Database Info

[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

MTD Custom Partition Sizes (resize System, Cache, and Userdata)

In case anyone want's to resize their System, Cache, and Userdata partitions on their EVO. This may be useful for some of the newer ROMs that require a larger system partition.
Default partition sizes for EVO are 350MB for System, 160MB for Cache, and 427.625MB for Userdata.
I did not create this. It was developed by FireRat who's account is now inactive on XDA. I started looking into it because I wanted to resize my Boot partition from 2.5M to 3M because I have bad NAND blocks in my Boot partition and can't flash ANY Sense-based Gingerbread ROM, even the leaked official one from HTC. I get the following error when debugging by flashing the boot.img using Fastboot:
FAILED (remote: image update error) ...
With all that said, it doesn't work to resize your Boot partition. I modified the source to make it resize Boot partition as well, it passes the parameters to the kernel correctly, but the system does NOT like it and gives a bunch of errors about unsupported block addresses. If you want to read more about this issue, see my post: here
How This Works
This is simple a shell script that extracts the recovery and/or boot images and modified the commandline passed to the kernel so that it recognizes different partition mappings for the NAND partitions.
Warnings
First of all, there is no brick risk if you have Fastboot access (.76 ENG HBOOT). That said, I'm not in anyway responsible if something happens and your device gets bricked. Two things could potentially go wrong:
* Recovery Flash Corrupt - This happened to me a few times when I was playing with trying to get the Boot partition to change sizes, but never when I was just attempted to resize System, Cache, and Userdata.
Easiest way to fix is to re-flash the recovery.img from Fastboot. You may also be able to re-flash the recovery via your ROM using ROMManager.
* Corrupt System, Cache, and Userdata partitions - This will happen if you don't wipe the three partitions after you do the resizing. You need everything removed from them because their start points are being remapped.
To fix this, you can use Fastboot:
Code:
fastboot erase system -w
You can also use your recovery (advanced menu) and manually wipe System, Cache, and Userdata.
I Understand What Has Been Said, Let's Get Started
1. Before you begin, you need to create a file on the root of your sdcard called mtdpartmap.txt. This file is where we set the partition sizes we want. To create this file, you can use adb shell or a terminal program on your phone. Simply type:
Code:
echo "mtd 350 160" > /sdcard/mtdpartmap.txt
Replace 350 and 160 with the sizes you want your System and Cache partitions. Your Userdata partition is automatically given the remained. For example, if I used "mtd 300 100" I would be gaining 110MB on my Userdata partition ((350-300)+(160-100) = 110). Your sizes must be divisible by .125.
2. Make a nandroid backup. After we modify the partition sizes for the recovery, you can restore it, or you can flash a whole new ROM.
3. The next step is to Flash a file in recovery. I recommend you Flash the recovery-v1.5.9-Alpha3-CustomMTD_TESTRUN.zip. This will NOT perform any changes, only make sure everything looks good. If you get no errors here, you can then proceed.
4. Wipe System, Cache, and Userdata. This is very important. You have a nandroid backup.
5. Flash recovery-v1.5.9-Alpha3-CustomMTD_R.zip, This will make the changes to your recovery.img and re-flash it to your phone. All it's doing is adding kernel commandline parameters so that the recovery knows where your System, Cache, and Userdata partitions start.
6. Reboot recovery. This is easier in CWM than RA. CWM offers a menu option for it. In RA, I normally just select the menu item to power off. Then restart the phone and hold volume down, then select Recovery from the Bootloader menu.
7. Nandroid restore or flash a new ROM.
8. Very important! Flash boot-v1.5.9-Alpha3-CustomMTD_S.zip. This does basically the same thing as in Step 5 but instead of changing the kernel commandline for recovery, it does it for your boot.img.
9. Reboot.
Important Notes
If you ever flash your recovery to a new version, or change recoveries, you must redo step #5 so that your new recovery has the partition sizes and start points passed to it.
If you ever flash a new ROM, you must perform step #8 again so that the ROMs kernel has the partition sizes and start points passed to it.
Reverting/Backing Out
1. Make a nandroid backup if you want to keep your current ROM. If not, or you will be restoring a previous nandroid backup, you can skip this step.
2. Wipe System, Cache, Userdata. This is very important.
3. Flash recovery-v1.5.9-Alpha3-CustomMTD_REMOVE.zip. This will remove the kernal commandline from the recovery and boot partitions.
4. Reboot recovery.
5. Nandroid restore or flash a new ROM.
6. If you restored a nandroid backup that had custom partitions mapped to it, you must re-flash recovery-v1.5.9-Alpha3-CustomMTD_REMOVE.zip at this point so the restored boot.img has the kernal commandline removed.
6. Reboot.
Other Thoughts
If anyone has any ideas on how to resize the Boot partition, let me know.

You know Calkulin has already posted a custom partition mod based off of Firerat's work, right??

Apparently not, or I wouldn't have wasted my whole morning writing this up.

fldash said:
Apparently not, or I wouldn't have wasted my whole morning writing this up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
maybe you shoulda searched first...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=855424

I did search using Google and limiting it to the XDA site but it never came up. Only FireRat's original thread and a few others, but none in the Supersonic forum. Oh well, sorry for wasting your precious time. Just ignore the thread and move on...

At least the OP has newer links.
This never really caught on with the EVO since there is a2sd in almost every ROM and the default space was enough for most... and if not 2.2. allows at least some apps to be moved.
Back on my HeroC ... it was a blessing

I didn't even know this was an option OP. So thanks for educating me and a few others at least.
Sent from my Infected EVO using XDA Premium App.

O.M.J said:
maybe you shoulda searched first...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=855424
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haters gonna hate. Thanks for the info. Wouldn't have known about it otherwise.

