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Hi All,
Here is my first contribution to the community, hope it is useful!
I've rezzed up a construct to produce a new /data on sd. It makes use of a second partition formatted ext2 or ext3 mounted to /system/sd with /system/sd/data then mounted over /data.
I've included a lengthy readme file which should explain things in greater detail.
Read the readme first to get a list of dirs & files this construct adds to the /data, then copy the files as explained and off you go!
currently my /data "volume" is 2GB and all is lovely!
Things to note:
I'm rom JF1.51 ADP1 CRB43, the sdcard is 8gb class6
The sd /data contains several scripts of my own design which if not needed can be deleted. I include my modified bootdeb.sh script as it mounts to /data/local/mnt/debian vs /data/local/mnt (that is a script I modified for my own needs which you may find useful)
Feel free to adjust any of the scripts according to your needs. Just note that if I update the construct, that your changes may be undone if you use it, so back them up in that scenario.
Also, I include my mount.ak.sh script which make use of a loopfs to accomplish the roughly the same thing, but in a single partition environment (intended as proof of concept).
**There is NO booting into recovery and wiping of the phone for this mod!**
Thanks to JesusFreak for the roms and saurik for the Debian info!
Cheers!
Wow! Nice, Going to try it out. Thanks
is that mean after running data2sd the phone's completely running on sd? and so much faster?
Hi,
To followup on xnycen's question, why would we do this? Is the benefit only in providing more space, or is there also a performance increase (or decrease)?
hate to see the sdcard fail with this change
well...
Yes, after the install you are running complete on sd,
but because of the method used, if you reboot, and take out the sdcard before the boot starts, you will be running as you were before the data2sd aka normal; put the sdcard back in, reboot and you are in data2sd mode again.
This effectively gives you two android run modes: "normal" and data2sd. If the SDCore can not be located the Android will boot in normal mode. You can of course try to keep them sync'd, but if you do the data2sd from a clean slate you can effectively have a "safemode" and if you have an issue with some app, go into this "safemode" and do some investigations or adjustments as the SDCore will mount if you put the sdcard in after the system is in "safemode" but the apps and such will not be loaded until you reboot.
The size expansion is the primary benefit of the construct. As far as speed goes, I haven't checked to see if there are any speed gains in moving /data to the sd... Can someone who's interested check that out and let us know?
Darkstrumn said:
Yes, after the install you are running complete on sd,
but because of the method used, if you reboot, and take out the sdcard before the boot starts, you will be running as you were before the data2sd aka normal; put the sdcard back in, reboot and you are in data2sd mode again.
This effectively gives you two android run modes: "normal" and data2sd. If the SDCore can not be located the Android will boot in normal mode. You can of course try to keep them sync'd, but if you do the data2sd from a clean slate you can effectively have a "safemode" and if you have an issue with some app, go into this "safemode" and do some investigations or adjustments as the SDCore will mount if you put the sdcard in after the system is in "safemode" but the apps and such will not be loaded until you reboot.
The size expansion is the primary benefit of the construct. As far as speed goes, I haven't checked to see if there are any speed gains in moving /data to the sd... Can someone who's interested check that out and let us know?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Speed is all I'm interested in If it speeds the device up, why not?
Anyone have anything to report about the speed? I am very interested in this
wow having this "dual boot" seems like an incredible idea... can anyone report on this?
can someone please give a more noob friendly instructions? from what I understand as of now is:
1) boot into recovery and wipe the phone (I'm assuming we can keep whatever ROM we had before)
2) place data2sd.img in root of SDcard (fat32)
3) and this is where I get lost... how exactly do I move the sh file to that location? how do I chmod it? how do I run it? what are the adb commands? thanks!
Hmmnm I thought we weren't doing this because of inheriant security risks?
Not to mention what happens when you mount your fat32 partition....are the apps no longer (as well as your data) available?
NO booting into recovery and wiping of the phone!
Hold up people!
**There is NO booting into recovery and wiping of the phone!**
My bad for not being clear on the wipe instructions!
1) (optional) If you are to wipe it (your choice it is not required), then press menu->settings->SD card & phone storage->scroll to bottom of screen and select "Factory data reset". This will wipe the /data partition only removing all apps and settings. BACKUP YOUR /data dir to sd, First or you will need to down load all your apps again to include paid apps!!
