Develop Bugs

[GUIDE] Persistent Temp Root for G2 to SD Card

Problem: Changes to the system partition are lost when Linux flushes the disk cache: http://pastebin.com/cm75Z9UA
These instructions are a workaround to provide temp root like normal plus persistence because /system /data and /cache are partitions on your SD card. This lets you reboot and even factory reset, while being able to easily restore your settings and such by re-rooting and mounting your SD card partitions back over the internal partitions.
Prerequisites:
SD card partitioned with four partitions:
6GB as fat (for your data, can be bigger or small depending on your card size)
400MB ext3 for /system
1.3GB ext3 for /data
200MB ext3 for /cache
On the phone, enable "USB debugging" in Menu -> Settings -> Applications -> Development
On a PC with the Android SDK tools (adb) installed and working:
adb push Superuser.apk /data/local
adb push busybox /data/local
adb push rage /data/local
adb push resume /data/local
adb push root /data/local
adb push rsync /data/local
adb push setup /data/local
adb push su /data/local
adb install Term.apk
adb shell chmod 755 /data/local/busybox /data/local/rage /data/local/setup /data/local/resume /data/local/rsync /data/local/root
On the phone, open "Terminal Emulator" and type:
/data/local/rage
Wait for it to say "[+] Forked NNNN childs." then press the back button.
Open "Terminal Emulator" again and it should force close.
Open it one more time and the prompt should display "#". Then type:
/data/local/root
/data/local/setup
You may need to re-root after it reloads the GUI, but then it will stick. setup is a script that mounts your SD card partitions and copies the existing. It should only be run once unless you want to erase what you have there previously. This step wont work if you SD card is not partitioned properly.
On future power-ons, run this after temp-root instead of setup:
/data/local/resume
and you should get your Android back how it was.

is it suppose to scan through all apps on phone then reboot

Thanks muchly, I'll try this when my G2 arrives.
I have a question about this method. It looks to me that what setup does is copy the entire system, data, and cache to the SD card. Then, when you run resume, it uses rsync to bring the main system (in the onboard flash) up to date from the SDcard version, and then any changes, even if not actually written to the main system partition due to the HTC copy protection, get written to the sdcard copy of the system. Very clever (if I'm reading this write, otherwise, still clever, but me not so clever as I mis-understood).
The question is this: Are there any glitches or instabilities generated by suddenly changing the system files after the OS is already booted? Do I have to make sure to do this before I begin using my phone after boot or risk making changes that I will then loose when I run resume?
Thanks again for the work putting this together!
Sheep

Sheep, you understand almost completely. Setup does copy the existing data from the internal phone memory to the SD card. However, it then (like resume) doesn't copy anything back, it just mounts the system, data, and cache partitions from the SD card on top of the internal ones.
I had issues with the internal memory reverting back after I make changes to it. It seemed to happen over a short time, or was triggered by things like mounting the SD card to a computer.
I've been using this for about 24 hours with no problems. I've done a couple fresh boots and ran resume. But I didn't test the instructions from scratch, so if anyone tests and finds a problem, let me know!

Any performance hit because of running from SD?

I haven't really noticed any.

How does this impact battery life?
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

Can't say, I've had my phone hooked up most of the time through adb looking for root. Just did this for fun and because I was sick of re-rooting all the time.

looks interesting I'll try it out tomorrow
Sent from my T-Mobile G2

so your sd card has to be partitioned pryor to trying this

pre-partitioned card?
thatruth132 said:
so your sd card has to be partitioned pryor to trying this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes it does

texasaggie1 said:
yes it does
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
and how do i do this on a non-rooted device

thatruth132 said:
and how do i do this on a non-rooted device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use your G1 to partition the card.
Brad

You can also connect your phone to a Linux computer (a LiveCD would be fine) and use gparted or fdisk. Don't forget to backup the contents of your card first!

