Develop Bugs

Too many a2sd a2sd+ app2sd, really confused...

I'm really confused, first with all the different a2sd variants and ones that are made by Darktremor or other people or the FroYo version. This is as much as I know for this app.
Secondly, I really couldn't find any information on doing partitions manually or setting ALL partitions to ext since I have a linux box, I really don't care to use windows to copy over files or whatever. I have a VMware box to do that on my windows machine anyways.
Third, the ClockworkMod recovery has NO options to do the partition following Darktremor's faq, and I don't know if I should install another recovery after flashing my hboot to 0.93 S-OFF (Alpha)
Mind you I only had my android for about 6 days and this is my first one, so learning curve is hard.
Please help

1) the names can be confusing but old apps2sd is an ext partition on your SD card that appears to the system as internal storage. Froyo apps2sd is using Froyo to transfer mapps to the fat32 partition (normal partition) of your SD card. You just need to use context because people tend to use apps2sd for both.
2) you can use gepart to partition. You need a fat32 partition for apps to write to and for any personal data because Android looks to that partition for that kind of data. I have my SD card as 5 gb fat32 and 3 gb ext3. Fat32 goes first.
3) go to ROM manager. Partition SD card. Choose size....there is only 3 sizes though.
If anything I wrote is wrong I'm sure I'll be corrected.

Sorry to hijack the thread, but since this is related to a2sd in general I might as well ask it here. What's the effect of having a2sd+ on your battery? Would it lower battery life due to cache and apps being stored mainly on SD instead of internal memory? I observed that this was often the case when I store always-on apps on SD back on my old Windows device.

So no way of not using a fat32 eh?
It still seems I don't have much space left after using the Rom manager way. I have 120meg free on internal mem.
Could I just format using linux mkfs? I want to make the apps partition about 2GB to hold more apps. Though it seems some widgets can't take putting on SD card, it dissipates.

BriEE said:
So no way of not using a fat32 eh?
It still seems I don't have much space left after using the Rom manager way. I have 120meg free on internal mem.
Could I just format using linux mkfs? I want to make the apps partition about 2GB to hold more apps. Though it seems some widgets can't take putting on SD card, it dissipates.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Widgets must be installed on internal storage, or they wont work.

If you want an easy method to make a ext 3 partition use ROM manager premium from the Market. It will make you automatically an ext3 partition with a maximum of 512 mb which is enough (put swap to 0). Just keep in mind that first inside ROM Manager you need to select the option Flash ClockworkMod Recovery, and after that go to the SD partition option otherwise it wont work. And also remember you need to have the PREMIUM version otherwise it might not work
Now if you want to have more than a 512 mb you can use gparted. It is a livecd which means that can work on linux, mac or windows just reboot with the cd inside and is quite straightforward to use. Hope this helps.

Hello guys, any thought about that issue maybe?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=816098

Formatting of the memory card.

Hi sorry if this has been answered but couldnt find it.
i recently purchased a a bigger size micro sd card for my htc desire. The phone will not turn on with the card in, nor can i format it in the recovery memory. Can someone tell me what i need to format it as on computer. GPT MBR, FAT 32. etc etc. Thank you

I used Gparted in Linux to set up the standard layout:
- 32MB SWAP
- 512MB EXT2
- Rest FAT32
You can download a livecd of Gparted, or use "Partition SD Card" within ROM Manager.

You can download GParted for Windows aswell. Google it.

Or you can flash amon ra recovery and use that to partition within the recovery.
Also rom manager allows you to partition the card as well. I personally use 0mb for swap and 768mb for ext3. Do note rom manager only allows you to use an ext partition no bigger then 512mb. I assume it only formats it in ext2. My opinion is amon ra recovery is the way to go. Use version r5 as the latest is quite buggy according to other users. Or you can use gparted as mentioned earlier.
Misunderstood your post, use gparted. I didnt read that you cant turn on the phone with the card in it.

swap is not needed

Have you got / can you borrow a card reader for your PC, you can partition it from there
(Whys this under android dev?)
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

schiznik said:
Have you got / can you borrow a card reader for your PC, you can partition it from there
(Whys this under android dev?)
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Report the thread.
It's already been done.
Can't hurt, though.

