Database Info

[UTIL] Full Auto A2SD - A2VD

Apps 2 Virtual Disk 0.53b
For those of you that are wondering "What is this guy smoking?" (which I assume is all of you), this is an automatically re-sizing virtual apps 2 SD ext3 partition. It is stored as an image file on your existing Fat32 partition.
I have done my best to make this as idiot proof and bug free as possible but I always appreciate constructive criticism. Please be kind, I haven't had access to a computer while writing this so it was written entirely on my G1. Therefore I expect that it will have a few bugs.
This barrows very heavily from Cyanogen's work so please thank him for making this possible.
Installing
To install the utility just download the file on your phone, open your terminal emulator and run:
Code:
su
sh /sdcard/download/a2vd-0.53b.zip
It does the rest.
Please note, this is NOT a zip file! It is a shell script. XDA won't let you post any file this big unless it's a zip file. (Can we get an Admin on this?) Good thing linux doesn't give a crap about file extensions.
Once you reboot your phone the utility will create the virtual partition, move over your apps, then re-size the partition to have 15 MB of free space. Please note, it will reboot 3 - 4 times during the first boot.
This should run on any rom that executes /system/bin/a2sd during boot.
It has been confirmed to work on Cyanogen 3.5.2 and higher.
Automatic Resizing
The partition will automatically re-size so you don't have to guess how big you need to make it. Now you can take a bite out of crime, in stead of your Fat32 partition. ;-)
If you run low on space just reboot your phone. If the free space on your virtual partition is less than 10 MB or more than 20 MB it will be re-sized to have 15 MB of free space. Please ignore the fact that free space may be listed as 13 or 14 MB, as far as I can tell this is an issue with the OS, the readout becomes more accurate as the partition gets bigger.
Disabling the Partition
If you wish to boot up with the Apps 2 Virtual Disk partition disabled simply open up your terminal emulator and run:
Code:
su
a2sdoff
You can also remove the SD card while the phone is off.
This is useful if you need to transfer files over USB cable.
Automatic backup
If you boot with the partition disabled the utility will backup some system settings so your apps and widgets will all still work when you re-enable the partition. It will also maintain a separate launcher profile for when you boot with the partition disabled. Now you don't have to stare at a desktop full of broken icons every time you need to transfer files to your computer.
Upgrading to a New Rom
Transitioning to a new rom can break some of your apps and widgets. To prevent this follow this procedure:
1. Place your new update.zip file on the root of your SD card.
2. Open terminal emulator and run:
Code:
su
a2sdoff -u
This will reboot your phone, prepare the backups, and take you to recovery.
3. Flash your new rom. (If you exit recovery without flashing you must re-run "a2sdoff -u" before attempting another flash)
4. Boot up your new rom, open terminal emulator and re-install Apps2VD.
Okay, you can start downloading now.
Thank you for your support and enjoy!
As a side note, If you install this on a phone that already has a traditional Apps2SD partition it will NOT copy over your apps. I'm working on it but until then you'll have to either just deal with it or copy them you self.
Edit: Download has been removed due to security concerns. Will re-upload when solved.

Sweet !....so basically it allows app2sd without an ext partition ? so just a fat32 partition is gud enough right ?

this is really intriguing, but i think i'm gonna hold off until some brave souls try it out with some feedback

Daneshm90 said:
Sweet !....so basically it allows app2sd without an ext partition ? so just a fat32 partition is gud enough right ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly! In fact, it requires nothing more than downloading and typing in one command.

narcopolypse said:
Exactly! In fact, it requires nothing more than downloading and typing in one command.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Aight im nandroid'd...n ready to test lol...will post results

So what is the plus side of using this? Is this just a tool for people who can't or don't have an ext partition? Do you know how it compares performance wise?

miketaylor00 said:
So what is the plus side of using this? Is this just a tool for people who can't or don't have an ext partition? Do you know how it compares performance wise?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Didnt work on xRom....kept bootloopin the first bootscreen

grandomegabosses said:
this is really intriguing, but i think i'm gonna hold off until some brave souls try it out with some feedback
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been running this build for 4 day and previous alpha builds for over a month.
So have all of my friends.

miketaylor00 said:
So what is the plus side of using this? Is this just a tool for people who can't or don't have an ext partition? Do you know how it compares performance wise?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Performance is identical. The primary reason I built this is to have an automatically re-sizing apps partition. And the ability to boot disabled without breaking all of my widgets.

narcopolypse said:
I've been running this build for 4 day and previous alpha builds for over a month.
So have all of my friends.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hmmm i might try it later tonight or maybe tomorrow. after reading some more, i've gotten a little bit more confidence.

narcopolypse said:
Performance is identical. The primary reason I built this is to have an automatically re-sizing apps partition. And the ability to boot disabled without breaking all of my widgets.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems suprising to me that an image file on a FAT32 partition would perform the exact same way as an ext partition. I guess I will have to find out for myself
If this really does work and perform well, this could be google's solution to allow non rooted phones the ability to free up memory on their phone.
Either way, thanks for taking the time to do this.

Daneshm90 said:
Didnt work on xRom....kept bootloopin the first bootscreen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it will. And it would probably have a similar problem on later Cyanogen builds. You will have to modify the a2sd file to tell it not to automatically create apps2sd.

