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Hey fellow devs,
I have been trying to configure my partitions on my 4GB SDcard for around 7 hours now..... it's currently 4:43am CST and I've lost it.
I researched and researched to find out the best way to create the FAT32/EXT2 partitions for my SDcard and i believed i had it and now I'm left with only 2.2GB/4GB available to me from my FAT32 SDcard! I can't create an EXT2 partition anymore or another FAT32 because there is no space allocated. I've been using Partition Manager 9.0 for the process but I'm kinda really freaked out now. Someone please tell me that i haven't friend my SDcard.
What I have been working on is trying to get my apps & caches saved to my SDcard so i have save my internal memory and stay away from Lag spikes. I currently have JFv1.42_RC_33 Modded created by LucidREM. It is supposed to auto save all apps/caches to the SDcard but of course you have to first have the FAT32/EXT2 combo. Well i thought i had it so i went and flashed my G1 with that Modified build.
1. Formatted SDcard after having FAT32/EXT2 partitions created because i was trying to follow the new auto updated from another post by using Android SDK(ADB) and running appsToSD.bat which failed.
Note: I'm not sure but i think that is where i went wrong by formatting the SDcard after the partitions and not before.
2. Went for LucidREM's method right after.....
3. Powered down > Booted from Camera+Power > Updated from update.zip(JFv1.42_RC_33 Modded > Home+Back for reboot.
4. Got back to home screen and all my old stuff is still there. Apps and all because they were saved to the phone's internal memory(Phew)
5. Went to Terminal and did
a. $su
b. #copy.sh app
c. #copy.sh data (OPTIONAL)
Failed.
So lastly i decided to check my partitions in Partition Manager 9.0 and found that my EXT2 partition is completely gone and the 1.5GB memory went with it!!
So now I'm stuck with 2.5GB FAT32 SDcard. Can't rollback or create EXT2 since all primary slots are taken up.
I know this is a long post but I'm like at the end of my rope. I know my G1 is pretty safe but I have no clue about my SDcard.
Please Advise.............
P.S I'm gonna go to sleep now.....Lol..... 7 hrs is too long to be focused.....
Thanks Devs
Stringbeanz
[email protected]
beanz,
sleep deprivation is never a good thing when playing with partitions. first of all. Secondly, i feel your frustrations... i have been there recently. So here is where i offer help.
You are in a good spot because your g1 still has all the apps / data untouched
As far as the sd card goes. i would back up any information you have on it that you dont want to loose. here are a few tricks you can try.
- i dont know if your running Paragon Partition Manager from windows or not but i would make a bootable cd and run it from outside windows. it worked exponentially better for me that way.
-i would also suggest making your ext2 partition no bigger than 500mb. even if you download 100 apps you wont fill that up. and it seems to have less issues the smaller it is.
-also if your card is not a class 6 lucidRem doesnt advise moving the data.
hope this helps
Perdid0,
Thanks for your prompt response to my post. I have just a few Q&A to your response.
1. I am running Partition Manager 9.0 on Windows XP SP3
2. My 4GB SD card only has 2.2GB on 1 partition (FAT32)
3. I'm not able to add another partition such as an EXT2 because there is no primary spot available or allocated space. That is what Partition Manager 9.0 told me.
So.......
1. How do I check if my SD card is Class 6? App or prog?
2. Since I can't create a partition on it now is it trashed?
3. I'm thinkin just to wait and get a 16GB Class 6 or 8 if I find one.
4. But until then if I am able to undo the damage to my current one that would be great.
Thanks for ur help with my Questions.
Stringbeanz
*There are many ways to setup an SDCARD for A2SD, but some people don't feel comfortable doing it in recovery, or their recovery doesn't support it, or they don't rely on recovery, or they are scared of the adb shell. This is a newbie friendly way that anyone can do..
What's a VERY easy way to setup your sdcard for apps 2 sd? With Linux!! (don't run in fear yet! Follow along with me!)
Some background to read first:
Backup all your stuff before hand!
Think of it just like if your repartitioning your hard drive. It's that simple.
OK! So here we go!
Setup:
Go here: http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download
I suggest you select the 32bit option, and 10.10(latest) version. Click download
I also suggest unless you know how to use unetbootin, or how to burn an iso image(very easy) that you read the how to from that download page on doing so.
Links: cdburnerxp (if you don't already have a cd burning utility. I HIGHLY recommend it)http://cdburnerxp.se/en/home
unetbootin: (for booting from thumb drive) http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
*Some older PC's (and I mean unless made within the last 3 years recent) have trouble booting unetbootin made live thumb drives, so if in doubt, just eat the 20cents you paid for that cd-r and get it right the first time.
1a. BACKUP EVERYTHING ON THE SDCARD!
Cannot stress this enough as the way we are doing this, you will lose EVERYTHING on your SD card. I am not responsible for your adhd!
Execute!
1.boot to ubuntu live cd *see your motherboard instructions on how to boot to cd if it does not automatically but usually when you boot it will give an option to "Change Drive Boot Order" or something similar, by pressing F8, F9,F10, or F11, but if you do not see this, and it does not automatically boot to the ubuntu live cd, go into your BIOS at startup of your computer (which varies depending on the computer/motherboard, but usually it's either the Delete key, or F1 at boot, and change your drive boot order to boot from cdrom first)
1a. Just boot into Ubuntu. It wont hurt ya! And heck you might like it! It doesn't mess with any files on the system unless you intentionally do so.
2.put sdcard in computer
3.go to System > Administration > Disc Utility
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4.
Select your sd card from the "Storage Devices" list on the left.
Select your sdcard volume
Click "Unmount Volume"
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5.
Select the volume again and select Delete Partition
***IF YOU HAVE NOT BACKED UP YOUR STUFF YOU WILL NOW LOSE IT!!!! BACK UP YOUR STUFF!!!***
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6.
Now you have a fully wiped SD Card. Congrats, not good for much at the moment
Ok, so now the magic happens. Select Create Partition
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7.
I put 512 just cause I was messing around but for a swap, I would do between 40 and 80mb. You don't have to name it, just make sure you select Swap Space from the partition type, and the size you want. Click Create. *DO NOT SELECT Encrypt underlying device. It WILL NOT WORK!* If you do that, your phone wont read it and well.. Then that would be just pointless now wouldn't it?
