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Hi, I have been testing several NAND set-ups
-system to NAND and data to resized data,img
-system to resized system.img and data to resized data.img
-system to NAND and data to ext2
...
I am currently using NAND and data to ext2 partition, so all apps are installed there. After lots of reading I can not understand posts that are obsolete and posts that are not so I would appreciate if someone can explain me the basics and optimal setup for incubus superfroyo RLS14/15 roms:
I have now 4 partitions:
1) fat32,
2) 1,5G ext2 (app, app-private etc),
3) 1,5G ext2 (lost+found folder) and
4) 96M lynux-swap.
- How can I turn ext2 to ext3? do I need to do so? I have also read about ext4. Upgrading to ext3/ext4 applies to my 2) partition, to my 3) partition or to both? will I loose data stored? "there is no ext3/ext4 fs because there isn't the support on the compiled kernel. Ext3/ex4 are journal file system so are bad for limited writing device like nand or sd and thre is no good rease to use it" answered by l1qd1.
- How can I check if my lynux-swap is enabled and used by the rom?
- Do partitions 2) and 3) really need to be <1,5 G? why so?
- Can I take apk from apps folder in partition 2) in case I want to keep them for future fresh installs?
- What is lynux-swap optimal size? a 1,5G partition would be worse than 96 M? Why?
- Which tools are you using with incubus roms to manage installaion location and similar functionalities?
Another big mark I have is about deoxeding installed aps (not belonging to the ROM). Should I do it? why? how?
Pretty basic stuff I guess for experienced users & programmers, but I am new to lynux and android. Have read lots of things but it is difficult to learn by myself what would work with our Polaris and incubus ROMS and dzo/kk kernels,
Stick to ext2 man, you won't turn your old engine to 240mph on a Ford Model T.
You're not getting some major boost if the hardware dosn't use it, so I'd stick with ext2.
And you also want Super FroYo on your ext2 partition, yes? I'm here to help.
- How can I check if my lynux-swap is enabled and used by the rom?
adb shell
Code:
free
if on swap you have 0 it isn't enabled.
Code:
swapon /dev/device
to enable it or i suggest you tu use compcache.
- Do partitions 2) and 3) really need to be <1,5 G? No
- Can I take apk from apps folder in partition 2) in case I want to keep them for future fresh installs? Yes but not all apk support this
- What is lynux-swap optimal size? a 1,5G partition would be worse than 96 M? Why? Too Big = more sparse but it's a problem only for real disk so you can create a swap big as you want but it's unuseful (100 M is enaught)
i suggest you to switch to my kernels because are more updated and kk move to another device.
Yah l1q1d I love ur kernels. Eager for more !
l1q1d, I am testing your kernel as you advised me. I could apply the wifi patch without problems using your androiupdate18-09-10, as you told me some time ago they are both 2.6.25.
However I do not manage to turn linux-swap on: that's what I do: I install ubuntu, I use G-Parted to create partitions on the sd card. When I do so, the third partition is always shown as linux-swap in G-Parted but when I test adb shell -> parted -> print, it always shows as ext2. I can not dismount and can not swap on it.
The other way round, if I deleted all partitions with G-Parted and create the partitions with mkpartsfs or if I use mkfs to change the third partition from ext2 to linux-swap, then sometimes I can swap on it (directly on adb shell or with G-Parted) but when I unplug the device will tell me the card is empty and will not be able to mount it, access it from ubuntu or from the device. If I reboot then, the system will hang until I install both data and sysetm to nand. This happens no matter if I activate or not from the polaris or even if I switch on or off usb mode. The card at that point is useless. I guess the partition table or some other basic file is messed.
Could you please explain a little more how can I come with a 13.5G fat32 partition, a 2,4 ext2 partiions and a 0,1 lynux swap swapped on partition??
