running what now?
conventional (not froyo app2sd) a2sd + data2sd both on btrfs without loopmounted filesystem files
/data/dalvik-cache left in nand
/cache tmpfs in RAM
btrfs instead of ext4
Related
I created a zeroed file with dd and attempted to mount it with:
mount -o loop /sdcard/test.img /data/test
and
losetup /dev/block/loop0 /sdcard/test.img
However, no loopback devices are displayed when I invoke mount. Can anyone clue me in? Feel like i'm missing something basic. By the way, I am running these commands from Saurik's busybox with the losetup /dev/block/loop fix.
p.s. I'd ask on the G1 hackers mailing list, but it's gone a bit bonkers in the past few days.
I'm not sure, but doesn't the image file you're trying to mount have to contain an actual file system?
Yea, I subsequently created a filesystem for it with mke2fs (which is mysteriously missing from busybox for android?). Still no go. Same when I tried to mount other partition-in-a-files like the module.cramfs or recovery.img
If I try to losetup the loop device then mount that, it returns error:
mount: mounting /dev/block/loop0 on /data/test failed: No such device
If I try to mount directly with -o loop, it returns:
mount: cannot setup loop device: No such file or directory
And yet Saurik seems to have been able to loop mount fine. Perhaps it is because I am testing on the qemu instead of hardware?
That might be it. You might try busybox's mount also.
But yeah, It definitely does work on the phone at least.
I've been trying to figure out how to load debian on the emulator, but I can't get the ext2 image mounted. I had to recompile the kernel first so support loadable modules, but even after that, it would not work (can't remember the specific error). Has anyone gotten an ext2 file system mounted on the emulator successfully?
The reason I'm doing this is so I can do native compiles, without actually having to do it on the phone. It has advantages in that I can crank up the clock speed and the RAM.
So I was able to mount loopback just fine on the actual hardware, but i'm having trouble getting it to run from the init.rc file. This is what i'm typing at the shell (it works):
(after insmod ext2.ko)
mount -o loop,noatime,nodiratime,nosuid,nodev -t ext2 /sdcard/loopy/app.img /data/app
It works fine and i'm able to install and run apks from the sdcard (/dev/block/loop2 on /data/app type ext2). Of course this is no good unless it can be mounted before the launcher starts (or it won't see any of our apks). The syntax for init mounting is different from sh, so I tried this (this is in /data/init.rc btw):
on userdata
#mount loopback file from sdcard
insmod /system/modules/2.6.25-01843-gfea26b0/kernel/fs/ext2/ext2.ko
mount ext2 /sdcard/loopy/app.img /data/app noatime nodiratime nosuid nodev loop
I know the script is being run since the ext2.ko module is getting installed. But the mount command isn't being executed. Can anyone shine a light on this? I'm not very familiar with the init daemon.
jashsu said:
So I was able to mount loopback just fine on the actual hardware, but i'm having trouble getting it to run from the init.rc file. This is what i'm typing at the shell (it works):
(after insmod ext2.ko)
mount -o loop,noatime,nodiratime,nosuid,nodev -t ext2 /sdcard/loopy/app.img /data/app
It works fine and i'm able to install and run apks from the sdcard (/dev/block/loop2 on /data/app type ext2). Of course this is no good unless it can be mounted before the launcher starts (or it won't see any of our apks). The syntax for init mounting is different from sh, so I tried this (this is in /data/init.rc btw):
on userdata
#mount loopback file from sdcard
insmod /system/modules/2.6.25-01843-gfea26b0/kernel/fs/ext2/ext2.ko
mount ext2 /sdcard/loopy/app.img /data/app noatime nodiratime nosuid nodev loop
I know the script is being run since the ext2.ko module is getting installed. But the mount command isn't being executed. Can anyone shine a light on this? I'm not very familiar with the init daemon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try
mount ext2 [email protected]/sdcard/loop/app.img /data/app noatime nodiratime nosuid nodev
JesusFreke said:
Try
mount ext2 [email protected]/sdcard/loop/app.img /data/app noatime nodiratime nosuid nodev
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried that one earlier too. No love.
jashsu said:
Tried that one earlier too. No love.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I betcha the sdcard hasn't been mounted yet.
