Database Users

app2sd how does it works?

hello every body i am new in the android community.
i've just got a htc hero.
i've rooted it at http://theunlockr.com/ by using the
How To: Root Your HTC Hero in One Click! methode.
now i've put the modaco custom rom in by useing the recovery image.
so i've put it in the sd rename it to update.
applyed it in the recovery image so i've got a new rom.
and what now? to put apps to my sd?

Back up your as card. Go into recovery loader again. Use the format as: fat / ext / swap
I think modaco and fresh both default aps2sd so nothing else is required other than removing and reinstalling your apps so they get put on the sd.
Good luck and make sure you do step 1!

so anytime you install an app from the app market, it will automatically install on your sd card? (i have modacos rom) and how can you check to make sure it does?

all of my apps are on my SD card, maybe with the exception of WiFi teether since it is in the rom and I think needs to be in /system/ to work.
It's nice, my apps are persistent with factory resets and rom flashes.
If I pull my SD card they stop working, if I put it back the spring back to life.

so you dont have to install any apps for this to work, you just have to partition the sd card?

1. Backup your SD card, the Repartition wipes everything out
2. Boot into recovery
3. Run the Partition Fat16/EXT/Swap
4. Reboot
5. Reinstall your apps so they are moved to the SD card.
In really basic terms we trick the phone into thinking nothing happened but we move the App directory to the SD card and point to the card instead of internal memory.
You have to understand how the linux kernel works to really understand the whole "don't have to install software". One of the things Linux beats the crap out of micro$oft about is "things just work".

things have moved on a lot..a little help please

Hi,
last time i came in here unhappy with my stock HD2 on tmobUK android was just emerging on SD, now i came in here the other day WP7 is available as NAND and so is android....things seem to be a little confusing now, quite a few of these great ROMS are from people whos first language is not english so its quite hard to sometimes understand what they are explaining so i would be greatful if someone could answer somes questions, i have tried to read threads as best i can but some of them, well most actually are well into the hundreds within hours.
1) A lot of chefs describe NAND and SD, i know the difference between the two, but then they get mixed with magldr and NAND with ext4 etc etc..basically i want to flash the phones software to my NAND, i am assuming this is the best way to have it running at its optimum ?..so if i do this why would i need ext4 partions on the SD as well ? whats the benefit of it ?
2) i have also noticed that you can scan a barcode and have a link download a new rom to your phone and flash it, could i do this with ANY rom straight over the top of another without question ? and everything will be as it should be.
3) Does each ROM need to be set up in a different way?, this partly answers the previous question.
4) i flashed WP7 to my NAND (i think)..i was not happy with it and i had magldr installed, i just formatted my SD card to fat32 popped it back in and followed instructions to put [Feb 01][DL DesireZ v3.4][DL Data2SD/Ext4 v2.6][Nand/SD/MAGLAR] on to it.... it took me into magldr and told me to do a few things...did this flash to my NAND ? and did it do what was needed to the SD card regarding format or was it up to me to make certain changes to the SD card myself ?..the phone works and i can make calls, but all the apps that are stated to be in the ROM are not there, i cant find any GPS stuff and when i go to market place itsays its downloading an app but i can never see it.
As you can see i really am quite discombobulated with all this...i would love a easy reading guide that explains everything from A-B and all the terminolgy.
Thanks.

1. Many of these Android roms would swamp the entire memory of the EU HD2, so a workaround is to have partitions on the sd cards to store apps and data, leaving the system to run on NAND. When you update your rom, you just flash the system files and all app and data remains on the sd card.
2. The QR code just allows you to download the rom to your phone. You would still need to flash it AFAIK. (Heven't tried one of those yet). There are basically 2 types of NAND Android roms. One type use the more conventional flash type where you run an exe (daf.exe) from the usb flasher option on magldr. The 2nd (more recent type) packs the roms as zips which you can download and copy to your sd card and then using Clockwork mod, you can flash the rom directly from your sd card. This also allows you to take full backups, try another rom and if you don't like it you merely restore the rom.
3.Each rom and each dev has their own way of building these roms, so you will need to read carefully regarding what to do wrt sd card partitions etc.
4. Flashing WP7 and the Android rom via magldr would have installed the rom to NAND. You would need to partition your sd card yourself prior to flashing the rom. There are tutorials on how to partition the sd card to give you more help.