I'm also having a little problem with the partitions...
I have a 32gb card, but when i remove it from the card reader after making the partitions (or after disconnecting the phone from the computer) the only partition remaining is the FAT32...ext and swap become unloccated space :s
how can i fix this?

feelmyanger said:
I'm also having a little problem with the partitions...
I have a 32gb card, but when i remove it from the card reader after making the partitions (or after disconnecting the phone from the computer) the only partition remaining is the FAT32...ext and swap become unloccated space :s
how can i fix this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You do realize that you can't use the SWAP and EXT partitions as drive-space, right?

feelmyanger said:
I'm also having a little problem with the partitions...
I have a 32gb card, but when i remove it from the card reader after making the partitions (or after disconnecting the phone from the computer) the only partition remaining is the FAT32...ext and swap become unloccated space :s
how can i fix this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
they are not accessable within windows

i know, i used gparted. but when i remove the sd card/disconnect the phone from usb mode the partitions are gone :|

zHk3R said:
You do realize that you can't use the SWAP and EXT partitions as drive-space, right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, but i'm not talking about the space...the entire partition itself dissapears. for example, if i'm going to flash a rom that need an ext partition it won't flash...the ext partition is gone

one question,
should the ext partition be in the front or at the back of the FAT32 partition?
or it doesn't matter?

[Question] SD Card formatting/partitioning guide

I can only assume this has been asked and answered, but I have searched and not been able to fine a suitable post yet...
I want to find a guide to format and partition my (16GB in my case) SD card in the best way for the current/future Desire ROMs

eesmm said:
I can only assume this has been asked and answered, but I have searched and not been able to fine a suitable post yet...
I want to find a guide to format and partition my (16GB in my case) SD card in the best way for the current/future Desire ROMs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can use Windows to format the sd card to Fat32, after which you can then use Rom Manager (download from market) to create a ext partition (it will shrink the Fat32 partition to make room for the ext partition)
Alternatively, you can do it all in linux and it's pretty straight forward.
For example, Ubuntu (you can download a live version of ubuntu which you can burn to cd or copy to a bootable usb stick) can read the sd card (I just connect the phone whilst in clockworkmod recovery, select mount usb, and voila) and then you can use 'Disk Utility' located in the administrative tools area of Ubuntu to delete the stock partition that comes with most pre-formatted memory cards, create a Fat32 partition (Eg: 15GB) and then create an ext4 partition with the remaining space.
Using Linux is handy for backing up the contents of your ext partition - particularly useful when upgrading from a smaller sd card to a larger one but wanting to keep all your data.
I'm not the greatest at writing instructions and I have no idea if any of the above helps you in any way, but I hope it does!

I would use ROM Manager, but the Max partition size seems to be 512 and i want to make a 2GB partition. I am also unsure of whether the EXT partition (is EXT 3 or EXT4 best) should be primary or secondary, and will the Desire automatically start putting APPs there?
...and and what point do I turn the card back into a Goldcard, if at all necessary?

eesmm said:
I would use ROM Manager, but the Max partition size seems to be 512 and i want to make a 2GB partition. I am also unsure of whether the EXT partition (is EXT 3 or EXT4 best) should be primary or secondary, and will the Desire automatically start putting APPs there?
...and and what point do I turn the card back into a Goldcard, if at all necessary?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) Gparted is the best partition tool ;-) It can be used as a live CD - which can be booted in virtual box.
2) You'll never need a goldcard, unless you want to go back to stock RUU (ie to send your phone back to get fixed).
3) EXT4 Primary partition
4) The desire will put apps there if the rom has Apps2sd enabled. Most roms these days do, but some require you to install the script yourself. 2gb seems a lot for just apps though.

Simple is better.
I myself have an 8gb sd card and used rom manager to partition it. I did not format my sd card beforehand, just took out the card from the package and put it into my phone.
Checking my appbrain list, i currently have 132 apps with a total size of 344MB.
Using the app Quick System Info:
A2SD storage-- Total: 458MB, Free: 110 MB
Internal storage-- Total: 148MB, Free:63.34 MB
I personally think 512 MB partition is more than enough.

friedkimchi said:
I personally think 512 MB partition is more than enough.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I'd agree with this. I had a 512MB partition - extended it using gparted to 1GB but it really was a pointless activity as I was nowhere near using the 512MB in the first place
Oh well - future proof I guess!
@ OP... What would you need 2GB for? Seems, well, excessive...
BTW, the latest clockworkmod supports partitioning directly in the recovery menu and I believe it will give you the size you want.