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8.
Notice it looks like a pie or a chart? See it's not hard at all now is it? It's pretty simple from here.
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9.
Select the "Free" partition space, and then select "Create Partition" again.
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10.
Uncheck "Take ownership of filesystem" because if you do, you probably won't have "Ownership" of the partition when you put it in your phone which would probably turn out to be a bad thing. Select type "Ext3" and select create.
You can do Ext2 or Ext4, but I have heard issues about Ext4 partitions, and Ext2 is kinda old ya know? I mean you can do it if you want, but I dunno what to say if it don't work (you can always repartition though)
As far as space, that's up to you. If you think you just need a tad of space available for downloading games and stuff, go with 40 to 100mb, but if your like me and want EVERYTHING (BUHAHAHHA!) Go with between 250 and 512mb. Keep in mind that when you activate a2sd, you may also want to copy over dalvik cache which will take up a fair amount of space. btw, I never was able to get close to 200mb taken up on this partition when I had a2sd running on my phone..
11.
Select the "Free Space" again from the Volume chart, and click create partition.
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12.
Now we are going to finish this off! For the Size, leave it be! It's the remainder of the drive, which is how much space is left after we have made the previous two partitions. Select the type as "Fat"(yes it is fat32, I don't think the disk utility handles old fat16 anymore..) and select create.
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13.
DONE! Now you have a happy sdcard ready to take on your Dalvik Cache, any programs you download AFTER setting up the card, flashing your rom, and or your swap if you activate it (different roms take different approaches to this but many activate A2SD automatically. Something else of note. 2.2/Froyo roms have built in A2SD-Like functionality that uses the fat32 partition, so the Ext partition is not needed).
Select "Safe Removal" and take out your sdcard and put it into your phone. Your now ready for takeoff
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***See your ROM's thread for details on how to activate swap, and move Dalvik cache to the sdcard after this is finished or if it activates automatically.***
14. If your reading this last line, your probably scratching your head thinking to yourself "How the hell do I get out of Ubuntu and back into my Windows system?!". It's simple. Click the Power Icon in the top right corner of the screen, and select "Shutdown" from the list. After it shuts down so far, it should spit the cd out. Take the disc out of the try, and press enter, and it will reboot the system, and you will wake back up in microsoft land and you can forget this ever happened
Nice guide Really good to have
is there a guide for those of us not affraid of using recovery somewhere?
Thanks for this! Also helps that i use Ubuntu anyways
xjayman said:
is there a guide for those of us not affraid of using recovery somewhere?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
(Copied and Pasted from: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=7021325&postcount=2)
A. backup your sd card to your computer. can't stress this enough, as partitioning will wipe the entire card.
B. Reboot into recovery
c. In android system recovery, select partition sdcard
d. In the partition sdcard menu, select partition sd
e. Follow the instructions on the phone to partition your sd card. You can optionally set a swap file while you are partitioning your sd card.
F. In the partition sdcard menu, select sd:ext2 to ext3. Follow the instructions on the screen.
G **skip**
h. Press the back button on the phone to go back to the main menu.
I. Put the a2sd file on the sd card (and all your other files you backed up earlier) by selecting usb-ms toggle and transfer the files to your computer.
3. In recovery, select flash zip from sdcard.
4. In flash zip from sdcard, select the a2sd package file you downloaded earlier. Press home to flash.
5. Reboot phone.
This actually seems a lot less scary then using a Live-CD! To each there own.
JusticeAA said:
(Copied and Pasted from: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=7021325&postcount=2)
A. backup your sd card to your computer. can't stress this enough, as partitioning will wipe the entire card.
B. Reboot into recovery
c. In android system recovery, select partition sdcard
d. In the partition sdcard menu, select partition sd
e. Follow the instructions on the phone to partition your sd card. You can optionally set a swap file while you are partitioning your sd card.
F. In the partition sdcard menu, select sd:ext2 to ext3. Follow the instructions on the screen.
G **skip**
h. Press the back button on the phone to go back to the main menu.
I. Put the a2sd file on the sd card (and all your other files you backed up earlier) by selecting usb-ms toggle and transfer the files to your computer.
3. In recovery, select flash zip from sdcard.
4. In flash zip from sdcard, select the a2sd package file you downloaded earlier. Press home to flash.
5. Reboot phone.
This actually seems a lot less scary then using a Live-CD! To each there own.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank you !
Thank you so much for this!
I used Superoneclick to root, so I didn't have the same partition options needed to create the extensions as noted in the other instructions in the recovery methods.
Appreciate it!
So I did the A2SD and have used it successfully for awhile now, I recently got a new card that is larger/faster and have already set it up for A2SD as well. Is there an easy way to transfer the apps from my first card to my new one without using linux? I did my partitioning in recovery.
indiscriminant said:
So I did the A2SD and have used it successfully for awhile now, I recently got a new card that is larger/faster and have already set it up for A2SD as well. Is there an easy way to transfer the apps from my first card to my new one without using linux? I did my partitioning in recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually no. The only way you can do that in windows is by using linux explorer or some other compatibility program to use windows to see ext partitions...
Thanks, I will just redownload everything later then using App Brain.
OK, I completed all steps but when I put the card in the phone or in Windows, it shows up as RAW and says I have to reformat.
I did everything twice just to make sure I did it correctly, but no go.
Any ideas?
Thanks!
neemypeemy said:
OK, I completed all steps but when I put the card in the phone or in Windows, it shows up as RAW and says I have to reformat.
I did everything twice just to make sure I did it correctly, but no go.
Any ideas?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In windows, because of the ext partition it wont see those, however instead it would just ignore the ext partitions and just load the fat partitions....
You can reformat the remaining fat space in windows if you would like. It won't hurt the ext3 partition, but it shouldn't come up with any errors... Go ahead and reformat the fat partition in windows, and then see if the phone sees it (and make sure it's to the size you wanted).
When I try to reformat it only will let me reformat the swap file.
Here's a screen shot.