Daneshm90 said:
Didnt work on xRom....kept bootloopin the first bootscreen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is supposed to reboot 3 - 4 times during the first boot.

this is really interesting, thank you for this. earlier today i made a modified a2sd script that makes the a2sd look for dev/block/mmcblk0p4 (fourth partition) and since there is none cyanogen's apps2sd will not be created. also in the file is a modified userinit.sh and user.conf that point to dev/block/mmcblk0p2 instead of 0p3 so that if you wanted to use this and only have a fat32 partition and linux-swap partition you could still get the benefits of it. saw this thread and thought this would be a place where these files could be used.
edit: was just thinking, does this overwrite the a2sd script? either way the modded userinit.sh and user.conf can still help.

david1171 said:
this is really interesting, thank you for this. earlier today i made a modified a2sd script that makes the a2sd look for dev/block/mmcblk0p4 (fourth partition) and since there is none cyanogen's apps2sd will not be created. also in the file is a modified userinit.sh and user.conf that point to dev/block/mmcblk0p2 instead of 0p3 so that if you wanted to use this and only have a fat32 partition and linux-swap partition you could still get the benefits of it. saw this thread and thought this would be a place where these files could be used.
edit: was just thinking, does this overwrite the a2sd script? either way the modded userinit.sh and user.conf can still help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes this does replace /system/bin/a2sd and it stops checking for 0p2. It is based entirely off Cyanogen's a2sd that is used in every new rom out there and should be compatible with all of them.
Has anyone tested this yet? Which roms does it work on?

How does this work with mounting your phone on your computer? Like when you want to put music on. Can you do it the same way or do you have to shut your phone down and use a SDcard reader? Because I thought the was the main reason for not using fat32 for A2SD.

miketaylor00 said:
It seems suprising to me that an image file on a FAT32 partition would perform the exact same way as an ext partition. I guess I will have to find out for myself
If this really does work and perform well, this could be google's solution to allow non rooted phones the ability to free up memory on their phone.
Either way, thanks for taking the time to do this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
probably the wouldn't use it as you should be able to extract files from the img file

narcopolypse said:
It is supposed to reboot 3 - 4 times during the first boot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol, no i tried again rebooted like 20 times so i gave up n nandroid'd.

speoples20 said:
How does this work with mounting your phone on your computer? Like when you want to put music on. Can you do it the same way or do you have to shut your phone down and use a SDcard reader? Because I thought the was the main reason for not using fat32 for A2SD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would be my concern as well. I don't see any way around this, though I'm not a dev by any means.

alritewhadeva said:
probably the wouldn't use it as you should be able to extract files from the img file
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sure they could make the img file only accesible by the sytem.

[MOD][RECOVERY] Firerat's Custom MTD Partitions (resize Data,System and Cache)

If you dont understand what this Modification is doing, why it needs to be done, or what possible benefits come from it, then...
PLEASE DO NOT TRY THIS MOD.
***Even tho it is impossible to brick your phone when flashing this i still highly recommend you UNDERSTAND what you are attempting to do before you do it. If someone explains you are freeing up internal memory from other places not using it and you still have to ask what the benefit is, then you obvisouly dont fully understand the mod and your phone and should turn away now.***
Thank You.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now onto the mod: Heres a quick description of what this mod is doing. Pretend your phone is a pizza cut into 3 even pieces. Each piece is memory for /cache, /system, /data. Your aneroxic sister "aka cache" doesnt eat a lot so most of her slice will always be left, your fat obese brother "/data" always eats his whole slice and is left wanting more. You are healthy "/system" and only eat what you need and never less never more.
What this mod is doing is taking that original pizza and RECUTTING the slices to better fit whos eating them, so since your aneroxic sister barely eats and your obese brother is always hungry it takes all the extra pizza "aka memory" from your sister and gives it to your brother. As for you "aka /system" you only eat exactly what you need "aka the size of the rom and files it install" so it resizes your own slice to exactly the number it needs to install the rom and its gapps/files and leaves you with just a little wiggle room.
That being said, i tried this on my buddies CDMA Hero that i rooted for him and it worked like a charm. he went from something around 170mb internal storage to around 350+mb internal storage while on CM6 - Froyo 2.2.
***One thing i noticed when using a hero CDMA is that adb is crucial. one of the steps after flashing the recovery file is to reboot back into recovery and i noticed it was impossible to do it the right way without plugging your phone in and using ADB***
Original Files and Instructions: Firerats Original G1/MT3G thread found here - http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=717874
After you read thru firerats original instructions just know that itll be slightly different on your hero!
1. Click on the link i posted above and download these files: FR-recovery-v1.5.3-CustomMTD_S.zip and FR-boot-v1.5.3-CustomMTD_S.zip
2. Put both those files onto your SDCard.
3. While in your SDCard, make a .txt file named "mtdpartmap.txt"
4. Open your new mtdpartmap.txt file and...
- If you are using CM6 then type
Code:
mtd 102 2
- If you are using a larger Sense Rom like Fresh or ZenHero then type
Code:
mtd 182 4
5. Once all 3 files are saved on the root of your SDCard, reboot your phone into recovery
6. Format/Wipe your system and cache.
7. Flash the file: FR-recovery-v1.5.3-CustomMTD_S.zip
8. Once the file is done flashing, itll prompt you to wipe cache, system, and dalvik again.
9. Once its wiped, plug ur phone in and pull up command to adb reboot recovery (if you try to reboot into recovery any other way itll mess up the partitions and ull get cache memory.log errors and that will mean the mod didnt work correctly) by using this
Code:
adb shell
reboot recovery
10. if you did step 9 correctly, then youll get back to your recovery menu and itll say "formatting cache..." at the bottom of your screen but your recovery menu is instantly able to be used and you dont have to wait. ***On the newest version i think it no longer says this and your just got to go***
11. Flash CM6 if you used 102 for /system or Flash your larger Sense Rom if you used 182 for /system
12. Optionally, flash any kernal you may be choosing to use
13. Flash the file: FR-boot-v1.5.3-CustomMTD_S.zip
14. Click the top option on your recovery menu to reboot your system.
15. Once your system is fully booted you can go into menu > settings > sd card and internal storage , and check all the new added internal memory you have.
FYI : anytime you flash a new rom after this mod, or flash a new kernal to a currently flashed rom, you will ONLY NEED TO FLASH THE SECONDARY FIRERAT BOOT file named "FR-boot-v1.5.3-CustomMTD_S.zip".
so say after this mod you want to try a new kernal, you flash the kernal, flash boot, and reboot the system.
or say you want to flash a new cm6 nightly update, you flash the new rom/update, flash boot, reboot.
or say u want a new nightly and a new kernal, you flash the nightly, flash the kernal, flash the boot, reboot.
its very simple, if anything u flash overwrites current kernal specifications, u need to flash the boot file to make sure it knows how to set itself up. this goes for nandroid back ups aswell.
Fine Tweaking/Trouble Shooting: To get the most space you possibly can do go into adb or terminal and type
Code:
df -h
and it'll tell you what % you are using on your system. if you are at 60% then you can go ahead and decrease your /system value in your mtdpartmap.txt to about 2mb over the value it says you are using. so if your rom uses 115mb of /system you can change your mtd to "mtd 117 2".
So if you are getting an error while trying to flash a rom after doing this modification you most likely dont have enough /system space and will want to up your value to something more then enough like "mtd 200 4" then run the above code and re-scale down back to 2mb over what the current rom is using.
Enjoy CDMA users!!!

