Database Users

[Q] Multi-boot question. :D

First off, I would like to take this opportunity to say,
"Thanks to all the devs out there who have made these amazing things possible! Without you guys, the NookColor would be so booooorrrrriiiiinnnnngggg...."
Now unto my question!
I currently have my NC running CM7 nightly 136 on eMMC, overclocked by the built-in kernel of Dalingrin @ 1.350Ghz. I have lots of apps, located both on the phone (Internal partition?) and on the microSD. All games I keep in the microSD. They are backed up by Titanium Backup Pro 3.90, which can restore to the original location, whether it's microSD or phone. The actual backup folder is located in the eMMC.
NOW! I would like to try something out.
I would like to create a size-agnostic SD Card image, as detailed here, and flash the Dualboot Phiremod/Honeycomb ROM that can be found here.
I do believe that this is possible, since the microSD I have is a Samsung Class 2 16GB, who have never failed me (so far).
If I'm not mistaken, that would give me 3 ROMS.
CM7 Nightly on eMMC,
Phiremod & Honeycomb on miscroSD.
My questions are:
1.If I would boot to CM7 Nightly and restore my apps, specifically the apps located in the microSD, will they be restored?
2.Where is the phone (internal partition) of the Phiremod ROM and Honeycomb ROM located in the microSD? Will it be 'touched' by the CM7 nightly installed in the eMMC?
I hope I didn't confuse you.

I never done such things but want to chip in with some logical thoughts.
Based on what you have described,
1. it will probably work IFF (if and only if) there is an uSD installed.
2. Please do realize that eMMC and uSD is two different storages, two different locations.
eMMC is referred as the internal memory that comes with the NC while uSD is an external, additional storage. There are no conflict between the two.
Note: I don't know what you have referred to when calling "phone", if you meant the NC, then stop calling it "phone", if you meant a real phone such HTC, Motorola, ..... then you're in the wrong section.

votinh said:
I never done such things but want to chip in with some logical thoughts.
Based on what you have described,
1. it will probably work IFF (if and only if) there is an uSD installed.
2. Please do realize that eMMC and uSD is two different storages, two different locations.
eMMC is referred as the internal memory that comes with the NC while uSD is an external, additional storage. There are no conflict between the two.
Note: I don't know what you have referred to when calling "phone", if you meant the NC, then stop calling it "phone", if you meant a real phone such HTC, Motorola, ..... then you're in the wrong section.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, didn't mean to confuse you. When I said phone, I meant that the NC says 'phone' even though it meant the internal partition where the apps are installed. For example, if you try moving an app installed in the NC to the microSD, it will say in the button, 'move to sd'. Once it has been moved, the button will change and will then say, 'move to phone' even though it just meant the internal partition.
Now I got intrigued by your reply. What is a uSD and how do I make one along with the instructions that I have posted to follow? If my guess is correct, I'd say that it is a seperate partition created within the microSD that will act as the 'internal partition' of the ROMs that are housed in the microSD. It is the space wherein the apps will go once it is installed from the ROM installed in the microSD. Am I correct? If so, does that mean that it is possible to create 2 uSDs for the 2 ROMs that will be installed in the microSD?
Thanks so much for your reply. You've been very helpful.
Sent from my NookColor using Tapatalk

Just call it NC's eMMC which should be the right term to say as it has been used.
uSD is the shortcut of the "micro SD" or "micro SDHC" card.
"If my guess is correct, I'd say that it is a seperate partition created within the microSD" Ans: I do not know 100% sure but I thought both ROMs will share the same partition.
"that will act as the 'internal partition' of the ROMs that are housed in the microSD"
Ans: yes, it is true but just to make life easier, drop the "internal" word. Internal should only being used for the internal memory (eMMC), anything resides on the external uSD, just call them uSD.
"It is the space wherein the apps will go once it is installed from the ROM installed in the microSD. Am I correct?" Ans: yes, you are correct
NOTE: when installing custom ROMs on the uSD, it will automatically create those partitions for you as /system where the ROM lives, /data where the apps installed and /media is the rest for storage.
"If so, does that mean that it is possible to create 2 uSDs for the 2 ROMs that will be installed in the microSD?"
Two (2) uSD is 2 totally seperate card.
You can install two ROMs on one uSD card which called "dual boot"
You can install one ROM on one uSD card, i.e. if you have 2 uSD cards, you can install CM7 on one and Honeycomb on the other.

