Database Info

Can't use ringtones that stored on /sdcard/ringtones

Suddenly I couldn't find any of my ringtones that stored on the /sdcard/ringtones directory from Ringtones Settings.
The /sdcard/ringtones is still avaliable on the sdcard and If I tried to play them throw the mp3 player they works fine.
I found out that the sdcard is mounted as Read-Only and not Read/Write as before. Even if I plug it in to the PC I can't change any of the data on the sdcard only read it.
The latest change that I made few days ago was to store all cache files on the sdcard. I am not sure that this is the reason but it could be.
Does anyone here have any idea why it happened?

install Rings Extended from the market. Open your soundsettings with the program. It will prompt to open with rings extended or standard.
Don't know about the read-only stuff, but you could take a look at the ownership and the rights you have as a user/admin... if all fails.. format?

thanks for the advice, I will try it...
does anyone have more ideas regarding the read only issue?

yes could this be your problem too http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=473256

unfortunately its not the same issue, I have root access to the phone and when I run the mount command this is the output I have for /sdcard
/dev/block/mmcblk0p1 on /sdcard type vfat (ro,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,uid=1000,gid=1000,fmask=0711,dmask=0700,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,utf8)
I can't use the camera and the ringtones because of that.
I do able to remount the /sdcard as rw but any time I reboot the phone it become ro.
can you please copy for me the output that you have from mount command on /sdcard/ and the permissions you have on that directory from ls -l command?

zrubi said:
unfortunately its not the same issue, I have root access to the phone and when I run the mount command this is the output I have for /sdcard
/dev/block/mmcblk0p1 on /sdcard type vfat (ro,dirsync,nosuid,nodev,noexec,uid=1000,gid=1000,fmask=0711,dmask=0700,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,utf8)
I can't use the camera and the ringtones because of that.
I do able to remount the /sdcard as rw but any time I reboot the phone it become ro.
can you please copy for me the output that you have from mount command on /sdcard/ and the permissions you have on that directory from ls -l command?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suspect the fat partition on your sdcard got corrupted. Try a reformat

you were right thanks
I did chkdisk from windows and it did fix the fs.
now its working just fine...

Get rid of ubuntu partitins

I installed the ubuntu dual boot and now want to get rid if the ubuntu partitions it created.
Anyone know how to do this?

Well, how about opening a terminal under android (terminal emulator by jack pavelich should be fine) and typing "mount" for checking mount points.
Then you could mount the partitions (e.g. "mount -o remount,rw /dev/sda2 /Volumes/useless)
---> This would mount the partition "sda2" as read-write on "/Volumes/useless/" in your android root directory.
Then delete all files on that dir. And google somewhat for further information on how to delete partitions.
Hope this helps.

NVFlashing over everything is probably the easiest

I fixed this by nvflashing the stock rom.

[research]Another way to extend /data

In almost mobile ,the /data is too small.Can we use extend tf card instead data to get more space?
I try do something:
use a 8GB tf card,format to ext4.
My device is a tv box,is a android OS device.
It mount tf to /mnt/sda/sda1.
I copy /data all file to it: cp /data/* /mnt/sda/sda1 -rf
Set a flag to check the tf is mount when android start.
touch /mnt/sda/sda1/tf
write a script:/system/etc/install-recovery.sh,This file is run when system start.
#!/system/bin/sh
while [ ! -f /mnt/sda/sda1/tf ]
do
sleep 1
done
mount -o bind /mnt/sda/sda1 /data
Android started,it show /data is 8GB.
But when I install app,reboot device ,i can't see the app,but /data/app have the corresponding apk file,/data/data have the corresponding data file,
and /data/dalvik-cache have corresponding dex file.
What problem happend?
android will search installed app when it starting.
Maybe is search before install-recovery.sh running?
which is the search app? is service installd?

