Database Info

Moving dalvik-cache to sd on MiuiXt_Final_V2

Hi,
I wanted to know more about this, apparently it helps to stabilize the phone and doesn't affect performance that much on a level 6+ card and I have a 32 gigs level 10 sdcard.
Do I simply have to create a dalvik-cache folder at the root of my ext3 partition or is there a script to run so that the OS knows where to link?
Finally, might be a stupid question, say I'd like to restore the miuixt_final_v2 again on my phone, can I just do the same procedure again over the same rom version?
I can't install apps that aren't from android market and it working at first and I just can't figure why, so I was tempted to just restore the whole thing and start fresh.
I'd ask in the dev thread but I can't post there until I have 10 posts...
Thanks!!

For those newbie like me wondering, I used link2sd and I manage the dalvik-cache by applications now, works like a charm. I prefer it over app2ext because I can control what is going on even if it implies managing every application instead of having a background process doing it for you.

SD Card partitioning on MTD ROMs

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

[Q] BMM partition size

I've always had issues with ROMs when it comes to partition size. If I used system 3 & 4 and put a data partition of 1000M on both, the second ROM I installed would fail to boot after apps were installed. I got around this by making the data partitions 800M instead so now I can run two ROMs. I don't understand why this would be happening though. With 800M data partitions I can't have a third or fourth ROM and by the time I get my apps installed anything under 800M isn't enough space. Is there something I am missing or is this just the way that it is?

nbucko said:
I've always had issues with ROMs when it comes to partition size. If I used system 3 & 4 and put a data partition of 1000M on both, the second ROM I installed would fail to boot after apps were installed. I got around this by making the data partitions 800M instead so now I can run two ROMs. I don't understand why this would be happening though. With 800M data partitions I can't have a third or fourth ROM and by the time I get my apps installed anything under 800M isn't enough space. Is there something I am missing or is this just the way that it is?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How many USER apps do you have installed on system 1? Since bmm creates the additional partitions on the system 1 data partition, that has a lot to do with it.

I also have same query.
Actually after installing Kitkat ROM on my Atrix 2, I prefer to switch runtime to ART and ART consumes lot of space while retaining same number of apps like in dalvik runtime. And the usual 1 GB partition which we create during multiboot setup seems too less in case of ART, though its enough if we keep the runtime to dalvik. It fills up very soon.
Right now my preference is to keep two ROMs apart form stock ICS so total there are three ROMs in my phone.
Is there any way to create data partition of more than 1 GB? BMM refuses to create 2GB partition when there is already one custom ROM in one of the system.
Haven't tried to see if 2 GB is possible if only single custom ROM is installed along with stock ROM. If 2GB is possible in case of only single ROM along with stock then also I can live with it.

Jack Sparrow xda said:
I also have same query.
Actually after installing Kitkat ROM on my Atrix 2, I prefer to switch runtime to ART and ART consumes lot of space while retaining same number of apps like in dalvik runtime. And the usual 1 GB partition which we create during multiboot setup seems too less in case of ART, though its enough if we keep the runtime to dalvik. It fills up very soon.
Right now my preference is to keep two ROMs apart form stock ICS so total there are three ROMs in my phone.
Is there any way to create data partition of more than 1 GB? BMM refuses to create 2GB partition when there is already one custom ROM in one of the system.
Haven't tried to see if 2 GB is possible if only single custom ROM is installed along with stock ROM. If 2GB is possible in case of only single ROM along with stock then also I can live with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't recall who or where, but someone posted a workaround for creating a 2 GB partition. The good news is that it can be done. The bad news is the info is probably BURIED somewhere here in Q&A.

CM11 and insufficient storage

Recently switched to CM11 nightly, and while trying to install some app, I got insufficient storage message. Now what the.... ????
1) I started reading forum after forum, some suggested to clear, davlik cache and cache from recovery, don that did not helped.
2) Others suggested to delete everything from /data/app-lib/app-path/lib but none of my app's had LIB sub-directory in /data/app-lib/app-path/
3) Others suggested to use Lucky Patcher to get rid of unused odex files. Done that but no odex files found.
4) Other suggested to get rid of applications cache, done - no result.
5) Dumpstate/logcat does not exists (no such directory as /data/log )
I still have over 450 Mb of storage available on the phone, but I cannot install any app.....
This drives me mental.
Any ideas please?
Thanks.
Emil

borconi said:
Recently switched to CM11 nightly, and while trying to install some app, I got insufficient storage message. Now what the.... ????
1) I started reading forum after forum, some suggested to clear, davlik cache and cache from recovery, don that did not helped.
2) Others suggested to delete everything from /data/app-lib/app-path/lib but none of my app's had LIB sub-directory in /data/app-lib/app-path/
3) Others suggested to use Lucky Patcher to get rid of unused odex files. Done that but no odex files found.
4) Other suggested to get rid of applications cache, done - no result.
5) Dumpstate/logcat does not exists (no such directory as /data/log )
I still have over 450 Mb of storage available on the phone, but I cannot install any app.....
This drives me mental.
Any ideas please?
Thanks.
Emil
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do a clean install.
How?...
Do a factory reset and flash the last snapshot. I think the last one was M7.
If your problem persists after that, you're dealing with a hardware issue.