2) place data2sd.img in root of SDcard (fat32)
3) terminal in or adb shell in.
4) cp /sdcard/data2sd.sh to /data/local/bin - to copy the script to your user-space
5) chmod 0750 /data/local/bin/data2sd.sh - to make it executable
6) /data/local/bin/data2sd.sh or data2sd.sh may work to run the script
7) once the install is done it should tell you to reboot. If you had the ddms debugger running, you can observer the log as it is working.
8) done. It may boot a little longer if you clean-slate installed and then restored your apps by copying them back into /data/app and /data/app-private which has the affect of reinstalling everything, and thus the boot will take a while if you have alot of apps like I do. Again you can observe this as the Android boots if you have the debugger running.
thanks a lot man, will give this a shot in a few hours! not at my comp right now
security risks and (u)mounting /sdcard
TheDudeOfLife said:
Hmmnm I thought we weren't doing this because of inheriant security risks?
Not to mention what happens when you mount your fat32 partition....are the apps no longer (as well as your data) available?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not sure why there would be any security issues, the Android is already rooted. If someone can steal the sdcard, they can steal the entire Android, and if the sdcard is left lying about, then yes it can be strolen then too.
The construction of the SDCore assumes all the original permissions, so nothing has access to things it shouldn't save the scripts that use the cache as a backup mount point, but it is given the same permissions as /data, so no worries.
With this construct in place, you can't physically remove the sdcard without first powering off the Android, or rebooting it and removing the sdcard first thing. But while the system is operational, you can mount the sdcard to usb and umount it from usb without issue as long as any mounts to the sdcard are released (loopfs, etc) prior to trying. vold will give 10 tries to umount /sdcard to include attempting to kill the processes with file locks on /sdcard when it tries to umount the volume to attach it to usb.
A a matter of fact, if you observe via teh ddms debugger during boot, the vold service is busy checking the sdcard and mounting it well after the system has already mounted the sdcp2 and begun initializing apps from the sd /data.
So, as long as "sdcard partition2" (sdcp2) remains mounted and all, you can mount the sdcard to the connected Host and back and still have access to your apps and data all you want. I reckon this is how the app2sd and dalvik2sd constructs also perform.
The only thing to really note is that the first partition must be vfat (fat32) and the second either ext2 or ext3 (currently as they support file permissions). vold only cares about the first partition which it expects to be a vfat volume. So as long as p1 is vfat and p2 is posix compliant, we're golden!
The only real question I don't have a good answer for is the speed gains question. My card is a 8GB class6 and things seem fairly responsive. I don't know how much different it would be with a class 4 or 2, or the real speed difference with the built in storage. Honestly it feels a little more responsive, but I haven't really done things that make it feel sluggish.
Oh, I saw the .img and assumed you just mounted the .img from fat32. My bad for not reading all the instructions.
Any problems with apps crashing? I have had a lot of quirky issues in the past with merging the entire partition.
Thanks for the response. I like what you've done here. I'll have to try it out for sure.
TheDudeOfLife said:
Oh, I saw the .img and assumed you just mounted the .img from fat32. My bad for not reading all the instructions.
Any problems with apps crashing? I have had a lot of quirky issues in the past with merging the entire partition.
Thanks for the response. I like what you've done here. I'll have to try it out for sure.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No worries; the .img file can be thought of as an install cdrom it is only used the one time during install.
As far as apps crashing, no problems!
During my experimentation building the construct, permission mangling happens if apps are moved out of /data/app, /data/app-private but /data/data and maybe /data/dalvik-cache are not cleaned up prior to copying apps back into their respective app dirs.
What happens is the app dirs are monitored. if you move an apk into the dirs android will install the app. Likewise if you delete an app from those dirs PackageManager will uninstall the app. If /data/data already has the dir for the app, it will use it. if the /data/system/packages.xml and /data/data don't have the same id assigned to that app, you get a permissions\\id conflict; the PackageManager will not manipulate the dir if the id's don't match.
The app /data/local/bin/archiveApps.sh, /data/local/bin/softWIPE.sh and /data/local/bin/restoreApps.sh scripts allow one to backup thier apps to the new /data/app-archive and /data/app-private-archive dirs, clean out /data/data/ /data/dalvik-cache, and restore the apps to their app dirs. As the apps are copied into their dirs, the PackageManager will update /data/system/packages.xml proper and rebuild /data/data and the dalvikVM will build the /dalvik-cahce proper.