I've done the ubuntu steps twice, so not sure what I'm doing wrong, it's pretty straight forward.
First was formatted as swap, second ast the EXT3, third as FAT in Ubuntu.
neemypeemy said:
When I try to reformat it only will let me reformat the swap file.
Here's a screen shot.
I've done the ubuntu steps twice, so not sure what I'm doing wrong, it's pretty straight forward.
First was formatted as swap, second ast the EXT3, third as FAT in Ubuntu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is quite odd indeed.... Just to ask (and really JUST to ask) which version of windows are you using there? I know it had no bearing on it though... Which also is strange that it shows the rest of the partitions the way they are.. All but the last one should be shown as an "Unknown Partition". Did you use a Virtual Machine to do it? Could be the reason but I am not for sure...
Windows 7 64bit
I will give it another go!
Hi All,
I got errors mentioned in the title and after few searches, found that there are few Galaxy SL owners who had got into this issue.
Currently Known Root Cause:
A hardware issue possibly due to a board issue or loose attachment of internal SD card to the motherboard (Grrrrrrr SAMSUNG!)
Symptoms:
- Suddenly core applications like phone/messaging start force closing (sometimes all open apps). Only a reboot will solve the issue.
- Sudden reboot of the phone after few hours of running (or even sleeping)
- Sometimes the restart itself hanging with a yellow message "Unknown Upload Mode"
- Message in status bar "Internal SD card has been removed unexpectedly" or "Internal SD card not accessible" or something like "Damaged SD card"
Known Solution:
1. Replacement of board from Samsung Service Center (Good for you if you are within the warranty period)
2. Do some hardware hack to remove the internal SD completely (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1651619)
I got this issue just after I finished my warranty period, and hence, I was trying to find if I can do something about this issue by my own. What I wanted was to actually swap my internal SD storage with a proper external SD storage. This is not same as the popular "swapping the internal and external SD card" topic, but that and something more as well!! This will solve the issue of force closes and sudden reboots (may still not solve issue of reboot getting stuck, but I assume phone will not need frequent reboot after solving first 2 issues!)
Galaxy SL has 3 partitions created in the card:
1. ext3 partition for data
2. another small FAT partition - (for what? not sure)
3. Third FAT partition which acts as the normal internal SD card (which is accessible when working as USB mass storage)
Intention here is to move all the partitions to the external SD. Looking at the mount points and vold.fstab, I could not find where the 2nd partition in the above list is mounted/used (If anyone knows, please let me know). So I decided to move atleast the ext3 (data) and fat (/sdcard) to the external SD.
Following are the steps I followed for doing the same:
WARNING!!!
1. Copy these at your own risk. I am not responsible if you brick your phone or lose your data/applications/settings or if the phone goes to a boot loop!
2. Do not continue if you do not understand what is written here
3. Doing this will change the /data partition. So wiping data partition in the normal way will not work (say from CWM). You may need to do 2 steps - wipe (internal) data normally (say using CWM), wipe (external SD) data manually by disabling the script mentioned in the procedure and wiping using make_ext4fs tool (steps are given in PART 3 of this post).
4. This has been tested only on CM9 Alpha 6-11 / rooted DDLF2. Theoretically it may or may not work on other ROMs, depending on other tweaks and changes in the system, no guaranty offered!
5. In case you mess it up, most of the time (but no guarantees!), you can recover by flashing from beginning using ODIN some base versions like KPE and then come to your normal ROM, followed by a nandroid recovery (so better do a nandroid backup before you try anything .
Pre-requisites:
- Rooted Phone
- Kernel with init.d support (and preferably ext4 as well if you want that)
- Basic ADB knowledge
- A blank micro SD card with at least class 4 (class 6 or greater preferred) speed and with sufficient capacity - say 8/16/32 GB
PART 1 - PREPARING THE EXTERNAL SD
--------------------------------------------------------------------
0. !!! FIRST !!!
Do a Nandroid Backup (and also other app level backups like Titanium or MyBackup)
Backup contents of your FAT partition (mmcblk0p1) - ie, the internal SD card card
Backup contents of your external SD card
1. Download sdparted-recovery.zip from web (http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/6433-solved-messed-up-partitions-on-internal-storage - check messages like 11 to see the basic usage) and extract the contents
2. Using ADB, copy the extracted files in sdparted directory into /system/bin, change permission for all of them to 755 using chmod
3. Put a clean external SD card into the phone
4. In an ADB shell, run /system/bin/parted giving mmcblk1 as the target. Now resize the existing FAT partition (this is the first and default partition in the card). Tips:
print gives the existing partition(s)
help gives help on various options
for resizing and creating partitions, inputs should be derived from the initial print output (which gave the first and last points)
Eg: If card is 16GB, and you want to reserve 4GB for data, then resize the first partition to 12GB
5. Create a new partition of type ext2 with remaining size (say 4G in our case). Save and quit parted.
7. (Do this only if your kernel supports ext3/ext4) Run "tune2fs -j /dev/block/mmcblk1p2" to convert ext2 to ext3
8. (Do this only if your kernel supports ext4) Using ADB, copy "make_ext4fs" (attached) to /system/bin
9. (Do this only if your kernel supports ext4) Convert ext3 partition to ext4 using make_ext4fs ("make_ext4fs /dev/block/mmcblk1p2")
10. Now the partitions are ready
- They will be visible as mmcblk1p1 (FAT) and mmcblk1p2 (ext4) when you cat the /proc/partitions
- They will be visible as partitions 1(FAT) and 2 (ext4) in the print output of parted.
Confirm the above before proceeding further.
PART 2 - SWAPPING EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL SD
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Write a script, say 00remnt similar to the attached sample file which currently I am using (If you do not follow the script, better don't proceed. Else check if things are fine for your current base ROM settings)
2. Push this into /etc/init.d/ using ADB
3. Change permissions of the file to 755
4. If you need, copy the contents of your internal SD card FAT partition (/sdcard) to the external SD card FAT partition (/sdcard/external_sd or /emmc)
5. Use the popular (relevant methods) to swap the internal and external FAT partitions (which actually changes the vold.fstab contents). Normal search in the forum will give you the available methods - some ROMs support it as options, others have mods which will accomplish the same
5. Reboot and enjoy
Voila!!! Now the system is not using internal SD card (for most purposes) at all!! And your phone can now run for days without abrupt force closes and reboot. You still may get a message like SD card is removed/damaged, (and /emmc or /sdcard/exteranal_sd may become inaccessible - so better use it only as a temporary storage!). But you can safely ignore these messages as that is the internal SD card which we are not using anyway... Enjoy...