Is there anything in dmesg that looks relevant? Or maybe logcat?
Try temporarily moving the image file to /data, and see if you can get it to mount. That should verify that it has something to do with it being on the sdcard
JesusFreke said:
I betcha the sdcard hasn't been mounted yet.
Is there anything in dmesg that looks relevant? Or maybe logcat?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agh! You're right. The mount daemon runs at line 192, in the services section. Long after the /data/init.rc is parsed.
service mountd /system/bin/mountd
socket mountd stream 0660 root mount
Any way around this short of manually mounting the sdcard in the /data/init.rc?
Edit: dmesg bingo:
<3>[ 1.920368] init: unable to mount [email protected]/sdcard/loopy/app.img to /data/app
as ext2
<6>[ 1.921498] yaffs: dev is 32505860 name is "mtdblock4"
<6>[ 1.922016] yaffs: passed flags ""
<4>[ 1.922322] yaffs: Attempting MTD mount on 31.4, "mtdblock4"
<4>[ 1.927204] yaffs: restored from checkpoint
<4>[ 1.927845] yaffs_read_super: isCheckpointed 1
<3>[ 1.960002] init: unable to mount /system/xbin.cramfs to /system/xbin as c
ramfs
<3>[ 1.965221] init: service 'console' requires console
<4>[ 2.161895] mmc_sd_init_card: Delay 250 ms
<4>[ 2.522535] mmc1: host does not support reading read-only switch. assuming
write-enable.
<6>[ 2.523359] mmc1: new SDHC card at address cd4e
On a side note, it looks like the mount action for xbin.cramfs in the main init.rc is failing because it's redundant with an earlier mount in /system/init.rc. I'm guessing this is a vestige of development on cramfs loopback mounting (mentioned here by Saurik).
6) at Jesus Freke's suggestion, setup /system/xbin (and later /system/modules) to mount from a compressed image
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I had left in an extra mount for xbin.cramfs in the base init.rc. I believe that's fixed in v1.3. I'll check again and make sure
So I gather the reason for wanting to mount a loopback device is to be able to create an ext2 fs as a file on the sdcard fat fs instead of creating 2 separate parittions on the sdcard , one for fat and one for ext2?
If this can be done, this would be a much better solution for getting apps to run on the sdcard than the previous hack which requires creating an ext2 partition on the sdcard.
Yeah that was what I was looking into. However as noted above, the I couldn't mount the image on the sdcard because the point at which /data/init.rc gets parsed occurs before the sdcard service starts up. The partition method doesn't have this problem because it creates a node for paritition #2 in the init.rc
jashsu said:
Yeah that was what I was looking into. However as noted above, the I couldn't mount the image on the sdcard because the point at which /data/init.rc gets parsed occurs before the sdcard service starts up. The partition method doesn't have this problem because it creates a node for paritition #2 in the init.rc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so u can't mount the sdcard in /data/init.rc?
dwang said:
so u can't mount the sdcard in /data/init.rc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure, I didn't try mounting partition #1. You could give it a shot by using mknod in /data/init.rc like the parted sdcard method. The sdcard service might not like that the card has already been mounted though.
There are two major reasons I abandoned this concept. The first is I didn't want to figure out how to get permission to mount /sdcard (since / is ro). The second is that making the sdcard available as a usb mass storage device makes it exclusively unaccessible from Android. I suppose that might not be so bad if you are only offloading /data/app, as long as you don't try to execute any new apps while your mass storage connection is going. It's non-ideal.
jashsu said:
Not sure, I didn't try mounting partition #1. You could give it a shot by using mknod in /data/init.rc like the parted sdcard method. The sdcard service might not like that the card has already been mounted though.
