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[DEV] unCoRrUpTeD Dual Boot V1 (RELEASE:TBA)

unCoRrUpTeD Dual Boot V1​
COMING SOON
Head on over to the official thread for unCoRrUpTeD Dual Boot >>>>>>>> Dual Boot

Reserved for no reason at all.
Maybe i can find a use for it

unCoRrUpTeD said:
Reserved for future use
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HELL YEA!!! been waiting for this man..you are awsome! look forward to the release with anticipation. I did want to ask..whats a sufficient Micro Sd card to you(size wise)? i currently have a 2gb with about 1gb left would that be enough or should i go buy a 4gb?

+1 on this, will be really useful! Thanks for your work!

t12icky0 said:
HELL YEA!!! been waiting for this man..you are awsome! look forward to the release with anticipation. I did want to ask..whats a sufficient Micro Sd card to you(size wise)? i currently have a 2gb with about 1gb left would that be enough or should i go buy a 4gb?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I currently have the partitions for /system and /data set as 200Mb. i am going to try and add on more for /cache, but I am looking into making it as small as possible, since many would not be installing a lot of extra apps. It could be as small as 330Mb total.

so will i need that APPS2SD thing for this?

t12icky0 said:
so will i need that APPS2SD thing for this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. I will have instructions on setting up your sdcard
Right now my script is linux based. I'm not sure how much can be done with a batch script, but it will direct you in what you will need to do.

unCoRrUpTeD said:
No. I will have instructions on setting up your sdcard
Right now my script is linux based. I'm not sure how much can be done with a batch script, but it will direct you in what you will need to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sweet..your the man..cant wait!

One important thing I would like to propose here for the developer is a "standard" location somewhere on the SD card which would keep all the common data such as contacts, recent sms, call logs, etc. so that multi boot environment can share data without loss or duplicates.
In other words, boot to CM6 tonight and in two days when you decide to go back to stock ROM, all your sms, phone calls and such are picked up right where you left them in CM6 and vice versa.
Other than that, this sounds like an awesome thing. Can't wait to have the phone boot one ROM for Monday, another for Tuesday, and another for Wednesday and another...

obsanity said:
One important thing I would like to propose here for the developer is a "standard" location somewhere on the SD card which would keep all the common data such as contacts, recent sms, call logs, etc. so that multi boot environment can share data without loss or duplicates.
In other words, boot to CM6 tonight and in two days when you decide to go back to stock ROM, all your sms, phone calls and such are picked up right where you left them in CM6 and vice versa.
Other than that, this sounds like an awesome thing. Can't wait to have the phone boot one ROM for Monday, another for Tuesday, and another for Wednesday and another...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not really possible. Different rom versions (2.1 vs 2.2) store the data in different formats. You'll have to rely on something like titanium backup to handle it.

How exactly is the dual-booting done? Does the batch script need to be controlled from the computer, or have you made a custom bootloader for on-the-fly switching?

HeroMeng said:
How exactly is the dual-booting done? Does the batch script need to be controlled from the computer, or have you made a custom bootloader for on-the-fly switching?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
very good question

It's pretty simple if you have ever extracted the ramdisk and kernel from boot.img
The recovery has not been modified and the only time a computer is used is to setup the ROM the first time. You have to modify the boot.img from the ROM you want to installed on the sdcard. Once it has been changed, all you do is flash the boot.img of the ROM you want. I have mine setup where everything for the ROM is stored on the sdcard (/system, /data, and /cache) but have not been able to test out cache yet.
The reason for a non modified recovery is so that it can be done on any android phone.
I may put up a way to do this while I look into the script.

that is awesome you got so far so quick. i was hoping the squashfs tip would help you out. cant wait to see what approach you took.

unCoRrUpTeD said:
It's pretty simple if you have ever extracted the ramdisk and kernel from boot.img
The recovery has not beenmodified and the only time a computer is used is to setup the ROM the first time. You have to modify the boot.img from the ROM you want to installed on the sdcard. Once it has been changed, all you do is flash the boot.img of the ROM you want. I have mine setup where everything for the ROM is stored on the sdcard (/system, /data, and /cache) but have not been able to test out cache yet.
The reason for a non modified recovery is so that it can be done on any android phone.
I may put up a way to do this while I look into the script.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, I see how you do the dual boot now. But I have one more question. How exactly do you get the rom on the SD? Do you use an ext partition or just put it on the FAT partition? Or is there some other partition type that I haven't heard of?
Sent from my Hero. It has a mind of its own

HeroMeng said:
Oh, I see how you do the dual boot now. But I have one more question. How exactly do you get the rom on the SD? Do you use an ext partition or just put it on the FAT partition? Or is there some other partition type that I haven't heard of?
Sent from my Hero. It has a mind of its own
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since everyone has a different size sdcard and most do not want to format the sdcard completely I will provide instructions on how to partition it correctly.

t12icky0 said:
HELL YEA!!! been waiting for this man..you are awsome! look forward to the release with anticipation. I did want to ask..whats a sufficient Micro Sd card to you(size wise)? i currently have a 2gb with about 1gb left would that be enough or should i go buy a 4gb?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go on buy.com and get a 16gb sdcard for about 35 bucks, jesus lol !!!