loady said:
Hi,
last time i came in here unhappy with my stock HD2 on tmobUK android was just emerging on SD, now i came in here the other day WP7 is available as NAND and so is android....things seem to be a little confusing now, quite a few of these great ROMS are from people whos first language is not english so its quite hard to sometimes understand what they are explaining so i would be greatful if someone could answer somes questions, i have tried to read threads as best i can but some of them, well most actually are well into the hundreds within hours.
1) A lot of chefs describe NAND and SD, i know the difference between the two, but then they get mixed with magldr and NAND with ext4 etc etc..basically i want to flash the phones software to my NAND, i am assuming this is the best way to have it running at its optimum ?..so if i do this why would i need ext4 partions on the SD as well ? whats the benefit of it ?
2) i have also noticed that you can scan a barcode and have a link download a new rom to your phone and flash it, could i do this with ANY rom straight over the top of another without question ? and everything will be as it should be.
3) Does each ROM need to be set up in a different way?, this partly answers the previous question.
4) i flashed WP7 to my NAND (i think)..i was not happy with it and i had magldr installed, i just formatted my SD card to fat32 popped it back in and followed instructions to put [Feb 01][DL DesireZ v3.4][DL Data2SD/Ext4 v2.6][Nand/SD/MAGLAR] on to it.... it took me into magldr and told me to do a few things...did this flash to my NAND ? and did it do what was needed to the SD card regarding format or was it up to me to make certain changes to the SD card myself ?..the phone works and i can make calls, but all the apps that are stated to be in the ROM are not there, i cant find any GPS stuff and when i go to market place itsays its downloading an app but i can never see it.
As you can see i really am quite discombobulated with all this...i would love a easy reading guide that explains everything from A-B and all the terminolgy.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) MAGLDR is nothing but kind of a bootloader. You can select how you want to start your ROM. AD SD or NAND or also now you can back up ROMS with MAGLDR... SD ROMS use haret.exe method. NAND uses DFT.exe method. there is another way called Clockwork MOD which uses .zip method.
Differences:-
SD Method: you have winmo 6.5 on NAND and android on SD card.
NAND Method: you install android on NAND itself.
Clockwork MOD: you install android on NAND but the benefits include you can backup your whole ROM in the actual state and flash it back later... So you can try different ROMs without worrying about installing apps and adjusting settings on the ones you like.
ext4 is a type of partition used by system. you can use the ROM which supports APP2SD and put your apps on ext4 partition.
2) As for the barcode ones. I am not sure how that works, but deffinately not as easy as you are thinking...
3) All the NAND roms use DAF.exe method so you do not need to worry about setting up the ROMs or anything. It does it for you. But some NAND roms have capabilities for APP2SD, in that case you might have to format your SD card in some particular way (explained in the threads always) to get ext2/3/4 partition to use app2sd.
4) you can flash WP7 only on NAND as there is no other way to do it for now. As for the new build you used, it has more than 1 versions. SD and NAND. If you followed the instructions for NAND and used DAF.exe to install it, then the ROM is already set up for you on NAND. Now the build you used had data2sd option and you can format your SD card as the author has said to use app2sd functionality.
One more thing, mostly TMO US users do not need app2sd as they have enough space on their phone. So if you are TMO US user, you can opt your self out from that headache.
Hope this helps. Just for the clarification, I am also a newb... I tried my level best to answer your questions...

QR codes are just text, in this case a URL. Instead of making you type the URL on your phone, you can just scan it with a special app, and get taken to the URL. Nothing more.

Thanks guys...the fog is clearing a little now...just a few reiterations..
So if i opt to flash to NAND, is it flashing it to the NAND upon each boot or is it written once and thats it, it seems to take a little while longer to boot these ROMS on NAND than a stock ROM..so for instance, if i was to remove the SD card after shutting down the phone and then start it up again, would it not boot because its looking for the ROM on the SD to put into NAND ?...i understand that running from the SD card it just boots from the SD card.
So basically the last ROM i installed, as i did not pre setup the partitions on SD card, FAT32/1024mb ext4/512mb ext4 and went on to flash the rom it has ONLY flashed the ROM WITHOUT the apps and everything else it was supposed to have pre installed already ?...so i have now setup my SD card and i am going to follow through again from scratch and hopefully have the ROM running with all the said apps.
My SD card being setup FAT32 / 1024 ext4 / 512 ext4 doesnt seem to be a lot of space to store apps on the ext4 partitions, what data goes on what partitions...and do i HAVE to have the ext 4 at the stated sizes ?
Thanks again guys for your input, you have all been really helpful.