I really need to test this set up, since with the standard set-up (system to nand, fat32 for files and ext2 for installed apps I can not install all apps I use since performance drops significantly).
regards
well, ... dumb me, maybe with compcache you are referring to launch a script?
where do I get this compcache.sh? how do I launch it? from adb? from the terminal? from the sd card?...
I put this short guide together because I tend to see a lot of confusion regarding what a "wipe data / factory reset" does to your phone.
These are the steps you should take before loading a new ROM:
1) Download your new ROM and relevant supporting or needed files like modem, alternate kernel, etc., and place them on your internal SD.
2) Backup your applications, settings, messages, etc., with a backup tool like Titanium Backup, image specific backup tool, etc.
3) Boot into recovery and run a “wipe data/factory reset"
4) Follow the developers ROM loading instructions.
When you perform a “wipe data/factory reset” the content of the following directories are deleted :
/data
/cache
/datadata
/sd-ext
/sdcard/.android_secure
Nothing else on your SD card (internal or external) outside of these directories is modified so it is safe to leave files outside of the above mentioned directories without fear of losing them. Your external SD card and SIM do not need to be removed. The goal here is load a new or updated ROM in as much a clean environment that you can. Files left behind in these, especially cache and davlik-cache can cause some of the strangest problems. The kind that nobody can really resolve.
/cache - This is the partition where Android stores frequently accessed data and application components to make these, as implied, respond much faster as well as faster to retrieve / access.
/datadata – This directory contains the library, database, user specific configuration files as well as log files for its specific application installed in the /data directory.
/data directory is where your contacts, messages, settings and apps that you have installed go. Wiping this partition essentially restores it to the way it was when you first booted it, or how it was after your last custom ROM install.
If your ROM uses an /sd-ext partition on your SD card for data storage your /data directory is mapped to /sd-ext and wiping the /sd-ext directory will result in losing your data.
/sd-ext is used for apps moved to your SD card. Your Android OS runs natively in an ext format while your SD card has a fat32 format, which is used typically for USB storage devices, Windows computers, etc.
The sd-ext partition is an additional partition on your SD card that acts as the /data partition when used with certain ROMs that have APP2SD or data2ext enabled. It is popularly used on devices that have little memory allotted to the /data partition. A misfortune that in my experience, Captivate does not partake in. Still, users who want to install more programs than the internal memory allows can take advantage of this partition and use it with a ROM supporting this feature.
The folder named .android_secure is where apps are stored when you perform the "move from phone to SDram/SD card" operation.
Consider this, Apps2SD uses the fat32 portion of your SD card, which is obviously limiting because it isn't Androids native file system. However, if you format your SD card, or partition a part of it as a ext file system, you can trick the phone into thinking it's part of the Android OS native environment. This will allow you to move applications, widgets, even cache and davlik cache over to it.
Disclaimer! I am not responsible for any damage you may cause to your phone or SD Card if you try to enable/use sd-ext.
To enable sd-ext in ClockWork Mod (ROM Manager):
Boot into CWM
Go to Advanced
Then to "Partition SD Card"
Choose an sd-ext size
Then choose a swap size, or not. Swap is just like windows' virtual memory. The system will use it when you're running low on RAM and use it as temporary RAM storage. This is where you'll probably see an increase in speed.
Just for fun I put sd-ext at 512MB and Swap at 64MB which is probably more than plenty for the swap. The swap will assist a little with memory and with the extra space I can move my apps over to it with a program like App2SD or in most custom ROMs nowadays just use the "move to USB" option in "Manage Applications". Titanium Backup will also move apps to SD for you and I'm sure you can find plenty more in the market.
You can also use a tool like Minitool Partition Wizard:
1. Open Minitool Partition Wizard
2. Delete Existing Partition from SDCard (Backup data first!!)
3. Create Fat32 Partition
Note: Set all partitions to PRIMARY (Steps 3 - 6)
4. Create EXT2 Partition (System) about 150MB-200MB depend on ROM
5. Create EXT2 Partition (Data) about 150MB-250MB
6. Create EXT2 Partition (Cache) about 50MB
Personally I don't see a need to do any of this on either of my Captivate phones though I have played with it on my DEV phone.