CrashV2010 said:
Go on buy.com and get a 16gb sdcard for about 35 bucks, jesus lol !!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol..i dont use that much space...as you can see i have 1gb left on my
2gb..LMAO! i would have like prolly 15gb left on it. So it would be pointless for me to get a 16gb.

t12icky0 said:
lol..i dont use that much space...as you can see i have 1gb left on my
2gb..LMAO! i would have like prolly 15gb left on it. So it would be pointless for me to get a 16gb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have an 8GB class6. I have used about 4GB.
Post #2 has steps on setting up the sdcard

Just wondering but whats the plus side to this as opposed to just having different nandriod backups to flash between? I know it would be faster to boot but imo that's not woth all the partitioning of the sd card and what not. Now if it allowed you to run Windows Mobile roms from the SD then that would be awesome. I had a dual boot on my old HTC diamond and thats where I first discovered Android

Booting from external SD [CM]

UPDATE: This can't be used with CM10 Alpha 4 (or later) as it is due to the new partitioning system.
____
I made this thing time ago and I thought to share.
What it does is to boot a stock ROM from the external SD card. It's nothing special, I simply changed few things here and there. I did it because I needed a stock ROM for a couple of minutes and this was the faster way to get it.
I'm using CM and I made this with that in mind, so, don't use while using a stock ROM. It won't mess your current setup, but it won't work.
You need to change kernel to boot the stock ROM (reboot recovery > flash zip. Simple and fast). That's because, as you probably now, kernels made for stock ROMs are not compatible with CM.
Prepare you SD card
You need first to repartition your external SD like this:
Code:
1° partition (mmcblk1p1): FAT - it will be the usual external SD
2° partition (mmcblk1p2): ext4 - /system (make it around 300MB big, 254MB will be more or less the space used)
3° partition (mmcblk1p3): ext4 - /data
I can't help you with this, I did it with adb and parted (the command is available in CWM). Look for instructions on the web, it's full of guides out there. Your external SD card is /dev/block/mmcblk1 (mmcblk0 is the internal one).
If you'll use the zip linked to flash the ROM, the two partitions (mmcblk1p2 and mmcblk1p3) will be automatically converted, unless they are already two ext4/ext3/ext2 partitions.
It shouldn't matter which kernel you are currently using and it should be safe flashing it, the only important thing is to have three partitions. If mmcblk1p2 or mmcblk1p3 are not detected, the installation will be aborted (it means that your SD card is not partitioned). Nothing else will be touched.
If you don't want to use the zip, mount mmbclk1p2 and copy the ROM there.
/dbdata will be the usual one (it's not used in CM. This will also makes Samsung apps a lot faster when using a slow SD card), same for /cache.
The flashable ROM is a stock XXLE4 + su/Superuser.apk.
How to use the additional ROM
To use the ROM on your SD, flash kernel-stock-SD.zip (see below) from recovery.
To go back to the real ROM you have to flash its kernel. Here below you can find CM10 Alpha 2 kernel, flashable from recovery. If you have doubts, reflash the entire ROM, it won't wipe your data.
I only mentioned CM10 because it's what I'm using, but this thing should work with CM9 too.
Things to know
I built the kernel using the latest Samsung sources with inbuilt ext4 support (and ext3/ext2 compatibility). Nothing else was changes, so I think there's no need to publish the sources, they are available here.
I attached the tools I use to unpack/repack boot images (they are a modified version of skin1980's tools):
Code:
./unpack.pl boot.img
./repack.sh [gz|lzma|bzip2|xz]
To see the changes I made, compare "out/android" with the stock XXLE4 ramdisk and the other two directories with CM10 boot.img ramdisk.
I changed recovery.fstab accordingly, but I can't tell you if flashing stuff from CWM while using the additional ROM will work as expected. You should read the updater-script to know it for sure.
I can only tell you that dhiru's builds will be flashed into the real /system partition and not your SD card.
Backups should work too, but I didn't try.
Of course, performances depends on your SD card. Mine is not that good I think, I took it from an old phone and I really don't know anything about it. The ROM is still usable, but apps that intensely use databases are slow (not Samsung apps, those will use /dbdata). Maybe disabling journaling will help (search for more info).
The Galaxy SL screen will last more than usual because I intentionally added a delay (3 seconds, SD cards are detected after a while) and of course because of the slower load.
Please, use this if you have some experience.
Note: dual booting two ROMs with a single kernel is possible, but only if they use the same kernel image. See this and this.
Downloads
XXLE4-CWM.zip: CWM flashable ROM
kernel-stock-SD.zip: kernel to boot the ROM from the external SD, flashable from recovery
kernel-CM10-Alpha2.zip: CM10 Alpha 2 kernel, flashable from recovery

Wow ! thats dualboot for i9003 ! sweet gud to see development back in action

Good work.
The class of an SD card can be misleading. It is only a measure of the sequential Write access and that doesn't tell the whole story. Class 10 cards are great for cameras and applications that write or read sequential data, such as saving a picture and transferring a file. They are not so good for random access which is what the Android OS does when operating. In fact the random access speed for class 10 cards is lower than class 4 or 6 cards. From what I have seen, the sweet spot for smartphones is class 6.

