Database Users

what to do with Apps2sd when changing ROMs

Yesterday I decided to try and update from Cyanogen's 3.4.6 to 3.5.2. When I did this, and booted into 3.5.2, a lot of my apps could not open and didnt have icons nor the right name. I had made a nandroid backup right before this (while on 3.4.6) so i restored with that but my apps are still messed up.
My question is, do i have to reformat my sd card each time i update to a new rom? if not how do i make it so it doesnt screw up like that?

i use gparted to format my ext2 partition. you just right click, then format and it's do it automatically, no need for a command prompt.
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

also, if youve never used it, burn the iso to a cd and the boot to your cd drive. you can also use it to make your swap bigger/smaller and the same w/ your apps 2sd (the ext2 partition)
PS, it will default to your hard drive, to get to your sd click on the big button on the top left of the window and select the drive that is your sd

[Android] ext2 and haret questions

Would someone write a tutorial on installing Android on ext2? I thought I understood how it works, but realized I was only booting from haret, and not installing onto the ext2 partitions I had made. I went back and reread a lot of the old threads, but find it hard to figure out when to push vol down or hit end. Also, I prefer to boot into 320 x 480 so I can see the whole Market. This makes the print so tiny, I'm not sure what I'm seeing. (I did manage to get it on to my ext2 partition, I think. How do I know for sure.) Thirdly, the choices when booting are different, depending on whether you want to install for the first time or not. So, could someone tell us what the correct selections are if you are:
1. Installing onto ext2 partitions for the first time.
2. Just wanting to change resolution.
3. Wanting to change builds completely from say, Donut to Eclair.
Also, I understand that you can backup your data.img. But how do you go about reusing it if you are wanting to go back to a version of Android you've used in the past?
Lastly, if you are moving from, say Donut to Eclair, (moving to a completely different build), must you use a backup app to take your apps, settings, ringers, wallpapers and so on, to the new build?
If someone would write a tutorial addressing these questions, I'd be forever grateful and I'd imagine it would help those who want to try Android for the first time. Having all this information in one place would really help.
Thank you so much.

Not a pro by any means, I am still trying to figure everything out myself but here is how I understand it...
To install on ext2, you need to partition your SDcard into 3 partitions, 1 FAT32 and 2 ext2. When you run haret, it will detect the partitions and ask you to "upgrade". If you choose yes, it will install on the ext2 partition. If you choose to back up your data, it will create a backup of your data.img file and then upgrade. If you press End, you have the option to wipe the data file before you install.
You can verify if it installed to the ext2 partitions by browsing your SDcard. You should not see a data.img file on your FAT32 partition and you should see a backupsystem folder with the system.sqsh file in it.
If you want to change the resolution, all you need to do is change it in your default.txt or startup.txt file.
Don't have any advice going from one build to another as I normally just wipe my data file and start over to ensure I am starting clean.

Thanks, it helped me too...
But; I made 2 partitions, 1 Fat32 and 1 EXT2. I'm running haret now, he didn't ask anything about updating... Now it hangs on a black screen, but the backlight is still on. I didn't see any linux penguin neither like the last times (without ext2).

[Q] Help w/ SD Format

Howdy, folks. Having a little trouble getting my SD card to format properly so I can take full advantage of the DL DesireZ ROM. I've read the instructions from F-bone, but still confused.
I've been twaddling around with the Gpartd disc, and can create a 1536MB partition, but when I then segment that to 1024, I keep getting shorted 1MB and wind up with a 511MB partition. I also recall when moving things around seeing a message about the MBR being missing, so I recreated it.
Is there any reason why the ext4 partitions must be at the end of free space, rather than at the beginning? Why do I keep having this 1MB segment floating around? Is that for the MBR, and if so, where should I place it?
Also, the capacity on the card is 16GB (the standard HD2 MicroSD card that came with the phone) but it's showing only 14.8-ish Gig. I presume that's because of the difference between the definition of 'gig' at 1000 and the actual 1024 size, and/or slack space consumed by the partitioning and formatting, but if someone could confirm, it would put my mind at ease.
What am I doing wrong?
Thanks in advance!

