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I installed Cyanogen Rom v4.0.1 and successfully partition sd card with fat32/ext4/swap. Afterward, I realize there are over 300MB in the /data/.
It seems like for normal usage (not excess # of app installed), It doesn't really need to use App2SD and the internal memory should be sufficient space. That should make the phone more stable and speeder since it doesn't depend on the sdcard at all. I dont' plan to install Hero since i won't need the /swap.
What do you think?
going from using no apps to sd to using apps to sd I find that everything seems to run faster for me. Yes i tested it.
That is very interesting. I wonder why app2sd to faster? I mean the sd card IS slower than the internal flash memory.
It's not necessary for Magic/MyTouch3g. It was designed for HTC Dream which has a small amount of storage for apps, Magic does not have that problem.
im running qtek hero rom...how could i disable/remove a2sd?
Format SD Card
waacow said:
I installed Cyanogen Rom v4.0.1 and successfully partition sd card with fat32/ext4/swap. Afterward, I realize there are over 300MB in the /data/.
It seems like for normal usage (not excess # of app installed), It doesn't really need to use App2SD and the internal memory should be sufficient space. That should make the phone more stable and speeder since it doesn't depend on the sdcard at all. I dont' plan to install Hero since i won't need the /swap.
What do you think?
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Installed Rom fine. Having some issue with Sync Calendar but otherwise great. Question: How do I partition SD Card with fat32/ext4/swap???
marknlee said:
Installed Rom fine. Having some issue with Sync Calendar but otherwise great. Question: How do I partition SD Card with fat32/ext4/swap???
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The easiest way is to fastboot Amon_RA's recovery.img, there is an option in there to create and format the partitions, you just select it with the trackball.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=530492
I knew this time would come....
I've got too many apps on my phone and Im running low on space, and I've noticed my phone has been dragging lately.
I have an 8GB class 6 SD card, so hopefully speed shouldnt be an issue.
I have yet to use A2SD...
If I partition my drive, do I lose everything that's on there? Obviously that's not a problem as I can just move everything over to my computer then copy it back, but if I can leave the data on there and partition that'd be great.
Im having a hard time finding a step by step "from day one" guide.
Mind pointing me in the right direction? The only thing Ive found in the wiki is moving to a new SD card with A2SD.
Im currently running DC 2.07.2
BACK UP SDCARD
Boot into recovery. Partition SD card (default values)
Download http://www.darktremor.com/files/misc/a2sd-2.5-signed.zip
Flash above .zip as any normal ROM
Boot phone
Open command prompt and type:
adb shell
a2sd install
Tada.
Ok great, got that part down.
Now moving the already installed apps over to the SD card? What else do I do from here?
Thank you for the help!
Actually, looks like everything went ok...
ls -l /data reveals all the locations as /system/sd/app
I didn't bother to look at free internal space before installing, but my interanal free storage is now at 130MB. Sound right?
Last question i have for now....
Now that all my apps are on the SD card, if I were to flash a new ROM (say a new ROM Flipz comes out with) that has A2SD support... I dont' have to re-install them as both the apks, odex, and dalvik are all stored on the SD card right?
poor_red_neck said:
Actually, looks like everything went ok...
ls -l /data reveals all the locations as /system/sd/app
I didn't bother to look at free internal space before installing, but my interanal free storage is now at 130MB. Sound right?
Last question i have for now....
Now that all my apps are on the SD card, if I were to flash a new ROM (say a new ROM Flipz comes out with) that has A2SD support... I dont' have to re-install them as both the apks, odex, and dalvik are all stored on the SD card right?
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The only version that I'm aware of that moves Dalvik-cache to the sd card is Apps2SD version 2.5. I don't know if anyone has that in the ROMs yet. Many of them are either using an Apps2SD that was built for Fresh 2.0d, Apps2SD version 2.0, or the Apps2SD which is common in the 1.5 builds.
Your apps in /data/app and /data/app-private are on the sd card. You can flash Apps2SD version 2.5 (A2SD) from http://www.darktremor.com/files/misc/a2sd-2.5-signed.zip if you want to move the dalvik-cache.
EDIT: I really should read the instructions that was posted before I stick my foot in my mouth. The file is the one located at Darktremor, which is the version 2.5...so, yes...your dalvik-cache is on the sd card.
So I tried the above method, but all my apps stopped working and when I go to reinstall them, it says "Insufficient Space for App"...