And since it does play a big role and needs to be cleared at times...
Davlik-Cache - dalvik cache is a program cache area for the program "Dalvik". Dalvik is a java based virtual machine that is the base for running your (.apk) programs. In order to make access times faster (there wasn't a JIT compiler installed by default until Android 2.2), the dalvik-cache is the result of dalvik doing a optimization of the running program/s. This optimization is kept so that it is then re-used every time you use your application/s. By default, davlik-cache is located in your /data partition.
No, I'm not looking for donations. Just trying to clarify things for some.
Great info, but a "guide" assists you in doing something, this is just straight info.
While I initially intended on writing it to guide flashers into the benefits of a wipe data / factory reset, and avoiding the myriad of strange issues experienced, I can see now where it can more construed as informational. Hmmm... maybe I'll add more to it or ask a mod to change the title topic for me.
Regardless, my hope is that some people get some benefit out of it otherwise I've only wasted my time.
Thanks, I've been wondering for a while what that actually did.
Great start for a guide that should clear the boards up a bit. I vote it to be stickied after adding a bit more info on backing up, partitioning the sd card, dalvik cache, etc.
I think it is important to explain that a reset should not be done after flashing a custom ROM because it deletes the Dev's settings/data/non-system apps. Instead flashers should either reset after flashing back to stock or before flashing a custom ROM over the current custom ROM.
Cozmo1 said:
I put this short guide together because I tend to see a lot of confusion regarding what a "wipe data / factory reset" does to your phone.
When you perform a “wipe data/factory reset” the content of the following directories are deleted :
/data
/cache
/datadata
/sd-ext
/sdcard/.android_secure
/cache - This is the partition where Android stores frequently accessed data and application components to make these, as implied, respond much faster as well as faster to retrieve / access.
/datadata – This directory contains the library, database, user specific configuration files as well as log files for its specific application installed in the /data directory.
/data directory is where your contacts, messages, settings and apps that you have installed go. Wiping this partition essentially restores it to the way it was when you first booted it, or how it was after your last custom ROM install.
If your ROM uses an /sd-ext partition on your SD card for data storage your /data directory is mapped to /sd-ext and wiping the /sd-ext directory will result in losing your data.
/sd-ext is used for apps moved to your SD card. Your Android OS runs natively in an ext format while your SD card has a fat32 format, which is used typically for USB storage devices, Windows computers, etc.
The folder named .android_secure is where apps are stored when you perform the "move from phone to SDram/SD card" operation.
Consider this, Apps2SD uses the fat32 portion of your SD card, which is obviously limiting because it isn't Androids native file system. However, if you format your SD card, or partition a part of it as a ext file system, you can trick the phone into thinking it's part of the Android OS native environment. This will allow you to move applications, widgets, even cache and davlik cache over to it.
Nothing else on your SD card (internal or external) is modified so it is safe to leave files outside of the above mentioned directories without fear of losing them.
If you plan on trying several different ROM's and/or updating your favorite ROM every time a new version is released you need to invest in an application like Titanium Backup or one that comes with your ROM if it's supplied with one. MIUI includes one that works extremely well. Performing a “wipe data/factory reset" after loading your new ROM and before booting into it should provide you with a smoother transition to your newly chosen or upgraded ROM. Having a standard backup and restoral process should help you enjoy it quicker too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is something I keep in a word file to help answer what you are also trying to answer. It is a bit shorter and simplified but it may help to polish your thread for us simpletons.
Dalvik cache is a place where the Android OS re-compiles the executable programs the first time to optimize them. It does this when you make a major change like replace the kernel/modem. Clearing the Dalvik cache will force Android OS to recompile the apps for the the new kernel/modem. This can take time on the first boot after clearing the Dalvik cache.