Not sure if Ill try this personally, but thank you.

tailsthecat3 said:
Not sure if Ill try this personally, but thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Trust me, well worth it. At first i thought it was amazing gains on the g1 and mytouch, but after being the first person in the world to try it on the Sprint Hero CDMA the benefits blow all passed expectations out of the water.
It nearly doubled my buddies internal memory.
i remember on his stock rom with a handful of his favorite apps he was at around 40mb internal memory. after i rooted his phone and flashed FRESH HERO onto his phone with apps2sd he had around 150, now with this mod-cm6-apps2sd hes got over 300.

my win7 drivers are goofy and sometimes won't do adb when its in recovery mode. if you screw up the restart part - ie: can't get into adb to reboot by typing the command and those messages appear - is the device bricked or anything? Is it a one-time? Recoverable? etc...

thank you for the info. i was down to bout 20 mbs free and now well over 100. kept running into problems until i changed the cache size to a little bigger. i had a spare hero to experiment with so alls good.

Skeptical...idk why. I don't wanna risk bricking yet another Hero I guess.

SammyM00782 said:
Skeptical...idk why. I don't wanna risk bricking yet another Hero I guess.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you please enlighten us as to how you bricked your Hero?

I've been thinking about trying this. I hate having 80+ mb free in system that I can't use. Would love to just add it to /data

This won't brick your hero. The only way you can brick it is by flashing the wrong bootloader or radio. This does none of these.

Hey has anyone tried this on a different rom..

oldjackbob said:
Can you please enlighten us as to how you bricked your Hero?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well.....first time was an accident. First time rooting, first time messing with a phone. I just kinda jumped right into it because when I found XDA it was pretty exciting. I always support the small guy coming from small businesses my whole life. Anyway, second time was probably due to incorrectly flashing a rom or something but regardless, I went to reboot and the phone was totally unresponsive afterwards. I trust you guys though, especially the devs. So do you think it's worth a shot?

I just did it, running cm6, and it took away that extra 80mb in system, took away all that unused space in cache, and moved it all to data. I went from 20mb free (still using apps2sd mind you) to almost 200! and so far, no issues, market works fine, everything works. Just one little note: I took somethings out of /system/app before flashing both in the rom and the gapps, things I don't use, like calculator (prefer realcalc), voice search, maps, quicksearch(all updated and installed elsewhere), and I only have 3mb free in system, so you may want to see about the customizing given in firerat's thread to increase system to say 100mb (it's 90 by default)

im trying to do this mod but every time i flash the recovery all i get the htc logo and it stays there.. i am using cm6.. any help please

You don't flash a new recovery, this patches your current one. Flash the one labeled recovery like any rom.zip in the recovery, wipe everything, flash your rom or restore, then flash the boot zip as an update.
Sent from my HERO200 using XDA App

danaff37 said:
You don't flash a new recovery, this patches your current one. Flash the one labeled recovery like any rom.zip in the recovery, wipe everything, flash your rom or restore, then flash the boot zip as an update.
Sent from my HERO200 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i also was stuck on the white htc screen...
can you explan which file to us.

i couldnt get this to work with clockwork recovery, so changed my recovery first to darchs 1.7.0. you have to make the custom file first and put it on your sd card. i had to have at least 10mb of cache memory specified or i got stuck on the white htc screen.
have to read firerats thread for that.

danaff37 said:
I just did it, running cm6, and it took away that extra 80mb in system, took away all that unused space in cache, and moved it all to data. I went from 20mb free (still using apps2sd mind you) to almost 200! and so far, no issues, market works fine, everything works. Just one little note: I took somethings out of /system/app before flashing both in the rom and the gapps, things I don't use, like calculator (prefer realcalc), voice search, maps, quicksearch(all updated and installed elsewhere), and I only have 3mb free in system, so you may want to see about the customizing given in firerat's thread to increase system to say 100mb (it's 90 by default)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hell yea, glad to see people flashing this mod correctly and enjoying the results!
if you end up customizing your partitions to diff sizes let all the guys know what values they should set and/or how to set them up themselves.
I dont get to use my buddies CDMA Hero a lot so i dont know how smoothly everything has been working over the past 2 days but i havent gotten any complaints or calls to fix bugs so i assume its all working very well with firerats default values but i dont know for sure.
so far ive seen these suggestions
1. up cache to 3mb
2. up system to 100mb
@danaff37, did you set your own values or are you using defaults still?

can you us this on cyanogenmod? its 2.2.... i have tryed every way and all it gets me is the white htc screen and never does on from there... please help

i checked before i flashed to see what all i was using. i had quick system info installed already so was easy for me to see. i was already using 130mb for system, prob because of dalvic-cache, so i upped it to 150mb for future use. default setting for cache was no go, changed it to 10 mb and all is fine.