There are two major reasons I abandoned this concept. The first is I didn't want to figure out how to get permission to mount /sdcard (since / is ro). The second is that making the sdcard available as a usb mass storage device makes it exclusively unaccessible from Android. I suppose that might not be so bad if you are only offloading /data/app, as long as you don't try to execute any new apps while your mass storage connection is going. It's non-ideal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think the 2nd reason is that big of a deal. If google is planning on implementing the file based method for apps on the sdcard, they could just block access to apps when the sdcard is mounted to a pc. Its a lot better than the alternative of having to create a 2nd ext2 partition on the sdcard. Of course google should have really solved this issue before the g1 came out.
Anyways, I don't see /data/init.rc on my jf rc 1.2 g1. I only see /init.rc and /system/init.rc. Is /data/init.rc something that you created just for the purpose of mounting the file.
dwang said:
I don't think the 2nd reason is that big of a deal. If google is planning on implementing the file based method for apps on the sdcard, they could just block access to apps when the sdcard is mounted to a pc. Its a lot better than the alternative of having to create a 2nd ext2 partition on the sdcard. Of course google should have really solved this issue before the g1 came out.
Anyways, I don't see /data/init.rc on my jf rc 1.2 g1. I only see /init.rc and /system/init.rc. Is /data/init.rc something that you created just for the purpose of mounting the file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah it's referenced in /init.rc Easier to use since unlike /system/init.rc, it's not in a ro folder. You could use /system/init.rc too. Either way really.
jashsu said:
Yeah it's referenced in /init.rc Easier to use since unlike /system/init.rc, it's not in a ro folder. You could use /system/init.rc too. Either way really.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok.. I'll probably just stick with partitioning the sdcard into fat and ext2. Its working well for me and there really isn't a whole lot of advantages having the ext2 as a file on the fat partition.
I have 41 apps installed on the sdcard now (including some huge games like bonzai blast and brain genius deluxe) and I still have 59 megs of free internal storage. I think everybody that has a rooted g1 should put apps to the sdcard.
i needed a way to format my sdcard & install swap capable rom with no card reader...grrr...my gray hair is your gain!
READ THIS FIRST: i wrote a script that automagically partitions the sdcard. get it here.
if you still want to partition manually, read on.
i did this with a BLANK 8gb card and a fresh rom install, so i had no data to lose..be careful. i take no responsibility for what happens to your phone, sdcard, data, sanity, etc if you follow these instructions. remember to backup your sdcard to your pc before you begin.
technically, you don't need adb for this, as you can partition your card in the recovery console on the g1(...not the terminal app) using the commands in this post. however, once you wipe your sdcard, you may want some way of getting a new rom onto the phone. ;p
these instructions apply to both, the windows command prompt and the mac terminal.
just about any size and/or class of sdcard will work, but you will want to use a class 6 cause it's wicked fast. 16gb transcend sdcards seem to be giving some people trouble and throwing "ERROR: input/output error during write on /dev/block/mmcblk0" when trying to partition. use them at your own peril.
the example in this thread is for MY sdcard...YOUR sdcard will be different and the partition sizes may vary. apply ur information(sdcard size, partition size) when appropriate. following the instructions in this post will erase ALL DATA on the sdcard before creating new partitions.
read the ENTIRE post VERY carefully BEFORE proceeding or asking questions...
#####
note #1: all typed commands are in bold. adb/console commands in black. windows prompt commands in green.
note #2: if all else fails...remove all partitions and create new. this seems to solve 99.9% of non-hardware related problems.
note #3: if note #2 fails...try 'mklabel msdos'. see below for more info.
note to ext3/ext4 fs users: parted does NOT support CREATING ext3/ext4 partitions..you MUST create with ext2 and upgrade. also, parted CAN RESIZE ext3 partitions, but with restrictions. check out the table on the features page, of their website. i will NOT go into resizing partitions in this post as there are many variations...
