Develop Bugs

Official Froyo A2sd vs A2sd+

Hey guys
Im on holiday now so cannot really check myself the differences, but just wanted some quick info on the A2SD, with the official froyo i was hoping everybody will start using it, but somehow people still using the old method, whys that?
thanks

Froyo A2SD is completely reliant on app developers. If the devs doesn't allow it in their app then it can't be moved to the SD card. This is really only a problem because Froyo is still new.
Old A2SD you can dump everything on the SD
However, I'd be interested in seeing if there is a way to force an app onto the nand using A2SD+. Would work better for things like widgets, home replacements etc, as they'd run quicker for people with slow sd cards.

Probably because the FroYo one sucks !
Why ? Well, mostly because devs have to rewrite their apps so they can use FroYo's app2sd function...
With the "old-fashioned" a2sd, there is no need to do anything, just sit and enjoy the free space

APP2SD allows you to move certain apps to your SD card and run them from there BUT as these are placed on the normal root of the SD when you mount the SD, via USB for example, you loose access to these apps until you remount SD. This means you cant install widgets to the SD and such like.
APP2SD+ on the other hand uses an ext3 partition (or ext4 on newer versions) which then installs all apps & widgets to that partition and when the SD is mounted you dont lose any apps or widgets as is located in a seperate partition.
Hope that helps.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

wow! thats quick thanks for you input guys think you explained everything i wanted to know really
Id want to use the offical a2sd as i think using ext3 partitioned sd card have already slightly damaged the card cuz it keeps giving me errors everytime i connect it to a pc

mrwookie6379 said:
APP2SD allows you to move certain apps to your SD card and run them from there BUT as these are placed on the normal root of the SD when you mount the SD, via USB for example, you loose access to these apps until you remount SD. This means you cant install widgets to the SD and such like.
APP2SD+ on the other hand uses an ext3 partition (or ext4 on newer versions) which then installs all apps & widgets to that partition and when the SD is mounted you dont lose any apps or widgets as is located in a seperate partition.
Hope that helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So let me understand the names:
APPS2SD = Froyo Original (comes with official Froyo release)
APPS2SD+ = Hacked version which has been out since FRF50 leak?
EDIT: But if APPS2SD+ is so much better (keeps apps on ext3 partition), why to people keep using the original APPS2SD on their ROMs?