I'm using default still, but downloading the latest nightly and noticed it's about 5mb bigger than before, so I'm going to go ahead and change it to 100mb when I flash it later (after I make my mods). Anybody using it should keep in mind that most rom files, the bulk of the space it takes up is in system, so be sure to partition accordingly (including gapps on aosp roms)
I left the cache at the default, try to go to /cache afterwards and it symlinks straight to /data/cache, so I don't understand how leaving it bigger would solve anything, but I've seen stranger things occur with these damn phones. lol

[ROM][KERNEL]GT-S5660 EXT2 Coming SOON

I am very close to completing my ext2 ROM... benchmarks are going very well...
I might as well add ext3 and ext4 support... But first ext2!
To do
testing
tweaking
Complete
searching everything what I might need
Feel free to donate to speed up the work!

ext2 is FULLY WORKING GUYS!!!!

Any chance to be beta tester?

Actually hmmm let me think
Do you know the right buttons to press to go into recovery mode and/or download mode ???
The process so far is:
1. Install CWM Recovery
2. reboot into CWM Recovery
3. Now connect phone to computer
4. adb shell (as superuser)
5. ... converting cache and data commands ...
6. Now put phone straight into Download mode
7. Connect phone to computer. And flash my tar file
Then your system will act very strange on first start... Like artifacts... But after that everything runs perfectly normal. I believe the system has to rebuild or something like that
Benchmark:
Stock rfs: 1085
ext2 data and ext2 cache: 1645
I am still working on the system partition though... Since that one has to be backed up and everything has to be put back afterwards. And loads of crappy permissions.
But what I got so far works... It's still very buggy. Specially the ext2 being detected as ext4 after a datawipe... So if you want ext2 you can't do a datawipe... Personally I don't find it worth the hassle... But still I am doing my best.
I hope someone more capable will take my job over or point me in the right directions. I have been asking guru's around here in hope they would help me. But they do get tired.
Bugs:
- Booting into CWM and mounting /cache and /data there will make the partitions being detected as ext4... However this is not an issue at this point but still it shouldn't be happening... It may cause problems
Features needed:
- An easier conversion process. This could be done if someone helps me with my init.rc file to be able to detect the filesystem and mount it using correct filesystem

Very nice progress so far m8. whis i could help but as i said except testing i aint of much use so far

You will be !I promise! The only disadvantage is I don't know what will happen in many cases. I have to work those things out first to make sure nothing bad can happen...
I need to make one change to the boot.img related to the file system check. After that I can release it to be used for normal rfs systems as well.

Any progress made recently? Really looking forward to this!
Sent from my GT-S5660 using xda premium

I am stuck...
I need to know how to mod recovery.img
+
+
in the boot.img:
- I need to do something in the init.rc file
- sbin/init.sh ???
- sbin/pre-init.sh ???
Let's say the ext2 works, but it's a long process and not so handy to get it work... Let's say you need to flash 3-4 times in odin before you have it work properly.
I am trying to make it simple. I need a professional developer to clear some things up for me... But they seem to look down or even to think I am not worth explaining... I know it's much to explain. But I want to learn.
If someone wants to help me that's more than welcome

djjonastybe said:
I am stuck...
I need to know how to mod recovery.img
+
+
in the boot.img:
- I need to do something in the init.rc file
- sbin/init.sh ???
- sbin/pre-init.sh ???
Let's say the ext2 works, but it's a long process and not so handy to get it work... Let's say you need to flash 3-4 times in odin before you have it work properly.
I am trying to make it simple. I need a professional developer to clear some things up for me... But they seem to look down or even to think I am not worth explaining... I know it's much to explain. But I want to learn.
If someone wants to help me that's more than welcome
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check your PM

You can use the files from galaxy ace roms with ext4 there is a big chance that this will help you out!
Project seems death! I will try to make everything ext2 tomorrow or so!
Sent from my GT-S5660 using xda premium

[TOOL] G2X Cleanup Batch *** WARNING *** WILL FORMAT INTERNAL SD

If you are going to flash and ICS ROM after this tool please make sure to first install a GB then ICS otherwise your SD card will not be accessible. I am trying to find a fix but it has been illusive. This statement will be removed once a fix has been found and OP updated.
Now with CWM Touch!
This method uses NVFLASH to recreate all partitions and formats them, thereby getting rid of the file allocation pointers and hence renders data inaccessible without effort.
Note: I have never seen a file come back to life or its data affect other files without effort on the users part or a temporary glitch once the partitions and pointers have been overwritten. Please post a reply with evidence if you have seen it.
Benefits:
The contents of the zip file can be used to super clean G2X before a new ROM flash. This tool recreates all the partitions in the phone so wipes the pointers to all files (everything). The method it employes has existed from before. The files here will stop short of pushing a ROM, so that you can push your favorite ROM.
Prerequisites:
G2X (Will not work on O2X due to different partition table)
Desire to have a clean install of your favorite ROM
Backup your data
*** WARNING ***​
This tool will wipe both phone internal memory and internal SD card. External SD card content is safe.
Don't say you haven't been warned!
What to do:
Download the attached Zip file.
Take out the battery (assuming you have backed up your data on external SD card, computer or elsewhere), connect the device via USB while holding VOL+ and VOL- together. Don't let go of the volume buttons until the device is recognized.
(I typically leave Device Manager open to see when it shows up in the list under "USB Controllers").
Launch flash.bat, sit back and wait until the process finishes (generally a good idea to open a command prompt, CD to the directory and then run the file).
Unplug, put battery in, reboot into CWM recovery (pushed by this tool) by holding VOL- first, then pressing and holding POWER).
Flash your favorite ROM.
Enjoy!
I made this package because I could not get the bluetooth to work with G2x GB 2.3.3 (and below). The issue was a disconnect problem where both the phone and headset would still think they were connected but in audio would not be routed for a call or media. After this procedure my phone has not had an issue for almost 3 weeks now. I have tried it with two ROMs and 3 different headsets without any issues.
I guess I will not toss this phone after all .
Putting it out there in the hope that it may help others solve some of their issues as well. I suspect bad data stays in places not touched by other methods.
Your comments are most welcome.
[Update]
Klathmon has made an newer version with CWM 5.0.2.8. RP by Klathmon can be found here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=24768294&postcount=66
I have tested the windows version but linux one is untested. Use at your own risk.
[Update]
Now with CWM Touch!
Thanks to everyone who has contributed on this thread with a drive to positive change! You work/comments/suggestions are very much appreciated.
References:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1248644. This link was the inspiration for the current work.
Link to CWM Touch development thread. I took the image posted there: http://rootzwiki.com/topic/22984-recovery-touch-enabled-cwm-5813/
[EDIT] The zip file should be fixed now. Darn work machine does something to the upload.