What did I do wrong?
EDIT: Okay, nevermind, it seems to be working now. I tried installing the app again and it installed fine the second time. Trying another one now.
I did this recently and just found out that I cannot install/download apps from the market, it just gets stuck there. Does it know where its downloading too after a2sd is installed?
Hello. I am struggling with this for three days now. I can't seem to make it work. So I think I need a detailed how-to because obviously I am doing something wrong.
I am using this clockwork recovery image: http://android.modaco.com/content/z...27215/oled-tft-2-5-1-8-clockworkmod-recovery/
Then I go to clockwork recovery mode and create 1GB ext partition. Wipe everything from everywhere.
After that I install paul's alpha3 prebake.
What happens is I have 1GB less storage on my class4 8GB SD, but don't see the ext3 partition (where should I look for it exactly)
In normal use the only way you'll know if its working or not is if you run out of space or not.
To find your ext partition look in '/sd-ext' or '/system/sd', you might need a file explorer that can use root privileges, I use estrongs. If the directories 'app' and 'app-private' are there then its working.
If your still sure its not working double check that the prebaked version comes with apps2sd...not all do.
Thank you. I think the prebaked alpha3 version doesn't have the apps2sd scripts. I tried to install Darktremor Apps2SD 2.7.5.2 but it killed my OS and had to flash it again. So is there any specific a2SD that I can use with this rom?
OK. I installed the Japanese jellyfish ROM yesterday and everything works like a charm so I guess prebaked alpha3 didn't have the apps2sd scripts.
Thank you again for your help, mate!
what is apps2ext?
It basically gets some storage space from the SD card and lies the system that it's part of the apps section of the internal memory
cynepmeh said:
It basically gets some storage space from the SD card and lies the system that it's part of the apps section of the internal memory
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so it is basically like a different storage architecture for the SD card? Like we can have fat32, ntfs etc?
I am no expert here. From what I know - scripts create some symlinks so the app storage is actually placed on the sd, but the system doesn't know that and thinks it is still the old place. The path is the same, but it actually is something like a shortcut. The ext is probably because it needs to be linix partition or something...
This is what I think and it may not be true however
I found this post in some other section!!
i am just giving the same information here for my fellow g3 mates!!
Full credit go to neoKushan
here the original thread!! http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=742351
Nows here what we are here for!!! Clear your doubts guys!!!
Ok, so here's the deal, in a very longwinded way that should hopefully explain everything and answer ALL questions.
You have an SD card in your phone and, a bit like normal PC Hard Drives, you can "partition" them (split them into two or more sections of different filesystems). Normally, your SD card is just one big FAT32 partition, which is fine for storing your pics, messages, emails, etc.
Now, other then your Phone's SD card, your phone will have its own internal flash memory (or "NAND") storage. Tradditionally with Android, you could only install applications to this NAND storage, you cannot install them onto your SD card. So if you have an empty 32GB SD card, but only 5Mb of internal phone storage, you still wont be able to install many apps, if any at all.
This was done to protect the apps from things like piracy - it's not easy to access the location where apps are installed on your phone's internal storage (normally impossible without root), so you can't for example buy an app, copy it, refund it, then install it again.
Still, this is no good for those of us who like to install lots and lots of apps, legitimately, as we run out of internal storage very quickly.
So Google came up with a way to install apps to the SD card. A folder is created called something like .android_secure and this stores (I believe) encrypted versions of applications, but there's a few catches:
1) Apps aren't automatically stored here, you have to manually "move" them
2) Not all apps are capable of being moved, in fact most apps aren't, the developer needs to update their app and allow it. Some apps aren't and wont be updated and some developers may not want to allow it for whatever reason.
3) Not all app data is moved, most of it is but some data is left on your phone so many people still run out of internal storage quickly.
4) You can force ALL apps to be moved to this area by default, but it breaks incompatible ones - such as Widgets, which are unable to load due to the SD card not being "prepared".
So that's Froyo's version. Before Froyo existed, some very clever people came up with a thing called "Apps2SD". Remember I said that your SD card normally is one big FAT32 partition? Well, Apps2SD works by having your SD card patitioned into TWO filesystems. A normal FAT32 partition for your usual stuff and a secondary "EXT" partition. EXT is just a filesystem, like FAT32 or NTFS, but it's the filesystem used by Android internally. The SD card is normally FAT32 because it's a "universal" filesystem, that just about any machine will be able to read, whereas EXT filesystems are generally Linux only, but I digress.
