[q]what have i done wrong with ext2/ext3 a2sd? - Android Software Development

Hey guys,
I am using Oxygen 2.0 - RC7 which supports a2sd ext2 / ext3. (Gingerbread)
I have gone through the tutorial and formatted my sdcard and did all that stuff. in the normal file explorer my SDcard is shown also to be smaller but my internal memory didn't "grow". what have i forgottn? i created this partitions and stuff, I only heard something about "tables" but I have never done that / don't know what it is.
can someone help me?
what i basically want: have a bigger internal storage
(HTC Desire)

Urool said:
Hey guys,
I am using Oxygen 2.0 - RC7 which supports a2sd ext2 / ext3. (Gingerbread)
I have gone through the tutorial and formatted my sdcard and did all that stuff. in the normal file explorer my SDcard is shown also to be smaller but my internal memory didn't "grow". what have i forgottn? i created this partitions and stuff, I only heard something about "tables" but I have never done that / don't know what it is.
can someone help me?
what i basically want: have a bigger internal storage
(HTC Desire)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You've done nothing wrong, everything is working as intended.
Your internal memory wont grow, it will still be 134mb~. But with the ext partition this will shrink less hard then normal.
ie. a 20mb app will only take off 1-3mb of the internal storage.
Hope this clears a couple of things up

Related

[Q] Galaxy 3 Apps2SD. Data still being saved on the internal memory..