Awesome. Only if we could achieve dual boot without flashing kernel everytime. But anyways awesome guide. Thanks.
Reminded me of dual booting of maemo and android on my brother's n900.

Whats the benefits of dual boot? I heard about it but i dont have an idea

juztinlee said:
Whats the benefits of dual boot? I heard about it but i dont have an idea
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dual Booting means you can have two OS's (here firmware) on the phone at the same time. You can choose on which you want to go. This, besides being awesomely cool, is really helpful in many scenarios.

But its not exactly a dual booting. On galaxy s2 dual booting uses a single kernel but in our case.we are still using two different kernels which has to flash saperately.
Really we should create a kernel which can be used for cm9/10 & for stock GB rom. Then real fun will begin

^But this can be useful when you have to go for a long trip and want to record videos which only our stock rom is capable of doing good. Thanks to the developer.
Also, if anyone can, please tell me what is the possibility we can create a dualboot kernel like siyah kernel?

vishal24387 said:
But its not exactly a dual booting. On galaxy s2 dual booting uses a single kernel but in our case.we are still using two different kernels which has to flash saperately.
Really we should create a kernel which can be used for cm9/10 & for stock GB rom. Then real fun will begin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't say dual boot
Creating a single kernel for ICS/JB and GB is not possible, or at least not an easy thing.
CyanogenMod is using newer graphic drivers not compatible with GB. I tried to use my CM10 kernel with GB, just to see what could happen. Well, it works, but with no hardware rendering as expected. It doesn't mean "it's laggy", it's painfully slow. And if we'll have the 3.0 kernel working, I guess this will be even more difficult.
The only option I think is kexecing an additional kernel, but kexec is hard to implement.
However I dual booted CM10 and CM9 (SD) with a single kernel (there are traces of this in my unpack/repack tools), I simply added an additional "cpio.gz" inside the boot.img. There's an additional boot reason that we never use, so we can use it to choose the corrent "cpio.gz" by parsing /proc/cmdline. The only problem is that you need to boot the ROM first and the reboot, because to get the other boot reason you have to run this:
Code:
reboot arm11_fota #or arm9_fota
(if you are using a stock ROM and try to reboot with the command above, you'll see weird stuff, but nothing should happen to your phone. I did it once.).
Maybe there's something else possible, but dual booting never interested me. As I said, I did it because I needed it.
You can do a lot of things, I even stored a ROM in a subdirectory in /data and use it from there (=> fast).
santoshsadani009 said:
^But this can be useful when you have to go for a long trip and want to record videos which only our stock rom is capable of doing good. Thanks to the developer.
Also, if anyone can, please tell me what is the possibility we can create a dualboot kernel like siyah kernel?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know how exactly dual booting with this kernel works. I actually don't know how usually dual booting is implemented in Android.
I just looked at it. It allows you dualbooting only two ICS+ ROMs (so no GB), it automatically creates an hidden partition, automatically stores the ROM there, provides additional tools in CWM and other nice things.
I guess is something possible, but don't expect it from me. As I said, I'm not interested in dual booting and this thing requires time and knowledge.

loSconosciuto said:
I didn't say dual boot
Creating a single kernel for ICS/JB and GB is not possible, or at least not an easy thing.
CyanogenMod is using newer graphic drivers not compatible with GB. I tried to use my CM10 kernel with GB, just to see what could happen. Well, it works, but with no hardware rendering as expected. It doesn't mean "it's laggy", it's painfully slow. And if we'll have the 3.0 kernel working, I guess this will be even more difficult.
The only option I think is kexecing an additional kernel, but kexec is hard to implement.
However I dual booted CM10 and CM9 (SD) with a single kernel (there are traces of this in my unpack/repack tools), I simply added an additional "cpio.gz" inside the boot.img. There's an additional boot reason that we never use, so we can use it to choose the corrent "cpio.gz" by parsing /proc/cmdline. The only problem is that you need to boot the ROM first and the reboot, because to get the other boot reason you have to run this:
Code:
reboot arm11_fota #or arm9_fota
(if you are using a stock ROM and try to reboot with the command above, you'll see weird stuff, but nothing should happen to your phone. I did it once.).
Maybe there's something else possible, but dual booting never interested me. As I said, I did it because I needed it.
You can do a lot of things, I even stored a ROM in a subdirectory in /data and use it from there (=> fast).
I don't know how exactly dual booting with this kernel works. I actually don't know how usually dual booting is implemented in Android.
I just looked at it. It allows you dualbooting only two ICS+ ROMs (so no GB), it automatically creates an hidden partition, automatically stores the ROM there, provides additional tools in CWM and other nice things.
I guess is something possible, but don't expect it from me. As I said, I'm not interested in dual booting and this thing requires time and knowledge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so that means we can dualboot cm9/10 with miui v4 . right ? since they both use the same kernel