I followed the previous and for the first time it went smooth and the build rebooted with no bootloop after first boot.
Ignore the bit where it says what your size for fat 32 should be, that's for an 8gb card, just follow everything and you should end up with 13.4 fat32, I think that's what i had anyhow, all space on card used in 3 partitions
reza416 said:
since there are still people asking for more details on how to install and how complicated its to install & set up partitions on sd card, i've went back to F-bone's previous post which helped me install my nand and partition and added a little more details and links to Gparted and Panasonic formatter. thank F-bone for this!!
Ok here it goes - this guide describes the way I do it to install the NAND+3partitions variation.
1) Download v3.3 and extract it on your desktop.
2) Download Panasonic SD Formatter and GPARTED Live CD ISO (google)
Panasonic formatter link=
http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/sd/download/index.html or
http://www.sdcard.org/consumers/formatter_3/
Gparted live cd iso link:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gparted/files/gparted-live-stable/ (120 MB!)
3) Shut down your HD2 and remove the SDCard - place the SDCard in a card reader and BACKUP your files (photos etc).
4) Format the SDCard in your laptop or PC using the Panasonic SD Formatter (Full Format)
Also, I have windows 7 and you can go to my Start/computer/SD card drive, right click and format: file system choose Fat32, allocation size, choose the highest 32kb or 64kb, uncheck quick so its full format. That will also do it and no need to download Panasonic if you prefer the windows tools.
5) Boot GParted Live CD (instructions on Gparted Live )
-the file you downloaded for Gparted live Cd Iso is an image file meaning you should burn it into a cd or a dvd in order to be able to use it. Do that by any program capable of burning image files ( nero is an example of such programs)
-after making the cd/dvd, place the cd/dvd in your cd/dvd drive and restart your computer, instead of loading windows, Gparted will load from the cd/dvd.
-next as you are entering Gparted you’re faced with 4 options, choose GPARTED LIVE(DEFAULT SETTINGS)
-next 4 more choices, choose don’t touch keymap
-next choose language, 33 for English. Type 33 press enter
-next, will ask you which mode, type 0(continue to start x to use gparted automatically) press enter
Now gparted is loaded,
on the main screen I will be your hard drive partitions, don’t touch anything of your pc partitions otherwise, you’ll possible lose your windows/personal file etc… important!!!
-So on top right, click and choose your sd card.
-when it loads you should see your sd card (Fat32 size 7540 Mb), right click, resize/move
- new window opens, type 1536 under free space following ( for example 7540 minus 1536) and press add ( I’ll add a screen shot)
-now you have two partitions, Fat32 size 6004 Mb & Unallocated size 1536 Mb.
-right click on Unallocated, click new(new box opens),set to primary and under file system select Ext4 then press add.
-now you named unallocated to ext4 so you got Fat32 and Ext4
-do the same process, right click on Ext4 click on resize/move, choose 512 under space following (1536-512) press add, now you have Fat32, Ext4(size 1GiB), Unallocated(size 512Mib)
-just like before, right click on Unallocated, New, set to primary under file system choose Ext4 and add.
-MAKE SURE YOU PRESS APPLY or none of these changes will take effect. After gpart will do its process you’ll have 3 partitions!!!
-At this point your SDcard has 3 partitions FAT32, ext4 1024MiB, and ext4 512MiB - EXIT Gparted and boot into Windows again.
6) Go to your desktop where you extracted the rom and open config.txt
7) Change gps_zone to your country's zone (=gr for Greece) - leave the rest of the settings intact for NAND+3partitions SDcard variation of this rom - save file.
8) Before you remove the SDcard from your laptop or PC make a folder Desire_DL and copy ONLY the config file you just saved to Desire_DL folder.
9) Safely remove the SDCard and place it in your HD2.
10) Turn on HD2 and HOLD power key to get into MAGLDR 1.11
11) Choose USB Flasher(option 4) and press phone (Green) key
12) Connect your HD2 to your computer
13) Go to your desktop and from the rom folder you extracted run Install.
14) Wait
15) Wait
16) Wait… it may take a while, since the rom will format ext4 partition(s).
17) Now that HD2 has booted do the basic settings and REBOOT again. DO NOT INSTALL APPS etc etc at this point
18) Now that you have rebooted for 2nd time you can do whatever you want - maybe do a 3rd reboot to see that everything is stable
NOTE: When the rom boots wait for a while before using the phone until various system services load in the background after the SD card is prepared... wait 30-40 seconds
hope this helps...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