Also the main data Cache is used by the Android OS at run-time to write temporary files for specific reasons. You want to clear this out so it doesn't re-use the old cached data.
Manually clearing both caches allows the new kernel/modem to be installed in a "cleaner" environment. It's just preventative maintenance.
snowake said:
I think it is important to explain that a reset should not be done after flashing a custom ROM because it deletes the Dev's settings/data/non-system apps. Instead flashers should either reset after flashing back to stock or before flashing a custom ROM over the current custom ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This actually makes perfect sense to me. I have modified my OP because of your input. Thank you very much, snowake!
Cozmo1 said:
This actually makes perfect sense to me. I have modified my OP because of your input. Thank you very much, snowake!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do u have more info about "format your SD card, or partition a part of it as a ext file system" or how to do that.
i have read someone format part of the sdcard (class 10)to ext 2 or 4,to make the write n read faster.is that what you mean.can u guide me to the right direction.thank in advance.
? ? ? about this......(However, if you format your SD card, or partition a part of it as a ext file system, you can trick the phone into thinking it's part of the Android OS native environment. This will allow you to move applications, widgets, even cache and davlik cache over to it.)
Cozmo1 said:
This actually makes perfect sense to me. I have modified my OP because of your input. Thank you very much, snowake!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I struggled with all of this my first first few flashes.
xpakage said:
...Dalvik cache is a place where the Android OS re-compiles the executable programs the first time to optimize them.
...
Also the main data Cache is used by the Android OS at run-time to write temporary files for specific reasons.
Manually clearing both caches allows the new kernel/modem to be installed in a "cleaner" environment. It's just preventative maintenance.[/I]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is much more boiled down. I looked back at the "how to flash" threads and a couple good explanations on custom roms. None explain this that I found.
Cosmo, here are some more thoughts on misunderstandings I have had and seen posted. Like post above I pasted from my notes, so may be incorrect.
Bootloaders: Same for Froyo/Eclaire in both i897 and i9000 roms. GB requires new bootloaders, but i897 are apparently cross-compatible. However, issues seem to pop up on i9000 roms with GB i897 bootloaders. If flashing back to Froyo, use the full jf6 stock, not cezar's stock eclaire without bootloaders.
Using Tibu: If no useful data (i.e. Bookmarks on dolphin) then simply click data only when restoring user apps. Typically no issues when restoring user apps after switching Android versions. However, system apps should not be restored because of the rom customizations. Especially when switching to GB because it uses different directory structure. I do not seem to have issues when staying on same version and restoring foreground (user accessible) apps with data only or restoring green text color sys apps with Tibu as icon (i.e. Accounts).
Rom manager: really only need the app if flash to stock and need to flash rom directly from cwm. If so, then flash cwm (top button in menu) and choose phone. This places update.zip in /sd, which is opened after selecting "reinstall update" in stock recovery. Usually have to select it twice for it to work. This will replace ATT stock 2e recovery (blue text) with cwm 2.5 (froyo).
Voodoo color, lagfix, sound: must either be included in kernel. Lagfix simply allows user to format sd as ext4 (linux). Color balances display so less blue iodes are used and color is more realistic. Sound allows clearer sound through headphones through tweaks enabled in voodoo app. If sound is not in kernel then purchase voodoo pro in market and it will install it into the kernel (if rooted, even if stock).
Thanks for clearing that up!
- Aaron
Updated with more details.
Really, really useful. Had no idea partition options were available to this extent! Especially swap. By mini tool are you referring to Easus' program? I am definitely checking this out tonight. Thanks!