EXT has several different versions. The most common one you'll see is ext3. The main difference between ext2 and ext3 is "journaling", which is just a fancy way of saying that should an operation (such as copying, writing or reading) be interrupted unexpectedly (say, by you turning your phone off), then no data should be lost or corrupted. You know how when you turn your phone on, it says "preparing SD card"? It takes a few minutes, but what it's actually doing is checking that the FAT32 partition hasn't been damaged, because FAT does NOT have journaling. If you used a computer back in the Windows 98 days, you may remember that lovely blue "Scandisk" screen that had to run every time you didn't shut your computer down correctly - that's the same thing. But then Windows 2000/XP came along with NTFS, which also has journaling, meaning you had less chance of loosing data. But I digress once more.
So you have your SD card partitioned into EXT and FAT32. Generally it doesn't matter if it's ext3 or ext4, but you don't get any real advantage with ext4 over ext3 in this instance. Apps2SD then runs a special script on your phone which "symbolically links" the folder from your phone's internal storage where your apps are normally stored, to the ext partition on your SD card. A symbolic link is a bit like a shortcut for folders, except it's transparent to the OS: In other words, Android doesn't know that when it's installing it's apps to the internal phone storage, it's actually being stored on the SD card. This effectively boosts your internal phone memory from the previous 5mb that you had in my example above, up to whatever size you made the ext partition on your SD card (often 512Mb or 1Gb, but it depends on how many apps you install).
Plus, because it's "journaled", it doesn't need to be "prepared", meaning it's ready to go as soon as the phone starts - so your widgets and apps work immediately (unlike "forced" Froyo Apps2SD, where widgets disappear).
The catch with Apps2SD is that whatever space the ext partition takes up is taken away from the SD card. So if you have a 4Gb card (with something like 3.5Gb of actual storage) and you make a 512Mb ext partition, your SD card will "shrink" to 3Gb. The space isn't actually lost, it's just being used by the ext partition. If you reformat your card, you'll get it back.
Finally, there's a difference between "Apps2SD" and "Apps2SD+". Remember I said that your apps are stored on a special folder inside your Phone's NAND storage? Well, that was a bit of a lie. It's actually stored in TWO places. There's a second area which is called the Davlik Cache. You don't really need to worry about what this is for (Hint: IT's to do with the Java runetime your phone uses to run apps), all you need to know is that apps use it to store data, which also eats up internal phone memory. Apps2SD+ moves davlik cache to the ext partition on your SD card as well, freeing up even more space. Some people believe that this may come at the cost of performance, as the internal NAND memory should be faster than your SD card (Which is why you also get people arguing over which "class" SD card is better for Apps2SD - the logic being that a faster SD card means less impact from this move), but the truth of the matter is that your applications will be running from your Phone's RAM anyway, so performance isn't really impacted at all. Since most apps are only a few hundred Kb's in size, or a couple of MB at the most, it's a non-issue.
Finally, any recent version of Apps2SD/Apps2SD+ should work with an SD card that is or isn't formatted with an ext partition. It'll check for this partition when your phone first boots and if it's not there, just use internal phone storage.
Having an ext partition WITHOUT Apps2SD+ shouldn't cause any issues, either, so you can format your SD card whenever you're ready.
So in summary:
Apps2SD "fakes" your phone's internal memory and puts it all on a hidden section of your SD card.
Apps2SD+ pushes even more content to the SD card, freeing up even more space on the phone itself.
"Froyo" Apps2SD has various limitations that "old" apps2SD does not, but is much easier to handle as it doesn't involve any kind of "partitioning".
I don't really claim to be an expert but I wrote this and nobody really chimed in to say anything was wrong, so hopefully it applies here.
I'll try to keep an eye on this thread in case anyone has questions.
I don't really claim to be an expert but I wrote this and nobody really chimed in to say anything was wrong, so hopefully it applies here.
I'll try to keep an eye on this thread in case anyone has questions.
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Thanks a lot buddy.. People may know all that but you have written in such a simple manner that even a small kid will understand..