PART 3 - WIPING DATA PARTITION (in case you need this step later)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Change permission of the 00remnt to 644
2. Reboot the phone (now the phone will come up with default internal SD partition for data)
3. From ADB shell, execute "make_ext4fs /dev/block/mmcblk1p2" (see PART 1 on how to get this tool)
4. Change permission of the 00remnt to 755
5. Reboot the phone to recovery, wipe the /data as normal
rgds,
Dipu.
PS: If any one knows how our phone uses the 2nd partition in the internal SD card, please let me know... I am assuming that it is not used for any critical purposes (as my phone ran successfully for few days without any issue). May be it is used in some kernel/ROM, if so, please let me know.
Though i didn't understand a word(being an internee dentist) it will be useful to others.appreciate your efforts!!
Sent from my GT-I9003 using xda app-developers app
This is what i call a complete and useful guide.
This should become a sticky.. now... NOW!
+1 for sticky, superb info.
that would be a really nice sticky
i had the motherboard changed..
Thanks Dipu K for your efforts.
I've tried this solution in my I9003, and I have only a problem: When reboot the phone, /data is copied into de Ext4 partition on SD card, but all aplications have errors because isn´t possible to unmount /data,
Here is the messaje in remnt-log (only a few lines):
Code:
...
3. Make Directory --->
4. Mount new data partition from external SD --->
5. Copy the current files in /data
6. Remove current files in /data
7. Unmount /data
umount: can't umount /data: Device or resource busy
8. Remove dir /data as a safety measure
9. Linking external sd data partition as /data
10. Final Mount status --->
...
What can I do to correct this?
Thanks
bfsa said:
...
What can I do to correct this?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Finally, I've changed a line on 00remnt, and seems to work properly: busybox umount -l /data 2>> /system/remnt-log
Where can I get make_ext4fs? Sadly the same case has happened to me...
Hi Guys.
I am using alpha 4 from last one month and experience was awesome but from last 1 week I am getting lot of FC for lot of services like exchange service gapps what's up camera and lot more. I am not sure why FC issue started happening from last one week.
History :
I was using CM 10 alpha 1 then alpha 2 then alpha 3 and now on alpha 4.
I really fed up with Force close issue from last one week . I tried reboot but still 80% of apps and services getting FC. Please guide me on this .
Sent from my GT-I9003 using xda app-developers app
Sent from my GT-I9003 using xda app-developers app
hi all, i have a galaxy i9003 with a corrupted or completely dead (not sure) internal memory chip. I have come to this conclusion after 3 days of trying to install custom and stock roms. I can access recovery and download mode but i cant install any ROM, the phone keeps rebooting after the SAMSUNG (whole screen black except SAMSUNG in the middle). All i have is atm this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1351056 installed on my phone via ODIN. I dont have knowledge about ADB, can somebody help me out with instructions more?
Pre-requisites:
- Rooted Phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is there a solution without a rooted phone or can I root it somehow, even if the there is a hardware defect? I got an error with /dev/block/mmcblk1p that rfs can't be written.
I have a problem. My friend gave me an i9003. Wipe is not working at all, even from Recovery. I connect the phone to PC and use the internal card, no matter what I do, changes don't apply. I copy/paste/delete/format/even odin flash, no good. Everything comes back as before reboot. What is it related to?
I used to have an i9000, but nothing applies to i9003. I flashed i9000 1000 times and at last got a mmcblk02 error, fixed it with external sd swap. I'm thinking of swapping emmc with sd on this one too, but cant install a rom from CWM, I can install CWM from ODIN though and can flash CFROOT too, but in CWM internal storage can't be mounted... Motherboard problem?
I will try to use this guide and report back soon...
allxx said:
I have a problem. My friend gave me an i9003. Wipe is not working at all, even from Recovery. I connect the phone to PC and use the internal card, no matter what I do, changes don't apply. I copy/paste/delete/format/even odin flash, no good. Everything comes back as before reboot. What is it related to?
I used to have an i9000, but nothing applies to i9003. I flashed i9000 1000 times and at last got a mmcblk02 error, fixed it with external sd swap. I'm thinking of swapping emmc with sd on this one too, but cant install a rom from CWM, I can install CWM from ODIN though and can flash CFROOT too, but in CWM internal storage can't be mounted... Motherboard problem?
I will try to use this guide and report back soon...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please do send us a report, I'd appreciate it very much. Have to deal with a similar situation as well for an old i9003. I've tried to employ the steps mentioned here but could not get it to work as well.
Hi everybody!
Had to remove the internal SD to install everything on the external one by following the mentioned post. Nothing else worked.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1651619
can anyone here recomended me custom rom that already with swap sdcard?
Dipu K said:
Hi All,
I got errors mentioned in the title and after few searches, found that there are few Galaxy SL owners who had got into this issue.
Currently Known Root Cause:
A hardware issue possibly due to a board issue or loose attachment of internal SD card to the motherboard (Grrrrrrr SAMSUNG!)
Symptoms:
- Suddenly core applications like phone/messaging start force closing (sometimes all open apps). Only a reboot will solve the issue.
- Sudden reboot of the phone after few hours of running (or even sleeping)
- Sometimes the restart itself hanging with a yellow message "Unknown Upload Mode"
- Message in status bar "Internal SD card has been removed unexpectedly" or "Internal SD card not accessible" or something like "Damaged SD card"
Known Solution:
1. Replacement of board from Samsung Service Center (Good for you if you are within the warranty period)
2. Do some hardware hack to remove the internal SD completely (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1651619)
I got this issue just after I finished my warranty period, and hence, I was trying to find if I can do something about this issue by my own. What I wanted was to actually swap my internal SD storage with a proper external SD storage. This is not same as the popular "swapping the internal and external SD card" topic, but that and something more as well!! This will solve the issue of force closes and sudden reboots (may still not solve issue of reboot getting stuck, but I assume phone will not need frequent reboot after solving first 2 issues!)