#####
need to backup your ext partition?
note: these backup commands must be run while phone is booted, not recovery.
to backup your ext partition to your current directory: adb pull /system/sd/ %CD%\sdbackup
to restore back to sdcard: adb push %CD%\sdbackup /system/sd
#####
having issues? please post the following when asking for help:
output from the following commands
parted /dev/block/mmcblk0 print
parted /dev/block/mmcblk0 check 1, if any.
parted /dev/block/mmcblk0 check 2, if any.
parted /dev/block/mmcblk0 check 3, if any.
what rom are you using?
what brand/size/class sdcard?
can you see fat32 partition on the phone? ie. through andExplorer or similar..
#####
materials:
g1 with cm-recovery-1.4
sdcard <--class 6 recommended(adata makes good ones...they max out the g1 hw in terms of speed)
rooted rom with ext3/4 support & swap capability <--recommend CyanogenMod
adb
fingas(or toes if you're this guy)
part i - prepare the sdcard:
boot your g1 into recovery (using home + power)
drop to console (alt + x)
open windows command prompt and enter:
adb shell
now at the # prompt enter:
parted /dev/block/mmcblk0
you are now in parted...hopefully. if not, check your typing, start over, do more research, or give up.
to find out the size of your sdcard & the partitions that it contains, enter:
print
you may receive a message from the program:
Code:
"No Implementation: Partition 1 isn't aligned to cylinder boundaries. This is
still unsupported."
the error says it all.. ;P
not sure what this means exactly(besides our partitions being out of alignment), but it is not good for our purposes.
also, if your "Partition Table" is reported as being "loop", i suggest repairing with the following procedure as well since it seems to be causing some problems too.
to fix, type:
mklabel msdos
it may give you some guff about:
Code:
Warning: The existing disk label on /dev/block/mmcblk0 will be destroyed and all data on
this disk will be lost. Do you want to continue?
parted: invalid token: msdos
answer y to the 'yes/no'..
and then:
Code:
New disk label type?
confirm with: msdos
re-enter: print
you should get something like:
Code:
print
print
Model: Unknown (unknown)
Disk /dev/block/mmcblk0: 7969MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 512B 7469MB 7469MB primary fat32 lba
2 7469MB 7969MB 500MB primary ext2
or, if your sdcard is new/empty you'll get:
Code:
print
print
Model: Unknown (unknown)
Disk /dev/block/mmcblk0: 7969MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
if no numbered partitions come up, move onto next step. if not, delete ALL partitions that you see with the rm command. it has the format: rm <partition number>.
in this case:
rm 1
rm 2
the fourth line in the 'print' command output shows you the total size of sdcard in MB(or GB if you card is large)..mine says: Disk /dev/block/mmcblk0: 7969MB
use this number(XXXXMB) and do some simple math to get the size of your partitions.
7969MB - 32MB linux-swap = 7937MB
7937MB - 500MB ext2 = 7437MB fat32
32MB seems to be alright size for swap, though it can be lower depending on your sdcard size.
500 MB is a good round number for the ext2 partition...no need for more.
that leaves us with 7437MB for fat32 storage.
part ii - create partitions:
for a2sd & swap to work properly, partitions MUST be created in this order: fat32, ext2, linux-swap
the command to create partitions is mkpartfs...command format is:
mkpartfs <partition type> <fs type> <start> <end>
note#1: the <start>/<end> numbers in the following section correspond to the italicized numbers above. your partition information will most likely be different.