Hey everyone.
I installed a leaked version of Froyo on my Galaxy 3 I5800. I'm using the hack to always install the apps on the memory card. However, only the main apks of the apps are being stored on the memory card. Any application data is still being stored on the internal memory. For example, installing Angry Birds takes 10 MB on the memory card, but also takes about 2 MB on the internal phone memory..
Apps2SD is a huge improvement, but still, if the data's being stored on the internal memory, I'm gonna run out of space some time or the other.
Is there a hack or something to make the phone keep even the data on the memory card? I've heard about Apps2Ext but not sure if that can be installed on my phone and whether it stores the app data on the EXT partition too.
Any ideas?
Android documentation says that even when app. is installed on SD card,
"The .apk file is saved on the external storage, but all private user data, databases, optimized .dex files, and extracted native code are saved on the internal device memory."
TekkenLaw said:
Android documentation says that even when app. is installed on SD card,
"The .apk file is saved on the external storage, but all private user data, databases, optimized .dex files, and extracted native code are saved on the internal device memory."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
May be that's better because program can run faster.. anyway you can solve it by creating of ext2 partition on your SD card and virtualy enlarge internal storage.
But I haven't found any manual how to do it on i5800.
Are there ext2 capabilities in the i5800's Froyo? I'm asking because 2.1 lacks them, much to my dismay. A Linuxish device with a closed file system (rfs) with no tools available (and FAT), erm...
addicted2088 said:
Hey everyone.
I installed a leaked version of Froyo on my Galaxy 3 I5800. I'm using the hack to always install the apps on the memory card. However, only the main apks of the apps are being stored on the memory card. Any application data is still being stored on the internal memory. For example, installing Angry Birds takes 10 MB on the memory card, but also takes about 2 MB on the internal phone memory..
Apps2SD is a huge improvement, but still, if the data's being stored on the internal memory, I'm gonna run out of space some time or the other.
Is there a hack or something to make the phone keep even the data on the memory card? I've heard about Apps2Ext but not sure if that can be installed on my phone and whether it stores the app data on the EXT partition too.
Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
install move to SD first then choose the option Exteral SD.Anything you install from now on will be installed to the SDCARD but aware the widgets and programs that require root doesn't work well in the SDCARD together with home replacement program.Unless of course the app itself support installing to SD.
banahaw said:
install move to SD first then choose the option Exteral SD.Anything you install from now on will be installed to the SDCARD but aware the widgets and programs that require root doesn't work well in the SDCARD together with home replacement program.Unless of course the app itself support installing to SD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this is what he did. But not everything will be saved to SD. This is the what he says.
nastyba said:
this is what he did. But not everything will be saved to SD. This is the what he says.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, the APK file, that is the main package, is installed on the SD card. However, all the data that the application actually saves are usually on the internal device memory.
I have enabled Move to SD and set the install path to external, but it will still save application data on the phone memory. That is how Android is designed to work
banahaw said:
install move to SD first then choose the option Exteral SD.Anything you install from now on will be installed to the SDCARD but aware the widgets and programs that require root doesn't work well in the SDCARD together with home replacement program.Unless of course the app itself support installing to SD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh yes, I'm aware of all this. But still wanted to mention the point that the internal memory will always get used..
addicted2088 said:
Oh yes, I'm aware of all this. But still wanted to mention the point that the internal memory will always get used..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you can extend your internal storage with your SD card, but you need to create ext2 partition on your SD card first and then <i>and this is the problem</i> explain to your i5800 to use this partion on SD card.
I've red many articles about it on HTC / SE phones where this method work. They say that the ROM must be customized, which haven't been done yet with our phone. The problem is, that the good programmers have Desire / or SGS and they do not care about the i5800
nastyba said:
you can extend your internal storage with your SD card, but you need to create ext2 partition on your SD card first
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And this is where the problem starts: The i5800 cannot handle ext2, at least not with its stock roms. You're stuck with an exotic proprietary file system (rfs) for which no tools are available.
mizch said:
And this is where the problem starts: The i5800 cannot handle ext2, at least not with its stock roms. You're stuck with an exotic proprietary file system (rfs) for which no tools are available.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
may be one day there will be a custom rom which will allows it
nastyba said:
may be one day there will be a custom rom which will allows it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
mizch said:
And this is where the problem starts: The i5800 cannot handle ext2, at least not with its stock roms. You're stuck with an exotic proprietary file system (rfs) for which no tools are available.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this problem allready solved?
Because my bro has problems with the little internal space.
(•.•) said:
Is this problem allready solved?
Because my bro has problems with the little internal space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. For that you need to first flash a fugumod kernel. Then you can use Kyrillos' apptosd script from here. You need to use apptosd script v3 if you want your /data/data to be transferred to your SD. But script v3 works good only with class 6 SD card or higher.
Oh yes. You need to convert your data partition to ext4 and create an ext4 partition in SD card also.
ok formating...
seems that i have here a class 4 sd card 8gb... damn it!
I am currently on Kyrillos 6.1. If i create an EXT4 partition in my SD card, via CWM recovery, how can i move the apps which are already installed in my phone memory to that partition? Like if i use Titanium backup, then would moving the apps would go to FAT partition or the newly created EXT4 partition?
mrn123 said:
I am currently on Kyrillos 6.1. If i create an EXT4 partition in my SD card, via CWM recovery, how can i move the apps which are already installed in my phone memory to that partition? Like if i use Titanium backup, then would moving the apps would go to FAT partition or the newly created EXT4 partition?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First backup your apps using titanuim backup. It will get backed up in SD card. Then copy the backed up apps and the rest of the stuff in your SD card to your PC. Then goto recovery, advanced, partition SD card. Create the required partitions. All data in SD card will be erased. Then in recovery only, wipe data. Then reboot. After that all the apps which you install will goto the ext partition that you created.
Thanks Dhiren!!! I was just wondering whether there was any way to directly move the apps to the EXT4 partition which are already installed on phone memory..I shall try out as you said...