Someone made a seemingly nice script (I've not used it yet) called fix_permissions.sh that will parse the /data/system/packages.xml and update the ownership id of the apps /data/data sub dir proper and thus is more scalpel like in operation, but that process doesn't make a backup of the apps; so using both may be the most effective replacing the softWIPE.sh part of the process with the fix_permissions.sh instead.
The only time you should run into issues is if say you have 10 apps installed in teh SDCore /data and 6 in Android /data and then attempt to sync them (because the 6 are different than the 10) by copying\\merging Android /data with SDCore /data the SDCore /data/data /data/dalvik-cache and /data/system/packages.xml will now be mangled.
/data/system/packages.xml will now no longer know about the 10 apps that were installed prior, and on boot PackageManager will "install" them, but /data/data will have dirs inside with now different id's from what was newly assigned them in /data/system/packages.xml, and the 10 apps will now not work correctly but the 6 will as dirs with matching id's were created when they were "installed" new.
To fix, either the softWIPE.sh process outlined above, or the fix_permissions.sh process also mentioned above.
So did anyone try this at all?
Can this be done after doing the apps2sd by marcusmaximus? I tried it but when trying to chmod 0750 /data/local/bin/data2sd.sh it said "No such file or directory" so i tried mkdir /data/local/bin and got "File Exists" so i proceeded with copying data2sd.sh to /data/local/bin again which went without showing any errors and when trying to chmod 0750 /data/local/bin/data2sd.sh again i got the same error so i tried to ls /data/local/bin and just got # what am i doing wrong?
looks interesting! might try this during the weekends ill give an update if i encounter any issues or not
interesting. I'll be looking into this!
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.
Hello all,
I have a VZW Galaxy S3 and am using Scott's CleanRom 5.0
I noticed yesterday that my internal card is 2gb from being full. My external SD is a 32gb and only has a few pictures and some music on it. So I have been wandering around the phone settings trying to figure out how to move my apps to the sd card and free up some space. Can anyone enlighten me?
Thanks in advance.
drzcharlie said:
Hello all,
I have a VZW Galaxy S3 and am using Scott's CleanRom 5.0
I noticed yesterday that my internal card is 2gb from being full. My external SD is a 32gb and only has a few pictures and some music on it. So I have been wandering around the phone settings trying to figure out how to move my apps to the sd card and free up some space. Can anyone enlighten me?
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only app that works is link2sd, on the market. But one draw back is you need to reconfig your external sdcard to do this. Reformat and create 2 partions on your sd card, first partition should be fat32, this where you keep your stuff (music/video/pics) and the second partition is for your apps. link2sd will move your app to the second partition on your sdcard and create a reference so your OS would know where to find it.
Note: If you already have stuff on your sdcard, you can keep them by resize the first partion then create the second partion. This way you still have your data intact.
drzcharlie said:
Hello all,
I have a VZW Galaxy S3 and am using Scott's CleanRom 5.0
I noticed yesterday that my internal card is 2gb from being full. My external SD is a 32gb and only has a few pictures and some music on it. So I have been wandering around the phone settings trying to figure out how to move my apps to the sd card and free up some space. Can anyone enlighten me?
Thanks in advance.
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Click to collapse
I think you are better off moving data instead of the apps. You can get your music, images, and videos and free up a lot of space (Samsung camera can default to save on external card, 4.2 Canberra doesn't have that setting as far as i can tell). Advantage of this is that even if you brick / break / wipe your phone you can still retrieve your images and music. Pop the card in a new phone and everything is still there. More than that, have titanium backup on the external card and easily transfer non-system apps to the new phone.
buhohitr said:
The only app that works is link2sd, on the market. But one draw back is you need to reconfig your external sdcard to do this. Reformat and create 2 partions on your sd card, first partition should be fat32, this where you keep your stuff (music/video/pics) and the second partition is for your apps. link2sd will move your app to the second partition on your sdcard and create a reference so your OS would know where to find it.
Note: If you already have stuff on your sdcard, you can keep them by resize the first partion then create the second partion. This way you still have your data intact.
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Let me make sure I understand correctly. The app will guide you through the partitioning process or is this something I have to do independent from the app?