orange808 said:
Do a clean install.
How?...
Do a factory reset and flash the last snapshot. I think the last one was M7.
If your problem persists after that, you're dealing with a hardware issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the answer
I did a full data wipe and I installed CM 10.2 stable, annoying enough google failed to restore to the device, so I had to redo everything. Anyway even with CM 10.2 after a FULL wipe I'm still facing the same issue. My device reports that I have more than 500 Mb free space, but I cannot install new software, however I can copy and download to it without any problems....
It's not a major think I cannot leave with out, just it's quite frustrating...
Emil

i've been running cm11m7 on my relay for about a month now, and even with a bunch of apps installed, and letting touchdown (my work email app) use internal storage for emails and attachments, i still have 3.5gb free on internal.
my guess is you have a ton of large apps using up all your internal storage.
how much free space do you see when you go into settings/storage immediately after you do a clean install of CM? skip the google account stuff during first-time setup so it doesn't try to sync apps/etc, so you get a good, accurate measurement.
for reference, mine shows a total of 5.06gb, with 3.52gb available. 1.51gb used by apps, 2.31mb pictures, 352k audio, 5.5mb downloads, 102mb cached, and 7.82mb misc. that's not counting my SD card, which doesn't have any apps on it. just MP3s, pictures, backups (titanium) and other misc files i keep around for work. i'm thinking after a fresh install, you should have at least 4.5gb free.
when i go into apps and sort by size, firefox (surprisingly) takes the most at 307mb, then google text to speech with 263mb (because i downloaded the high quality english pack), then touchdown at 100mb, chrome at 78mb, onenote at 64mb, kindle at 56mb, and it just goes down from there.

orange808 said:
Do a clean install.
How?...
Do a factory reset and flash the last snapshot. I think the last one was M7.
If your problem persists after that, you're dealing with a hardware issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not so sure it's a hardware issue.
Dear OP:
Question 1
Are you still having this issue? If not, what was the workaround?
Question 2
What app are you using in order to download and install the software you're installing?
Question 3
What's the exact error message you're getting? Please provide a screenshot if possible.
Question 4
The Google Play store definitely requires 500 megs free before it will install anything. Other software installation methods may also have their own odd requirements.
500 mebibytes equals 524.288 megabytes.
Let's round that number (524.288) up to 550 megs.
Try freeing up 550 megs, then try installing a small app (one which requires 3 MB of storage space or less). Can you install it successfully?

Did you manage to solve the issue , i too have the same problem . I have more than 5gb free on internal storage

system is using a lot of storage

UPDATE : I MANAGED TO FIX THE PROBLEM​The way is to clean format the system via twrp (switch to ext2 and switch to ext4) or something similar, the storage partition will restore to its original state
Hello everybody, recently I decided to check the storage allocation and saw that system is using a large portion of my storage space
Any suggestions ?

Maybe with root you can debloat some useless apps.

eddieleon7pc said:
Hello everybody, recently I decided to check the storage allocation and saw that system is using a large portion of my storage space
Any suggestions ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a bit strange.
I'm pretty sure, though, that stock apps aren't included here, maybe only core system apps. Because I have disabled a lot of pre-installed apps and the system storage space didn't change that much, only App storage. Mine is currently at 10.26GB, and I'm pretty sure it's been like that out of the box as well, maybe a bit less.
And my cache sits around 500MB.
Either way, go to your settings-apps and disable what you don't use. After that use some sort of a cleaning app, like Clean Master and run it. Just make sure you uninstall it after you're done.
If none of that helps, I'd do a complete format and clean flash via FlashTool, or use xperia companion to repair the software.
40GB for system storage seems a bit extreme. Maybe I'm just not that heavy user, but I don't see how the user can even affect the system storage, apart from cache. Even when updating OTA, I'm pretty sure those downloaded packages get deleted afterwards.
For most of the useless stock apps, you don't need root to disable them, it is not the same as completely removing them while rooted, but it will still free up some storage space and prevent them from running in the background.

Atrax2010 said:
"I'd do a complete format and clean flash via FlashTool, or use xperia companion to repair the software...."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Brother. I already did that. Nothing changes. The only way is root it and remove ( not only disable ) the apps using titanium backup ( or some program like that ). Don't forget to make a backup from them before remove the apps.
But, i think that this process don't result in alot free space. Maybe when android compile the apk in cache the result naturaly takes this space. I have a 64gb XZ and this issue really annoying me too. If i discovery something i share with you.