Acid lestitious 2.0. Fugumod 2.2 build 1.9
thanx soo muxh for this info...it's getting really confusing out there with everyone claiming this type is better than that blah blah blah etcetc....this is very helpful
thanks again
JohnstonF said:
thanx soo muxh for this info...it's getting really confusing out there with everyone claiming this type is better than that blah blah blah etcetc....this is very helpful
thanks again
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You're welcome
Acid lestitious 2.0. Fugumod 2.2
I've just installed the Paranoid-Jellybean 1.99
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1793180
on my EU HTC HD2
I can't anderstand what sd the idea behind program S2E, it seems its purpose is to move apps to SD but when used it this way then all newly installed Widgets disappeared What's more even without launching S2E in Settings thare are options to move individual apps to SD (not for all in fact)
it isn't talking about the normal fat partition on the sd card, you must have an EXT partition created before using the app.
What it does, is take the ext partition on the sd card and makes the system think that it is internal memory, thus giving you more 'internal' memory for apps and data and such like.
This isn't the same as choosing 'move to sd ' in the settings - apps options, as this moves the app to the FAT (windows) partition of the sd card. Some apps wont work when 'moved to sd', however they WILL work from the ext partition, because android thinks its internal.
So, if you haven't already got an ext partition, back up the contents of your current sd card (it will get wiped) then reboot into cwm, choose 'advanced - partition sd card' and choose a partition size. (512 or 1024 is usually plenty) then restart android and try the app again.
Any apps that you have already 'moved to sd', go move them back to internal, and the system should automatically move them from the FAT partition to the EXT partition.
Tahnk you for your explanation. Also I must apologize I confused the names of the programs - in fact its S2E rather than A2S (the previous post have written from memory). However probabely this s2e serves the same purpose, as it has such relevant commands:
Applications - Location: /data/app
Private apps - Location: /data/app-private
...
and so on, until:
Dalvik cache - Moving from /data to /sd-ext
So, I've chosen the first option and got displayed:
Application
Moving from /data to /sd-ext
Reboot is required!
and rebooted the phone, but the result was disappointing - several apps dissappeared including all Widgets!
Of course I've had ext3 partition previously set.
What was wrong?
Other question please: exactly WHAT is worth moving to SD Ext partition, Dalvik cache too?
yea they do the same/similar things - namely move parts of the system to the ext partition, and create symbolic links so that the system doesnt notice they've moved.
You seem to be moving your entire data folder to the ext, which i believe has an impact on boot performance, since the data partition wont be mounted straight away, and android needs it during boot.
I don't know a great deal about the various app2sd scripts, but the ones i've used normally only move the /data/app/ (your user installed apps folder) and the dalvik cache to the sd-ext partition.
samsamuel said:
yea they do the same/similar things - namely move parts of the system to the ext partition, and create symbolic links so that the system doesnt notice they've moved.
You seem to be moving your entire data folder to the ext, which i believe has an impact on boot performance, since the data partition wont be mounted straight away, and android needs it during boot.
I don't know a great deal about the various app2sd scripts, but the ones i've used normally only move the /data/app/ (your user installed apps folder) and the dalvik cache to the sd-ext partition.
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So won't it exert excessive load on SD card which could lead to some sort of instability or other issues?
ioy said:
So won't it exert excessive load on SD card which could lead to some sort of instability or other issues?
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better than exerting load on the nand and increasing the chances of bad blocks, right?
samsamuel said:
better than exerting load on the nand and increasing the chances of bad blocks, right?
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theoretically YES but then does it also apply for the whole Android ROM itself (please compare the neighbouring discussion "is NAND Android better than SD and why?")
ioy said:
(please compare
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no thanks, i have far more interesting things to do. i couldn't care less if there's excess load, though i'm pretty sure there isn't, since i've been running an ext partition for several months and no problems.
Have you understood me well? I've asked about the problem probably NAND ROMs themselves wear NAND memory too so would it be safer (for the device) to use SD ROMs (which write only on SD memory all the time)? How do you think, could it be the case?
i think if it were of any real benefit, people would be talking about it, but no one does. I guess its down to you, if YOU think it will help, then do it. If you don't, don't!
I guess battery drain would be teh real deal maker/breaker. I havent used sd android, but i believe it to be (in general terms) a little less stable, more prone to slowdowns, and harder on teh battery. But thats all anecdotal evidence, as i said, ive never booted sd android.
(edit - i must say, in humour, not meaning offence, that between this thread and your other thread, you sound like a guy who just bought a sports car and wants to cycle to work to save wear and tear on teh car )