Pretty cool. But I think I'm gonna wait for a more permanent solution....

sheek360 said:
Pretty cool. But I think I'm gonna wait for a more permanent solution....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are no roms available yet any ways, so to a non dev, non cook like me, the Root is pretty much useless

I'd read that the currently available root was good until a reboot, then I saw this thread that made rerooting after a reboot much easier. Since then I've seen some posts that seem to indicate that a root may spontaneously disappear even without rebooting. Is this the case, some permissions may be lost even if you don't reboot?
I was ready to pull the trigger on this permanent-temporary root until I read that. I'd like to be able to import my old wpa_supplicant.conf file and get my corp ipsec vpn working. I'd also like to be able to get wifi-tether working (although I rarely use it), but if root won't stay 100% until a reboot, then I'm not going to bother.

Dalamak said:
There are no roms available yet any ways, so to a non dev, non cook like me, the Root is pretty much useless
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not true. I'm not a dev or a cook, but there are things that you can make the phone do with root besides adding a theme or ROM.
wifi tether
ipsec vpn
backups
etc...

smasraum said:
I'd read that the currently available root was good until a reboot, then I saw this thread that made rerooting after a reboot much easier. Since then I've seen some posts that seem to indicate that a root may spontaneously disappear even without rebooting. Is this the case, some permissions may be lost even if you don't reboot?
I was ready to pull the trigger on this permanent-temporary root until I read that. I'd like to be able to import my old wpa_supplicant.conf file and get my corp ipsec vpn working. I'd also like to be able to get wifi-tether working (although I rarely use it), but if root won't stay 100% until a reboot, then I'm not going to bother.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With temp root on the internal system partition, writes would revert back after certain things (after mounting the sd card to a computer through the phone and disconnecting it, I'd always loose root). When running /system from an sd card, no writes can be reverted because none are made, so I've never had to re-root.

how to partition an SD card?
thatruth132 said:
and how do i do this on a non-rooted device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used gparted in ubuntu to do mine. Like SAINTH said, the install disk for ubuntu is also a livecd so you dont even have to install ubuntu if u dont want to

[Solved][Q] Recovering dead/dying SD card, fixing A2SD permissions

Hi,
I was organising my computer today (ironically in preparation for a backup) and plugged in my phone to copy files and it wouldn't mount or ask for the type of connection. I went to unmount it in Android and it said the size was '00'. I put the card in a card reader and did a check and it seems a few sectors have gone bad (which implies the reserve pool has filled too). That would explain the way it has been pausing for long periods of time when copying files (haven't done that in a month or so).
I've managed to copy all but one of the .apk files in /sd-ext/app and /sd-ext/app-data. If I put these (plus an empty dalvik-cache) on a new partition on a new card will A2SD+ be happy (apart from the one broken app of course)? Does each .apk have special permissions per app or anything? I should probably do a full wipe but I'm trying to hold out for official gingerbread. I tried to do a nandroid backup but clockworkmod says 'cannot stat /sdcard'
I haven't managed to get much of the FAT32 partition as it keeps dying after a few I/O errors and requires me to re-plug it (every sector comes up with I/O errors even when they are fine). I managed to get some files that I have nowhere else using ddrescue on individual files (a full image doesn't work because of the endless errors after a while). I think I may have made things worse as I stupidly didn't mount the drive in read-only mode. Now android mounts the SD card in read-only mode too, where it wasn't doing that earlier today. I did notice a few I/O errors in the android system log when I was trying to figure out the problem.
I'm misisng some (fairly unimportant) photos because the DCIM/100MEDIA folder seems to have lost it's directory listing. Does anyone have any suggestions for tools to recover these? I tried photorec but it only seems to find the thumbnails. I can't get the partition to mount on Windows but it more or less works on linux. According to HD Tune disk scan (chkdsk just freezes), the number of bad blocks is actually fairly small.
I did a whole pile of app updates yesterday which must have pushed it over the edge (many of which failed due to 'insufficient space' on the A2SD partition). The phone still mostly works (since most apk files are readable and the settings are stored on the phone).
Does dalvik-cache get updated much? I'm worried it might hugely shorten the life of a new card.
Thanks
Running Leedroid 2.4 A2SD+

Ok, I've got a new 16GB MicroSD card.
I can't get Android to recognize the apps in the A2SD partition, it regenerates the dalvik cache though. I've tried setting the .apk files to be globally readable and writeable.
Any ideas?

