Develop Bugs

Does your phone have a delay when turning the display on?

I noticed that there would sometimes (50% chance) that there will be a noticeable 1 second delay when pushing the power button and when the display actually turns on. It's annoying because sometimes i'll want to check the time, and i'll push the button as i'm taking it out of my pocket only to be met with a black display still.
i tried turning off the pattern lock thinkng that was it but still having the same problem.
i'm completely stock.

No delay here...when I press the power button, my display comes on instantly.

tracerit said:
I noticed that there would sometimes (50% chance) that there will be a noticeable 1 second delay when pushing the power button and when the display actually turns on. It's annoying because sometimes i'll want to check the time, and i'll push the button as i'm taking it out of my pocket only to be met with a black display still.
i tried turning off the pattern lock thinkng that was it but still having the same problem.
i'm completely stock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This had already been discussed id you remove your sdcard the delay will go away.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

***** here about the 2 second loss of time in your life.. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1265716

Did you really just say 1 sec???? Lol really. If your Checking the time I doubt 1 sec is that annoying!
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

alnova1 said:
***** here about the 2 second loss of time in your life..
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Click to collapse
Still thread ****ting on every topic about the delay?
Its obvious why the delay doesn't bother you; you already have too much time on your hands.
Otherwise, it's an obvious flaw in the phone. Why don't you let other people worry about their own lives and how many seconds are wasted.

craigbailey1986 said:
Did you really just say 1 sec???? Lol really. If your Checking the time I doubt 1 sec is that annoying!
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
1 second is annoying when YOU'RE used to the display coming on instantly.
thanks for the link, i'll check it out.

yes its terrible anyone have a fix to this yet

If it's because of the SD card, trying increasing the SD Card Read Ahead Buffer. It can be built into the kernel or changed with a few market apps, or even a script. It'll also make photos/videos/anything from the SD card load faster.

fadetobolivia said:
Still thread ****ting on every topic about the delay?
Its obvious why the delay doesn't bother you; you already have too much time on your hands.
Otherwise, it's an obvious flaw in the phone. Why don't you let other people worry about their own lives and how many seconds are wasted.
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Click to collapse
Aren't we touchy! As long as people keep making threads about it , yes I will still state my opinion on the matter just like you are...have a good day sir.

alnova1 said:
***** here about the 2 second loss of time in your life.. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1265716
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Click to collapse
That's what I was thinking, who cares. Now that I check mine has the same thing, I never noticed and I really don't give a **** to try and "fix" this.. lol

Sean-El said:
That's what I was thinking, who cares. Now that I check mine has the same thing, I never noticed and I really don't give a **** to try and "fix" this.. lol
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Amen brother...

Isn't this forum built for people who want to get the most of their devices? If everyone just decided things were 'good enough' you wouldn't have devs here writing custom kernels and ROMs. If the issue doesn't bother you then don't bother posting in the thread. And if you absolutely must, don't be a douche about it.
OT: I noticed it too. This is my first smartphone, but it stood out. I assumed it was normal. It's not huge, but I definitely wouldn't mind a fix that didn't require abandoning my SD card.

Sycobob said:
Isn't this forum built for people who want to get the most of their devices? If everyone just decided things were 'good enough' you wouldn't have devs here writing custom kernels and ROMs. If the issue doesn't bother you then don't bother posting in the thread. And if you absolutely must, don't be a douche about it.
OT: I noticed it too. This is my first smartphone, but it stood out. I assumed it was normal. It's not huge, but I definitely wouldn't mind a fix that didn't require abandoning my SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed, especially since it's a 32GB card and it's transferable between phones...

Screen lags reminds me of pre-pay gas purchases.
The last 2cents always take forever to complete.

Sycobob said:
Isn't this forum built for people who want to get the most of their devices? If everyone just decided things were 'good enough' you wouldn't have devs here writing custom kernels and ROMs. If the issue doesn't bother you then don't bother posting in the thread. And if you absolutely must, don't be a douche about it.
OT: I noticed it too. This is my first smartphone, but it stood out. I assumed it was normal. It's not huge, but I definitely wouldn't mind a fix that didn't require abandoning my SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is your first smartphone and it stood out to you? I have had 15 smartphones and would have never noticed it until someone mentioned it. Like I said, I don't see this as an issue so I will speak my peace as you can to..we agree to disagree and just because we don't see it your way doesn't make us a douche....sorry for the loss of time in your life I'm...oh ****!...I missed the Andy Rooney farewell on 60 minutes because I couldn't get the time on my phone because it came up 2 seconds too late!

alnova1 said:
This is your first smartphone and it stood out to you? I have had 15 smartphones and would have never noticed it until someone mentioned it. Like I said, I don't see this as an issue so I will speak my peace as you can to..we agree to disagree and just because we don't see it your way doesn't make us a douche....sorry for the loss of time in your life I'm...oh ****!...I missed the Andy Rooney farewell on 60 minutes because I couldn't get the time on my phone because it came up 2 seconds too late!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not a HUGE issue, but it is something that should be fixed.
In fact, just to move things forward, I tried increasing the SD Read Ahead Buffer with an app "SD Card Booster" or some name like that, which doesn't decrease the speed of the screen coming on, but does drastically cause photos and other things to load faster when you, say, open the Gallery. That was expected though. We used to increase it on the OG Evo.