There are tons of people posting about ways to root and unroot and many of them are basically writing about the same method but in different words so why is there a problem with the OP writing about Custom Partition Sizes? I cosign with not knowing about Caulkin's post either. Is it because the OP has a small "Thanks" meter? Caulkin has extremely helpful posts and threads but other people can post helpful threads as well.

Good write up!
Thanks
~ I'm a fungi

interesting...another good subject that I never know existed.

I actually want to thank you OP because I was thinking just today to try the Virus Kingdom REVOlution and was wondering the way to do this so, THANK YOU!!!!
Sent from my Xoom using XDA Premium App

I use this because of Calk's write up. I like the idea of having more internal space. I hear it helps the rom function better but who knows. However, I found your thread because I was still searching for some answers. One thing I am noticing, is how well this works on non sense roms, but how I can't even get past the splash screen on a sense rom like synergy and merge. So, I found your thread very informative because you explain the math behind the science. I think I will go back to Calk's thread, and use some of what I learned here to see if a few tweaks in the mtdpartmap.txt makes a difference. I will report back. If you have any advice along these lines, I am all ears.
cns

Might wanna add in the nandroid not to backup recovery...some people might not know this... Thanks for the write up. Thanks button hit.
Sent from my PC36100 using xda premium

Can't get to ClockworkMod

I installed Flashback 10.1 a while back. Today I wanted to install 10.3 and found out that I couldn't get into ClockworkMod at all. It would do a normal reboot instead of going to the recovery mode.
Any help is appreciated.

Just to be sure, you *are* holding the volume + button when you press the power button and keeping it held down until you see "recovery key detected" in the upper left corner?

Yes, I see
recovery key detected
Booting recovery kernel image
But it would stay there with the birds and "View Sonic - See the difference" forever, never go further than that.

Use nvflash and reload only ClockworkMod. Use the commands in this thread.

rajeevvp said:
Use nvflash and reload only ClockworkMod. Use the commands in this thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello rajeevvp,
I tried this method but I get the following error message...
downloading bootloader -- load address: 0x108000 entry point: 0x108000
sending file: bootloader.bin
| 943193/943193 bytes sent
bootloader.bin sent successfully
waiting for bootloader to initialize
bootloader failed NvError 0x0
command failure: bootloader download failed
When I run download.bat by itself, I get a message, "USB device not found".
Can you offer any suggestions?
Thanks,
ssummerlin

ssummerlin said:
I tried this method but I get the following error message...
downloading bootloader -- load address: 0x108000 entry point: 0x108000
sending file: bootloader.bin
| 943193/943193 bytes sent
bootloader.bin sent successfully
waiting for bootloader to initialize
bootloader failed NvError 0x0
command failure: bootloader download failed
When I run download.bat by itself, I get a message, "USB device not found".
Can you offer any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a very strange error. What led to it?
Try these suggestions one by one.
1. Use a different USB cable and port on the PC. Bad cables and USB ports have been known to cause problems.
2. Open the gTab up and use the reset button, then disconnect and reconnect the battery.
3. Do the nvflash on Linux.

Did you ever find a fix for this, cub2000?
I ran into the same thing, when I attempted to update to CWM 5.5.04 (via flashable zip) using the procedures outlined in the [RECOVERY - 1.2] ClockworkMod 5.5.0.4 Touch Recovery - TEAM DRH thread.
After doing so, I figured my best bet was to roll back to bekit's original image, so I followed the procedures outlined in the [STICKY][ROM] nvflash FULL restore, using bekit's original image (Instructions) thread to roll back to TnT 1.0-2638.
I can't remember the specific ROM I was on before -- it's been ages since I last powered up my gTab. It may have been TnT Lite. Whatever it was, I'm fairly certain I was running Bootloader v1.1.
After nvflashing back to 1.0-2638, TnT offers an update as soon as I connect to wifi, but the update fails in the same way that CWM fails. It hangs here:
recovery key detected
Booting recovery kernel image​
The awful, original TnT still runs on my tab, so it's not a true bricking (or even a soft-brick), but now I'm stuck with... well, I'm stuck with the awful, original TnT.
If I find a way around this, I'll let you know. If you've already found one, please let me know!
Thanks.

See this thread.

Thanks, rajeevvp. I actually found a different solution before I got your recommendation; just hadn't had a chance to update this thread yet.
Solution: I didn't have any important data on my device, so I did a Full Stock NVFlash with CWM v5.5.0.4 (Touch), then flashed AOKP (and cleared my cache) from CWM before I ever booted into the stock ROM.
I'm up and running now! I may have chosen a different path, but I appreciate the help.

colbymulkey said:
Solution: I didn't have any important data on my device, so I did a Full Stock NVFlash with CWM v5.5.0.4 (Touch), then flashed AOKP (and cleared my cache) from CWM before I ever booted into the stock ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You mean you flashed AOKP and then booted into AOKP?
BTW, did you expand "system" to more that 250MB for AOKP?

rajeevvp said:
You mean you flashed AOKP and then booted into AOKP?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. I couldn't get into CWM to flash AOKP directly. Instead, I used NVFlash to flash a package that was titled Full Stock NVFlash with CWM v5.5.0.4 (Touch). (I found it in a thread on these forums, but I can't seem to find that thread now.) I'm pretty sure this is what got my bootloader and CWM back in sync...
I never actually booted into the stock ROM that I NVFlashed though. Instead, I immediately:
went into recovery mode
USB-mounted the gTablet's internal SD card
dropped the AOKP ZIP onto my device's filesystem
flashed AOKP
cleared the devices cache using CMW
booted into AOKP
rajeevvp said:
BTW, did you expand "system" to more that 250MB for AOKP?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did not expand my system partition, and I may be paying the price now. I've reflashed the gapps, and I can install APK's directly, but the Play Store won't update apps. I can browse the store; just can't update anything. (The app updates never time out or give me any errors, they just perpetually show as Update Available and/or Update in Progress.