bates_1974 said:
I followed the previous and for the first time it went smooth and the build rebooted with no bootloop after first boot.
Ignore the bit where it says what your size for fat 32 should be, that's for an 8gb card, just follow everything and you should end up with 13.4 fat32, I think that's what i had anyhow, all space on card used in 3 partitions
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the post, but it didn't answer my questions. I read both Reza's and F-bone's posts and my problem remains - I have a 511MB (not 512) partition when doing it by their instructions.

BillTheCat said:
Thanks for the post, but it didn't answer my questions. I read both Reza's and F-bone's posts and my problem remains - I have a 511MB (not 512) partition when doing it by their instructions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
makes no differennce, I had a 512 and a 1023

there is a special tool for format SD card in CWR
boot in Magldr
8. AD Recovery
select advanced
and then Partition SD Card.
you can choose basic settings ....
Works for me

croisade said:
there is a special tool for format SD card in CWR
boot in Magldr
8. AD Recovery
select advanced
and then Partition SD Card.
you can choose basic settings ....
Works for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's for your basic apps2sd, some builds like the one we're running you need to use gparted to create one fat32, one 1gb ext4 and another 350mb ext4, CWM doesn't allow you to do that, just one ext3 so whatever size you select.

Wow. Ok, that's strange. Tried it again today and it worked fine. Wierd. Thanks for the input, guys.

[Q] How can I add a small Ext partition to my SD card and fill it with symlinks?

So I am an organization freak, and the root of my SD card had gotten a bit out of control. Not unusual, I know, but having just installed Titanium Media Sync and inKa File Manager, I've been doing a lot more file management and the constant scrolling through crap folders that I'll never need to access is getting old. So I've been trying a bunch of stuff to create what basically amounts to a folder full of shortcuts or symlinks that reference the various folders I need to use.
Now I could just create some sort of MyHome directory on my SD card and store my **** in there, but that doesn't solve the problem of having easy access to some of the folders that need to be in /sdcard, like the Download folder.
So the solution I came up with was to create a folder called 'Home' in the root of my phone. I added a bunch of symbolic links to Music, Photos, Downloads, Documents, etc, and the beauty is I can have stuff scattered all around my SD card and still access them neatly from this one folder. And filter out the crap I don't ever need. Doing this produced the exact effect I was hoping for, and I set it as my Home in InKa File Manager. However it comes with two problems:
First, this folder disappears every time I restart my phone! And second, even if this didn't happen I would still be faced with the folder disappearing every time I installed a new ROM. Oh, and in case it isn't obvious, FAT filesystems don't support symbolic links so this Home folder has to exist somewhere outside of the main SD card.
So, in conclusion: I would like to create a very small partition on my SD card that I have read/write access to, so that I can fill it with symbolic links that will stay put and always re-mount. My problem now is that I'm not familiar enough with the Unix file system or with mounting disks to determine how to make sure this partition gets mounted every time I start my phone. Or, if this happens automatically, where to look for the partition.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can point me in the right direction!! I'm pretty sure I have already created an ext2 partition on my card, by using iPartition on my Mac to place it after the FAT partition. But it won't let me name it so I don't even know where to begin looking for the partition itself.