note#2: by default parted assumes ur using MB as the units in commands. say you have a card that is LARGE(like 16GB) and want a partition of 12GB...all you do is use the proper units(ie. mkpartfs primary fat32 0 12GB) and parted will oblige. you can use decimals as well...if you want a similar setup to my calculations above, you would have a fat32 partition of 15.4GB(ie. mkpartfs primary fat32 0 15.4GB), 500MB ext2, and 32MB swap
now we create the partitions:
mkpartfs primary fat32 0 7437
mkpartfs primary ext2 7437 7937
mkpartfs primary linux-swap 7937 7969
to check out our handy work, enter:
print
output should be similar to:
Code:
print
print
Model: Unknown (unknown)
Disk /dev/block/mmcblk0: 7969MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 512B 7437MB 7437MB primary fat32 lba
2 7437MB 7937MB 500MB primary ext2
3 7937MB 7969MB 32.2MB primary linux-swap(v1)
to exit parted type:
quit
after quitting you may receive a message containing:
Code:
Information: You may need to update /etc/fstab.
no need to worry. fyi, fstab is a file that keeps track of disks & partitions in *nix. more info on fstab can be found here.
part iii - convert ext2 to ext3/ext4:
parted will not create ext3/ext4 partitions...see beginning of post
to upgrade, enter:
upgrade_fs
you now have journaling(aka ext3)! if ext3 is all you want, skip next two commands.
you want ext4?
enter:
tune2fs -O extents,uninit_bg,dir_index /dev/block/mmcblk0p2
e2fsck -fpDC0 /dev/block/mmcblk0p2
part iv - copy rom to sdcard and install, enable swap:
open another win cmd prompt, enter:
adb shell mount /sdcard
adb push /update-path/update.zip /sdcard
exit
in original cmd prompt, enter:
reboot recovery
after reboot:
wipe data (alt + w) <--this one is optional, but i like fresh installs
install rom (alt + s)
to enable swap, see this page.
note: you do not need to enable swap if your rom does it automagically.
#####
all told, i end up with:
~7.5GB fat32
~500MB ext4
~32MB swap
cyanogen-v3.6.8.1 running faster than ever!
hope this wasn't too painful.
btw, you could use a live cd, but i think this is easier and maybe a little more fun!
very nice guide! I will have to test it out later on! Thanks! .
does this damage the sd card in anyway? i was running jac hero with swapper and it killed my sd card...but nice tut..might try it
wow... I never knew you were allowed to partition straight from terminal or I wouldn't have wasted a CD on g-parted... =/ nice guide, next time I need to partition, I'll use this method.
jay22are, partitioning the card will not damage it, but if you use it for swap you will always run the risk of corrupting your card, however, I read that someone calculated that it would still take 2yrs for your card to start having problems using swapper. So good luck.
Is their a noticeable increase in speed when running a non hero rom with swapper?
marixsmith said:
Is their a noticeable increase in speed when running a non hero rom with swapper?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
extremely noticeable. apps run & transition much smoother than without the swap partition. although, i must say that most of the speed & stability in my setup is cyanogen's rom...it's awesome.
now i have a question...
does anyone know if there are speed/reliability differences between using the swapfile(like with the swapper app) and the swap partition? i did the partition b/c that's how i've always configured linux installs and it let's me mount the sdcard w/o issues.
when i'm trying to do the commands I run into this:
(parted) mkpartfs fat32 0 7584
mkpartfs fat32 0 7584
mkpartfs fat32 0 7584
parted: invalid token: fat32
Partition type? primary/extended?
doesn't seem like the guide covers all of the steps.
same problem as engaged...
Was wondering when someone would write this guide!
h.nocturna said:
wow... I never knew you were allowed to partition straight from terminal or I wouldn't have wasted a CD on g-parted... =/ nice guide, next time I need to partition, I'll use this method.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just built and included Parted on the new recovery image (1.3.1). I was just waiting for someone to do a writeup about it because I'm lazy
engagedtosmile said:
when i'm trying to do the commands I run into this:
(parted) mkpartfs fat32 0 7584
mkpartfs fat32 0 7584
mkpartfs fat32 0 7584
parted: invalid token: fat32
Partition type? primary/extended?
doesn't seem like the guide covers all of the steps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Should be "mkpartfs primary fat32 0 7584".