Great guide. In order to clear
/sdcard dir I master clear it after flashing to stock. Is there an alternate method besides deleting dirs myself?
snowake said:
Great guide. In order to clear
/sdcard dir I master clear it after flashing to stock. Is there an alternate method besides deleting dirs myself?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is probably the safest way to do it within the phone itself. An alternate way would be to mount it to your computer:
In Windows right click the drive that was assigned to your internal SD card and then click on format. By default it'll most likely set you to Fat32 and if you click format it'll say its complete, but nothing will be deleted. Android being a Linux OS doesn't use fat. You can format it by choosing exFat, but by doing this...
!!!WARNING!!! be aware that you will lose everything on your internal SD card AND your external SD card.
Emphasis placed mainly for others that read this and might not know.
Safer and easier to do it within the phone.
snowake said:
Really, really useful. Had no idea partition options were available to this extent! Especially swap. By mini tool are you referring to Easus' program? I am definitely checking this out tonight. Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This one is from MiniTool, though I wouldn't be surprised if Easus owned them. I didn't investigate to confirm. You can get the free home edition of MiniTool Partition Wizard here.
Very nice infos. Deserves a sticky, although, probably in a different thread.
Some information on what "Master Clear" in Odin would also be helpful - I have never trusted my phone to 'truly' clear everything on the phone, I have found the Odin Master Clear option to be much more complete.
It is a bit odd, I do this with my PC every six months, I back everything up and format the drive and start over again (after running Spinrite on all the drives) - I do this on / around New Years and again over 4th of July weekend and I decided this past weekend to also do the same with my smart phones (4 Cappies) and tablets (Ipad and 2 Android tabs) this past weekend.
It gives me that sort of squeaky clean feeling and seems to make my devices run smoother. Maybe its all in my head, dunno *shrugs*.
One thing I can say however, I have not had a hard drive go bad on me since I started the Spinrite thing 10 years ago (I still have an 8 GB hdd in my desktop that is working!!).
Any decent update(r)-script will do this for you.
Sent from my Infuse 4G
littlewierdo said:
Very nice infos. Deserves a sticky, although, probably in a different thread.
Some information on what "Master Clear" in Odin would also be helpful - I have never trusted my phone to 'truly' clear everything on the phone, I have found the Odin Master Clear option to be much more complete.
It is a bit odd, I do this with my PC every six months, I back everything up and format the drive and start over again (after running Spinrite on all the drives) - I do this on / around New Years and again over 4th of July weekend and I decided this past weekend to also do the same with my smart phones (4 Cappies) and tablets (Ipad and 2 Android tabs) this past weekend.
It gives me that sort of squeaky clean feeling and seems to make my devices run smoother. Maybe its all in my head, dunno *shrugs*.
One thing I can say however, I have not had a hard drive go bad on me since I started the Spinrite thing 10 years ago (I still have an 8 GB hdd in my desktop that is working!!).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can run some tests on Odin's master clear to confirm what it does. Initially I would believe it does the same as a "wipe data / factory reset", but testing should let us know for sure. I'll test it this weekend. Maybe sooner.
Awesome to hear that I'm not the only advocate for SpinRite and I still use it a lot though not every 6 months like you do. It's definitely worth having and using.
MikeyMike01 said:
Any decent update(r)-script will do this for you.
Sent from my Infuse 4G
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I totally 100% agree with you, MikeyMike01. Unfortunately, not all update scripts are created equally Asides from teaching people how to script themselves or parse through it, a task I do not have the time or patience to tackle, this it probably the easiest and best way to have users try to avoid the many and strange issues posted that possibly / most likely could've been avoided by using the tools at their disposal.
On a side note... I didn't notice you got yourself an Infuse 4G. Congrats! How do you like it? I've been out of contract for almost a year now and wouldn't mind upgrading (my wife is in contract), but I haven't seen anything really worth upgrading to or that does something I really need/want that the Captivate cannot, atm. I haven't looked up any specs and reviews on the Infuse yet tho.
Hi,
This has been asked many times before with no real solution that applies to different devices.
I'm running out of space on my /system partition and can't install any more apps even though I don't have that many installed.