Ive owned a few smartphones noticed ET lag after 3rd wake up.
First thing I thought of was Sprint Blackberry curve 8330-M.
It did the same thing drove me crazy lol

I tell you what...take your phone back to Sprint and tell them you have a 2 second lag and see what they say...maybe you can get a new phone...its obviously a defect...

alnova1 said:
I tell you what...take your phone back to Sprint and tell them you have a 2 second lag and see what they say...maybe you can get a new phone...its obviously a defect...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its not hardware defect....its software related thus Sprint will push you out the door no new phone in hand with chuckles from rep.
Will update to fix issue come?
Never! so those that think samsung gives a care you better think twice.
Oh I forgot,
My HP Ipaq 6515 had wake up lag with SD card as well

Galaxy Nexus - flawed by bad NAND!!! \data partition corruption issue

Issue: \data partititon become corrupt for no obvious reason.
Manifests itself through: Freezes followed eventually by (endless) reboots
When: Randomly when you install new apps (may be every day as it can happen only every other week/month), or setting up apps (like Twitter, mail, etc)
Temporary solution: Re-flash Samsung FW but lose ALL YOUR DATA. Attention: CWM restore will not fix the problem!
---- Here goes a link to the fabulous mskip's tutorial, you will find here everything you need to get it back up temporarily
I experienced this in 401, 402, 403 and 404, some were expecting better data integrity in 404... I confirm this is not the case
I would not go as far as saying that this is 100% the reason, but it looks like the NAND quality is craaaaaap! There is no external SD card, Android should be able to do a perfect job now at handling info and preserving quality of data.
I will contact Samsung and ask for a refund (if at all possible)... Disgusting thing to put such a piece of s''t on the market without proper testing and call it "flagship/pure Google experience". This is not an isolated issue, it happens to at least half of the people around and the others may have not seen it yet (it all depends on how often you manipulate data on the phone)...
Any advice, I am inetersted, have tried pretty much everything so far and did not solve the problem...
DO YOU HAVE THE SAME ISSUE? Let your voice heard...

DO YOU HAVE THE SAME ISSUE?
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Click to collapse
No. Could it be possible you're overreacting?

David Horn said:
No. Could it be possible you're overreacting?
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Click to collapse
Agree as well ..seems more like rubbish
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

David Horn said:
No. Could it be possible you're overreacting?
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Click to collapse
Thanks David, you're of great help :/
Overreacting? Glad you had a better sample, I bet you would "overreact" as well if you spent 500£ on a piece of junk losing all you data on a daily basis.
But hey, this is not happening to you, right ?
Community means lots of people, some are here to help, others just looking for a social life while trolling on this forum.
Sorry mate, I am trying to get through to the first category...

Umm, sounds like you need a replacement phone.
Deep breath....deep breath.

KWKSLVR said:
Umm, sounds like you need a replacement phone.
Deep breath....deep breath.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Right While i'm catching my breath, found another thread pointing to the same issue IMHO (didn't not see it initially):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1490815
Attempting to contact Samsung already...

vulpy said:
Thanks David, you're of great help :/
Overreacting? Glad you had a better sample, I bet you would "overreact" as well if you spent 500£ on a piece of junk losing all you data on a daily basis.
But hey, this is not happening to you, right ?
Community means lots of people, some are here to help, others just looking for a social life while trolling on this forum.
Sorry mate, I am trying to get through to the first category...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your first post came across as a hysterical rant - this is the first I've heard of the problem so it's not affecting many phones, and ultimately Samsung are going to have the occasional dodgy NAND chip. Sounds like you got one.
If you'd had several phones and they'd all exhibited this problem you'd be right to be peeved, but it simply sounds like you've been unlucky and are pissed off about it. Have you even discussed it with Samsung's tech support or taken it back to the shop you bought it from?
And accusing an XDA recognised developer of trolling is not a great start to your time here.

I've not heard of other people having this problem with the Gnex? Who are these other people having this same problem? Maybe speak with them and see if a replacement phone might solve the problem. I really hope you can get this fixed and not give up on such a great platform.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

vulpy said:
This is not an isolated issue, it happens to at least half of the people around and the others may have not seen it yet (it all depends on how often you manipulate data on the phone)...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The burden of evidence is on you bro. That is a pretty bold claim.

David Horn said:
...And accusing an XDA recognized developer of trolling is not a great start to your time here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Respect for your dev background (haven't used any of your ROMs yet), in all fairness I'm far less impressed with your communication skills... I must agree though, my message may have come across as too abrupt and you're right again, I am going to sort it out with Samsung...
Did not mean to get people horrified, rather to blow the whistle on a worrying and annoying bug and smth people may consider if they come across or consider a purchase.
For having worked in the mobile comm semiconductors space for years, I know just what sets apart a serious company from a me-too profile. Surprised to see Samsung having this king of issues. Normally they are ironed out easily though SW regression tests and HW stress processes (at least at serious OEMs).
I will let one of the moderators judge if my crime is so serious, your ego will survive, I'm sure I will come back when/if issue solved (or in good progress).

yeah, mine is fine. If it was a widespread problem I would back your corner, but I seems rather isolated. Rather then cause mass hysteria I would say you need to return your handset
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA

This happened to mine. But only once.
Quite frustrating, as my phone is my alarm clock and it was bootlooping when I needed to go to sleep!
However, a reflash of the 4.0.2 stock images sorted it out, and no problems since. I'm pretty sure I caused it by pulling out the battery at some sensitive point in a reboot or something.
If this happens to you frequently, then you need to exchange your phone.
Also, I think this could be a pretty good resource as opposed to a rant if you put your mind to it. I'm not a developer, but I'm also not a total n00b, and it took me a little while to figure out how to fix the problem, when I had it. I'm sure there are people out there who would appreciate a guide.