Parted can also resize your existing partitions without erasing data.
cyanogen said:
Parted can also resize your existing partitions without erasing data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm gonna try when I get home always wanted to resize my partition without apps and data being loss
cyanogen said:
Parted can also resize your existing partitions without erasing data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm gonna try when I get home always wanted to resize my partition without apps and data being loss. By the way great job with the roms, recovery's, and all the rest of the hard work you guys do. You guys are genious
cyanogen said:
Was wondering when someone would write this guide!
I just built and included Parted on the new recovery image (1.3.1). I was just waiting for someone to do a writeup about it because I'm lazy
Should be "mkpartfs primary fat32 0 7584".
Parted can also resize your existing partitions without erasing data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@engage & others: fixed my mistake in original post
thanks cyanogen!
guess that's what i get for typing too fast... ;p
what am i doing wrong?
Im using a 2gb card.
following the guide after i use the print command it tells me my card is 2033MB in size
and it lists my start point at 32.3kB
i typed: mkpartfs primary fat32 32.3kB 1458MB
it states it cant make the partition and the closest it can do is 31.7kb to 31.7.
is it something im doing?
CC CEO said:
Im using a 2gb card.
following the guide after i use the print command it tells me my card is 2033MB in size
and it lists my start point at 32.3kB
i typed: mkpartfs primary fat32 32.3kB 1458MB
it states it cant make the partition and the closest it can do is 31.7kb to 31.7.
is it something im doing?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i believe the reason it is not exactly 0 is because it needs room for the partition information. mine was similar...i believe 31.9kb.
you don't need to use the 'kb' / 'mb'...i just use whole numbers and the prg figures out the hard stuff..
hmm...maybe remove all partitions (using the rm command) and start from scratch.
check out this site
can you paste/link to the console output to the forum?
What about ext4
I got brave and decided to "resize" my ext4 partition down 32MB to create a swap space.
First, I backed up everything using windoze after mounting.
But then it occured to me perhaps I should do a complete backup of my sd card first, including my ext4. But HOW?
Also, cyanogen said parted will resize with no data loss, so I assume you just use the "resize part# start stop" ??
Anyway, when I did my print command, it listed my FAT32 and an ext3. When I try and do anything to ext3, I get a "Error: File system has an incompatible feature enabled" message. I am guessing this is the ext4 stuff?
Will just sit tight for now, before I blow my entire SD card and have to start from scratch till someone can tell me safest way to backup sd card to pc completely and what to do about the ext4 errors.
Thanks in advance for the help!
very cool, I feel like such a dork doing it this way and it feels good! When i put in my command for the partition I got this error:
Warning: You requested a partition from 0.00B to 7216MB.
The closest location we can manage is 512B to 31.7kB. Is this still acceptable
to you?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not sure why I think its because the disk already had partitions. I couldn't remove them because parted said the disc was mounted. So I still couldn't avoid booting to the live cd and reformating though :*(
edit: actually rebooting the phone allowed me to use the rm command and remove my partitions and follow your instructions. Worked great thank you! this is going to save me loads of hassle in the future
edit2: spoke too soon when I run upgrade_fs I get this message
e2fsck 1.41.6 (30-May-2009)
/sbin/e2fsck: Superblock invalid, trying backup blocks...
/sbin/e2fsck: Bad magic number in super-block while trying to open /dev/block/mm
cblk0p2
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so i use the repair ext filesystems on the recovery image and it says
Checking filesystems. Error checking filesystem! Run e2fsck manually from console.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
any help?
edit3: deleted the partitions and did it again, worked this time
This is exactly what i was looking for, thank you so much for this!