vishal24387 said:
But its not exactly a dual booting. On galaxy s2 dual booting uses a single kernel but in our case.we are still using two different kernels which has to flash saperately.
Really we should create a kernel which can be used for cm9/10 & for stock GB rom. Then real fun will begin
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya a Universal kernel will do the trick.If later then we can achieve dual boot then the people who were holding back from CM9 or CM10 can flash that for features and a stock rom for stability and camera.

shriomman said:
so that means we can dualboot cm9/10 with miui v4 . right ? since they both use the same kernel
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As long as the kernel is the same, yes.
If you want, here you can find the unpacked boot.img I (probably) used to dual boot CM10 and CM9 (SD).
There's no zImage in there, use the one you prefer, CM10 and CM9 are using the same kernel.
EDIT:
I almost forgot. "out/ramdisk/2ndROM" is for the ROM stored in your SD card, so you have to adjust the mount points there (already done in the one linked). "out/ramdisk/android" should be the "stock" ramdisk.
recovery will work only for the primary ROM in this case, maybe with some scripting you can make it works for both the ROMs, but I won't do it (if it's something possible).
The tools I posted will automatically take care of the additional ramdisk.

Possible to fix the download links? I want to boot rom from SD card since my internal is corrupted...

nick0016 said:
Possible to fix the download links? I want to boot rom from SD card since my internal is corrupted...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know what happened to the links, probably I deleted the files by mistake on dev-host. Sadly I no longer have them and I currently don't have the time to make them again.
Anyway, I suggest you to follow other guides in order to replace only the corrupted memory instead (we have two different memories). This one for example, but there are other guides probably.

Thanks for your answer, problem is that my "device" memory is corrupted (as in read only).
I did the SD / USB storage swap but still have the problem that I cannot run/remove/install. So I need a ROM that loads completely from the external SD card and also uses it for data/storage...
I can flash a rom/kernel without problems, but changing version makes it only worse because the data does not get erased (background/applications/settings.... stays the same everytime, even after a wipe from the recovery).
If it helps I would love to pay/donate money to you as a thanks for your help and effort because the phone itself is working fine (except the corrupted memory of course) and would like to use it again

nick0016 said:
Thanks for your answer, problem is that my "device" memory is corrupted (as in read only).
I did the SD / USB storage swap but still have the problem that I cannot run/remove/install. So I need a ROM that loads completely from the external SD card and also uses it for data/storage...
I can flash a rom/kernel without problems, but changing version makes it only worse because the data does not get erased (background/applications/settings.... stays the same everytime, even after a wipe from the recovery).
If it helps I would love to pay/donate money to you as a thanks for your help and effort because the phone itself is working fine (except the corrupted memory of course) and would like to use it again
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The guide I linked is fine then.
It explains how to repartition your SD card and the script Dipu K attached to his post is to use the newly created partition inside your external SD for /data. It's not to swap internal and external SD.
As I said, we have two memories, /data is in one, /system, kernel and other things are in the other memory. The corrupted one must be the one which holds /data.
Try to do as explained in the guide, if the problem persists, I'll see what I can do to help.

I followed the guide and got the Device memory replaced (data partition). Problem is now it is stuck in at boot because the partition is empty.... and when I copy the files from the corrupted data partition it boots fine but get message that I must wipe my data or the system will be unstable (which is correct because I get then flooded with unexpected errors which make it unusable). But formatting data partition gives stuck @ samsung boot logo??
So I need to get the "factory" data files from somewhere... I am running stock KPE ROM with BAM kernel (for init.d support).
Is it possible to extract the data partition from the stock rom?!