In this thread, op is going through that time of the month, when was his own modification back fires in his face, his explosive emotions reek havoc on an online forum.
If you want to see a device with bad nand memory, see the HTC Desire S forum .
Also the reboots and freezes I used to experience on my device were application related. Device hasn't frozen, nor rebooted in about *looks at up time* .. 27 days .

adrynalyne said:
The burden of evidence is on you bro. That is a pretty bold claim.
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Click to collapse
... I was actually referring to a poll in another thread (link in this thread) concluding that half of the people who answered have experienced freezes and reboots... it may be biased somewhat by the fact that people who experienced the issue are more likely to vote than those who didn't... maybe an overstatement from me.

Get the odd reboot (Chrome seems to provoke, strangely) but zero data corruption in 3+ months of heavy use. (4.0.3 AOKP)
Sorry, no endemic fault that I can see here (from reading these forums) and if I were you I'd be looking for a warranty replacement. Refund will depend on your location and supplier and duration of ownership.
Daern
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

First I heard about this too. I've flashed tons of roms and mods and constantly installing uninstalling apps.
The GNex has been anything but non-stable. I think I've had to pull the battery once or twice since ownership. Never heard anyone complain about randomly losing all their data... especially not daily. Perhaps on a bad flash in CWM.
Maybe you should look into a super wipe that completely erases everything, deletes the partition tables and recreates everything from scratch. Maybe it'll help but it honestly sounds defective.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Thanks Player911... Interesting idea, was thinking as well to do a total wipe and sort of a sector-by-sector reformat, but could not find a way of doing it. Is there any tool that would allow me to do it? Maybe this will isolate bad sectors...

Will check shortly with Samsung folks, thanks mate! (what slows me down is the fact that I'm currently travelling to the US and the guarantee is only European and it's Sunday= hotline is closed in Europe).
daern said:
Get the odd reboot (Chrome seems to provoke, strangely) but zero data corruption in 3+ months of heavy use. (4.0.3 AOKP)
Sorry, no endemic fault that I can see here (from reading these forums) and if I were you I'd be looking for a warranty replacement. Refund will depend on your location and supplier and duration of ownership.
Daern
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Uhh, I don't believe my reboots are due to this. Just saying. That whole thread does not point to your theory as the issue. I'm gonna go ahead and call this myth busted and suggest you go get a replacement because this is just another extremist "my phone is busted but I refuse to get a new one" thread.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

You've been Samsunged
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

[Q] Is it possible to flash too much?

So I finally bricked yesterday (thank god for Sprint's insurance program) and I started thinking, is there such a thing as flashing too much?
It wasn't during the actual flash itself, my phone was just sitting on the charger, and suddenly, my phone wouldn't power on anymore. I think maybe the motherboard is fried. It's been a particularly flash heavy week for me (I've been messing around with a number of different ICS builds, maybe one every other day) so I got to thinking, is there such a thing as flashing too much? I'm no electrical engineer, but logic tells me that all the constant reboots and power up/downs required for flashing can't be good for the hardware if excessive
So the question remains, do you guys think there is an appropriate number of times a phone should be flashed in a certain time period?

elterible said:
So I finally bricked yesterday (thank god for Sprint's insurance program) and I started thinking, is there such a thing as flashing too much?
It wasn't during the actual flash itself, my phone was just sitting on the charger, and suddenly, my phone wouldn't power on anymore. I think maybe the motherboard is fried. It's been a particularly flash heavy week for me (I've been messing around with a number of different ICS builds, maybe one every other day) so I got to thinking, is there such a thing as flashing too much? I'm no electrical engineer, but logic tells me that all the constant reboots and power up/downs required for flashing can't be good for the hardware if excessive
So the question remains, do you guys think there is an appropriate number of times a phone should be flashed in a certain time period?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL you are not seriously asking flash-a-holics if there is a limit... Does and alcoholic ever think he has had one too many...
*Flash or Bust*

Well, yeah. If you flash people too much, you'll eventually get arrested. That's sick.

Well on my thunderbolt I flashed a recovery about 12 times without rebooting once.... ;P
Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk 2

playya said:
LOL you are not seriously asking flash-a-holics if there is a limit... Does and alcoholic ever think he has had one too many...
*Flash or Bust*
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Click to collapse
LOL, yeah i hear ya. I realize I am asking a loaded question a group of people who love to "tinker" but my question was more to the technical hardware aspects. i.e. can excessive flashing and subsequent constant reboots lead to hardware failures?