votinh said:
Just call it NC's eMMC which should be the right term to say as it has been used.
uSD is the shortcut of the "micro SD" or "micro SDHC" card.
"If my guess is correct, I'd say that it is a seperate partition created within the microSD" Ans: I do not know 100% sure but I thought both ROMs will share the same partition.
"that will act as the 'internal partition' of the ROMs that are housed in the microSD"
Ans: yes, it is true but just to make life easier, drop the "internal" word. Internal should only being used for the internal memory (eMMC), anything resides on the external uSD, just call them uSD.
"It is the space wherein the apps will go once it is installed from the ROM installed in the microSD. Am I correct?" Ans: yes, you are correct
NOTE: when installing custom ROMs on the uSD, it will automatically create those partitions for you as /system where the ROM lives, /data where the apps installed and /media is the rest for storage.
"If so, does that mean that it is possible to create 2 uSDs for the 2 ROMs that will be installed in the microSD?"
Two (2) uSD is 2 totally seperate card.
You can install two ROMs on one uSD card which called "dual boot"
You can install one ROM on one uSD card, i.e. if you have 2 uSD cards, you can install CM7 on one and Honeycomb on the other.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So basically, the Phiremod & Honeycomb ROMs will BOTH sit in one /system partition, and they will also share the same /data partition? Does that mean their apps will sync to each other? Like install it on Phiremod and it will end up installed in the Honeycomb as well? I know that's quite impossible--just being hopeful.
Okay, and the CM7 Nightly ROM in the eMMC has it's own /data partition which houses the apps. Now what will happen if while you're on the CM7 Nightly, you used the App2SD app to move an app from the eMMC's /data partition to somewhere on the uSD? Where in the uSD will it be stored? Will it be in the uSD's /data partition or the /media partition? I'm guessing it'll be in the /media...right?
Thanks for being so patient with me! I'm learning a lot from you!

les02jen17 said:
So basically, the Phiremod & Honeycomb ROMs will BOTH sit in one /system partition, and they will also share the same /data partition? Does that mean their apps will sync to each other? Like install it on Phiremod and it will end up installed in the Honeycomb as well? I know that's quite impossible--just being hopeful.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That I don't know 100%, you might want to ask someone who actually have the dual-boot option uSD card.
Okay, and the CM7 Nightly ROM in the eMMC has it's own /data partition which houses the apps. Now what will happen if while you're on the CM7 Nightly, you used the App2SD app to move an app from the eMMC's /data partition to somewhere on the uSD? Where in the uSD will it be stored? Will it be in the uSD's /data partition or the /media partition? I'm guessing it'll be in the /media...right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. just to be clear, you should NOT use the bootable uSD where ROM installed on it, just use another uSD, on which no /data or /media partition. If you have the bootable uSD plugged in, it would boot from the uSD already, not the CM7 from eMMC.
2. With the uSD, I assume it will move under "Android" folder on the uSD.
Thanks for being so patient with me! I'm learning a lot from you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We're learning from each other and that's the purpose of the public forums.

[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

Delete WebTop Partition

Hi, I'm rocking the latest CM7 nightly, which doesn't support WebTop, so I have a 1GB+ partition just taking up space of my precious storage (which is very limited since I only have a 2GB SD card for now). I just read this article, could this be used to get rid of the webtop partition (and possibly shrink the /data as well)?

+1
Sent from my MB860 using XDA

nm, was thinking erase and not deleting the partition.