Thanks in advance.
tsachi said:
I think you are better off moving data instead of the apps. You can get your music, images, and videos and free up a lot of space (Samsung camera can default to save on external card, 4.2 Canberra doesn't have that setting as far as i can tell). Advantage of this is that even if you brick / break / wipe your phone you can still retrieve your images and music. Pop the card in a new phone and everything is still there. More than that, have titanium backup on the external card and easily transfer non-system apps to the new phone.
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Click to collapse
First I guess I need to explain that I still use iTunes in conjunction with Tune Sync for my music so back up isn't an issue for music. My photos are uploaded to SmugMug so they too are backed up. It just seems that my data and apps are hogging the internal SD.
I have TB Pro installed but admittedly don't know much about it yet as I have converted from the Dark Side (IOS). So, how do I get it to do what I need? Perhaps there is a tutorial somewhere on YouTube I could look up.
EDIT: I found the setting in Camera storage but no option to change it. I just says "SD Card" I assume that is internal SD?
drzcharlie said:
Let me make sure I understand correctly. The app will guide you through the partitioning process or is this something I have to do independent from the app?
Thanks in advance.
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Click to collapse
You have to do it manually. It's pretty simple, may take around 20min. Just download the "gparted" iso image, then use imgburn to burn this image on your cd, reboot with cd as default boot device instead of your harddisk, once you booted into gpart operating system, there will be a gui you could use to partion your sdcard, first resize your existing partion, then create a new one from the unallocate partion as ext4. Remember both partion have to be PRIMARY and set the ext4 to boot (once you create the ext4, just right click, select flag then select boot).
Gparted boot creator
download gparted iso:
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/download.php
burn with imgburn:
http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download
How to use link2sd.
click on the app you want to move then select "link to sd" button. Don't click on move app to sd, this is for the old GB rom only.
tsachi said:
I think you are better off moving data instead of the apps. You can get your music, images, and videos and free up a lot of space (Samsung camera can default to save on external card, 4.2 Canberra doesn't have that setting as far as i can tell). Advantage of this is that even if you brick / break / wipe your phone you can still retrieve your images and music. Pop the card in a new phone and everything is still there. More than that, have titanium backup on the external card and easily transfer non-system apps to the new phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
buhohitr said:
You have to do it manually. It's pretty simple, may take around 20min. Just download the "gparted" iso image, then use imgburn to burn this image on your cd, reboot with cd as default boot device instead of your harddisk, once you booted into gpart operating system, there will be a gui you could use to partion your sdcard, first resize your existing partion, then create a new one from the unallocate partion as ext4. Remember both partion have to be PRIMARY and set the ext4 to boot (once you create the ext4, just right click, select flag then select boot).
Gparted boot creator
download gparted iso:
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/download.php
burn with imgburn:
http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download
How to use link2sd.
click on the app you want to move then select "link to sd" button. Don't click on move app to sd, this is for the old GB rom only.
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Click to collapse
Thank you for all of this. I won't be able to do this until I return where I can burn the image. Looks fairly simple and I will give it a go when I return to work.
You could always plug your phone into your computer and drop and drag the files you want over to your external card.
sfobrien said:
You could always plug your phone into your computer and drop and drag the files you want over to your external card.
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Click to collapse
I had wondered if I could do that without affecting anything. I'll give it a try.
Thanks
Your welcome.
Sent from my Galaxy S3 with Tapatalk 2
drzcharlie said:
I had wondered if I could do that without affecting anything. I'll give it a try.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You only can move video/music/pictures/backup files etc.. to your ext sdcard, but you cannot move your apps to external card. Your apps will stopped working. Link2sd allowed you to install all your downdoad apps to your SDcard (most of them, some apps required to stay internal, like widgets etc...)
buhohitr said:
You only can move video/music/pictures/backup files etc.. to your ext sdcard, but you cannot move your apps to external card. Your apps will stopped working. Link2sd allowed you to install all your downdoad apps to your SDcard (most of them, some apps required to stay internal, like widgets etc...)
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Click to collapse
I should have been more clear. What I suggested was just for backing up files in case the internal memory were to get wiped, example being if a new ROM was flashed with Odin, back to stock, etc. Thanks.
sfobrien said:
I should have been more clear. What I suggested was just for backing up files in case the internal memory were to get wiped, example being if a new ROM was flashed with Odin, back to stock, etc. Thanks.