From a moral standpoint and being an avid Rockfest attendee in Kansas City - no, you can not flash too much (please god, women only and not the whales)
From a technical point, yes you can flash too much. However, the possibility of you ever reaching that limit in the lifetime of a phone is almost nonexistent. We're talking about write cycles which with modern NAND chips and sdcards, it's in the hundreds of thousands. Some are lower since they obviously are not intended to be written to more than a couple times in their lifetime (BIOS, older phones where the NAND contained only the system, bootloaders, radio, and recovery, and so on). Other things like sdcards or even RAM have limited but very high write cycle limits. Ram obviously being on the extreme end of the spectrum.
In short you *can* flash too many times but you never will. Again this is an average as some memory can fail after a couple dozen writes due to flaws.

KCRic said:
From a moral standpoint and being an avid Rockfest attendee in Kansas City - no, you can not flash too much (please god, women only and not the whales)
From a technical point, yes you can flash too much. However, the possibility of you ever reaching that limit in the lifetime of a phone is almost nonexistent. We're talking about write cycles which with modern NAND chips and sdcards, it's in the hundreds of thousands. Some are lower since they obviously are not intended to be written to more than a couple times in their lifetime (BIOS, older phones where the NAND contained only the system, bootloaders, radio, and recovery, and so on). Other things like sdcards or even RAM have limited but very high write cycle limits. Ram obviously being on the extreme end of the spectrum.
In short you *can* flash too many times but you never will. Again this is an average as some memory can fail after a couple dozen writes due to flaws.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you!

write cycles

hello folks,
does anybody hav an idea of how many times a ROM or a custom ROM can be flashed on a device(HTC wildfire s)
thanks in advance

Good topic.. i was searching for the answer of this queation. Hope i will get it now.
Sent from my HTC Wildfire S using XDA

I have no idea. I've reflashed my phone so many times I thought my phone would stop working, but apparently it can take it There was a time I flashed a new ROM every two days or so, but these last two week I haven't really flashed anything new. But I must have flashed something new around 30 times or so, so far.

stil no answer..?

kantry123 said:
hello folks,
does anybody hav an idea of how many times a ROM or a custom ROM can be flashed on a device(HTC wildfire s)
thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
abhi8569 said:
Good topic.. i was searching for the answer of this queation. Hope i will get it now.
Sent from my HTC Wildfire S using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
johnnyspritz said:
I have no idea. I've reflashed my phone so many times I thought my phone would stop working, but apparently it can take it There was a time I flashed a new ROM every two days or so, but these last two week I haven't really flashed anything new. But I must have flashed something new around 30 times or so, so far.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
kantry123 said:
stil no answer..?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its like this: average NAND flash chip will take over 1000 cycles,so no worries there.
When i say over 1000 i mean like 10000
Also important to know that life of a flash memory is beyond your capability to destroy it with flashing roms every day-so...no worries there too.
Now i would have to type whole night,or to copy/paste a bunch of tech stuff here to explain...YOU JUST HAVE TO TRUST ME
Another thing-VERY IMPORTANT-Constant overclocking WILL shorten the life of your CPU if not fry it like an egg....so avoid that if you dont really need it.
For OC you need to understand how much is safe,and then you can play all you want.
Hope i helped....answer in the end is-FLASH AS MUCH AS YOU WANT WITHOUT FEAR...
CHEERS!!!

Fikus011 said:
Its like this: average NAND flash chip will take over 1000 cycles,so no worries there.
When i say over 1000 i mean like 10000
Also important to know that life of a flash memory is beyond your capability to destroy it with flashing roms every day-so...no worries there too.
Now i would have to type whole night,or to copy/paste a bunch of tech stuff here to explain...YOU JUST HAVE TO TRUST ME
Another thing-VERY IMPORTANT-Constant overclocking WILL shorten the life of your CPU if not fry it like an egg....so avoid that if you dont really need it.
For OC you need to understand how much is safe,and then you can play all you want.
Hope i helped....answer in the end is-FLASH AS MUCH AS YOU WANT WITHOUT FEAR...
CHEERS!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank you so much for your answer... i have no fear now for flashing roms...

am i the only one who flashed his phone over 300 times in 3 months ? God i probably shoulda asked same question long time ago. Well no harm no foul

baluuu said:
am i the only one who flashed his phone over 300 times in 3 months ? God i probably shoulda asked same question long time ago. Well no harm no foul
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, probably more I switch between 3 roms, each have different strenghs eg. Cm7 for flash player, cm9 beauty, stock for sat nav & battery. I too did wonder how many flashes I would be able to safely accomplish. Sometimes I flash twice a day.

baluuu said:
am i the only one who flashed his phone over 300 times in 3 months ? God i probably shoulda asked same question long time ago. Well no harm no foul
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
me too, but more out of necessity than curiosity....i'm still trying to find a reliable, stable rom that gives me plenty of storage room for apps.
it seems to me that with this phone you basically have to choose whether you want a "smart" phone that will totally die out on you every few days, or a "basic" phone which will not allow you to have really any personal apps, but which will then last for a good couple of weeks before giving you the dreaded "low storage" messages and start lagging like hell.
but yeah, i've had to flash mine literally hundreds of times in the last 6 months, and it's still going (well....just about, as i said, this phone has never been "reliable" as such)

Gloris said:
me too, but more out of necessity than curiosity....i'm still trying to find a reliable, stable rom that gives me plenty of storage room for apps.
it seems to me that with this phone you basically have to choose whether you want a "smart" phone that will totally die out on you every few days, or a "basic" phone which will not allow you to have really any personal apps, but which will then last for a good couple of weeks before giving you the dreaded "low storage" messages and start lagging like hell.
but yeah, i've had to flash mine literally hundreds of times in the last 6 months, and it's still going (well....just about, as i said, this phone has never been "reliable" as such)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank u so much..!