CaelanT said:
nm, was thinking erase and not deleting the partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I saw it in the update email, lol

even deleting the partition, the memory of it won't be relocated to anywhere else, DONT DO THAT IF YOU ARENT A DEVELOPER WHO KNOWS WHAT IS DOING! =)
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

You need to be able to edit the partition tables somehow, deleting the webtop partition and expanding the sdcard partition. Not sure how we can get a utility on the phone to do it. Id imagine it would be best to do it from a recovery so you wouldn't be using the internal storage partition while trying to do it. I don't think any simple and easy solution exists for this.
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App

I'm not a dev, but I'm quite knoelegable in general stuff (like partition maps, filesystems, etc) and a fast learner. That said, your right on that I probably shouldn't just go out and try it, and since I don't want to lose my little baby to a hardbrick, I was never planning on trying anything out. I posted the link to see if anyone had tried that method on an Atrix, or if someone knoelegable (or with a bunch of high end smartphones lying around) could try. I also must admit I haven't really read the thread & post linked in the article: I have a very busy week and this isn't something to do in a rush.

I'm also interested in this. I'll be following this thread to see if a solution comes up.

Silly suggestion: how about taking the card out and hooking it up with a proper PC. Copy the contents out of it to a temporary location. Then reformat the card to the full capacity and then re-copy all the items back in after. Reformat may have some issues if you are using Windows to try and rid of the EXT partition, but there are plenty of Partitioning programs out there that will kill it (including the native command prompt one called Diskpart).

bchliu said:
Silly suggestion: how about taking the card out and hooking it up with a proper PC. Copy the contents out of it to a temporary location. Then reformat the card to the full capacity and then re-copy all the items back in after. Reformat may have some issues if you are using Windows to try and rid of the EXT partition, but there are plenty of Partitioning programs out there that will kill it (including the native command prompt one called Diskpart).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We are talking about the internal storage (which is not removable as far as I know), not the MicroSD card.

adriangb said:
We are talking about the internal storage (which is not removable as far as I know), not the MicroSD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The OP: "Hi, I'm rocking the latest CM7 nightly, which doesn't support WebTop, so I have a 1GB+ partition just taking up space of my precious storage (which is very limited since I only have a 2GB SD card for now). I just read this article, could this be used to get rid of the webtop partition (and possibly shrink the /data as well)?"
Notice the SD card comment..

bchliu said:
The OP: "Hi, I'm rocking the latest CM7 nightly, which doesn't support WebTop, so I have a 1GB+ partition just taking up space of my precious storage (which is very limited since I only have a 2GB SD card for now). I just read this article, could this be used to get rid of the webtop partition (and possibly shrink the /data as well)?"
Notice the SD card comment..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, but the webtop partition is on internal storage (unless you are using webtop2sd).
Sent from my MB860 using XDA App

bchliu said:
The OP: "Hi, I'm rocking the latest CM7 nightly, which doesn't support WebTop, so I have a 1GB+ partition just taking up space of my precious storage (which is very limited since I only have a 2GB SD card for now). I just read this article, could this be used to get rid of the webtop partition (and possibly shrink the /data as well)?"
Notice the SD card comment..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That was only to point out a possible reason for which I would want to do this, since I probably wouldn't care too much about 1GB of internal storage if I had a 32GB SD card.

U can format the partition by fastboot erase webtop command but other then that u cant use that space for other purposes and as far as i can tell there are certain number of partitions in atrix system (ever one is for some specific thing).
SO my suggestion is DO not completely delete the partition insted make it so small (as small as possible) and reallocate all of the free space to system partition (where user and preinstalled apps are installed. this way no natural order of flashing and backup will be disturbed and we will get extra space for applications and stuff.
Possible problems (unable to flash SBF through RSDlite) {Who flash thins via RDS now any ways ?}
if flashed rom with webtop (bluer bassed ROMs) then there is strong possibility that webtop partition so small unable to flash webtop causing aborted flasing process.

