Database Users

Swap Partition When Using Apps2sd

Hey guys,
I am planning to format my sdcard to fat32/ext_ partitions for use of apps2sd. I have a few questions I would like answered first though.
-Is a swap partition required? I have little space on my sd and would rather not use one. If it is required, what size/file system would you suggest? I take it there is no invisible swap partition by default?
-Ext 2, 3 or 4 for my apps2sd partition?
- I am planning to make my apps2sd partition only about 200mb, will that work well?
Thanks.

- swap: depending on rom, but in general: no
- i would recommend ext2, you can use 3 or 4 as well. keep in mind that ext4 doesn't work on any 2.1 rom until we have the kernel sources (after official release).
- it will work, the size only determines how many apps you can install there. average size of an app is ~1mb, though can go from a few kb to several mb (i.e. copilot.apk has 14mb).

Thanks a lot Any particular advantage of ext2 over ext3?

tbman1996 said:
Thanks a lot Any particular advantage of ext2 over ext3?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ext3 and ext4 wear out your sdcard quicker, because of journaling features.
Since, compared to a system or cache partition, the sdcard is not written to as much, and system crashes where the mobile is shut down during a write operation are rare for Android, journaling doesn't offer any significant advantage. The unnecessary journaling however, accounts for extra writes to the flash memory chips, which in turn equals extra wear.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ext2 said:
ext2 is still the filesystem of choice for flash-based storage media (such as SD cards, SSDs, and USB flash drives) since its lack of a journal minimizes the number of writes and flash devices have only a limited number of write cycles.
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Click to collapse

[Q] What is EXT4 and what are the benefits of it?

i've been seeing that "Ext4 is required" for newer ROMs, but i was wondering what that actually means with respect to Android...i understand that it's a filesystem. thanks and sorry for the ignorance.

From my understanding it's kind of like how a hard drive is formatted. In this case we used to have rfs and thanks to the good folks here we now have the now becoming standard ext4 which is supposed to be a bit speedier on the I/O I believe.

I think it also supports larger file sizes.

great...thanks for the info.

rockrerun said:
I think it also supports larger file sizes.
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I don't think that would matter though. It's the SD card that is in FAT32 that would hold the over 4gb file. The phone will play it in any case. Now...if you formatted the SD to ext4 then I suppose this would be true. I don't know if the new file ext4 was needed to "read" an ext4 sd card or not though. I could simply format my sd to ext4 (since I'm still on RFS for now) and check out if an over 4gb video file would play...or be seen at all.

partition sd card?

Hi all, I've noticed lately that most of the new roms coming out require you to partition your sd card. a couple of questions;
Why?
is it perminent?
wich partition to add new files too?
can i still use stock sd card?
how big to make partition?
Thanks in advance

dca1970 said:
Hi all, I've noticed lately that most of the new roms coming out require you to partition your sd card. a couple of questions;
Why?
is it perminent?
wich partition to add new files too?
can i still use stock sd card?
how big to make partition?
Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Memory size on the phone is not adequate to handle the size of certain ROMs.
No its not permanent
Ext3 for apps
Yes
As big as you want, 2gigs is what's recommended and 32 mb swap

phatmanxxl said:
Memory size on the phone is not adequate to handle the size of certain ROMs.
No its not permanent
Ext3 for apps
Yes
As big as you want, 2gigs is what's recommended and 32 mb swap
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! .

Upgrading from ext2-ext3
On a side note, I have been attempting to partition my SDcard with the 2G on my 16G C6 card. When I use AR1.8 everything goes quickly, but it will not upgrade from ext2-ext3 and says to use adb to do this (adb does not see the partition)...partition seems to be made when checking the card. On AR2.3 the partitioning goes on forever and have to do a battery pull to get it to stop. When I check the size with this version it also seems to have done the partition even with the endless process stated earlier. It however gives me the message 'opps, something went wrong' when trying to upgrade from ext2-3.
When checking from either method in TB, it shows an ap2sd partition of around 400mb and have yet to actually upgrade to ext3 from either recovery version.
Any ideas?

Use RA recovery to partition, it makes it simple.

What ROMs require this?
I guess I've been in the AOSP world for too long...