Well this isn't technically true. You can do no serious damage to your phone via flashing but every flash you do has the possibility of corrupting your phones internal storage due to it formatting the /system partition. This could create bad sectors on your phones internal mtd - this slowly eats away your internal memory by about 8bytes each time. That's about 8 ANSII characters (letters/numbers/symbols) so there isn't anything to worry about really.
From all the constant file transfers, installations and wipes I do each day I have about 6 bad sectors.
This is ABSOLUTELY nothing to worry about by the way, I just thought it would be interesting.
You would need around 500000 corrupted MTD sectors to lose the equivalent to ONE MP3 SONG on your internal memory.
Please note that its late at night here so my math may not be totally correct, but it'll be pretty close.
Sent from my HTC Wildfire S A510e using xda premium

benjamingwynn said:
Well this isn't technically true. You can do no serious damage to your phone via flashing but every flash you do has the possibility of corrupting your phones internal storage due to it formatting the /system partition. This could create bad sectors on your phones internal mtd - this slowly eats away your internal memory by about 8bytes each time. That's about 8 ANSII characters (letters/numbers/symbols) so there isn't anything to worry about really.
From all the constant file transfers, installations and wipes I do each day I have about 6 bad sectors.
This is ABSOLUTELY nothing to worry about by the way, I just thought it would be interesting.
You would need around 500000 corrupted MTD sectors to lose the equivalent to ONE MP3 SONG on your internal memory.
Please note that its late at night here so my math may not be totally correct, but it'll be pretty close.
Sent from my HTC Wildfire S A510e using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank u so much...but is there a way to wipe those bad sectors..??
thanks in advance...!

[Q] Re-partition Internal Memory?

I have done a general search on Google and found several articles relating to this subject, but when I searched XDA I didn't find anything conclusive or useful or even informative. The Samsung Galaxy S4 was supposed to be at least a 16GB phone. To me, that means 16GB of usable space to install apps. I knew there would be some bloatware, but when I got my SGS4, I was annoyed to see that the device memory total space was only 9.72 GB, and the bloatware was installed in that space! That left me with only a measly 8GB to install my apps. So where did the other 6.28 GB go? From what I read, it was used by the "system" and hidden "Samsung recovery partitions".
Well, I do not care about recovery partitions. I would rather trust Titanium Backup and my Nandroid backups and have more usable space than have a recovery partition I can't access. I am stingy with my storage, which is at a premium on mobile devices. I like to have control over every megabyte and I don't like the manufacturer deciding how my space is used. I already got an SD card for it, but I still want that missing space back.
So here is my question; how does one re-partition or re-size the partitions of the internal memory of the Samsung Galaxy S4? I know that linux has some amazing partition editors like gparted that can re-size partitions without destroying them, and Android is based on linux, so is there anything like an "aparted"?

I think in the system partition aside from the actual OS there's an odd 2-3 gigs of temp space to be utilizing during updates via Kiev etc. Since the size of TW roms are so big it makes sense in some weird way.
However anything I've read regarding repartioning is supposed to be pretty risky procedure. A lot of us that have gone to the Google Edition rom are also stuck with the original partitions even though GE rom nearly a gig smaller than TW rom. So especially wasted space for us.
Sent from my GT-I9505G using Tapatalk 4 Beta

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lazaro17 said:
I think in the system partition aside from the actual OS there's an odd 2-3 gigs of temp space to be utilizing during updates via Kiev etc. Since the size of TW roms are so big it makes sense in some weird way.
However anything I've read regarding repartioning is supposed to be pretty risky procedure. A lot of us that have gone to the Google Edition rom are also stuck with the original partitions even though GE rom nearly a gig smaller than TW rom. So especially wasted space for us.
Sent from my GT-I9505G using Tapatalk 4 Beta
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See, that's exactly what I am talking about. I don't plan to ever update my stock rom via Kiev, assuming I ever update it at all, since I flashed a modified stock kernel to get root. Where did you read about repartitioning being risky? I couldn't even find that much. Is it equally risky for all devices, or do the more modern devices have more options? I also flashed the Google Edition rom hoping to get the space back, but nope! It really sucks that a non-touchwiz, non-samsung rom would still allow a wasted partition.