was just about to flash the new hellfire rom and saw this tool! will try it out and see how things go
edit: yeah corrupt zip on my end too.

The zip file seems to be corrupt. Could you re-upload plz

worked great on my end, no problems.

khanggle said:
worked great on my end, no problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The real test is how stable your ROM would stay with this method to wipe than any of the other methods.
I guess only time will tell .

wow this method really blaze hellfire much thanks to your( you) & (rom dev)

Ohh I like this. Thank you for sharing .
This thing is faster than nullifier, and I especially like how you don't need to be in CWM to use it. It just seems like doing it in "update mode" would allow better manipulation of the phone's internals.

so this tool DOES format and nullify in addition to recreating the partitions?
deleting and recreating partitions does not remove data. only by writing over existing data can you get rid of it (like nullifier does)

dodgefan67 said:
so this tool DOES format and nullify in addition to recreating the partitions?
deleting and recreating partitions does not remove data. only by writing over existing data can you get rid of it (like nullifier does)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He states in OP that it doesn't write anything, therefor doesn't "nullify". It formats and partitions.

dodgefan67 said:
so this tool DOES format and nullify in addition to recreating the partitions?
deleting and recreating partitions does not remove data. only by writing over existing data can you get rid of it (like nullifier does)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually you are right. Deleting, recreating and formatting partitions does not get did of the 1s and 0s, so in that sense the data is still there. However the pointers are gone, and hence even though the data is still there it can't be accessed without effort.
What do you think the nand has on it when the device is shipped... I can assure you its not ask zeroes!
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA

mansa_noob said:
Actually you are right. Deleting, recreating and formatting partitions does not get did of the 1s and 0s, so in that sense the data is still there. However the pointers are gone, and hence even though the data is still there it can't be accessed without effort.
What do you think the nand has on it when the device is shipped... I can assure you its not ask zeroes!
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well no, it has a next to worthless version of android Also, the point he was trying to get across is that it would be better for you to present the script for what it is and not try to compare it to other scripts that do something entirely different. You do kind of imply that you accomplish the same thing as the Nullifier script and more, when in fact you simply do something different.
Some may and probably will prefer your script, at least for specific purposes, while others will prefer the Nullifier script.

MWBehr said:
Well no, it has a next to worthless version of android Also, the point he was trying to get across is that it would be better for you to present the script for what it is and not try to compare it to other scripts that do something entirely different. You do kind of imply that you accomplish the same thing as the Nullifier script and more, when in fact you simply do something different.
Some may and probably will prefer your script, at least for specific purposes, while others will prefer the Nullifier script.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Done. OP updated to reflect. Thanks for clarifying that. It was not my intention to state that this tool does anything any other does, or does not.
I think we are all trying to do the same thing... get rid of the issues when swapping ROMs like _____. I can't seem to think of a good analogy here .

thanks for clarifying the OP, that makes much more sense
and no i wasnt trying to say you were reinenting the wheel, just trying to understand what your tool is actually doing
and also i do understand that it would take effort to get data off any type of storage device once the partition has been erased. i deal with wiping hard drives in a data center all the time. we use a DOD wipe tool that writes 1s and 0s over a drive a minimum of three full times to eradicate the data
but with this tool doing it outside of CWM, it sounds like it may do a better job of it
but i must ask, why do you need to push CWM? what if i have a newer version of it already on my phone?

dodgefan67 said:
but i must ask, why do you need to push CWM? what if i have a newer version of it already on my phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no need to push CWM 5.02. As I said in the OP it is a mod of the script found in the reference. In that script it was pushing default recovery. Since the recovery partition is being overwritten as well you will loose existing one and you need a recovery to be able to push a new ROM. Hence the need to push recovery (instead of using super one click).
As long as the recovery is not bigger than the partition that holds it we should be able to push a newer version. However I can't leave it empty or people will look for me with a shotgun (myself included ).

dodgefan67 said:
but i must ask, why do you need to push CWM? what if i have a newer version of it already on my phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was thinking the same thing but seems easy enough .. add the cwm img to the dir and edit the .cfg file. Hopefully that should get the new CWM flashed