Help me fix my SD Card

Hi there,
A couple days ago, I had a usb brick. I quickly fixed it, everything got back to normal except for my sd card : I think it's corrupted. Why do I say this ? Because I've got another sd card, and it's working perfectly. I can't get to format it via Gparted. It says the procedure failed, there was an issue and i couldn't format it. In addition, even though it's a 4GB card, it's recognized as a 3gb card.
When I try to use it in recovery mode, it says :
Code:
E:Can't mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 (or /dev/block/mmcblk0)
But when I use the other card, nothing weird happens.
I'd like you guys to help me repair my SD card.

kev94 said:
Hi there,
A couple days ago, I had a usb brick. I quickly fixed it, everything got back to normal except for my sd card : I think it's corrupted. Why do I say this ? Because I've got another sd card, and it's working perfectly. I can't get to format it via Gparted. It says the procedure failed, there was an issue and i couldn't format it. In addition, even though it's a 4GB card, it's recognized as a 3gb card.
When I try to use it in recovery mode, it says :
Code:
E:Can't mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 (or /dev/block/mmcblk0)
But when I use the other card, nothing weird happens.
I'd like you guys to help me repair my SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Googled and found this: http://www.ehow.com/how_4850280_repair-corrupt-sd-card.html

1. link your desire with pc
2. enter "FASTBOOT Mode", it will display "HBOOT USB PLUG"
3. open dos windows and type adb shell
4. type fastboot oem rebootRUU
5. type fastboot oem enableqxdm 0
and retry

I already tried this, but it didn't work out ! I'm out of ideas...

So it says it's a 3GB card? You had an 1GB Ext partiton before?
If yes, that's where your 1GB's gone.
Recommended is to repartition your card again from scratch - Using Either GParted, EASEUS or MiniTool partiton.
Backup everything from it, then delete all partitions - and re-create them.

davebugyi said:
So it says it's a 3GB card? You had an 1GB Ext partiton before?
If yes, that's where your 1GB's gone.
Recommended is to repartition your card again from scratch - Using Either GParted, EASEUS or MiniTool partiton.
Backup everything from it, then delete all partitions - and re-create them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, it's 3.7 GB and not 4GB (I guess it's normal though). And yes, the missing space was from the ext partition. Thanks god, the first thing I did was a backup of my SD card. Yet, I tried to format the card with Gparted (I'm currently running Ubuntu 10.10) but as I said above the procedure fails.
Then, I formatted in Windows, and I managed to create a 3Gb fat32 partition recognized in Gparted.
But how am I supposed to get my missing space back if this space isn't recognized in Gparted ?

I'm using Ubuntu 11.04 (natty) - and i'm able to mount my EXT partiton of the SD Card.
As I said, don't just format the card, but delete all partitions and re-create them, then format them.
Also, if your card is messed up badly, maybe you have to use the termina with commands to recover the ext partition.

Always format SD cards with the "SD Formatter 3.0" from the SD Association: http://www.sdcard.org/consumers/formatter_3/
This little programs formats the whole card (full capacity, erasing all other partitions) in FAT32 meeting all SD specifications.
Furthermore it alligns the LBA parameters (virtual heads, cylinders etc) and the fat32 parameters with the internal structures of the flash memory (eraseblocks), so that fat32 clusters never overlap eraseblocks. This speeds up write performance (in my case about 50%! ).
There is no better tool to format SD cards.
After that you can resize (But don't move it, just trim the end. The free space in front of the FAT32 partition is part of the alignment) the FAT 32 partition with gparted and generate an ext partition in the free space.
Finally one should run the ext alignment script (it's a zip for recovery mode) from baadnwz homepage (http://www.baadnwz.eu/2011/05/align-your-sdcard-fat-and-ext-partiton_16.html) to align also the ext4 partition to the flash cells.