Zaron DarkStar said:
See, that's exactly what I am talking about. I don't plan to ever update my stock rom via Kiev, assuming I ever update it at all, since I flashed a modified stock kernel to get root. Where did you read about repartitioning being risky? I couldn't even find that much. Is it equally risky for all devices, or do the more modern devices have more options? I also flashed the Google Edition rom hoping to get the space back, but nope! It really sucks that a non-touchwiz, non-samsung rom would still allow a wasted partition.
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Click to collapse
In order to partition that internal memory you have to wipe it. And that means everything. System, recovery, download mode, boot loader, everything.
The connection with Odin or adb at this point would be totally housed in RAM. It would need to maintain that connection in order to complete the task of adding the new partition, adding the download mode back, adding recovery, and finally the ROM itself.
If the phone lost its connection during that process or lost power or the update process got pushed out of ram for any reason the phone would be hard bricked as there would be no way to reestablish communication with it to restart the process. You couldn't power it on or boot it to anything. It would be a $600 paper weight.
Meanwhile the alternative option is to just go buy an $8 external 16gb SD card or a $20 external 32gb SD card. That carries no risk whatsoever and expands your phone's storage well beyond the original 9gb of usable space you started with.
Sent from your phone. You should be careful where you leave that thing.

Skipjacks said:
In order to partition that internal memory you have to wipe it. And that means everything. System, recovery, download mode, boot loader, everything.
The connection with Odin or adb at this point would be totally housed in RAM. It would need to maintain that connection in order to complete the task of adding the new partition, adding the download mode back, adding recovery, and finally the ROM itself.
If the phone lost its connection during that process or lost power or the update process got pushed out of ram for any reason the phone would be hard bricked as there would be no way to reestablish communication with it to restart the process. You couldn't power it on or boot it to anything. It would be a $600 paper weight.
Meanwhile the alternative option is to just go buy an $8 external 16gb SD card or a $20 external 32gb SD card. That carries no risk whatsoever and expands your phone's storage well beyond the original 9gb of usable space you started with.
Sent from your phone. You should be careful where you leave that thing.
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Click to collapse
Thanks! And yes I also hit the thanks button . I had no idea that partitioning the internal memory was THAT risky. I am surprised nobody has come up with a better way, like how you would boot from a CD to partition your computer. Maybe a way to boot from external SD or something? It also makes me curious; if the manufacturer started with blank internal memory, how did they write the initial recovery and ROM to it in the first place? What are they able to do that we can't do?

Zaron DarkStar said:
Thanks! And yes I also hit the thanks button . I had no idea that partitioning the internal memory was THAT risky. I am surprised nobody has come up with a better way, like how you would boot from a CD to partition your computer. Maybe a way to boot from external SD or something? It also makes me curious; if the manufacturer started with blank internal memory, how did they write the initial recovery and ROM to it in the first place? What are they able to do that we can't do?
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Click to collapse
Your computer has a bios that exists on a saparate chip from everything else. The bios is like a pre-boot that waits for you to hit the power button, then it looks for a hard drive with an OS to get going the rest of the way. If it doesn't find a hard drive it will look to a CD ROM drive that will take the next step.
The operating sysem resides on your hard drive. So you can wipe your hard drive and the bios will at least let the computer physically turn on.
On your cell phone all that stuff resides on the same internal memory. So if you wipe it clean, it doesn't even have something like a bios that can look for a secondary boot option on an SD Card.
Samsung probably programs the memory chips on a separate machine before they even put them on the mother board. Think of an old 8 bit Nintendo. Super Mario Bros. exists entirely on the game cartridge. It's pre programed to hold the game. You then take that game cartridge (which is essentially just a memory chip on a circuit board inside the plastic case) and insert it into the Nintendo in order to boot up the game. Without the game inserted the power button just blinks and the Nintendo doesn't know what to do. Same thing with your phone. Samsung programs the memory chip somewhere else, then puts the fully prgrammed chip onto the mother board and it boots up. (This is a VERY generic example. There are about 500 things that are different about how these two sysems boot. I am well aware of this. I jus used it as an example to help clarify the concept.)

Skipjacks said:
On your cell phone all that stuff resides on the same internal memory. So if you wipe it clean, it doesn't even have something like a bios that can look for a secondary boot option on an SD Card.[/I]
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Ugh that seems like a bad design choice. And all manufacturers are doing this? Nobody has managed to squeeze in a separate chip for the recovery, even on tablets?
Skipjacks said:
Samsung probably programs the memory chips on a separate machine before they even put them on the mother board.[/I]
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So what you are saying is that the process Samsung probably used can't be used after the chip has been placed in the phone without extreme risk? Got it.

Zaron DarkStar said:
Ugh that seems like a bad design choice. And all manufacturers are doing this? Nobody has managed to squeeze in a separate chip for the recovery, even on tablets?
So what you are saying is that the process Samsung probably used can't be used after the chip has been placed in the phone without extreme risk? Got it.
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You probably need to unsolder the chip from the board and use a chip programmer to write everything back to the chip.

macaumen said:
You probably need to unsolder the chip from the board and use a chip programmer to write everything back to the chip.
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I don't think I'll be attempting something like that. That would make me even more nervous than wiping the internal memory. I'm a GTAW welder, and I still don't think I would have steady enough hands to go messing with the physical chips inside my phone.
Sent from my SGH-M919 using xda app-developers app

One chip?
Anyway my other question still remains. Android software/hardware is all designed to run off of one internal chip that holds everything? Even on tablets? And nobody has attempted to break this mold?