[Guide] Format in ext4 internal memory and keep data

Hi all,
Here another method to format to ext4 your internal sdcard (usb storage) of any Android device. This trick work also with external sdcard. Since Galaxy S3, many devices have already the internal sdcard in ext4, so check your sdcard file system type with Diskinfo from Play Store. This guide is great for Galaxy S1 or S2 for exemple.
Required :
- Your computer
- Android with recovery (cwm, Philz...)
- Live CD of Parted Magic 2013 : link
- USB cable
- Android 4.x
In brief :
- Copy all data of your internal sdcard to your computer.
- Format to ext4 your internal sdcard with Parted Magic AND NOT WINDOWS.
- Restore your data to your internal sdcard.
- Fix permissions* (very important).
- Check.
"Thanks chrhei, laotzy"
Why ext4 ?
- Ext4 is native file system for Android, while exfat is not.
- The system internal partitions (/efs /data /system /cache /preload) use ext4, natively.
- The famous music bug on Android 4.4 AOSP will be gone.
- CM has poor exfat support, while fat32 is not recommended for big files (over 2 GB) because it doesn't work well with them.
- Ext4 has better stability and performance, especially on Android devices, compared to exfat and fat.
"Thanks JustARchi"
Steps by steps :
- Download iso of Parted Magic 2013 freeware (Mac, Linux, Windows) : here.
- Burn the live cd on a real CD or make a live usb stick.
- On your computer, reboot on Parted Magic (live cd or usb stick) :
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- On your Android device, reboot in recovery :
- Plug Android to computer with usb cable.
- In recovery, first select mount and storage. Then, select mount USB storage. Then, don't touch recovery upto the end of process. If you go back, then recovery unmount sdcard and break the process :
- On computer, with Parted Magic, open file manager and check if you can browse files of your internal sdcard :
- If browsing ok, then copy all data of internal sdcard to computer.
- Please note carefully the name of your internal storage in parted magic, like sde1 or sdb2…
- On computer, open Partition editor (Gparted).
- On partition editor, select your internal sdcard from its name.
- Be carefull to select your internal sdcard and not your hard drive of your computer !
- On partition editor, format your internal sdcard to ext4 from a right click on its partition. :
- Wait the end of process :
- When the format is over, reboot the recovery NOT Android, do it from the advanced options.
- In recovery, go to storage and select USB mount storage.
- On computer with Parted Magic, open file manager and go to your internal sdcard now ext4.
- Restore all data saved to your internal sdcard.
- Reboot android.
- With a terminal in Android, execute the command: su
- Before you start fixing permissions don't forget to type su in your phone's Terminal
- Then, check permissions and type :
ls -la /mnt/media_rw/
The return will be like :
drwxrwxr-x media_rw media_rw 2014-08-20 21:56 sdcard0
drwxrwxr-x media_rw media_rw 2014-08-21 18:32 sdcard1
- To fix permissions, you have to copy everything below, line by line, into the Terminal. Use Android with a web browser as firefox to navigate upto here and copy past to the terminal this lines :
cd /mnt/media_rw/
find sdcard0 -type d -exec chmod 0775 {} \;
find sdcard0 -type d -exec chown media_rw:media_rw {} \;
find sdcard0 -type f -exec chmod 0775 {} \;
find sdcard0 -type f -exec chown media_rw:media_rw {} \;
- Check permissions to see the differences :
ls -la /mnt/media_rw/
- If it is an external sdcard, do the same but replace sdcard0 by sdcard1
- Reboot Android normally (not into terminal).
- Voilà !
- Now, you need to check 2 things : the permissions and the ext4 file system of the sdcard formated :
Please, verify this :
Check permissions : To check if permissions is done, go to browsing files under Android, with an app to browsing files as es file explorer. Then, create a directory at the root of your sdcard ext4 (as /storage/sdcard0/), then delete it. If you will able to delete the folder, then permissions is fine. If not, then go back to follow again steps about fix permissions.
Check your ext4 sdcard: Use Diskinfo from Play Store to check the file system of your sdcard before and after formated : here. There will several partitions, please select the sdcard formated and check its file system.
Video of this guide, but please, read the guide before :
Part 1, backup and format under Parted Magic : here
Part 2, fix permissions with a terminal under Android : here
Why ext4 and another methods here : http://bit.ly/1oYzi3A
Windows users : After formated to ext4, to access to your internal sdcard, you must connect your device in USB in MTP and not USB mass storage (UMS). Because with UMS, no way to access to your internal sdcard from windows. You can set MTP in the parameters of Android :
Anyway, with UMS, to read the new ext4 volumes in Windows, use ext2Fsd.
* Fix Permissions : after formated the sdcard to ext4, there is a very annoying issue. No way to create or delete directory or file at root of this storage. So, there will be big troubles, like unable to backup, no way to install new apps which have to write on this storage, unable to update CM... Without fix permissions, the sdcard will be a kind of read protected storage at root directory.
Before formated, the internal sdcard on my Galaxy S2 was vfat. Here my Galaxy S2 running CM11, after format's process, the internal sdcard is now ext4 :