How to install apps2ext on paul 2.2

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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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

[Q] Question about phone backup

Hi, i am very new here and ilack some of the basic info. so i have couples of questions. thanks very much for your answers.
1. what is the internal memory of the htc hd2? and when you partition your sd to fat32 and ext3, will the internal memory be the sum of the ext3 and the phone internal storage?
2. when you want to flash your hd2 with a new rom. do you need to format both partitions of your sd card (fat32 and ext3)
3. when i tried the latest ultimate droid rom, i saw the author posted the rom and another thing called the layout (3.0.2.4_magldr_150M_partitionLayout_30M_cache). what does this do?
4. how do you make the phone to move or install apps in the ext3. and how do you back up those data and apps in the ext3?
and again, thanks guys for helping me out.
1 internal memory, do you mean what's available after a flash? 260 Meg or so with the small cm7 roms (typhoon for example)
No, the internal memory wont show the sum of internal plus ext BUT it will work as if it is. Say you install a 20meg program, internal mem goes down 20 but back up 20 after a restart.
2 no, when you perform the wipes through cwm it takes care of the ext partition and the .android folder on the fat32 for you.
Some apps may put data on the fat32, in which case you can delete those if you want or if you have isues.
3 the layout (clockworkmod, or cwm) sets up the various partitions on your nand (internal) memory, boot, system,cache,data. Without the layout there would be nowhere for the rom to flash into.
The main point of interest in cwm is the system partition size, big roms need big system partitions, sense roms for ex. need 250meg or more, typhoon needs 130. Flash a big rom to small layout fails, small rom on big layout wasted space.
4 you don't, if the rom says ap2sd enabled or words to that effect, it does it automatically. You can test this by loading up some apps then browsing the SD card on a Linux PC
When you run backups and such, it just does it, the phone has no idea that some of the info is on the SD, it treats it as internal.
samsamuel said:
Say you install a 20meg program, internal mem goes down 20 but back up 20 after a restart.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i dont understand why is that? so if the rom is apps2sd supported, it will automatically install apps to ext3. then it makes sense to me that the mem goes down, but then why it goes back up???
Example, 250meg internal plus 1gig ext partition.
internal memory shows as 250meg,, install 20 Meg app which goes to ext partition BUT the system displays internal mem as 230, , you reboot the phone and check again and internal memory shows as 250 again.
oh, thanks alot, i get it. but which backup solution is the best? and how does backup using clockworldmod work? does it make a backup file to sd card?
ljaypham said:
oh, thanks alot, i get it. but which backup solution is the best? and how does backup using clockworldmod work? does it make a backup file to sd card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
It depends what you want to back up.CWM backup will take a snapshot of your entire ROM system,data,settings,everything.A bit like a ghost image of a drive on your PC.
This way, if you install a new ROM and there is a problem,or you don't like it,you can RESTORE your original ROM and everything is back the way it was before.
CWM backup saves to the sd card.
If you just want to backup data,use something like Titanium Backup.

[Q] What's a good utility to determine storage capacities.

For example, I've got A2SD installed and I want to know how much I've got available in my sd-ext partition, but none of the stock storage utilities tells me how much storage I have in my partitions. Only internal and sd card.
I'm currently running NexusHD2-ICS-4.0.4-CM9-HWA V2.0 (Kernel: tytung_HWA_r2) with 40ad2sdx.
When I'm looking at my apps via ROM Tooldbox Pro, It shows I have less then a MB left in System, but my internal storage is well over 700mb.
I had to do some digging around in File Expert to find out where my downlaoded apps where going. They wound up in /data/apps on phone internal storage, which means the script didn't install right, or it's spoofing internal storage so good, it's fooling file expert.
Mooncalled said:
For example, I've got A2SD installed and I want to know how much I've got available in my sd-ext partition, but none of the stock storage utilities tells me how much storage I have in my partitions. Only internal and sd card.
I'm currently running NexusHD2-ICS-4.0.4-CM9-HWA V2.0 (Kernel: tytung_HWA_r2) with 40ad2sdx.
When I'm looking at my apps via ROM Tooldbox Pro, It shows I have less then a MB left in System, but my internal storage is well over 700mb.
I had to do some digging around in File Expert to find out where my downlaoded apps where going. They wound up in /data/apps on phone internal storage, which means the script didn't install right, or it's spoofing internal storage so good, it's fooling file expert.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Less than a mb left in system is normal I think. The system partition is filled up by the ROM apps (hence when you flash a ROM you flash a system partition)
Try titanium backup. Internal memory is displayed as a2sd. The actual a2sd partition is displayed as internal.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using xda app-developers app
FreeSpace