loady said:
Thanks guys...the fog is clearing a little now...just a few reiterations..
So if i opt to flash to NAND, is it flashing it to the NAND upon each boot or is it written once and thats it, it seems to take a little while longer to boot these ROMS on NAND than a stock ROM..so for instance, if i was to remove the SD card after shutting down the phone and then start it up again, would it not boot because its looking for the ROM on the SD to put into NAND ?...i understand that running from the SD card it just boots from the SD card.
So basically the last ROM i installed, as i did not pre setup the partitions on SD card, FAT32/1024mb ext4/512mb ext4 and went on to flash the rom it has ONLY flashed the ROM WITHOUT the apps and everything else it was supposed to have pre installed already ?...so i have now setup my SD card and i am going to follow through again from scratch and hopefully have the ROM running with all the said apps.
My SD card being setup FAT32 / 1024 ext4 / 512 ext4 doesnt seem to be a lot of space to store apps on the ext4 partitions, what data goes on what partitions...and do i HAVE to have the ext 4 at the stated sizes ?
Thanks again guys for your input, you have all been really helpful.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you use NAND then you can start your phone without SD card. The build is on NAND(ROM). Where win6.5 used to be originally. You do not HAVE TO partition your card. You can use whole card at FAT32 and store all your data on there. But if you choose, you can give some storage space as ext2/3/4 partition and store your apps in that partition. The benefit is you can free some space from your phone. When you boot your phone for the first time, it will be in original state. Then you can install apps from the market. These apps will be going to your phone's inbuilt memory by default. But you can use some apps to move apps from your phone storage to ext4 partition. But be aware that after you move your apps to SD card you have to have SD card in all times or those apps will not work when SD card is not there. As far as the size of ext4 partition is in question, 1024 MB is more than enough. As you will have some space on your phone and 1024MB on ext4. I would say if you install more apps than that, then you phone will be laggy like hell. ext4 partition size should not matter according to me.
Also read tutorials at this thread. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=905841

^ Agreed. Don't do Apps2SD if you don't really need it. It's another possible source of problems (I've had my fair share of system crashes with A2SD on my ol' Magic, and the biggest problem was that there was no way of backing stuff up - stuff probably got more reliable nowadays though), it's not ideal for your SD card and speed isn't optimal either.

StephanV said:
^ Agreed. Don't do Apps2SD if you don't really need it. It's another possible source of problems (I've had my fair share of system crashes with A2SD on my ol' Magic, and the biggest problem was that there was no way of backing stuff up - stuff probably got more reliable nowadays though), it's not ideal for your SD card and speed isn't optimal either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
People would have you believe otherwise..ext4 is faster but ext2 parsay is more reliable... for the life of me i have followed numerous guides explaining how to format the card, even one i followed from a rom was in perfect enlgish and easy to follow but my phone just locks at the spinning tmobile logo, it wont even boot into magldr...all i can do is reflash a stock rom using RUU...im sure i am doing everything in correct order

[Q] Is there a Win 7 Rom that doesn't format card?

As the title says. I already have the original DFT rom and android running. Is there a rom that doesn't re-format the entire card so I have to go through the enitre process of partitioning the card again and just use the exisitng win 7 partition

I thik no, but if u found one, plz tell me..

Nope, there isn't. WP isn't supposed to have removable storage so I wouldn't hold your breath for one either

Well, there is a method that was mentioned once, but we are yet to see someone actually trying it.
Basically, using EAsueas (or whatever its name) make a full backup of your sd card, and install WP7 with sd in. Then restore your img. It may/may not work.

indie said:
As the title says. I already have the original DFT rom and android running. Is there a rom that doesn't re-format the entire card so I have to go through the enitre process of partitioning the card again and just use the exisitng win 7 partition
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No WP7 Sir

HD2 WP7 and Android Dual Boot File Swap

I apologize if this isn't in the correct forum. I wasn't sure since it's dealing with two dif os's.
Anyways, my question is Can I access files on the android jellybean partition from inside of wp7? I would like to be able to play movies, look at pics in wp7 that are in the android partition.
Also, what about vice versa? One last question. Wp7 seems to run very quickly, but Android seems to run pretty slowly. I assume its because it's running from the SD card. Is there any way that can be sped up to run at normal (fast) speed?
--- edit:
is it possible to put android on the nand, and wp7 on the sd so that the android os would be faster?