Galaxy SL has 3 partitions created in the card:
1. ext3 partition for data
2. another small FAT partition - (for what? not sure)
3. Third FAT partition which acts as the normal internal SD card (which is accessible when working as USB mass storage)
Intention here is to move all the partitions to the external SD. Looking at the mount points and vold.fstab, I could not find where the 2nd partition in the above list is mounted/used (If anyone knows, please let me know). So I decided to move atleast the ext3 (data) and fat (/sdcard) to the external SD.
Following are the steps I followed for doing the same:
WARNING!!!
1. Copy these at your own risk. I am not responsible if you brick your phone or lose your data/applications/settings or if the phone goes to a boot loop!
2. Do not continue if you do not understand what is written here
3. Doing this will change the /data partition. So wiping data partition in the normal way will not work (say from CWM). You may need to do 2 steps - wipe (internal) data normally (say using CWM), wipe (external SD) data manually by disabling the script mentioned in the procedure and wiping using make_ext4fs tool (steps are given in PART 3 of this post).
4. This has been tested only on CM9 Alpha 6-11 / rooted DDLF2. Theoretically it may or may not work on other ROMs, depending on other tweaks and changes in the system, no guaranty offered!
5. In case you mess it up, most of the time (but no guarantees!), you can recover by flashing from beginning using ODIN some base versions like KPE and then come to your normal ROM, followed by a nandroid recovery (so better do a nandroid backup before you try anything .
Pre-requisites:
- Rooted Phone
- Kernel with init.d support (and preferably ext4 as well if you want that)
- Basic ADB knowledge
- A blank micro SD card with at least class 4 (class 6 or greater preferred) speed and with sufficient capacity - say 8/16/32 GB
PART 1 - PREPARING THE EXTERNAL SD
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0. !!! FIRST !!!
Do a Nandroid Backup (and also other app level backups like Titanium or MyBackup)
Backup contents of your FAT partition (mmcblk0p1) - ie, the internal SD card card
Backup contents of your external SD card
1. Download sdparted-recovery.zip from web (http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/6433-solved-messed-up-partitions-on-internal-storage - check messages like 11 to see the basic usage) and extract the contents
2. Using ADB, copy the extracted files in sdparted directory into /system/bin, change permission for all of them to 755 using chmod
3. Put a clean external SD card into the phone
4. In an ADB shell, run /system/bin/parted giving mmcblk1 as the target. Now resize the existing FAT partition (this is the first and default partition in the card). Tips:
print gives the existing partition(s)
help gives help on various options
for resizing and creating partitions, inputs should be derived from the initial print output (which gave the first and last points)
Eg: If card is 16GB, and you want to reserve 4GB for data, then resize the first partition to 12GB
5. Create a new partition of type ext2 with remaining size (say 4G in our case). Save and quit parted.
7. (Do this only if your kernel supports ext3/ext4) Run "tune2fs -j /dev/block/mmcblk1p2" to convert ext2 to ext3
8. (Do this only if your kernel supports ext4) Using ADB, copy "make_ext4fs" (attached) to /system/bin
9. (Do this only if your kernel supports ext4) Convert ext3 partition to ext4 using make_ext4fs ("make_ext4fs /dev/block/mmcblk1p2")
10. Now the partitions are ready
- They will be visible as mmcblk1p1 (FAT) and mmcblk1p2 (ext4) when you cat the /proc/partitions
- They will be visible as partitions 1(FAT) and 2 (ext4) in the print output of parted.
Confirm the above before proceeding further.
PART 2 - SWAPPING EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL SD
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1. Write a script, say 00remnt similar to the attached sample file which currently I am using (If you do not follow the script, better don't proceed. Else check if things are fine for your current base ROM settings)
2. Push this into /etc/init.d/ using ADB
3. Change permissions of the file to 755
4. If you need, copy the contents of your internal SD card FAT partition (/sdcard) to the external SD card FAT partition (/sdcard/external_sd or /emmc)
5. Use the popular (relevant methods) to swap the internal and external FAT partitions (which actually changes the vold.fstab contents). Normal search in the forum will give you the available methods - some ROMs support it as options, others have mods which will accomplish the same
5. Reboot and enjoy
Voila!!! Now the system is not using internal SD card (for most purposes) at all!! And your phone can now run for days without abrupt force closes and reboot. You still may get a message like SD card is removed/damaged, (and /emmc or /sdcard/exteranal_sd may become inaccessible - so better use it only as a temporary storage!). But you can safely ignore these messages as that is the internal SD card which we are not using anyway... Enjoy...
PART 3 - WIPING DATA PARTITION (in case you need this step later)
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1. Change permission of the 00remnt to 644
2. Reboot the phone (now the phone will come up with default internal SD partition for data)
3. From ADB shell, execute "make_ext4fs /dev/block/mmcblk1p2" (see PART 1 on how to get this tool)
4. Change permission of the 00remnt to 755
5. Reboot the phone to recovery, wipe the /data as normal
rgds,
Dipu.
PS: If any one knows how our phone uses the 2nd partition in the internal SD card, please let me know... I am assuming that it is not used for any critical purposes (as my phone ran successfully for few days without any issue). May be it is used in some kernel/ROM, if so, please let me know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Somebody's Samsung Galaxy SL i9003 had wiped the internal SD card by itself! Is this even possible that it just wipes/formats on it's own? Is there any advice? The contacts appear to still be there.
At the suggestion of several users, I am forking the previous thread. I am planning on supporting several ROMs and this is the best course to keep everything organized and provide support.
What is this?
Background:
The speed of the flash memory in the Transformer line of tablets is very poor. This is very apparent when installing or updating applications from the Play Store, copying files over USB, or using an app that caches lots of data like a web browser. The tablet will hiccup and stutter due to the I/O bottleneck. Running Androbench shows random write speeds averaging less than .2MB/sec.