Check this explaination. Quoted from neoKushan from yesterdays thread.
neoKushan said:
Ok, so here's the deal, in a very longwinded way that should hopefully explain everything and answer ALL questions.
You have an SD card in your phone and, a bit like normal PC Hard Drives, you can "partition" them (split them into two or more sections of different filesystems). Normally, your SD card is just one big FAT32 partition, which is fine for storing your pics, messages, emails, etc.
Now, other then your Phone's SD card, your phone will have its own internal flash memory (or "NAND") storage. Tradditionally with Android, you could only install applications to this NAND storage, you cannot install them onto your SD card. So if you have an empty 32GB SD card, but only 5Mb of internal phone storage, you still wont be able to install many apps, if any at all.
This was done to protect the apps from things like piracy - it's not easy to access the location where apps are installed on your phone's internal storage (normally impossible without root), so you can't for example buy an app, copy it, refund it, then install it again.
Still, this is no good for those of us who like to install lots and lots of apps, legitimately, as we run out of internal storage very quickly.
So Google came up with a way to install apps to the SD card. A folder is created called something like .android_secure and this stores (I believe) encrypted versions of applications, but there's a few catches:
1) Apps aren't automatically stored here, you have to manually "move" them
2) Not all apps are capable of being moved, in fact most apps aren't, the developer needs to update their app and allow it. Some apps aren't and wont be updated and some developers may not want to allow it for whatever reason.
3) Not all app data is moved, most of it is but some data is left on your phone so many people still run out of internal storage quickly.
4) You can force ALL apps to be moved to this area by default, but it breaks incompatible ones - such as Widgets, which are unable to load due to the SD card not being "prepared".
So that's Froyo's version. Before Froyo existed, some very clever people came up with a thing called "Apps2SD". Remember I said that your SD card normally is one big FAT32 partition? Well, Apps2SD works by having your SD card patitioned into TWO filesystems. A normal FAT32 partition for your usual stuff and a secondary "EXT" partition. EXT is just a filesystem, like FAT32 or NTFS, but it's the filesystem used by Android internally. The SD card is normally FAT32 because it's a "universal" filesystem, that just about any machine will be able to read, whereas EXT filesystems are generally Linux only, but I digress.
EXT has several different versions. The most common one you'll see is ext3. The main difference between ext2 and ext3 is "journaling", which is just a fancy way of saying that should an operation (such as copying, writing or reading) be interrupted unexpectedly (say, by you turning your phone off), then no data should be lost or corrupted. You know how when you turn your phone on, it says "preparing SD card"? It takes a few minutes, but what it's actually doing is checking that the FAT32 partition hasn't been damaged, because FAT does NOT have journaling. If you used a computer back in the Windows 98 days, you may remember that lovely blue "Scandisk" screen that had to run every time you didn't shut your computer down correctly - that's the same thing. But then Windows 2000/XP came along with NTFS, which also has journaling, meaning you had less chance of loosing data. But I digress once more.
So you have your SD card partitioned into EXT and FAT32. Generally it doesn't matter if it's ext3 or ext4, but you don't get any real advantage with ext4 over ext3 in this instance. Apps2SD then runs a special script on your phone which "symbolically links" the folder from your phone's internal storage where your apps are normally stored, to the ext partition on your SD card. A symbolic link is a bit like a shortcut for folders, except it's transparent to the OS: In other words, Android doesn't know that when it's installing it's apps to the internal phone storage, it's actually being stored on the SD card. This effectively boosts your internal phone memory from the previous 5mb that you had in my example above, up to whatever size you made the ext partition on your SD card (often 512Mb or 1Gb, but it depends on how many apps you install).
Plus, because it's "journaled", it doesn't need to be "prepared", meaning it's ready to go as soon as the phone starts - so your widgets and apps work immediately (unlike "forced" Froyo Apps2SD, where widgets disappear).
The catch with Apps2SD is that whatever space the ext partition takes up is taken away from the SD card. So if you have a 4Gb card (with something like 3.5Gb of actual storage) and you make a 512Mb ext partition, your SD card will "shrink" to 3Gb. The space isn't actually lost, it's just being used by the ext partition. If you reformat your card, you'll get it back.
Finally, there's a difference between "Apps2SD" and "Apps2SD+". Remember I said that your apps are stored on a special folder inside your Phone's NAND storage? Well, that was a bit of a lie. It's actually stored in TWO places. There's a second area which is called the Davlik Cache. You don't really need to worry about what this is for (Hint: IT's to do with the Java runetime your phone uses to run apps), all you need to know is that apps use it to store data, which also eats up internal phone memory. Apps2SD+ moves davlik cache to the ext partition on your SD card as well, freeing up even more space. Some people believe that this may come at the cost of performance, as the internal NAND memory should be faster than your SD card (Which is why you also get people arguing over which "class" SD card is better for Apps2SD - the logic being that a faster SD card means less impact from this move), but the truth of the matter is that your applications will be running from your Phone's RAM anyway, so performance isn't really impacted at all. Since most apps are only a few hundred Kb's in size, or a couple of MB at the most, it's a non-issue.
Finally, any recent version of Apps2SD/Apps2SD+ should work with an SD card that is or isn't formatted with an ext partition. It'll check for this partition when your phone first boots and if it's not there, just use internal phone storage.
Having an ext partition WITHOUT Apps2SD+ shouldn't cause any issues, either, so you can format your SD card whenever you're ready.
So in summary:
Apps2SD "fakes" your phone's internal memory and puts it all on a hidden section of your SD card.
Apps2SD+ pushes even more content to the SD card, freeing up even more space on the phone itself.
"Froyo" Apps2SD has various limitations that "old" apps2SD does not, but is much easier to handle as it doesn't involve any kind of "partitioning".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

That's a great summary, thanks for that!
But... how can I create an ext3 partition on a new SD card? I don't want to use ROM Manager because that has a maximum of 512Mb for ext3, I want to make 1gb or more.
Also, what size should I make swap partition?