So.
Yes, you can access files from FAT partition on WP7. Few file explorers allow you to do that, just have a look at them and check if Storage Card folder works. They also allow you to watch videos, view images and play music, but forget about playlist support, subtitles or anything complicated. We don't have software to do that yet.
Vice versa is not possible since WP7 uses its own file system which Android can't see nor use.
Android will always run slower because it's an unoptimized piece of sh- I mean software. But you can try ROMs which take advantage of EXT4 partitions using NativeSD method - these are noticeable faster, no more waiting for minutes for apps to launch. You can also overclock CPU and use higher read ahead value for SD card (SD Speed Increase from Market).
Putting Android on NAND and WP7 on SD is not yet possible. It might be when Magldr 2.0 will be released (and it won't be really that anyway), but we don't know when.

thank you
thanks for the detailed and thorough explanation. i see that you are also using a dual boot. how slow/fast does your paranoidjellybean operate? i'm going to look into ext 4 and cpu boosts. i guess i will have to reinstall/delete everything in my android partition to do an ext 4? and i guess if i go ext 4 wp7 won't be able to read it? i'm going to look into it. i will update this with whatever info i find.
---- edit
I'm going to try and use the roms you name in your signature area that you are using, and see if it works any better. what sd card are you using? I'm using a micro center micro sd class 6 16gb one. i'm getting a 8000ffff error in this wp7 rom when trying to get something from marketplace, and the droid is too slow. going to try the ext method for the droid. (can't dl apps on droid either!) so i will post what happens here.
---- edit
ok, i'm thoroughly confused by these instructions (somewhat vague in parts ) http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1869673 Is there a video tutorial where it is shown what to do step by step to get a native sd setup for a dual booth with android sd and wp7? Do I just do it the same way I did before (install wp7, then reset / repartition, but instead of using fat32 i make a fat32 (how big) and an ext4 (or 2?) and which comes first (the fat or the ext) ? Afterwards, ALL partitions are primary?
i found this info for installing ext4. but do i create the ext4 BEFORE or AFTER i install WP7 ?

I'd say Paranoid JB is pretty fast using NativeSD (EXT) method. You will need to create an EXT partition first, but keep a FAT partition, because on EXT the ROM will keep only its own data and apps, the rest is still on FAT (just like now, but instead of data.ext and system.ext in ICS folder there is a partition just for those). Windows Phone 7 will not be able to read content of EXT partition, but it will not be needed, since there won't be anything worth looking at and all media files you will still keep on FAT. You will also have to make a backup of everything on your FAT partition because it will be lost, and fresh install will be necessary. You might want to backup your applications with Titanium Backup though.
For more information on partitioning please visit NativeSD thread.
I'm using a 8GB Transcend Class 4 card with 4GB FAT, 1GB EXT and rest (2.4GB) WP7FS. I don't have any errors with downloading apps on neither WP7 nor Android. Are you sure you entered that special code for Marketplace and logged into Google account on Droid?

furthermore
actually, i installed the hd20 rom you're using and had no problems with marketplace. at this point i have hd20 wp7 set up, activated, and working. i'm just trying to understand some of the more advanced information in the forums about setting up the ext4. i found some very technical instructions (edit: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=534714 ) for setting up an ext2 with gparted via dos then upgrading it to ext4. i don't know if that will mess up the wp7 partition, and if i should have done this before i installed wp7.
i had already read the nativesd thread, and the extended threads from it. i'm afraid i'm just not knowledgeable enough currently to fill in the gaps of information i find in a lot of the instructions. but i'm not giving up.
---- edit update:
this has gotten way off the original topic so I've started a new thread with a diferent topic here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=31356468#post31356468

[Q][HD2][NativeSD] Cannot find external SD in camera app

Hi,
I intended to post this question to the [3.Nov.2012][ROM] NexusHD2-JellyBean-4.1.2-CM10 V1.2 [NativeSD] thread, but not allowed to (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=32624318)
Can someone help me redirect the question? Thanks!
First thanks for the great ROM, tytung. It looks great and easy to install.
I have a HD2 and wanted to dual boot WP7 and Android. Found this new method NativeSD and decided to try it. But once I installed the ROM (through MAGLDR 1.13 and Recovery 4Ext 2.2.7), everything works fine, except that the camera app (and other apps) says that it cannot find the external SD card to save the pictures. It does not give me options to save on phone. But since both system and data are on external SD, and that partition is treated as /mnt/sdcard0, I am not sure if I am supposed to have an external SD card from the perspective of Android.
Cannot seem to find similar post with this issue, so I must be doing something wrong with partitioning. Could you help??? Thanks so much! I am inches away from having a great Android JellyBean experience on my HD2.
Thanks!!!
-----------------------------------
Details:
4 partitions on my 16GB SD card:
1) FAT32, 3GB (this is the boot partition, where I installed Recovery 4Ext and through it, installed the boot files in /NativeSD)
2) Ext4, 8GB (this is the system/data partition, where installation put all Android files)
3) Ext4, 2GB (this is current empty, reserved for another ROM that requires two partitions)
4) Other, 2GB (this is a WP7 partition)
I formatted these using Mini Partition Tool on Windows (not via Recovery 4Ext)