IDEA: Hacking internal/external sdcard mount paths

Hello.
I'm using the latest aurora and I'd like to discuss an idea I had.
Since the U8800 has plenty internal memory and it's quite fast comparing to an average sd card, it'd be great if we could use the internal memory for the tasks that need "speed" instead of "space".
Running apps from the sd card is the perfect example!
So the idea would be, while keeping the external sdcard mounted on /mnt/sdcard, having /mnt/sdcard/Android/data, for instance, point to the «internal sdcard path»/Android/data.
What do you think would be the best solution:
- hacking the mount points?
- using links?
- other solution?
Any developer or filesystem savvy user can point the advantages or dangers of using this solution?
- e.g.: the system or some apps may check if the external sd-card is mounted before trying to read/write to /mnt/sdcard/Android/data... that would mean the system/those apss may think that path isn't reachable with the ext-sdcard unmounted, altough they can be read.
Suggestions? Rants? Ideas?
Regards!
I have wondered if the /data/app or maybe the whole /data partition could be mounted in the internal storage partition. That would give 2gb space for apps and associated files instead of 3-400 ish and would mean no need to move apps to sd card which would mean faster loads at startup due to internal memory being faster.
VuDuCuRSe said:
Hello.
I'm using the latest aurora and I'd like to discuss an idea I had.
Since the U8800 has plenty internal memory and it's quite fast comparing to an average sd card, it'd be great if we could use the internal memory for the tasks that need "speed" instead of "space".
Running apps from the sd card is the perfect example!
So the idea would be, while keeping the external sdcard mounted on /mnt/sdcard, having /mnt/sdcard/Android/data, for instance, point to the «internal sdcard path»/Android/data.
What do you think would be the best solution:
- hacking the mount points?
- using links?
- other solution?
Any developer or filesystem savvy user can point the advantages or dangers of using this solution?
- e.g.: the system or some apps may check if the external sd-card is mounted before trying to read/write to /mnt/sdcard/Android/data... that would mean the system/those apss may think that path isn't reachable with the ext-sdcard unmounted, altough they can be read.
Suggestions? Rants? Ideas?
Regards!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well this is known for a while now . Quoted from my thread here:
vold.fstab - CHANGE THE DEFAULT SDCARD: -thanks to julle131
There is this file named vold.fstab at your /system/etc/ folder, which controls which of your sdcards (Internal/External) will be mounted when you connect your phone to the PC. The last 2 lines are the only that matter. These are the two possibilities:
EXTERNAL SDCARD MOUNTED (DEFAULT):
dev_mount sdcard /mnt/sdcard auto /devices/platform/msm_sdcc.4/mmc_host
dev_mount emmc /mnt/sdcard1 14 /devices/platform/msm_sdcc.2/mmc_host
INTERNAL SDCARD MOUNTED:
dev_mount sdcard /mnt/sdcard 14 /devices/platform/msm_sdcc.2/mmc_host
dev_mount emmc /mnt/sdcard1 auto /devices/platform/msm_sdcc.4/mmc_host
change them as you wish with a root explorer or before flashing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Make this change and every app will use the internal sdcard. Gallery works ok with images to external sdcard, it just might take a while for the first refresh. But I don't know if you'll notice any difference in terms of speed....
Cheers
spirosbond said:
Well this is known for a while now . Quoted from my thread here:
Make this change and every app will use the internal sdcard. Gallery works ok with images to external sdcard, it just might take a while for the first refresh. But I don't know if you'll notice any difference in terms of speed....
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not what he talked, I think. He said that the apparel would be installed on the external sd card, but the data would be moved to the internal one. And we have speed, but the main card would be the external one.
I think its a great idea if I understood it right!
Sent from my U8800 using xda premium
mrasquinho said:
That's not what he talked, I think. He said that the apparel would be installed on the external sd card, but the data would be moved to the internal one. And we have speed, but the main card would be the external one.
I think its a great idea if I understood it right!
Sent from my U8800 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh I see! Sorry about that. As far as I know apps are not choosing were to put their data. They just say to the OS "I want these things to be at the sdcard" and the OS puts them at the correct place. So you can't "hack" the app to "see" at somewhere else. On the other hand the OS initialises on boot which card is the primary and which is the secondary. So my knowledge stops there and I can't imagine a way to make this separation between app data and the rest...