You can actually adjust the partition details through what is called a pit file (partition information table)
There is a thread where someone was able to create the pit files flashable through Odin. While they are flashable, I have tried everything on my s3 to get it to work. I think there is some bootloader code which ignores unsigned or not genuine pit files. There is just something preventing them from taking effect even though it says it flashed successfully.
You should easily be able to take some blocks from system partition and add them to data without and risks.
Btw it's impossible to hard brick this and the s3. You would just need a jtag device to rewrite the bootloader back to the device. Some people have said that the USB jigs you see on eBay work. And for 5 bucks what the heck lol.
But generally speaking, playing with pit files and partitions can get costly.
Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk 2

I'm still very interested in this. I intend to only use the Google Play ROM's, which are 500MB, rather than 2GB
Samsung said that the S4's system only uses 1GB more than the S3, yet consumes 2GB more in total :/

DON'T TRY THIS. OTHERWISE IT'LL BRICK YOUR DEVICE
There's a solution for S4 i9500, but apparently it was officially released by samsung. I don't believe samsung or t-mobile will do the same, but I hope so. Or if anything could be done from this to be adapted to m919 would be great.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2429309

Zaron DarkStar said:
Ugh that seems like a bad design choice. And all manufacturers are doing this? Nobody has managed to squeeze in a separate chip for the recovery, even on tablets?
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I strongly suspect this goes to how ARM Systems-on-a-Chip work. These devices don't expect to encounter any kind of hardware intermediary between the processor and the chips. That's what the drivers are for. These devices are designed for simple bootstrapping, and the best way to do that is to connect the CPU to a single internal store of flash memory. Also, no device manufacturer expects to need to repartition their internal flashes within the device's working life. The partition sizes were chosen very carefully so it isn't necessary. They trade in some leeway space to be able to "set it and forget it." In the end, they don't expect anyone (including themselves) to tinker with it after it's been all set up. Normal users won't be in a position to encounter the recovery system, and even skilled amateurs trying to fix something mildly serious would find the stock recovery system sufficient. If that doesn't work, it's probably going back to the manufacturer.

Still a bad design.
WhosAsking said:
Also, no device manufacturer expects to need to repartition their internal flashes within the device's working life.
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So when they advertise a device as having a certain amount of storage, yet the actual user controlled usable storage space is almost half that, they don't think people are going to have a problem with that and will want to get that storage space back, through re-partitioning if necessary?
WhosAsking said:
The partition sizes were chosen very carefully so it isn't necessary.
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The partition sizes weren't chosen by ME, the consumer, owner, and end-user of the device, so it is quite necessary I have control over the storage I paid for.
WhosAsking said:
They trade in some leeway space to be able to "set it and forget it."
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You mean they trade so of MY hardware's capability for the current/future needs of whatever services they might decide to implement, even if I will never use said services.
WhosAsking said:
In the end, they don't expect anyone (including themselves) to tinker with it after it's been all set up.
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I tinker with all my electronics to suit my needs. I change the partition structure of my computer occasionally when my storage allocation needs change enough that it becomes necessary.
WhosAsking said:
Normal users won't be in a position to encounter the recovery system, and even skilled amateurs trying to fix something mildly serious would find the stock recovery system sufficient.
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Click to collapse
This isn't about trying to fix a problem. This is about being able to control and use ALL of the storage I expected to have on a device I paid for.
It just sounds like you are making excuses for Samsung. Please don't. It is bad enough that we have to deal with bloatware, but for a manufacturer to reduce a device's functionality, knowing that it is risky/difficult to reverse, for the sake of their proprietary services that the user may not want is just unacceptable.
If I wanted a device where the manufacturer makes the decisions for me the I would buy an Apple. I choose Android for its openness and customizability, so I get annoyed when I see manufacturers deliberately reduce a device's customizability to make way for their proprietary services. I think manufacturers should respect the spirit of the platform they are making devices for, otherwise they are making devices for the wrong platform. More specifically, I think Samsung should respect the spirit of Android, and stop trying to shove their proprietary bloatware down our throats.

Zaron, let me put it another way. The sizes you hear advertised on TV and ads and so on are much like hard drive sizes and the "up to" internet speeds you also see; you're not expected to actually get every last bit that's advertised. The only way you'll fix that is to change advertising laws; good luck trying to get something like that through a legislature.
There's also the fact that those of us here do not represent the typical user of these phones. The average person wants to be able to just get their apps done and be done with it. Quite simply, you can't please everyone, so it's better to annoy a small number of diehard geeks than a larger number of less-technically-literate buyers. As for the "spirit of Android," I don't see any such thing. Android is what manufacturers make of it (like with Amazon). We're talking companies here; not bleeding hearts. For Samsung, Android just happens to be the non-Apple system best at hand. It's not like they're betting the farm on it, either; they're developing Tizen, too, which will be going into their Gear 2 line of smartwatches.