So would it be benefitial or pointless to nullify to clear the data then run this script for a... super clean?
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA

mansa_noob said:
There is no need to push CWM 5.02. As I said in the OP it is a mod of the script found in the reference. In that script it was pushing default recovery. Since the recovery partition is being overwritten as well you will loose existing one and you need a recovery to be able to push a new ROM. Hence the need to push recovery (instead of using super one click).
As long as the recovery is not bigger than the partition that holds it we should be able to push a newer version. However I can't leave it empty or people will look for me with a shotgun (myself included ).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ahhhhhh now i understand. my eyes have been opened LOL
---------- Post added at 07:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:35 PM ----------
PL0X_Kleiner said:
So would it be benefitial or pointless to nullify to clear the data then run this script for a... super clean?
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i think it would be pointless unless you are super paranoid

dodgefan67 said:
ahhhhhh now i understand. my eyes have been opened LOL
---------- Post added at 07:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:35 PM ----------
i think it would be pointless unless you are super paranoid
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nobody is twisting any arms here... Use it if you want to, don't if you don't want to.
I saw benefit so posted so that others may benefit as well.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA

Ok so question, why are you killing all the data on your internal SD card? Why not just the individual partitions that the phone uses? Your destroying data that don't need to be destroyed before flashing a rom...
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium

It does not have to be destroyed. I just haven't had a chance to test without recreating emmc yet.
Next step. Likely tomorrow. Would like to test before release.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA
[edit] BTW, I do want to restate that there is some data that needs to be destroyed which is not being taken care of by other methods. I don't believe it is in the emmc, but rather it resides in one of the other partitions. Most methods out there are only working in the /data, /system and /cache domain.
My original problem (bluetooth disconnect) which happens to be a problem for some in the community even now was only completely fixed by this method.

Aroma File System Cleaner (FSC) AKA Gremlin Remover

{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Using Aroma Installer, I have automated the file system cleaner process.
This was taken from an older version of Lightning Zap! tweaks for another device and finally got Bonsia Backup/Restore working on the Blaze.
FSC reformats and cleans those file systems that we flash to all the time. Multiple flashing can cause little bits and fragments of files to linger about your partitions. Causing poor performance, unexplainable issues (problems that only you are having and no one else), and eventually can effect other files corrupting them as well. We call these file fragments Gremlins. Not the cute furry one either but that mean ass one Stripe...lol
At this time FSC with Aroma installer can only format and clean /system and /data. You will have to manually clean and format /cache. The reason is, recovery automatically mounts /cache and writes to it any time something happens (last_recovery.log). Unfortunately, Aroma uses a flashing script to do it's business; therefore, causing recovery to constantly remount /cache even after you, or the script, has unmounted it.
This DOES NOT touch /recovery, /emmc, /boot, /efs, /radio, /sdcard, or any other partitions not listed above.
Option 1 (Filesystem cleaning & backup/restore data):
Wipes /system & /data
Wipes /cache and /dalvik-cache
Makes a backup of /system and /data partitions then restores them (Based on Bonsia backup/restore scripts)
Formats /system & /data as ext4 with journeling and journel data writeback (Faster read write speeds with better caching)
Tunes said partitions to ensure they are completely clean
Option 1 is perfect for those who are getting poor performance, unexplainable random reboots, poor battery life, etc. It cleans the partitions that are constantly getting written to, thus eliminating any gremlins one might have lurking about.
**NOTE** The backup process is time consuming especially with /system partition...
Option 2 (Filesystem cleaning ONLY)
Wipes /system & /data
Wipes /cache and /dalvik-cache
Formats /system & /data as ext4 with journeling and journel data writeback (Faster read write speeds with better caching)
Tunes said partitions to ensure they are completely clean
DOES NOT make any backup or restores ANY data
Option 2 is ideal for those fresh installs. It ensures your files systems will remain clean and free of gremlins.
How to use:
Make a nandroid backup and/or a Titanium (or your favorite backup app) backup!
Download and place FSC on your external sdcard
Ensure you have enough free space on your sdcard to store the backups if using FSC option 1 (Amount needed varies on how many apps you have)
Reboot to recovery
Flash FSC as you would a regular ROM
Follow the prompts after Aroma starts
Choose either Filesystem cleaning & backup/restore data or Filesystem cleaning ONLY. If you choose Filesystem cleaning ONLY, you will go to another options screen. There you can either leave the selected action choosen (box checked) or uncheck the selected option and still choose Filesystem cleaning & backup/restore data (working on removing this redundant screen)
Once everything has finished, tap the save log button to save your output to your sdcard (it will save from wherever you ran the FSC.zip from, i.e. /sdcard/1flash/FSC.zip.log.txt)
Reinstall gapps
Reboot
Setup/Signin Gmail & Playstore account
Download link:
FSC_v1.zip
**TWRP users**
I'm not very well versed on TWRP. Tried it once, didn't care for it, moved on. When I did try it, it ran from a .zip much like aroma. If this is still the case and you use FSC to format and clean your filesystems, I would strongly suggest after you run FSC, you use the advanced menu in CWM to reboot to recovery to recovery then run TWRP.

Cleaning and formatting /cache manually
Run FSC on /cache manually
Connect phone to computer
Extract cache_tools.zip and place tools directory in sdcard
In terminal run each line idividually:
Code:
cp /sdcard/cache_tools/e2fsck /tmp
cp /sdcard/cache_tools/fsck.ext4 /tmp
cp /sdcard/cache_tools/mkfs.ext4 /tmp
cp /sdcard/cache_tools/tune2fs.ext4 /tmp
chmod -R 755 /tmp
/tmp/e2fsck -fp -B 4096 /dev/block/mmcblk0p26
/tmp/fsck.ext4 -fy /dev/block/mmcblk0p26
/tmp/mkfs.ext4 -O ^ext_attr,^has_journal,^huge_file -L SYSTEM -b 4096 -m 0 -F /dev/block/mmcblk0p26
/tmp/tune2fs.ext4 -c 1 -m 0 -o journal_data_writeback -L CACHE /dev/block/mmcblk0p26
/tmp/fsck.ext4 -Dfy /dev/block/mmcblk0p26
Reboot
Download link:
cache_tools.zip