nick0016 said:
I followed the guide and got the Device memory replaced (data partition). Problem is now it is stuck in at boot because the partition is empty.... and when I copy the files from the corrupted data partition it boots fine but get message that I must wipe my data or the system will be unstable (which is correct because I get then flooded with unexpected errors which make it unusable). But formatting data partition gives stuck @ samsung boot logo??
So I need to get the "factory" data files from somewhere... I am running stock KPE ROM with BAM kernel (for init.d support).
Is it possible to extract the data partition from the stock rom?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The content of /data is generated, there's nothing like what you asking for.
Maybe the problem is that the script posted in the guide copies the content of the old /data partition to the new partition inside the SD card. Wiping data shouldn't work because the path to the SD card is not specified.
Try the script attached. I zipped it to be able to upload it here, but it's not flashable. Since you've been able to follow the guide I assume you know how to use adb.
Wipe the content of the data partition you created inside you SD card (/dev/block/mmcblk1p2). You could reformat it with make_ext4fs, use a computer and so on. What's important is that it's ext4 formatted.
While in recovery, run:
Code:
adb shell mount /system
adb shell mkdir -p /system/etc/init.d/
adb push [I]PATH_TO[/I]/remount_data /system/etc/init.d/
adb shell chmod 777 /system/etc/init.d/remount_data
I'm sorry, but I currently don't have much free time to help more than this. With no logs or access to the device it's really hard for me to know what's the problem.

[SOLVED] Completely format system data cache partitions[making all zeroes]

I know the obvious ans would be to use 4ext superwipe.
What I want is like re-writing those partitions with all memory locations set to zeroes. The 4ext full wipe only works like quick format in windows desktop.
Any ideas how to do it?
____________________
Solved. See post 17 for details.

pushpann said:
I know the obvious ans would be to use 4ext superwipe.
What I want is like re-writing those partitions with all memory locations set to zeroes. The 4ext full wipe only works like quick format in windows desktop.
Any ideas how to do it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Had to search a bit, but found an article that explains how to do this. It links to 3 apps (havn't tested myself, just remember there's no going back), from the description the first one only works on SD card, the second one might (it does not mention which partitions it formats), and the last one seems to be removed.
I did not read the whole article, but I suggest you do that before doing anything.
Good luck.

pushpann said:
I know the obvious ans would be to use 4ext superwipe.
What I want is like re-writing those partitions with all memory locations set to zeroes. The 4ext full wipe only works like quick format in windows desktop.
Any ideas how to do it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
A RUU will reset everything back to stock, and fix any partition issues.
Is that what you are after?

malybru said:
Hi,
A RUU will reset everything back to stock, and fix any partition issues.
Is that what you are after?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As he said, he wants it to be completely formatted, meaning no data can be recovered, which is like a hard full wipe - no way to restore.
RUU does format the data partition, but it only removes records of files, and the data itself is still available and possible to read (until new files will be written over it).

No! I dont want to get involved with RUU stuff.. I just want to completely wipe my phone.. Like complete formatting of the USB drives. All system and data partitions set to zeroes.
In simple words, if you do quick formating on pendrives, you can restore (some or all data before format, depends on what you've put on the drive after format ) using some Data Recovery tools.
What i believe is that recovery just wipes the memory addresses, without putting zeroes on all the memory locations. have been googling for this for almost a week, haven't got any clue yet!

pushpann said:
I know the obvious ans would be to use 4ext superwipe.
What I want is like re-writing those partitions with all memory locations set to zeroes. The 4ext full wipe only works like quick format in windows desktop.
Any ideas how to do it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would do it this way (this is something I came up with, and if it screws up anything, you are responsible) :
Write a script that reformat your nand rom and then dumps (creates) a huge file containing zeroes. Then reformat using 4ext and repartition.
I am curious, why exactly do you want to do this? The lack of results from Google would suggest that this is not something people would normally do.
JAM THAT THANKS BUTTON.
Happy to help.

I assume you're not going to use the phone after?
If you aren't going to use the phone after, one word. Sledgehammer.
If you are keeping the phone; create a file on the partition filled with rubbish (linux has a command for this). Make sure it fills the entire partition and then run mkfs.ext4 /dev/block/partition. Repeat a dozen times or create a script to do it for you.
It's easier than erasing the whole NAND disk and partitioning it. Mainly because you'll wipe the recovery partition and create an expensive paperweight. Which brings me back to sledgehammer.
Sent from my HTC

pushpann said:
No! I dont want to get involved with RUU stuff.. I just want to completely wipe my phone.. Like complete formatting of the USB drives. All system and data partitions set to zeroes.
In simple words, if you do quick formating on pendrives, you can restore (some or all data before format, depends on what you've put on the drive after format ) using some Data Recovery tools.
What i believe is that recovery just wipes the memory addresses, without putting zeroes on all the memory locations. have been googling for this for almost a week, haven't got any clue yet!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On my first commented I linked to an article which gives two ways to wipe your phone (set to zeroes and all). Here are the two apps:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kovit.p.forevergone
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.ethz.infsyssec.sddroid
Try those to see if they format the Data partition.