Yay, got it working
It turns out you need to run fix_permissions.sh, as Android does care about apk files and data files having the same permissions. fix_permissions did some strange changes to data permissions but it all seems to work bar needing to re-add most of my widgets to GoLauncher. Leedroid doesn't include fix_permissions but after much hunting (most links I found were broken), I managed to find it on cyanogenmod github.
https://github.com/CyanogenMod/android_vendor_cyanogen/raw/gingerbread/prebuilt/common/bin/fix_permissions
Just copy it to the SD card and run from ADB shell (or a terminal):
Code:
su
chmod +x /mnt/sdcard/fix_permissions
sh /mnt/sdcard/fix_permissions
Note that you must use sh, just ./fix_permissions gives permission denied for some reason.
Edit: seems it didn't correctly fix apps in app-private (of which I only had 2). I just reinstalled them (probably possible to fix them manually by looking at the owner in /data/data and chown the apk).

/system partition free space & performance.

Ok this may sound like a dumb question but i have a good reason for asking. Does anyone know, particularly a dev if having more free (available) space on the /system partition has any performance benefits, or any benefit at all? If so i beleive i have found a way for some to free up arround 56mb of space on the /system partition. I dont want to waste time trying though if its not going to be of any benefit, although i may just try it anyways and see for my self. What could possibly go wrong lol.

Ok i tried it and got it to work. Basicly it is another ext4 mod. I'm calling it "ext4_no_data_limit_normal_dalvik_lib_moved". What it does is it takes the unused datadata partition (mtdblock6) you have after using the "ext4_no_data_limit_normal_dalvik" mod, and mounts the /system/lib folder to that unused partition, freeing up arround 56mb (may varry) from the /system partition (mtdblock3). I now have 110mb free on my system partition, although almost half of that free space was from debloating. This seems to make the phone snappier, faster ui load, faster gallery loading, faster smoother menu loading / scrolling, and quicker app loading. This may just be my opinion or the placebo effect. I am still working on getting a flashable going, as soon as i do i will eithet post it in the dev section or i may contact jermaine and see if he will add it to the ext4 thread. Im not the best at scripting, i have the majority done but still need to work out a few things to make it a hands free installation.

If you want to try it here are the steps. This is the hard way, as i said im workimg on a hands free flashable. Requires adb.
0. MAKE A BACKUP!
1. First wipe cache and dalvik-cache then flash this thru recovery and reboot http://dinc.does-it.net/Mods/dalvik_moved_revert.ziphttp://dinc.does-it.net/dalvik_moved_revert.zip. You do not need to do this step if the last ext4 mod you flashed was the "dalvik_moved_revert" in the op of the ext4 thread.
2. Use a file explorer and go to /system/lib and copy every file and folder in the lib folder to /data/data2. If the data2 folder does not exsit create it and reboot and then start with step 2 again.
3. Download the mod and place it on your sdcard somewhere. http://dinc.does-it.net/Mods/ext4_no_data_limit_normal_dalvik_lib_moved.ziphttp://dinc.does-it.net/ext4_no_data_limit_normal_dalvik_lib_moved.zip.
4. Reboot the phone to recovery while connected to the pc. Once in recovery open a cmd prompt on your pc and type "adb shell", once in the shell (#) type "rm -rf /system/lib/*".
5. Wipe cache and dalvik-cache and then flash this mod you downloaded in step 3.
6. Reboot the phone.
You should now notice that the /system/lib folder is on its own partition (mtdblock6), and there is much more free space on your /system partition (mtdblock3). I also hope you notice an inprovement in performance and snappiness.
Be honest and tell me what you think. If you have any issues feel free to ask. I will have a all-in-1 flashable soon. (Probably tomorrow night its getting late.)