The workaround:
Utilizing a fast, class 10 microSD card, we can move the /data partition to something significantly faster. The /data partition is where apps are installed to and where they store their configuration information and data. By redirecting /data to these fast microSD cards, we eliminate this bottleneck from our devices. With a properly fast card, users have reported a complete elimination of I/O related hiccups and system freezes. I have based my enhancements on the initial work by TweakerL on the Transformer Prime. Credit to fordwolden to porting his work to the Infinity.
The enhancements:
Previous implementations of this mod had the internal data partition mounted to /data2, with the media subfolder (your internal user storage) only available via root apps. There were symlinks set up at /sdcardi, etc, but these still required root permission to access. This is due to permissions on the /data partition and applies to both /data and /data2. Google gets around this by creating a "virtual" sdcard that points to /data/media. I have created a second "virtual" sdcard that points to /data2/media. This mod creates the scenario below:
/data = ext4 partition on microSD (fast)
/data2 = ext4 partition on internal storage (slow)
New changes:
/data/media -> Virtual SD Card Daemon -> /storage/sdcard0
/data2/media -> Virtual SD Card Daemon -> /storage/sdcardi
/sdcardi -> Symlink -> /storage/sdcardi
/mnt/sdcardi -> Symlink -> /storage/sdcardi
/storage/sdcardi is the virtual SD card for the internal storage. You should see all the files you had saved to this space before using data2sd. These files should be accessibly by any standard non-root Android app.
Note to kernel developers: This mod is more than just changes to the kernel. In order for the internal storage to be properly mounted at /storage/sdcardi, I have modded the Virtual SD Card Daemon that comes with Android. The stock binary is /system/bin/sdcard. I made a copy, modified it using a hex editor, called it /system/bin/sdcardi, and included it in my flashable zips. If you wish to make a data2sd version of your kernel, you must include this file in your zip. Additionally, be sure to add the "service sdcardi" line to your init.cardhu.rc that I have in mine.
Installation
Requirements
1) Class 10 microSD, at least 8gb
2) A computer with card reader
3) Partitioning software. Recommended: gparted LiveCD
Instructions
1) Decide how big you want to make the ext4 partition for /data. Remember, this is going to be the space for installing applications AND the /sdcard space that games will use the cache their extra data. Kindle books, Dropbox files, pics from the camera WILL ALL GO HERE. Personally, I decided to make the ext4 partition the whole 64gb of my card.
The ext4 partition has to be partition #2 on the microSD card. Why? This is to give people with large cards the option of creating a FAT32 or NTFS area as partition #1. This allows the card to be read by a Windows or Mac computer using a card reader. I use my tablet as my card reader with the USB cable, so I wasn't worried about this. I used gparted to create a small 8mb unformatted partition as partition #1, then a second 64gb partition to fill the rest of the card. I formatted this second partition in ext4.
2) Format your microSD card - Download Gparted Live CD (http://goo.gl/dJQAu) and use Imgburn (http://goo.gl/33MY9) to write to disc. Boot to Gparted using your CD after setting the CD as the primary boot device in your BIOS. Once in Gparted, create the 2 partitions described above, the first partition is Fat32, the second partition is ext4 or ext2. Set both partitions to type: Primary.
3) Insert microSD into tablet and flash any data2sd kernel for your ROM. (Note: Flashing any ROM will overwrite your data2sd kernel. You will have to re-flash the data2sd kernel if you change ROM or even upgrade your current one) After booting back into Android, you should be greeted with the Setup Wizard. Remember, this is a fresh /data partition, so it's a clean slate. It's a good idea to take a TitaniumBackup** ahead of time. I am experimenting with ways to make the transition more painless.
**Note about taking a TitaniumBackup before switching to data2sd. After the conversion, your internal storage will be mounted to /sdcardi. By default, TitaniumBackup looks for previous backups in /sdcard not in /sdcardi. You have two choices. Copy the TitaniumBackup folder from /sdcardi to /sdcard and restart the app, or change the backup location to /sdcardi/TitaniumBackup in the app preferences. Either of these options should work fine.
Optional: Verify data2sd is working. Pick any method you like:
a) Open a file explorer such as Root Explorer, ES, etc. You should see /sdcard and /sdcardi and be able to browse the files within. /sdcard is your ext4 partion on the microSD while /sdcardi is the internal storage. You should able to copy data between them.
b) Download "Androbench" app from the market and run "micro" sdcard check, if you see 0.4mb/sec or more in random write you're on data2sd.
c) Power off your device, remove your microSD card, then power back on your device. You should received an error message "Encryption unsuccessful". Insert microSD and reboot to fix.
Uninstallation
Don't like data2sd? Just flash a non-data2sd kernel using recovery and when you boot back into Android your /data will be on the internal storage. This could also be accomplished by flashing your ROM on top of itself without wiping.
Troubleshooting
1) Grab the mount-data2sd.zip from the second post.
2) Boot into TWRP and flash the mount-data2sd.zip. This will mount the microSD as /data in recovery. It will allow us to wipe it, format, etc using recovery.
3) Wipe "Internal Storage". This will erase the entire ext4 partition on your microSD.
4) Flash ROM
5) Flash data2sd kernel for ROM
*CAUTION*: If you don't flash mount-data2sd.zip before your wipe, you will be wiping your internal memory.
Download data2SD kernels
These are flashable zips. It will disable journaling on the microSD ext4 partition. You do not have to do this manually! Flash these after flashing the ROM.
CyanogenMOD 10.1 - beta2: http://d-h.st/rOe (Based on 4-2 nightly and may behave unexpectedly on other builds)
CleanROM 3.2.2: http://d-h.st/sCa - WORKS WITH CleanROM 3.3!
clemsynTFUniversalCyano650GPUFsyncver3: http://d-h.st/duw
ClemsynTFUniversalStock: http://d-h.st/IBm
clemsynTFUniversal650GPUver7 (Stock/CleanROM): http://d-h.st/S4k
Recovery
I made a flashable zip to help the recovery console understand our modification. By default, if you go into recovery and do a factory reset, it is formatting the /data partition on the internal storage. The issue same applies to nandroids. We may be using the second partition of our microSD card for /data, but the recovery does not know this. It will look to the internal /data partition during backup and restores.