I think you need to run CHKDSK on your FAT32 partition of the card with fix option, once, using a card reader and computer. Once done, put the card back to your phone and boot to your preferred Native SD rom. Then check whether you applications are able to trace the SD card. Should work, since the same worked for me, when I had a similar issue. Hope that helps.

dheerajk27 said:
I think you need to run CHKDSK on your FAT32 partition of the card with fix option, once, using a card reader and computer. Once done, put the card back to your phone and boot to your preferred Native SD rom. Then check whether you applications are able to trace the SD card. Should work, since the same worked for me, when I had a similar issue. Hope that helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi dheerajk27, thanks for your quick reply. Was wondering
1) should Android JB think that I have an external SD?
2) where will this external SD be mapped to? The Fat32 partition? The same Ext4 partition as system & data?
3) what would chkdsk do? I just want to make sure that it doesn't mess up the Win 7 stuff as well.
Thanks!

Hi braveliquid, welcome to the forum.
Did you set all your partitions as primary using minitool?
1. yes
2. depends photos/music => fat part, apps=>ext part
3. not sure either

Robbie P said:
Hi braveliquid, welcome to the forum.
Did you set all your partitions as primary using minitool?
1. yes
2. depends photos/music => fat part, apps=>ext part
3. not sure either
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your reply. Upon multiple trial and error, I found out that the logical partition is the culprit. When I have 3 primary (FAT32, Ext4, Ext4), Android can recognize the ext SD card. However, when I have 3 primary and 1 logical (the Win Phone 7 partition is made logical by windows), then Android does not recognize the ext SD card anymore.
Any thought on how I can resolve this? Or else I will have to keep 2 SD cards, one for WP7, and one for Android. Doable, but a bit of a hassle.
Thanks!

use minitool and set your wp7 partition as primary too.
Problem solved.
you could use two cards, i am at the moment (I keep spare card in a cellotape pocket on inside of battery cover). You can also dual boot without partitioning see http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=34009754&postcount=1126 but only really as a backup phone in case wp7 goes wrong and you are away from pc.

Robbie P said:
use minitool and set your wp7 partition as primary too.
Problem solved.
you could use two cards, i am at the moment (I keep spare card in a cellotape pocket on inside of battery cover). You can also dual boot without partitioning see http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=34009754&postcount=1126 but only really as a backup phone in case wp7 goes wrong and you are away from pc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks Robbie. Yes, I have set the WP7 partition as primary and then it works! I am liking the Android experience (have been using iPhone).
Btw, in WP7, it is asking me to update software (I have a very old WP7 installation, migrated to dual boot in early 2011 i think). Can I just upgrade WP7 like normal (i.e. by connecting to Zune)? Or will that destroy MAGLDR? If that won't work, how can I upgrade WP7 to 7.5 or later 7.8? I cannot use Windows Market Place apparently with the old WP7 OS.
Thanks again!

braveliquid said:
Thanks Robbie. Yes, I have set the WP7 partition as primary and then it works! I am liking the Android experience (have been using iPhone).
Btw, in WP7, it is asking me to update software (I have a very old WP7 installation, migrated to dual boot in early 2011 i think). Can I just upgrade WP7 like normal (i.e. by connecting to Zune)? Or will that destroy MAGLDR? If that won't work, how can I upgrade WP7 to 7.5 or later 7.8? I cannot use Windows Market Place apparently with the old WP7 OS.
Thanks again!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would just flash one of the new wp7.8 roms, your choice which. Ansar's does not seem to be able to use the new wpbackup app at the moment.
With Hd2o and pdaimatejam you can backup your phone and restore apps sms calls etc. Sooo much better for trying out new roms.

Robbie P said:
I would just flash one of the new wp7.8 roms, your choice which. Ansar's does not seem to be able to use the new wpbackup app at the moment.
With Hd2o and pdaimatejam you can backup your phone and restore apps sms calls etc. Sooo much better for trying out new roms.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
:good: Will be another weekend "project" =)
Thanks!