i was wondering the same thing,sorry to bump this thread
yep i was going to ask something similar ,i moved a lot of files from user to systeme in order to free some space(USER) ,but i had the feeling that this would load up the system ram and slow down the phone(20meg free on system partition)...i will consider your approch and maybe some link to sd solution if i am not to lazy ....
thanks for the info

cmlusco said:
If you want to try it here are the steps. This is the hard way, as i said im workimg on a hands free flashable. Requires adb.
0. MAKE A BACKUP!
1. First wipe cache and dalvik-cache then flash this thru recovery and reboot http://dinc.does-it.net/Mods/dalvik_moved_revert.ziphttp://dinc.does-it.net/dalvik_moved_revert.zip. You do not need to do this step if the last ext4 mod you flashed was the "dalvik_moved_revert" in the op of the ext4 thread.
2. Use a file explorer and go to /system/lib and copy every file and folder in the lib folder to /data/data2. If the data2 folder does not exsit create it and reboot and then start with step 2 again.
3. Download the mod and place it on your sdcard somewhere. http://dinc.does-it.net/Mods/ext4_no_data_limit_normal_dalvik_lib_moved.ziphttp://dinc.does-it.net/ext4_no_data_limit_normal_dalvik_lib_moved.zip.
4. Reboot the phone to recovery while connected to the pc. Once in recovery open a cmd prompt on your pc and type "adb shell", once in the shell (#) type "rm -rf /system/lib/*".
5. Wipe cache and dalvik-cache and then flash this mod you downloaded in step 3.
6. Reboot the phone.
You should now notice that the /system/lib folder is on its own partition (mtdblock6), and there is much more free space on your /system partition (mtdblock3). I also hope you notice an inprovement in performance and snappiness.
Be honest and tell me what you think. If you have any issues feel free to ask. I will have a all-in-1 flashable soon. (Probably tomorrow night its getting late.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
seems somehow risky for me. i don't know, just my cent. im a linux dev not an android.

pokakikote said:
seems somehow risky for me. i don't know, just my cent. im a linux dev not an android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why revive an old post just to say something is risky?
Also I think this idea isn't needed unless you're on a ROM where system doesn't have enough space to hold all the files. In this case the ROM zip takes care of it for you.
Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[Q]How to make a script to put dalvik on sd-ext

Hi, I'm a noob not only to Android but to Linux either. I'm aware this is probably a very old question, but I can't find a topic in wich is explained how to do this manually.
I'm using amarullz a2sd on Sandvold ICS beta 0.6.1.1, and it works fine, like most of you know, is magic works this way:
- system apps and data on nand
- apps and data on ext4
- all dalvik on nand.
So I get lot of space and very little lag.
The problem is: dalvik grows, and grows very fast, and worst of all, the system can't understand why at some point the internal memory have lot of space but it can't ever save the temp install file, or create the dalvik for a new app.
All this problems flush into the famigerate "invalid package file" error, for whose everyone has a different solution.
So we get: dalvik saturate nand = Android go crazy = users go crazy and make any sort of assertion on how to solve this (someone suggest a full wipe everytime this happen XD ).
The solution may be simple and obvious to all of you, but I'm a noob so let's pretend this is a great step for humanity: insert manually a script to put the dalvik too on ext4, on top of the pre-esistent amarullz one.
I googled some time and I come to this script that to me seems the best way:
Code:
su
cp -pr /data/dalvik-cache /system/sd
rm -r /data/dalvik-cache
ln -s /system/sd/dalvik-cache /data/dalvik-cache
(Ok I'm aware the cp is not necessary, but this way I have not to bother about rains of FC until I reboot and system recreate dex files).
That seems to do the magic... but here my two questions:
1) Simple matter: how to make this permanent on reboot? I have to insert it in a text file in init.d? the number on the file name count for the order of execution in respect to other scripts?
2) Not so simple (for me): why "/system/sd" ? I thought the path to the ext4 is "/sd-ext", so the correct dir is not something like "/sd-ext/my-dalvik" ??
If this is right, the correct script must be this way:
Code:
su
cp -pr /data/dalvik-cache /sd-ext/my-dalvik
rm -r /data/dalvik-cache
ln -s /sd-ext/my-dalvik /data/dalvik-cache
(Clearly the cp and rm parts will not be present in the boot script).
Am I right?
DISCLAIMER:
- I'm not discussing if amarullz is good or bad, every post on this subject will be ignored. I like it, I just want to change this thing.
- Posts that invite me to not install tons of apps and live a life of abnegation will be ignored as well.
- Sorry for my english
- Sorry if I'm verbose: I just want to be clear on the explanation.