This zip does not make any modifications to your tablet or copy any files. It simply updates your recovery mount points. The changes are temporary and are lost during the next reboot. You will need to flash it each time you boot into recovery.
After flashing this zip you will be able to:
1) Wipe data / Factory reset. The /data partition on the microSD will be wiped
2) Backup and restore nandroids. The /data partition on the microSD will be backed up or restored.
3) Choose "Flash zip from internal sdcard" and browse the files on the internal storage
4) Access and flash zips from the microSD storage. Choose "Flash zip from internal sdcard" and notice the !microSD folder at the top. This is a symlink that will kick you over to the microSD storage. This !microSD folder appears on your internal storage after you flash this zip for the first time. It remains unless you delete it. Even so, next time you enter recovery this !microSD symlink will not go anywhere until you flash this zip.
Please report your experience with this.
http://d-h.st/pPe
This one too.
So this is basically flashable on CleanRom 2.3 right? Only thing wrong is that it doesn't show up in windows over USB? I can live with that as long as apps can read it in the Android OS itself.
can I use flash this on cleanrom 2.3 to diasable journalling on my ext4 partition
Diogenes5 said:
So this is basically flashable on CleanRom 2.3 right? Only thing wrong is that it doesn't show up in windows over USB? I can live with that as long as apps can read it in the Android OS itself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope. This has changes to framework-res.apk which is ROM specific. I will post a CleanROM 2.3 version in a few minutes for you guys.
Thanks - Appreciate your hard work
---------- Post added at 08:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:37 PM ----------
wow that was fast-thanks
---------- Post added at 08:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:46 PM ----------
i was getting 6000 with clemsyn -I got low 5000's with this new mod
clownberg said:
i was getting 6000 with clemsyn -I got low 5000's with this new mod
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is not clemsyn's kernel, this is the stock CleanROM 2.3 kernel. I will mod clemsyn's latest kernel and post it for you.
Mistar Muffin said:
This is not clemsyn's kernel, this is the stock CleanROM 2.3 kernel. I will mod clemsyn's latest kernel and post it for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unable to have it work with cleanrom. Boot loop
titou00075 said:
Unable to have it work with cleanrom. Boot loop
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use recovery to wipe the /cache partition. Due to the changes in framework-res.apk this may be necessary if you aren't coming from a completely clean install of a ROM.
I just booted to recovery and wiped my microSD /data partition. I also wiped /cache and /system. I installed CleanROM 2.3 and in the same recovery session I flashed the clemsynTF700ver22GPU650VC-data2sd kernel and it booted right up.
May be a stupid question but do you still need TWO primary partitions on the SD card (i.e., first is FAT32 while second is Ext4 and used by the mod)? If this isn't necessary or not possible, should the recovery (i.e., installation) files be placed in internal storage?
Forgot to mention I'm using Windows 7 MTP and CleanROM 2.3
Mistar Muffin said:
Use recovery to wipe the /cache partition. Due to the changes in framework-res.apk this may be necessary if you aren't coming from a completely clean install of a ROM.
I just booted to recovery and wiped my microSD /data partition. I also wiped /cache and /system. I installed CleanROM 2.3 and in the same recovery session I flashed the clemsynTF700ver22GPU650VC-data2sd kernel and it booted right up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok thanks. Will do:thumbup:
Your Awesome, Thank you!
cheers
Thanks Gonna try this.
done the work install all three files in the OP, however it is taking a long time to boot....Can someone give me an idea as to how long this normally take onn first bootup after a fresh install?
please advise
tyfoxx
Couldyou make one for blackbean? i tried thecm 1029,but it doesnt boot. Would greatly appreciate it.
Sweet
I just ran every shortcut I could think of:
I used Mini partition tool to reduce reduce my 32 gig fat down to 16 gigs & then created a 16 gig ext4 partition.
Wiped everything in twrp and re flashed Clean 2.3 then the new zip.
All I can say is WOW.
Restored everything. Works great no more stalls and stable so far. Hope it stays this way. Now to focus on battery life.
Sent from my HTC Ruby using xda app-developers app
Diogenes5 said:
Restored everything. Works great no more stalls and stable so far. Hope it stays this way. Now to focus on battery life.
Sent from my HTC Ruby using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad it's working! I've prepared a little treat for everyone to make our recovery lives a little easier. Need to test a few more things before I post!
I'm running CleanROM 2.3 and ClemsynTF700ver22GPU650VC (awesome combo, btw). If I want to use this MOD, should I need to flash first CleanROM-2.3-data2sd.zip and later ClemsynTF700ver22GPU650VC-data2sd.zip, right? Of course, also, formating my microSD using ext4.
Awesome work here Mistar!!!! Thank you so very much for this!!! Gonna replace my SanDisk 32gb Class 4 card with a SanDisk 64gb Class 10 before I run this on CleanRom. I'm super excited about this mod!!!!!! Thanks a million!!!!!!
Sent from my EVO 4G LTE using xda premium
Hi There
Can someone explain what he\she did to partition SD card, and make all apps get installed on it.
Please note :
1. I don't want to use Titanium backup for this usage. I don't have the paid version and I'm tired of doing this one app at a time.
2. I saw some guides on the net, but they were all for GB.
(partition the microSD on PC using minitool) -can we use ext4 on our MTD ROMs ? What is the 1st partition for ? and the 2nd ?
(install busybox and super user) - Is it still needed ? (MIUI for example has LBE as su).
(install Link2SD) - Is it always in memory ?
(reboot and put partitioned SD card)
(Define Link2SD)
3. I also saw swapper instructions but I can manage with 170MB free RAM memory I get after removing all unnecessary system apps, and I remember ppl saying then that it kills the SDCard very quickly.
If someone has a clear guide or instructions that he knows work, that will be nice.
Thanks in advance.
Step 1. Partition your SD card to have a sd-ext partition. This can definitely be ext2 or FAT16. Anything else depends on your kernel. Most of them do support ext3 and 4, but... start with something fairly basic.
Regarding recoveries:
TWRP has always failed for me on this, so I'd avoid that.
This may be doable in CWM. I've seen reference to that newer versions of CWM removed the partition option, so you might need to flash an ICS ROM with an older kernel, repartition, and then flash back to the one you want.