Far_SighT said:
I would do it this way (this is something I came up with, and if it screws up anything, you are responsible) :
Write a script that reformat your nand rom and then dumps (creates) a huge file containing zeroes. Then reformat using 4ext and repartition.
I am curious, why exactly do you want to do this? The lack of results from Google would suggest that this is not something people would normally do.
JAM THAT THANKS BUTTON.
Happy to help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm.. My phone has become very laggy.. No matter what ROM flash, what firmware I flash.
DennisBold said:
I assume you're not going to use the phone after?
If you aren't going to use the phone after, one word. Sledgehammer.
If you are keeping the phone; create a file on the partition filled with rubbish (linux has a command for this). Make sure it fills the entire partition and then run mkfs.ext4 /dev/block/partition. Repeat a dozen times or create a script to do it for you.
It's easier than erasing the whole NAND disk and partitioning it. Mainly because you'll wipe the recovery partition and create an expensive paperweight. Which brings me back to sledgehammer.
Sent from my HTC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By hearing what you say, i kinda feel little scared to do these steps. Anyway thanks for the suggestion..
astar26 said:
On my first commented I linked to an article which gives two ways to wipe your phone (set to zeroes and all). Here are the two apps:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kovit.p.forevergone
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ch.ethz.infsyssec.sddroid
Try those to see if they format the Data partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Those apps dont work.. By internal data they mean internal sdcard not system or data partition.
BTW just saw this app called lagfix. It says it will discard the unused blocks, but doesnot work on my phone.. Has anyone tried it? For me it's saying trim on system,data and cache not supported! DAMN

DennisBold said:
I assume you're not going to use the phone after?
If you aren't going to use the phone after, one word. Sledgehammer.
If you are keeping the phone; create a file on the partition filled with rubbish (linux has a command for this). Make sure it fills the entire partition and then run mkfs.ext4 /dev/block/partition. Repeat a dozen times or create a script to do it for you.
It's easier than erasing the whole NAND disk and partitioning it. Mainly because you'll wipe the recovery partition and create an expensive paperweight. Which brings me back to sledgehammer.
Sent from my HTC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I had similar thoughts. I was going for repartition becasue then the whole of nandroid can be wiped in one go.
To clean the phone, sledgehammer / mowing the device with a car (or both, one after the other) are the best methods.
Here's one more idea. Create a pseudo nandroid backup with all of your nandroid partitions(/system /data /cache etc) filled with garbage/zeroes. Then restore that. And bam, the nandroid is hard formatted (after a quick format of course).
Like always, it's your phone. I am not responsible for anything that you do to it.
JAM THAT THANKS BUTTON.
Happy to Help.

pushpann said:
Hmm.. My phone has become very laggy.. No matter what ROM flash, what firmware I flash.
By hearing what you say, i kinda feel little scared to do these steps. Anyway thanks for the suggestion..
Those apps dont work.. By internal data they mean internal sdcard not system or data partition.
BTW just saw this app called lagfix. It says it will discard the unused blocks, but doesnot work on my phone.. Has anyone tried it? For me it's saying trim on system,data and cache not supported! DAMN
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried it yesterday, it's meant for certain devices that did not use the TRIM command like they should (Many Nexus 7 tablets were slowed down by this issue), but it seems the Sensation does not need it (or at least our kernels do not support the command).
What seems as the only way to do so is to create many blank files and delete them (like many already said). you can create a large file and copy it a few times to the Data partition, which will fill it, and then delete it. using a normal file manager will work (or you can use "adb push" command to push the file a couple of times).

Far_SighT said:
Yeah, I had similar thoughts. I was going for repartition becasue then the whole of nandroid can be wiped in one go.
To clean the phone, sledgehammer / mowing the device with a car (or both, one after the other) are the best methods.
Here's one more idea. Create a pseudo nandroid backup with all of your nandroid partitions(/system /data /cache etc) filled with garbage/zeroes. Then restore that. And bam, the nandroid is hard formatted (after a quick format of course).
Like always, it's your phone. I am not responsible for anything that you do to it.
JAM THAT THANKS BUTTON.
Happy to Help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You sure it does complete format while restoring nandroid? BTW i still am not sure how to fill system and data partitions with zeroes or garbage! Anyway thanks for the heads up