philippe734 said:
Hi all,
Here another method to format in ext4 your internal sdcard (internal memory) of any Android device.
Required :
- Your computer
- Android with cwm recovery (or other like Philz)
- Live CD of Parted Magic 2013 : link
- USB cable
In brief :
- Copy all data of your internal sdcard to your computer.
- Format in ext4 your internal sdcard with Parted Magic.
- Restore your data to your internal sdcard.
Steps by steps :
- Download iso of Parted Magic 2013 freeware (Mac, Linux, Windows) : link
- Burn the live cd on a real CD or make a live usb stick.
- On your computer, reboot on Parted Magic (live cd or usb stick)
- On your Android device, reboot in recovery.
- Plug Android to computer with usb cable.
- In recovery, go to mount storage and select something like mount USB storage.
- On computer, under Parted Magic, open file manager and check if you can browse files of the internal memory.
- If browse ok, then copy all data of internal sdcard to computer.
- Please note carefully the name of your internal memory in parted magic, like sde1 or sdb2…
- On computer, open Partition editor.
- On partition editor, select your internal memory from its name.
- Be carefully to select your internal sdcard and not your hard drive of your computer !
- On partition editor, format your internal sdcard to ext4 from a right click on its partition.
- Wait the end of process.
- When the format is over, reboot the recovery (not Android) from the advanced options.
- In recovery, go to storage and select USB mount storage.
- On computer, open file manager and go to the internal memory now in ext4.
- Restore all data saved to your internal memory
- Reboot android
- Voilà !
Why format in ext4 and another methods here : http://bit.ly/1oYzi3A
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My question is - can't I use the option of formatting the Internal memory to ext4 from my Recovery? There is such an option there. My tlf is Galaxy S2, by Samsung + CM11

laotzy said:
My question is - can't I use the option of formatting the Internal memory to ext4 from my Recovery? There is such an option there. My tlf is Galaxy S2, by Samsung + CM11
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Format in ext4 the internal sdcard from recovery don't work, even if option is available. Use parted magic can avoid unexpected issues [emoji106] I did it with success on my Galaxy S2 running CM11.