Vice83 said:
That's a great summary, thanks for that!
But... how can I create an ext3 partition on a new SD card? I don't want to use ROM Manager because that has a maximum of 512Mb for ext3, I want to make 1gb or more.
Also, what size should I make swap partition?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can do that thru recovery-windows.bat by going thru recovery mode by volume down + power, go to recovery then when the red exclamation point appears just run the recovery-windows.bat by double clicking on it. You can get these files from r5-desire-root-alt from the rooting process files (search the forums for this if you don't have it). But be cautious cause when you partition your sd card, all your files will be wiped so make sure to backup everything you need. Cheers!
Edit:
Actually this summary about the ap2sd and ap2sd+ and froyo ap2sd should be stickyed for everyone, so it would not be ask over and over again.

Couple of extra ways to partition:
1) Flash AmonRA's Recovery to your phone (I used Unrevoked to do it)
2) Use GParted on a Linux LiveCD (e.g Slax) to partition your card exactly how you want it

Vice83 said:
That's a great summary, thanks for that!
But... how can I create an ext3 partition on a new SD card? I don't want to use ROM Manager because that has a maximum of 512Mb for ext3, I want to make 1gb or more.
Also, what size should I make swap partition?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ROM Manager is probably the easiest way to do it, but I was stuck with EXACTLY the same problem when I rooted. I chose to flash AMON Ra recovery (don't have the link, but you can google it up), and then used that to create a 1024MB ext partition. Then used AMON Ra again to convert the ext partition to ext3. Hope that helps.
However, one question I have regarding neoKushan's explanation is that if I did create a 1024MB ext3 partition, then the same capacity should be visible in the phone's internal memory. However, after I rooted and restored my apps, I could only see about 100+ MB of free internal memory. Can anyone help me with this please? Am using the Opendesire Official Froyo 1.0c ROM that has A2SD built in

deepdevil said:
ROM Manager is probably the easiest way to do it, but I was stuck with EXACTLY the same problem when I rooted. I chose to flash AMON Ra recovery (don't have the link, but you can google it up), and then used that to create a 1024MB ext partition. Then used AMON Ra again to convert the ext partition to ext3. Hope that helps.
However, one question I have regarding neoKushan's explanation is that if I did create a 1024MB ext3 partition, then the same capacity should be visible in the phone's internal memory. However, after I rooted and restored my apps, I could only see about 100+ MB of free internal memory. Can anyone help me with this please? Am using the Opendesire Official Froyo 1.0c ROM that has A2SD built in
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure about what exact capacity for the internal memory after partitioning to ext3 but when I was on Opendesire before for the eclair 2.1 after I'm done flashing the rom and setting up the whole ap2sd+ my internal memory was 410mb. I used:
swap=0
ext=1024
fat32 is for the rest of the card
Then after upgrading to froyo rooted ROM, I'm only getting 140mb tops. I dunno... I'm too lazy now to get into it right now... maybe soon I'll play around with it again so I can get back my 410mb internal space with the ap2sd+

Stewge said:
Froyo A2SD is completely reliant on app developers. If the devs doesn't allow it in their app then it can't be moved to the SD card. This is really only a problem because Froyo is still new.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not 100% true, because you can change the default install location to SD card (via ADB if stock, and an app if rooted) and then you can have the vast majority of your apps on SD card even if they've not been updated for Froyo.
Regards,
Dave

I always thought the main negative with A2SD+ was that the cache was moved to the sdcard, which of course would wear out the sdcard (slightly) quicker.