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Click to collapse
I did more research prior to moving them manually and found that what you just posted would have that affect. So, I still haven't done anything. My computer is old and not capable of burning a disc so I need to use a work computer but will have to do it after hours.
On a semi- related matter, since flashing CR 5.0 my settings for "Nearby Devices" is grayed out. I have been using this in conjunction with viewing photos on my TV. Any thoughts on why this might have happened? I re-flashed without success in gaining access.
drzcharlie said:
I did more research prior to moving them manually and found that what you just posted would have that affect. So, I still haven't done anything. My computer is old and not capable of burning a disc so I need to use a work computer but will have to do it after hours.
On a semi- related matter, since flashing CR 5.0 my settings for "Nearby Devices" is grayed out. I have been using this in conjunction with viewing photos on my TV. Any thoughts on why this might have happened? I re-flashed without success in gaining access.
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Click to collapse
I believe you need to install Allshare in order for this option to work.
Is there a way to download and install the Allshare app separately? I didn't choose it when doing the CR5.0 install. I looked on the playstore, but don't see it. I was going to re-install the ROM, but would rather just load the app if i could.
Only way I know is to flash ROM again. I don't use it. You don't have to wipe data just cache and dalvik.
Sent from my Galaxy S3 with Tapatalk 2
Thanks for that information. I wonder if Allshare is available somewhere? Google is my friend...
This appears to be the Allshare app. It does everything the stock app did. I'll try it and report back.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...mNvbS5zZWMuYW5kcm9pZC5hbGxTaGFyZUNvbnRyb2wiXQ..
This appears to be the Allshare app. It does everything the stock app did. I'll try it and report back.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...mNvbS5zZWMuYW5kcm9pZC5hbGxTaGFyZUNvbnRyb2wiXQ..
EDIT: Nope, when opened it states: Allshare Framework not installed application will exit
Well, it was worth asking the question. I will be reflashing the ROM tonight. I just noticed a issue with what I believe would be the KindaCrap mods I installed. I removed the clock from the notification bar, and changed the battery to just a percentage, and the percentage was really slow while charging like it wasn't taking a charge. After rebooting I was near 60%, when it was showing me 20% before the reboot. I think a fresh install will be good.
Hi There
Can someone explain what he\she did to partition SD card, and make all apps get installed on it.
Please note :
1. I don't want to use Titanium backup for this usage. I don't have the paid version and I'm tired of doing this one app at a time.
2. I saw some guides on the net, but they were all for GB.
(partition the microSD on PC using minitool) -can we use ext4 on our MTD ROMs ? What is the 1st partition for ? and the 2nd ?
(install busybox and super user) - Is it still needed ? (MIUI for example has LBE as su).
(install Link2SD) - Is it always in memory ?
(reboot and put partitioned SD card)
(Define Link2SD)
3. I also saw swapper instructions but I can manage with 170MB free RAM memory I get after removing all unnecessary system apps, and I remember ppl saying then that it kills the SDCard very quickly.
If someone has a clear guide or instructions that he knows work, that will be nice.
Thanks in advance.
Step 1. Partition your SD card to have a sd-ext partition. This can definitely be ext2 or FAT16. Anything else depends on your kernel. Most of them do support ext3 and 4, but... start with something fairly basic.
Regarding recoveries:
TWRP has always failed for me on this, so I'd avoid that.
This may be doable in CWM. I've seen reference to that newer versions of CWM removed the partition option, so you might need to flash an ICS ROM with an older kernel, repartition, and then flash back to the one you want.
Also note that if you use CWM to repartition, your SD-card will be wiped. So do a backup first.
Step 2. Install Mounts2SD. Either from XDA or the Play Store. Even if you do take it from the Play Store to get update notifications, I highly suggest grabbing the recovery script from the XDA thread so that you can get back your shifted applications without needing to re-download and install M2SD, since it likes to be on internal which means... shifted off.
Step 3. Open Mounts2SD. Grant SU rights at whatever point it asks for it during step 3. Hit the menu button. Go to Application Settings. Install the Startup Script. Tell it to use the built-in busybox as well, so that you don't need to install anything or worry about it failing. Back out of the Application Settings.