pushpann said:
You sure it does complete format while restoring nandroid? BTW i still am not sure how to fill system and data partitions with zeroes or garbage! Anyway thanks for the heads up
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You shouldn't have to worry about formatting empty space. No one ever, except possibly computer forensics is going to want information from an empty phone. They have access to browsing history from Google, call records from your mobile provider and ban access details from your banks. They wouldn't need your phone. There are things that make it hard for the average person. Including mounting the NAND disk in a way that it can be opened like a normal disk drive, and then running the tools to restore data. If someone really wanted data it's possible but they will not go through all that for 500MB of bank details, porn or whatever people do with phones these days. If you're trying to hinder the police because you did something wrong, then you should just stop.
Theoretically it can be done through an android device but cross compiling tools to recover data is long and tedious to do. There is nothing so important that someone would spend hours creating tools for an Android device to restore data that may already be irrevocably gone. Not to mention the learning curve for new software. If you are worried, burn the device and buy something new. That is the general rule for sensitive data. Make sure it's gone before you move on.
It's safe to click "Format all partitions" and then erase your SD card and give your phone away.
If it helps, install Android on top. Choose something big. Most of your application data is stored on your SDCard FYI.
Lastly, if it's lag you are trying to fix. Go backwards with Android not forwards. JellyBean demands more than ICS and ICS demands more than GingerBread. Having the latest OS doesn't work for everyone. For example, Windows 8.1 doesn't work for me because there's no fastboot support without huge editing of system drivers. The same is true in Android. GingerBread stability may be more important than ICS or JB features, or JellyBean features may be more important. However don't expect lag free 4.2 or 4.3, our devices may work with it, but they were never intended to go above 4.1(Ville C2 updates stop there too I think) due to hardware limitations. Others may argue differently, but you should question the effort they're (including me) putting in with kernel and device tree upgrades. It's amazing work nonetheless but it basically shouldn't have to be done if the device were supported. Buy a new device if you want the latest and greatest. My Sensation has become a trophy for me to the amazing things you can do with one of HTCs first dual core phones. I don't expect it to work without some kinks and bugs or even fatal flaws but I still respect it for having running Sense 3.0 to 5.0 (yes I've tried it).
Sorry for the rant. I'm a little bit grumpy, but hope it helps explains why you can mostly erase and install a new version of android then throw the device away and be relatively safe.
There's probably going to be someone who reads all of this and thinks I'm crazy, to that guy or girl. Thanks for reading all of it!
Sent from my HTC

DennisBold said:
You shouldn't have to worry about formatting empty space. No one ever, except possibly computer forensics is going to want information from an empty phone. They have access to browsing history from Google, call records from your mobile provider and ban access details from your banks. They wouldn't need your phone. There are things that make it hard for the average person. Including mounting the NAND disk in a way that it can be opened like a normal disk drive, and then running the tools to restore data. If someone really wanted data it's possible but they will not go through all that for 500MB of bank details, porn or whatever people do with phones these days. If you're trying to hinder the police because you did something wrong, then you should just stop.
Theoretically it can be done through an android device but cross compiling tools to recover data is long and tedious to do. There is nothing so important that someone would spend hours creating tools for an Android device to restore data that may already be irrevocably gone. Not to mention the learning curve for new software. If you are worried, burn the device and buy something new. That is the general rule for sensitive data. Make sure it's gone before you move on.
It's safe to click "Format all partitions" and then erase your SD card and give your phone away.
If it helps, install Android on top. Choose something big. Most of your application data is stored on your SDCard FYI.
Lastly, if it's lag you are trying to fix. Go backwards with Android not forwards. JellyBean demands more than ICS and ICS demands more than GingerBread. Having the latest OS doesn't work for everyone. For example, Windows 8.1 doesn't work for me because there's no fastboot support without huge editing of system drivers. The same is true in Android. GingerBread stability may be more important than ICS or JB features, or JellyBean features may be more important. However don't expect lag free 4.2 or 4.3, our devices may work with it, but they were never intended to go above 4.1(Ville C2 updates stop there too I think) due to hardware limitations. Others may argue differently, but you should question the effort they're (including me) putting in with kernel and device tree upgrades. It's amazing work nonetheless but it basically shouldn't have to be done if the device were supported. Buy a new device if you want the latest and greatest. My Sensation has become a trophy for me to the amazing things you can do with one of HTCs first dual core phones. I don't expect it to work without some kinks and bugs or even fatal flaws but I still respect it for having running Sense 3.0 to 5.0 (yes I've tried it).
Sorry for the rant. I'm a little bit grumpy, but hope it helps explains why you can mostly erase and install a new version of android then throw the device away and be relatively safe.
There's probably going to be someone who reads all of this and thinks I'm crazy, to that guy or girl. Thanks for reading all of it!
Sent from my HTC
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont wanna sell my phone and I know that my data isnt that valueable that anyone will try to read my data with hard efforts. My sensation used to perform awesome 2-3 months back, and now that I must have quick formatted my system and data partitions more than 1500 times, i think a full wipe may do some help for those nag n lag issues.
And about going back to GB? Man, Everyone feels GB is sad after using ICS/JB. If my phone doesnot stop lagging every second after I format these partitions, i think its time for a new phone!
Anyway thanks for such a detailed reply

pushpann said:
I dont wanna sell my phone and I know that my data isnt that valueable that anyone will try to read my data with hard efforts. My sensation used to perform awesome 2-3 months back, and now that I must have quick formatted my system and data partitions more than 1500 times, i think a full wipe may do some help for those nag n lag issues.
And about going back to GB? Man, Everyone feels GB is sad after using ICS/JB. If my phone doesnot stop lagging every second after I format these partitions, i think its time for a new phone!
Anyway thanks for such a detailed reply
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The lag isn't from formatting. You can try ARHD ICS if you want. Or probably Sense 4+ with 4.1.2 but anything above that might not work out great.
Sent from my HTC

pushpann said:
I dont wanna sell my phone and I know that my data isnt that valueable that anyone will try to read my data with hard efforts. My sensation used to perform awesome 2-3 months back, and now that I must have quick formatted my system and data partitions more than 1500 times, i think a full wipe may do some help for those nag n lag issues.
And about going back to GB? Man, Everyone feels GB is sad after using ICS/JB. If my phone doesnot stop lagging every second after I format these partitions, i think its time for a new phone!
Anyway thanks for such a detailed reply
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How old is your Sensation? I could well be that your nand is dying. In that case, repartition your phone and make /system and /data from parts seldom used (like /cache).
If you want data security, full encryption will keep noobs away.