Bugs/Issues
Bugs/Issues
Calibration is still off just a slight bit.
Gapps is sometimes a bit wonky and seems to get removed at times
Sometimes /system doesn't restore correctly due to a cpio short write/read.
If for some reason you encounter this problem, you will be stuck in a bootloop. Just boot to recovery, flash your ROM and gapps, reboot. Once rebooted, please post your log on pastebin.com and give me the link. Otherwise, I will never be able to track down this issue. Out of about 50 flashes (I'm not exaggerating either. I tested the crap out of this...lol), my /system didn't restore 3 times. This of course is after I got Bonsia Backup/Restore working.
Aroma installer hangs when starting or backing up/restoring a partition. Seems to sometimes occur after mounting USB storage and pushing files to sdcard then unmounting using the back button in recovery.
If you run into this problem, first try to pull /cache/last_recovery.log, then disconnect the device from you computer, reboot to recovery by holding the power button and both volume buttons (release the power button once the Samsung logo is displayed) to make sure everything is remounted properly, then rerun FSC.

He does it again genius man thanks.
"That mean ass one stripe" ahhaha that brings back memories.
Sent from my Zapped AOKP Blaze.

I love you. NO HOMO. Still love you. Still can't flash this though. Still busted. I hate getting detention-.- Stuck with the laptop for now lol

There are three very important rules that anyone who is gonna take care of a mogwai should know:
1. Don't put it near light, especially sunlight, it can kill them.
2. Don't let it get wet with water nor give it any water to drink nor bathe it.
3. No matter how much it cries or begs, NEVER feed it after midnight.
But if things go bad we can always count on Thomas Raines to come in and kick some gremlin ASS!
many thanks!!

I love your work tom i do, but FSC is really unstable...ran this on cwm 6.0.1.9, worked great....flashed aokp, gapps, lightning zap. Flashed AC!D audio over everything but when i went to change the build.prop....i forgot to set the permission back to the way they should be STUPID STUPID me lol ive never done that before but anyways. So i was really frustrated because fixing permission in cwm did absolutely nothing to help the cause. so i reflashed fsc BUT it went through the initial startup sequence and froze before the gremlin pic comes up. Pulled battery, rebooted to cwm, tried again same thing happened. pulled the battery tried again, same thing. It confused the **** out of me. So i thought maybe this version of cwm wasnt well fit for fsc so i flashed cwm 6.0.1.5. Ran FSC and it went passed the initial loading and i was in the aroma installer, chose option 2, formatted system fine, but when it came to data, it just stayed formatting data the loading animation was still moving so its not like it completely froze. But yea this was my experience. Am i doing something wrong?
EDIT
Finally got it to work again using cwm 6.0.1.5. Heres what i did....
1.Completely wipe/format everything within cwm (system,data,cache,dalvik) Wiped 3 times each.
2.Ran BlackHole system wipe
3.Then ran FSC, and it went through everything as it should

DiViNEX said:
I love your work tom i do, but FSC is really unstable...ran this on cwm 6.0.1.9, worked great....flashed aokp, gapps, lightning zap. Flashed AC!D audio over everything but when i went to change the build.prop....i forgot to set the permission back to the way they should be STUPID STUPID me lol ive never done that before but anyways. So i was really frustrated because fixing permission in cwm did absolutely nothing to help the cause. so i reflashed fsc BUT it went through the initial startup sequence and froze before the gremlin pic comes up. Pulled battery, rebooted to cwm, tried again same thing happened. pulled the battery tried again, same thing. It confused the **** out of me. So i thought maybe this version of cwm wasnt well fit for fsc so i flashed cwm 6.0.1.5. Ran FSC and it went passed the initial loading and i was in the aroma installer, chose option 2, formatted system fine, but when it came to data, it just stayed formatting data the loading animation was still moving so its not like it completely froze. But yea this was my experience. Am i doing something wrong?
EDIT
Finally got it to work again using cwm 6.0.1.5. Heres what i did....
1.Completely wipe/format everything within cwm (system,data,cache,dalvik) Wiped 3 times each.
2.Ran BlackHole system wipe
3.Then ran FSC, and it went through everything as it should
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, I thought I got that issue fixed during testing. It seems to be a mount issue. When you are in recovery and you mount external (usb) sdcard to push/pull files from it then umount by pushing the back button, disconnecting, or unmounting from your PC, it doesn't load the installer right when you try to run it. In addition, it can hang when backing up or restoring /system or /data (was random on which one it would hang on). There is a binary/script update for the Aroma installer which I'm working on implementing now. I'm beginning to think that could be the cause of the issue. Unfortunately, you are forced to reboot which clears out /cache. More importantly, deletes the last_recovery.log, and I think adb logcat can't run while Aroma is running.
In short, if you run into this problem, first try to pull /cache/last_recovery.log, then disconnect the device from you computer, reboot to recovery by holding the power button and both volume buttons (release the power button once the Samsung logo is displayed) to make sure everything is remounted properly, then rerun FSC.
Added to bug tracker...

Aside from the issue I posted, using black hole and FSC together made my phone completely different, no more random lag, no more random 3 second freeze-ups, faster boot, overall performance is enhanced, and finally all of my TB backups install perfectly without freezes or reboots.
-Amazed-
★Transmitted from the AC!DIC planet Blaze, sector AOKP, using Lightning Zap tech within the Samsung Galaxy★

Love your work Thomas, and thanks , but I'm having a bit of a problem.
Out of the 6 or 7 times I've tried to run this, I only got it to start properly twice... And I can't seem to get it to work again. When I try to flash the .Zip, it gives me the "loading aroma" prompt, but the gremlin dude never pops up. It just chills right there till I do a battery pull :'(
If you can give me an idea of how to pull that log, I'd be happy to get that for you
Thanks!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T769 using xda app-developers app

read the third post...
★Transmitted from the AC!DIC planet Blaze, sector AOKP, using Lightning Zap tech within the Samsung Galaxy★