Also note that if you use CWM to repartition, your SD-card will be wiped. So do a backup first.
Step 2. Install Mounts2SD. Either from XDA or the Play Store. Even if you do take it from the Play Store to get update notifications, I highly suggest grabbing the recovery script from the XDA thread so that you can get back your shifted applications without needing to re-download and install M2SD, since it likes to be on internal which means... shifted off.
Step 3. Open Mounts2SD. Grant SU rights at whatever point it asks for it during step 3. Hit the menu button. Go to Application Settings. Install the Startup Script. Tell it to use the built-in busybox as well, so that you don't need to install anything or worry about it failing. Back out of the Application Settings.
Step 4. Press on the Wrench to go into the actual specific settings. I currently have forced Cache, 1% Storage Threshold, Applications are the only bit moved, the File System Check is on and using the Ext4 Driver, 128KB Deadline for Internal and 4096 with Deadline for External, and Safe Mode is disabled. But decide on what you want yourself, set it, go back to the Eye to see your current info.
Step 5. Reboot.
Step 6. Wait 1-30 minutes for it to finish moving all your stuff around.
Step 7. Unlock your phone, open Mounts2SD, and make sure everything looks pretty on that first 'Eye' info tab. If you like it then close Mounts2SD and keep going on your merry way. If you don't like it or you've done something like offload your data and now your phone is wretchedly slow, go to the Wrench, change your settings, go back to the Eye, and reboot again. Repeat until satisfied.
I thought it would be simplier.
A few more questions:
1. If I partition SD on PC, then I don't need any partitioning on recovery so it should work fine even on TWRP or advanced CWMs. Am I right?
2. Why do I need scripts for? Isn't the app enough?
3. Why should/could it possibly slow down my device? TB 'move to SD' for all doesn't slow my device what so ever.
4. How and where do I see what partition is used for what?
5. How much RAM does the app take?
6. Have you tried other apps link2sd or something CM has built in I think.?
Thanks.
sent from me
New answers to new questions.
1. Skip step 1 if you've done it on your PC. I just suggested recovery as that's easy... if you've made your sd-ext partition on the PC, step 1 is done.
2. No clue on Link2SD. I use Mounts2SD instead since it lets me set things. It probably does the same thing though and sets a init.d script that gets run during startup.
3. True. For some reason though having all your data moved to sd-ext makes our phone go to a crawl. Same if you move off the dalvik.
4. That's in Mounts2SD. No clue how you can see if you're using Link2SD.
5. For Mounts2SD, none while it's being used, since it just runs as a startup script. The app is just to control the script.
6. Not successfully. I had tried 5 or 6 different apps back a year ago or so when I first started playing with sd-ext and Mounts2SD was the best and free, so... never looked back after that. Now you can also do some system-flag tweaking if you want to donate, but the sd-ext stuff is all free.
I was able to successfully partition SD and use mount2sd on 4.3 SlimBean.
however, it was rather slow.
CM 10.1 and CM10.2 by DJL. did not allow me to partition nor did they recognize SlimBean's partition even if I replaced them kernel (to NilTMT).
I'm currently using CM10.1 which is stable as a daily driver and manually swapping apps with TB, I hate it, but this is the best combination I've come so far.
I sold my wife's SGS4G and upgraded her to SGS3 and hopefully in a year I will do the same. it had its moments, but on the bottom line it's a pretty ****ty phone with its lack of internal mem...but hey, it drove so many of us to go deeper and deeper trying to understand and made us more tecnolgical and solution oriented.
Mounts2SD worked for me on CM10.1, so not sure why it failed for you. Ah well.
A few things I have found...
Yes, you can partition on Windows, but you're really asking for trouble. It's not too bad download Ubuntu or the like and you can boot off a USB stick without touching your Windows install.
The TeamAcid kernels that I know of handle ext2/3/4 file systems. All kinds of arguments as to which are better. I personally use ext4 and don't find it obviously "slow" for the way I use my phone.
That said, what the boot scripts (which are part of a flashed "kernel" for the SGS4G) actually do with a "special" partition is another story. In some cases the first stages of booting will look for special partitions and mount them in pre-configured places. For example, the second partition of the removable card might be mounted on /sd-ext/ in many CyanogenMod ROMs. Many (most?) SGS4G ROMs don't have these "special" mount rules defined.
Moving an app to SD using the "native" approach just moves the app and none of its data to the SD card. It won't for example, move 25 MB of mail from /data/data to your microSD
Moving an app to SD (or anywhere else) doesn't keep it from generating its classes in /data/dalvik-cache -- It isn't "free" to have an app on SD as far as internal storage goes, even if it doesn't write any data.
Moving an app to SD will absolutely slow down your boot time. It does it by creating a file that contains a file system that then gets read and mounted at boot time. You can watch the parade of them getting mounted using adb logcat. It can take a minute or two to mount them all. Once mounted, that double layer of file systems shouldn't slow you down too much, since it is basically a read-only kind of thing.
Scripts are required since you need to be able to "fake out" the operating system as to where things are stored for anything (except if you just use the native app to SD method). In most cases you need new partitions mounted before the Android part of the OS starts running.
Some scripts are more robust than others.
TitaniumBackup (paid version) has a way to move data to an external partition. It works like a charm for me (64 GB Sandisk UHS-1 / Class 10 microSD). It was very tweaky for me to get it to recognize the ext4 partition the first time. It can bulk-move app data to the partition. I don't know which, if any, of the other scripts move the data to an external partition.
On my phone, an ext4 file system can be significantly faster than the internal yaffs, especially for write. Alas, it usually seems to be read that is a killer for most things in an well-written app. On my phone, yaffs can be faster than ext4 for short reads. Who knows how this would play out in real-world usage.
Other things that TitaniumBackup can do that help free up internal storage, at least in the paid version, are:
Dalvik cache cleanup
Integrate system Dalvik cache into ROM
Integrate update into ROM
Convert to system app
I can confirm Link2SD works where Mount2SD fails, which is an ext3 partitioned sd-ext on AOKP. it doesn't get any simpler than that.
sent from me