xateeq said:
U can format the partition by fastboot erase webtop command but other then that u cant use that space for other purposes and as far as i can tell there are certain number of partitions in atrix system (ever one is for some specific thing).
SO my suggestion is DO not completely delete the partition insted make it so small (as small as possible) and reallocate all of the free space to system partition (where user and preinstalled apps are installed. this way no natural order of flashing and backup will be disturbed and we will get extra space for applications and stuff.
Possible problems (unable to flash SBF through RSDlite) {Who flash thins via RDS now any ways ?}
if flashed rom with webtop (bluer bassed ROMs) then there is strong possibility that webtop partition so small unable to flash webtop causing aborted flasing process.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True, I hadn't thought of that. CWM flashs could probably work fine, or be modified to do so, but sbf I don't know, and sbf is useful to recover from a softbrick (I had to do so once, I don't remember th exact circumstance thou).
Some dev who knoes what he is doing would have to check this and see if there is a possible workaround (like the one you gave).
Sent from my MB860

in soft brick u can access fastboot so no need to flash SBF just flash recover and from it mount storage as a mass storage on pc and copy rom and flash. i do it all the times.
last time i used rsd was to flash unlock bootloader sbf.

xateeq said:
in soft brick u can access fastboot so no need to flash SBF just flash recover and from it mount storage as a mass storage on pc and copy rom and flash. i do it all the times.
last time i used rsd was to flash unlock bootloader sbf.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I know, I don't remember what tje exact circumstance was, but maybe I just had the sbf laying around, it's irrelevant to the thread anyways (as is this post). I was just trying to point out that it's just better if we can keep the sbf fladhing capibility, even if it's only to be able to return it under warranty (althou I'm pretty sure you can also flash stock ROMs under CWM, granted someone made a zip out of it).

Maybe there is a way of tricking the phone into thinking the webtop partition is an sd card after it's re-formatted. Like formatting it into a fat32 partition and have some command to mount it.

i will never use webtop, its just some space useless to me =[

i have found a purfect solution to webtop extras space problem.
BUY A BIGGER CAPACITY MEMORY CARD
Every thing els dont have to change, give developers some time they will find some webtop replacement and we r gona love it.

[Q] Different partition sizes in CM7 SD installer

Hi. Did my usual +3 hours googling but came empty handed.
Could size-agnostic CM7 SD installer script be modified so that /Data partition is set to 2Gb instead of 1Gb? I know that I can always do the "move to SD" routine but Android keeps bugging me that I`m out of space even when I have 170Mb free on /data. And also moving apps back and forth from internal to SD somehow wrecked my system process. As a result I now have constant rebooting of the launcher as my only Android experience. Uninstalling recent apps did not work. Neither did freeing up space on SD and denying root to all apps that previously asked for it.

zuzka said:
Hi. Did my usual +3 hours googling but came empty handed.
Could size-agnostic CM7 SD installer script be modified so that /Data partition is set to 2Gb instead of 1Gb? I know that I can always do the "move to SD" routine but Android keeps bugging me that I`m out of space even when I have 170Mb free on /data. And also moving apps back and forth from internal to SD somehow wrecked my system process. As a result I now have constant rebooting of the launcher as my only Android experience. Uninstalling recent apps did not work. Neither did freeing up space on SD and denying root to all apps that previously asked for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are willing to start from scratch you can burn the image again to the SD, but don't put any zips in it. Boot and let the script create the new partitions. Then put the card back in the PC and use Mini-Tool Partition Manager to shrink partition 4 (sdcard) and grow partition 3 (data) That program will handle the ext partition (3) as long as there is no data written to it yet. You can get that program free on the internet. Do a Titianium backup of your apps and data and restore later.
Edit: Now after thinking about it, you may be able to doctor your existing card. Partition 4 is fat so you can shrink it with data in it. Take the space off the front. Then I think the program will let you grow partition 3 into the empty space even with data already in it. It is just trying to move it with data does the program balk. Windows does not know how to read ext. Of course if you are running linux, just use gparted to do everything.