DiViNEX said:
read the third post...
★Transmitted from the AC!DIC planet Blaze, sector AOKP, using Lightning Zap tech within the Samsung Galaxy★
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Was this for me? Thanks... I've read it like six times lol. It seems like my problem is a little different, or at least caused by something different. Never plugged it in to a computer... Or mounted use storage..
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T769 using xda app-developers app

Morganmachine91 said:
Was this for me? Thanks... I've read it like six times lol. It seems like my problem is a little different, or at least caused by something different. Never plugged it in to a computer... Or mounted use storage..
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T769 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, if you didn't plug in to a computer or mount the usb storage, then I can only assume that you downloaded with your phone, straight to your sdcard. I this is in fact correct, then one can assume you might have a bad or corrupted download. My suggested would be to delete the current one, download FSC.zip again, and attempt to run the program.
Two things to consider when downloading FSC.zip with your phone.
1) Are you using data or wifi. If you're using data, how good/bad is your data connection. Try downloading over wifi if possible.
2) You are downloading FSC.zip on your phone through xda-developers website from Goo.im server. Lots of connections from 2 servers that incur A LOT of users and traffic for a small device. As much as we like to think our beloved blaze is a miniature computer, it isn't. It is a smartphone and a pretty badass one at that, but between radio to server to server and back again, connections may not fail, but can have lag which could cause a small bit or 2 of data can get lost in the process. Maybe not enough to cause the download to fail or time out, but enough to lightly corrupt the file(s) being downloaded (especially if you are using a data connection and are on the move). Therefore, downloading over wifi is always prefered over data connection no matter how many "g's" you have...

Morganmachine91 said:
Was this for me? Thanks... I've read it like six times lol. It seems like my problem is a little different, or at least caused by something different. Never plugged it in to a computer... Or mounted use storage..
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T769 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh sorry you had asked how to get a log so I assumed you didnt read the bug/issue post. My fault.
★Transmitted from the AC!DIC planet Blaze, sector AOKP, using Lightning Zap tech within the Samsung Galaxy★

Thanks Thomas, thought it might have been a bad download, did it again but I've been at work and both were with data. I'll download at home and transfer over. I'll make sure to get a log if I still have problems lol.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T769 using xda app-developers app

Flashed this last night fell asleep and when I woke up it said it was still formatting my system and was 17% done. Any idea how long this actually takes because I figured 5 hours was plenty? Lol
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T769 using xda premium

forgetaboutit said:
Flashed this last night fell asleep and when I woke up it said it was still formatting my system and was 17% done. Any idea how long this actually takes because I figured 5 hours was plenty? Lol
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T769 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DiViNEX said:
I love your work tom i do, but FSC is really unstable...ran this on cwm 6.0.1.9, worked great....flashed aokp, gapps, lightning zap. Flashed AC!D audio over everything but when i went to change the build.prop....i forgot to set the permission back to the way they should be STUPID STUPID me lol ive never done that before but anyways. So i was really frustrated because fixing permission in cwm did absolutely nothing to help the cause. so i reflashed fsc BUT it went through the initial startup sequence and froze before the gremlin pic comes up. Pulled battery, rebooted to cwm, tried again same thing happened. pulled the battery tried again, same thing. It confused the **** out of me. So i thought maybe this version of cwm wasnt well fit for fsc so i flashed cwm 6.0.1.5. Ran FSC and it went passed the initial loading and i was in the aroma installer, chose option 2, formatted system fine, but when it came to data, it just stayed formatting data the loading animation was still moving so its not like it completely froze. But yea this was my experience. Am i doing something wrong?
EDIT
Finally got it to work again using cwm 6.0.1.5. Heres what i did....
1.Completely wipe/format everything within cwm (system,data,cache,dalvik) Wiped 3 times each.
2.Ran BlackHole system wipe
3.Then ran FSC, and it went through everything as it should
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try this, its how I got it to work.
★Transmitted from the AC!DIC planet Blaze, sector AOKP, using Lightning Zap tech within the Samsung Galaxy★

Morganmachine91 said:
Love your work Thomas, and thanks , but I'm having a bit of a problem.
Out of the 6 or 7 times I've tried to run this, I only got it to start properly twice... And I can't seem to get it to work again. When I try to flash the .Zip, it gives me the "loading aroma" prompt, but the gremlin dude never pops up. It just chills right there till I do a battery pull :'(
If you can give me an idea of how to pull that log, I'd be happy to get that for you
Thanks!
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T769 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just tried this last night and it did same to me freeze before the gremlin pops up and have to pull battery but it worked for me on the third try and ran perfect! It dose work very well once it starts but you just got to kick it a couple times to get it to run :laugh: is there any log we can pull for you on this thomas ? it works great but just has a little hick-up getting started. Roms running better than every! I think blackhole did a great job too and now Aroma FSC !! I think the Gremlins are on their way to extinction!!
Many thanks!

Does anything in mounts out any other part of recovery need to be set a certain way after running this to work with the aokp rom? I know you said it was set for another specific rom....

woodyjlw said:
I just tried this last night and it did same to me freeze before the gremlin pops up and have to pull battery but it worked for me on the third try and ran perfect! It dose work very well once it starts but you just got to kick it a couple times to get it to run :laugh: is there any log we can pull for you on this thomas ? it works great but just has a little hick-up getting started. Roms running better than every! I think blackhole did a great job too and now Aroma FSC !! I think the Gremlins are on their way to extinction!!
/tmp/last_recovery.log before you reboot
1 thing I found that causes the hangup is if you try to run FSC while plugged in (wall or pc).
Many thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
itsLYNDZ said:
Does anything in mounts out any other part of recovery need to be set a certain way after running this to work with the aokp rom? I know you said it was set for another specific rom....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope... all mounts are set by the flashing script...