51dusty said:
extremely noticeable. apps run & transition much smoother than without the swap partition. although, i must say that most of the speed & stability in my setup is cyanogen's rom...it's awesome.
now i have a question...
does anyone know if there are speed/reliability differences between using the swapfile(like with the swapper app) and the swap partition? i did the partition b/c that's how i've always configured linux installs and it let's me mount the sdcard w/o issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
first, IMHO and research, the swap partition does nothing to cyanogen's roms because of his magic touch, however, it does work wonders with the browser, and with all other builds besides cyan's
second, The swap file is placed on your fat32 partition, when you mount your sd card to your pc, the swap file disappears and your rom crashes...
stick with a linux-swap partition. you shouldn't go over 32mb tho, it gets glitchy after that.
yes you DO HAVE remove pre-existing partitions with rm command... obviously if you don't want to resize them.
genez
jklong03 said:
I got brave and decided to "resize" my ext4 partition down 32MB to create a swap space.
First, I backed up everything using windoze after mounting.
But then it occured to me perhaps I should do a complete backup of my sd card first, including my ext4. But HOW?
Also, cyanogen said parted will resize with no data loss, so I assume you just use the "resize part# start stop" ??
Anyway, when I did my print command, it listed my FAT32 and an ext3. When I try and do anything to ext3, I get a "Error: File system has an incompatible feature enabled" message. I am guessing this is the ext4 stuff?
Will just sit tight for now, before I blow my entire SD card and have to start from scratch till someone can tell me safest way to backup sd card to pc completely and what to do about the ext4 errors.
Thanks in advance for the help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
to backup ext partition just cp /system/sd it has the apps dirs and dalvik-cache
this ver of parted does not handle ext3/4...that's why you have to upgrade after partitioning. as far as resizing goes...i would imagine it can't do that to ext3/4 either.
maybe cyanogen can provide complete explanation of ext3/4 support...?
my advice would be to delete all and start fresh..i'm not a huge fan of resizing partitions...it seems to let gremlins into the fs. ;p
Now, i know there are a *few* places in the dev section that have ext4 optimizations. But these "optimizations" are for the conversion from ext3 to ext4 without having the reformat and everything.
I've been trying (unsuccessfully) to change some of the ext4 mount flags for better speed. My problem is, everything i do in making a CWM flashable with a ext4 optimize sh script errors out with a Status 0. it doesn't even run.
But this time, i though i'd try a few things using adb shell. I got some tune2fs stuff working, so i thought i'd run an fsck on it. There isn't any fsck located on the phone. So i copied over a fsck.ext4, ran it but then got this error (and it also left my rom unuseable, but luckily i had a nandroid):
Code:
***file system was modified*** invalid argument passed to ext2 library while rewriting block inode bitmaps
.
And when doing an ls of /sbin, there isn't anything in there related to ext4, let alone ext3. So i'm wondering, why is our phone supports ext4 partitions, but doesn't actually have anything to support them?
EDIT: running just the tune2fs seems to have worked, just need to test out any differences found first.
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
This is a very annoying issue but I have not found any thread about it.
I'm trying to upgrade my external/removable sdcard for an android 6 device.
The new sdcard gets mounted to /mnt/media_rw/XXXX-XXXX (i.e. not 0123-4567), so no app works as files can't be found.
The linux way (ln) wont work. Simply creating /mnt/media/0123-4567 causes bad bootloop on my device. This suggests that FolderMount app or Magisk modules such as fbind are a bad idea. selinux is enforcing.
It appears that Android assigns different mount points are to different sdcards and the first sdcard always gets 0123-4567. It that's right, Android probably stores sdcards' identifiers so as to know which mount point to use at boot time. So, deleting the identifiers database would probably mean that the next card inserted would get 0123-4567 as mount point.
I have looked at the data of com.android.externalstorage, but there is nothing there. I don't see other obvious candidate apps.
Where is this ext sdcard data stored?
I was wrong. Android sets mount points matching sdcard uuid
How to change vfat partition UUID?
How do I change the UUID of a vfat partition? For ext2 / ext3 / ext4, this is done with a simple: tune2fs -U <new-uuid> /dev/<partition> Is there a similar command for vfat partitions?
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