Just the virus gingersense and the virus kingdom that I know of. The virus kindom does not require it but you wont be left if much room for apps.

phatmanxxl said:
Just the virus gingersense and the virus kingdom that I know of. The virus kindom does not require it but you wont be left if much room for apps.
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Click to collapse
Why not just http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=855424 ?
Better performance on NAND than SD-EXT.

phatmanxxl said:
Use RA recovery to partition, it makes it simple.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, AR was my intention of RA. Have used both the initial version 1.8 (my first anyway) and 2.3 with no success.
Have been attempting to do it within ADB and keep getting this message when attempting to make the ext2 partition:
Input/Output error during write on /dev/block/mmcblk0
This is the process I'm using:
within adb shell
# parted /dev/block/mmcblk0
(parted) mkpartfs primary fat32 0 13991
(parted) mkpartfs primary ext2 13991 16039
this is where I get the error mentioned above and can not continue to the swap.
(parted) mkpartfs primary linux-swap 16039 16071
HOWEVER....
If I use mkpart primary ext2 13991 16039 it takes, but does not show that it is an ext2 in the files system under the partition information.
Does this even make sense..lol
EDIT:
Never mind..erased my edit until I really screw up my card...now it won't mount...back to the drawing board
Gave up after reading about Transcend cards and just partitioned to the single 16G. Going to get a different card/mfg and give it a go. At least I learned a bit more about ADB today...so not a total loss.

OK..after looking through many options, may have my issue as to why RA won't perform the partition and I can't do it through ADB.....MY CARD. Apparantly there have been issues with Transcend and making an ext partition. Guess it's time to go C10 and get a new one.
Anyway...found this thread and thought it might help?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=534714

Got a new C10 card today from a different mfg and that fixed the problem!

I use gpart on ny ubuntu OS. It is NVIDIA to keep a Linux OS around guys. I can do the wholebpartitioning without erasing any files or data. soo I'm good to go. Also its fast as well.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

[Q] A Noob Question, Please Help

I've been hearing a lot about partitioning sd cards and I know it's done in recovery mode.
So my question is - What's the difference between ext2, ext3, ext4 and swap partition?
Please help out!!

ext2 - Linux file system (no journaling)
ext3 - basically ext2 with journaling
ext4 - next generation of ext3 with better journaling and performance
swap - if internal memory should run full, parts would be swapped to the swap space, so it is basically an enhancement of internal memory
Check each out in the wikipedia, its worth it!
EDIT: I'd personally always go for ext4 and 128 swap

tbschommer said:
ext2 - Linux file system (no journaling)
ext3 - basically ext2 with journaling
ext4 - next generation of ext3 with better journaling and performance
swap - if internal memory should run full, parts would be swapped to the swap space, so it is basically an enhancement of internal memory
Check each out in the wikipedia, its worth it!
EDIT: I'd personally always go for ext4 and 128 swap
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks man,
But still I have few more questions..
What do you mean by "journaling"? And why do we need ext, ext2, ext4 for our mobile?
And swap is for enhancing internal memory or RAM?

Aced443 said:
Thanks man,
But still I have few more questions..
What do you mean by "journaling"? And why do we need ext, ext2, ext4 for our mobile?
And swap is for enhancing internal memory or RAM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Journaling filesystem - quote from Wikipedia:
A journaling file system is a file system that keeps track of the changes that will be made in a journal (usually a circular log in a dedicated area of the file system) before committing them to the main file system. In the event of a system crash or power failure, such file systems are quicker to bring back online and less likely to become corrupted.
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Click to collapse
Sorry I can't elaborate on why Android uses ext4 - I only read that one reason is that it's capable of multithreading. I hope one of the experts can tell us both more
Swap - you're right, of course - is used for RAM.

Its time to partition. A few questions.

Okay, I am now thinking of partitioning my SD Card....
So a few questions:
1. What are ext4, SWAP and any other kind of partitions and the difference between them?
2. How do I partition and what should be the size of different partitions, how many partitions and each partition for what purpose?
3. After partitioning, what next so that all my apps go to partitioned SD Card, like adding a few App2SD Scripts?
4. What exactly are these App2SD and Data2SD Scripts and the difference between them?

[email protected] said:
Okay, I am now thinking of partitioning my SD Card....
So a few questions:
1. What are ext4, SWAP and any other kind of partitions and the difference between them?
2. How do I partition and what should be the size of different partitions, how many partitions and each partition for what purpose?
3. After partitioning, what next so that all my apps go to partitioned SD Card, like adding a few App2SD Scripts?
4. What exactly are these App2SD and Data2SD Scripts and the difference between them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See THIS
And also THIS

That was a good read....
But what is "Swap"?
I have no idea what that is....
And is there specifically any difference between ext3 and ext4?

[email protected] said:
That was a good read....
But what is "Swap"?
I have no idea what that is....
And is there specifically any difference between ext3 and ext4?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AFAIK swap is a partition that makes it run as ram when its required.. In short for memory!!
And ext3 and ext4 are just linux partitions and ext4 is recommended. Google is always your friend!!

[email protected] said:
That was a good read....
But what is "Swap"?
I have no idea what that is....
And is there specifically any difference between ext3 and ext4?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are getting some errors/bugs after partitioning, disable swap as it doesnt work for every1
Sent from my GT-i5801 using XDA App

neo1691 said:
AFAIK swap is a partition that makes it run as ram when its required.. In short for memory!!
And ext3 and ext4 are just linux partitions and ext4 is recommended. Google is always your friend!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for all the info mate....