Step 4. Press on the Wrench to go into the actual specific settings. I currently have forced Cache, 1% Storage Threshold, Applications are the only bit moved, the File System Check is on and using the Ext4 Driver, 128KB Deadline for Internal and 4096 with Deadline for External, and Safe Mode is disabled. But decide on what you want yourself, set it, go back to the Eye to see your current info.
Step 5. Reboot.
Step 6. Wait 1-30 minutes for it to finish moving all your stuff around.
Step 7. Unlock your phone, open Mounts2SD, and make sure everything looks pretty on that first 'Eye' info tab. If you like it then close Mounts2SD and keep going on your merry way. If you don't like it or you've done something like offload your data and now your phone is wretchedly slow, go to the Wrench, change your settings, go back to the Eye, and reboot again. Repeat until satisfied.
I thought it would be simplier.
A few more questions:
1. If I partition SD on PC, then I don't need any partitioning on recovery so it should work fine even on TWRP or advanced CWMs. Am I right?
2. Why do I need scripts for? Isn't the app enough?
3. Why should/could it possibly slow down my device? TB 'move to SD' for all doesn't slow my device what so ever.
4. How and where do I see what partition is used for what?
5. How much RAM does the app take?
6. Have you tried other apps link2sd or something CM has built in I think.?
Thanks.
sent from me
New answers to new questions.
1. Skip step 1 if you've done it on your PC. I just suggested recovery as that's easy... if you've made your sd-ext partition on the PC, step 1 is done.
2. No clue on Link2SD. I use Mounts2SD instead since it lets me set things. It probably does the same thing though and sets a init.d script that gets run during startup.
3. True. For some reason though having all your data moved to sd-ext makes our phone go to a crawl. Same if you move off the dalvik.
4. That's in Mounts2SD. No clue how you can see if you're using Link2SD.
5. For Mounts2SD, none while it's being used, since it just runs as a startup script. The app is just to control the script.
6. Not successfully. I had tried 5 or 6 different apps back a year ago or so when I first started playing with sd-ext and Mounts2SD was the best and free, so... never looked back after that. Now you can also do some system-flag tweaking if you want to donate, but the sd-ext stuff is all free.
I was able to successfully partition SD and use mount2sd on 4.3 SlimBean.
however, it was rather slow.
CM 10.1 and CM10.2 by DJL. did not allow me to partition nor did they recognize SlimBean's partition even if I replaced them kernel (to NilTMT).
I'm currently using CM10.1 which is stable as a daily driver and manually swapping apps with TB, I hate it, but this is the best combination I've come so far.
I sold my wife's SGS4G and upgraded her to SGS3 and hopefully in a year I will do the same. it had its moments, but on the bottom line it's a pretty ****ty phone with its lack of internal mem...but hey, it drove so many of us to go deeper and deeper trying to understand and made us more tecnolgical and solution oriented.
Mounts2SD worked for me on CM10.1, so not sure why it failed for you. Ah well.
A few things I have found...
Yes, you can partition on Windows, but you're really asking for trouble. It's not too bad download Ubuntu or the like and you can boot off a USB stick without touching your Windows install.
The TeamAcid kernels that I know of handle ext2/3/4 file systems. All kinds of arguments as to which are better. I personally use ext4 and don't find it obviously "slow" for the way I use my phone.
That said, what the boot scripts (which are part of a flashed "kernel" for the SGS4G) actually do with a "special" partition is another story. In some cases the first stages of booting will look for special partitions and mount them in pre-configured places. For example, the second partition of the removable card might be mounted on /sd-ext/ in many CyanogenMod ROMs. Many (most?) SGS4G ROMs don't have these "special" mount rules defined.
Moving an app to SD using the "native" approach just moves the app and none of its data to the SD card. It won't for example, move 25 MB of mail from /data/data to your microSD
Moving an app to SD (or anywhere else) doesn't keep it from generating its classes in /data/dalvik-cache -- It isn't "free" to have an app on SD as far as internal storage goes, even if it doesn't write any data.
Moving an app to SD will absolutely slow down your boot time. It does it by creating a file that contains a file system that then gets read and mounted at boot time. You can watch the parade of them getting mounted using adb logcat. It can take a minute or two to mount them all. Once mounted, that double layer of file systems shouldn't slow you down too much, since it is basically a read-only kind of thing.