Yes, you could do that or you could use a program like easeus partition manager and move the partitions around after the first boot of the card.
Edit (while typing): It looks like you might be talking about an internal installation in which case you don't need to use size agnostic SD installer. Just repartition the internal the way you want it (there are threads for this) then flash your CM7.
Edit 2: beat out by leapinlar while editing 1
JP

Thanks for the idea of repartitioning prior to installing CM7. I`ll also try to repartition SD the way it is now- with data. I was concerned that /data partition is unmountable under Ubuntu when /boot and /system can be read without problems.
Hi again. I`ve managed to srink /sdcard partition under Windows and sort of grow /data partition under Ubuntu LiveCD (gparted froze right after doing its magic).
Boot loop on my Nook stopped as free space on /data increased from 175Mb to 1.2Gb. So I guess I wont be doing a fresh install at the moment.
Question is, exactly how much free space does CM7 need on /data partition? In a real world?
(at ~200Mb it starts bugging me about free space but overall Android stays stable)

zuzka said:
Question is, exactly how much free space does CM7 need on /data partition? In a real world?
(at ~200Mb it starts bugging me about free space but overall Android stays stable)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Original Nook Color had 1GB for data. B&N upped it to 5GB on the new Nook Colors. I personally would make it 2GB unless you are going to be adding some really big apps.
Sent from my Nook Color running ICS and Tapatalk

[Q] Resizing /system and /cache to gain space?

Hello everyone and thank you for having me on your wonderful forum. I have learned so much in such a short time by reading everything I could whether I was intending to use it or not.
I got my 16gb Nexus on Monday and immediately prepped it for ROMs, settling on CM10.1 RC2, Prior to that I had an Optimus V running CM7. On my Optimus, after flashing CM7 for the long haul I was able to move all excess /system space back into /data using terminal emulator and the fdisk command, but I followed a guide of some sort that is long lost now.
Everything is fantastic so far except one thing, there seems to be quite a lot of space reserved in the /system and /cache partitions, and I am not sure if I am able to re-partition this space back to /data or how exactly to do this.
right now /system is reading at 395.8 / 827.8 MB used, and /cache is at 68.4 / 551.7 MB. I would like to repartition 200 MB away from /system and 300-400 MB away from /cache, and put it back into /data. This will leave me some space to integrate or convert a few apps to system apps, and enough cache space to be safe (why does it need 550 MB to begin with?) and give back another half gig of storage that I paid so much to have.
I have three issues with this, one being that I can find almost no information on this topic directly mentioning the NExus 4, and any relatable information from other devices talking about device specific toolkits to do the job.
The only thread I found on XDA about this is below, and it only gave me a vague "this is not possible"
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2248400
The second issue is I do not recall the command switches/flags that go with the fdisk command, only that I had to use some things to set file permissions or remount the partition or some such (I know, i'm a noob, forgive me).
Lastly, I am rather confused by the multiple partitions of /data and /storage/emulated all showing a partition size of 13231.8 MB. Obviously they are all the same physical space, but I am afraid to mess with the partitions and break what I assume are a ton of symlinks that trick apps into believing there is an external SD card in play. Can any of you shed some light on this for me?