Vice83 said:
So let me understand the names:
APPS2SD = Froyo Original (comes with official Froyo release)
APPS2SD+ = Hacked version which has been out since FRF50 leak?
EDIT: But if APPS2SD+ is so much better (keeps apps on ext3 partition), why to people keep using the original APPS2SD on their ROMs?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not exactly!
Prior to Froyo, there were principally two versions of Apps2SD:
1. APPS2SD (or A2SD )
2. APPS2SD+ (or A2SD+)
The first would move your apps to the EXT partition, and the second would move your apps and the Dalvik cache to the EXT partition (see here for an explanation of the Dalvik cache).
Now we have Froyo, we have "native", or "Froyo" apps2sd as well, which does much the same as (1) above except that there is no EXT partition and the apps are on the FAT32 partition of your SD card.
Regards,
Dave

sparksalot said:
I always thought the main negative with A2SD+ was that the cache was moved to the sdcard, which of course would wear out the sdcard (slightly) quicker.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dalvik cache is only actually updated when a new app is installed or and old app is updated, so whilst it will incur more writes to SD card, it probably isn't anywhere near as much as the apps write themselves to the FAT32 partition.
Regards,
Dave

Great summary, but can I format my 8 GB SD card as EXT3 and just forget about the FAT partition? I'm using Ubuntu on my laptop and my EXT4 /home partition is just fine for storing images, movies etc. I really don't get this ado about having an EXT and a FAT partition. Or am I wrong here?

quick question, if i move to another bigger sd card, can i copy my card and transfer it to the new one without losing the EXT, and the apps on it? would i need to make a image of the card? thanx for any advice.

make a backup of them first on your pc and copy them to the newly partitioned sdcard....ext to ext and fat to fat

So there is 3 versions?
1. Froyo A2sd = fat32 only = apps installed to sd
2. A2sd = fat32 + ext = apps installed to sd in ext partition
3. A2sd+ = fat32 + ext = apps installed and Dalvik cache moved to sd in ext partition
Is there any more variants? lol
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

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

[Q] Freeing Up Internal Memory

I keep getting a message about storage space running low.
I have installed Apps2SD so all my apps that can be moved have been moved.
My contacts folder seems large at 18Mb
QuickOffice is 5Mb but I never use it.
Am I missiing something here?
Is there a way to free up memory easily?

If you have an a2sd+ script (most custom roms have), the apk files of your apps will be moved to the ext2/3/4 partition on the sd card, but there still remains the dalvik cache on the /data partition which uses up memory. There are scripts to move this dalvik cache to the sd card as well, but they require you have a class 4 or faster card. The best thing to do is search the thread of your rom, since it's probably been asked about it there.
If you're using google's a2sd (because you're not using a custom rom with such a script), not all apps can be moved to the sd card, since the developer has to specifically state the app can be moved, and for some reason, a lot of people don't do that. You can download a program called SDMove or App2sd from the market which will tell you which apps can be moved (and give you an option to move them), but there isn't very much you can do about getting more space. That is, if you don't want to get a new rom or install a a2sd+ script.

Cheers for the feedback.
Iam not sure if LeeDroid has the APPS2SD in the rom, I have Rom Manager and I THINK i now have ext2 and swap file but yet to confirm that with the new sd card as I am unable to copy the files from the old to the new, (thats another story)
So are you saying that APPS2SD on the ROM is better than APPS2SD from the market? I liked the market one so much I actually paid for to pro version.
Some of the apps will not move which is annoying, esp if what you say is that its all down to the lazy developers.
Can I reduce the phone book size? Text Messages etc to alleviate this issue?
I have no qualms in installing a new ROM if that will give me more space.

As many Desire users, I had the same issue.
Oxygen ROM is the best thing that had happened to Desire.
First do S-OFF, put Bravo Oxygen HBOOT patch (see alpharev.nl for more info), and then flash Oxygen ROM. And you will never have to worry about space again. I don't even move my apps to SD anymore, since there is no need.

Porcupine00 said:
As many Desire users, I had the same issue.
Oxygen ROM is the best thing that had happened to Desire.
First do S-OFF, put Bravo Oxygen HBOOT patch (see alpharev.nl for more info), and then flash Oxygen ROM. And you will never have to worry about space again. I don't even move my apps to SD anymore, since there is no need.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I said that around in other posts and other members were moaning at me because "not everyone can do that". Anyway, yes flashing a hboot will give you more data to work with (depending on which template you get).
Using A2SD(+) is a workaround if you don't want to S-Off you Desire. However, A2SD(+) still uses /data partition unless you get a Data2SD script or at least a script to move the Dalvik cache. I think a lot of people fail to realise this.