Scripts are required since you need to be able to "fake out" the operating system as to where things are stored for anything (except if you just use the native app to SD method). In most cases you need new partitions mounted before the Android part of the OS starts running.
Some scripts are more robust than others.
TitaniumBackup (paid version) has a way to move data to an external partition. It works like a charm for me (64 GB Sandisk UHS-1 / Class 10 microSD). It was very tweaky for me to get it to recognize the ext4 partition the first time. It can bulk-move app data to the partition. I don't know which, if any, of the other scripts move the data to an external partition.
On my phone, an ext4 file system can be significantly faster than the internal yaffs, especially for write. Alas, it usually seems to be read that is a killer for most things in an well-written app. On my phone, yaffs can be faster than ext4 for short reads. Who knows how this would play out in real-world usage.
Other things that TitaniumBackup can do that help free up internal storage, at least in the paid version, are:
Dalvik cache cleanup
Integrate system Dalvik cache into ROM
Integrate update into ROM
Convert to system app
I can confirm Link2SD works where Mount2SD fails, which is an ext3 partitioned sd-ext on AOKP. it doesn't get any simpler than that.
sent from me
I have been using this thing almost daily since I got it. It was rooted within a day of getting it and I've been running sbdags' ROMS on it exclusively. Many builds were lightning fast. Not so much lately. I am not getting the reported "buttery slickness" that others are getting. This has been on a few builds, so I'm posting here, as I dare not blame the ROM.
One of the biggest issues I see lately are how every app loads slow. Touches are slow in everything. Some touches take minutes to do the function requested. I know the touches are registering, as I have "show touches" on. Nav bar touches are the worst.
I thought about doing a full wipe, everything. Before I do that I want to backup everything, including the internal. When I connected it to my PC tonight, drivers took a minute to find and install, but the PC now sees the device. When I try to copy out the internal to my PC, it takes 30+ minutes to "calculate" the file size, then it only copies out one or two folders before a failure. Tried 3 different PCs, on more than 4 build+kernel configurations.
Is this thing on its last leg?
It's not on it's last leg.
Do you ever run fstrim on your partitions? It could clean up some of the eMMC.
What I would do in your case, is to manually copy the whole filesystem block-for-block eith dd to your computer. Littke chance of that failig.
Use linux for best redults. Install openssh for armv7h, onto the tablet, open a terminal, and...
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0p8 | ssh [email protected]<yourbpc ip> "dd of=/home/<your username>/tf700-data.img"
or tar it up on your device to an sccard..
cd /data && tar c . | gzip -9 > /Removable/MicroSD/data.tar.gz
There are so many ways to get your data off the tablet. And all of them better than over MTP.
Upload to the cloud (Google, Dropbox etc etc)
copy to microSD
adb pull /sdcard/
use ES File Explorer or Superbeam to transfer files to a different Android device
use ES LAN feature to transfer data to a shared folder on your PC
.....
.....
If you never formatted data before it will most likely breathe a whole lotta new life into your tablet.
If you do it in TWRP remember, it can take 90 minutes plus!
berndblb said:
Upload to the cloud (Google, Dropbox etc etc)…
If you never formatted data before it will most likely breathe a whole lotta new life into your tablet.
If you do it in TWRP remember, it can take 90 minutes plus!
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I shall set this into motion this morning. I will do the TWRP format while I sleep. I have done an internal wipe before but it certainly didn't take a long time. Perhaps I did a different wipe.
duckredbeard said:
I shall set this into motion this morning. I will do the TWRP format while I sleep. I have done an internal wipe before but it certainly didn't take a long time. Perhaps I did a different wipe.
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After formatting your /data, consider changing to f2fs. It's really faster and needs no fstrim.
das chaos said:
After formatting your /data, consider changing to f2fs. It's really faster and needs no fstrim.
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I've already got gparted and linux live downloaded. That is why I was dumping my internal and external. Going for a total rebuild. Just need to determine what/how many partitions and what size. I want to keep some space on the external for the kids movies.
duckredbeard said:
I've already got gparted and linux live downloaded. That is why I was dumping my internal and external. Going for a total rebuild. Just need to determine what/how many partitions and what size. I want to keep some space on the external for the kids movies.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why so complicated? Save internal SD, eject external SD and for the rest:
Code:
fastboot erase userdata
.
If you dump partitions, you dump also the errors (if any).