I hope for someone else's help!
PaulMilbank said:
I have wondered if the /data/app or maybe the whole /data partition could be mounted in the internal storage partition. That would give 2gb space for apps and associated files instead of 3-400 ish and would mean no need to move apps to sd card which would mean faster loads at startup due to internal memory being faster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe this cannot be done, because I think that the mapping of the partitions and mounts comes from the bootloader, but there is already the solution of resizing the data partition using the space of internal storage.
PaulMilbank said:
I have wondered if the /data/app or maybe the whole /data partition could be mounted in the internal storage partition. That would give 2gb space for apps and associated files instead of 3-400 ish and would mean no need to move apps to sd card which would mean faster loads at startup due to internal memory being faster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a great idea!
I almost don't use the so called "internal sd card", therefor I have 2GB of fast empty space being wasted.
Why not simply mounting the internal sd-card partition in the data folder and the data partition on the internal sd card folder?
I only use the internal sd card to hold ringtones and other small stuff that I need to be in accessible 100% of the time, so a few hundred MB are enough!
Me gusta!
Every ROM flashes it's own fstab, right?
So all we'd need to do would be, editing the fstab before flashing it.
-----------------
Regarding the my first idea... I don't think one can simply mount a path on another path. We'd need a "virtual" device pointing to /mnt/sdcard-internal/data/ then mount that virtual device on /mnt/sdcard-external/data/.
My knowledge of unix mount/filesystems is not much more than what's explained here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Mount
OK, just found this:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/11079/mount-a-directory-to-look-like-a-drive
there is a FUSE filesystem named bindfs that probably does exactly what you want. For example the following:
bindfs -n /media/USB-HDD-01/ISO/ /home/johnc/ISO-images
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
would result in ISO-images to show up as a mounted filesystem in the Places sidepanel in Nautilus. The -n is required because otherwise bindfs tries to use the allow_other FUSE option, which by default is not allowed for regular users (if you use bindfs in /etc/fstab this is not a problem).
The first directory you give is the existing one, the second directory you give is an empty directory under which the contents of the existing one will appear.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, bindfs depends on FUSE... and there's a port of fuse to android: https://github.com/seth-hg/fuse-android but looking at the README I get the feeling that it's not really working. The last step would be having a kernel with FUSE support... and regarding that, I have no idea, how easy it is to get a kernel like that for our U8800 :\
Finding such a solution to expand the DATA partition indirectly would be great!
I used to apply genokolar's custom partition method as "1.2G DATA + 1.46G INTERNAL SD" before, but i found out that it has some issues with Official 2.3 Roms. One of them -the most important IMHO- is the BOOTLOOP problem occurring in some specific situations!!!
See the details in my post here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=25853141&postcount=134
(Seems that I don't encounter the bootloops on Custom Roms, but i'm not %100 sure and never will be )
So i unfortunately gave up using it, and revert to the stock partition .
I will be grateful to the one who will find a better and reliable solution. Hope to see it soon...
I still have to gather more information on the official update "modus operandi".
My goal is to simply reformat both partitions and then swap their mount points.
If the official update formats the partitions before applying the flashing official ROM files, then partitioning changes shouldn't cause any failure on the official update.
But like I said, I'm still yet to confirm that info.
Gen's idea was great (I learned a lot just by looking at his scripts) but resizing partitions has its dangers.
Since "no one" really uses the internal memory, why not simply exchange its room with /data, right?
This would be awesome! I would love to have 2gb for apps, instead of cluttering my phone.. plus the 2gb of internal storage are just a waste for me.. I never use them.. so this would be great!

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