Flashing Hboots? Sounds like Gary Glitters footwear!
What is S-OFF?
So is A2SD (+), different from A2SD?
Does this require a degree in Linux like so many of the other things?

If your contacts app is too large ...
http://androidforums.com/htc-desire/127440-internal-memory-again.html

for me, data2sd was the only solution to consider when it comes to internal memory issues

uktotty said:
Flashing Hboots? Sounds like Gary Glitters footwear!
What is S-OFF?
So is A2SD (+), different from A2SD?
Does this require a degree in Linux like so many of the other things?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Firstly, HBOOT is the partition table in your phone. By default it has 147 MB for the /data partition (that's where your apps go) and 250 MB for the /system (where your ROM is installed).
Secondly, HTC implemented a security flag in our phones that protect this HBOOT from being changed and denies writing to /system when using the phone.
Now, this security flag can be disabled (S-OFF = security off), which will allow you to change the layout of your partition table. What @Porcupine00 was saying is a lot of people do the procedure to S-OFF their devices, flash the Oxygen HBOOT (which gives 300+ MB of /data storage), because Oxygen ROM is very small (about 90 MB) and doesn't need that much space in /system, so this space is made available in /data. However, messing with partitions is quite dangerous and you should read all the guides carefully before trying, because it can really brick your device. Must I add is voids you warranty?!
Now, to clear up the confusion about a2sd. There is the a2sd system implemented by Google and available in FroYo and higher which can only move the apps meant to be moved. There is the app on the market which is called App 2 SD which shows the apps installed on your phone that can use this system. And there are a2sd+ scripts which move all apps to the ext partition on your sd card.
Data2SD is another kind of script for moving apps to ext partition, along with their other data, but it requires a fast sd card (I think a class-6 or higher is recommended, whereas my stock Desire sd card is a class-2).
I advice you read through the Desire Android Development forum and find out about all these methods and make sure you know what you are doing before flashing.
Good luck!

thank you sir, very informative and non patronising
I still need to work out how to get the date from my old 4gb to my new 16Gb card as everyhing I have tried has failed, then I can get some larger partitions and the ext's

What is the problem you are having? When I rooted my phone, I swapped my 4-GB with an 8-GB one and the only thing I did is just copy all the contents from the former to the latter. I had no issues with apps, media files whatsoever.
However, I only had a FAT partition back then, so if you are talking about moving the apk's on the ext partition, you'll need to use a Linux operating system (because Windows doesn't read ext, and also doesn't mount anything else than the first partition on an external drive, which happenes to be the FAT one in our case). There are live cd's from several linux distributions that are available for free download, which you can use to copy the content from your ext partition to your pc, then back to the new card.

The problem is as follows.
Titanium back up all apps and data to 4gb card
Copy contents to windows desktop, folder properties 3.6gb
Change card to 16gb in phone, connect etc
Copy contents of 3.6gb file to new card
800mb on new card.
It seems to be copying FOLDERS but not the contents of those folders.
I am using standard USB mount
I have tried Droid Explorer
I also have ABD installed and stuff but it confuses me!
I have also got various versions of linux and a VM but not tried any of that as 20 years of windows experience probably wont help me
Only thing missing is a card reader currently so doing all of this via usb cable with card in phone

Maybe it has something to do with your Windows system? Could you try on another computer? Also, have you tried reformatting the new card before copying the files?

good point, dont have any other pcs to try here and works laptop is pgp encrypted.
I have used partionmanager to format the car, partition the card etc and it shows healthy partitions.
Just cant seem to copy and paste the files!