colbymulkey said:
No. I couldn't get into CWM to flash AOKP directly. Instead, I used NVFlash to flash a package that was titled Full Stock NVFlash with CWM v5.5.0.4 (Touch).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That package would've made your system partition 256 MB in size.
I never actually booted into the stock ROM that I NVFlashed though. Instead, I immediately:
went into recovery mode
USB-mounted the gTablet's internal SD card
dropped the AOKP ZIP onto my device's filesystem
flashed AOKP
cleared the devices cache using CMW
booted into AOKP
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I thought: You booted directly into AOKP after flashing it.
I did not expand my system partition, and I may be paying the price now. I've reflashed the gapps, and I can install APK's directly, but the Play Store won't update apps. I can browse the store; just can't update anything. (The app updates never time out or give me any errors, they just perpetually show as Update Available and/or Update in Progress.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since you've used the TeamDRH nvflash package, you should have a 256 MB system partition now, but, that will not be enough for AOKP which needs ~262 MB for everything. Most likely the Gapps would've all been copied, but, the face-detection bits would not all be there. This isn't an issue now because the camera isn't working.
Go back into CWM and do a "wipe data/factory reset". See if that clears your market problems.

rajeevvp said:
That package would've made your system partition 256 MB in size.
That's what I thought: You booted directly into AOKP after flashing it.Since you've used the TeamDRH nvflash package, you should have a 256 MB system partition now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's probably a way to confirm this within CMW (or by utilizing APX+NVFlash), but I haven't verified it yet. Still, I suspect there would be major stability issues if my system partition were too undersized -- and while there's lag at times, I haven't experienced many system app crashes.
rajeevvp said:
That will not be enough for AOKP which needs ~262 MB for everything. Most likely the Gapps would've all been copied, but, the face-detection bits would not all be there. This isn't an issue now because the camera isn't working.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Face detection is of little interest to me on this device; not too worried about that. Still, I don't really see a problem with upping my system partition a few MB -- especially if it'll help future-proof the system. I'll check the other threads to see if there's a recommended size; not sure if I should set it at 262MB, or err on the side of caution and aim a little higher.
rajeevvp said:
Go back into CWM and do a "wipe data/factory reset". See if that clears your market problems.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll give the factory reset a shot and let you know if it works; may even attempt to repartition the system partition, just to make sure everything's kosher.
Thanks for recommendations!

colbymulkey said:
I'll give the factory reset a shot and let you know if it works...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The factory reset didn't fix my Play Store issues. I was going to settle on the Amazon AppStore as a work around, except I can't even seem to install the APK for the Amazon AppStore. It downloads, but I can't launch it directly from my notification tray, and it's not listed in the "Downloads" app.
I love AOKP on my SII, but I may flash another ROM to see if I find something that works a little better (for me) on my gTablet.
Thanks, again, for your help rajeevvp!

colbymulkey said:
There's probably a way to confirm this within CMW (or by utilizing APX+NVFlash), but I haven't verified it yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In CWM or in the ROM, run this dmesg command right after the system boots:
Code:
$ [B]dmesg | fgrep -i 'Kernel command line'[/B]
<5>[ 0.000000] Kernel command line: [email protected] [email protected] vmalloc=192M video=tegrafb console=ttyS0,115200n8 usbcore.old_scheme_first=1 cpuid=200102 devicetype=1002 bspversion=0202100908 btmac=6037cf131a00 tegraboot=nand mtdparts=tegra_nand:[email protected](misc),[email protected](recovery),[email protected](boot),[B][email protected](system)[/B],[email protected](cache),[email protected](bootbmp),[email protected](logodata)
In APX mode, use the ``--getpartitiontable'' flag and look through it for the APP partition:
Code:
C:\> .[B]\nvflash --bl bootloader.bin --getpartitiontable p.txt[/B]
Multiply the NumSectors and BytesPerSector parameters.
Still, I suspect there would be major stability issues if my system partition were too undersized -- and while there's lag at times, I haven't experienced many system app crashes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, that depends. If critical bits have not been written then you will have immediate crashes or bootloops. OTOH, if unused files have not been written then you won't notice any problems until something attempts to use them. Going by what the AOKP ROM installation script does, the last thing to be written is the face-detection stuff as I said. This would account for your not noticing any major problems.
If you look at the /tmp/recovery.log file right after you install AOKP you'll be able to see precisely which files have not been copied owing to lack of space.
I'll check the other threads to see if there's a recommended size; not sure if I should set it at 262MB, or err on the side of caution and aim a little higher.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go for 270 MB.

[SOLVED] CWM + Cyanogenmod 10 installation help - Did I forgot anything ?