philippe734 said:
Hi all,
Here another method to format in ext4 your internal sdcard (internal memory) of any Android device.
Required :
- Your computer
- Android with cwm recovery (or other like Philz)
- Live CD of Parted Magic 2013 : link
- USB cable
In brief :
- Copy all data of your internal sdcard to your computer.
- Format in ext4 your internal sdcard with Parted Magic.
- Restore your data to your internal sdcard.
Steps by steps :
- Download iso of Parted Magic 2013 freeware (Mac, Linux, Windows) : link
- Burn the live cd on a real CD or make a live usb stick.
- On your computer, reboot on Parted Magic (live cd or usb stick)
- On your Android device, reboot in recovery.
- Plug Android to computer with usb cable.
- In recovery, go to mount storage and select something like mount USB storage.
- On computer, under Parted Magic, open file manager and check if you can browse files of the internal memory.
- If browse ok, then copy all data of internal sdcard to computer.
- Please note carefully the name of your internal memory in parted magic, like sde1 or sdb2…
- On computer, open Partition editor.
- On partition editor, select your internal memory from its name.
- Be carefully to select your internal sdcard and not your hard drive of your computer !
- On partition editor, format your internal sdcard to ext4 from a right click on its partition.
- Wait the end of process.
- When the format is over, reboot the recovery (not Android) from the advanced options.
- In recovery, go to storage and select USB mount storage.
- On computer, open file manager and go to the internal memory now in ext4.
- Restore all data saved to your internal memory
- Reboot android
- Voilà !
Why format in ext4 and another methods here : http://bit.ly/1oYzi3A
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have formatted Internal memory into ext4 and now my PC doesn't recognize it so I cannot copy all tha Data back to the internal memory. What I did wrong?
I think I know... I did use the option of the phone So I am going back to default and then I will try again using Magic CD

laotzy said:
What I did wrong?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nothing : windows can not access to your internal sdcard in ext4. To access to your internal memory in ext4 from windows, you need to set MTP before connected in USB your device. Read the end of my guide. And to format in ext4, don't do it under windows but linux as live cd of parted magic.

EXT4 on SGS2
My ext4 experience with stock CM11, always latest nightly:
- Backup up your phone data (sdcard0 and sdcard1) first, make the data available on your computer
- Boot your favorite Linux (e.g. from Live CD)
- CWM into my SGS2, connect phone via USB to your Linux computer
- Mount your SD cards to USB
- sdcard0 and sdcard1 should be accessible on your Linux Box
- Convert both partitions to ext4 (do not use CWM!, doesn't work for me) and make them available to the Linux computer
- Copy your backed-up data back to your phone (restore) using your Linux computer
- Reboot your phone again into recovery
- ADB to your phone as root
- Check permissions
ls -la /mnt/media_rw/
drwxrwxr-x media_rw media_rw 2014-08-20 21:56 sdcard0
drwxrwxr-x media_rw media_rw 2014-08-21 18:32 sdcard1
- Fix permissions (user media_rw, uid=1023, group media_rw, gid=1023):
cd /mnt/media_rw/
find sdcard0 -type d -exec chmod 0775 {} \;
find sdcard0 -type d -exec chown media_rw:media_rw {} \;
find sdcard0 -type f -exec chmod 0775 {} \;
find sdcard0 -type f -exec chown media_rw:media_rw {} \;
find sdcard1 -type d -exec chmod 0775 {} \;
find sdcard1 -type d -exec chown media_rw:media_rw {} \;
find sdcard1 -type f -exec chmod 0775 {} \;
find sdcard1 -type f -exec chown media_rw:media_rw {} \;
- FINISHED
To access (r/w) both sdcards (0/1) from a Linux computer your >Linux user< needs to be a member of a created GROUP called "media_rw" with the GID "1023". For "normal" data transfers use the MTP mode of your phone, so you will not run into permission issues.
Regards,

chrhei said:
- ADB to your phone as root
[...]
- Fix permissions [...]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True. Because without this fix, no way to write or create new folder on the internal sdcard ext4.

philippe734 said:
Please, could you edit to specify that is not needed to Android + Windows users.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would like to keep this because it will prevent permission issues for everybody caused by wrong GIDs.

Thankyou chrhei. Please can you also say more about what options to choose when formatting sdcard0 and sdcard1 to ext4. Or do you simply let mkfs.ext4 decide based on its defaults?

HippyTed said:
Thankyou chrhei. Please can you also say more about what options to choose when formatting sdcard0 and sdcard1 to ext4. Or do you simply let mkfs.ext4 decide based on its defaults?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, no extra options, just created the ext4 file system. I guess you ask because of the journal, no problems so far.