OK so I copy 3.6 gb from android to desktop, do the reverse and droid explorer says
"Copying 439Mb"

Can you try to open up your card using Windows Explorer and look at what size it shows? I'm thinking it's not actually the '439 MB' that's wrong, but the '3.6 GB'. I remember my Sense nandroid backup had about 400 MB as well, and also, how could you possibly fit 3.6 GB of apps in a Desire's 147-MB /data partition?
After you copy, try looking at some random files and cross-check the size it says on the phone (use Astro or some other fille manager), then chech the size on the card shown on your PC, and the size of the copied file. Maybe there is no copying error at all, but just a size-showing one, so maybe you've nothing to worry about

Sorry not the data partion the MicroSD Card
I am moving from a 4gb card which will hold around 4gb to a 16gb card which will allow me ext, swap parttions etc

Sorry, my bad, I meant 'Titanium Backup' and not 'nandroid backup'. I was saying the Titanium backup alone is fine if it's about 400 MB. So you can't copy your files like music, wallpapers and stuff? I wonder where the problem is

Trying something now, which is bot into recovery mode and mount the USB, copy to the new card via that method, no error messages yet

Guys
Thanks for the feedback
We have a result!!
Copy files from old CD Card to PC (3.6Gb)
Change cards in phone
reboot into recovery and mount usb
Copy files back (3.6Gb)
Woo Hoo
Phone runs quicker now, will see what we can do about internal memory after new rom

partitioning sd card

hey everyone
i have rooted my phone and installed cyanongen mod7, the fact is that i followed the noobprrof tutorial, and as he stated i partitioned my sd card, i left 1 gb ( its a 4gb memory now its divided to 3 and 1 ), but i didnt know where did it go and why i did partition my sd card, i thought it would add up to internal memory but it didnt...
please can anyone tell me whats the purpose of paritioning it ?? and how can i let apps get installed on this paritioned part if its purpose is so...
thanks in advance

It's for a2sd, it doesn't add up in internal memory, if you want to check if it's there download quick sytem info from the market, it's purpose is to store apps on your sd(mainly, there's always some data left.) for example when i had stock 2.2 froyo on my desire non rooted, i couldn't have more than 165-170 apps, now i have 379 and ext is also for the rom itself, like a sense rom doesn't fit totally on the system partion, so the part which doesn't fit is on your sd
Hope you understand it

thank u, i actually understood wut ur saying
for instance, i have downloaded games and stuff, now the phone says that the phonememory is on low storage, i still have like 30 mb... i tend to move apps from phone to sd card...
incase all internal memory is used will it conitinue installing on the 1gb i have paritioned... and is it just a notification that doesnt effect anything...
i also would like to ask if i can i can automatically download & install the apps from the market on the sd card...
thanks again
ps: i checked the system info and yes it is there... a2sd 0.96gb and 0.9gb free

It's not just like that
If you install an app for instance google earth, it's around 24mb, 300-400kb will stay on your phone and the rest will go to that partition automatically, although some apps like this iBeer i installed is fully on sd, it depends, but if you're low on memory just move some apps manually to your sd(this doesn't make them move to the ext but fat32 partition(the part that windows can see). If you just insert a SD and applt android's app2sd not a lot of the app will go to the sd, on the other hand the a2sd implied in rom's doesn't give you limitless place till you sd is full. If you want that apply data2sd, that adds to the internal memory as you thought
the max apps you can put on your desire with a2sd is max 400 i think, as i can't move any app manually to sd, and i have 35mb left with 379 apps
hope u understand it even better now

ok i did move the apps 2 sdcard, but they are moved to the 3gb partition and not the 1gb partition which i cant see, i only want to know what is the purpose of this 1gb that i made due to the tutorial... since i cant move apps to it or even put files on via usb ( as music and stuff )... then why is it created... ??
ps : the 1 gb is ext4 the 3gb is the fat32
i really wish there was some thread explaining all , maybe i would have let ur life easier hehe, im sory but im new on android...
thanks again