Hey XDA ! =D
I'm still interested in installing Cyanogenmod 10 on my LG Optimus One P500h, but I want to make sure I follow the steps properly first - this is my first time installing a custom ROM, and when I heard it was possible to install Android 4.0 on the P500h, I performed a backup from ROM Manager, and I "bricked" my device a few days ago. XD
I wouldn't want this to happen again, but at least, I must say I have more experience now, and learned a lesson.
Did many searches on how to install CWM with Cyanogenmod 10, I found many different ways to do it, and I'm still unsure of which procedure follow.
Read the FAQ and that was really helpful.
I will list the procedure that I would normally try - please correct me if I forget anything:
0. Root the device
Done that already. I'm on Android 2.3. When I flashed the KDZ on my LG (and so to my surprise, got me updated from 2.2 to 2.3.3) , I've used V20A_00.KDZ, so I *assume* this is the second baseband.
1. Compact/Trim Cyanogenmod ROM
Downloaded CM10 here. This look correct: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1811325
January 8: Build 7/Final
I chose C10 over C11 because more things are compatible I believe - was it Bluetooth that did not worked under C11, but does on C10 ?
Anyways, that solve a known problem: many users said they loose network after the ROM installation. Shinobisoft confirmed it was because of the lack of space on the System partition, right ? Compacting the ROM would also fix problems for installing Link2SD ?
I've downloaded the tool "OOne ROM Editor" and opened it - it doesn't look complicated at all. What apps are safe to delete ? Will converting them to "user app" save space for system apps (I'm not sure - Where are the apps stored when defined as "User"? SD card rather than /System ?) ? Can I delete fonts without problems (I don't see why I can't keep ONLY 3-4 fonts, not 10) ? Then how much space will be left on the device ?
Read I cannot delete LatinIME.apk. Is this the default keyboard? 20MB is huge, there's no way to compact this file, right ?
Assuming there's like 10MB free, network will work, but I will have no choice but to use Link2SD to install apps fully on SD card, is this correct ?
2. Baseband stuff
Ehm, what are we referring to as "baseband" in first place?
All ROMs starting with CM7 are new baseband. If your device had Android 2.2 prior to flashing, you are on old-baseband. There is a patch for that also in the LG Optimus One FAQ on the first page, not sure which post off the top of my head tho. If your device had Android 2.3 on it then you have a new baseband device which shouldn't require any patches.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Allright, this should make this a lot easier - as I said, I originally was on Android 2.2, when I bricked the phone, I flashed "V20A_00" throught KDZ Updated, then I rebooted as 2.3.3, so I shouldn't do anything, right ?
In "About Phone", it's listed "Software Version: LG-P500h-v20a".
3. Install ClockworkMod Recovery
This look like the tricky part.
A lot of people on other sites said to use ROM Manager...
shinobisoft said:
First, serious word of advice. Stay away from ROM Manager. It does not handle this device correctly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ROM Manager's way of flashing recovery is broken by design. Do NOT use it unless you are comfortable with rescuing your phone via ADB/fastboot like many people before.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, ROM Manager is completely broken in this regard. It needs to download a signed ZIP and discard it and report an error when verification fails. Heck, ZIP format has even its own CRC check. What ROM Manager is doing (download whatever .IMG and flash it no matter what) is a nice WTF! Broken by design, go rewrite from scratch!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't trust the use of ROM Manager anymore on my device, and I'm not comfortable with using it again. I actually wonder: When I press VolumeUp-Home-Power, the phone perform a factory reset (Many people asked already why. This apparently mean that CWM is not installed).
But is it really installed? ROM Manager actually says: "Actual Recovery: ClockworkMod Recover 5.0.2.0". What? Am I supposed to press VolumeUp-Home-Power to verify, only to do another factory reset?
So what would the non-ROM-Manager method be ? I found this one here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1146566
I know about the Android Terminal Emulator already, and as a Linux user on PC, the commands "su", "cat", "chmod", "mount" are not unknow to me. I should be able to do this... That's not risky ?
So when CWM will be installed, I should be able to boot in it using "VolumeUp-Home-Power"; in theory, this is a bootloader, so if the ROM get screwed up, I *should* be able to access the bootloader to restore the ROM (I compare this to a PC BIOS - the OS is screwed, but BIOS remain accesible) ?
How could I explain that when I bricked my device with ROM Manager, I couldn't perform a factory reset, and only had access to Emergency Mode (I assume there is not such thing as a "Recovery Mode" on a P500h stock, new/untouched. The equivalent immediatly perform a factory reset) ?
All Android devices have a recovery partition. This is essentially a section of the device’s memory devoted to a very basic recovery system that is separate from the normal operating system. This is normally used by manufacturers for recovering a broken device (as even if the operating system crashes, the recovery image has a chance of still being access and used to reflash the operating system, etc.).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By default, the LG P500h recovery partition perform an immediate factory reset - CWM will be installed here, so I should be able to access it if the ROM freak out. But why couldn't I access the factory reset, when I bricked the device? That's what I wonder.
4. Access CWM and do a Nandroid Backup to SD Card
I will now have the files boot, cache, data, recovery and system, as well as"nandroid.md5" on SD card.
5. Wipe everything, clean SD Card
Perform "Wipe data/factory reset". This will format the /data, /cache, /sdext, and .android_secure
Select the "Advanced" option and on the next screen select "Wipe Dalvik Cache". Confirm the wipe.
Not necessary but I do it anyway, in the "Advanced" screen select "Wipe battery stats" and the confirm that wipe
For a clean installation I recommend formatting the system partition too. From CWM home screen select "mounts and storage". On the next screen select "format /system" and then confirm the format.
Press the back button until you are back in the CWM home screen. Select "Install zip from sdcard" and then select "Choose zip from sdcard". Browse your sdcard for the ROM to install and select it. Confirm the installation. Now wait for the install to finish.
Go back to CWM's home screen. Select "reboot system now" option and let the device boot. The initial boot will take a couple of minutes. Don't panic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
6. Partition SD card (?)
Is this at that point that I should do it, in CWM ? Or wait until I access Cyanogenmod and use a software on PC to partition ?
Assuming I don't partition, I guess I definitely will lack space for applications (Due to the space of Android 4.0) ?
I will do "Partition SD Card>EXT4 1024MB>Swap:64MB. Is this correct?
7. Install Cyanogenmod
Install ZIP from SD Card, choose the CM ZIP;
8. Install Google Apps
Once the install is done, I won't reboot and immediately install Google Apps, with "Install ZIP from SD card". I chose this package (Working on JellyBean):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1917411
Then I should reboot in CyanogenMod and finally install Link2SD, I believe.
***
..Did I forgot anything ?
I *believe* that makes sense, but this is my first time installing a ROM - I doesn't look *that* hard, I did researches, but things can go wrong... :/
What should I do if I screw things up? Use KDZ Updater again ?
I'm still a little worried about that baseband thing, and the lost network connection.
Thanks for the input, cheers!