[Guide]Functional ext4 for external microSD with just a few bumps left

Y.G. said:
I formated my sd card to Ext4 and when insert it in to my phone, it says that's it's blank and has unsupported files. Any reasons for that?
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The SPH-L710 Samsung Stock LJ7 TW 4.1.1 Android doesn't understand/support the change to ext4 external SD card (microSD) without a few things being done.
I'm working this out right now. So far I have manually been able to mount the newly created ext4 partition on the microSD card through adb, and after some chown/chmod I was able to go back to "Settings and Storage" and the "Mount SD Card" picked it up, and I was up and running ext4. But this didn't persist after a restart. So I'm looking into: /etc/vold.fstab MODS to keep it after restart right Now !!
If Some one else already has this perfected please chime in. I'm wanting to do most of the devices in the house this way when I get time because better performance, having a file system with a journal, and getting rid of thins like 4 Gig per file limitations is pretty Sweet in my humble opinion *Grin*
0) Assuming you already have your microSD card formatted ext4. I also happened to label mine extSdCard for the volume label within gparted
1) Can mount with:
mount -w -t ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 /storage/extSdCard/
2) To get the correct owner and permissions run:
chown root:sdcard_rw /storage/extSdCard
chmod 775 /storage/extSdCard
3) Should make the extSdCard owner/permissons match the regular internal sdcard you can verify this like so:
cd /storage/ && ls -l
drwxrwxr-x root sdcard_rw 2013-01-12 18:16 extSdCard
drwxrwxr-x root sdcard_rw 2013-01-12 17:05 sdcard0
4) After that you can go to the "Settings and Storage" to run "Mount SD" and you will have ext4 extSdCard Show up and it bring up the File System Status !! --> Until you reboot and it goes to crap because I don't have the vold.fstab edit/MOD complete _yet_ ... So, for now a boot script has been put in place to bring our external SD card back online during restart, so the system will acknowledges it, making the world a better place.
Example of how things look file system wise: mount | grep extSdCard
/dev/block/mmcblk1p1 /storage/extSdCard ext4 rw,relatime,user_xattr,barrier=1,data=ordered 0 0
5) Have not been able to resolve the vold.fstab to make this ext4 extSdCard matter fully Legit (in my opinion), but I did manage to make it remount the card on boot, so its online when the system comes up instead of having to manually mount it. Did this by -->
Added the following lines to the very bottom of: /etc/init.qcom.post_fs.sh
## sponix MOD to match with ktoonz kernel for better power management
stop mpdecision
## sponix MOD to mount extSdCard prior to GUI work around to make ext4 function
## read and write extSdCard mount
chown root:sdcard_rw /storage/extSdCard
chmod 775 /storage/extSdCard
mount -w -t ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 /storage/extSdCard
chown root:sdcard_rw /storage/extSdCard
chmod 775 /storage/extSdCard
## if you want read only extSdCard mount
## mount -r -t ext4 /dev/block/mmcblk1p1 /storage/extSdCard
Still attempting to automate the process so the Stock+root LJ7 can pick up the extSdCard _normally_ without having to do the mount command manually, but so far its kicking my butt. Also this is more a "General, or Question and Answer type Topic" the Kernel(s) obviously support ext4 the system fs uses/requires it *Grin*.. So we might get Our Friendly Neighborhood Moderator to Migrate it to the proper place to help others. Just hoping to get the last few bumps smoothed out, or find someone that already documented the process that I've overlooked *Grin*..
Current Known Issues: If you unmount the card through the "Settings | Storage | Umount SD" or by hand with umount, you will either need to reboot for it to reattach through the /etc/init.qcom.post_fs.sh boot script script addition, or will have to mount it manually if you want to keep the system up and running. Guess you could also probably just run the /etc/init.qcom.post_fs.sh as root from a terminal emulator (or adb).
Still searching for vold.fstab bits of wisdom but that will have to continue next weekend -->
Sexy and You Know it,
Keep on Flashing,
sponix2ipfw (sponix
:fingers-crossed:

Ha! Sorry. Deleted: Didn't understand that you had it running on boot (can't read properly )

Great idea
Am I really the only one who also thinks this idea is the nuts?
Am I the only one who longs to transform the mess that passes for a filing system on the internal sd using symbolic links into a beautifully organized, encrypted and cloud synced system on my external sd?
Is it just me and a few others that want to be able to achieve the above so that we can move from one ROM to another or recover from a lost phone with the minimum of fuss?
Are we freaks? :cyclops:
Say it isn't so XDA!! :crying:
I'm gonna try this on my international S3 running Null_ Rom 25 JB 4.1.2
PS do you have any idea how the entire ExtSD or just a folder can be enrypted using Cryptonite and automatically mounted at boot time?

emp111 said:
PS do you have any idea how the entire ExtSD or just a folder can be enrypted using Cryptonite and automatically mounted at boot time?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this along the lines of what you're looking for?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1141467
Also your idea is pretty insane, but also genius
If you get that to work please do come back and share

Insane ideas are the best lol
CNexus said:
Is this along the lines of what you're looking for?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1141467
Also your idea is pretty insane, but also genius
If you get that to work please do come back and share
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your prompt reply, yes it is asking a lot I know but I think that it can be done.
Now if you really thought that idea was insane......check this out:
Imagine that we asked every Android app developer to submit the various paths used for their config (and config backup) files to a central database and had the ability to add or own custom paths (which could be added to the central database once approved).
We could build an script/app that would retrieve a list of currently installed apps on your phone then automatically build a symbolically linked file system (and/or backup file system) in the location of your choice that you could either encrypt and/or sync using your current tools or even incorporate this functionality into the app itself along with the ability to choose what was encrypted/backed up and how i.e. either synced to the Cloud or (S)FTP or SMB as either a dd copy or even a cwm flashable zip.
Could I dare hope for a Tasker module or the ability to add custom scripts?
I wish I could do this myself but my coding skills are non existent
Anyway the LUKS manager app won't automatically mount a file system, but I really like it anyways, thank you for pointing me to it!
And on the Ext4 front, the mount command (yes the 1st one ) failed, maybe the op could offer a suggestion. :angel:
BTW is there a place for people to suggest ideas for apps here?

Wait really it wont? I couldve sworn I remembering that it did
But dude....
You need to learn yourself some java and start whipping stuff up
Idk about the whole central database thing, but the rest could definitely be done with root access
I think the main problem with that is the proprietary aspects...i mean even here on XDA where binaries released are supposed to be GPL compliant, many of them arent and its sad because it deteriorates the overall quality of work thats released afterward

This whole thing is just hard work!
CNexus said:
Wait really it wont? I couldve sworn I remembering that it did
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't seem to unfortunately
But dude....
You need to learn yourself some java and start whipping stuff up :D :D[/QUOTE said:
You make it sound soooo easy lol, and at another point in my life maybe it would have been but right now I'm operating at a reduced level due to some unforeseen circumstances that have left me lacking focus, motivation etc
You know all the things you need to be creative, learn etc lol
Anyway back to the matter at hand, I have got my ext4 SD card to the stage where I have to manually mount it from within the Settings/Storage as I'm using the international S3 and don't have the init.qcom.post_fs.sh, I think the qcom refers to Qualcomm chipset in US S3's.
As for modifying vold.fstab so we can avoid the above workaround it would seem that maybe thats a dead end as according to a German guy on android-hilfe. de, Vold may have been modified by Samsung to only deadl with exFAT on External SD's.
Looks like I'm not gonna be in Android nirvana for a while :crying:
Unless anyone else on XDA fancies getting in on this !!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Got it working ..... kinda
Got an app called ezymount (by ezynow) that automounts my ext4 64GB microSD at boot time.
I have to wait a few seconds for the boot process to complete but it's automatic, am pretty happy!!
Now gotta get symlinks, encryption and cloud synchronization sorted :/