What did you use to create the 1gb partition? Did you use something like mini partition .. under windows?
I had a hell of a time trying to get it to work this way (if you did) the solution i found was to get the gparted live cd (google it) and run the partitioning wizard on that and the auto apps2sd will work.
The point of doing it is that some roms need more space than the desire has, I'm using insert coin and it needs a proparly formatted ext3 to work to fit the whole rom onto the phone.
Have you checked using quick system info to see if the a2sd storage is being recognised?

hey amriving
actually i did divide my sd card with gparted, everythings going great, but the fact that i cant use the 1000 mb ext2 partition (app2sd) is wut im asking about... (total of 4gb memory)
i mean when i move the apps to sd card they go to the 3gb fat32 space i have, and not the 1gb i partitioned...
so what i want to know is what is the purpose of this (app2sd) 1gb ext2 partition, how can i use it
i checked the system info and i found that there is 0.96gb of the app2sd partition and there is free 0.9 gb,
i have cyanogen mod7 rom
and thanks for the reply

Don't move it to sd, i think you didn't understood me, it does it automatically, just install a app, look at it's size, then delete it, you'll see that not that size went away from your memory but much less
You can't use it through windows, only if you have linux you'll be able to see inside the ext also with root explorer( go to recovery and then mounts then press mount EXT )
And they go to the 1GB partition. There will be an android.secure in your sd with apps, but if it wouldn't work, i wouldn't have 55mb android.secure with 390 apps now! and just 100mb free on 1.4GB ext, Just don't question this anymore, download 100 apps, you'll see it very well then if you don't then you obviously have a problem

thanks everyone
android.secure is on 3gb fat32 not the 1 gb ext...
i also went to recovery its on mount sd ext...
guys what i want to know is why when moving the apps to sdcard, they are going to 3gb fat32 partition instead of 1gb ext4 partition...
is nt it supposed to go to 1gb ext4 partition ?! which is the reason every android user is doing for ... ?
i have checked the ap2sd and yes it is there
android.secure file is in 3gb partition not the 1gb ext4 partition

No no you didn't understand me, look normally with 160 apps would your phone memory be full, and your android.secure(on the 3gb partition) be large, now it shouldn't be very big anymore, because for example city story is 23mb, 1mb on phone memory and 22 on ext. normally this would be 5-10 mb on phone memory and remainder on the 3gb(fat32 partition) now this is most of the times divided over the 3 or just in ext and phone memory, and the main reason is a lot of the app goes on the ext

answer
F*S Even i, a noob understood it 3 times allready..
btw this answers my final question here
listen(more like read), i'll try to resimplify the answer for you, think of an android app as a windows app.
a windows app is Commonly installed in 3 - yes THREE seprate location at once!
1. Main Program Files - C:\program files\<APP NAME HERE>
this contains all the app's inner working, modules, GUI, sound, pictures and stuff - most of the app is located here so this folder is 'heavy'
2. appdata - C:\Users\<USER NAME HERE>\appdata\<Local \ Roaming>\<APP NAME HERE>
this may contain any setting, saves, projects, and temp files for the app to use.
so only some parts make it here - litewight but still takes up space..
3. Registry - run>regedit.exe
this is sort of a log file for all windows operation, installaions, apps location and sometimes even app settings
again litewight but takes place..
SAME WITH ANDROID - sort of..
an android app contains Resource Data - like program files, the 'exeutable', settings, modules, critical data for the exeutable and more..
and so when you use the traditional APPS2SD that comes Froyo+ ( settings>apps>google earth>move to SD/PHONE )
all the non-critical data and resources move to the SD fat32 patition.
all the remaining critical data, 'exeutable' and stuff remain on the internal memory which still takes up valuable internal space, that's where a2sd+ comes in, as mentioned before, a2sd+ again moves to rest of the remaining appdata to the ext, and only tiny critical part of the app remains on the internal memory - therefor you get to install many apps until you internal memory fills up or the ext fills up, this time only the absolute critical app files that cant be moved to the ext OR the fat32..
as TopGear63z said:
most of the times divided over the 3 or just in ext and phone memory, and the main reason is a lot of the app goes on the ext
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
data2sd extends your internal storage..
a2sd+ lets you install more aps
EXPERTS: Please verify my answer as i am also a noob and this is my understanding on the subject, i maybe very wrong or very right
PS: Why double post

thankyou asaf400
actually i know all this and i really appreciate ur reply
but wut i wanted is to install apps on ext, and actually i found it i downloaded simple2ext app and now i have 150mb free internal memory, see now all apps are on ext part of the memory card... this is what i wanted to know...
thanks all

or you could just flash a data2sd based custom rom like droidzone's starburst or gingerburst... you'll get upto 2gb of internal memory from the start

[Q] Help With Roms - Not a Desire User Myself...