1) Use FlashImageGUI app to flash recovery/or use Recovery.IMG flasher by @shinobisoft
2) Forget the baseband stuff
3) Factory reset is the default action when you boot into stock recovery
4) If you partition SD card your data will be wiped anyway
Sent from my GT-I9082 using Tapatalk

akiratoriyama said:
1) Use FlashImageGUI app to flash recovery/or use Recovery.IMG flasher by @shinobisoft
2) Forget the baseband stuff
3) Factory reset is the default action when you boot into stock recovery
4) If you partition SD card your data will be wiped anyway
Sent from my GT-I9082 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) I've checked FlashImage GUI, it look really simple to use. This is what I see now:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/67605655/snap20140216_103936.png
For flashing a recovery image, should I select Clear Dalvik & Clear Cache ? Do I have to enable USB Debugging?
Where can I find the recovery image for CWM ? Here maybe: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1523050
I don't know, I would download CWM v5.0.2.7_Touch_p500-Build 4.zip.
Would the terminal emulator method would be easier (I still need to find recovery.img)?
Code:
$ su
# mount -o remount rw /system
# cat /sdcard/flash_image > /system/xbin/flash_image
# chmod 755 /system/xbin/flash_image
# flash_image recovery /sdcard/recovery.img
# mount -o remount ro /system
# reboot recovery
Since I have no Nandroid backup (I cannot do it until CWM is installed), what could I do if something goes wrong ?
2-3) Excellent, thank you.
4) I plan on partitionning, but at which point shoud I preferably do it?
Thank you, I appreciate the help - sorry for all the newbie questions.

1) Recovery image is in the zip fie itself. Extract it
The terminal method you're telling is just what FlashImage GUI does (notice the word 'GUI' )
2) Partition it whenever you want. Just backup your stuff before doing it.
3) As much I hate to say, the thanks button is there for a reason
Regards,
akiratoriyama.
Sent from my GT-I9082 using Tapatalk

akiratoriyama said:
1) Use FlashImageGUI app to flash recovery/or use Recovery.IMG flasher by @shinobisoft
2) Forget the baseband stuff
3) Factory reset is the default action when you boot into stock recovery
4) If you partition SD card your data will be wiped anyway
Sent from my GT-I9082 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
akiratoriyama said:
1) Recovery image is in the zip fie itself. Extract it
The terminal method you're telling is just what FlashImage GUI does (notice the word 'GUI' )
2) Partition it whenever you want. Just backup your stuff before doing it.
3) As much I hate to say, the thanks button is there for a reason
Regards,
akiratoriyama.
Sent from my GT-I9082 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, so I've downloaded ClockworkMod_5.0.2.0_Recovery_ThunderG_Official here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1523050
Extracted the ZIP and put the file recovery.img at the root of the SD Card (USB storage); so now all I have to do would be to start FlashImage GUI, select "Recovery Image", browse and choose the file recovery.img, then flash (I won't select Clear Dalvik & Clear Cache unless I have to (It's not selected by default, so I assume it's not require - although I've backed up my stuff already).
It's that simple?
I'm still in a learning stage, I bricked the device once with ROM Manager, so if that work, I should be more confident for the rest (I will take a Nandroid backup). Thanks for all the great explanations - Will press the thanks button soon
(How much thanks can I give per thread?)

GameX2 said:
Ok, so I've downloaded ClockworkMod_5.0.2.0_Recovery_ThunderG_Official here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1523050
Extracted the ZIP and put the file recovery.img at the root of the SD Card (USB storage); so now all I have to do would be to start FlashImage GUI, select "Recovery Image", browse and choose the file recovery.img, then flash (I won't select Clear Dalvik & Clear Cache unless I have to (It's not selected by default, so I assume it's not require - although I've backed up my stuff already).
It's that simple?
I'm still in a learning stage, I bricked the device once with ROM Manager, so if that work, I should be more confident for the rest (I will take a Nandroid backup). Thanks for all the great explanations - Will press the thanks button soon
(How much thanks can I give per thread?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't worry you won't brick it.
(Talking from my experience of completely hard bricking aka dead booting my device due to kdz)
Just flash it.
It's that simple
Sent from my GT-I9082 using Tapatalk

akiratoriyama said:
Don't worry you won't brick it.
(Talking from my experience of completely hard bricking aka dead booting my device due to kdz)
Just flash it.
It's that simple
Sent from my GT-I9082 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Allright, I got it!
I saw the success message, then used the keys to reboot in recovery, that worked!
At the boot, I can read "ClockworkMod Recovery v5.0.2.0 E: Bad boot message "recovery ".
I believe the "E: Bad boot message "recovery " is a known issue, and but is not a problem - please let me know if I have to do anything about this.
So now I will compact the Cyanogenmod ROM (I don't know how much space I should free, but I'll try to free a decent ammount), and perform a Nandroid backup to SD card.
I believe the hardest/scariest is done. From now, if the ROM install fail, I could just restore the backup, I guess.
Are they any case when CWM is unaccessible (When I bricked my device, I had no access to stock recovery (which only perform factory reset) but just Emergency Mode. Why was that?) ?
Thank you, I will let you know about the rest.
(Will press the thanks button at the end I don't know if it's OK to thanks on multiple posts on one thread, on this forum)
EDIT:
That error message means you dont have SD-ext. Ignore it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
EDIT 2: Nandroid backup succesfully taken! I now have the files .android_secure.vfat.tar, boot.img, cache.yaffs2.img, data.yaffs2.img, nandroid.md5, recovery.img and system.yaffs2.img. Will backup these on my PC.