Could you tell me if the telefone, after formatting both memories into ext4, consumes more battery? Or, there is no difference? And also, if you format to ext4 only your internal memory and the external one is left with FAT32 could there be a conflict between the two memories? When you update the CM firmware, do you have to format the memories again? I am speaking about Galaxy S2...

laotzy said:
Could you tell me if the telefone, after formatting both memories into ext4, consumes more battery? Or, there is no difference? And also, if you format to ext4 only your internal memory and the external one is left with FAT32 could there be a conflict between the two memories? When you update the CM firmware, do you have to format the memories again? I am speaking about Galaxy S2...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't matter if you only convert internal or external SD card. But ext4 is very reliable and the overall performance is slightly better. Battery consumption is the same.

philippe734 said:
- Format in ext4 your internal sdcard with Parted Magic AND NOT WINDOWS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am curious, why can't you use a partition manager running under MS Windows, so long as you correctly specify the Ext4 format for the Linux partition? I know Parted Magic isn't an MS Windows program -- I don't mean you should use that with Windows, but aren't there are other partitioning utilities that do run with the MS operating system?
Or not??

Belamigo said:
I am curious, why can't you use a partition manager running under MS Windows, so long as you correctly specify the Ext4 format for the Linux partition? I know Parted Magic isn't an MS Windows program -- I don't mean you should use that with Windows, but aren't there are other partitioning utilities that do run with the MS operating system?
Or not??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you don't know how to use Linux Ext4 is nothing for you. Don't use it.

Belamigo said:
I am curious, why can't you use a partition manager running under MS Windows
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because after formated, windows will not recognize the partition. Ext4 is not for window, that's the point is. You can do this format using virtualbox with linux, inside windows. But why do hard, when it's easy with live cd ?

OK, now I see the reason.
philippe734 said:
Because after formated, windows will not recognize the partition. ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, OK, I see your point. I read your thread again, and you're changing the entire card to Ext4, and not making a card with two partitions and two filesystems.
I was curious because I'm about to prepare an two-partition SD card to be hardlinked to /data, and I was following instructions for this, where the thread's author suggests a Windows-based partitioning/formatting utility.
So when I saw you saying not to do it, I was getting concerned that the other directions may be wrong.

philippe734, something went wrong with my ext4...:crying: I did everything in accordance with the Manual, Internal memory was formatted into ext4 and then I copied back all the files to the internal memory. While in PartedMagic the content of the Internal memory is seen, no problem. But when I reboot the device it works but it says, not the computer but the telefone, that there is no memory... The external card and its content, still in fat32 are seen in any file manager. I think I might have done something wrong but I can't figure out, what exectlyUsing CWM I connected the phone to the computer and formatted the system back to fat32, so the telefone works as before but I would like to understand what goes wrong when I try to format it to ext4... Any idea?

laotzy said:
philippe734, something went wrong with my ext4...:crying:..... formatted into ext4 and then I copied back all the files to the before but I would like to understand what goes wrong when I try to format it to ext4... Any idea?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stop crying, read post #6 and get used to learn a little about Linux. Or fallback to VFAT.

chrhei said:
Stop crying, read post #6 and get used to learn a little about Linux. Or fallback to VFAT.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dear chrchei, thank you for pointing me to where I could find detailed info about the S2. My problem is that I am not of Linux, so many things are not clear to me. I did read a lot about Linux recently, I did even manage to install Virtual Machine and thus I am able to play with Ubuntu but still, it's rather difficult for me to use all those terminal commands. I am an amateur, not a professional
P.S. OK, I am on the last Nightly on my Galaxy S2. After having been fighting with my Linux trying to format Internal memory into ext4 and receiving errors constantly, I tried to use the CWM's resources on board and, oh wonder(!!!), the memory was formatted into ext4 without any problem! Tomorrow will do the same with the external memory. (SD card)

chrhei said:
- Fix permissions (user media_rw, uid=1023, group media_rw, gid=1023):
cd /mnt/media_rw/
find sdcard0 -type d -exec chmod 0775 {} \;
...
find sdcard0 -type f -exec chown media_rw:media_rw {} \;
- FINISHED
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, you are right. I didn't not understood. Please, could you tell me how to do the same modif using linux (as parted magic) ? Thanks in advance.