Why can't you just make a folder called "Home" in /data somewhere? Shouldn't matter where the folder is since you can default your file manager to whatever folder upon opening.
Edit: Just tested it by making a folder /data/Home/
It survived a reboot fine.
Shouldn't be wiped when installing new roms either, as long as they don't wipe data like I know the ACS roms don't. Also if the rom you are flashing backs up and restores your data before flashing like some do, it MIGHT, idk for sure, but might backup this folder as well.

That... totally works. Stays after a reboot too. Thanks! This at least solves one problem and makes the idea totally doable again
Im still curious about a solution to the partition thing though. It would be nice to have a Home folder that was literally always around and that I wouldn't have to worry about even after installing new roms. I know some of them don't wipe data but I would generally Odin when installing a new ROM anyway. Installing Cyanogen for the first time definitely requires that and I feel like I may go back to a stock rom once or twice before CM goes final.

The reason nothing "sticks" when you put it in the root FS if because it is a RAM filesystem, loaded from a file image (zImage) at boot -- it's not a more typical file system in secondary storage like all the other filesystems. This is simply an artifact of how embedded linux systems work.
Sent from my mind using telepathitalk

[Gparted] Nook Simple Touch resize partitions non-destructive

!! Important: Make a backup of your Nook device first !!
Resize partitions
1. Download Gparted LiveCD
2. Extract onto FAT / FAT32 USB memory stick or burn to CD-ROM
3. If on a USB memory stick, run \utils\win32\makeboot.bat from the memory stick.
Do NOT run makeboot from a hard disk!
4. Boot computer from USB device into Gparted
5. Connect your Nook running Noogie of a Micro USB card (this will make the partitions visible to Gparted).
6. Resize the last partition (nr 8) labelled "data" (= Barnes & Nobles content)
Make sure to move the partition to the far right.
7. Move the next-to-last partition (nr 7) labelled "cache" without resizing it.
8. Extend the next-to-next-to-last partition (nr 6) labelled "nook" (Side loaded content) to fill the gap.
9. Remove USB cord, Micro USB card and boot your Nook.
10. In Settings you can inspect the amount of storage space.
I received errors when the partitions were about to be moved on the disk.
I changed the partitioning resize to field where it says "Align to:" from "MiB" to "Cylinder". After a 2nd attempt and doing each partition individually all worked out well.

For those only with Windows, download Gparted LiveCD iso image and use virtualbox to boot from it. It still worked well.
Edit: I successfully repartitioned two of my Nook Simple Touch using the method above + virtualbox + Gparted LiveCD iso.
Surprisingly, the size of partitions in my two NST were slightly different, suggesting that the physical size and location of partitions don't matter as long as their order and type in the partition table are as expected and the size is big enough to hold files there. I resized and moved the last three partitions as I wanted several times and made sure they work well.
Factory reset, upgrade to 1.2.1 (this seems to require the cache partition to be big enough to hold the firmware update file: something like 128MB worked for me), rooting all worked well with resized partitions. I ended up shrinking the cache partition down to 32MB and the data partition to 128MB, reserving 1.11GB for the side-loaded contents. I'm sure the system partition can also be shrunken, but I didn't go that far.

Why a live cd? Does installing gparted to whatever linux flavor you're using not work?

I don't use linux on my PC... only on hacked router & nas.
Goggles2114 said:
Why a live cd? Does installing gparted to whatever linux flavor you're using not work?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

So dump Noogie on a microsd card run noogie and while noogie's running plug nook into pc? Do you just plutg it in and it does everything auto, or does something in noogie need to be run? Does this work on a nook touch glow?
Sorry to sound so dense but rooted using NookManager.
Edit more to the point it's throwing up an error when trying to move sdb8 around. It shrank fine just won't move. Not sure why. Not getting any useful error messages. Just 'can't have overlapping partitions.'
Odd. I was able to move it twice and get it to behave. Yet do the same n one move and Nothing. Apologies for the rinning Log just. Meh. The rest of the partitions resized in one step. sdb8 was the one that needed two steps.
Aaaand Success. Showing up as having 913MB free as opposed to like 212 or whatever.
Edit: now I'm getting a constant 'low space' warning from nook (understandable.) And installing apps is hit/miss on if they'll actually install. Keeps claiming space issues.
Query. Do apps install to the BnN partition or where?