It's OK to thanks on multiple post.You just have a limit of 8 thanks per day.
ROM manager made anything inaccessible except emergency mode or fast boot mode for some people.
(When I flashed my Oone with CWM, ROM manager worked like a charm)
You can flash the ROM now
Regards,
akiratoriyama.
Sent from my GT-I9082 using Tapatalk

akiratoriyama said:
Don't worry you won't brick it.
(Talking from my experience of completely hard bricking aka dead booting my device due to kdz)
Just flash it.
It's that simple
Sent from my GT-I9082 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
akiratoriyama said:
It's OK to thanks on multiple post.You just have a limit of 8 thanks per day.
ROM manager made anything inaccessible except emergency mode or fast boot mode for some people.
(When I flashed my Oone with CWM, ROM manager worked like a charm)
You can flash the ROM now
Regards,
akiratoriyama.
Sent from my GT-I9082 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I appreciate the information;
It's quite akwards that ROM Manager broke everything (And I asked for a BACKUP - that's so broken, it brick the device when you want to BACKUP <__<) - when it rebooted, it was in Fastboot mode, and I never saw that mode before. Tried a few recommended commands without problems, but when I rebooted, I only had access to Emergency Mode.
What would be informative for me to know, is that ROM Manager seems to not only have screwed the ROM, but the stock bootloader as well. Weird.
Shinobisoft said we need to compact the CM10 ROM with his utility first, because the System partition is too small (Otherwise, I will have no network). I will do that, I have the tool, that doesn't look complicated.
From now, I am backing up my SD Card content (DATA is backed up too) with Nandroid present on SD, so I could start formatting, immediately followed by SD partitioning.
I guess I should be fine at that point - if anything goes wrong, I should have the option to restore the Nandroid backup.
Will let you know when I'll have the ROM compacted (Probably today).
EDIT: YAY !
Everything worked as we expected! I saved my SD Card on my computer, wiped it, partition it from CWM (EXT: 1024MB, SWAP: 64MB. I have a 16 Micro SD, class 4 (Can't afford higher class much, for now), then installed the compacted ROM. Immediately after, I installed Gapps, then rebooted.
That worked !! This ROM is DOPE ! Totally worth upgrading ! Blazing fast !! (Will be slower with apps installed, but well)
I also have a working network!
There is one thing that "failed", I cannot get Link2SD to work. It always says "cannot create mount script". I checked with Windows (I know by experience that I should absolutely not edit Unix partitions in Windows, I just check), and the FAT32 partition is the first, then I have a EXT4 partition, then the Linux-Swap, I don't know why it doesn't work.
I used Gparted to format the EXT4 partition to EXT2, but same problem, "cannot create mount script". What am I supposed to do ?
Thanks youuu !! =D
I'm really happy to have done this on my own, with help - I now have more experience with Android, I have experience with Windows, Linux OS and OS X, but never did I tried flashing a ROM yet.

@GameX2
Just woke up to see this post
How much free space is there on your /system partition ?
Link2SD should be working.
Sent from my GT-I9082 using Tapatalk

akiratoriyama said:
@GameX2
Just woke up to see this post
How much free space is there on your /system partition ?
Link2SD should be working.
Sent from my GT-I9082 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
Tanks for replying. out of 200mb, I have 70Mb free, but on /data. Last time i checked, /system was almost full (where can i check system size?).
Seems like lot of people have this link2sd issue.

@GameX2 use root explorer, it will tell you the remaining system space
@xu3sno or @ibub can you please help me ?
Sent from my GT-I9082 using Tapatalk

akiratoriyama said:
@GameX2 use root explorer, it will tell you the remaining system space
@xu3sno or @ibub can you please help me ?
Sent from my GT-I9082 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I've thought, according to "Storage Analyzer", /sysem has as minimum free space of 84KB (!) and a maximum of 4.63 MB.
Did not experience any weird stuff, for now.
sd-ext folder doest exist at root, but it's empty.

GameX2 said:
That's what I've thought, according to "Storage Analyzer", /sysem has as minimum free space of 84KB (!) and a maximum of 4.63 MB.
Did not experience any weird stuff, for now.
sd-ext folder doest exist at root, but it's empty.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Link2SD needs at least a MB to create mount scripts.
Delete some system apps like TerminalEmulator, CM File manager, Email, Exchange services.
Also use mini LatinIME.
Sent from my GT-I9082 using Tapatalk

akiratoriyama said:
@GameX2 use root explorer, it will tell you the remaining system space
@xu3sno or @ibub can you please help me ?
Sent from my GT-I9082 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@akiratoriyama
Yes, that's right. You can check /system space by using Root Explorer. Or go to
Settings>About phone>Partition info.
I got 10+MB space left on /system partiton after trimmed the ROM and installed mini gapps.
You're right, Link2SD only works if there is 3MB, at least, left in system partition.
Sent from my LG-P500 using xda app-developers app

GameX2 said:
That's what I've thought, according to "Storage Analyzer", /sysem has as minimum free space of 84KB (!) and a maximum of 4.63 MB.
Did not experience any weird stuff, for now.
sd-ext folder doest exist at root, but it's empty.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Once you have success with link2sd creating mount scripts, you can access at /data/sdext. Been a long time since I ran Jan 8 cm-10, but I seem to recall that partition info is not in settings/about phone. But link2sd will have it. Or there are other apps. When viewing storage info from settings menu, don't confuse internal memory with /system (190mb). Internal that is shown there is/data (200mb).
Sent from my LG-P509 using Tapatalk 2

Link2SD needs at least a MB to create mount scripts.
Delete some system apps like TerminalEmulator, CM File manager, Email, Exchange services.
Also use mini LatinIME.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It worked !!
Geez, I went to 170MB of internal MB to 1GB, that's just plain insaneee !
Now I can use my LG P500h for an extra 2 years.
ibub said:
Once you have success with link2sd creating mount scripts, you can access at /data/sdext. Been a long time since I ran Jan 8 cm-10, but I seem to recall that partition info is not in settings/about phone. But link2sd will have it. Or there are other apps. When viewing storage info from settings menu, don't confuse internal memory with /system (190mb). Internal that is shown there is/data (200mb).
Sent from my LG-P509 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you! I was confused, because sd-ext2 at root is empty - nice to find it in /data/sdext2.
Suceess !!
Thanks !!