Thanks for the replies guys!
Today i actually did the zeroing of the partitions with Nandroid method.. I download an app called dummy file creator and it created dummy files(files with zeroes all over it. after searching in internet it seemed legit method of fully zeroing out the memory locations) in data partition untill it ran out of memory. Then i copied those files to system partition too manually till it also became full(I had to do this manually because the app didnt support creating dummy files in system partition) and made nandroid of data and system separately then did almost a dozen time 4ext format and restoring the nandroid. Finally i formatted all the partitions and installed Codename Lungo ROM(CM10.1).
HELL YEAH! it feels FASTer. Not sure if its gonna last long.

pushpann said:
Thanks for the replies guys!
Today i actually did the zeroing of the partitions with Nandroid method.. I download an app called dummy file creator and it created dummy files(files with zeroes all over it. after searching in internet it seemed legit method of fully zeroing out the memory locations) in data partition untill it ran out of memory. Then i copied those files to system partition too manually till it also became full(I had to do this manually because the app didnt support creating dummy files in system partition) and made nandroid of data and system separately then did almost a dozen time 4ext format and restoring the nandroid. Finally i formatted all the partitions and installed Codename Lungo ROM(CM10.1).
HELL YEAH! it feels FASTer. Not sure if its gonna last long.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just found something and wanted to add - for future reference - Android Tuner seems to be able to make the TRIM operation on all partitions on our sensation, in a much easier way.

pushpann said:
Thanks for the replies guys!
Today i actually did the zeroing of the partitions with Nandroid method.. I download an app called dummy file creator and it created dummy files(files with zeroes all over it. after searching in internet it seemed legit method of fully zeroing out the memory locations) in data partition untill it ran out of memory. Then i copied those files to system partition too manually till it also became full(I had to do this manually because the app didnt support creating dummy files in system partition) and made nandroid of data and system separately then did almost a dozen time 4ext format and restoring the nandroid. Finally i formatted all the partitions and installed Codename Lungo ROM(CM10.1).
HELL YEAH! it feels FASTer. Not sure if its gonna last long.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you guide me? i want to do that but i'm noob . how did you do that? pls help me

BSHD666 said:
Can you guide me? i want to do that but i'm noob . how did you do that? pls help me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hehe you found it:good:

Backups: Best Practices

So I normally only mod my phones if there is an issue or if I've upgraded. However, I would like to do so now with my G3 especially after that last update they forced on me (did not want to update) which screwed all kinds of stuff up. Normally whenever I do something like this on a computer I'd take a sector by sector clone image of the hardrive and it's partitions and restore from that if there are any issues. Is there a way of doing that on the G3 (D850)? If not what is the best method of backiing up my contacts (on phone and on SIM), my messages and other app settings. I've used Titanium backup before but it requires root (as do most of the others I think and AT&T forced me to the last to firmware versions which can't be rooted it seems) and it doesn't do near as much as I'd like. So I'm hoping that there's a solution via PC hookup or something.

No one?

phazer11 said:
No one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use TWRP to do the backup to your SD card.

That would require flashing the recovery and need a larger microsd than I have. Any other option?

phazer11 said:
That would require flashing the recovery and need a larger microsd than I have. Any other option?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I know that is about it.

New ROM and internal storage

Hi there,
Just a small question: When I install a custom ROM, does it keep my data on the internal storage? I'm asking because of the encryption and I thought it could happen, that the new/custom ROM is not able to decrypt this part of the data.
Thanks

I haven't done enough flashing on my Pixel to say with certainty one way or another, but I believe it does keep the internal storage data between ROM flashes just fine. However, I don't fool with anything but PureNexus as far as custom ROMs, so it might depend on what ROM you're coming from and going to. I never flash anything major without backing up internal storage, anyway, and that's what I would suggest. After all, for every rule there's always an exception and it's better not to regret. Good luck!

ThauExodus said:
Hi there,
Just a small question: When I install a custom ROM, does it keep my data on the internal storage? I'm asking because of the encryption and I thought it could happen, that the new/custom ROM is not able to decrypt this part of the data.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should stick to stock.

Well i am on stock i only wanted to know whether i have to backup my internal storage or not, when switching the ROM.