How to decrypt SD storage(removable) | Phone to PC transfers | Easy | Automagically

I wanted an encrypted external sd on my phone that i could remove and transfer files to as needed.
This is the solution I conjured up after doing some testing and research
Thanks to @POQDavid who wrote How to decrypt and split adopted storage? which ive modified
Make sure your SD card is formatted as internal storage
Your device must be rooted.
Use a file browser like ES Explorer/Ghost/TotalCommander, browse to /data/misc/vold.
Copy the .key file to another folder and then move to your pc
DO NOT need to dump the hex like in other guides
Copy your key somewhere safe on PC
Code:
sudo mkdir /etc/keys/
cp <keyfilename>.key /etc/keys
On any Linux distro check where your drive is mounted, you can use
Code:
fdisk -l or lsblk
to find the large encrypted partition of the SD card, my SD card was mounted to /dev/sdd2.
Create the mount point:
Code:
sudo mkdir /mnt/1
Then run this command
Code:
sudo cryptsetup create usbcrypt1 /dev/sdd2 --key-size 128 --key-file /etc/keys/<keyfilename>.key
If your key is correct you can mount it by
Code:
sudo mount /dev/mapper/usbcrypt1 /mnt/1/
Test the mount
Code:
ls /mnt/1
Finally you can run
Code:
cd /mnt/1
to browse the decrypted storage.
Automation
Im tired now and so far I have automated this using terminal aliases
Just drop the alias into command and hit enter, the cryptmount to mount and cryptumount to unmount. (alias will be removed on reboot) edit and insert into ~./bashrc to make aliases stay
Code:
# alias mounting
[B]alias cryptmount="sudo su -c 'cryptsetup create usbcrypt1 /dev/sdd2 --key-size 128 --key-file /etc/keys/<keyfilename>.key' && sudo su -c 'mount /dev/mapper/usbcrypt1 /mnt/1'"[/B]
#alias unmounting and luksClose
[B]alias cryptumount="sudo su -c 'umount /mnt/1' && sudo su -c 'cryptsetup luksClose usbcrypt1'"[/B]
Remember to replace <keyfilename> with your keyfile name to make it work.
Next step make this automount in crypttab using dm-crypt method if thats possible... Any help appreciated.
cheers and good night

Table reserved for 2

Ok it works, but kind of a hassle. To copy files over you basically should copy them to a readable folder like user or any other one you can create directories in after mounting.
Copy your files to the encrypted drive, unmount .
then using a file manager with root access on your phone copy them from /mnt/expand/<UUID> to /mnt/sdcard and you should be good. It works for be but i wont be using this method anymore because its a pain to copy large amounts of files so many times. better to use an OTG usb for that
However this does have benefits if your phone is destroyed and only the adapted sd card exists and you need access to your files.
Enjoy.

[xzel] said:
Ok it works, but kind of a hassle. To copy files over you basically should copy them to a readable folder like user or any other one you can create directories in after mounting.
Copy your files to the encrypted drive, unmount .
then using a file manager with root access on your phone copy them from /mnt/expand/<UUID> to /mnt/sdcard and you should be good. It works for be but i wont be using this method anymore because its a pain to copy large amounts of files so many times. better to use an OTG usb for that
However this does have benefits if your phone is destroyed and only the adapted sd card exists and you need access to your files.
Enjoy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it possible to browse adoptable storage from twrp using the aforementioned method?
I have busybox and cryptsetup in termux so i can use it from twrp terminal..?

Unreal_Hawkz said:
Is it possible to browse adoptable storage from twrp using the aforementioned method?
I have busybox and cryptsetup in termux so i can use it from twrp terminal..?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe you can mount it thru termux but I havent tried, I tried this on an Ubuntu system.