How Do I Install?
GameX2 said:
1) I've checked FlashImage GUI, it look really simple to use. This is what I see now:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/67605655/snap20140216_103936.png
For flashing a recovery image, should I select Clear Dalvik & Clear Cache ? Do I have to enable USB Debugging?
Where can I find the recovery image for CWM ? Here maybe: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1523050
I don't know, I would download CWM v5.0.2.7_Touch_p500-Build 4.zip.
Would the terminal emulator method would be easier (I still need to find recovery.img)?
Code:
$ su
# mount -o remount rw /system
# cat /sdcard/flash_image > /system/xbin/flash_image
# chmod 755 /system/xbin/flash_image
# flash_image recovery /sdcard/recovery.img
# mount -o remount ro /system
# reboot recovery
Since I have no Nandroid backup (I cannot do it until CWM is installed), what could I do if something goes wrong ?
2-3) Excellent, thank you.
4) I plan on partitionning, but at which point shoud I preferably do it?
Thank you, I appreciate the help - sorry for all the newbie questions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A bit new to installing a recovery and custom ROM on this LG Optimus One (very familiar with Sony phones though), apologies for the newbie-ness. I have all of the files as per this thread, but how do I install the GUI app without a file manager app?

Drachinos said:
A bit new to installing a recovery and custom ROM on this LG Optimus One (very familiar with Sony phones though), apologies for the newbie-ness. I have all of the files as per this thread, but how do I install the GUI app without a file manager app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Install some file manager from play store. In phone settings (not file manager) choose security. Then choose to allow installation from unknown sources. Then open your file manager, scroll to sdcard/downloads/ ,and click on flashimage GUI.apk. Installation process will start.
Sent from my LG-P509 using Tapatalk 2

ibub said:
Install some file manager from play store. In phone settings (not file manager) choose security. Then choose to allow installation from unknown sources. Then open your file manager, scroll to sdcard/downloads/ ,and click on flashimage GUI.apk. Installation process will start.
Sent from my LG-P509 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess I was thinking too much (or not at all!) Simplicity is the key a lot of times!
I tried all of the points in this thread and now this Optimus One has root, recovery and a new ROM. Thanks everyone! :good:

TF700t KatkKiss Marshmallow "Storage space running out"

TF700t
I am on twrp-3.0.2-0. I followed the following steps.
1. Full wipe
2. Format /data
3. Change /data to f2fs
4. Flash KatKiss-6.0_TF700T_029.zip
5. Flash OpenGapps ARM 6.0 Pico
6. Flash SuperSU BETA 2.52
7. Wipe cache/dalvik
8. Reboot
The tablet boots with the message "Storage space running out. Make sure there is at least 250mb free space". This is not only cosmetic but prevents me from installing some apps and enable sync on gmail.
I tried following the steps 2 times thinking I may have had done something wrong the first time each time with format of /data.
What am I doing wrong? Is there any way to increase the size of the system partition from TWRP? What are my options?

Are you trying to install apps to /system? They should go to /data, your system partition is pretty much filled with the rom.
In adb shell run cat /proc/partitions and post the result
Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

Out of space in /system after clean install
I have pretty much exactly the same problem as @smodak - after formatting all partitions in TWRP and changing /data to f2fs I followed the published instructions - installed KatKiss from recovery, then SU 2.52 beta, then open gapps ARM 6.0 pico. All went well except that gapps won't install as there is only 102Mb free in the /system partition.
So I'm just flashing the gapps package in TWRP but it is obviously trying to install to /system instead of /data as you suspected @berndblb... I wonder if this is an error in the installer package configuration?
I had a look through the gapps zip but couldn't find anything explicitly referencing /system, so I'm not sure how to direct the installer to install to /data instead... any suggestions gratefully received. Meantime I might download a different flavour gapps and see if it behaves differently.
Thanks!

I downloaded open_gapps-arm-6.0-full and tried again - still trying to install to /system.
Is it possible to change this behaviour?

You cannot install the full gapps version. The system partition is not large enough. Download and flash the pico version. It has only the essential Gapps, those that need to be in /system to work.
If you're missing any Google apps install them from Play. Then they will install to /data

Yep, already tried pico first - not enough space. Was hoping that the /system target was an error but have since learnt this is by design in open gapps.
I'm having trouble finding any other distribution that targets /data - do you know of any?
Thanks.

Thousands of people have downloaded the rom and flashed the recommended pico gapps without a problem, including yours truly.. And your system partition is not large enough??? I don't think so. I have no idea what it is you are doing, but you are doing something wrong....
Back to basics I would recommend: double check each step and start over

Sigh... I've come so far - from a soft brick to a working OS, I can almost taste it! OK, back to square one. Wipe and try again.
Tell me if this sounds right though - TWRP is reporting that my /system is 503Mb in total, and after installing KK and SU 401Mb is used. So, only 102Mb free. Am I somehow chewing up extra space during the install, or is this what you'd expect, and the partition size you'd expect? The gapps pico zip is 155Mb so if it's trying to extract everything to /system during install, and these sizes are right, it's hard to see how it's ever going to work.