WhosAsking said:
Zaron, let me put it another way.
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Click to collapse
Ok let's break this down since it sounds like once again you are making excuses.
WhosAsking said:
The sizes you hear advertised on TV and ads and so on are much like hard drive sizes and the "up to" internet speeds you also see; you're not expected to actually get every last bit that's advertised.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have gotten nearly ALL of the storage space I paid for on EVERY hard drive I have ever bought. There is a miniscule loss for the formatting overhead and partition table, and maybe a couple hundred megabytes for the Windows recovery partition if I CHOOSE to have one. This is quite minor compared to the 500GB - 3TB of space my drives have. On the GS4, I got nearly half, HALF of the usable storage I thought I was buying. There is a huge difference between minor overhead cost and HALF. Also, most of the time I get exactly the amount of bandwidth I pay for as well, for both my home internet and mobile data. It is rare I get any slowdown. So don't give me this nonsense about not expecting to get what is advertised.
WhosAsking said:
The only way you'll fix that is to change advertising laws; good luck trying to get something like that through a legislature.
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Click to collapse
I don't need to change any laws to vote with my wallet, which is the only thing Samsung should be concerned with: how customers vote with their money.
WhosAsking said:
There's also the fact that those of us here do not represent the typical user of these phones. The average person wants to be able to just get their apps done and be done with it.
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Click to collapse
Really? Because everyone I know who has an Android got one for the ability to customize/tinker with it. But even assuming there is a larger user base I haven't seen that doesn't care as much about customizing, what if said "average people" want to install many apps on their phone? Maybe they want to try out one of the many relatively large Android games on the market. Even an "average" user of a mobile device can do simple math. If they install a few games that are a couple GB each and then run out of space, and then add up the total space they used and compare it to how much their device should have, they would notice they got cheated real quick. All they have to do is go into the app manager in the settings and look at the amount of space used/free to see they don't have as much space as they thought.
WhosAsking said:
Quite simply, you can't please everyone, so it's better to annoy a small number of diehard geeks than a larger number of less-technically-literate buyers.
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Click to collapse
I do agree that it is difficult to please everyone. However, who exactly are they pleasing by cutting the usable storage space in half? Answer: nobody but themselves, in order to exert control over their customers. That is all. I have not heard a single person say, "I am so happy with all of Samsung's built-in services, and I don't mind at all that I have only half the space listed on the box!"
WhosAsking said:
As for the "spirit of Android," I don't see any such thing.
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When I say spirit of Android, what I mean is the desire to make a useful device that puts the power of customization in the hands of the user. I mean a device that is the opposite of an Apple device. I mean a device that can be used independently of its creator company. I mean the ability to change the ROM, the launcher, the dialer, the SMS app, and allowing pretty much every other part of the device's software to be modular and customizable. I mean the ability to sideload apps, install other market apps, and not be tied down to one marketplace. I mean the ability to have a device that doesn't make you feel beholden to any entity. That is the spirit of Android. So when a company makes an Android device with features that deliberately move away from customization and towards proprietary dependence, aka dedicating almost half of the SGS4's internal storage for proprietary services, while advertising it as having the full 16GB, that pisses me off. If Android was a religion, it would be the equivalent of blasphemy. When I am in the market for a new device, a company gets my attention by having a more powerful device with more customization options. Also, nothing makes me switch manufacturers faster than when I feel like they are trying to lock me in to their economy.
Now, if you respond to me in the same manner as your last two posts, full of industry excuses and reasons why we shouldn't criticize our corporate overlords, then I will assume you are just a shill, and I will ignore you. I have better things to do than argue with a shill, so prove to me you aren't one.

You're right. It sucks. You should get the entire cell phone industry (valued at several hundred billion dollars) to change its' marketing systems.
Let me know how that works out for you.
The rest of us don't like it either, but we've moved on because we learned how to interpret the manufacturer's claims into what we can actually except to see. Now stop yelling at everyone on XDA who is just trying to explain it to you. We're not the ones who came up with these shadey marketing practices. And just because we understand the shadey marketing practices doesn't mean we support them.
You are preaching to the chior. We all agree with you.

Skipjacks said:
You're right. It sucks. You should get the entire cell phone industry (valued at several hundred billion dollars) to change its' marketing systems.
Let me know how that works out for you.
The rest of us don't like it either, but we've moved on because we learned how to interpret the manufacturer's claims into what we can actually except to see. Now stop yelling at everyone on XDA who is just trying to explain it to you. We're not the ones who came up with these shadey marketing practices. And just because we understand the shadey marketing practices doesn't mean we support them.
You are preaching to the chior. We all agree with you.
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Click to collapse
You were helpful to me before, why do you sound so angry now? I wasn't yelling at "everyone". I was disagreeing with one person about the premise that no matter what we do, we should expect to get screwed in some way every time we buy a phone. I don't accept that. I don't even have a problem with people who do accept it, but I do have a problem when people explain it to me, and then sound like they are trying to get me to accept getting screwed. This thread started with me asking if there was a way to easily re-partition the internal memory of the SGS4, and when the answer was basically "no", the purpose of this thread was pretty much served. However, it went on to become a discussion about why things are the way they are, which inevitably led to the business practices of Samsung, at which point it started to feel like I was being told to just accept the situation, which got me riled up. Big corporations wouldn't be big without their customers, so I intend to stay a customer who cares. I won't give in to apathy or complacency, and I won't accept corporate control, even if I can't directly do anything about it. I appreciate the explanations, and I am sorry offended anyone.