I want a way to re-size the Android partitions manually to whatever size I want. Or just delete all current partitions and create new ones.
How do I do that? Is there any GUI partitioning tools similar to the ones available for Windows?
I don't want to move files from /system to another partition. I want to change the partition size.
My current /system partition:
For what reason are you moving apps to /system? You can't install them there, you have to push/move them there, installs go to /data. So keep them in /data, where they're installed by default. You have tons of space available there.
Partition table (start addresses and sizes) is hard-coded in bootloader, and can be redefined in kernel boot parameters (in this case recovery needs to be recompiled with the same parameters too, otherwise it won't write to the same partitions the kernel will read from). You're welcome to hack any of those. As you could probably understand from this paragraph, I wouldn't expect having GUI tools for that.
Thanks for the reply.
I'm not trying to move apps to /system. I thought apps are installed there by default because every time I try to install a new app it gives me an error message saying that there is not enough space on /system.
Now I know that apps are not installed in /system.
I just need more space in /system so I can install new apps without any errors.
What can I do to get more space on /system partition? Can I replace the bootloader?
I don't have any Android programming experience. I probably need something that is available out there to do the job.
In stock form, you shouldn't even have write permissions to /system. Nothing should be ever written there, and it can be 99.99999% utilized - there shouldn't be any free space left for anything, it shouldn't normally be used.
If you're getting that error when trying to install an app - you need to check what's reporting the error. It's not a "real" error, it means there's something wrong with your phone.
Try wiping cache partition from recovery...does this make any difference?
Jack is correct.
Swyped from my DesireS
refer to this
if this may help you http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1959691
:highfive:
mayank88288 said:
refer to this
if this may help you http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1959691
:highfive:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Way to bump a year old thread :thumbup:
“I'm bad and I'm going to hell, and I don't care. I'd rather be in hell than anywhere where you are. ”*―*William Faulkner
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.
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The Hefe Hook kernel allows you to mount a partition of your microSD as /data, getting 2 GB (or more) for your apps and their data.
Please ask your questions here about installation, use, or general approach.
This is great @jeffsf and can u show me how to re-partition the "real internal" storage? I mean expanding the /system since u put the /data out of it. Thanks man
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daothanhduy1996 said:
This is great @jeffsf can u show me how to re-partition the "real internal" storage? I mean expanding the /system since u put the /data out of it.
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Yes, you've hit on another of the reasons I've been exploring using the microSD for "live" storage. It's one thing to use potentially slow storage for photos that you basically write once or "app to SD" where you read the APK at boot time, make sure your ODEX in the Davlik cache is good, then generally read from the internal-flash cache. It is another when that memory is being read and written "constantly" when your phone is running.
The good thing is that once /data is not part of the internal flash filesystem, you don't have to worry about one ROM (kernel) thinking it begins at one place and another saying it starts at another. Previously, if one ROM had one /system size and another and a different one, the next partition, /data, would look to be corrupt when you swapped ROMs.
As a warning, not all users have fast microSD cards. Some that say "Class 10" on them really are dogs, especially for small reads/writes. The "Class" ratings are for sustained writes, as you would have with a camera recording video. If your ROM is "external /data" only, or even defaults to that, be prepared for a slew of "Your ROMs sucks. It is so slow." complaints.
You'll also need a way to automate formatting the card. It can be done on the phone, as long as you aren't trying to preserve any data.
As I recall, the layout of the MTD partitions is done in drivers/mtd/onenand/samsung_galaxys4g.h I would be careful not to move the partition boundary for efs, as you'd have to move the data it contains in your updater script. Repeating the warning about not moving the boot and recovery partitions is probably a good idea as well!