boot up into android (with any ROM) and go to settings > storage > format SD card
this should restore whole SD as FAT32
funny enough Android could do it, while Gparted could not (gparted didnt see my whole sd, it didnt see the ext partition)

davebugyi said:
I'm using Ubuntu 11.04 (natty) - and i'm able to mount my EXT partiton of the SD Card.
As I said, don't just format the card, but delete all partitions and re-create them, then format them.
Also, if your card is messed up badly, maybe you have to use the termina with commands to recover the ext partition.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
---> As I said too , Gparted fails to create partitions. It displays a "warning" icon by the sd icon. Unless I'm a fool, I can't get any further there.
hypophysis said:
Always format SD cards with the "SD Formatter 3.0" from the SD Association: http://www.sdcard.org/consumers/formatter_3/
This little programs formats the whole card (full capacity, erasing all other partitions) in FAT32 meeting all SD specifications.
Furthermore it alligns the LBA parameters (virtual heads, cylinders etc) and the fat32 parameters with the internal structures of the flash memory (eraseblocks), so that fat32 clusters never overlap eraseblocks. This speeds up write performance (in my case about 50%! ).
There is no better tool to format SD cards.
After that you can resize (But don't move it, just trim the end. The free space in front of the FAT32 partition is part of the alignment) the FAT 32 partition with gparted and generate an ext partition in the free space.
Finally one should run the ext alignment script (it's a zip for recovery mode) from baadnwz homepage (http://www.baadnwz.eu/2011/05/align-your-sdcard-fat-and-ext-partiton_16.html) to align also the ext4 partition to the flash cells.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
---> Sounds great and geeky, gonna give it a try tomorrow afternoon (CET +2 here)
dzumagos said:
boot up into android (with any ROM) and go to settings > storage > format SD card
this should restore whole SD as FAT32
funny enough Android could do it, while Gparted could not (gparted didnt see my whole sd, it didnt see the ext partition)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
---> Yeah, Gparted is a bit lazy here.... Gonna try it if hypophysis's method doesn't work out. I gotta admit this kinda problem is pretty disturbing and pisses me off so much.... Waiting forward to get it over with.
Anyway, thanks a lot for helping me, you're good people here !

Well, I tried hypophysis's method. It formatted successfuly. But as you said, I had to run Gparted again in order to create an Ext partition next to the fat 32 one. But I couldn't --> It says it couldn't find the "first sector" I guess, and it couldn't determine the device specifications, it wasn't able to perform everything he wanted. Actually it recognized the whole sd card, but wasn't able to do anything with it. I couldn't unmount it or mount it....
I'm stuck at square 1 Gonna try to perform dzumagos's method later.

What is the use of 2nd sd-ext2 partition?

Hi,
I was formatting my memory card in DHD using 4EXT recovery and I keep wondering what is the use of second sd-ext partition? To be precise, I mean sd-ext2, not sd-ext (I know its used for apps2sd). Does it work like backup partition if the first one runs out of memory? But that wouldn't make sense, since you can just create one big partition. My second thought was that maybe you install linux on it if you want to have it in your smartphone (like ubuntu or debian).
And the second question is about swap. Does anyone uses it at all? I used to have it on my old HTC G1, but I don't think it makes sense to use it now. Are there any roms that take advantage of swap and does it make them work faster (particularly the new big sense 3.x roms)?
Thanks in advance for any responses,
BR, Jack.
edit: I wrote the same topic on my native polish board and I got responses, but that's not what I meant so I decided to write more precise what I mean.
I know there are such apps like ie. link2sd, which use second partition on the memory card as partition for storing applications, data etc. They use the bolded partition (numbers are numbers of partitions on memory card):
1. fat32
2. sd-ext
What I am talking about is second ext partition, like this:
1. fat32
2. sd-ext
3. sd-ext2
It surely doesnt mean format of partition (like ext2, ext3, ext4), it means there is a second ext partition. Both of them can be formatted differently, both can have different ext (like ext2, ext3, ext4). What is the use of sd-ext2 partition? Does it serve as a backup partition for first sd-ext? Or you can install linux on it?

from what i've seen reading around on this forum, swap isn't necessary on a desire HD, the phone has enough ram
not sure about a second sd-ext though sorry

For what i gather... only 4Ext has it... why not ask them?