Good to hear another success story. In my case I squeezed all the way to 1.45GB for the side-loaded contents. boot/rom/system/cache/data partitions are shrunken, and factory partition is busted. I had to use fdisk instead of GPartED to completely recreate the partition table, though.
I think, apps are installed to the data partition (the 8th one) under /data/app. Before being installed it's downloaded to cache partition (the 7th one). In my case I gave 16M for cache and 128M for data. If you are low on the data partition and have some space left on the system partition, you can move apps from /data/app to /system/app.
Goggles2114 said:
So dump Noogie on a microsd card run noogie and while noogie's running plug nook into pc? Do you just plutg it in and it does everything auto, or does something in noogie need to be run? Does this work on a nook touch glow?
Sorry to sound so dense but rooted using NookManager.
Edit more to the point it's throwing up an error when trying to move sdb8 around. It shrank fine just won't move. Not sure why. Not getting any useful error messages. Just 'can't have overlapping partitions.'
Odd. I was able to move it twice and get it to behave. Yet do the same n one move and Nothing. Apologies for the rinning Log just. Meh. The rest of the partitions resized in one step. sdb8 was the one that needed two steps.
Aaaand Success. Showing up as having 913MB free as opposed to like 212 or whatever.
Edit: now I'm getting a constant 'low space' warning from nook (understandable.) And installing apps is hit/miss on if they'll actually install. Keeps claiming space issues.
Query. Do apps install to the BnN partition or where?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

What's the point of doing all this?
You gave a list of instructions, but not the goal they achieve.

L_R_N said:
What's the point of doing all this?
You gave a list of instructions, but not the goal they achieve.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which post are you referring to?

Troute said:
Which post are you referring to?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
.c0.'s original post.

His instructions describe how to use gparted to resize the partitions on the NST to make full use of the memory available after you have rooted it. I've used gparted before so maybe they were clearer to me than to others but the thread title was the main clue.

Troute said:
His instructions describe how to use gparted to resize the partitions on the NST to make full use of the memory available after you have rooted it. I've used gparted before so maybe they were clearer to me than to others but the thread title was the main clue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I kind of thought that Nook's internal 2GB flash is already sanely formatted (i.e. most space is dedicated to the partition that is mounted at /media). If that is not the case, then that should be noted in the first post. It would also be cool if it said exactly how much space each partition has (I think i saw these partitions back when i've used Noogie to make initial backup of my device, but i don't remember the details), and how much space you would gain, and on which partition (and where it is mounted).

L_R_N said:
I kind of thought that Nook's internal 2GB flash is already sanely formatted (i.e. most space is dedicated to the partition that is mounted at /media). If that is not the case, then that should be noted in the first post. It would also be cool if it said exactly how much space each partition has (I think i saw these partitions back when i've used Noogie to make initial backup of my device, but i don't remember the details), and how much space you would gain, and on which partition (and where it is mounted).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! i did the work 880MB for side loaded content now!!!
on one of my NST i had an issue resizing the FAT32 partition and i had to format it to make it work.
Other than that all went ok!
Thanks