multiSingularity said:
Sigh... I've come so far - from a soft brick to a working OS, I can almost taste it! OK, back to square one. Wipe and try again.
Tell me if this sounds right though - TWRP is reporting that my /system is 503Mb in total, and after installing KK and SU 401Mb is used. So, only 102Mb free. Am I somehow chewing up extra space during the install, or is this what you'd expect, and the partition size you'd expect? The gapps pico zip is 155Mb so if it's trying to extract everything to /system during install, and these sizes are right, it's hard to see how it's ever going to work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where do you see the 503mb size? The TF700 has a 768 mb /system partition.
Format system, then flash rom, gapps and super su in that order.
With Nougatella, pico gapps and SuperSU I have 563 mb on /system.
Install and run DiskInfo from Play to see your partition size and what's in use.
Ooops, sorry - you can't boot the thing.. Didn't mean to twist the knife. :laugh:
Open a terminal in TWRP and run: cat /proc/partitions
You'll see that mmcblk0p1 is 786432 kb which equals 768 MB.
I would be stunned if you see anything dirfferent

berndblb said:
Where do you see the 503mb size? If I remember correctly the TF700 has a ~760 mb /system partition.
Format system, then flash rom, gapps and super su in that order
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
TWRP 3.0.2.1 > Wipe > Advanced Wipe > Select "System" > Repair or Change File System. Shows 503Mb for /system, ~59Gb for /data.
I'm wondering if there might be temp directories left over from installs that need cleaning up? Could I resize those two partitions without a high risk of bricking my tab again?
I'll try reflashing in your order... I was going from the instructions in the KK thread that said to do SU before gapps. Maybe that will help.
---------- Post added at 03:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:13 PM ----------
berndblb said:
Install and run DiskInfo from Play to see your partition size and what's in use
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Heh, it's a bit hard to access the Play Store without being able to install gapps!

multiSingularity said:
Heh, it's a bit hard to access the Play Store without being able to install gapps!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I realized that, read my edit above
---------- Post added at 09:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:30 PM ----------
multiSingularity said:
TWRP 3.0.2.1 > Wipe > Advanced Wipe > Select "System" > Repair or Change File System. Shows 503Mb for /system, ~59Gb for /data.
I'm wondering if there might be temp directories left over from installs that need cleaning up? Could I resize those two partitions without a high risk of bricking my tab again?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mhh, definitely format system because in the same place TWRP shows me 755 mb for /system.
No, you cannot resize the partitions and you don't need to....

berndblb said:
Open a terminal in TWRP and run: cat /proc/partitions
You'll see that mmcblk0p1 is 786432 kb which equals 768 MB.
I would be stunned if you see anything dirfferent
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Prepare to be stunned.
mmcblk0p1 is 524288 in size.
Unsurprisingly, formatting and reflashing KK then gapps still failed. I've attached the gapps installation log for some light reading.
(Scratches head) Soooo... something is screwy with my system partition size. I've never resized it (if that's even possible) so I don't know what's going on.

multiSingularity said:
Prepare to be stunned.
mmcblk0p1 is 524288 in size.
Unsurprisingly, formatting and reflashing KK then gapps still failed. I've attached the gapps installation log for some light reading.
(Scratches head) Soooo... something is screwy with my system partition size. I've never resized it (if that's even possible) so I don't know what's going on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am stunned and scratching my head. This is after running a format in TWRP???
It's late here and I'm going to sleep on this. c u later

berndblb said:
I am stunned and scratching my head. This is after running a format in TWRP???
It's late here and I'm going to sleep on this. c u later
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey, thanks for all your help so far. I really appreciate the time you've put in answering my questions! Sleep tight.

Had to downgrade to KK 5.1.1 to get it all to fit. Worked OK, but noticably slower than Nougat. I did a little jiggerypokery with KK 7.1 in the TWRP terminal window and moved the /system/app directory to my sdcard (set up as Adoptable Storage) with a symlink to it under /system. Hoping this should work OK... it certainly gave me enough space to install gapps. Time to test.

Yeah well that was a bit of a flop. Got stuck on the boot animation. Tried moving some different directories out of system to sdcard or to /data and symlinking but no dice any which way. Tried leaving directories in situ but moving large files and symlinking those (eg foreign font files) but still no joy.
Unless there's a way to delete and recreate the system and data partitions I think I'm stuck on 5.1 till the end of time.

multiSingularity said:
Yeah well that was a bit of a flop. Got stuck on the boot animation. Tried moving some different directories out of system to sdcard or to /data and symlinking but no dice any which way. Tried leaving directories in situ but moving large files and symlinking those (eg foreign font files) but still no joy.
Unless there's a way to delete and recreate the system and data partitions I think I'm stuck on 5.1 till the end of time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You really think the tablet will last that long?? :silly:
How about flashing the thing back to stock. AFAIK flashing the stock blob in fastboot puts everything back to stock. I have no idea if it also recreates the partition table though... Worth a shot if you ask me.
It's called a buster99 and typically used if you're stuck with an 'unrecoverable bootloader error'. Google those terms and you'll find the steps easy enough.

berndblb said:
You really think the tablet will last that long?? :silly:
How about flashing the thing back to stock. AFAIK flashing the stock blob in fastboot puts everything back to stock. I have no idea if it also recreates the partition table though... Worth a shot if you ask me.
It's called a buster99 and typically used if you're stuck with an 'unrecoverable bootloader error'. Google those terms and you'll find the steps easy enough.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I used buster99's approach to recover from my soft brick. It's worth a go, for sure. Will let you know how it goes.

OK, here's the latest.
Flashing the stock ASUS ROM via fastboot failed because the staging partition is too small - it can't even get off first base.
HOWEVER... the lightbulb went on as to why my partitions are all out of whack - a while ago when I started experimenting with resurrecting my Infinity I accidentally flashed a stock TF201 ROM onto it, and this has clearly recreated TF201-sized partitions for me. So, this is an ecouraging sign that doing the same with the right ROM will fix the issue - if only we can get it to complete.
I'm thinking if I could delete all partitions except system and recovery, or even recreate a properly sized staging, and then flash the stock ROM it would likely create the missing partitions as it goes. Thoughts?

Now that explains a lot!
I seem to remember that _that posted a flashable partition table somewhere quite a while ago.... pt.blob I think it was.... I'll dig for it later today...
---------- Post added at 06:00 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:52 AM ----------
Or you say wth and just flash the TF201 Katkiss to it
Which bootloader do you have on there now? The 700 or 201?