I3ig Al said:
Hello everyone and thank you for having me on your wonderful forum. I have learned so much in such a short time by reading everything I could whether I was intending to use it or not.
I got my 16gb Nexus on Monday and immediately prepped it for ROMs, settling on CM10.1 RC2, Prior to that I had an Optimus V running CM7. On my Optimus, after flashing CM7 for the long haul I was able to move all excess /system space back into /data using terminal emulator and the fdisk command, but I followed a guide of some sort that is long lost now.
Everything is fantastic so far except one thing, there seems to be quite a lot of space reserved in the /system and /cache partitions, and I am not sure if I am able to re-partition this space back to /data or how exactly to do this.
right now /system is reading at 395.8 / 827.8 MB used, and /cache is at 68.4 / 551.7 MB. I would like to repartition 200 MB away from /system and 300-400 MB away from /cache, and put it back into /data. This will leave me some space to integrate or convert a few apps to system apps, and enough cache space to be safe (why does it need 550 MB to begin with?) and give back another half gig of storage that I paid so much to have.
I have three issues with this, one being that I can find almost no information on this topic directly mentioning the NExus 4, and any relatable information from other devices talking about device specific toolkits to do the job.
The only thread I found on XDA about this is below, and it only gave me a vague "this is not possible"
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2248400
The second issue is I do not recall the command switches/flags that go with the fdisk command, only that I had to use some things to set file permissions or remount the partition or some such (I know, i'm a noob, forgive me).
Lastly, I am rather confused by the multiple partitions of /data and /storage/emulated all showing a partition size of 13231.8 MB. Obviously they are all the same physical space, but I am afraid to mess with the partitions and break what I assume are a ton of symlinks that trick apps into believing there is an external SD card in play. Can any of you shed some light on this for me?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nexus4 doesn´t have a fix size for partitions, you can use the whole memory for everything... no need to re-partition anything

75markus said:
nexus4 doesn´t have a fix size for partitions, you can use the whole memory for everything... no need to re-partition anything
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure if you are misunderstanding or not reading my whole post, or if I am not understanding you or the situation I am posting about, so please don't take offense to this reply.
It appears to me that the /system partition is reserving 827 MB space for the ROM, and CM10.1 is only using 400 MB of it
It also appears that 552 MB is reserved for the /cache partition, and only 70 MB is being currently used.
This is ~900 MB of storage space that is reserved and unused. I would like to know if it is possible to reallocate ~500-600 MB of this back into the /data partition for user space.
Please explain to me how this space is part of the whole memory that can be used for anything.
After posting I have thought some more about it and decided to NOT mess with the partition sizes, mainly because I do not know what effect it would have if I were to flash another ROM in the future, which is almost a given when Key Lime Pie is released. However I would still like to understand what I have asked about in case I do want to do this in the future, and also just for the sake of expanding my knowledge.

I like this. The only "issue" is that if more space were ever to be reallocated to /system or /cache, it'd require wiping /data obviously. Small price to pay. 500MB isn't too small a chunk for 8GB users.

75markus said:
nexus4 doesn´t have a fix size for partitions, you can use the whole memory for everything... no need to re-partition anything
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually it does. System data cache and boot, plus like 30 other ones, same as any other phone with no micro SD card
Sent from my Nexus 7 @1.60 GHz on Stock 4.2.2

I3ig Al said:
I'm not sure if you are misunderstanding or not reading my whole post, or if I am not understanding you or the situation I am posting about, so please don't take offense to this reply.
It appears to me that the /system partition is reserving 827 MB space for the ROM, and CM10.1 is only using 400 MB of it
It also appears that 552 MB is reserved for the /cache partition, and only 70 MB is being currently used.
This is ~900 MB of storage space that is reserved and unused. I would like to know if it is possible to reallocate ~500-600 MB of this back into the /data partition for user space.
Please explain to me how this space is part of the whole memory that can be used for anything.
After posting I have thought some more about it and decided to NOT mess with the partition sizes, mainly because I do not know what effect it would have if I were to flash another ROM in the future, which is almost a given when Key Lime Pie is released. However I would still like to understand what I have asked about in case I do want to do this in the future, and also just for the sake of expanding my knowledge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i think N4 uses FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace) file system
noobdeagle said:
isnt this what they were saying was the reason for no SD card and use of MTP ?; basically if i recall correctly the nexus devices do not truly assign partitions instead there is a storage 'pool' that anything can use dynamically.
so i guess there is no partitions its just all 1 volume.
source: http://www.androidcentral.com/why-nexus-devices-have-no-sd-card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

That is for the sdcard.
The other partitions such as /system still have fixed amounts of space allocated
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app