How to maximize RAM available for apps
I found this easy to read table here.
I doubt that I will ever download books from B&N. I want to minimize the space for that. I infer that I should minimize partition 8 that gets mounted to \data. Is there a practical / actual minimum for this?
I see that anything I copy in from my PC over USB is going into media. 100MB should be more than I need. I could put in an SD card for this sort of thing if it grows.
My question is, which partition do I want to increase to make the maximum available to apps downloaded from the google marketplace?
If an application requires a minimum of 512 MB of RAM, which partition(s) do I need to set >= 512?
New additional question: Upon some further research, I see that you can use sd cards for swapfiles to increase system RAM up to a maximum of 4GB. Does anyone know if it is possible to use this built-in storage for the same purpose?
.c0. said:
!! Important: Make a backup of your Nook device first !!
Resize partitions
1. Download Gparted LiveCD
2. Extract onto FAT / FAT32 USB memory stick or burn to CD-ROM
3. If on a USB memory stick, run \utils\win32\makeboot.bat from the memory stick.
Do NOT run makeboot from a hard disk!
4. Boot computer from USB device into Gparted
5. Connect your Nook running Noogie of a Micro USB card (this will make the partitions visible to Gparted).
6. Resize the last partition (nr 8) labelled "data" (= Barnes & Nobles content)
Make sure to move the partition to the far right.
7. Move the next-to-last partition (nr 7) labelled "cache" without resizing it.
8. Extend the next-to-next-to-last partition (nr 6) labelled "nook" (Side loaded content) to fill the gap.
9. Remove USB cord, Micro USB card and boot your Nook.
10. In Settings you can inspect the amount of storage space.
I received errors when the partitions were about to be moved on the disk.
I changed the partitioning resize to field where it says "Align to:" from "MiB" to "Cylinder". After a 2nd attempt and doing each partition individually all worked out well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I have a little (maybe big?) problem. Can't partition with Gparted Live, as gparted scans my /dev/sdb (nook) infinitely. If I plug out my nook, other partitions (in my case: /dev/sda) become visible and ready. Looks like my nook hangs gparted. Tried on 2 different PCs and no effect. Tried different version of Gparted Live (i486 & amd64) - still nothing.
Of course noogie is inside the nook unit, ready and steady. Already made a backup of (non-rooted) device, plus partitions are visible in Minitool Partition Wizard on Windows 7.
What to do in this situation? Is Linux the only safe way to repartition device? Or maybe Minitool would be as effective and safe?
If Linux is the only way to go, how to make nook visible to Gparted?
Please, experts.

DJ Athlon said:
I have a little (maybe big?) problem. Can't partition with Gparted Live, as gparted scans my /dev/sdb (nook) infinitely. If I plug out my nook, other partitions (in my case: /dev/sda) become visible and ready. Looks like my nook hangs gparted. Tried on 2 different PCs and no effect. Tried different version of Gparted Live (i486 & amd64) - still nothing.
Of course noogie is inside the nook unit, ready and steady. Already made a backup of (non-rooted) device, plus partitions are visible in Minitool Partition Wizard on Windows 7.
What to do in this situation? Is Linux the only safe way to repartition device? Or maybe Minitool would be as effective and safe?
If Linux is the only way to go, how to make nook visible to Gparted?
Please, experts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If Gparted doesn't work for you, I'd highly recommend Minitool Partiton Wizard - it's what I used to partiton my Nook. Nice, easy UI, too.

Yeah, I often work with Minitool, but is it as safe as Gparted when it comes to nook?

DJ Athlon said:
Yeah, I often work with Minitool, but is it as safe as Gparted when it comes to nook?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, it is. Just make sure to make a Noogie backup before repartitoning.

Sorry for bugging you, but can't shrink userdata(ext3). What to do? Delete that partition and re-create it or...?

DJ Athlon said:
Sorry for bugging you, but can't shrink userdata(ext3). What to do? Delete that partition and re-create it or...?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, delete and recreate is the way to go.

Please, people, help me
Write step to step guide for work with Minitool Partiton Wizard
I want to free the reserved space for B&N books of my NST ver. 1.2.1
The device is already rooted.
I installed Minitool Partiton Wizard on my PC, but after connecting it thru USB cable with my Nook, it only see "official" 240MBs.
Cannot find other around 750 MB reserved storage for B&N books ?
What to do
Explain to me, please