Hi,
I have recently rooted, full s-offed and hbooted my friends Desire.
Im a DHD user myself and am trying to get to grips with how you guys handle your devices when it comes to roms.
So far, I 'get' the hboot situation and partition layouts etc and have taught my friend.
Now Im getting a bit lost with the whole sdext part of it as well as the apps/data2sd side.
I know how to partition and get them applied but lose it on actually how they work when it comes to roms. Any rom that uses normal layouts such as CM7 I get.
Take for example:
[ROM][Cool3D Sense 3.0][26 July]Cool Sensation v6a|Stable|CM7/r2|DATA++|STOCK
I get this part:
Requirement:
CM7 Hboot 130MB System, 5MB Cache, 302MB Data. Download
CM7 r2 Hboot 145MB System, 5MB Cache, 287MB Data.
DATA++ Hboot 180MB System, 5MB Cache, 252MB Data.
STOCK Hboot 250MB System, 40MB Cache, 147MB Data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I on put CM7r2, now how do the partitions work?
Is it Partition 1 = /system, 2 = /data?
I tried it with 1=512 & 2=1gb but it just froze with only SystemUI running after the lockscreen.
I can see what the roms doing via the zip/updater-script but this whole partition thing is lost on me.
Any help is appreciated!
On a related side note, this will also help us provide support for lower nand devices with our Flashable ROMCleaner 2.0 we have recently released.
Once we get this down we are pretty much able to support most roms!

I think the easiest, briefest way to explain the ext3/4 partition is to think of it basically as an extension to your internal memory. Don't think of it as being a partition on your SD Card (even though it is) but an extra bit of internal memory. This ext is where apps will be stored if you have a2sd.
To avoid app piracy, many apps can't be stored on the SD Card (normally), so this extension to your SD Card is created to store them, that's why the ext partition isn't formatted as FAT32. If it was formatted FAT32 the phone wouldn't recognise it as being part of itself (if you like), but rather still part of the SD Card.
Hope this makes sense.
EDIT: Just re-read your post and if you've flashed the HBOOT it will automatically repartition depending on which HBOOT you flashed. You don't need to repartition anything. If you already ext partitioned your SD Card this won't be affected.

So when a rom installs to the sdext partitions its pretty much 'symlinking' the data which would normally reside on the internal partition?
When the system want to access this file then would it still 'see' it as sitting on the internal?
If it does then it would make our cleaning script a lot easier lol
As for the hboot, I didnt know it actually created the partitions for you when flashed as he had already got 2 on his sd.
Would this explain the freezing with the roms then? With Cool3d it seems that /system is split between internal and sdext so Im assuming the sdext side of it wasnt getting copied across?
May have something to do with the order of partitions as well, 1=system 2=data?

First of all the SD card needs partitioning, which I'm guessing you did, with something like GParted? You would create either a ext3 or ext 4 partition, minimum 512MB. Normally a ROM states min. size for ext partition but the thread for Cool3D doesn't seem to so 512MB or 1GB would be ok. If in doubt pm the dev to make sure.
Cool 3D requires ext 4 which needs aligning before flashing the ROM (but if the SD Card already has ext 3 this will be converted automatically when aligning to ext 4)
Then flash the correct HBOOT (choice of 4 listed on the thread) using fastboot then flash the new ROM. The thread also states you need to have specific Radio and RIL. All "stuff" you need is linked in the first post. Just follow the instructions on the first post and you can't really go wrong.
The freezing you mention could be caused by not aligning your ext partition first.