Your build tree may need some of these values, or at least think it needs some of these values. For example, device/samsung/aries-common from the CyanogenMod/cm-11.0 (KitKat) branch calls out NAND page sizes, partition sizes, and flash block sizes. I haven't looked in detail at your build tree so I can't comment on how it might handle things differently than the CyanogenMod one.
itzik2sh said:
Hi
I hope I don't ask anything silly, but please let me know if any of my assumptions is wrong :
1. I take FBi's251's AOKP milestone 6 (ICS 4.0.4)
2. 8GB SDCard was formatted to FAT32 (4GB) and EXT3 (4GB) using TWRP kernel
(Beastmode's proton kernel to be exact).
3. I would flash this kernel and it would move apps and their data to the sd-ext
without any special additions.
Thanks. I read the thread, but unfortunately 8GB SD is what i have and I think it should be enough.
Thanks again.
P.S - it's for 2 guys I already sold them my SGS4Gs. I want them to be happy...
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AOKP should be fine. I haven't tried it recently, but it was the tree in which I did the early Hefe Kernel development.
As I understand it, you have a microSD with
partition 1: 4 GB FAT32
partition 2: 4 GB ext3
So that can work, but will need some tweaking of the init-on-fs.sh script. I intentionally didn't use the second partition as so many scripts gobble that up as sd-ext and do who knows what to it.
My first preference would be to reformat the cards, perhaps:
6 GB FAT32
1 MB ext2/3/4 (Yes, 1 MB, a sliver, choice of ext2, ext3, ext4 up to you)
2 GB ext4
since then the script will work without modification and if they install a third-party script that uses the second partition, it won't corrupt their data.
If you were to keep the formatting the way that it is now, you'd need to edit the mount commands in the script to look something like:
Code:
/system/xbin/busybox umount /data
/system/xbin/busybox mount -t ext3 -o noatime /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 /data
(removing the sd-ext mount)
I'm not sure what your expectations are, but all that the kernel and that script will do is mount a different disk partition on /data -- you need to manually move the data over (or restore from something like Titanium Backup). There may be some trickery in renaming that could be used with TWRP backups to restore from data.yaffs2.win to the new /data partition, but I haven't tried that at all.
Hi Jeff
Thanks for your quick reply, and sorry again for not seeing the Q&A thread.
I think making it :
partition 1: 4 GB FAT32 (sdcard)
partition 2: 2 GB ext3 (sd-ext)
partition 3: 2 GB ext3 (data)
partition 4: 1 MB (spare)
would be better and handle data as well. don't you think ?
Would it be worth doing with a "Team" micro-SD card (class 6 I believe) ?
Thanks.
I haven't tried a Class 6 card, but my gut feeling is that it will be dicey. I didn't "commit" to using /data on microSD until I had tried it for several days using Titanium Backup's ability to move both apps and app data to the external card. I would try that first, especially as the phones in question aren't going to be in your hands (I consider you an expert user, able to manage things outside the UI with ease).
I've attached some testing I did a while ago with Transcend and SanDisk cards. When you look at them, realize that the speed scale changes between them. I have a feeling that the real "performance" on a device is going to be related to relatively small reads and writes, not the ability to stream video to the card. I also don't know much about the Team brand, but I found that even some well-known brands didn't have the performance of the Transcend or SanDisk in the same category.
However you configure your cards, I would definitely recommend a journaling filesystem of some sort. I've had my microSD come loose inside the phone. The journal will at least help to reduce any filesystem corruption should that happen.
You don't need the fourth partition -- I have it there to be able to keep rsync backups for fast ROM swapping.
.
Regarding the apps data, have you tried exploring the Mount2SD script ?
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I've tried a couple of the scripts out there in the past. Since backing up my data is very important to me, I trust the scripts in Titanium Backup to work well with its backup/restore strategies.
Mounts2SD looks like it has gotten a lot more sophisticated than it was when I tried it in the past. It sounds like something worth trying in its current state. At a quick glance (and not looking at the code), I'd personally make some different choices about features; enabling journaling, and being concerned about why lost+found was filling up (things should only appear there if the file system is found to be corrupt).